The Climax of History

welcome here as we observe God's Feast of Trumpets what an amazing blessing right people all over this world are just going about their daily lives not realizing today pictures what is truly the climax of history we'll have two messages today in terms of sermons I appreciate very much the sermonette for the offertory about mr. Dumas I want to know what happened what happened to Caesar does anybody does anybody know I know we all have a lot of us know what happened to Caesar is interesting in Rome do you realize that every every time the art the Ides of March come by I'm not gonna spoil it too much mr. de MA but they're at where Caesar was was a was was buried was burned where his body was burned that every year the Romans which the people in Rome call themselves Romans go by and leave flowers there where it is and so we actually were there in April or so so it had been about a month and there was still all these flowers that were there they pay homage to Caesar really every year it's a it's fascinating of course there is a Caesar coming to who much homage will be paid the Holy Days are a great gift to us they explain the plan of God we go from beginning to end right we started Passover the fact that Jesus Christ died for our sins it's always important for us to be mindful that that is the first step if it weren't for Jesus Christ's willingness to die for all of us nothing else would happen nothing else would happen the Bible says that we love him because he first loved us the very first thing that happens in God's plan is that God steps into history for some and that is us but then you have to respond to that right so the days of unleavened bread pictured that response that in response to that great love and his death for us we turn away from our sins and we turned toward him we repent we decided to put sin out of our lives and begin taking in a new way of life and that's pictured by the days of unleavened bread then you get to Pentecost the fact that those who obey can have spirit God gives us his spirit which empowers us which makes us children not children born into the world yet but children conceived in the womb not fully looking like our Father yet just like a child in the womb doesn't quite look like mom and dad yet unless you look like kind of a bug-eyed stubby arm you know grain of rice or something you don't look like I'm yet but with a conception there is that promise of delivery right there is that expectation that they will come into the world so Pentecost were given God's Spirit and then there's this long drought of holy day list days right these where we go through in the song what was the next holy day September oh you know it just seems like this long period and that matches what we're living through now right all of us long for the days to come that we're talking about today we're in that long pause but coming towards his conclusion and then we come to the Feast of Trumpets and we come to today and so my message I want to keep things pretty basic I do want to talk about the meaning of the day sometimes people get upset so well we know all of that but you know what we don't all know all of that and those of us who think we know all of that don't always know all of that and we don't review all of that we find that later we definitely don't know all of that because we forget all of that there's a reason that God gives us the same holy days every year if you noticed that he doesn't say is you know 2015 oh man I've been doing the same holy days for thousands of years I think we're gonna start over we're gonna start with a you know algebra day that would be great I would really like that we're gonna do a totally different series of holy days why does he give us the same holy days every year because we need the same holy days every year we need to review the same fundamental things every year many of us know too many people that within a seems like a span of time a blink of breath and they lost what they had it's too easy we need to review these things so today we're going to talk about the meaning of the day and we're gonna turn to Leviticus 23 Leviticus the holy days are discussed in a lot of different passages of course Leviticus 23 is sort of your one-stop shopping in terms of getting all the holy days there we're not gonna look at all of them just the passage discussing today Leviticus 23 starting in verse 23 it says then the eternal spoke to Moses saying speak to the children of Israel saying in the seventh month on the first day of the month that is today in the Hebrew calendar you shall have a Sabbath rest a memorial of blowing of trumpets a holy convocation you should do no customary work on it you shall offer an offering made by fire to the eternal you know it's really interesting so many of the days picture obvious things in Israel's history but there's this one day he just says memorial blowing of trumpets he doesn't really explain why here in this passage there's just going to be a day set aside as Memorial or the blowing of trumpets I know when I was very aggressively called into the truth I was I hate to say when I was called into the truth cuz you never know when that starts at least I don't you always wonder when did God really start planting seeds but when I was 14 15 I began watching the telecast and I end up getting a booklet about the holy days it just blew me away because the meaning was so clear if you look at the holy days how they correspond 'add to the acts of God in history was so screamingly obvious and yet at the same time I recognized because I was learning that I really wouldn't get it if it weren't for God none of us can pat ourselves on the back and say we I'm here because I'm really smart and I figured out where the truth was it's out of God's mercy that all of us sit here today whether brought in or born in it's an act of God and it's his mercy and seeing how a memorial the blowing of trumpets corresponded chronologically in the plan of God to the blowing of trumpets leading up to Christ's return was amazing it's a worthwhile study in this season discuss today's trumpet sundown you don't have to stop studying the topic if you look at how trumpets and shofars were used in Israel it's amazing you know there were sounds of alarm the equipment of our earned early warning system you know that goes off on noon every month or something like that but if there's a storm coming or something is those huge sirens there were calls to war and warnings of war they would indicate the crowning of royalty they were used to indicate the presence of divinity that is God's own presence approaching and we see all those things wrapped up in the Feast of Trumpets in terms of talking about the meaning of the day I had a couple of choices you can kind of give an overview and not give a lot of details but just do the overview because there's so much that goes on between today and then or you can go into all the nitty-gritty details and then you really risk going over time so I decided to split the middle I'm gonna give an overview but still go into enough that I'll probably risk going over time it just seems like maybe the worst of both worlds there I'm not really sure but what I really want to approach that is in a particular way John W Peterson is a famous songwriter in fact it's planned that the second service today will have in the special music a song by John W Peterson it's not this one in particular it's one of my favorites if you don't like it I think it's my fault I think mr. McCulloch I told him about it and so he picked it and I loved it so I don't care if y'all like it or not I'm really looking forward to it but John W Peterson has a very popular song called the sound of trumpets many of us have have sung it in different choirs at feasts and such and I'm just going to read one particular line from that the entire song is talking about Christ's return and taking over the earth and so in speaking of that it speaks of seeing Christ come through the the gates of heaven and descend to earth and he writes in a song all the universe is watching as the king our Savior King descends to take his throne with the sound of trumpets trumpets triumphant is the song Jesus is coming to right every wrong climax of history awaited so long what is the climax of a story if history is a story his story what would be the climax I looked up a few definitions climax is the highest or most intense point in the development or resolution of something the culmination a culmination or apex it's the decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot when an author writes a book he tends to plant seeds in that book sometimes right at the very beginning into introduction that the rest of the book is simply the development of those seeds the the the building of those chains of experiences and strands and they build to a climax at the end well history when you look at it is simply the story of God's plan unfolding all of human history every day every hour every minute every moment is simply another page in the tale of God's great plan unfolding and so what I want to talk about today is the sense it's not going to give you anything new but I want to talk about the Feast of Trumpets the time leading up to that as being the climax of the story and the title of the sermon today is the climax of history the climax of history now to understand the climax of the book you have to go back to the beginning have you ever watched a television program and you only it's maybe an hour long program let alone if it's longer and you get the last 15 minutes left and your kids come in or I come in and do this to the kids you say wow what's going on it's like well we can't explain everything to you you just miss the first you know 3/4 or 7/8 or whatever the case is well who's that guy he's the guy that does the thing don't don't worry about what's it why is he doing all of this please please go away and just find something else to do for 15 minutes then we'll go to bed and you can watch it it's on Netflix it's it's still there it's frustrating because you come in you don't know you don't understand at all you get it there's explosions that's a house of for boys there's a lot of explosions in what we watch on television music explosions and you get it and there's a good guy who's doing something there's a bad guy trying to stop but you just don't get all the details to really comprehend the climax you have to go back to the beginning and see the foundation that was laid for that so that's what we're going to do turn back to Genesis to understand the events that unfold in the days ahead of us pictured by these days and the events leading up to them we have to go back to the beginning in Genesis chapter 3 I won't read the entire thing and if you were actually in Fayetteville or Raleigh this past Sabbath the good part of today's sermon you got part of in Genesis we have to summarize things God made everything right he established the world we were in it was devastated because the sin of the devil he just recreated everything renewed everything from the State of Tokyo and both you and over the course of a week built this beautiful planet restored everything all the life around us everything made beautiful and pristine and perfect and made a garden the Garden of Eden and planted Adam and Eve in it and his instructions were simple they said there's two trees here you know there's the Tree of Life and that's nice but there's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil don't eat that if you eat that you're going to die he gave man work you know work isn't part of the curse sometimes people think oh yeah that's part of man's curse is cuz he's sinned he's got to work it's not true he gave man work before sin he was told to tend and keep the gardener that's work we need more we want more we want to be productive that's not bad but he said while you're doing all that and you're feeding yourself for the beautiful things I've made from before you don't eat from that tree if you eat from that you'll die if the instruction was simple then it was plain and I used to wonder and I thought about that man why did God make two trees if he hadn't made that tree we'd also be running around naked right and just enjoying ourselves and working hard and we don't think well that'd be pretty awkward but we wouldn't think it was awkward you know he would have had from the tree but he had to he had to give us a choice because God wasn't creating pets God wasn't creating just some creatures to run around on earth for him to care for he was creating a family he and the one that became Jesus Christ as we call them now the father and the son as they are now there were the God family and they wanted a larger family they wanted you in that family they wanted me in that family they wanted thousands upon thousands in that family but to become part of the family of God to enjoy the existence he enjoys requires choice choices have to be made because without choices you can't build character and that was our opportunity to participate with God in his work in us so there had to be a choice but he made it plain he wasn't deceptive he didn't say there's a tree over there boy here to eat I don't know what would happen he says very plain if you eat of that you're going to die don't do it don't eat of that tree well most of us probably know the story if not read in Genesis one two and three the devil shows up you know through the serpent it says in Genesis 3:1 the serpent was the most subtle of the beasts as it says in the old King James very subtle he deceives Eve Eve eats from the tree she gives to her husband and he undeceived Paul says also eats blatantly choosing to sin against God it was a rejection of God for themselves you know Jesus Christ said to his father not my will but yours what they effectively said was not your will ours and the results we see in Genesis chapter 3 I'm just gonna read through them very quickly the punishments are fascinating when you really take the time to think about them we're gonna shoot them pretty quickly Genesis 3 and verse 14 it says so the eternal God said to the serpent because you've done this you are cursed more than all the cattle more than every beast of the field on your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel not only is that literally true with snakes you know they bite us but we can kill them but this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ we're told later that even though Satan would achieve the death of Jesus Christ Jesus Christ would have victory over death and would take away everything eventually the devil has prophesied to destroy the works of the devil but moving on verse 16 it says to the woman he said I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception in pain you shall bring forth children your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you then to Adam he said because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it cursed is the ground for your sake in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the herb of the field in the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground for out of it you were taken for dust you are and to dust you shall return and it says then later in those passages that he removed them from the Garden of Eden verse 23 therefore the eternal God sent him that is man and woman out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken he drove out the man and he placed care of him at the east of the Garden of Eden and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life so here we have the beginning of our culture the foundation of mankind civilization and the foundation of all of human history and what do we see in all of this we see punishment that makes sense it may not seem too unless you really think about it God is an arbitrary God doesn't randomly punish sometimes in the justice systems of this world that's what we see you know when God says you know man that Rob's someone he needs to restore what he stole it's not random God's justice is perfect and you see that reflected even here if you look just briefly and consider what was the devil's great sin we're told that he was filled with pride he was not content to be where he was but you read in Isaiah and you read in Ezekiel Isaiah 14 is equal 28 where did he want he wanted the highest possible seat he longed to be not just above the creatures of Earth but above the angels above God himself he wanted that highest exalted place and this was one act of rebellion from born in that mindset and so what is his punishment you will be the lowest of creatures you desire to look down on all things you will look up even at the belly of dogs and pigs it's a very fitting punishment for his crime Adam chose to rebel against God his provider the one that had created all of this for him and said thanks a lot I'm gonna do things my way I mean God backs off and says fine if you don't need me to help the earth work with you it won't work with you anymore you still need it but you're going to have to fight with it you're gonna have to struggle with it if you don't need me if nature is all you need the nature is all you'll have and we need God Hebrews says that Christ upholds all things by the power of his word we remove his support and were nothing but fighting with tooth and claw against nature and with each other and that was what Adam was doomed to but then you look at Eve's and sometimes Eve seems a little idiosyncratic you know you because you did this it sure is gonna hurt having babies right it's like in the world you know okay you know and I have never actually had a baby but I know many who have and I was present for all four births in our family every every boy and I you know I miss a lot of subtle things I'm not exactly sure Locke homes but one thing I picked up on is it hurt a lot my wife was one of those who who wanted to do them all without without you know pain killers or epidurals up front that would not be me just say you know I would be you know where is it you know is it Jack Daniels or whatever it has got to be something you know that makes this go away whatever it is that I'm feeling not her you know nerves of steel and so that that hurt and that was Eve's punishment but also incredibly fitting because again what was God's plan why do you make Adam and Eve it wasn't just to enjoy a garden and to tend and keep it it was the beginning of a plan to add to his family so there wouldn't simply be born more humans but there would be born members of the god family God beings themselves so that God's own family would expand to countless thousands upon thousands without sin that can be a gentle growing increasingly closer to the Lord as your mind matures but with sin that path to birth was still going to happen but that birth would occur in pain that birth would occur in suffering for all of us make it to the kingdom of God going through many tribulations Eve's punishment is very fitting God's plan would still succeed there will still be an expanded family of God but now it's going to involve pain and difficulty and torment and so Eve's own giving birth reflects that every time a woman gives birth and experiences that pain it is a small microcosm of what this universe has to go through in order to allow God's plan to be fulfilled in the expansion of the family of God we see these things at the very foundation at the introduction of the book we see these seeds planted we also see that Satan is left on the throne of the earth you no man could have overcome that man could have replaced him instead man chose Satan over God man sinned and where we can leave Genesis let's read this for emphasis turn to Isaiah 59 and make sure we do understand this Isaiah 59 we can read verses 1 & 2 as in 59 beginning in verse 1 behold the Eternals hand is not shortened that it cannot save nor his ear heavy that it cannot hear but your iniquities have separated you from your God and your sins have hidden his face from you sin comes between man and God sometimes people wonder why is it that Jesus Christ had to finish his crucifixion alone why was it that God had to forsake him there because he paid the full price for sin and sin includes separation from God people haven't have they've attacked the church for that belief they said well no but it says like it makes people worry that God will abandon them it should be exactly the opposite the reason Jesus Christ went through all of that so that you and I never have to worry about God abandoning us Jesus Christ paid the full price of sin and one of those prices is distance from God and when mankind made this choice when Adam and Eve made this choice they chose distance from God when they chose sin over righteousness when they chose rebellion over obedience when they chose their way over his way they chose distance God it's been nice having you here in the garden but we'd kind of like some space and so God expelled them you know James tells us you know draw near to God and He will draw near to you you know flee from the devil and he will flee from you resist the devil and he will flee from you this is sort of the opposite in a sense they were fleeing God they were putting distance between them and God here at the very foundation of humanity but nature abhors a vacuum and that's true of spiritual matters as well if God is not in that place of proximity it won't remain a vacuum it'd be filled with the devil it'll be one or the other it'll be one or the other so here we have at the very beginning of human history the introduction of really all that is every element of civilizations thread in this great story the foundation is laid here and if you think about it the consequences sometimes are so much larger than we consider what does it mean to evict God from civilization essentially there's various names of God that we learn things from I want to hit just for for the sake of what's coming later to tie in the climax to the beginning God is called a God of truth a God of truth for the sake of time let me just give you a reference without turning there but you find that in Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4 for example a God of truth he's actually called that more than one place but Deuteronomy 32 and 32 and verse 4 is one example no what's the devil called he's the father of lies God is a God of truth the devil's the father of lies mankind was essentially choosing the father of lies and not the truth God has also called a God of peace just one example the Apostle Paul calls him that in Romans 15 and verse 33 but you'll find that multiple places in the Bible I sneezed and found five God is called a God of peace and we see that in Romans 15 and verse 33 that's who mankind was evicting a God of peace who do they have in his place was the devil called a murderer from the beginning a murderer from the beginning the opposite of peace another couple of neat names for God in Genesis 22 he is called Yahweh Jireh or Yahweh Jireh depending on how YHVH is pronounced the eternal will provide the eternal will provide that's Genesis 22 and verse 14 when God provides the RAM for the sacrifice in place of Isaac the eternal well provide in Exodus chapter 15 it's called a Yahweh or Yahweh or a verse pronounced Yahweh refika the God who heals you the eternal who heals you as Exodus 15 and verse 26 it's where he tells the Israelites I'm not gonna put on you the diseases that I put on the Egyptians I am your healer I'm the eternal who heals you yeah what is the devil called he's not called the provider he's called the adversary he's not there to give to you he is there against you he's not called the God to heals he's called the destroyer so understand the very foundation of history mankind kicked out the source of truth the source of peace his provider and his healer and that was our beginning that's the introduction to everything we've seen over the last 6,000 years it explains every page it explains every conflict it explains every trial it is the foundation of our history so with that said now we can turn to the climax and see how that goes let's go and start in Revelation chapter 5 because where are we in all of this we've been living through the chapters right as every page has turned from the introduction on our way to the climax we feel every page we feel how long some of the chapters are and yes some of them go so terribly short as well in Revelation chapter 5 we're not going to read the details here I encourage you to do so we have this beautiful scene with the father on the throne we have the Apostle John seeing the events in heaven and vision and the father has a scroll and the scrolls written on the inside is written on the outside and scrolls were rolled up sometimes then kind of rolled up and they were sealed you take some wax or some clay or something that you could actually make an impression in that would Harden and you know if you ever roll something up it just kind of sometimes flops out unless it's a map then you unroll it and rolls back up it seems but anyway you know you want to keep something rolled back then and so you roll it up and then whoever the authority is who's sending the message would drip that wax or clay and then seal it with his signet ring his ring would have unique markings to him to make it clear this is the king this is the king because to read the scroll you'd have to break the seal and only someone with the proper authority and worthy title could do that you know if you're just some Joe Blow and you're taking the scrolls I would with the king guide to say and you break all the seals and read it and then you give it to the governor or wherever it's going and he sees way someone else write let someone read this who read this well I did I just want to know it's really pretty cool you're really gonna like it well you know off with his head you couldn't hide the evidence those seals carried Authority and only someone with appropriate authority could open them so he asked well who can open this scroll the father has this scroll with seven seals and no one says no one in earth or under the earth or in heaven could open the scroll there was no angel there was no these spirit being creatures flying around there was living on earth there's no one who had ever lived even in the graves under the earth no one was worthy to open the seal sealed by the Almighty except for one the Lamb of God the Lamb of God Jesus Christ the Revelator he was worthy the only one in all of existence and so he begins opening these seals and each seal is an element of prophecy so let's turn to Revelation all that happens in Revelation 5 let's turn to revelation 6 and I'm gonna read through the first four seals pretty quickly we're gonna discuss them as we go through them so Revelation chapter 6 and verse 1 John says now I saw when the lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder come and see and I looked and behold a white horse he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer and when he opened the second seal I heard the second living creature saying come and see another horse fiery red went out and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth and that people should kill one another and there was given to him a great sword verse five when he opened the third seal I heard the third living creature say come and see so I looked and behold a black horse and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying a quart of wheat for a Denarius three quarts of barley for a Denarius and do not harm the oil and the wine and then verse seven when he opened the fourth seal I heard the fourth of the voice of the fourth living creature saying come and see so I looked and behold a pale horse in the name of him who sat on it was death and Hades or the grave followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with the sword with hunger with death and by the beasts of the earth these are the infamous four Horsemen of the Apocalypse we have the white horse the red horse the black horse the pale horse and their various writers Jesus Christ interprets these in Matthew 24 we're not going to turn to Matthew 24 for the sake of time but if you have never done that I highly encourage you to do it these are the things that leading up to the trumpet so I don't want to spend too much time on them but I remember the very first time I ever heard that sitting just like all of you in services once and the Church of God and the ministry and I was like you gotta be kidding you know I had my hands like one in Revelation six one Matthew four it's like that is amazing just look at it just one after the other he interprets all of them and explains them he talks about them in order that first he talks about deceptive religion in particular as we'll see a false Christianity the white horse and the rider on the white horse he talks about wars and rumors of wars the red horse he talks about famine and want the black horse the main rider with the scales he talks about pestilence and disease and we have the pale sickly horse he goes right through there in order now someone mentioned to me this weekend they were so excited to hear the white horse explained I do want to comment on that a little more broadly because it'd be easy to think this white horse is Jesus Christ I mean I'm from Texas I know the good guys ride white horses right so he's got a white horse doesn't mention a white cowboy hat though but still he's riding a white horse it ever calls him trigger or anything but good guy plus if we read in Revelation 19 it says Jesus Christ rides a white horse Jesus Christ rides a white horse so maybe that's what this is he's certainly going forth to conquer but the difference is in the subtleties in fact keep your place here in Revelation six but just turn a couple of pages and Leasing my Bibles couple of pages to Revelation 13 it speaks of the false prophet to come who will deceive the entire world and describes him symbolically in verse 11 of Revelation 13 it says then I saw another beast revelation 13 and another beast coming up out of the earth and he had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon that is when you looked with your eyes it looked like the lamb it looked like Jesus Christ you know I have to admit I talked a little bit about Pope Francis just just briefly I am here to announce that I don't know if he's the guy or not you know we know there's going to be a final false prophet - there's going to be someone in the papacy is he the Antichrist we do know he is an antichrist John says yes Antichrist is coming but we know now there's many Antichrist he's part of a system of Antichrist but let me be upfront there are times when Pope Francis behaves in ways whether it's for show or sincerely I'm not here to judge but they look christ-like there's one beautiful picture I don't know if you've seen it but there's a gentleman that's come up to him and he's suffering from that that famous would they call Elephant Man disease I can't recall the actual name of it but his his head is just covered with gross with these with these tumors all over his skull and clearly he's suffered in his life and he comes to Pope Francis and I only fight kissed a ring or you know at oh I don't know anything like that all I know is from the photos you see Francis take his head in his hands and just kiss him and just show him affection and accepting his and it's beautiful it's beautiful and you see him washing the feet of the downtrodden and the impoverished then again I'm not sure all you know it's a publicity stunt whatever what I'm saying is you see those images and it looks christ-like it looks beautiful and it looks merciful and the one coming well look like Christ but he'll speak like the dragon you can look at everything but you have to listen closely and when you listen to the doctrines when you listen to the teachings they're not the teachings of the lamb there the teachings of the dragon it's in the subtle differences in fact we talked about revelation 19 Christ is on a white horse but when you read those details they're different revelation 6 says the rider on the white horse is wearing a crown revelation 19 says Christ is wearing many crowns similar but different revelation 19 says Christ comes with a sword the Word of God the rider in revelation 6 comes with above as his weapon of choice if it's not a sword it's not the Word of God the differences are subtle it looks like Christ but you have to pay attention Jesus Christ warned us there was some come saying I am the Christ but they're gonna deceive many that is the first rider that is the white horse and when you think about it it is a fitting climax when mankind chose what mankind chose there was no other climax truly possible the seeds for this blossoming in these four horses were planted 6000 years ago the first horse is religious deception the biggest blossoming of the lie and when you kick out the God of truth from civilization you will be consumed by the line the second horse warfare on a scale mankind has never seen before you know people want to say oh these horses they've been with us all the time we've always had religious deception we've always had warfare we've always had family have always had disease and that's true these horsemen have been in a sense kind of riding around sort of a long time but not like this this is a climactic end time fulfillment of these things religious deception on a scale it's never been the second horse warfare on a scale mankind has never seen yeah I just researched a telecast and an article that to be showing up it's kind of weird working at headquarters because I tend to forget what articles we've actually published and what we haven't you know because you're always working on you know on them ahead of time but there's one about this kind of transhumanist movement to alter mankind and and different research that different ones are doing and some most fascinating aspects of that are being done by the military you know the military already has drugs to enable soldiers to work 48 hours straight with no sleep whatsoever and still perform at their top level now I'm sure they crash after that but they're working on a lot of medicine things for instance in order to help soldiers that come back with from trauma PTSD and other problems because a soldier has seen things no one else should see a soldier has done sometimes horrible things that no one should ever have to do I won't describe some of the things I've read but even our soldiers have had to do things that when they come back they can't get them out of their mind they can't make it go away it's always before their eyes they don't know what to do because man was never designed to do that to another man and so they're working on drugs they have some promising drugs there rather than going through a whole bunch of therapy that may or may not work you just take this pill and it takes away the edge it takes away the guilt and the thought is well that could be something pretty potent to have soldiers that don't feel guilt at what they do imagine what more a soldier could do if he weren't burdened by any kind of sense of guilt they talk about these exosuits kind of like Iron Man but doesn't look quite as good because it's not a movie but they talk about these exoskeleton suits that even now they're only like on the second stage or so but you look about Raytheon is doing and you look at what's the other one Raytheon I can't remember the other and with this suit they they lift 200 pounds and it's like well alright yeah I can lift 200 pounds you know I'm pretty strong you have they do it effortlessly it's it's a suit that's tied it's connected it's strapped around their arms and their legs and they just lift 200 pounds like it's nothing because the suit detects that they're trying to lift something and does it for them they can run 10 miles an hour and just keep going and go anything well I'm pretty fast I can do a six-minute mile or so but with no exertion whatsoever and carrying a load and then they showed this demonstration cuz this is real this is the stuff that's in like USA Today and such this isn't sort of secret stuff and they showed this guy wearing the suit and they were putting up all these bricks like a karate guy would kind of kind of focus you know and then he'd go yeah and then sometimes oh that hurt because I didn't make it and this guy they got those boards and the guy's got this suit he's just knocking him in half while he's having a conversation one after the other not missing a beat these things will be deployed we're talking about warfare on a scale we have never seen before and that's what happens when you remove the god of peace and leave and throned the one who was a murderer from the beginning there's a climax to this coming with the second seal I could talk about these all day I need to move on it's not as difficult come trumpets you got to talk about the difficult stuff you don't want to talk about death and destruction and all the rest at the same time it's necessary it helps us appreciate the millennium for what it truly is if I can feel part of me just one aside I was reading the comments from a preacher he's not a preacher in the church but he was commenting about a nightmare that he had and is a nightmare where all of his family had died every child his spouse every family member had died it was one of those dreams that was so real that was so real you just know it's has really happened and he was in such depths of grief in that dream until he woke up and when he realized it was a dream not only was he just overjoyed but every member of his family meant something different to him because he had felt such loss that he didn't have them anymore his children it's like they glowed was some special glow his wife was the most beautiful and most amazing and it wasn't that they weren't that beforehand but he needed to feel the loss to appreciate it more accurately understanding what we have to go through helps us appreciate all the more what's to come plus we have to understand even though we're talking about cosmic global things in a large way this is a picture of our lives anytime we start anything in our life a relationship a project conversation and it's not on the right foundation there will always be consequences the climax is foregone there will never be a sin committed that we will not be able to tell God I regret that choice and so in a sense we need to understand this what the world experiences we experience on kind of a daily weekly monthly yearly basis and our own choices because none of us here is without sin unless anyone is raise your hand okay good great whoo okay I was afraid I had some people I couldn't relate to you know we all make mistakes right and so in a sense we need to remember there's always consequences this climax was set in stone the moment Adam and Eve made their choice the only difference has been when's it going to happen personally speculation I always feel like I need to pop some can Inspector Gadget light out of my head like a siren when I'm doing speculation so you know Inspector Gadget some of you still remember Inspector Gadget personally I think God's major interventions like the Tower of Babel like what I think the Spanish Armada I think that was an intervention in World War two has been to prolong to help us last 6,000 years I don't think we'd last that long left to ourselves so this climax has been set in stone let's a hurry through the next to famine and want the third horseman yeah I did a back of the envelope I can't trust it because it was very back-of-the-envelope but it says there in verse six of revelation six a quart of wheat for a Denarius a Denarius is essentially a day's wage a day's wage so you work hard all day sweating maybe getting injured a bit you come today and you get a Denarius so based on some recipes I looked up and I'm not the bread master I should have consulted with my wife more but I wanted to do it myself imagine your wife calls you and says hey honey we just need one loaf of bread you know the kids are hungry you know they're out of bread they're about to eat the siding off the house we need a blow for bread go get a loaf of bread okay on the way home I'll pick up a loaf of bread so you go in you get one loaf of bread and that's all you get you go to the checkout and Lee says oh okay loaf of bread ring you up $100 $100 that's my back of the envelope calculation for how much it would cost to get a loaf of bread if it's a Denarius for that much wheat now you culinary experts can go back and find no you're way off base but still it's maybe need a bigger envelope my back of the envelope calculations but we're promised a time of waste and want and famine like the world has never seen I remember growing up in the 80s and we had all these ads about children starving in Ethiopia and it just was just heart-rending but imagine that being experienced on a global scale they've always had famine but not like what is coming finally the fourth seal is pestilence the pale horse of disease and we're coming on a time when there is disease like there has never been before already we're seeing certain strains of various diseases they used to become and we knocked them out but our antibiotics aren't working anymore they're calling them superbugs but not yet on the scale that we're going to see that's what happens when you kick out God who is your provider when you kick out the eternal will provide then you face famine when you kick out the eternal who heals you the conclusion will always be disease this climax was inevitable when we showed God to the door now what does it say about these four horsemen it says in verse eight it says in the middle it says and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword with hunger with death and by the beasts of the earth you know some want to say we'll see that's a there right there he's just talking about over time you know people have died more than 1/4 of humanity has died through history over these things disease catches up to people heart disease in all the rest is talking about a climactic endtime moment I was mentioning the sermonette that we about seven billion people more than seven billion people on the planet what a fourth of that be about 1.8 billion people 1.8 billion people another back-of-the-envelope calculation take the deaths on September 11th those devastating attacks where many of us were watching television and saw before our very eyes almost three thousand people died at once there's a horrific moment and if I had to have some space up here to represent September 11th and imagine it was just a little cube like about a quarter inch on each side not even the size of you know a die that you would roll for a game dice or anything but just a quarter inch on each size on each side again back of the envelope calculation could be wrong feel free and show me but with a quick estimate 1.8 billion would be those cubes but filling every space in this auditorium you're talking about death on earth on scales that simply have not been experienced this Syria tragedy with all of these people fleeing for a better life and for homes and these Syrian families it's very easy to be jaded I pray all of God's people I love void a jaded callous heart it's so easy to see these people and think well you know that's their land that's their fault please I beg of you not to think that way because I guarantee you God in heaven in Jesus Christ are looking forward to the day when they come here and fix that when a Syrian father doesn't have to look at his son and daughter and think what kind of life is waiting for them here what kind of life will they have when I see all these factions eating up my country and people promising nothing but torture and death and warfare and just understand their mindset to think I don't care what borders there are I don't care what risks we will take I've got to do something for them let us not grow so callous and have such a cold edge to our heart that we can look at that and get caught up in the the politics whether it's Fox News or CNN and not feel empathy and not name not necessarily agreeing with the solutions this world has no solutions but recognizing that our Father feels for them and Jesus Christ feels for them and yet as we see these things unfolding on our screen what's to come puts this to shame this is nothing compared to that this moment was founded the moment Adam and Eve said six thousand years ago God we don't need you Adam and Eve said not your will my will but one is coming to write that to say not my will but yours and that is Jesus Christ so there are more seals here let's move on to seal number five Revelation chapter six and verse nine what you've seen so far is what man can do to man here we sort of enter a different realm says in Revelation chapter six and verse nine when he opened the fifth seal of the seven I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried with a loud voice saying how long O Lord true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth in a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them they should rest a little while longer until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed this is Great Tribulation this is the martyrdom of many of God's people this is the great persecution of Israel again we don't have time to pour into all the details I spent a lot there with the first four horsemen ABBA do do please study that it doesn't have to be a difficult scripture some people say well that's proof that people are alive in heaven because here they're alive in heaven and they're crying out that's kind of like saying that's proof there's gonna be real horses riding around and one is red you know and he's being written by a guy with a sword that doesn't mean there's really gonna be one red horse causing all this trouble in particular this what does that mean for those for whom it might be a difficult scripture this is actually a common symbol this is something God has used before what was the beginning of all this it's when Cain slew Abel right and what did God say of Abel's blood he told Cain your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground the blood of the martyrs always cries out to God in particular it's under the altar when people ask what doesn't this mean people are alive in heaven I want to say well I hope I'd be living someplace other than under an altar that doesn't exactly sound me like the best place to be live hey God do you remember me okay now stay under the altar under the altar in the temple and this would have been known by John it would have been known by those who experienced life in Jerusalem with the temple that was where the blood of the sacrifice is always pooled if you think about this this makes perfect sense these Christians are being slaughtered like a sacrifice and their blood on the ground is crying out to God for the Vengeance that is due we didn't make up that symbol God uses it in Genesis 4 and verse 10 feel free and write in your Bibles right next to that like I do Genesis 4 Genesis 4 in verse 10 the blood of the innocents always cries out to God there will be a part of the church protected we can read about that in Revelation chapter 12 let's go ahead and do a little bit and get important context Revelation chapter 12 Revelation chapter 12 we have the devil being cast down to the earth and will forsake time--was jump to verse 13 it says now when the dragon saw he had been cast to the earth he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child he's persecuting the church woman here symbolizes the church that male child was Jesus Christ our elder brother the firstborn it says in verse 14 but the woman was given two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time times and half a time three and a half years mr. Aames explained so much more clearly than I could hear as two and a half years of tribulation and then one year of the day of the Lord the year of the Lord's recompense rezaian that she was protected and nourished from the presence of the serpent verse 15 so the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman trying to catch the church that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood but the earth helped the woman and the heiress wha opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the Dragon had spewed out of his mouth and the dragon was enraged with the woman and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ it says to those who are on earth in verse 12 above says therefore rejoice o heavens and you who dwell in them for the devil had been cast out woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea for the devil has come down to you having great wrath because he knows that he has a short time we enter with the fifth seal the tribulation and The Devil's wrath poured out on anyone that god holds in any kind of special or respect in particular the church except for those who are protected revelation 3 talks about the Philadelphian church talks about the Laodicean church then we see those details not time to go into it there but Jesus Christ does tell us to pray we'd be counted worthy to escape these things it is absolutely atrocious what is going to be done turn back to Revelation chapter 6 because at this point with the slaughter of God's people this assault against his people and the devil just wreaking havoc and all things that god reaches a point two and a half years later at the end of the tribulation God says enough you know I've been told and so I'm not trying to boast and if anything I'll talk about the mistake that I don't get angry that easily my wife has told me they don't get angry that easily that I'm pretty pretty laid-back pretty calm however eventually I had kids and in any way and I try I do you know I but there have been times I hate to admit it there have been times I have blown up and I have yelled I'm not generally a Yeller but I have I have done it I always feel bad about it and I can always tell when it gets to a certain point because I've been in I've had a theater experience I know how to project and there's a certain thing that my a certain time call it a register it's not higher it might be lower that my voice will do and I even feel it in my chest that my lungs and diaphragm have shifted into a different gear and and you can hear it ringing off the walls in a different kind of way I also hate it when it's in the car because it hurts my ears too I am NOT proud of that that is frankly it's not good I'm not not boasting about that not boasting about that I always want to be an image of control don't wrong I'm not upset about getting angry you know Jesus Christ had righteous anger and kids give you a chance for righteous anger sometimes but still there's just that moment that I usually it results in me apologizing to the kids not for what they did but but that you know I wish I'd have been in a bit more control of my voice there God comes to a point with everything going on in the world that he says enough that's enough this will happen no longer apart from my presence and God Himself the Almighty one steps into human history Adam and Eve had kicked him out and with small exception like for some of us to further his plan he has stepped into history he stepped in at the Tower of Babel he stepped in I'd I believe at the Spanish Armada but now he steps in in a way that he will not be called back and his presence will not be avoidable and his decisions will be absolute and we see that reflected in the sixth seal it says in verse 12 this is after the tribulation about to begin the day of the Lord it says I looked in verse 12 I looked when he opened the sixth seal behold there was a great earthquake and the Sun became black as sackcloth of hair and the moon became like blood and the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its laits figs what is shaken by a mighty wind and the sky receded as a scroll and it is rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place and the kings of the earth and the great men the rich men the commanders the mighty men every slave in every free man hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand for all that man has done even for all the devil had done for two and a half years only God can truly pull the stars from the sky only God can clothe the Sun itself in sackcloth and roll up the sky like a scroll and move every single mountain and island out of its place the entire universe rings with the announcement God is here the eternal one has stepped back into history and so we have the heavenly signs and then we get to the seventh seal his presence announced we jump to chapter eight and there's something fascinating here every minute counts I'm not going to do what I've done sometimes I'll try to do a little bit chapter 8 and verse 1 it says when he opened the Seventh Seal There was silence in heaven for about half an hour silence in heaven for half an hour I'm going to a brief experiment if you don't mind we're gonna have silence complete absolute silence for just 20 seconds I need that other 40 seconds I was going to do a minute but we'll just say 20 seconds so so if you would bear with me I'll tell you when it started just just sit quietly and say nothing okay go it's 20 seconds in heaven the headquarters of all existence there was silence for half an hour 90 times what we just did and he look at revelation 4 and the rest how busy heaven is and yet everything grinds to a halt and there is absolute silence for a full half-hour why there's a verse that I think is reflected here where God says to a prophet be silent all flesh before the eternal for he is aroused from his holy habitation that's in Zechariah chapter 2 and verse 13 it's a reflection of the gravity of the moment that God himself has been aroused to act let all of existence be silent and in awe and that is the prelude to the seven trumpets the seven trumpets are big part of what we're talking about today if you look at verse two what happens here it says I saw 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 and then the stain jille took the censer and filled it with fire from the asari angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it to the earth and there were noises thunderings lightnings and an earthquake all the prayers of God's people every prayer you've ever sent to God that said your kingdom come God please put a stop to this please stop that slaughter please heal my friend please change all these things fix this world please take this world out of the hands of the devil and make it yours again we beg of you God to do that those prayers have been heard and they have been collected and all of that has been thrown to the earth and God's vengeance begins and so the angels are given their trumpets and we're going to go through the trumpets really quickly it's actually rather a small part here actually a lot of people look at Revelation chapter 8 and we start in verse 7 it says 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 a third of the trees you know you look at this image of the Earth from space is this beautiful blue green orb it's just a gem no other planet we've seen in our solar system looks anything like it but imagine a third of that just charred third not to mention all the grass it says you know these wild fires we see in California are nothing compared to what's coming can you imagine a smoke that would fill the sky only God can accomplish something like this the second trumpet verse 8 says the second angel sounded in something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships destroyed III found someplace try to estimate how many ships are on the sea at any particular moment in time I don't know how accurate the source was but a third of those being destroyed would suggest about thirteen thousand ships destroyed an imagined a third you know that the oceans are filled with life they're teeming with life to have a third of the living things die we like a third of the ocean itself dying imagine a third of the ocean becoming blood and imagine seeing all this from space you've got this charred ember beginning to be crafted out of the continents and you have the oceans themselves beginning to gain the hue of blood and there's there's also it's a cute name we'll a terrible effect the Cheerios effect you ever had a bowl of Cheerios insert the cereal of your choice and you got the last few bits left the last few Cheerios you ever notice how they start to cling together in like tiny little cheerio Islands floating around if you ever watch them so as to psyche thought that they're gonna go but they're gonna go and your wife says why are you watching the cereal and he's like wow I know they're gonna and then they do they come together it's just part of water tension of the rest you can easily understand what would happen with a third of the living creatures dying you'd begin to have these masses of bodies it's just like islands of corpses floating in the sea it's a terrible thing to think about the third trumpet verse 10 says the third angel sounded in 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 star is wormwood a third of the waters became wormwood and many men died from the water because it was made bitter can you imagine living in the face of hail fire blood from the sky a scorched earth the waters becoming blood and now a third of the people dying for what they drink you don't even know if your next sip of water is going to kill you mankind is getting what mankind at that time has earned it says in the fourth trumpet verse 12 the fourth angel sounded and a third of the Sun was struck a third of the moon a third of the stars so the third of them were darkened a third of the day did not shine and likewise the night so all of a sudden now supernaturally is so much darker than it would have been because the God of heaven who crafted the lights is using them to make his point earth has truly become what mankind would eventually make of it left to himself a hell on earth verse 13 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 the remaining blast of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound like those weren't bad enough the next three angels and bring on these terrible terrible woes and so we jumped to Daniel chapter 10 yeah let's go to the seventh trumpet in Revelation chapter 11 oh sorry I'm sorry the fifth trumpet Revelation chapter 9 lost my place Revelation chapter 9 and verse 1 it says the fifth angel sounded and I saw a star fallen from heaven to the earth to him was given a key to the bottomless pit he opened the bottomless pit smoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace so the Sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth and to them was given power as the Scorpions of the earth have power they are commanded not to harm the grass of the earth or any green thing or any tree but only those men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads and they were not given authority to kill them though we've heard earlier people would rather prefer death but to torment them for five months their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man in those days men will seek death and will not find it that will desire to die and death will flee from them you know we are working on weapons that can be made to torture people we have for instance I've seen it unlike fun news like oh look what's going on to the military these days and they illustrate something and I've heard from soldiers coming back from Iraq that says they're using these things there's a crowd dispersal weapons where they can take a microwave beam and aim it at you and you feel like your body is on fire because they want to have non-lethal ways to make people move to disperse crowds and they show these these test vultures standing there it's like whoa and they just all of a sudden like they're in agonizing pain and they run but you can imagine what if you couldn't run the things that are going to be unleashed by these militaries is something we cannot truly and fully fathom the sixth trumpet Revelation chapter 9 and verse 13 says the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God saying this to the sixth angel who had the trumpet released the four angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year released to kill a third of mankind now the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million and I heard the number of them you think man that's got to be a big army yeah we have approximately 300 million human beings breathing human beings in the United States alone the United States alone imagine two-thirds of all of the United States being a war faring male just armies on a vast scale he says and I saw the horses and vision those who sat on them had black breastplates of fire II read hyacinth blue and sulfur yellow the heads the horses were like the heads of lions if you got a feel for John here he's trying to describe these things in vision he's like I don't know what to call all of this okay it's a horse but you know the heads not like a horse head it's like a lion head and he's thinking wow this is terrifying he didn't have the vocabulary to describe what he saw and out of their mouths came fire smoke and brimstone by these play three plagues a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of their mouths we can read all of this and we can start to feel sympathy and think how terrible that mankind has to go through all of this it just doesn't seem right I mean really should they experience such atrocities but then you read in verse 20 it says the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of their works of their hands that they should not worship demons and idols of gold silver brass stone and wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts you are getting to a hardened core of mankind you're getting down to everything that makes us not what we are supposed to be even in the face of things they've said they know God is intervening in the world and they still refuse they still refuse whoa number three the seventh trumpet the one we like talking about by the Feast of Trumpets Revelation chapter 11 and verse 15 we read then the seventh angel sounded we know what this is we know that Paul talks about at the last Trump there'll be a resurrection of God's people we'll hear about that in the special music plan for the second service this is that last Trump seven of seven the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever it says after this song is sung by the 24 elders verse 19 the temple of God was opened in heaven and the Ark of his covenant was seen in his temple and there were lightnings noises thunderings and earthquake and great hail you know it's fascinating to me I see so many parallels between Jesus Christ and his his reign and rule and the lives of David and Solomon and it's interesting there was a time when the Ark was brought into Jerusalem and you have the king and he's dancing before the ark leading it into Jerusalem and it says there are so far as being blown and here we see the king the son of David coming to earth and glory and we see indeed the Ark of the Covenant picturing the throne of God behind him and we hear the blowing of shofars the purpose for which God created mankind to begin with not for suffering not for pain not for difficulty not for trial not for sickness not for disease not for war not for murder but to build a beautiful family that would last forever with people knowing nothing but joy and peace an eternity in the very life of God forever for the first time since that day 6,000 years ago the family of God expands and from that point on forever it is no longer 2 but it is so many more thousands upon thousands we know from Romans chapter 8 I won't take the time to turn there that the entire creation is begging for this time is looking to this time what it will see is deliverance the liberty of the revealing of the children of God every Rock every tree you see every star in the sky every nebula every galaxy or every planet they discover all of it begging for us to be there at that seventh trumpet let's look at one more verse turn to John chapter 16 these days are hard they're hard to think about they're not fun but they are important if you work all ease punishment they said that she would have pain in childbirth because the world to come would still be born that would be born through great difficulty Jesus Christ says in John 16 and verse 21 John 16 and verse 21 a woman when she is in labor has sorrow because her hour has come but as soon as she has given birth to the child she no longer remembers the anguish for joy that a human being has been born into the world that is what that last Trump represents and may God work so that we hear its sound soon you

Channel: Living Church of God

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Keywords: prophecy, kingdom, kingdom of God

Id: KPtH2KlEeBc

Length: 79min 29sec (4769 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 04 2016