Good morning, church family. I want you to turn to your neighbor and say, this is the day that the Lord has made. Turn to your other neighbor and say, and we will rejoice and be glad in it. Amen, amen. How many of you were blessed by our choir and Sabrina with that solo this morning? We all have gifts, and we are to use them for the glory of Almighty God, amen? You know, just a couple of comments. Certainly I want to promote, if you have not attended one of our new member Connect classes, then October 24th is your opportunity to learn more about our church family, our ministries, our mission, and how you can get plugged in to doing God's work. God is moving. in this church and in this community, and I want you to not miss out on the opportunity to serve Him in spirit and in truth. And then secondly, I want to invite all of you, many of you got this Connect card or this Pledge card for our Faith Forward Restoration Campaign. Ashley River this past spring celebrated 80 years. 80 years. This church was planted in 1943 from Citadel Square Baptist Church downtown. And so we recognize that we are to take care of God's house. And we have a beautiful sanctuary, but there are lots of things that need to be brought up to today's standard. And so we're going to go into this Faith Forward campaign to add 230 new windows to our campus. to add 10 new doors to our campus, to repaint the exterior of all of our church buildings, to repave our parking lots, and to make all of our facilities accessible. So we want you to be a part of that. It's an exciting time, and so this afternoon we'll be presenting it. We'll be giving out the pledge cards both today and next week, and then next week after the service, right after the service, we're going to have a time of commitment where you and your family can be a part of this Faith Forward campaign. Now, I have a personal goal that 100% of those in this room will participate. No gift is too small. No gift is too large. What we want you to do is be faithful and let God move in your heart to give, and here's the key, above and beyond your tithe. That's what this campaign is all about. So you tithe as your tithe to the Lord for the ongoing ministries of this church, but this is one extra step for you to be a part of what God is doing. So I just wanted to make sure all of you were aware of the timeline there. With that, I want you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation. chapter 8. Revelation chapter 8. And I'm going to begin reading a few verses. And all I have to say to us this morning is buckle your seatbelts, okay? Because we're going to be going through four chapters. And many of you may ask, why all four chapters? They actually tie together. The first verse of Chapter 8 actually is the seventh seal that is opened. But then we will go through the seven trumpets. But there's a lot of activity, a lot of events that happen in the midst of those seven trumpets. So if you can and are able to, please stand for the reading of God's Word. And I'm only going to read the first five verses of chapter 8, and then we'll continue on. 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. Another angel who had a golden censer came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer. With the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, the smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up before God from the angel's hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth. And there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake. Father, this is your word. We come humbly this morning asking you to illumine our hearts and minds to its truth this morning so that it might spur us on to be faithful in these last days, to be witnesses for you of the good news of Jesus Christ. May our gospel message be an urgent one to our current generation. Oh, Lord, our prayer here at Ashley River is that we will be found faithful. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. You know, as I think about this particular series of events, we're going to go through, and I'm going to walk through the timeline with you very quickly here, just to kind of catch us all up in case you have missed a couple of weeks or what have you. But there is, of course, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and now we are sitting in the middle of the church age. So right now our generation is the church age. The next event that will happen and it's referred to in Revelation chapter 4 verses 1 and 2 is what we refer to as the rapture or the catching away. Today we're going to be seeing how the two witnesses also will have been raptured later in the tribulation period. After the rapture, and at some point after the rapture, I made the point a couple of weeks ago that, in fact, we don't know exactly when the tribulation period will begin. Many scholars place it immediately after the rapture. I don't find anywhere in Scripture where it says it will happen immediately after the rapture. So we put it at some point after that. But this is Daniel's 70th week, going all the way back to the book of Daniel. and chapter 9 where he talks about the fact that God has determined 490 years for Israel, His chosen people. And we know from Daniel and from all of the other historical prophetical books that 483 of those years have already transpired. And so therefore, we have seven years yet to elapse. This is referred to as the tribulation. It's often referred to as the first three and a half years and the second three and a half years. Today, we'll be marching our way up to the middle of that week. the middle of those weeks. So we have these three series of judgments, the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, and the bowl judgments. So today we'll be covering the seventh seal and the seven trumpets. And then after that, Jesus will come again. And when Jesus comes, he will be coming with great power to the earth. There is power in his name, we just sang. And when he comes, he will restore all things, and then we enter into what's known as the millennial kingdom. That is a literal thousand-year period of time after which the judgment will occur, the great white throne judgment, and then finally, eternity. So that's the timeline that we are marching through. And of course, right now we're in the middle of the three and a half year period that begins the tribulation. Okay, and so now what I've just read in chapter eight refers to that. The seventh seal, look at what it says there in chapter eight, verse one. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. I don't know about you, but I find that interesting that he would be that specific about the amount of time that there is silence. Remember, if you look forward in chapter 7, at the end of chapter 7, all of heaven was worshiping God. And then it's almost as if God said, OK, stop, because now there's going to be silence. And for 30 minutes, there is silence in heaven. That time is a time, a somber time, to introduce the seven trumpets. Now, folks, as you have read, and I hope you've done your homework to read these chapters, 8 through 11, you'll see the judgment of God upon the earth. And we see the first trumpet is hail and fire mixed with blood. The second trumpet is a huge mountain thrown into the sea. The third trumpet is the star Wormwood, which is, of course, it falls and it makes all of the freshwater, the lakes and the rivers, bitter. It takes us back to the desert wanderings where they came to the waters of Meribah, where the waters were bitter. and Moses had to throw a piece of wood into that water and of course it became sweet to the taste. It's kind of hearkening back to that moment. But it's interesting in the first four trumpets we see that this is, the earth is affected in four different ways. The hail and fire mixed with blood will destroy a third of the trees and the grass and the earth. The second trumpet, the huge mountain thrown into the sea, destroys, by blood, a third of the sea, a third of the oceans. And then the third trumpet is that it will destroy or make bitter a third of the fresh drinking water on the earth. And then when we get to the fourth trumpet, a third of the sun, moon, and stars will not give their light. Can you imagine that the earth will become much darker by a third? So again, all through the trumpets, we see that a third of the earth is being impacted. A third, a third, a third, a third. And then we're going to get to humankind as well. Because when we get to the fifth trumpet, The fifth trumpet begins the three woes that are pronounced. Look at what it says over there in chapter 9. I'm sorry, at the end of chapter 8, verse 13. As I watched, I heard an eagle that was flying in midair call out in a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth because of the trumpet blasts about to be sounded by the other three angels. And so these woe judgments are coming. And of course, chapter 9 is perhaps one of the most graphic depictions within all of Revelation. And there's been many scholars who have tried to unpack it. I'm going to make it very easy for us this morning because sometimes we read too much into the Word of God and we don't just take it at face value. I will help us when we do this because the fifth and sixth angels, the first and second woe, are before us. The first woe is that there will be locusts who come up from the abyss. And there is a king of these beings in the abyss known as Abaddon. Abaddon is the Hebrew name. And Apollyon is the Greek name. And in both cases, the name means destroyer. So these are locust-like figures that will destroy. They won't destroy. They will torture, it says in chapter 9. They will torture a third of mankind. And it's interesting because the ones who will not be affected by these beings coming out of the abyss, it says there that they The ones who will not are the ones who have the mark of God on their foreheads. Notice what it says there in verse 4. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or any tree, but what? But only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. Well, who are those who have a seal of God on their foreheads? If you go all the way back to chapter 7, what you'll find is that that's the 144,000 Israelites, Jewish people. They are the ones who are protected because their ministry has not been completed. We'll talk about when the 144,000 are raptured or caught up next week. But the point of it all is that they are protected, but the rest of those who are not sealed with the seal of God, they are tortured for five months. Tortured to the point where they want death to come. But it will not. Now, this is heavy stuff. Let's all acknowledge that. This is very heavy stuff. This is judgment upon the earth. And then, of course, we come to the sixth angel and the sixth trumpet. And this is the second woe. And four angels from the Euphrates, which had dried up, are now released. And they have an army. with them, that is, able to kill a third of all mankind. So now after five months of torture, now death will come to a third of mankind. And it's interesting because the quote that I have down here at the end of chapter 9 is from verse 20. The rest of mankind that were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the work of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, idols they cannot see or hear or walk. nor did they repent of their murders, their magic arts, their sexual immorality, or their thefts. You see, what will happen is, by the time the sixth trumpet has been fulfilled, over half of our world's population will be gone. Today, we have eight billion people on this planet. There's estimations that maybe A fifth of them or a quarter of them are Christians who will be taken out of the way at the beginning of the week. as part of the rapture. So now we're down to six billion. And then with these plagues and with these trumpet blasts and the killing of the third of humankind, now it will come down to about four billion people left on this earth. And the Scripture says they still did not repent. Now the good news here is that those 144,000 evangelists and those who have come to Christ and who will in fact die as a witness being martyred. We looked at the souls of those who were martyred under the altar in chapter 6. We will see that God is still not done with the world. He is still extending a merciful hand to the world. But it says here very clearly in chapter 20, they still did not repent. And so the judgments continue. And so any time that you look at the chapter 9, you will see words like a star that has fallen from heaven, locusts, scorpions, Abaddon and Apollyon, which we know means destroyer, angels who are bound in the Euphrates, and mounted troops. If you do the math there in chapter 9 of these mounted troops, it comes out to 200 million. of them. 200 million set loose. Well, all of these are references to satanic and demonic forces. That's what is in the abyss are demons, and they are unleashed upon the world. They've been in chains. Peter refers to the fact that these will be enchained in Tartarus, which, of course, is the abyss. And so we see this as a demonic movement that God allows to happen in order to bring judgment. Judgment only in the sense that He wants people to repent and come to Him through Jesus Christ. And so we see that these represent the demonic forces. Then we get to chapter 10. And chapter 10 is interesting. It begins with these words. Then I saw another mighty angel. Again, the sequential nature of Revelation. It's as if the sixth trumpet has completed and now this mighty angel coming down from heaven. He was robed in a cloud with a with a rainbow above his head. His face was like the sun. His legs were like fiery pillars. He was holding a little scroll which lay open in his hand. And he planted his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land. And he gave a loud shout like the roar of a lion. You see, it's interesting that this mighty angel now comes and descends upon the earth, placing his right foot on the land and his left foot on the sea. And so we see here that this angel, a lot of people believe that it's Christ. But I would argue, and this is where I sit, Christ normally is never referred to, especially in the New Testament, as an angel. This is just another mighty angel doing God's bidding. Let's remember that the word angel in the Greek New Testament is angelos. Angelos. And the meaning behind that, it's not really a title as much as it is an act of service. It's who they are. It's what they do. And what are they? They are ministering spirits. They are sent to the earth to do God's bidding, to give His Word. They are messengers. That's what they are. And so I would argue that chapter 10 here really is, it's another angel. And the other reason that I would say that this is probably not Christ is the fact that this angel, it says, angelos anon, meaning another of the same kind as the ones who came before. And so, therefore, we can just conclude that this is another mighty angel who is making an impressive judgment upon the earth. And he is coming because he is going to announce something. Now, some would say, well, it's Jesus because he gave the shout like a roar of a lion because Jesus is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Or he swore by him who who lives forever and ever. No angel would swear like that. And he speaks of my two witnesses when we go forward to the next chapter. But verse 10 tells us that there's a little scroll that this angel has. And John then goes up to this angel and asks for the scroll. And when he does, he is informed that when you take this scroll to eat it, literally to eat it, It will taste sweet in your mouth, but it will become bitter in your stomach. This takes us back to some of the prophets. Jeremiah had a similar experience as did Ezekiel. They were given... Ezekiel specifically was given a scroll to eat, and he had the same reaction. It was sweet to the taste, but it was bitter in the stomach. This, of course, helps us to understand what it must have been like to be a prophet of God, to prophesy. First, that God is finally doing something about this messed up world that we live in. He is stepping in. He is bringing justice, finally, for the evil of this world. And it's sweet to know that God has not just abandoned us and left us to our own devices, that He is coming again. And when He does, He's going to make all things right. So that's the sweet message of the gospel. Let's never miss that. But then, of course, it's bitter because we know that it includes judgment. Judgment upon those whom we may love. But God will use whatever means possible to draw people to Himself. Our adversity is God's opportunity. And therefore, He uses even this judgment on the last days of this world. in order to draw people to Himself. That's the heart of Almighty God. And so that's what's happened here when He sends this angel. We will see in a couple of weeks that there will be another angel sent. There's three angels that will be sent. and one of those angels, the first one, will be proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ to those who live on the earth. And so that gospel will continue to be spread even in these latter days. And then, of course, we get to the two witnesses, and I want to pick up in chapter 11. Chapter 11, it says this, verse 1, I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, go and measure the temple of God and the altar and count the worshipers there, but exclude the outer court. Do not measure it because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city. The holy city, of course, is Jerusalem for 42 months. 42 months is 3 1⁄2 years. And I will give power to My two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days. If you use a lunar calendar, that's also 3 1⁄2 years. clothed in sackcloth. Why are they clothed in sackcloth? Oftentimes prophets will do that because the message is dire. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. It's interesting, Mike read from Zechariah chapter 4. And he says, it's not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty. The Spirit of God will be in these two witnesses. They are the two olive trees, the two lampstands that are in the Old Testament, the two olive branches. And that's referred here in this chapter 11. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And then it says in verse 5, if anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. These men have power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying. And they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want. And so we often think about the attributes of these particular men, and it's interesting. We see that fire comes out of the... Can you imagine what it must have been like for these two prophets, these two witnesses, to stand in Jerusalem and to have the power to use fire coming out of their mouths to destroy those who are taunting them or trying to kill them. And then, of course, we see that the power that they are given. One is that they have the power over rain. What prophet in the Old Testament had the power to stop the rain for three and a half years? Of course, we know who that is, and we'll talk about him in the next slide. But then there's one who has power over blood that goes into the water and over plagues. They will be martyred and they will be resurrected, it says. And so we have to ask ourselves the question, who are these two witnesses? Well, most scholars bring up three as options. The first is Elijah, and most scholars agree that Elijah of the Old Testament is one of the two witnesses. First of all, he was taken. Remember, he did not die physically. And he is, of course, the one who has displayed the ability to see rain stop for three and a half years. And so that, Elijah, that kind of connects him. In addition to that, in the last book of the Old Testament, The prophet Malachi actually refers to Elijah coming before the great day of the Lord. And so we see that Elijah coming here as one of the two witnesses would fulfill that prophecy of Malachi. In addition to that, of course, we see that Elijah was at the transfiguration. It was Jesus who took James and John and Peter up to see Him transfigured before them for them to get a glimpse of His glory. And there were two people who stood with Jesus and they were glorified. One of them was, of course, Elijah. And then secondly, so most people believe it's Elijah is one of them. But then there's a debate about who is the second witness. And of course, some who would say it's Moses would look at his powers. The fact that he had blood, he was able to have blood come out of the water. Of course, we see that in Exodus when he met with the Pharaoh and he put his staff in the Nile and it turned blood red. And so people see the connection there. In addition to that, he was, of course, overseeing the ten plagues of God on the nation of Egypt. And so Moses has power in the plagues as well. And then, of course, he too was at the transfiguration. The only problem with Moses is what? Moses died physically. And in Hebrews, it teaches us that it is appointed once for man to die, and then the judgment. So some would discount Moses because of that. And that brings up, well, maybe it's Enoch. Maybe Enoch is that second witness. Because Enoch walked with God, and then he was not. Can you imagine? Can you imagine just walking with God so faithfully that all of a sudden he takes you? You're gone You're taken up. And Enoch, of course, is listed among the faithful in Hebrews 11. He pleased God and God took him. So if that's the case, if you tend to lean toward the fact that, hey, God's going to use two people who have not yet experienced physical death, well, then you're probably leaning towards Elijah and Enoch. If, on the other hand, you're emphasizing more the powers that are given to them during the last half of the tribulation here, the power of the rain, the blood in the water, as well as the plagues, then you might lean towards Moses. Here's the truth of the matter. I don't know. Okay? We can speculate all day long. I assume that many of you will go up and just interview all three of them when you get to heaven and say, were you one of the two witnesses? Okay? But the bottom line is we can't read too much more into the Scripture than is there. All I know is that there will be two witnesses. And look at what happens to them beginning in verse 7. Now, when they had finished their testimony, The beast that comes up from the abyss will attack them and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city. which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt. Now, the great city here is Jerusalem, and he's referring to them as figuratively Sodom and Egypt. Now, you have to ask yourself the question, when you read through this passage, you have to say, well, why is he referring to Sodom and Egypt here in relationship to the great city, Jerusalem? During this time, there will be rampant sexual immorality. And that, of course, harkens us back to Sodom. But in addition to that, people will be enslaved by their own sin condition. And this, of course, harkens us back to the time when God's people were enslaved in Egypt. Because Egypt is a type of the world. It's a pattern. And when God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, it's like Him rescuing you and I from the shackles of our own sin, you see. And so that's essentially why he's referring to it as figuratively Sodom and Egypt. But then verse 9 says, for three and a half days, men from every people, tribe, language, and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. They must have really created a lot of enemies on earth. Why? Because the prophetic truth of God's judgment is very hurtful. It's very hurtful and so they will not want to give them a proper burial verse 10 the inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them And will celebrate by sending each other gifts Because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth tormented not in the physical sense but by their word of judgment repent for His coming is near. Repent. Nobody, you know, if you share the gospel with enough people you will find that they are resistant to surrendering fully. to someone else. They want to still hold on to their own lives. But we who are gathered in this room understand that when you surrender, you become more free than you've ever been before. That Christianity is not a bunch of guardrails around us. That God's commandments to not do this or not do that is for our own good. He loves us that much that He puts guardrails around us in the form of commands and laws because He knows that without that direction we would become a mess in this world. And so that's God's plan. And, of course, this is, of course, a torment to those who want to live their lives. And then in verse 11 it says, But after the three and a half days a breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those I can imagine. Can you imagine? Can you imagine what must have been going through the minds of all of those who are gloating over their bodies, and then all of a sudden the very breath of Almighty God breathes into them, hearkening us back to the creation of Adam. It's the breath. It's the Spirit of God that makes us a living being. And see, here they get this breath breathed into them, and then all of a sudden what happens? They heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Come up here. Come up here. and they went up to heaven in a cloud, 36 while their enemies looked on. Friends, this is exactly the kind of language we find back in Revelation chapter 4 when we said that John was told, 36 Come up here! Come up here! It's the same exact language we find in 1 Thessalonians 4 when it says, 37 Come up here! And God snatches them. They are caught up to heaven in a cloud to meet the Lord in the air. This is a great and wonderful event. And verse 13 says, At that very hour there was a severe earthquake, and a tenth of the city collapsed. You see the power of God. 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to God of heaven. Finally, some are glorifying God because they've seen a miracle here, right before their very eyes. And then he says, the second woe has passed, and the third woe is coming soon. You see, and so we see here that these three woes, trumpets five, six, and then the third woe is trumpet seven and following. And I'll finish with these verses. Our memory verse for today was chapter 11, verse 15, and I'll read it for us. The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, And there were loud voices in heaven which said, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ. And He will reign forever and ever. What a declaration. What a declaration to all of us who are in Christ. He will reign forever and ever and ever. You know, when Adam and Eve fell and they were thrown out of the garden, this world that we live in became Satan's domain. You understand that? You understand that God pulled back and allowed this world, the kingdom of the power of the air, The ruler is Satan over this world. You ask the question, why do so many bad things happen in our world? Well, it makes total sense if you understand that God has allowed Satan to be the ruler of this time that we are on this earth. The better question for us to ask, friends, how does anything good ever happen? How does anything beautiful something for us to see? I'm convinced that God in His grace and His mercy allows us a glimpse of His goodness, a glimpse of His power, a glimpse of His majesty, a glimpse of what the world could be Jesus's model prayer truly came true. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. when all of humankind bends our knee. Thank you, Anne-Marie, for reading Philippians chapter 2. When the whole of mankind bends our knee to Jesus Christ, we will all say, all glory, all power, all might, all majesty to the King of kings and Lord of lords. You see, and that's what it's saying here in the seventh trumpet. God is saying now the kingdom of God has come to the earth. Now what's happening is that Jesus is preparing to come again. And when He does, He'll set up His kingdom and we will worship Him in spirit and in truth every single day for a thousand years. Praise God. And then in verse 16 it says, And the twenty-four elders who were seated on the throne before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign. The nations were angry, and your wrath has come. The time The time has come for the judging the dead. and for rewarding your servants, the prophets, and your saints, and those who reverence your name, both small and great, and for destroying those who destroy the earth. And so we see here, as we close out chapter 11, God is declaring, this is the great declaration, the kingdom of God is now coming to the earth, and all things will be made new. Everything and so he is preparing us for revelation chapters 21 and 22 praise God Hallelujah, what a Savior for you this morning? I pray that you don't walk out of here with a heavy heart because a lot of this is heavy But I pray that you walk out of here with a humble reverence for the power of God and an awesome an awesome response to the goodness and mercy of God. We've made this world a mess. We see wars all over. We see conflict between us. God wants to wipe all of that out. He wants us to live the way He designed for us to live from the beginning. And it's coming. Can you wait? Until then, our job is to tell those who are not in Christ to come and be part of the family of God. You will be spared from the wrath to come. Praise God and hallelujah. Let us pray. Father, we love you. We thank you for your word. We thank you for how the book of Revelation continues to reveal your character, not only your power and justice, but your grace and your mercy, and most importantly, your love. Father, we thank you for your love. We thank you that we, as a church, can measure our own love, but we could never measure yours. Yours extends so far, it's unfathomable. We cannot plumb the depths of your love for us and for those around us. Oh, Lord, help us to hold out the love of Jesus Christ to all that we come into contact with this week. We pray this in Jesus' name. amen and amen please stand we're going to be singing a hymn of commitment it is it is well with my soul and many of us know this great hymn it is well with my soul if you have never trusted Jesus Christ, I want to invite you to come forward. I'll have a conversation with you. If, on the other hand, you want to come, you've already trusted Christ, you want to come and you want to join this church family, you come as well during this song. You come and we'll sing.