Revelation 8, we're continuing our journey. I had planned on preaching 8 and 9, but as I worked through, I thought that I would touch on it too lightly, and I didn't want to do that, and yet I'm trying to walk a fine line of being too detailed and perhaps overwhelming some of you with just what is going on in this book and in the plan of God. But I think that just doing chapter 8 alone today will be good, and we'll look, Lord willing, next week at chapter 9 and see these trumpets, as I'm calling them, just trumpets of wrath. Last week, we dealt with Chapter 7, obviously. And I purposely took up a portion of my time to deal with the nature of numbers and, if you will, even math in the Book of Revelation. And I wanted that done because it comes up over and over and over again in this book. And so it's not something you can escape. For some of you, you might find that it's not really that beneficial. Others of you, I hope it is thought-provoking. I hope that it might be even instructive or encouraging. But I will tell you that I don't try to spend any of my time in the pulpit wasting your time. So if any of you have ever wondered, well, why is he spending so much time on this? Obviously, for whatever reason, I think it's important. And this is one of those situations. How are we going to deal with numbers and what the passage before us actually says? And that's what we looked at. We saw that half of that chapter was dealing with this mysterious group of people, at least in the minds of many, the 144,000 Israelites. And it explicated that it was 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. And I tried to give some lessons in all of that. First, I tried to give some pushback to those who hold to a non-literal way of approaching the Book of Revelation. And I purposely chose Kevin DeYoung, who is a respected scholar and teacher. of the word and putting his own words up there explaining to everyone in his post why the 144,000 can't be 144,000. And I walked you through each one of those arguments that he made just to show you how, in many ways, they're just preposterous. There's no way that you can just simply take that at its face value. You need additional evidence to accept that what it says is not what, in fact, it means. And so I tried to explain to you that this number does not If you're going to make this number not mean 144,000, it requires you to make up equations. If you remember, I quoted two different guys, de Young and Hendrickson, and I showed how two men who have the same conclusion, which is that the people of Israel are not part of God's plan anymore, and that this can't mean 144,000 Israelites, even though it says it, How they arrived at that were two very different equations, but neither one of them also gave any explanation as to how they came to this equation and how they could decide that. If you remember, Hendrickson, he was doing it by saying, well, if you take 3, which is the number of the Trinity, and 4, which represents the whole of mankind. But he never gets into explaining how you know those things. And then he times, and that makes 12, and then you do that. And he just starts laying it all out. And it's like, well, OK, I can see how you got to 144 or 144,000. But you haven't explained how that is how we should look at the text. And so I wanted you to see that there's nothing in the text or in the Bible, in fact, that gives us a way of looking at numbers, especially numbers in Revelation, and say, well, they can't mean that. they must mean something else. And I did this for the sake of those of you who perhaps have been in conversations or in situations where you felt pressured. Maybe you were made to feel like somehow something was deficient in your ability to study the Bible. I say that because I've been in that situation when I was younger where people looked at me with just almost shock and said, Obviously it can't mean 144,000. Obviously. I mean, are you really that slow? Can't you see that that's obviously a symbolic number and it means whatever they might say? I wanted to encourage you maybe to understand that you have every right as a Christian Both sides of the issue, all sides of the issue, as a Christian, you have the right to press your argument. If somebody comes to you and they're talking about these types of things, and people like to talk about that, and they put you on the defensive, you don't have to be on the defensive, ever. Press back. put them, and I mean this not in a harsh way or mean way, but put them on the defensive. All you're doing is you're saying, here's what the passage says. It says it's 144,000 Israelites. I'm taking it until you can show me otherwise. and giving me some equations that you're pulling out of thin air is not enough proof in any way, shape, or form. Put it back on the other person, in other words. Make them defend to the fullest why they can make it say something else entirely. I hope that some of you, at least, were a little shocked when DeYoung said, you know, He was incredulous that you would actually think that these were 144,000 male Israelites who were celibate. He's like, I mean, he was incredulous that you would believe that and yet that's actually what the text says. Why shouldn't we? I was incredulous that he would be incredulous. And I want you to get used to that and push back and make your point at least known. Second, though, and much more important, is that the sealing that took place, where the sealing of these 144,000 men is a work of grace. He calls them, if you recall, servants of our God. The breaking of the seven seals that chapter 6 described, all of that is the beginning of the wrath of God being poured out. And in the very midst of God's wrath being poured out, here are Here's a large number of people being set apart and sealed for salvation and for the work of God. And so again, you see even the grace of God. They're saved out of God's wrath in the very midst of that wrath being poured out. I think that you should think about that. Think about if you were living in that time or you are living in that time and you were an object of God's wrath and then God richly and wonderfully saves you. What a relief, a joy as you're watching it literally unfold before your very eyes. It also gives us a strong indication that God is not finished in the slightest with the nation of Israel. This event points us again to the faithfulness of God in his promises and covenants. Now, again, a lot of people find themselves puzzled. What is the deal with Matt and Israel? And why does he keep harping on it? And you're not an Israelite, so frankly, you don't care. But if you're an Israelite, you might. And behind all of that really gets into the fact of this simple question. Can you trust God? Can you really trust God? Can you trust His promises? Because He has made some very, very, very specific promises to the people of Israel. And one of the great ones is that He will come again, and He will visit them with His grace, and He will gather the nation to Himself, and that they will be His people. And this is a great promise. In fact, it's culminated at the second coming of Jesus Christ, where the nation sees Him as He comes and returns, and they repent and they believe. And so behind all of this is less to do with Israel. It has a lot more to do with the faithfulness of God. If you're going to say that the promises that were made to Israel are now null and void, or you're going to just say, well, they were never really made to Israel, but spiritual Israel. And oh, by the way, spiritual Israel is a church. Then at what point can you trust the other promises that were made to us, to the church? How do you know that those promises specifically are really what they say they are, and they're not something else entirely, something that you could not discern just from the text? For me, when I think about these things, it's important for me to know that God is utterly and completely faithful to what he promises. It's important for me in dark days, difficult days, to remember that I am saved, that I am truly forgiven, that I can find rest in the promises of God. And I don't have to wonder if maybe there's some secret or deeper or hidden meaning behind those words. And then lastly, a lesson learned in the sealing of these 144,000 is something very important. That is that my hope and your hope must never rest in our efforts or our state of godliness. What you saw in the sealing of these 144,000 men is sheer, absolute, total, unmerited grace. God simply saved them. And that is what you and I must always rest in. Some of you at times perhaps get yourselves tied up into knots because you're having a bad week or a bad month or whatever it might be and you're just wondering, you know, man, am I even saved? Am I in Christ? And you see the failures, you see the breakdown. Beloved, if you are in that situation, you're gonna be a miserable creature because you're gonna ultimately find that your position before God, your favor before God is somehow wrapped up in what you're accomplishing. May I remind you again, you are saved by grace. You're saved by grace and not of works. So none of you can boast. All of you can boast in one thing and that is that you fail miserably. That's what you are good at. That's what I'm good at. And God is rich in His mercy as He pours it out upon you. And that's what you see in all of this. We also saw, though, some other lessons in chapter 6. And we learned that it was an interlude, a pause in these events that are in the future. And we saw in chapter 6 the scroll of God that contained His complete plan for all of creation, that it was opened by the only one that could open it, and that's Jesus Christ. And during this pause, Six of the seven seals had been broken, and the beginning of His wrath was revealed. The seventh, though, had not yet been opened. We're going to see that today. Instead, there was a pause, and during that time, again, the sealing of those Israelites. But it also gave an important word of encouragement to all of us, because it showed, at the end of the chapter, all of those who had died so far who were believers, into tribulation, and we see them where they're at, and we see their situation. And we see that they're before the very throne of God, that they're rejoicing, they're worshiping, they're singing, they're happy. God himself has comforted them. He has wiped away their tears. And so this is a good thing for us to remember, too, is if you're like me and you're somewhat of a wimp, and you think, man, I don't want to go through this, I don't want to suffer, I don't want to be that person that is faced with some difficult realities in my life as a Christian, and what will I be like, and I don't like pain. I want you just to remember what Revelation showed us, that on the backside of all of that, they didn't care, not one bit. It was okay. They were in the presence of God, and all of that had been resolved. So now we're going to come to chapter 8, and we're going to look at the seventh seal that's broken. And in doing so, what you're going to see is if you thought the wrath of God was bad so far, you've seen nothing yet. It's a very sobering picture. So let's read together chapter 8, and then we'll work through it. And when he broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar holding a golden censer, and much incense was given to him that he might add it to 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 went up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer and he filled it with the fire of the altar and he threw it to the earth and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them. And the first sounded, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. Second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had had life died, and a third of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch. And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. And the name of the star is called Wormwood. And a third of the waters became Wormwood. And many men died from the waters because they were made bitter. And a fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were smitten so that a third of them might be darkened and the day might not shine for a third of it, the night in the same way. And I looked and I heard an eagle flying in the midheaven saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth. because the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. So as we come to the seventh seal, which then will unleash these seven trumpets, we find the simplicity of Jesus taking the seventh seal, breaking it, and now the final part of the scroll is unfolded and declared, and we see what is the response in heaven. And I think it's important for you to think about this. It says, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. Now if you think about all of the images that we've had in Revelation up to now regarding heaven, it's a rather noisy place, isn't it? It's a place where you've got things like earthquakes and peals of thunder and lightning and people are falling down and casting crowns and singing and rejoicing and crying out words of praise and declarations of truth about God, it's very noisy. And yet now, Jesus comes, He takes that last seal, He breaks it, and all of heaven becomes absolutely silent. And I think that's very dramatic. It signifies that what is to come What is going to take place is awe-inspiring, it's sobering, it's serious. In a sense, all of heaven is holding its breath. I would even call it a holy moment as they anticipate God taking His wrath, His plan, His purposes and moving forward in a very deliberate way. And from that point on, what you're going to find here is things are going to start moving rather fast. And so we have in verses two through six then this preparation for the trumpets to be sounded. And it's kind of cool because it shows us again how heaven works. Most of us have very little knowledge about how heaven works. There's all kinds of books written about heaven and what goes on. Some of them are rather silly. Others are flat out dangerous. But there's several helpful ones. But even then, we don't really know. The Bible doesn't tell us a lot about what heaven and the throne room of God and the presence of God is like in any great detail, and sometimes we're left to wonder how much of that is even symbolic, so we're not always sure. But here we have a glimpse of what goes on. You have the seven angels who are standing before God. You have another angel coming. He's got the censer, and he's got incense, and he's lifting up prayers with the incense, and he's throwing down coals of fire. And so you get a little glimpse of what goes on. And again, you're going to be confronted with this. right now, and that is, is that actually something that happened? Or was that just some symbolic picture that there wasn't really seven angels, and there's not this other one, and there is none of this going on? And so, you're going to have to make your decision as to how you understand what is being described. For me, I just simply take it for what it is. in a sense that this is reality. It's just reality in a very different way than how we function here on the earth. The thing that stood out for me though is that it doesn't just vaguely exist, heaven. where everyone is just kind of up there doing their own thing, activities maybe, but really God is just kind of there, and people and angels are there, and we don't really know what's going on. Actually, what you find here is that people, or at least the angels, have very, very clear roles. There's rules. The seven angels don't get to come and just grab a trumpet. They have to stand before God, and then they're given the trumpet. You have another angel who has a very specific role that he has to play, and everyone is functioning properly. But we also see that there's ceremony and there's process. There's orderliness, in other words. Again, it's not just crazy disorder and everyone, again, doing whatever they feel like. But in fact, there's specific roles. and ceremonies that are supposed to unfold. And with all of that, you have a preciseness and a purposefulness behind it all. They're not just doing it. They're doing it for a purpose. In verse 2, though, you have the seven angels. These are very specific angels. They're not just seven randomly chosen, but they are the seven angels. They have a task, a role that they're going to play that's very important. Some hold that these are the archangels. There's no way to know that, though. We only know of one archangel, and that's Michael. The possibility is also strong that Gabriel is an archangel, but it never actually tells us that. And we certainly don't know the names of the others, other archangels that there are, but this is where tradition pulls the number seven for the archangels and then in church tradition they actually have assigned them their names. But we don't know what they are. What we do know is this, that they are the seven who are appointed to blow the trumpets and these trumpets are going to begin to unleash more events that are all designed to bring about God's purposes. Along with that, though, we have this little mysterious point where these prayers of the saints that are upon the golden altar and the incense and the angel doing his thing and bringing all of this to God. What I think is important for you to notice is how our prayers are, in a sense, aided by the angelic host. They're aided by the addition of the incense, if you will, and they rise up to the Lord. This is, again, just grace. It's good because sometimes, as if you haven't figured this out, you don't always know how to pray, right? And sometimes you have a suspicion your prayer is kind of a bad prayer, but it was kind of the best you could come up with. And yet here we see that the prayers of the saints are being mixed with the incense, and then they're rising up into the presence of God. My point would be just simply this. Our prayers never go unattended. They always go with heavenly aid. And it should remind you to not be afraid to pray, not to lift up your needs. But the question really that we should be asking in this text is, what prayers are they? It could be just the general prayers of all believers of all time. But possibly, and I think probably what it's talking about is back in chapter 6, if you'll just flip a page backward, you'll see something that may be forgotten. And we'll start in verse 9. We have the breaking of the fifth seal. And I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God. So these are believers who had been martyred. And because of the testimony which they had maintained, and notice their prayer, they cried out with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and truly will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? In verse 11, they're told that they should rest a little while longer. What you have, I think, is those prayers, these prayers where the saints are saying, how long are we going to wait for your justice to come about? Why I say that is because what immediately happens is he takes these prayers mixed with incense, they're lifted to the Lord, and then the angel takes the coals And he casts them down on the earth and there you begin to see all of these events unfold. What I think you have is simply God saying, it's time. It's time for me to begin to take my vengeance upon those who harmed my servants. It's time for me to begin to pour my wrath out. And now it is that moment. It's also closely connected to a passage some of you may know about in Ezekiel 10. Hopefully you make it a point to try to read through the Old Testament on a regular basis. So much of what you read, especially in books like Revelation, are tied so tightly to the Old Testament promises. But in Ezekiel 10 too, there's a vision of Ezekiel and it says this, he spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, enter between the whirling wheels. By the way, just a little statement, if you haven't read Ezekiel, that's a crazy book. You think Revelation is strange. you haven't read, I know for a fact if you think Revelations is a weird book, you haven't read Ezekiel. That's very strange. And one thing that I always walk away with when I read Ezekiel is one conclusion, and that is I never would have wanted to be a prophet in the Old Testament. I mean, the things that God makes him do are just crazy. And he has some very, very unique visions, and chapter 10 is one of those. If you haven't read it, read it. And these whirling wheels, they won't make sense to you, but you'll understand a little bit better what's going on. He's got this vision of the throne room of God, and the throne of God, and these wheels within wheels turning. And what you have is a good lesson of what I talked about earlier in the series, and that is the nature of symbolic language. Symbolic language is useful because it is able to describe for you what is indescribable. It's a way for you to be able to kind of get your head around something that is beyond your ability to grasp. And so that's what's going on here. He says, enter between the whirling wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with the coals of fire from between the cherubim and scatter them over the city. Very, very similar to what we have here in Revelation. Not the same event at all, but very similar. Now what followed in the Ezekiel passage is then judgment of God upon Israel, sinful Israel, the rebellious Israel. And in the same way, here is the judgment of God upon the people of earth who have spurned His grace, have rejected His call to repent, and have persecuted His people. It's time. He can tell these saints who have said, how long, how long, how long? He says, it's time. I will judge the people. Note that it goes up first of all to God in verse 4, before being hurled to the earth. And in that way, I think it's important to note because it shows that God is intimately involved in determining the how and the when of this judgment. That it's not just the angel doing this, but it's God himself directing it. And it reminds you and I that our prayers for justice, our prayers for vengeance, will not go unanswered. They will be dealt with in the appropriate time by our Lord. The Christian today has this very wrong view of vengeance. We're forbidden from taking vengeance on our enemies, right? I mean, we're flat out forbidden. But the reason we're forbidden is because who's going to do the vengeance for us? God. where it's specifically commanded to make room for his vengeance. And so as a result of the promise that God will make all things right, he says, you in turn are free now to show love and patience and kindness to your enemies. And you can pray for those who persecute you, you can give good things to those who persecute you, because your job as a Christian is not to bring vengeance. But that does not mean, beloved, that God will not bring his vengeance. This whole book is about the nature of God's wrath and His vengeance upon His enemies. And that's what you see here. And so all of creation then responds in this. We have the peals of thunder, the sounds, the flashes of lightning, an earthquake. And what you have here is just simply creation reacting, responding in anticipation to what is to come. Because the end is near, and God is about ready to bring the fullness of what he has promised to bear. And creation itself, if you will, is excited. Keep your finger there, and if you can, go back to Romans 8. Many of you know this passage well, but it's one that is misunderstood by some. It bears rereading. In Romans 8, 19, Paul is talking about the fact that though we suffer now, they don't even begin to compare to the glory that's to come. So we can bear up under the sufferings because once it's all done, the glory that is ours and the pleasure that is ours is beyond comparison. And then he points out in verse 19, for the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. Why? For the creation was subjected to futility not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it in hope. That the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption and into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pain of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but we ourselves having the first fruits of the Spirit, even ourselves grown within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. Here at Paul, you can go back to Revelation, Paul is reminding us that all of the universe through no fault of its own has been subjected to the curse of sin. All of creation is broken. And again, this is why when I talk to people and they say, well, I reject the Christian worldview, I'm an atheist, I'm this or that. My question to them is what else explains what you see going on around you every single day? What else explains why things are so broken? Why things don't work? Why little children get terrible illnesses and die a terrible death? Why people are found murdered and dumped? Why wars break out? Why there's corruption and evil? And what you see is just the reality of a broken world, a broken creation that never quite works. And what we forget though is that all the creation wants to work right. All the creation wants to do what it was designed to do. It can't. It's not allowed to. It was literally subjected to futility. And what you have I think here in the breaking forth of all the thunder and the sounds and the flashing is that finally, God is beginning the purge. God is finally doing what he's promised and all of creation is waking up, if you will, and there's this excitement in all of the created world for what is to come. From there we come finally to the trumpets. We find them listed in quick order in verses 7 to the end. And we're just going to take them in order. First of all, why trumpets? Understand that the trumpet is, especially in the Old Testament, is used in various ways. But the key one is warfare. It's a sound to call to war, a call that your enemies are at the gates, come and fight. And as a result, it also came to represent the announcement and the warning of judgment. And so the blowing of these trumpets are the statements of war. God is now doing war. God is now doing war against his enemies. One of the favorite things by some atheist debaters is they like to come around and they like to say, you know, if God is real, let him smite me dead right now, right? That kind of stuff. You may have heard that. I've heard a lot. And it's just this rejection. I just don't think he really is who he... I don't think he exists. If he was, why doesn't he act? And on and on and on. Well, you know what? When the first trumpet sounds, if that person's alive, they're going to know. They're going to know that, oh, we're out of time. And what they thought was something that allowed them to make money and mock God, in fact, is a time of sheer terror. because God has now come to make war with his enemies. So just listen. I pulled out three specific ones. There's a ton of them. You can just do a search on trumpets and you can just see how they're used in the Old Testament. But in Jeremiah 4.19, it says, My soul, my soul, I am in anguish. Oh, my heart, my heart is pounding in me. I cannot be silent. Why? Why is it that he is in such a state? Because you have heard, oh my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. He hears it and he knows, he knows what it means and it terrifies him. In Judges 6, 34, so the Spirit of the Lord, Yahweh, came upon Gideon, he was one of the judges, and he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites came and were called together to follow him. And so here he's just able to gather these people together to go and battle the enemies of God with him through the calling of the trumpet. This one, the one in Joel, though, has very specific connection back to Revelation. It says, blow a trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm on my holy mountain. Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble. Why? Why should we tremble? For the day of the Lord is coming, and surely it is near. The day of the Lord, Yahweh's day, is that day of judgment. It's what we're actually here in, in Revelation. It's coming. And so it's this warning. It's a time for us to tremble. Now, just like the seals, the trumpets break into two very distinct groupings. There's the first four, and then the final three. Sorry about that typo. The last three are the worst, which is frightening because the ones we're going to look at today are pretty bad. I mean, I want you to think about it. We're going to look at four of them, and the earth is trashed. And these are the good ones. These are the good ones. This is the pleasant ones. You don't want to deal with the last three. And again, if you listen to this wrongly, you're merely acquiring data. This should cause you to be very sober. This should cause you to have that kind of deep joy and thanksgiving in your heart that's hard to put into words as you realize this is what I've been rescued from. That I'm not subject to these things. I am not an object of God. God is not coming to war against me. He is going to go to war for me. The first four are very different in quality from the final three. What these set into motion are basically nature. It's in the sense it's like nature's pushing back as God afflicts nature and then nature in turn afflicts us. So the very first trumpet is blown in verse 7. And it says, and there came hail and fire mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass. So the idea there is, what comes to your mind when you think of that? And again, if you know anything of the Old Testament, the first one that you should think of is Egypt and the curses against Egypt, the plagues. Just listen to how similar this is to what is done to the nation of Egypt by God. And again, I would say this because you're confronted with the question, is this symbolic? Is that not really what's happening? Is this just merely a statement symbolizing the anger of God, or did this really happen? And if you say it's not, if it's merely symbolic, then what do you do with Exodus chapter 9, where it happened to Egypt? Do you believe that that was also just symbolism. So in Exodus 9, 22 to 25, it says, Now the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that hail may fall on all of the land of Egypt, on man and on beast and on every plant of the field throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched out his staff toward the sky, and the Lord sent thunder and hail and fire ran down to the earth, and the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire flashing continually in the midst of the hail, very severe, such as had not been in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. The hail struck all that was in the field throughout all the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and the hail also struck every plant of the field and shattered every tree of the field." This is no normal storm, right? So what happens here in the land of Egypt now is happening upon the earth. The heavens rain down fire and brimstone. And it's again very similar to what happened in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. I just finished reading that story a few days ago and again was struck with the severity of things. It also struck me because if you know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham was stunned. Abraham was shocked that God would judge so severely. And so he actually intercedes for these two cities, and he says, please, please, what if there's 50 righteous men in the city? Would you destroy the city if there's 50? And God says, no, I won't. And Abraham just keeps saying, okay, well, what about 45? What about 30? 30, you know, 25. And he gets all the way down to five. And God just keeps saying, I will not. I will not destroy these cities if there are that many. The problem is there weren't that many. These were cities utterly given over to their rebellion and their sin. And then the story shows God just completely, utterly demolishing these two cities with the fire and the brimstone. And again, it reminds you that God is not mocked. God does not ignore. Sin will be dealt with one way or the other. And I say this to those of you here who do not know Jesus Christ. I say this without joy, but I do say this with absolute seriousness. It is not a joke. There is only one way that your sin will be dealt with, one way or the other. It will be dealt with through Jesus Christ because of his death and burial and resurrection, or it will be dealt with directly with you. where you will face God and the wages of your sin, which is death, will be dealt. But God does not mock and God does not ignore. He remembers. He remembers everything. Now, notice the object of the judgment here, though, is not people. It's the vegetation, which in turn will affect, of course, the people. But again, we have the allusion to the plagues of Egypt. Let me read from one commentator. He says, like the bulls to follow in chapter 16, the trumpet series has reminiscences of the Old Testament plagues against Egypt. The very first trumpet parallels the seventh Egyptian plague. The second trumpet resembles the first plague. And the fourth trumpet recalls the ninth plague. And the fifth trumpet paralleling the eighth plague. So there's some definite connections back, all the way back to God and his redemptive purposes. in judging the nation of Egypt and rescuing his people. In the same way now, on a whole earth level, God is judging his enemies and he's rescuing his people. Think also of Joel 2 verse 30, I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. And Joel 2 again is speaking of that day of the Lord that comes. So we have a third destroyed. The sheer terror of this is only understood if you've seen a really bad fire. I don't know if you've ever been through one of those. Kim, I don't know if you remember this one time. It was due to my stupidity. Most things are due to my stupidity, but we lived in Southern California. When we first moved there, in fact, we were house-sitting. And huge fires came up and we were just sitting on the porch and you could just see the smoke. It was darkening. I mean, we had the blood red sun and the day was dark and the smoke was everywhere and it was just burning all of the mountains all around us and it was really a severe one. That was our very first introduction to what a fire could look like. We had never seen something like that in our life. But later we moved out to a place called Saugus, and we had a couple of little travel trailers we lived in for free, and don't laugh, but I was a handyman for the ranch. And we were out there, and another fire came up, and I thought it'd be fun for us to go and look at it. So I got the family, we got in my old 1969 Bonneville station wagon, and we start driving out toward it. And I made a couple of turns, and out there, it's pretty desolate, a lot more desolate than people realize. And at some point, I realized I'd made the wrong turn. And the fire, it was just a wall of fire. And the wind was rushing as the fire is literally sucking all of the air to feed it. And you realize, oh. My you know and and Kim's like, I think we should get out where I'm like, where do we go? And we got obviously we survived we all died But but you know at that point you're kind of struck with the intensity of it and then if you remember the Malibu fire Maybe you do maybe you don't I was able to talk to some of the firefighters that were involved in that fire. And in Southern California, there's eucalyptus trees all over the place, and eucalyptus trees have oil in them. And so they're essentially bombs. And the firefighters were describing that as the wall of flame for coming, that they had to flee because he said, we were standing near some eucalyptus trees. The flames were a hundred yards minimum away, a hundred yards away. And he says, and all of a sudden the trees started to boil and the oil was literally being brought to a boil, he said, we had to flee because then all of a sudden these trees just exploded in flames. The flames had not even gotten there, but the heat was just so intense. And so then, of course, that sets more fires and the loss of life and property that was so severe. That's going to be a walk in the park, won't it? A third, a third beloved. A third is destroyed. The second one is the trumpet. The second trumpet now affects the sea. In verses 8 and 9. Now some see it when it sounded something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood, etc. Now some see that this thing that was like a mountain was actually a kingdom. Others see it as like a great volcano. Others I tend to be, this one is, it's something like a massive meteor or something. I think that's simplest to understand. It takes into account the idea that it was like this mountain that came. We don't know. We really don't. I mean, he's already said he doesn't know what it was. It was like a mountain. But the result is devastating. Once again, here, the third of the sea became blood. Again, you have that allusion to Egypt. And then people say, is it literal blood? And that's hard. Honestly, it's hard to decide. I can go either way with that. When we look at Exodus, you saw that God had no problem doing that. He had no problem dealing with the waters of the Nile and all. It didn't affect every bit of water because they were able to dig in the ground and bring up water from the ground that they were able to drink. But he turned all of that water into blood, so that's exactly what it's saying. The other option that I tend to lean toward, though, is that it's just emphasizing the massive death that occurred because of this event, that the sea is just demolished, and the life of the sea is demolished. I can go either way, though. A third of the water is to blood, a third of the creatures are killed, and a third of the ships are destroyed. So think again about the disruption of human life and human existence, how we are in a global economy with the idea of globalization is just part of what we are and how many things are just gone. How many things that we depend upon and look for and need and want and they're just gone. The massive ocean. Again, if you've never been able to fly overseas, you don't really appreciate how much water is there until you're on a jet and you're flying for seven hours and most of it's over water. And you're just like, my goodness, this is big. And a third of it is just destroyed. So again, God's judgment. The third trumpet in verses 10 and 11. Now, it's focusing on the freshwater. And again, we have this question, what is this thing that was a great star, fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and fell on a third of the rivers and the springs of waters? And it was called Wormwood. And again, the question is, what is this? Some will see this because it came from heaven, that they take that in the sense it was like some great leader or an angel. Some will have said it's Satan. Others see it again like a meteor-like object. I think that the last two make the most sense or you will be forced to understand symbolically what the freshwater is and everything else. If you were to say, well, which one is it? I don't know because it doesn't tell you. But stars at times are known as angels. and the angels are called stars at times. And so it could be that. It could be a specific angel sent to afflict the fresh waters. It would also explain why so much broad waters that are fresh are affected. We don't know. The result though is that many people are dying because of the bad water. And so I want you to again though is get in all of this is the sheer misery. the sheer misery of humanity as one after another. We don't know exactly how fast each one of these happen, but the tribulation is only a seven-year time period, so they're happening rather quick. And how unrelenting it is that you're just watching the earth being destroyed, and as it is, there's no safe place to turn. When you have a third of the earth get burned up, What are you gonna do with that? When you watch a third of the ocean and you just demolish, now you have the fresh water being demolished and people are dying for thirst. Just a high level of misery. And then in verse 12, the fourth angel sounded and a third of the sun, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars were smitten. Now the heavenly bodies are affected and everything becomes darkened measurably. And what you see in all of this is everything you take for granted is being taken from you. Another thing that Kim and I were, I think, blessed in experiencing is earthquakes. And we've been through many earthquakes. The bad one, we went through only one bad one, but we had a lot of earthquakes in LA. And I remember sometimes I'd be in my office studying, and all of a sudden I would feel like I was on, have you ever stood on like one of those little floating pier things out in the water? I guess they're like a floating island made of wood or something. And then a boat goes by and the wake comes underneath it and you kind of just feel yourself go up and down the loading. Well, that's what it felt like. You know, I'm typing on my computer and all of a sudden I just kind of felt a little off. I'm like, what was that? And then I look over and I see the lampshades are wiggling. I walk out, I'm like, did we just have an earthquake? And she's like, I think so. And we go look at our neighbor's pool. That was our indicator. And there's little waves going through the pool. You're like, yeah. It's a weird, disconcerting feeling when something that's supposed to not move, moves. And moves like liquid. In fact, We had friends whose houses were completely destroyed during the bad earthquake in Northridge because the ground that they had their house built on turned to liquid sand. It just liquefied and everything just kind of fell in on itself. Everything that you depend on, everything that you think is your right, we talk about this, the common grace of God, all of this is being assaulted in these trumpets. The water, the oceans, the trees, everything that you and I, the sun, the moon, how much we are to enjoy, all of that is taken from us. We have had just incredibly nice weather in the last few days. And yet, how often have we given thanks to God for the good gifts that He has given to us? How often have we thought about the fact that we are able to have good water and we are able to have the security of a world that functions. But here now in the time of God's wrath, what you see is Him beginning to break all of that down. And for me, I always find myself going over and over again to Romans 1. If you would turn there with me, I know you know this passage well, but go there and just see what it says. I've made this point many, many times in this church, and that is that the great sin of mankind is not adultery or theft or lying. The great sin of mankind is that we will not honor God. God. Everything else is a byproduct. In verse 18 he says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness, unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So humanity pushing down truth, resisting it. Why? Because, verse 19, that which is known about God is evident where? within them. Why? For God has made it evident to them. So this is something where we're suppressing, apart from God's grace, we suppress what God has put within every one of us. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through that which has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks." That's the great sin. But they became futile in their speculations. Their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and forfeited animals and crawling creatures. And therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity." What you have in Romans 1 is this. Mankind works very, very hard at ignoring God. In Romans 1, it tells you and I that when you talk to your friends, your family, your neighbors, and you tell them about Jesus Christ and they laugh at you or they roll their eyes or they ignore you or they just give a big sigh or they get angry with you, whatever it might be, that it's not you. It's the fact that their hearts are dead in sin And they actively push against that truth. And what you have in Revelation chapter 8 and 9 is you up watch God and he just begins to take all of their idols, all of the things that they love, all of the things that they have exchanged his glory for. They turn their back on God and they're worshiping the stars and the moon and the water and the comforts and the luxuries of this world. All of them that they don't even understand are his gifts to them. and he just begins to take it from them. And so the very creation that is their idol, the very creation that they live for and worship, becomes a living nightmare for them. And so in Galatians, he says in chapter 6, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. Beloved, do you believe that? We now look at the last verse, and it's a very sad verse. And I looked, and I heard an eagle. If you have the King James, it says angel. It's really based upon a poor grouping of text, but some like it better. But I heard an eagle flying in the mid-heaven, saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth. Why? because the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels are about to sound. In other words, he says you haven't seen anything. Think about the devastation that's going on right now. Think about what's happening. Think about how many people have been killed. Think about how much just horror. Think about the ones who haven't been killed and now they're just trying to survive. Picture all of this. Let your heart break. It's a great calamity. We don't have time, but you should go and look at Isaiah 5. Take the time today. Look at Isaiah 5, where that term woe is used over and over again, and how it is a bad word. When you use it in a singular manner, it's bad. Where God's judgment is upon the people. But then sometimes it's used doubly. Whoa, whoa. And all that does is it uses it as an emphasis to really let you know that you're in trouble. Here it's used three times. You're in trouble. This is bad. This is why heaven became silent for half an hour as they waited for all of this to begin to unfold. And the wrath of God and his vengeance upon his enemies, where God becomes the God of war. And he rises up to do battle. Also, these three woes are probably in relationship to the three trumpets that are yet to be seen. And we'll look at those next week. And also in chapter 11 will be the last one. Now what's sad and even shocking though is this. You would think that people would be driven to repentance, but they're not. As we continue to read through this book, you're going to see that as God presses down upon the people, that they would repent. Mom and Dad, you guys know what this is like, right? There's been time maybe with a child that's been in disobedience and they can be young or old, it doesn't really matter. It's amazing, right, how sometimes they can just stiffen their neck and they're like, I don't care. And your heart is just like, oh, will you just listen? Will you just listen and you think, surely, surely, he or she is going to respond as you're bringing discipline and punishment upon them. And you see and you start to realize, man, they are stubborn. Well, this is the reality of humanity. The harsh reality is that repentance in this time of tribulation will be the rare exception, not the norm. You would think that as all of creation is falling apart and unraveling before you, that the first thing you would do is say, I need to get right with God. And yet they don't. And for me, it just reminds me again of the heart of mankind, how hard it is without the saving grace of God. So in the final minute or so of our time, let's turn to Ephesians chapter 2 together. And I just want us as a church, us as individuals, to be reminded what we have experienced. In chapter 2, first of all, I want you to consider the description in verses 1 through 3, because this was you. If you are in Christ Jesus today, this once was you. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and of the mind." Now remember, in light of what we've been learning, and we're by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. Can you not, even right now, utter a simple word of prayer to God in light of what you were. Can you not, in just a few seconds, recoil a little bit in horror of what you were? That this was your lot? That you were dead? You were an object of His wrath? And then consider the glory of the words, But God, not you, not you on your will, not you in your efforts, not you in your goodness, not you in your sorrow, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us allied together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in order that in the ages to come, what is not yet now, he might show the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Can you not right now just utter a few words of thanksgiving? This was you, dead in your sins, and then God, God intervened. And what you have in Revelation is God not intervening. God not stepping in and taking your heart and changing it. It's just God standing against you. Beloved, all of us would be that if it were not the grace of God. So we're reminded in verses 8 and 9, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works that no one should boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Consider what the grace of God looks like by being made alive in Christ.