Fathers, we have the privilege now of gathering together around your word and around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ because of who he is and what he has accomplished on our behalf. Father, we ask that you would speak to us through your word, that we wouldn't leave the way we came in, but that you would be at work in us both to will and to do of your good pleasure. And Father, that we would be strengthened into things of The Lord Jesus Christ, we ask in Jesus name. Amen. We've been looking at a greater understanding of who Jesus Christ is, and we've been in a lot of ins and outs, but specifically looking at how the Lord Jesus Christ delivers us from the wrath to come. We talked about that there is the everyday wrath of God poured out on those who are simply doing things contrary to the will of God, to the word of God. There's a wrath that goes with sin that automatically takes place. Okay. You know, I use the example, if you're a liar, then automatically people no longer believe you. And don't think much of you. God doesn't have to do anything to make that happen. The way you behave, the way you either obey or disobey God's word is seen by those around you. And they have a response to that. There's also many, many other things. You think of all the things that are that we're trying to cover up in our own society of venereal disease, AIDS, all kinds of things attend to sinful behavior that fall on people. And God doesn't have to do anything. It just are things that transpire. But there is also a coming wrath on this earth. that all of scripture has looked forward to. And we've had millenniums of that wrath not being poured out. The day of the Lord kept in store for the future. And I'm sure there would be many people who would say, well, why? We don't we're not against God. I was thinking about how Well, let's just look at it. Romans 1 tells us, and we can see it experientially, that as we know that God is the creator, we don't give thanks, we don't honor him as God. And I'm not talking about believers whom God has gotten the attention of and worked in them what is pleasing in his sight. But the unbelieving world gives no acknowledgment to God. And they simply live their lives in a way that they think isn't hostile to God. They just go their own way, do their own things, and they don't see that as being hostile toward God. But when you think of this, suppose, you know, the only illustration I can think of is suppose someone came to visit you and you walk in the living room and they're seated in the living room there and the rest of your family's there. And you never look at them and you never say, you totally ignore them. Is that not rude? Is that not a statement as to where you stand with this person? I mean, if you were going to respond to them, that's one thing. But if you just ignore them and don't, if they say something, you don't respond, that's hostility. And think about how the world really operates that way. Well, I don't know if there's a God or not, and I just do what I want to do. But I'm not against God, if there is one. And you think about how there hasn't been a searching out and a carefulness that is displayed in many other areas of their lives as to searching things out. You know, whatever you're interested in, you search out and you pursue it and you think about it. But man thinks he can just let God go and it'll all be all right. Well, you know, so he's the creator and we've denied that. Then he sent his son to this earth and his son was crucified by those he came to. No one had ever even come close to living the life that he lived, this perfect, magnificent life as God in the flesh, perfect representation of God the Father. And you think about it, he went around doing what? As Zach says, doing good and healing people and they crucified him. He taught good things. He never lied. He never got rich off of what he was doing. He never did any of the things that we associate with the kind of power that he could have wielded. And they crucified him. And God's word and the standards of his word are being not only denied, but hated. And down through history, many times we've tried to remove those things and take them away. And so there's a day coming when God will deal with wrath on this earth. It's very much, or in many ways, it has its parallels in how God dealt, it's going to be far worse, but how God dealt with the Egyptians when he brought the Jews out of Egypt, some of the plagues and so forth. So let's start here in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 10. And what I'm trying to look at this morning is how does Jesus Christ deliver us, those who are believers in Jesus Christ, how does Jesus Christ deliver us from this coming wrath? It's a huge question. It's talking about the response of the people at Thessalonica to the things of the Gospel and the things of the Word of God. And Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 9, For they themselves report about us, Paul and those who are with him, what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols, second, to serve a living and true God, thirdly, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, that is Jesus, and then these words, who delivers us from the wrath to come. So there's this coming wrath. It's called the day of the Lord. And it's going to come on this earth. But this says to the church, to the bride of Christ to be, that Jesus will deliver us from the wrath to come. Now, some people would say, well, that wrath to come is hell. But that doesn't bear out as far as you do a study of the word wrath in Scripture and see how it's used and it doesn't fit. This is a wrath that's coming on the earth and somehow God is going to deliver the church, His people, from this coming wrath. That's the declaration of Scripture. That's what Jesus is going to do. All right. Now let's go to Revelation 11, verses 15 through 18. And right here in this kind of, I guess it's about midpoint of the book of Revelation, we have this this little window into something that's going on in heaven, and it says this. Verse 15, And the seventh angel sounded, and there arose loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, Messiah, anointed one, Jesus in other words, and he will reign forever and ever. In the context, reign over this world. There's a response in heaven, and it's this. And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who art And who was? Because thou has taken thy great power and has begun to reign. You know, one of the things I love that David says in the Psalms. You know, we say so many things that are so frustrating and make us so angry as far as the things that are going on in our day. And David had this In his Psalms, he had this phrase, as he was in prayer, he would say, bow the heavens and come down to the Lord. In other words, interrupt this whole thing, split the heavens apart, and come down and deal with this. A lot of times, you know, I watch the news, I say, I cannot wait until Jesus Christ comes back and sets up his kingdom on earth and we return with him and there is a perfect righteousness and a perfect justice on earth, where what's wrong is dealt with and what's right is, there's freedom like never before, because of these things that Jesus Christ will bring to bear. But we live in a time of great evil, and at this point, even though God is sovereign over all things, Satan is the ruler of this world, when Adam sinned, he defaulted, so to speak, the rulership of this world to Satan. Okay, so here's this, to me it's a tremendous quick review of history as to what happened on earth. And it says this, verse 18. And the nations were enraged, and they were enraged not at each other, even though that's true, but they're enraged at God. This takes us back to the second Psalm and that tremendous hostility toward God. And the nations were enraged. Next thing, what we're talking about, and thy wrath came. And then following that, and the time came for the dead to be judged. Great White Throne judgment. Can you put these in their places? The nations were enraged. That fits right now. It's going to get worse. Next thing, we have that time of Daniel's 70th week that God promised back in the 9th chapter of Daniel when God is going to deal with wrath, deal in wrath on this earth. And thy wrath came. That's the next event. Then, and the time for the dead to be judged, great white throne judgment, And the time to give their reward to thy bondservants, the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear thy name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth by their wickedness and their sinfulness before God. It bothers me when people pull it out and say, well, that's because you're not loving the environment and so forth. That's not what this verse is about. And yet, it's one they pull out. They don't look at the rest of it, that they're not following Jesus Christ. They don't look at any of the rest. You're destroying the earth because you're not doing what we say you should do. You know, nonsense. You have to watch that all the time when people pick and choose scriptures and take it out of the context of the whole Bible and what the whole Word of God says on a given Okay, so now let's look at the wrath, and we could look in many places, but to me the most powerful chapter in the word of God, and maybe that's an overstatement, Certainly one of the most powerful chapters that deals with this coming wrath and what actually is going to occur on the earth. This is just a part of it. It's not the whole thing. And there's a whole segment of God's wrath poured out where, you know, John was told what you see, write the things that you see, write them down. And there's a whole segment of God's wrath that God said don't write down. So we don't even know what that is. You understand, you look at the whole book of Revelation. And there are seven things in there that he was going to write down. And God said, don't write that down. So these are some of the things we know. This is this is just some of them. These are the bowls of wrath. So here we start in Revelation 16, and I heard a loud voice from the temple. That's the temple in heaven saying to the seven angels, go. and pour out the seven bowls of the wrath of God into the earth. These are all the results of Jesus Christ breaking that seven-sealed scroll that was handed him back in the beginning parts of Revelation. And the first angel went and poured out his bowl into the earth, and it became a loathsome and malignant sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image. Now this is, you know, like I said, there's a wrath that is the result of just choosing to sin. Then there's a wrath where God says, I will judge that. And I will personally intervene and deal in wrath with that. That's what we're dealing with here. So, poured out his bowl into the earth, became a loathsome, hateful, horrible, and malignant sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast." What's that mark of the beast about? That they have aligned themselves with this one we looked at in the last couple of weeks, the Antichrist, and the whole earth is worshiping him instead of God. And he is basically, if you want to sum it up, he is the personification of Satan himself. And the world would rather have Satan as its God and his man than they would a righteous God. All those that have the mark of the beast, this is directed at them. Malignancy soar upon the men who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image. That's one thing. So, picture people on the earth covered with what? Sores from this. And the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea. And it became blood like that of a dead man. And every living thing in the sea died. Can you see that? I don't know, I can never get that out of my mind when people are talking, we're going to save this, we're going to save that. I think there's a day coming when God says he's going to kill everything in the seas. Every living thing in the sea died. Now, we don't have any indication of how that's, what does that do to the weather? What does that, you know, the ramifications of these things are just huge. Alright, the next thing, number three. And the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And by the way, you go back, you should go back, if you don't recall these to your mind, go back and read in the opening chapters of the book of Exodus, some of these plagues are exactly the same as what God did through Moses to Egypt. Only now we take the little micro look at Egypt and we blow it up onto the whole earth. And it's, of course, much, much bigger. Now, those angels, the righteous angels, I'd love to get the viewpoint of heaven, okay? And I heard the angels of the waters saying, which I think is pretty interesting, righteous art thou who art and who wast, O holy one, because thou didst judge these things. Those people that are under these judgments, for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink. They deserve it. Do you ever do this? Do you ever try to fit yourself? I don't know if we can even begin to do this, but if you ever try to fit yourself into the place of one of God's angels, who adores God, all day, every day, is totally, without a sin nature, without any of that, on the side of God, in everything that God does, and has to sit and watch all of history, these upstarts on this earth, cursing their God, ignoring their God, disobeying their God. And I, you know, I have to think that their constant desire is, Lord, bow to heavens and come down. And fix it. Fix this rebellion. How can this go on? You ever see a kid that's out of control? You just want to say to the parents, would you grab that kid by the stacking swivel and straighten this out? What do you think it's like for these angels who adore God and want to see this mess of rebellion and sin and hostility toward God put behind them and get into the new heavens and the new earth where righteousness dwells. I think they just have this craving, just like believers do. I want to see this. I want it to come to pass, as John said. Even so, Lord, come quickly. Come, Lord. Let's just be done with this. All right. And I heard the altar saying, now the altar has already been identified in the book of Revelation as this place where the souls and the spirits of all those who have been put to death by the Antichrist are residing, and they're constantly sending their prayers to God. And they're saying, Lord, when are you going to avenge our blood? When are you going to Again, they're in agreement with the angels and they're saying, we're going to fix this. And I heard the author saying, yes, oh, Lord God, the almighty, true and righteous. You get that? True and righteous are the judgments. Do you have that thought in you? This is overkill. You know what I mean? Why does God have to be that harsh? It's interesting, the Palestinians and Hamas, they can do anything they want to Israel. But you let Israel respond and all of a sudden, that's basically, that's overkill. That was too much. And I think about how that's in the heart of man. Anything God does in judgment, that's just over the top. And the reason men think that is they don't see their own sinfulness in light of a holy God and His standards. At any rate, I heard the author saying, yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and right, true, they're the right thing and righteous, they're perfectly in accordance with what should be done. True and righteous are their judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it, to the sun, to scorch men with fire. I have to say this. We'll read verse 9. And men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God. They know it's God. Interesting. Remember last time, a couple of times, we've been looking at that in the final stage of this rebellion, men know that it's Jesus Christ and that it's God. There's no question anymore. There's no question about, well, is it the Hindus and is it that or that? There's no question about that. This is Jesus Christ and God who are the true, who's the true God. And they know that that's who they're against. And instead of, now they no longer deny that it's Him, now they just say, I know it's Him and I hate Him. I know it's Him and I want to be rid of Him. And my opinion is that that's what Satan sells the world on through the Antichrist, is we actually can pull this planet away from the control of God and the control of Jesus Christ and we can make it happen. And men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who has the power over these plagues. And they did not repent, didn't have a change of attitude, so as to give him glory. You know, I have to, this is just my own thoughts, but you know, I've wondered when all this global warming stuff came up, I wondered, you know, Scripture teaches us that Satan deceives the whole world. We've got the whole world on this train, okay, of this global warming. And I had to think in my mind, I wonder if Satan is trying to prepare the world for when the real global warming is, when God is going to deal in wrath, and wouldn't he like to say, well, it's because you didn't worship the earth enough and love the earth enough, and instead of, this is God, okay, because he's trying to deceive the whole world. Just my thought on it. I don't know whether that's true or not. Okay, verse 10. And the fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast, that's the Antichrist, and his kingdom became darkened. That happened in the book of Exodus. And they gnawed their tongues because of pain. So I think that's the connection of they're sitting in the dark with nothing to do. It's an oppressive darkness. Now, how God does that and how he did it in the land of Egypt, I don't know. But you picture this. You remember the first plague was what? All those sores. So now you're just sitting somewhere in the dark. You can't do anything. You can't see anything. And it says, and men nod their tongues because of pain. And you say, well, why does God do this? Because they're not saying, God, you're right. We're wrong. I think about how, I don't know what you did, but, you know, as you're raising your kids, you know, all of us had one or two or so that were really a little bit more resilient or tougher. You know, you might have had a kid that pretty much, you said, don't do that anymore, and they said, oh, okay. And then you got the ones that say, don't do what? And they do it. Well, what do you do when your discipline doesn't get through? So this is a question that every parent has. What do you do when you're not getting anywhere? You're still where you were for the last three months. Don't you up the ante? Don't you say, well, okay, I don't want to take it to this next level, but I guess I have to. I really hate to do this because I love you, but I'm going to have to go. And I've got other rebels who might as well know that. And I think of the Lord saying, listen, repent if they don't. They did not repent of their deeds. And the sixth angel, if there's anything that shows the hostility of man's heart, isn't this it? That they would say, we'll take the pain, we'll take the heat, we'll take all these things, but we will not submit to God. We will not do it. And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the Euphrates. Some of our own people here have been over there and seen that Euphrates River. Iraq, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the east." You see, this is for that great battle of Armageddon, so these armies can get there. And then he says this, and I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, that's Satan, and out of the mouth of the beast, the Antichrist, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, the false prophet for the Antichrist. Three unclean spirits like frogs. Those are demons. For they are spirits of demons performing signs. What are signs? Miracles. Which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty. One of the things that's fascinated me is how time and time again in Scripture You have Satan deceiving the world and bringing about what he thinks is his plan. And as that plan is executed, God executes his plan through it. You know what I mean by that? Here, all the armies of the earth are gathered over to Israel. What does God say throughout his word? And I will gather all the armies of the earth. Who's doing his legwork? Satan. And it says he's doing false wonder, you know, the signs, and he's doing it to get all these armies there. But when they all get there, God says, I want them here. Because that's where Jesus Christ is going to return to in judgment and so forth and where those battles are going to take place. And I think, you know, the most, to me, the most wonderful one is that is Satan certainly Educating, moving, deceiving to get the religious leaders of the day of the Lord Jesus Christ to condemn him and to get the Romans to follow along with it so that Jesus Christ goes to a cross. Think of it. I mean, Satan has to be thrilled. He's got the Son of God on a cross, dying on a cross. And what does it say in the Word of God? That they were actually carrying out what God's design was, and out of the cross, I think of those words back in Joseph's words, you meant it for evil, God meant it for good. So the most evil act of all history is men putting Jesus Christ on the cross. And yet the greatest good that's ever been done came out of the cross, in our salvation and all the things that God accomplished through the cross. You meant it for evil, God meant it for good. Lots of us have seen that God's grace in our own lives, that there were things that we did and God turned those things around for good. Okay, you can finish up chapter 16 there on your own. Go next to John chapter 14. This is the one you always hear at funerals. Maybe not always, but... John 14, starting in verse 1. You know, some people could say, what makes you think he's coming back? To me, that's a valid question. You know, why is one of the most fundamental tenets of the faith of a believer in Jesus Christ is the return of Jesus Christ? Where does that come from? I always like to get back down to what if somebody asked me that? Yeah, I know that that's what I'm supposed to believe and I do believe it, but why do I believe it? Where is that in the word of God? I've had things that I really thought I knew from the Word of God, and I asked myself that question. Okay, Wittles, prove it. So then he said, well, I read it in that book, but not in the Bible. Then all of a sudden he starts, oh yeah, it's there. Okay, it's there, it's there. All right, John 14. The Word says in the upper room to his disciples, let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house, in heaven, In my father's house are many dwelling places, if it were not so, I would have told you. For I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also." By the way, this is the exact parallel to the Jewish bridegroom and the Jewish bride. The bridegroom went away, prepared a house, a place for his wife to be, then came from that house over to where she was, got her, and took her to that house that he prepared for her. The church we know is the Bride of Christ. This is a picture when Jesus Christ comes back. He comes back to get the church, to take her to the place that he is now what? Preparing. Then let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and verse 51. We'll start there. This is a verse concerning the return of the Lord and the rapture of the church or the taking up of the church. The Lord says this, Behold, I tell you a mystery. Paul was the one that was the holder of the mystery and the revealer of all the aspects of the mystery in such a wonderful way. But anyway, verse 51, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. Sleep in Scripture is often used to refer to physical death. Not everybody who is a believer in Jesus Christ is going to die. How so? But, we shall all, the whole body of Christ, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ from the day of Pentecost until this time when Jesus Christ returns, But we shall all be changed. He's talking in the context of resurrection. We're all going to have a resurrection body. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable. They went into the ground, what? The bodies. Perishable. We all understand that. It's only a few days. into the ground, because that is a perishable body. But when Christ brings the body out of the grave in the resurrection, it is not a perishable body anymore. It is a body made for eternal dwelling in the presence of God. And it's, by the way, a body just like the body of the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, then, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4, Another great passage that we pastors flock to when we do funerals. It's a little bit difficult because there's so much information here, but Paul is really talking about this. He's addressing the question of what about our brothers and sisters in Christ who have already died? How do they fit into this resurrection and how do we fit? How do we put it all together? And so he says this, But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, those who have died, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. That's the sad thing, that so many people we brush shoulders with and talk with and know day in and day out are those who have no hope. They have no hope whatsoever. They're on the way to a eternity separate from Jesus Christ and separate from those who have been born again through faith in Christ. And so he says, I don't want you to be grieving about your brothers in Christ who have died the way the world grieves when they lose. You know, sometimes I see someone, I have to do a funeral for an unsaved person, and I see them weeping over that loss, and I just think, you should be. Because you'll never, ever, ever be reunited with that person again. Hell is not a place to reunite. It's called the outer darkness. There's no picture there whatsoever of a reuniting in hell. It's just not going to happen. When I hear somebody say, I heard this at a funeral, I can't wait to get there so we can party. Oh, you fool. There's no partying in hell. There's no enjoyment, there's no friendship. Listen, anything that you count good, hell is devoid of it. It was a place prepared for Satan and his angels. So we read this. For if we believe, and that's the if that says in the Greek, yes, we do believe that. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. Those who have been part of Christ, in other words, through faith in Christ, are going to come back with Jesus when He returns to this earth. We've just read in John, if I go and prepare a place, I will come again and receive you to myself. Well, this tells us that when He comes back, He's bringing a whole bunch of people with Him. who have already put their faith in Jesus Christ and were saved, and now their souls and their spirits come back with Him, and they get their new bodies at the time we get our new bodies, only they get theirs as far as I can tell a split second ahead of us. I never could figure that out, but that's what it says. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord." Paul got this directly from Jesus Christ. That we who are alive and remain. You understand? If this happened today, there would be those who are alive and remain. And it would be us. There's going to be a generation of people We're going to be here when Jesus Christ comes back. Now maybe I'm going to get old and die and I won't be here. But you can't miss this. Do you understand? You're going to be, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you can't miss this event. Because you're either coming back with Him or you're waiting for Him to come on this earth. I love that. That's the great comfort here. You're on one end or the other. You know? Okay. For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord shall not precede or go ahead of those who have fallen asleep." Those who have already died. "...go ahead of them in receiving this resurrection body. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel." That's a most powerful angel. And with the trumpet of God, and it says this, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. The first thing when Jesus Christ comes back is all the dead in Christ, those in China, those in Russia, those in Japan, those in the United States, those in Canada, all are going to come out of the graves, okay, with their new glorified bodies. Okay? They shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain, that generation, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. And who else? Notice it says, thus we shall always be with the Lord. Who's the we? The we is the entire body of Christ. All those who have been saved from the day of Pentecost all the way through to the time of the rapture. All of those reunited. I mean, I love to think that this is the greatest reunion ever. You know how we have reunions? This is reunion in new body. And if your mom and dad were saved, they'll be there. If you lost a brother who was saved, he'll be there. You see what I'm saying? All those people that you've known, and the older you get, the bigger the list gets. You know, I was talking about my aunt, Auntie B, back in Connecticut. She's 102 years old. Her list is so huge. All she wants to do is be with those who have gone. All her friends and her close relatives and so forth, they're all gone to be with the Lord. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord. I go to prepare a place for you, Jesus Christ said, and if I go and prepare a place, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also." And then these great words, verse 18, Therefore comfort one another with these words. What does this say? If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, and your loved one is a believer in Jesus Christ, then all you can have is a temporary separation from them. If you were really young when you lost them, you might get a 40, 50, 60 year separation. But you can't have an eternal separation. You're going to be with them, and as I look at you, you're going to be with them shortly. When you look at the scheme of things, I mean, it's just not that long. Okay. Versus the person who has not been born again through faith in Christ will never be reunited with that person because of the judgment. You know, I just think of scripture talks about the pain of hell. Have you ever had really good fellowship in pain? I mean, real pain. You know what I'm talking about? The kind of pain that where you can just, you can't think. And people are there trying to comfort you, and that's nice, and you know, so forth, but it doesn't stop the pain. And it doesn't change your ability to focus on them and really enjoy the fellowship that you would have if that pain were not there. You put all that together, the outer darkness, and the worm never dies, all these horrible descriptions of probably way, way under what it is. There's just not going to be any fellowship there. So when a believer loses an unbeliever, that's a permanent separation. And that's a terribly sad thing. Father, I would thank you for the fact that Jesus Christ, in so coming back and taking the church away to be with himself, removes the church from that coming wrath. that is impending and bearing down on the human race. Father, we thank you for He who delivers us from the wrath to come. In Jesus' name, Amen.