The Seal Judgements

Yeah, sure.

Good evening to you all. Would you stand with me? I want to welcome you all this evening to Calvary Chapel. We also welcome those of you who are joining us on the internet, Facebook, all that technology stuff.

Join me in prayer. Father, we thank you for this opportunity this evening to come and worship in song and to study your word and to fellowship, Lord, with you and one another. Father, we thank you for coming to this earth, Lord, for living among us, healing, meeting the needs of the people. Good news, you came to die on the cross for us and you rose from the dead.

We give you praise, Lord, this evening. We know you're coming back, Lord, to reign and rule.

And so by faith, we just come to you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. Draw us closer to you, Lord. We would just sense your presence. You're all presence. You're all know. May we sense that tonight.

Not a pretty scene.

Go off. We sought to leave your love behind, Lord. There's no place to go.

We take this time to be able to gather the freedom to still do so.

Hunger for your word and a desire for the things of you, Lord. We thank you for your word that is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, Father. May we just treasure it and hide it in our hearts so that we won't sin against you, Lord. And so, Lord, that when needed, the Holy Spirit brings it to us, Lord. Those times that your word just... It's right there when we're experiencing temptation.

And we can share your word just like Jesus did there in Matthew 4. When Satan was... He was going through that. He would say, it is written.

Father, as Pastor Ryan comes up to teach, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Lord bless y'all. If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of Revelation, chapter 6. Revelation, chapter 6. Tonight. We'll begin looking at the seal judgments. Things are about to get real in the world of Revelation. But let's remind ourselves how we got here. John had received this vision from the Lord and he was told by the Lord to write down the things that he had seen.

That was his initial vision of Jesus. The things which are, which was the church age, which is what was referenced in chapters 2 and 3. And the things which will take place after these things. Speaking of after the church age. And so, at the beginning of chapter 4, he was called up to heaven. And as he was called up to heaven, the first thing that we really take note of is this throne.

He stands before the throne and the throne is described and all of the things around the throne. And one of the major things we pointed out is that worship seemed to be the thing that encapsulated what was going on there in this scene around the throne in heaven. And then as we moved into chapter 5, something different was introduced. There was a scroll that had been...

In the right hand of the one that was seated on the throne. And this scroll was sealed with seven seals. And it was written both on the front side and the back side. And a strong angel went around saying, Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? And of course, no one was found in heaven or on earth or under the earth. No one was found worthy.

And of course, John is just weeping. Because he wants to know what's written in this book. He wants to know what's coming. And then finally the elder comes to him and says, Stop weeping. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah is worthy. He's overcome death and he's worthy to be the one who will loose the seals and unwrap the scroll. And of course, spontaneous praise breaks out again as they praise the Lord for being the God of redemption.

For being that God of salvation. And then it ends with us. Ready for the lamb to take the scroll and to open its seals. Now, these seal judgments from what I'm understanding are really a summarizing of the seven years of tribulation. The explanation will go deeper as it moves into both the trumpet and the bowl judgments. These will give us the overarching theme of the judgment that will come upon the earth.

And then even deeper will we understand it as the seventh seal. The first seal is open, which will make way for the for the trumpets. And so these are things I believe yet to be seen. However, we do see shadows of some of these things taking place in our world today. We see the beginnings of some of these things taking place in our world today. But the things that we see happening today, as I've referenced for the past couple of times that we've been together,

are nothing compared to what's going to be coming. And so we pick up in chapter six, verse one with the first seal. And this is what it says. Then I saw when the lamb broke one of the seals and I heard one of the four living creatures saying as with a voice of thunder, come. And I looked and behold, a white horse and he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him.

And he went out conquering and to conquer. It begins once again with the lamb and the lamb begins to open up each of these seven seals. He opens the first seal. And the first thing that happens is that we see one of these living creatures. Remember, there were four living creatures that were surrounding the throne. Each had a little bit of a different face.

One of the four living creatures looked at him and said, come and see what's going to take place. Come and see what's happening as this first seal is opened. And so you can picture the anticipation in this in this scene as the seal is open. And as the seal opens, something very fascinating happens. It says when. John says, I looked and behold, a white horse.

Now, these first four seals are what are oftentimes referred to as the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Movies have had this title. I think that there was even some football players in the 70s that had this title. This title has been used for all kinds of things, most of which absolutely misunderstand everything that's going on right here. So we'll spend a little bit of time talking about these four horsemen.

And so this first horseman that's seen is on a white horse. So you picture a white horse coming riding. Now, typically, because we all grew up watching Westerns, right? We know that whoever rides the white horse, that's the good guy. And he's probably wearing a white cowboy hat in all of the Westerns that we used to watch when we were kids, way back when the ones that I would watch the reruns of.

That's not going to be the way that it is here. Because this rider on this white horse. This horse is given a description of having two things. Number one, he has a bow, not a bow like a rainbow, but a bow like to shoot. He has a bow and he has a crown that has been given to given to him. And he went out conquering and to conquer. Now, initially, when you read about the white horse and many commentators point this out,

there are some who believe that this is Jesus coming back. The problem is this seems to be ushering in all of the judgment to come. Not culminating all of the judgment to come. And we know based on what we read in Matthew chapter 24, that Jesus will return after this great and terrible day of the Lord, right? So we can't believe that this is Jesus, although we do notice some things.

I don't think it's wrong for us to look and see white and think, oh, that must mean innocence and purity. After all, throughout scripture, white is often referred to as innocence and purity. Perhaps the one who is the rider on this horse is. Actually an imposter. He's not actually Jesus, but someone who would want to be thought of as Jesus. After all, he has been given a crown who wears crowns, a king,

and he's been given a weapon of war and he goes out to conquer. Well, we know that the Lord is a warrior and the Lord is mighty in battle. So if this isn't Jesus, but it's somebody who seems to bear some pseudo characteristics of Jesus, then most commentators, and I would agree, feel like this is none other than the Antichrist. As a matter of fact, we're told in the book of Daniel chapter nine, and I think I had to put this up here in Daniel chapter nine, verses 26 and 27.

We're told that what will usher in that 70th week of Daniel, that 70th week that we're still waiting on will be one who rides in, if you will, who makes a treaty with the people for seven years. He will make a peace agreement with the people for seven years. Ushering in that 70th week of Daniel, what is all of the world looking for right now? We're all looking for peace, right?

We're all looking for that place, that one leader who can step up and fill the power vacuum. We're all looking for that one leader who will step up and say, I will take the role of leader. As a matter of fact, I have a plan. And I know how I can bring peace to the world. I know how I can bring peace to the Middle East. And I will do it from Israel. I will do it as a conquering king.

And everything will look perfect. Except according to Daniel chapter nine, in the middle of that seven years, that first three and a half years, he will set himself up to be worshiped as God. After all, have you taken note of the fact that he has been given a crown? Who do you suppose gives him that crown? It's none other than Satan himself, the God of this world,

that has given him the authority. We learn that later on in the book of Revelation. And so the first thing that we see that ushers in this seven-year tribulation period is none other than the Antichrist himself, who comes in conquering and to conquer. He will set the scene. He will set the tone for what the rest of the tribulation will be like. The second thing that we see is that the Antichrist himself, who comes in conquering and to conquer.

The second thing that we see is the red horse. Notice what it says. Verse three. When he broke the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, Come. And another, and another, a red horse, went out. And to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth. And that men would slay one another, and a great sword was given to him. Now, this second horse.

Now, this second horse. Again, we see the same invitation as the first. The second living creature looks at John as the Lamb of God breaks that seal and says, Come and see what will happen next. And the thing that happens next is the emergence of a red horse. And this red horse, of course, has a rider. And this rider is given authority to do something. The rider is given the authority not to bring,

not to bring war, not to bring violence. Instead, he is given the authority to take something away. He's given the authority to take away peace. After all, if there is an absence of peace, what automatically follows? Conflict, right? That's the thing that follows next. It says, he was given the authority to take peace from the earth. And what would be the result of that?

That men would slay one another. And a great sword was given to him. Now, it's interesting. Because the word great is used. But the sword that's described here, because there's two words for sword in the Greek. One is a large sword that would be wielded. The other is a small sword that would be used in hand-to-hand combat. The second of those two words is what's used here.

It's considered great because of its far-reaching impact. But it's a sword that's used for one-on-one hand-to-hand combat. What does that mean? Well, you see, peace is going to be taken from the earth. And I think that it's going to take on two different forms. The first form that it will take is the form of war. War will continue to increase. Even though this man has a peace plan,

even though this Antichrist has a peace plan, war will still be an issue. Violence will still be an issue. But not only will it be violence on a large scale, like a war with hand-to-hand combat, but there will be violence on what I would call a small scale. We might call it, but micro because it will take place between people. The violence that will take place in the midst of humanity,

person against person, not because they've gone and started a war, but simply because they've exercised violence against their fellow man, will continue to increase. This is what I mean when I say, we're seeing the foreshadowings of these things. Not only are we seeing wars, and rumors of wars like what's being spoken of in the book of Matthew, because I think that we're seeing violence amongst people. I'm sure all of you have heard that there was another mass shooting that took place at Michigan State University.

It was either last night or the night before. My timing gets off sometimes. But this man, and last I knew, I haven't read very much about it today. Last I knew, they still had no motive. A 43-year-old man just opened fire, killed three people, wounded five, and to my knowledge, they still don't know why. Now, if they have determined a motive, I apologize for not keeping up with that.

But the amount of violence that just takes place between people is just fascinating to me right now. It's fascinating to me, the lack of the care for human life amongst people. I had a student every morning, I asked for prayer requests with my Bible class, and one of the students raised their hand and said, we need to pray for a professor at Harvard. I said, okay, why do we need to pray for a professor at Harvard?

She said, because this professor believes that no one over the age of 75 should live. He's actually preaching a doctrine of euthanasia for anybody over the age of 75. She said, I consider someone like that to be one of my enemies, and the Bible says to pray for our enemies. This is what I'm saying. We're starting to see, we're starting to see these things in our world today

in an increasing, more intense measure. But brothers and sisters, what we're seeing today is nothing compared to what's coming. There was a horror movie that came out a few years ago, and I don't like horror movies. I'm already prone to nightmares. That's kind of who I am as a human being. And so ever since I was a little kid, I've never even been able to watch previews for horror movies, right?

They'll mess with me. They'll give, I'm just a weenie like that, okay? Okay. So one night I'm sitting there watching Duck Dynasty of all things, right? It's quite a few years ago now. And a commercial for a movie came on. Now, if you have seen this movie, I'm going to pray for you. I'm kind of joking and I'm kind of not. This movie is called The Purge. And for one night, everything is legal.

You basically are supposed to get it all out in one night. And I remember watching the preview for this movie. And typically I change the channel for things like that, not only because I have two little girls, but because I'm a little girl. And so typically I change the channel, but it couldn't help it. I found myself drawn to watch this. And I was in awe of what somebody came up with as an idea for a movie.

And all I could think was, that's what it's going to be like. That's what that tribulational, all I could think is that's apocalyptic in nature, the theme of that movie. Because I think that's probably what it's going to be like. Only it's not just going to be one night. It's going to be seven years of that. What a horrific thought. Well, he moves on from there to open up the third seal.

It says, And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not, damage the wine and the oil. The third one is the black horse. Only did you take note of what the rider was holding in his hands? He was holding a set of scales. In other words, to weigh things out,

what someone would use in ancient times to determine the price of something. Because what this third horseman would bring in is a time of inflation and famine. Now, isn't it kind of fascinating, these things that are going on? Because take note of what it says. Okay. I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius.

Now, a quart of wheat would barely be enough to feed one person for one day. Three quarts of barley would be the equivalent in barley because it takes more of that to make a meal than it does the wheat. But the price that he gives for a denarius is actually, according to what I read, is 12 times more at that particular time what it should have cost. If you will, the scarcity would be so great that any type of food would be about 12 times more expensive than it was.

Now, I realize we don't see anything like this in our culture today. We've not seen any kind of inflation, but because I don't know if you heard this or not, but inflation has been going down for the last seven months. That's what our president told us. So, clearly it must be true, right? But I don't know where he shops because it's been the exact opposite where I shop

because inflation is continuing to skyrocket. Only what we're seeing now is nothing compared to what's coming. It's interesting. I have a book in my office by Amir Sirfati. I'd highly recommend it. It's called Revealing Revelation. And he, this book came out about a year ago and he was writing it just after all of the COVID-19 pandemic stuff was happening. And he was talking about the scarcity.

The scarcity that took place right after we found out about the pandemic, right? Please don't squeeze the Charmin. That was kind of our philosophy when it came to the pandemic because we were all ran out of toilet paper. I love memes. You know why I love memes? Because they very much reflect the issues of the day. Because I remember one of the things that I saw was a meme of somebody holding toilet paper and saying,

this is how I pay my bills this month. And they're unrolling the toilet paper like they're rich. Only. Now, what is it? Eggs, right? And my favorite thing right now is the memes of the chickens wearing all of the jewelry, wearing all of the drip, right? Because they've, they've got the eggs and they're strutting around like this. And they got drip going down all over them with some jewelry and stuff.

And it's like, thank you, internet. You win again. But it's funny because this is what's really going on in our culture, but we haven't seen anything yet. Because what always follows war famine because we've wiped out everything that would give us natural supplies. Do you know why we're hurting so bad for some of the staple goods that we need right now? Because there's a war in Ukraine.

Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. Ukraine also produces a great deal of the fertilizer that we use. That's part of the reason why food is so expensive. Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe. Only imagine what it's going to be on an apocalyptic scale. But take note of the fact that for those with the money, there'll still be goods available. Notice what it says.

And do not damage the oil and the wine. Isn't it funny how some people just always seem to fare pretty good? Because if you don't care about anybody else and you hoard things for yourself, you usually fare pretty well in situations like that. So this third one brings in a famine or scarcity or inflation. Then comes the fourth horseman, the white horse, or excuse me, the ashen horse.

I think I labeled this wrong in my notes. It should say ashen. It says, When the lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the living creature saying, Come. And I looked, and behold, an ashen horse. And he who sat on it had the name Death. And Hades was following him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword. And famine, and with pestilence, and by the wild beasts of the earth.

If it wasn't happy so far, don't worry, it gets worse. Because this next horse with its rider comes in, only this time there are two riders. Did you take note of that? The two riders are Death and Hades. Now I've seen too many Disney cartoons, right? And so I picture the creepy looking guys that are Death and Hades. Only these aren't cartoon characters. These aren't mythological creatures.

Death and Hades speaks, first of all, of physical death. Hades speaks of spiritual death. There's a death that comes about that's unlike anything that had been seen up to this point in time. As a matter of fact, he tells us that a fourth of the earth will be killed. Now I did just a little bit of research on some numbers today. I'm not a big numbers person.

But I did some research. I did some research on some numbers today. And currently, the population of planet earth, because you can actually Google that, the population of planet earth is somewhere in the neighborhood of 7.9 billion people. For math's sake, because I'm not good at it, let's round up and say that's 8 billion people. That means that during this time of tribulation,

2 billion people will die.

Now again, my numbers may be mildly off, but if I understood correctly, that's the populations of North America, South America, and Europe. That's a bunch of people. I don't know that our minds can fully grasp exactly what that means. Although, let me put it in some numbers for you again. I hope my numbers are right here. I'm not very good with the math. Last I saw, last I read, it was this morning,

the death toll in Syria and Turkey is in the neighborhood of, you know, in the neighborhood of 40,000 people. To get to 2 billion, we'd have to multiply that times 50,000. Folks, we can't begin to fathom the awe-inspiring destruction that God pouring out his wrath on an unbelieving world will bring. I would like for you to take note of exactly what will bring this death.

It says in the middle of verse 8, authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill, first of all, with the sword. Again, that's violence, man against man. The second thing that it says is to kill with famine. That's simply people dying of starvation. The third thing it says is with pestilence. Of course, you know pestilence is disease, and we've seen what disease, when it runs rampant, can do to people.

The fourth one is always the one that sort of shocks me. Because... violence of man against man. To an extent, I expect famine. Like that's a fathomable thing. We've seen that take place. And of course, disease is something our world has dealt with for a very long time now. But it says one of the other things that will bring about some of this death is wild beasts of the earth. That's animals. That's animals rising up against people.

And we're not even talking about cocaine bear here, right? We're just, we're genuinely just talking about animals. But I want to point something out to you. If you were to look in the book of Ezekiel, and I started to write down the references, but there's multiple references to it. Two of them are in chapter five of the book of Ezekiel. I think one's in chapter 14.

One's somewhere maybe in the 20s of Ezekiel. God is laying out for the children of Israel because Ezekiel is sort of like the Old Testament revelation, right? He's laying out to Ezekiel what God is going to do to the unbelieving people that are still living in the nation of Israel. A good portion of Israel had been taken captive already by the Babylonians, but there were some who were still in the nation of Israel and they refused to repent. And so God says,

this is what I'm going to do. He says, I'm going to send sword and famine and pestilence. And I don't know why, but this year when I read Ezekiel, this really stuck out to me and wild beasts upon the land to destroy the people. And for some reason that just hit me. I was like, what the heck? How can that be? But you know, what's kind of interesting is some of the stories that have come out over the past six

months to a year about animals. Now, the only thing that I know is that they've killed people in almost kind of unheard of areas and in almost kind of unheard of ways. But if you think about it, if there's not enough food for the people, there's not enough food for the animals. As a matter of fact, if these things are really going to take place the way that it says that they're going to take place, there will be great scarcity everywhere. Now, I used to have some friends that lived in Colorado up in the mountains

and when the rain's flowing, it's no problem, but they went through a year, of great drought. In the year of great drought that they went through, the bears started coming down the mountain because they needed food, because they were just that hungry. And so many people ended up having to put bars on the windows of their homes that lived in these beautiful homes. My friends were no different. And they would have to do things to their trash cans to try to keep

the bears from invading their homes and getting into their trash. Now, I want you to think about that only on an apocalyptic level scale. It's just horrendous. It's awe-inspiring to think about. But my friends, I can't reiterate enough. This is not just a bad day on planet earth. This is not just a happenstance that takes place. It's God's judgment. And this part of this is going to be nature crying out because of the judgment of God.

Well, then comes the fifth seal, the martyrs. It says, When the lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And they cried out, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

And they cried out, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth? And there was given to each of them a white robe. And they were told that they should rest for a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. So the fifth seal is broken open. Only this time, no living creatures call him to come and look.

This time, John's able to see it for himself. It says, Underneath of the altar were these souls. Underneath of the altar were the souls of those who had been martyred. Let's first discuss where they are and then discuss who I believe these martyred individuals are. Where they are is under the altar. Now, we know that the altar that's being spoken of there is not

the altar of sacrifice because Jesus has already been sacrificed. We just saw him last week as the land that had been slain. So where, what altar are they at? Well, if you remember in the holy place, there was an altar called the altar of sacrifice. And if you remember, there was an altar called the altar of sacrifice. And if you remember, there was an altar called the altar of sacrifice. And if you

remember, there was an altar called the altar of incense. I believe that that's the altar that's being spoken of here where these souls are gathered underneath of. The reason why I believe that is because what are they doing day and night? They're crying out to the Lord. But what would another word for that be? Another word for that would be prayer. They were praying. And what did that altar

of incense represent? The prayers of the saints that are like sweet smelling incense before the Lord. And so they're gathered underneath this altar of incense. And as they're gathered at this altar of incense, we learned that these are martyrs, those who have been martyred for two things. Number one, because of their testimony. Number two, because of their belief in the word of God. So are these all

of the saints that have been martyred throughout all time? I don't believe so because I think we've already seen a picture of those that had been martyred beforehand. That was a part of that cast of people that was around the throne. No, I believe that these are the saints that have been martyred during the tribulation because during the tribulation, think about the people that you've talked to. Think about the people that you've shared your

faith with who up to this point in time are kind of like, hmm, I don't think that's for me. Perhaps the people who have found themselves falling into some sort of a liberal theology, they're sincere in their desire, but they're very wrong in their beliefs. When the church finds themselves taken out of here, they'll stand back and go, man, we missed it. And they'll cry out to God.

And they'll cry out to God for salvation. And because God is gracious, there will be a revival almost like has never been seen before during that time of the tribulation. And many of them, because they'll refuse to take the mark, something that we'll talk about when we get further into the book of Revelation, will find themselves killed for their faith, for their testimony, and because of their belief in the word of God. God holds them very close to his heart. As a matter of fact, it says that he

clothes them in white. This particular time, white is exactly what scripture always speaks of. And it's the righteousness of Christ. And as they are clothed there in the righteousness of Christ, they're crying out, how much longer? How much longer until you avenge our blood? How much longer until you deal with the unbelieving forces that have brought the earth to this place?

I believe that the ones that they really want to be avenged against is none other than Satan and his demons. They say, how much longer? And Jesus says, not yet. Wait here until the number is complete. Only he doesn't say wait here. You take note of the word that he uses. He says, rest here until the number is complete. This will come up again in chapter seven, and we'll discuss it further

then. But that's who I believe is gathered around this throne. And then comes the sixth, the sixth seal. Now I've labeled the sixth seal catastrophic destruction. Some of your Bibles may label it terror. Some of it, some of your Bibles may label, may label it a cosmic destruction. No matter how you put it, it's going to be crazy what takes place. It says in verse 12, I looked and when he broke the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake

and the sun was setting. And I looked and I looked and I looked and I looked and I looked and I looked and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair. The whole moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men

and the commanders the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains they said to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand this sixth seal when it is broken open begins with a great earthquake an earthquake that rattles the earth unlike anything that has been seen before which given the events of the last week and a half is pretty fascinating to imagine i don't know how many of you went and watched that video that i told you about sunday

morning but one of the things that amir uh points out is a seismologist from lebanon who basically says if there's any more earthquakes like that lebanon will cease to exist as a nation because of the seismic destruction that that earthquake brought now that's a pretty awe-inspiring thought and that earthquake is not the biggest one we've seen yet because there's a bigger there's a bigger one coming can you imagine the destruction that will take place when this earthquake hits it it , it says that in down in uh verse 14 middle of verse 14 every mountain and island were moved out of their places do you know what that causes me to immediately think of i don't know about you

but it does me it immediately causes me to think of the flood because most most believe that what took place when the flood happens when it says that the gates of the deep were opened that water not only came down through rain the crystalline water came down through the earth and the rain through rain the crystalline canopy was not only broken and all of that water came down but it says that the great deep broke open i believe that there was such a cataclysmic event that that was when we started to see the continents shift and move into their places like it is today the grand canyon i believe was actually formed when the flood happened but that's when that

chasm was actually created because it was such a cataclysmic event and something bigger is coming something else that will move the islands out of their places because remember what we talked about on sunday how it says in the book of second peter that they will receive the book of first peter it says that they willfully forget that god created the earth and they willfully forget that he destroyed it the first time with the flood and they'll willfully forget that it's being reserved a second time for fire that destruction and judgment is coming again it starts with an earthquake an earthquake that is cataclysmic and it's catastrophic and it's in its intensity but then the second thing it says is that the sun

became as black as sackcloth made of hair now i've never actually seen sackcloth made of hair but i can certainly imagine he must mean it's really really black in other words the sun ceased to shine and what does it say that the moon began to look like like blood turned red and then something else very interesting happens it says that the stars began to fall out of the sky now whether he actually literally means the stars or if it's a meteor shower which is what i lean towards it all begins to fall through the protective layer that our earth typically has that burns those things up and they begin to hit the earth awe-inspiring and then it says that the sky was split apart literally rolled up like a scroll as all of those things took place

there was a great reaction that took place on earth i want you to take note of it in verse 15 then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave man or every slave and free man they all hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains i want you to notice that it's everybody the the people that are going to respond to this it doesn't matter what economic class they're in it doesn't matter what social class they're in it doesn't matter what social class they're in it doesn't matter what social class they're in it doesn't matter what power structure they're a part of everybody reacts the same way they all

just want to hide because as each of these seals is broken open and more of god's judgment is unleashed everybody across the board from every walk of life has the exact same reaction and the reaction that they have is this hide us they ask the rocks to fall on them and hide them hide us and what do they want to do they want to hide us they want to hide us they want to hide us from the presence of him who sits on the on the throne they want to hide from the presence of god and then my favorite line maybe in this chapter is they want to be hidden from the wrath of the lamb now listen i've been to the petting zoo i've seen lambs and i have never at one point in time in my

life looked at a lamb and thought that thing's about to unleash wrath on me right as it's like man i'm not going to hide from the wrath of the lamb i'm not going to hide from the wrath of the lamb just a little snuggly lay like no hide us from the wrath of the lamb they want to be hidden from it hide us from god hide us from his presence and brothers and sisters man see that's exactly what sin causes us to do is sin causes us to hide from the presence of god you see we will react to god's judgment or god's correction in our life one of two ways we will either hide from his presence or we will run to his presence you see all of these things are going to be hidden from

his presence you see all of these things are going to be hidden from his presence you see all of these martyrs that are sitting underneath of the throne they saw the wrath of god coming because they realized that they had missed it they realized that they had missed the rapture that their nutball friends had been telling them about and rather than running from the presence of god they ran to the presence of god and while it meant temporary death it meant eternal rest but everybody else that was living their life in sin whose heart was only found in this earth as they saw the judgment of god in the presence of god and they ran to the presence of god and they

they ran to the presence of god and they ran to the presence of god and they ran to the presence of god unleashed rather than running to god in repentance they say we want to hide from god hide us from him hide us from the wrath that is to come why for the great verse 17 day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand it's an interesting question that the leaders of the world and everybody else in the world are going to be able to stand and who is able to stand and who is everybody from every walk of life asks at the very end of chapter six who is able to stand in the judgment of god who's able to withstand the judgment of god do you know there's really only one answer to that question he who finds himself hidden in the secret place of the most

high and abides under the shadow of the almighty the only place where you can flee from the judgment of god is in the arms of your savior there's a wonderful story in the old testament in the book of joshua and it's the story about the city of jericho see the children of israel camped just outside of the city of jericho awaiting instructions from god on what they were to do so joshua sent two spies to see exactly what they were dealing with in jericho and as he sent those two spies they found out that the children of jericho were in the arms of the of a woman named rahab now rahab had a particular job the oldest profession is what they call it she was a prostitute and as these men hid themselves in the home of rahab she looked

at them and said something very interesting she said i know that your god is the one true god and he's going to take this whole land i want you to do me a favor when you come in and when you take over this land i want you to do me a favor and i want you to do me a favor i want you to protect me and my family they said okay that's what we'll do so the next or that later that night she let them down because her home was in the wall of the city she let them down the wall of the city with a scarlet rope and right before she let them down they said here's what you need to know you hang this scarlet rope from the window of your home and anyone who is in your home is going to be in your house and you're going to be in your house and you're

home where the scarlet rope is hanging will be saved from destruction anybody not in your home will be destroyed sure enough when the children of israel after they'd marched around the city that very last time and they yelled out with a great voice all of the walls collapsed and everything was destroyed except for one home the home of rahab and everybody that was in the home of rahab where the scarlet rope was hanging who was able to stand in the judgment of god the ones who hide themselves in the arms of their savior the ones who run to jesus for salvation are the ones who can find themselves protected from the judgment of god because he will be one of two things for us he will be your savior or he will be your judge but can i ask you a question

another question that i feel like the lord really asked me at the very end of this chapter what am i doing with the correction that's god that god is bringing into my life you see as god was pouring out the judgment they found themselves running from god are you running from god tonight is god trying to do work in you is god bringing correction into your life are you seeing the judging of god in your life because he wants to deal with an area and you're running from him because you're going to do one of two things when god's correction comes into your life you're either going to run to him or you're going to run from him when you run to him it means salvation when you run from him it means judgment come back to jesus

come back to his grace because his arms are always open for those who will run to him amen would you bow with me brother we come to you now and lord it is truly awe-inspiring to see the things that are coming upon the world lord may we take full advantage of the opportunity that we have now to not only make sure our hearts are right with you but to show the love of christ and the knowledge of the gospel to the people that are around us father help us to redeem the time for the days are evil and help us to run to jesus father we thank you and we praise you in jesus name amen be blessed