Transcript

Sermon Transcript: The Grand Finale of Judgement

5/30/2021 Jeff Schwarzentraub 54 min read

- Many of us love fireworks. All of us have been to different fireworks displays at different times. On July 4th there's usually fireworks displays all over our city and in different places that we can go to. Sometimes at theme parks, they have different fireworks displays and they do it differently. Some with fireworks alone, some with laser light show, some even use music as they put it to the show. Other times we can be in athletic venues and athletic venues we'll have a series of fireworks for a specific day or some reason, but there's one thing that all fireworks displays have in common and it's the very end. And at the very end of that fireworks display not only one firework goes up or not only just one light goes up in a laser show, but they're all ongoing. It is the loudest time of the fireworks, it is the brightest time of the fireworks. It's not a time where you could point to the sky and say, I like that blue one. Because it'd be like, "Well, which blue one?" I mean, it's all multicolored, all multifaceted and it's so phenomenal at the end of a fireworks display, we give it a name. We call it a grand finale.

As we're in the Book of Revelation. What we're gonna experience today is God's grand finale on his judgment of planet Earth. And what we wanted to do today was just really give you an overview of what's going on before we get into Revelation 15 and 16 that's where we're gonna be studying today because there's an unfortunate chapter break there. So we're gonna do our best to get through it all. And really when you think about fireworks displays and the reason you see fireworks displays are oftentimes when you go to fireworks displays there's usually something that you're celebrating. You're celebrating the end of the day at the theme park, you're celebrating the independence we have as a country or some other neat thing that you're doing.

As we see God's judgements being poured out we're gonna see his character revealed and what God wants us to do is give Him glory for all that he is, God's gonna reveal or unveil more about his character than what we already know. And as we learn more about his character Revelation 15-16 you're gonna wanna celebrate who our great God is.

Now I wanted to bring you up to speed because I realized that we have some people that may be visiting today. If you are, you're about 17 hours behind the rest of us and so I wanted to bring you up to speed on what we're talking about in the Book of revelation so that you can be there. As I told you before, I'm preaching from a pre-millennial perspective from the Bible that's a futurist position. I think it does the best of taking the Bible at his literal face value of what it says and that's the way that I've been teaching this book believing that Christ will come back pre or before a millennium or a 1000 year reign on planet Earth.

And we talked about if you hold that position a futurist position there's different views that you can have. Some have what's called a millennial perspective without a millennium they don't believe there is a millennium. They would say we're in the millennium now. Others would be called post-millennial. They would say, we're also living in the millennium now and we're going to get there someday. For me, I have two challenges with this, one is, it's hard for me to spiritualize the text of the Bible. I believe God, every word and God's word counts and that's why I'm a pre millennialist. Secondly, when I think about post-millennials specifically but sometimes amillennialists too. If we're living in the millennium now this is the promise golden age. I feel like we've been let down quite a bit. This doesn't feel right to me from all the promises that God has made. So I'm teaching from a pre-millennial perspective.

Now, if you teach from that position there's really four different views you can hold. I'm gonna show you some charts. I'll put all of these online so we can go through them rapidly today. But the first is what's called a pre-tribulational perspective. People that hold to this view believe that prior to the 70th week of Daniel or the final seven years the church will be raptured out at some unspecific time. That's the next moment on the eschatological calendar will be with Jesus in heaven for seven years. At the end of the seven years Christ brings his church back to rule and reign on planet Earth. It is the most popular view of anyone that's out there and that's what most people teach from that love God's Word.

Number two is a mid-tribulational position. If you understand pre-trib you probably understand mid-trib, mid Trib the rapture will happen right at the midpoint, right at the time that the antichrist sets up worldwide worship to himself, God's gonna rapture the church out of here and then three and a half years later he will bring the church back. That's called a mid-tribulational position.

The post-tribulational position if you're following along should come rather easy. It means this, at the end of the seven years the church goes through all of the seven years. At the end of the seven years, the church is raptured on the same day that Jesus returns. So it's almost like an elevator up we go, back down we come and then the end it begins and the millennium starts.

I hold to what's called a pre wrath position that I'm persuaded by and like I told you from the beginning if you don't hold it that yet, I mean you're wrong and that's cool, but. No, I'm kidding kind of. And what I believe that the scripture, I'm persuaded by the scripture to believe that the final generation of the church will go through part of the seven years, the first three and a half years being the beginning of birth pains and then at the mid point, that starts the great tribulation that Jesus said would be cut short because if it wasn't cut short, no one would survive. At some point during that last three and a half years the second coming of Jesus begins with his rapture of the saints. And after the saints have been raptured after the resurrected dead or in heaven there's 30 minutes of silence in heaven and then God begins to pour out his day of the Lord wrath. And after that period, then the millennium begins.

So if you remember this slide that I showed you when we talked about the seals, we talked about the seven seals that were opening that the first three seals, the first four seals where the four horsemen of the apocalypse, we had the antichrist, we had war, and we had famine in the first three and a half years. We spend a ton of time on Revelation six and Matthew 24, going back and forth showing you how all of this stuff correlated. You can go back and listen to the teachings on this. And then at the three and a half year point when the antichrist stood up and said worldwide worship is mine. We see death and we see martyrdom. We see a tribulation unlike any other time in the history of the church but God is gonna cut that short with his second coming to resurrect all the dead saints and to take those of us who are eagerly waiting for Him to heaven. After that time, there's a period of silence in heaven for a half an hour, followed by God's judgments and the trumpet judgments that we've seen. So I'll put this on the board too.

This is the next slide. It's way too complicated to go over. I'm showing it to you so that you can. All right, we've actually studied all this stuff. You know this actually, you could pass a test with this but this is showing the same things, is just showing the beginning of the birth pains one, two, and three of the seals, four, five, and six after the antichrist comes you see the second coming that begins at some point in time during the last three and a half years and continues on through the millennium.

Now, if you look at this right after the trumpet judgments at the end of the seven years, you'll notice this, you'll see 30 days, you'll see 45 days and you'll see a 1000 years. Now, let me explain what that is and then I'm gonna show you in the text where you get it and we'll simplify this so that you're following along. When we studied the Book of Revelation as we've been going through this study, the first 11 chapters I'm arguing in a chronological. So everything begins and ends. It goes in specific sequence all the way down to chapter 11 when the final trumpet is blown, Jesus Christ is on the earth. He's beginning to rule and reign. It is done it is over. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lord, He's coming.

Chapters, 12, 13 and 14 go parenthetically into the last three and a half years to tell us what's been going on during those last three and a half years into more details. And we learned the cast of characters are gonna be involved. We took a look at all the things that were gonna unfold during that time with the antichrist and the false prophet and Satan and all those different things.

Where we pick up here in chapter 15 today, starts the chronological period all over again. So what we have in these seals, the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments, and in the bowl judgments that we're gonna talk about today there are 21 consecutive judgments that are taking place. Some of you may remember when you were little kids those little wooden dolls that were like sod in the middle and you could open one up and inside that doll was another doll. And you could open that up and inside that doll was another one you could like set them all up. And they were like seven dolls, but they all fit inside of each other when you close it, you know I'm talking about. That's what the judgments in Revelation look like. So we get the seven sealed judgments. There's the six seals. Then we're raptured and resurrected. Then there's a pause. God seals the 144,000 Jews. He raptures us home. When the seventh seal is open inside the seventh seal is what. Seven trumpets. When the seventh trumpet is blown, what happens. We immediately get the bowl judgments. So if you are reading through this as a story when you get to the end of chapter 11 and you start chapter 15, the story is gonna continue. We've paused to look at 12, 13, and 14 just to tell you what was gonna happen.

Now, notice this at the end of this chart that I have up on the board, the 30 days, the 45 days prior to the millennial reign of Christ. And I wanna show you where I get that from. So if you look at this screen. I wrote the scripture up on the board. It's from the Book of Daniel, it's his prophecy where he talks about this he says, "From the time that the regular sacrifice is abolished and the abomination of desolation is set up." The abomination of desolation is when the antichrist comes into Jerusalem, sets up worldwide worship to himself at the beginning after three and a half years and for the last three and a half years demands worship of the world. From that time, here's what Daniel says, "There will be 1,290 days. How blessed is he who keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days."

Now, if you've been paying attention in this series at all, that should cause you question because everything we've been talking about is 1,260 days. 1,260 days, we've said 1,260 days based on a 30 year calendar, or a 360 day calendar is three and a half years. It's 42 months it's 1,260 days. Everything in the Book of Revelations. 1,260 days, 1,260 days. Now, Daniel saying, you know, blessed is the one that makes it to 1,290 days. Well, that's different to me. Is the Bible wrong. Okay, you can participate. Is the Bible wrong?

- [Congregation] No.

- No, the Bible can't be wrong. So, there will be 1,209 days. How does that work? And then he said, "how blessed it is the one that keeps waiting and attains to the 1,335 days." Now I want it to help you today 'cause based upon our discussions together I realize that we're not gonna win any math competitions as a church. So I put up a problem up on the board. Hold your answer, hold your answer. Don't let your neighbor know just yet. But if Daniel says there's 1,290 days but the book of Revelation says there's 1,260 days. How many days difference is that? Okay, let's see the answer. We're getting better at math. Y'all good job, good job. But then what about this 1,335 days? If you subtract that from 1,260 days, what do you get? That's a little harder. It's a little harder 'cause you gotta use two columns. It's 75 I did it for you. I did it for you. So it's 75 days.

What you see is after the seven years is completed after Revelation 11 there's gonna be a period of 75 days. Those first 30 days are where Jesus is taking over on the earth. Make no mistake about it. Many people teach that as soon as Jesus comes back it's over. It's not over the devil's not gonna wave a white flag of surrender and be like, "Oh, you're back, okay I give up." No he is going to gather armies to fight against Jesus during those 30 days. During which time there's gonna be bowl judgments poured out from heaven on the earth as Jesus is protecting the Jews and bringing them back into the land. Jesus is gonna make a tour through the Middle East. As we read about in the old Testament we'll show some scriptures that talk about that. That's why people are asking why his clothes are so red. Why blood sprinkled is Raymond and the world kings are gonna be invited by satanic deception into believing that they can take Jesus's which is why we're gonna get the battle of Armageddon. That's all gonna happen in that 30 day period.

When that 30 day period is over, then there's gonna be what's called the sheep and goats judgment, which you read about Matthew 24 and 25, where those who are still alive God separates those who don't know Christ, go to hell those who do know Christ began to populate the millennial kingdom with him. That's where we get those 75 days.

Today what we're gonna be talking about is those 30 days. So if you didn't understand anything that I've just spent the first five or 10 minutes talking about I made a chart really easy for you. It's this chart here. It's four boxes, okay. The first box represents everything we've been talking about. This is chapters one through 11 in the Book of Revelation. It's the 70th week of Daniel followed by 30 days followed by 45 days, followed by the millennial reign of Christ followed by the eternal state. That's how the Book of Revelation is laid out. And again, all these notes will be online you can have them there.

But as we get into this grand finale of God's judgment in Revelation Chapter 15 and 16, we're gonna celebrate who our God is because of his marvelous character. We're gonna celebrate who he is because He's our awesome God. And so if you turn with me to Revelation 15 we're gonna take a look at four different characteristics of why we're gonna celebrate our God.

And the first one is this. We celebrate our God because He's marvelous and He's worthy. We celebrate our God because he's marvelous and He's worthy. Listened to chapter 15 verse one he says, Then I saw another sign in heaven. Great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues which are the last because of in them the wrath of God is finished. There's an end to God's wrath.

Now this word wrath is the word in Greek instead of it is like fiery wrath. It is fierce wrath. It is unleashed or uncaged. Rage is what's going on. Now you need to understand something about our God. Our God is doesn't get ticked off. He doesn't get hacked off. It's not like He's gonna be like a level nine and if you push me over the edge I'm gonna. God's wrath is completely measured. God has stored up his wrath for humanity. For all those who have refused to repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of the living God. When God pours out his wrath it is going to be terrifying on planet Earth. It is gonna be his fury that is going to come down.

And what we see is we see these seven angels that are marching out of the temple ready to pour final wrath on all the planet that has refused to repent and respond to God and when it's done, it's over, it's finished. Notice verse two, And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire and those who had been victorious over the beast in his image and the number of his name standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God.

Now, what we see before the throne room is we see something like a sea of glass. This is not the first time we've seen this in the Book of Revelation. If you look back at Revelation 4:6 you'll see before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal, right. That's what they saw. But this is not the only time in the Bible that we see this. In Exodus 24:10, we get a picture of this when Moses and Aaron are going up to visit with God, it says in verse 10 And they saw the God of Israel under his feet, there appeared to be a pavement of Sapphire as clear as the sky itself. Ezekiel saw the same image in Ezekiel 1:22 listen to what he writes. Ezekiel 1:22. Now over the heads of the living beings When he had this divine vision over the heads of living beings, there was something like an expanse, like the awesome glean of crystal spread out over their heads. What does this tell you? If Moses saw it, if Ezekiel saw it, if John saw, what does that tell you. It's real. It's there and it's marvelous. We studied God's throne. We studied what it's like. We saw that all the martyrs who have been martyred from the time of Jesus Christ resurrection until today are under the throne. And we calculate it based upon statistics that we have could be over 70 million people under the throne who had been martyred from the time of Christ resurrection. Our God is marvelous. Our God is incredible. He's marvelous and he is worthy of all of our praise.

And so notice what he does next, what he notices next. It says, And they sang the song of Moses, the bond servant of God and the song of the lamb. Something so marvelous, what are they gonna do. They're gonna sing. You know singing is a way of expressing something at a deeper level than just speaking it. You know all throughout the Bible God commands us to sing, sing to the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song. Who does that apply to? Who does that apply to? Everybody, Who does that apply to?

- [Congregation] Everybody.

- Everybody. But why does God want us to sing? 'Cause when you sing there's an expression of your soul and your heart unlike anything else you ever do. Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, shout his praise. There's something about participating. That's why when we come to BRAVE Church and we gather and music is being played and praise songs are being led. It doesn't say anywhere in the Bible, watch other sing, enjoy the guitar being played, you know, space out and think about what else you have to do with your day. No, sing. "Yeah, but I'm a dude." So sing. "But I'm not very good at singing." Then make a joyful noise, sing. there's something about expressing praise to the Lord. Even on a happy birthday. I know we'll sing happy birthday like 17 times in my family today. Right, and we just sing. 'Cause there's something special about singing to a person.

When we sing to the Lord, that's what we're called to do. So they're singing praise and notice this, they're singing the song of Moses. Remember when Moses parted the Red Sea, God parted the Red Sea through Moses. And they all went through and the Egyptian armies were crushed. What does Moses and the Israelites do right afterwards? I think it's Exodus 15. They sing. Moses says, "I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and the rider thrown into the sea. The Lord, my God, my strength. My song has now become my victory. The Lord, my God and I will praise him. My father's God and I will exalt him. The Lord is a warrior." They're singing to the Lord. So what are they doing here. They're singing because the finality of God's wrath is gonna be here and who's singing?, notice who's singing. We see those that are singing are those who've been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name.

Remember, there's going to be an antichrist. The false prophet is gonna set up an image to the antichrist and then there's gonna be people that are gonna take the number on the back of the right hand or on their forehead. All of those who took a mark saying, I'm giving allegiance and my worship to the antichrist are the only ones who are gonna be able to buy and sell, those who aren't are going to be attacked. Some are going to be murdered. All of those who are either been raptured out or who are martyred are gonna be standing on the sea of glass, worshiping the Lord as God gets ready to pour out his final judgments. For those of you that are believers, you're gonna be looking through that sapphire looking glass, looking down at planet Earth. And notice this, this is the only place in the Bible that we read about, not only is there a glass like substance but there's fire there, why? Because God's judgments about ready to be poured out.

Our God is marvelous and He's worthy. What does it mean that He's marvelous? It means He's superb. It means He's excellent. It means He's great. Worthy means he has commendable excellence. He has great character or merit. He's, He's worthy of us giving our praise to. There's no one else that's worthy of your allegiance other than the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not gonna say that again, 'cause I wanna make sure everyone. There is nobody or no thing that is worthy of all of your allegiance.

- [Congregation] Amen.

- Nobody, no thing, only Jesus. God gives us blessings in this life for us to enjoy not to worship. We thank God for the blessings that we have but we worship the God who gives them and whether he gives or whether he takes away, we worship him. He is so worthy of all of our praise.

I think about Psalm 66:4. You can write that verse down. I'll read it to you. Psalm chapter 66:4. Here's what it says, All the earth will worship you and will sing praises to you. They will sing praises to your name. Who's gonna do that? All of you. Even the ones who are like, "I don't really feel like singing in Brave yet." You'll sing, you'll worship when you see who he is. I think about 1 Chronicles 16:25 it says, For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is also to be feared above all gods. He is marvelous. There's no one like Him He's superb, He's excellent. He has great character, he has great merit. He has commendable excellence. So we celebrate God for who he is.

So even as He's getting ready to pour out his judgments on the planet, we're singing to them. And notice what they're singing in verse three, Great and marvelous are your works Oh Lord God, the Almighty. Oh Lord God, the Almighty, not one of the almighty, not kind of almighty, not comparable. There's one that's in control of the whole world and He's our God. And that's who he is. He's marvelous and He's worthy of all your glory honor and praise. When we get distracted in life it's because we put someone else on the throne of our heart. We put a person on the throne of our heart. We put a job on the throne of our heart. We put financial security on the throne of our heart. We put sports on the throne of our heart. We put getting married on the throne of our heart. We put relationships on the throne of our. We put these things on our heart that aren't working out the way we want then we get frustrated with God.

Let me tell you something, reverse that. Give all your praise honor and worship to God, seek first his kingdom, all of these things will be added unto you. Let God be central in all of your worship. That's what this is saying. That's what God is asking us to do. God is worthy of being celebrated because he is marvelous and He's worthy. We started this series in the book of Genesis. I mean the first chapter in the Bible is marvelous. It's incredible. I mean, Psalms 48:1 says, Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. I mean, he made everything. The seas, the waters, the vegetation, the animals, He even created you, man and woman on the sixth day in his image, for his glory. Everything he did, he made out of nothing just by speaking it into existence. He is worthy of all. He is worthy of everything. There's no one else that you need to give your attention to to be satisfied on the inside. Our God and our God alone can do that. Amen?

- [Congregation] Amen.

- And that's why we get excited about his word. Not only are we to celebrate his worth, being marvelous and worthy, but we're also to celebrate God because he is righteous and holy. He's righteous and holy. Notice Revelation 15 in the middle of verse three, it says, "Righteous and true are your ways King of the nations, who will not fear, oh Lord and glorify your name." Why? "For you alone are holy, for all the nations will come and worship before you. Your righteous acts have been revealed." He's righteous and He's holy. Now, those words sometimes are used interchangeably and they very well can be. They denote the idea of moral excellence. In the word brave, we use a letter for everything to mean something, being brave means virtuous. It's moral excellence. It's being conformed to the image of Christ. It's living righteous and holy because of who we represent. It's allowing God to live through our life in a way that brings him the most glory and the most honor and the most praise by who we are.

But why do we do this? Because our God is righteous. They're singing about God's righteousness. Righteousness really means this. It means that you're morally right. It means that everything that you do and all the decisions that you make are pure and they're right and they're good. No matter what you do, you're good. That's who our God is. Now, from our perspective we can believe that intellectually but we have a hard time when life doesn't go our way. We pray to God we say He's righteous, but when things don't go our way. We prayed this way and it didn't turn out. And we're like, where's God on that one? We prayed for 6,000. We asked for their healing, our spouse died. We prayed for our kid Who was way where to come closer to God, They went the other way. We prayed for a job that would provide more means So we can take care of our family And I actually got laid off. And we begin to think. We hear that lie in our ear that says, if God is so good, then why is all this bad stuff happening? Now, I wanna let you know when you meet Jesus face to face, you will realize that every decision He's ever made is completely righteous, completely good, completely perfect and he won't apologize about anything. Amen?

- [Congregation] Amen.

- He's righteous. That's who he is. Think about some scriptures. You may wanna write these down. I'll turn quickly through them. Psalms 11:7 talks about the righteousness of our God and who he is. Psalms 11:7 it says, "For the Lord is righteous. He loves righteousness. The upright will be hold his face. The Lord loves righteousness." That's his character, being perfect and morally virtuous and upright. That's who our God is. That's why he says in Matthew 6:23, which I quoted some of it. Seek first, the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. Seek God and seek his character of righteousness. That He's morally excellent in all that he does. Or how about what apostle Paul sums up in Philippians 3:9 he says this, That he may be found in him not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law but that which through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith. Now, why does he want the righteousness that comes from God? Here's why, because none of you are righteous on your own.

There is no one good, no, not one, that's Romans 2:10, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, that's Romans 3:23. You're not born good you're born on righteous. The only way that you can be declared righteous is by grace through faith, through repentance and faith in Christ God will declare you righteous. That's who he wants you to be. And why wouldn't he? That's who we are. That's why he says in Matthew 5:20, he says, "For unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God." Well, from an earthly perspective, the religious leaders of the day, they're the most righteous people in the world. And Jesus says, if you're not more righteous than that you're not getting in. It should beg the question well then how can I be more righteous?

Here's the only way, through believing in the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's it. If you believe God imparts or imputes his righteousness from himself into you, the holy spirit comes to live in you. You are declared righteous at that moment. If that hasn't happened, you are unrighteous. That's what the Bible makes clear. Our God is righteous. But notice this, our God is also holy.

Do you remember when Isaiah went into the temple in Isaiah 6:3 when he saw the and the Seraphim flying all around the throne and the train of Jesus' robe filled the temple with glory. What are they all shouting? What are they all singing? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty. What is he? He's holy, holy means He's set apart. It means He's unlike us. Well, God created us in his image He's nothing like me and you. Our God's nothing like me and you. He's completely different. He's completely God, you're not your dependent He's independent. You need God to provide for you. He doesn't need anybody to provide for him. You don't control the world, even though some of you think you do, he does. God is God. He's holy, he set apart. He's unlike any others. That's why there's not a competition for who are the best gods in which God should I follow. There's only one God and we're called to serve Him only. He's holy. Psalms 96:9 tells us that we should worship Him that way. Worship the Lord in holy attire, tremble before Him all the earth. He's righteous and He's holy. That's why we wanna grow in our righteousness and we wanna grow in our holiness because if Jesus who is the righteous and holy one lives in us through his holy spirit and he wants to express his righteousness and holiness through us that's what we're called to do.

The Christian life is not about becoming better people. The Christian life is not about being a bad person who is better at the end of your life, that's pride. The Christian life is about dead people who have been made alive, who will subject their bodies and submit to the Lord Jesus Christ so that he can do a work in and through you. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. So if the righteous holy one is living in you here should be the question that begs, how do I live that? How do I live righteous and holy? Never asked that question? I'm glad you did 'cause I'm gonna answer for you. All right.

2 Timothy 3:16 when we learned about the scripture, it says, All scripture is God breathed, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correcting, for training. And what? Righteousness. You wanna grow in your righteousness, grow in your understanding of the word 'cause the more you understand the scriptures the more you'll understand the person and work of Jesus and what He's trying to bring through your life. It's why the word of God is central. It's why if you go to a church that doesn't open the word here's what they're communicating non-verbally, we don't care about righteousness here. At BRAVE Church I'm telling you, we care about righteousness here. We want all of us to grow in righteousness. We want more of Jesus to come through our lives so when people see us, they would say, that man, that woman, that boy, that girl they're righteous but what about holiness? How do I grow in my holiness? 1 Peter 1:15-16 give us an indication how that can happen it says, But like the holy one who called you be holy yourselves also in your behavior because it is written you shall be holy for I am holy, okay. Is that a suggestion or a command? He does sound like the peanuts teacher. Is that a suggestion or a command?

- [Congregation] Command.

- It's a command, be holy because I'm holy. Say, well, how do I do that? Here's how, here's how listen. You can't become righteous on your own and you can't become holy on your own. But when you've trusted Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins to repentance and faith and he comes to live in you through the holy spirit, you've been declared righteous, you've been declared holy, it's who you are. It's how God sees you. Even if you're not living fully righteous or living fully holy that's who you are and what God wants you to do is allow more of his character to shape who you are.

So what you're praying for is God let your holiness reign in my life. God let your righteousness reign in my life. God come through me in such a way that when people see me here's what they would know. That man, that woman, that boy, that girl they're holy and they're righteous. And whoever it is that they worship I know that their God is for real, right. That's what He calls us to do.

I know this is sometimes difficult to understand. What's the difference between being morally right in our decision-making and being set apart and consecrated. They both really go together but think about this as an illustration, think about a young man that grows up with a desire to play in the national football league someday and he spends all of his time through high school and college and He's actually very good at what he does and he gives himself to that trade and one day he gets drafted by the Denver Broncos and he has a position on their team. He's one of their players and for the rest of his life for the rest of his career rather he gives his time, effort and energy in all that he does to serving the Denver Broncos organization because of the skill set that he has. In that illustration righteousness would be this. It would be the fact that He's given a position. It would be the fact that the Broncos have approved his talents. The Broncos would say you belong to us. In other words, that man would be able to go to Mile High Stadium, 9.2 miles north of our church. Yes, I know that. And he would be able to get into the game and he would be able to go to Dove Valley and he'll be able to enter all the practices and he would be given a locker, why. Because He's got a position now and he belongs and He's been approved.

When you trust in Jesus Christ you've been positioned in the heavenly realms with Christ. You belong to Christ. You've been approved by Christ. You're righteous in Christ. That's who you are. Now as this man in this analogy would spend the rest of his days serving the Denver Broncos for the rest of his career. He would give his devotion and dedication to the Broncos. He would practice with the Broncos. His eating habits, his studying habits, his sleeping habits would all go towards making the Bronco's football team a better entity. Holiness looks like this.

When you've been set apart by Christ it means all you do all you think about, all the decisions you make are for Christ for Him alone. It means if you're married you do what Christ wants in your marriage. If you're single you do what Christ wants as a single, if you're an employee, you honor Christ as an employee. If you're an employer, you honor Christ as an employer. If you're a kid in a family you honor God as a child to your parents. If you're a parent you steward your children the way that God wants you. In everything you do you're growing in righteousness and holiness all the time, which is God you have to show me how to do this 'cause I know on my own, I can't, but I do want what you want and I wanna be who you want so Lord work in my life.

And the more you grow in understanding God's holiness and his righteousness the more you will realize who is like our God. I mean, we'd read in weeks pass where during these final days people are gonna be like, "Who's like the beast? Who can make war against the beast? Who's like this antichrist, who's." No no no. I'll tell you who. Who's like our God, there's no one like our God it's Jesus Christ and Him alone. Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father, except through me. It means this BRAVE Church, Jesus Christ is the only way that you can be saved.

You can study religions world over and what you will find is a set of rules you need to keep so that God will be pleased with you. You study Christianity and here's what you'll discover. You can't keep any of the rules. You can't do any of it. And yet God in his mercy sent his son to be the savior of the world so that in him and in Him alone, you can have life and have life in his name, both now and forever more. Our God is righteous and our God is holy and our God is marvelous and our God is worthy to be praised. Amen.

- [Congregation] Amen.

- That's a great place for an applause. But not only that is true but then we need to celebrate God because he is faithful and just our God's faithful, our God is just, Revelation 15:5 and following says, "After these things I looked and the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened. The temple of the tabernacle of testimony what in the world is that? What that reminds us of is the the temple that God had the Israelites create and in that temple was a place called the Holy of Holies. And in the Holy of Holies was a piece of furniture called the Ark of the Covenant. Remember what was in the Ark of the Covenant?

There were three items that were placed in the Ark of the Covenant. Anybody know what they were? There were three items. There's seven of you that know, I'll just tell you. There was Aaron's rod, Aaron's rod during Korah's rebellion Aaron was told to lay down his rod and God would have all the leaders that were leading this rebellion lay down their rod and in the morning he would show which leader was most faithful and Aaron's rod budded with flowers and almonds and all sorts of things to show that Aaron's rod was the rod that leadership was the leadership to follow. And you remember Aaron's rod was the one that got laid down and turned into a snake and ate the two other snakes. Aaron's rod was the one that turned the rivers into blood. Aaron's rod it was a way of going God saying, I use my leadership to lead the way I wanna lead. And when I choose leadership I'm with the leadership I'm always faithful to my leadership.

Another item in that piece of furniture was a jar of manna. When they were in the wilderness, they had nothing to eat. So what did God do? He provided food, the foods spoiled after a day if you didn't use what you had and so but there was one that was miraculously saved in a jar that was put in there saying God is faithful to providing for all of his people.

And that perhaps what was most important that we find it in the Ark of the covenant was what? The 10 commandments, God's law, showing his righteousness and holiness, and that He's unwavering and He's always faithful to what his law is. And even when we're unfaithful, what is He, He's still faithful. Our God is faithful and just.

And this tabernacle in heaven is open and John sees it and he's reminded of all these things. And notice verse six, And the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright and girded around their chest with golden sashes. What do we see? We see the purity angels come out all dressed up and why are they coming out? What's this worship service gonna look like? It's gonna be God's final judgment on planet Earth. Verse seven, then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels, the golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever.

Remember the four living creatures that we saw about in chapters four and five as we looked around the throne? One of these appears in the scene gives them the bowls, these golden bowls, seven bowls. And something you know about these bowls, these are not pots. This bowl is like a flat bowl that's easy to pour out. And what you're gonna see is these judgments are poured out and poured out and poured out. It's more like just a little bowl that you would use to put ingredients and that you'd throw into a recipe or something like that. That's what these golden bowls are because God's judgments, during this last 30 days are gonna happen in such rapid succession and rapid fire.

In verse eight he says, The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. The smoke, what happens during the time that judgements report out? There's such a presence of God there, no one can enter.

Now we pray for the presence of God in our church. And here's how the presence of God works. God doesn't dwell in this building. There's nothing significant about this building. God dwells in the hearts of everyone who believes in Him through his holy spirit, that's where God dwells. And when the church gathers those of us who know Jesus, that's the church and we gather, what we pray is that God would manifest his presence through his spirit so we could experience him. That's why when you come to church or you're in BRAVE Church there can be sometimes where the Word of God is being preached, that you say that was for me. It was like God speaking directly to me. I needed to hear that. Or you can say that was God speaking to me and I didn't wanna hear that. Or you can be worshiping and tears will come to your eyes.  I saw that today, where just the presence of God is overwhelming you a little bit. That happens from time to time.

In this season the presence of God is so heavy and so powerful no one can go near him. No one can go near him. What's about ready to happen is God on full display with his final judgment. And until plagues and these seven bowls have been poured out on humanity, nobody's going in the temple. This is God doing his work from the temple in all of His power, in all of His glory so that the world will know that He is indeed the King of Kings and he is indeed the Lord of Lords.

Listen, our God is faithful and He's just. Faithful means this, God's loyal, He's true and he keeps all of His promises. I mean, do you know anybody like that? Even people that we know that we trust that love us, even in a marriage where you're really trying to do that for each other there are some times where promises get broken. There's sometimes where you meant to do something and you didn't do it. You said you would come home and you'd pick this up at the store before you got home, but you just forgot. Can I get an amen from anybody?

- [Congregation] Amen.

- Help me out. God never breaks his promises, God never forgets. If He said, I promise that you prayed I'm doing it. That's who I am. He's unlike any other and He's just, that means He's guided by truth and reason. It means He's guided according to principle. God doesn't waiver in what he does. He's always fair.

So I love that God's faithful and just. In 1st John 1:8-9 it says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sin God who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Why does God forgive our sins? Because He's faithful and He's just, and if he said, I'll forgive your sins by believing in me, guess what he does? He forgives your sins by believing in Him. He's faithful, He's not going to waiver. If he says, no one can snatch you out of my hand, if you're a believer do you know that means? No one can snatch you out of his hand if you're a believer, it means there's nothing you can do to escape the love of God, why? Because the word of God says nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God.

Believer does God really love me? I mean, I really screwed up this week. Does God, yes. How do you know? 'Cause the word of God defines that nothing can keep you from his love. He loves you, he loves you, he loves you. That's who our God is. That's awesome, and He's fair and He's just.

I love this verse in 2nd Timothy 2:13. Sometimes when I read it I think God wrote it specifically for me but I think it involves others too. 2nd Timothy 2:13 says, if we are faithless he remains faithful for he cannot deny himself. You want participate a little bit today? Who by show of hands since becoming a Christian wishes there was something that you could go back and redo in terms of something you thought, said or did?

Okay, let me just read this to you again. If we are faithless he remains faithful for He cannot deny himself. Isn't that good to know? Like there's nobody here that's a 100% faithful. God's faithful, and even when we're not, God still is. That's why at any time we can turn to Him and allow Him to forgive us because in this dispensation mercy and grace are bound.

There's coming a day, these last 30 days are one of those periods of time, there's no mercy and grace. This is just judgment and fury on full display. This is just judgment and fury on full display.

Now this week I was summoned for jury duty, okay. I was summoned for jury duty. Last time I was summoned for jury duty I signed that I was busy. Apparently you can only do that once. So I had four days of jury duty this week. Not allowed to talk about the case but one thing that I know is that the prosecution and the defense made very clear to all of us as potential jurors here's how the American judicial system works. No matter what you've heard, no matter what you've seen, no matter what you've been exposed to the defendant is innocent until proven guilty. It means that nothing that happens outside the courtroom counts for anything. It's only in a court of law that it must be proven. So the prosecution has to bring charges but not only bring charges, they have to show evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that this is exactly what happened. Before you can move to a guilty verdict. If they don't do that, you have to acquit the person. Even if you believe. I bet they probably did it but that prosecutor was terrible. He didn't prove it they go free, okay. If they do prove it, even if you like the person you think they're a great human being, if they prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you have to vote, not guilty, right.

I'll tell you, the court of Jesus Christ works entirely different. The world is not innocent until proven guilty. The world is declared guilty until declared righteous. The world is all guilty before God. There is no one righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

I mean, we love the scripture in John 3:16. It's the most popular scripture even outside the church, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him would not perish, but have eternal life. Praise the Lord. You can come to Christ, no matter how far you've gone. Jesus Christ died to pay for all your sin past, present, and future. Verse 17, for God did not send the son into the world in order to judge the world but in order that the world might be saved through him, love that.

But don't miss verse 18, "he who believes in Him". That's those who have repented and placed their faith in Christ, you've done that. "He who believes in Him is not judged, he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God." It means this, anyone in the world who has not repented and placed their faith and trust in Jesus is already judged. We are objects as children of wrath. The wrath of God is on every single person that hasn't believed in Jesus. Like that's our biggest problem.

So this last Thursday, was in a huge jury room. They call my juror number and asked me a couple of questions 'cause they hadn't talked to me yet. So I got up and kind of preached for about five minutes. Talk to the defendant, talk to the defense, talk to the prosecutor told them I was all praying for them, which I was. And when I got done, one of the attorneys said, "That was really good." And I sat down and the person next to me, the guy next to me said, "Well, you're either on or off now after saying all that." And I really thought I was gonna be on but praise God, I'm not. And so, but at the end of the day, I mean, here's, what's going on. I mean, here's what they're looking for. They're looking for somebody that can be there and be completely objective to what that is, and completely objective to the case.

But for us, we're guilty. I told the defendant, I was praying for him 'cause the biggest problem that the defendant faces is not whether he's guilty. The biggest problem he faces is that he's already guilty and that he needs Jesus. The biggest problem you have in your life is that you're guilty until you get declared righteous. And the good news in this dispensation is even if you are guilty, there doesn't need to be a trial. We already know you're guilty.

What there needs to be is your awareness, your awareness of the fact that you are guilty and come running to Jesus. And anybody that runs to him he will certainly never turn away. There is such mercy and grace in this dispensation. I mean, think about the story of the prodigal son. And what do you see in that story? When he comes home, what does he get? Does he get justice, no way. He gets mercy and grace, he gets hugs and kisses. He gets a banquet thrown and then the father says, there's gonna be a huge party with what? Music and dancing, worship.

Now some denominations have messed up that passage thinking you can't have music and you can't dance. You can have music and dancing. It's a sign of celebration for all that God's going to do and he goes on to say that there's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than over 99 that don't have to. It means that any time in this dispensation if you would turn to the Lord and give Him your heart He will race into your life and give you mercy and grace in everything you're looking for. And everything deep down in your life that you're looking for in this season is Jesus Christ. That's what you came here today for. That's what you're looking for whether you know that or not, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God is faithful, our God is just, amen?

- [Congregation] Amen.

- And now we get to this final one. We celebrate God because He's awesome and He's terrifying. He's awesome and He's terrifying. Awesome means reverence, admiration, it can even involve fear. It's been impressive. We throw the term around about restaurants and people or sports figures, singers they're awesome. That was awesome, that meal was awesome it doesn't help us. There's only one that's awesome in the entire universe, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's awesome and also terrifying. Terrifying means this, extremely frightening, extremely frightening.

Now how can God be awesome and extremely frightening both at the same time? Here's why, 'cause He's God. In the history of the church, there's a pendulum, there's a tension. God's awesome and terrifying all at the same time. But in the church there's a pendulum. Sometimes it swings over here. God is awesome, He's a friend of sinners. Is he a friend of sinners, absolutely he is. Does he give mercy and grace? Absolutely he does. Does he love you no matter what you do if you're a believer? Yeah, he still loves you, he never say. That's who he is.

But sometimes the pendulum swings so far over here where you feel like God's like a benevolent grandfather. And we use terms to describe God like this, the big man in the sky, the man upstairs, you know, the good guy. He's nothing like that. He's holy and He's set apart and He's totally righteous. And sometimes the pendulum swings over here, and we talk about the wrath of God and the fury of God. And we talk about fire and brimstone and we preach sermons like sinners in the hand of an angry God. But it gets so far this way that people don't hear about his love, right.

Where's God, He's right in the tension of all that. He's both of those at the same exact time. Does God love you no matter what you do? Yes, does God hate your sin when you sin? Yes, does God hate your sin when you sin? Yes, is God gonna punish sin? Yes, will God forgive sin? Yes, how does all that? That's who our God is.

And the cross of Jesus Christ shows His love, mercy and justice, all in one place. And it's at the cross that we experience the fullness of who He is. That's why we're called to live the way God wants us to live. That's who He is and that's why we're called to be faithful and just, that's why we're called to see His awesome and terrifying life.

Now listen to this. As we get to chapter 16, I'm gonna go through this really quickly because these verses in chapter 16, these 21 verses, we're gonna read through them fast. Because you're gonna see these seven bowl judgments played out and the reason I'm doing it fast is you're gonna see these happen in rapid succession in the 30 days. When I read chapter 16 I usually try to get a visual picture of my mind. How many have ever watched a Food Network before? You ever see Emeril Lagasse? Do you know who Emeril Lagasse is? Yeah, Emeril Lagasse is a famous cook. He cooks a lot of Cajun food. He speaks to his food. He say, "Feel the love." He does all this, but he has one specific thing he does when he picks up a spice and throws it in. What's he say?

- [Congregation] Bam

- Bam, that's I guess like you're saying, when you see these bowl judgments gonna be bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam seven right away. Nobody's gonna have time to recover during these 30 days. And so let's get into this and see what they are.

He says, "then I heard a voice from the temple saying to the seven angels go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God and here they come. So the first angel went poured out his bowl on the earth and it became a..." I can't say that word. I couldn't say that first service either. "loathsome and malignant soar on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his name". What is that? What a malignant sores? There oozing pissy, dreadful, painful sores.

What's God doing? Said hey, you wanted to worship the beast, you wanted to take his mark, you wanted to celebrate yourself? Let me put something on the body that I created for you so that you'll be reminded that I'm in charge of the body. What's God gonna put on? All these malignant sores. Just, you ever had a pain on your body, ever had a sore on your body? I mean, you can't cover it up with makeup, you can't cover it up with anything, it hurts even if it's under your clothes and nobody sees it. That's what everybody who's taken the mark of the beast is going to have. So the whole world is gonna have these malignant sores.

Then there's a second angel verse three, The second angel poured out his bowl under the sea and it became blood like that of a dead man and every living in the sea died. See represents the oceans. 70% of our earth is oceans. Picture everything in the sea dying and the oceans turning to blood like a dead man, coagulated, thick, gross blood. That's the oceans, that's during the bowl judgments. So right about the time that people are complaining about the fact that they've got all these boils and malignant sores on their skin now what are they doing? Now, the whole ocean, everything in the ocean all the fish and the, they're dead. They're completely dead.

But then there's a third angel verse four, The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters and they became blood. So now all the inland streams, all the rivers, all the lakes, all of those are now blood as well. How valuable will drinking water be at this season? I mean, you can go for about 40 days without food, you can go about about three days without water. I mean maybe a bottle of water will cost I don't know, $5,000. I mean I don't know. But it's gonna be pretty tight market to get water 'cause you can't get any more fresh water. And we already know that there's two witnesses that have been in the world at that time that can stop the rain at anytime they want.

So the world's ecosystem is not working the way that it does and God showing, hey, I'm the one that created you, I'm the one that created the world and I'm showing you that I'm in charge of all of it. And notice what this angel says. I mean, as you hear this, doesn't this sound just horrible? I mean, as I hear this, I'm like this is terrible. This is terrifying, this is awful. Like there's no way you'd ever wanna be on the planet during this.

But notice how the angel says quite a different comment. I heard the angel of the water saying watch this, "Righteous are you?" Hey, good decision God, that's morally excellent. Great job on that one who are, and who were. Why doesn't he say who is to come? Because He's already here. We saw in revelation, chapter 10 the strong mighty angel coming down to planet earth. We saw the seventh trumpet and revelation 11 below the final one, and Jesus is already here on the earth. He was, and He is, He's not his to come. He's already here.

And the angel saying, "Great decision, oh righteous God who was, and who is now." And what does he say, because you judge these things good job. For they poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets and you have given them blood to drink. Hey, you are murdering saints, you are killing the prophets, you are going after all God's people you were splattering their blood, Now you get to drink it. They, and notice what those final, these final three words of that verse are. They deserved it. How about that? He doesn't say God have mercy on them, no. That's not what he says. He says, "They deserve it, they deserve it."

Why don't us believers deserve it because God poured all of his wrath out on His son. And for those who forgot to give his only begotten son for you and for you to reject it, here's what the angel would say. You deserve everything that's coming.

Now that's hard to say from a human standpoint because we all have friends and family members, people that we love, coworkers, students that we have in school. We would never walk up to them and say, if you don't repent God's gonna pour his wrath out on you. And I want to tell you something, you deserve it. That's not the application here.

The application here is that we're gonna continue to share the gospel and hopes it all would come to her knowledge of repentance. That's what God's doing in this dispensation. But when that dispensation is over and these last 30 days are here, and God pours it out, you will be in heaven. Those of you who are believers, listening to the angel, speak these words, they deserve it. And none of you will be up in heaven calling on God, give them mercy, God don't do that. No, that's not what you'll do. You'll agree with the angels, they deserve it because they murdered God's one and only son and were unrepentant in their heart for their sin. That's what's going on. That's how serious this judgment is. It says they deserve it.

And I heard the altar saying, "Yes, oh Lord God, the Almighty true and righteous are your judgments." You're true, you're righteous. Yes, you're totally correct in all that you've done. That's what happens, that's not awesome enough and terrifying enough.

There's a fourth angel verse eight, the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. So this time it's coming on the sun not the waters or humans is coming on the sun. And it was given to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat and they blessed from the name of God who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent as to give Him glory. So this plague goes out on the sun.

Now all of us during winter months where do we wanna be, somewhere warm. Let's go to Hawaii, let's go to Mexico, let's go to Arizona, let's go to south Florida. Let's get around the Palm trees, let's go on a cruise, let's do this. And it's fun if it's 90 to 100, but 175 where you need SPF 6,000, not so fun. So all the people on the earth are now. Not only they have these boils, not only to have no drinking water, but now what? Now the sun is scorching them, and even though God is the one who is in control over these plugs, what are they doing? They're blaspheming the name of God. They're showing God contempt.

And what are they not doing? They're not repenting and giving Him glory. Instead of saying, we give up we're, we're sorry we shouldn't have done this. That they're saying you're a horrible God. You're a horrible God, I hate you. That's what they do. And you've seen it as parents and your kids, when you discipline them sometimes. Sometimes they can receive the discipline. Other times they're mad at you for doing the right thing to them. In the world at this time, here's, what's gonna happen. The world's gonna be angry at father God for what He's pouring out. Even though He's warned them over and over and over and over and this time as they Blasphemy Him, as they refuse to repent it's gonna be completely unrelenting. God's gonna continue to pour out his judgment.

Then there's a fifth angel. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, okay. That's the antichrist throne. And his kingdom became darkened and they nod their tongues because of the pain. So now not only are they experiencing physical sores, water is turning to blood, being scorched by the sun. Now it's completely dark. How terrifying is that going to be? You can't see anything, you can't go anywhere. I mean, it's a horrible 30 days. So worst time on planet earth ever. And what do they do? They blasphemy the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

So now they can't see either. I mean, God's like, hey, light is a gift. Light is a gift. I give light, you don't want me I'll turn the lights off. I'm the one that created the sun. I'm the one that provides all the nutrient. I'm the one that does all that. I'm showing you I'm in charge. We're seeing plagues similar that were poured out during Pharaoh's time. They blasphemy God, they didn't repent of their deeds. I mean, there's this constant theme here that I'm not repenting.

Then we get the sixth angel. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates which is the greatest river in the Middle East. We read about it in Genesis, that Euphrates and the Tigris are two of them we know about. And it's water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the Kings of the East. Now what's the big deal about this? Why is drying up the Euphrates river is such a big deal. Here's why it's a big deal. Think about it the sun is scorching the earth what's going to happen? Polar ice caps are gonna melt, Mount area which is north of the Euphrates river is gonna melt. So the Euphrates river and all these rivers are gonna be exploding and expanding. Breaking up bridges doing all these different things. And what is the rivers filled with, dead life and blood and it's going everywhere.

So you would think that this sixth bowl would be a blessing because it's gonna drive the whole Euphrates river. But that's not a good thing because what it's gonna do is, it's gonna give an invitation for the devil to invite all the Kings of the world, to a place, to try to fight Jesus. Because these people are gonna be like, man this is horrible we got to put Jesus out. We are gonna kill him. Was there ever a time in the world where people wanted to kill Jesus? How well it worked for them. It's not gonna work well this time at all. Jesus died once and for all. The righteous, for the unrighteous to bring you to God, He's not dying again. He rose victoriously forever and ever. He's on the planet and they're gonna come try to fight him.

Notice where we see it, verse 13. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon who is Satan out of the mouth of the beast, who's the antichrist. And out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs for their spirits of demons, performing signs 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. So what's gonna happen, through the deception of the antichrist Satan and the false prophet. All the Kings of the world are gonna assemble north of Jerusalem to come and try to fight Jesus and take them out. That's what they're gonna do. 'Cause Satan isn't given up. So they're gonna get deceived.

Now, when I read this passage, I think how in the world knowing this is written in the Bible. If you're living at this time could you be that dumb to come and assemble? Here's how, because you've been totally deceived. You don't realize that you're coming for slaughter. So all the armies are gonna come. That's why Jesus even gives a warning here. Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see a shame.

I'm telling you right now. You don't wanna be here during the 30 days, repent and believe. I'm telling you you'll be blessed if you do, and notice verse 16. And they gathered them together at the place in Hebrew which is called Har Mageddon. Har means mountain or mount, Mageddon or Mageddon is a place in Israel. I've stood there four different times on Mount Mageddon. It's where all the armies of the world are gonna gather. You can see the planes of the Jezreel valley, you can see all these things. You can see where it's one of the greatest battlegrounds of the world will ever have. Napoleon, thought it was the greatest battleground in the entire world. He said, that was this awesome, there.

All these Kings from all over the world in darkness, without water, with boils on their skin, being scorched by the heat of the sun are gonna come and they're gonna try to battle king Jesus. And it's the battle of Armageddon, we'll talk about it more in the coming weeks of what that battle is actually gonna look like. It's gonna be short, it's gonna be a slaughter and Jesus Christ and his saints are gonna be victorious and it's gonna be awesome, awesome.

Because here's what we see, when Jesus comes back in revelation chapter 10, and steps his foot on the land in the sea, He's gonna start going throughout the Middle East, making his way bringing Israel together, protecting them for that 30 days while they make their way back to Jerusalem. That's what He's doing. As all these bowl judgments are poured out. He's begun to rule and reign and at the end of this bowl judgment he is going to be the king of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And no one's gonna argue with him because notice what happens in verse 17. "Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air and allowed voice everything's loud in the book of revelation. Loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done."

You ever heard those words before? I mean, when Jesus on the cross he said it a little differently. And they originally said it is finished. Meaning paid in full, here He said it is done. We're moving on to a new dispensation. Like the 30 days is over, we're moving forward. Judgment's going to begin. And the millennial rain's about to begin. It is done, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of and there was a great earthquake such as there has not been since man came upon the earth. So great and earthquake was it, and so mighty. I don't know what the greatest recorded earthquake in history is, but multiply that times about 10. It means no matter where you are on planet earth the whole earth is gonna shake. And God is gonna reform different parts of the world to be how he wants Him to be for the millennial kingdom. I mean, everything's gonna move and shift and be exactly like God wants it to be.

And notice what it says next, it says the great city was split into three parts. I take that to be the city of Jerusalem, that's the great city. I also take it that way because it talks about Babylon afterwards. You can go back and read this passage this week, Zachariah chapter 14, verses one through five. We'll tell you a little bit about what's gonna happen. But I'll read verse four to see and get a feel. It says "in that day", talking about Jesus. "His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which is in front of Jerusalem on the East. And the Mount of Olives will be split in its middle from east to west, by a very large valley. So that half of the mountain will move towards the north and the other half toward the south."

I've stood at the Mount of Olives several times. What's gonna happen, many people think when Jesus comes out of sky is gonna land on the Mount of Olives. I don't believe that, I used to believe that. I believe He's going to come and He's gonna make his way through all the Middle East. And we're gonna see his blood as robes splattered with blood as he defeats all of his enemies. And then you're going to see all these Kings of the world come to try to fight Jesus in the Middle East. They're gonna be north of Jerusalem thinking they're gonna come down prior to the final battle which is the battle of Armageddon. Which Jesus wins easy. I mean easy, blow out, right.

And He's gonna bring all of us who are saints with Him to be part of that battle, to watch and see. And it's gonna be amazing. That's what's going on here. When he takes Israel, the remnant that He's protecting which we'll talk about all the way into Jerusalem and steps his foot on the Mount of Olives that will be when there's an earthquake unlike any other. The city will split into three parts. The Mount of Olives, if you were on it half of it would move north, half of it would move south. It's prophesied in Zachariah 14, it's told in revelation chapter 16, I happen to believe that's exactly what's gonna happen.

And notice what else, Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath. When has God ever poured out his fierce wrath on humanity? At the cross. He poured out his fierce wrath on His son. He put it on all his rest wrath for sin on his son. So that for anyone who would repent and believe that He's the Christ, the son living God they could have life and have life in his name. Those who refuse it, instead of the wrath being substituted on his son, guess who the rafts coming on, you.

Babylon the great represents all the cities of the world that are refusing to believe in Jesus. When this earthquake happens in Jerusalem guess what's going on here? New York just fell, Los Angeles just fell. Denver just fell, every city of the world is absolutely crushed because every city of the world is not worshiping the Lord, is done for that's what's going on. And every, notice what it says "and every island fled away in the mountains were not found. If you have a ticket to Hawaii, you just got it canceled. And there is no more islands. You're looking for Pike's peak. You're gonna go hike a fourteener, that's gone. Mountains aren't found anymore. Jesus has just leveled the entire planet and put it back just the way that he wanted.

And it says in huge hailstones, about 100 pounds each. These hailstones in the original states about a town, which is like 100 to 130 pounds. Came down from heaven upon men, and men blaspheme from God because of the plague of the hail because its plague was extremely severe. Now you've heard weathermen talk about golf ball size hail, maybe baseball size hail. Maybe sometimes softball size hail. You ever hear anybody talk about 100 pound hail? It would do some serious damage. It would be severe. But even as all these things are happening knowing God's in control of all the world and all the ecosystem, what are they doing? They're blaspheming God, and they refuse to repent.

You say, how can people do that? Here's how, because if you harden your heart towards God you will end up in that place. So the Bible says today if you hear the Lord's voice, do not harden your heart. I'm speaking very soberly to some of you here today who have been coming to Brave or maybe this is your first time in church in a long time. And you're thinking, yeah, I'm gonna think about this. Maybe I'll get it right down the road, maybe I'll I'll get right with God later. You may not have a chance later.

When you hear his voice today and you're like, yeah, maybe later it gets harder and it gets harder and it gets harder. And it gets harder to hear. If God's telling you repent and believe, repent and believe I'm telling you on the authority of God's word, it's the greatest thing that you can ever do. And while God loves you and loves you and loves you, He's not gonna change his standards of righteousness and holiness for you. There's only one way to God. It's through the cross and it's through repentance and faith. And I'm urging you come to Him today.

And for those of you that do know him, for those of you that do love him, can you celebrate his character? Can you celebrate that this is our awesome God, can you celebrate that when this world in its current state does come to the end and God recreates it all and makes it a beautiful place for all of us who have known Him and loved him. And the utopia that we've always wanted is going to be there. That we'll be worshiping Him and telling him that everything He's ever done is perfect and right and good. Our God is awesome, amen.

So I just wanna invite you to stand as we close in prayer today. And if you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus now is your time. If you're watching online or listening on the radio, pull your car over and pray this prayer. Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm separated from you. I know your wrath is destined for me, but I believe that you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross for my sin. Who paid for all of my sin past, present and future who rose from the grave. And right now I'm repenting my sins, I turn to you by faith as my Lord and savior, come into my life and save me.

And for those of you who know the Lord may you experience his grace upon measure, greater than ever before and may you give Him praise for his marvelous character in the mighty name of Jesus, Amen. Can we give God praise this morning?