{"id":18975,"date":"2019-01-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-027-creator-and-judge\/"},"modified":"2019-01-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T06:00:00","slug":"revelation-027-creator-and-judge","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-027-creator-and-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 027 – Creator and Judge"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18975","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 027 - Creator and Judge","sermon_date":"20190127","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6395,"sermon_slides":6396,"sermon_mp3":6398,"sermon_id":"127191514376353","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"8:1-13","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nCreator and Judge\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 1-27-19\n\nRevelation 8:1-13\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 27\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take our Bibles, if we could, and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 8 , beginning at verse 1.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is God is Creator and Judge.\u00a0 As you\u2019re turning there I want to highlight next week, we\u2019re going to have a guest speaker, his name is Dr. Thomas Ice, sort of a mentor of mine.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to be teaching Sunday School part one and the sermon, part two, which is the end time program, catch this, revealed in the Book of Deuteronomy.\u00a0 You may not look at the Book of Deuteronomy like that but you\u2019re going to come next week and learn some things from him that you probably have never heard anybody talk about.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard him give this presentation and it\u2019s outstanding and I\u2019m happy he\u2019s going to be here next week, along with his wife, Janice.\u00a0 And I also guarantee this, you won\u2019t be bored because I think Tommy probably if he wasn\u2019t a theologian he could get a job as a standup comic in Las Vegas, one of those type of shows\u2026 you know.\u00a0 So anyway, you\u2019ll hear him and you\u2019ll say I\u2019ve never heard anybody teach quit like him; but at the same time you\u2019re going to be getting some great content.\n\nHere we are in the Book of Revelation, we have completed the seal judgments, seal number 6 has been opened.\u00a0 You remember the seal judgments, the antichrist has come forward, war, famine, death, martyrdoms, cosmic disturbances, as God is revealing to us the end.\u00a0 And every time\u00a0 you hit a 6 in the Book of Revelation\u00a0 you have to sort of get your bearings because when there\u2019s a 6 there\u2019s going to be what I would call a lunch break; it\u2019s an insertion into the chronology that sort of stops the chronology.\u00a0 It\u2019s designed to answer a question that\u2019s preceded it and tell us also what\u2019s coming.\n\nAnd the question at the end of chapter 6, given the severity of the seal judgments\u00a0 is who can stand. What happens in between chapter 6 and chapter 7 is a momentary pause in the action answering the question who can stand?\u00a0 Answer, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who will blanket the world with the gospel during this terrible time of judgment.\u00a0 And essentially what happens once these chrono\u00adlogical non-chronological insertions are over is the vision will just kind of pick up where it left off.\u00a0 So it left us off with seal judgment number 6, and so chapter 8 picks up where it left off with seal judgment number 7.\n\nYou might kind of think about these insertions sort of like Genesis 1 and Genesis 2.\u00a0 Genesis 1, really chapter 1, verse 1 all the way through chapter 2, verse 3, gives\u00a0 you the whole seven days of creation, six days of creation, God resting on the seventh day.\u00a0 And you might be saying to yourself well, since man was created on day six I sure would like to know a little bit more about day six.\u00a0 So Genesis 2 stops the chronology and gives\u00a0 you a whole bunch of information, not rehashing the whole chronology of the creation week but focusing specifically on day six, Adam and Eve, the tree of life, the tree of knowledge, the Garden of Eden and all of these kinds of things.\n\nAnd then once\u00a0 you\u2019re finished with Genesis 2 you get right back on the chronology path and the chronology keeps marching forward.\u00a0 That\u2019s how the Book of Revelation is set up.\u00a0 It will take you chronologically through these judgments until you hit a six and it\u2019ll pause and give you sort of a different perspective on it and then once that\u2019s over it continues to march in terms of chronology.\u00a0 So here we are with seal judgment number six which has not yet transpired.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll find that seal judgment in chapter 8, verses 1-6.\n\nNotice what it says in verse 1, \u201cWhen the Lamb\u201d notice Jesus is opening these seals, \u201cWhen the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.\u201d\u00a0 So you\u2019ll notice that we have silence and the silence is sort of preparatory for the judgment that\u2019s coming because as I\u2019ll be showing you as we move into these verses that it\u2019s during this seventh seal that the trumpets are actually unleashed.\u00a0 So we have a tendency to think of silence as some kind of non-judgment but the reality of the situation is silence is actually the greatest judgment because it\u2019s foreboding judgment about to come, judgments in fact that are even more severe than the prior judgments that we have already studied.\n\nAnd we also noticed something else about God, is prior to the manifestation of judgment God is very good at pausing the action to give humanity an opportunity to rethink in terms of repentance why these judgments are happening.\u00a0 Before God sends judgment in the Bible what you\u2019ll discover is He sends a grace period, a time of warning.\u00a0 You might remember back in Revelation 2:21 the woman named Jezebel in the church at Thyatira, and how the Lord moved into that particular church with discipline.\u00a0 And it says there, Revelation 2:21, concerning Jezebel, \u201c'I gave her time to repent, and she does not want to repent of her immorality.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me that in the days of Noah, before God sent the great deluge that covered the entire earth there was, according to Genesis 6:3, 120 years of grace where Noah, a preacher of righteousness, 2 Peter 2:5, was no doubt warning about things to come.\u00a0 [Genesis 6:3, \u201cThen the LORD said, \u2018My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 2 Peter 2:5, \u201cand did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;\u201d]\n\nThis is why 1 Peter 3:20 talks about how \u201cthe patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah.\u201d\u00a0 [1 Peter 3:20, \u201cwho once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.\u201d]\u00a0 A grace period before judgment.\n\nAnd you know, it\u2019s sort of true in our lives, there are things that the Lord would have us root out of our lives before the consequences show up, before His hand moves in sometimes with discipline, to our betterment.\u00a0 I remember when I was very young, I liked to climb on things and I found myself at one time climbing up a telephone pole, it had those spikes on the sides, we had one right out there by our backyard, and I would start to kind of pull myself up and I got pretty high and my dad could see what I was doing and he knew what was going to happen if I touched that wire at the top, I had no concept of it, and so he shouted out to me, \u201cAndrew,\u201d now when he said \u201cAndrew\u201d I knew I was in trouble because my name is Andy but my full name is Andrew, what he was doing is he was giving me a warning because I really didn\u2019t understand what I was about to do to myself had I just succeeded in climbing to the top of that telephone pole.\n\nGod is the same way in his work with us.\u00a0 Could it be that God is shouting out your name as we speak, and He is wanting you to correct something in your life under His power so that the consequences won\u2019t come, His disciplinary hand won\u2019t come.\u00a0 And God is doing the same thing, I believe, through this silence here with the seven seal trumpet judgment in the Book of Revelation as the earth is being given an opportunity to sort of reflect on what\u2019s happening with the prospect of stopping these horrific judgments.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice there in verse 2, Revelation chapter 8 and verse 2 it says, \u201cAnd I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were given to them.\u201d\u00a0 Now we have the entrance of the trumpet judgments.\u00a0 See with the seal judgments every time a seal was opened by the Lamb, Jesus Christ, a judgment came to the earth as that seven seal scroll, the title deed to the earth, Revelation 5, was being opened.\n\nAnd now we learn about seven angels who are now going to be used as the hands of God, if you will, to bring further judgments to the earth. Every time a trumpet sounds by an angel another judgment will begin to manifest itself on planet earth.\u00a0 And so you\u2019ll notice that this silence is interesting because this silence is now triggering the seven trumpet judgments that are coming.\u00a0 And that becomes a major clue for us, if you will, because a lot of people are sort of lost as to how to organize these judgments in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 We have the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, and the bowl judgments.\u00a0 The seal judgments, Revelation 6. The trumpet judgments, Revelation 8 and 9 primarily.\u00a0 Bowl judgments, Revelation 16.\u00a0 How do you organize these?\u00a0 I mean, are these all happening at the same time?\u00a0 Is this simultaneous?\u00a0 Is it concurrent?\n\nAnd I believe the right understanding is to look at these judgments a lot like a telescope pulling out because the seventh seal will unleash the trumpets which will unfold chronologically, and when we get to the seventh trumpet there\u2019ll be another moment of silence because the bowl judgments are about to be opened.\u00a0 \u00a0And every time you get to a six, just think lunch break, because in between a six and a seven there\u2019s going to be a momentary pause in the chronology as we have seen.\n\nTake a look at Revelation 8 and notice if you will verses 3-4, still of course in chapter 8, \u201cAnother angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne.\u201d Verse 4, \u201cand the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel\u2019s hand.\u201d\u00a0 And here is where we\u2019re introduced to another angel.\u00a0 Now this is not an angel with each angel blowing one of the seven trumpets; this would be a different angel, another angel, and this angel is portrayed as bringing a censer with incense which goes up as smoke or incense before the Lord.\u00a0 And verses 3 and 4 sort of add to this idea that just as incense, in terms of smoke, goes up into the presence of the Lord in His throne room, this is how God looks at the prayers of the saints.\n\nI mean, how much does God value prayer on the part of His people?\u00a0 He sees it as actually smoke from incense in the form of worship arising before Him.\u00a0 This is not the first time in the Book of Revelation that we\u2019ve seen this sort of imagery.\u00a0 You might recall we saw the same thing back in Revelation 5, where it talks about a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.\u00a0 And we might ask ourselves, what kinds of prayers is God listening to here?\u00a0 Which kinds of prayers is God receiving?\u00a0 Which kinds of prayers is God valuing?\n\nNo doubt many of these prayers have to do with seal judgment five where we had massive martyr\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00addoms in Revelation 6:9-11.\u00a0 [\u201cWhen 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; [10] and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, \u201cHow long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?\u201d [11] 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<\/em> their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.\u201d Revelation 6:9-11]\n\nYou recall the martyrs under the altar once they were killed and when into the presence of the Lord.\u00a0 Remember them beneath the throne, beneath the altar I should say, calling out to the Lord and saying to the Lord,\u00a0 how long until you avenge us.\u00a0 Perhaps these are the prayers that are referenced here in Revelation 8.\u00a0 And beyond that there\u2019s a prayer that believers have been praying for a long time.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019ve probably been praying for an answer to this specific request for the last 2,000 years; it\u2019s in the so-called Lord\u2019s prayer, where the Lord was teaching His disciples how to pray and do you recall how that prayer began?\u00a0 Matthew 6:10, \u201cThy kingdom\u201d what? \u201ccome.\u201d\u00a0 Christians have been praying that for 2,000 years.\u00a0 What is the Book of Revelation about?\u00a0 It\u2019s an answer to that prayer because as we work our way through this chronology eventually we\u2019re going to get to Revelation 20 where God\u2019s kingdom at the end of the seven year tribulation period will have manifested itself on planet earth.\n\nRevelation 11:15, \u201c\u2026The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.\u201d\u00a0 The prayer, although uttered for 2,000 years seemingly without an answer, is answered in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 I think we under estimate greatly the power of prayer, the importance of prayer, the receptivity of God to prayer.\u00a0 One of the greatest acts of faith you can ever engage in as a Christian is to pray.\u00a0 And the reason it\u2019s an act of faith is you don\u2019t really know if God is answering or not, is He listening?\u00a0 We don\u2019t get sometimes an immediate result and we think well, why bother with the process.\u00a0 But a Scripture like this about smoke arising to heaven, and that\u2019s how God views the prayers of the saints, it\u2019s a reminder of how significant prayer is, how prayer itself in the timing of God can actually move the hands of the Creator.\u00a0 Think about that!!! Little old me, little old you, we have an ability to actually move God\u2019s hand as we pray for His purposes within His will.\n\nThe Book of Hebrews, chapter 4, verses 15-16 says this.\u00a0 \u201cFor we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet<\/em> without sin. [16] Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.\u201d\u00a0 Does that characterize your life?\u00a0 Does that characterize my life?\u00a0 Does that characterize our lives?\u00a0 Do we take advantage of this tremendous privilege that we have in Christ to go into His throne by way of prayer and petition God\u2019s Almighty.\u00a0 The Book of James, chapter 5:16 says \u201cThe effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.\u201d [KJV]\u00a0 There is much more accomplished during those times of prayer unto God than we can possibly even imagine or fathom because we really have not understood the complete picture of the value of God, the value God places on the whole topic or the subject of prayer.\u00a0 God, make us people of prayer should be our prayer for our own individual lives and hear at Sugar Land Bible Church.\n\nYou move down to verse 5 and it says this, \u201cthe angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s some kind of heavenly scene of judgment, lightning, thunder and an earthquake.\u00a0 I believe these things are heavenly, taking place in the heavens because during this half hour of silence these things are foreboding what the earth is about to experience.\u00a0 We saw that heavenly foreboding, you might remember, all the way back in Revelation 4:5, before any judgments came to the earth it says this: \u201cOut from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.\u201d\u00a0 So a tremendous foreboding during this half hour of silence of what is about to manifest itself as each angel sounds a trumpet at a different time bringing God\u2019s judgment to the earth.\n\nAnd notice, if you will, verse 6, chapter 8, \u201cAnd the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of interesting to me that before an instrument is ever used by God there\u2019s a time of preparation.\u00a0 God does not just take His instruments and sort of randomly, with no preparation, toss them out to use.\u00a0 Even these angels are preparing themselves.\u00a0 And God wants to use me, He wants to use you but so many times we\u2019re unwilling to submit to the preparation process.\u00a0 Everybody wants to be used by God but you start looking at the number of believers that want to be prepared by God to be used by God and suddenly that number starts to shrink.\n\nCould it be that God is preparing you right now for something that He wants to do in and through your life?\u00a0 Could it be that the sickness or the difficulty or the disability or the setback or the heartbreak that you\u2019re in right now God wants to use, because He knows that two years down the road, five years down the road, ten years down the road, someone is going to come along your path with the identical problem and you\u2019re going to know exactly how to minister to that person.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the most effective ministers are those that have walked in the very valley that they\u2019re ministering to as others walk through that same valley.\u00a0 And I would just challenge you in the midst of the valley that you may be in to submit yourself to the preparatory process. Don\u2019t see it as some kind of unwanted, unneeded suffering. God doesn\u2019t waste anything in our lives.\u00a0 And so let\u2019s submit to Him as we prepare to be used by Him.\n\nWe move to Revelation 8:7 and now we see the first trumpet is sounded.\u00a0 Notice verse 7, \u201cThe first\u201d that would be the angel, \u201csounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.\u201d\u00a0 Trumpet one has sounded and we have a destruction that comes now after this half hour silence is over to a third part of the earth, a third of the trees, a third of the grass.\u00a0 And you say well, who does God think He is judging this planet. We know exactly who He is, He\u2019s the Creator.\u00a0 We saw that, did we not, at the end of Revelation 4.\u00a0 In fact, you recall Revelation 4:11, the heavenly scene.\u00a0 \u201cWorthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.\u201d\n\nGod, according to Revelation 4\u00a0 has every right to judge this world, to judge this planet because the planet owes its very existence to God.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting here it talks about how God brought judgment to the earth and the trees and the grass.\u00a0 Aren\u2019t those the very things that God Himself created on the third creation day?\u00a0 Genesis 1:9-13.\u00a0 [Genesis 1:9-13, \u201cThen God said, \u201cLet the waters below the heavens be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear\u201d; and it was so. [10] God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. [11] Then God said, \u201cLet the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and<\/em> fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their kind with seed in them\u201d; and it was so. [12] The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good. [13] There was evening and there was morning, a third day.\u201d]\n\nAnd you say well how exactly is God going to do this?\u00a0 How is He going to bring these judgments, these terrible trumpet judgments.\u00a0 And many people are very imaginative in their interpretations; some, and very good people believe this, that God is going to somehow use nuclear weapons to destroy the world.\u00a0 It is interesting to me that when John had this revelation how were the worlds wars, up to that point in time, fought?\u00a0 I mean, how were they fought up to the advent of modern day technology?\u00a0 Later would come canons and cannon balls but you have swords and\u00a0 you have a little bit later bows and arrows, and things of this nature.\u00a0 And John probably was scratching his head, those are lethal weapons to be sure but they\u2019re not capable of doing the type of mass destruction, the eradication of half of the world\u2019s population when we get to Revelation 9, that the prophecy was indicating as he was seeing these things.\n\nSo it is interesting to me to note that here we are in the twenty-first century with all of these chemical weapons, atomic weapons, nuclear weapons and we have the capacity to destroy the world\u2019s population completely from the earth several times over.\u00a0 And you say well, does God need nuclear weapons?\u00a0 I mean, how is this going to work, is He just going to let mad\u00a0 men have their way and suddenly their hand is on the button and the bombs are flying?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know exactly how all of this is going to happen but it\u2019s a possibility.\n\nBut let me reveal something else to you if I could; God doesn\u2019t need nuclear weapons to do anything. The last time I checked He did a pretty good job on Sodom and Gomorrah, Genesis 19:24.\u00a0 [Genesis 19:24, \u201cThen the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven, [25] and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t think He needed nukes for that?\u00a0 Does God allow man, in his evil mind, to actually misuse these weapons of mass destruction that man\u2019s wickedness has created?\u00a0 Maybe God does; maybe He removes the restraint.\u00a0 But then again, God is more than capable of bringing judgments of this nature with no indirect help from the weapons of man.\n\nNotice that the first trumpet is sounded and essentially what happens is a third of the earth\u2019s vegetation is destroyed.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, trumpet number 2, verses 8 and 9, \u201cThe second angel sounded, and something<\/u><\/em> like<\/u> a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,\u201d verse 9, \u201cand a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.\u201d\u00a0 What is this talking about?\u00a0 This is talking about a nuclear bomb, sort of flying and dropping and hitting the ocean and spreading radioactive contamination to a third of the ocean.\u00a0 Maybe that\u2019s what it is, I\u2019m not sure.\u00a0 I find it very interesting though that in verse 8 John says \u201csomething like,\u201d a simile, it\u2019s the Greek word hos<\/em>, and sometimes he says \u201clike\u201d not just \u201cas\u201d but \u201clike\u201d he uses the word homios<\/em>, and he keeps saying this all the way through the book, something as, something like. Why does John keep saying that?\u00a0 Because John, on the island of Patmos in the first century was given a very, very difficult assignment.\u00a0 He was, according to Revelation 1:11, he was to follow a command, \u201cWrite in a book what you see.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:11, \u201csaying, \u2018Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.\u201d]\n\nSo he can\u2019t use the expression atomic bomb, nuclear bomb, radiation, if that indeed is what\u2019s happening here, I\u2019m not completely sure it is, but assuming it is how could John say that?\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t have the vocabulary for it that we have in the twenty-first century so he just keeps saying\u00a0 \u201clike\u201d and he\u2019s analogizing it to something from his own time period.\u00a0 It would be like taking Benjamin Franklin from the 18th<\/sup> century and all of a sudden putting him in Bush International Airport. How could he explain the things that he saw?\u00a0 How could he explain someone looking at their flight reservations on their cell phone.\u00a0 How could he explain someone\u2019s voice coming over the loud speaker?\u00a0 How could he explain a jet airliner receiving fuel and landing and taking off.\u00a0 He wouldn\u2019t have any vocabulary for that so he would just keep saying it was \u201clike\u201d and he would analogize is to something from his own time period.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice that when this particular judgment hits we have a third of the earth\u2019s ocean destroyed.\u00a0 And that judgment is so severe, verse 9, that it damages a third of the sea creatures, a third of the ship.\u00a0 [Revelation 8:9, \u201cand a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.\u201d]\u00a0 And we say who does God think He is destroying the ocean and destroying the sea creatures within the ocean. Well, I\u2019ll tell you who God is, He\u2019s the same One that brought the ocean into existence, day two of the creation week.\u00a0 He is the exact same one who brought these sea creatures into existence, day five of the creation week.\n\nYou see, that\u2019s why we\u2019ve entitled this sermons Creator and Judge.\u00a0 God has the absolute right and this has been demonstrated in Revelation 4, to bring these judgments because the creation itself wouldn\u2019t exist without Him.\u00a0 And what does man do with the revelation of God?\u00a0 Romans 1, he worships the creation rather than who?\u00a0 The Creator. \u00a0[Romans 1:5, \u201cThey exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.\u201d]\n\nWorshipping the creation rather than the Creator is what\u2019s dominant today in what you call militant environmentalism.\u00a0 I\u2019m not necessarily against environmentalism and being a good steward of the earth as long as it\u2019s biblically focused and directed in the right way.\u00a0 But you see so much teaching today on the environment looks at the environment as if it\u2019s what called Gaia, which is an idea that the earth itself is some sort of deity and some sort of god and it\u2019s this idea that we need to treat the earth respectfully or it\u2019s somehow going to retaliate against us through tsunami\u2019s and earthquakes and famines and things like this\u2026 Mother Earth theology!\u00a0 What\u2019s the problem with it?\u00a0 It\u2019s worshipping the creation rather than the Creator.\n\nAnd you can see, you can imagine mankind enmeshed in earth worship in these last days, angrily sticking their finger in God\u2019s face and pointing to Him and saying how dare You disrupt the planetary balance.\u00a0 And yet the reality is God has every right to do it because the planets and the planetary balance and everything that we enjoy in this world wouldn\u2019t even exist had it not been for the hand of God.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice here in trumpet judgment two something that was in trumpet judgment one, you\u2019ll notice it says \u201ca third.\u201d\u00a0 Now when we get to the bowl judgments, assuming we get there before the rapture, what it will say in Revelation 16:3 concerning the destruction of the ocean, it will say this: \u201cThe second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.\u201d\u00a0 You see what\u2019s happening here?\u00a0 The judgments move from a third of the ocean, Revelation 8, to by the time you get to the end of the Book of Revelation, chapter 16, and now it\u2019s all the ocean.\n\nYou say what is happening?\u00a0 God is progressively turning up the temperature, that\u2019s what\u2019s happening.\u00a0 Yes, He\u2019s giving people an opportunity to repent and many do, but as humanity continues on and on and on in its rebellion and its stubbornness against God, God keeps turning up the thermostat, He keeps turning up the temperature and the judgments get more and more severe as the human heart grows colder and colder and colder.\u00a0 Now we\u2019re not just dealing with a third of the earth or a third of the ocean; now we\u2019re dealing with all of the ocean and if you\u2019re a careful student of the Word of God you\u2019ll discern that that\u2019s exactly how God dealt with Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus.\u00a0 God said through Moses to Pharaoh, \u201cLet My people go\u201d and how easy that would have been on Pharaoh, just to comply with the directives of God.\u00a0 And you know the story, \u201che hardened his heart,\u201d I think it says it about six or seven times, \u201che hardened his heart\u201d \u00a0so what did God do?\u00a0 The judgments got worse, progressively worse.\u00a0 In fact, early on in those ten judgments in the Book of Exodus Pharaoh\u2019s magicians were able to imitate some of them until the plague of the gnats, I think it was, emerged and finally the Egyptian magicians said this is the hand of God, no one can imitate these judgments.\n\nThat\u2019s the type of thing that\u2019s happening and this relates to the nature of God, His unwillingness to bring judgment, His desire to give humanity every possible opportunity to change\u00a0 under His grace.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll get to the end of Revelation 9, trumpet judgment number 6, and it\u2019s a bold and cold testimony to the hardness of the human heart and consequently the judgments start to become more and more severe.\n\nIt is also interesting to me to note that God attacks the very things people worship.\u00a0 Why did God bring flies and gnats and frogs and why did He turn the Nile to blood red and why did He destroy all of the firstborn within Egypt?\u00a0 Well, everything we know about Egyptology and archeological remains from that time period show us very clearly that those are the things the Egyptians worshipped.\u00a0 And says do you like frogs?\u00a0 Do you worship frogs?\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you what I\u2019ll do, I\u2019ll give you so many frogs you won\u2019t know what to do with them.\u00a0 And you don\u2019t think there\u2019s a little bit of divine sarcasm in all of this?\u00a0 And what you\u2019ll discover when you study the Egyptian plagues is every single one of them was designed to mock an Egyptian deity and to show man the foolishness of worshiping the creation rather than the Creator.\n\nAnd just think about that the next time you\u2019re Jr. High School student comes home talking about how their teacher told them that we need to be respectful to the earth and worship the earth and they\u2019re giving you all of this Gaia Mother Earth theology.\u00a0 They\u2019re taking living attributes, like calling the earth our mother, and assigning them to an inanimate object, the earth.\u00a0 And just remember Revelation 8; remember Revelation 16 the next time you hear these things because it\u2019s a testimony of who really is in charge here.\u00a0 The earth is not in charge, the earth has never been in charge.\u00a0 God Himself is in charge!\n\nSo trumpet one, a third of the education is destroyed. Trumpet two, a third of the ocean is destroyed.\u00a0 We move into trumpet three, notice Revelation 8:10-11, and here it\u2019s not just the ocean, a third of it, that becomes poisonous or uninhabitable, now God goes back to the fresh water supply.\u00a0 Revelation 8:10-11, notice what it says.\u00a0 [10<\/a>] \u201cThe third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like\u201d see the simile there, \u201cburning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters.\u201c\u00a0 So a third of the rivers, a third of the springs, fresh water supply, is now damaged.\u00a0 Verse 11, \u201cThe name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.\u201d\n\nWhat is Wormwood?\u00a0 The Ryrie Study Bible gives me a little bit of help here, on the note in verse 11 it defines Wormwood as follows.\u00a0 \u201cMany species of wormwood, a woody herb, grow in the land of Israel and have a strong and bitter\u201d now he says not poisonous, \u201ctaste which causes the plants to be used as a symbol of bitterness and sorrow and calamity.\u00a0 This plague will make a third part of the fresh water supply of the earth unfit for human consumption.\u201d\u00a0 The audience knew about bitterness in water; apparently, if Ryrie\u2019s Study note is correct the type of wormwood or bitterness he\u2019s talking about was not poisonous but it looks like God has upped the game here.\u00a0 It looks to me like it is poisonous in this third trumpet judgment as anybody who drinks from it is killed.\u00a0 It says \u201cmany men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.\u201d\n\nYou worship water, take a look at your ocean.\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ve got the fresh water left.\u00a0 Take a look at that, a third of it is gone.\u00a0 God says I\u2019m just going to keep turning up the temperature until I get the result I want from the earth dwellers or the inhabitants of the earth.\n\nAnd that moves into trumpet judgment number four where now a third of the luminaries are darkened, the sun, and the moon, and the stars.\u00a0 Take a look if you could at Revelation 8, notice verses 12-13.\u00a0 Notice what it says, \u201cThe fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.\u201d\u00a0 Now God takes aim at a third of the sun, (s-u-n), a third of the moon, and a third of the starts.\n\nNow it is interesting that when we get to the bowl judgments, in bowl judgment number 5 it will not just a third, it will be all of the luminaries will be darkened.\u00a0 Revelation 16:10 says, \u201cThen the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain.\u201d\u00a0 You see some divine sarcasm here in the darkening of the human race physically?\u00a0 Do you like darkness?\u00a0 Do you reject Jesus Christ, the light of the world?\u00a0 Then I\u2019ll give you physical darkness as well.\u00a0 In fact, the physical darkness that I\u2019ll bring to your world will be commensurate or equal with the spiritual darkness that you\u2019re already in because you\u2019ve rejected My Son.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that Jesus mentioned earlier is called \u201cthe light of the world.\u201d\u00a0 And how desperately we need the light of Jesus Christ because over in John\u2019s Gospel, chapter 3:19-21 we have this very telling statement and it says this, as Christ is speaking. \u201cThis is the judgment, that the Light\u201d that\u2019s Christ, \u201chas come into the world,\u201d and you would think with light coming into the world men would just say praise God, light is here.\u00a0 It\u2019s like you\u2019re out camping and one of your flashlights goes out and you\u2019re just such a mess because you can\u2019t see and you can\u2019t find your way around and you\u2019re tripping over things and stumbling over things and somebody suddenly remembers that in your cell phone there\u2019s a flashlight and\u00a0 you turn it on\u2026 oh, praise the Lord!\u00a0\u00a0 I mean you would think that with the darkness the world has been in ever since the fall in Eden that Jesus would show up, you would think that the human race would just embrace Jesus because now they have a sense of light.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not what people do.\n\nJohn 3:19-21 says, This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light,\u201d why would they do that? \u201cfor their deeds were evil. [20] For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. [21] But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.\u201d\u00a0 The Light is sort of uninviting to people because light, by its very nature, exposes.\u00a0 This is why Jesus is pushed out of places.\u00a0 I mean, we pushed Him out of our school system a long time ago.\u00a0 May God help us, He\u2019s being pushed out of, in some cases, many of our own churches.\n\nI mean, it\u2019s completely possible today to go to church and never hear the name Jesus, never even open\u00a0 your Bible, because Jesus by His very nature as the Light of the World, is an expose on the darkness of humanity.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet to be healed in God how necessary that light is, so that we can see things for what they are. We shouldn\u2019t run from light, we should gravitate to the light. And yet humanity has not done that and Jesus says okay, you\u2019ve rejected spiritual life, let\u2019s see how well you do with a lack of physical life now.\n\nI mean, the physical darkness is going to match very well your already corrupted condition.\u00a0 I mean, isn\u2019t it a bit of divine sarcasm that the antichrist\u2019s empire, the ultimate darkness that will come to this world in Revelation 16 is going to end in darkness?\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s divine sarcasm, that\u2019s God mocking creation, who thinks they can rebel against God.\u00a0 Do you recall Psalm 2 where the nations are conspiring against God.\u00a0\u00a0 Do you recall the response of God, Psalm 2?\u00a0 It\u2019s a short psalm, you should go home and read it.\n\n[Psalm 2, \u201cWhy are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?\u00a0 [2] The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, [3] \u2018Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!\u2019\u00a0 [4] He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.\u00a0 [5] Then He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury, saying, [6] \u201cBut as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.\u00a0 [7] I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: \u00a0Today I have begotten You.\u00a0 [8] \u2018Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, and the very<\/em> ends of the earth as Your possession.\u00a0 [9] You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 [10] Now therefore, O kings, show discernment; Take warning, O judges of the earth.\u00a0 [11] Worship the LORD with reverence and rejoice with trembling. [12] Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in<\/em> the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. \u00a0How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!\u201d\n\nIt talks about He who is \u201cin the heavens laughs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 God just scoffs at it because it is so ridiculous \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to see this little group of ants rebel against God and\u00a0 yet we would prefer many times to stay in \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the darkness.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because we love our sin, let\u2019s be honest.\u00a0 If there wasn\u2019t a certain enjoyment in sin we would never do it.\u00a0 Btu we don\u2019t see the consequences that are coming physically and spiritually and so God, in love, tries to move us away from lifestyles of sin. And frankly, people don\u2019t want to hear it.\n\nAnd I\u2019ll remind us also\u00a0 of this, what did the Lord say in the Sermon on the Mount?\u00a0 Matthew 5:13-16?\u00a0 He didn\u2019t just say you are the salt of the earth but you are the light of the world.\u00a0 [Matthew 5:13-16, \u201cYou are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?<\/em> It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.\u00a0 14] You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; [15] nor does anyone<\/em> light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. [16] \u201cLet your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.\u201d]\n\nThis is why you\u2019re resistant all of the time,\u00a0 you start shining the love and light of Jesus Christ and we think goodness gracious, everybody in my family is just going to love what I am giving out here, and it\u2019s not true.\u00a0 My country will love what I\u2019m giving out, my church will love it and it\u2019s just not true because light by definition exposes\u2026 and if you open yourself up as a vessel of God to be\u00a0 used as His instrument of light those in darkness won\u2019t like it.\u00a0 And this is why Christian martyrdoms are what they are in our world.\n\nSo here in verse 12 light itself is decreased by a third.\u00a0 Again, getting some help here from the Ryrie Study Bible. Ryrie, on verse 12, says, \u201cThis could mean\u201d about this judgment, the fourth trumpet judgment, \u201cThis could mean that the twenty-four hour cycle of the day and night will be darkened sixteen hours, reducing it by a third in other words, or that the power of the sun and the moon and the stars will be reduced by a third,\u201d that\u2019s a possibility as well, or it could mean this, that the debris from the other judgments are so severe that from the perspective of the earth it looks like a third of the luminaries have been darkened.\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m not exactly sure how all of this is going to happen but I know this much:\u00a0 A.\u00a0 It won\u2019t be pleasant and B. God has a right to do it.\n\nYou say well why does God have a right to do it?\u00a0 Who exactly put the sun and the moon and the stars in the heavens on day four of the creation week?\u00a0 God did that, and if He is the Creator He has every single right to be the judge of the creation that He Himself has made.\n\nWhat do people do in history?\u00a0 They worship the creation rather than the Creator. They worship the sun; go through your Ancient Near East literature background; archeology.\u00a0 What is everybody worshiping?\u00a0 The sun.\u00a0 Not the s-o-n son, that\u2019s what they should be worshipping, they\u2019re worshipping the sun, the s-u-n, because that is part of the depravity of the human heart, to worship a thing rather than the God that made that thing.\u00a0 We\u2019d rather worship an inanimate object that has no life in it than an animate object, God, who brought that very object into existence.\u00a0 And it is very interesting to me to note that light comes into existence in Genesis 1:3, that\u2019s on day one of creation. \u201cThen God said, \u2018Let there be light\u2019; and there was light.\u201d\u00a0 But wait a minute, I thought you said that the luminaries, the sun and the moon and the stars, Genesis 1:14-18 didn\u2019t come into existence until day four of the creation week.\u00a0 So how can you have light on day one when you don\u2019t have a sun (s-u-n) until day four.\u00a0 The answer is very simple when you study the biblical chronology. God designed it this way to show humanity that He does not need the sun, s-u-n. God can generate light in an instant.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0 your Bible says, I believe it\u2019s in 1 Timothy 6, there\u2019s also a reference in 1 John, that God Himself is clothed in unapproachable light.\u00a0 We don\u2019t look to the sun, s-u-n as our source, we look to God who created the sun and frankly doesn\u2019t even need the sun.\n\nAnd so humanity would never lose this important lesson in their idolatrous state God says I\u2019m going to set things up in such a way that people with common sense could see the foolishness of idolatry; I\u2019ll allow light to come into existence before the luminaries exist.\n\nAnd what are the things in your life, in my life, that we\u2019re looking to for identity, comfort, security, thinking that those things, our retirement account, or an ability to bet on the stocks well, or a new medical cure, an education, I mean think of all of the things that people trust in rather than God.\u00a0 And yet what are those things at the end of the day?\u00a0 They\u2019re just mere creations, things that would have no life or vitality in and of themselves; they wouldn\u2019t even exist had God not breathed them, spoke them, ex nihilo<\/em>, something out of nothing, into existence.\u00a0 So God doesn\u2019t need the sun and He doesn\u2019t need the moon.\u00a0 In fact, in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 4 and verse 19 it says this:\u00a0 \u201cAnd beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.\u201d\n\nGod always said worship Me, rest in Me, trust in Me, let your identity come from Me, not a mere creation.\u00a0 And did you know also that we\u2019re going to a place where there\u2019s not going to be a sun or a moon?\u00a0 Now during the millennial kingdom, which will last a thousand years the sun, s-u-n, will be seven times brighter.\u00a0 You say where are\u00a0 you getting this from.\u00a0 It\u2019s in Isaiah 30:26.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Isaiah 30:26, \u201cThe light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.\u201d]\n\nBut then God is going to take this whole world that has been touched and cursed by sin, He\u2019s going to dissolve it by fire, 2 Peter 3:10, Revelation 21:1, and it will pass away and then will come the new heavens and the new earth.\u00a0 [2 Peter 3:10, \u201cBut the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Revelation 21:1, \u201cThen I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.\u201d]\n\nAnd there on the screen are all the things you\u2019re not going to find in the new heavens and the new earth, including the sun, s-u-n, or the moon. Why would we not need those things?\u00a0 Because we\u2019re going to have the Son, S-o-n, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I mean, why would I need a secondary object when God Himself is the source of light, not just spiritual but physical as well.\u00a0 And is interesting to me how we get our priorities so out of whack and how those things come back into proper alignment when we start to understand the things that God has revealed in His Word.\n\nAnd then notice verse 13, still dealing with here the fourth trumpet judgment.\u00a0 \u201cThen I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with a loud voice, \u201cWoe, woe, woe\u201d that\u2019s three woes according to my count, Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet\u201d that would be five and six and seven, and \u201cof the three angels who are about to sound!\u201d\u00a0 In other words, if you think this is bad the worst is yet to come.\n\nAnd in fact, I\u2019ve been trying to study Revelation 9 where those next two trumpet blasts are found.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad this is not a seeker friendly church, you know, where you make Christianity marketable to unsaved people to get the church to grow.\u00a0 How would you teach Revelation 9?\u00a0 How do you put a smiley face on demons that are trapped in an abyss and they\u2019ve been there since the days of Noah, as I\u2019ll show you, how do you put a smiley face on them coming out the abyss and tormenting people like a scorpion\u2019s sting for five months of such a severity that people want to die, they want to kill themselves?\u00a0 And yet, suicide itself, we learn in Revelation 9, evades them.\u00a0 That\u2019s trumpet judgment number five.\n\nAnd how would you put a happy face or a smiley face on trumpet judgment number six where an army east of the Euphrates River makes its way over to northern Israel, a place called Armageddon, and in the process kills a third of the earth\u2019s population.\u00a0 Notice [can't understand word] again.\u00a0 You say well wait a minute, I thought a quarter of the earth\u2019s population already died.\u00a0 They did!\u00a0 Revelation 6 which leaves three quarters, right.\u00a0 Well, Revelation 9 you learn about a third of the earth\u2019s population yet to be destroyed.\u00a0 You take your hand and you\u2019ve got four fingers here, that\u2019s Revelation 6, and that\u2019s Revelation 9.\u00a0 And by the time you get to Revelation 9 half of the world\u2019s population is eliminated.\n\nNow how do you market that to people?\u00a0 How do you maintain a philosophy of ministry that\u2019s expositional and faithful to the Word of God without totally offending the entire population of Sugarland and\/or Houston or anybody that has the courage to watch something like this.\u00a0 You can\u2019t do it.\u00a0 And this is why the marketing Jesus approach, making Jesus so comfortable for everybody that we\u2019re going to get all the unsaved in here.\u00a0 You can\u2019t teach the Bible in that environment, you\u2019ll be shown the door very fast.\u00a0 And how thankful I am for people like you, Sugar Land Bible Church, that actually want to hear these types of difficult and hart truths.\n\nSo this eagle is flying and basically it\u2019s saying three woes are coming, trumpet judgment five, Revelation 9; trumpet judgment six, Revelation 9.\u00a0 But wait a minute, there\u2019s a third woe here, isn\u2019t there?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t just say \u201cwoe, woe,\u201d it says \u201cwoe, woe, woe.\u201d\u00a0 That means trumpet judgment seven must be bad too.\u00a0 But wait a minute, pastor, I thought you told us that when we got to a seven there\u2019s a moment of silence, just like there was with the sixth seal, rather the seventh seal, a moment of silence, silence in heaven for half an hour.\u00a0 How could mere silence be a woe?\u00a0 It is a woe?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Do you know why?\u00a0 Because as I\u2019ve been trying to explain the seventh trumpet will unleash the bowls, which are even more horrific than the things that we have studied.\u00a0 The seventh seal unleashes the trumpets; the seventh trumpet unleashes the bowls. That\u2019s why this angel flying to and fro or this eagle doesn\u2019t just talk about one woe, Revelation 9:1-12, doesn\u2019t just talk about a second woe, Revelation 9:13-21; it talks about a third woe, Revelation 11 verses roughly 15-18 because that seventh trumpet, just like the seventh seal that preceded it will unleash the next set of judgments which are even worse.\u00a0 And so we see these judgments sort of pulling out, if you will, like a telescope.\n\nAnd I was going to try to do Revelation 9 today but I can see I\u2019ve depressed everybody already.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 So we\u2019ll save that for next time.\u00a0 But the reality of the situation is judgment is coming to this world.\u00a0 Judgment is coming to the human race.\u00a0 I mean, that judgment is just as real as the flood that hit this world prior to the days of Noah.\u00a0 And the warning is to go to the ark of refuge, go to safety. Where was safety in Noah\u2019s day?\u00a0 It was in a construction called an ark that everybody laughed at.\u00a0 How dumb is that, we haven\u2019t even seen rain in our whole existence, water (Genesis 2) comes out from the ground like mist.\u00a0 You\u2019re preaching for 120 years of a giant flood with this giant object there that you\u2019re building; how silly, how moronic!\n\nAnd yet that was where the safety was. \u00a0And here we are in the age of the church and we\u2019re talking about Jesus Christ and a man who died on a cross 2,000 years ago for the sins of the world, and He rose from the dead.\u00a0 And the cross is foolishness to people, the Bible tells us.\u00a0 It\u2019s a stumbling block.\u00a0 And yet as foolish as it seems that\u2019s where you find safety.\u00a0 You find safety in an ark made of wood in the days of Noah.\u00a0 You find safety in a cross made of wood that Jesus suffered upon\u00a0 two thousand years ago.\u00a0 That\u2019s the gospel; that\u2019s the ark of safety, the cross.\u00a0 And how do you become connected to the cross?\u00a0\u00a0 You have to receive, by way of faith, what Jesus Christ did for you on the cross 2,000 years ago.\u00a0 You have to receive it as a gift.\u00a0 And the only way you can receive a gift from God is by placing\u00a0 your personal faith, not in yourself, not in your works, not in your performance but in what Jesus did for us 2,000 years ago when His final words as He was dying on that cross were \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\n\nThere\u2019s nothing else to add; you receive that as a gift by way of faith.\u00a0 That\u2019s your safety.\u00a0 So all of these things that the Bible tells us very candidly are coming and our simple question is have you entered the ark by way of faith?\u00a0 Have you done that?\u00a0 Or is this coming here today, listening to this just sort of a religious thing I do.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting information but it really has never affected my life.\n\nI believe this, folks, I believe hell itself is going to be full with theologically illiterate people, people that can tell you all kinds of things about Jesus and Christianity and yet the difference between the head and the heart, although it\u2019s just a few inches, is eternity.\u00a0 At some point this stuff has to become real and it becomes real when you put your confidence in it.\u00a0 The ark had no power at all for Noah and his family until Noah and his family got inside the ark.\u00a0 They obviously by doing so believed what God had said.\u00a0 And at some point you have to believe in what God has said.\u00a0 It has to become real to you, the Spirit has to make it alive and convict us and we trust in Christ at that point.\n\nYou can do that right now, even as I\u2019m speaking, and receive that ark of safety.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of joining a church, walking an aisle, raising a hand, giving money, kindhearted, it\u2019s a matter of personal privacy between you and the Lord where the Lord convicts you of your need to do this and you respond the best you know how in the quietness of your own mind and the quietness of your own heart, you trust in Christ and you just entered the ark of safety.\u00a0 And as we study these judgments we say yeah, this is bad, people need to know about this, the world needs to know about this, but the reality of the situation is Romans 8:1, \u201cThere is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus\u201d because you\u2019re \u201cin the ark\u201d and so our exhortation is to respond to that gospel message right there where you\u2019re seated and enter that ark of safety.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk. Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we are grateful for Your Word and how it reveals the hard things, particularly as we\u2019ve studied today the final seven seal judgment followed by these first four trumpet blasts.\u00a0 Make us good stewards this week of this chapter as we continue to grow and develop into the kinds of people that You would have us to become under the nurturing truth of Your Word. We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026 Amen.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t