Massive Death Yet Ongoing Defiance

Transcript

GR 2016
10/08/2017
Massive Death, Yet Ongoing Defiance
Revelation 9:12-21
Gil Rugh

We're studying the book of Revelation together and if we look into matters that relate to the culmination of all things and the pouring out of the wrath of God, we appreciate what the song that was just sung expresses, “Calvary covers it all.” It's difficult to measure the depths of the seriousness of sin, and we sing of the love of God and it is a love that is infinite. But as we have been looking at Revelation, and we will see as we move towards its climax, there is also an infinite wrath of a holy God. That is put into context of His infinite love and there is nothing worse than to reject His infinite love and be the object of His infinite wrath.

Looking into the book of Revelation, and beginning in Revelation 6 down until Revelation 19 we are dealing with events that cover the seven years in earth's history that will climax with Revelation 19 and the return of Christ in a visible form in a visible way to return to earth, crush His enemies and establish a kingdom. The events going on in this seven-year period are not pleasant. We see billions of people literally dying under the wrath of a holy God. Then it will culminate when those individuals are finally sentenced to an eternal hell at the end of Revelation 20.

Revelation is a book that causes many people confusion, but that is not God's intention. He doesn't give a revelation to cause confusion. There is confusion without revelation from God, it's the revelation from God that brings clarity in the confusion of the world. The book of Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ. It is to give clarity to how God will bring all things to His appointed conclusion. It is written to us in the churches so that we will know what is coming and live in light of it.

We are in Revelation 9 and we are talking about the matter of demonic activity. We have talked about the matter of demons. Demons are angels who joined Satan (Lucifer) in his rebellion against God. We will talk more about this in Revelation 12. They are called demons, they are angels but they are fallen angels. There were a host of them, about a third of all the angels that God created joined Lucifer in his rebellion. We have demonic angels at work in the world today, the devil is at work in the world today. You and I are in a spiritual battle as God's people, Ephesians 6 as we talked about earlier. We don't “wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies.” Therefore we must be equipped with the full armor of God. For those who have not entered into the salvation God provided in Christ, they belong to the devil, they are the children of the devil. Jesus said “you are of your father the devil and you do his will.” They express their rebellion against God.

So as God's people we are not amazed, we are not surprised to see a world in rebellion against God. And as we move more and more along and closer and closer to the time unfolded in Scripture, we can expect things will get worse. People manifest their open defiance of God in such a blatant way. And we see even in our own country it becomes an offensive thing to talk about God. Just revealing the true condition of a heart in rebellion against God. And we were all like that. As believers we have to be careful that we don't become smug and think, I'm not a sinner like that. God said “the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things.” And there is not one of us who is any different. God in fact says in Jeremiah 17:9-10 that He is the only One who knows how desperately wicked the human heart is. But by God's grace there is salvation, there is cleansing. We can be set free.

So we are looking into the Word of God as God's people to see what the future has. And it is bleak. Sometimes people look at us, Christians who take the Word of God at face value, and say you are so pessimistic. Well, we are realistic. Now in the ultimate end I am not pessimistic because I have read the last chapters. You know I like to read the last chapters of a book before I go back and read the book. So I read and reread the closing chapters of the book of Revelation, it ends beautifully in a perfect earth, in a perfect environment, but a gracious, loving God caring for His people. It doesn't get any better, and it doesn't get any worse for those who don't enter into that glory, don't enter into the salvation that will deliver them from coming wrath.

Revelation 9 has brought us into matters going on with the earth relating to demons. Now we have a series of judgments unfolding in the book of Revelation. I'm going to give you a little chart here, I won't promise when, maybe next week, maybe the following week, just how the book of Revelation unfolds and the breaks in the book of Revelation and so on. But after chapters 4-5, the heavenly scene, we unfolded a series of judgments called the seven seals. After and out of the seventh seal come the seven trumpets. We are experiencing the judgments of the seven trumpets as we move through chapter 9. After the sixth seal we had a break and then we had the seventh seal, out of which came the seven trumpets. And after the seventh trumpet we will have a series of judgments called the seven bowls. But after the sixth trumpet we will have a break again before the seventh trumpet sounds and the seven bowls come out. Every time a seal was broken a judgment came, every time a trumpet sounds a judgment came, every time a bowl is turned over a judgment comes. And that will bring us to chapter 19 when Christ returns to earth, where we have Armageddon and the establishing of the kingdom.

Chapter 9, we have moved along. The trumpets began in chapter 8 and with every trumpet that was blown, a judgment came. And they were serious. But then when we came to Revelation 8:13 an angel was sent to fly through the heavens announcing the seriousness of what is coming. “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth” because of the coming trumpets. There are three trumpets left, we've had the first four but the last three heighten significantly in seriousness. So they are called a “woe.” Each one, the fifth is a woe, the sixth is a woe, the seventh is a woe. And things are going to get worse when you think they can't get any worse.

So we looked in the first half of the chapter, down to verse 12 and when the fifth angel sounded the bottomless pit is opened up. And that is the place where certain group of fallen angels was held. And they come out and we noted, not in disorder. Fallen angels have a very strict hierarchy and order under the authority of Satan, even as the unfallen angels have an order and there is a hierarchy of angels. But when these angels come out, these fallen angels, these demonic beings, they have a king. Down in verse 11, the “king over them, the angel of the abyss.” He is called the Destroyer in both the Hebrew and the Greek as related there. And he leads this host of demonic beings and they have five months to inflict incredible pain on the unbelievers on the earth. We are told, Revelation 9:5, “they were not permitted to kill anyone but to torment for five months.” They are compared to locusts here, and the season of locusts is five months. And so for five months they afflict unbelievers on the earth with incredible pain, so serious, verse 6, “in those days men will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die and death flees from them.” The pain is so unbearable that they just look for ways to die and yet they can't die. So it's a terrible suffering.

Verse 12 said “the first woe is past,” the fifth trumpet, the first woe. Two woes are coming. So Revelation 9:13, “Then the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” Awesome revelation from God and it reveals how specific His plan is. And it involves the geography of this earth and the unfolding of suffering that now is carried to a degree and death that the world has never seen.

“The sixth angel sounded, then a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God.” Now remember the book of Revelation is filled with hundreds of allusions and references to the Old Testament, but not even one direct quote.

Part of the problem we have with the book of Revelation is we are not as familiar with the Old Testament. So here a voice from the four horns of the golden altar. What is that? But remember, we have already looked at this, we saw this altar back in Revelation 8. Go back there. This was in connection when the seventh seal was opened. Verse 3, “Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censor. Much incense was given to him.”

You remember the tabernacle and the temple in the Old Testament was given to follow the pattern given from heaven. So in the tabernacle and then when the temple was built in a more permanent structure, you had the inner sanctum in that temple area, you have the Holy Place and then remember the curtain. And behind the curtain was the Holy of Holies and the high priest alone was the only one who could go behind the curtain. He could only do that once a year. Right in front of the curtain was the altar of incense, and now we see what was a pattern reflected on earth, the true pattern in heaven. The throne of God, and before the throne of God is this altar of incense where the prayers were brought before the Lord. The incense added there showed that they are pleasing and acceptable to Him and will be answered. So we saw in Revelation 8 when the angel added much incense to the prayers was indication that now God is ready to respond and answer those prayers. And the result, God is going to bring judgment.

Come back to Luke 18, just as a reminder. Jesus told a parable to encourage people to pray persistently. And we won't go into the details of the parable here, but just come to verse 7. “Now will not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night and will He delay long over them?” So the picture is that persistence in prayer ultimately will result in God answering that prayer. And they desire justice. The terrible injustice is inflicted upon God's people. God hears the prayers. Jesus said there will come a time when those prayers get specific answer. “I tell you He will bring about justice for them quickly.” That is what is pictured here. The prayers now are coming before the Lord, they have not been thrown away, they have not been discarded, they have not been unanswered. It just wasn't time for the answer. So now is the time.

And you'll note He connects it with His coming. The end of verse 8, “However when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth.” So you see here we are now, seeing these prayers being brought before the Lord to be answered in bringing justice on the earth, and this will culminate with Christ's coming. And that question that is repeated, will He find faith on the earth? You see the rebellion of the earth increases as God's judgment increases to the point, we'll find as we move further in the book of Revelation, men curse God for the judgments. They recognize He is doing it, but He can't make me bend before Him. We'll see that in Revelation 9 as well.

So the prayers of God's saints are now brought up for the answer. Encouraging. We pray for things and we don't get right answers. We pray for friends or family for their salvation. And we think, “I shared the Gospel and they didn't believe.” Well, who knows? Maybe they will believe after you die. I don't know. It's not that God hasn't heard those prayers. That doesn't guarantee everybody I pray for will get saved, but every prayer I pray, coming on the basis of the finished work of Christ, is heard and answered according to God's perfect will.

So they come up before God and the “one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet,” so this voice from the altar, this angel, like there was the angel back in chapter 8 adding the incense. The trumpet sounds and the angel announces, now “release the four angels bound at the River Euphrates.” And it is amazing, God's plan. As I mentioned, we just get glimpses into the spirit world, we looked at some of those. In the early part of chapter 9 there was a whole group of demonic angels who had been held in the abyss until this time yet future, they are in the abyss as we study this today. They will be released, we saw that in the first part of chapter 9. Now there are four angels, “release the four angels who are bound at the great River Euphrates.” That's interesting. The abyss, we think wherever God has bound them in that abyss, wherever that might be, here we are told and given the geographical location.

I have some maps to share with you. The Euphrates is an important river, called the great River Euphrates in the Bible. Come back to Genesis, just a little bit on the Euphrates River, come back to Genesis 15. When God confirmed that covenant with Abraham and guaranteed it in Genesis 15, you'll note what He says in verse 18. “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, to your descendants I have given this land, from the River of Egypt as far as the great river, the River Euphrates.” So we have the boundaries of the land that God has promised to Israel, and the great River Euphrates forms the eastern boundary of what God had promised to the nation Israel. Now the Euphrates River becomes significant, not only because of what is in Revelation 9, but what will be in Revelation 16.

It's also significant in Israel's history. In the Old Testament it becomes that dividing line, Nineveh. I mention that because that was the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Now you see here is the Euphrates River running down along here, it is in green, runs down here then it joins the Tigris River and then it runs down here into the Persian Gulf. This is Nineveh and this is the Assyrian Empire. Assyria is important in Israel's history because remember it was Assyria that came and conquered the Northern Kingdom and carried those ten tribes into captivity. And you also remember Nineveh was the city where Jonah was sent to prophecy.

Remember Jonah didn't want to go but God needed to teach him a lesson. And then Jonah, after the city repents, goes and pouts. He says, “I told you, Lord, that is what you would do, that's why I didn't want to come.” Well, if the Lord sends me to a city and the city repents I'd say, I'm glad I came. Jonah didn't want to come. Why? Jonah is about 50 years before the Assyrians will conquer the Northern Kingdom, he knows what is coming. He doesn't want to go and tell the Ninevites at the capital there to repent because he knows God will withhold judgment. He wants God to destroy the Assyrians, then they won't be able to conquer Israel. But when they repent, he goes and pouts. I knew You were going to do that, I knew that, but his desire wasn't that they repent, he wanted to preserve Israel.

So they will come across the Euphrates. That becomes a great river, and usually the way around the armies come because this is all desert down here. So they have to come around the crescent here and down into Israel. So Assyria comes across the Euphrates and that becomes these eastern enemies.

Come to the second map, Babylon, sometimes it is called the Neo-Babylon Empire because there was an earlier Babylonian Empire. So this is the new Babylonian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian Empire. So here is Babylon and then you can see the Babylonian Empire. We're familiar with it; the Babylonians finished the captivity of Israel. In 722 BC the Assyrians carried away the northern ten tribes and then in 586 BC we'll have that final deportation of the Southern Kingdom, Judah. Babylon coming from over here along the Euphrates. In fact remember Abraham was from Ur of the Chaldeans, so his home when God called him was right down here, too. So the Euphrates River keeps popping up.

Let's go to the last map, that's where we are today. And this is the Euphrates River here, running down out of Armenia, Turkey, coming down, running this red river here. This is the Euphrates down here, it meets the Tigris and then they run into the Persian Gulf down here. Somewhere along here at the Euphrates River there are four angels, demonic angels bound. Now these angels have evidently been bound there since they joined the rebellion of Satan against God back in the days of the Garden of Eden. We'll talk more about that as we get into chapter 12. So if you want to go over to the Euphrates River and go along here, somewhere along there, there are spirit beings bound.

Now it is amazing, God picks this geographical area and they are restrained there. You stop and think, what have they been doing for thousands of years? Nothing, they can't go anywhere, they can't do anything. They are bound there. Some people think, what did He do? Put a chain on them? Some people who don't take Revelation literally say how would you bind an angel. Well, you would be God and then your problem is solved. He created the angels, He can surely bind them. He has authority over everything and everyone and so they are bound there. This is where they are and there is evidently a whole host with them.

Come back to Revelation. There were some other verses on the Euphrates in the Old Testament that I was going to share with you, but we won't do that for time. Revelation 9:16 says “the number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million.” It seems the indication here is these are demonic beings. What they use, there is some indication here, but these four angels bound evidently have authority over this huge demonic army of 200 million, just like the previous demonic angels had a king over them in Revelation 9:11. We talked about there is structure, there is order in the demonic world. Even though the angels have fallen, the demons, there still is order and structure recognized and even the unfallen angels recognize that structure in the demonic world. And we went back and looked at Daniel 10, when a demonic being is able to keep an angel sent from heaven to Daniel for three weeks from entering that part of the Empire. And it took Michael, one of the chief angels who has greater authority, to come and enable that angel to continue. So all this going on in the spirit world.

All that to say here we are, and you can see modern day countries and I don't know what these countries think about, but you see all of this belongs to Israel. I don't think they will be happy to hear that. But this is the eastern border. God says it is all yours. They are going to go all the way from over here in Egypt, all the way over. This is what God promised to Abraham in Genesis 15. So interesting the battles and the conflicts and issues that take place at the Euphrates. So we talk about the Euphrates, God could have just said He released four angels who had been bound. But He tells us where He has bound them.

So what is going to take place in this context, in chapter 16 we are going to see a similar situation at the Euphrates, but that is a later time. So the Euphrates keeps coming up, not only in the Old Testament but here as well. So significant in what God is doing. And this part of the world becomes significant. And keep that in mind, what matters in the plan of God, and understand how I say that. What matters is this country right here and then all associated with that, this whole area over here because Israel is the focus. The United States, we are big guys in the world today, but in God's future we are not that focused. So we'll have more to say about that in a little bit.

The four angels have been bound at the River Euphrates for a specific purpose, not permanent. Why are some demons bound and some not? Fits the purpose of God. The way they are going to be allowed to function to accomplish God's purpose necessitates their being restrained. Note verse 15, “The four angels who had been prepared,” you note that, “had been prepared.” They were there according to God's intended purpose. That's why He has them there. He didn't cause them to sin against Him, He is never the cause of sin, but sin is not a frustration of His plan, He has included it in His plan and even the rebellion of the angels.

So these angels have been prepared. And they will go on a mission. Note this, they have “been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year.” We don't want to lose sight, even as God's people. Everything is under control. It's not, well, God looked and saw this is a good time to let those four angels loose. This is the exact appointed time. They have been bound there. Not just maybe it will happen this year or this month. Not this day. The hour.

I study this and I try to think, all that is going on in the world, hurricanes here and floods and disasters and killings and potential wars and the danger of nuclear and crazy people everywhere. Everything is just right where it belongs in the plan. We have seen the judgments—the seals that have been opened, the trumpets that have sounded, now you have said it is just the right hour of the appointed day, of the appointed month, of the appointed year. Time to unbind those angels and send them out. We have a God who is sovereign over everything. I should worry about tomorrow? I should wonder? People are frustrated, what is going to happen if this happens? What does it do if this person gets elected President? It will be the end of the world if this person gets elected. Relax, take a deep breath, stop and think, Lord, You are in control. We are worshiping You.

They were released at that specific point that God had ordained. Their purpose is God's purpose. The tragedies you see in the world, people dying one way or another, that is God's plan. The world lives under the control and authority under God's absolute sovereignty, “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one,” 1 John 5 says. This is a world in rebellion against God.

One-third of mankind is going to die under this trumpet. Take a pen and write this down, it is not biblical but it is interesting. I looked on the internet, and if it is on the internet it has to be true, but they said, I think they got the figure from the U.N. They estimate the world's population in April 2017 as 7.5 billion. Now back up to Revelation 6:8, under the fourth seal, the last part of the verse, “authority was given them over a fourth of the earth to kill.” So under that one judgment one-quarter of the earth's population died. That would be, and I rounded this off, 1.9 billion people under that judgment. Now we started out with 7.5 billion, 1.9 billion died. That left 5.6 billion. Now over in Revelation 9 we have the sixth trumpet and we are told in verses 15 and 18 that a third of mankind was killed. Well there are 5.6 billion left after a quarter of the earth's population died, one-third would be 1.8 billion. Together that totals in just these two judgments 3.7 billion people, roughly half the earth's population died. These two judgments, the fourth seal and the sixth trumpet.

Now we have had a variety of other judgments taking place. Remember the fresh water that became undrinkable? And other things? I mean, how do you even conceive of disaster on this level? We see disasters take place and it is all we can do to try to help that little place get back to normal. What do you do with 3.5 billion bodies? It's no wonder Jesus said, “if I didn't put and end to it after 7 years, there wouldn't be any survivors.” Because do you know what? The worst judgments are yet to come. You say, it can't get any worse than this. I mean, we think it is a terrible catastrophe if thousands of people die, and it would be major catastrophe if 100,000 people died. What do you do if a million people die? Now we have billions. There is no way for us to know.

How are these judgments spread out in the world? Is it just everywhere in the world, or are there portions of the world being destroyed? We don't know. We do know Israel, even through this first 3.5 years is having a relatively normal life and even through the last 3.5 there will be people getting married, giving in marriage, life will be going on in some ways. So I tend to think at least Israel, that's partly why we looked at that map, and that area will have some safety, because God's purpose, remember, is to bring Israel to its knees. And Israel through the first 3.5 years, we get to this when we get to chapters 11-13, has done fine. They have a temple they have rebuilt, they are doing good. It's the last 3.5 years when Israel is suffering.

So all of this, people ask what happens to the United States? I don't know. How many millions of people are in the United States? Add to that the Americas. We could wipe out everybody in the Americas and still there would be people dying. You can get on the internet and they will tell you what the population of this is and this country and this nation and how the world . . . You could have large portions of the world destroyed, you could have other portions that aren't. Life goes on. I'm sorry for what has happened in Puerto Rico, I hope they get it straightened out, and I'm going to go to lunch if this sermon gets over soon. It's just the way we go, we don't stop. So if something happens and China ceases to exist, we'll have to get our goods from someplace else, I guess. I mean, the world goes on and we are aware of that. So this is going on in the world but it is a scale we have never had anything like it since the days of Noah, which was a worldwide flood. But there is nothing like this. How can you compare it?

So let's read a little bit here. Verse 15 said four are released so they can lead a host of 200 million in the killing of a third of mankind. Verse 16, “The number of the armies of the horsemen was 200 million.” I take it in light of the description and that, we are talking about demonic beings. Why were these demons bound at the River Euphrates and now they are released? Evidently they lead this host that is with them. Just like out of the abyss, they had a king over them. It's just not a random, just turn them loose. This is an organized host and have a given purpose. They are 200 million, so four demonic beings over each 50 million. That's the way it breaks down evenly, and they go out, their mission .

Remember the prior demons could only inflict unbearable pain under the previous trumpet. Now the intention is death and the picture, “I saw in the vision the horses, those who sat on them, riders had breastplates the color of fire, hyacinth, brimstone. The heads of the horses like the heads of lions, out of their mouths proceed fire, smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, the fire, the smoke, the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. The power of the horses is in their mouths, in their tails.” They are like serpents, have heads, with them they do harm. Obviously the description here, as we saw earlier, some kind of being that we have not seen. Now some take this description and say maybe it was John's way of recording, all he could tell us was what he was familiar with, modern warfare. That could be although it seems it is directly connected, it will be demonically driven regardless.

But it seems the power of destruction is in these beings. But you know demons have great power. What happened when God said to Satan, you can afflict Job. So he sent the wind, Satan did, and blew down the house on all of Job's ten kids and killed them. Then later he is given permission, he causes great sickness in Job so he has boils all over his body.

So the devil can control weather, can control illness. So these demonic beings, however they operate—the smoke, the brimstone, the hyacinth, this yellowish gas kind of stuff. I don't know, we see on TV when they talk about the ring of fire with all the volcanoes around, what happens if all those go off at one time? The clouds that come and you see with a volcano and it's a black cloud a pyro-something cloud blows across. You have seen things on TV, what happens if Yellowstone blows up? We are going to feel the impact of that. Well, just multiply that, then add to that

I don't know what all is going to go on but these demons are given authority to kill one-third of the earth, that is clear. The actual meaning of the smoke, the brimstone, the fire, that's going to be devastating. That would be something like volcanoes going off, supernatural things happening. I know what is going to happen—demons are turned loose, one-third of the earth's population dies. What part of the earth, how it is spread out, God doesn't give us some of those details but what He tells us is terrible enough. I don't know what you do with almost 2 billion bodies all of a sudden. Who is going to bury them? If you don't bury them, pretty soon you have disease spreading. So I say there are people dying outside these two things, these two particular judgments.

Well, you think the Lord is getting the world's attention and now people realize God is serious and they are falling on their knees all over the world, repenting. It's not what it says. Verse 20, “The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent.” The highlight in my Bible, “the rest of mankind did not repent.” If we didn't get it, look at verse 21, “they did not repent.” It's easy for us to get an unbiblical view of sin, all of us, even as believers we begin to think of ourselves as, “I am never a sinner like they are, I have never done that.” Well, God says you were just like them. Remember Titus 3? Paul told Titus, you remind them, they were just like them. God looked at my heart and He decided it is deceitful and desperately wicked. It's only His restraining grace that keeps the world from going totally unlivable and it will move toward that when some of that restraining grace is removed, as we see.

We see it now, what is happening? What are people thinking in their defiance of God? Here, “they did not repent. The rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, they did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons.” Important to understand, all false worship is the worship of demons.

1 Corinthians 10, Paul warns the Corinthian church, “when you join in false worship you are involved in the worship of demons” and he says “I do not want you to fellowship in the worship of demons.” There is only one, true worship, that's the worship of the one, true living God through His Son Jesus Christ on the basis of the salvation Christ provided in His death on the cross, in His present ministry as representative of high priest for all who place their faith in Him. That's it. Every other religion is a worship of demons, every other Protestant religion, every other Catholic religion, Hindu, Muslim, all the religions of the world. They are worship of demons.

That's not nice to criticize other people's religion. God says it is worship of demons and they won't repent. You see that is the devil, he is very religious, he wants worship. We'll get to this when we get to chapter 13. The devil is working in the world during this seven years and he is working to gather the world in worship of him in the clearest, most open way. And that will involve the presentation of his false Christ, his Antichrist and the false Holy Spirit who directs the worship of the world toward that one, which is ultimately Satan trying to replace God the Father, which goes back to his original sin as recorded in Isaiah 14. “I will be like the Most High, I will sit in His place,” and so on. So serious matter here. But all these judgments coming.

Look at what is going on in the world today and you see people being interviewed in places that have experienced disaster and you think they are saying, I saw something of the power of God and what He can do, and I am bowing and asking Him to forgive me. No, this is the force of Mother Nature. We can rebuild, we can do it, we can . . ., we're going to make sure the world doesn't move toward disaster. Say he is anti-environmentalist. I don't worship as an environmentalist, but I'm glad I put my garbage out in a pointed way. I'm fine if they say you have to recycle this. My wife drives us to the recycle place and we do it. So I'm glad for those things. But you know we are not saving the planet because the planet, the world is in rebellion against God, the people of this world, and God says He is going to bring it to destruction and you can't do anything about it. The only thing you can do is escape by placing your faith in Christ.

Verse 21, “They did not repent of their murders, their sorceries, their immorality, their theft.” All kinds of sin is a manifestation of the same thing. Some sin is more serious in one sense, but God sees it all as a reflection of rebellion against Him. The world knows there is a God. We're going to go back to Romans 1. But they manifest the same stubborn refusal to believe. Romans 1:18ff says “they suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” They know but they will not bow. That's what you see here, they know God is causing these things. We'll see over as we move further on in the tribulation, they will curse God for bringing these judgments on them.

You can tell people today that God is in control of what is happening, there are no “natural disasters.” He doesn't cause sin but it is in His plan to use sin to accomplish His purposes. They get angry with you, that's not the God I would worship, that's not the God I would want to serve. Don’t believe God is going to send people to hell for eternity, my God is a God of love. He wouldn't send people to hell for eternity. Well your God is one of these gods, the worship of demons, idols of gold who can't hear or talk. He is a god of your own making. There is no getting away. He is a God of love, but there is nothing like the wrath of God on those who have spurned His love.

Hebrews puts it this way in Hebrews 10, God says, “they trample underfoot the death of My Son, they count His blood, His death as an unholy thing.” I mean, here God sends His Son, so precious to Him, to earth to pay the penalty of dying on the cross for our wretched sin and He says it is just like you walk on it with your feet. That's nothing to Me, I consider it worse than nothing. And we think God is not going to be angry? His anger is restrained. 2 Peter 3, we noted, why hasn't God intervened in judgment already? “He is patient, He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth.” Why aren't they lined up at your door saying, “would you tell me how to go to heaven?” Why aren't they so thrilled when you come and tell them, I want to tell you a story of the greatest act of love that ever occurred. God sent His Son to die on the cross for you because you are a sinner, deserving and destined for hell and they are not glad you came to tell them that. Why not? What could God do? What does He do? How gracious He is.

You can sit in this church, be raised in this church, come every Sunday, hear the sermons and in your heart you have not yet bowed before the living God and recognized God is right. I am sinful, I look like a good person, I was baptized here, I was raised here, I have done a lot of things here. It's all irrelevant. Have you ever seen yourself as God says you are, a sinner, under condemnation, deserving of hell and seen Christ as the Son of God who in great love went to the cross to pay the penalty for your sin. You realize how great that is. A penalty so great you will have to spend eternity in hell if you don't trust Christ. But He paid it all. Now you can have it for free, it is a free gift of life to all who believe in Christ. If you don't believe, you get what you deserve. It is fitting that God would send us to hell. It is His grace and love that provides salvation in Jesus Christ.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the unfolding of Your Word, we are in awe of Your sovereign power. Lord, we see something of Your wrath unfolding, even as we look into this portion of Your Word, Your anger the wrath that has been stored up against the sin and rebellion that is displayed against You. Lord, we are reminded of the grace that brought salvation to us. We thank You for the Gospel of Jesus Christ which is good news, that the penalty has been paid, there is a Saviour and we have simple faith in Him. Lord, we have taken hold of that. That is our hope, we live in light of it. Lord, we want to bring that hope and light to a lost world. Pray for any who are here, perhaps Lord they are familiar with the message, perhaps they are familiar with Your Word but they have stopped short of ever trusting in Christ and experiencing Your salvation. May this be a day of salvation for them. We ask it all in Christ's name, amen.