The End of this World and the Return of Christ

You know, here we are on the first day of the seventh month, a momentous month in God's plan, on this feast of trumpets that we're celebrating. And we have not read the verse yet today, so let's go ahead and turn back to Leviticus 23, where God talks of His holy days and the holy convocations that He's established for us during the course of our year. In Leviticus 23, verse 24, it says, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial, a blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation.

Now, we're here on this first day of the seventh month of the year, and God says, Gather together for a memorial, the blowing of trumpets. I'm not going to take the time to turn to Numbers 10, where in ancient Israel, you see the very many occasions on which trumpets were blown. They were blown or sounded on days of gladness, as well as to sound the alarm of what's going on. They were to gather people for regular meetings or to gather people for war, or to announce holy days.

And so, as Mr. Kannabeck mentioned this morning, this Feast of Tabernacles, Feast of Trumpets, has a little bit of all of that in that. It pictures a time of trouble in the world. It pictures a time of joy in the world. As we picture the ultimate picture of what this day symbolizes, the return of Jesus Christ. That will bring ultimate joy to the world. That will bring this age of this world to an end when he returns. And Christ will return and establish his kingdom. It will be a kingdom of peace and joy that will last from that time forevermore.

And you and I, who are part of his body, who live and live our lives as the first fruits he wants us to become, that are born, resurrected, as pictured on this Feast of Trumpets, as well, will be there. We'll be there with him and enjoy the opportunity to work with people during that millennial time and in the Y-thrown judgment and for whatever he has in mind for the rest of eternity for you and me and humanity that yields to him. So this is a very momentous day in God's plan. It's a pivotal day, if you will, in his plan because one age, the age and the time of Satan is over and the time of Christ and God begin when Christ returns to earth. Now, for the last couple of Sabbaths, I've been talking about the seals, the seven seals, the six seals we've talked about, leading up to the seventh seal, which is pictured by the trumpets of today. So let's go back to Revelation 6, and I'm going to start where I left off in Jacksonville this past Sabbath. But in chapter 6 and verse 17 of Revelation, the world has gone through the Great Tribulation, the heavenly signs that Jesus Christ talked about when the sixth seal is open. And mankind, if you remember, is fully aware that it's God. It's God. These are unnatural occurrences. No astronomer could point to it and say, yes, we could have predicted this. These are things that are shaking the earth and shaking men's souls. They know it's God, and they hide in fear. But they will not yield to God. They will not acknowledge it. In verse 17, it says, For the great day of his wrath has come, and who is able to stand? Now God will be involved. Now the trumpet plagues will begin. Now God will exact his vengeance on a world which has always turned against him. And even in these days when these things have happened to them, and they know it's God, but they simply will not turn to him. The same thing he keeps telling you and me and the world, and as we preach the gospel of the world, turn to him. Yield to him. He's the answer to all the problems. He's the only way to salvation.

There is no other way. No man, no government has been or ever will be that knows the way to peace, joy, abundance, harmony, and all the good things in life. Only Jesus Christ. And he is paramount in this day as he is in every other holy day. When you move down through Revelation 7, you see even though this time of trumpets that they're going to be blaring in the earth, they're going to bring alarm, they're going to bring suffering, they're going to bring heartache upon people. But through it all, we'll see they will not yield to God.

Satan has done a masterful job, and man has done a masterful job on himself in just resisting everything God says, rejecting everything God says, and being determined to do things their way.

But in heaven, with the heavenly beings, you see these songs of praise that go out because they know the time of God is near. In verse 9 of chapter 7, it says, After these things, I, John, who is writing this, I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.

All the angels stood around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures and fell on their faces before the throne and worshipped God, saying, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. So as these trying time comes on the earth, as these trying times that we will experience, what do we do?

We praise God. The time of Jesus Christ draws near. The time of the answer to all of world's problems is about to dawn. It's a time to rejoice because that time that God, the Father, Jesus Christ, the beings in heaven, you and I who pray Thy kingdom come, that time draws nearer. Time of trouble, time of trial, but Jesus Christ's return is nearer. We drop down to chapter 8, and after that it says, When He, Jesus Christ, the one who is worthy to open those seals, that we read about back in the earlier chapters of Revelation, when He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.

Another angel, having a golden sense there, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that He should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense. With the prayers of the saints, your prayers, my prayers, the prayers of those who have come, who have gone before us, with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand, and He took the angel, or took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth, and there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.

So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. A momentous time in the history of mankind, a momentous time in the history of the earth, a momentous time in the plan of God as this too is being fulfilled now so that Jesus Christ could return, would return, God would send Him back and the kingdom set up on earth. The setting is there. We see what happens as the trumpets begin to sound, but let's back up because a part of this story has to do with the setting of the entire world for the years leading up to this time when the trumpets sound and the day of God's wrath comes on earth.

So let's back up and see the world that we that will be in control at that time, the world that we know is very much different than the world that we live in today. So let's go forward a few chapters and see what that world looks like. A very different world, but we have to appreciate what the world will become between now and then to understand the significance and the beauty and the hope that is and the deliverance that comes to all of mankind as God sends Jesus Christ back and He frees the world from the oppression and frankly the ridiculousness of what the world under Satan's rule brings upon man.

In Revelation 13 verse 1, John writes as he's envisioned here, he says, I stood on the sand of the sea. I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns and on his horns ten crowns and on his heads a blasphemous name.

This beast, this government that's going to dominate the world has nothing to do with God.

And if we doubt that, it says it plainly here in the next few verses, the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, his mouth was like the mouth of a lion.

The dragon that Satan gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. If Satan gave him his power, thorn, and great authority that we know is not going to end up in no good because everything that Satan controls is anti-God, anti-Christ. That's the spirit that Satan brings on the earth. That's the spirit of Satan that is in people who absolutely resist and reject God and can be in the state that they were at the end of Revelation 6 where they, no matter that they know it's God, they simply will not yield to him just like Satan simply will not yield to God, even though he knows his fate, even though he knows he has absolutely no chance.

Now, in his demented mind, he thinks he might have a chance of interrupting God's plan, but he has no chance, no chance of that happening. In verse 4 it says, the world, they... well, let's read verse 3. I saw one of his heads as it would have been mortally wounded, his deadly wound was healed. Of course, we could go back and spend some time. This is a resurrection of the Roman Empire. If you go back to Daniel 2 and the world-ruling empires, the Roman Empire continues to emerge, and this is one of the resurrections, the final resurrection of it.

And it says in verse 3, all the world marveled, all the world marveled, and all the world followed the beast. Here he rises up out of the sea.

The world is in complete chaos. Out of the sea, the Mediterranean Sea, this beast power arises, and it's got power. It brings with it wealth. It brings with it, it brings with it the ability to have everyone found him. Doubtless, or I won't say doubtless, probably this government portrays themselves as the savior of the world. Look where you've been.

The economy is faltered. The world is in a mess. Everything that you thought used to be is no longer. It's a new world order. It's a new time on earth, and here I am. I save the world from itself. And so the world marvels. You have saved us. You have taken us out of a state of chaos and confusion, where economies have fallen, and there's nothing to count on anymore.

What do we do? And so the beast arises, and the whole world marvels and follows the beast. And when they do that, verse 4, they worship the dragon who gave authority to the beast and who worshiped the beast, saying, who's like him?

Who's able to make war with him? We have to follow him. He has the answers. We can't buy. We can't sell. We can't do anything without this beast. Government, the government controls. It's a very dictatorial and a very autocratic government. Something that you and I are not used to being under, have never had the opportunity, and I'm not going to say opportunity. Opportunity? No. Not one of us has had the curse to have to live under that type of environment.

But the world will, the world will, and he was given a mouth. Verse 5, he was given a mouth speaking great things in blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for 42 months, for three and a half years. God allowed Satan to allow that government to go on for that long. Now, if we turn back to Daniel 11, we can see the personality of this beast, this man who rides that beast.

In Daniel 11, the first few verses of Daniel 11, we see what he is like, and we don't see today a leader quite like him, but we see perhaps signs of people who have too much power or looking for too much power that think they can become this way. In Daniel 11, in verse 36, it says, the king, and it's speaking of the same king of the north, of course it's the European area up there, north of the Mediterranean that it's speaking of, the king shall do according to his own will.

What he wants to do, everything is about him. He shall exalt and magnify himself above every god. He shall speak blasphemies against the god of gods, and he shall prosper. Now notice that word prosper. He's given authority for 42 months, but he will prosper. Now this man is all about himself. He's nothing of god. He sounds very much like Satan, right? When we think about Satan, we read about Satan back in Ezekiel and Isaiah. This is the same type of spirit that Satan has that's in this man, and God says he shall prosper till the wrath has been accomplished.

When will the wrath be accomplished? When the seventh trumpet sounds. When all those things associated with the seventh trumpet happen, and Jesus Christ returns, and he claims the earth and becomes king of king and lords of lords for all people. He will continue, and he will prosper till the wrath has been accomplished, for what has been determined shall be done. He shall regard neither God, the god of his fathers, nor the desire of women. Whatever God his fathers and his forefathers obeyed or thought they were worshiping, he's got his own God.

He creates his own religion. He won't regard the desire of women. He won't regard any God, for he shall exalt himself above them all. But in their place he shall honor a god of fortresses and a god which his fathers didn't know. He shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and pleasant things. Thus he shall act against the strongest fortresses, with a foreign god which he shall acknowledge, and he will advance its glory, and he shall cause them to rule over many and divide the land for gain.

This is a government you and I don't want to live under. This is a government, as we were if we were going to take the time to read through Revelation 13 and read about the little beast that rides the big beast, the religious power behind it, that says, unless you take the mark of the beast, you're not going to buy, you're not going to sell, you're not going to have anything. Your life will be limited.

You will be under the complete control of this man. Think the way that I think. Worship the god that I worship. Basically, worship me is what he will be saying. Do what I say. Do what I do. The way, the truly truth that he will want anyone to know or talk about is his truth. There won't be freedom of speech. There won't be forums on which people can take different ideas. It will be only what he says. And as we've talked about so many times, we begin to see that little seed occurring in our world today. My truth. I don't want to hear your truth.

My truth. I don't want to hear God's truth. I want to hear my truth. That's what this man will say. And so you see a world in which he prospers, and yet it's not a world at peace because, as we read down through Daniel 11, we see the king of the south, that conglomeration of nations or tribes or whatever it is down below the Mediterranean Sea, don't really like what the king of the north is saying, so they come at him and the king of the north completely wipes them out.

Might be a time of prosperity, but it's not a time of peace. Later on, we read that the power is from the east. He hears news from the east, and that troubles him, so he goes back to war with them and prepare for that war. And even in today's world, we see the east, the Russians, and the Chinas of the world don't really get along well with Europe. Part of the reason they claim the Ukraine war is going on is so that Ukraine doesn't become part of NATO and it's right on someone's doorstep. So we see those things occurring in the world around us as we march forward toward this time that is pretty well described there in Revelation 13. If we go forward in Daniel 12, then, and we read earlier—well, I guess it was Sabbath I read—but in chapter 12, going through the first four verses, God tells Daniel there's going to be a time of great trouble for your people, Daniel. That's what he says in verse 1. At that time, your people will be delivered. Everyone who is found written in the book, the book of life, but let's go down to—let's go—well, let's just begin in verse 4 and read down through a few verses here. But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will run to and fro. Knowledge shall increase.

You have to have your head real buried, very much buried to realize we don't live in a world where people run to and fro. We have planes, we have automobiles, we have buses, we have whatever you want. Now even rockets that are taking people just for pleasure up in a tour around the earth, if you will. People run to and fro. Knowledge shall increase. The internet is a magnificent tool for learning anything you want to learn. Unfortunately, you can learn too many not true and not good things on it as well. And I, Daniel, verse 4 or verse 5, looked, and there stood two others, one on this riverbank and another on that other riverbank, and one said to the man clothed in linen who was above the waters, how long will the fulfillment of these wonders be?

And I heard the man clothed in linen who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and he swore by him, who lives forever, that it will be for a time, times, and half a time, that's three and a half years, forty-two months, twelve hundred sixty days, that it shall be for a time, times, and half a time.

And when the power of the holy people has been completely shattered, all these things shall be finished. When the power of the holy people has been completely shattered.

Now, there's two groups of people in the Bible that God calls holy. One of them was ancient Israel, and Deuteronomy 7, God says, you are a holy nation, you are my special people, you and he has the blessing, and he's got ancient Israel and physical Israel in mind.

They are still his holy people. They have rejected him, they have resisted them, they have gone astray with God in ancient times, and even though he's blessed them again in these latter days, as it says in Genesis 49, they go astray again. But physical Israel, God loves.

He made a promise to Abraham, and that's one of the holy people. And we talk about Jacob's trouble that we're not going to talk about today, but you know in Jeremiah 30 where it talks about the time of Jacob's trouble, a time coming where what we believe and what we see as the English, as the physical descendants of Israel today, the modern-day English-speaking nations, America, Britain, and those around the world, that they will lose their power. When you look in Daniel 11, and you see the world as it shapes up under this King of the North, this beast power that's there in Revelation 13, it talks about the King of the North, it talks about the King of the South, it talks about news from the East, but there's no mention of any power in the West. Today, the power is in the West. At the time of the end, there is no power in the West. It has completely fallen. It's a new world order. The time of Jacob's trouble is passed. The power of the physical holy people is completely shattered. There's also the holy people of the New Testament. As it says in 1 Peter 2.9, where he calls you and me, the firstfruits, the people who God calls, who responds to his call, who repent, who are baptized, who have this holy spirit and live by that holy spirit and allow that spirit for them to become the people that he wants them to become. They're also called a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and that people has God's power. They don't live by their power or their might. They live by God's power. The way we live and what we do, the way God's church preaches the gospel, is not by its power. It's by the power of God that directs it and that feeds the messages that he wants being sent out. And God says, when the power of the holy people is completely shattered. More here in the physical sense, that the physical nations of Israel are gone. It's Europe. Well, it's not so much the south because we read in Daniel 11 that they're completely eliminated and the east. And as we go through the trumpet calls, we see the king of the north and the king of the east coming together at that seventh trumpet at that battle called Armageddon. Well, let's go forward a few books here in the Old Testament in Hosea.

In Hosea 5, we'll pick it up in verse 3, just a few verses that talk about these physical nations of Ephraim and Manasseh, people of Israel, the tribe of Judah as well, and we know who that is in the world today.

In Hosea 5, verse 3, it says, I know, Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. They're not hidden from me. The world might not know where they are. They're not hidden from me. I know exactly where my people are.

And when Christ returns to earth, so many verses in the Bible tell us He will bring that people back to their promised lands out of the captivity that they will be taken into and back to the land He had originally given them. For now, O Ephraim, continuing in verse 3, you commit harlotry. Israel is defiled. They defiled themselves. They're no longer pure. They haven't followed God. They don't direct their deeds toward turning to their God. For the Spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they don't know the eternal. The pride of Israel testifies to His face. Therefore, Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity. Judah also stumbles with them. With their flocks and herds they'll go seek the Lord, but they won't find Him. God has withdrawn Himself from them. They have dealt treacherously with the eternal. For they have begotten pagan children. Now a new moon will devour them and their heritage. They'll fall in very close order in succession, no longer part of the world seen. Now in that great tribulation that comes upon God's holy people. The beast power will exact that great tribulation. They hate Israel. They hate the modern day nations that are the descendants of Israel. Why wouldn't they?

They have the power of Satan that is behind them. That's what infuses them, and Satan hates everything of God. Satan hates the people of God. Satan hates the holy people, physical and spiritual, and will do anything to disrupt them. So why wouldn't the beast power, who devises their, who has their entire inspiration and spirit come from Satan? Why wouldn't he hate them?

And so there's that tribulation. It is a tough, tough, tough, tough time on the people, the physical people of Israel. And as we turn back to Revelation 13, we see on these spiritual people, the spiritual holy people as well. Revelation 13.

Revelation 13, and it says in verse 7, it was granted to him the beast power to make war with the states and to overcome them and to it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. How important is it that we love the truth? How important is it that we do, as Mr. Kennebec spoke about this morning, have ourselves prepared and ready for these times of the end to watch for those buds that are beginning to blossom on the trees, to know that the time grows nearer and nearer and that we need to be getting closer and closer to God, drawing closer and closer to him so that the times of deception, the times of trial, the times of persecution won't cause us to yield to the beast's power but will keep our eyes on God? And what he has prepared for us, just as Jesus Christ did, remember, for the joy set before him, he endured it, didn't enjoy it, but he endured it for the joy set before him. That takes the practice. That takes the focus. That takes working with God and using his Holy Spirit so that we are ready, and so that when little trials come our way and little persecutions come our way, that we continue to look to God and say, no, I'm not yielding to that. God will get us ready if we let him get us ready. In Revelation 17 speaks there of the war on the saints of God. In Revelation 17, let's begin in verse three and just read a few verses so we really get the scope of what is coming. What is coming to this earth? 17 verse 3. So one of the seven angels, right in verse 1, so he carried me, John, away in the spirit into the wilderness. I saw a woman, that's a church, sitting on a scarlet beast, which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman looked rich. It was a raid in purple and scarlet. It was adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her fornad a name was written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. There's a whole sermon that could be given on just who is Babylon. What is this Babylon that God is talking about here? I think you've all heard that before. If not, you can go online and find sermons on that Babylon and the spirit of it and where it had its genesis way back in the book of Genesis back then as this mystery religion began to come upon the earth to take people away from God and to lead them astray and deceive them. I saw the woman, verse 6, drunk with the blood of the saints. That's what she thirsted after. She was intoxicated with it. Is there another one? Give me that blood. Wipe them out. What I have heard of them if they believe God, if they're preaching the Bible, if they're preaching the return of Jesus Christ, if they're preaching a law different than that king once preached or lifestyles that that king once preached, get rid of them. I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, John says, I marveled with great amazement.

And then he's told what this beast was. But it's a wealthy beast.

It's a prosperous beast. If we turn one chapter further in chapter 18, we see that while the holy people, while Jacob is suffering and in captivity and being oppressed, while the people of God are persona non grata in that kingdom, we see that things aren't so bad from a prosperity level in this time of this beast. In Revelation 18, we'll come back to the first few verses there a little later. But we find in verse 9. God is talking about how this system will be destroyed. Her sins reached to heaven. Of course, He cautions us don't become part of it. Verse 9, the kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her. They'll weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come in the time of that last trumpet. The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore, merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citrine wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, marble, cinnamon, incense, fragrant oil, frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots and bodies, and souls of men. Boy, the trade is rigorous. The trade is vigorous. It's a looks like a very prosperous nation, just like God said. That beast will prosper and it will look to the world. This is a good time. Who cares what has happened to these nations that we have crushed and that we hated because Satan, Satan does provide. He will provide some things, but this is not a kingdom of peace. Remember they oppress and they're willing to put to death anyone who doesn't think like them. And there's not peace in the world because the east is against them as well, and that is why we see that even in this, what on a materialistic basis might look like an okay place to be. It's a kingdom that cannot survive. It cannot survive. When we come to the seventh trump and we see the armies gathered at Armageddon with all the weaponry and everything that they have in store where they're gathered together to battle, they do turn it on Jesus Christ.

But if Jesus Christ didn't return and save the world from itself, as he says, no flesh would be saved alive. They would use it. Satan would use those weapons to wipe out mankind. Satan would have accomplished his purpose if I can destroy mankind, completely destroy him because he knows what the purpose of mankind is. He knows what the potential of mankind is and he will do anything to wipe it out and disrupt God's plan. He would not forsake anything to have Jesus Christ. He thought that with the torture that Jesus Christ went through, that he might get him to yield to Satan. He will stop it nothing to disrupt what God's plan is, but Jesus Christ will return and he will save the world from itself. Otherwise, the world, as it says in Revelation, would destroy itself. And that would be that. So let's go back a few chapters then because at the same time that this beast power, it's a Revelation 11, same time that this beast power is flourishing, if you will, on earth, that people are buying and selling where it's drunk on the blood of the saints. And that Satan's way is extant on the earth and the whole world is marveling at this beast and reveling in its physical luxuries. It isn't the only voice on earth. There are two witnesses that are on earth at that time and we read about them in Revelation 11. And these two witnesses are speaking about God. They're there and they're giving the gospel of Jesus Christ. They're very clear in the way of this beast power. It is of the power of Satan. Don't yield to it. They are strongly saying, turn to God. Trust in him. Believe in him. If you lose your life, your physical life, oh well. There's eternal life if you will choose God. That message is strong. It appears out of speculation that the rest of the voices of God are not so strong in the earth, but these two voices are there. And we read about them here in chapter 11. Let's pick it up in verse 3. It says, I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy, ah, one thousand two hundred and sixty days clothed in sackcloth.

They will prophesy for three and a half years. The beast power is in power for three and a half years. They're preaching Satan's message. The two witnesses are preaching God's message. I will give power to my two witnesses. They will prophesy twelve hundred sixty days clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands standing before the God of the earth. Well, you go back to Zachariah and you read about these. What they are is they're filled with the Holy Spirit. They're not speaking their own words. God's Spirit is in them. They are speaking God's words. Just like Jesus Christ said, the words that I speak, they're not mine. They're the Father's. Those two witnesses will be so in tune and so close to God they will be speaking His words. It will be God speaking to the earth through them. That Spirit, that Spirit that God puts in them that leads them to speak exactly what He wants spoken. But you see that the whole world doesn't want to hear that message. Just like Satan's way, they want to wipe it out. If anyone, verse 5, wants to harm them because everyone wants to harm them, right? The beast's power doesn't want that message. They want to wipe it out. If anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. That should get the world's attention. What is it about these two guys?

What is it about them that we can't kill them, that we can't wipe them out?

Days have power to shut heaven so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy. They have power over waters to turn them to blood and to strike the earth with all plagues as often as they desire. When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. Now that happens at one of those trumpet plagues. We'll see here in a minute. And so there will be this victory over these witnesses. We have finally wiped out the message of God. Their dead bodies, verse 8, will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues, and nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days because it's going to be, I have a feeling, a pretty momentous thing, a pretty pretty interesting newscast. Yeah, these two witnesses are here. Yeah, the government tried to do this. They can't shut them up, but you know what? They're finally dead. And you can tune in to wherever you are in the world, and you can see their dead bodies finally laying there in state.

Nations will see their dead bodies three and a half days and not allow their dead bodies to be put into graves. We just want to celebrate over the fact that they're dead. We shut them up, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth because they just did not want to hear the truth of God. We shut our ears to it. We will not listen to it. We will not do it. We want our way, and we want nothing but that. Verse 11, after three and a half days, the breath of life from God enters them. They stand on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven, saying to them, Come up here. And they ascended to heaven in the cloud, and their enemies saw them. In the same hour there was a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city fell. That city that they were in, in the earthquake, seven thousand were killed. The rest were afraid and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is passed. The sixth trumpet is passed.

Behold, the third woe, the seventh trumpet, is coming quickly. Verse 15, then the seventh angel sounded. The seventh and final angel, when finally this world will become Jesus Christ, when finally the saints will be resurrected, when finally the end of this age ends. And the age of the kingdom of God and Christ's reign can begin. A time that will provide abundance and more than what that beast power was able to provide, but will also everlasting peace, harmony, live everyone, living by God's way, so that not just a forced harmony, but a genuine harmony. As people live together and as they learn to live in peace and have the joy that can only come from living God's way. Verse 15, the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever. The 24 elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God saying, we give you thanks, O Lord God Almighty, the one who is and who was and who is to come, because you have taken your great power and reigned. The nations were angry, your wrath has come in the time of the dead that they should be judged and that you should reward your servants, the prophets, and the saints and those who fear your names, small and great, and that you should destroy those who destroy the earth.

That time is over. That seventh trumpet. There's the six trumpets that go before it.

That destroy trees, grass, rivers, lakes, sea, ships. You can read about them in Revelation 8 as God goes to work and begins to chastise and exact his vengeance on the earth.

You see then in the sixth. Now let's read a couple things here. Let's look at chapter 9 here for a moment. Chapter 9 talks about the fifth trumpet. The fifth angel sounded.

In verse 1, I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. The bottomless pit, you know, that's where Satan is put in, as we will picture on the day of atonement here in nine days. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit. He opened the bottomless pit, spoke arose out of the pit like the smoke of a great furnace, and so on.

It says, verse 4, they were commanded to not harm the grass of the earth, any green thing, or any tree, but only those men who don't have the seal of God on their foreheads.

People talk sometimes about places of safety. God keeping us from Satan's torment.

Here it says that, you know, this this angel will be on those who don't have God's seal on their head. Of course, we read in Revelation 12 as well about that three and a half years of the place where God will take those, take his people, and keep them from the face of the serpent for three and a half years as well. However, God intends to do that, and whatever manner, he will show us in time what he means by that. Through it all, we learn to get ready for God's way, no matter what he has in mind, and no matter what amount of suffering we will go through, because it is very likely we will go through suffering as this time of tribulation comes on the earth.

And it says they were, verse 5 going on about this thing that arises from the pit.

In verse 5, they were not given authority to kill people, but to torment them for five months.

Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man so bad that in those days men will seek death. They won't find it. They will desire to die, and death will flee from them.

Terrible things. You read about the sixth trumpet in verse 13. It says there that, you know, here we release the four angels who were bound at the great river Euphrates, and the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.

Enormous amounts of men at this battle. 200 million? You read the account of it in Zechariah. It talks about the blood when Christ returns just mounting up on the earth as Christ just exacts his vengeance and puts to shame and just shows there's no amount of weaponry, no amount of human force that can ever stand against God when he returns. The seventh trumpet. His wrath.

It's not spoken of only in Revelation. Let's go back and look just at a few verses in the Old Testament when this was talked about even before Christ's birth in Joel. Joel 2.

Joel 2. You can read through, well, let's begin in verse 1. We're here on the Feast of Trumpets. Verse 1. Joel 2. Blow the trumpet. Blow the trumpet in Zion. Sound an alarm in my holy mountain that all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming for it is at hand, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness like the morning clouds spread over the mountains. People come great and strong, the lack of whom has never been nor will there ever be any such after them even for many successive generations. Drop down to verse 6. Before this advancing army, the people writhe in pain. Faces are drained of color. They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like men of war. Everyone marches in formation and they do not break ranks. Verse 10. The earthquakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark and the stars diminish their brightness. The Lord gives voice before his army for his camp is very great. Strong is the one who executes his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible.

Who can endure it? Same thing it says in Revelation. It says it also in Zephaniah, Zephaniah, a few books forward. Fourth book from the end of the Old Testament, Zephaniah.

Zephaniah 1 verse 14. The great day of the Lord is near. It's near and hastens quickly. The noise of the day of the Lord? It's bitter. There the mighty men shall cry out. That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of devastation and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet and alarm against the fortified cities and against the high towers. It's a terrible day. It's a terrible day, that seventh trump. God finishes this society during the time, by the time the Christ returns as part of that seventh trump. But before that return of Jesus Christ, another notable thing occurs, and that's the resurrection of the saints that we read about in Revelation that we symbolically saying how long eternal, how much longer until we are able to be with you. And God says, just a little while longer until the rest of you, until the rest of the saints who must die are part of that number as well. But God longs, and He looks forward to the day that those saints will be resurrected and that they will be there with Jesus Christ. We read about that. Well, we read already in 1 Corinthians 15 a couple times today, so let's not turn there. You heard about the resurrection there, but let's turn to 2 Thessalonians, or 1 Thessalonians, I guess. 1 Thessalonians 4.

1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 13.

We often read this at funerals. I don't want you, 1 Thessalonians 14, 13. Paul writes, but I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, concerning those who have died in the faith, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so even so God will bring with Him, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. If you believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord that we who are alive and remain, until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who are asleep, for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

The dead in Christ will rise first. We read about that in Revelation as well. Revelation 20.

Revelation 20 and verse 4 talks about the people of that first resurrection, the people who follow God, who yield themselves to Him, who learn to love the truth, that is agape, the truth, and not just memorize it, not just give lip service to it, but who yield themselves to God and allow His Holy Spirit to really take over them so that they experience the joy, that they experience the agape, joy, peace, faithfulness, all those fruits of the Spirit fueled by the self-control that we must have, the ability to say no to self and yes to God.

Difficult thing to say sometimes, a difficult thing to do, because we all want to just kind of do the things that we need to do, but we've got to expect exercise and say, no, no, no, I can't do that anymore. I've done that all my life. I can't rely on that anymore. I rely on God. I can't have trust in that anymore. I need to learn to trust in God. Use His Holy Spirit to develop that agape that He wants us to have toward Him and to each other. In verse 4, it says, I saw thrones, they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them, and I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received his mark on their foreheads or on their hands. Here are some of the qualifications, and they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. Verse 5 talks about the rest of the people that won't be resurrected at that time. That resurrection is only for the saints. The rest will live again because salvation is for all of mankind, every man, woman, and child who has ever been born, but that's for a later date, pictured later after the Feast of Tabernacles. But this, referring to in verse 4, is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him a thousand years. They will receive eternal life. Those of the dead who die in Christ, who have yielded themselves to God and yielded themselves to him throughout that time. Now the seventh trumpet sounds, and I'm not going to turn back right now to where the seventh trumpet sounds. Well, maybe we should. Let's go back to Revelation 16.

Revelation 16 verse 1, I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, Goro and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth. And so, part of the seventh trumpet, you have this series of seven bowls, if you will. I think it says vials in the Old Testament.

And you can see all these things that happen. This is God's wrath, his final wrath on the earth. Verse 2, Alotham's, Alotham's, sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast. The second one, poured out his bowl on the sea. It became the blood as of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died. Third one, poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs. They became blood. And so on and so on. And you get down to the sixth angel in verse 12, poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. Its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. Those who would come and battle the beast power. Verse 14 or 15, Behold, Christ says, as this one begins to appear, I'm coming as the thief, blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And they gather them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It's done. It's over. Christ returns at that time and claims the throne of the earth for himself. But the seventh, the resurrection of the dead, occurs at the seventh trump as well. The seventh trump, you can see, doesn't happen just all in one day. There isn't one trump, and everything instantaneously happens. Where in the seventh trump do the rez do the red in Christ rise? At the same time that Jesus Christ ascends to earth, battles the forces that are gathered together there at Armageddon, and says, at the beginning of the seventh trump, before those bowls are poured out, it says that they will be raised at the last trump. Well, we might get a few clues as we look in the Bible, when that might be, if we go back just a chapter to Revelation 15.

And we read a couple of verses in there.

We read in verse 1, it says, I saw a sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.

And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, those are the saints of God, that would be you and me if we're there at that time.

And God designs for us to be there and resist the mark of the beast, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, and they sing this song. Verse 5, well, let's drop down to verse 7.

One of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls, full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. So we have these people who are standing on the sea of glass, and then God hands the bowls over, begin pouring these bowls out. Revelation 19. We have the saints, and we have this marriage supper that's depicted in heaven. Revelation 19, verse 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready. Notice it says, his wife has made herself ready.

It absolutely requires God's Holy Spirit, but God doesn't do it all for us. Jesus Christ died for us. He gave himself for us. He gives us every single tool we need in order to be in his kingdom, but we have to use those tools. His wife has made herself ready, using the tools that God has given them, not ignoring the command of God, not assuming that this doesn't apply to me, but learning to live by every word of God. His wife has made herself ready, using the tools with God, and it's only possible by using the tools of God and doing his will carefully, earnestly, completely, as the Bible says. And to her it was granted, verse 8, to be in a rain and fine linen, clean and bright. For the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And he said to me, right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb, and he said to me, these are the true sayings of God. And this marriage supper is complete. It happens at that time. But later on, we see that Christ is returning to earth. He's going to battle of the forces of the earth, and he will be named King of Kings when he wins that victory. Verse 11, I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse, and he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with the robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. Out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations, and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron.

He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he had on his robe and on his thigh a name written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He goes and makes battle.

And the birds of the air, the birds are called to feast on the results of that battle as Christ comes and saves the world from itself and becomes the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And this age ends. When he returns, the Bible says his saints will be with him. We'll be with him. Let's go back to Zechariah 14. Zechariah 14 and verse 3. Zechariah's second book from the end of the Old Testament, if you're not familiar with it. Zechariah 14. Verse 1 talks about the day of the Lord is coming.

Verse 3 says, then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations that are gathered together before him as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, making a very large valley. Half of the mountain shall move toward the north and have it toward the south. Verse, last part of verse 5. Thus the Lord my God will come and all the saints with you. That's you and me. That's you and me if we continue, if we follow what God has said, if we're prepared for when this day of trumpets comes, because the Bible says it'll come as a thief on all the earth. It shouldn't come to a surprise to any of us because God makes us aware ahead of time. He gives us plenty of time to prepare. We've got to do the things that He says to prepare, as you've heard very well expressed today and as you hear, I think, every week when you come together for services and listen to God and do the things that He says to do. We drop down to verse 12 of Zechariah 14. He gives some explicit details of that last day. This shall be the plague with which the Lord will strike the people who fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh will dissolve while they stand on their feet. Their eyes will dissolve in their sockets. Their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths. And so He talks about all this. The world becomes Christ's.

He establishes His kingdom. People are in awe. People are distressed.

People are in a state of shock as to what has happened because everything they trusted in has disappeared. And everything they rejected is standing before them as King of Kings.

You and I have quite a part to play in the time of the future from then when that kingdom and that millennium begins. In a few days we'll reserve the Day of Atonement. Satan will be bound. Satan the one who will do everything he can to disrupt God's plan. Everything he can to disrupt you and me to interrupt us from the calling that God has given us through all those things you've heard today and you've heard before. Satan who would do anything to have the victory over God but he cannot have it. And the kingdom or the millennium begins. In verse 16 it talks about how the world will live. It says, it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the king, the lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. They'll be keeping the same holy days that God commands you and me to keep today. They'll be doing those things you and I will be teaching them to do that. We'll be teaching them the history of God at that point rather than the things that are yet ahead of you and me. We'll be teaching them about the love of God. The only way we can teach them is if we've experienced it. If we've allowed God to write it in our hearts, in our minds, so that when we teach people in that time, when we work in whatever area that God wants us to work, that they see it sincerely in our hearts, minds, and souls. It has become us just like it is Jesus Christ, just like it is God the Father, just like it is the only way to salvation, peace, joy, happiness, harmony, and everything. Transition and the end of this age of strife, misery, despair end on this day, and the new age of peace, hope, and harmony begin. We'll look forward to seeing many of you at the Feast of Tabernacles, and thereafter.