The Events Leading to the Lord

The title, The Events Leading to the Lord. The events leading to the Lord. And I invite you to open your Bibles, and let's turn to Revelation 11 and verse 15. Revelation 11 verse 15 is where we will begin. And we turn to these words in Revelation. Words we know which were penned so long ago by the Apostle John. Words which we'll see today describe in great detail the dramatic, the sobering sequence of events leading up to the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And in turning to these sobering events, our desire is to have God do a work in our hearts so that we might be uncompromising in our desire to spiritually prepare for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. These scriptures that we'll turn today, and particularly this first one that we're going to turn to today, is the conclusion. These events leading to this conclusion, we know at this point we will have a society which will have evolved to be marked by a moral perversity, an absolute moral decay, the likes that we've never seen on earth. It'll be a society that it will be framed by a wholesale rejection of their Creator God, where in the end, rather than giving themselves over to God, they will choose rather to give themselves over to a false Christ who will be inspired by none other than Satan the Devil.

In this picture that we're going to receive today, I'll warn you, it is frankly devastating.

It's devastating because it's just going to be so sad that so many men and women will reject God in the end and refuse to bow to His righteousness and His righteous laws and His righteous way. But we're going to actually see today that all along, up to the very end, God is going to give them the opportunity to repent. But God's patience will not tarry forever. So God calls on us to urgently renew, revitalize our relationship with Him, to proclaim the return of His Son, to proclaim that judgment is coming to every man and woman. Judgment is the ultimate destiny. And while mankind, we will speak about mankind and its totality today, I will say here at the beginning that perhaps some of us here today need to take these warnings as we have perhaps allowed the voice of complacency to erode the reality of these coming events. But I can tell you on the strength of Scripture, you and I will stand before God on one day in judgment and answer toward our response, whether good or bad. God says, do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever you and I sow, that we will certainly reap. So this is an unmistakable word. It's an unpalatable word today, but a vital word to God's church and to a decaying world. So let's take in these words of John today and the events leading up to the return of Jesus Christ. We will turn our attention on to these sobering events here today. It's important to go through a study like this because we must know that these events must occur. And I find it just so remarkable how many commentators today, and you'll hear it, will say that Jesus Christ could return tomorrow. And it's just not so. These events that we're going to go through today, they must happen.

They need to happen. They need to happen for mankind's sake. They need to happen for mankind to learn certain lessons. And these events need to happen to bring about God's ultimate desire that all would repent and come to Him. So with that, we're going to do a sort of 30,000 foot flyover, if you will, here, of these end time events. We're going to go through them fairly quickly, but this is such an important study, I believe. So looking here at Revelation 11 and verse 15, I wanted to start essentially at the end of the end. This is where we're going to conclude today, actually. This verse, we're going to conclude our study at this verse. This is where we're working toward. John writes Revelation 11 verse 15, then the seventh angel sounded, this is a trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of our world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. This is the end of the end. This is the culmination. Again, this is where we're going to end our study today. This is our goal today, but we know there's some devastating events leading up to verse 15. So let's now go to the beginning of the end and work our way back to verse 15. So turn back with me, if you will, to Revelation 6.

Revelation 6, and we're going to begin in verse 1. This is the beginning of the end of sorts here.

Now, before we begin this, to get into the sequence of events, I want to remind you of a few things. I want to say it in such a way so as to help you remember this. This is a way that I... It helps me structure these end-time events in a way that I can manage.

There are seven final seals. So in other words, there are seven seals that will be broken off of a scroll, if you want to picture it that way. Seven seals, which will be opened, which will reveal the sequence of end-time events. Seven final seals. And the seventh seal divides up into seven trumpets. Okay? So seven seals. The seventh seal divides up into seven trumpets. The seventh seal with those seven trumpets, we call that the Day of the Lord. Right? So the seventh seal is also known as the Day of the Lord.

The seventh seal, which divides into seven trumpets, within the seventh trumpet of the seventh seal, there are seven last plagues or bowls. Plagues, bowls, which will be poured out. So to help you get your mind around this, there are three sevens, if you will. Seven seals. The seventh seal of the seventh seal divides into seven trumpets. The seventh trumpet of the seventh seal has seven last bowls or plagues, which will be poured out. All right? This is what we're going to look at today. Hopefully that will come in a little bit more clarity as we go along. So let's get right into it. And let's look at Revelation 6, and we're going to look at the first of the seven seals being opened. We're not going to spend a lot of time in the first four seals, but I want to get us to get a good grasp. First seal is here in Revelation 6, verse 1 and 2. And the first seal is that of false religion. And if you'd like to put in your notes, we won't turn there. A companion verse to this first seal is Matthew 24, verses 4 and 5. Okay? We're going to see that Matthew 24 has companion verses. So for this first seal, the companion verse is Matthew 24, verses 4 and 5.

But here in Revelation 6, let's read verses 1 and 2. John writes, Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, Come and see. And I looked, John says, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on it had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Let's stop there. Now, this is quite a devastating seal to start with, this first seal. Because essentially, this is where all the devastation begins. And it is a horrendous one because there will be so many who think this white horse rider will be Jesus Christ himself. But this is not Jesus Christ. This is a false religion. And this is where evil begins. Make no doubt. This is where mayhem begins. This is where devastation begins. This is where it originates. And in the end time, there it'll be such a strong voice that these individuals led by this leader, this end time evil leader, will be inspired not by God, but by the devil himself, and will be inspired to teach and proclaim things to such a persuasion where there will actually be men and women rise up and turn against Jesus Christ himself when he returns. So, with this first seal of false religion, we have an antichrist, which will come onto the scene. An antichrist. A false Christ with a false message. Scripture reveals that he'll be very charismatic. He will be very persuasive. He will put forth seemingly wonderful miracles, healings.

This is what we're going to see. Seemingly great things, even to the point that if it were possible, he would deceive the very elect. That's you and I. So, as a result of false religion, it's going to be a false Christianity. It leads us into the next seal. Seal number two, staying here in Revelation 6, verse 3 and 4. So, seal number two is found in Revelation 6, verse 3 and 4. The companion verse is Matthew 24, verse 6 and 7. Matthew 24, verse 6 and 7. The companion verse to seal number two. Let's read about it. Revelation 6, verse 3 and 4. When he opened a second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, Come and see. Another horse, so we had a white one. Now, this one's fiery red, went out. And it was granted to the one who set on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another, and there was given to him a great sword. So, the second seal is the seal of war. Right? And you'll notice these first four seals, they're commonly referred to as the first four horsemen of the apocalypse. You've heard that phrase. And while these horsemen have been riding throughout the centuries, we know this, when we get closer to the end time, these seals will increase and intensify. So, while we know war and warfare has been around forever, at the end of the age, the impact of war in terms of death brought on by this fiery red horseman is going to be like we've never seen before. The percentages of death will increase to unbelievable amounts. Great percentages of population of the mankind wiped off the face of the earth. This is the coming of World War Three. This is the war of all wars, unlike any mankind has seen thus far. So, this is the second seal of war. Moving on to the third seal here, chapter 6 verse 5 and 6. So, verses 5 and 6, the third seal. This is going to be the seal of famine. The companion verse is Matthew 24 7. So, Matthew 24 7 for your study later, perhaps. Let's look at Revelation 6 verse 5 and 6. When he opened a third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. So I, John, looked and behold a black horse. And he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the ole and the wine.

So there's lots of imagery there. I'm going to resist the temptation to go down some rabbit trails with some of this, but it's pretty fascinating. Maybe we'll look into a little bit more of this in a future study. But this is the unavailability of food, likely as a result of war. Sometimes the the after effect of war is even worse than the war.

So this is the impact. Widespread famine on the earth. We're going to have an ecosystem, an economy system, that's totally broken up.

There's going to be climate effect, inability to grow crops, the inability to have good clean water. Can you imagine the fear that's going to be building up at this time? Anxiety. So that's what we're seeing. The horse, the third horseman, the third seal of famine, who rides at the end time in a way that's never been seen before.

Fourth seal, moving to verses seven and eight. This is disease. This is one that's close to to our hearts today. Disease epidemics. Revelation 6 verse 7 and 8. The companion verse to this seal is found in Matthew 24 7 as well. Matthew 24 7. Let's read this. Revelation 6 verse 7 and 8.

When he poured, when he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, Come and see. So I looked and behold a pale horse. The name of him who sat on it was death.

And Hades, or the grave, followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword, war, to kill with hunger, this famine, to kill with death, this disease, and by the beast of the earth. So let's stop there. So this fourth horse pale in color, yellowish green. If you can get that in your mind. The paleness of a sick person. This is the color of death. The companion verse is Matthew 24 7 again. There, for your later study, Christ speaks about religious deception, being followed by war, being followed by famine, which brings on this pestilence, this disease, and disease epidemics. We think what we're going through now is something. Just wait. Just wait. So I thank God for this trial that we're going through. Because I want us to be knocked off our feet, but to get up and be ready for the real pestilence to come. So use this. It's a wonderful opportunity to learn and grow. And I hope hindsight will give us some real wisdom in this. I know it will. And look at this. Power was given to them to kill a fourth of the earth. A fourth of the earth perishes at this point. Wholesale carnage. Wholesale carnage.

It's just the beginning. Just the beginning.

Moving to the fifth seal. We're going to spend a little bit more time on the fifth seal. This one's very personal. This affects God's people. The fifth seal is the beginning of the Great Tribulation. The last three and a half years before Christ returns. So this is the fifth seal. The Great Tribulation. The last three and a half years. Revelation 6 verse 9 through 11. Our companion verse is Matthew 24 verses 21 and 22. So Matthew 24 verses 21 and 22. Let's stay here in Revelation 6 and look at verses 9 through 11. When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar of souls of those who had been slain for the Word of God and for their testimony which they held. So this is the saints here. These are our spiritual brothers and sisters in faith. These are those who have been martyred over the centuries. Verse 10. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? This is symbolic language. Those who have died symbolically crying out, they know that vengeance is the Lord's. So they're asking, How long, Lord? Verse 11. Now, notice this. This is going to bring it pretty personal here to us today. Verse 11. Then a white robe was given to each of them, and it was said to them that they should symbolically rest a little while longer until when? Until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed. So what are we seeing here in verse 11? We're seeing not only the past martyrdom of God's people, but now a future martyrdom. Aren't we seeing that? Of the saints, you and I, God's church today, devastating troubles coming to God's people in the end time.

This, you know, it can make us a little uneasy that they should wait symbolically until the number of their fellow servants, their brethren, we could say, who will be killed as they were. You know, they have to wait until that's completed. This is the fifth seal, devastating trouble for God's people. Now, we're also, I want to take a moment just to look at other scriptures which will allow where we'll see that God will protect his people. We will absolutely see that here in just a moment, but I want to hesitate for a moment. I want to pause for a moment and just point out the fact that none of us are guaranteed that protection. The promise that God gives us is that he will never leave us nor forsake us. That's the promise.

So, if trouble comes to us, that's the promise we hang on to. Father, this I can't handle. I am going to believe and reach out to your promise of never leaving me and never forsaking me.

And God has shown that with his servants.

The book of Daniel, you know, God gave devastating prophecies to Daniel, made him knock some off his feet, makes him queasy in the stomach, but then subsequently takes Daniel through one unbelievable trial and deliverance after another. You know, unbelievable trial. There's no way out. God delivers it. Unbelievable trial. There's no way out. God delivers it. So, here's these breathtaking events, but I'm here. I'm with you, Daniel, and he's with us today and will be with us in the future. God's word does show that some of us, some of God's people will have to experience these things. We have to be strong. We need to be close to God so that we can persevere during this time. There's a great tribulation coming. Now, before I move into the sixth seal, I just want to give us a little bit of clarity with this fifth seal. So, we're going to come back to the sixth seal in just a moment, but I want us to turn forward just a few chapters to Revelation 12. As it does speak more about this fifth seal that comes to God's people, Revelation 12. Let's look at verse 12. More about this fifth seal. Let's read just a few verses here, and beginning in Revelation 12 verse 12.

Here's persecution coming to the saints, God's people. Revelation 12, 12, Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them, woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea. For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows he has just a short time. So, great wrath. Greater than the wrath that the devil has now? Yes. Why? He knows there's a short period of time, so he's coming with a fervor. Verse 13. Notice, Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. So here we have the persecution of the church spoken of, the people of God, the woman, representative to the people of God in the end time. The devil will pour out his wrath upon God's people. Let's continue here. Verse 14. You know, I love whenever there's a however or a but here. Verse 14. But the woman, God's people, God's men and women, God's faithful, was given two wings of a great eagle. And I'll just have you note, this is the same language, similar language, used here when God brought the Israelites out of Egypt. You know, they came out with a high hand. It's the same similar language here that we can expect in the future. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place. So there's an indication here that there is a place where God's people will be protected. This is one of the indications, to her place. We've referred to it in the past as a place of safety. Where, continuing, she, the church, God's people, is nourished for a time, times, and half a time. From, nourished from what? Nourished from the presence of the serpent. That's the devil. Satan the devil. So he's going to have a great wrath. Well, there's a place in which we know God will bring his people, not everyone, but there will be those who will be brought to be nourished, protected from the serpent. How long? Well, we know a time represents, here, biblical terms is a year. So a time, one year. Times, that's two more years. That's three years. Half a time, that's half a year. So this is the final three and a half years before Jesus Christ returns. We refer to this as the Great Tribulation. A biblical year is 360 days. So if you take three and a half times, 360, 360, 360, three years, half a 360, which is 180, you come to 1260 days. 1260 days, three and a half years. We did a study on Daniel eons ago. That's the last three hundred, three and a half years before Christ returns. God's people, there's an indications that they will be protected. If you look at Daniel, I'll remind you, it says just before that time, a blessing comes to God's people. Perhaps that blessing is this wings of a great eagle. You know, maybe we'll review Daniel sometime in the future. So this is the three and a half year period before Christ's return. This is the fifth seal, persecution upon God's people. The sixth seal. Let's turn back to Revelation 6, if you will. You know, we're going to need protection. We're going to need to believe in God's claim and promise with all of our heart that he will not forsake us or leave us because it's about to get really bad here with the sixth seal.

So going back to Revelation 6, we're going to begin in Pickup verses 12 through 17. So we're going to begin in Revelation 6, verses 12 through 17. It's Revelation 6, verses 12 through 17.

It speaks of the sixth seal. The companion verse is Matthew 24 verse 29. Companion verse Matthew 24 verse 29. Let's look at this. Revelation 6 beginning in verse 12. Looked, John says, and he opened the sixth seal. And hold, there was a great earthquake. And get this. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair. And the moon became like blood. So try to imagine this. Verse 13. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs when it's shaken by a mighty wind.

Then the sky receded as a scroll when it's rolled up. And every mountain and island was moved out of its place. So the sixth seal is quite remarkable to consider here. Earth calamities. Continuing verse 15 through 17. And the kings of the earth, great men, the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave, every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains in the rocks, so this is during the sixth seal, fall on us and hide us from the faiths of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

For the great day of his wrath has come and who is able to stand? So this is heavenly signs, this sixth seal. And you will now know why they are praying for the rocks and the different and said to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us. Because it is about to get bad with this seventh seal. Heavenly signs with this sixth seal. This is after the great tribulation, but this is before the day of the Lord, which is the seventh seal which we now come. So with the day of the Lord, the opening of the seventh seal, we turn to chapter 8.

So we're going to skip over a chapter and we're going to move to chapter 8 where this seventh seal is found. Before we begin reading in chapter 8 of the seventh seal, the day of the Lord, I'll remind you that a day in prophecy in several places equals a year.

If you want to find one place where that's an indication of that, you can find that in Isaiah 34 verse 8. I'll read Isaiah 34 verse 8. You can turn there if you like, but keep your marker here in Revelation chapter 8. We're going to come right back.

But in Isaiah 34 verse 8, we see the seventh seal referred to as a year. So Isaiah 34 verse 8 says, For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion. So it's the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion. So we believe that the seventh seal and its final seven trumpets, which we're going to see, takes place in a one-calendar year. So it's the last year before Christ returns. It's the last year of the Great Tribulation.

So while Satan's wrath may have been in the first two and a half years of the Great Tribulation, this is God's wrath now, this last year before Christ returns. It's God's wrath against evil here. We believe it takes, it all takes place in one calendar year, all that we're about to read of in the seventh seal here.

So this is the last year before Christ returns, the day of the Lord. Revelation 8 verse 1. When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. Let's stop there for a moment. Silence in all the righteous assembly, in all the righteous counsel, all the angels. Silence. Why? Well, this is the anticipation that they have been anticipating this moment since all since the history of mankind, really.

There's silence and there's something else here that's just absolutely, incredibly, incredible to see here. Look at verse 2. I want you to see this in the next verses here. Verse 2, and I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. So we know this seventh seal consists of seven trumpets.

But notice for a moment verses 3 through 5. This is one of the most remarkable places in all of scripture to me. Verse 3 through 5. Then, before these trumpets sound, another angel having a golden censer 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.

Verse 4, in the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel's hand.

Then the angel 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. Stop there. Let's just stop there for a moment. This is incredible to see. What are we seeing here? These are the prayers of all the saints. All those past that have been past martyred, suffered persecution, sacrificed to follow God's way. All those men and women who had been praying God's kingdom come, praying for the return of Jesus Christ. All the prayers of the saints here. This angel is now going to offer up to God. How many times have you prayed for Jesus Christ to return? Think about all those prayers. Think about a prayer for a trial you're going through, a prayer for a loved one, and at the end of that prayer you just prayed, Father, send your son. You think God has forgotten those prayers? Not at all. He has been storing up those prayers, and He's now about to answer them.

The kingdom, you know, the King is about to come to begin the ushering end of His kingdom. He hasn't forgot your prayers. Not a single one of them.

And so the time to answer those prayers is here and now, as we come to the seven trumpets. The seventh seal, first trumpet, Revelation 8 verse 7.

Revelation 8 verse 7, The first angel sounded, and hell and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up. So I want you to notice a third. Why just a third? Well, God is working in degrees. God is working in percentages. Why? Well, we're going to see here that God, that it is to, with the hope and the longing of God, that men and women will repent.

That's His longing. That all will come to repentance.

Now, as we go through this, you also will see similarities to the plagues in Egypt. It's quite fascinating. So just as God liberated the Israelites from Egypt, He wants to liberate the whole world from spiritual Egypt here.

So that is trumpet number one. Trumpet number two, verses eight and nine.

Revelation 8 verse eight and nine. Then the second angel sounded, something like, in something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea.

And a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died. And a third of the ships were destroyed. A burning mountain. So perhaps this is a meteor, you know, a huge burning mountain of a meteor, a heavenly body thrown into the sea. So you can have all this death of the sea creatures. A stench. Tremendous air pollution. You know, men and women able to barely breathe. Trumpet number three, verses 10 through 11.

Verses 10. Then the third angel sounded, this is the third trumpet of the seventh seal. And a great star fell from heaven. Burning like a torch. And it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood. And many of the men died from the water because it had been made bitter. This might remind you of the plague, the very first plague in Egypt, where the Nile was turned to blood. But this is again heavenly bodies being from heaven cast down to the earth. Trumpet number four. Revelation 8 verse 12. Then the fourth angel sounded, this is the sounding of a trumpet. And a third of the sun was struck. And a third of the moon and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine and likewise the night. So this is similar to the ninth plague of Egypt. The sun and the moon and stars were darkened.

Continuing here, chapter 8 verse 13. Verse 13. And I looked and I heard an angel flying through the mist of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Whoa, whoa, whoa, to the inhabitants of the earth, because the remaining blast of the trumpet of the three angels is about to sound. So the last three woes are going to be trumpets five, six, and seven. Okay? A woe is simply an intense grief, an intense misery. So each of the last trumpets of this seventh seal represents a woe.

Revelation 9. The fifth trumpet of the seventh seal begins here. Revelation 9. And it goes verses 1 through 12. We won't read the totality of this. Let's begin here. Revelation 9 verse 1. Let's read through verse 3. Then the fifth angel sounded with the trumpet, and I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth. To him was given the key to the bottomless pit, and he opened the bottomless pit, and smoke arose out of the pit like a smoke of a great furnace. So the sun and the air were darkened because of the smoke of the pit. Then out of the smoke locusts came upon the earth, and to them was given power, as scorpions of the earth have power. Let's stop there for a moment. A companion verse we won't turn there. Here to this fifth trumpet is Joel chapter 1. Joel chapter 1 is referencing to Judah. They were going through a tremendous infestation, and Joel reminds the people that at the end of the age, there will be a great army coming against God's people likened to that of locusts. You will see verses 4 through 10 here of Revelation 9. More description of this army. For time's sake, let's skip down to verse 11. Verse 11, verse 11, of this fifth trumpet of the seventh seal. Verse 11, and they had a king over them, this army of locusts, if you will. An angel of the bottomless pit whose name in Hebrew was Abaddon, Abaddon, and in Greek it was Apollyon, meaning destroyer. So this is a picture of Satan the devil. So Satan himself is running this army, the influence.

Moving to this trumpet number six of the seventh seal. Revelation 9 verse 13 and 14 here. Revelation 9 verse 13 and 14. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, released the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates, and the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay a third part of men. And the number of the army of horsemen were 200 million. I heard the number of them. Let's stop there. So this is a 200 million man army to kill a third of mankind at this point. If we're looking at directions here, the Euphrates, the Euphrates historically was the easternmost boundary of the Roman Empire. If you're looking from the Holy Land, from the nation of Israel, the nations east of the Euphrates were nations, are the nations of India, China, and Russia. So that's a power block. That's one of the the end time power blocks. India, China, Russia, with others. Likely that's going to be one power block fighting for the rule of the world. The other power block we can go into a different study is the Anasia power block, a Euroasia, Eurasian power block.

You'll notice the western power block is nowhere to be seen.

Again, it will reserve some of these studies for the future, but scripture indicates that the descendants that represent the western power block will be scattered.

In non-existent as a collective people, there's even scripture that talks about the shaving of heads, symbolic of slavery. Historically, if a nation overtook another nation, they would shave the heads of the individuals as they sold them into slavery, generally back to their enemies.

There's indications that there will be a scattering and a scattering to slavery.

It's going to be bad.

Let's turn our attention onto the last trumpet as we begin to conclude today. This is the seventh trumpet of the seventh seal. With that, we have to move forward and skip over some chapter breaks. Let's move over to Revelation 11 to pick up the seventh trumpet of the seventh seal. When you move over to Revelation 11, beginning in verse 14 and 15, you may remember that this is where we started our study. We've come full circle now. The seventh trumpet of the seventh seal, we now come to where we began. Look at Revelation 11 verse 14 and 15. The second woe is passed. Behold, the third woe is coming. So that seventh trumpet.

Revelation 11 verse 15, this is where we began. Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven. This is it. Saying, the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. So this is the end. This is the end goal. Look at verse 16 through 18. And the 24 elders who set before God on the thrones fell on their faces and worshipped 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 a great power and reigned.

Verse 18, the nations were angry, and 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 name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth. Verse 19, then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the ark of his covenant was seen in his temple, and there were lightnings, noises, thunderings, earthquakes, and great hell. Let's stop there. So this is the reward of God's people, the great resurrection, the first resurrection of the first fruits. Here, the earth's armies will gather in Jerusalem for one final push to fight against Jesus Christ, incredibly to fight against Jesus Christ. And this is where the third seven comes into play. So you have the seven seals, the seven trumpets of the seventh seal, and then the seven last bulls or plagues of the seventh trumpet of the seventh seal.

Clear as mud. And in the last seven, you know, you think at this time, human nature would be broken, and they would finally turn to God and say, we give ourselves to you, but they don't. So we're going to really pick up the speed on our 30,000 foot fly over here as we conclude with these last seven bulls or plagues of the seventh trumpet.

Now, we have some more chapter breaks. We'll need to turn over to Revelation 16, chapter 16, for the seven last plagues of the seventh trumpet. Chapter 16 of Revelation. Now, if you have a new King James, I've kind of helped a little bit by the titles. They're just going to help us go through this fairly quickly. These are seven bulls or plagues of the seventh trumpet. First bull or plague to be poured out, chapter 16, verse 2, loathsome bull soars. That's my title in my King James. The second bull to be poured out, verse 3 of chapter 16, the sea turns to blood. The third bull, verse 4, the waters turn to blood. Now, the fourth bull is men are scorched. Now, I just want you to notice real quickly this fourth bull, Revelation 16, verse 8 and 9. Then the fourth angel, verse 8, poured out his bull on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat.

And they blasphemed the name of God, who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory. I just wanted to point that out to you. Repentance is still available at the very end at the very end of the end of the end. Repentance is still available, but they would not repent.

Fifth bull, verse 10, darkness and pain. You'll notice verse 11.

Again, they blasphemed God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. And again, they did not repent of their deeds. Oh, that they would repent. That's our cry.

And so just notice human nature again. By the way, this is the human nature we'll be dealing with in the millennial period. It's the human nature that we have, of course, that we're, through God's help, are putting away a little bit each day. But this is the human nature.

That we're going to be dealing with. Sixth bull, verse 12, the Euphrates is dried up.

And the seventh bull, verse 17, the earth is utterly shaken. So I want you to go down and look at verse 21 here. And we'll finish up with this just to reiterate our human nature. And the human nature we'll be dealing with. Verse 21. And great hell from heaven fell upon men. This is it. Each hellstone about the weight of a talent. And men blasphemed God because of the plague of hell, of the hell, since that plague was exceedingly great. So they blasphemed God to the very end. You know, instead of praying, have these rocks and this mountain fall on me, hide me from the Lord. Rather, our desire is that they would come out of the rocks and say, Father, I give myself to you. You see, human nature is a powerful thing. So there you have it. Seven seals, seven trumpets in the seventh seal, seven bulls in the seventh trumpet.

We did it. We got through it. I'm very proud of you. I appreciate this. I'm a very simple man. And so thinking of it as three sevens helped me. I hope it was some of a help to you. It's a way to kind of then go back and do more of a maybe a thorough study yourself. But we do exclaim at the end of this study, oh, that man would praise their God. Oh, that man would acknowledge their creator. Oh, that man would put themselves to the side. You know, Jesus Christ came. What's the first words out of his mouth? One of the first words. If you want to follow me, deny yourself. Deny yourself. We know unjust persecution is here and unjust persecution is coming.

There will not be justice. We're going to receive unjust persecution just as Christ did.

And we're not going to get bitter. We are going to pray not even necessarily that God take this from us because we know it's effective. And so our prayer essentially is, let me learn from this.

And all the glory go to you, Father. I don't want any of the glory. It goes to you. It goes to your son. I want to be your servant. So if I need to take unjust persecution, bring it because I know I need it. Just help me learn from it. This is going to be our prayer at the end. And it's going to be a deep-gut prayer as we think about what the fifth seal means to us and what it could mean.

So let's let these words of John cause us to be uncompromising in our desire to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ. We also need to proclaim repentance, the coming kingdom of God, to a decaying world. And we can best proclaim that if we're coming out of the decay a little bit more and more each Sabbath. As we see, there's an opportunity for men and women to repent from their ways. And that's our message. That's what we proclaim. Our prayer today is that we hear these words of John and that we're able to proclaim them. So our prayer is to save us from our lethargy, save us from our complacency, so that God would allow us to be a strong people that we heard in the sermonette today. So we can go into the final hours of Jesus Christ's return stronger than ever. Not our power, but with God's power, a unified group, as we proclaim and prepare for the coming of Jesus Christ. These are the events leading to our Lord.