Seven Seals and Seven Trumpets

You know, as the sun sat last night, it dawned the first day of the seventh month in God's calendar. And this is the holy day that He, the only holy day that begins on the first of the month. And during the seventh month of God's calendar, all the holy days in the fall will be completed. And it's fitting that they would occur during the seventh month because seven is the number of God's completion.

And in these four holy days that we observe in the fall, we see the completion of God's plan for mankind and this physical earth. In the fall, or in the spring, I should say, we observe the Passover, days of unleavened bread and Pentecost. And we focus this around Jesus Christ's first coming and the salvation that He brought us as He offered His life and died for our sins. And then our responsibility as we turn from a life of sin in our old ways to His way, put His ways into our minds and hearts daily and live that way, led by His Holy Spirit.

But in the fall, it focuses on the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. And what He will do is He completes the mission for this earth and the purpose for this earth in mankind and establishes His kingdom.

So on this holy day, this day of trumpets, it's a pivotal time in the history of mankind and what God has purposed for us and for all the world and His plan that was put in place before the foundation of the earth. And this day of trumpet introduces the time that Jesus Christ will return to earth and the kingdom will be set. Let's go back to Leviticus 23. There's just three counts. God's command here. The reason that we're here this morning, Leviticus 23 and verse 23. God says very little, really, about this day of trumpets that we're observing today here in the Old Testament.

Leviticus 23 verse 23 says, God says to do that, and we're assembled here together on this day. And He simply says it's a memorial, a blowing of trumpets. That's all He says about this holy day. No special advanced preparations like for the Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Tabernacles. Just be together. Don't work. Be together.

Remember the trumpets. And in ancient Israel, as in all ancient nations, the trumpet played a crucial part in their existence. So they were attuned to the sound of a trumpet. Let's go back and rehearse in Numbers 10 what God commanded regarding the sound and the blowing of trumpets in the nation of Israel among His people. In Numbers 10, He gives several reasons that a trumpet would sound. And as Israel would gather together in the Old Testament times then, they would remember these sounds. Today it has even more meaning for us because if we get into the New Testament, we find no doubt where trumpets are and what the meaning of this day is because the trumpets are all over the New Testament, if you will.

But let's look at Numbers 10 because what they kept in Old Testament times and what God had designed was a foreshadow of what we would be doing today in a picture of what His plan was. Romans...or not Romans...Numbers 10, verse 1 says, The eternal spoke to Moses, saying, Make two silver trumpets for yourself. Make them hammered work. Use them for calling the congregation and for directing the movement of the camps. And then He says, if you blow two of these trumpets, this is what we do.

Blow one of them, this is what we do. But one of the purposes for the trumpets, when they would hear it and they would be attuned to the sound of it, is gather the people together. I want them to all come together at this time when they hear this trumpet.

Another one down in verse 9, it says, When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, sounds an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the eternal your God, and you will be saved from your enemies.

So when you hear those trumpets and that sound, people are gathered together. And here at this time, there's a time of war, a time of alarm, a time you need to be aware of. You pay attention to what's going on. If you're not listening, you can get by surprise. And if you do what I say, God says, if you listen to the trumpets, if you blow the trumpets, warn the people, just like Isaiah 58 says, lift up your voice like a trumpet, and tell my people their sins.

Same thing I would say, lift up your voice or lift up these trumpets and warn my people that war is coming, and you pay attention, and you be ready for that time. So when they would hear a trumpet, they would know there's a time of alarm, a time coming that they need to pay attention to, and that they just can't ignore, and just hope it passes by. And then on verse 10, it says, in the days of your gladness, in the days of your gladness, today would be a day of gladness. You know, as we talk about with the Feast of Trumpets pictures, you know, there are some alarming things that will happen between now and the return of Jesus Christ that we think about, and we realize are part of God's plan as we move toward the time of Jesus Christ's return to earth.

But ultimately, it's a day of gladness, a day of gladness that results in the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom that will last forever, and that will put away all the prevails and problems and suffering that the earth has and the world has suffered from the time that mankind has been on it. So it says, also in the days of your gladness, in your appointed feasts, today is one of those appointed feasts, and at the beginning of your months you shall blow the trumpets over burnt offerings and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings, and they will be a memorial for you before your God, I am the Lord your God.

So gather together. Gather together when you hear the trumpet. Prepare for war when you hear the trumpet. Be warned about what's going on and be aware of it, and also in the times of your gladness, blow the trumpet. It's the thing that He wants us to do. In ancient Israel, they would remember those things. Remember when they heard the trumpet sound. Remember the times and the occasions of it. We know today in the New Testament, some people will ask, well, what about the Feast of Trumpets? I don't know what it means. But when we get in the New Testament times, we find trumpets all over the New Testament. Jesus Christ spoke of trumpets. Paul spoke of a trumpet.

The Book of Revelation is full of trumpets. There's no doubt today what God had in mind when He established the Feast of Trumpets. And for those of us in this age, the Feast of Trumpets is a meaningful day and one that we should understand, one that we should be aware of, and it has all those elements of the trumpets in the Old Testament mixed in it. Now, there is a time when the trumpet will call and the people will be gathered together. The trumpets will blow, and it's a time of alarm, a time for people to be aware of what's going on and to draw close to God.

And when you remember God, as He said here in Numbers 10, you'll be delivered. You'll be saved. And there is a time of gladness because when the last trumpet sounds, Jesus Christ will return and the dead will be resurrected. Let's go over to Matthew, Matthew 24, because Jesus Christ spoke of trumpets or a trumpet. Matthew 24, of course, is the Olivet prophecy. His disciples asked, what will be the sign of your coming?

When you return again, what will it be like? Tell us what the age will be like at that time. And He goes through in chapter 24 and rehearses for them what it's going to be like leading up to that time.

And down in verse 29, He says this. He says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, just a couple weeks ago we talked about the tribulation, Jacob's trouble, the great tribulation of what would occur in that time. And Jesus Christ says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, the sun will be darkened, the moon will not give its light, the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Mankind will know that God exists. Mankind will know that He is alive, and mankind will know that His vengeance on an earth that has always rejected Him, and tried to displace Him and ignore Him, that He is about to move, Jesus Christ said in their lives. And He will sense His... verse 30, then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will sense His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds from one end of heaven to the other.

He will return at the sound of a trumpet. His people will be gathered from the four ends of the earth. The time of gladness will be ushered in, a time of gladness that will last for the rest of eternity. The times of woe, the times of sadness, the times of suffering, and war will be over. And nothing but good will lie ahead when Jesus Christ reigns on this earth, when He returns at the sound of a trumpet, as the sound of a trumpet.

Well, Jesus Christ gave us an outline in Matthew 24, but the book of Revelation provides us more detail of what the trumpets are and the times leading up to His return will be like. If you turn over to Revelation 4, in the first few chapters of Revelation, you know we're told in Revelation 1.1 that this is the revelation of Jesus Christ. God the Father gave it to Him.

He sent it by angel to John, the disciple, who recorded it for us. In the first few chapters there, it talks about Jesus Christ. It talks, has a message to the seven churches, the people that will be alive in His church. Remember, Jesus Christ began His church, and it will exist until the time that Jesus Christ returns. And in those messages to the seven churches, He tells us and warns us the type of attitudes we should be aware of that could develop among us and the strength that He wants us to develop.

Some churches are very strong, other churches and attitudes are very weak, and He cautions us to pay attention, to be aware of what is going on and listen to those messages. But as we come out of the seven messages to the seven churches in chapter 4, verse 1, we read this. John writes, as he's in a vision provided by Jesus Christ through the angel given to Jesus Christ by God the Father after these things I looked, and behold the door standing open in heaven.

And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, come up here and I will show you things which must take place after this. After these churches, after this time the church age that Jesus Christ started that will continue until His return. When that's done, let me show you the things that will take place after that. And so we see God's voice like a trumpet calling out to the world.

And when we hear the voice of a trumpet, and when the world hears the voice of the trumpet, it's God speaking.

Remember back a few weeks ago when we were talking about Jacob's trouble, talk about a lion roaring. When these things happen, a lion is roaring. Here John says, it's God's trumpet, a voice that He is speaking of. And then He begins to tell us what is going to happen between then and the time of Jesus Christ's return. And there's a beautiful set of verses in chapter 5 that you can't really, if Hollywood was going to write the script, they couldn't improve on this script. It's a beautiful set of scriptures that kind of shows what God is going to do, and shows the position and the importance of Jesus Christ in the whole scope of humankind. Let's just read through chapter 5 here briefly, and get the flavor of what God is saying and how important Jesus Christ is and how important He is in His return as He comes to earth. Chapter 5, verse 1, it says, I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. Chapter 4, it describes the time when Christ there, John, is in the throne of God and He's in vision, seeing what's going on there. I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne of scroll, written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with her loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals. John wants to know what is written in that book, what is going on, how, what is the history, what is sealed in that.

And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or look at it, not a man that has ever lived is able, was worthy to open that and read the book and show what was going on. So John says, I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or look at it. But one of the elders said to me, don't weep, behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah. The root of David has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals. It's because of Him. It's because of His life. It's because He came to earth. It's because He lived perfectly. He's the one who's qualified that the world and the plan of God can be completed. If it wasn't for Him, it wouldn't be completed. We would all just die. We would all just vanish without any purpose or any meaning. It was all about Jesus Christ who was qualified and who came to earth and sacrificed His life and His will that the plan of God could go on. I looked in the behold in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders to the Lamb as though He had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And He came and He took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne. And when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. I hope you're getting the vision of what's going on here, how God is describing what is going on. He's ready and the prayers of the saints, and remember who the saints are, those are the people who through the ages have obeyed God at the cost of sacrificing their own desires, their own lives in many cases. Just as God asked her, Jesus Christ asked us to do as we follow Him today. They were all there. They all died, we're told in Hebrews 11. They didn't receive the promises in their lifetime, but they're there. And they prayed, Thy Kingdom come. Just like you and I pray, Thy Kingdom come. And God remembers their prayers. He remembers their hearts. He remembers what they live for. And as the four living creatures and the 24 elders are there, all that comes before God. It's time. It's time for the return of Jesus Christ. It's time for these seven seals to be opened. And they sang a new song, saying, You, Christ, are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Out of everyone, because in this church age of Jesus Christ, after He was, after He died and was resurrected, God calls peoples of all backgrounds. Salvation is open to all people, not just the nation, ancient nation of Israel.

And you have made us, and if you look down in your margins, yours may say what mine say, more appropriately translated, they, and have made them kings and priests. Remember, it's the four living creatures and you have made them, these people that were redeemed from the earth, kings and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth. That's what their ultimate goal is. That's what God created them to be. If they are yielding to God during this lifetime and allowing Him to prepare, if they're following Him implicitly, if they're sacrificing their will to His, if they're yielding to Him, and if they're truly putting old ways out and new ways in, that's what God will have them do. And I looked and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, the living creatures and the elders, and the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands, all worshiping God, all singing His praise, saying with a loud voice, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them I heard saying, blessing, honor, and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever. The four living creatures said, Amen, and the 24 elders fell down and worshiped Him who lives forever and ever.

What a majestic sight! What a moving thing to have happen in heaven as this time begins and as the Lamb who was slain is now opening the seals and then the seals begin to be opened in chapter 6.

I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals and I heard one of those four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, Come and see. And here as the four seals, the four horsemen of the apocalypse, each one of the four living creatures speaks to John and says what it pictures.

Verse 2, And I looked and behold a white horse, he who sat on it had a bow, and a crowd was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer. Now we can read this and that might initially seem like it's war, wartime, king that's going out to conquer peoples.

But you know the Bible interprets itself and if we don't understand something from one scripture we can find it, reference it another because God gives the complete picture. We don't have to guess what the seals are. We don't have to guess about anything in the Bible. God will reveal what those things are. So if we go back, keep your finger there in Revelation because we'll back here in a moment, if we go back to Matthew 24, Jesus Christ who gave the outline of events that will transpire before his return, and then gave more of the picture in the book of Revelation that was given to the Apostle John somewhere in the 90s AD, some 60 years after Jesus Christ ascended into heaven.

In chapter 24, if we go back to the beginning of the Olivet prophecy, we see that Jesus Christ mentions to the disciples there when they ask the question, what will be the sign of your coming? What will it be like at the end of the age? And as he begins to answer those questions, he says in verse 4, take heed that no one deceives you. Right off the bat when they ask the question, he says, you take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name saying, I'm the Christ, and they will deceive many.

Jesus Christ came with a very plain message of the gospel of the kingdom of God. Jesus Christ came with a very plain message of what you need to do to please God, that if you believe in Him, if you claim His sacrifice for payment for your sins, what you need to do, you need to follow Him exactly as He followed Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul said the same thing. The Apostle Peter said the same thing. Take heed that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name saying, I'm the Christ, and they will deceive many.

They'll use my name, but they're going to preach a different gospel than I preached. They're going to use my name, but they're going to say that you can do different things than what I command you to do. And so the first course, now let's read down through the next few verses here and cover that while we're here.

So the first thing he says is there's going to be some false religion. People come in my name, they're going to say, I'm Christian. We believe in Jesus Christ. And this is what we will teach you that He says is. And we know, those of us who know the Bible and do what Jesus Christ said, that others who say, we believe in Jesus Christ, and He said, you keep this day, or you don't need to keep this day, but you should keep this day that isn't anywhere in the Bible, you know that's false religion.

And they can have some very convincing arguments, right? Because Satan is a very convincing liar. It's very cunning. I mean, there he was in the Garden of Eden. Eve, who only knew God, who knew the one minute she wasn't there, the next minute she was, saw the creation that she was in. And Satan was so clever and so cunning in the words that he said, that he actually got her to disobey God.

When you think about it, it is absolutely mind-boggling that she would have listened to this creature and disobeyed God and followed Him. It's a warning to us how clever, how cunning, how deceitful Satan can be. He can make everything sound so wonderful, so right. And Jesus Christ warned, this is what's going to happen. I'm here on earth. I'm going to die for your sins. I'm going to leave a clear message, but after me, people are going to pervert the message. After me, people will change it a little bit.

They'll say, they'll change times and seasons as is predicted in Daniel 7. They'll do all those things and people will believe it. They'll believe it. They'll say they believe in Jesus Christ, but then they'll do something different. You know, a few chapters back in Matthew 7, Jesus Christ said, why do you call me Lord? Why do you call me master and not do the things I say? Who on earth has a physical master that would call someone master and then just reject everything He said and do it their own way?

He wouldn't last very long, would He? Not very long. But here there would be false religion that would come. If we go down, we see, and we're going to, while we're here in Matthew 24, covered, and we'll go back here to Revelation in a minute. So He says the first thing that's going to happen is false religion.

People will try to deceive you. And we'll see the fact it's worse and worse. It happened immediately. Within 300 years of Jesus Christ, the church that claimed to be the church of Christ changed the Sabbath day to Sunday. The church that claimed to be of Jesus Christ, the Catholic Church, took away the Passover and established Easter and Christmas instead.

All in the name of God, and people followed. They believed. They had convincing arguments somehow. But they changed the very thing of God, and He says it will get worse and worse and worse. So much so that later in this chapter in Matthew 24, He said that even the very elect, you and I, we could be deceived. Things will become so cloudy. He will be so convincing. The arguments will look so good. The power of those that preach it will look so good that if it was possible, even the elect, even you and I, would believe it. It's a scary thought when you think about it, isn't it? Every one of us here today would say, no, I won't believe it. But some will. Some will, just like Eve. Just like Eve. By the lie and believe the lie. We're going on to verse 6 here in Matthew 24. He says, then you're going to hear wars and rumors of wars. He says, see that you're not troubled. All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. And the world has been full of wars. We study history in school, and what we often study is the history of the wars of man. And that's what we memorize dates. We remember who's against who, who was the king here, what was the result of that war, and the history of man has been the history of war. How one nation against another and everything that goes on with that. Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. Four things that he says there. There's going to be false religion that comes the way. There's going to be wars and rumors of wars. There's going to be famines. There's going to be pestilences and earthquakes. Four things. And he says, you know what? These are going to happen all the way from history, from the beginning, all the way until the end. They're going to intensify as the time of Jesus Christ returns draws closer. And he says, all these are the beginnings of sorrow. These will be the first four horsemen riding across your landscape and across your history, beginning with Jesus Christ and the message that he brings and the death that he gave that we might have our sins forgiven and that the rest of the plan of God could go on. All these things are the beginning of sorrows. Let's go back to Revelation 6.

And as we speak, you know, there in verse 1, it's the first living creature that says, you know, here's a white horse. It looks clean. It looks like the right horse.

But he who sat on it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer. This isn't just a friendly church. This isn't a church that is looking to promote life and unity and harmony. This is a church that's looking to feed itself. This is a church that's warlike. This is a church that's very interested in stealth and its own and its own ideas and in the power of the leader of that church. And so we read after the time of Jesus Christ. You know, the apostles spoke of that time. Peter spoke of the time where there would be false prophets on earth. Paul spoke of the time that there would be false prophets on earth. Jesus Christ spoke of the time that there will be false prophets on earth. Even the book of Jude speaks of the time that will be where there will be false prophets on earth and even some who would be sitting among the church of Jesus Christ, who would lead people's faith. Let's go back one book to Jude here.

In Jude 3, he gives an admonition, the same admonition that Peter would give, the same admonition that Paul gives, the same admonition that Jesus Christ would give. He says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.

Contend earnestly. Pay attention to that. Rehearse it in your minds. Make it part of your very being. Understand what the Word of God is. Understand where your faith is. Understand where your salvation is. Understand who God is and put him first and be eliminating all these other gods in your life and focus on him to do his will and to do his things earnestly. Contend. Put your effort into it. Just because you knew it once doesn't mean it's going to stand you through the time, the test of time. Earnestly. Contend. You know, Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2, when he speaks of the man of sin and he'll be revealed at the end, he says that those who, so many people will fall for it, but the people who won't fall for it are those who love the truth. Those who love the truth, he says in 2 Thessalonians 2, 12. We need to love the truth. It needs to become part of us, our very being, and that we can spot a lie and we can spot the deception from afar. It doesn't happen unless we're spending time in it, in God's gospel, with his gospel, with his spirit, leading us and guiding us. So Jude says here, I found it necessary. Because you know why? People in that time were beginning to believe these false things. So he says, earnestly contend for the faith which was once and all for all delivered to the stains. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men who turned the grace of our God into lewdness and denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Who take the salvation and the death of Jesus Christ and say, you know what? You don't have to do any of it anymore. Don't have to pay attention to the law. Don't have to pay attention to the Holy Days. Just kind of ignore, do your own thing. Jesus Christ has done it all for you, and thereby, and thereby perverting the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let's drop down to verse 8. It kind of shows the characteristics of these high people, these false apostles, these false preachers, these false teachers. He says, likewise these dreamers, they defile the flesh. They reject authority. And if we know God's way, we see these things and think, yeah, this is the antithesis of what God would have us be called to.

These dreamers defile the flesh. They reject authority. They speak evil of dignitaries. Yet Michael, the archangel, in contending with the devil when he disputed about the body of Moses, he dared not bring against him a reviling accusation, but said, the Lord, rebuke you.

But these speak evil of whatever they don't know. They just make up stories. They just kind of use their assumptions and think, oh, this is what they meant. This is what's probably going on. I'm going to try to put my two and two together and it'll result in something other than a true four.

But this is what I'll tell you that's going on. These speak of whatever they don't know, and whatever they know naturally, like group beasts and these things, they corrupt themselves.

Woe to them. They've gone in the way of Cain. They've run greedily in the prior era of Balaam for profit. They perished in the rebellion of Korah. They are spots in your love feasts. While they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. That's what their mission is.

What's in it for me? How can I make myself look better? How can I have a bigger following for myself? Whatever you need to hear, those preachers would say, I'll give it to you.

So Jesus Christ says, beware, beware of them. You know, in the times to come, they're going to be able to do some mighty powers, Christ says. They're going to be able to do miracles that we would look at and say, how could a human do that? Well, a human couldn't. It'll be supernatural, but it won't be God who's provided that power. It'll be the power that He allows Satan to give them.

If we go forward into Revelation 13, as you're turning there, you know, I spoke a little bit during the auditory about the power of the Internet and how we can preach the Gospel, a very small church preaching the Gospel around the world through the Internet and through cable TV that extends through all the nations of the earth. You know, there's a lot of false messages that go out through the Internet as well. A lot of false messages. We can find ourselves in a lot of trouble by listening to things, you know, that aren't there. If we're not discerning what is going on, if we're not testing everything that we hear on the Internet and comparing it to the Bible and making sure we're listening to the truth, listening to the Word of God, because Satan uses that Internet as well as well we know for all the evil things that are on the Internet that seem to outweigh even the good that comes from it. Satan is the prince of the power of the air. He knows how to get his message across, and he does it very well. And we can all be tempted by it and just be misled by it if we're not watching out. Here in Revelation 13, speaking of the end time, the Beast Power is now in place on the Earth. The United States, Britain, Australia, all those nations have disappeared. They're no longer on the world picture. They've been part of, they've fallen prey to Jacob's trouble, as we discussed a few weeks ago. And we have this Beast Power that arises out on the north side of the Mediterranean Sea, a united Europe that wreaks havoc on the Earth and is interested in everyone following him and worshiping him. And in alliance with this Beast Power, a physical government, we have a little Beast, a little religious Beast. I saw another Beast, verse 11, Revelation 13, coming up out of the Earth. He had two horns like a lamb. He looked good. He looked like the truth, and he spoke like a dragon. He looked like a lamb, but his words were evil. His words were nothing like the lamb. He exercises all the authority of the first Beast in his presence, and he causes the Earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first Beast, whose deadly wound was healed. He's not leading them to God. He's not teaching them to follow the principles of God. He's leading them to worship a physical government. He performs great signs so that he makes even fire come down from heaven on the Earth and the sight of men. And it exceeds those who dwell on the Earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the Beast, telling those who dwell on the Earth to make an image to the Beast, who was wounded by the sword and lived. And he was granted power. He was all about power and exercising authority, and he caused the whole world to sin. All the world except those who didn't accept the mark of the Beast, who didn't follow him, but had the truth of God even though it was going to cost them comfort, even though it was going to cost them perhaps their lives or whatever God had in mind, because they would be loyal to the true God first and not fall prey. So the false religion that would encapture and encapsule the entire Earth. So Jesus Christ said, this first horse, this first seal that's going to come about, this false religion, and it's a big one. It's a big one. It's going to deceive the whole world. It's going to grow and grow and grow, and the whole world will be saved by this power that gets its power from Satan, not from God the Father.

Let's go back to Revelation 6 here.

Chapter 6 and verse 3, it says, when he, Christ, opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, come and see. Another horse fiery red went out, and it was granted to the one who said on it, to take peace from the earth, and the people should kill one another. And there was given to him a great sword. Well, that's the seal of war. The second thing that Jesus Christ said, pretty evident there, he took peace from the earth. Jesus Christ comes to bring peace to the earth when he returns again. This seal brings war to the earth, something that has been extant throughout our history. Verse 5, when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, come and see. So I 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-fourths of barley for a denarius, and don't harm the oil and the wine. Don't harm it. Well, the pair of scales, and Jesus Christ said, famine would come upon the earth. And there have been famines in various places on the earth, but as the time of Jesus Christ would return, or the time of his return, that famine would increase.

And the fourth seal, I'm going to go ahead and read that too, when he opened the fourth seal, the fourth living creature said, come and see. A pale horse in the name of him who sat on it was death, and Hades followed with him, and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, hunger, and death, and by the beasts of the earth. Well, that hasn't happened.

That's something for the future. These four horses, as they intensify their ride, as their gallop grows louder and louder in our ears, as we see the things that are happening, what goes on is monumental. Now, I sit here in America, and we all have grocery stores close by, we all have, and sometimes we might think, how can a famine ever occur to America, even if it didn't rain for six months? And I think sometimes we, you know, might think, couldn't it ever happen to America? Well, the Bible says it will. You know, there's a time of great tribulation coming, and Jacob will fall because of the sense that she's committed. I want to read something. Every year or two, I like to read to keep us focused on what is going on in the world around us, because we can be lulled to sleep by a number of things. I want to read a portion of an article that appeared in Business Insider, also appeared in Forbes magazine, Newsweek, Popular Mechanics, that was written back in October of 2017. And it's a topic you've heard me speak about before, but this is an updated part of it to show what can happen in our world today. And this is written before the recent meetings with Kim Jong-un in North Korea, but it kind of shows where the world is and how vulnerable the United States is. The name of the article is, The North Korean EMP Attack is a Dark Possibility. Let me just read through here. It says, Most Analysts Believe North Korea – and just remember, this was last October – Most Analysts Believe North Korea is not yet capable of a direct missile strike on the U.S. mainland. The Kim Jong-un's dogged determination to make this a reality is quite disconcerting. Some experts believe that the more realistic threat at this point in time is an EMP attack. To make that happen, all North Korea has to do is launch a low-yield nuclear missile from a submarine ship or even by balloon and explode it at high altitude above the atmosphere. The potential result? A blackout of the eastern grid that supplies 75 percent of power to the United States. A simple thing that most believe North Korea could do today. If an EMP attack did take place, it would be beyond anything we have seen before. The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from the electromagnetic pulse attack, which was established by Congress in 2001, estimates that within 12 months following a nationwide blackout, up to 90 percent of the U.S. population could perish from starvation, disease, and societal background. Now, remember a few weeks ago, we read Amos 5 verse 3. Remember where it said, a city of a thousand goes out and comes back a hundred. City of a hundred goes back and comes back ten. Ninety percent attrition. Ninety percent gone. And here's an independent article that says, if this happened in the United States, with the resulting of just one little yield, how did we put it, low yield nuclear device in the atmosphere, up to 90 percent of the U.S. population would perish within 12 months. In practical terms, a catastrophic blackout would be worse than cities because it would instantly deprive the population of access to drinking water, refrigeration, heat, air conditioning, and telecommunication.

Food stores would be looted within a matter of days. Gas stations would cease to function without electricity. Without internet access and power, all commerce and advanced methods of communication would stop. There would be no TV, radio, phones, credit card transactions, and cash withdrawals of banks would be impossible. Paper money would become worthless, and Bitcoin would cease to exist along with the stock market. Everything that we know today, every god that is out there, food, military, our bank accounts, our stock market, everything would cease to exist by one little thing that is possible in the world today, and that some nations may already have the capacity to do. Peter Vincent Pry, leader of the task force on national and homeland security, believes North Korea is closer to launching an EMP attack than many analysts believe. He wants Congress to work harder and cut the red tape to allow the innovation necessary to mitigate the threat. In Pry's opinion, an EMP attack would ultimately kill more Americans than a direct nuclear blast could. The United States, he says, can sustain a population of 320 million people, only because of modern technology. An EMP that blacks out the electric grid for a year would decimate the critical infrastructure necessary to support such a large population.

And then he replays again the worst-case scenario. The food would be gone, the transportation would be gone, our economy would be gone. Pry thinks that the first nation to use nuclear weapons today, even a rogue state like North Korea or Iran, there are documents that, you know, are on the internet that the government knows of that. That is one of the Iran's desires, that they would be able to strike the United States with an EMP attack because they understand what it could do.

Now, we live in a time of war today that's different than the wars where people lined up and they got out their bayonets and they got their rifles out or whatever they did and fought each other. Today we live in a world where instantaneous decimation can occur. We saw it at the end of World War II with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Could do even worse today. And if a nation can do that and just decimate someone, it's different than it was the world that we lived in today. Pry thinks that the first nation to use nuclear weapons today, even a rogue state like North Korea or Iran, will immediately become the most feared, incredible nuclear power in the world, a formidable force to be reckoned with, and perhaps the dominant actor in a new world order. You see why Iran wants it so desperately? You see why North Korea wants it so desperately? Some other nations might want it so desperately? Why the United States is so interested in denuclearizing these nations that they don't have that capacity, that they aren't able to do what could happen and decimate this country literally overnight. We could be plunged, as some analysts say, back into the 18th century and we wouldn't know how to live in it. Is it possible? Yes. Will God use that or allow that to happen to the world? Only He knows. But it could happen. And when we read the four horsemen that are marching across the time, all those things can happen. War usually results in a part of wartime and the old time with sieges on people. Let's starve them to death. Let's starve them into submission. Could happen again today. You know, the fourth horse is pestilence. And along with the food supply and the gas supply and the economic supply, they talk about health care, because health care would disappear as we know it with an EMP attack. Hospitals wouldn't be able to operate. You would no longer have access to the medicines that people rely on. It would be a totally different world. What would happen to the world at that point when we only have God to rely on? Only God to rely on, because that time could well happen. And it could happen. And however God says it is, that's maybe just one possibility, a reality in the world we live in today. Those are the first four four creatures. Let's go on here in Revelation 6. It says, when he opened the fifth field, I saw under the altar the souls of those who have been slain for the word of God of his testimony, which they held. 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. And then it says they were given a white robe that they should wait until the rest of their number should be ready to join them. Fifth seal is the great tribulation that we talked about. Great tribulation. After all these things happen, the great tribulation occurs that initially envelops the nations of Jacob, then the whole world. And there is that beast power that is on earth in Revelation 13.

Beast power and the despotic nature of it that derives its power from Satan.

In Revelation 11, they ask, How long? In Revelation 11, it tells us 1260 days. In Revelation 13, it tells us that power was going to be extant for three and a half years. Time, times, and a half a time. Daniel talks about that time. Three and a half years. That's how long it's going to last.

That's where it will be. And during that time of the three and a half years, God will have His witnesses on earth, as you read through Revelation 11. They will be preaching loudly the truth of God. They will be pointing out loudly the errors in the thinking and the message of this beast power and who really is given them the power that they have. And that would be Satan and urging people, encouraging them, follow God. Follow God. He is your Savior. He is the one who has made all things possible. And it will go on for three and a half years.

It'll be a time, Jesus Christ said, unlike any other time in history. No other time like it. But then, in verse 12, the sixth seal opens. It would be so bad that mankind would blow himself off the face of the earth. And Jesus Christ will return, he says, to come to destroy those who would destroy the earth, because that's what Satan's ultimate mission is. Not to brine people together, not to make their lives better, but to destroy all of civilization. And then God intervenes after that time. It says that, I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became black as sackcloth of air, and the moon became like blood. The stars of heaven fell to the earth as a fig tree drops its late figs, when it was shaken by a mighty wind. And the sky receded as a scroll when it rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. These aren't natural events. No one could point to the heavens and say, oh, we're going to have a blood moon in the year, whatever the next one is. These are not things that are predictable. Mankind has gotten used to the order of the universe and the fact that Jesus Christ is keeping it all together. But at the time of the end, all these things disappear. Things are totally out of control. God is about to intervene. God is showing the time of man and what they've done to the earth is enough. It's over. And He's going to come, and He will shake the earth. And as you read the rest of Revelation 7, the kings of the earth, they know things are out of control. This isn't anything we can predict. This is nothing that we can do. But they hack in the knowledge. God. They're not going to follow Him. And then there's the seventh. And then there's the seventh seal. Revelation 10. Revelation 10.

And verse 5, John writes, the angel whom I saw standing on the sea, and on the land raised up His hand to heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, the sea and the things that are in it, that there would be delay no longer. It's time. It's time. The time of man is done. He has decimated and made a botch of everything I've given Him. But in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when He is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. The mystery of God, His plan. Paul says that you and I are stewards of the mystery of God, the mysteries of heaven, the truth that God has given us. And soon the world will understand what those mysteries are, what God created us for, why the physical earth was in place, what He's doing, why He's doing, why things have been so bad these six thousand years that man has been on earth, and how good they can become. In the days of the sounding when He's about to end sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets.

And then, the seventh seal, which is comprised of seven trumpets, begins to sound. Seven trumpets on the day of trumpets, and it begins to sound in succession.

Let's look at Revelation 8, and I'm going to just summarize here for you what's in Revelation 8.

I'll read verse 1. It says, When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about a half an hour. These heavenly signs had occurred. It was time for God's intervention, for Him to intervene in world affairs. And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. And then the seven trumpets begin to sound.

And as you read through that, you see the first trumpet a third, a third of all the trees on earth are burned up. Not all of them, but a third of them are dried up. The second trumpet sounds, and all the waters, a third, I should say, of the waters of the sea, turn to blood.

The Mediterranean Sea, the oceans, I guess, would be included in that. And a third of the sea creatures die, and a third of the boats, ships that are on those seas, perish. And then the third trumpet sounds. And the rivers and the springs, we're very familiar with rivers and springs in Florida, aren't we? We have the St. John's River here. We probably rely on the St. John's River for our drinking water. Throughout other areas of Florida, the springs are sources of our drinking water. And God says when that third trumpet sounds, a third of the rivers and a third of the springs will turn bitter and be poisoned, and people will die from drinking the water.

Vegetation will be burned up. Seas will be turned to blood, a third of them. And these waters that we drink, that we rely on, a third of them. Scientists aren't going to be able to explain what's going on.

Mankind's going to know God is intervening. They will still resist Him, as the Bible tells us. Despite all these things and all these trumpets that sound, all these warning signs from God, people will still resist Him. They're not going to repent. They're too headstrong. We want to do things our way. We'll resist as long as we possibly can. We don't want to yield to Him.

And the trumpets go on. The fourth trumpet, a third of the sun, remains dark. The moon, a third of it remains dark. Daytime hours, a third remain dark. Science can't explain it.

They can't say, well, we relied on this new miracle portion and we thought this was happening. Now it's only explained by God is intervening. God is there and making Himself known to earth, and beginning to reek, or letting earth reap what they have sown in all the years that they forgot Him, denied Him, rejected Him. In chapter 9 of Revelation, the fifth angel sounded. It says, I saw a star falling from heaven to the earth, and that Him was given the key to the bottomless pit.

Now we know who dwells in the bottomless pit. And in verse 4 it says, as they come out, these locusts, these things that the Bible pictures that John didn't have the words to describe, they were commanded not to harm the remaining grass of the earth, or any green thing or the remaining trees, but only affect men who didn't have the seal of God on their foreheads.

People who weren't. People who had accepted the mark of the beast.

People who had been deceived by the false prophet. People who kind of became complacent and apathetic and forgot God in good times and forgot Him. And they were not given authority to kill them.

Verse 5, but to torment them for five months. Can you imagine? Torture. Torment for five months. Not being able to die. People will want to die, it says, but they're not going to be able to. Their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it strikes a man. And that's the fifth trumpet.

But people don't repent. They don't repent of what they've done. They don't turn back to God.

And so the sixth trumpet sounds. And war comes on earth and an army of 200 million men appear.

And in verse 15 of Revelation 9, it says, so the four angels who have been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year, the exact time that God had planned for them to be there, He says, release the angels. Release the... So the four angels who have been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released to kill a third of mankind. A third of trees, a third of the seas, a third of the rivers and springs, a third of the sun, moon, stars, daytime. A third of mankind to kill, to kill in warfare. And it tells us in verse 11 who their king is. It's not God, it's a polyon, a badon, Satan, who's devoted to the destruction of the earth and the destruction of mankind. Despite it all, man doesn't. Mankind does not. Yield to God, repent, or turn to Him.

And so we read in Revelation 10 that the seventh trumpet sounds. And the seventh trumpet is composed of seven vials, as you read in Revelation 11. And those seven vials are parallel to this first six trumpets, as opposed to a third of things happening. God completes the task.

He completes the task and totally decimates the earth. And all the things that people rely on, that they have no choice but to look to Him. No choice. There's no hope in anything. It's all been taken away. And mankind will learn we must look to God. We must look to Him. We must rely on Him and not on ourselves. And at that seventh trumpet, and the things that occur in it, the Bible tells us that Jesus Christ will return. The seventh vial culminates in the Battle of Armageddon in Revelation 19. At the sound of the trumpet that Jesus Christ talked about, He returns to earth. Revelation 19 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 he wakes 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 a 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.

And all the weaponry of man, all the strength of man, that's focused on defeating Jesus Christ, He summarily defeats in an instant, showing His power, and all the kingdoms of the earth become Christ's. The world is decimated. Everything they trusted in, everything that they had hoped that would see them through, has failed. Has failed them completely. No longer do they have anything to hold on to. It's just the remaining part of humanity and Jesus Christ. And they will learn that He is a benevolent King who has their best interests at heart. That seventh trumpet will sound, and that will be, the world won't note at that time, but that will be a day of gladness.

The time, the time when He returns, and the time that the world will eventually learn, those of us, those of them who will yield, that this is the time they've been waiting for. The time where all the world will be able to experience what God had wanted mankind to experience. The joy, the peace, the love, the abundance. It all happens, and pictured on this day of trumpets. Let's go back to 1 Thessalonians 4, and something else notable happens at that seventh trumpet. And later on this afternoon, the video sermon you'll watch, we'll talk about this event in more detail.

But in 1 Thessalonians 4 and verse 15, we read about a trumpet, this last trumpet. Jesus Christ returns, but something else notable happens as well. For this we say to you, it says in verse 15, 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. Some will live until the time he returns, but many, many have died before then. 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. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul further elaborates on it and tells us what our goal, those of us who God has called in this day and age, what we need to be working for, why we need to be focused because he's called us to be saints. He's called us to be there when Jesus Christ returns. Put the balls in our court. He's called. We have to do our part. We have to respond. We have to yield. We have to obey. We have to discipline ourselves to do what God wants us to and not just what is more convenient for us. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 50. This I say, brethren, the flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I tell you a mystery, one of those mysteries that will be revealed in the days of the trumpets. Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. We will be changed from mortal, corruptible bodies to immortal bodies. Verse 54.

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Jesus Christ, who will conquer the earth and make the kingdoms His, Jesus Christ, who will defeat Satan. I will talk more about that on the day of atonement.

Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who give us the victory over death, the final enemy. It's all pictured here. It's all pictured here on this day of trumpets, a time when the rest, the rest of time begins, and a new beginning for mankind as the end of this age closes. May we truly pray to God, thy kingdom come. Well, we're going to have to leave very, well, very soon after services to get to Orlando on time, but hopefully you have a very nice remaining remainder of the day of trumpets. We will see you all on Sabbath.