Oh No! Rev, 6:9-17

This morning, before we turn to our passage in the book of Revelation, one of the things that I asked several weeks ago, and it's been neat to see some responses, is people have questions. And questions are good for several reasons. They, first of all, tell me that somebody must be listening. But the other part of it, too, is that if you're thinking of a question, there's a good chance others are thinking of the same question. And even if they're not thinking of the same question, they'll be just delighted that somebody asked it anyway.

So, anyway, I want to begin to try to address some of those. We want to catch up to them. One of them that came up had to do with Revelation 5.13. And the question that they had is...

One person passed along the question relating to Revelation 5.13 where the created beings join with the 24 elders and the angels and the four living creatures to express glory to the Lord. And let's read that verse here.

Revelation 5.13, And every created thing which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, Be blessing, and honor, and glory, and dominion for ever and ever.

So the question was, is this reference to these earthly creatures the same as where Paul says in Romans 14.11, Every knee shall bow.

That Romans 14.11 verse, and Paul quotes it again in more brief form in Philippians 2.10.

Those are referencing Isaiah 45.23, and based on looking at the context of all three passages, it appears that they're referring all to people, and referring explicitly to human beings. And so based on that, I would say it's It's human beings that are referred to in this Romans 14, every knee shall bow, and so it's a different reference. It's not referring to the same thing.

The second question in Revelation 5.14, it says elders.

Does that mean all of us? And since the 24 elders are representative of all believers, I would say yes, that means all of us. See, all believers in this present church age are represented by these 24. And just as we believers are now all seated with Christ, every one of us, are now seated with Christ in our position, we will all then be seated with Him in our position and our condition for eternity.

So anyway, there's more questions than that, but we'll try to catch up to them as we go on. I just want to make sure we don't leave something untouched here. Well, let's dive into our passage this morning, Revelation 6, 9-17. And just to give ourselves a point of reference, remember last week we looked at the four horsemen. These were the four horses released by the first four seals. One at a time Christ opened the seals and these four horsemen were released bringing different judgments upon the earth. And so that's kind of the preface. Now we'll be going into the fifth and the sixth seals as those are opened.

So just to give us a preview here. As we go into the passage this morning, it kind of naturally falls into three sections. So let's take a look at those and make sure we're all on the same page here. You'll notice too that your handout kind of reflects these three sections as well.

The first one is the opening of the 5th seal, verses 9-11. And this is martyrs cry out. We'll obviously be looking in more detail on that one. Verses 12-14 is the opening of the 6th seal. And these are various cosmic disturbances. Everything from things happening right here on planet earth, to things happening in the heavens, and things in between, as we'll see. So that's the 6th seal.

The next part of it, the next third if you will, describes man's response. At the opening of the sixth seal, we'll have had several things that have taken place here. And this is the first time we really see man's response, both physically as well as kind of a heart response. And so we'll be diving into all three of those sections here as we look at it this morning. So let's take a look at it starting with verse nine, okay?

When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the work of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained." So this is now the fifth of the seven seals to be broken. The Lamb is the one breaking open each one of these, He being the only one, as you remember, who is qualified to do so. Now this seal is different from the other four, because remember with the other four there was a release of judgment with each one.

This one is different in the sense that it's really a revealing of what's been taking place. So we get a window into what's going on there. The Greek tense translated here in the word slain can communicate that these martyrs were progressively slaughtered. It isn't like one single event This is something that has been going on. And can you imagine a circumstance?

Here's a world in which believers of this, the church age, have been removed. And now those who are coming to the realization that they now need the Savior during this time are under terrific duress. Believers haven't been taken out of the world during the church age. And now these are the ones that remain in a world that stands in sharp contrast to them, and very much against everything they do and say and stand for.

So it's going to be tough for them at the outset. Now, going beyond that, you notice that these beings are described as souls. There seems to be a focus on their soulish being, and at least at this point in time, no mention of them having resurrection bodies yet.

They're located, as it describes, under the altar. And it doesn't explicitly say here, but we get the information from other passages, both before and after, that this altar is the altar of incense. And as you remember, we went through Revelation 5-8, and we'll see again as we go into subsequent passages, this altar of incense stands for the prayers of the saints. Okay? The prayers of the saints. Now, there are two causes that are given for their martyrdom. You notice that here? One is the word of God, the scriptures and the message.

And closely related to that, the testimony which they had maintained. They spoke out. Furthermore, notice that it says, in fact, that they had maintained their testimony. They stuck to it. In spite of the opposition, in spite of what was coming against them, they spoke out.

The Greek tense here indicates that their testimony had been continuous, and the other thing that becomes apparent is their testimony was conspicuous. Those two things, continuous and conspicuous. Now, there's one great likely reason here that there will be believers during the Tribulation period. There will be believers during the Tribulation period because even though the Church will have been taken out, There will be people who will have said in the past, no, not yet. And who will, once they begin seeing things happen, will say, well, I should have said before, but now it's time for me to say yes to the Lord.

Have you known people like that? Have you known people like that, that they've said, well, okay, I know the truth, but I'm not ready for that yet. I know somebody who has said, and I don't think it's very wise, I think I'll wait until I get old. Because you don't know if you're going to get there, do you? Not a very good move. But there will be people who have done that. People who know the truth, but have said, no, I'm not ready for that yet.

And they will come to a place, maybe in part just because of the severity of events, where they say, you know, I think it now better be the time. And they will respond. Besides that, Some of these people, they're going to be going through the things that believers have left.

They might even find one of these Holly Hills Bible Church binders on Revelation. Who knows? Anyway. There. There will be some who will have a degree of knowledge. And you may know people like that as well. They have some understanding of what's in the book of Revelation. And as they start seeing these things take place, their minds will be drawn, oh yeah, I read that somewhere, I heard about that. And they'll begin to recognize that they're entering into this ominous time. And they'll begin to recognize, yes, it's time to respond. As a matter of fact, I know a man who is like that. I know a man who in his younger years claimed to be a believer. And when he got older, he kind of turned skeptical. He said, no, I'm not so sure about that. But something interesting happened.

You may have noticed when there's a lunar eclipse, the moon turns red. And we'll read about that, you know, here a little further on. The moon turns red during a lunar eclipse, especially a partial lunar eclipse. And you see this strong reddish hue. Well, he saw that and he just backed up against the wall and started shivering because he had thought, oh no, I'm in it. And so this fellow who claimed skepticism when it came to something that started to look like he was in the tribulation began to shiver and shake. And then finally when the moon turned back to white, you know, he came to his, quote, senses again. And there may be people like that, only they won't come to their senses.

They won't get out of it because it will continue. Now, let's take a look at verse 10. And they cried out. These are the martyrs. They cried out with a loud voice saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?

Now the Greek word for cried out is krodso. It's kind of an intense sounding word. And it means not just crying, it means a shrieking, a screaming, a shrill voice. It's actually used in some places to describe the sounds that come from those who are demon-possessed or insane.

This is an intense cry. These people have something that has grabbed and gripped them for what they've gone through. They're obviously not taking this casually. It's possible, although it's not described here, that the process of coming to their death has been exceedingly painful, maybe even involving torture. We don't know. but the intensity of their cry seems to imply it.

But we do notice also they spoke with a loud voice. This is the fourth of about 20 times that we're going to read that phrase, loud voice, in the New Testament, excuse me, in the book of Revelation. And as we've noted before, this is always, and this is the same, always from heaven. The loud voice in Revelation never comes from earth. Always from heaven. Always the heavenly scene.

The loud voice also reinforces this idea of this intensity that these souls have, these martyrs. It's also given in the singular. They cried out as one single voice. Now their question, the question they ask, quite honestly raises some other questions.

The length of time until the end of the tribulation is actually a known event. We know this is seven years. As a matter of fact, people have known that for centuries. So that's not an unknown. But I believe the character of their question isn't so much really asking, what's the length of time?

They're saying, this is such an awful thing that we went through, and what's going on there down on planet Earth is so unjust, and it's so horrible, Lord, there's got to be an end to it. And they're saying, this has to end. And notice something else. They didn't just say, how long, O Lord, and stop there. They said, how long, O Lord, holy and true. In Revelation 3-7 we saw that that word couple, holy and true, was applied to Jesus Christ Himself. So we know here this is actually a declaration of Christ's deity.

Nonetheless, these martyrs have had to endure unspeakable agonies and awful horrors, obviously loss of blood because of the beginning reign of one man, the Antichrist. This one being, the Antichrist, is not holy. This one being, the Antichrist, is anything but true. Do you see that? Lord, you're holy and true, but what cost us our life on planet Earth was certainly not holy and certainly not true. He's an awful being who's beginning this terrible persecution.

Lastly, in verse 10, notice that they use the phrase, those who dwell upon the earth, or dwell on the earth. And we don't want to pass over that lightly, because there's a real pattern in the book of Revelation. That phrase is used ten times. And it's only been used once before. And let's take a look at that pattern, and you have it on your handout as well.

Prior to the revelation, remember when we were going through the study of the seven churches and the messages to each of them? The message to the church at Philadelphia included the promise that you will be kept from the hour of testing that's going to come upon the whole world, upon those who dwell upon the earth.

And notice that that phrase is used nine more times and every single time, and this is the first of those nine, Every single time that phrase, those who dwell upon the earth, is referring to those who are living here on planet earth during the tribulation period.

The meaning of the Greek is actually those who dwell down upon the earth. It's a tribulation-specific phrase. It's referring to those who are living on the earth during the tribulation period, who are living subject to the power of the Antichrist, who are living subject to the judgments of the Lord. How long, O Lord? And when they bring this up here, it's not just those people, it's specifically those living during the tribulation period.

Now, we're not going to be here, because remember that first one, 310 and the promise, We won't be here during that time, during this worldwide tribulation, because God has called us to dwell in our position and in our condition with Christ in the heavenlies. That's our calling. But this phrase used here, dwell on the earth, is used only of those who stand in opposition to God and live during the tribulation period. It's one of the things that points very conclusively based on the promise to the church at Philadelphia, we won't be here. These martyrs obviously have had to endure that time. And it's occurred fairly early in the tribulation period. Let's take a look at verse 11.

And there was given to each one of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest a little while longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. Now we've read before that white robes are a symbol of victory and of righteousness. White robes in those days were given to victorious generals.

Although these martyrs had been through unspeakable deaths, apparently horrible, they were told to enjoy their relief, enjoy their relief for a time. Relief from the agonies that they had endured. Relief from the bloody death that had been the end of their life.

As one reads the end of the verse, we notice that the number of the martyrs appears to be set. Did you notice that? It's like there's a certain number and that's it. The Lord has drawn a line. Okay, there will be martyrs, but this is it. That's a pattern I've noticed recently in scriptures.

If you look at Romans 11.25, it speaks of the fullness of the Gentiles. The Lord has apparently got some specific number that he's got in mind. He knows those who will choose. And he says, okay, this is the full number. This is the actual count.

Romans 11.12 has a similar kind of reference to the Jews. Even in Zechariah 13, 8 and 9, it tells us that the number of Jews to die during the tribulation will be two out of every three. That's right. Only one-third will remain. The other two-thirds will die.

God seems to have a number set for these. And it's not that He is saying, okay, so and so have to die, and I've just determined it per se. He's put a limit on things. Just like he did with Job. Okay, you can do this, but that's as far as you can go. This is the number, this is the limit. It also says that he's sovereign, and it also says that he's merciful.

Let's take a look here. Let's move on to the opening of the sixth seal. Verse 12, And I look when he broke the sixth seal, And there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood." See, as our Lord breaks the sixth seal here, gloomy and menacing things begin to take place in the heavens and upon the earth.

Now, we've come to recognize the earth, yes, certainly has fallen, but kind of a pretty place. As a matter of fact, you kind of look at this and say, That's almost like a global work of art, isn't it? It is kind of neat. And you look up at the top there, you can see at the top of Africa, and there's Saudi Arabia, and you can even see Israel there in the picture. But, I mean, all the great form of the Earth, and even the pattern of clouds, it's kind of a piece of art. But that's about to change here, isn't it? It's about to get not so artistic. It's about to be not so beautiful. There's going to be some things happening.

And the first thing that happens when he opens the seal here, the sixth seal, is an earthquake. The Greek says it's a seismos megas. Sounds ominous all by itself, doesn't it? A seismos megas. A great shaking. Now, here on planet Earth we've developed these nice little earthquake magnitudes. We give numbers to these things. And here's something that's interesting. Each of these has some kind of a comparison in terms of how many tons of TNT it would take to equal that.

Basically, the biggest one that has happened in approximately modern times is one down in Chile. It's on the order of magnitude about a nine. How many of you have been through earthquakes? Have you experienced earthquakes? Several of you. Having spent a lot of time growing up in California and Nevada, I've been through a number of them. And about the largest, Nancy and I remember a few years back, was about a five. Here's the San Francisco earthquake.

That was the one that brought my grandmother to the Lord. She was in the middle of the earthquake, the ground was shaking, the piano was banging from wall to wall, and they were in the middle of a Bible study. And the Bible study leader came to my grandmother and said, Eva, are you ready to accept the Lord now? She did.

But about the magnitude we're looking at here is probably a San Andreas type fault circling the earth would make about a 10. And that sounds like about what we're looking at here and maybe more. I mean, so this is big. This is rocking the whole earth. About a trillion tons of TNT would be the equivalent. Many orders of magnitude larger than anything that any of us have ever seen or experienced, I'm sure.

There's lots of places to slip. This is the U.S. Geological Survey's map of the world and all those black lines you see are all the major places that have been slipping and could well slip in the future. Lots of slippage. Lots of movement. There's something else on these maps. You see the red dots? Those are volcanoes. They're actually, in some cases, one dot may represent several volcanoes. To give you a for instance, there are 40 active volcanoes just in Alaska alone. The state of Hawaii exists only because there are volcanoes there. As a matter of fact, similar to what you have on your handout here, here's a volcano erupting in paradise over there. Mike, did you see any of that?

It's a little tough and unnerving to look at your hotel room and see that sort of thing going on, right? Anyway. One of the things that happens when you get these volcanoes going is that they spew out massive amounts of dust and gases. Toxic gases. A number of you may remember this. Mount St. Helens blew off. The amount of dust and gases kind of made a major deposit over the Northwest. What if that happens to dozens of volcanoes at once? could be. If that were to happen, what you'd see is a discoloring of the sun and of the moon.

And we'll be reading more about that in a minute here. How about the moon? We think of the moon as, boy, that's real pretty up in the sky, isn't it? It's kind of a centerpiece for romance. Here's the moon, right? What happens when it looks like this. That's the description that we have here in Revelation. It somehow loses its romance, doesn't it? It somehow doesn't look quite as beautiful when you get that red tone all over it.

So let's take a look at the consequences in verse 13. It says, more consequences now from the opening of the seal, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind." Now, before we think of these stars as massive as the ones that are the size of our sun or bigger, hitting the earth and wiping us all out, we need to clarify something here. The Greek word here that's translated stars is asteres. We get our word asteroid from it. So when it says stars, it includes a lot of heavenly beings.

And obviously from the size here, you're talking to things that are meteors, asteroids, comets, things within our solar system that would cause great damage if they struck us. As a matter of fact, this being struck by some object in our solar system, it has severe enough consequences that NASA actually has a section that studies that very subject.

And it turns out they even have a webpage on it. And it also turns out their office is just a few blocks away from where I used to work in the Silicon Valley years ago. And so they study this thing intensely. Their goal is to identify all the objects that are about two-thirds of a mile across and larger that are floating around in our solar system. Ninety percent of those they want to identify by the year 2008. So there are big things that are flying out there.

But the other aspect of it is there are things that have already hit the earth. And one of them I happened to see some years back. Some of you may have seen it as well. This is the Barringer Crater in Arizona. And kind of give us a for instance when he talks about these things falling from the sky.

We're looking at a crater here. This is almost a mile across. It is about 570 feet deep. It's created by a meteor weighing about 300,000 tons. To give you some kind of comparison, it's a little bit bigger than the apartment building I live in. I live in a 12-story apartment building. A little bit bigger than that. It was going 40,000 miles an hour. A little faster than I've ever gone. That is a lot of speed and that is a massive thing to hit the earth.

So it made this crater. But while the crater is what we see now, studies have been done on what that was like when it hit. When it hit, and here's the little crater, this little dot, six miles all around it there was a fireball when it hit. Up to 18 miles out, all the animals inside that circle were either injured or killed. Obviously, the closer they were to it, killed. The blue circle out here, at this line, you're still getting hurricane force winds up to 28 miles out. So this is a massive thing hitting.

Now, John's description, as we'll see here in a little bit, of these stars falling is like figs dropping from a tree that's being shaken by the wind. And the implication being you're talking not just one or two of these things. It doesn't say how many. A couple dozen? I don't know. But can you imagine a number of these hitting the earth in different places?

What would Denver be like if this hit? Fireball for six miles around? Twelve miles across? People down in Colorado Springs, once they got up off the ground, would be saying, what was that? That's the kind of impact that it would be from something of this size. So this is the magnitude, I think, that John's talking about.

The earth is going to be hit by these things just coming out of the sky. Man will not be able to do anything about it. At best, maybe have some prediction that it's coming and get out of the way. But it's going to ruin a lot of things. it's going to be exceedingly disruptive. Now, verse 14. The sky was split apart like a scroll, and it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. John summarizes here what looks like a major heavenly and earthly shake-up.

See, a number of these events are actually detailed in the Old Testament. Remember, one of the things that we mentioned is the book of Revelation, is basically 70% right out of the Old Testament. And that's true of this as well. Here's some other Bible references and a few in Matthew dealing with Old Testament passages that have said this very same thing.

God will rise to make the earth tremble out of Isaiah. Another one out of Isaiah. I shall make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of His burning anger. Heaven will be separated like a book. Mountains will quake because of Him.

All these things that we're seeing in here are in great part based on things that have already been laid out in the Old Testament. John is just bringing them together in one book and adding those supplemental things that are being revealed to him. It's because of this that if you read the Orthodox Jewish writings on what's going to happen before the Messiah comes, exact same stuff that we're reading here. They see similar things happening just based on their reading of the Old Testament, literally. In fact, if we look at these verses from the beginning of Revelation 6 up to this point, we find, and you'll find this on your handout as well, that there are a number of similarities between this passage we've just read and we read last week and Matthew 24, where Christ has outlined some of the things that will take place.

Now, before we leave these cosmic disturbances on the opening of the sixth seal here, we should note that there will be further cosmic disturbances in the judgments to come. This is only the first. There's a bunch of them. You remember last week we handed out this, and each of your handouts had that. And I don't expect you to read all the detail in here, but the point being, every one of those highlighted rectangles indicates that there are subsequent cosmic disturbance type things that are going to take place. So this is just the first wave.

Other things of similar magnitude, similar disturbance level, are going to take place throughout the tribulation period, and not spaced evenly, but very definitely predicted in advance. We know what's going to take place. As a matter of fact, you can imagine someone reading the scriptures during the tribulation period that's come to a place of recognizing scripture is true, they're going to look at these things and say, I know what's happening next. Because they can see it just like we're doing it now.

Now, now we read about how those who dwell on the earth are responding to all these cosmic disturbances, all the things that have happened up to this point. the atmospheric pollution, the seismic activity. Verse 15 says this, Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. Now notice John has kind of a listing here, doesn't he? Let's look at the characteristics of those listings.

First there's kings, political leaders. Political leaders. Then it says great men, men of power, men of influence. And it says commanders, this is the powerful military leaders. The actual Greek word is those over a thousand. That's the meaning. The rich, those who can buy whatever they want. The wealthy. Strong, those of impressive physical strength, maybe also of valiance and bravery.

Every slave and free man. You might think, well, wait a minute. We don't have a lot of slaves. We don't have any in this country, but there are actually still places in the world where there's slavery taking place. Possible there may even be more in times to come once Christians are taken out. You know, the end of slavery took place because Christians were active.

And we could go into that and get sidetracked, but the point being here, I think John is making reference to there's a socioeconomic ladder And he says, it doesn't matter what parts you take in this whole socio-economic ladder, they're all impacted. All impacted. Nobody gets accepted from this. We get the strong sense that John is seeing all the powerful and the influential, everybody with advantage or not, it doesn't make any difference.

Every one of them finds that whatever they have is useless to defend themselves. against the things that are coming from heaven down to earth. Verse 16 puts it this way, And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Now interesting that these humans, including those who are powerful and otherwise, are appealing not to God. Look at who they're appealing to.

The rocks and the mountains. Amazing. They know who God is. They know who the Lamb is. And yet, where is their appeal? Their appeal is to the rocks and the mountains. That sounds almost crazy. But isn't that what people are doing now? People are looking to everything else but the Lord. Even those who know very well that the Lord is there look to something else. But look even more closely. Some of their appeal almost sounds like a suicide wish. But it's clear they would like the caves and the rocks and the mountains to protect them from the wrath of God. They're seeing it for what it is.

This is the wrath of the Lord. Verse 17 says this, For the great day of the wrath has come, and who is able to stand? See, even the worldlings are recognizing this is the great day of wrath. Even these worldlings are recognizing that God the Father and the Lamb, who is the Son of God, cannot be stopped by any human force, power, or influence. Everything that man relies on to bring himself peace, everything that man relies on to bring about the outcome that he wants, does absolutely no good in the circumstance. Even these worldlings see, and you see it in these words here, they see that their survival is at stake. Now that is why Christ in Matthew 24, 22 says of this time, unless those days had been cut short, no life would be saved.

The Lord puts a limit on it. Now we recognize that scripture has given in several different places some promises that we believers of this time of the church will be preserved from this time of wrath. which we have begun to read about this morning. We looked at these a few weeks back, but I'll put them up for the sake of remembrance here, and recollection. These are verses promising us that we're not going to be a part of this wrath, okay? We're not going to be subjected to what the rest of the world is going to be subjected during this tribulation period, because we're going to be taken out beforehand.

Now, you have talked to, quite likely, and maybe even know some people who will say, oh no, the church is going to go through a tribulation period, or some portion of it. Have you heard that? How many of you have heard that? Yeah, a number of you have. And you may even personally know some people who are doing that. And so the question is, what are you going to tell them?

These times we've been reading about are not good times. There's no question, but these are times in which the wrath of the Lamb is being made apparent. They'll say to you and me, look here at these verses, the wrath of the Father and of Christ the Lamb did not begin until after the sixth seal is open.

They'll say that to you. They're going to tell you, and they're going to tell me, that the four horsemen in the first four seals are mostly human agents. They go out and do war, right? So since they're mostly human agents, that's not the wrath of the Lamb yet. That's not the wrath of the Father yet.

That's what they'll tell you. They'll tell us, we're going to be going through the tribulation period. God's not going to take us out. Or maybe not until later. And they'll say, after all, that Jesus said, in the world you'll have tribulation. So, what are you and I going to tell them? What are we going to say when they say those things? Well, this is what we're going to tell them and what we're going to remind ourselves. We're going to lovingly point out that these sincere but mistaken believers have got something that they need to take some attention to.

It is Christ who opens every one of these seals. Did you notice that? Every one of those seals are opened by Christ. And who gave the scroll with the seven seals into Christ's hands? The Father. It is by Christ's explicit will that these seals are opened. It is by the Father's explicit will that Christ do so. God is in control.

You're also going to tell them something else, that God has in the past, and He will at times during the Tribulation, not just at the beginning, but farther towards the end, He will use human agents to execute His wrath. He's done that in the Old Testament. Let's take a for instance, Jeremiah chapter 4. The Lord is threatening to bring an invading army of human beings against Judah in Jeremiah chapter 4. He's going to use that army as his means of judgment so that in verse 4 of Jeremiah 4 he says, circumcise yourselves to the Lord and remove the foreskins of your heart Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or else my wrath will go forth like fire and burn with none to quench it because of the evil of your deeds."

And he threatens that, he says, it's my wrath, but the wrath is going to be a human army invading. You see that? The same thing is taking place here with these seals being opened. It's human beings in some cases executing it, but it's God's wrath. That's why, as he goes on in Jeremiah chapter 4, he tells them about the invading army, and he says that army is the fierce anger of the Lord. It is an expression of God's wrath, even though it's a human agent.

You and I are also going to tell these folks, lovingly, we're going to tell them that the other instances, the pestilence, the famine, and the wild animals attacking, remember the creatures attacking and the fourth seal? Those are not things that are necessarily having any human involvement. So here's some evidence of God's bringing out things early that aren't human agents.

You're also going to point out to them that there are some very explicit and consistent patterns of change of usage of words in the book of Revelation, and we'll take a look at those here. And you've seen these before, but I bring up by way of remembrance because I think keeping this clear in our mind is important. You're going to bring up to them that here's the word church in chapter one three times, in chapter two of Revelation eight times, in chapter three six times.

Thereafter, the word disappears throughout the entire tribulation period, never to be seen again. The word wrath, which didn't show up in those same chapters where the word church was, all of a sudden shows up, including twice in this chapter we just looked at here. It will continue to show up again and again in numerous chapters after this. There's the church and there's wrath, but the two do not show up in the same chapter.

They don't show up in the same context. Furthermore, we're going to point out to them this phrase we looked at here, on the earth, It's going to show up, other than this promise, it's going to start showing up here. And those upon the earth has even more explicit occurrences.

But it always occurs, except for this promise to keep the church from it. It always occurs during the tribulation period chapters. Again and again and again. It does not occur, except for this promise, within the times of the church. The word repent is used eight times in the first Three chapters of the book of Revelation, and the only way it shows up after that is, did not repent. That's the world's response. There is a crisp dividing line in the usage of words, and it's consistent. It's consistent throughout. And once the tribulation period starts, things connected with the church are out of the picture on the earthly scene. The tribulation has begun. and a whole different scene, a whole different usage of words takes place.

And when we're done pointing these things out, knowing that there's even more that we could lovingly tell these folks, if they're still interested, we're going to do something that's going to be something valuable for us to do, whether they decide to or not.

And we ourselves are going to put our hope in Christ, and we're going to look forward to His coming. We're going to look to Him to be faithful, to keep us from that hour of testing, as He promised the church in Philadelphia, and as Paul mentioned twice to the Thessalonians. On the basis of God's Word, because we read that Christ will come for us, we'll be looking for His appearing.

We'll be looking for Christ, and not the Antichrist. Because any time of taking of the church after the tribulation begins means I'm not looking for Christ. It means I'm looking for the Antichrist. Believers of this age are called to look for Christ, and to look for Him, and to look for His appearing.

It's the blessed hope. Let's talk to our Lord now, okay? Lord, we thank You as we read these things that we indeed can remind ourselves that we have a blessed hope in you. We can remind ourselves that while we're waiting for that day when we have both position and condition in the heavenlies with you, that we can right now, here on planet earth, walk in our position. That we have, in our position, been seated in the heavenlies. Thank you for that awesome and marvelous blessing that you've given us. We have that tremendous privilege. And we just pray that as we look through these pages of revelation in the weeks and months to come, should you wait that long, that we can look to you and depend upon you and be ever looking for your coming. We thank you for that. What an awesome thing. What a marvelous thing. In Jesus' name, amen.