Oh No! - Revelation 6:9-17
Revelation 6:9-17 · Kurt Katzorke · May 17, 2009
Revelation (2009), No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492613476866

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

But this morning we're going to look at Revelation chapter 6 verses 9 through 17, and we're going to see a couple more seals opened up, and we're going to see kind of man's response to what's going on during the tribulation period. The slide I have up here right now is kind of breaking down, these verses are going to kind of break up into three parts. Verses 9 through 11, you're going to see the fifth seal opened, and the martyrs of the tribulation period crying out. Verses 12 through 14, we're going to see a sixth seal open and cosmic disturbances. We're going to see earthquakes and meteors and volcanoes and things of those lines. And then verses 15 through 17 are going to be man's response to what's going on during the tribulation.

So that's kind of our breakdown for these verses that we're going to go through this morning. Last week we saw the first four seals broken and a whole lot of judgment coming along with them, kind of getting the clock started on the seven year tribulation period. And so now we're going to move on and see the final two broken and man's response. Does anybody have any questions or anything before we jump in? So our first verse here is verse 9.

It says, When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. So we see the fifth seal is broken and this one's different.

This seal is quite different from the prior four because it serves to reveal the martyrdom that apparently been going on during the opening of the first four seals. And there's not a release of judgment with this one. And then just some of the things when we see these seals broken open as we got started in these verses, obviously the lamb is the only one who is qualified to break them open because of who he is and what he's done. And then something interesting in these verses, the Greek tense for the word slain communicates that the martyrs were progressively slaughtered. So it was something that's progressively going on throughout the opening of the first four seals.

And something else that's interesting about these martyrs is they are not described as resurrected saints with bodies like those who have been given new bodies at the rapture. Rather simply, they're described as souls. So it seems that the tribulation saints who who get martyred, they don't get the raptured body right away. At this point in time, they're just described as souls, which is kind of interesting to see that they're dealt with a little bit differently.

They were located under the altar. And though it does not say explicitly, it's likely it was an altar of incense. And incense, as we saw in Revelation 5, 8, and we'll see again in 8, 4, represents the prayers of the saints. So it's kind of this altar that they're underneath is representative of prayer, which we're going to see them cry out here in just a minute to the Lord. And then in the verse there, you see that there's two causes given for their martyrdom.

The first is the word of God. So the scriptures and its messages. And the second is the testimony which they had maintained. They spoke out. So these people are speaking out the word of God and giving their testimony as far as what had gone on in their lives. And then furthermore, we notice that it says they maintain their testimony. The Greek tense indicates that their testimony had been given continuous. So they were, during this tribulation period, they're continually giving their testimony. And it's interesting that they're continually giving that testimony in spite of seeing other saints being martyred. So I mean, they're sticking with this regardless of any fear of death. So no doubt they maintained it in the face of the threat of horrific persecution.

We can kind of draw some things about what the tribulation is going to look like for these saints. There's one great likely reason that there will be believers during the tribulation. So obviously there's these people giving their testimony. The believers that are there prior to the rapture are raptured. They're taken up. And so where do the people that become, where do the tribulation saints come from?

And so it's, you know, they will, let's see. People who left behind something were previously skeptical. So somebody who had maybe a friend that you have or something like that that you've talked to about the gospel, you've given them the message, but they're really skeptical about it. Maybe you've even talked to them about what's going to happen during the book of Revelation with the rapture and things along those lines, and then they see it happen. And they go, wow, this is the truth, and they believe it. So that's one instance where somebody who was maybe previously skeptical and then comes to believe after the things like the rapture take place, becoming a tribulation saint. And then, you know, there's lots of different things that could happen.

Obviously, Becky and I were talking on the way here this morning, and I was thinking, you know, what if the rapture happened today? And, you know, like on work, I'm picturing my work scene on Monday. There's two believers at where I work, myself and one of the other guys. And I can just see the other guys, you know, the other people that work with us going, where are Kurt and John?

You know, what's going on here? And then I started thinking about, from a worldly perspective, all the other weird things that would happen, like I pay a mortgage. I'm not gonna pay it once I'm gone. If you make car payments or something along those lines, the creditors are gonna be calling up going, why aren't you making your payments? But they're not gonna get an answer. So there's gonna be some really nasty messages on your answering machine after the rapture.

But all those things are going to happen and these people are going to see these things. Maybe, you know, when they go to foreclose on your house, they're going to see all your books and they'll grab the Holly Hills binder and see all this stuff about the Revelation and read about it. So who knows? They'll probably just throw it in a dumpster. But those are just some of the instances of who these tribulation saints are. that we could guess at. Any comments on verse 9? We'll jump into 10.

And so these martyred saints, and they cry 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? So these tribulation saints that have been martyred, the Greek word for cry out is shriek out.

I mean, it's just a loud, screaming, yelling shriek out to the Lord, seeking an end to what's going on on the earth. So they want this to be done with. And they want judgment and the Lord's vengeance upon those who put the tribulation martyrs to death. So they're seeking, one, an end because they're probably seeing their family, their kids, their friends go through the same thing that they're going through and they want this to end. And they want judgment and vengeance.

And actually, an interesting, the word cried out that we get, it's cried out, shrieking, it was often used of people who had gone insane or were possessed. When Jesus cast demons out of people in the Gospels, that's the word that's used for their shrieking, for their crying out. You can kind of understand how these believers would get there. They had undergone intense agony in their death, perhaps tortured in the process. We don't know exactly what's going to go on, but we know that it's not going to be a whole lot of fun for them.

And then we see this phrase, loud voice. This is the fourth time in about 20 times we'll read loud voice in Revelation. These loud voices are found to originate only in heaven and never from earth. So these tribulation saints that have been martyred, they're in heaven. The loud voice also reinforces a sense of intensity in their question. So they really want this to happen. They're seeking this very intensely for things to end. And the loud voice again is singular. So all these different tribulation saints crying out in a singular voice.

And then one of the things to look at is, it says, how long, oh Lord? Will you refrain? And so when we look at the nature of that question, it's pretty clear that the tribulation is going to be seven years. So these tribulation saints, they understand that. They've got the scriptures. They know that this time period is seven years, but they're asking how long.

And it really brings out the character of their question is not in nature of whether they know the specific time, but rather that the The treatment that they received and that they're fearful for their friends and family to go through, they're really just crying out for justice. They want it to be over with. They know how long it is, but can we make it happen faster? Can we get this over with?

It's also interesting that they refer to the Lord as holy and true. They recognize Christ's nature, being holy and being truth. So they want this to end. They know that if He wanted to, He could end it right away, but they also recognize His His nature, His holiness, and His truthfulness, and that these things are, you know, they probably understand that it's, you know, who knows how far we're into it here, but if they're four years in, they know there's three years left.

But they really want it to end, but they recognize God's position as the Holy and True One who's causing these things, well, allowing these things to happen. It seems like, on the other hand, they've recognized that during this time, how many people are dependent on you. So this is in time, the last chance that people have to experience this. True. Or they're almost seeing it like the first.

Right, and that's really interesting to think about and it's a good point because the next verse we see Christ, we see that he gives these martyred saints a position of honor and then he basically tells them that I have some things that need to be done still.

And they probably know that but their perspective is we just went through all these horrible things. We just went through all this horrible messed up stuff and we want that to be over. And actually we can just jump right into verse 11 and he says, And there was given each of them a white robe, and they were told that they should rest for a while longer until the number of their fellow servants and brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. So God's response to their question is, I mean, from their perspective, we just went through all this horrible stuff. We want this to end. And God's response to them is, you went through it. I'm going to reward you. Here's your white robe. I'm going to put you in a position of honor.

So he puts them in a position of honor, and then he tells them that they should rest for a while longer. That word rest. In a fuller definition, he's basically telling them to cease from any movement or labor in order to recover and collect strength. So he wants them to just cease, just be still, and rest, and recover, and gain strength.

And then he basically tells them, until a number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed, even as they had been, would be completed also. So there's still more to be accomplished. And I think what you're talking about is certainly in lines with what is to be accomplished.

Initially, it looks like it's in contradiction to that when you die, you have even more fears. And that you don't care about what's going on on earth or people that are left here. because there's no body. But the people still are concerned about those who are left behind and what's going on on earth. There's definitely a sense of anxiety in their question.

Yeah. So it's not that when you go to heaven that you just forget everything that happened here and you go on. But there is, there's still a connection to the people you know and Well, if you remember, and we talked about it a little bit earlier, I saw underneath the altar the souls.

And these tribulation saints are being dealt with a little bit differently. They don't have the resurrected body. So it's a little bit different position than what you and I will be in. So they don't have that resurrected body. So there's a small difference there.

But these saints definitely seem to have a sense of anxiety for what's going on back on earth. Are they referring to martyrs of the older times? No. In these verses, we're referring specifically to martyrs of the tribulation period. And that's a good question. That's because the rapture case, everyone, preceding It's rapture. So these have to be new. Right.

If the rapture happens tomorrow, and the Lord takes all of us to be up with Him, That's why we talked about, you know, where do these tribulation saints come from? You know, people who are maybe skeptical in their younger years and they see things happen and now they believe. You know, I have family members that are in a position where they understand, but they don't believe. And I think when something like that happens and they see, I mean, because probably 80% of my family are believers, when they see 80% of their family gone, they're probably going to believe. So that's why we see that those are the tribulation saints that come to believe after the rapture, for whatever reason, come to believe after the rapture and then they go through all these horrible things. And those are the martyrs that we're talking about.

Is this the same as the 144,000? The 144,000 to my understanding is no. No. The $144,000, to my understanding, has to deal with Jews specifically. The $144,000, it's a good thing to understand. We will certainly go into it in more depth when we come to deal with it. Understanding the 144,000 will make, you know, you'll go, Jehovah's Witness are silly, because they've got it all mixed up. But it has to do with the 12 tribes of Israel, and the Tribulation Saints are not included in that 144,000. We haven't got there yet. Yep. Yep. How do you know that these martyrs don't deserve to die? Well, and that's what we looked at in verse 9. He says, The Lamb broke the fifth seal, and I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain.

The word in the Greek there does not indicate a resurrected body. It simply indicates a soul. So the resurrected body not being given to these people or these tribulation saints right off the bat, simply their souls. are in this place, are in heaven. And that's where we get that. It's from verse 9 and the choice of word there does not indicate that they are given a resurrected body.

Doesn't that go along with what they're told that they are supposed to rest because there is more to be completed and more to be done? So, in other words, If you did it each time a soul came to heaven and they got the resurrected body, it would be an ongoing process. But it sounds like what they're saying here is that they're going to wait until the rest are martyred and their souls go to heaven and then a one-time...

Yeah, and unfortunately, I'm sure that Vernon could tell us the answer to that right off the bat. I don't know the Book of Revelation well enough to give you that answer right away. What we're seeing here does seem to indicate that that may well be the case, but I don't know the answer and speculation never really gets us anywhere good. So that's something that we will answer in weeks to come though. Any other questions on that stuff?

The indication that there's more to be accomplished, would be completed also, and tell the number of their fellow servants and brethren who were to be killed even as they had been. It's interesting because when you look at that it indicates that there certainly will be more to be killed. He indicates to these These martyrs that there's there's more to be killed. It's not a there might be more or there could be more It says who were to be killed even as they had been would be completed also And when you look at that it really just demonstrates how much can how how How much God is in control?

God is in control of all this stuff. He's allowing certain things to happen and But it's also clear that it's almost as though he has a set number of what's going to happen. He knows the number. He knows the count, which is kind of interesting. There's no oops for God. It's all according to his plan.

So that will wrap up us looking at the 5th seal. Before we move on to the 6th, does anybody have any questions on the 5th? Just to reiterate what you just said, how would you know if there's one more person that's going to accept Christ? You wouldn't know. God must know every single person that's going to make a decision for Him before they ever name Him.

Right. Yeah, I mean, we're all foreknown. And that's one of those things where you can get into the two extreme viewpoints of Calvinism and Arminianism, and then there's the one in the middle. Yeah, I mean, he knows. He knows. Everyone who's going to make a choice for him, he knows. Everyone who's not, he knows. But you make the choice. It's not one extreme or the other.

All right, so now we're going to look at cosmic disturbances versus 12 through 14. John says, I looked and when he broke the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black like a sackcloth made of hair and the moon became like blood. So the breaking of the sixth seal is going to start tearing apart the earth. I mean, just all kinds of stuff is going to start happening. And it starts with a massive earthquake.

So, I mean, we have ways in which we measure earthquakes. You know, you've got the Richter scale going on here and, you know, a 1 is 30 pounds of TNT exploding and then like a 10 would be a trillion tons of TNT exploding. We can kind of assume that this massive one is going to be way down there on the big end.

Has anybody dealt with earthquakes? Do we get earthquakes in Colorado? I've only been here a couple years. I've never noticed one. Little tremors yeah. Where I grew up in northern Nevada, we would get earthquakes a couple times a year. They're usually small. Small ones like in the two to four range somewhere in there. So just small ones. Vern growing up in, in California has told me stories of larger ones. I think he said the largest one that he dealt with was like five, five and a half, something along those lines.

And then, you know, you can kind of see, we can all think back to like 1989 and the San Francisco earthquake that really just rocked that place. And then I think it was 09 that, I mean, that was just devastating in San Francisco. And what this one is talking about is something much larger than either of those. The one in San Francisco there in 1906, not 09, was a 0.8 on the Richter scale. So something very large, but still much larger to come in what we're talking about here.

Okay, so this massive earthquake causes the sun to become black and the moon to become red. And the question is how? What's that? Be the gas released from the earthquake. Okay, gas releases. What happens when there's large earthquakes? What often will happen if this, well, there has to be one of these around for it to happen, but what happens if there's a large earthquake? Say in Hawaii, if there's a large earthquake, what often accompanies it? Volcano. Volcano, exactly. So, and basically you've got Two different kind of things going on there. Here's a red moon. And then this is showing all of the volcanoes located on these fault lines. And you can see there's quite a few of them.

Now you can imagine if there was a worldwide earthquake and all of the active volcanoes went off, just how crazy that would be. And here's an eruption of a volcano that would spew like lava. But there's also, like Mount St. Helens, it's going to throw large amounts of ash and things like that into the sky. So if all the volcanoes like Mount St. Helens threw all this ash and gas and all that stuff into the air, you can imagine looking through it at the sun and the sun being black.

And it has the same effect, the moon would be a red color. So that's where these verses pretty clearly indicate that this earthquake is going to cause some serious volcanic activity. Okay. And then, so verse 12 talks about all the things that are going to happen. natural disasters on the earth. Verse 13 is going to give us some different kind of disasters happening here.

It says, And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by the wind. Now the Greek word for stars here is asters and it is where we get our English word asteroid. So when you see the word stars here, don't necessarily think of like a gigantic star like the sun or something like that colliding with the earth. We can think more along the lines of something like an asteroid, a meteor or a comet or any combination thereof. And the description of a fig tree casting its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind, leads one to believe that it's not going to be just a couple of asteroids or comets or meteors hitting the earth.

It's going to be lots of them. Now, I've never been around a fig tree. I don't even know if we can grow fig trees in the States. I'm sure there are places where we can. But I have been around, like one of my friends growing up, they had plum trees. just a big, big row of plum trees, probably as long as the church aisle. And when, if they wouldn't pick them, when time rolled around, I mean, they would just fall down and there'd be all these, I mean, just scattered all underneath these trees, tons and tons and tons of plums. Well, not tons, but lots of them. And that's what my mind thinks of, is, I mean, just constantly they would be falling and dropping off and they were just scattered all over the ground, like to the point where it was grass, but you couldn't set your foot down and not hit a plum. So that's what my mind thinks of when I read that because I've never been around a fig tree.

Here's a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere. This is the Beringer Crater in Arizona. It's almost a mile wide and 570 feet deep, made by a meteor weighing 300,000 tons, about 150 feet across, traveling 40,000 miles per hour. So, that's moving. And it's big.

The description of the, excuse me, of the meteor, it's like, The only thing that I know to relate it to, Vern related it to his apartment building. If you guys have ever been over to his apartment building, it's a big 12-story building. I don't know how many yards long, but pretty long, big 12-story building, and the meteor was roughly that size.

So something like that traveling at 140,000 miles an hour, weighing 300,000 tons, smacking into the earth. Now, this gives you some perspective of big, but it just looks like a hole in the ground to me. I don't know. It could be anything. But this is what NASA came up with of what that meteor hitting the Earth did to the surrounding Earth.

And so you can see the red circle there, a fireball about six miles out. So if you place, say it struck right here, around us six miles, big fireball. The yellow is animals killed or injured 18 miles out. And then the blue is hurricane force winds to 28 miles out. So, would certainly reach to the foothills, the hurricane force winds. 18 miles, I think it would pretty much kill and injure animals all the way out to the foothills if it struck right here. So, really devastating. Really, really a massive impact. Now imagine that like figs falling off of a tree. So some serious catastrophe going on between earthquakes. You're looking up and the sun's black. And the sky is filled with gas and then all of these massive apartment buildings are falling down out of the sky and causing just chaos.

So that's what's going on when the sixth seal gets opened. What's interesting in a tsunami in Asia? massive force that hit the land. Can you imagine what this one did back during that time? And if you've got it hitting all different places on the earth. Yeah, just, and some of these are going to land in the water. You know, some of these are going to land in the water and cause tsunamis.

So, I mean, really, really crazy stuff happening. We can be glad that we get raptured. Any other comments, questions on verses 12 or 13? We'll hop on to 14 here. So the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Now, I think this is kind of what you're talking about, where the Earth is moved around and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. So the geography is just going to be totally different. These meteors striking the Rocky Mountains and causing who knows what. If it's during the winter, avalanches. I mean, just crazy stuff happening, moving things out of their places. You had something? Yeah. Why do you think that it says, as a scroll being rolled up? You think it would say, as a scroll being rolled up?

See, now I had a little bit of a hard time with that imagery as well. I sat there and looked at that and went, I don't get the imagery there. Let me get it out of my notes here. And basically what you get, and I don't know what happened with these slides, I operate on a Macintosh, and I try to convert these things to PowerPoint, and sometimes they do funny things.

But what you see is consistent throughout scripture imagery like this. You see in Isaiah 34.4, the heaven was separated as a book. Mountains will quake because of him. So very similar, God will arise and make the earth tremble. I shall make the heavens tremble and the earth will be shaken from its place in the fury of the Lord of hosts in the day of his burning anger. So you see the sun became black, Matthew 24, 29. And the whole moon became his blood, Matthew 24, 29.

Very similar imagery. As far as rolling up like a scroll, I thought I had something in here, but apparently I do not. I still don't necessarily understand that imagery of a scroll rolling up. It would be a scroll, yeah. on one side and half on the other. Instead of rolling out on one, like a roll of toilet paper, you know, they have, and they meet in the middle, and you have two things that are separated. You see what I'm saying? With the rolling from either side? Right, yes. Yeah. But then it could be rolling out, too. So again, like, if it's a pile. Or could it?

It doesn't even have a stack. about being rolled up. Yeah, it says the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up. So maybe it was rolled apart and then rolled up. I don't know what the Greek is there. I don't know either. I do have a hard time with that imagery though. the sky rolling up like a scroll.

But basically, John's summary here seems to be like a major heavenly and earthly shake-up. I mean, that's one thing we can certainly get out of it is that there's a, I mean, meteors falling, the earth having earthquakes and volcanoes and all kinds of things going on. And it's basically, I think the way to look at this is a summary, the scroll rolling up. Look at it as a summary of the things that have happened. Every mountain and island moved out of its place. And John uses this, I think that's more than anything else, that scroll imagery is used to summarize the major heavenly and earthly shakeup. But for me to picture what it looks like for the sky to roll up, I don't know what that means.

Okay, and then we'll jump on into verses 15, 16, and 17. And this part is man's response. So that's what we have here. Man's response to the things of the tribulation so far. He says, 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 caves and among the rocks of the mountains. So when we look at John's description of the people that are hiding, his goal, I think, is to include everyone. He goes from kings to slaves and everything in between.

Political rulers, men of power and influence, powerful military leaders. The Greek word for commanders is those over a thousand and that's how they put their legions together. Rich, those who came to buy whatever they want. The wealthy, strong, those of impressive physical strength known for bravery.

Every slave and free man, and it's interesting, you should know that even today in Africa and the Middle East and Asia there is slavery. John is communicating that every part of the socio-economic ladder is impacted, no exceptions. We get a strong sense that John sees all the powerful influences and advantages of this world are useless to defend against the wrath of God.

So regardless, if you're the president or the leader of a large nation or a slave, you don't have anything that's going to save you from God's wrath. Unless you believe, obviously. But that's what the picture in verse 15 is. This includes everybody and nobody is escaping from God's wrath.

And in 16 he says, And they said to the mountains and 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. So it almost seems as though these kings, great men, commanders, the rich, the strong, the slave, and every free man also recognize that they don't have anything that's going to hide them, that's going to get them away from God's wrath. And it's interesting who they who they appeal to. I mean, you look at this, they say, hide us from him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

They recognize God on the throne and they recognize the Lamb, but who do they appeal to? The rocks, the earth. It doesn't really make sense. They recognize Him, but they still won't believe or accept. And then continuing, we'll read their quotation in full.

It says, Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand? So, I mean, that's these people hiding in the rocks of the mountains saying, For the great day of their wrath has come and who is able to stand? So there's a very strong recognition from those who dwell on the earth that God the Father and the Lamb, who is the Son, cannot be stopped by any human force, power or influence. Two things. One, their God is the earth. So they, you know, everything they... Well, I think when you look at mankind, and especially those who don't believe, what they really want to be God is themselves. That's the original sin is to be like God.

And now they're put in a place where the sky's black, The moon's red. There's meteors and stuff falling all over the place. The sky has fallen on us. The earth has quaked all around us. And probably a recognition of, I mean, they can see who is able to stand. Their recognition is that we can't do it.

So they're basically put in a place where the desire to be like God is probably out of them at this point in time. and they're seeking something else. They're seeking something outside of self. But what's interesting is it's not God, which would be the good answer.

Is there a difference between the wrath of God and the wrath of the Lamb? Well, the Lamb and God are the same. Why do they mention it separately? Well, for the same reason that they mention it separately and all the other. I mean, we see God sitting on the throne and the Lamb opening the seals. It's a recognition of God the Father and His sovereign place on the throne and a recognition of Christ, the Lamb, who is the only one who has the ability and the authority to open these seals. So it's a recognition of God the Father and God the Son, the Lamb. So this is called the Little Lamb. The Little Lamb.

We've got about 10 minutes here, and I have three questions at the bottom. If other people want to pose others, we certainly can. But what I really want to do, because a lot of times I think we go through these verses and we don't think about application very much, and so I hope I've asked three questions that will make you think about that a little bit. But what do these verses teach us about our Savior?

Who's in control of all this? First of all, he's God. He doesn't come any greater than that. God's sovereign, so he's sovereign. What do these verses teach us about our future, the believer right here and now? Well, we're not going to be part of this. Our future is with God in heaven viewing this. And in all honesty, when He returns, we get to be with Him. Why not just wrap it up?

Yeah. Yeah, and I think that your point earlier was a good one that, you know, this time period there are going to be people who come to repent and believe. These verses do seem to focus a little bit on either those who haven't been martyred and those who martyred them. But, you know, like you said, there's still more. There's still those who will come to repent and believe. God's patience, his love to give people another chance.

At the very last step in seven years, only that one guy, the very last person, will be subscribing. Right. Yeah. Somebody's got to be the last one, right? Somebody had to be the first one. And he'll go, phew! I just barely made it. Yeah. Should have done that sooner. Because you don't get to leave, right? I mean, if you accept Christ yet, that doesn't mean you get to leave. Right.

But it does mean that instead of appealing to rocks and mountains, you have something certainly more appealing to appeal to? Well, the Holy Spirit will be a prong from the floor of that mountain. Well, withdrawn may be too large of a statement. It'll be more similar to Old Testament times where he's not a constant indwelling. But if somebody accepts Christ during that time, then he is involved in the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? Well, and I think that, yeah, yeah, that's right.

And then the last question there is we saw the lost response to God's wrath. What's your response to God's wrath? How do you respond to all these things that are going on here that you're viewing? I think what you were talking about with the rocks and the mountain just came to me.

But when we were studying Isaiah in another study, and it's kind of like there is a time of knowing that they've gone too far and that God's not going to save them anymore. Like he was saying that the last has already gone up and the ones that are left, I mean, they've had their opportunity, they've been given, you know, the opportunity to believe, and you're talking.

To me, what's interesting in this list, you don't see that listed here anywhere, the poor, the widow, the orphan, or any of that. You see the powerful, the strong, the rich, and the leaders. And he also says every slave. And every slave, but they could also be in the other category as well.

But it does seem kind of, to me, because so much of Scripture talks about the orphan, the poor, they're gone. Yeah, you don't, okay, I see what you're saying. But, and at the same time, I mean, there certainly will be Because I think John's point here when he gives that list is to include everybody, all the way from a king, a man who is in full control and full power as far as an earthly description, and then a slave, someone who has no power. So I don't know that I would get that out of the verses saying that the orphan and the poor are gone because certainly the slave is not well-off. I think the goal there is to include everyone. But I do see what you're saying where so much of Scripture does focus on Christ loving the orphan and the poor and the widow. calling as well. But I don't know that I would get that out of these verses because I think he is trying to include everyone.

Everyone from the guy who's in full power to the slave who has no power. Coming to a point of realization where we don't have anything that's going to save us from this. I mean, just like now, we certainly have leaders who believe in God, and we certainly have leaders who don't. But there are certainly poor and orphaned who do, and poor and orphaned who don't.

But what would your response be to God's wrath as you view this? What do you think of God when you see these things happening? And that's what God's wrath is on, is sin. It's interesting that for us, for the believer, we are placed into Christ's death, burial and resurrection and given newness of life. And without those things, there's no fellowship with God. There can't be fellowship because the sin is in the way. The sin issue has to be dealt with and God deals with that through death, burial, resurrection.

And you see him really pouring out wrath on the people of the earth, but also, I mean, he's tearing apart the earth right now. And the earth is fallen and there's to be a new heavens and a new earth. And so I kind of see the similarity of his character in that, where he has to deal with us in that manner. He has to get that sin issue out of the way and be done with it. Kind of similar, the wrath pouring out on the earth. He's going to get rid of it and he's going to have a new one because sin has corrupted it to the point where the only thing to do is to get a new one.

Does that make any other thing? It also says in the Washington set that he holds all things together. And so that's his choice to hold all things together. Obviously, if he wants to, it's his choice. He can not hold all things together. And he brought it in through a blood once before. So he's already shown that, you know, as you said, his character Right. Yeah. All right. Well, I think we'll wrap up.

Heavenly Father, we just thank you for our time together this morning. Thank you for the opportunity to look at your word, learn about you, learn about the what you have in store for mankind, for the earth. Really crazy stuff to look at. It's just so neat that you've given us insight into the future that you have for everything and into your character. Just pray that you bless us as we go through our week. Pray that we rest in you, abide in you, so that we might glorify you. In Jesus' name, amen.