Seventh Trumpet: Culmination - Revelation 11:15-19

Okay. Make sure you've got a handout here so you can track along with us. There are ten pages of material and I just would like to point out before we dig into this, the last sheet there. Who or what is the restrainer of second Thessalonians is on the last sheet of the package that you've got. It's a question that Stan was asking after our class this last time, because the question is, who is this restrainer? And when the restrainer is taken out is the point that comes out of the second Thessalonians passage.

And while there are several different interpretations of it, what this two-page handout presents, and I believe is, while it considers the other views, I think the most reasonable thing is to look at the Holy Spirit working through the church is the restrainer of evil in the world.

And when the church is taken out, then will be the world gone amok. There will be the restraining influence of the church removed. And so it's not the Holy Spirit in entirety removed, there will still be those who come to the Lord, who become believers because of the convicting work of the Holy Spirit. So there will be those who are saved, there will be those who come to the Lord and believe because of the Holy Spirit's ministry, but the church will be removed and you will have a powerful influence of the world lacking the presence of the church and the ministry of the Holy Spirit through the church.

So anyway, that's in brief what it presents. Yes? So technically then, you could say that the Restrainer is the Church? Ultimately, it's the Church, but with the understanding that it's the Holy Spirit working through the Church to restrain evil and to be a limiting force for evil in the world. When the Church is taken out, so it basically speaks of the pre-tribulation rapture, right? When the world no longer has the Church as that restraining force for evil in the world, evil will run amok.

Now, before we get into the passage, I'd like to do something that I actually have done before, and I'll probably do it again a time or two, and that's to just get us to imagine. Put yourself in the place of the Apostle John, and think about what's happened. Here is the Apostle John.

He's in the last part of his life. As a matter of fact, looking at the dates very closely, maybe the last year of his life when he's writing the Book of Revelation. And he is, by any evidence that we have, likely the last living Apostle, and the only one to die, so far as we know, a natural death. All the other apostles from the records that we have, some of them are more reliable than others, but all the records that we have indicate John is the last one living at this point. All the others have died a martyr's death, beginning with James, his brother, in the book of Acts. I believe that's chapter 12. All the others died a martyr's death except for John. Now here's John, the last one, and what an incredible set of things he has seen during the course of his lifetime. He was probably among the youngest of the apostles.

And imagine, here's John being called on the shores of Galilee to follow Jesus. Imagine first meeting Jesus and seeing Jesus along the shores as he acted and spoke. Imagine John walking side by side with Jesus and listening to him and talking to him, asking questions. Imagine John there on the sea. Here's John who is a fisherman, right? And imagine John seeing the seas calmed. Imagine John seeing the Lord in various instances along the shores as he worked there.

Imagine John seeing Jesus walking in the water and shortly thereafter to have Peter go too for a time and have the Lord lift him up. Imagine that same John who the record has it was with Jesus' mother Mary there in front of the cross. and John remembering these things very clearly in his mind. There was our Lord on the cross and he saw this with his own eyes. Imagine John hearing with excitement that the Lord is risen and he and Peter running to go verify that yes, indeed the Lord is risen.

Imagine if you would, John and Peter going and looking into this tomb, and there where Jesus' body lay, only grave clothes. The tomb is empty. It's been sealed with the seal of Rome, and about 16 soldiers guarding it. Now the soldiers are gone. The seal is broken. door is open, the tomb is empty, and John and Peter run in, the first of the twelve, actually eleven by this point, to come and see.

Imagine John, who by the way was the one who recorded about Thomas. Imagine John, Jesus comes, because Thomas didn't believe. Thomas wasn't there when Jesus appeared to the others. Imagine John recording as Jesus said, look, see my hands and my feet on my side. Touch. Verify.

Imagine John as he carefully wrote down the things that Thomas did and said when he realized this indeed is our Imagine John as he was with the others on the Mount of Olives, seeing the Lord ascend into the clouds. OK, now, with that, imagine John as he begins recording the things that we're seeing in this book. Heavenly scenes, heavenly pictures, as well as the things that he has revealed to them about what will take place on the planet Earth. John is recording about a time, very interestingly, the church is there in the heavenly scene, but here he is as still an earthly person given the miraculous glimpse of this time when the resurrected church, by the way that includes you and me, is there in the heavenly scene. He's writing about you and about me. He saw a time and a place, if time really has any value. He saw a time and a place where you and I will be soon. Maybe today. That's exciting stuff, isn't it?

And it's amazing to think about how privileged John was to have seen the things that he saw. And imagine how struck he was by the unmatched drama of those moments. How could you take it in because of the magnitude of it? There's nothing like it in all the universe, in all of human experience. Nothing quite like John saw and went through.

Alright, let's take a look here. What's going to happen here is we're looking here at the final woe, the last of the seven trumpet judgments. Here we are in chapter 11. We've just finished up the study of the two witnesses and this is the portion right after that. And we're here in the heavenly scene. What this passage we're looking at now, chapter 11, verses 15 through 19, points to is first the heavenly scene and then you see from that vantage point, from that perspective, what is taking place with this last trumpet judgment, this last woe, the third woe, the seventh trumpet judgment. And so here is John in the heavenly scene.

And then, in this chart that a number of you were given previously, and if you, we don't have it up here now, if you don't have a copy of this chart because we keep referring to it, and we will for several more chapters, see Nancy or Sue or Sue Ellen and ask for a copy of this. But this chart, in other words, we have the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and then the seven bowls. We're now here at the seventh trumpet judgment, the third woe as it's called here. And imagining this and looking kind of ahead with what John has pictured for us, just think of the agony, the tragedy, and the panic, the panic that the world has never known that will come at these points. It will be the third and the final woe. Let's look at verse 15, which is on the bottom of page 1 there.

Then the seventh angel sounded, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he will reign forever and ever. The seventh angel sounded. What did he sound? The trumpet. The trumpet judgment.

Remember, we said these trumpets are not Trumpets as in musical trumpets. They are trumpets announcing a military attack from heaven. In the Old Testament the priests were given the responsibility to sound the trumpets when Israel went to war. And here what we see is the military trumpets, because remember the focus now during the tribulation period is not on the church. We're not there. The focus is on Israel. And so these are military trumpets announcing the attack here.

The seventh angel sounded this military trumpet and God's seventh announcement of the attack on those dwelling on the earth. Verse 14 has told us that this is the third woe, which is really the opening of the third set of seven judgments. In other words, what this does is this seventh trumpet judgment opens up the next seven judgments, which are the bowls or vial judgments. And we hear of a loud voice as we've been hearing ever since the first chapter. The loud voice in the book of Revelation is always from a heavenly being or creature.

There is never a loud voice from anyone on earth. Why? It's not loud enough. Not loud enough? Essentially what this is saying is when it comes to loudness, which is an expression of power, which is an expression of importance, it comes from the heavenly scene. The people on earth are not in a place of power in spite of what they might delude themselves to think. They're not in a place of importance in spite of what delusions they may hold.

The loud voice in here is interesting. It's plural. It's a plural loud voice. Loud voices instead of a loud voice. And that's a distinction from some of the others. It's the only place in Revelation where we find that this loud voice phrase is actually in the plural. So it's very interesting. Instead of a singular loud voice, it's a plural. The only other place that we find in all the New Testament loud voices, plural, was at our Lord's crucifixion. Interesting.

Back then the loud voices came from earthlings. This time the loud voices come from heaven itself. The second point, the whole phrase here is, loud voices in heaven. When we take a look at this, we find this is the only place in all of scripture where this phrase, loud voices in heaven, shows up.

The uniqueness of this phrase, as we'll soon see, is because of the uniqueness of what is being announced. This is a special moment I say a special moment, it doesn't mean it's a moment of rejoicing and celebration per se, but it's pivotal. It's a pivotal moment. Let's listen carefully to what these loud voices in heaven are saying. Here's the next one.

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He will reign forever and ever. So let's look at the kingdom of the world. There are a number of human kingdoms on this earth, and some, of course, have dropped the idea of a king, but still a similar idea of a political realm. Ultimately, we realize there is a kingdom of the world.

The kingdom of this world has been and is today of Satan. Scripture calls Satan the god of this world, 2 Corinthians 4. You see also in John 12, 14, and 16, Satan is called the ruler of this world. 1 John 5, 19, we know that we are of God and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. For right now, that is. Yes?

So was that the reason that the serpent had to deceive Adam and Eve so that Satan could be in charge? Because prior to that, Adam and Eve were Here's Adam and Eve, they were directly as unfallen creatures given charge of things on the earth. They were to rule over what the Lord had given them in a stewardship. What Satan was wanting to do was to have them stumble by doing the one single thing. that God had said, you can do everything else and you have responsibility to do this, but the one thing you may not do is this. That's the one thing that Satan wanted them to do. Because that opened the door for him to have control through deception.

Good question, thanks for pointing that out. Our citizenship isn't here. This world does have a kingdom. Scripture makes it clear that our position is unchangeably with Christ. I find it's real interesting. As Christians, we can from time to time get real wrapped around the axle about where things are politically.

And I'm certainly not saying that we shouldn't have an opinion or that we should not vote or participate. That's not my point. But the reality is, our ultimate hope is not in this world's political systems, even the best of them. Our ultimate hope is not in this world's political systems. So while I most definitely may have a viewpoint about things political, that's not where my hope is.

Where's my citizenship ultimately? It's in heaven. When I went over to Uganda just a couple months ago, those people, they have a whole different citizenship than we have here. Except I was talking in great part to Christians over there, and their citizenship is the same as mine. Spiritually speaking. A citizenship in heaven. We can deal with this world's matters with a certainty of our heavenly position. A certainty of our heavenly citizenship.

From the standpoint of this world, the last three and a half years of the Tribulation period will appear to be dominated by Satan. Satan will see his desperate, tyrannical rule over his tottering kingdom ripped from his hands. See, that's one thing. It will appear as if Satan is grabbing control. After all, we're soon going to read, nobody can buy or sell without the mark of the beast. But Satan will have control ripped from his fingers. He will lose it. The truth is that the transition from Satan's kingdom to the kingdom of Christ has begun.

Even now. And that's what this singing is about. And we actually have something parallel to that in our own political system. And that is what happened this last fall and into the first part of January. Right? You have this election, right? Early in November. But does the newly elected administration take over that day?

No, and not even the next. What you have is a period of overlap where by appearances, you know, one leader in the administration is in control, but in truth, there's a rather frantic handing off to the next group. And so that's what this passage is about.

No, Christ has not come yet, but in truth, as desperately as Satan grabs for power, he is losing it. He's losing it. We're going to see Satan move frantically upon Earth in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation period. He will attack those who believe in Christ, the Tribulation Saints. He will attack the Jews, God's chosen people, the source of the Savior. He will hold on to this world system with a tyrannical death grip. He will come after, or wish he could come after, every means of God's proclamation of the gospel. What are the three means of proclamation of the gospel during the tribulation period? What are those three means? 144,000. And how long do they proclaim during the seven year tribulation period? 360 days. Let's talk about the other two groups before we finish answering that question. You've got the 144,000. You've got the what? What else? The two witnesses.

We've just read, in what Kurt talked through, we've just read their ministry is the first three and a half years. And what's the third ministry or testimony of the gospel? Well, okay, there's that, but that's in the heavenly scene. But on the earth, there's one other that's a gospel angel. So you can imagine, really, all three of these are miraculous.

The 144,000, they're sealed, and in spite of all the disasters happening on earth, they can't be touched. You've got the two witnesses that in spite of anything anybody tries to do to them, nobody can do anything until finally the Lord says, OK, your time is up. And at the middle point of the tribulation period, they're taken out. So the first three and a half years, nobody can touch them. Anybody tries to do anything, the two witnesses can call down whatever plagues upon that person they wish. And the gospel angel is sitting up there, you know, in kind of the atmospheric area, clouds, birds in that zone, and bringing the gospel, and I'm sure Satan's forces would love to silence the gospel angel.

You know? Ah, that inane racket! You know? That's not an inane racket, that's the truth. That's the gospel. Now, the 144,000, I believe, Stan, actually endure through the tribulation period. I don't know that that's abundantly clear, but I believe that that's likely the case. I believe it says that of the two witnesses, but the 144,000 continue to have testimony. So you have these three who testify of the gospel through this period. Now, I'm on the top of page 3 still.

Every apparent victory will slip through his fingers, that is Satan's fingers, only to have his entire kingdom delivered into Christ's hands. How deceived the deceiver himself must be to think that he can bring about any different outcome than what God has determined to be. You see, we think of Satan as the deceiver, but how deceived is he? to imagine that he can go about doing this and that and thinking that he's going to grab control. Where in the end, what will be his destiny? It's a lake of fire. Is he going to change that? Is there any opportunity or chance or possibility that he's going to change that outcome?

No. There was Satan himself who even quoted out of the Old Testament in order to try to tempt Christ. But when it comes to this, he has this incredible self-delusion. He knows. Yeah. I mean, he has the knowledge. He has the access to the truth, but there is this spiritual insanity that allows him to think that he can grab control and gain dominance. The truth is, he is only going to lose it. And that is absolutely the truth. Yes.

But it's interesting because obviously he's self-serving and blindfolded and all the rest of it and he doesn't care what damage he does so long as he comes out ahead and that's what with Adam and Eve, that's why I brought that up because he obviously didn't care about Adam and Eve at all or all the rest of it. and destruction and horrible stuff that's gone on, wars and all the rest of it. Because he had to move in there and take over and become the number one guy. In the end it's all about him, isn't it?

Right, and so during Tribulation though there's a lot of things that looks like he's doing. I mean he's killing people. He is successful in many things that he does. It has the appearance of success. Nobody but Byron South, right? It looks like he's really got it. In fact, all it means is that most certainly he will lose it all.

And not only that, the Lord is telling us in advance what's going to take place. Let's ask one other question. Does Satan get one over ahead of God and get control over God in order to grab control during this tribulation period? No. Satan is only allowed to do what God allows him to do.

And nothing more. Even down to a person. Take that from Job chapters 1 and 2. In order for Satan to go after Job, Satan had to get the Lord's permission. And the Lord said, you can go this far. Go further. Satan does have a power. He does have an influence. But he's not going to get anything over the Lord. It's not this great wrestling where you have equals and opposites. Opposites, yes. By no means equals.

There's the unusual expression here. of our Lord and of his Christ, God did not suddenly think of having Christ as his solution to things on earth getting unexpectedly out of control. Christ the Messiah is not God's plan B because plan A didn't work. Jesus Christ was and is God's plan A. There is no plan B. Does God need a plan B or a plan C? No. That's exactly what God had in mind. It was and is and will be God's intent to establish Christ as the head of his kingdom.

It's also the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham 4,000 years ago and to David 3,000 years ago. The declaration finishes with, and he will reign forever and ever. We're going to see in the months ahead of us, Christ will reign for 1,000 years on earth from Jerusalem in Israel Then will come a time shortly thereafter when He will reign in the new heavens and the new earth from a new Jerusalem. For what these loud voices are saying is not long and complicated, but is exceedingly important.

It's a declaration of the reign of Christ on earth, so let's take this declaration one phrase at a time. Verse 16, And the twenty-four elders who sat on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshipped God. So then we have on page 4 there, now we have studied these 24 elders before when we were going through Revelation chapters 4, 5, and 7. These 24 elders, as we concluded, represent the raptured church. Notice that these elders are seated on thrones where their position with Christ and their condition with Christ are permanently matched as one.

Here on planet Earth, I can be a believer, speaking editorially, I am a believer. I can be a believer, but I can have at any moment or at any particular day, I can be living and walking outside of who I am. This will be a time when my living and my walking will be perfectly matched with who I am. I will be fully conformed to the image of Christ. And that will be true of every believer here this morning.

One thing we note is that these 24 elders who show up only in the chapters in Revelation dealing with the tribulation, chapters 4-19, have a pattern in what they praise the Lord for in these chapters. That means since they are you and me, that we're reading about us. reading about us.

And this may take place as soon as a few years from now. Are you ready for that? What we're seeing right here is the middle of the tribulation period. It could be just a few years from now. What we find is that this part of the larger pattern of praise that the elders began in chapter 4 will complete in chapter 19 according to this outline. The 24 elders praised the Lord for His creation.

That's back in Revelation 4.10. They praise the Lord for redemption. It's back in Revelation 5, 9 and 10. And then we see here reigning and judgment and reward. We'll see in Revelation 11, 17 and 18. And then we'll read about how they praise the Lord for judgment. Isn't that interesting? Praise the Lord for judgment when we get to Revelation 19, 4.

And that's the last time we read of these 24 elders in that context. or as that picture. There's a good reason we don't read of them after that, as we'll see when we get to that point. It's going to be some chapters ahead of us. These 24 elders fell on their faces. It shows up to eight times in the Old Testament that someone fell on their face. In all but one case it refers to falling on one's face in a desperate situation. Is that interesting? A desperate situation. Are these elders desperate?

No. So in contrast to the Old Testament picture, they're not desperate at all. One gets the impression that this is what they, okay we, that's you and me, are doing again and again throughout the entire tribulation. Falling down before the Lord, not in desperation, but compelled to worship and praise the Lord. They don't seem to tire of it. They don't seem to look down at their watches and wonder if there's a coffee break coming soon. They don't seem to wiggle in their pews or anything of the sort.

So this is amazing stuff. When they see the Lord face to face, they are compelled to worship Him. Not because of some command or any threat, but they see the Lord and worship is naturally supernaturally. Exactly what they do. There is no counsel to vote upon it or decide whether it's worth the while. Worshipping the Lord is simply done from their own hearts and minds. Verse 17, saying we give you thanks O Lord God the Almighty who are and who were because you have taken your great power and begun to reign.

Isn't that interesting? Are things going to get settled down from this point in Revelation? Is everything going to kind of settle down and get ironed out and all the wrinkles taken care of? Or what's it look like for the next several chapters here? It's still rough, isn't it? It's still rough and rugged.

So why have you taken your great power and begun to reign? Why? First of all, it's a heavenly reign, but the heavenly reign has been there. Why would you say you've begun to reign? What's been going on on planet Earth up to this point? Chaos. Why? But what's happening from heaven towards earth?

Judgments coming left and right. Pronouncements from heaven. Gospel being told by the three different agents that we've talked about. The Lord has been, through this, bringing down judgment. Bringing down the gospel. in multiple ways, kind of like a braid where this multiple set of witnesses comes together announcing the gospel. The Lord is being very clear that though from the human standpoint things look chaotic, from the Lord's standpoint He's already begun judgment and nothing is going to happen on planet Earth that He isn't ultimately in control of or allowing to happen for a time. He has begun to reign. He has indeed. He has miraculously, because remember each of the three points of testimony of the gospel during this tribulation period are miraculous in some way.

The 144,000 are preserved by a seal. The two witnesses can't be touched until the midpoint of the tribulation period. when the Lord resurrects them and takes them out. The gospel angel is untouchable. They're miraculous in each of those three kinds of witness. judge those who have caused them to be underneath the altar of souls under the altar.

Right now this is right before the seventh trumpet. So this is moments before. So he begins to whatever, I can't remember what the statement was or how it said it, but they wanted justification for their death. That's right. Yes. They were looking for answers for, boy, this death was awful. So this is where it begins, right? Yeah. He is beginning to do that. Yeah. Something else, these 24 elders tell us that he has taken his great power. The word taken in the Greek is in the perfect tense.

We've explained that before. It's very simply a completed past action with ongoing results into the future. Continuing results now on into the future. That's the meaning of this perfect tense. You have done taken. It's a completed action. What's going to proceed forward from here is something that will continue. It's not going to be a stutter, stop, oops, let's try again. It has begun. It's a done deal. It's going forward. That's the same tense that Christ used on the cross when he said it is finished. It's a done deal.

This is happening. What appears on the outside may not look the same to people, but it's seen clearly from the heavenly perspective, He has indeed taken. Also, here's the 24 elders, this is you and I speaking. This is you and I saying these things. Us. As soon as about three and a half years from now. Alright, let's look at page 5 here. This word reign here is fascinating.

It's the word used in the Greek basileuo. It shows up 18 times in the New Testament and is used most often to describe the reign of Christ as Messiah during the millennium. It's used here in Revelation to describe Christ reigning during the millennium and thereafter or to describe the saints reigning with him. It's never used to describe the Antichrist's desperate and tyrannical rule over the earth during the last half of the Tribulation. Isn't it interesting? Consistently, Christ reigning, Christ reigning, Christ reigning, but the same word is not used of the Antichrist's rule. Why? Why the distinction? It's not a position that he actually has, it's been given to him. He's borrowing that power. It's a desperate grab that will be ripped from his fingers.

When Christ reigns, it won't be taken away. When Christ reigns, it's part of the Trinity that's actually governing. when the people wanted a king and they got Saul. And they rejected God. So now we're back to where there's another theocracy going here. This time it's Christ as a high priest who understands us. Anyone other than God can try to grab for power.

And you know, it's interesting, human beings for centuries essentially have been trying to reproduce the reign that the Romans had. Even the names, like the Tsar is a copy of Caesar. It's derived from Caesar. Or even the Kaiser in German. It comes from Caesar. Trying to reproduce what Rome had.

The world will have these fading and passing attempts at grabbing for power. This will be the last one that we're reading of here in Revelation. And then Christ will reign. And that's not the same thing at all. And that's, I think, one of the reasons why, as the Lord was inspiring Scripture, He deliberately chose to have this reigning be a specific word, not used and contaminated by use elsewhere. Let's look at verse 18.

I'm sorry, yes. It's when Christ was talking to Herod, and Herod said, I have the power of death over you, and He said, only because it's been granted. Yes, I think you're talking about Pilate. Yeah, Pilate, yes. Yeah, that's right, only because it's been given to you. It's God who does the giving.

Verse 18, And the nations were enraged, and your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward your bondservants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.

So here in this passage, these 24 elders, that's us, have an incredible set of phrases. Let's take a look at each one of them. And the nations were enraged and your wrath came. This is actually a summary, a restatement in brief of Psalm 2. We've got a part of it quoted there.

Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thought? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. And the Greek Old Testament has in there Christ, Christos, the Messiah saying, "...and he shall speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sordid pleasure, yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion." The word wrath shows up in Revelation from the first chapters about the tribulation, that's chapter 6 and through the last chapters,

19. But the church has promised at least three times in the New Testament not to be subject to God's wrath. Not a part of it. So wasn't it after one of the first seals, was it the seventh seal? God had come. Yeah, it's the last verses of chapter 6.

So is that almost just like this wrath? It's wrath. Same word. Yep. Not great wrath or wrath. They're both the same kind of wrath. It's wrath. Yep. Some Bibles interpret it as a great wrath or kind of designating that this last one is greater than that. Ah, great tribulation. I think that may be the phrase you're talking about. I thought they also defined the word wrath. With great wrath? It's interesting, the Bible is very consistent about the word wrath and saying the church will not be subject to it and the exact same word is used there in Revelation. So it's not any quibbling or fuzziness, it's just dead on, that's the word.

And the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward your bondservants, the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, the small and the great." This judgment for rewards, and we'll begin talking about that in our main service for the Christians, for the church believers, and we will most specifically talk about it next Sunday. This judgment for rewards is for the Tribulation and Old Testament saints at the end of the Tribulation period. We'll cover that in a little more detail later if we're still here on this earth. That judgment, by the way, is described in Matthew chapter 25. That judgment at the end of the tribulation period.

This judgment for rewards for the tribulation, excuse me, and to destroy those who destroy the earth is the next phrase. This is not just tribulation or retribution for ecological disaster. Destroy those who destroy the earth isn't just a Greenpeace political move here.

Mankind is bringing destruction upon the earth by the rampant fouling which is sin. See, it's sin which fouls the earth. It's interesting that in some of the Old Testament prophets, they'll have passages where they talk about, because of your sin, the land mourns. Because of your sin, the fish and the birds and the animals are impacted. Because of your sin, the plant life withers. So ecological and environmental problems ultimately have their source in sin. So that's the curse Paul was talking about. That's right. And that will not be reversed in any way until, well, it's talked about, I think around verse 18 in Romans chapter 8, where it talks about a reversal of the consequences of sin. One of the things that I put here, suppose you could see things. See, we see things with our eyes and this is our physical eyes. What if we had eyes and a mind Can you imagine that?

What would it be like if you walked into any place and you saw what was happening spiritually? If it was really bad spiritually, you saw bad. And if it was really good spiritually, you saw good. What would that be like? Instead of seeing things on the surface as we do physically, if we can see a situation and see it as it was spiritually, to have an instant spiritual assessment of where things are. What's going on here spiritually? Is that how the prophets saw things? Yeah. To a certain degree, anyway. The Lord essentially gave them a glimpse of what that's like. We are, at least through words, getting a sense of what that's like. Exercising? Okay, alright. I wasn't sure if you had a question. Okay.

You see, we go about and we see pollution, physical pollution. Before I came here, a significant part of my job was dealing with environmental issues, contamination. I dealt with petroleum contamination, dealt with contamination from heavy metals and things of that sort. Well, suppose you could evaluate spiritual contamination, spiritual pollution. That's essentially what he's doing here.

How would things on earth look to you? Verse 19, And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened, and the ark of the covenant appeared in this temple, and there were flashes of lightning, and sounds and peals of thunder, and an earthquake and a great hailstorm. There are issues here about the temple of God that because the time is running out, we won't have a chance to get to. I'd like to invite you to take a look and read the rest of it. Let me show you some slides.

This is what is now the Temple Mount. It has been over 19 centuries since the temple that was built there and essentially rebuilt during the time of Herod was there and it was replaced some centuries afterwards by the Dome of the Rock here, the gold dome that you see. which I realize there's debate but is approximately in the same location. Here is the plan of what Herod had built and it's this inner area that you see in the upper part there that is the word temple, that's the naos, that is described here in this chapter in Revelation. There is a correspondence between what was in that middle central part of the temple area and what is there in heaven. And one of the things that's described both in the Old Testament is the Ark of the Covenant. And of course that's one that's been in most of our lifetimes. A movie about that brought all sorts of fame and acclaim. But this is talking about in the heavenly scene.

Very interesting. So anyway, we won't have time to cover it, but I'd invite you to read through the rest of the account, and we'll move on to the next chapter next week. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at this passage, as we look at the things you've revealed for us and as we anticipate this time, which yes, it could be some some additional time from now, but perhaps also very close, perhaps as close as three and a half years from now. And Lord, we look with anticipation for your coming for us. We look with anticipation for your promised rewards to us, which are deep and spiritual and not superficial and earthly. And we look for the time of being with you for all of eternity. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.