Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Revelation 11:14-15: Isaiah 24:1-23

Theme: The coming Great Tribulation from an Old Testament perspective – the third “woe”.

Date: 07/22/2018 File name: Resurrection25.wpd

ID Number:

The last trumpet judgment is about to sound, precipitating the outpouring of the vials of God’s wrath.

But first we are given a glimpse of the crowning in heaven of God’s rightful king.

Revelation 11:15 is one of the most exciting verses in the New Testament ... “The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.””

(Revelation 11:15, NIV84).

What’s interesting is that John announces this as the “third woe” in the preceding verse.

“The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.”

(Revelation 11:14, NIV84).

Why would John announce vs. 15 as a woe?

It’s a wonderment to the elect of God.

It’s a woe to the enemies of God — all those who refuse to turn to the Christ.

The scene is in heaven, but news of what is happening is released on earth with the result that the nations are enraged.

They want no king but Caesar.

Here is the sad truth of how hard men’s hearts are.

Judgment through a series to cataclysmic natural disasters has afflicted the earth and its inhabitants.

Men know this is God’s wrathful hand at work, and they cry out for the mountains to fall on them to hide them from the wrath of the Lamb.

They will not repent and turn to Christ.

But this is nothing new.

One of the problems in preaching through a prophetic book like Revelation is that we tend to look at it’s prophecies with tunnel-vision.

We forget that there are many other bible prophecies about the coming Kingdom of God — especially in the Old Testament.

The Bible has a very clear message as it pertains to the end of this world: a Day of Judgment for unrepentant sinners is coming.

If you are not reconciled to God, they will be difficult days to survive.

But it is also a Day of Justification of saved sinners when we shall see our Christ and become like Him.

This morning, I’d like for us to look at one of the major Old Testament texts that undergirds all we’ve seen in the Book of Revelation.

What Isaiah describes can certainly be described as a woe upon the inhabitants of the Earth.

Chapters 24-27 of Isaiah are known as the Apocalypse of Isaiah.

These prophecies are a mixture of poems and songs, that outline the end of days.

In Isaiah 13 through 23 God’s judgment is announced upon a number of nations and cities: Tyre, Babylon, Arabia, Edom, Egypt, Cush, Damascus, Moab, the Philistines, and Syria — all nations that had attacked or persecuted Israel.

When we get to Isaiah 24, however, the prophet concludes his oracles of judgment by proclaiming that not only will these nations be judged for their sins but the whole world will be judged because of her rebellion against God.

I. THE COMING GREAT TRIBULATION (24:1–13, 16b–22)

1. while the immediate context here most likely refers to the devastation of Judah following the Babylonian captivity, it would seem to have its ultimate fulfillment during the seven-year tribulation that will immediately precede Christ’s 2nd Advent

a. the description here is simply too terrible and to all-encompassing to only be considering Babylon’s attack of Israel

2. here in Isaiah chapter 24, then, is an Old Testament portrait of the end of days beginning with a period of great tribulation

a. in stark, prophetic language, Isaiah reveals four essential truths about this period of earth’s history

A. IT IS A PERIOD OF UNIVERSAL JUDGMENT (24:1–6)

“Behold, the LORD will empty the earth and make it desolate, and he will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants.

And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the slave, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor.

The earth shall be utterly empty and utterly plundered; for the LORD has spoken this word.

The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish.

The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.”

(Isaiah 24:1–6, ESV)

1. Isaiah made a shocking announcement—behold!

a. behold is a demonstrative verb and calls for our explicit attention—God is about to reveal something really important, and for our own sake we had better listen!

2. Yahweh is going to one day cleanse the earth as a man might clean a dirty vessel

a. six time in six verses Isaiah refers to the earth

1) it’s hard to believe that he is referring merely to a localized judgment of Israel’s enemies

b. literally, He will empty the earth and make it desolate

ILLUS.

The picture is of a vineyard where every vine is shriveling and dying due to a lack of moisture.

1) here is a prophetic picture of the end of days for mankind

2) the earth’s population will be devastated by the righteous judgment of God

3) this picture corresponds with the picture painted by the Apostle John as the Trumpet Judgments are unleashed upon the earth, the Great Tribulation begins, and men begin dying in amazingly large numbers

“The third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from the sky on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water— the name of the star is Wormwood.

A third of the waters turned bitter, and many people died from the waters that had become bitter.”

(Revelation 8:10–11, NIV)

“And the four angels who had been kept ready for this very hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind.”

(Revelation 9:15, NIV)

“I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one “like a son of man” with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.

Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.”

So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.

Still another angel, who had charge of the fire, came from the altar and called in a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, “Take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grapes from the earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe.”

The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath.

They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia.”

(Revelation 14:14–20, NIV)

ILLUS.

Most of you are familiar with the Mediaeval historical event called “The Black Death.”

It was one of the deadliest pandemics in world history, peaking in Europe between the years 1348 and 1350.

It started in Asia and moved westward.

In a mere four years the plague killed an estimated 50% of Europe’s inhabitants — 20 million people.

It took 150 years for Europe’s population to recover.

World-wide, the plague killed an estimated 100 million people.

4) now, imagine that within weeks, God’s wrath will empty the earth and make it desolate

b. in His wrath, Yahweh will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants

1) literally, God will turn the world upside down

2) those peoples who are left will scatter

c. the natural earth will be like a city that has been plundered by an enemy, left in ruins, and its citizens carried off into captivity v. 3

d.

what inhabitants are left will languish — they will bemoan their hopeless condition

3. that all of this will take place is certain — for the LORD has spoken this word

4. all classes and ranks of people throughout the world will be affected by the judgment

a. it will be the same ...

1) ... for priest as for people

2) ... for master as for servant

3) ... for mistress as for maid

4) ... for seller as for buyer

5) ... for borrower as for lender

6) ... for debtor as for creditor (Isaiah 24:2, NIV)

b. there will be no escape

1) regardless of how much money, education, what job you have, what color you are, where you live; all who are on the Earth will be affected

2) except ... EXCEPT ... those with the mark of God

“They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads.”

(Revelation 9:4, NIV84)

5. why has God poured out such wrath and unmitigated suffering upon the peoples of the Earth?

“The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant.

Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.