The Trumpet Judgments of the Lord
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Good morning church!
We are continuing in our study of the book of Revelation and we find ourself in chapter 8 so please open your Bibles with me to the book of Revelation 8.
Today were looking at the Trumpet judgements of the Lord.
Now were getting into a new phase of Revelation bc were getting into God pouring out His wrath and His judgement to an unbelieving world.
When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
Now the Lord opens the 7th seal
If you will remember the 144,000 Jews have been saved and sealed by the Lord Himself they were sealed by the Lord and then sent back to Earth to be the greatest missionary force the world will ever see.
Their role during the time when God pours out His wrath will be to preach to those who will not take the mark and may have a very small window of time where salvation can take place.
But also we have seen that the rapture is going to take place almost at the end of the great tribulation. Why?
Because we are not promised to be taken out of tribulation on this Earth and that is all the great tribulation is… trials persecutions and the like on this Earth during the last days.
But we are promised we will not have to face the wrath of God being poured out bc Jesus already faced that for us and in our place.
So right before the wrath of God is poured out on the Earth then the church will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air in what we know as the rapture of the church, and we saw that happen at the end of chapter 7.
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
Now if you jump down to verse 7
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
Notice right away when the trumpet begins to be blown the first thing God tells us that fire is reigning down and all the green grass of the Earth is burned up and a third of the trees are burned up.
That is going to be important but lets back up to chapter 6 and I am going to explain to you why this is so important
“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.
Now that verse makes it very clear that the sun and moon being darkened and the stars not giving their light that that takes place after the tribulation doesnt it?
Now look at Revelation 6
I looked when He opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood.
And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.
So we see the exact same event mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 24
we see the
Sun and moon being darkened
the stars are falling now heres the thing you can search the book of Revelation all you want this is the only time in the book of Revelation that this event is recorded.
When Jesus said in Matthew 24 that the sun and moon would be darkened and the stars would fall if you go to find that this is the only place your going to find it.
That means if the sun and moon are darkened and the stars fall at the 6th seal and the sun being darkened happens after the 6th seal that means anything after the 6th seal, is not part of the tribulation.
Its very important
Yes we as Christians will endure the tribulation, but heres the good news all of the wrath and terrible things that come after the tribulation are much much worse and we are promised we are going to be long gone when those things begin happening.
The trumpet judgements are NOT part of the tribulation at all.
So we see here very clearly this separation between tribulation on the Earth during the time of the AntiChrist and what comes after the rapture and the sun and moon being darkened which is the wrath of God being poured out.
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Revelation 7 if we will just take our Bibles and read what it says the obvious truth is what Jesus called the GREAT TRIBULATION is over by the time the 6th seal is open and the sun and moon are darkened.
We already learned last week that these seals of the Lord began opening back in AD 70 when the temple in Jerusalem fell.
Year by year and century after century these seals have been being opened. Now for the sake of time I am not going to prove that right now but just know there are many evidences that these seals have already begun being opened.
Heres another interesting point Jesus did not mention to His followers anything about the trumpet judgements or bowls of Gods wrath to His followers why?
Because we are not going to be here HALLELUJIAH THANK YOU JESUS!
So Jesus doesn’t get into the pouring out of the wrath because it comes after the rapture.
So what we are covering this morning is the future for those who do not get their hearts and lives right before the coming of the Lord.
Even though we will not be here our hearts should still go out to those who will be left behind and those who will be left here on the Earth.
That aggrivating person who you tried witnessing to but they got mad at you. Try again.
It is worth trying so they wont have to go through this that is described here .
God is still going to be actively involved to try to win the hearts of those who are here, but He is only giving a small window of time during these judgements for them to meet and submit to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is going to use the 144,000 Jews and the two witnesses and His messengers during this time of great pain and agony to try to win some during this time.
Some will be saved but it will be under excuciatingly painful circumstances. Once one becomes a believer they will be expected not to recieve the mark and this will ultimately lead to the AntiChrist putting them to death
The good part is that people can still be saved the difficult part is that whoever does get saved during this time will be martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ
God is doing whatever he can to break people to the point of submission to Him before the ultimate penalty is poured out.
So HE begins pouring out these judgements
He did this in Egypt
Often times we come to God during a time of discomfort and this is how we need to view these judgements being rolled out upon the Earth as Gods last ditch effort to bring people to a saving knowledge of Him.
But most will not
John the apostle is being shown these things by the Lord way out into the distant future from where He is.
He is seeing even past our time about these cataclysmic events that will take place upon the Earth.
Jesus begins here by opening the 7th seal and the 7th seal here is announcing the 7 trumpets and when he opens it verse 1 says there was silence in Heaven for about a half an hour.
Now if you will remember you have alot of worship going on in the previous chapters in Heaven and the church is up there now and so the worship is rising and then the 7th seal is broken and all of it goes silent.
For about a half an hour and it is like this holy hush and it is very intimidating because Jesus is about to dispatch these four angels who are about to blow these trumpets to announce another series of judgements against the Earth.
It has gone from this boisterous sound of worship coming from around the throne of God to total silence for 1/2 an hour
And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets.
I saw THE angels
This lets us know that this is a particular set of angels created for this intended purpose. He sees the 7 angels and to them were given 7 trumpets
Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.
This is an 8th angel
He has a golden censor and he was given much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which is before the throne.
Now make a note in your Bibles
Hebrews 5 the Bible tells us that the Earthly Temple which was built in Jerusalem God gave this design to Moses and David and Davids son Solomon would build it and Hebrews 5 says that the Temple built in Jerusalem was like a type of the actual teple in HEaven and that in Heaven there is an actual throne.
When you look at the different elements of the Temple which once stood in Jerusalem it actually was a picture for us of a Heavenly design and in Heaven there is this golden censor theres an altar theres incense.
God is seated upon the throne and this angel is bringing this incense .
Incense was a picture of the prayers of the saints as the incense rises to HEaven so do the prayers of the saints.
But who is praying here?
Is it the saints who died for thier faith during the tribualtion? It doesnt tell us here
The good thing to remember here the prayers of the saints are never forgotten by God they have been preserved and kept and heard by the Lord.
They are now in this beautiful picture rising to the throne of God
Now as the prayers are going up judgments are about to come down.
Notice what the angel does next...
Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake.
Now this is the beginning of the judgments coming upon the Earth
With that all of these sounds
So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
So heres this picture of these 7 angels positioned with trumpets and they are about ready to sound their trumpet
The First Trumpet Judgement
The First Trumpet Judgement
The first angel sounded: And hail and fire followed, mingled with blood, and they were thrown to the earth. And a third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
1/3 of the Earth is Burned up
1/3 of the trees are burned up
All green grass burned up
Hail and fire are falling from the sky mingled with blood.
When you read the phrase mingled with blood probably means many will die this judgment is similar to one of the plagues of Egypt.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt—on man, on beast, and on every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.” And Moses stretched out his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground. And the Lord rained hail on the land of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, so very heavy that there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail struck throughout the whole land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail struck every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field. Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, there was no hail.
So you see this is clearly similar
This is going to really mess up life here on this planet I mean think of it 1/3 of the trees
1/3 of the green grass
What will livestock graze on?
There will be no grass to graze on
1/3 of the trees
This is going to be terrible I mean envision if you will the sun and moon have been darkened everything goes black. The first trumpet sounds and at some point the light returns and people see the graves bursting forth and they cry out and run trying to hide from the face of the one who is to come.
But after a few days things begin going back to normal.
People dont know what they saw, non believers are going to know it was Jesus but many will think that it was an enigma.
Im sure the antiChrist or some person will get on television and tell those left behind that we have been physically and psycologicallly attacked
They will try anything to explain away what they had just saw.
(THAT IS MY OPINION)
We know the condition on Earth has to go back to normal bc the Lord will strike the Heavens in a later judgments.
So even after the sun and moon are darkened they will shine dimly again for a time.
Or else the Lord would not have anything to strike at the 4th trumpet.
The Second Trumpet Judgment
The Second Trumpet Judgment
Then the second angel sounded: And something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. And a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
1/3 of the sea becomes blood
1/3 of sea life is killed
1/3 of sea vessels are destroyed
It mentions SOMETHING like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea
Now we have to remember that John is writing in the first century and often as he writes he describes things using pictures he says like or as..
he says this was something like a mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea
IT is very likely that this is an asteroid that God is bringing this asteroid that is ablaze and it impacts the planet.
By the way scientists have named an asteroid that they believe will impact the Earth it is called asteroid 1950 DA the scientists in the journal of science have written that there is a 1/300 chance that we will be hit by an asteroid March 16th 2038.
Now that is pretty interesting Im not saying this is the one being reffered to here but it is interesting that they are actively concerned about something like this occuring.
This particular asteroid is 1/2 a mile wide and they say the impact of an asteroid 1/2 a mile wide on the Earth would be equivalent of one million tons of TNT
So we dont know if this is an asteroid but this could be something like a mountain coming down with fire being thrown into the sea
When you have 1/3 of sea life dying you have to now imagine the stench. 1/3 of seas become blood
Now people have said save the trees because of the oxygen the trees provide, well thats all well and good I believe we should take care of the planet too. But scientist have discovered that the trees do not give Earth most of its oxygen, but actually the plankton in the sea.
Scientist say that plankton in the sea gives off nearly 50 percent of the oxygen we breathe everyday.
I dont know how but they study it for a living so I trust them
Now imagine if you will if 1/3 of the sea life dies youre cutting the Earths oxygen down by about 30 %
So now your gasping for air and everytime you breathe your just smelling the stench I mean you have to try to imagine what life on planet Earth would be like because this is extremely hard to comprehend.
1/3 of the ships are destroyed
We just saw how one ship stuck in the Suez canal was causing issues for many around the world now imagine if 1/3 of the vessels were destroyed
Trumpet #3
Trumpet #3
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
1/3 of all fresh water becomes bitter and many die
This could also be an asteroid or a comet
WORMWOOD- a bitter plant used literally for medicinal purposes and figuratively as Gods judgment on those who disobey and reject Him.
So now where Trumpet # 2 affected the ocean # 3 affects fresh water
The source of drinking water is going to be affected here
This star or comet falls to the Earth and makes 1/3 of all fresh water bitter and many die maybe they die bc something within the bitterness of the water is poisonous or maybe they are unable to drink but many will die at this point.
Now this word Wormwood became an interesting word bc back in 1986 there was a nuclear power plant in chernobyl Ukraine which had a partial meltdown there was a terrible accident where 8 tons of radioactive material escaped into the atmosphere 8,000 people died pretty suddenly and 2,000 people died later bc of the effect on the atmosphere.
1986 on July 26th the NEw York times ran an article on the front page of the New York times entitled “THE TALK OF MOSCOW CHERNOBYL FALLOUT, APOCALYPTIC TALE AND FEAR”
“A prominent Russian writer recently produced a tattered old Bible and with a practiced hand turned to Revelation. “Listen this is amazing” HE said
Then the third angel sounded: And a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.
In a dictionary he showed the Ukrainian word for Womrwood and in the Ukrainian language for Wormwood is Chernobyl
So the writer who is showing the NY times this is a professed Athiest but yet was hardly alone in pointing out how this affected him and how oddly coincidental it was.
INteresting huh?
What does that mean?
Does that mean that when that happened in Chernobyl that that is a fufillment of this particular passage no I dont think so but I think it was God showing a picture
It is a picture of what is to come.
The 4th Trumpet
The 4th Trumpet
Then the fourth angel sounded: And a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
all light sources are darkened by 1/3
“And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;
So what happens with the 4th Trumpet is the day night cycle is going to be disrupted
And I looked, and I heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabitants of the earth, because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound!”
Now your version may say eagle so wait a minute why are there two different forms is it an eagle or an angel?
The answer is yes
The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle.
So one of the 4 living creatures which we learned were angels looks like a flying eagle.
Now as though these poor people left behind at this time think it is over but it is not, actually this chapter ends saying the worst is yet to come.
