One of the things about the book of Revelation that is difficult is the fact that it's a very lengthy book. There's a lot of material, a lot of very important material here that lays a foundation for your knowledge of prophetic things. And yet it does take us some time to go through these chapters and to discover the truth that is contained here. One of the things that we constantly need to be reminded of, and I suppose we should have done this even more than we have, and that is the fact that God has promised very special blessing in the first part of the book for those that study this book. You may recall when we studied that first chapter. He said that the word there, to read, does not simply mean to read in the usual sense of just reading words, but rather it means to study. It means to study diligently and to really understand the words as you are perceiving in your mind as you read. And so it's not simply a matter of a blessing for those that read the book through with a superficial glance, but those that stick with it and study through it, there is great blessing involved. I think probably there are a couple of reasons for that. One of the reasons is because of the length and because of the laborious nature of the kind of study that we must do in the book of Revelation. But I think that there's something else as well. And I think that God wants us to be informed about these things and he gives to us an added incentive as we study the book of Revelation. And though some people perhaps get tired of prophecy and tired of the book. Nevertheless, it is God's revealed word, and it's very important that you have this doctrinal and prophetic basis in your own heart and mind. So we've got a few chapters yet to go, and I'm just trying to encourage you, spurring you on to greater heights and deeper depths in these days as we study together. I want you to turn to Revelation 16. And we are going to read through the 11th verse, Revelation chapter 16, and begin to read at verse 1 and read through verse 11. And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and there fell a literally foul and painful sore. And it fell upon the men who had the mark of the beast, and upon them who worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his bowl upon the sea, and it became like the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his bowl upon the rivers and the fountains of waters, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, who art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy or deserving of that blood to drink. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun. And power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, who hath power over these plagues. And they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast. His kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven, because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. Father in Heaven, give us insight now in this passage. Help us to be able to touch on those things that will be a vital concern to those of us that are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. We'll give you praise. In Christ's precious name, amen. Look at chapter 15, verse 1, will you? And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous. seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God. I'm reminded, first of all, of the fact that in the Old Testament that the nation of Israel was told that they would go through 400 years of bondage because the cup of the iniquity of the Amorites was not yet full. They would be placed into Egypt for 400 years, not only so they could become a great nation there, but also in order that God might give sufficient time for the people of that land to repent and turn from their sin and to come to Him. God has a point at which He must pour out His wrath. And there's a great deal of misunderstanding concerning this term, the wrath of God. You discover in the Old Testament that it's connected especially with God's covenant relationship with Israel as a chosen nation. They occupied a very special relationship with God, with first of all unconditional covenants that could not be changed by any of their actions, but as well by conditional covenants whereby God said to them, I set before you a blessing and a curse. A blessing if you act this way, a curse if you act this way. And God set in the Old Testament and established for us the moral law in connection with his wrath. The wrath of God is mentioned often as well in the New Testament. It's mentioned, for instance, in Romans chapter 1 and verse 18, where it explains in that first chapter of Romans that it is absolutely inevitable that the wrath of God fall upon the unrighteousness of man. We must realize that this is not something that is arbitrary. This is something that happens because of moral order that God has set in the universe. Israel tasted the wrath of God continuously in action, whenever they strayed in rebellion and unfaithfulness. And when they turned back to Him, they began again to feel the blessing that came. I often think, in terms of God's dealing with men, like a bicycle. I can't draw, as you know. But nevertheless, let's pretend that this is a bicycle, alright? There, we'll even put a seat on it. Okay. Wouldn't be able to get very far with that, I imagine. But nevertheless, let's say that the wind is blowing this way. If it's blowing that way, then of course you have a headwind. If the bicycle is turned around, you have a tailwind. God always will blow this way. He will always be in the same direction. And if we move against Him, then you see we are facing His wrath. On the other hand, if we turn, and that's really what repentance means, to turn, if we turn, then we have a tailwind. Then we have God behind us, and we don't have the difficulty. And you see, individuals today expect God to change to suit them. And guess what? It never works. It never works. Now, really, if we are to describe the wrath of God, then, in modern terminology, We would have to say this, there is a moral order in the universe and he who transgresses the moral order will inevitably suffer from it. There's a lot of unbelieving scientists today who do not believe that God is fair because of all of those things concerning His wrath. But the order in the universe at work is God's wrath. God's wrath at work is that order in the universe. God made the world in such a way that when we break his laws, we break them to our own peril. Don't you ever forget it. That's a very, very important item of doctrine. Can man violate Natural law without penalty? You say, well, no, of course not. The same unbelieving scientists that would say God is unfair in incurring His wrath upon men or giving His wrath upon men because they are sinful would never argue with the fact that a man had violated the law of nature. Let's say, for instance, a man is in a building. 26 stories up, and he steps from that building and falls to his death. If he steps from that building, what will happen? He will fall to his death. You see? There is not a scientist in the world who would say God isn't fair, or the law of nature, as he might put it, the law of nature isn't fair. No man can keep the law of gravity. Therefore, that man should have been held guiltless, and when he stepped from that 26-story window, he should have floated instead of fallen. It's not fair that these are laws that are fixed. In a case like that, where a man is out of a 26-story window, the law of gravity ought to let up and let him float. There's a scientist in the world, in fact, scientists would laugh if you suggested such a thing. Yet, my friend, there is no difference. Just like there is a natural order in the universe, there is a moral order in the universe. In the natural order, fire will burn. Water will drown. Impure air will poison. Atomic radiation will kill. You defy the natural law and you suffer the consequences. You break the law of agriculture and your crops will fail. You break the laws of architecture and your building will collapse. You break the laws of health and your body will die. They are inevitable laws that are fixed and our deteriorating ecology is just one more confirmation of this fact. That you violate those laws and inevitably we will suffer for it. Now, by the same token, if men incur the wrath of God, or incur the moral law, or disregard the moral law, we incur the wrath of God. If we disregard what God has set up as right, then we incur the wrath of God. So Ezekiel 18.4 says, the soul that sinneth, it must die. And I want to tell you something, and I say this reverently, God has no choice. It is inherent in his very nature and his immutability that he cannot alter the laws that he and his sovereignty has set up. God has no choice. The soul that sinneth, it must die. The wages of sin is death, always. And you see, Pastor Rich stood here tonight and we cut up his tie. And of those things that we asked him, we showed evidence that he is guilty of death penalty. He sinned, and the wages of sin is death. But the beautiful thing is Jesus Christ intervened. Though God's law could never be changed, God did permit that another could die in our place. And what happened on the cross of Calvary was Jesus Christ bore all of the wrath of God on our behalf. So that no man needs to stand before God today as a sinner. For Jesus Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we being dead to sin might live unto righteousness. And I'll tell you my friends, I cannot even say those words without a tear coming to my eye. To think of myself as a guilty sinner and the fact that Jesus Christ so wonderfully and marvelously intervened. But I want to ask you tonight. If you drank a glass of poison and I had the only antidote to that poison and I offered it to you, and you refused and you died, whose fault would it be? Mine or yours? Well, you know the answer to that. It would be yours. It would be your fault. One of the most tragic stories that I've ever heard in my life is a story that Dr. Moon tells at the end of his film, Red River of Life. when he actually reads from a court case that took place in the Midwest where a man was sentenced to die. He was pardoned by the governor. He refused the pardon and he died because the law ruled at that time, though it might not rule the same today, at that time it ruled that a pardon that is refused is not valid. And God has promised to this world, this planet on which we live, He has promised a pardon to every sinner that lives on this earth. And there are those who refuse His pardon. Now, when you see God pouring out His wrath, finally, finally coming to the point Reading in 2 Peter chapter 1, the fact that he, the reason that he's held back as long as he has and let the world just continue to get more and more and more wicked is because he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And God is holding back his wrath. But there is a day where that wrath will be filled up and where God is going to have to pour out his wrath upon people. And I'll tell you, this is one of the hardest passages in the Bible. to realize that here God is just going to, moment after moment, just bring a bombarding of plagues upon this earth, upon men. A tragic picture, as these bowls of God's wrath, filled up with the wrath of God, are poured out upon men. I believe that God has given, has given to us a commission to share this message with people as long as we're still here, until that glorious day when the trumpet will sound and we'll be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. We have a responsibility to share with them this message that if they refuse the only antidote to sin, they will die of their own self-induced poison. What a challenge. Well, that's my introduction. You may recall that we used this a while back. In the Bible there are over 600 warnings of hell. Only over 600. There's twice as much about hell in the Bible as there is about heaven. And yet a man driving down the road that sees 600 warning signs to tell him not to take that road, and yet he continues to take it. Whose fault is it if he runs off the dead end? But you see, God has given to you and to me the responsibility of putting up warning signs wherever we can to try to head some people off. But the book of Revelation makes it clear that there will be a day where it's going to be all done. I was studying this so carefully this week and I had to come to a conclusion in my own mind as I studied this and studied it and studied it. At the time that this takes place, apparently, there is no one left to be saved. It appears as though men's hearts at this point are hardened beyond any hope. And the ones that have been saved will have been saved by this time, for this represents those last moments really, the last hours, the last few days, of this tremendous wrath of God poured upon the world. I want to say one other thing, though, and then I will be through with my introduction. These are literal things, and I want to remind you that no one denies that the plagues in the nation of Egypt were literal plagues. There were ten plagues. There was a literal darkness. The water literally turned to blood. The water was filled with frogs. They were real frogs. They were probably green. They probably looked something like that, you know. The gnats or the lice that came on, they were literal. The flies were literal. The plague on the livestock was literal. The boils were literal. The hail and the fire that killed the vegetation were literal. The locusts were literal. The darkness for three days, darkness in Egypt and light in Goshen were literal. And the firstborn being slain was literal. It's interesting to me to see people that will take their Bibles, and they'll go through in their Bibles, and they'll say, oh yeah, I believe Jesus Christ literally came to earth. Believe that. Literally. And I believe that Jesus Christ literally died. And I believe in the literal resurrection. But I don't believe Jesus Christ is going to come again literally. It's amazing. I don't see any change in the language. They say, no, no, Jesus Christ, when he comes again, that's a spiritual thing. He comes to your heart. And that's the coming of Christ. Or something else, you see. But I believe with all my heart that these plagues here are literal plagues. And as you look at them, you'll see why it is, or how it is, that God's wrath is poured out upon the earth. Now the first plague, begins there in verses 1 and 2. First of all, in 1, he tells them to pour out the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first, it says, that is the first angel, verse 2, the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and there fell a foul and painful sore upon the men. Now the word here is noisome and grievous. Actually, the word noisome is the word kakos, which we saw this morning very briefly. It just means evil. It means bad. It means bad in character. And then another word for bad, which is ponares. And ponares means malignant. It means bad in effect. Now, what it's saying is it's bad, bad. You know, there's bad, bad. I mean, there's maybe bad, good, and good, bad. But this is bad, bad. All right? And there are some things that are kind of mediocre. It's just a way of emphasizing in the Greek how terribly grievous this is. And it indicates two things. It indicates, first of all, that it would be a very painful thing. And secondly, that it would be malignant. It would be the malignant kind of sore. Now, whether it's cancer or not, I don't know. But it's something like cancer or worse. One of the most dreaded things that we face today in our world is cancer. And everybody is just a little bit scared, you know, of contracting cancer. And so we go to the doctor and get our physical checkups and all the rest because of the terrible malignancy of this. Now there's no cure for this particular thing. And it will bring many men to death. But there are particular group of people to whom this is directed. And it is directed at those who are the worshippers of the beast. the sores upon the men who have the mark of the beast." Now, you remember in the Word of God we are told numerous times, thou shalt have no other God before me or words to that effect. God hates idolatry. The epitome of idolatry is going to be in the reign of the beast. All of that that we have known in the way of idolatry from the Tower of Babel all the way to the present-day paganism, with materialism and all the rest of it that we have, going through all of the various things, will all be wrapped up in the great worship of the beast in Revelation chapter 13. This will be the ultimate, the ultimate in Satan worship, in demonology, the ultimate in the matter of the worship of idols. I want you to look at Deuteronomy chapter 28. Deuteronomy, chapter 28. This is a passage of scripture that you should have in your minds and be able to refer to from time to time. Revelation 28, verse 35. God is talking to the nation of Israel here. And he's talking about them from the standpoint of things that he will have to do if they are under his curse, because they are not living for him, because they've gone into idolatry. Now notice. The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs, with a sore boil that cannot be healed. from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. Now that's quite a boil, let me tell you. Can you imagine having a boil? It's one boil, it says, a sore boil, singular. The Lord shall bring thee and thy king whom thou shalt set over thee unto a nation whom neither thou nor thy fathers have known, and there thou shalt serve other gods, wood and stone, idolatry. and thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations, to which the Lord shall lead thee." You fell into idolatry? God is going to have the nations stand back and say, this is an amazing thing. You want to know something that's come true? That's come true, not perhaps the boil. But you know, my friends, the nation of Israel is an astonishment to nations today, isn't it? People are still talking about what Hitler did in World War II. People are still talking about what the Russians have done to the Jews. It's just an amazing, astonishing thing. They've become a byword. They've become a proverb. They've become people that you look to, and though we as believers in Jesus Christ love the Jews, and we should rightfully love those Jews, and we should never be anti-Semitic, Nevertheless, we just would have to be astonished and amazed at the anti-Semitism that there is in the world today. God said it would happen. It happened. But you see, these people suffered great suffering because of their turning from God. Now, when God judged the people of Israel for their worship of the golden calf, in Exodus chapter 32, again it was a malignant sore. It was the sixth plague of Egypt that was a malignant sore in Exodus chapter 9. And so the grievous and noisome thing that happens here, the terrible, painful, malignant sore, is upon those that are worshippers of the beast. Many of them will be Jews, but many of them will be Gentiles, because you recall that only the believers, only those who trusted Christ, were those that refused to take the mark of the beast, because it would mean their life. They have slain a great many people, except those that were sealed, 144,000, and a few others perhaps. There will be believers that will go into the millennium that will not see death during this period of time. But you see, many, many of them have died for their faith. And these individuals that have these sores upon their head will be those that have participated in that worship of the beast. And that's going to be the mass of humanity upon this earth. Do you remember now, in chapter 13, it said that everybody had to have the mark of the beast, or he could not buy or sell. The only reason that a man would not take the mark of the beast is because he was a believer, and he would suffer the consequences. Alright? So now the mark of the beast is on all of these people, and everybody that has the mark of the beast is going to have those malignant sores. Can you imagine that? Now believers apparently will be protected. Oh, what a terrible, terrible thing. But that's not enough. The second bowl of wrath. These are coming in rapid succession. The second angel poured out his bowl upon the sea, and it became, notice, like the blood of a dead man. Now you notice it doesn't say it became blood here. The next, with the fresh water, does say it became blood. Here it is like the blood of a dead man. And notice, every living soul died in the sea. Remember that these could not possibly be the same as the seals because when the seal was broken and the sea became polluted Then there was a third of all of that in the sea that died, but now everything dies Can you imagine what would happen today? if all of the sudden all of the Pacific Ocean all of the Atlantic Ocean all of the of the saltwater seas in our world is were polluted to the point of no return. Stinking like a dead corpse. And all the sea life dies. They talk about the sea being this great source of life because it teems with life all the time. But now it's dead. The whole thing. Dr. McGee has a very interesting observation in regard to this whole matter of the sea. In that he believes, and I have to agree that perhaps this is a solution, though it's some speculation, where it says there is no more sea, that is later on, that is during the millennium period, there is no more sea. There are some that believe that, speaking of the teeming masses of the evil men on the earth, that's possible, but at the same time it may mean literally that God takes away the sea, that there is no more sea. And of course, all of that land then would be available for cultivation in perfect climates because there's going to be many, many people born during that millennium period. The world could become overpopulated. But you see, the sea today is absolutely a necessity to us. We cannot live without the sea. Now all of a sudden, it's all dead. You can't ship. Your ships are going to be unable to make their way across the sea. They couldn't stand the stench, if nothing else. You're not going to be able to ship things from place to place by ship. All the shipping industries are done with. All the fishing industries are done with. The whole thing is habit. And just like the boils or the sores, the malignant sores on men are real, so is the death real. It's literal. Everything's going to die. I'm glad I'm going to be in heaven during that time. I don't know about you, but it breaks my heart to think of some of my friends that I try to win to Christ, who yet refuse the Savior, who may be living during this time if they survive that far. Verse 4, the third angel poured out his bowl upon the rivers and fountains of water, and they became, now notice, not as blood, not like the blood of a dead man, but they became blood. I don't know what this may mean in terms of what kind of blood, but I know that in the rivers of Egypt they were undrinkable because they had become blood. And whatever that may have meant then, and whatever it means here, it certainly means that men are going to not be able to drink fresh water any longer. It's not going to be existent. All the fountains, all the fresh water, on the face of the earth is going to be undrinkable. We're missing a little water here in the Santa Clara Valley right now. We don't look out. We're liable to have a drought. And everybody's fearing it a little bit. We've got to get some rain. People are praying for rain. And I pray with you. Because none of us like to look forward to something like that. ...various parts of the country. And it's not a very pretty picture to see land that will not bring forth fruit at all. because of no water. But my friends, in this day, it's going to be worse than any drought that anybody had ever seen because all of the fresh water in the world is going to be cut out of there. We're not going to have it. We're not going to be able to drink it. Now I want you to notice something. It's at this point that there comes a moment of worship. I should have been putting these up here. At this moment, we have a moment of worship. Verse 5, I heard the angel of the waters say, now I want to explain that. God has angels operating on all spheres. There are angels that are ministering to believers. There are angels that are ministering in various ways. Apparently there's an angel that's in charge of all this water business. And it's not PG&E. It's, sorry about that Gil, but no, that's not the angel we're talking about. God has his angel and somehow or another all this water business, you know, that men use in their various means to generate electricity and to provide water service for our houses and all the rest. Apparently there's angels that are involved in keeping this thing going. And so this angel says, OK. He says, OK, Lord, I understand what you're doing. I'm off the job. I've just been taken off the job and transferred somewhere else. I'm not going to care for the waters. I'm not going to keep them clean any longer. No longer am I going to make water purify itself as it comes down the mountainside. As it comes down the mountainside, it's going to just bring more and more and more of this pollution. As the water has turned to blood, And this angel has a personal ministry now of worship to God. He says, I heard the angel of the water say, Thou art righteous, O Lord. Lord, you're right! I wish men would say that. The angel says it. You're right, Lord. You're righteous. You're the one who art and wast and shalt be, great Yahweh of the Old Testament, because thou hast judged us. God, you're making no mistake. The time has come. And Lord, I recognize as your angel who's been in charge of the waters that all of this now is a part of your hand. And I recognize that you're right in this, that you're just in this, and that this is the inevitable result, not of your desire to destroy men, but of men's desire to destroy themselves because of their wickedness and sin. Notice then a reason given, verse 6, for they have shed the blood of the saints, they have shed the blood of the prophets, And now thou hast given them blood to drink, and they're worthy of it, they're deserving of it. Men have said, I'm going to make it on my own without God. God takes away His blessing from the water, and the water is impure, and men will die for lack of water. Verse 7, I heard also out of the altar say, here's another voice, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments." That sounds like something from the Psalms, doesn't it? True and righteous are thy judgments. It's very easy to say that when everything's going fine and God is blessing. It's quite another thing to say it when God finally has to act in judgment. But my friend, it does not alter the facts. God has not changed one bit. but his cup of wrath is full, and now must be poured out." Oh, I'll tell you, one of the reasons I appreciate the book of Revelation, you've probably heard me say this before, but because in the whole New Testament we are not given much of a vision of the holiness and justice of God. I say much of a vision. Most of that is in the Old Testament Scriptures. Do you realize that? The New Testament is talking concerning grace. and how wonderful that message is. But the book of Revelation folds it back and gives us, if you please, a picture of God as he really is, a God of love, a God who cares, a God who held back his judgment as long as he could, but a God who must, by his very character, judge those individuals who have rejected his only means of salvation. The focus here is on the eternity of God and on his permanent hatred for sin and the retribution of God poured out upon men. Now, something else is going to happen. The sun is going to scorch them. The fourth bowl of wrath is poured out. It says it's poured out upon the sun. And power was given unto him, that is the sun, to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat. I don't know where it was that I read this. It was a long time ago, but I've read it a number of times, and I'm certain that it's confirmed. And you guys that are dabbling in science, I'm sure you'll be able to confirm it even further for me. But nevertheless, I couldn't find the particular article where I read this. But it's a proven fact that if the sun were even a little bit closer to the earth, even a little bit, it would burn the earth up. It happens to be just the right distance. Not only that, but if the earth or if the sun were just a little bit further away, then the earth would freeze and we'd have an ice age. Right? God has placed it up there perfectly. Now that's not by accident, it's by design. God did it. Remember what it said in the book of Genesis when he said he created these lights. He created them for a purpose and that was to give light on earth. And the moon given for its purpose as well. And this is marvelous when you realize the very, very precise nature. I don't know how God can, how man can say that it all just happened. It couldn't have just happened. Somehow or another there would have been a slip up and that sun would have gotten just a little too close. It would get a little too close. Believe me, we'd all have a suntan and then some. We would be scorched with fire. We're also told that even the rotation of the earth and the speed with which it rotates, and all of the orbit, and all of the rest, is so vital. Because if it loses its proximity to the sun, the earth could actually, by slowing down the earth, the earth could actually freeze, and freeze for a while, and then burn for a while, and then freeze for a while, then burn for a while, and it would be absolutely uninhabitable. You could not live on it. And so now, Don't be too shocked when you find out that what God does is just move that a little bit and men will burn up. They will be scorched. Not so far that it will totally annihilate them in just a moment of time, but he moves it just a little bit. Now, how does man respond to that? It says they turn to God. and say, please God, let me out. Is that what they say? Oh no. That's the reverse version. It says they blasphemed the name of God, who hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory. Can you believe that? Now the heart of man now is so permanently fixed in his hatred of God, that even these signs will not for a moment bring him to repentance. He blasphemes God and he refuses to give God the glory. I'll tell you my friends, that's going to be a dark day on this earth. The fifth bowl is poured out in verses 10 and 11. The fifth angel poured out his bowl upon the throne of the beast and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they nod their tongues for pain." Now, we don't understand this totally, but I can tell you this. My beloved friends, in that day God is able somehow to bring darkness upon the face of the earth and at the same time scorch men with heat. Now we hear a lot about radiation today. We hear about how men can be burned by an invisible force. So don't be too surprised when you discover that God pours out his burning heat upon the earth but at the same time Men are enveloped in great darkness. Now, mind you, it could mean a moral darkness. Darkness is used so very often in scripture in this way. And remember, the thing that we have to understand about the interpretation of prophecy, if the plain sense makes common sense, then seek no other sense. And there are times where symbolism is explained in scripture. And moral darkness is a very real thing. And so this might be interpreted to be moral darkness. But I have no reason to believe it's other than physical darkness. Because it speaks of darkness covering the whole kingdom of the beast. Hal Lindsay has an interesting theory on this. He believes that since the next plague is going to be the crossing of the Euphrates of the 200 million man army, that it will be that the kingdom of the beast is blacked out so that they are rendered helpless and they don't have any surveillance as that 200 million man army moves across the Euphrates and comes for what we will know as Armageddon. The great campaign of Armageddon. Now, that's a possible theory. But whatever the reason, remember God did send literal darkness, literal blackness to the nation of Egypt. The land of Goshen was free. They had light. Common night and day. But the land of Egypt was covered with a gross darkness that was so thick that men went insane. And here you see men going insane in this terrible darkness. They gnaw their tongues for pain. And what do they do? Repent? No. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds. My friends, that is a picture that the Holy Spirit has painted for us. of what will take place in those closing days of the tribulation period. And I'll tell you something, my friends. When Jesus Christ returns to this earth, back coming with his saints, back to the Mount of Olives, and establishes his kingdom, it is going to be a blessed relief upon an earth that through these centuries has known nothing but hatred and strife. The only good that there is in the world has come because God's love is evident. For the Bible says that every good and every perfect gift cometh from above, cometh down from the Father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. He is the giver of every good and perfect gift. He is the one that has supplied us even today with the peace and the safety and the freedom. I couldn't help but think the other day of the fact that we have people up in the high Sierras who have little or no time for God. They're too busy running their ski resorts, too busy doing everything you can with all of the money they have to lure people away from their churches on Sunday to go up and ski. We don't need God After all, we've got the high Sierras and our resort and our chairlifts and all the rest. Guess what? God's just letting them know this year they need Him. He can withhold His snow. He could withhold that moisture. And every single one of those men would go bankrupt within 12 months. All you have to do is send snow. when they don't need snow and send or send rain or moisture when they want people up there fishing you know and uh send the and then don't send the snow in the winter and God can wipe them out but you know God doesn't do that does he the Bible tells us that his rain falls on the just and the unjust alike When things are bad and there's a little drought, you know, we all suffer together, the righteous and the unrighteous alike. And God has been doing this for millenniums. And in a few days of time, God is going to withhold that blessing on the earth, and He's going to pour out of His wrath. But will men acknowledge they need Him? No, they blaspheme. I want to tell you tonight, if you're outside of Jesus Christ, and you think that you're going to wait until you see the great miracle of the rapture, and then you're going to get right with God, let me tell you, number one, the chance of you living through the first days of the tribulation are going to be very, very small. Number two, what makes you think that if you've hardened your heart against God, in a time of grace and refuse to receive His only provision of salvation. How it makes you think that you're going to be able to suddenly change your mind in that great day of wrath. Don't be a fool. Receive the Savior. But if you're a Christian here tonight, please don't be glib. Please don't be flippant. Please don't just sit back and say, oh, well, I don't have to worry about that. I don't have to know about all that stuff because after all, I'm not going to face the wrath of God. It's been taken in Jesus Christ. I'm on my way to heaven. God doesn't want you to feel that way. Are you in love with him tonight? Is your heart beat with his heart? He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. What on earth have you done for heaven's sake? Have you done anything? Have you allowed your life to be used in telling lost sinners to flee from the wrath to come? Have you warned them? Have you shared the message with them? Have you used every means at your disposal to try to let them know the reality of a gospel of grace that is available for lost men? Or do you sit somehow in your pious tower, looking down your nose at lost men saying, fools, and do nothing to rescue them? Again, I'm reminded of an illustration we used some time ago of Amy Carmichael as she pictured the Christians picking daisies as the rest of the world is falling over the precipice into a Christless eternity. Are you picking daisies or are you seeking to rescue lost souls? Is our day a day like in the day that Ezekiel foresaw? where it says, I sought for a man among them to make up the hedge, to stand in the gap, and there was none? Is that true? Or are you that man who says, here am I, Lord, send me. May God give us a passion for souls in the light of the reality of the wrath to come. Father in heaven, We rejoice in your provision, because as we look at the cross and see that Jesus Christ suffered far more than any man will ever suffer in the tribulation period, that He tasted all of this and more, incurring the complete wrath of God for all the sins of the world, bearing in His own body, that sinless body, bearing our sins. Oh Lord, our hearts ache, our hearts break when we realize how flippant we are and how we soon forget that the chance of men being saved during that tribulation period is very, very negligible. We pray that knowing that we will do everything we can in this age of grace to share the gospel with those that don't know our Lord. We'll praise you. In Christ's name, Amen. In our hymn books, there is, I believe, a song Hymn number 422, I believe would just articulate the very thought that we've tried to convey by way of application tonight. Give me a passion for souls, dear Lord, a passion to save the lost. Oh, that thy love were by all adored and welcomed at any cost. Though there are dangers untold and stern confronting me in the way, Willingly still would I go nor turn, But trust thee for grace each day. Let's stand together and sing the last stanza. Pastor Dave, come and lead us. How shall this passion for souls be mine? Let's make that our prayer tonight. How shall this passion for souls be mine? Lord, make Thou the answer clear. Help me to throw out the old lifeline, to grow our strong Jesus, I long, I long to be winning Men who are lost and constantly sinning O may this hour be one of beginning, the story of pardon to tell. Father, thank you that we have reserved for us a place in heaven. And Lord, I re-echo what Pastor has said this evening about any person being outside the fold of the Lord Jesus Christ, that they would desire to come to know him even this evening. Father, I pray that we as Christians would not be around picking daisies but that we would not only long to be winning men who were lost and constantly sinning, but that we would do something about it. Make ourselves available to be used of you, to take advantage of opportunities that come our way to share Jesus Christ with other people. Make this, Father, not only our goal and our desire, but encourage us to actually get out and do it. We praise your name. In Christ's precious name, amen. Good night.