Alright, I think we're going to get going. This is the second of the last week for our seminar. The difficulty in doing a 10-week seminar was to think what in the world are we going to put in the 10 weeks. And as we're getting closer to the end, it reminds me of when I was in Bible school in Northwestern, what they would do is You'd go through the chapters and whatnot, and really good exposition. But when they got to the end, there was always like a third of the book they never covered. Well, there's more than that that we're not covering on this one. But if you have a Bible with you and you want to have it open, we're going to be in Revelation chapter 14, starting with verse 6 tonight. But a couple of introductory things here. In 1900, there were 76 million Americans living in the United States. What percentage of them do you think lived on a farm at that time? in 1900? You can be a little more specific than the majority. What's that? 60. It was 22 million, which would have been 38%. 38% of the people in 1900 lived on a farm. Fast forward to 2024, there's now almost 335 million people in this country. What percentage live on a farm? Two. Two percent. Two percent. Wow. Of course, the productivity of farmers has skyrocketed, not so much because they work harder today, but because they have so many labor-saving machines. So the Farm Collector website lists what they consider to be the ten most important inventions in agriculture. Here they are. Number one, the cotton gin. In 1793, Eli Whitney developed a cotton gin which allowed 1,000 pounds of cotton to be cleaned in the same amount of time that one man could do 5 pounds. So that's a massive increase in productivity. Second one. The Reaper. Ovid Hussey and Cyrus McCormick. developed successful reapers during the 1830s. McCormick's machine became the more popular and that's why he's credited with inventing the reaper. How about the third one, a thresher? Now that isn't a thrasher, that's not when you beat your kids. So I think they're kind of similar, aren't they? You whack them both. Actually, it would be thrashing, right? It thrashes the grain and breaks the hull away from the seed. Next one was the steam engine. That one was an important one because the strongest ox can't do what a steam engine can do. And that brought productivity up dramatically from that invention. Next one was the Combine Harvester Thresher. By the way, that's why they're called combines. I didn't know that. I'm not a farm kid, so I don't know that. The next one is the Auto Truck International Harvester, with its auto wagon introduced in 1907. Since that time, farm trucks of all size have proliferated, and today, no self-respecting farmer would be without a pickup. Right? Next one's the gasoline tractor, which replaced ones that were run on coal. Man. Then the general purpose tractor was introduced in 1924 by Farmall. Rubber tires, that would be another one. Who brought us those? Harvey Firestone. And then the last one, hydraulic implement lift with draft control. That was by the Irishman Harry Ferguson, I'm guessing of Massey Ferguson. And he came up with the three-point hitch, which is one of the most important inventions in farming in the 20th century. So a lot of things have changed about farming over the centuries. Especially over the last 150 years, technology has brought great increase in productivity. But the goal of farming has always remained the same, which is to have an abundant crop at the end of the season. Now, if you recall, Jesus gave a lot of agricultural parables, didn't he? He illustrated the kingdom of God with them. For instance, the idea that there's a guy who goes out and scatters seed. Remember, the seed lands in four different types of soils, and those soils represent the heart condition of the person who hears the gospel. Or we talked about the planting of the wheat, and some enemy comes along and plants tares among them. Tares were the Darnell plant, which looks just like the wheat. It's actually illegal in Rome to do that. You could be put to death for it, because a Darnell plant is poisonous. And Jesus explained that, that he was the Son of God, or the Son of Man, who planted the good seed, and the devil comes along afterwards and plants bad seed, or the tares. And of course, the illustration that he's using is the church, that within the church you're going to have believers and unbelievers, some who are genuine believers and followers of Christ, and others who just appear to be. And you remember what Jesus said about that. He told his workers, in the story the guy tells his workers, because they say, should we rip it all out? He's like, no, if you do that, you're going to hurt the wheat. Now just let them grow together, and in the end, I'll send out the harvesters, and they'll separate the wheat from the tares." And then Jesus gives the application of it. He says, in the end, I'm going to send out the angels, and they're going to separate the good wheat from the bad. And so, because occasionally as a pastor, I say, well, what about this person in church? Don't you think they're an unbeliever? I said, hmm, yeah, probably. Well, why don't you kick them out? What happens if I kick them out? Let's say there's someone that, first of all, I can't read hearts. Nobody can. But people give evidence of that, and if they do something that's grossly immoral or dishonest, you have to deal with it as church discipline. But why not just say, hey, I don't think you're a believer. Get out of here. We don't want you in the church. Why? Repercussions and what? Yeah, what happens when you... First of all, you want them to get saved. Secondly, if they leave, they're probably going to bring their family with them, and so the people who are going to benefit from it. So Jesus said, just let them grow, and I'll take care of them at the end. Jesus also gave another parable, though. He said this, Mark 4, 26-29. The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil and he goes to bed at night and gets up in the day. The seed sprouts and grows. He himself doesn't know how. The soil produces a crop itself. First the blade, then a head, then the mature grain. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest time has come. Now I think that is a parable, but I think it's also a prophecy. Because what we have in the book of Revelation, where we're going to be looking here in chapter 14, is the reaping of the earth, the harvesting of the earth. First with the grain, and then it talks about the grapes of wrath. So that's what we're going to talk about. And we're going to talk about it in connection with the return of Christ. And by the way, as we're getting to the end, we're jamming a lot of stuff in the last two weeks here. So this is the seminar goals that we've had through the whole time. To give you a broad understanding of the events related to the return of Christ. To encourage you to give serious thought to the claims made about Jesus. And to prepare you for this coming day. Who's this guy? Douglas MacArthur. I shall return. He said that when he left where? The Philippines. And he did come back. What was it? About two years later? A year and a half later? Three, he did return. But here's what Jesus said. Now learn the parable from the fig tree. When the branch has already become tender and puts forth sleeves, you know that summer is near. So too, when you see all these things, recognize that he is near, right at the door. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. This is what it says, starting in verse 6. It says, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. And he said in a loud voice, fear God and give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of water. And another angel, a second one, followed behind saying, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. She who's made all the nations drink of the wine of her passion and of her immorality. So the next passage though says, then another angel, a third one, followed them saying, let's see if we got this one on there. Yeah. If anyone worships the beast in his image and receives the mark on his forehead or hand, he will also drink the wine of the wrath, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger, and he'll be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and the presence of the lamb. And the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever, and they will have no rest day or night, those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name." That's interesting because did you know that none of the cults believe in eternal punishment? And what they always do with it is they'll do one of two things. They'll either say it's not eternal or it's not punishment. You know, for instance, the Jews believe in what they call Gehenna, which is the word that's used in the New Testament for hell. Jesus talked about, you know, the fire that continues to burn and all that. But do you know that the Jewish people, the Orthodox, believe that even the worst person is only going to spend a year in Gehenna. Otherwise, they're all going to make it. There's another belief that goes around evangelical circles called annihilationism. That's the idea that once a person is judged, God throws them into the lake of fire and they burn up and they just simply cease to exist. There's another idea that says, you know, you'll hear sometimes C.S. Lewis will say this, you know, God doesn't send anybody to hell. They choose to go to hell. I want you to think about that for a second. Is that biblical? That God doesn't send anybody to hell? Talks about the angels tossing people into hell, right? I'll send up forth the angels in the end and they'll gather them out and put them in a bundle and burn them up. So the idea that there's not eternal punishment, why is that a doctrine that people are likely to want to deny? Or you've heard this too, there's no way I could ever be happy in heaven knowing that my loved one went to hell, right? You've heard that before, right? And I've had people even ask me, do you think we forget everything that happened on this earth prior to when we get to heaven? And I always say, no, that wouldn't make sense because would Jesus want us to forget that he died for our sins? No, of course not. But the reason they say that is because we as sinners identify more with other sinners than we do with the holiness of God. When we see God for who He is, as holy as He is, as righteous as He is, as many opportunities that He gave people to repent and they didn't, the way He was treated by them. I mean, think about this. Can you think of anybody in history, other than Jesus, whose name is used as a swear word? And they'll put His name right before or after a word about human excrement. And if you were to confront someone with it, they'd say, well, I don't mean anything by it. But isn't that the definition of taking the Lord's name in vain? And so God is very patient and all that. And the other thing too, you know, we always think, well, I have a great uncle or my grandmother, she died and I don't know, I don't think she was a believer and, you know, I miss her and stuff. But if she could come back. Do you think she'd hug you and say, I missed you? I've had a good time in the last, what, 40 years I've been gone? Have you noticed people when they get older, if they're non-Christians, tend to get more bitter and angry and resentful? And all of a sudden, they're saying stuff that they ought not to say, and they're being reduced to kind of what they really are. Well, in the truest sense, every good quality that a non-Christian has is borrowed from God, because the Bible says every good gift comes from the Father above. You've known non-Christians who can be some of the hardest workers, they'll help you, they'll sacrifice for you. But those qualities, what happens when they're withdrawn from God, the common grace that he's given? The moral quality of a person in hell is no different than a demon. because it's God who gives common grace to restrain a certain amount of sin. And by the way, that's one of the great sins of mankind, that we never thank Him for things. I mean, you can be a non-Christian, you've got grandkids who do funny things, you get a promotion at your job, you win a trip to whatever, you enjoy chocolate ice cream, all these things, and yet nobody stops to thank God for anything. So, the language that's used here is pretty shocking. Of those words on there, which one do you think is just the... The most tragic are heartbreaking. If it weren't for that word forever, just think about it. If you were put in an empty room with four white walls for all eternity, you'd go stark raving mad within a short time. And to know that it's never ever going to end. And people say, well, how can it be fair and how can it be just of God to punish someone forever for a limited number of sins? Well, here's the thing. Your offense in committing a crime is dependent on the dignity and value and importance of the person you committed against. If you take a shot at somebody down in Minneapolis, you might get off in a short time, you know, five, ten years in prison or whatever it is. But if you take a shot at the president, well, I guess people do that, don't they? You're going away for a long time. So I word it this way. Okay, it's one thing to kill your mother or kill somebody. It's worse to kill your mother, right? It's worse yet if you kill your mother after she just donated her kidney to you. Because what she's done for you and who she is to you makes your crime even greater. But if God is the all-powerful, perfect being, worthy of all glory and honor, then to treat him as garbage would mean that the sin, if it's against an infinitely valuable person, would be an infinite sin, right? So it would be punished forever. However, there's another factor to this. Do you think the people in hell ever repent? Do you think that people in hell say, righteous and true are your ways, oh God, I'm being punished, but I deserve it. I did all these things all my life, and now I'm getting what I deserve. No, they're not doing that. So that means they would still be sinning, right? If you're still sinning and adding to your sins, wouldn't you be punished more? So it's just this endless cycle. But I mean, this type of language is just, ah, it's heartbreaking. And by the way, even Brimstone, how many of you have been out to Glacier National Park where they have the sulfur springs? Or is it Yellowstone? You ever been out there? How long can you walk on the boardwalks until you get sick to your stomach? Yeah, because it's terrible. There was one a couple of years ago, a guy, and they were probably in their early 20s. It was a guy and his sister, and he wanted to get close to the edge. He wanted to see how far he could get and see how warm it was. He slipped in. And the water's at what? I think it's like 250 or 300 degrees or whatever. She went to get someone. When they came back, he was gone. They had to drag to get his, and his body had dissolved by the time they got it out. That's a shocking story. It says, Herein is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest from their labors and for their deeds will follow them. That's Revelation 14, 9-13. Now in the context, it's those who are being persecuted by the beast, by the Antichrist, and how when eventually they're martyred, they're free. And think about it. The worst that they can do to you, other than torture you, that's obviously, I'm not looking forward to that, but the worst that they can do to you is kill you. What happens if you're a believer the moment you're dead? You've got to be with the Lord. So don't throw me in that briar patch, whatever you do. By the way, though, we've talked about some of the technology that's already in place for these type of things. The VeriChip. I don't even know if they're using the VeriChip or they've come up with something else, but you see how small it is there? They just put it underneath your skin. There are places, including in Wisconsin, where the employees have these put into their hands, and that way they don't have to worry about a card to enter and stuff. They just walk in. They have that type of thing with, what do they call them, those little RFI chips or whatever, the radio ones, where you just go into the store, you pick up all the stuff you want, walk out, and it bills you at the end of the month. That's creepy. On a lot of the new cars, they can turn them off wherever they want, especially the electric cars, right? Oh, man. We've got to get those horse and buggies back, don't we? You're not going to get them? Then he goes on to say, of the temple, crying out with a loud voice, to him who sat on the cloud, saying, Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe. Then he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped." Now the question we have to ask is two things. One, who is this person who does the reaping, and what does the reaping involve? Well, some commentators say, well, it's just an angel. And they get that because another angel comes out. And it seems strange that if Jesus is the one who's reaping, that an angel would be commanding him to put forth his sickle in order to harvest the earth. On the other hand, if he's coming out from the throne room, It's God the Father giving the message to the son that he should go out. And plus the language of coming in the clouds and all that kind of stuff, that's found. Remember when Jesus was put on trial and they asked him, are you the son of God? Are you the son of the beloved? And he said, yes, I am. And furthermore, you'll see the son of man coming in clouds and great glory. Jesus spoke about that with his return in Matthew chapter 25. It talks about that in Daniel chapter 7. I saw one like a son of man coming in great in the clouds and he came up to the ancient of day to receive his soul. Now, here's a question. If this is Jesus who does the harvesting, is this harvest, is this of believers or unbelievers? The righteous and the wicked? We don't know for sure, but what would you think? What would you think? Is this where the rapture takes place? I would argue that. What do you think? Well, here's what I think. I don't think this is where the rapture takes place. I think the rapture actually takes place when we open up the seven seals, remember, and ask the question, who is it who can stand before the wrath of the Lamb and Him who sits on the throne? And the answer that comes are the 144,000 that are marked out for from Israel, from the 12 tribes, and then the great multitude that's in heaven, that it says, because they wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb, they stand before them, and then the wrath of God starts to be poured out afterwards with trumpets and then the seals. But then what's this? Some of them say that, look, this here, the reaping, and then there's a second reaping, where they take the grapes of wrath and put them in the winepress. They say that's just two ways of referring to the same thing. But then what's the point of two reapings? What's the point of two different people doing it? Because first you have one who's sitting on the clouds, and then another angel comes out and reaps. I would argue that the first one is actually the reaping of the martyrs during that time. And here's why. When it says to put forth your sickle and reap, it's written in what's called the Ingressive Aorist. Well, that doesn't mean much to you, but the idea is something that starts and is a process. Now the rapture, when Jesus calls the church home, that's going to happen in an instant. But this, the gathering in, is the people, I would guess, who are being killed under the Antichrist, as evidenced by the fact that when you go back, we're talking about those who are blessed because now when they die, they're going to enter into the rest. And so I think what we have here is the great number of martyrs that come in. And do you remember in chapter 6 of Revelation, when he's opening up the seals, when you get to the, I believe it's the sixth seal, and it says, And he tells them to wait a little longer, what? until the fellow number of martyrs, the full number of martyrs, comes in. So during this time, even after the church is raptured away, there are going to be people who are going to be saved. A lot of them are going to be put to death right away for resisting the Antichrist. And this, I think, explains why, even though there's a lot of people who are saved, Jesus asked the question, when the Son of Man returns, will he find faith on earth? And it's written in the Greek language to anticipate the answer, no. So you're going to have all kinds of people who, the ones who resist, are going to be put to death. And I think those are the ones who are being reaped out, so to speak, before the wrath of God comes. You know, there's a verse in the Old Testament that says, I think it's in the book of Isaiah, it says, It says the Lord has taken them, removed them away. In other words, you're starting to see less and less believers in Isaiah's day. And the reason was because God was calling the ones who were genuine believers home before he brought judgment upon them. That nation, that is. I saw another angel come out of the temple, which is in heaven, and he had a sharp sickle. By the way, what's a sickle? You guys are all farmers, you all know this. It cuts grass, it'll sigh, right? Sickle, right? And what happens when they motorize them? They became motor-sickles, right? Yeah, motor-sickles. You ever notice that no pun is funny no matter how good it is? It's just grown, you don't really laugh. Then another angel, one who has the power over fire, came out from the altar and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle. saying, put your sharp sickle in and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth because her grapes are ripe. Who's the main actor in the top there? Henry Ford. No, it's not Henry Ford. Think what you just said. No, it's Henry Fonda. I'm not sure why the movie's... I think I had to read part of it when I was a kid. I'm sure I never finished it. I'm not sure why the movie's called Grapes of Wrath, but we know where it's taken from. It's taken from the scripture here. So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and threw them into the great winepress of the wrath of God. A winepress would be two, usually stone troughs, one a little bit higher than the other. You throw all the grapes in one side and then you get your wife and your kids and hope they wash their feet first and then you get them in there and you stomp on and stomp on it and then the grapes are broken and the juice flows from the first one to the second one. And that's how you do it. And it says that when they did this, threw it in the winepress of the wrath of God, and the winepress was trodden outside the city and blood came up from the winepress up to a horse's bridle for a distance of 200 miles. By the way, it reminds me of, there was a battle, I'm not sure which one, Joel might know this. There was a battle in the Civil War, where terrible slaughter, and they would take people down to this small pond to wash off the blood, you know, before they hacked off their legs with a hacksaw, basically. And when they did this, by the end of the day, the whole pond was blood red, because there were so many people who had gone down there. So then I saw another sign in heaven, a great marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last, because in them the wrath of God is finished. So you got the seven angels. And I saw something like, and this is the first bowl being poured out, I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and the number of his name standing on the sea of glass holding the harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and they sang a song of the Lamb saying, great and marvelous are your works, O Lord. the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. For all the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed." Okay, so he's getting ready to pour out the bowls of wrath upon the rebellious world, but they're praising him for this. These are probably the martyrs because they're standing before him. But what does it mean when he says this, for all the nations will come and worship before you? for your righteous acts have been revealed." What does it mean that all the nations are going to come worship before them? Is this along the same line as when it says, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord? I don't think it is. What it's talking about is the nations that are going to be converted as a result of God's wrath being poured out. The Bible teaches, and I've had a lot of people go, oh, I don't believe that. The Bible teaches that during the millennium when Jesus comes back, that's when the nations will be converted as a whole. Most of the people are going to, half of the world's population is going to die at that point. But there are going to be people who survive, and those people who survive, it says that then he'll pour out his spirit upon all mankind. There's going to be all kinds of people who are converted. So what's going on here is his wrath is going to be poured out, and as a result of it, people are going to perish and other ones are going to finally acknowledge Him for who He is, His righteous deeds. are revealed. After these things I saw in the temple and the tabernacle, the testimony in heaven was opened and the seven angels, who had seven plagues, came out from the temple clothed in linen clean and bright, girded around their chests with golden sashes. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. By the way, when you look through these plagues and how they come out, they parallel the ones that you find in the book of Exodus. Because this is the second Exodus where God's going to deliver his people, Israel, from the Antichrist. The first one was the turning of the water to blood, and then the frogs, the gnats, the flies, the disease on the livestock. the sores on the people. Remember even Pharaoh's magicians came and they covered their faces because they had boils on them as well. Hail and fire, locusts, darkness, and then the death of the firstborns. And you see parallels with them in the book of Revelation here when the wrath of God, the bowls are being poured out. Then I heard an angel, or I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of wrath. So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who had worshipped his image. I have a guess on that. Wherever the mark is, so if they get the mark on the hand and the forehead or whatever it is, I'm guessing that's actually where the sore breaks out. And that would make sense. That's scary. The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood, like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. Can you imagine the stench of that? Because remember before it says that a third of the sea turned to blood, but now it says all the sea turns to blood. Now, I think we should take it as being literal, not just a figurative thing. There are phenomenons called blood rain and that type of stuff. But here's the reason I think we should take it as being literal. Two things. One, because I think it literally turned to blood in the Nile. They couldn't drink it. And if God were ever to make a point of the Earth's guilt being revealed, wouldn't it be at that time? Because I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the number of abortions in the world since 1973, when it became legal in America, is about one billion. Think about that. One billion. Do you remember that the Nile turned to blood because they threw their children in the Nile? And later on, in this one here, The next one says, Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the water saying, Righteous are you who are and who were, O holy one, because you judge these things. For they poured out the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it. And I heard the altar say, Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. In other words, they're getting what they deserve. And who could ever argue that God hasn't been patient? I mean, the fact that everybody isn't in hell right now, including every one of us, is the patience of God. And even when people mock God and people use God's name and all this, that's not going to happen in the future. When Jesus returns, someone slips up, they're going to be struck dead on the spot. Now you've got people late night comics. I'll give you one story with this. Who's the guy, the comic, who used to wear the long trench coat? I bet you'd know. The long trench coat in the derby. Sam Kinison. You know Sam Kinison? Sam Kinison was a comic. I don't know if you know this, but at one time he was a youth pastor. Which is shocking considering how blasphemous he was, right? I think it was my wife and I were watching one time, Sam Kinison was doing some kind of a comedy thing, and he was all this blasphemous stuff. I turned to her and I said, mark my word, that guy's going to be dead in a year, watch. About nine months later, he was in a car accident. him and his brother. And they were working on his brother, and he got out. And they said, are you all right? And he said, yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. And they said, well, we'll have you later. He said, no, I'm fine. He said, well, then at least sit down by the wheel of the paramedics vehicle. And by the way, I read this in two different accounts. And then I heard his brother actually give the account as well. And so he's sitting there, and they're talking to him. And this is what they heard him say. No, I don't want to go. I don't want to go. Okay, and he dropped over dead on the spot. Here's a question for you. I'm not a prophet or the son of a prophet. Why would I think that that guy would be dead within a year? Most people who are non-Christians will still not mock Jesus openly. You ever notice that? They will say, oh, you know, Jesus is cool. We hate the Christians. You know, you're all hypocrites. You're all these terrible people, blah, blah, blah. But one of the things that characterizes the Antichrist, according to Daniel chapter 7, Daniel chapter 8, Daniel chapter 9, and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, is that he speaks great blasphemies against God and against the Lamb. And so that open attacking of Jesus is pretty rare even in our day, but you're starting to see a little bit more of it. Another person who used to mock Jesus like that was, who's the guy who played Mork and Mindy? Robin Williams. He used to do this thing about being Jesus' brother, the brother who never got anywhere, and he had all this blasphemous stuff. And I remember thinking, and how did he end up dying? Killed himself. Not a good thing. By the way, that's a great scene from, from the Ten Commandments movie. You know the part where he goes and dumps out the vase, and it's clear water, and then it turns to blood? Do you know how they did that? There was a vase inside the vase. And so when they dump it, the first one, the water goes out, and then there's less than the middle one, and then it pours out. I think that the special effects for that movie is great even today. And I have people in my Bible study, and I said, you know the scene in the Ten Commandments? Well, I've never seen it. I said, what do you mean you've never seen the Ten Commandments? I said, it plays every year on Easter, right? And then I said something about the movie It's a Wonderful Life. Well, I've never seen that. I said, what do you mean? So I told him we're going to invite him over just to watch Ten Commandments and It's a Wonderful Life. That's your grandson, by the way. He doesn't know those things. You have to get him right. All right, the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who had the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give him glory." Now notice, even as he's ratcheting up the pain for them, they're not bending, they're not repenting, they're cursing him all the more. And that's why I give the idea that even the people in hell are going to continue to curse God. because of their pain. By the way, is this not the ultimate global warming that they're worried about? Could be done with suns, solar flares could be done with all kinds of things. What's that? Climate change. Yeah, that's going to be climate change. So the fourth bowl is on the sun, and the fifth bowl causes darkness. It says, "...then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and on his kingdom, and it became darkened. And they gnawed their tongues because of their pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds." So even despite the fact that God is bringing increased pain on them, they just harden. You know, it's kind of like taffy. Have you ever pulled taffy? How does it work? When you first start it, what's the taffy look like? It's just goo, right? So you stretch it, and you stretch it some more, and you pound it, you push it, and all that. What happens as you're pushing it and pounding it? It gets harder and harder. In the same way as God's pounding the earth and the earth dwellers for their sins, they don't soften, they become harder. By the way, this one is also like in the book of Exodus, remember? It says that it was light in Goshen, but darkness in all of Egypt. And you remember the line that says, in the darkness in Egypt, a darkness that can be felt. I don't know what that means, but it's kind of creepy. But I guarantee this is one they feel, because obviously it's intensified, because it says they nod their tongue because of the pain from the darkness. And notice it's poured out on the beast and his kingdom. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its waters were dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings of the east. That is part of the Euphrates. You know what's interesting about it? Who built the dam? Turkey, I believe, built the dam. And they can shut off the water basically anytime they want. And so the idea is that the kings from the east are going to come as a result to make it easier for them. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs, for their spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day, or the great day of God the Almighty. By the way, if some of you were experts on this, you'd say, hey, Doug, those are not frogs. Those are actually toads. But I thought they looked goofier than the other ones. You got the Chinese army up there. It talks about a demon army of 200 million somewhere in the Book of Revelation. But in 1961, China announced that they had a militia of 200 million. And so the armies coming from the east would be India, China, places like that. Who's the guy on the right? Who is that? Yeah. That's Donald Trump's good friend. Do you remember what Trump said? Because they're always rattling swords there, because their country is in such rough shape. Yeah. And when he was making some threatening things, Donald Trump sent a message to him, said, I got bigger nukes than you do. And it's funny, because everyone's like, oh, you're going to get us in a war. But you know what? I think he understood what, because we didn't hear anything from him after that, did we? But they're always rattling cages. Then we have this, it says, Behold, I'm coming quickly, or coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame. And they gathered them together in a place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon, Armageddon. So I was talking to my son. My son lives all over the world. And right now he's home for a short time. His mother said he has to stay there for at least a week to get all the yard work done. Because what he does is he's really into flowers and vegetables. And he's always, you know, we come home and there's a big pile of black dirt there. And I'm like, what's this for? Oh, we're going to do some beds. I don't want to do any beds. Too bad, I already got it. The lumber's coming. Well, today, lumber came again. So we're going to be doing this thing again. And it keeps adding, and we keep getting these things, and one right after another. And I don't know what my point was on that. Oh, yeah, I know. Here we go. By the way, remind me I'm going to say something about Armageddon, okay? But Chris came up to me afterwards, after last week, he said, you know, you asked a question and you never answered it. I said, what question? You asked, who is Bill Gates' biggest nightmare, biggest enemy, the biggest threat? He said, and then you never answered it. Actually, the answer is Robert Kennedy. You think, why Robert Kennedy? Because Kennedy wrote a book about all the stuff that Bill Gates did. And you think, well, with the money that he has, why doesn't he just sue? Becca, you are a legal secretary. What are you? Paralegal, right? OK, tell us, why is it that Bill Gates doesn't just sue him? Because once they sue, then he could subpoena all the evidence and stuff. So he has to just let it go by. Let it go by. So there you go. By the way, you remember I told you last week the joke about the two deer, the Farsight comic, and there's a deer and he's got a big bullseye on his side, and the other deer goes, ooh, nasty birthmark, dude, right? Well, there's kind of a parallel. If you're a Kennedy, there's kind of a bullseye on you, isn't there? And there was a reason why the Biden administration didn't want to give him Secret Service. because they saw him as a threat. Pray for him, too. He certainly doesn't know the Lord and supports a lot of things that I wouldn't, but on some of these things, I think he's right. Here's what I was going to tell you. My son Nathan, this is the flower thing. Thank you for getting me back to that. He was telling me just the other day, and he didn't know I was doing this. He was telling me the other day, he goes, Dad, you know my friend Noam? It's a woman. He went to school with her. Her and her husband live in Israel. They're Jews, right? He said, do you know that they bought a house? I said, where's that? He said, in the valley of Megiddo. They have a house in Armageddon. By the way, go back to that for just a quick second. The idea of not being naked and staying awake is to be spiritually ready for Christ's return. Because remember in the parable of the ten virgins, Five were wise, five were foolish, right? And the wise show themselves wise by preparing for the eventual bridegroom to come. But do you notice that all ten of them fell asleep? The indication is that much of the church, including God's children, are going to be spiritually asleep, so these things come upon them suddenly. But this is the reason we're warned about these things. Not that we can set the dates and when this is going to happen and stuff, but Jesus said, when you see these things starting to take place, look up for your redemption draws near. And then he gave all kinds of parables about being ready. Being ready, the ten virgins, five are foolish, five are wise. The three servants, two of them who invested and one of them who didn't. The sheep and the goats. Each one are directed towards professed believers, and the point is the same. You show yourself to be a genuine believer by getting ready for Christ's return. And he said, you're supposed to be looking ahead and looking up all the time. And by the way, I made the comment in my Bible study last night, I think God has arranged it where every generation looks like this could be the last one. You give enough things. But one generation that thinks it's the last is going to be right. because they will be the last. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and there was a great earthquake such as net had not been since man came to be upon the earth. So great was the earthquake, and so mighty was it. I mean, the language that the Bible uses in the Old Testament, Isaiah talks about all the mountains collapse and all the islands disappear. One guy, he said he was giving that, I think it was in Hawaii or someplace. You know, he's talking about teaching on this, and all the people are like, islands disappearing? I don't know, that's a good thing. Some of you live in Hawaii. Yeah, be careful. There you go. And the collapse, you know, all the great things that man's erected. I mean, it's going to be like 9-1-1 world over. So the great city was split. into three parts and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the Great, which is the false religious system situated in what's modern day Iraq, was remembered for God to give her the cup of wine of his fierce wrath and every island fled away, that's that language there, and all the mountains were not found. Huge hailstones, about 100 pounds each, came down from heaven upon men, and men blasphemed God because the plague was extremely severe. Down there, see that nice big hail ball there? By the way, how much does water weigh per gallon? What's the weight of a gallon? What? Eight pounds. Yeah, a little over eight pounds, right? How much does a 100 weigh right now? How much is milk going for 100 weight right now? 20 bucks. 20 bucks. OK, well, let's get that in there for the farmers. OK, so what would something be size-wise to be 100 pounds if it were an ice ball? Probably, see that black speaker up there? Well, probably, yeah. 100 pounds. Ooh, can you imagine? See, we can always put it in farm terms, can't we? Can you imagine a milk can falling from heaven? Full, yeah, not even empty. I mean, there wouldn't be anything left. And by the way, that's what we saw also in the book of Exodus as well, right? Book of Revelation. Population reduction predictions. In the fourth seal, they kill a fourth of the earth. That's Revelation 6, 8. In the sixth trumpet, the second woe, they kill a third of mankind. And in the seven bulls of wrath, God says in Isaiah, you make man scarcer than gold. It comes out to be something like half the world's population is going to die. What's the present population of the world right now? About 8 billion. So 4 billion people. This one's taken from 2016. It's at 7.2 billion, was the current population at that time. Population dropping dramatically. That's that Valley of Megiddo. It's just a big, giant plain. And that's where the final battle is going to be situated, probably at least the center of it. And I saw, this is chapter 19, I saw the heavens open, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him, which no one knows except for himself, and he's clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God." Here's a question for you. Why is his robe dipped in blood? What's the significance of that? Yeah, that's what a lot of people would think. That's what I would think. Yeah, but you remember the language of the grapes of wrath? There's a parallel in this, I think it's in, I can probably pretty much quote it, but I think it's in Isaiah 63. We got time, you can turn there. Yeah, it's Isaiah 63. It says this. Who is this who comes from Edom? Now, we've got to do the geography. My wife said last night, you know, it'd help if you put maps up here for these things, right? Which direction was the country of Edom from Israel? East and southeast, right? Who is this one? And you tell me if you can. I'll give you this description. You tell me who you think it's talking about. Who's the one who comes from Edom, who has garments glowing colors from Basra? Basra is the capital city of Edom. This one who's majestic in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength. It is I, this is one speaking, it is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. And then they ask this question, why is your apparel red and your garment like one who's tread out the winepress? He says, I've trodden out the winepress alone and from the peoples there was no man with me. I also trod them in my anger and trampled them with my wrath, and their lifeblood is sprinkled on my garments. And I stained all of my raiments, for the day of the vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption has come." Redemption for God's people and vengeance for his enemies. So the blood that stained on him is not his blood that he shed on Calvary, but the blood of those he's going to trample down. and destroy. And, you know, that type of language is Jesus as the warrior. That's not what we usually present him as today. Jesus is a good shepherd who hugs all the kids, and, you know, they sit on his lap, and he would never criticize anyone for anything, and he's not judgmental like you evangelical Christians, and he supports LGBTQ things and Head Start programs, and if he came here, he would certainly condemn all of you. But, you know, I think it was Mark Twain said, you know, I always heard that the God of the Old Testament was a God of wrath. He said, then I read the New Testament. He's even worse. Mark Twain was no believer. But the point is, the God of the Old Testament is also a God of mercy, and the God of the New Testament is a God of mercy, and the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath, and the God of the New Testament is a God of wrath. Jesus himself talked about hell more than anybody else. There's a wrath that's coming upon the earth, and there's all kinds of language that talks about that. It says, and the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, and white and clean, were following him on the white horses. Okay, who are the armies of heaven, do you think? Could be the saints, could be angels, could be both. Now, the reason the saints would be, it talks in 2 Thessalonians 1, where it says, the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his angels and flaming fire, dealing out retribution, listen to this, to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel. Now, there's two different groups there. What are those two different groups? Those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel. It's definitely unbelievers. Yeah, it could be. I think the way I would say it is this. Those who don't know God would be people outside of hearing the gospel. You know, because you'll get people every now and then say, well, what about those who've never heard the gospel? It could never be right of God to condemn people for not believing in a Jesus they've never heard of. Do you agree with that? No. I do. Absolutely. I mean, to condemn them for not believing in a Jesus they've never heard about? But here's the thing, that's not what they're condemned for. They're condemned for not responding to the light of truth that they had from creation and also from their own conscience. So those who don't know God would be those outside, and there is no salvation outside of hearing the gospel and getting saved. How do we know that? Because it says in Romans, it says those without the law, meaning those outside of special revelation like the Jews had, those without the law will perish without the law. And those who are under the law, meaning the Jews and everyone else who's heard the scriptures, will be judged by that law. So when it's talking about those who do not obey the gospel, that's those who hear it and don't respond to it. Which one do you think is going to get a worse judgment? Those who hear it. Yeah. So if you're one of my kids, I've got two of them that I think are believers and two that aren't. If you're one of my kids raised in a home where your dad was a pastor, you were raised in church, you heard all these things, but you just blow it off, you don't want to hear it, you're in much worse shape than if you grew up in India in the year 506 AD, the son of a Hindu priest. Because the opportunities were there, right? To whom much is given, much is required, to put it in the words of Jesus. He who knew his master's will and did not get ready will receive many lashes, but he who did not know his master's will will receive but a few. The idea is that the greater the truth that you have, the greater responsibility. Now that sets something up though. Years ago, I had a young guy in our church and it was the rule in their family that you had to go to church as long as you were under 18. When you got to be 18, then you can decide. So 18 rolls around and he just stops coming to church. So I asked him at one point, I said, hey, I got a Bible study, I want to know if you want to come to it. I asked him two or three times and finally he said, no, I don't want to come. I said, why not? He said, well, here's the thing. I'm not a believer. I know I'm not a believer. But I know the more truth I get, the more guilty I'm going to be if I reject it. And he said, so I don't want to increase my guilt by having more light. That's actually pretty good thinking, right? But I gave him the title of a sermon that Jonathan Edwards did. Because Jonathan Edwards had a sermon. And they used to have long titles. And the title of his sermon was this. By the way, what do we got for time? Okay, we'll finish up here. He said that the title was this, the possibility of being saved is to be infinitely preferred to the certainty of being damned. So I said to him, I said, look, if you come, I can't guarantee you'll get saved. I guarantee if you'll do what the Bible says, search for me with all your heart, you'll find me. I mean, a number of people in my Bible study are not Christians, and they know they're not Christians. I said, but there's a possibility, there's even a high probability that you will get saved. I said, so come. And I said, while you're here, doesn't it restrain a certain amount of sin in your life? Because you're hanging around with us, boring people, rather than your crazy drinking buddies? Now, I encourage the people, I say, keep coming, keep asking God to save you. And I've had, Chris has had this experience as well, where we'll have people in church who are non-Christians, know they're non-Christians, I'll ask them, have you ever asked God to save you? No. And then when I tell this to people who are not from our church, right, or other pastors, they're like, hold on, I want to get this right. You're telling me you have people in your church, I said, yeah, who are non-Christians. Yeah. And they know they're not Christians. Yeah. Why aren't they Christians? Said, well, they can't change their own heart. I said, they're responsible because they aren't, they're not trusting. I said, then they say, well, why did they come then? I said, because they think this is the best chance they have to get saved. And that seems very confusing to them. But it's not confusing at all. Because if you're ever going to get saved, it's going to be through hearing the Word of God. And I'll tell you, we've got people in the Bible studies, and some of you are in my Bible studies, who are non-Christians, and they know the scripture better than most Christians know it. Quote you the verses, you know, all this stuff. They could have probably got up here and taught it, even though they're not Christians. But only God can change the heart. But that's why we pray, and that's why we ask. And I encourage them. I say, look, the fact that you're still here after three years and you haven't given it up. You know, during the time that I've done that Bible study, which has gone on for 18 years, I think I've had like 60 to 70 people who've come through it. Some of them are dead already. And they weren't all old people who died. We had a Bible study that Suzanne and Alan and I were in. Three of the people there who were in the Bible study, two of them already had cancer. One was your wife. And I was teasing him. We're in the book of Daniel. And I made the comment, I said, well, you guys have cancer. And I know you have terminal cancer, they tell you. And she had already come to grips with that. I said, well, in a short time, you're going to know the answer to all these questions in Daniel. You can ask him. But the two of them died. And both of those were believers. But there was a third lady who was there. She also died, too. But we have no evidence that she died a believer. But all you can do is teach the Word of God and pray. Encourage them and warn them, and then go from there. So this passage in Isaiah, I think, is talking about Jesus returning from Edom after he settles with them and comes back to Israel. And they asked him a question, why is your raiment stained with blood? He said, because I've tread out the wrath of God against my enemies. Let's do a couple more of these. Then I saw an angel. standing in the sun and he cried out with a loud voice saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven come assemble for the great supper of God so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men both free and slaves and small and great and I saw the beasts and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army." Angels and the resurrected saints are coming back and they're going to have a showdown at O.K. Corral with the Battle of Armageddon. By the way, did you know that the nation of Israel has more migratory birds than any other nation in the entire world? Because the birds fly from Europe to Africa, from Asia to Africa. And matter of fact, they have lost more Israeli jets to birds flying into the engines than were ever shot down by the Syrian Air Force. And he's going to call them all together, and he's going to let them glut themselves. You know, we're told in Ezekiel 37 and 38 that the slaughter is going to be so great that it'll take seven months to bury the bodies. And it says at the end, they'll be putting people out there and putting up bone markers and say, oh, we got one more here. He's going to bring judgment. And he's going to slaughter a lot of people. Here's what I would have to say. Evidently, sin's a lot bigger deal than we think it is. And the problem is, it says in Ecclesiastes, because the sentence against the crime is not immediately carried out, men give themselves fully to criminality, to sin, to whatever. In other words, because you don't get punished immediately, people think, there's no God, if he's there, he doesn't care what I do, or he approves of what I do. By the way, in Ezekiel 38, it talks about different nations and where they'll be coming to attack Persia. Saba and Dedan is down in Saudi Arabia. Put is over in Libya. Ethiopia would be actually northern Kush, which would be northern Sudan. Tubal, Gomar, Meshech, and Tomgora, that's in Turkey. Turkey wants to put together the Ottoman Empire again. That's what we talked about last week. By the way, when it says Gog and, or Magog and Rosh, They always put Rosh, they say Rosh, Roshah, Roshah. The only problem is the word in Hebrew, Rosh means head of, like Rosh Hashanah, head of the new year. So what it means is Rosh, the head of Magog. And Magog probably wouldn't be that area. It might be that area, but he's talking about this area here basically of Turkey. So it's probably talking about a revived Ottoman Empire and how these armies come from the north and how They're going to find their destruction at the end. I think Gog is a reference to the Antichrist. If I have more time, I can show you why I believe that's the case. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence by which he deceived those who received the mark, and the beast and those who worshipped his image. And these two were what? Thrown. Did they go in on their own? Is the door locked from the inside? Could they get out anytime they wanted? No, they're tossed in. alive into the lake of fire, which burns with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh." Seven months to bury the corpses. Here's a quote from 2 Peter. Know this, first of all, that in the last days mockers will come, mocking, following after their own lesson, saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue just as they have from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and the destruction of ungodly men. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come in an hour when you do not expect him." Okay, do we have any questions? What do we got on time? Two minutes? No, that's as much as we're going to cover. By the way, what I would encourage you to do, though, is go if... Oh, I got one more thing. Can you take that there and pass that around? Most of you, I don't know your names, but I know something about you because I never remember names, but I remember things about you. What I want you to do is put your name on there. If you're not, don't go to my church and all this kind of stuff, because I'm planning on doing another seminar probably next spring or next fall. This one's going to be called Understanding the Times. I actually taught it as a Sunday school class in our church. And this one is dealing with kind of where we're at in the present, not so much end times events, but what's going on in America and how did we get here? And when I did this, because we're dealing with all the woke stuff and all that kind of things, I thought, OK, I got to go back. And I had to keep going further and further back to kind of get to the roots all the way to the enlightenment. But I found it to be a very helpful class to teach. I got a very positive response. And that's probably the next thing I do. The reason I want you to put your name down there is because you may not hear it when it's announced on the radio. And so if you do, I will keep that. And when we have this, I'll send you a card or whatever and let you know. Anyways, yeah, but what I was going to say is, the Battle of Armageddon is under a number of passages. Joel chapter 3, where it talks about the same thing, the harvest and the grapes of wrath, that type of thing. Zechariah chapter 14, Zechariah chapter 12, Ezekiel 38 and 39, they're all talking about the same time frame. Also, Isaiah chapter 25. So there's a lot of places. I'll give you one key here. When you're reading through the Old Testament or the New Testament, you come to a place where it talks about how the stars fall to the earth and how the moon turns red and the sun refuses to shine. All those are talking about the same end times event. So when you come to a place where you find that, you know that it's talking about the day of the Lord. And that day of the Lord, as we learned earlier, we can't come until two things happen first. It says the apostasy and the man of sin is revealed. And then he's going to come. Jesus is going to come back. He's going to destroy him. And by the way, I'm thankful that we may have gotten a four year reprieve. But if we have, then let's make use of our time. Let's close with a prayer. Our Father in God, I do want to thank you for the time that we have had. There's so much that has to be covered and easily I could do the whole year on this. I know that because I preached the book of Revelation and it took me over a year. But we want to hit the highlights and we want to think about these things, Lord, but most of all, so that we're prepared. Because how these events work out and exactly in the details, that will become evident when they happen. But that we should be ready and prepared is the common call that's always given through the Scripture when we think about the end times. So bless us to that end. Bless all the people who've been here, the people who are here tonight, and the people who've been here for other ones as well. I pray that we would never get away from Your Word, but we would always cherish it because it's Your Word. So bless us to that end, we ask in Christ's name. Amen.