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Now you're in Revelation chapter 3, I'm going to read to you from Acts chapter 3 and verse number 20 it says, and he shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which God had spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. Now that phrase there, the times of restitution that I just read in Acts chapter 3, restitution is often used in the Old Testament to describe reparations or compensation for something that was taken from a person if they were caught with that, there to make reparations or make a compensation of some sort for that which they have taken. Now according to this verse that I just read in Acts chapter 3, there's actually a common theme amongst the Old Testament prophets. So we have a bunch of Old Testament prophets that preach, you know, the major prophets and the minor prophets and all of them had varying messages but one of the common themes that they had was the day of the Lord, right? God would often send the Old Testament prophets to pronounce judgment on Israel, judgment on the foreign nations and he would often call it what? The day of the Lord. It was the day that God was going to come and visit that nation with wrath, with judgment, with destruction, decimation, etc. And this is why the Bible tells us which God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began. So what is the common theme that we see here in the Old Testament? The message was this, the times of restitution is at hand. You know, when Israel would get away from God and they begin to serve false gods and they wouldn't allow the land to rest from the Sabbath, they would profane the Sabbaths and the offerings and they would serve other gods, God would tell them, hey, it's payback time. It's time for you to pay for the sins and the iniquities that you have done. God's going to visit you, he's going to pour wrath upon you, this is the day of the Lord. Now all of these days of the Lord that we see in the Old Testament, they were a foreshadowing of the major day of the Lord in Revelation chapter number six, respectively known as the rapture, right? We know this day as the rapture, but with that rapture comes the wrath of God upon a disobedient, unbelieving, just blasphemous generation that hates the Lord. God's going to pour his wrath upon them. And this can also be referred to as the restitution of all things. You see, in the Old Testament, God would pour wrath upon a nation who profaned the Sabbaths and the offerings, and what were they doing? It was a restitution for that nation. It was to restore the land the way God wanted it to be done. It was to restore righteousness upon that land. But now, in the end times, in the book of Revelation, it's going to be the restitution of all things. In other words, God's going to judge the entire world, he's going to pour wrath upon the entire world. So it's when God will begin the process of restoring the earth to its original condition, right? Why is that? Well, because man has polluted the world with sin, with iniquity, with abominable things, with blasphemy, and man has destroyed this world with sin, right? And so God is coming to destroy the land, to destroy the world in order to set up the millennial reign for Jesus Christ. And in fact, this is what the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 25, take away the dross from the silver, and there shall come forth a vessel for the finer. Take away the wicked from before the king, and his kingdom shall be established in righteousness. You know what's interesting about that is that the way you take away the dross from the silver is what? By burning it. You have to burn it with fire, you have to torch it, you have to fill it with flames and fire in order to remove the impurities, in order to remove the dross, and the Bible tells us that once that's done, the kingdom can be established in righteousness. We say, what does it have to do with end times? Well, the very first trumpet in Revelation chapter number eight, he's pouring fire upon the earth. He's destroying a third part of the world with fire, is what he's doing. And in fact, this is what he's going to do throughout the last three and a half years of Daniel's 70th week, is pour fire upon the world. Why is he doing that? He's destroying everything. He's going to return it to its original condition the way he wants it to be. So the title would be fitting for this, right? Because the fact of the matter is, is that God is going to pay back the world for all the blasphemies and all the wickedness that is committed against him. The time that the world should make full restitution has now arrived. And look folks, Revelation chapter eight is rarely preached in churches. You know why? Because it's so hateful, it's so filled with wrath and justice, and it's a side of God that no one really wants to know. It's a side of the Lord that no one really wants to highlight. You know, you won't find any verses from Revelation chapter three, or excuse me, Revelation chapter eight, and one of the signs on Hobby Lobby, right? You're not going to find about God destroying it with fire and burning up the third part. I would love to see that though, the word of the Lord is beautiful, it's pure, right? But it's not popular. People don't want to hear that. People want to hear that God is just loving, and which he is, that he's long suffering, which he is, but we got to balance that out. And we got to understand that Revelation eight is here for a reason. Now thank God that we're not here for Revelation chapter number eight. You know, we've been suffering at the hand of the Antichrist from the first seal all the way up until the sixth seal, when the sixth seal is open. But after the sixth seal is open, you have the rapture, you have the day of the Lord that dead in Christ shall rise first, and we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with them together in the clouds, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We're going to experience tribulation, yes, but we will not experience the wrath of God. That is reserved unto the day of judgment for the wicked of this world. And look, you know, God is not just going to destroy everyone in this world. There are people who are going to be here during that time that they're kind of, you know, straddling the fence a little bit. They're not reprobate, they're not haters of the Lord. These people can still get saved, and in fact, that's why the 144,000 and the two witnesses are there during this time, to preach the gospel to them so they can be saved, et cetera. And look, there's people that go in, unsaved people that go into the millennial reign. I mean, good night. If you can survive all of that and go into the millennial reign and still not be saved, whoa. I mean, you see his first, or excuse me, his second coming, and then you see him coming on a white horse, just completely destroys the antichrist and his army with the brightness of his coming, and then you're still not getting saved, I mean, good night. What in the world? So here in Revelation chapter 8, what's being spoken of the most is the four trumpets, which are the four out of seven that we see throughout the Bible. So when it comes to the wrath of God, you have seven trumpets and seven vials, the three latter end of those would be referred to as the three woes. Now we know that the seven trumpets, they correspond with the seven vials. So in other words, as one trumpet is blowing in Revelation chapter 8, Revelation chapter 16, which is a parallel passage, you have the vial being poured out of God's wrath. They take place concurrently. So the trumpet judgments come after the seals. You say, well, we already know this, why are you telling us this? Well, because of the fact that the pre-tribulation rapture, this false doctrine that Christ can come at any moment, they'll often say this, they'll say, well, you know, the trumpets actually happen concurrently with the seals. So they'll say the seals that you see in Revelation chapter number 6, you actually have the trumpets happening at the same time. You say, why would they teach that? Why would they say that? It's so obvious, according to Revelation chapter 7, and so obvious, according to verse 1 of Revelation chapter number 8, that the trumpets come after the seals. Why would they say that? Well, I'll explain to you why they say that, okay? Matthew 24, whenever we bring up Matthew 24, what do they say? Hey, you can't apply that to yourself. That's for the? For the Jews, right? And they'll always say, that's for the Jews, you can't apply that to yourself, that's not for believers, that's for the apple of God's eye, known as the Jews, you know, those Christ rejecters, the ones who crucified Jesus, yeah, them! Matthew 24 is for the Jews, that's not the rapture is what they'll say. And the reason they're saying that, number 1, is because Matthew 24, 29 says immediately after the tribulation of those days, and they're like, no, no, no, no, no, we can't go into the tribulation, this has to be for someone else. They're so scared to go through tribulation that they want to just apply this to someone else, right? Let me read you Matthew 24, 29 says, immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken, and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. So anytime the pre-tribber, the dispensationalist, reads Matthew 24, they apply it not only to Jews, but when it comes to the end times prophecy timeline, they say this doesn't happen in Revelation 6, this happens in Revelation 19. So when Christ comes the third time on a white horse, they say this is what it's referring to, because it's after the tribulation. Keep in mind, they believe that the tribulation lasts for how long? Seven years. Does the tribulation last for seven years? No. It lasts for three and a half, approximately, and then you have three and a half years of wrath. At the end of those three and a half years of wrath is when Jesus Christ comes and sets up his millennial reign. But they interpret Matthew 24 as being Revelation chapter 19, okay? This is why, and then it says this, it says, and he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds. Remember, elect, when they talk about elect, it's not you, man, talk about the Jews, okay? This is what they say, I'm just telling you what they say. And anybody who would get offended at that, who's a pre-tribber, you know, you can get offended at that, that's what you believe. But he says, he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet. So they'll actually use that in tandem with 1 Corinthians 15, where it talks about at the last trump, right? So they consider 1 Corinthians 15 as being like another rapture for the Jews, okay? Because remember, the seven years according to them is the time of Jacob's trouble, where God is dealing with Israel, and then at the end, you know, Revelation 19, all Israel shall be saved because they shall see, you know, the ultimate rabbi coming on the white horse, and they'll say, oy vey, and whatnot, and the last trump, and then they'll be saved, right? But this is not what that's referring to. We understand that it's not what it's referring to. How do we know that? Well, look at Revelation chapter number 7, if you would, Revelation chapter number 7. How do we know that this is not what that's referring to? Well, because of the fact that Matthew 24 gives us events that take place prior to the rapture, right? Or prior to his coming, what we see in Matthew 24, which is the sun and moon being darkened and the stars falling from heaven, which is exactly what we see in Revelation chapter number 6. Now, look at Revelation 7, verse 1, it says, after these things, I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given, look what it says, to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, hurt not the earth, neither the sea nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads. Now remember, they believe that the trumpets are happening concurrently with the seals. What seal was open prior to chapter number 7, the sixth seal? What seal is going to be open after chapter 7, the seventh seal in chapter number 8? So in between that, we have instructions being given to the angels to say, don't hurt the earth, neither the sea. Well, that's funny because in the first trumpet, you have God burning the earth and the sea. The sea being destroyed for the second trumpet, the first trumpet being burned, you know, the trees and whatnot, and the grass even, okay? So how does that fit in with their theology? How does that fit in with their doctrine if he's saying here in between the sixth and seventh seal, don't hurt the earth, neither the sea, but yet in chapter 8, after the seventh seal is open, you have the seven trumpets, you have the first trumpet being fire, hail, you know, coming down from heaven mingled with blood, destroying, you know, a third part of the trees and of the earth, doesn't make any sense. But you know what, a post-trip pre-wrath rapture makes perfect sense. Because if he's saying hurt not the earth and the sea, what does that mean? That means God has not yet poured out his wrath upon the earth, okay? The wrath that the world is experiencing at this time is the wrath of the antichrist. And look, I find it kind of weird that people would give God credit for the antichrist. As if the anti, God is like, I'm going to send this wicked person to just kill a bunch of Christians. You know, people who love the Lord, people who are soul winners, you know, people who are serving God, that he would send some antichrist, the antichrist, to go and destroy them, makes no sense at all, okay? But this is their way of thinking, okay? So let's look at verse number 1. It says, when he had opened the seventh, excuse me, chapter 8, go to chapter 8. Brother John, can you get me water, please? And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. So what do we have in Revelation chapter 6 at the sixth seal? You have the rapture taking place. You see the great multitude which no man can number in Revelation chapter number 7, and then when the seventh seal is opened, now the book of wrath is completely open for everybody in the world to see the contents therein. And there's silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. What is that? That calm before the storm. Can we get a moment of silence, because he's about to just destroy the world right now. And I saw the seven angels which stood before God, thank you, Brother John, and to them were given seven trumpets. Now let me read to you from Luke 17, verse 26, it says, and as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. So we see that this took place that same day, right? This is likewise also as it was in the days of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. And thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. So what do we see here? What God is telling us is that when Christ comes and removes Lot, just like the angels came, you know, they gathered together the elect, when Christ comes and he gathers together his elect, he takes them out. The same day, he rained fire and brimstone. So how do we view end times Bible prophecy in light of that? Well, we know that the day of the Lord is not only the rapture, it's the wrath of God. And guess what? The same day, not a week after, the same day God begins to judge the world, the same exact day. Now, a lot of what we see here and in the coming chapters really corresponds with God making war. He's not being nice anymore, okay? Go with me if you went to Ezekiel chapter number five, hold your place there. So often in the Old Testament, a foreign nation, if they wanted to conquer a city, they would lay siege round about a city, they would besiege it. We often see that phrase used, right? So in other words, a king would come and he wants to conquer a city, they would besiege it round about. They would compass it round about and just ruin all their resources, you know, stop their flow of water and commerce in order to bring them to a point where they basically got down on their knees and said, okay, we give up, right? Let me read to you from Deuteronomy 28. During Ezekiel chapter five, it says here in Deuteronomy 28 verse 50, a nation of fierce countenance, we shall not regard the person of the old nor show favor to the young and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle and the fruit of thy land until they be destroyed, which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine or oil or the increase of thy kind or flocks of thy sheep until he had destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates until thy high and fenced walls come down wherein thou trustest throughout all thy land. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. So he's basically saying, look, if you disobey me, if you come against me, I'm going to send a foreign nation to you who's going to besiege you and is just going to wipe out everything that you hold dear, every single resource that you have, okay? And he would do this commonly throughout the Old Testament, anytime Israel did this, they got away from God, he would send a foreign nation. Now you say, what does that have to do with end times Bible prophecy? Well this time he's not sending a foreign nation to conquer them, he is the foreign nation that's coming to conquer them. Now look at Ezekiel chapter five verse one, because remember when the first trumpet is blown in Revelation chapter eight, a third part of the trees, the second trumpet, a third part of the marine life, right, is destroyed. Look at Ezekiel five verse one, and thou son of man, take thee of sharp knife, take thee of barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon thine head and upon thy beard, then take thee balances to weigh and divide the hair. By the way, this is not referring to a hard part, okay? This is not your justification for a hard part. Part your hair like a man, right? I'm just kidding. Look at verse two, thou shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city. So the reason he's using the hair, the reason he's dividing it, is basically he's taking a third part and that's what's gonna be burned. Interesting isn't it? When the days of the what? Siege are fulfilled, and thou shall take a third part and smite about it with a knife, and a third part thou shall scatter in the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. Thou shall also take thereof a few in number and bind them in thy skirts, then take of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire, for thereof shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. I see a common thing about fire. He's just like burning everything, but what is it? It's a third part that he's destroying here. And it just so happens to be in tandem with the siege that this nation is coming in in order to take over Israel, okay? This is a foreshadowing of that first trumpet and second trumpet that we're gonna see in Revelation chapter number eight, the siege. Skip down to verse 11. Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, surely because I was defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee. Neither shall mine eyes spare, neither will I have any pity. Hey, if you wanna read a book where God just shows no pity, no mercy, book of Revelation. This is a time when God is not going to pity, he's not gonna spare, he's not gonna be compassionate towards people. He goes on to say, a third part of thee shall die with the pestilence and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee and the third part shall fall by the sword round about thee and I will scatter a third part into all the winds and I will draw out a sword after them. Thus shall my anger be accomplished and I will cause my fury to rest upon them and I will be comforted and they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in my zeal when I have accomplished my fury in them. Moreover I will make thee waste in a reproach among the nations that are round about thee in the sight of all that pass by, so on and so forth. So what do we see? We see that he's dividing a third part in order to be burned. This is a major event that takes place at the first trumpet in Revelation chapter number eight. Go back if you would to, go to 2 Peter actually, go to 2 Peter chapter number three. So this is what he's doing. He said, why is he, you know, compassing the world with all these plagues and wrath? Well because of the fact that he's gonna bring them to a point where they're just gonna give in, he's gonna force them into subjection, right? This is why at the end of those three and a half years, Jesus Christ comes and he sets up his millennial reign. Now at that point, he's not asking anybody to follow him, right? He's not coming to you and he's just like, let me just, you know, let me just cuddle you up and love you. He's like, you better obey, you know, and if not, bring those men who would not have me reign over them and slay them before me. That'll make a good canvas right there, brother Chris. You know, at that point, he's ruling with the rod of iron. He shall dash in pieces, the nations, the Bible says. He will break in pieces the nations. At that point, he's the ruler of the world and he's not playing any games at that point. So this is why he's using the trumpet because the trumpets are symbolic of war. He's laying, you know, the world with the siege. He's compassing them with wrath and with judgment and at the end of those three and a half years, Jesus Christ comes and says, give me that crown. I'm taking over now. I'm going to be the governor of this world, okay? I know a lot of people don't like this side of Jesus, but I do. I'm like, yeah, yeah, it's good. He said, why do you feel that way? Because you know what? Because we see all the wickedness that takes place in this world. We see the blasphemers of this world, the anti-Christ haters of God who curse God. They mock Christians, they mock Christianity. Where is the promise of it's coming? Oh, it's coming. The Lord is not slack concerning his promises that some may account for slackness, but he's long suffering towards us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So the only reason this has not happened as of yet is because he wants people to be saved, but the people who hate God, he's reserving them unto the day of judgment. So he's going to remove every resource and wicked person until the world falls on their knees. Then Jesus Christ will take his rightful place as king for the millennial reign. Now look at 2 Peter 3, it says, knowing this first that there shall come in the last day scoffers walking after their own lust. You know these scoffers are those who mock the Bible, right? They pervert the ways of the Lord, they mock us because we're fundamentalists, because we're Baptist, because we believe in the Bible. It says in saying, where is the promise of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. And look what it says here, for this they are willingly ignorant. What does that mean? It means they want to be ignorant. They want to be stupid, right? Ignorant means stupid. Stupid means ignorant. And they want to be stupid about what though? For this they're willingly ignorant of that by the word of God, the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world that then was being overflowed with water, perished. So what does this mean? It means that the people in the last days who are scoffers, they don't want to think about the flood. They're willingly ignorant. Where is the promise of his coming? It's like, are you serious? Do you really want that? Why don't you then want the day of the Lord? God destroyed the entire world with the flood one time, where everything drowned. Every man, woman, boy and girl, every animal, every dinosaur, everything drowned except for eight people, right? And the Bible tells us that these scoffers don't want to think about that because you know why? Because if he did it then he's probably going to do it again. The only difference is this, you know, in Genesis he baptized the earth in water, he drowned everyone. In the end times he's going to baptize them with fire because he's going to burn the entire world, okay? The Bible says in Luke 17, 27, they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Look at verse 7 of 2 Peter 3, but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. So he's making that correlation there between verses 5 and 7 to say just as God drowned the world in water, he's going to drown the world in fire in the end of days, okay? Look at verse 10, it says, but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night into which the heavens shall pass away with the great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. The earth also in the works that are therein shall be burned up. This is why we should not hold tightly to material things of this world, right? To money, to possessions, to vehicles, to houses, to anything of this world that's temporal. Why? Because it's all going to burn up. You know, your favorite clothing, your favorite shoes, you know, your favorite whatever possession that you want, the money that you love, the possessions you like, your boats. I don't know if anybody even owns a boat here. Your canoe. These things don't hold too tightly to those things because guess what's going to happen to them? Well, either you're going to get, it's going to get stolen from you eventually. It'll deteriorate and become decrepit. You will no longer be able to use it. But even if it survives all those things, it's going to burn up. That's why anything that we have, we should just use it for the Lord, right? Whether it's your phones, your laptops, computers, your vehicles, whatever you have, just use it for the Lord. It's a tool. And don't be so attached to those things because eventually those things are going to burn. That's not what's valuable. What's valuable is souls, amen? Go back to Revelation chapter number 8. I'll read to you from Luke 17 in light of that. It says, But the same day the law went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. Now look at verse number 3. We're going to look at the importance of the imprecatory prayers. Look at verse number 3. It says, And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar, which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth. And there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake. So what is this talking about? Well, I believe what this is referring to, when it talks about the incense and the prayers of the saints, it's basically those imprecatory prayers that we've always prayed, or at least that we should be praying, right? Because if you remember in Revelation chapter 6, after the fifth seal is opened, he saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony in which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? Well, guess what? The prayer is being answered at the seventh seal, the first trumpet. And this is why the angel's taking the incense from off the altar, mingled with the prayers of the saints, and he's just like, here's your prayers right here. I'm going to avenge my people now. And in fact, Psalm 141 2 says this, David said this, Let my prayer be set forth before thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. You know what? A lot of those prayers are going to be from David, because he has an entire book called the Book of Psalms, and there's a lot of imprecatory prayers in those Psalms. Let their teeth be broken. That's going to happen when some, you know, with hail and fire hit some people, right? Let their teeth be broken. Let them become fatherless. I mean, he's like, let their backs break. I mean, he's saying, he's praying all types of things, judgment upon people. God is answering them right there, okay? Look at Luke 18. Go to Luke 18. Hold your place in Revelation chapter number 8. Go to Luke chapter 18. I mean, David, who is the sweet psalmist of Israel, you know what he said? Let their names be blotted out of the book of life. Whoa. David, that's not very nice, man. That's not like Christ-like, bro. I don't know what Christ you're talking about. That was inspired by the Holy Ghost. And in fact, that specific scripture was prophetic of Jesus Christ. Now look at Luke 18, verse 1, and he spake a parable unto them to this end, that man ought always to pray and not to faint. And there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in the city, and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterwards he said within himself, Though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge sayeth, and shall not God avenge his own elect? Which cried day and night unto him, though he bear long with them. By the way, this is not talking about like a need, like, oh, I need my rent paid. You know, oh, I need food on the table. He's talking about avenging them. You know, it feels about bread, it feels about money, it feels about possessions, it feels about clothing. He would have said it. In fact, in other portions of scripture, two chapters before this, I believe, he talks about bread, right? You know, the importuned prayers, right? Here he's specifically saying, Shall not God avenge his own elect? Which cried day and night unto him, though he bear long with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? What is he saying? You know, when Christ comes, is he really going to find anybody who is praying? Lord, please destroy these people. No, because there's a bunch of weakling Christians out there that are led by lame churches where the pastor tells them, you know, oh, we need to pray for the sodomite. We need to pray for the pedophile. We need to pray for the hater of God. God's saying you have no faith in my word. You have zero faith in my word. Shall I find faith on the earth when the Son of Man cometh? You know, may we be that church that still has those imprecatory prayers, that still prays for God to avenge his elect. Look, we're not saying, oh, just judge the entire world. We're talking about people who hate the Lord. We're talking about people who seek to hinder the work of God, who hate the gospel, who hate Jesus Christ. Obviously, that's not the majority out there, right? The majority out there are just regular sinners who need to be saved. They need the Lord. They want to be saved, okay? They just need us to go there and give them the gospel. But here we see God saying, hey, where's your faith? Faith in what? In the Bible. They lost faith in Romans 1. They lost faith in 2 Peter chapter 2. They lost faith in the book of Jude. They lost faith in Psalm 139. They no longer have faith in the Bible. And this is what they'll say. They'll say, well, that was David. We're not David. That was Jesus. You're not Jesus. You know? And I find it interesting that people want to cherry pick the attributes of the great men of God. They want to choose all the fluffy and nice, loving things. But everything else, they're like, well, we can't apply that. Who says? Last time I checked, when Phinehas made shish kebab of the Midianite-ish woman and the Israelite, God said, because he was zealous for my sake, therefore the play is stayed. Because Phinehas was zealous for my sake. Hey, I want to be zealous for the Lord. I'm not going to go out and make shish kebab with people. But you know, spiritually speaking, we can, right? The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, amen? Go back to Revelation, Chapter 8. So he gets this censor. He fills it with the prayers of the saints, and he just dumps it on the world. This is why there's such mass chaos and destruction, because it's a culmination of all the prayers of the saints from times past up until that present time where God is avenging his elect. You know, so whenever you feel defrauded, whenever someone wrongs you, and you never get repaid for that, don't worry. Payback is coming. At times, the restitution of all things are at hand, and God will pay you back. By the way, you may not even see it in your lifetime, but God will pay it back one day, amen? So let's look at the first trumpet. Now, the first trumpet is targeting the earth. It says in Verse 6, and the seven angels, which had the seven trumpets, prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood. I mean, hail is bad enough. Do you have to mingle it with fire and blood? This is pretty morbid, right? I can't even picture this. How is like hail mixed with fire and like blood, right? It says, and they were cast upon the earth, and the third part of the trees was burnt up, and all the green grass was burnt up. Now, this is obviously reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt, right, where there is hail and fire mingled with blood, and if you remember, you know, in the book of Exodus, when the plagues were being carried out, there's only a small group of people that were not being affected by this, right? And where were they? They were in Goshen. I think that's symbolic of the 144,000, because they had the mark, you know, upon their forehead, and none of these plagues would come upon them. They were free from the judgment and the wrath of God during this time. So this proves that God does not care for the environment, folks. God doesn't care for the environment. Yes, he does. We need to take care of the environment. Are you kidding me? He's going to destroy it. That precious little tree that you're trying to protect, you know, save the whales? Yeah, you're going to save them until the day of judgment. You know, you're not going to want to nuke the whales and save the whales and take the little six-pack, you know, plastic thing off the fish. That's fine, but you know what? You're just basically, you know, reserving a lot of fish for the day of judgment, because the second trumpet, yeah, the second trumpet that sounds kills the third part of those in the ocean. You know, you have these so-called environmentalists, right, that literally would try to use the Bible to justify their agenda of saving the world. You know, you're wasting your time. It's vain. And a lot of these people are vegan, too. You know, they care about the animals. And look, if you're a vegan, I'm not against you. Just don't tell me you're a vegan, okay? And look, and don't tell me that the Bible teaches veganism either. What do you know about veganism? Well, you know, we have people in our church that were former vegans and vegetarians, and they got under some of this preaching, and now they're meat eaters. Thank God for that, amen. Right, Ms. DJ? Yeah. You know, these people who want to preserve the earth and the animals, you save as many animals as you want. It's just more for God to destroy in Revelation chapter number 8, okay? I don't care for animals. All I care about animals is when they're on my plate, medium rare, and they're good to go. And don't give me that, oh, that's mean. You're going to go eat a double cheeseburger. Sometimes it's weak. You're eating some meat sometimes it's weak. An animal had to die in order to feed you, buddy. Yeah, but I'm not for like the, you know, just the way they do it, there's no humane way to kill an animal. That thing's going to die, and he's going to die miserably. It's going to hurt. It's not like, and they're just like, no, it's just like you either chop that thing's head off, you slice its throat, you shoot it in the head, you take life away, and then you eat it. You know, being an environmentalist and being a vegan is vanity, folks, and let me just say this. Veganism is a curse. It's a curse. You know why? Because the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter number 4 that it's a doctrine of devils. I'm so sick and tired of people, you know, messaging me on social media trying to use the Bible to prove that, oh, God wants us to be vegan, and I can't believe you're okay with the rape of animals. I'm like, what are you talking about? I preach against people who rape animals, called sodomites, psychos. Let me just show you, let me just show you, let me prove to you from the Bible that veganism is a curse. Go to Daniel chapter number 4. Daniel chapter number 4. I'm going to chase a rabbit here, pun intended, and we're going to skin it and make rabbit stew, but I'm going to show you something because I want to prove this, okay? And again, look, if you are a vegan for health reasons and you're like, well, I don't use the Bible to try to justify me being a vegan, you know, obviously I know what the Bible says, he that eateth herbs is weak. I know what the Bible says in 1 Timothy chapter number 4. If you can come to grips with that and you understand that that's what it says, then, you know, I'm not attacking you. I just don't like it when people try to use the Bible to try to justify veganism. You know, and I always ask them, well, is eating meat sinful? And they're like, and they always skirt around the issue. You know why? Because Jesus ate meat. He ate fish. He ate beef. He ate lamb. And in fact, for a thousand years, we're going to be eating meat, folks, slicing animals up, just eating them. And it's not even for health reasons either that we're doing it, because at that point we're going to have our glorified bodies. You say, why would we eat meat? For pleasure. I mean, some people do that now for pleasure, right? It's just then it'll only be for pleasure, okay? Now, how can we prove that veganism is a curse? Well, do you guys remember Nebuchadnezzar? Verse 16 says, let his heart be changed from man's, and let a beast's heart be given unto him, and let seven times pass over, and this is because of his pride, right? Skip down to verse 30. The king spake and said, is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken, the kingdom is departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beast of the field. They shall make thee to eat grass as oxen. That's a vegan diet. And seven times shall pass over thee until thou knowest that the most high rule is in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whosoever he will. The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, and he was driven from among men, and he did eat grass as oxen. And a vegan diet, folks. And his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagle's feathers and his nails like birds' claws. What does it tell us? Well, he had to be completely out of his mind to have a vegan diet, right? He lost his mind. Now, obviously, he's given the heart of a beast. He's not literally, like, becoming like an animal. Just like the vegans today, they're not literally becoming animals, but they're eating like one. Like Nebuchadnezzar. Now, let me ask you this. Is God blessing him for eating the grass? He's like, thank you for doing it the way we've always supposed to be doing it, Nebuchadnezzar. This is what my original intent was, was for you to eat a plant-based diet, you know, not eat meat. No, this is a curse that came upon him. So when God said, I'm going to curse this guy, you know what the worst thing he can make him be? He's like, I'm going to make you a vegan for seven years. And you know what? When he came out of that, I'm sure he was happy. He was like, man, that's the worst. And by the way, there's vegans who have come out of being vegans for seven years and they're like, it was the worst idea ever. It destroyed my body. I just want to show you that. Now go to Revelation chapter 16. Why am I mentioning that? Because he's burning a third part of the earth. And let me say this, animals are included in that. They're going to die in the world. This is going to be the biggest barbecue the world has ever known. Animals running through, they just barbecue everywhere, just animals being burned to a crisp, okay? And God does not care. He's like, oh, man, I just, sorry, little guy. He's just like, wipe them all out. I'll make new ones in the millennial reign. He doesn't care. So what has happened concurrently with the first trumpet? Because the first trumpet is sounded, fire and brimstone, excuse me, fire, hail mingled with fire and blood is falling upon the earth. Look what it says in Revelation 16. This is referring to the vials. By the way, it says vials, not bowls. And mark it down. The pastor says bowls. They're getting it from some book, you know, some dispensational dipstick who's like uses that terminology because the Bible doesn't use bowls to define vials, okay? That's a dead giveaway, okay, when they use bowls in their sermon instead of vials, right? Says in verse number one, and I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the man which had the mark of the beast and upon them which worshiped his image. Now, keep in mind, Revelation, the very beginning can be broken up into two parts. You have Revelation 1 through 11, and then you have 12 through 16, okay? 12 through 16 is basically reiterating what we see in the tribulation all the way up into the wrath of God, okay, from the first segment of the book of Revelation. And then you have, you know, chapter 17 and 18 dealing with Mystery Babylon, 20 is the white throne judgment, and 21, then you have 22 with the new heaven and the new earth. But here in Revelation 16 is basically synonymous with what's taking place when the trumpets are being sounded. So concurrently, as he's blowing the trumpet, the vial is being poured out and this is what's taking place. Now, you see there that there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the man which had the mark of the beast and upon them which worshiped his image. Now what I believe this is referring to, this could be like a literal sore, okay, but what I actually think this is is that this is basically referring to the painful injuries that's being caused by these hailstones, okay? And the reason it says noisome is because people are screaming. They're just yelling out in pain over these greasy and noisome wounds that they're receiving. Now go to Exodus chapter 9, if you would, go to Exodus chapter number 9. Exodus chapter number 9, we'll just go look at a verse real quick, look at verse 17 because these trumpets, this wrath of God is very similar to what we see with the plagues in Egypt. It says in verse 17, as yet exaltest thou thyself against my people that thou will not let them go. Behold, tomorrow about this time, I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. Send therefore now and gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them and they shall die. Skip down to verse 23. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven and the Lord sent thunder and hail and the fire ran along upon the ground and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt and all that was in the field, both man and beast. And the hail smote every herb of the field and break every tree of the field. So we can basically say this is what's taking place in the end times in a bigger scale. Now don't undermine, don't minimize how impactful this is on the world. I mean, have you ever been hit with a rock on the head? Imagine a hail stone just falling upon you in great multitude, okay? Go back to Revelation chapter number eight. So that's the first trumpet. The second trumpet is targeting the sea. So first he destroys the land, right? Now he's going after the sea. Verse eight, and the second angel sounded and it was as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood. And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, sorry Shamu. And the third part of the ships were destroyed, okay? Now Revelation 16 three, it says, and the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea. So anything that was in the sea, just complete, you're goldfish. Every single animal that you hold precious, dead, okay? So this falling star hits the sea and just completely decimates marine life all around the world. That means the impact is so powerful, right? And it devastates the oceans to the point where just like intestines, fish residue, blood is just everywhere. Now that's pretty crazy. That's hardcore. But just imagine the smell of that. I mean you've smelled dead fish before. Now imagine all the dead fish all around the world. With blood? This is very stinky, okay? This is not good at all, okay? Now you say, well, you know, why is he smiting the oceans? Well, you know, it's said that over 15% of our high quality protein actually comes from the ocean, okay? And in fact, it actually is a primary source of protein for over a billion people all around the world. So remember the siege, right? He's like, you know, those 15%, the one billion people all around the world that depend on the marine life to live, well, I'm just going to remove that from them. I'm going to remove all the food sources, all the crabs, king crabs, salmon, well, actually salmon's in the rivers, but they go next, by the way. You know, all of the fish, every single way, everything dies. Removing that source of food that they can have in order to survive. Now why is he doing that? So that people will recognize their need for a savior. They're falling at the hands of an angry God, and when they see that, Lord willing, that will move them to say, I want to be saved. And God will send one of those groups of the 144,000 to them, or they'll see the two witnesses live on TV or on their phones or whatever, et cetera, okay? So he destroys that. Now look at verse 10. By the way, the impact is so big that it actually destroys the third part of the cargo ships too. This is crazy stuff here. Verse 10, then the third angel sounded and there fell a great star from heaven. Man, he's just bringing all this stuff from space, amen. Burning, as it were, a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters, and the name of the star is called Wormwood, and the third part of the waters became Wormwood, and many died of the waters because they were made bitter. So he removes the food source, but what does he also remove? Water, right? You know, the source of life, physically speaking, he removes the water, and in fact, men are dying because the waters are made poisonous or made bitter, et cetera. Now, why is he doing this? And this is, I'm done here, okay? Why is it that he's doing this? Well, look at, go to Matthew chapter 23. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Go to Revelation 16. I'll read to you from Matthew 23, because you think, why is there so much blood? This is gory. There's a lot of blood during this time. I don't think you understand how much blood is being used here. The goriest movie that you've ever watched does not compare to the amount of blood that you will see, or not that you will see, but people will see on this earth, okay? Unsafe people will see, and you just, as I read this, I'm like, why is there so much blood? Why is he just constantly, I mean, he's sending blood on the hill. It's creating blood in the sea. People are dying of sores. They're just bloody, there's blood everywhere. Why is that? Well, because of the fact that he's pouring wrath upon a bloodthirsty world. And here's the thing with God, just like he did with the children of Israel, oh, you want meat? You want quail? I'll give you quail. It'll come out of your nose. And to the bloodthirsty of this world, he's like, oh, so you like to shed blood? You like to kill millions and billions of babies through abortion? Oh, you want to just kill the innocent and just shed blood? Well, that's fine, I'm going to give you all the blood that you want. In fact, I'm going to fill the ocean with blood. I'm going to send hail mingled with blood because you love blood so much. Let me read to you from Matthew 23, 34, wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wisemen and scribes, and some of them ye shall kill and crucify, and some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogue and persecute them from city to city, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barakas, whom he slew between the temple and the altar. Look at Revelation 16, verse 5. And I heard the angel of the water say, thou art righteous. So after he just creates all this blood gore, right, because people are just like, this is a lot of blood. Then the angel speaks out and he says this, thou are righteous, O Lord, which art and was and shall be, because thou has judged thus, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou has given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. You say, oh, this isn't right. No, no, no, no, no, no. True and righteous are thy judgments, Lord. I just don't think he should have done that. True and righteous are thy judgments. This is right. He's given them blood to drink. Bloodthirsty? You want to make money off of abortions? You want to make money off of the molestation and rape and sex trafficking of innocent children? You want to destroy innocent people's lives and just waste them as if they're some sort of dispensable resource and just shed their blood? That's fine. I'm going to give you all the blood that you want, then we'll see how much you actually want that blood. Because at that point, they're just blaspheming the name of God. They wanted blood. They're going to get their fill. Go to Isaiah chapter five. This is literally the last verse, okay? Last verse. I'm going to read to you the remainder of the fourth trumpet. This is in verse 12. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten. And the third part of the moon, and the third part of the star, so as the third part of them was darkened. And the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld and heard an angel fly through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the earth by reasoning of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound. He's saying, you think this is bad? We're just getting started, baby. God's not even, this is like introduction to the wrath of God. And when he says, woe, woe, woe, that's like three woes that take place towards the latter end of the seven trumpets and seven vials. That's like, that's the last knockout right there, okay? What he's basically saying is this, I'm not done with you yet. Look at Isaiah 5 25, referring to the day of the Lord. For is the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he had stretched forth his hand against them, and had smitten them, and the hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still. He's like, look, he says, the hills, the carcasses, these are dead bodies. And he goes, look, and guess what, I'm not done yet. Skip down to verse 27, or excuse me, go to, I'll reach you from, because I already told you Isaiah 5 is the last scripture, I'll reach you from Isaiah 14. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out, who shall turn it back? You see what he's saying is, when the hand of the Lord is against you, who's gonna tell him to stop? So though Daniel, Moses, and Noah were there, he's not gonna stop. And Revelation 8 is proof of that. Third part is destroyed, yet he's saying, oh, I'm not done yet. My hand is stretched out still, and you're gonna feel the full wrath of God from me. It's a very scary time. This is why, folks, if you're not saved, you better make sure you get saved. Okay? This is a good motivation for you to say, well, yeah, I've been playing with salvation, but not anymore, I wanna get saved now, because I don't wanna experience this. You know? And thank God that we as God's people will never experience this. We get from real seats, amen, to everything that's taking place. But let this be, by the way, here's the takeaway from this sermon. The takeaway is this. God is loving, but He's also just and righteous, and He's a terrible God. You shouldn't call Him terrible. He calls Himself terrible. He's a terrible God, and we're just scratching the surface. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word. Thank you for the book of Revelation, and God, I pray that you'd continue to give us wisdom and understanding. May this move us to continue to go out and preach the gospel and see people saved. We're going out to the marathon on Saturday. We hope that you prepare the hearts of the people that are gonna be there in San Francisco, that we will see a lot of people saved there, Lord, to rescue them from the wrath to come. And I pray, God, that if there's anyone under the sound of my voice that's not saved, that they would get saved, Lord, that they would put their pride aside, and in humility, trust Christ as their Savior. And I pray, God, that you'd continue to bless the series as we study it on Thursdays, and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen.