If you would, turn in your Bibles
to the book of 1 Thessalonians chapter five. I decided to do
my own scripture reading today because the scripture reading
is really an introduction to the message that I'm going to
preach from Revelation chapter eight. We'll go there in just
a moment. But the title of the message
is Nowhere to Hide but in Christ. Nowhere to hide. In 1 Thessalonians
chapter five, the Apostle Paul is writing to the believers in
Thessalonica. And he says in verse one, but
of the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that
I write unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly
that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. That's
talking about the second coming of Christ. We don't know when. We who believe the gospel are
to live every day in expectation of this second coming. As if
he would come today, before I finish the message, or this afternoon,
we don't know. But that's how we're to live
our lives. In verse three he says, for when they shall say
peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them.
Now the peace and safety that's being talked about here is false
preachers, preaching a false gospel. You're okay, I'm okay. You remember that back in the
70s, I'm okay, you're okay, everybody's okay. There's no right and wrong. There's
no absolutes. Every man, well, it's like the
book of Judges. At the end of the book of Judges,
it was said that everybody did that which is right in their
own eyes. Now, are we living in that day? We sure are. And that destruction will come
upon them as travail upon a woman with child and they shall not
escape. Nowhere to hide. But ye brethren are not in darkness
that that day should overtake you as a thief. Now again, we
don't know when Christ is coming again. But we expect it anytime. We're prepared for it, prepare
to meet thy God. And how do we prepare? Well,
we look to Christ. There's no place to hide but
in Christ. So verse five, he says, you are
all the children of light, that's truth, and the children of the
day. We're not of the night nor of
darkness, therefore let us not sleep as do others, but let us
watch and be sober, be diligent, For they that sleep, sleep in
the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in the night, but
let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate
of faith. Now what is the breastplate of
faith? That's not the strength of my faith. Now listen to me
on this. This is important. The breastplate of faith is not
the strength of my faith as in believing. The breastplate of
faith is the strength of Christ in whom I believe. Now what I
want you to do is think about that and don't let it just go
one ear and out the other as if, well, you're just splitting
hairs. I'm telling you now, this is the strength of Christ in
whom our faith is. And he says, and love. the love
that God has for us in Christ, and for in Helmut, the hope of
salvation. That's the assurance of salvation
that comes from looking to Christ alone, Christ the author and
finisher of our faith. And then look at verse nine.
He says, for God hath not appointed us to wrath. The wrath of God
comes upon those to whom God imputes or charges sin. But we
who are children of light, children of the day, believers, sinners
saved by grace, we're not appointed to wrath, but to obtain salvation
by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we
wake or sleep, we should live together with him. And wherefore,
he said, for this reason, comfort yourselves together and edify,
build up one another, even as also you do. Now with that in
mind, turn over to Revelation chapter eight. Here we are in the third vision
of Revelation, talking about events that will take place during
the last age, the new covenant age, the gospel age, or you might
say the gospel millennium, which ranges from the first coming
of Christ to the second coming of Christ. And here in this vision,
in chapter eight, he reveals the contents of the seventh sealed
book, the seventh seal, that is the book that is hidden from
view until it's opened for us. And who opens this book? Only
Christ can open the book, he's the Lamb. And he's revealing
the contents of this seventh seal. And in that seventh seal,
there are seven trumpets of judgment. Trumpets blowing. Now why does
a trumpet blow? To get your attention. Behold. Listen. Heed what's being, there's
an announcement here, see? And in this chapter eight, He
gives the announcement of the first four trumpets. There's
seven trumpets. But he gives the announcement
of the first four trumpets, and listen to what he says. Look
down at verse seven. The first angel, now the angel
here is a messenger from God. And he sounded, this angel sounded
the first trumpet. And there followed hail and fire
mingled with blood. Now this is a hailstorm, a firestorm
that ends in death. That's what that blood signifies.
And you're gonna find that the images here, the symbols here
are very similar to what happened in Egypt before Pharaoh broke
down and let the children of Israel go, the Hebrew children
go. There was hail mingled with blood, fire. And they were cast
upon the earth And the third part of trees was burnt up and
all green grass was burnt up. Now you remember, I know some
of you weren't here to hear the whole thing, but back in the
second vision, when he revealed the wrath of God, and that's
what this is, manifestations of God's wrath upon earth in
various ways, there are trumpets, as I said last week, there are
trumpets blowing every day. I saw one this morning, they
said, we got a tornado watch. That's a trumpet blowing. And
now, you say, well, does that mean the end of the world? No,
but prepare, it's coming. It's coming sometime. Sometime
there's going to, at some point in time, there's going to come
a time when the Lord comes back again, and that's it, and it's
all over. And that's what these trumpet judgments are for. What
are they telling you and me? Prepare to meet your God. And your God is a just God. He
can by no means clear the guilty. He cannot, listen, you say, well,
wait a minute, what about the God of love? The God of love
is also a God of wrath, my friend. Don't ever think, if you're,
listen, if you're somewhere where all they do is preach what they
call the love of God, you're in the wrong place. And I'm not just being a hellfire
and brimstone preacher or anything like that. I'm just telling you,
if you come before God without Christ, without his blood to
wash away your sins, his righteousness to justify you, then you'll meet
a just God who can do nothing more than condemn you forever. And these manifestations, you
think about it, These manifestations of God's wrath, they describe
physical disasters. Don't get me wrong. They're not
just symbolic. I mean, there are physical disasters
that bring death. How many times each day you read
about an earthquake somewhere, a volcano somewhere, people dying? Only those. And as I say, this
reminds you of the plagues of Egypt. Remember the plagues of
Egypt? When the death angel come through, who were the only ones
that were spared on the firstborn? Only those who had the blood
on the door, the blood of the Lamb. And what does that picture?
It pictures the blood of Christ. How am I gonna stand before God
and be forgiven of all my sins? You know, you talk to a lot of
people today, and you talk about salvation. I was talking to a
fellow a couple months ago, and he said, well, do you think I'm
saved? And I said, well, I don't even know you. That's what I told
him. I said, how can I say that? I
don't even know you. And I said, do you think you're saved? And
he said, yeah. And I said, well, why do you think you're saved?
He said, because I made a profession of faith when I was 14 and got
baptized. I said, well, that's a bad profession. And you know why it's a bad profession?
Because it's not in the Bible. What is your hope of salvation?
We sing a hymn here, my favorite hymn. My hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. This hail and this fire mingle
with blood cast upon the earth. And the third part, back in earlier
it was only a fourth part, now here it's a third part. What
is that telling us? It's telling us as time goes on, as we grow
closer to the second coming, it's gonna get worse. Worse and
worse. Look at verse eight, here's the
second angel. The second trumpet. The second
angel sounded as if it were a great mountain burning with fire was
cast into the sea and the third part of the sea became blood
and a third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had
life died and the third part of the ships were destroyed.
What's that telling us? Here's what that tells you. And
again, there are natural, applications to this. There are volcanoes
and earthquakes, all of that. Those are trumpets blowing, telling
us to prepare to meet God. This world is on its last leg. But the main message of that
second trumpet here is this, nothing man can do will save
us. Nothing. Think about it. Great mountains he can't hide. All of this, the ships that he
builds, the planes, he can even build electric cars. He can paint himself green and
walk up and down Slappy Boulevard crying, holy, holy, whatever. Man cannot save this world. I tell people all the time, I
think that we as believers need to be responsible people. We need to take care of this
earth. I don't especially want to drink dirty water, do you?
I don't want to breathe dirty air. But I'm going to tell you
something, nothing the government in Washington can do, no matter
how foolishly they are, can save this world. This world is set up to be destroyed. So where are you going to hide?
You going to go to the mountain? You're gonna build a ship? One
time when God destroyed the earth, there was one ship, the Ark of
Noah. Eight souls were saved and the
animals. But in this day of wrath, no ship built will survive. No
place to hide. So what's the lesson? My only
hope is in Christ Jesus, the glory of his person, the power
of his finished work. And I do, I want an assurance
of my salvation in Him. How am I gonna get that? Do you
claim to believe in Christ? Ask yourself that question. Well,
let me ask you this. Is the Christ you believe in,
the Christ you're hearing every Sunday or Wednesday or however
many times, is He the Christ of this Bible? Or is He a counterfeit? Somebody say, what do you mean
counterfeit? There are counterfeit Christ. How can I know the true
Christ from a counterfeit? By the doctrine of the scripture,
the doctrine of Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? The Bible
says he's God manifest in the flesh. That's who he is, he's
God man. He's the second person of the
Trinity. The son of God, the Messiah.
And then what did he accomplish when he died on Crack Calvary?
Did he just die to make you savable if you would cooperate? The Bible
doesn't teach that. And besides that, if he saved
you because you cooperated, does that make you better than the
ones who didn't cooperate? Because if it does, it's not
grace. Oh no, my friend, he died to
save his people from their sins and they shall be saved and they
shall be made known when the Spirit brings them under the
preaching of the gospel and they flee from the wrath to come in
Christ. Look at verse 10. Here's the
third angel sounding his trumpet. He says, the third angel sounded
and there fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp.
It fell upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains
of waters. The name of the star is called
Wormwood, that's bitter. Bitter. And the third part of
the waters became Wormwood and many of them died in the waters
because they were made bitter. First of all, understand that
the Lord Jesus Christ, he's the only water of life, isn't that
right? He said, I'm the water of life, I'm the bread of life.
He sends the water of the Holy Spirit, bringing in the pure,
uncorrupted, uncontaminated Word of God. But here we see a great
star falling upon the rivers and their source, pollution. That's a reality in our day. The key to understanding the
exact identification of this great star is in its name. It's
called Wormwood. Wormwood is a name used symbolically
in the Old Testament in the following ways. Number one, it spoke of
the idolatry of Israel back in the book of Deuteronomy. The
idolatry of Israel. Secondly, the corruption of adultery,
especially spiritual adultery, not just physical adultery. but
even spiritual adultery. And thirdly, it expressed a way
of describing calamity, describing sorrow. And then in the book
of Amos, it was used to describe false judgment, judging things
falsely. Man judges by the outward appearance. God looks on the heart. Man judges
by his opinions, his feelings, his experience. God's people
judge by the word of God. The spiritual significance of
this has to do with the corruption and the contamination that will
begin to pervade over this world in the last days in the form
of false gospels. Salvation conditioned on sinners
and not on Christ alone. I've told you this, that there's
basically, there's several ways you can identify a false gospel.
But they all come under basically two headings. Number one, false
gospels will always make salvation conditioned on sinners in some
way, to some degree, at some stage, and not on Christ alone. And then secondly, false gospels
will always cause people to measure righteousness and holiness and
goodness on a sliding scale, rather than to judge it by the
person and work of Christ. Somebody says, well, I know I'm
not perfect, but I'm not as bad as some people. Well, that's
probably true, but if that's your hope, you're under the wrath
of God. God's gonna judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, and that he's
given assurance unto all men that he has raised him from the
dead. That's Christ. It's wormwood, bitter. waters made bitter, the corruptions
of the truth, sometimes a slight corruption, sometimes a total
corruption, but it's still Wormwood. But my friend, I'm telling you,
there's no place to hide from it except in Christ. Oh, my soul, to be in Christ,
to plead his blood, His righteousness. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. Isn't that right? Whose blood? Christ's blood. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again. Seated at the right hand of the
Father, ever living to make intercession for us. We as sinners, saved
by grace, we have an advocate with the Father. And who is he? Jesus Christ, the righteous.
There's no greater hope. And look at verse 12. Here's
the fourth trumpet. The fourth angel sounded. Remember
now what these are for. Prepare to meet your God. You
better get into this book and find out who God is, what he's
like. I've told you about The sign
I saw up in Huntington, West Virginia when I was up there
years ago was outside of a church, a church building. And they had
on the sign, they said, the God who hates, we do not believe
in him. And I told my wife, I said, well,
they don't believe in the God of the Bible. Oh, but God is
love. Yes, he is love. But he also
hates. and his hatred is his justice. It's his righteous indignation,
but his love, you wanna be an object of God's love? It can
only be found in Christ, here in his love. Not that we loved
him, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation,
the sin-bearing sacrifice that brought satisfaction, the propitiation
for our sins. Oh, he's a God of grace. But
grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. He's a God of mercy. But the
mercy seat is Christ. Outside of Christ, there's no
mercy. Well, listen to what he says here. The fourth angel,
verse 12. Sounded and the third part of
the sun was smitten, the third part of the moon, the third part
of the stars. This is the lights, you see.
Nothing but darkness here. So the third part of them was
darkened, and the day shone, not for a third part of it, and
the night likewise. Think about this. All of those in the earth. Look at verse 13. And I beheld
and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with
a loud voice, woe, woe, woe, woe is me. You know that word
woe is an expression of great sorrow. Do you know what the Holy Spirit
through the Word of God tells us as the people of God to do?
He tells us to rejoice always. Again, I say rejoice. We have
reason to rejoice. But if you don't have Christ,
any rejoicing you do is just a pipe dream. Euphoria. Whoa, whoa, whoa to the inhabitants
of the earth. Now, somebody says, well, does
that mean everybody? Don't we all inhabit the earth?
The inhabitants of the earth in the Bible are those who are
so connected to this world that it is basically their God. They
don't care about the glory of the true and living God. They
don't care about salvation. They've already settled that
in their minds and they don't need to hear anything else. They're
of the earth. Christ said to his disciples,
you're in the world, but you're not of it. The inhabitants of
the earth here are those who are of the world. John said, we are of God and
the whole world lieth in the wicked one. Who is of God? Sinners
saved by grace who believe and look to and rest in Christ for
all salvation, all forgiveness, all righteousness, and all heavenly
glory. So he said, woe, woe, woe to
the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices
of the trumpet of the three angels which are yet to sound. So there's
three more trumpets coming. And we'll see what those have
to tell us, but that's what it's talking about. Wake up, listen,
this is a wake up call. The word of God. We're safe and
secure, but only because of God's grace in Christ. We are what
we are by the grace of God in Christ. And these manifestations
of God's judgment are never meant to make believers proud now or
self-righteous. We're all sinners. We know right
now that if God were ever to give any of us what we deserve
or what we've earned, it would be eternal damnation, including
this preacher. But you see, God doesn't save
us. or keep us or bless us based
upon what we've earned or what we deserve. It is all of grace
through the righteousness of His Son. And one of the things
that we as believers need to do as these trumpets keep sounding
throughout the gospel covenant, the gospel age, is we need to
pray, Lord, keep us from the evil one. Lord, Lord, keep us,
preserve us. Don't let us ever be found denying
Christ, but keep us in your goodness and in your glory. All right.