Love so amazing, so divine. To me it's my life, my soul,
my all. One of these days he'll get all
of it. Won't he? One of these days he'll get it
all the way it should be given. But he'll have to take it to
himself. He'll have to take it to himself. Let's start reading
here in verse 14. The second woe is past, and behold,
the third woe cometh quickly. Now, if you remember the last
thing we dealt with here, God had two witnesses. And these
two witnesses began to prophesy. And even their enemies couldn't
stand before them. They had great power. And then
they were slain for their testimony. Sodom and Egypt where our Lord
was crucified and They didn't bury him and everybody rejoiced
over it And then God raised him back to life Told him to come
up hither in a great earthquake So that was the second war was
passed and behold the third war come quickly now you remember
the seven trumpets Seven angels with seven trumpets and Well,
this is the seventh angel and the last trumpet. This is the
seventh angel and the last trumpet. And this says, and the seventh
angel sounded, verse 15, and there were great voices in heaven
saying, the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms,
the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord
and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And the
four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats
fell upon their faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee thanks,
O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come. Because
thou hast taken to thee great power, and hast reigned, and
the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of
the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest
give reward unto thy servants, the prophets, and to the saints,
and them that fear thy name, small and great, and should destroy
them which destroy the earth. And the temple of God was opened
in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his
testament, and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings,
and an earthquake, and a great hail. Sweep over my soul Weep over
my soul, sweet Spirit. Sweep over my soul. My joy is complete when I sit
at His feet. Sweet Spirit, sweep o'er my soul. And may He do it. As this seventh
angel appears to blow the trumpet, the trumpets, remember, they
blew warnings. Now when we get to chapter 16,
you have seven vials or seven bowls that are poured out. Trumpets
give warnings. And when the bowls are poured
out, seven bowls, and we'll get to them, those bowls are poured
out, and that's when the wrath of God's poured out. These here
are just warning people, warning them. And I tell you, I read
over in Joel that he said, set the trumpet to thy mouth, O son
of man, and sound it to the people, and gather them all together.
Isaiah 58 says, set the trumpet, lift up thy voice as a trumpet.
and warn my people, so that's what a trumpet does. Vows are
poured out, that's the wrath of God. Trumpets warn, and this
final trumpet here is the final trumpet of woe. There was three
woes, the first one's come, the second one's come, this is gonna
be the third one. And here the final judgment's
introduced. We see the final judgment, but
it's not actually described. Judgment is described when the
bowls are poured out and the wrath of God is poured out. But
when we look at the significance of the judgment day with respect
to God and the Lord Jesus Christ, believers and unbelievers, is
also pointed out. You know, when God's judgment
comes, it's going to stand the living and the dead, the righteous
and the unrighteous. The sheep and the goats. God
always made a distinction. Before the foundation of the
world, he made a distinction. He made a distinction between
people in this world. And when the final judgments
come, everybody's gonna see what a distinction he made between
people in this world. People are gonna argue with God
himself. Lord, we did this, we did that,
and we did the other thing. And he's told his Lord's people
gonna say, we did nothing. We did nothing. When did we do
anything? And he's gonna make a distinction.
So when this judgment comes, it's pointed out that there's
no distinction between the dead and the saints, and the distinction
is made because God and the Lord Jesus Christ. The distinction's
made there. And I tell you, look, let me
start here in verse 15, and look what it says. The seventh angel
sounded. Now listen to this. And there
were great voices in heaven. Great voices in heaven. What
are they doing there? They're singing. They're singing,
glorious, soulful, singing in praise and adoration. What are
them voices saying? He doesn't tell us, but we know
that they're praising God for one thing, we know they're honoring
God, we know they're praising God, and it's these great voices,
all these great voices in heaven, they're singing a song, praise
and adoration to God. And this is what they're singing
about. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our
Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of God Almighty,
and His Christ, His Son, His Anointed One. The one He anointed
to be prophet, priest, and king. And it says He shall reign forever
and ever and ever. Well, this is not something just
gonna happen in the future. This is something that happens
right now. This is something that's going on right now. God
always reigns. He's always reigned. It doesn't
always look like that's what's happening in this world. It doesn't
look like things are going very good in a lot of ways. But I'll
tell you this, and you read it tonight, Gary did, he said, we
walk by faith. We don't walk by sight. If you
look at the world around you, you say, oh my, who's running
this thing? This world seems in utter chaos. Confusion everywhere. Trouble
on every side. But I tell you what, there's
not a thing in the world that happens at any given time or
at a moment in this world that God Almighty's not reigning over. If, as Scott Rich is used to
say, if there's a foot of ground on the face of this earth that
God doesn't reign over, please don't let me stand on it. I don't
want to stand on it, do you? Just as sure as I stood on it,
the devil will get me on that foot of ground. But oh God gains
every feathery inch of this world, heavens, earth, and the earth,
and the seas, and the deep places, and everything that's in it,
he reigns over. And I said we know, but now it
don't look like things are going on, but we see Jesus, that's
who we see. Made a little lower than the
angels for the suffering of death, but crowned with grace and honor,
that he by God's grace should taste death for his people. But
oh, listen, at the final judgment when it comes, this is what we
guess what they're gonna do. Now I tell you, beloved, the
full glory, when this thing winds up, the full glory and splendor
of God's sovereignty be revealed. Everybody will see it then. All
of his enemies will be gathered around him. They'll all be destroyed.
They'll eternally be destroyed but yet never destroyed. Always
dying but never dying. Living in darkness and never
ever getting out of darkness. That's what our Lord said about
them. And I tell you what, he shall reign forever and ever
and ever. I want you to look with me in
Daniel chapter seven. You know, there is a teaching
and Todd had this happen to him here recently. Look over in Daniel,
right after the book of Ezekiel, and look in chapter 7. And when
you get home, you read chapter 7 for yourself. But look here
in chapter 7, in verse 14. But Todd had this happen to him.
He had some folks that attended his services for years. And they decided they wanted
to go someplace else. And when they left, they told
him, he says, boy, won't it be wonderful when Christ starts
to reign? He said, what do you mean? He
said, you know, when He reigns in Jerusalem, sets back on the
throne. Paul said, he's reigning right now. He's always reigned. He said, y'all, but listen, he's
got to rapture the church out of here and get the church out
of here. And then they got to go through seven years of tribulation.
Paul said, what are you talking about? They sat under his ministry
for years and never evidently heard a thing he said. You couldn't
be that ignorant about the Word of God and not sit under a preacher
for that many years and be that ignorant. That's what we're talking
about, those grave clothes being taken off of us. And I tell you
what, people that, listen, I'm telling you, if God doesn't reign,
who does? I certainly don't. I can't reign
over myself. I can't, you know I may get to
the place where I can't dress myself. And that'll be all right,
God'll provide somebody to dress me. Ain't that right? But listen, this idea that Christ
is gonna wait to come to reign, went out to, you know in Acts
chapter 7, they said there's another king, even Jesus, and
you know what they did? They had an upper over it. But
I tell you, there is a King, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He reigns. Look here in Daniel 7, verse
14. Oh, He sees the ancient of days,
and everybody's brought near for Him. And there was given
Him, look at verse 13. I saw in the night visions, and
behold, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven,
And he saw this, you know, and our Lord Himself said it about
Himself. And came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him
near before Him. And this talking about Christ,
and they come before God, and there was given Him, given Christ,
dominion and glory and kingdom that all people and nations and
languages should serve Him. And his dominion is everlasting
dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom, that which
shall not be destroyed. Now that's what Daniel said.
Years, I mean hundreds of years before Christ came. Hundreds
of years. And I tell you, 1 Corinthians
15, 27 says this. He must reign, he must reign,
till the last enemy is destroyed. And do you know what the last
enemy will be destroyed? Death, once and for all, when
he calls all of his people from the grave. That's the last enemy. And he'll put, when death is
put down, I mean when everybody stands at the judgment, death
will be over and done with. And it tells us over here later
in Revelation that death itself is put away. Huh? Oh my. And they told our Lord
Jesus Christ, when Gabriel came to tell Mary she's gonna have
a child, and said, he shall reign over Jacob, Israel, forever and
ever, and of his dominion, there'll never be an end. And you know
what dominion is? That covers all area. Everyplace, everyplace. And I
tell you what, and this will be fully revealed And what we
now look at by faith, God reigneth. We now, we look at it by faith,
but one of these days the world's gonna know that and see it literally.
You know what they say? Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth. I'm so thankful he does. We see these despots ruling,
these idiots ruling, People that wouldn't know God from a goat.
And I'll tell you, they wouldn't have met God in the middle of
the road. They wouldn't know. If the Lord Jesus Christ came in
there in most services today, he wouldn't be recognized. You
know why? Because he's never described.
He's never taught. He's never told to be who he
really is. He's not described as the one
who's the ancient of days. He's not described as the one
sitting on a throne. He's not described as one who
accomplished salvation once and for all. He's not described as
the one who bore sin in his own body on a tree. And by that one
offering, he put away all the sin of all his people for all
time and all eternity. And he ain't looking and waiting
for nothing to be done. If anything's gonna be done,
he's the one gonna do it. Huh? I wanna know that Christ. Paul said today, he says, you
know what? God's omnipotent, he's omnipresent, and he's omniscient. He said, who in the world wouldn't
want a God like that? You know, He's Elohim. He's got
all the power and He's got all the wisdom. Now who wouldn't
want a God like that? Huh? Who wouldn't? Most people want this God that
has to, they got to cooperate with Him. Can't do anything unless
they cooperate. that all the kingdoms of this
world become the kingdoms of God Almighty and of His Christ. And then look what it says here
now in verse four, 16, excuse me, in verse 16. And the four
and 20 elders were sat before God on their seats. Now they're
sitting there, they're resting. They're sitting, these four and
20 elders. We was confronted with them in chapter four. And
these four and twenty elders, they represent all the saints
of all the ages, all the Old Testament saints and all the
New Testament saints. And the four and twenty elders
were set before God on their seats, fell upon their faces
and worshipped God. So what he's telling here, all
the redeemed, all those for whom Christ died, represented by these
twenty-four elders, Twelve apostles and twelve patriarchs represent
all the Old Testament saints and all the New Testament saints.
Here they are, they're sitting before God. They're resting in
their salvation. Resting in a salvation that's
accomplished. Being in the very presence of
God. And they get up out of their seats and they get on their faces
before God Himself. And they begin to worship Him.
and bless Him and praise Him. And I tell you what, that's what
we do. We rest before God. We're not sitting around the
throne right now, but we rest in Christ. And they were resting
because they were resting in a salvation that's done, a salvation
that's accomplished. They saw Him that is the Lamb
has been slain. And they fall on their faces
and worship, worship God. And then look what they say.
This is what they say when they're on their faces before God. This
is what they're saying. They're saying something, and
they worship. First thing they say is, we give thee thanks. And everything give thanks. We
give thee thanks. Thanks be unto God, which always
gives us the victory in Christ. Thanks be unto God for the always
causing us to triumph in him. Give us the victory in him. We
give thee thanks. Oh my. What have we got that
he didn't give us? What do we possess that he didn't
give us? What do we know that he didn't teach us? Oh my. And I said, oh, the first thing
out of the mouth, we give thee thanks. And then he said, oh
Lord, you're the Lord. Now, Lord Jesus himself said
in Matthew 25, he says this, he said, I thank thee, O Father,
O Lord of heaven and earth, I thank you. I thank you, Christ gave thanks
to his own Father. Why did he thank him for? He
said, because thou hast hid. Hid what? Hid me. Hid grace. hid salvation, hid the blood
of Christ, hid the righteousness of Christ, hid the work of Christ,
hid Christ. He said, you've hid these things
from the wide and prudent. And you know what you did? You
took a bunch of people that didn't know nothing like a bunch of
little babies. And he said, and you made them to understand,
and you revealed it to them. And why did he thank him? Because,
oh Lord, it seemed good in your sight. And whatever is good in
his sight, as long as it's good in his sight, that's alright. And oh, they said, oh Lord God.
And then look what he calls him, Lord God Almighty. Almighty God. I heard a fellow say one time,
and I was at Henry Mahan's when I seen this, and heard this,
and saw it with my own eyes. There was a fellow that was in
Henry's congregation for a long, long time, and he got a real
good education, and he went to England, and he started preaching
in the same place that Lloyd Jones preached in, and some other
famous preachers had preached in. And that's where he's pastoring
that church over there. Well, I mean, you know, you got
Thousands of seats in that place. And so he wanted to fill it up.
He couldn't get it full. He couldn't get enough people.
So he had this evangelist come in. Charismatic evangelist, as
a matter of fact. When we talk about charismatic,
I call them Pentecostal. Tongue speakers. And they call
it charisma because they don't want to be called Pentecostal.
We got charisma. That means we got the gifts.
But anyway, He got up and he said this, God told me, he said,
God told me that if I could get 300 people to call on him at
one time, that we could change his mind in heaven and get him
to do something else. I tell you, everybody on the
face of the earth could call on God to change his mind. It
ain't gonna change his mind. He declared the end from the
beginning, and the things that are not yet done, saying all
my counsel will stand. All my pleasure will stand. Why
would you want to change his mind? If he ever changed his
mind, you know the first person he changed his mind about? Me.
He said, I made a mess. I said, oh, I messed up with
that one. But oh, you can't change his mind. He's called immutable. inability to change. And they
said, Oh Lord God Almighty. He's Almighty God. Oh my, we
give thanks Lord God Almighty. And look what he gives them thanks
for. Because you are, you was, what you are, you are right now. And what you are now, you once
was. And what you once was, you'll
always be. That's what he's talking about.
You was, you are, and you always will be. And as you always have
been, that's what you'll always be. And what you are right now,
you'll never cease to be. And that's why they're thanking
Him for it. And I tell you, that's one thing I'm very thankful for.
Ain't you? Oh, whatever He was, He is. And whatever He is, He's ever
always be that. Oh, mm, mm, mm. And I tell you,
beloved, And look what he says, and look what else they said,
and they thanked him. Because thou hast taken to thee thy great
power. You know all the power in the
world. He said, he took it. He said, I got all the power.
I took it all. I've heard once, yet twice, that
all power belongs unto the Lord. And oh, he says, thou hast taken
power. And oh my, it has rained. There we are, it's raining again.
And then look what it says here in verse 17. And the nations got angry. The
nations got angry. Oh my, huh? The nations got angry. Why in the world did they get...
He said in all this, you know why they got angry? Because your
wrath is coming. Your wrath is coming. Let me
show you something before we get into this verse. Look over
in Psalm 2. Look in the second Psalm. I'm going to show you
what happens when the world gets angry at God. I'm going to show
you what happens when the world gets angry with God. Look here
in the second Psalm. Oh, he says, the nations were
angry. They're angry. They don't want
nobody telling them how to run their nations. Well, God's fixing
to. He said here in Psalm 2, why did the heathen rage and
the people imagine vain things? The kings of the earth set themselves
together. They all got together and the
rulers got together and took counsel together. And who did
they take counsel together against? Against the Lord. And against
His anointed, against the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said,
I'll tell you what we're gonna do. They wanna rule us. They wanna, they wanna, you know,
reign over us. They wanna put their bands all
around us. Well, let's just cast them off.
Let's just break them away. And oh my, God's gonna have a
nervous breakdown. But no, listen to what He says.
Look what He said next. He that saith in the heavens,
He just laughs. He just laughs. And the Lord
shall have them in derision. They'll sit there and just twiddle,
they'll just like a bunch of heathens in that house. Then he'll speak unto them in
his wrath, vex them in his sore displeasure. And listen to this. Yet I've set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. Oh my, let these folks, let these
folks get mad. Let them get upset. Let them
dock it. Next time somebody tells you
they don't understand why God just went that way, just say,
who in the world are you set yourself up to judge God in any
way? Just tell them, just ask them. And on he went on here,
now back over here in verse 18. And the nations were angry. And
he says, thy wrath is come, thy wrath is come, in the time of
the dead, the time of the dead, that they should be judged. Now
the dead he's talking about here is people who's dead in trespasses
and sins. It's the time of the dead, time
of the dead, dead in sin. dead to God, dead to righteousness. Jews said there's twice dead
and plucked up by the roots. And he says it's time for the
dead to be judged and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy
servants the prophets and to thy saints and them that fear
thy name, small and great, and should destroy them which destroy
the earth. Now he says here, you know, he's
going to destroy the dead, judge the dead, and give reward unto
his servants. Now you know when God called
Abraham, you know what he said to Abraham? He said, Abraham,
I'm your exceeding and great reward. Now why would anybody
want any reward more than that? Huh? Than the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look with me in Matthew. Look over here in Matthew 25. Look over here in Matthew 25,
talking about Him rewarding His saints, blessing His saints. Look in Matthew 25, 31. Look what it says here. Oh, this is
what we're talking about. He said, He's gonna judge the
dead. It's time for them to be judged.
And then He says, Verse 31, when the Son of Man shall come in
his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon
the throne of his glory. And listen to this, and before
him shall be gathered all nations, and he shall separate them one
from the other, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. He shall set the sheep on his
right hand, the goats on his left. Now listen to this now. Then shall the king say unto
them on his right hand, come you blessed of my father. Now
here's our inheritance, this is our reward. Inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. How long has this kingdom been
prepared? from the foundation of the world. He says, come on,
come on. And let me show you another,
Malachi 3, talking about those that feared his name. Talked
about those who feared his name. He talked about small and great
and them that fear thy name. Malachi is right after the last
book in the Old Testament. I want you to see this, those
that fear his name. Oh my. Malachi 3.16. Then they that
feared the Lord, God said, those he gonna reward to him that feel
his name, his prophets and his saints. Then they that feared
the Lord spake often one to another. And the Lord hearkened and heard
it. And a book of remembrance was
written before him. Oh my, God writes all, he knows
everything about it. Written before him that feared
the Lord and that thought upon his name. Listen to this next
verse now. And they shall be mine. When? When, Lord? In that day. That day when he says he's gonna
reward them. When I make up my jewels, when
I make up my jewels, So I tell you, he gonna make a great big
difference. That's what he says there in that verse 18 of Revelations
11. Oh, everybody's, the nation's
angry about it. Angry about it. They don't like
religion. They don't want nothing to do
with it. And he said he gonna destroy
them which destroy the earth. And you know, you know the first
time God destroyed the earth? And you know why He destroyed
it? For them who destroy it. He said, I'm going to destroy
them who destroy the earth. He said in Genesis 6, that God
said, the wickedness of man is continually evil before me. And it's repented me that I made
man and I'm going to destroy them off the face of the earth.
They destroyed the earth by their wickedness, by their corruptness,
by their miserable condition. And God said, I'm going to destroy
them. And he sent a flood. But all they said, I'm going
to destroy them who destroy the earth, corruptors of the earth.
All flesh, he said, is corrupted their way upon the earth. And
how many ways has the earth been corrupted? Morally, physically,
socially, people set up different classes. Religiously, oh my. Economically, we call what they
call ethic cleansing, you know one race gets over another race
and tries to wipe every one of them out. Racism, pride, deceit
for gain, pollution, genocide, Everything you can think of that
this earth is going on in this earth all flesh is corrupted
their self and now they used to say now it's time to pay the
piper and I'll tell you one of these days gonna be a time to
pay the piper Everybody that's destroyed this world and all
that's in it and work may gain on the backs of poor people They're
gonna go I wouldn't be in their shoes for 10,000 worlds like
this oh my And then in verse 19, listen to this, this is the
last thing. And John sees in a vision, he
sees a picture now, he sees a picture of heaven. He sees a picture
of heaven. And the temple of God was opened
in heaven. Now let me tell you something.
You know in the tabernacle, in the sanctuary, and even in the
temple, they had that great big veil. And only one person could
go behind that veil. And that was the high priest.
He'd get to go behind that one time a year and offer blood. Offer blood and put it on the
mercy seat. And on that mercy seat, now that mercy seat was
the Ark of the Covenant. Now nobody could go in there,
but here he sees the temple wide open. Wide open. There's no veil there anymore. He's wide open, I'm in heaven,
you can see, everybody would be able to see it. And they were
seen in his temple, the Ark of his Testament. That Ark of the
Covenant, that Ark of the Testament, that where God had it in that,
the law, and had Aaron's rod in that part of manna, he had
that by under that mercy seat, and that was hid down there with
a golden lid on it. Well here he says, you get to
see it. Get to see it for yourself. And
oh, it's made out of pure gold, solid gold now here in heaven.
And I tell you what, heaven's open, nothing's hid, everything's
covered up. And that's so long that a veil
was hidden behind the veil. And this is God's throne, this
mercy seat here. And because of that mercy seat,
because of that new open, that heaven opened up for us, we have
perfect, we have full, we have free, intimate fellowship with
God Almighty based on the atonement of Christ. You remember, I'll
hurry, do y'all remember when our Lord Jesus Christ, when he
cried, it is finished, it veiled in the temple, it was about three
inches thick, This thing was huge, deep, big, high, about
30 foot high. And when our Lord cried, it is
finished, that veil was ripped from the top to the bottom. And
everything was exposed. False religion was exposed. All
the falseness and all the silliness of it was exposed. Well, now
everything's opened. We get to see heaven as it really
is. See that ark of that covenant. And that ark, it tells the covenant
of grace. It shows us that God is a God
of covenant. He said it's the ark of His testament,
of His will. And I tell you, the covenant
of grace, seen in that blessed covenant of grace, that's the
joy and the rejoicing of the saints. and all those that are
there in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ. But now when the
same people that look at the ark and rejoice and are very
thankful for it, that same ark and that same heaven that's open,
they don't see what we see. They don't rejoice in what we
rejoice in. There were lightnings, voices
and thunderings and an earthquake and a great hail. That's what's
going to be for the wicked. We get to see They get punished. We go into glory, God's judgment
falls upon them. And I tell you, starts out with
Christ reigning, ends with heaven opened. That's a pretty good
way to start and finish, isn't it? Christ reigning, heaven opened. Our Father in the precious name,
blessed name, glorious name, of our great God and Savior,
our blessed Redeemer, the one sitting on his throne with all
power, with all authority given unto him in heaven and earth.
And Lord, we sang that song when we surveyed the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died. Oh Lord, were the whole realm of nature
ours that were present, far too small. Such love, such glory,
such preciousness, such a blessed death deserves our all, on our
all. And, O Father, let us, by your
blessed grace, be kept Be kept, keep us, keep us, keep us, keep
us, keep us, keep us loving you, keep us believing you, keep us
looking to you. And oh Lord, we long and wait
for the day, when the day, when it'll all be done. But Lord,
until that day comes, we'll walk by faith, we'll live by faith,
and we'll keep looking to Christ, waiting for him to come. And
we thank you for the day, for the gospel, for our Lord Jesus
Christ. God bless these dear saints,
those that are listening, those that are watching, and these
dear, dear saints that are here. God bless them and keep them
for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Good night. God bless you. Lord willing,
I'll see you.