Okay, well, come back to Revelation
chapter six that Peter read to us earlier, and we're going to
look at the sixth seal in verses 12 to 17, which is speaking about
the end of this world. Why have I returned to Revelation? We only did it eight years ago,
seven or eight years ago. The answer is this, because as
Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, we're living in perilous
times. Those perilous times have actually
come. This world is a world, as we
see increasingly, it's been increasing, it's been coming to a head, it's
been getting nearer and nearer in recent years, since that time
nearly eight years ago. The lies and the deceit in government,
in authorities, in world organizations, the lies and deceit in news. You cannot trust the news that
you hear. The science, so-called, as they
say, is all distorted. Everything speaks of this being
perilous times. There's complete distortion of
right and wrong. The moral compass has been lost
completely. That which was settled for centuries
has been, in these last 30 years, completely turned upon its head.
All seems wrong, yet it seems to go on and on. And meanwhile,
believers trust Christ. That's where our trust is. We've
heard his word. We trust in Christ. We are committed
unto him. You know, to whom shall we go?
You know, are you going to leave him too, like the rest of us?
To whom shall we go? He has the words of eternal life.
We know that it's by his blood that he shed, his lifeblood,
his precious lifeblood that he shed, that we're saved from our
sins, that we're qualified to be citizens of the kingdom of
God. The kingdom of God, thy kingdom
come. This is what Jesus taught his
disciples to pray. What should we pray? Thy kingdom
come, O Lord, thy kingdom come. Not this world. We have a confidence
in heaven that when we leave this body, as Paul said, to depart
and be with Christ is far better. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. Will it all end? Will this world
that we're living in now, will it end? Will God bring it to
justice? Will God's kingdom triumph? God's kingdom triumphant. How
do we press on in the meantime? How do we carry on in these days
when it seems so close to the end, yet it carries on? How do
we press on? Well, we know God will keep his people from the
evil. We know that because the man,
Jesus, praying his high priestly prayer for his people, said,
Father, keep them. I take them not out of the world.
I pray not that you take them out of the world, but that you
keep them from the evil. Can the Father refuse to answer
that prayer from his Son, his well-beloved Son? He's promised
that he will never leave us nor forsake us. He's promised that.
We are comforted by his word. This is how we carry on in the
situation we're in. We're comforted by his word.
His word gives us comfort. Especially this book of Revelation
gives us comfort. But isn't it full of mysteries?
Yes, but God's pleased to open and reveal the mysteries of his
truth, of his gospel of saving grace, of his kingdom to his
people. He reveals his secrets to his
friends, as Jesus said, John 15, 15. He said, I call you no
longer my servants, but friends, because I have shown you all
things that my Father has revealed. It shows us what is really going
on, and why. You know what it's like when
you're on a train journey, let's say, and for some reason the
train stops in the middle of nowhere, and you're clearly going
to be very late, and you're going to an appointment, and you're
not going to make that appointment now, and it gets more and more
frustrating the longer it goes on, and they don't tell you what's
happening. You know, if they told you, oh, there's something
happened up the track and we cannot go on for these very good,
you'd go, oh, well, that's very frustrating, but at least I know
what's going on. What's really frustrating is
when you're not told what's going on. Well, God has told us in
this book of Revelation. In the first three chapters of
Revelation, the glorified Christ is shown to be walking in the
midst of his people, reigning in the midst of his people. In
these perilous times, you know the football fans at Liverpool
Football Club, they love to sing, you'll never walk alone. Well,
as a child of God, you'll never walk alone. In these perilous
times, the Lord Jesus Christ walks with us. All of the evil
forces are under God's control. You
know, in Pilgrim's Progress, he has to walk down that path
and there are roaring lions both sides, but they're on chains.
And the chains are determined by God. He will let them go so
far and no further. He will prevent them harming
his people. They're all under God's control.
So that's the first three chapters showing that as we walk, as we
continue, Christ is with his people. But then in chapters
four to seven is the second of the seven visions, and we have
a heavenly perspective. We have the perspective in chapter
four of God's kingdom triumphant. There it is. Thy kingdom come,
it has come. That picture of Revelation 4
is God's kingdom triumphant. But then how is it accomplished?
We're given that in chapters 5 and 6. How is it accomplished? It's accomplished by God's plan. God has a plan. You know, Arminian
evangelists say God loves you and has a wonderful plan for
your life and da da da da da da and all this sort of thing
for which there is little or no scriptural evidence. But the plan that God does have
is this. It's the plan in that seven sealed
book on his hand in the midst of the throne at the start of
chapter five of Revelation. That plan is how God's kingdom
will be triumphant over Satan's kingdom, which he stole from
God in the fall in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3. This seven-sealed book is God's
plan for the recovery of it. And how can it be implemented?
It can only be implemented as each of the seven seals is opened. And the only one who is qualified
to open those seals, to bring that kingdom of God to its triumph,
is the Lamb of God. the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. God Himself in His Son, in the
Lord Jesus Christ, who by redemption, by shedding His precious blood
for the multitude of sinners that were united with Him before
the beginning of time, in that way He qualifies the citizens
of the Kingdom of God, who are sinners, to be citizens of that
Kingdom. He has, as the Scripture says,
made us meet, made us suitable, made us qualified to be members
of that kingdom. And these seven seals, the first
four of them appear as horses with riders, that the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lamb, opens the seal and sends them forth. And the
purpose of those four horses, those first four elements of
God's plan for the recovery of his kingdom from the control
of Satan, the purpose of them are these. The white horse is
sent forth to frustrate Satan's kingdom by declaring the truth
of God's grace in the gospel. The truth of his grace, the truth
of his Christ, that's the white horse. Then he sends forth the
red horse, which is the horse of war. He sends forth the horse
that brings, that takes peace from the earth, as it says. Takes
peace from the earth and causes nation to rise against nation.
Has that horse been riding down history? Just look at your history
books. Of course it has. And then he
sends forth the black horse with its rider. Black horse of scarcity,
of phenomenal, huge financial polarization between the majority
of the world and a tiny proportion that retains the majority of
the riches. Don't hurt the oil and the wine. Oh, the rich must
still have that. That is to frustrate. You see,
Satan's plan is that this world should become a pseudo-heaven,
a pseudo-realm of bliss and of comfort, where people don't die
of diseases, where people carry on forever and ever, where there's
no nation against nation, but we're all one big utopian happy
family. But, but, but, here's the key
thing. The justice and righteousness
of God is irrelevant. We mustn't talk about the justice
and righteousness of God. We want nothing to do with the
justice and righteousness of God. We want nothing to do with
the things that God has declared are absolutely His principles. So the days in which we live,
It says in Genesis, God created man, male and female, created
he them. And what does this world of Satan
say? No, it's whatever you feel like
you want to be on any particular day. That's the situation. And
anybody listening to this that is of that persuasion, you're
probably absolutely appalled at what I've just said. Because
we've got rid of that old idea of God's truth and God's law,
and we've made it up as we go along. That's Satan's kingdom.
There is no objective standard of the justice and righteousness
of God. So the black horse, and then
he sends the pale horse, the sickly, grey, green, pale horse
of death. And whatever we do, whatever
we do, however much we think, oh, we've come to the prime of
life and it's all there just for us to enjoy, the pale horse
comes riding through and sweeps away a quarter of humanity with
his death. He brings death. He kills them. He kills. This is all to frustrate
Satan's schemes for his false kingdom, his false heaven, as
it were. Satan always tries to mirror
God's order with his own false order, which does violence to
the justice and righteousness of God. And then a fifth seal
is opened, and the fifth seal, remember, the fifth element of
the plan for God's kingdom to be triumphant, is that the fifth
seal is opened and it reveals as martyred saints, the martyred
people of God, those who have been basically at war, because
the two kingdoms are at war. The two kingdoms are in conflict.
There is enmity, right from Genesis 3.15, there is enmity between
those who believe and trust God and those who hate the things
of God. Oh, they say, we believe God. No, you don't believe the
God of the Bible. Oh, we love Christ. No, you don't believe
the Christ of the Bible. Oh, we worship Christ. No, you
don't. Read who Christ is in this book. You don't worship
that Christ, religion in general. There's one Christ who is true,
and he's in this book, and everything this book says about him is true.
That's what it means when John says, try the spirits whether
they be of God. Those that confess that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh, he means that that Christ is
the Christ of this book, not the Christ made up by religion.
So anyway, they call out to the justice of God for retribution
for the sin of this world. And God cannot let that go on
unpunished. And it has gone on largely unpunished. But that seal, that seal brings
it to the end. That seal brings God's kingdom
in. That seal compels God's kingdom
to come, because God's justice, God's honour, cannot be overlooked
and trodden roughshod. And then finally, finally, the
sixth seal, I'll come to the seventh in a minute, but finally
the sixth seal, which we'll look at this week, is to bring this
created universe to an end. How is God's kingdom going to
come? God is going to bring this created universe to an end. He's
going to increasingly make this world a less comfortable habitation
for people as they press on in their contempt for God and His
righteousness. He's going to make it harder
and harder as they strive and strive and strive, as they've
been striving right from the beginning, from the Tower of
Babel, as they've been striving ever since there, to produce
this worldwide utopia where everybody's happy and we all get along and
the only thing we don't talk about is the truth of God and
have anything to do with it. It just goes on and on, they
press on in their contempt for God and His righteousness, But
God is going to make, according to this sixth seal, this world
less comfortable as a habitation for people to dwell in. And greater
detail is revealed as the seventh seal opens. That's at the start
of chapter eight, when he opened the seventh seal. That's not
until then, start of chapter eight, which is going into the
third of the visions. And that seventh seal opens,
and what is the seventh seal on this seven seal book? The
seventh seal is seven trumpets, angels with trumpets, and they
Sound the trumpets are, and those trumpets are increasing detail
of the judgment of God on this world. And the seventh of the
trumpets is revealed as the pouring out of seven vials, seven pots,
seven jars, seven jugs of the wrath and judgment of God. And
it gets stronger and stronger as time goes on towards the end. Here in chapter 6, we have basically
an overview of the whole of created history from the fall. from God
recovering his kingdom, but it's in high level detail. And then
as we go on through the book, it gets greater and greater detail.
So now let's look at this sixth seal being opened. In verse 12
we read, I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and lo,
there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth
of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven
fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely
figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed
as a scroll when it is rolled together, and every mountain
and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of
the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief
captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every
free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us. and hide
us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from
the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath
is come, and who shall be able to abide?' People mock. People
mock when you talk of this. People mock when you talk about
the end of the world coming, you know they used to portray
back in the 1950s and 60s I remember you'd see people occasionally
in the town centre with sandwich boards, you know those boards
held together with straps over the shoulders and it would say,
you know, prepare to meet the Lord, prepare to meet your end,
the end is nigh, all that sort of thing. And people would laugh
at them, people would scorn on anyone believing these things.
Just exactly as Peter said, 2 Peter Chapter 3 and verse 3, knowing
first this, that there shall come in the last days scoffers,
people who pour scorn, walking after their own lusts and saying,
where is the promise of his coming? You've been saying that he's
coming again. He's not. For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, they willingly are 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. 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, lostness of ungodly men. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, It's clear, the Word of God is quite clear. The
sciences of physics, and that was my science as a student and
then as a teacher of it, of physics, of cosmology, of astronomy, they
all portray immense, unmovable, unchangeable certainty, don't
they? That's the reason they talk about
their billions upon billions upon billions of years. The galaxies,
the immense distances, the incomprehensible distances, the stars, the solar
systems, the planets, they arise and they decay. So who's going
to move that? This world, the science of physics
and cosmology and astronomy, all portray immense, unmovable,
unchangeable certainty. And they tell us that this world
is good for another five billion years. Do you know how long that
is? I mean, a thousand years is a long time, isn't it? Who
can remember back to 1066, William the Conqueror? Well, we're not
even a thousand years from that yet, where we live today. A thousand
years is a long time. A million years? That's a thousand
thousand years. A billion years? That's a thousand million years. Five thousand million years. We're meant to get our heads
around this. We're meant to say, well, that's so long, it's eternity,
it's not going to happen. That's the time they say it will
take until our sun becomes a red dwarf and engulfs this earth. And well, I'll be long since
dead, so it's not going to bother me, is it? You see? They say
there's nothing big or strong enough to change that. There's
no need for any alarm. But we who trust Christ, Believe
Him, and believe His Word, and believe His testimony. Why? Well,
it's never failed us about anything else, has it? You who believe
God, has He ever failed you? Has anything that He's ever told
you turned out to be false, turned out to be a lie? God, who spoke
creation into being, is big and strong enough to bring it to
an end. and end it, he must. Why must he? Because divine justice
demands that he'd end. You know, it's a consistent biblical
message. This is my second point. A consistent
biblical message. You know what it says in the
Word of God establishing the truth of a crime? It says, in
the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the facts be established.
Well, the message of this sixth seal is reinforced. Let me just
take you through some scriptures quickly now. Psalm 102, Psalm
102 and verse 25. Of old, hast thou laid the foundation
of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thy hands. They
shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Yea, all of them shall
wax old like a garment. As a vesture shalt thou change
them, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same, and thy
years have no end. You see, even there, The psalmist
is saying God has said He's going to end this world. Isaiah chapter
34, Isaiah chapter 34 and verse 4, And all the host of heaven
shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a
scroll. Is that not what we just read
in Revelation 6? And all their host shall fall down, as the
leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling from a fig tree.
Is that not exactly what Revelation 6 told us? And then the book
of Joel, the prophet Joel, one of the so-called minor prophets,
but not minor in terms of his message. Chapter 2 and verse
10. Chapter 2 of Joel, verse 10.
The earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble,
the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw
their shining, and the Lord shall utter His voice before His army. For His camp is very great, for
He is strong that executeth His word. For the day of the Lord
is great and very terrible, and who can abide it? Again, absolute
confirmation. In the same chapter, carry on
to verse 30, which we read at the start. There's a great and terrible
day of the Lord coming. Jesus himself, in his earthly
ministry, as a man speaking in Jerusalem, Matthew 24 and verse
29. Matthew 24 and verse 29, he said
this. These are the words of Jesus.
I know the whole book of the Bible is the word of our Lord
Jesus Christ, but these were words that the man spoke in Jerusalem. before he went to the cross,
he said to his disciples, immediately after the tribulation of those
days, and he's talking about two lots, he's talking about
the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, he's talking about
the days in which we live as we approach the end of time.
Both of these things he's talking about. And he says, 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. Is that not
exactly what it says in Revelation 6? And they shall see the Son
of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great
glory. And he shall send his angels
with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together
his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the
other. He says also, learn the parable
of the fig tree. You know, you observe the signs
of nature. Spring's coming. Summer will
soon be here. You observe the signs of nature. Do the same
with what's happening in this world. In the Book of Luke, in
the Gospel of Luke, in chapter 21, just let me read you just
a few more of these. In Luke 21 and verse 9, But when
ye shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified, for these things
must first come to pass. But the end is not by and by. Then said he unto them, Nation
shall rise against nation, wars, and kingdom against kingdom.
and great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines,
and pestilences, and fearful sights, and great signs shall
there be from heaven. And then go down to verse 25.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in
the stars, and upon the earth, distress of nations, with perplexity,
the sea and the waves roaring, men's hearts failing them for
fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the
earth. For the powers of heaven shall be shaken, and then shall
they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great
glory. And when these things begin to
come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your
redemption draweth nigh. You see what I mean? Scripture's
clear. The end is coming. The final
cataclysmic end is foreshadowed through history. In fact, it's
foreshadowed through history in small-scale, relatively small-scale
disasters. There have been countless earthquakes
around the globe. They happen in our day so regularly. There have been tsunamis. There
have been strange astronomical phenomena. I'm not just talking
about the normal eclipses of the sun and the moon, but there
have been inexplicable astronomical phenomena. Apparently, it is
very well historically recorded that in 1780, there was an unexplained
day of extreme darkness observed in Northeast America. And you
couldn't put it down to it just being a very dark, cloudy day.
It was so dark, it was as if the sun wasn't shining at all.
Remember, who upholds all things by the word of his power? Hebrews
1, verses 1 to 3, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. He, God,
upholds all things by the word of the power of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is He is the One who created all things. If He upholds
all things by the word of His power, is it not in His power
and in His choice, His volition, to miraculously change the normal
physical laws so as to tell people that when he speaks of a total
cataclysmic end, he should be believed. Look, he did it with
the flood, said Peter. He did it with Sodom and Gomorrah.
He did it at various times down history. Believe him. Hermann
Hoxhaemer, who wrote a very good commentary on Revelation, illustrated
it like this. He said, imagine you're waiting
for a train in a station, and it's in the days of steam, And
you're waiting for a train, and things are relatively quiet,
and people are going about their business, and there's no real
sound. But then, you start to hear distant
whistles. of a train, of a steam engine
coming. And, oh, in the distance you catch a glimpse of some smoke
or some steam over some trees or behind a hill. You see it
coming and you think, ah, that train is coming. And gradually
those signs get louder and louder as the train gets closer and
closer until the time comes when that train, with all of its noisy
steam engine magnificence, rolls into the station. And it's just
Compared with those little warning signs that it was coming, the
actual arrival is cataclysmic, it's overpowering. Well, it's
the same idea here. Here in the sixth seal, we are
simply told it is going to happen. Everything we know of this universe
will simply be, as it says, rolled up, in verse 14, like a scroll.
This will be rolled up like a scroll. Later visions go into greater
detail of the same phenomena. This universe is going to end
and be made new. When we come to Revelation 21
and verse 1, John says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. Why? For the first heaven and
the first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. You
see, it is going to happen. This is the testimony of God's
Word. God's justice against sin. His determination for His kingdom
to be triumphant over Satan's false kingdom. It cannot allow
this world to continue indefinitely. It must end. When must it end? Matthew 24 verse 32. Where's that gone? Now learn
a parable of the fig tree. When his branch is yet tender
and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh, so
likewise ye. When ye shall see all these things,
know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto
you, this generation shall not pass till all these things be
fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away. is coming, and be ready. Be in
an attitude of mind that is ready. Many things happening today indicate
that the end cannot be far away. I'm not going to start wandering
around with banners, but I do say this, we're always told,
when do you think the Son of Man will come? Ah, in a time
when you think not is when he shall come, is what it says.
So what is the world's reaction to the cataclysm? Look at verses
15 and 16. The kings of the earth, the great
men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, every
bondman, that's low down, every free man hid themselves in the
dens and the rocks and the mountains and said to the mountains and
rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sit
us on the throne. All people, all classes of people
are mentioned there. And God's elect in this world,
are affected by it. Great tribulation is taking place
and is going to intensify to the extent of martyrdom. You know, we've seen that already
in the fifth seal. But these signs are a comfort
to God's people, because what do they say? They say, He's surely
coming back. He's surely coming back. Children
of God, you don't need to be afraid. He is coming back. Look
at verse 28 of Luke 21. When these things begin to come
to pass, when these things begin to come to pass, then look up
and lift up your heads. Why? For your redemption draweth
nigh. Your redemption, you say, I'm
already redeemed. Yes you are, but what he means
is that the consummation of that redemption, your presence in
heaven, it's nearer, it's coming. But to the Christ-rejecting,
God-hating world of Satan, the approaching signs of cataclysm
bring terror. You say they don't bring terror
now. Ah, you wait, you wait. We have so much fuss made about
climate change, as if man burning his fossil fuels is causing the
climate to change. We have such lunacy going on
in our day about all of these things. I'm telling you, things
are going to change. You know, it does speak later
on about the earth becoming so hot, not due to our man-made
climate change, but due to the edict of God, that men and women
will be screaming out because of the intensity of it all. All
are affected. All are affected. Even God's
elect, like God's elect had to live through wars. All of people,
all people are affected, but especially in that list, the
rich and the powerful. You see, they all hated Christ. I mean that. They all hated Christ.
Well, you say, what about the millions, the billions of Roman
Catholics? They don't hate Christ. Yes,
they do. The Christ that they call Christ is not the Christ
of Scripture. It's not the true Christ of the Bible. It's not
the Christ of sovereign grace and particular redemption. It's
not the Christ of this book. No, they hated the true Christ.
They can't have loved him because it says they were terrified.
Whereas John, in his first epistle, chapter 4, verse 18, says, Love
casteth out fear. The love of God casts out fear.
They hated God, the unbelieving world. They despised his word. They persecuted Christ's flock. They used to win all the battles
on earth. They had the dominance over all
things with their globalist ideas and organizations. They were
strong in their worldly wisdom. They were strong in their earthly
learning, in their abuse of science, as the scripture calls it, falsely
so-called science. They were wedded to the world's
philosophy and perversity against the precepts of God. This building
of Satan's false kingdom of utopia is their objective and their
desire. The ones that gather together
in Davos in Switzerland every year to try and organize how
this world is going to produce this utopian environment. They
pour scorn on God's saints. But when this happens, when we
get to verse 15 of chapter 6, They will be filled with terror
and they will be seeking death and they will be having a prayer
meeting. Who are they praying to? They're praying to the mountains
and to the rocks to fall on us. Please come and fall on us and
hide us. There's no repentance. There's no forgiveness. Why is
there no repentance or forgiveness? You remember Psalm 2. Psalm 2,
why do the heathen rage and the nations imagine a vain thing
against the Lord and get to verse 12. Kiss the son. Kiss the son
lest he be angry with you and you perish. They hadn't kissed
the son. They haven't. Why are they so
scared? What is it that's scaring them?
the stability of the material universe, it's going on for five
billion years before we even have this earth engulfed, the
stability of the material universe was their confidence in building
their utopian world of bliss and of false righteousness and
of peace and prosperity and never dying from any illnesses without
God's righteousness and justice. That was the basis of their confidence. They ridiculed the idea of the
end of the world, but they're frustrated in a moment. All things
begin to shake. The distant, faint sounds of
the approaching train are now deafening as it rolls into the
station. They see that they have lost
control. Their kingdom is crumbling. Christ's
kingdom is fulfilling Daniel's prophecy. What's Daniel's prophecy?
If we go back to Daniel chapter two, which I haven't got marked,
so I'll have to... There we go, Daniel chapter 2.
You know in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel chapter 2 verse 34, this
was in his dream, you saw Nebuchadnezzar in your dream, you saw... until
a stone was cut out without hands, which smoke struck the image
upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces. Then was the iron, the clay,
the brass, the silver, and the gold broken to pieces, and became
like the chaff of the summer threshing floor." In other words,
everything that this world relied on, in terms of the strength
of its kingdom, was crushed by a stone which was cut out without
hands. Go over to verse 44. And in the days of these kings,
the kingdoms of this world, the kingdom of Satan, shall the God
of heaven set up a kingdom, his kingdom, Christ's kingdom, which
shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be
left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume
all these kingdoms. And it shall stand forever for
as much as thou sourced that the stone was cut out of the
mountain without hands, that's the kingdom of God, that's picturing
the kingdom of God, and that it break in pieces the iron,
the brass, and the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great
God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter,
and the dream is true, and the interpretation thereof sure.
You see, the kingdom of God. is going to crush all of these
kingdoms of the earth. God's promise is literally fulfilled,
literally fulfilled. In 1 Corinthians 1.19, Paul writes,
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, this is what God said,
and I will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
That day is coming. It's well advanced. Observe and
heed the signs. Now, in verse 17, verse 17. The great day of his wrath is
come. Here's a question. Here's a question
for you to consider. Who shall be able to stand? Who shall be able to stand? Turn
back to Joel, chapter 2 and verse 32. And it shall come to pass. You know, these terrible things
are coming. And Joel 2, verse 32 says, it shall come to pass.
Who shall be able to stand? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be able to stand, for they shall be delivered. For in Mount Zion, in the church
of the living God, and in Jerusalem, the city of the living God, not
literal Jerusalem, shall be deliverance, shall be salvation. As the Lord
hath said, and where else is that? What is Zion? What is Jerusalem? It's the remnant whom he shall
call. God calls his people, and they call on him. He calls on
people to call on him, and they call on him. And whosoever those
people are, they call on the name of the Lord, and they shall
be delivered. Who shall be able to stand? They
shall be able to stand. The remnant the Lord has called
upon to call on his name. to call on His redeeming, atoning
person, who alone has made His elect the righteousness of God
in Christ, who for their sake was made sin and paid its debt.
Have you called on that name? Have you kissed the son lest
he be angry with you? Have you kissed him? Have you
seen your sins washed away and your way made open into the heaven
of God, into the kingdom of God? It isn't decided by Saint Peter
at the pearly gates, it's decided by whether Christ paid your sin
debt on the cross of Calvary. Have you seen your sins washed
away? If you have, that great day of His wrath holds no terrors
for you, just the blessed welcome into God's eternal kingdom. When
you hear the words, come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit
the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Amen.