If you're an unbeliever, be warned. You are, according to Romans 2, 5, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. You're accumulating a debt which God will pay you back for. You need to be warned. If you know the truth of the saving gospel and you go on sinning willfully and reject it, the only thing you can look forward to is a terrifying expectation of judgment.
Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. The story is told of a woman on a ship during a raging storm. She was terribly frightened, yet her husband, the captain, remained calm. Why aren't you afraid?
she asked, and without a word the captain drew his sword and pointed it at his wife. But she didn't flinch. Aren't you afraid of this sword? he asked. Not when it's my husband who's holding it, she replied.
Likewise, said the captain, I'm not afraid of a storm when it's my Heavenly Father who sends and manages it. You know the end time events that John MacArthur has been looking at, they are terrifying. But if you know Christ they're nothing to fear. John helps you see that now as he continues his study called The Beginning of the End. We return to our study of the book of Revelation.
Again, chapter six. And looking at verses 12 through 17. Let me read this text of Scripture to you. Revelation 6, beginning in verse 12. And I looked when he broke the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake.
and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair. and the whole moon became like blood. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up. and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich, and the strong, and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us, And hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come. And who is able to stand. The force here, if we can identify a force, we said the first seal of the force was peace, the second seal of the force was war, the third was famine, and the fourth was pestilence, and the fifth basically was vengeance. If we identify a force here, the force is fear.
What really comes through here is fear. Like no fear the world has ever known. It will lead to the world's largest prayer meeting, only they're not talking to God. They're praying to the mountains and the rocks, as verse 16 says, and asking them to crush them. Suddenly, as Jesus said, like lightning.
Six things take place. We went over them last time. I'll just remind you: seismos. See the word earthquake? It's actually the word seismos, it means shaking.
The whole universe begins to shake. Then he says, the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair. But because of the breakup of the planet Earth, and the breakup of other bodies in space. The exploding earth sends fire and smoke into the atmosphere, which obscures the sun. It may be that the sun itself starts to smoke as somehow it starts to disintegrate.
The moon becomes like blood. It is eclipsed in blackness and perhaps the red fringes of the fire of volcanic action on the earth. And then it says, most fascinating things in verse 13: the stars of the sky, remember that's the word sterace, it can mean any body in the sky, not just stars as we know them. Fell to the earth. Obviously, it can't mean just a star because if a star hit the earth, they are so massive, they are, for the most part, Thousands of times, if not millions of times, larger than our own sun.
It would consume us before it ever landed here.
So it's fair to assume that this has in mind asteroids, meteorites, whatever other objects are flying around in space that begin to pummel the earth. And it is also possible that even the stars begin to fall out of the heaven toward the earth. But all these things coming out of the sky are like a fig tree casting its unripe figs when it's shaken by a great wind. The sky starts to fall. The earth is bombed by careening bodies in the disintegrating heavens.
Then in verse 14, the sky was split apart. That's the fifth component, like a scroll. If you took a scroll and stretched it all the way to its limit, it would be like a canopy. And having stretched it, it split in the middle and just rolled up on two sides. The sky, as we know, it disappears.
Then every mountain and island moved out of their places. The earth begins to tremble. The shifting crustal layers of earth begin to move.
Now, this is what is described as the sixth seal. These are, I think, what Jesus meant when he said in Luke 21:11: there will be terrors and signs in heaven. The stable sky, the sky from which we can navigate, the sky that's always the same, that is absolutely predictable. Hundreds and thousands of years into the future, men can tell you what is going to orbit where and where it'll be then, because it is so predictable will instantaneously become unpredictable. And the world now knows Who's doing it?
Because in verse 16, they recognize the wrath of the Lamb. The wrath of the Lamb and the presence of the one who sits on the throne, who is God. When you preach a message like this, you assume people are going to say, oh, that's ridiculous. That's absolutely ridiculous. The scoffers have always said everything continues as it has from the beginning.
Nothing ever changes. The sky is always the same. The planets always move in the same orbit. Everything is fine.
Well, if you've been thinking that, Newsweek magazine might rattle your cage a little bit. Newsweek has a cover story. The cover says, Doomsday Science: New Theories About Comets, Asteroids, and How the World Might End. That's the title. And the cover has Has a rendering, a depiction of the earth, and plummeting toward the earth is a flaming fireball, such as we have just read, being described.
The article inside is absolutely amazing. The teaser in the table of contents says this. Doomsday science. How will the world end? An asteroid a half mile across missed the Earth by just 700,000 miles.
No one saw it coming. If it had arrived a mere six hours later, it might have wiped out civilization. Astronomers are scurrying to start a census of just what threats lurk in the solar system, and as the pace of discovery picks up, so should the pace of any earthling's heart. Earth runs its course about the Sun in a swarm of asteroids.
Sooner or later, our planet will be struck by one of them. If you turn to the article, you'll find a copy under the picture that they give. The copy says this, a deadly collision could suck out the atmosphere, scorch the Earth, and shroud the planet in dust. And then the article. Says this.
It comes screaming out of the sky like a scud from hell. Bigger than a mountain and packed with more energy than the world's entire nuclear arsenal, it hits the atmosphere at 100 times the velocity of a speeding bullet and less than a second later smacks into the ground with an explosive force of 100 million megatons of TNT. The shock waves from the crash landing traveling 20,000 miles an hour levels everything within 150 miles. Simultaneously, a plume of vaporized stone shoots up from the impact site, blasting a hole through the atmosphere and venting hot debris. The vaporized rock cools, condensing back into hundreds of millions of tiny stones.
As they streak back to the ground over the next hour, they heat up and soon the very air glows hot pink. Steam hisses from green leaves, buildings and even trees burst into flame, nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere combine into nitric acid. Any surviving life crawling out of a burrow or cave gets pelted with a rain as caustic as the acid in a car battery. An estimated 20 tons of particles, most no bigger than grains of sand, fall on the ground each day. Of course, sometimes the missiles are bigger than sand grains.
Thousands of meteorites as big as a lump of coal fall every year, usually harmlessly. One smashed through a garage in Illinois. Another totaled a car in a New York City suburb last month. Ironically, the misses are more worrisome than the hits. An asteroid a half mile across missed Earth by just 700,000 miles.
No one saw it coming. If it had arrived a mere six hours later, it would have wiped out civilization.
So much for the friendly skies. And then the article went on to say, our Milky Way and its closest neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy, are hurtling toward each other at about 125 kilometers a second. At that rate, they will close the 2 million light years that separate them and collide in 5 billion to 10 billion years. I love it when they say that. The reason they say that is because the things they always assume, those things have gone and will go at the same speed.
Since Andromeda is two to three times bigger than the Milky Way, the collision will be analogous to a hostile takeover. Our galaxy will be consumed and destroyed. Even if Earth managed to survive somehow, given all the empty space in the galaxy, the collision could send more comets, asteroids, and other debris pounding into our solar system. In other words, they now know that there is a collision course all through space in a small level the size of a little rock all the way to colliding galaxies. And all God has to do is say the word, and it all happens.
By then, it says the Earth may well be cooked anyway by our own evolving star. The Sun is gradually getting bigger and more luminous. When the Sun is twice its current diameter, the Earth's oceans will boil. When the sun is 15 times brighter, Earth's surface temperatures will reach 600 degrees Kelvin and its crust will melt. Then the article says, all this will take billions of years because the universe is already billions of years old.
The truth is, the universe is young. And what they think took a long time to arrange itself, God arranged instantaneously, just like he'll disarrange it instantaneously. The article then grasps for some hope against this inevitable Holocaust and closes with this paragraph. During a human lifetime, there's roughly a 1 in 10,000 chance that Earth will be hit by something big enough to wipe out crops worldwide and possibly force survivors to return to the ways of Stone Age hunter-gatherers. Those are the odds of dying from anesthesia during surgery, dying in a car crash in any six-month period, or dying of cancer from breathing the automobile exhaust on the Los Angeles freeway.
Killer asteroids and comets are out there, and someday one will be on a collision course with Earth. Of all the species that ever crawled, walked, flew, or swam on Earth, an estimated two-thirds became extinct because of an impact from space in the past. Mankind may yet meet that fate too, but we're the only species that can even contemplate it and just maybe do something to prevent it. Isn't that amazing? They know.
That this is a threatening universe. They can't prevent it. It's going to come. If they read the book of Revelation, they can know it's going to come. The only thing they can't know is when it's going to come.
But it's going to come. And when it comes. And the Earth starts being pummeled by asteroids and meteorites and comets and whatever else of bits and fragments of stars and suns come plummeting into our space. And when the colliding galaxies do what God intends for them to do in the moment of his wrath, the world is going to know that it is God.
So there is reason for fear. That's our first point. Plenty of reason for fear. And now the scientists, from a non-biblical perspective, are beginning to awaken to it. Let's look at a second point just briefly: the range of fear.
The range of fear, that's in verse 15. How widespread is it? The kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong.
Now in those five categories you have the elite of the world. The kings and the great men, and the commanders, and the rich, and the strong, all describe the upper class, the elite. Everybody all over the world. Is going to be involved in this fear. And he starts with the elite.
They're going to see it. They can't avoid it. It's going to come. It's going to be visible. It's going to leave its tremendous impact, even as the Chernobyl thing left its impact on the world in a small way, or as the explosion of the volcano in Alaska, or any other of those kinds of things did.
This is going to be way beyond anything ever imagined by men, and the whole world of elite people will have absolutely no way to deal with it. The last two classes, every slave and free men, just divide the common people into the two categories that common people in ancient times were divided into, either slaves or free men. Whether you're the elite or the common man, you're going to know it. It's going to come. Nobody's going to be left out.
Everybody is going to see it. Everybody is going to feel it. Everybody is going to experience it. Isaiah writes in chapter 2, Enter the rock and hide in the dust from the terror of the Lord and from the splendor of his majesty. The proud look of man will be abased and the loftiness of man will be humbled.
And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. In verse 19, he says, Men will go into caves of the rocks and holes of the ground before the terror of the Lord and before the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble. In that day, men will cast away to the moles and the bats, their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs. Before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to make the earth tremble. But to the redeemed.
Jesus said in Luke 21, 28, When these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing nigh. When the redeemed see this, they know the kingdom is coming. The king is coming, the kingdom is following. But the rest of the unredeemed of the world, all of them, the range of it, everybody. is going to be in fear.
and some will be scared to death. Those who don't die from fear are noted in verse 16 and 17 in the reaction. We saw the reason for their fear, the range of fear, now, finally, the reaction. It says they hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, just as Isaiah said. We wish we could have read They Repented, don't we?
We wish we had read that they saw their sins and they cried out to God for mercy. They certainly have been warned over and over and over again. They have heard the gospel. They have tried to stamp out its preachers. We wish they had cried for mercy.
But if you read their reaction in chapter 9. Verse 21, they didn't repent of their murders, of their sorceries, of their immorality, of their thefts. They didn't repent, even though the trumpet judgments were on them. And in chapter 16, in line with the bold judgments, verse 11, they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they didn't repent of their deeds. They should cry for mercy, but like the demons of which James wrote, they believe and tremble, but they don't repent.
Why don't they repent? Because they have followed the path of Satan and they are deceived. They believed the lie. They identified with the Antichrist. And God has left them in that delusion.
He has left them in that deception. He has turned them over to wrath. Verse 11 of 2 Thessalonians 2, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false in order that they all may be judged who didn't believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness. Like Pharaoh who hardened his heart and had his heart hardened by God finally, they who hardened their hearts will have their hearts hardened by God. And in that moment, they will not.
Yes, they cannot believe. And in their terror, it says they hid themselves in the caves and the rocks. of the mountains. That's a pretty silly place to go. Because all that stuff's coming apart.
But it really doesn't matter, does it? Where are they going to go? They can't escape. They can't get away. It's not possible because God is breaking up everything.
Furthermore, you can't go anywhere where the Lord can't find you. Read Psalm 139, verses 7 to 13. And it certainly isn't very smart because that's exactly the place you're going to be crushed because the mountains and the rocks and the caves are collapsing under the judgment of God. And I think that is their intent. Destroy us.
First of all, hide us and crush us. Don't let us live to face God. They would rather be dead than to face God, not knowing what that death will mean, is that they will face God. Verse 16, they said to the mountains and the rocks fall on us. and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
They're praying to Mother Nature. Hosea 10, 8 says, They will say to the mountains, cover us, and the hills fall on us. It's a death wish. It isn't rational. But they would rather die than face God.
They know he's angry. And the lamb is angry. And they know what has come. Verse 17: the great day of their wrath has come. It's here, the day of the Lord, and then the question, who is able to stand?
What's the answer? No one. 1 Thessalonians 5, 3 says, the destruction will come and they shall not escape. Prophet Nahum wrote in verse 6 of chapter 1, Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the burning of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken up by him. Nobody will survive. Nobody will survive. So the fear. It is a terrifying, terrifying See Look at Hebrews 10 for just a brief moment.
Hebrews 10, 26 says, If we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there's no longer. A sacrifice for sins. If you know the gospel, If people hear the gospel today or even in that time, And they go on sinning willfully after knowing the truth. There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. What does remain, verse 27, is a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.
If you reject the gospel, this is what you have to look forward to should you be alive in the day of the Lord. And should you miss the day of the Lord on earth, you will still experience eternal damnation. And it'll be severe. As verse 31 says, it's a terrifying thing to fall into the hands. Of the living God.
They think if the mountains will crush them and if the rocks will crush their lives, they won't have to face God. Boy, are they wrong. You say, John, are you saying that nobody is going to repent? No, during this period of time, there will be innumerable Gentiles converted, as chapter 7, verse 9 says, so many they can't even be numbered. No man could even count them from every nation and tribe and people and tongue.
Also, the Jews will be converted. Romans says, All Israel will be saved. Zachariah says the Jews will look up and they will look on the one whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as an only son, and a fountain of blessing and salvation will be opened to Israel. There will be salvation during this period of time among Gentiles and among the Jews as the Jews finally see their Messiah, believe in him, and receive the kingdom. But the vast people of the world will be crushed.
Their own wish coming true. But they won't escape. for they'll meet their Maker after death. to be sent forever into eternal hell. What is the importance of all of this for us?
It should be obvious. If you're an unbeliever, be warned. You are, according to Romans 2:5, treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath. You're accumulating a debt which God will pay you back for with his wrath in the day of wrath. You need to be warned.
If you know the truth of the saving gospel and you go on sinning willfully and rejected, the only thing you can look forward to is a terrifying expectation of judgment. If you're a Christian, First of all, you can be thankful for what you're going to escape. Amen? that we're going to be caught up together to meet the lord in the air and we're going to be with him Coming back with him in glory to reign. Secondly, as a believer, I'm not only to be thankful, but I need to be faithful to evangelize, right?
When I understand what is coming, I have to warn men. On the one hand, I'm thankful that I'm going to be rescued from wrath. that I am not destined for the wrath to come. But on the other hand, There's a world of people that are. and I have the saving message of Jesus Christ to bring to them.
that they might be delivered from that. Father, I pray for each of us here who have heard this word. that a right response might come forth from us. For those who do not know Christ, may the fear grip their hearts now.
so that they won't experience it in the future. And may they come to Christ. Who in this day of grace is offering full forgiveness and pardon for all our sins, if we will but acknowledge His death and resurrection, embrace Him as Savior and Lord. For us who are Christians, may we be thankful for the gift of grace which has. Taken us out of those who are the children of wrath and made us children of God.
which has given us the promise. That There is a place in the Father's house. Of which Jesus spoke when he said, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. that we're not headed for wrath. We're not destined for wrath.
We're not the children of wrath. We're not of the darkness. We're not of the night. We're children of the day. And we will escape that.
We thank you for that. At the same time, we are responsible to preach the saving truth that can deliver others even as we have been delivered. Make us faithful to do that as well. In Christ's name, amen. That's John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, here on Grace to You.
Now I trust John's series has challenged you either to faithfully proclaim the gospel to the lost or to repent of your sins yourself and yield to Christ as Lord and Saviour.
Well, John, when you look at and listen to the world round us, you would think that humanity is all there is and that we are accountable to no one. But as you have shown in your study called The Beginning of the End, that couldn't be further from the truth.
Well, sinners would like to think it's true. They would like to think that they can live their lives any way they want and be absolutely without accountability to anyone. They don't want anybody around them telling them what they can or cannot do. They don't want anyone posing as a higher authority telling them what they can or cannot do. They certainly don't like the idea of a god.
A holy, righteous God. who not only holds the sinner accountable for his sin, but will eternally punish the sinner for that sin if it goes unforgiven. That is not a popular message. In fact, the fact that it's not a popular message means that it even gets eliminated from many so-called evangelical approaches to unbelievers. As we draw our study to a conclusion, we have come to see that the wrath to come is a reality.
that men should fear divine judgment. We have been uh studying the beginning of the end. coming world events that lead to Armageddon. This study is available at five MP3 downloads. That's right, John.
Five downloads. You can get them all at our website, gty.org. And also, if you're looking for an all-in-one theological library that can help you understand all of God's Word like never before, order the MacArthur Study Bible. To get your copy of the study Bible, get in touch today. You can call us at 80055GRACE, or you can order online at gty.org.
The MacArthur Study Bible is available in several English and non-English translations. It's also in softcover, hardcover, and premium goatskin.
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And now, for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Look for Grace to You television this Sunday on DirecTV Channel 378. And then be here Monday for another half hour of unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time. on Grace to You.
