Mm. Welcome to Turning Point. A massive earthquake levels mountains while people dodge hundred-pound hailstones. That's terrifying. But is it the worst of the tribulation?
Today, Dr. David Jeremiah sheds light on more of the seven vile judgments paving the way to Armageddon. Continuing his series Escape the Coming Night. Here's David with the conclusion of the Earth's worst days. The Bible predicts some very dark days for this planet during a period of time we call the Great Tribulation.
And while we live in the lap of luxury in this country and look around at all the good things we have, it's hard for us to assimilate this truth. That there are some difficult days ahead for those who reject the Lord. During the tribulation period, there will be some of the worst days this world has ever seen. And the Bible describes them very, very carefully. We'll talk about it again in just a moment, but first, let me tell you: Tell you about a very special resource that is being introduced in the month of July.
It's the very first fiction book from David Jeremiah. My friend Sam O'Neill and I got together, and we've written this book called Vanished, a fiction novel, and it's going to be available to you during this month for a gift of any size. It's a wonderful story that will help you see the future in a different way. It's fast-paced action, 368 pages hardback. It includes a discussion guide.
And folks, you need to read this. It's a really great story, and it's a new way to present what God has in store for us in the future.
So when you send your gift during the month of July, be sure you ask for your copy of Vanished, my first fiction book with Sam O'Neill. Thank you so much for your investment in what we're doing. Here's part two of The Earth's Worst Days. The reason God extends this third judgment upon the earth is because the earth dwellers have killed God's people. They have taken the lives of God's children who have refused to take the mark of the beast and be marked by the Antichrist.
And because they have taken the lives of God's people, God now is going to require blood at their own hands. And as a preliminary judgment, He is going to surround them with blood on every hand.
Now, listen to me. I don't want to make this so graphic that you dream about it, but it is like this. You go into the kitchen and you turn on the spigot, and instead of water, You get blood. You go to take a shower. You turn on the shower, and instead of the clean, clear water in which you have bathed your body in days past, red, stinking blood comes out of the faucet.
and out of the spigot. The people on the earth began to respond, even as the people did in Moses' day. Asking somehow that God would remove the judgment. For those who may think that these judgments of God are not righteous, And I never preached through the book of Revelation, or even as I remember preaching through the book of Daniel, but what somebody doesn't write me a letter or see me after the service or make an appointment to take me to lunch, to say to me, Pastor. All this bloodshed.
All this judgment. It just doesn't seem like that's the way God is. But I want you to notice how clearly God is vindicated in this passage. The voice out of the altar speaks clearly to the effect that God is just in judging his enemies who had caused the martyrdom of his people. Once again, it is the altar that is the focus of the message.
Remember the importance of the altar? The altar has been the shelter of the martyrs in the book of Revelation. Back in the sixth chapter, we saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the cause of Christ. Where are they? Under the altar.
And what are they saying? Lord, how long before you go and avenge our blood upon this earth? And the Lord said, just wait a while until the cup is full and I will do it. And now the voice out from under the altar comes, and the voice says that the time of revenge and the process of answering the prayer has finalized and is here. Everyone who has criticized the Lord for judging his people is silenced as the result of this pronouncement.
The Bible says in verse seven, even so, Lord God Almighty, True and righteous are thy judgments. That's heaven's answer to our questions about whether God is righteous in doing what He does. One of these days, when we are able to see eternity in perspective, when we're able to see the outpouring of God's love upon this earth and the result of having spurned that love and trampled His invitation underfoot. Once and for all. Perhaps not until we are in our eternal place.
We will understand that the judgments of God are true and righteous. As hard as they are for us to swallow and to understand, as difficult as it is for us to coincide with a God of love and a God of justice and holiness, the Bible says for us as clearly as it can be written that God's judgments are true. and they are righteous and we are never to question them. God does that which is right.
Now I just add to this a word from Habakkuk the prophet. Which seems to give to me great encouragement in preaching so authoritatively. This is what Habakkuk the prophet says in 2:20 of his letter: The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. Or let God be true and every man a liar.
In essence, what we are saying is that because he is God, he has the right to the last word, and the last word on judgment from God is that he is righteous and just in doing what he does. All right, let's look at the fourth vial, verses eight and nine. The scripture says, the fourth angel takes the censer, like the one from the altar, and he overturns it. And it says, And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat.
and blaspheme the name of God, which hath power over these plagues. Then they repented not to give him glory.
Now when God created the Son, We know that he created it in such a way that it would shine on both the godly and the ungodly. But here in the tribulation period, only the ungodly are going to feel the heat of the sun like it is described here. The heat is so intense. that many will die from its effect.
Some of us here know what it's like to have a terrible sunburn. The vast majority of the ungodly people will die from the effect of an overwhelming sunburn because there will be no protection from the sun.
Some scientists have believed that God will simply remove some of the protective atmosphere between the sun and the earth so that the absolute rays of the sun will be able to scorch. The skin How he does that selectively is only answerable by the miracle power of God. He puts some kind of sun shield on his own. And yet the sun reaches out. And scorches those who have not embraced him as their Lord.
Now the particular judgment that we are talking about here. Again, is predicted for us in the Word of God. It is one of the plagues that is predicted by our Lord as a sign of the times. You remember what the Lord said in the book of Luke, chapter 21? Listen carefully.
Luke 21:25. And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah, on two occasions, spoke of this day in prophecy. In Isaiah 24 and verse 6, we read: Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
Isaiah 42, 25, Therefore God hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle, and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not, and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
So, the fourth plague that is dumped on the earth in this closing period of the tribulation. is this overwhelming heat that scorches the skin. Of those who have refused to acknowledge the Lord.
Now just stop and back up for a moment. Think about all these things happening one after another, the soars. And the blood. Blood everywhere, in the water. And then all of a sudden, you no longer have any protection from the sun, and when you walk outside, you're scorched with the heat.
Let's add to that the fifth vial in verses 10 and 11. Chapter 16, verses 10 and 11. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain. And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
Now God seems to be bringing his judgment closer to the very source of the problem. He moves away from his global judgment now, and he particularly zeroes in on the beast himself. And the scripture says that he centers his judgment upon the seed of Satan himself.
Now, if you remember earlier in this book, we are told that there was a place where Satan was localized. Do you remember the letter to the church at Pergamos? The letter to the Church of Pergamos describes Pergamos as the place where Satan's throne was. But it seems to be that throughout the generations, there has been a place on this earth that has been so evil that it has been identified as the very center of satanic activity. We would not have too much difficulty Brainstorming that there are some places that could be candidates for such a description, even in our own country.
But the Bible says that God is now going to judge the place where Satan dwells. We do not know where the throne of Satan is in our world today, but it does seem that in the future it will be located in Babylon, which is to be rebuilt. Babylon, the center of all of man's rebellion against God, going back to the tower of Babel, where Nimrod, a word which means rebel, Where Nimrod said that he would defy God and he would reach up to God with this project that he was going to do. And Babylon has ever since been the seat of power, of Gentile corruption, incarnated with satanic power. And destruction, and God is going to reach out.
And the Bible says that the particular kind of judgment that he's going to pour out upon the earth because of this beast is a plague of darkness. Notice what it says. The Bible says in verse 10 and 11 that his kingdom would be full of darkness. And they gnawed their tongues for pain. Once again, this takes us back to the plagues of Egypt.
Do you remember that in the plagues of Egypt, there was a precedent for this plague? Let me read it to you. And the Lord said unto Moses: Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness in all the land of Egypt, even darkness that may be felt. Have you ever been in a place that dark? darkness that may be felt.
And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. That's exactly what's going to happen. God is going to pour out upon this earth a kind of thick darkness upon all those who have denied him. And somehow in the midst of that darkness from which they cannot escape, there will be little envelopes of light.
We're all of God's children. are going to be protected. Isaiah the prophet speaks of this coming darkness. He writes in Isaiah 62: For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people. Joel the prophet speaks of his coming darkness, a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains.
Nahum the prophet speaks of this darkness, but with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. Nahum 1:8. Jesus spoke of this coming darkness, but in those days after the tribulation, the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars of heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. Mark 13, 24 and 25. Just as the sore in the first plague was a symbol of the inner infection of the men who had the sore.
The darkness of the fifth plague is a reflection of the darkness of the heart and soul of men who have denied God.
Now, some folks really question how these could all literally be happening, and there be any life available here on this earth. And I have read all of the various and sundry things that have been written to describe how, if these happen in certain sequence, that life can still be sustained. But then I stopped to think about how foolish that was. For if God can create a body, That can be burning. And yet not be consumed, which is what the resurrection body of the unbeliever will be like.
Then God is not going to have any difficulty sustaining the lives of those that He punishes during the throes of the punishment. God can do that. Just as God is going to protect His own in the midst of all these judgments, God is going to sustain the lives, at least for the duration of the judgment, for many of these people who have blasphemed His name. Then we come to the sixth seal in verses twelve through fourteen. And we read, and the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared.
And I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.
Now, we're not going to dwell long here except to say that this is one of the preparation plagues so that the Battle of Armageddon can take place. Here we have in the sixth vile judgment, a very similar judgment to the sixth trumpet judgment. If you have your Bibles open, turn over to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 9. And I want us to read, beginning at the thirteenth verse, This is the sixth trumpet.
It is corresponding now to the sixth boal judgment or vile judgment. And the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the sixth angel, which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates. And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour and a day and a month and a year for to slay the third part of men. It talks about the 200 million men who are able to march. And of course, the Euphrates River is dried up.
Now, when we get to the 19th chapter and we talk about the campaign of Armageddon, you will see how this prophecy is absolutely essential. For the Euphrates River must be dried up in order to provide a way for the gigantic armies of the Orient. To march into the battle arena where the battle of Armageddon is going to be fought. And the Bible says that one of the plagues that God is going to pour out upon the people of that day, he's going to dry up the Euphrates River, and it will become just like a dried bed over which these gigantic army can march right into the Plain of Megiddo. Where the Battle of Armageddon is to be fought.
One of the great historic commentators on the book of Revelation is a man by the name of Seiss. And he has written this about the river Euphrates. He said, from time immemorial, the Euphrates River with its tributaries has been a great and formidable boundary between the peoples of the East and those of the West. It is a river that runs a distance of 1,800 miles and it is scarcely crossable anywhere or at any time. It is from 3 to 30 feet in depth and most of the time it is still deeper and wider.
It was the boundary of the dominion of Solomon and it is repeatedly spoken of as the northeast limit of the lands promised to Israel. History frequently refers to the great hindrance the Euphrates has been to military movements, and it has always been a line of separation between the peoples living east of it and the peoples living west of it. But when this plague is poured out upon the earth, it won't be there anymore. God's just going to dry it up and it'll be just like a highway right into the plain of Megiddo. And he will do this.
Without Having to explain it without having to understand it any further. We just know he's going to do it. Has he ever done anything like that before? He did it twice, didn't he? He dried up the Red Sea.
And you remember how that was? Just in a moment's time, he dried it up. I remember a man telling me one time that that really didn't happen, that The Red Sea was not really dried up, that it was just at low, low ebb. and that there were stones sticking up out of the water and they just kind of walked across the stones. And I asked the man, into what did the Egyptian army drown?
That's what I like to know. No, God dried up the Red Sea. You know what? 40 years later, He dried up the River Jordan just so people wouldn't forget that He knew how to do it. And so we would have two reminders that if God wants to dry up the Euphrates River, He can do that too, and He's going to do it in the tribulation period.
Mm. Now, at the end of this sixth vile judgment, if you've got all these things that are happening one right after the other, the darkness and the sores and the blood and all of this and the river drying up, and people are looking around at all these cataclysmic things, and obviously God is up to something. He is about to finish his judgment upon this earth. But I want to remind you of something that we have learned in the book of Revelation, and I think it's one of the most important lessons, and I hope we don't ever forget it. In the midst of God's judgment, there is mercy.
How marvelous it is to me that in all of the judgments, in the seal judgments, in the trumpet judgments, and now in these final vile judgments, as he moves through to the end, The sixth judgment occurs, and then before the seventh judgment takes place, there's a parenthesis. And guess what the parenthesis is? It's another invitation from God. Another plea from God. Another opportunity from God presented to those.
who have denied Him and have spurned his grace. Notice the parenthetical warning before the last vile judgment in verse 15. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. What is Jesus doing here?
Finally, in the midst of these terrible judgments, we read these words of Christ. Behold, I come as a thief. If men will not hear the voice of God, he lays his heart open to listen to the voice of utter destruction and evil and damnation, when the kings and the peoples of the earth will not listen to God, when they begin to hear the voices of the spirits of darkness, like the frogs that came out of the mouth of the dragon. They have to make a choice between the voice of God who comes to plead to them and the voice of darkness. that will ultimately be their ruin.
So, just before the final judgment, just before God completes his cup of wrath. Once again, he says, let me ask you one more time. Let me remind you one more time. Let me plead with you one more time. Let me warn you one more time.
Yes, he's a God of justice and a God of judgment. But he is a God of mercy. And revelation is filled with that truth over and over again. And that brings us to the last part of this chapter and the seventh vial. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, Listen to this now.
Yet is Finished. It is finished. There was a day on Golgotha, When Jesus Christ hung between the heavens and the earth, And he was paying the penalty and receiving the judgment for our sin. And when he had paid the last drop of that judgment, and all of God's wrath had been exercised upon him for us all, the words from our Lord's lip cried out, It is finished, the judgment is done. And now, in the tribulation period, as the last vial is poured out upon this earth, once again the word from heaven is: it is done.
It is finished. The judgment is over. And if you've read these verses, you know that they describe. The final end of the tribulation period culminating in the Battle of Armageddon and all of the physical. Trauma of that time.
Let me just read it to you. And there were voices and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And the great city, or the city of Jerusalem, was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine. of the fierceness of his wrath.
And every island fled away. And the mountains were not found. I believe that's a literal truth. All the islands are dissolved, all the mountains are leveled. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent.
And that is 100 pounds, by the way. How would you like to be walking around while 100-pound hailstones are falling out of heaven? You say, is that literal? That's literal. Think about this now.
And the hail came down from heaven. And the Battle of Armageddon is all a part of this, as we shall see in the 19th chapter. And God's judgment is poured out upon this earth, and God has finally vindicated Himself against the rebels. have so spurned his grace and his love.
Well, it's not a pretty story, but it is a true one. And I hope you're listening carefully. Tomorrow, we're going to talk about the end of world religion. Nothing so dominates the landscape of news, media, and uh everyday talk than religion. Not necessarily Christianity, but religion as a whole, across the whole realm, everything that people qualify as religion.
But one day, all of that is going to be. Ended. And the Bible tells us what happens when religion no longer exists on this earth from the 17th chapter of Revelation. And that's what we're going to talk about today. I hope you'll be with us then.
I'm David Jeremiah, and this is Turning Point, and this is the book of Revelation. Thank you for listening. See you next time. Our message today originated from Shadow Mountain Community Church and Dr. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor.
If this ministry is an encouragement to you, let us know by writing to Turning Point PO Box 3838 San Diego, California 92163, visiting our website at davidjeremiah.org slash radio or calling 800-947-1993. Ask for your copy of David's exciting new novel Set in the End Times. Vanished. It's yours for a gift of any amount. You can also view over 1,200 of Dr.
Jeremiah's sermons on any screen, anytime you like. On our Turning Point Plus streaming service for a monthly gift of any amount, visit turningpointplus.org for details. That's turningpointplus.org. This is David Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series Escape the Coming Night on Turning Point with Dr.
David Jeremiah.
