And welcome back this week.
I know we had a off week last week, and I've
been a little lackadaisical about getting the episodes uploaded,
so we actually missed the upload the week before that, so that's
okay, because that means we right back on track to post after tonight.
Just everybody that listens
off of the live or off of Rumble just got
a different day where they missed an episode.
I guarantee you won't be fired.
No, you got job security.
Brother Dennis, how we doing today?
Man, I'm doing good.
I pulled a tree stump today?
I hear y'all talking about Mondays.
I'm like man, I don't miss it.
I might on my track,
you're pulling a tree stone.
That's awesome.
And if it don't come up today, you can get it tomorrow, right?
That's right.
I've been working the past few days getting 2 tree stumps out.
I need a bulldozer.
That's what I need
Yeah.
I need a bulldog.
I think so.
I think we'll talk to Diane about that.
I think.
Yeah.
I think she'll go for.
I think she'll be safe.
I'm sure she can come up with some uses for it that you haven't thought of.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah probably so.
And now he's going, wait a minute, I might not need it.
How about you, brother Brian?
How you doing?
Well, I'm good.
I'm already told y'all I'm I
don't know if I'm washing or hanging out.
So, you know, whatever.
But yeah, just one
of those crazy days and I've been running all day long.
So, but it's good to be here.
Good to sit down and and just
jump into God's word.
Yeah, it is.
It's really good.
Pick him back up where we left off in Revelation.
Uh, random news from from outside of all this.
We had another weekend of No Kings protests.
And, hey, they did a great job.
We still don't have a king here in America.
I'm impressed.
So good job, guys.
Yeah.
I laugh
about that every single time and I always get a kick out of it.
And I do.
I'm glad people are getting out and feel
like they we live in a free enough country then go out and say some.
That's true.
Pretty crazy.
Ridiculous as it may be.
Yeah, as ridiculous it is.
I'm glad they're doing it because that is.
It's a very good sign for us that we're able to do that.
And I'm grateful that we live in a country where they can.
So whether I agree with them or not, hey, good job.
We still don't have a king.
Um, the, another random thing.
It's not hugely important, especially to most Christians,
because we have a tendency to err on the side of doing everything
possible to make sure we don't even come close to crossing any laws.
Uh, but, uh, the Alabama Supreme Court weighed
in on a fun case a couple of weeks ago, and finally,
all the details came out with it, um, where they modified
uh, Alabama 15, 530 , what most people call
the stop and identify statute.
It's actually the stopping question.
We don't have a actual identify statute, but they tie it into that.
Um, where, uh, a pastor
actually got arrested down in Childersburg, uh, a couple years
ago, uh, because he went over to water his neighbor's
plants and uh, one of the other neighbors saw this
random person, while this person they knew was on vacation, was gone,
and this guy walking around his house, so they just call the police
on him instead of, you know, opening the door and being like, hey, who are you?
What are you doing at my neighbor's house while they're on vacation?
called the police on the poor guy.
And when they showed up, he explained, you know, I'm
Pastor Jennings from so-and-so Baptist Church, and I
live cross the road over here, and, you know, this guy goes church with me and
asked me to check on his house, water his plants.
He says as he's standing there with a water hose in his hand, watering his plants.
And he asked me to do that while he was on vacation and
the police, you know, as police officers often do.
Hey, we need to see your ID.
And he's like, oh, hang on.
that's not and before he even gets to finish his statement.
They grab him, throw him to the ground, slap him in cuss.
one of the most amazing body cam videos
I've ever seen because like he was so calm.
And of course, they do that.
he's like, what are you doing?
Well, it all got tossed almost immediately.
Well, of course, there's a lawsuit following it and everything, and the
police union, of course, argued, but, well, no, they can't be sued.
They have qualified immunity for this.
They didn't do anything wrong.
They had no way of knowing they weren't allowed to demand his ID.
Uh, completely ignoring the case in 2019
from Huntsville, where the federal appeals court
said, no, our law doesn't allow that, its name, address,
and explanation of your actions, and that's it.
And so they go and they make the arguments in front of the Supreme Court.
I'm going to tell you something.
I would love to be a Supreme Court judge.
Not only do you get to pick which
cases you listen to, even the Alabama Supreme Court,
you get to choose whether or not you even hear the case, you just, you can turn them down.
Also, they can decide what question's being asked.
I was completely unaware of this.
It was amazing.
So the question that was asked was, um,
well, yeah, but they have to be able to demand
ID because it's illegal to give a false identity to police.
Well, how else can they know if they can't demand your ID randomly?
And well, the Supreme Court basically laughed at that and went,
um, yeah, that's not how that works.
You have to have some kind of suspicion that they're giving false information.
But if you had asked an intelligent question, the question you
would have asked would have been, um, did they have the right to
demand his driver's license or some form of ID,
since he didn't actually give his full name and address, because his
name was given as Pastor Jennings, and I
live across the street over there, as he vaguely
gestures, because he has a water hose in his hand and he doesn't want to spray the cops with water.
And the answer, by the way, is yes.
At that point they can now say, no,
no, no, that wasn't good enough.
You have to now present something.
Um, and that was the decision, um, unanimously
from from our Supreme Court in Alabama.
Though I will say, if you have a chance to go
look that one up, it's Jennings B. Smith is the case, and
you ever want a fun read, read the opinions of those
Supreme Court justices because there's like, I think we have
9 justices on the Supreme Court at the state level as
well, and they were actually split
on some of the details of that case.
Um, because one of the Supreme Court just said, well,
yeah, you just, I mean, they get to decide how you deliver the information to
them, and literally all of the other justices went, no.
And just disagreed with the poor guy.
And he was like, why not?
And they're like, because that's not how it works.
We, we have a, you know, we have specificity here.
So, uh, just just in case you're
ever wondering, um, and the other thing that came, of course, with the
justices was the decision of,
was it an order or a request, because that actually makes a
difference, because a request you were free to deny, but in
order, you have to follow or you go to jail.
And the reason that that's actually a
big deal is a lot of times the police unions,
especially if somebody messes up, will say, oh, it was just a request, they wouldn't
have arrested them if they had said no.
Uh, especially in a case somebody doesn't get arrested,
and they'll use that as the excuse because it's like, oh,
well, yeah, if you just said no, it was fine.
You didn't have to do what they told you to do.
And it's like, well, yeah, but you're a guy with a badge and a gun and
you tell me to do something, I kind of feel like I have to do it.
Um, but our law is not written that way.
So what they basically boiled down to was clarify that
it's actually in order, am I, you know, are you going to arrest me if I say no?
Yeah?
Okay, here, I'm going to do whatever you say at that point.
And they all pretty much agreed on that, but it makes
for a very, very funny read, if you ever get a chance to
read it, and don't mind some dry legal analysis
stuff in there, but when you get down to the actual opinions, they're pretty amusing.
So, uh, but that was an interesting one because that does affect
us in Alabama just a touch.
Make sure if you're asked, you actually give your full legal name and
your entire address like somebody would ride on a letter to you.
That was actually a statement made by one of the justices and they all concurred with him.
That, yeah, it's got to be something that you can put on an envelope and get a letter in the mail with.
So, hey, if you're ever asked and you're not driving, different rules for driving.
Driver's license and all your car information goes with that.
But if you're just walking on the street and you get asked, just go full name.
Be on the safe side.
Uh, so that one's, that was kind of fun this weekend.
I got to sit down and read over all that while enjoying the videos
from the No Kings protests.
All right.
Well, last time we dropped off with Revelation 15 one.
And, uh, we had Revelation 14,
We had stopped, uh, let me refresh
myself on the ending of that chapter, and it was,
uh, talking about the angels,
uh, the angels coming out
of the the temple of heaven.
They have the sickles.
One of them has a sickle and, well, actually, 2 of them have a, have
sickles to, uh, uh, in
14, 15, uh, chapter 14, verse
15, came out of the temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one
seated on the cloud, use your sickle, and start to reap because the time to
reap has come since the earth, earth's harvest is ripe,
and we're covering uh, those angels, uh, doing
that towards the end of 14.
You have the angels of the sickles, the angel that was in charge of
fire that comes from the altar.
Um, and uh,
gather that said to the angel with the sickle,
gather the cluster of grapes, off the vine of the earth
because its grapes are now ripe.
Um, and that, you
know, it starts talking about the wine press being stomped outside
of the city and the blood pouring out of the wine press up to
the height of the horse's bridles for a distance of almost 200 miles.
And we talked about the symbolism of that and what it was showing.
And then we come to this next sign that
John sees in chapter 15.
Yeah, so 14 was basically kind of an overview, right?
Right.
And we're going to get back to the details.
Yes, getting back into the really the last
of the great tribulation here.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's going to get pretty intense here.
Yeah absolutely.
All right, you want to read verses one and two?
Sure.
Since then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous.
Seven angels who had 7 plagues, which are
the last, because in them, the wrath of God is finished.
And I saw something like a sea of glass mixed
with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast in his
image, and the number of his name, standing on the sea of
glass, holding harps of God.
So, this,
uh, we're, we're, we're getting into,
um, the last 7 things, right?
It is going to be 7 bowls.
These plagues are the same as the 7 bowls that show up a
little later in verse seven, right?
Yeah, and this is, it's a, it's this another,
Of course, John's a, he's a spectator here and another, another
sign connects us with Revelation
12 one, which is, which was the 1st sign.
But Satan, he's had his time, right?
He's had his time.
He's had his run of things, uh, time to unleash his
wrath on the saints of God, but but now God
is unleashing his wrath and and bringing
us up to the final
judgment that we will that we will get to at the
end of the great tribulation.
God's been
slow to anger, hadn't he?
I mean, it really has.
And, and, uh, but here
comes the end of his long suffering.
He's done.
Is it 1st Peter, 2nd Peter talks about the patience.
He's being patient.
None to be lost.
That's right.
Yeah, yeah.
I want none to perish and I just
want to get this straight in my head and maybe anybody listening.
What's coming up or seven, the 7 last
plagues that says in verse one there.
And, uh, so so what we have
is we started out with 7 seals.
And I promise I won't ever do that again.
Seven seals and at the 7th seal.
I don't, I don't, I don't do animal impersonation.
Come on.
So you can...
You got the 7 seals.
And at the 7th seal is, it contains the 7 trumpets.
And then the 7th trumpet contains these seven, these 7 bowls.
Yeah.
So this is all happening and one after the other.
Just one after the other in a cereal kind of way.
And these bowls are being poured out.
Yeah.
The wrath of God, right?
Yeah.
You know, it reminds me.
It reminds me of what Jesus talked about with labor pains, right?
Because toward the end, that 7th seal is still
going on here because the 7th trumpet is completed
in the 7...
I mean, it's all hitting at once now.
I mean, it's just getting more and more intense.
Yes, it is.
It is.
And and like I said, uh, you know, he
is, he was slow to anger and he doesn't
tell us not to be angry, but he does tell us to be angry and said not, right?
There's things that we, as Christians,
there's righteous anger, right?
Now, I think you need to really pray over
and contemplate whether or not your anger is righteous or not.
Because a lot of times I think we can just check it off as righteous
anger, but it's not.
You know, it's what we want to be angry about.
But, but, but when we see, when we see,
um, uh, wrongdoing, when we see
things like, um, I mean, abortion, that makes me angry.
Yeah.
It makes me angry that that Satan has deceived so
many and that we would uh, uh,
that we would be for the, the murder of a child.
and that we can't see that as murder, you know?
But there's things that make us angry.
But again, be angry and sin not.
I think usually too, righteous anger is not as emotional.
Yeah, yeah.
Right.
You know, it's not like a road rage.
Right.
No, yeah, like no, you're not slipping out.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
You might flip some tables.
I don't know.
That's what you.
Well, yeah.
But, you know.
But, so, I mean, you
know, through the smoke and the fire of everything that's
going on here, uh, that that
came through the persecution of Satan, uh, now
victory is, we're starting, we're starting to
get towards some victory here, uh, that they're getting revenge
in in these dark days.
So I think, I think, you know, I think we're
beginning, we're beginning to come around and see some of this right
here in chapter 15, 16.
You want to read those next?
You may read those next.
Hey, I just want to ask you real quick on verse two.
What do you make the sea of glass?
It's usually like just a mass of people, right?
Yeah.
Yes.
symbolic of that.
I think so.
I think anytime it's mixed with fire.
Anytime we're mentioned, C, I think we're dealing with
a group of people.
Yeah.
And so, yeah.
And the fire would be like judgment.
Judgment towards those people.
Yeah.
It's interesting.
The other time where we've actually seen this sea of glass, um,
was in Revelation 46.
I was actually going back, check that, because I remembered something
triggering in my head on that, and it described it then
as a sea of glass.
Um, and it said, uh, something like crystal.
And that word used for crystal.
We're not actually 100%
sure what it meant because it could have been like the mineral crystal,
or it could have been ice, which was
an older translation of the same word.
And, uh, so it's really interesting here
when you think about it in those terms because if you take that
crystal to be ice, a sea of ice mixed
with fire, um, it kind
of changes the way you look at what what John's seeing there because he's
actually seeing the sea changing right
in front of him by the fire that would be under it.
Right.
So really interesting because it's, like you
say, whether it's the people of the world or whatever it is, it's
something that is active and it's moving and it's changing, whereas
originally it was seemed to be fairly static.
But now all of a sudden it's actually undergoing change.
Yes.
Yeah, and, and, uh, oh,
man, it's just a, it's a crazy picture in my head of this.
And, and, and it, uh, the same,
I believe the same, uh, uh, martyrs
that we see in, uh, was it
back in Revelation 6 and one of the, one of the SEAL judgments.
Yeah.
Um, standing at and it
said, my my version is new American standard here, standing on the sea of glass.
They're not in it.
The ESV says standing
beside the sea of class holding harps of God.
Yeah.
So they're they're outside of that judgment.
And this could be, this could be,
I guess, the 144,000 or it could be any, any of the
remnant that's still made it through this.
made it through to the end.
And I think I think that's what we're seeing here.
The people who've come through the persecution and who...
Oh, yeah, it would be the murder.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I think so.
And I love that that
phrase, uh, something like
a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had conquered the beast.
Um, traditionally, that phrase
would be, they had overcome.
Right.
It's been victorious.
Yeah, they, they, they've, they've overcome, and that's
what exactly what Jesus was talking to the church is about, right?
The 7 churches, who overcomes every church, he who overcomes.
And these guys have somehow held out and
been just evidently on the fringe of society
for years, right, to not
take the beast to overcome the number of his name.
Yeah.
That's that's going to be tough.
Yes, it is.
Just a
quick note there on that, the, the, what you
were discussing earlier about standing by the sea of glass or on the sea of glass.
The preposition, EPI, EPI,
with the accusative case as it exists in this
particular phrase, could mean, yep,
there it is, on, at, by, or near.
And we're not 100% sure because
it can mean all 4 of those and it's like, hey, they're not in.
Yeah.
Not in.
either on it, at it, buy it, or near it.
But they're definitely not in it.
Yeah.
All right, verse three.
And they sing a song of Moses, the servant
of God, and the song of the lamb saying, great and marvelous
are thy works, Lord God almighty, just and
true are thy ways, thou king of saints.
Uh, and let's do verse 4.
So, okay.
Yeah, who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
and glorify thy name, for thou only
are holy, for all nations shall come and
worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest.
So the song of Moses is
found in Exodus chapter 15, verse one
through 21, and then in Deuteronomy 32, one through 43.
Both of these songs speak
of God's deliverance, his salvation, and his faithfulness.
Faithfulness.
Yeah, he is faithful, right?
He is faithful.
And Revelation 5, and back in chapter
5, verse 9 through 12, we see this
description of praise to Christ
as Redeemer, right?
Song of the Lamb.
Yeah, yeah.
He is the redeemer of all ages.
And, and, and here it
says, the king of ages.
Christ will, he'll be the object of universal
worship and acknowledgement.
There will be no place where he will not be worshipped.
I mean, every knee shall bow, every tongue
shall confess.
And we live in a time right now,
guys, where there's there's no fear of God, right?
There's absolutely no fear of God.
We live in a world where, where everyone,
they do what they want to do and how they want to do it,
as it pleases them and it makes them feel good, then that's, hey, do it.
you know, and that's what they're that's what they're telling everybody else.
It makes you feel good.
Just, hey, just follow your heart, bro.
Yeah, follow your heart.
Man, I mean, terrible,
terrible advice, right?
The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked who can know it.
That's what the Bible says about your heart.
So, so yeah.
And if you think as a
Christian, you can live as you want to live with
no fear of God and
get away with that.
I'm going to correct you.
You're wrong.
You're absolutely wrong.
Not all bad.
that happens.
Now, it is because of your sin, right?
I mean, you're going to face judgment one day and we all we all face
bad times and hard times and stuff.
And I want to be clear, you know, not everything that
happens, not every bad thing that happens is because of your sin,
but you better believe that it's because of sin.
And there are things that you can do in your life
that will cause you heartache and pain and suffering in this world.
We put a lot of things on ourselves, I think.
Yeah, we do.
You know?
And I'll tell you what, you don't want to live your Christian life
if you claim to be a believer living it going, oh, I'm forgiven.
Yeah, yeah.
I've got grace, man.
I can do whatever I want to do.
Buddy, I'll tell you, there's a judgment seat of Christ
coming where you're going to give a count for every word, every deed.
Yes.
And that's going to be a brutal way to end up.
I mean, it's not about salvation at that point, but it's
about rewards and it's about just utter shame.
Yeah.
Well, and it's one of those things that, as Christians,
it's such hard balance to strike,
especially if you're teaching a new Christian.
The difference between being saved
and the process of sanctification that comes along with that.
versus being at the end of that process.
Yes, you are going to fall and fail and
make mistakes and you're going to mess up and you're going to you're going to fall back on your old ways.
Is it possible to not do that?
Yes, absolutely through the power of God
and through God's help and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
it is possible to not go and keep
falling back on those old sins.
But more than likely, you're going to.
And it's a fine line in
teaching, especially new Christians, when you
make the mistake, you go to God, you ask forgiveness and be
grateful for his mercy, but we're not going to live as though
that mercy is every, we're just going to keep doing it.
We will not sin more so that mercy or grace may abandon.
You know, that, you know, God forbid that.
That is something that we shouldn't be doing.
And it's such a fine line, and it's such a hard thing.
I think, especially with new Christians to get that through that
we're not saying, go and just sin, sin, sin, but
recognize your sin.
ask God for forgiveness because he is faithful and just forgive us.
The Bible tells us that.
And then move on.
That's the trick.
It's it's you've got to move on.
You've got to take that next step forward and move
forward, but leave the sin behind.
And when you fall back into it, get up, wipe yourself
off, pray, talk to God about it and keep walking forward.
There's a grace movement out there, though, that these people, I've
literally heard somebody say, oh, yeah, I can do that.
I'm forgiven.
Yeah, yeah.
No.
Yeah.
You're spitting in the face of gray.
That's what you're doing.
Absolutely you are.
It's a horrible, horrible thing.
And it's, I don't, I don't think people have enough reverence
for the Lord Jesus Christ and to know who
he really is, that he is holy, holy, holy, that
he is the name above all names.
The word became flesh.
He's the alpha, the omega, the beginning, the end.
He's the king, kings and Lord lords.
All these things, the great I am.
And one of these days you're going to face plant in front of him.
Absolutely.
And it's just, it's scary to,
to know how people think, you know, um, we, uh,
we, we've been, we're in second, we were in 2nd Peter, uh, chapter
two, uh, Wednesday night.
And, uh, and we talked a lot about the
holiness and and him calling us a peculiar
people, uh, a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
you know, all those names that he's given us.
And, uh, and what we want to, and I, and I,
I don't want to, I don't want to down anybody for this. and we,
talked about it before.
Yes, we're sinners saved by grace, but do not let that be an excuse
for you to live the way that you want to live.
Do not let that be an excuse for you.
Yes, we still live in this flesh and yes, this flesh will fail us.
But do not let that be an excuse to not live
a righteous life and to follow Christ the way that he's called us
to live because we will face judgment, right?
I mean, if you're a saved Christian, we'll stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
And some of that judgment that you may get may be here.
You may bring it on.
It may be right here right now.
You won't spend eternity in hell if you're truly saved.
But, you know, I, I, and now I was thinking about this too.
I was thinking about all that's going on here.
you know, and all the people that are going to be bowing down and worshiping
Jesus all over and, you know, in every niche
bowel every time she'll confess.
I was able to witness to a guy the
other day that's lived a man.
When I say a hard life, guys, I could just, I could go into detail
and then, and it would probably, uh, make the hair
stand up on the back of you head how rough this guy was during his life.
And, uh, and he told me, um, we got
to talking about being saved.
We got to talk about judgment, and he
doesn't know really what he believes.
He's very intelligent, actually, and studied
the Bible and was quoting verses to me and things,
and he said, but he made the statement when we were
talking about, you know, Christ dying for our sins and paying the price for our sins.
He said, well, why don't we still have to ask forgiveness then?
Why are we asking forgiveness?
I said, well, I said, here's the thing.
He paid the price for our sins.
We asked forgiveness.
out of reverence to him for what he done, right?
Because when we sinned against him,
I said, that sin.
I said, I told him, I said, it's not your sin that will send you to hell.
I said, it's your rejection of an almighty and righteous
and a holy God, that you
would never accept him, you know.
And I said, I said, but yes, we repent
of our sins.
We repent of what we've done.
And we do it with a contract
spirit, right?
We do it with a heart that's broken because I
know that I've sinned against God and it hurts me because I know it
hurts him because he's a good father.
Father.
Yes, he's a father.
He's a father to us.
But, you know, one of the things that really just made me so sad.
And I, I, I, I'm hopefully I get another chance to
go back and talk with him again.
But one of the things that made me so sad that he said while we
were talking to each other, he said, um, he said,
you know, he said, I hope he said, I've always just felt like,
you know, you die, you die, and that's it.
and you're done.
He said, at least I hope that's how it is with the life that I've lived.
That's that's no hope at all.
And that's that's really what that
group of people, those people who don't
want to believe, that's what they're banking on, that
they're just going to be taking a dirt nap one day, you know,
they're going to be covered up and that's going to be it.
They're going to die and they're going to be paid.
And listen, this is the same thing.
It's the same thing that we discussed,
we discussed it briefly in here and I talked about it a little bit
more on a Wednesday night, but it's the same thing with this eternal
damnation thing that people are saying that hell's not eternal.
Annihilation.
Yeah, the annihilation that you're just ultimately
you're just destroyed and it's over then and
there's no eternal punishment, right?
You're just punished and you're done and you're over with.
But that's not who we are.
That's not how we're made, right?
We're made to be eternal beings.
That's the way he made us.
Yeah, and we need to be, we need to be
talking about hell because if, you know, if people are in the
state that that guy's in and don't believe there's a hell either,
I mean, they need to know that there's 2 sides to this coin.
And I can't remember what the stat was,
but it was the vast majority of references to hell were
spoken by Jesus himself.
Yeah, absolutely.
And he used hell in his message to drive the point home
that don't go there and God loves you and doesn't want you to go there.
Yes, absolutely.
And man, I don't, I don't, this world is messed up.
It's messed up.
And like you said, you know, it's like the Israelites were back in the day with
the judges or whenever when everyone did
what was right in his own eyes.
That's right.
And yeah.
That's why the rats come.
And you know what God said when you do what's right in your
own eyes, there's going to be a time where he's going
to weigh you and you're going to come up short.
Yeah.
Yeah, we were just looking at Daniel chapter 5 in Sunday school, is it?
Yeah, yeah, I can't pronounce the words Mina,
Mina, Teco, Club Parson.
Yeah.
You've been wading the balance and found wanting.
Found wanting.
Yeah.
absolutely.
Yeah.
So, uh, but yeah, so,
I mean, uh, that that there will be
a day, though, when when nations will come together to worship Jesus.
Philippians chapter 2, verse 9 through 11, wherefore
God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow, and things in heaven and earth,
and things are things in the earth, and the things under the
earth, and that every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Amen.
So there's there's a day that's coming and every means
every, right?
Every name, every tongue.
Those that are in hell will acknowledge
him as savior, he will not, he didn't, they
didn't accept him as savior, but they will acknowledge him that
he's the only king of king and lord of lords.
They'll acknowledge him as, as, uh, not
as their savior, but they'll acknowledge him as king,
acknowledge him as ruler of the universe.
They'll know who he is.
And you may not always understand what
God is doing and and
for you or to you at times and
you may think it's not right, but guess what?
You're wrong.
Whatever God does is righteous.
Whatever God does is true.
And I mean, I've had to say that in my in my own life.
I've had to look at things that's happening and think, why?
You know, why, God, and I don't think there's anything wrong with questioning that.
And if you're doing it in an honorable way, but, but,
but to, to sit back and think that God has just messed
up and done something wrong.
No, he's never.
He never has done anything wrong.
Not gotch, right?
You got to adjust your thinking to his.
He will not conform to you.
He is righteous and we're unrighteous.
Our righteousness is filthy rags.
Amen.
And he does not shift with the currents of the culture.
No.
No, they don't change this time, you know, in this 100 years.
He's something different in the last 100 years.
He's always been the same.
He always will be the same.
And that's, man, and what a blessing that is that he never changes.
He's a rock.
Yeah, he's steady.
the one thing in this world that we can count on.
Yeah, the Bible says not one jot or tittle
of this will change, right?
It won't pass away and he he is the same yesterday
today and forever more.
And you've got a
world out there today that wants to say, well,
you know, this is just the way that was then.
And this is why it was written like this for, you know,
and try to change the, the, yeah, the mind
of God doesn't change, right?
We like to make God in our image, don't we?
Yeah we do.
Big time.
We like to we like to build him up like we want him to be.
I had somebody somebody
had messaged me today about a new song that's coming out.
And I
might get into it another day, but I think it's
coming out Friday and they messaged me and asked
me what I thought about it.
And I listened to it and it's not, I hadn't heard the
full version of it.
It was just a few verses of it.
Uh, and uh, and it's, you
know, there's truths in it, but, but, um, but what the,
the, the, the songwriter was, was saying uh,
can also be heavily misconstrued because he's talking about uh,
uh, a Jesus that he thought he knew, but he didn't know,
and this Jesus that he knows is, uh, how
forgiving he is and how, um, how he'll
meet you where you are and which all those things are true, but basically it
also gives the impression that he might leave
you there too, and still be your Jesus.
And that's where you got to be careful.
And that's where we want that, that's what the world wants.
They wanted Jesus who will save them in their
sins, but leave them alone and let them sin.
Yeah.
And that's not, that's not, just don't change me.
Yeah, don't change me.
Don't try to...
I'll never forget.
I think it was the 1st time we
went from Mountain View to Winter Extreme
with the youth group.
It was the year I graduated high school.
And we go up there.
And that year, we
had...
Yeah, I don't remember who I was performing.
Actually, Casting Crowns performed that.
I know they performed that year.
That was one of their first, that was shortly after they had just gotten started.
Right.
So they performed that year.
Um, and uh, several others.
But anyway, the speakers, and
I cannot remember the 1st guy that got up and presented
the gospel the 1st night.
because they always they always had somebody who did a fairly deep,
like, study and a fairly deep lesson
each night or at each meeting because they had multiple
meetings because you'd have like 2 or 3 and then you'd have breaks in between.
And I can't remember who the 1st guy was, but he made
this, he really went out of his way to make a
very important point where he was talking about,
you've heard it said that if you were the only person
in the world to ever get saved, Jesus Christ would die for you.
And he said, but the fact of the matter is, you're not.
And he did not die just for you.
He died for everyone who will ever be saved.
And he said, so we've got to stop living like
he only did it for us, and we have to recognize that he did it for everyone that's going to be saved.
And then Josh McDowell.
And that statement is one of his number
one statements he makes every time.
If Jesus, if you were the only person to ever get saved,
Jesus Christ would have gone to the cross for you.
And that is one of his part of when he gives the gospel.
That's one of the things he says.
Well, of course, after the 1st session where Josh
McDowell spoke, they went to him and said, hey, by the way, right before you
did this, this guy got up and so he came back
and I'll never forget, he took the time to clarify for all these kids.
He said, how many of y'all thought
we were saying 2 different things?
And he said, well, you're kind of right.
He said, but actually, what we're saying is, he said, I'm
saying it starts with you.
He's saying it doesn't end there.
Yes, Jesus will meet you where
you are, but he doesn't leave you there.
You cannot end there.
And that was his whole thing because Josh
McDowell, you got to remember his his ministry is getting you to the cross.
It's getting you to the position where you're going to examine it and possibly get saved.
That's his point is get you there.
This other guy is an evangelist who teaches you, now
go out and tell.
And so it's the same message, but you got the start of the message and
the end of the message, and it sounds like contradictory statements,
and the Bible is full of stuff like that.
People try to say, well, this is contradicting itself, and it's like,
no, no, no, you've got to take it as a whole.
And we have a habit of
just taking the one we like and then leaving the other one alone.
I mean, I grew up my whole life hearing preachers, you know, point out,
if you were the only one to ever get saved, Jesus would die, and very
rarely did I hear him get up and say, by the way, he didn't.
And you're not the only one to get saved and you're supposed to go out and tell people now.
Yeah, I believe he died.
I believe you died as much for Adolf Hitler as he did for me.
Absolutely.
Everybody that's ever lived, ever will live.
Because, I mean, Jesus boiled it down in John 3 that
it's black and white.
either you're with me or against me.
Yep.
Amen.
Absolutely.
If you believe, you've been delivered.
And he did not pick and choose.
No.
Man, that's still in my head.
That cartoon was just...
Maybe that's another day.
I don't know, but man, that's go back to
our Calvinism stuff.
It's really heavy, isn't it?
When you sit,
I mean, it was, it was almost meant to be comical towards
the Calvinist group that we, I sent him a
cartoon that day, that had a father
and son, uh, and the son, uh,
young boy, you know, and the father was looking at him and I can't,
you may pull it up.
Yeah.
What was it he said to?
The sons, the father, the father says,
yes, I love you, son, and strongly desire that you be saved,
but God may have chosen you for reprobation and damnation.
If that's the case, you can't believe, and it wouldn't
matter if you did, since Jesus didn't die for you.
This is a father talking
to a son and taking the logical outworking
of a tulip.
Yeah. of a cow.
Right, yeah, yeah.
And when you when you say that to him, they'll say, no, you don't understand.
You don't get it, but yes, yes, when you when it comes
right down to what they believe and what they what they understand.
If you believe that God is sovereign,
like all of us do, like or like we do.
And they say he's sovereign too, yes, we believe that,
but we also believe in man's free will.
But, but to be able to be, how would
you like to be a father and believe that that God
picks and chooses who he wants to say?
And child's life.
Yeah, yeah.
And I mean, from that point on, why would
you worry about anything, if you were, I mean, you
just go live out the way you want to live, right?
In the pigsty.
Because if I'm going to be saved, I'm going to be saved, and if I'm not, I'm not.
I'm just going to live and enjoy, enjoy life and go out and do what I want to do.
It's like, no.
And again, it comes back to the verse we just read in 15-4.
Who will not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name
because you alone are holy, all nations will come
and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed,
or the another translation of that righteous acts.
Kings James gets closed is your judgments of condemnation.
And I mean, that's the thing.
He is a righteous and holy God, and he is going to judge us.
And you take that, you take that cartoon to the next level and
it's like, well, you know, God appointed me for damnation.
Shouldn't I live out?
He appointed me to sin.
Yeah, I went out of the sin is his fault.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Then, yeah, then you're bringing in a whole different theology right there.
Yeah.
So God is responsible for your sin all of a sudden.
Yeah, right, no.
Yeah.
It is amazing to me.
And I, and this is one of the things that always has bothered
me so bad about that Calvinist idea is they get,
they, they go so far with it and they, and
then they stop thinking.
You have to just turn off your brain at some point because
if you take it to the logical conclusion, suddenly you're
making the exact same argument that I've heard from atheists.
Well, obviously God is not all good because he created sin.
And it's like, uh, no, no, that's not how that works.
But if you take the Calvinist
argument all the way to its logical conclusion.
It has to be how it works because God is so
sovereign and so perfect and so omniscient and so controlling
that, yeah, he created sin and he chose
those who would live in sin and would die in sin and would die and go to hell.
And it's like, but he's a holy God.
Sin is the perversion of the good that God is.
And yeah, well, it's not even the opposite.
It's the perversion.
I mean, you take everything, sex out within the bounds of marriage.
Good thing.
Outside the bounds of marriage, it's a perversion.
It is a, it will damage you and it causes so much heartache and pain.
You take the things he gives us to treat
wounds and to to deal with pain and to deal with
hurts and to the medicines and things like that.
Well, yeah, if you take it for that.
It's good.
You take it outside of that, you very
possibly and more likely will become a drug addict.
And then your life is ruled by something that has nothing to do with him.
You take, again, it's, it's, that's darkness
is not the opposite of light.
It's the absence of light.
And that's exactly what sin is.
It is the perversion and the absence of the holiness of God.
Amen.
And Psalms chapter 7 verse
9 says, oh, let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end.
but establish the just, for the righteous God
try the hearts of rains.
Psalms 11, 7, for the righteous
Lord loveth righteousness, his countenance doth
behold the upright.
He is a righteous God.
Psalms 107, uh,
oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy
endureth forever.
Verse 40
He poureth contempt upon princes
and causeth them to wander in the wilderness where
there is no way.
Verse 42.
The righteous shall see it and rejoice, and all
iniquity shall stop her mouth.
So, yeah, I mean, he is a he is a righteous God.
He is a holy God.
He is a loving God.
He did not create sin.
He created us with a choice
or, again, you would
have to say that God created saying if you didn't believe we had a choice, right?
I mean, because he put he put Satan.
He put Satan in a place where he made a choice, right?
Either follow me or you follow yourself.
And he followed himself.
And then Satan.
came to earth where we had a choice.
You have.
Why would he even put that tree there?
I mean, why?
Why would that tree be there at all if God's
already laid everything out?
Why put something there that you must choose?
Right?
Because the only way we have to show love to him is our obedience.
That's exactly right.
That's it.
We, we are, we, when we are
obedient to God, then we're, we're
showing him that we respect him, that we love him as a father,
that we trust him, and that we trust him with our lives and our eternities.
He didn't give us rules to be mean, man.
It's to protect us and to protect others from us.
And anyway, I'm sorry I let it
down that Calvinist rabbit hole.
It was a good spot to point it out.
All right, verse five.
After these things, I looked, and the temple of the
tabernacle of testimony in heaven was opened, and
the 7 angels who had the 7 plagues came out of the temple,
clothed in linen, clean and bright, and girded around
their chests with golden sashes.
You read the next one too.
Yeah.
Then one of the 4 living creatures gave to the
7 angels 7 golden bowls full of
the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
So this is this is the temple not made with hands.
This is the temple in heaven or tabernacle of testimony.
And uh, man, this is just, I can't even imagine what it looks like.
Oh, no.
Yeah, Tampa was referred to 15 times in
Revelation after chapter after chapter 3. after chapter 3.
Wow.
And that's significant because the
church is not identified with a temple.
There will there will not be
a temple in the new Jerusalem where the church is going.
So when he talks about the temple,
he's dealing with the people who have had the temple,
who know what temple worship was.
He's dealing with his chosen people.
He's dealing with Israel.
When he talks about being clothed in linen,
Another meaning is the angels are clothed in precious stones.
They got precious stones.
It means their garments are studded and set
in precious stones, right?
Yeah.
And they've come out of the holy of holies.
Yeah.
Because they're they're pure.
They are.
pure.
They don't have to wear a bale.
They don't have to have a rope tied around their leg or anything.
No, no, no, but the garments do identify.
in a priestly activity, don't they?
Yeah, but they're in perfection, but there are no
acts of mercy here, only, but
only plagues and judgment.
No, no mercy is going to be, it's going to be coming in this.
The Golden Girls represent the work of Christ there.
They're they're doing as they as they carry out his judgment.
Yeah.
Man.
These scenes, you know, I've always
tried to picture heaven in my mind and I give up pretty quick.
Yeah.
I just can't imagine.
Can you imagine John trying to describe this stuff?
And I feel like if I try to imagine
it that I'm I know that I'm going to come.
short, you know, so I'm just like, I just trust you, guys.
No, it's good.
We got gold streets and stuff.
All just go with that, you know?
Yeah, this is what you tell me.
So, yeah, yeah, I
can't, I can't imagine what it's going to be like to.
Yeah, there's some beautiful places in this world.
Yeah.
I haven't got to go to a lot of them, but I've
got to go to some, and there's some, there's some beautiful scenery,
some oceans.
You know, we've got to go on
we got the cruise on some islands and stuff that and and be
on some some beaches that are the sand is is why
like and feels like baby powder and and the
ocean is like is like pool water for,
you know, for 100s and 100s of yards out into the ocean
before it gets deep.
And just, I mean, paradise.
I mean, paradise.
But you take that and it's not even going to, you know, close, is it?
No, majestic mountains, these mountain ranges.
They're just so beautiful in these valleys with rich,
green, you know, foliage and rivers
and lakes and streams that are just,
man, I mean...
And even like, like, uh, like since creation, that
everything's just dulled.
Who knows how many 1000s of times it's duller
it is.
And what's it going to look like in that 1000 year range?
Oh, man.
It's going to pop again.
It is.
It is, yeah.
awesome.
Yeah, we don't have to worry about 4 seasons anymore.
There's going to be one season of...
75 all time.
Oh man.
I'm saying,
I think it hopefully it'll feel different to everybody else.
I was hoping for about 68.
Brian, you've been over messing with that?
thermostat again?
thermostat.
Sorry, Lord.
No, it was Dennis.
It's getting hot.
I didn't hear.
Don't finish that song.
Don't finish that one.
Okay.
Sometimes we just pick up stuff we hear and I didn't even think about it.
Yeah, I know what I've got.
But yeah, so...
And, uh, it got I got 7 golden
bowls full of the wrath of God.
There's not halfway.
They're full.
Yes.
They're full.
And this is this is the completion of God's wrath.
Right, it's the number of completion.
Yeah, yeah, number of perfections.
So we're seeing, I mean, we're seeing judgment
being carried out and finished here.
And we have to notice that these bowls are, like you said,
our vowels are not full of
the love of God, but they're full of the wrath of God.
Right?
I mean, they're not basking in his love.
They're basking in his wrath basking in his wrath.
By the way, it's interesting to note that they
were dressed in clean, shining linen,
and wore the golden sashes around their chest, and yet they're carrying this wrath.
Yeah.
Even God's wrath is pure enough
that they're not being...
perfectly pure.
the thing about it.
Yeah, it's it's pure.
perfect.
It's not dirty.
It's not evil.
It's not darkness.
It is the results of it are bad.
But the wrath itself is still pure.
You can contrast that with Satan's wrath.
That's right.
That's just dirty and ugly and filthy.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, and, and this is, um, I mean,
this rat that he's pouring out is,
is, it is out of God's anger, right?
And it's righteous anger.
It's righteous anger.
It's completely righteous anger.
Grab that one more verse.
Want to do that?
Verse eight?
verse eight.
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God,
and from his power, and no man was able
to enter into the temple till the 7 plagues of the
7 angels were fulfilled.
So this sanctuary was filled
with smoke from the glory of God.
And again, just seeing
that these are these are temple acts.
Uh, they it should tell us that
the church is not involved in this, right?
These are these are these are ancient acts that are taking place.
neither neither the temple nor the tabernacle
has anything to do with the church.
okay
We're separate from that.
Seven golden bowls represents the
final part of the great tribulation.
And I believe bowls, uh,
better describe temple activity because that's
what they would have used inside the temple, uh,
in in, uh, in ancient times or
in, in, uh, as we read about in the Old Testament.
A bowl of blood would be taken into the temple by the priest for the redemption of sin.
And a world that has rejected
the blood of Christ, must now bear
the judgment for their sins.
They've got to take it.
We've seen the the, the, the gentle Jesus,
but now we're seeing the wrath of the lamb.
Yeah, the wrath of the lamb.
That's just yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's, it seems, seems, I guess, an oxymoron.
moron, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, and that cloud, it's the one that gets me.
It shows his holiness.
I was looking at Exodus 40,34.
And this is Times of Moses, of course.
And he says, then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the
cloud had settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Yeah.
And there's another place in Isaiah where he talks about the train
of his robe.
fill in the temples.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, respect.
Yeah.
That's exactly right.
Yeah.
That's when Isaiah was cleansing his mouth during that time.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Touch the cold.
I'm a man of unclean lips.
Yeah, yeah.
I don't I don't need to be here, you know.
You know, and it's
not just God's glory.
You know, I mean, it says it's from God's glory.
and from his power.
I mean, this is God's glory
and power being just unveiled.
And it is so much that we're not able
to, even, even in these, even in,
in the bodies we have at this point, which are not our earthly bodies,
I mean, we've already been given a different body now, it's not the final one, it's
not what comes at the very end, but we have a new body.
It's something that is that is able to exist in heaven and
is able to move and is able to, and we still can't walk.
I mean, it is so awesome and mighty and powerful.
And again, righteous.
It is so righteous.
We are unable to even approach it because it's just, it's perfect.
Yeah.
We, uh,
and and which we'll get into 16 next week,
uh, and uh, and we're going to see, we're going
to continue looking at these, at these last plagues,
um, and uh, uh, we're
going to see in 17, the woman and the Scarlet Beast,
and uh, the mystery of Babylon.
And we're getting into the juice of it now.
big time.
And so if you hadn't
tuned in, uh, uh, we'd love for
you to, to, to listen, go back and listen, if you're just tuned
in tonight, go back and listen.
Go back to chapter one with us and go all
the way through these and listen to us,
bring what God's word tells us out of
this, hopefully, that maybe give you a better understanding.
Maybe give you a better understanding of what's going on here and
what's going to take place.
And if you're not saved.
Uh, hopefully, um, bring you to a place
where the Holy Spirit can deal with your heart and and you
can accept salvation and you don't have to worry about this, right?
Amen.
The rapture of the church is coming.
I believe in it.
I trust in it and I believe it's,
I believe it's coming soon one day.
And the Bible promises, you know, that we're not destined for wrath.
That's right.
And he's not coming after to
bring wrath on his bride.
That's right.
The church is his bride.
Yes.
He's coming to get her.
That's right.
At a day and hour, we don't know.
That's right
Amen.
Yeah.
All right.
Well, I think that winds us down for the week, and
we'll be back with Revelation chapter 16, verse one.
Hey, I like it.
made it a whole chapter again.
Love it.
Chapter 16, verse one next week,
and, uh...
This where it starts, that 16,
You know, we've we've talked about there are some chapters in in Revelation that are pretty hard.
16 is a hard one for me, just because it's hard to read.
Not necessarily because it's the words aren't difficult.
The meaning is not terribly difficult.
It's pretty straightforward, but boy, it's hard to look
at because we are.
We're being given a glimpse of God's wrath.
Just when I feel sorry for people in this thing,
you go, and they wouldn't repent.
Right.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, okay.
To me, to me, that's what makes it so hard to read.
to realize how hard-hearted and evil.
How much of a foothold evil has gotten.
And I read that and I see that every time I go
through Revelation 16 and I'm just like, oh, man.
Everything that they're that's being poured out, though,
on man here, um, has been poured out on Jesus Christ himself.
You know?
Oh, yeah.
Let this cup pass from me.
I still go back to that if there's any other way,
Lord, let this cup pass from me, but there was not
another way.
And so the full undiluted
wrath of God was poured out on his sons
for the judgment of man.
He paid that price, right?
I mean, they you don't have to go through this.
You don't have to face this on your own.
Christ has already taken this upon himself and
he's paid the price that we couldn't pay because
they're going to pay with their lives.
They're going to pay with eternity in hell.
But he paid the price that we couldn't pay so that we could
have a home that we couldn't build this so that we could go to a place
that he created for us.
Amen.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
And we can't ignore that.
that, you know, we talk about God's
glory and all this stuff, but we don't talk that
much about his humility.
Yeah.
That he loved us so much.
He stepped down out of heaven and became a poor, defenseless, helpless baby.
to down cross.
That ain't about glory there.
That's about humility.
And that's about love.
It is.
And man, man.
That the people won't repent in this stuff and they know they
know that's the wrath of the lamb.
They know that it's God doing this stuff.
We don't have to be there.
No, we don't have to be there.
That's right.
And and realizing that.
The creator of the world.
The one that by him and for
him, all things were made.
which were made, was willing to become part
of the creation for a time.
That is...
That's incredible.
It's mind blowing.
that is incredible.
I mean, If you could create
a world, create a universe, so so
insignificant at the end of the day and small
and tiny that you could hold it in the palm of your hand.
And the only connection you
could truly form with them to save them from themselves,
not even from anything you did, just saving them from themselves is
to go down and become one of them.
That's, I mean, that is what we're talking about with Christ.
I heard a story and I don't I'm going to tell it wrong.
I know.
It's just off the top of my head here, but this old farmer.
live in like Minnesota somewhere and this snowstorm came
in and it's a cold night.
He starts looking at his window at all the
snow falling down and he sees 5 or 6
little birds out on his doorstep.
And he thinks, man, I need to get them to the barn.
If I could get them to the barn, I could save their lives, you
know, and it sort of clears out a path to the barn and goes
back in the house and looks out the window and the bird's still standing in the same spot.
Just won't go anywhere.
And so he leaves some breadcrumbs all the way to the barn.
The birds won't go.
And he starts thinking to himself.
man, if I could just become one of them they wouldn't be scared of me.
Wow.
Yeah.
That's exactly what God did.
Yeah.
He became one of us, so wouldn't fear him like that.
Yeah.
The wrath.
We don't have to fear this rat that's coming.
And we don't Revelation doesn't have to scare the pants off of you.
Yeah.
He became seeing who knew no sin, that he might
become my righteousness.
Yeah, yeah.
It became a curse.
Yeah.
How he loves us.
Amen.
How he loves us and how we should love him
and why he loves us.
I don't know.
Oh, no, He is love.
That's the only answer.
That's all he knows how to do.
But he is wrath, too.
That's right.
Yeah.
Justice and righteousness.
Amen.
Oh, amen.
All right.
Next week, Revelation chapter 16, verse one,
brother Brian.
But you dismiss us tonight.
Sure.
Father, we love you.
And, uh, I don't
know that we can begin to understand your love for us.
how you left heaven,
how you became seeing how you took on
wrath, Jesus of your father, to pay
the price and the penalty for our sins.
How could you?
How could you love us that much?
Knowing what I would be.
I can't even speak for everybody else, but
knowing how vile I could be, knowing how sinful I could be.
Knowing that
there's been times where I've rejected you when there's been times where I've tried to walk away from you.
I don't know how you
can love me because I know that you do.
Thank God, I just,
I breathe every day wanting to understand your
love a little bit more, and I believe that as
you, as you work in us,
through our salvation, and work
in us through our sanctification, that God, we
begin to just get a glimpse of who you are a
little bit more every day, and how much you do love
us, and what that loves about.
God, I pray that others will hear it, believe
it, receive it.
God, and they'll come to you, and that they
won't have to face the wrath of God.
I pray, Lord God, that you'd walk with us through
the days to come.
Ah, Lord, this world is falling apart, but God, you're holding us together.
God, we thank you for that.
Lord, bless these men that are here tonight.
Bless in God, this
Bible study that we're doing that people
will hear your word and receive it, God.
Thank you, Lord, for who you are and for loving
us in Jesus' name.
Amen.