"And," Revelation 6 and verse 12, "I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, and low, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. {13} And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, like a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken, of a mighty wind, {14} And the heaven departed like a scroll when it snapped together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their place. {15} And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, the mighty men, and every bondman and every free man, hid themselves in the dens in the rocks of the mountains, And the caves and said to the mountains and rocks, {16} "Fall on us, hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne and from the ‘Wrath of the Lamb’!" {17} "For the great day of His wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?""

Who indeed! When you consider what's going on, when you consider that this is happening, this is what really everybody thinks about, when they think about the end of the world.

We have a meteor shower that's coming down, and this time they're not burning up in the heavens, our atmosphere, they are actually hitting the ground. Scientists tell us that that's happened in the past, and what has happened in the past led to some of the great extinctions when the dinosaurs disappeared off the earth because of all the clouds of dust and smoke from volcanic action and earthquakes and meteors hitting the earth, and it threw so much dust in the air, it blocked the sunlight, and plant life died off and everything in the food chain that depended on it, died off as well. The end of the world, indeed!

There was a movie some years ago about a meteor that struck at or near Phoenix, Arizona. I forget the title of the movie but I remember and I'll never forget this one scene in the movie. A man comes up to a state trooper, after the big event had taken place, and he said, "What's happened to Phoenix?" The trooper looked at him and said, "There is no Phoenix!"

Now when you imagine, that it's like a tree that has been shaken badly and the fruit is falling to the ground in great plop, Plop, PLop, PLOp, PLOP, all over the place and then you transfer that to meteors striking the earth and realize that one of them, could actually destroy a city.

Well I don't want to scare you too much, but they say that something like this has happened in the past and that it sure to happen again. Scientists who specialize in looking at the universe and studying probabilities tell us that if something can happen, it will happen eventually, and of course, if it already has happened, which it has on this planet, which it has happened to the moon, if you take a look at it. It's going to happen again. Apparently it's going to rain very large objects from the sky at some point.

In the movie, there was only one meteor. People should've fled the city, some did, some didn't. Some had time. Some didn't.

When the day of the ‘Wrath of the Lamb’ is come, there will be no place to run to.

Verse 12 of Revelation 6 continues, "I beheld when He had opened the sixth seal, there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood."

Exactly what you would expect with enormous amounts of ejecta tossed up into the air.

Verse 13, "The stars of the heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. {14} The heaven, the sky, departed like a scroll when it is rolled together."

I don't how to describe that or what it means, but it does tell us that every mountain and every island were moved out of their place. These earthquakes, with all of the volcanic activity, the likes of which no one has ever seen before, perhaps triggered by meteors striking the earth, and indeed in that time, it won't matter whether you're a king or a slave, it won’t matter whether you're a captain of industry or an assembly line worker, everyone is going be in the same boat. People are going to flee into the caves and rocks of the mountains. They are going cry out that they would fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that sits on the throne and from the ‘Wrath of the Lamb’!

This prophecy in Revelation goes back some 2000 years, but, in fact, this theme of ‘the end of the age’, not really the end of the world, which we will talk about, but ‘the end of the age’ goes back a long time.

In Isaiah the second chapter and verse 17 it says, "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day, {18} "But the idols He shall utterly abolish. {19} They shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, from the fear of the Lord and for the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth."

O, man, to consider the fact that in an earthquake you get shaken. I've been through a couple of small earthquakes. I was awakened one morning in San Diego with the hanger on the back of my closet door that had a mirror on it and the hangar was dangling against the mirror and the bed was shaking and I thought my wife was shaking it to get me up. It was an earthquake. It was not a big earthquake. I haven't been in a big one. They tell me, it's awfully spooky, when the ground under you won't hold still.

Continuing in verse 20 of Isaiah 2, "In that day, a man will cast his idols of silver and idols of gold, which they made, one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats who live in caves. {21} To go into the clefts of the rocks, in the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD and for the glory of His majesty, when He arises to shake terribly the earth."

Not just shake the earth, but shake it terribly, and you know one of the things that comes out of this, that you can't miss, is that things of silver and things of gold and all the wealth that you have been able to put together in this lifetime is not going to be worth anything.

I was so struck once when I was reading a book about this kind of thing in the world at large, when it talked about how people often think that saving gold and saving silver and putting your money into gold and silver because it will be safe. A man told the story of how that when he was in Japan, just after the end of World War II, when the economy had pretty well been devastated, Hiroshima and Nagasaki had been turned into absolute total wastelands there. He thought that he would need gold because the money would be no good and he would be able to go into town because the gold would be valuable, he would be able to buy all kinds of things. But he found everywhere he went, there was plenty of gold and he couldn't get anything for it. So he went back to the ship to the PX and he loaded up on cigarettes and soap, and he took those things to town and he had a great liberty because he could get more for a bar of soap than he could for a gold coin.

It just shows you how things change and how your values change and how there is a time when you would give an awful lot just for a bar of soap and some clean water to get your body clean. So forget about the gold, when this time comes, it's going to take something else.

God concludes chapter 2 of Isaiah with verse 22, by saying, "Sever yourselves from such a man, whose breath is in his nostrils; what is he to be accounted of?"

Forget about man, when he gets down to that, man can't help you either.

The same theme is developed in the prophet Zephaniah, the first chapter and verse 14, he says this, "The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and it hastes greatly, even the voice of the day of the LORD, the mighty man shall cry there bitterly, {15} That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble, of distress, a day of wastefulness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness."

I don't want be there, and that doesn't sound like anything I would want to experience. I think a lot of people think and get excited about the idea of Christ’s return and they're looking forward to Christ's return. Well, I'm looking forward to the world after Christ returns, but I'm not so sure about those things that are going to have to take place prior to Christ's return.

It's also called in Zephaniah 1 and verse 16, "A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers. {17} I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD, and their blood will be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. {18} Their silver, nor their gold, shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD's wrath."

You know, it's plain that both Isaiah and Zephaniah are talking about the Day of the Lord, which is the same time that we have just been reading about in the book of Revelation. It's the Sixth Seal, the time of God's wrath, the time of pouring out of His wrath upon mankind and why? Why? What we done to deserve that? Well, He answers it, because they have sinned against the LORD.

We have trampled all over God’s Law, we've acted anyway we please, and the prophets go at great length telling us what we have done and how we have done it, about the violence and the corruption of our civilization. And they conclude that when all these things begins to happen, it is happening because we’ve got it coming.

Continuing in Zephaniah 1 and verse 18, "But the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of His jealousy: for He shall make a speedy riddance of all of them that dwell in the land!"

It's bloodcurdling isn’t it! What is sobering about this is that science confirms the certainty of the events but they can tell us nothing about the time.

The prophets don't give us a time either exactly, but they do give us warnings. They give us indicators that take place in the world around us, that is coming, that it's near, that it's on the way, and more important, they tell us why it's coming, and they tell us what we can do about it.

I want to return to Matthew the 24th chapter. I was in that in a previous broadcast when we talked about this sixth seal and how we know about many of these things.

Matthew 24 is the Olivet prophecy, when Jesus’ disciples came to Him, verse 3, and said, "Lord, when are these things going to happen and what is going to be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Jesus told them a lot of things and when He got down to verse 31, He said, "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. {32} Now learn a parable of the fig tree, when its branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near."

That's easy enough. I can tell right now Summer is on the way, not just for the fig trees but from the budding oaks in my backyard. So when the fig tree begins to put forth leaves, you know that Summer is on the way.

Verse 33 of Matthew 24, "So, when you see all these things, you know that it's near, even at the doors,"

But you know, it is still going to be a subjective evaluation, because all of these things happen in one way or another, and one time or another down through history. What He is telling us, in a special way, as we approach the time of the end, in a special way or with a special intensity, these things will herald the return of Christ. So when you see all these things, you had better know that it's coming down.

"Verily I say unto you, {34} this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled."

Now what does He mean by that, the generation living, when John wrote this, or does He mean the generation that sees these things start? Once this ball starts rolling, that generation will see the end of it all.

"Heaven and earth," {35} "shall pass away," said Jesus, "But my words will not pass away."

Oh, I'd like to know, at least I think, I would like to know, when that's going to be!

But in verse 36 of Matthew 24, Jesus went on to say, "But of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

So I don't know, I can't tell you when it's going to be. I can't set any dates for it. I can point to events taking place, and say that is something Jesus told us to watch for, so I think we had better be alert, hadn’t we?

Jesus continues to say in verse 37, "But as the days of Noah were, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. {38} For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, {39} And they had not a clue until the flood came, and took them all away, so also shall the coming of the Son of Man be."

Well, I don't know if you can really say quite fairly that they did not know anything. I think He means that they didn't know the implications. But you know they had to have been told, here out in the middle of nowhere.

I said "In the middle of nowhere," but it was where people could come and see, a man and his three sons building a giant boat, far from any sea, ocean or river. They are trying to put together an ark, a long, big, wide, high boat that's going to carry two and two and seven and seven of the beasts of the earth.

Well, how could they not have seen? There was a witness that it was coming, but they just couldn't bring themselves to believe that it would happen. Noah did, Noah believed it, and he prepared the ark and he and his family and many other creatures were able to survive all that took place.

One Will Be Taken and One Left

Jesus says in that day, in verse 40 of Matthew 24, "There shall be two in the field, one shall be taken and the other left. {41} Two women shall be grinding at the mill. One shall be taken, the other left."

So you don't have a situation where all economic life is stopped, you have got people actually still going about things, marrying and giving in marriage, doing work, working in the fields, working, grinding at the mill and doing all the things that they do and so one leaves and the other is still there.

Then Jesus says verse 42, "Watch, you don't know what hour your Lord comes!"

So, there's no way that you can be certain ahead of time, but you have to be ready when ever that time takes place.

"Know this," {43} He said, "If the goodman of the house had known what watch the thief would come, he would have sit up and watched, and not allowed his house to be broken into. {44} Therefore be you also ready for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man is coming."

You know, having read that, I can conclude that if I have figured out in my mind and I'm fairly sure, let's say, that by the scenarios of the prophecy that I have put together, that Jesus Christ is going to come back in the year 2024, it is going to be February 24^th. that He's actually going to show up on the face of this earth. I have got it all written down and figured out and I can show you the prophetic scenario that says it can happen that way. Now if I've done that, it seems to me that I have established one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Jesus will not come on February 24^th, in the year 2024! Why? Well, because He said, "In such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man comes." So if I think He's coming, then, He is not going to come then, because that's what the word says to me. And so, I can't help but wonder about all these preachers that will tell you from time to time, one will come up here and another will come up there, and will say, "Well in this year, in this time, in this circumstance, Jesus Christ is going to come." Well, it seems to me what they really established is they have given us parameters to know when He is not going to come, because even Jesus’ own servants are going to be surprised by the time, I say surprised, but they will be expecting, but they will not be certain.

So Jesus said, Matthew 24 verse 44, "Be ready, for in such an hour as you think not, the Son of Man is coming. {45} So who is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord has made ruler over his household, to give them their food in due season. {46} Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find him so doing."

You know what this says to me, whatever task it is that God has given you, whatever job, whatever life circumstance, whatever it is that you have to deal with, what Jesus wants to know is, that when He comes back will He will find you doing what He has given you to do. Not having quit and dropped your equipment and run off someplace to hide. So you might just as well, just keep on doing it and keep on doing right and that way when He comes back, He will find you doing what you are supposed to be doing.

Then there's another warning, Matthew 24 verse 48, "If that evil servant though, shall say in his heart, "My Lord delays his coming, it is not going to be now, it is not going to be next week, it is not going to be even next year, and {49} He begins to smite his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunken."

In other words, if he begins to change his lifestyle in such a way, as he thinks Christ is not coming back now He may not come back ever.

If he does all that, {50} "The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looks not for him, in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him in two and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Now doesn’t that seem odd to you, that in the face of all this, that preachers would still try to tell us, that they know the time of Jesus’ return. When Jesus said plainly, "that even He did not know the time."

Now after the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the first four seals of this great book, we have a time of great religious confusion and persecution, which constitutes the fifth seal, followed by the signs in the heavens and the earth, which are the sixth seal and the announcement of the ‘day of the Lord.’ Otherwise, called ‘the day of God's wrath’ or ‘the Wrath of the Lamb.’

It is sort of like an old saying, "I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that, Jesus is coming back. The bad news is, He's furious!

But we have one more seal to open in this great book. The book is the story of the end of the age, the end of history. It is a revelation of the sequence of events that finish off the age of man and ushers in the age of God. It is a little scary, but there is good news at the end of this. Let's go ahead and see what's behind that seventh seal, but before we do, there is some business to take care of.

Revelation 7 and verse one, "After these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor the sea, nor on any tree."

Now what this is about is, these winds are winds of destruction and they being held back for just a moment.

Revelation 7 and verse 2, "I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God, and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, "Don't hurt the earth, don't hurt the sea, don't hurt the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads."

Now, let's establish something right here. We are not talking about walking up to people and putting a stamp on their forehead. Sealing something in there, that you can walk by and say, "O, he’s got a brand on his forehead there. He must be a servant of God." In the Bible when it speaks of a forehead, it is talking about your will, the conscious mind, with which you decide to do and not do.

"Don't hurt anything until we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads, in their minds and in their hearts." Now this is a recurring theme in the Bible. Great retribution is about to be exacted on the masses of sinful man, but there are those who do not deserve to go through that misery. What are we going to do about them?

Perhaps you remember from an earlier broadcast, we were talking about what was said to one of the seven churches of Asia.

Revelation 3 and verse 10, "He says to the church in Philadelphia, "Because you have kept the word of my patience, (There is a cause for this), you have been faithful, you have kept my word and the word of my patience. I will keep you from the hour of trial that will come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth. {11} Behold, I come quickly, hold fast what you have that no man take your crown."

This idea is a whole lot older than Revelation 3 or Matthew 24. It goes back to Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 9 verse 1, for example, we see the prophet saying, "He cried in my ears with a loud voice saying "Cause them that have charge over the city to draw near, even every man with his destroying weapon in his hand, {2}And behold, six men came from the way of the high gate.""

Now Ezekiel is in vision, just like John was in vision. He's seeing all these things take place, not in reality but in vision. These six men are like six angels as it were.

"They came from the way of the higher gate which lies north and every man had a slaughter weapon in his hand."

Now what on the earth for? Well in the context of Ezekiel, it's because of sin. The nation was so full of corruption, that there was one bloody crime after another, to such an extent, He says, that "The blood from one crime ran into the blood from another crime." He also says "Make a chain for the land is full of bloody crimes." They oppress the fatherless they oppress the widow. There was economic oppression everywhere, the nation had completely forgotten God.

He says, "The time is coming when there's going to be a great slaughter in this city."

"But there was a seventh man among them {2} Who was clothed with linen and had a writer’s inkhorn by his side and he went in and stood beside the brazen altar in the temple, {3} And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house. And he called to the man clothed with the linen, who had the writer’s inkhorn by his side, {4} And the LORD said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads."

Here we are, back to the forehead again. Something being done in the conscious will and mind of a group of people.

"Put a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and cry for all the abominations that have been done in the midst thereof."

You know sometimes, you can't do anything personally about the crime, about the violence, about the economic oppression, but one thing you can do, you can get on your knees and go to God and sigh and cry over what is taking place and ask Him to avenge the crimes that are made upon the weak, ask Him to consider the fatherless children and the widows and those people who are powerless in our society and were victimized by all this. You will become one of those that sigh and cry for the abominations and for the slain in the city.

In one whom the writer with the inkhorn might put a mark on saying, "This person belongs to God."

Verse 5 of Ezekiel 9, "And to the others He said, "In my hearing, you follow him through the city and kill, kill, slay utterly, {6} slay old and young, maids, and little children, women, just don't come near anyone upon whom has the mark," and presumably the children of those who have that mark.

Notice now He says, "Begin at My sanctuary." So they began, with the ancient men, that is, the elders that were before the house, the Temple."

This is talking about starting with the leadership. The punishment of these people, starts right at the house of God with both the religious and the civil leadership of the country because of their failures.

He said to them, "Kill them!" Now, why would God do a thing like that? Well, He's making His point. We have to keep in mind though, that God in doing that, has the power to make these people alive again.

Verse 7, He said, "Defile the house, fill the courts with the slain. Go forth." And they went forth and they killed through the city. {8} It came to pass, while they were slaying them, and I was left, that I fell on my face and I cried and I said, "Oh Lord God! Will You destroy all the residue of Israel and pouring out your fury upon Jerusalem? {9}Then He said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness," for they say, the LORD has forsaken the earth, and the LORD doesn't see." They wish!

They wish He did not see!

Verse 10, "As for me also, my eyes shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will recompense their way upon their head, {11} And behold, the man clothed with linen, which had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, "I have done what you told me to do.""

Returning to Revelation again, Revelation 7 verse 4, "And I heard the number of them that were sealed, and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel, Judah 12,000, Reuben 12,000, and so on through all the 12 tribes of Israel.

Now you know that this number is figurative, not literal. There was a theory among some that only 144,000 would actually be saved but don't forget these are only those who are saved of the 12 tribes of Israel. It says nothing about the Gentiles and it is not talking about spiritual salvation anyway, it is talking about salvation from the great tribulation.

Until next time, this is Ronald Dart reminding you, You Were Born to Win!

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This article was transcribed with

minor editing from a Born to Win Radio Program by: Ronald L. Dart

Titled: The Book of Revelation -Program #11

Transcribed by: bb 2-1-24