This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to day five of our look together through Revelation
chapter six. We're looking at these signs, these seals that are being opened up
that reveal to us what's going to happen at the end of time, how this world is
going to end. And we've seen the seals of war and of famine and of conquest.

We've seen the seals of Christian martyrs and they're giving their life for
their love for Jesus Christ and others who come to faith because they've given
their lives. Now we see in this sixth seal some very, very clear signs of the
fact that this world is falling apart. Let me read for you this sixth seal,
Revelation chapter six verses 12 to 17.

I watched as he opened the sixth seal and there was a great earthquake. The sun
turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair and the whole moon turned blood
red and the stars and the sky fell to the earth as late figs dropped from a fig
tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll rolling up and
every mountain and island were removed from its place.

Then the kings of the earth, the princes and generals, the rich, the mighty and
every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the
mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us
from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for
the great day of their wrath has come and who can stand. What a seal.

As we walk through this, we see some very clear signs of the fact that this
world will not end. God's going to create a new heaven and a new earth but
before that the old one falls apart and you see these signs in the sun, you see
these signs in the moon, you see these signs in the stars. Now some people see
these as very literal descriptions.

There's a volcano eruption possibly that causes the sun to turn black that would
also cause a red moon possibly. There's meteorite showers, maybe that's the idea
of stars falling from the sky. Others see the symbolism of the colors that are
here, I think that they could be both.

Whatever there's some very real descriptions of the fact that this world will
not last. The sky shall be rolled up like a scroll. You know it from the song
How Great Thou Art, that great hymn.

The sky being rolled up like a scroll as we look forward to the fact that God
has a new story to be written. There's something new that's going to happen.
There are events that are happening that John is seeing.

You can tell he is searching for descriptions and he's saying, "I'm seeing
things fall to the earth. " The only way I could think of it is when the wind
shakes a fig tree and all of a sudden all the figs fall off. It's that way in
the sky with the stars.

He obviously cannot understand all that he sees. I couldn't understand all that
was happening there but he's describing everything that he sees. Now you need to
understand as John is talking through these descriptions that John is simply
confirming what Jesus Christ has already taught us.

As Jesus taught his disciples in the weeks before his death on the cross, he
taught them about these kind of events. The very things that we've talked
through in these seals, these scrolls, Jesus talked to them about. He talked to
them about the fact that there would be war, that there would be famine.

He talked to them about the fact that there would be those who experienced great
earthquakes. He talked to them about the fact that the moon would turn to red,
that the stars would fall from the sky. John is just affirming, is just seeing
what Jesus has already taught us.

Now think about this for John. As a boy, he is a follower of Jesus Christ. He's
the youngest, most likely, of the twelve disciples of Jesus Christ.

And he heard Jesus teach these things. And now as an old man, he's standing in
this revelation moment in heaven and he's seeing the very things that Jesus
taught him. That's the key.

Don't miss that. If you miss that, you miss the message of the book of
Revelation, there are some things that God has taught you about the reality of
life. That maybe life has begun to kick out of you.

Maybe John, as an old man, has begun to believe these things may not happen.
Maybe they won't happen. And he's seeing affirmed, no, the truth that Jesus
taught you is still just as true today.

Let me show you. Now you may never get a revelation just like John got, but I
pray that through God's Spirit in your life that you will get that revelation,
that spiritual revelation, that some truth that you have held on to all of your
life that's begun to slip from your life. You've begun to wonder, is that hope
really true?

Is heaven really real? Maybe as somebody that you love is facing death or you're
facing death, you're beginning to question, is it really real? You can hold on
to that truth.

You can see it in a fresh and in a new way. This is the sixth seal, the reality
of what's going to happen towards the end of this earth. Now the seventh seal,
we're not going to see it until chapter 8.

We're going to go through a whole vision of what's happening in heaven before we
see that. And so wait for a couple of weeks until we get to this seventh seal.
As we come to the end of today, I want to go back to verses 16 and 17.

Do you see the terrible tragedy in verses 16 and 17? Here it is. It's the end of
time.

Everyone can see. Everything is falling apart. And in verse 15, we're told that
everyone, all of a sudden, we're all on the same ground.

Kings of the earth, princes, generals, rich, mighty, but also every slave, every
free man. We're all hiding in caves. We're all among the rocks of the mountains.

The fact that this world faces a crisis, we all are going to face it together.
You can see this in the world today. When an earthquake comes to a city, when a
tsunami sweeps through a country, all of a sudden everybody is on the same
plane.

And here they all are hiding. And instead of trusting in the God who could save
them, they're saying to the very mountains fall on us and hide us from his face.
They're living in fear of him.

Do you see the tragedy in that? Let me take you back to the beginning of our
relationship with God. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and they heard God
approaching, do you remember what they did?

They hid. They tried to hide from God. That is people's response who don't
realize that God is a God of love.

God is a God that we can trust. That is people's response who want to live their
own lives, their own way. What keeps me from realizing that God is a God of love
and God is a God that I can trust?

The barrier to realizing that is wanting to live life my own way. Wanting to
trust myself and my own selfish life, my own selfish plans. And so here in the
end of time you have people's response.

They only want to escape. Just like Adam and Eve in the garden wanted to escape
and hide from God because of their sin, here is all of mankind wanting to
escape, hide in caves, have the mountains cover them because of their sin. It
shows their unrepentant hearts.

Those who try to escape God's love all of their lives will end up desiring to
escape his wrath at the end. But you don't have to live that way. Someone on our
research team asked, "It seems here that there's a time when repentance is no
longer an option.

Is there some moment where they don't have any longer an opportunity to turn to
him? " And no, there is not. There is always an opportunity to turn to God and
his love as long as we're on this planet.

After we've died, that choice is over. It's given to man once to die and after
that the judgment. But as long as I've got this life, this choice, then I have
an opportunity.

The point is people aren't going to take that opportunity. We ourselves remove
the option of repentance of turning to God in our hearts and our lives because
our hearts have refused to turn to God. And so at the end of time, instead of
turning to the only one who could save them, they're going to call on the
mountains to cover them.

It's a very sad, it's a very grievous truth of the scripture. It reminds me of
what C. S.

Lewis once said. He said that on this earth I can say my will be done and I can
do it my way, but when I get to God and he judges me, he's going to look at me
and say, "Okay, your will be done. He wanted to be separate from me for all
eternity, so I'm going to allow you to have that choice.

" We face separation from God not because God is vindictive. We face it because
it's what we want. And those who turn from him in this life are not going to
turn to him at the end because the selfishness of our lives is something we
cannot overcome.

We cannot overcome it except for the grace of God in Jesus Christ. The idea of
God's wrath, the great day of his wrath has come. Who can stand?

Realize that wrath is not personal vindictiveness. If you read it that way, you
won't understand the heart of the person of God. But wrath is not an impersonal
process either.

It is a response of God's holiness to a sinful world. He's not going to let the
sin, the horror of sin, to last. It's going to be done away with someday.

So what do I do about that? If I just live in my sin, that means I'm living a
life that's going to be separated from him for all eternity. I don't have to
live that life.

I can live a life that enjoys his goodness in the midst of this life and then
looks forward to his greatness, his perfection for all of eternity. You see, as
we end this chapter, and I know there's been some tough truths to look at in
this chapter, there is one final reminder that I want to give you as we come to
the end of this chapter. We've seen these seals being opened, one after the
other after the other.

And you might wonder, who's in charge? Remember, Jesus is the one holding this
scroll. It's in his hands.

And when you look at your life, when you look at this world, and it seems to you
that things are not working as they should, of course it does to us as human
beings. And of course there are situations and circumstances that God would not
want because he is allowing our choice to rain on this world sometimes. But
remember that ultimately it is in the hands of Jesus.

And ultimately I can trust myself to the hands of Jesus Christ. Let's do that
once again right now. Lord, as we read through this chapter, we're invited again
and again to trust you.

I don't want to trust this world. This world is fading away and also its lusts.
That's what John wrote in his letter.

And it is. And then he saw it in a revelation. It's fading away.

Your hope, your truth, your love, that's going to last forever. Lord, forgive me
for those times when I hang on too much to this world. It's so easy to do.

It's just right there. It's right in front of me. And teach me just day by day
to hang on in greater and greater ways to your love.

Because I know that is what's going to last. Thank you Jesus for your love for
me. Thank you for your love for every person in this world.

And help those who do not yet know you to turn to you. I don't want anybody to
face this end apart from you, afraid of you. And I pray that for my friends, for
those people that I know.

In your name, Jesus. Amen. Well, join us next week when we're going to shift our
perspective from earth back to heaven.