The Day of the Lord

Scorched Earth  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Lead Pastor Wes Terry talks about the Day of the Lord out of Revelation 8.

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INTRODUCTION:

Today, we’re jumping back into the book of Revelation with a new series entitled “Scorched Earth.”
It sounds doomsday and dramatic but that’s the tone of Revelation 8-10. We’ve come to a point in the book of Revelation when the judgment of God is finally going to fall on the earth.
The seals have been broken. The scroll is being opened and the Day of the Lord has come. The judgment of God is about to fall on the enemies of God and there’s not a thing that anybody can do about it.
The Lord is going scorched earth against his opposition.

Scorched Earth

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy.
Assets like weapons, transport vehicles, communication sites, food storage, etc are targeted and destroyed. It’s an effort to remove from the hand of the enemy any resource they could use to gain an advantage.
This can be done by an opposing force in enemy territory or a self-inflicted wound because an opposing force has made inroads on the home turf.
That’s the picture presented in Revelation 8. It’s a gloomy, doomsday, description of the judgment of God falling on the earth. As a result of these judgements the earth is destroyed. It’s quiet literally a scorched earth policy.

You are Loved!

So, before we begin, for those of you who are new or who aren’t Christians I should say this: “You are LOVED. God loves you. He created you. He has sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for your sins so that you might be forgiven, redeemed and given a new hope and a better future.”
This does not have to be your experience. It will, however, be the experience of all of those who persist in their rebellion and unbelief.

Catching Up

Since we’re starting a new section in the book of Revelation, let me try and situate our chapter in the larger framework of the overall book.
Remember, the word Revelation is the Greek word Apocalypse. It means a revealing. To make something known or clear. It’s not a book of secrets concealed. It’s a book of mysteries revealed!

Chapters 1-7

In chapter 1 we get a picture of King Jesus in all his glory and might.
In chapters 2-3 we see that he walks among His churches, loving and protecting them - calling them to overcome tribulation in his power.
In chapters 4 we see the worship of heaven with glorious God seated on a throne, sounded by praise with a scroll in his hand.
In chapter 5 the focus shifts away from the throne and zooms in on Jesus, the Lion/Lamb who is the only one worthy to take the seal and open the scroll.
In chapter 6 the seals are broken and calamity falls on the earth. One, two, three, four, five, and six...
It is during the breaking of these seals that I think we see the signs that Jesus says MUST precede his second coming and the DOL.
So there’s a rise of the antichrist, a great falling away in the church, a great persecution of believers and cosmic signs and disturbances that signal Jesus is on his way.
That brings us to chapter 7 and the pause. Four angels are holding back the calamity that was about the fall on the earth.
144K Jews were sealed and protected by God and a great multitude was presented in heaven from every tribe tongue and nation.
Last we met I tried to argue that this was a picture of the church, resurrected and raptured. Saved from God’s wrath that was about to be poured out on the earth.

The Day of the Lord

That brings us to Revelation 8. What we see in our text today is the fulfillment of a promise that God gave over and over again in the OT. It was a promise that one day he would come and judge the wicked, he would cleanse the earth and he would make thing right again.
This promised day was known as “the day of the Lord.”
The seventh seal has been broken. The scroll is being unfolded. The trumpets are about to sound because the Day of the Lord has come.
For the time we have left I want to show you five truths about the Day of the Lord so that you can better understand it and be prepared for it.

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad

TRUTH 1: The day of the Lord is a TERRIBLE, horrible, no good, very bad day for those on whom it falls.
When the Bible talks about the day of the Lord it does not use warm and fuzzy language. It uses words like terror, horror, destruction, cruelty, fear, darkness and desolation.
There are several OT passages we could look to that describe the day of the Lord. (Obadiah 1:15; Isaiah 2:10-11; Isaiah 13:6-12; Joel 2:1-11)
Let’s read Isaiah 13:6-12 so you can get a feel for how the OT described this day (you can look the others up on your own time!)
Isaiah 13:6–12 (CSB)
6 Wail! For the day of the Lord is near.
It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
7 Therefore everyone’s hands will become weak,
and every man will lose heart.
8 They will be horrified;
pain and agony will seize them;
they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.
They will look at each other,
their faces flushed with fear.
9 Look, the day of the Lord is coming—
cruel, with fury and burning anger—
to make the earth a desolation
and to destroy its sinners.
10 Indeed, the stars of the sky and its constellations
will not give their light.
The sun will be dark when it rises,
and the moon will not shine.
11 I will punish the world for its evil,
and wicked people for their iniquities.
I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant
and humiliate the insolence of tyrants.
12 I will make a human more scarce than fine gold,
and mankind more rare than the gold of Ophir.
Put that verse on your coffee mug and see if Mardel’s can sell it! Haha. Terrifying isn’t it!
It’s not the warm fuzzy verses posted by the Bible app push notifications. lol
These are challenging verses but as we said last week “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable.” We can’t just pick and choose the verses we like and want to believe. We must take them as a whole if we really want to understand who God is and what he’s like.
There’s another example of this in Joel 2:1-11 .
We don’t have time to read the whole thing and it really better describes the events of Revelation 9 which we’ll get to next week. But here’s a taste.
Joel 2:1-2a
1 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion;
sound the alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the residents of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming;
in fact, it is near—
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and total darkness,
He goes on to describe an invincible and unstoppable army that brings absolute destruction to everything they touch. He concludes,
Joel 2:11 (CSB)
11 The Lord makes his voice heard
in the presence of his army.
His camp is very large;
those who carry out his command are powerful.
Indeed, the day of the Lord is terrible and dreadful—
who can endure it?
So the Day of the Lord is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for those on whom it falls.

God’s Patience Is Not Indifference

When people read passages like this it bothers them. How can God be so cruel? Why would a loving God judge people in this way. But that’s not really the right question.
The question is not why does a loving God judge the earth so harshly. The question is why would a holy God wait so long to do it?”
Make no mistake: when you sin you’re not just sinning against another person. You’re not just sinning against yourself. Your sinning against the Lord God Almighty.
This is why David says in Psalm 51 “Against you and you only have I sinned.” He understood the most offended person from any sin is our creator the Lord God almighty.
We cannot persist in sin and think there will be no consequences. We should not mistake God’s patience in withholding judgment as indifference towards sin.
He’s patient in withholding his judgment so that more and more people might come to believe the Gospel and be saved. But he is NOT indifferent and one day the world will give an account. Will you be ready for that day?

An Outpouring of God’s Wrath

The second truth about the Day of the Lord is that it is an outpouring of God’s active wrath.
I say active wrath because there’s a difference in the Bible between the active wrath of God and the passive wrath of God.
The passive wrath of God is when he takes his protective hand of restraint away from us and just lets us do whatever we want.
This is described powerfully in Romans 1. Verse 18 says
Romans 1:18 (CSB)
18 For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,
What does this wrath look like? Romans 1:24
Romans 1:24–26 (CSB)
24 Therefore God delivered them over in the desires of their hearts to sexual impurity, so that their bodies were degraded among themselves.
The longer people persist in this the worse things get. The passive wrath of God culminates in a debased mind wherein people call evil good and good evil.
Romans 1:28 (CSB)
And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right.
(Isaiah 5:20 says “woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”)

Our Confused Culture

This is exactly where we are at in our culture today. Our minds have been corrupted so that we call evil good and good evil.
Think about it:
Evil: trying to protect and defend the life of the unborn.
Good: killing babies in utero in the name of women’s health.
Evil: God created two genders for his glory: male and female.
Good: There are innumerable genders. Your God-given biology is irrelevant and you can choose to be whoever you want to be.
Evil: The church is essential and word of God commands us to meet together.
Good: CDC and WHO are the standard for what is right and wrong in the church.
I could go on for days… from Drag Queen story hour for children to now the FBI coming down on parents because they object to the brain washing of their children with godless ideologies.
We live in a corrupt culture with corrupt people that have corrupt minds who have exchanged the truth of God to for a lie.
They worship themselves instead of God and thus we’ve invited his wrath. Passive wrath.

Active Wrath

The longer we persist in the passive wrath of God the more active wrath we are storing up for ourselves on the Day of Judgment.
Romans 2:5 (CSB)
5 Because of your hardened and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment is revealed.
THAT is what we see in Revelation 8-9. It’s God’s active wrath, not passive.

Reserved for a Select Group

TRUTH 3: During the Day of the Lord, God’s active wrath is reserved for a select group of people.
We see allusions to this in Revelation 8:1 where the day of the Lord is preceded by 30 minutes of silence. Revelation 8:1
Revelation 8:1 (CSB)
1 When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
That’s a long time! You ever tried to sit in silence for 30 minutes? (ILLUSTRATION: 30 seconds)
30 minutes flies by if you’re busy in the middle of something. It DRAGS on if you’re waiting for something to happen. And in this case the world is waiting for the wrath of God to fall. It’s a SLOW IMPENDING 30 minutes.
This is an allusion to an OT passage about a period of silence before the DAL. Zephaniah 1:7
Zephaniah 1:7 (CSB)
7 Be silent in the presence of the Lord God,
for the day of the Lord is near.
Indeed, the Lord has prepared a sacrifice;
he has consecrated his guests.
This passage is dripping with sarcasm. Essentially the Lord is saying “I’m throwing a wrath party and I’ve invited my special guests and I’ve got them set apart for something really special.”
But notice here that not everybody experiences the wrath. There are certain guests consecrated for the wrath and others are not.
This is one reason I think the church may not be on the earth during this time.
If we are on the earth, we are going to be protected from God’s wrath some way or another.

Wrath For Whom?

So if the wrath is not for us then who is it for? It’s for those who do not believe. Those who have rejected God’s gracious offer of grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
You remember John 3:16?
John 3:16 (CSB)
16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
A beautiful, universal offer of grace and forgiveness in Christ.
Most people stop there but what happens if we keep on reading?
John 3:18
Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.
In other words, non-believers are not just condemned after they die. They’re under the condemnation of God RIGHT NOW.
Jesus goes even further a few verses later.
John 3:36 (CSB)
36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.
So if you’re here this morning and you’re not in Christ then the wrath of God is resting on you!
Even now, the wrath of God is resting on those who reject God’s offer of grace and forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
The reason to repent and trust in Christ is because he bore the wrath of God FOR YOU.
It is through Christ alone that the Damocles sword of God’s wrath can be removed from our heads.
He willingly drank the cup of God’s wrath FOR US so that we would instead receive God’s mercy and grace. Isn’t that good news!?
Repent and be spared the wrath that God will one day be unleashed on this earth.
Repent and be spared the eternal wrath of God that leaves you eternally separated from him in a place of torment called hell.

Hastened By The Prayers of the Saints

So the DOTL is a
terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for those on whom it falls.
It’s a outpouring of God’s active wrath.
It’s reserved for a select group: namely those who reject Christ and God’s offer of forgiveness and reconciliation.
The fourth truth about the Day of The Lord that it is hastened by the prayers of the saints.
Let’s keep reading in Revelation 8.
Revelation 8:2 (CSB)
2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand in the presence of God; seven trumpets were given to them.
Trumpets are used in the OT and NT for many different reasons: (worship, gathering people, assembling for war, etc.) So it’s no surprise to see trumpets sounded as God unleashes this judgment on the earth.
After these trumpets are given to the angels we see another picture and that is the prayers of the saints.
Revelation 8:3–5 (CSB)
3 Another angel, with a golden incense burner, came and stood at the altar. He was given a large amount of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4 The smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up in the presence of God from the angel’s hand. 5 The angel took the incense burner, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it to the earth; there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
So before the angels sound their trumpet something else happens. An angel - some think this is a reference to Jesus himself - brings incense and the prayers of God’s people.
It’s almost as if the judgment of God is released BECAUSE OF the prayers of the saints.
This teaches us something important about prayer.
First of all - our prayers are a pleasant aroma to the Lord. He loves it when his people pray.
Secondly - are prayers are HEARD by the Lord. Your requests to God never fall on deaf ears.
Finally - God answers our prayers. He responds from heaven when his people pray.
What prayer is God answering in Revelation 8? It’s the first half of the prayer Jesus taught us to pray.
“Our father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
That’s a prayer that God is going to answer in its fullness one day.
It’s not a vindictive prayer. It’s a prayer that God be seen for who he really is. That he be properly recognized as the king of kings and lord of lords. But in order to do that he must judge the earth.

The Destruction of the Earth

So the DOTL is a (1) terrible day; (2) a day of God’s wrath; (3) that wrath is reserved for God’s enemies, (4) hastened by our prayers and finally...
TRUTH 5: The Day of the Lord brings about ecological destruction to the physical universe and earth on which we live.
The first four trumpets are about to sound. Before the first trumpet is blown, though, we see thunder, rumblings and flashes of lightening.
I heard somebody say this is looming threat of judgment before it actually arrives (like your momma saying “just wait until your Father gets home…)
Then we get to actual judgments. They are so devastating and totalizing that many spiritualize these judgments to make them metaphorical or analogous to something else.
I suppose that’s possible but when you can take the Bible literally I think you should.
I think the first four judgments could be summarized as putting the world into an ecological tailspin.

Hail & Fire - Ecological Tailspin

The first trumpet is hail and fire mixed with blood.
Revelation 8:7 (CSB)
7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and hail and fire, mixed with blood, were hurled to the earth. So a third of the earth was burned up, a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Again I don’t know if John is using this language to suggest that literal hail and fire mixed with blood will fall from the clouds or if there will be some form of natural disaster (like hail) that burns up the vegetation of the earth and hits masses of people so badly that blood is flowing through the streets. I just don’t know.
Whatever the actual particulars, the result of this trumpet judgement is going to be the destruction of the air we/other animals breathe.
(removing 1/3 of the trees and grass would so offset our carbon dioxide and oxygen levels that millions of people would die.)

Blazing Mountain - Food Shortage

Then comes the second trumpet. Is it one hour later? One week later? 5 months later? We don’t know. John doesn’t say.
But the second trumpet entails a mountain burning with fire being thrown into the ocean.
Revelation 8:8–9 (CSB)
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain ablaze with fire was hurled into the sea. So a third of the sea became blood, 9 a third of the living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
What is this? Sounds to me like a meteor. John’s never seen anything like it before. We’ve probably never seen anything like it before (unless you count the CGI of doomsday movies).
Notice what happens when this fire mountain hits the sea. 1/3 of the ocean becomes blood. Again - the idea of blood may just be a metaphorical reference to death and destruction. The particular causes are somewhat irrelevant.
The effect is dead sea creatures and trade ships. Back then, fish were food and trips were the vehicle for trading that food. We have the same basic set up today.
So we’re talking mass destruction of supply chains and global trade. Food shortages will skyrocket and global trade will come to a screeching halt.

Wormwood - Water Shortage

That brings us to the third trumpet: similar in style, larger in scope.
Revelation 8:10–11 (CSB)
10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star, blazing like a torch, fell from heaven. It fell on a third of the rivers and springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood. So, many of the people died from the waters, because they had been made bitter.
Wormwood is a type of shrub that’s used to manufacture poison. So what is this star/thing named Wormwood??
John calls it a great star, blazing like a torch. Is it another meteor? I don’t know. Again the particulars of the cause are somewhat intangible and unknowable.
The result is that fresh water - AKA drinking water - is now undrinkable.
The destruction of 1/3 of the seas took away food and global trade.
The destruction of 1/3 of fresh water takes away drinking water the one basic necessity you cannot live without.
You can fast from food for up to 40 days or longer. You can go without water for maybe 3 days before you start getting into really serious trouble. You don’t drink water you die. We’re talking global devastation the likes of which has never been seen before!

Sun, Moon & Stars - Turn Off The Lights

Finally we get to the fourth trumpet.
Revelation 8:12 (CSB)
12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened. A third of the day was without light and also a third of the night.
This isn’t good. We’re not just talking about momentary eclipse. We’re talking about a cosmological upset that destroys daylight and tweaks the fine tuning of this universe so that it’s not longer suitable for human flourishing.
The fine turning of the universe right now is an unbelievable evidence for the existence of God. But cosmologists will tell you that if you tweaked the system even just a little bit then the conditions get scary in a hurry.
The effects would be sweeping changes in our temperature. There would be drastic changes in the amount of light that is shed on the earth. It would get darker earlier and stay darker longer than ever before. That’s going to have dramatic implications farming and daily lifestyle activities.
The psychological effects all of these things will have are crazy to think about as well. People will go crazy! And this is only four trumpets in.

Woe! Woe! Woe!

That’s why John follows the first four trumpets with a warning by an eagle flying up in the sky.
Revelation 8:13 (CSB)
13 I looked and heard an eagle flying high overhead, crying out in a loud voice, “Woe! Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts that the three angels are about to sound!”
The woes are a reminder that the worst is yet to come. These judgments haven’t even yet been poured out on mankind. They’re judgments on the earth.
What will it be like when they are poured out on the PEOPLE of the earth.
God is punishing the earth without mercy. Why? Because they’ve been storing up his wrath with their constant sin and rebellion.
He is punishing the earth without mercy because he sent his Son Jesus into the earth and instead of repenting and believing the Gospel we rejected him and crucified the Lord of Glory.
God is SERIOUS about his holiness. He would not be holy if he did not punish and judge us for our sin. And the consequences of sin bring death and destruction. You know this intuitively. You know it deep down. And one day God is going to make it a physical reality in the creation.

Conclusion

We live in a culture that says, “Do what you want. There’s no way God cares. You’re only accountable to yourself. Do you!” Know this: When you die, you’re going to stand before a Holy God and give an account to Him. What will you say? What will you do with your guilt and shame?
If you don’t repent of sin and trust in Christ then you will not go to heaven. You will be punished for all eternity with the devil in hell. But that doesn’t have to be true of you.
God not only created you he loves you. He sent his son to die on the cross for your sins and three days later God raised him from the dead. If you’ll repent of your sin and put your faith in Jesus you can be saved.
You may not be alive during this final “Day of the Lord.” But know this: you will stand before the lord “ONE DAY.” Will you be ready?
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