Sermon
Living Waters of Grace, March 26, 2026
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Clark
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Wofford, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland,
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County of Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Clark as he
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continues teaching through God's Word.
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You can never anticipate or even think about things like this
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unless you go to a movie and see some kind of science fiction
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movie like Iron Man or something and you you sort of get a
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picture through Hollywood of what cataclysmic events can be
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like. The only thing I can sort of
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compare this kind of destruction to is whenever we had to decide
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to drop the bomb, the atomic bomb and Hiroshima and the the
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results of what happened to that country and to the people that
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were exposed to the radiation. Just unbelievable.
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One of the most devastating things I've ever seen is footage
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from the detonation of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and
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Nagasaki. The power that was unleashed
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feels like it's from another world, and the devastation that
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it caused is nearly unspeakable. Sadly, as we just heard from
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Pastor Clark, there's coming a time when a similar event will
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happen again on Earth. This is directly related to the
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End Times, the very last days as we know it here on Earth.
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Now. Here's Pastor Clark in
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Revelation Chapter 9 with today's edition of Living Waters
Revelation 9 chapter mention
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of Grace. I want to be an encouragement to
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you guys in your daily life and all that you you struggle with
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and deal with. But you know, when you're in
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this book, it's right straight up with regarding what's going
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to happen to the human race that doesn't know Jesus Christ.
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And so I pray that as we study this, we're grateful that we're
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not going to be here for this. But at the same time, we're
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thinking about family members or neighbors or friends or Co
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workers or relatives that need to hear about the gospel.
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That's really what this is all about as we study this.
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It just isn't like, wow, this is fascinating and it's
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interesting, but we don't want anybody to have to go through
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this, right? That's got to be the key when we
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study this. So it's not to intellectually
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stimulate us, but it's to burden us for for people that need the
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love of Jesus Christ. So as we're studying this now,
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this is again the time period when the Antichrist is on the
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face of the earth, rolling and reigning the earth.
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The seven-year tribulation period is going to be the most
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horrendous time on the face of the Earth for the human race.
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But the first 3 1/2 years of that period are going to be very
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deceptive. Because right now, as I think
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about the world economy and what's going on in the world,
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and what is going to bring some degree of sanity to the
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financial markets isn't legislation or printing more
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money, that kind of stuff. It's going to be someone who's
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going to rise on the scene, that's going to have an
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incredible answer to bring the stability to the markets again
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so that the world can prosper almost like this.
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This idea of Nirvana, like we finally found this society and
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culture. It's going to be peaceful and
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it's going to be perfect and it's going to be heaven on earth
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type of thing. And the only person that's going
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to be able to do that temporarily is this person
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Antichrist. He's going to come on the scene
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with fascinating, charismatic communication skills.
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He's going to have the ability to stabilize the tension that's
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in the world because of political, geophysical stress on
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the societies and the financial markets.
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He's going to have incredible ideas and he's going to be able
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to have the ability to bring people together in meetings
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where everything's going to make sense.
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And I'll tell you, if we were ever close to a time like that,
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we are so close now. I mean, the experts, the
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financial, monetary experts that we all look to show us what to
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do and how we get through these things.
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They don't know what to do. All they can think about is this
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artificially having these bailouts that are just temporal.
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The all they're doing is pushing the cataclysmic events of
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financial meltdown into the future, right?
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If it isn't what we're going to face individually, our kids or
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our grandkids are definitely going to have to face these
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problems. So the first 3 1/2 years are
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going to be pretty mesmerizing for people on the earth.
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They're not going to be thinking about deception.
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They're just going to be thinking, Wow, life's better
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than it's ever been, make them more money, things are great,
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you know, the world's at peace. This is wonderful.
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But then God's judgments will begin to start to be poured out,
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especially right after the first period of this tribulation.
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So we're going to look at these verses step by step here.
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This is sort of bring some kind of sense to what is going to be
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occurring. Now, we went through the seven
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seals previous to this study, the first signs of God's
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impending judgment, but they're getting increasingly more
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intense and difficult as we move through this book.
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Now we're in this time of these trumpet judgments, 7 of them,
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and then we'll move into the bowls of wrath, which are also
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numbered in numbered in sevens. But in this first one, we see
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the first Angel sounds as trumpet.
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It's a warning and hail and fire follow, mingled with blood.
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And they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees
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were burned up and all the green grass was burned up.
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So when this first judgment comes, this picture like today's
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a beautiful day out there, the scenery, the trees, the green
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grass. This take, Greensburg, if you
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may, not the whole world, it will be the whole world.
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But this take where we live, where it would affect us if we
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were here for such a time that there would be such a horrendous
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outpouring from heaven of of some kind of cataclysmic
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apocalyptic event that 1/3 of everything out there is burnt.
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The trees, the grass, any kind of vegetation, herbs, flowers,
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they're destroyed by this first judgment.
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And it echoes what it said in Joel chapter 2, verse 31.
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The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood
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before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
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It reminds us of the the plagues in Egypt when God was dealing
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with Pharaoh. Remember, anybody watch the 10
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Commandments? Remember that even if you're not
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a believer here today, I'm sure you probably saw that movie.
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It's incredible. The special effects are amazing.
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You think those special effects are good?
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Hollywood wait to see God's special effects.
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It won't come any. I mean, they're so far beyond
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what a human being could even fathom or come up with.
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But the the plagues in Egypt, the hail, when it came out, the
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7th plague destroyed every herb of the field and broke every
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tree of the field. Now that was just a temporal
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thing. Things were restored eventually
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and brought back to a semblance of order.
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But these judgments, they're in, in the sense of the degree of
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intensity, they're just the beginning stage of what's going
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to happen. It's only 1/3 of the world
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that's going to be impacted by this judgment, but eventually as
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we get into the judgments that will come later on, it won't
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just be part of the world, it's going to be the entire world
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that's impacted by this. In verse 8 it says then the
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second Angel sounds and something like a great mountain
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burns with fire was thrown into the sea, and the third of the
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sea became blood, and the third of the living creatures in the
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sea died. And the third of the ships were
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destroyed. And the third Angel sounded.
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And a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch.
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And it fell on 1/3 of the rivers and on the springs of water, the
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name of the stars Wormwood. 1/3 of the waters became Wormwood.
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And many men died from the water because it was made bitter.
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So now we see not only the vegetation, but the waters are
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being destroyed. We see that they're being turned
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to blood. And when God allows these
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judgments to come from heaven and the waters are turned to
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blood, all the fish are going to die that are exposed to these
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waters that are being judged. All the lobster that you like,
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the flounder and all the shrimp and the scallops that we all
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love to eat, that we feed on that provide sustenance and and
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food and nourishment for the masses of civilization of people
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are going to be destroyed and it's going to cause cataclysmic
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events for the food to supply and the water is going to be
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undrinkable. It's interesting, not only the
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ocean water, but in verse 9, the waters of the rivers and our
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water, it doesn't come out of the air, only the sky.
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It comes from the streams, what's already settled and
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stable. And we use different filtering
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systems to use that water to make it possible to drink.
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But it's going to be so bad, the water is going to be
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undrinkable. Now, when you read about this
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mountain, this is a fascinating concept that it isn't this
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mountain that's going to be uprooted and thrown into the
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water as it causes problem. But some of the commentators
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believe it's going to be a meteorite shower.
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And already at different times and civilization, there's been
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meteors that have come from heaven and have caused
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destruction and disaster where they've landed.
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But in this case, this is specific being sent from heaven
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to 'cause this problem in the drinking water and not only the
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fish, but the maritime commerce, 1/3 of the ships will be
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destroyed during this judgment and the approximation.
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I have some numbers here that are interesting that right now
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there's probably an estimate in the waters of around 60,000
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ships that are out there cruising the waterways, doing
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business, supplying different countries with different
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products. Well, 1/3 of them are going to
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be destroyed. That's about 20,000 ships.
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Over a half a million people will die in that battle from
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this judgment from heaven and the death of these people and
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the explosion of these ships and these bodies.
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Again, the blood will be everywhere.
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This is something that in your wildest dreams or your thoughts
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could. You can never anticipate or even
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think about things like this unless you go to a movie and see
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some kind of science fiction movie like Iron Man or something
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and you sort of get a picture through Hollywood of what
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cataclysmic events can be like. The only thing I consider
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compare this kind of destruction to is whenever we had to decide
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to drop the bomb, the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and the the
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results of what happened to that country and to the people that
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were exposed to the radiation. This unbelievable and so we see
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these judgments occurring and in verse 10 it says the third Angel
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sounds and a great star falls from heaven burning like a torch
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and it fell on 1/3 of the rivers and on the springs of the
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weather in the name of the stars Wormwood, 1/3 of the waters
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became Wormwood and many men died from the water because it
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was bitter again like the Egyptian plague.
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You can make some comparisons to God's authority and his ability
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to judge when he judged Pharaoh and the people of Egypt because
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of their hard heartedness and their hatred toward the children
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of Israel. And we again, we see this great
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star, it's believed again, possibly a meteor, maybe some
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kind of space vehicle descending, loaded up with all
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kind of biological and chemical potential destructive elements
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of warfare. Some people say it could be some
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kind of a parachuted illuminated bomb that's sent up from a rogue
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nation. But what it's going to do,
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again, it's going to supply, destroy about 1/3 of the water
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supply. It'll make it undrinkable.
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And when you compare this to what is discussed in Revelation
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16, that again, this is only 1/3 of the earth.
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And Revelation 16 will make it clear that it'll be the entire
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earth when the third bowl of wrath ruins the drinking water
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everywhere and people can't drink at all now, in spite of
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all these things happening. And just like in Egypt, whenever
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these things were going on, these plagues, the people for
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the most part, as we read in Exodus, didn't repent.
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They actually became harder and hated God more.
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You would think that if things like this begin to occur, that
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people would look up and ask God for help or his mercy, which he
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will still supply to the human race if they call upon him,
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He'll still save people during that tribulation.
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But people's hearts are so hard and wicked that they'll reach up
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their hand and and curse God. They curse God.
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Now when things are great, right, something doesn't go
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their way. And the human race has a
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tendency to blame God for every issue that happens in life.
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And we also have that tendency. We have a trial or something go
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happen in our life and the first thing we usually say, God, why
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me? Why did this have to happen to
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me? Why am I going through this
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instead of all the times that God blesses us and does so many
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wonderful things and then we stop and say, God this thank you
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for how good you are to me. Thank you for the the simple
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things I take for granted. I mean, even as Christians,
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right? We're hard hearted.
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We take so much for granted from God's mercy and his grace.
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But you take a group of people that are living on the earth at
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this time that are God's enemies, that are already hard,
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that become more embittered and more hard no matter what God
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does. And he gives them the test. 1/3
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right now, not the whole earth. 1/3 It's a warning to turn to
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me. And so many still will not turn
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to him. The, the human race is proud,
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right? First of all, it denies that God
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exists. I run into people all the time.
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I don't believe it. There's a God.
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There's no way, you know, we, this is evolution that this came
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together. It's, this is what we have.
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This is all we have and it's it's not going to get any
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better. Human beings also think they're
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in control. They can control the
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circumstances of life. Our presidents, the leaders of
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our nation, they somehow have this delusion that no matter
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what they encounter, they can have a meeting and somehow, with
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collective wisdom, figure out what to do in a crisis
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situation. The world's destiny right now is
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so hard hearted that they'll still refuse to acknowledge that
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there's a creator God that loves them and cares for them.
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And believe me, right now, the goodness of God is what leads us
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to repentance. All these years since Christ
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ascended after his crucifixion, His resurrection sense to the
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heaven, to the Father and the angels that appear at the
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ascension say to the world that's looking and seeing this
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physical ascension of Christ, wondering where he's going, He's
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being lifted up. They said, why are you looking
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up into heaven? The same Jesus who's being taken
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up from you shall descend and like manner.
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And the disciples at the time were asking, was this a sign of
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the end? Is this the end?
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And Jesus says only the Father who's in heaven knows the time.
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But what did he say? Go into all the world and preach
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the gospel to every living creature, teaching them all
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things whatsoever I've commanded you, baptizing them in the name
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of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
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Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age.
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So his heart, all these years, over 2000 years, is that people
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like us who have come to know Christ, to know his grace, his
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love, his mercy, his gentleness, his kindness, that we would have
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a desire and a willingness to tell a lost world about who he
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is and why he came and why he died.
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He doesn't want people to have to go through this.
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But even when we tell people about who he is and what he's
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done, there's something inherent in the human heart that wants to
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push back the love of God and reject him.
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And it's only the grace of God that humbles us and breaks us to
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realize, Yeah, Jesus is who I need, and I need him to be my
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Lord and Savior, to forgive me and my sin.
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But most of the people during this tribulation will refuse to
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acknowledge their sin and their need of Jesus.
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Yet some will come to believe that's the marvel of God's
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grace. But we're living in a time right
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now where nuclear or biological weapons are so readily available
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that it would be very, very simple to contaminate the water
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supply someone from al Qaeda gets in our country.
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Just as they suppose these Pakistani guys up in this plan
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to blow up this vehicle in Times Square and to cause chaos.
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Believe me, there is this influence in this world today to
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bring a lot of hurt and harm to the human race and it only takes
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a couple people to be involved in this to cause cataclysmic
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events back in the 60s. This is an interesting piece of
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information. I I found there was this Air
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Force pilot that was flying maneuvers.
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Government had them testing some things regarding nerve gas and,
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and they were out there in the in the deserts of Nevada and he
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was told to hit this particular target and they were testing the
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capability and power of this of nerve gas.
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He had 320 gallons of nerve gas in this plane and as he was
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flying to drop the amount of gas that they were told to drop and
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it was only about 5% of the total load.
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As he was flying to drop it, there was a slight shift in the
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winds. The winds began to to blow off
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course. And this is, this is staggering.
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And he, he, he was about 20 to 30 miles off the target with
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this and this a little amount of it settled on 1000 thousands of
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grazing sheep. It killed 6400 of them instantly
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like that. So what would it take, right for
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a terrorist to cause a lot of catastrophe?
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And the catastrophes we're talking about here are mixed in
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the sense of those who are sent directly and sense of heavenly
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miraculous events that will cause chaos.
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But also during this time, things are going to be also
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targeted by demonic human beings who are are in cahoots with the
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evil one, moving up toward the eventual destruction, trying to
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destroy the earth in the last days before Christ returns.
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But these catastrophic biological weapons of mass
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destruction already exist. Iran, who knows where they are
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right now. We know their intentions is to
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try to destroy the nation of Israel.
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I don't know about you. Every day I get up, I got to do
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my job like you work, all that stuff.
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But I look at the headlines of the news, and someday we're
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going to begin to read some things that we're not going to
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imagine are potentially capable of happening in our own time.
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Who would have ever thought on September 10th, that day we got
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up, that our country would face what we faced on September 11th,
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right? It's still.
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You look back all these years and you see the events of that
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World Trade Tower falling, and it's almost like that it really
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happened. I mean, I can't believe that
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this happened, but it did happen and only took a few people with
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incredible planning to destroy those towers and to try to
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destroy our financial markets and all those lives that were
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lost during that time. In verse 12 it says the 4th
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Angel sounded and the third of the sun was struck, 1/3 of the
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moon, 1/3 of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened,
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1/3 of the day did not shine, and likewise the night.
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And I looked and I heard an Angel flying through the midst
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of heaven saying with a loud voice, woe, woe, woe to the
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inhabitants of the earth because of the remaining blasts of the
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trumpets of the three angels who are about the sound.
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You think about Egypt again when we go back to God's dealing
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through Moses with Pharaoh. And there was three day period
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of complete darkness in the 9th plague in Exodus 10.
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But what's being described here is an unnatural darkness, and
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it's one of the signs of the end of the days.
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And Mark 13, it describes the sun being darkened and the moon
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shall not give light. The darkening of the sun and the
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moon and the stars portrays A cosmic catastrophe.
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We think of what happened during the crucifixion in Luke
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30/23/44. Now it was about the 6th hour,
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that's 12 noon. And there was darkness over all
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the earth until the 9th hour 3:00 that's the time of Christ
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crucifixion. The sun was darkened and the
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veil in the temple was torn in 2.
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So we see this judgment of God that if you could imagine today,
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you know, I don't know, we get sunrise is, I don't know,
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probably what, around 6 O clock or something.
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And we still have some daylight up to around 9 O clock.
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Now days are getting longer that you cut that by 2/3 and you only
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have 1/3 of the day that's emitting light from sunshine.
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What that will do to the crops and the food ecosystem, food
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markets, it's just again going to be catastrophic.
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And again, this is the the power of God trying to get the
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attention of the hard hearted human race.
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We see the 1st 4 seals that we studied a few weeks ago.
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They were identified by horses, meaning the swiftness of the
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judgments of God moving upon the earth during this time of
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tribulation. These judgments that we just
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studied, the first four are clear enough and the indication
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of God's desire to get the attention of the human race, but
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the next three are going to be even worse than the first four.
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And they're called woes, meaning intense severity.
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Now as time moves on in this particular book we're studying,
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as I said, things will get even more horrendous.
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And Chapter 9, we're just going to go through a few verses here
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this morning. We'll pick it up again next
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week, but already read the verses.
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But there's going to be the star that falls from heaven.
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And this, this individual is a person that is going to be given
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a key to the bottomless pit. Now, what happens to everybody
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who dies right now? If you're a believer, the Bible
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says to be absent in the bodies, to be present with the Lord.
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So our soul goes to be with Christ in his present, but our
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body is laid in the grave until the final resurrection, when
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Christ will actually raise those bodies out of the graves and
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will be given new bodies in the heaven.
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That's the final resurrection. But those who without Christ
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will go into the place of holding until that final
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judgment. And it's the element of hell,
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but not to the degree of what will be experienced at the final
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judgment when the Bible says that whoever's name is not
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found, and in God's Lamb book of life, that book that holds the
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names of all those who belong to him, whoever doesn't have their
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name in that book will be cast into that final judgement, which
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is the lake of fire. Thanks for being with us today
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here on Living Waters of Grace. We are in the Book of
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Revelation, and we find it fascinating how influential and
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involved the angels are in this book.
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They bring about whatever it is that God has instructed them to
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do, but it's through their actions that much of the
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judgements come on the earth. The angels are in submission to
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God as their authority, but He utilizes them in unique ways
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throughout this book. Like angels have a specific
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purpose from God, you have a unique purpose and plan too.
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God wants to use you in your life as a testimony to others
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and to bring others who are currently lost into the fold of
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God. God would love more than
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anything for all who are willing to come to Him for salvation,
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but he wants it to be their choice, not a forced situation.
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This is the way God works, not forcing himself on anyone, but
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giving each person free will. If you're interested in learning
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about this choice that's free and that it's a gift, go to
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calvarychapelonline.com and click on the About Us tab and
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then find the link for what we believe.
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We'd love to be a help and a resource for you as you walk
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through what it means to be a follower of Jesus.
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If you find the contact tab on our website, you can get in
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touch with us or submit a prayer request.
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We'd love to hear from you. That's all for today's edition
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and Revelation, but there's much more that Pastor Clark plans to
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share with us from this culminating book of the Bible.
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Stay tuned for that and make sure to mention this radio
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program to others. Invite them to tune into Grace
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FM 91.7 FM and they can stream worldwide at Grace Radio dot FM.
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This has been living waters of grace.