In this sermon, the preacher reflects on a man who was working in the field and meditating on the goodness of God. Suddenly, a tremendous storm came, bringing rain and lightning. The man was grateful for the rain as he had been praying for it, but then he noticed something strange - there were no clouds in the sky. This led the preacher to ponder the significance of rain without clouds and to question the timing and purpose of God's judgment. The sermon ends with a prayer for God's grace and a call for people to prepare for the coming judgment.

I never cease to be amazed at the fact that for 27 years I had no interest in the things of God, and the Lord Jesus Christ meant nothing to me. And I tell you, when you get to know Him, and know what He can do for you, and how He can give you peace and joy, I marvel that you poor sinners can keep putting off your Sabbath. You start to think how wonderful the Lord Jesus is, and how He gives you direction in your life, keeps you from wondering aimlessly about in the darkness of this cruel world, always exposed to the wrath of God, and the possibility of being tested to hell with your next breath. You think that you're so unconcerned, you only think of pointing out that truth from the Word of God that you are burdened. No, if you believe a message, and you see Jesus Christ, you're about to lose the field from your eyes. May I plead with you today, stop trying to save yourself, stop trying to figure it out, stop even trying to understand it, and give up, and receive Jesus Christ from the field that He removed. The darkness will be gone, and your heart will be filled with joy. All you've got to do is give up. Revelation chapter 6, verse 12, "'And I beheld when he had opened the sixth field, and, lo, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell on the earth, even the fig-trees, as if they were untimely figs, and she was shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll, and it was rolled together, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, stood themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, "'Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand?'' 2 Thessalonians, please. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. After our reading here in this passage, we're going to turn to Romans chapter 1. I suggest that you hold your place here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3, for the major portion of our discourse is centered around this section. So, when you're reading Romans 1, you can turn readily back to 2 Thessalonians, or 2 Thess. Now, there'll be a slight change of the words here. Don't be alarmed, they're not changing the Bible, but giving you a more correct rendering. Now, we're to teach you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our coming together unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind, nor be troubled neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, if so not, as that the day of the Lord is present. That no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come, except as come he falling away, or the apostasy. And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he has God's witness in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Remember ye not that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now you know what restrains, and ye might be revealed any time, for the mystery of lawlessness hath already worked. Only he who now restrains will restrain, and will he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked one be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his tongue. Even him whose tongue is after the workings of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, and men that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And, for this cause, God shall send them strong delusions, that they should believe the lie, that they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. Now, Romans chapter one. Hold your patience, please. Romans chapter one. Does this thing give you one verse since the 18th verse in connection with this tremendous statement of the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God unto salvation? Now, it explains to you that the verb is revealed here. Romans chapter one, verse 18, is in the present continuous tense, and so correctly reads this way. So, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. Now, the wrath of God is being revealed more before us here in the present continuous tense of this verse as one of the governmental truths of God in relation to the human family, and it's given correctly in this tense by the Spirit of God because what God is saying in this verse is that the principle given here is that God is deceived with unrighteousness and with ungodliness, and there has been a continuous demonstration of the divinest treasure of God against the sin of man. The wrath of God is being revealed, and, let's expect, it takes you all the way back to the commencement of creation when God expelled our original parents out of the garden and pulled them out. This is where it began, and there is a demonstration of the proof that God is not pleased with sin and unrighteousness. For, in fact, many women today are permitted to continue in sin, and unbelief, unrighteousness, and ungodliness is by no reason an indication that God is pleased with them. It simply means that God is patient while building that image of heaven. But, if you read the Bible, even carelessly, and reading through it, you cannot help but be impressed with the fact that while God tolerates sin, he is not by any means pleased with it. For example, you remember the story of the flood when God has destroyed the entire family, with the exception of Noah's eligible family, as a result of jealousy upon the original creation. Along with the word of God, you have the story of the destruction of the citadel of flames following the Moor, and others, and fire has been spoken. God came down from heaven, and there we have throughout the Bible, all the way through God's history book, this tremendous truth so clearly and distinctly set forth, you cannot possibly fail to see it, that God is displeased with sin and unrighteousness. This constant revelation of God's wrath, I repeat, is seen over and over in the word of God. Now, if there ever was a time when people had a doubt, and through this truth and this principle in relation to the government of God, with God and the human family, it was forever expelled at the place called Calvary. It was forever dispelled, I should say, whenever the Lord Jesus died upon the cross. The Apostle Paul states it this way in second sentence 521, speaking of that time and history when the Lord Jesus went up to the place called Calvary, and there, in love and obedience to the will of the Father, and expressing his genuine love for you and me that you might be saved, he lay down upon the cross the will of your body, tongue, spirit, heart, and soul, as the Lamb of God, the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. They nailed him to that stick, that post, and tied him there, and raised him up to see heaven, earth, and dropped him down with a hole in the ground. There, the sinners in heaven, earth, were the only sinless family that lived. Meek and lowly Jesus, who was filled with compassion, and love, and concern for the human family, who always thought about doing good, and did not accept that which pleased the Father. They had the multitude because they were hungry. Opened the eyes of the blind just because he wanted them to see. Unstopped the deaf, the hearing, the loose, the tongues that could not speak, not respecting anything in return, because he loved sinners. And, he expressed this love by going to the cross, and upon the cross, God placed all of our sins upon his only begotten Son. Now, when the sins of the whole world were placed upon the soul of the Lord Jesus, I want to note two things God could do. He either overlooks sin, or he must punish sin. Now, of course, the word of God makes it clear. In 2 Corinthians 5.21, speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ dying upon the cross, Paul says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might remain the righteousness of God in him. And, when the Lord Jesus hung upon the cross, let us never forget this, that the death of Jesus Christ, in the word of God, is viewed as an act of man. They murdered the Son of God, for the power of his truth, counsel, and foreknowledge of God, Jesus said, the essentials are lifted hence and crucified, and slain the just one. And, but the death of Christ is not only seen in the word of God as an act of man-like and eternal counsel, foreknowledge, and the commission of God, but we read in the Bible that it was God himself who made the soul of Jesus Christ and offered it for our sins. If you do not understand that our sins were laid upon him, it became incumbent upon the very justice of God to receive the Lord Jesus as if he had been a common sinner. And, upon the cross, ultimately, it was none other than God the Father who turns the soul of divine judgment into the building of his only begotten Son. Read the twenty-second Psalm. You read very clearly what Jesus said in the suffering that he endured at the hands of men. Strong bold ovation has come to be round about, for Jesus found him in a roaring line. He tells about the treatment he received at the hands of men, and then he said, but thou, O Lord, hast brought me into the dust of death. Do you not understand, my dear friends? Throughout the word of God, we have a constant and recurring public demonstration and manifestation of the divine displeasure of God against all sin and ungodliness, and the greatest demonstration of all that I might say in one sense of the word, climactic as it was, but demonstrated in language very clear that you cannot possibly help but understand that God himself slew the Lord Jesus Christ in order to save you and me from hell. Now, that, I say again, dispels every possible misconception of the character of God. God is holy. God is not pleased with your sin. God is not pleased with your sin, for my friend, listen, above all, God is not pleased with your sin or the rejection of Jesus Christ, because ultimately no one, listen, ultimately no one will ever stand before the God-given grace, my friend, to reject the relic of God with a greedy, enraging, and agonizing except for the specific sin of the rejection of Jesus Christ. Don't ever forget that the one great, condemning, soul-tearing sin is the sin of the rejection of God's Son. The Bible makes that abundantly clear. So, let's look at something else in connection with this greatest manifestation of the divine displeasure of God against sin, and it is this. The infinite value of the sacrifice of Christ upon the cross is seen in this blessed text. Have you ever noticed that, from the cross of Christ until this present time, that we have been living under a silent heaven? Search your Bible from the opening of the book of Genesis until the crucifixion of Christ, we have two or three minor incidents in the book of the Acts, like the death of Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5, for lying to the spirit of God, and the blindness of Eleanor Siskelson and Paul's trusting blind in the thirteenth of Acts for resisting the gospel and seeking to keep one from trusting Christ, apart from these two or others of similar character and relatively insignificant, that we for two thousand years have lived under a silent heaven. Not one time has God directly intervened in the affairs of the human family, and you see men in their ignorance who always like to blame God for all of their troubles when they're only self-conflicted. The world is burning, so why doesn't God do something? Why doesn't he stop the war? And, I've heard for that for a while, when the world is burning, why should he start it if he thought that he didn't start it? As people who hope God to interfere in the affairs of the world had better be patient. He doesn't listen to you, because, you see, my friends, the fact that God doesn't intervene, the fact that you get away with your rejection of Christ, the fact that the nations of the world, including our own blessed United States of America, may God have mercy upon us and our departure from the faith of our fathers, but the fact is that the thought is not there being in the affairs of human government. This is why, when I was put on the subject of Satan, there was not any apology. I stated this truth, and I was very surprised that, again today, that Satan has a controlling power and authority within the permissible will of God of all the governments of this world. I wouldn't even need a bible to tell me that, because it is a thing that God is in control of things. All I've got to say is he doesn't know what he's doing, and he's making a whale of a mess out of it. Let's be careful and remember, my friends, that God is absolutely powerful, but the satanic forces are in the works in the world today under the permissible control of God, simply because it's a part of God's divine program. But, let us remember this, that the silent heaven under which we are living calls salvation. God is not intervening in the affairs of man today. Do you know why? Because he's not damning man today, he's saving man. This is the age of the grace of God in which we all live. That's why today, and I hope you won't try it, but if you wanted to, you could leave this church service and go uptown and get on the bridge, this corner, or anywhere where the most people pass by. You can take up this up toward heaven in person. That's being Jesus Christ and God, and nothing will happen to you. You might get arrested for using profanity in public or something like that, but no time to go to heaven with Christ today. And, likewise, if it's all for Jesus Christ, the man was told about the picking up sticks on the Sabbath day. But, you see, my friends, let us learn one thing, and learn as well and as best as we can from this wonderful book, that all that is taught makes a difference in the feelings of God with the human family. And, when Christ died upon the cross, the death of Jesus, so vindicated the righteousness of God, so testified to God's divine pleasure in sin and righteousness in the rebellion of unbelief, and the death of Jesus so perfectly satisfied the judgment of God against the sinners, the value of the death and resurrection of Christ is seen in this fact, that it is now held back the judgment of God for two thousand years, while God is offering salvation and forgiveness of sins in sovereignty of sin and rebellion of sinners, the value of the cross of Jesus Christ is seen in the fact that two thousand years God has not judged the human family. But, then, you'll never realize if you live for two forever that yet you owe to the cross of Jesus Christ to keep you out of hell in the present day, and if you ever say, by the grace of God, and see the first dates of heaven, it'll be the cross of Jesus Christ, and there Jesus died for your sins and for mine. And, wonderful grace of God, for two thousand years the value of the cross is held back the sword of God's judgment. Let us never forget that judgment is God's strange work. The judgment of God's slumber, the judgment of God's sleep, the judgment of God is held in the veil. But, remember this, according to the word of God, there are yet two public manifestations or demonstrations of the wrath of God against sin that shall be revealed that will be nationwide or worldwide in their character. The first one of these is known in your Bible as the great tribulation. It takes place immediately following the coming of Jesus Christ. The Lord and pastor of Calvary, the Lord to the south of the archangel, the trump of God, forbearing Christ, shall rise first. Those who have touched with him must enter through the door, for because they can gather with him in power to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be on the law. Immediately following the coming of Christ takes its own to be within itself. Then will be the great tribulation period. This is the next public demonstration of God's pleasure with the sin of man. Then the next will take place after the millennium, a thousand years' reign which is our subject, for the 630 years in the evening. Immediately following that will be the great tribulation, and at this time you will be, if you refuse to receive Christ by any law, at this time you will be raised first and thrown out of hell, body out of the grave, the three-year-eater united, and where it stands, with its soul and body just like you are now, where the real body is standing with the judgment of the great Christ, though it is cast into the lake of fire. Now, these two visible manifestations of divine displeasure await the human family. The one we're going to speak about this morning, and we're back in 2 Thessalonians, verse 1 and in chapter 2, is what you see here early on in the title of the great tribulation. The New Testament is called the time of Jacob's trouble. It is the next event in the second program of God. We said a moment ago, immediately following the coming of Christ, that every believer, the dead first, and the living who have faith in Christ shall be taken up from this earth, and then the time of great tribulation shall be to run its course of approximately seven years' duration. Now, there are two things that will make this seven-year period of tribulation a time of unparalleled horror, a time of indescribable agony and suffering that shall be inflicted upon this world. I'll take them briefly and then show them to you from the word of God. Number one will be the afterthought that is strained on us, and, secondly, will be the literal tragedy of faith. And, upon this earth, as a consequence of war in heaven, when faith shall be cast down to this earth, then his time then will be short, he realizes it, and then he will begin to let loose all of his fury and wrath against the human family. It will be short, as it were, ten thousand years in time than the bottomless pit of a thousand years in preparation for the reign of one thousand years of peace at which time Jesus shall sit upon the throne of David. But now, I want you to notice here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 that we change in verse 2 that we do not choose faith in the line of trouble, neither by critical, by word, or by letter from us, and that the day of the Lord is at hand. This is a direct rendering because, notice this distinction if you study your Bible and carefully pay attention, that the day of the Lord is always distinguished from the day of Christ in that the day of Christ has to do with blessing for the people of God, and the day of the Lord has to do with judgment for the enemies of God. So, this is directly translated, the day of the Lord. In the light of the context, it is apparent that someone had forged the letter and signed all the names to it, and I believe the Thessalonian believers are under the impression that participation has come and taught them unexpectedly. You see, when the apostle preached the gospel in Thessalonica, we read in chapter 1 that the Thessalonian believers turned to God for my host to serve the living and true God and await for his son from heaven. While they were waiting for his son from heaven, these epistles from time immemorial state that they were going through a time of horrible tribulation and trial and persecution for the faith in Jesus Christ. They were like subject or deception. When someone came along, and that's why he tells them, now do not be deceived, neither by some false spirit or by a letter like it comes from us, as if the day of the Lord is present, then he says, this day shall not come. Notice verse 3, except there comes not pain falling away, but disease falling away. Apostasy in the Greek means a departure from truth. Now, the departure from truth began immediately following the coming of Jesus Christ. Why, John, in his first epistle, and in all three others, as a matter of fact, mentions that in 90 years after Christ, there was already an anti-Christ in the world, and the world has been given to see a departure from the things that God has done for 2,000 years. And so, ain't falling away a difference from de-falling away? What he is talking about here was a time when there could be an absolute and complete departure from all truth, an absolute turning of the tide upon all the truth that God has given to us in his world. Now, notice he says, don't let anybody deceive you for that day, that is the day of the Lord, the day of sudden tribulation, shall not come except that come he falling away, and then the man of sin be revealed. Now, in a prophecy of Daniel, it was very clearly told that at the commencement of the great tribulation period, as a man coming upon the scene, he is going to make a firm covenant with the nation of Israel. As a result of this, the Jewish nation, for the first half of the tribulation, shall live in a time of relative safety and peace, and like that, he is that one who shall make his appearance, offering himself as the leader who can solve all of your problems. The Lord Jesus said in John's Gospel, remember this, speaking to the Jews, he said, I am come in my father's name, you won't deceive me, but another shall come in his own name, and him you will deceive. That's why, as we read a moment ago, notice in verse 11, I'll prep you too, for this cause God shall send in strong delusion that those who believe thee lie, that they all might be damned who believe not thee true, be it for that pleasure and unrighteousness. And what the Spirit of God is saying here today that Jesus said, I am the door by which any enemy shall be saved, I am the way, the truth. I am the truth concerning God and salvation and the way to be saved. Now, says the word of God here that God in the coming days, if you, listen carefully, I'll say it again, woman, if you reject God's salvation and do not believe on Christ, the image of the Lord, when Jesus were to come today and you're left to go through the great tribulation, he said to it that because you would not receive the life of a true man, God will make you believe thee lie. In other words, my dear friends, listen, if you will not have God's Christ, you'll have the Christ. Okay, now look, at the commencement of the tribulation, according to the prophecy of Daniel, this man makes appearance from the sea. There's a good copy of Israel as their chancellor. He may even be the one who furnishes much of the finances and much of the know-how and everything for the rebuilding of their temple in Jerusalem. But Daniel said that midway of the 70th week, this is Daniel, this is the 70th of tribulation, then this wicked one will turn around and cause the sacrifice of a breaking tree. In the restored temple during the first half of the tribulation, the Jewish nation will be worshiping and offering up sacrifices like they did in the days and prior to those of the coming of the Lord Jesus. But midway of this 70th period, this man who made the covenant will cause the sacrifice and oblation to sea. Notice the striking similarity. It speaks here of someone holding back the process of evil in the world today. Why? Because God has an appointed time when this man that Daniel mentions in prophecy is going to make an appearance in the world. Now, notice very carefully, look in verse 6. What's holding back the process of evil? What's keeping back the manifestation this man is seeing? What's keeping him from making his appearance right now? He speaks in verse 6 of that which restrains, and in verse 7 of he who now restrains or hinders. I believe it is a God in verse 6, and it is the spirit of God in verse 6. He, beloved friend, the king of greatest restraining force of evil, most evil in the world, is the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in the bodies of God's people. The law has a significant effect upon society, because if you don't believe it, notice the next time you're flying down the road at 65, which is perfectly legitimate, most anywhere, and if you see a blue light from that part of the world, you automatically have to put up with the gangsters, because the law does have a restraining influence. But, the greatest restraining influence in the world today is the Holy Spirit of God who dwells in the bodies of believers. I've seen it proved I don't know how many times. You give me a Christian in this place today who would say, take three pieces of employment, and you go in that place, and you put up your stand, and let people know you're sane, and drink, back it up, and have gotten a consistent life, and will begin to clean up the filthy mouths around you. I've had people apologize to me for cursing in my stress. You don't have to apologize to me if you don't mind me. If you don't mind cursing in the presence of God, why should you pay attention to me? But, you see, the fact remains that the presence of the Holy Spirit of God in the bodies of Christians does have a retarding influence upon evil. But, you see, my friends, before this man here who is called the man of sin can be the hero, notice in verse 4, opposing and exalting himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped, so that yet God should have been the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This is the full term of Daniel's consciousness. And, midway of the tribulation, the Jews, much to their surprise, and as a consequence of the rejection of God's presence in the Messiah, they'll accept the Antichrist, and he'll fool them and deceive them. Midway of the tribulation, he will go up into the temple and say, you Jews, you have no more religious services, no more sacrifices, you have a whole lot of work to do. Those who refuse will be smoted by the sun. The consequence of the rejection of God's presence is always judgment, whether it be the Jews in the tribulation or Gentiles who die without Christ and are lost forever in hell. But, my friends, when this man concentrates in the temple at the end of the tribulation, it will be because, listen, their extreme influence has been taken out of the way. Notice verse 7, "'For the mystery of the lowest net is already brought, only he who now himself will be taken out of the world.'" This is the wholeness spirit of God. Let me learn this verse carefully. He doesn't say he'll be taken out of the world. Never make the mistake of saying that when the Spirit of God has been taken out of the world, the Bible never uses such language. Out of the way. Typically, he'll be out of the world and out of the way. Then, you're walking today in your favorite pathway through the world. That's meditation. You've been going there for years, enjoying the volatility of taking the walk, and this time you're passing along the pathway, and a limb has fallen from off a tree, and your progress is hindered. That limb restrains you and holds you back. You reach down, pick up the limb, you take it out of the way, and you go on, but you don't take the limb out of the world. Now, as Jesus Christ stands before his church, every saved person who has been taken off of his path to heaven, the Spirit of God will not be taken away, but his restraining influence will be exercised so that some people of all beliefs will be removed. So much is at this time that God is going to do something for man that man has always wanted him to do. Really, you just hang in there, and go, and roast in the feet of God, and let me tell you something, sinners. God is going to do something with you that you've always wanted him to do. Leave me alone! Leave me alone! And God's going to leave you alone, too. Do you know why I believe the word of God, Jesus said? You won't even have a presence that's any longer active. There won't be one single more important power on this earth. Nobody even to slap you on the back of the hand and say, Lordy boy, don't you touch that man's head off like that. That's right. Nobody to restrain you. And listen, can you imagine what it's like? Think of a typical weekend now. Think of all of our metropolitan cities, and even in Germany, anywhere. Think of all of the pilgrims of the panoply that's in the world today. Well, who amongst us is pilgrim to even name? Well, listen, what may be like when Jesus comes and it will be today? Think all of his believing people separating husbands from wives and children, raising up families, and what a horrible day it will be. Then comes the great tribulation, and think of it, think of all the evil that's in your heart. Think of every evil betrayed at the sight of the human body. What will it be like to the great tribulation period when there's no optimal vision against evil, no inward inhibition against evil? Every unsafe soul on this earth will be left perfectly free without any restraint whatsoever to follow every desire of the human heart to its natural conclusion? And won't you slip away on a determinative night with the lights turned out and watch X-rated movies on your TV, your and prosper moral maintenance in your girl? God is going to let me alone. Let him alone. Don't call me God. I'm going on a visit. All right, sir, the Lord. I've been here 2,000 years now. I'm going on a visit. I'm going straight ahead, sinner. You don't need me. All right, go ahead. Go ahead. Get your belly full or whatever it is you're living for and rejecting my son for now. Go ahead. Get all you want. You're talking about a time of carnage, and a time of pillage, and a time of destruction. When man shall fall to every filthy betrayed, rebellious, desirous, degenerate soul, and he shall humanize in a universal way, there'll be death, tragedy, unholy corruption, rotting, steeping, and murials, living, chipped and beaten, put to find all over the streets. You'll see the silence haunting the walls. Murder, rape, pillage, destruction, put to find all over the face of the earth. And in the midst of all of that, God is going to open the windows of heaven and pour out justice upon this world for the redemption of Jesus Christ. This is a great tribulation. Thank God I'm not going to be here. I'm going just before it starts. When Jesus comes, I'm going there. And God said, I promise in the word, heaven and the world shall die in this great place, and I'll be made alive with every man in the whole world. Praise the firstborn, and put them in the place that is coming. And the only hope I've got, and the only truth I've got, is the blessed assurance that I've longed of Jesus Christ. That's all I do. Thank God that's all I need. I'm telling you, my friend, it's going to be a horrible time, the great tribulation. And you see, the sooner time is, my dear friend, you don't realize it's just tomorrow. It's not tomorrow. Turn to the book of Revelation, chapter 6. We read a very important passage a moment ago in relation to this terrible judgment, and here we read about a sick field associated with earthquakes and so on. And may I suggest in passing, because we must hurry along, that here in this section, in verses 12-14, there is this phenomenon, which is symbolic, which is speaking of the deep breakdown of all authority and consummate anarchy. We're going to have to do that work, these increased shells. And it's going to be a time, I say again, of unparalleled suffering. In the book of Proverbs, the Bible has said that the way of the transgressor is hard, to get it, he makes it harder himself. And the way of the transgressor is hard, and here we find that deep, this is the phenomenon, verses 12, you notice them start from heaven, heaven departed, and mountains and islands moved out of their place, to speak just symbolically of a complete breakdown of authority and government, an absolute anarchy of rebellion and murder, and the world bathing itself in its own blood. But, then notice we have a striking thing that's going to take place. We have a prayer meeting, and how hard it is to get your children of God out there and give big prayer meetings. But here, look at the people. If we had people like this at our prayer meeting, I'd be care possessive. The verse 15, which says, the kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the cheap men, the maverick captains, and mighty men, the treasure funders, and every free man. And look, the kids, they hid themselves in the den, and in the rock of the mountains. And here, it gets very quick. They're not praying to God, they're not even praying to the Lord Jesus, Mary, or anybody else. They're praying to mountains and rocks. I've never heard anybody praying to a mountain or a hill. Never did anybody pray to a rock. Look at it, friends. And that verse that says to the mountains and rocks, oh, mountains, oh, mountains, fall on me, trees, fall on me. What's wrong? Well, hide me. Oh, hide me from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Wrath of the Lamb? There'll be a wrathful Lamb. Peaceful, don't follow the preachers that lay down his throne for the slaughter of Jesus. That just might be the worst for a Lamb to ever exist. If you say to the Lord Jesus, and like the Lamb, like the Lamb that he's ready to slaughter, like the Lamb before you, he's ready to jump. Pull up the knotted ground. It is so perfectly uncharacteristic of a Lamb to be angry. And my friends, listen, this is the Lamb of God. This is Jesus Christ, now the judge of those who reject him today. And there's been times when the rocks and the mountains fall upon us, oh, fall upon us. Hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and hide us from the wrath of the Lamb. Yet, I don't take that in. The Lord Jesus of Nazareth, now fill this wrath and anger. This is the day of the judgment of the Son of God. Another few solemn words, listen to me. As an unsaved person, look in verse 17, for the great day of his wrath has come, who shall be able to stand? The great day of the wrath of Jesus Christ has come, who shall be able to stand? Oh, oh, look, who will be able to stand under Jesus' eyes, pours out his wrath on this earth? I, I have the answer. Those that will be able to stand in it today are those who are standing where the judgment fires of God have already burned out, and that's at the place called Calvary. Only those will be able to stand in it today who are standing on Christ's side of the rock. Only those will be able to stand in it today as God's judgment poured out upon this world, upon whom I've taken the place of poor, guilty sinners, have gone to the cause of stupid, and said, Oh, Lord Jesus, it was I who should have come there. I am the one who stood up and crucified. I thank you for dying for me. I take my place. I stand here at the foot of the cross in the fire of God's judgment that's been burned up. One marvelous thing about Old Testament sanctification was just a sign of acceptance and approval of God in the Old Testament. That's a great sign of God going down from heaven to consume the sacrifice, and upon the cross, the sacrifice consumes the fire of God, and the wrath and judgment of God has been burned out against sinners. And, my friend, if you're on the cross, then God just up and let you come and stand there where Jesus was burned by the fires of hell, and save you from eternal punishment, then you can stand in the way of God's judgment. Only those who stand where the judgment fires of God are burned, who shall be able to stand, and I will be able to say, don't you? I remember, listen, God, the story of the man who moved from the east up to the west, when the government gave him new land grants for his status for settlement and development. This man went out and got his know-how, but worked hard, diligently, and prided himself out in a number of acres, and planted a vast amount of trees, and got himself a homestead garden. And, he had been working hard at this time, and he just wanted to make a little profit. One year, he had an abundant harvest of wheat, and he went out to work one day, and standing there, looking at these vast acres of beautiful grains, how little he harvested. He needed just one more rain, and he let it drop down. He was so anxious for rain, so he sat on the front of the garden. He couldn't do that, and he looked, and he looked, and he saw a cloud in their lives, and his heart was just dripping with hope, and his eyes grew bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and he said, thank God, we're going to have rain. When he saw it, something changed. Those tongues of fire came out of the clouds, and because of the story, he realized, what's this aura? It feels like it's showing the source of the cloud bringing rain, but it was a raging, ferocious cloud, and about a three-mile-an-hour wind, it was making its way towards bringing up generations to paralyze this year's young woman. He was responding to that growth, and then, he was galvanizing the action with bringing it into the house, and got his wife, and his children, leaving all of his possessions, everything he had, with bringing it toward the fire, burning his money, and his wife, and his children, and about a half a mile out, the story goes that he set himself on fire, got on the lever side, and the fire halted, and the wind took it on, and burned up everything he had. Behind him came this giant rolling smoke, and it came heating up the heaven, I'm not ready for this story, and as soon as the ground that he had burned off in front of him was cooling off, it went flying a hundred, two, three, four, five hundred yards on the blackened, scorched, and seared earth, burned upon his fire, and the fire got to where he had set his fire, it died out, and it was nothing to feed upon. My dear friends, listen, upon the cause of fires of darkness, on the words, kisses, and on the sins and abominance of men, came to the place called Calvary, and there the fires of darkness were burned out in the soul of Jesus Christ, and the day will come as a full-blooded sinner, and take your place there, where the fires of darkness have been burned out against you, you'll be able to stand, you'll be able to stand, you'll have to stand, for God of Jesus Christ wants contentment from you, so you'll have a way to stand, you'll be right, you'll have a way. On top of the sidewalk I stand, men and women look about, there was a man by the name of Augustus Wilcox later, one of those spiritual giants of old, maybe a hundred years ago almost, he was out working one afternoon, and the third day he was heading his work, and as he went along he was meditating on the goodness of God, and trying to stress the gratitude he had, and all of a sudden it came under tremendous storm, and lightning, and thunder, and all around, and you see the rain coming, you look around here, there's some things that tilt up, and you start to destroy it, you found a rock setting out in a rope-like form, out of a rope-form, and you start to destroy it, you got up on a steep step, you saw it, you couldn't get, and they got up under there, the current broke loose, the whip of ground vibrating from the thunder, the lightning slashing all around, and a torrent of water coming down all around them, according to the story of Ephesus in Tufts days, he stood there, he took out a pencil, and a piece of paper, and put some words on a piece of paper, and the first verse goes like this, book of ages, let the rain, let me hide myself in thee, let the water and the flood from my ribbons guide this flow, be as in the devil's door, save me from its fiendish power, look at it, oh my friend, Jesus Christ is a law, he was smitten, kept by the secular God, and in him is a hiding place, the wrath of God is about to fall upon this world, where does he come today, and where does he come in time, why can't this world trust in you, let the thunder roll, let the darkness fall, you'll be safe, oh my friend, trust in me, the wrath of God's a break on this world, take hold of my hand, be sure you're saved, you're going to see me pray to you number 364, I'm giving a real burden to you, to see you saved, enjoy the peace you have, and know that you're going to escape the wrath of God, that you're going to be a savior, we've done all we know how to do now, we're going to pray, and we're going to stand between these two verses, if you'd like to just come to go, and trust in Jesus Christ, and let your sins all forgiven, and know that you're alive, and let the judgment of God come, with the new justice of your hiding, in Jesus the Lord today, shall we pray, oh God our Father, I thank you Lord for that provision thou hast made for us, the sun of the clouds is gathering on the horizon, all around us we see the signs of his coming, oh the judgment I should talk about the sleep of his eyes, oh Lord we pray, oh we pray the grace, for those in our midst today unsaved yet ready, exposed to this awful wrath, oh God, know that you're freed out of the wrath of Inferno, and be saved that we may accept you, amen.