 Well, today I'm going to look at 1 Thessalonians chapter one. If you would turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter one, we're going to talk about the wrath to come. The wrath to come. You know, we're living in the end times. And I believe that we're in the end of the end times. We're at the last days of the last days. And so I want to talk to you about the wrath that is to come. You've been studying the end times a little bit as you've been going through Timothy with Pastor David. And this is a message that we've been going through also in our church as well. But Paul writing to the Thessalonians in verse nine of chapter one says this. He says, The Bible talks about a period of time when the wrath of God is going to be poured out on all unrighteousness and all ungodliness. You know, that period of time is not now because when it happens there will be no doubt in the world that God is judging the earth. Right now we're in a time of grace where the Word of God is being preached, where people are being given the opportunity to turn to Christ, to surrender their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's not a time of judgment upon the earth. It's really a time of the grace of God where God is casting the net, where the net is being cast far and wide and whosoever will return to the Lord. He'll receive. If you're here this morning and you're far away from the Lord, God wants you to know that he wants to draw you near to him. And we're going to give you an opportunity for that to happen at the end of the message. But Moses warned Israel concerning this time in Deuteronomy 31 29. He says, For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you and evil will befall you in the latter days because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger through the work of your hands. Isaiah the prophet wrote concerning this time in Isaiah 26 verses 20 and 21. Come my people, enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you. You hide yourself as it were for a little moment until the indignation is passed. For behold the Lord comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her shame. Even Paul who was the preacher of grace spoke about this time in Romans 1 18 when he said, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. So there is a day coming when God's wrath will be poured out upon the earth and it is a day that will be unavoidable, unstoppable. Every person will have to face it who is on the earth at that time. And Paul refers to this time as the wrath to come as we read in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 10, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Now in the Greek that phrase the wrath to come is actually two words and each of the two words has a definite article in front of it, the. And so if you were to render this in a literal translation this is actually better translated Jesus who delivers us from the wrath the coming. The wrath the coming. Now why is that important? Why is that an important distinction? Why is Paul making it such a definitive statement? Well many Greek scholars point out the reason that Paul is doing this is because he's referring to a very specific unique period of intense wrath. It's a period of wrath that is in a class of its own. It's totally distinct from anything that has ever happened before in history. It's different from the judgment against the nations at the flood where God flooded the earth. It's different than the judgment against Sodom and Gomorrah. It's different from the judgment against the Egyptians at the Red Sea. It will be an unparalleled level of wrath that would be poured out with such intensity that Jesus said it had to be shortened or no flesh would be saved. The wrath to come is known by different names in the Bible. Jeremiah referred to this period of time as the time of Jacob's wrath. In Jeremiah chapter 30 verses 7 through 9, Jeremiah prophesied this. He said, Alas, for that day is great, so that none is like it. And it is the time of Jacob's trouble, but he shall be saved out of it, for it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will break his yoke from your neck and will burst your bonds. Foreigners shall no more enslave them, but they shall serve the Lord their God and David their king whom I will raise up for them. Jeremiah tells us that the time of Jacob's trouble will be so great that there will be none like it. It's during this time that Israel will be delivered from all of its enemies. And we look at it in terms of foreign powers. In fact, Israel today looks at it in terms of foreign powers, all the nations that surround it. But God looks at it differently. God looks at it as the gods, the false gods, the idols that have enslaved Israel over the years, the idols that Israel gave themselves over to. And God says, I'm going to break the yoke of them off of you and you will be completely set free. It's described as a time of trembling, of fear, not of peace. It will be a time of great pain, of great suffering. Joel referred to this period of time as the day of the Lord. In Joel chapter 2, verses 30 and 31, it says, And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood into the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. Jesus referred to this period of time as the great tribulation. In Matthew 24, verses 21 and 22, Jesus says, For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, No, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved. But for the elect's sake, speaking of Israel, those days will be shortened. By definition, the great tribulation period is a seven-year period of time that will occur after the rapture of the church and before the second coming of Jesus Christ. We're told in Revelation that a series of extinction-level events will occur to our planet. Revelations 6 and 7 speak of the seven seals that wipe out 25% of the population. Seven of those seals. Imagine next time you go to SeaWorld and you see the seven seals there. Oh, no, he's not talking about that. Revelation 8 and 9 speak of the seven trumpets that will wipe out a third of the remaining population. That's an equivalent of over 50% of the world's population will be destroyed by these extinction-level events. As of 2016, there were 7.4 billion people in the world. If the great tribulation period was to happen today, only 3.4 billion people would survive. That's literally the nation of China, the nation of India, and half of Africa. That's all that would survive. North America, South America, Australia, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, Europe. As I said, half of Africa, both the North and the South Pole, the two or three people that lived there, would be all wiped out by these extinction-level events when the wrath of God comes upon the earth. It will be a day of great terror. The Bible says that the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and everyone else, both slave and free, will wish they could die. That's how bad it will be. They'll say to the mountains and the rocks in Revelation 6, 16 through 17, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of His wrath has come and who is able to stand. When the wrath of God comes upon the earth, no one will be able to stand. And Paul is clear, the wrath of God is coming. The time of God's wrath will come to the earth. And this begs the question, though, when will the wrath of God come? I remember when my mom would say, you better wait for your dad to get home. He's going to give you a weapon for what you did. You're in trouble. And so I wanted to know when my dad was going to be home so I can run and hide. But for some reason, he had a knack of finding me every time. When is the wrath of God going to be poured out upon the earth? Well, Daniel gives us a very well-known timeline known as the 70 weeks of Daniel. And in the 70 weeks, it tells us when the wrath of God is going to be poured out upon the earth. And if you want to turn to Daniel chapter 9, we're going to read a few verses out of Daniel chapter 9, spend a little time there this morning. We're going to look at verses 24 through 27 and examine these 70 weeks of Daniel to find out when the wrath of God is going to be poured out upon the earth. In verse 24, we read this. 70 weeks are determined for your people and for your holy city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy to bring a close to vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the command to restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince, there shall be seven weeks and 62 weeks. The street shall be built again and the wall even in troublesome times and after the 62 weeks Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and the people of the Prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end of it shall be with the flood until the end of war and of the war desolations are determined. Then he shall confirm a covenant with many for one week but in the middle of the week he shall bring an end to sacrifice and offering and on the wing of abomination shall be one who makes desolate even until the consummation which is determined is poured out on the desolate. Now Daniel says that 70 weeks are determined. Literally what it says is that there are 77s determined or 490. In the Hebrew language it doesn't use the term weeks it actually uses the word sevens. It says 70 groups of seven. And so you can look at seven days or seven years. And so in actuality when Daniel speaks of a period of sevens he's speaking about a seven year period of time. And so in this prophecy he's looking at 77 year periods of times or 490 years. And at the end of this 490 year period six things will happen. Transgression will be finished. Transgressions will come to an end. How do you end transgression? You end transgression by fulfilling the law. Who fulfilled the law? Jesus. Sin will come to an end. How does sin come to an end? You remove the thing that accuses us of sin. And who did that at the cross? Jesus did. The reconciliation for iniquity will be paid. Who paid the price for our iniquity to be reconciled? Jesus did. Everlasting righteousness will be established. Who is the one that gives us his righteousness and establishes us as righteous? Jesus does. Vision and prophecy will be fulfilled. Who is the one that is the fulfillment of all prophecy? Jesus is. Sounds like Sunday school, right? Jesus is the right answer for everything. You know, who made the cookies? Jesus did. No, your mom did. The most holy will be anointed. Now, for those of you that are Hebrew scholars, Messiah means the anointed one. And so you could say from the Scripture, most holy will be Messiah, or the Messiah will be revealed. And who is the Messiah, the most holy one? And who is the most holy one? Jesus. Jesus is. And so Daniel is talking about the revelation of Jesus. What is the book of revelations about? It's the revelation of Jesus Christ to the world, to the nation of Israel. Now, if we look at this first slide here, the timeline of 77s will be given the day the command to restore and build Jerusalem is given. Now, Ezra chapter 7 tells us that the command was given to rebuild the temple. And history tells us that the date was March 15th, 445 BC. And from that date, there would be a seven weeks or 77s, a 49 period of time. And during that 49 period of time, the streets of Jerusalem and the walls would be rebuilt and that they would be rebuilt in troublesome times. And so when you read the book of Nehemiah, that's what Nehemiah is about. It's about the rebuilding of the streets, the walls of Jerusalem in troublesome times. And so that part of the prophecy has been fulfilled before Daniel even knew that it would happen. At the end of 62 weeks, Daniel says Messiah would be cut off. That's 434 years. So that's a total of 69 weeks. After 69 weeks from the time the command is given to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, Messiah would be cut off. And so if you were to calculate this and you were to use the Jewish calendar, which is a lunar calendar, which means there are 30 days to a month, not like ours where there's sometimes 30, sometimes 31, sometimes 28 or 29, we're all messed up. They're very consistent. They have 30 days. It's a lunar calendar. So there's 360 days to their year. You take 360 days and you multiply it times 69, times 7, 69 7s. You come up with 173,880 days. Now here's what's crazy. If you add 173,880 days to March 14th, 445 BC, which is when the command was given for the temple to rebuild, guess what date you come up with? What's that? The triumphal entry. You read my notes. April 9, 32 AD. If you look at this other slide here, you'll see on April 9, 32 AD, it's 69 weeks, Jesus entered into Jerusalem as the Messiah. The Messiah was revealed to Israel at that time. Only to the day. Listen, to the day. How did Daniel know this? To the day. If you doubt that the Bible is the Word of God, right here, this should prove it to you. There's no way Daniel could have figured this out to the day. Jesus wasn't born and thought, oh my goodness, I have three days to get to Jerusalem. I better get there. They didn't have Instagram, social media, Facebook, all these things with all these people saying, hey, Jesus is going to show up in Israel, in Jerusalem any day now, according to the prophecies. It wasn't like that. So to the day Jesus shows up, the triumphal entry, and guess what happens when Jesus shows up? When Messiah is revealed, he's what? Cut off. He's crucified. And so if we look at the prophecy of Daniel, 69 weeks of the prophecy has been fulfilled. We're only waiting for one more week to happen. The 70th week. The one that Jesus referred to as the Great Tribulation period. Now the gap that's between that, if we go back to the first slide here, the gap between the 69th and the 70th week, that period of time which we are living in today, this period of time is known as the times of the Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles. And it began with the Babylonian captivity of Israel and it continues today and will continue until the 70th week begins. It's a time when the Gentiles will dominate Israel. And Jesus says in Luke 21-24 that Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And as we just came back from Israel and if you go to Israel in the future, you'll notice that the Temple Mount is overrun by Gentiles. It's not under Israeli control. It's under Palestinian control. And so as a Christian, I cannot go to the Temple Mount and pray. The Jews cannot pray on the Temple Mount. In fact, when you go to the Temple Mount, they'll tell you do not bring a Bible. Don't bring any religious kind of paraphernalia. Don't wear a Jesus is coming soon t-shirt. You know, don't do anything that's going to call attention to Jesus because Jesus is not allowed on the Temple Mount. Only the Arabs are allowed to pray. You can't hold hands. You can't dance. You can't laugh. They tell us no ha ha's. So all we did the whole time when we were on the Temple Mount is try to make each other laugh. And if you do, they have people that will come and stop you. You can't talk about Jesus on the Temple Mount. They actually listen to every conversation that you have up there. They see a big group. They'll come and stand so they can listen to you. And if you mention Jesus, they'll shut you down. You can't talk about Jesus up here. Jerusalem is being trampled by the Gentiles. And it will be trampled until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. But there's a divine purpose in the times of the Gentiles because before Jesus returns, the Gospel must first be preached to all nations. In Mark 13.10, Jesus said this. And so during this time of the Gentiles, God is fulfilling His redemptive purposes through the bride of Christ, through you and I, through the church. That's the purpose of the time of the Gentiles. Our purpose is to preach the Gospel to all nations, to make disciples of them, teaching them to obey all that Jesus commanded. And it's not the great suggestion. It's not something that you can kind of do if you're into it or it's your gift or you feel like it or, you know, I'm not really called to evangelism. No, it's the great command. Go. It's an imperative. Every single one of us are called to go into the world, wherever our world is, and to make disciples of all men, teaching them to observe all that Jesus commanded. And why is it so important that we redeem the time and are busy doing that? Because there is a time when the time of the Gentiles will come to an end. We don't have a lot of time. There will be a day when the last person will be led to Christ and that's it. The time of the Gentiles will be closed. 1 Thessalonians 1.10 tells us that the times of the Gentiles will continue until the Son comes from heaven. What is Paul speaking of? He's speaking of the rapture of the church when the Son comes from heaven to gather His people. Later in chapter 4 of 1 Thessalonians, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4.16 and 17, for the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and thus we shall always be with the Lord. Back in the day we used to say, well, that's right there. That's proof that there will be Baptists and Lutherans in heaven because it says the dead in Christ will rise first. Oh, I'm sorry, that's terrible. Jesus said concerning this day in Matthew 24, 40 through 42, then two men will be in the field. One will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. Watch therefore for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming when the Son comes from heaven to take his church. Now, I don't want to scare you. That's not my purpose. But there's nothing in the prophetic calendar that has yet to be fulfilled. Everything that has been fulfilled before the rapture of the church could happen has been fulfilled. And so the rapture of the church could happen at any moment. It could happen before we go to lunch today. It could happen before you get home. It could happen at any moment. No man knows the day or the hour. And the question is, are you ready? Are you ready for Jesus when he returns? Are you telling your friends about Jesus? Are you living for Jesus? Are you telling your neighbors about Jesus? No, the thing is, is that we have the answer that the world is looking for. We have been given and trusted with the word of life, the word of God. Jesus has revealed himself to many of us here this morning. He has shown himself as our Lord and our Savior. He's rescued us and delivered us from perilous times in our lives, from things that could literally would have destroyed us. He's healed our marriages, restored our sick bodies. He's done incredible things. Are you being generous with the love that God has shown you to show it to other people that will never hear the gospel unless you tell them? God has uniquely equipped and empowered you and placed you right where you are so that he can use you to reach people that I could never reach. Because he's called you to reach them. Don't keep it to yourself. You know, every church in America should be packed out every Sunday because of the believers that are telling their lost friends about Jesus and saying, hey, you need to come to church with me because you need to hear the word of God. You need to hear what God is saying to you because he's living, he's alive, and he has something for you. We're in the last days. And we need to be the church out there and win them to Christ and bring them in here to be disciples because there's going to be a day when the trumpet will sound and the church will be taken out. And after the church is raptured, Daniel tells us that a leader will come on the world stage who will confirm a covenant for many for one week. The Bible calls him the Antichrist. And he will confirm a covenant with many. And after three and a half years, he will bring an end to sacrifice and offerings. Now, in order to have an end to sacrifice and offerings, that means you have to have a place where sacrifice and offerings happens. And so one of the things that the Antichrist will do, I believe, is he's going to broker a deal where the temple will be rebuilt on the Temple Mount. I have a picture of it just to kind of give you an idea of what that could look like. Where it's very plausible where the Antichrist could come in as a man of peace and say, hey, I've got the answer to everyone's problems. We got this area right here next to the Dome of the Rock. And, you know, it's not being used. What if we give this over to the Jews? Let them build their temple. And in exchange for them rebuilding their temple, they announce to the world that they're going to recognize the Palestinian state and make peace with the world, make peace with all of the Palestinians. And this man will come on the world scene as a man of peace and people will just go, man, that's a great idea. That's amazing. Why have we never thought about this before? And that day that peace treaty is signed, broken, signed, that will be the beginning of the wrath to come. That will be the beginning of the time of Jacob's trouble, the day of the Lord, the great tribulation period. Now, I remember when I first started hearing this message back in the day with how Lindsay and, you know, some of those old names that you don't hear much, you know, around anymore. And it was being touted as science fiction. Like, oh, this is like Christian science fiction, you know? But this is not science fiction. This is not something that people today are going, oh, this could never happen. In fact, Israel today believes that this is really going to happen, that this is reality. And they're looking for a Messiah. And one of the things that they believe is that Messiah, the one who is the Messiah, is going to help them rebuild the third temple. And Messiah is going to defend Israel from their enemies. That's what they're looking for. Not a spaceman, but a real man. A man that's living today. And they believe that that person is living today. And they're looking for him. Who is the one that's going to help Israel? And what's interesting is, you know, in past presidents, they really haven't done much to help Israel, but our current president has literally gone over and sent troops over to help Israel. And, you know, there are those that believe the recent bombing of Syria was really a joint effort between the United States and Israel. A covert operation. You know, using bunker-busting bombs. Like who has bunker-busting bombs? Oh, America does. And so it's interesting whether you like this or not. But there are those that, in Israel, some rabbis that believe that maybe Trump is the Messiah. I know, it's scary, huh? You would have thought Messiah would at least have cool hair, or hair that didn't match his bad suntan. Anyhow, but there's actually a group of rabbis that are checking into his history to see if he's got any Jewish blood in him to see if maybe he is the Messiah. It's crazy, I know. They're very serious about this. There are over 20 Knesset members of the government in Israel who are looking for ways to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount. And so it's an expectation. It's a hope. It's a dream. And they quote Isaiah 56-7 that says, Even them, I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. And so they're looking to rebuild the temple as a house of prayer for all the nations to come to. When we're in Israel this last year, we visited the Temple Institute. And the Temple Institute is a privately funded organization but they're actively involved in training priests, co-anime in the preparation of reinstituting temple sacrifices. So they're going out and if your name is Cohen or Levy, they're wanting you to come to Israel and they want you to become a priest and learn how to sacrifice animals and learn how to do all of the things that need to be done in the temple sacrifices. They've gone out and they've reconstructed according to the law, the Mosaic law, all of the pieces that are needed in order to reinstitute temple sacrifices and you can see that when you're there. And you'll go into the, you know, to the museum and I think I have a picture of one of the menorahs. This is a menorah that's built to scale that is to be placed in the holy place of the temple that will give light to the temple. But they'll tell you these are not reproductions. These are the actual items themselves. They are going to be used in the next temple. And it's fascinating to hear them talk with about it with, not with, they don't even talk about it with a passion as if it could happen. It's an expectation with them. It's going to happen. They're looking for Messiah to come and help them rebuild the third temple. They take it very seriously. There's some that even believe that they have the Ark of the Covenant that they've discovered it. You know, they don't want anybody to know that they've discovered it. So I just kind of blew it for them. But there's a rabbi that they believe that he found the Ark of the Covenant and that it's well protected right now. They've even gone as far as to genetically create a red heifer, a red cow without spot or blemish according to the mosaic law in order to re-institute temple sacrifices. Now that's a lot of money being spent, not on science fiction. For them it's reality. They believe it's going to happen. And so the temple will be rebuilt and that will be the beginning of the wrath to come. But three and a half years into the Covenant the Antichrist will stop sacrifices and desecrate the temple. And you know, we have an example of that in history with Antiochus Epiphanes where he slaughtered a pig on the altar. It was the abomination of desecration. And so many people think that that's maybe what it's going to be. Somebody's going to slaughter a pig in the temple. But in reality what I believe is going to happen is that the Antichrist will come in after three and a half years and as they are beginning to re-institute temple sacrifices he's going to say, wait a minute. I thought this is the temple. This is the house of prayer for all nations. So if it's the house of prayer for all nations then everyone is welcome. The Buddhists are welcome. The Muslims are welcome. The Hindus are welcome. You know, any religion is welcome to come into the holy of holies and to worship the Lord and make sacrifices and do whatever they want to do. Now to a Jew, if a Gentile comes into the temple the temple is desecrated. It's unclean. That's why Paul, if you remember Paul in the book of Acts they accused Paul of taking a Gentile into the temple and they were going to kill him for it. So he committed a crime. And if you were to go in the temple it would say if you are not a Jew and you enter into, you know, past this point it's punishable by death. So they take it very seriously. And so when the Antichrist comes and says no we're just going to open it up for everybody Jews are going to take great offense. No, that is not going to happen. You will desecrate our temple and when that happens the Antichrist I believe will declare war on Israel. Only this time it will be a massive slaughter and his intent will be to remove the Jews from the face of the earth once and for all. We are going to once and for all eliminate the Jewish population. There will be a Holocaust of great proportions. We go to slide five. You'll see a picture. During this time the forces of the Antichrist will gather in the valley of Megiddo. This is the Tel of Megiddo there and in the distance, it's a little hard to see but in the distance is the valley of Megiddo or Har Megiddo or what we call Armageddon. And it will be here in this valley Napoleon said that this valley was created for war and many battles have been fought in this valley because of its immense size and its strategic location. From this valley to Jerusalem it's a five-hour walk if you walk straight through. And so I believe what will happen is that the armies of the Antichrist will gather here and as they're gathering together the Jews are going to sound the alarm in Jerusalem and they're going to start fleeing Jerusalem. They're going to start getting out of Jerusalem to avoid the slaughter. And of course Jesus said pray that when that day happens it doesn't happen in the winter and pray that you're not pregnant about to deliver a baby when it's happening. And so the forces of the Antichrist will be gathered there and they'll start making their way towards Israel. It might take them a day or two to get all the way through from Megiddo into Jerusalem in order to wipe out the Jewish population once and for all. And when they get to the valley of Jehoshaphat which is just outside of Jerusalem and the Jews look upon the armies that are about to destroy them and wipe them out and when they realize there is no hope left there is no hope for them left in the world. The Bible says at that time that they will call upon the Lord and that the Lord will deliver him. The Lord will deliver them and we read about it in Revelation 19 in verse 11 through 16 I'll just read it. It says, Now I saw heaven opened and behold a white horse and he who sat on him was called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood and his name is called the Word of God and the armies in heaven which is you and I clothed in fine linen, white and clean followed him on white horses. That's why I tell my church you need to go learn how to ride a horse now. If you don't know how to ride a horse you need to go do it. We went on vacation and this guy was riding a horse and he was holding the reins real light and the horse took off and he fell off. It was really embarrassing for him. We don't want you to fall off your horse. We want you to look really cool as you're riding in the battle. So just go take one horse lesson. But we're going to come and follow him on white horses and out of his mouth goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations. One word from Jesus will strike the nations and he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God and he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus will return in his second coming and with one word he will destroy the enemies of Israel. And the Bible tells us that the blood will be so deep that it will come up to a horse's bridle which is taller than I am. You know I'm a student of history and I loved, well I didn't love to study the Civil War. I was on detention and so one of my assignments was to study the Civil War in order to get out of detention. But it got my attention. And one of the things that as I studied the battle of Gettysburg for instance, they said the blood was so deep in the battle of Gettysburg that it was up to their knees as they were fighting through it. So imagine the destruction for the blood to be up to the height of a horse's bridle. That's a lot of lives lost. And when they look upon Jesus who has just delivered them from all of their enemies the Bible says that they will look upon him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for him as for an only son. It'll be at that moment that they realize that Jesus is their Messiah. Their Messiah will be revealed. The Most Holy will be anointed at that time. And Israel will be restored to a right relationship with God when they recognize Jesus as their Messiah. Now where are you and I in all of this? Why does this matter to us today? Notice verse 10, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. Who is he talking about? Who is Jesus going to deliver from the wrath to come? Well verse 9 tells us those who have turned from idols to serve the living and true God those who wait for his son from heaven those who love his appearing. And I'm here to tell you if you are born again if you have surrendered your life to Jesus Christ you will be saved from the wrath to come because Jesus will deliver you from the wrath to come. Isn't that good news? But I would be remiss as a servant of God if I didn't also tell you if you are not born again if you have not surrendered your life to Jesus Christ you will not be saved from the wrath to come. You are going to go through the great tribulation period but there's good news because God doesn't want you to do that. God doesn't want anyone to perish. God wants everyone to escape the wrath that is to come. And he says to you who so ever will come, come to me and I will not turn you away you who are thirsty come and drink you are hungry come and eat come and buy food and water with no money receive it as a free gift you come and the moment you surrender your life to Jesus Christ at that moment you're born again you will escape the wrath to come if you're messing around with sin this morning I have to tell you the Bible says if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins in Hebrews 10-26 you're living in a question mark but you don't have to live in a question mark you can live in assurance you can live in the assurance of knowing that your sins are forgiven and that you're going to heaven that you're secure in your salvation because you're surrendered to Jesus Christ something Pastor Chuck would often say is the folks that want to find out how much they can get away with and still get to heaven they want to live life on the edge and he would often say why would you want to live life on the edge why would you want to live life uncertain why not live in the center of God's love for you why not live there the Bible says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life God loves you and he wants you to live forever he might say well two weeks ago they said Jesus would come and he didn't show up so I feel like I still got time Roxanne and I lived next to a guy by the name of Scott and my wife is a hairstylist and she would cut his hair, cut his wife's hair and you know every time she would cut his hair you know my wife believes that anyone that sits in her chair is sent there by God for her to tell about Jesus and so she tells him about Jesus and she would often talk to Scott about surrendering his life to Jesus Christ and he would say yeah I'm going to do it I'm going to do it you know I'm going to go to Hawaii it's our anniversary we want to party and I don't want Jesus to get in the way of me having a good time but when I get back we'll have this conversation again so he went came back before he could get his next haircut two weeks later while working on his house on a Saturday we hear the saw running and then a few minutes later we hear an ambulance coming and Scott died of a massive heart attack before he could make that decision now I don't know in the moments of his life that he didn't cry out to God I don't know that but here's the thing you don't have to live with that kind of uncertainty you can know for certain today that you are born again that you belong to God that you're his child by surrendering your life to Jesus Christ you don't know that you have until the end of the service even before Jesus returns we don't know that any day any hour