Greetings. This is Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth, where we challenge you to think through an important issue of life and faith. And today, I want to challenge you to think through the issue of God's use of all the elements of creation to bring about his will and further to conquer on behalf of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ, as we have seen in our study of the book of Revelation, is about taking his inheritance, even as Joshua and Israel took the inheritance in Canaan.

So now, after the ascension and opening of the seven seals of the scroll, our Lord Jesus Christ is the new Joshua, and we are the new Israel, and we are accompanying the new Joshua in conquering his inheritance. And indeed, we're going to see today that at his disposal are the weapons of his warfare, that is, all of creation, every element of creation. But before we do unpack this vital truth, I want to invite you to join us in our weekly Bible study on the book of Revelation. We're doing a community Bible study on the book of Revelation. And it's meeting on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. at Starbucks on 17th Street in Idaho Falls.

And it's been so fun. We have recommenced this past Thursday, which was January 9. And so we're looking at weeks hence, weeks to follow. We'll begin meeting every Thursday now, right on through to Easter on Thursday evening at 7 p.m. at Starbucks on 17th Street. We encourage you to join us.

It's been fun. We're really developing a camaraderie, a sense of fellowship and understanding as we unpack the vital message of the book of Revelation. And so we invite you to join us. And I'm team teaching it with my brother, Pastor Mike Gilea of Share the Sun Ministries. And I am Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Presbyterian Church.

And we are team teaching this course. And it's been fun. Many numbers of people have joined us, not only from our churches, but also from churches far and wide. And those that don't particularly attend a church either. So it's been good for all of us to fellowship together.

But let me return to our topic for today, which is what I've called elemental wrath. As we see the Lord Jesus Christ using all the elements of creation to conquer his creation. Now, his inheritance, which is the seven-sealed scroll and encompasses all of creation now. It's a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful vision that we have here in the book of Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ as he goes about conquering, as he goes about taking possession of his inheritance. And today we're going to look at Revelation chapter 6, verses 12 through 17.

Revelation chapter 6, verses 12 through 17. We're going to unpack the sixth seal. And here we go. I watched as he opened the sixth seal. There was a great earthquake.

The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair. The whole moon turned blood red and the stars in the sky fell to earth as late figs dropped from a fig tree. When shaken by a strong wind, the sky receded like a scroll rolling up and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks of the mountains. They called to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb.

For the great day of the wrath has come and who can stand. Ominous words from the apostle John in the book of Revelation. And they portend judgment for the earth, vindication for us, the church, and victory and conquering on behalf of the lamb. Oh, what a blessed text this is. Revelation chapter 6, verses 12 through 17.

And I've entitled this message, elemental wrath, because God uses the elements of the creation to conquer, to bring about his will, doesn't he? As I think about elements and creation, the different elements of creation being used as a weapon, I think of a man named Alan Robach, who is a climatologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Climatologist Alan Robach recently came out and admitted that his department at Rutgers was hired by the CIA to attempt to control other nations' climates. Trying to use the elements, only God can ultimately use the elements of creation, but that doesn't stop man from trying, does it?

In fact, Robach told CBS News that the CIA was behind the scenes funding a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences on geoengineering. A report on geoengineering funded by the CIA. The CIA is heavily invested in weaponizing weather. We know this from the past, but it's not as if this is shocking news, is it? Weather has long been used as a weapon on one's enemies.

Robach details how when U.S. planes seeded the clouds over Vietnam during the Vietnam War for a period of five years, it prolonged the monsoon season and it made the Ho Chi Minh Trail almost impassable for the movement of troops and materiel from the north to the south. So weather has long been used as a weapon. And then we tried the same trick over Cuba to try and destroy Cuba's sugar harvest. But cloud seeding is not the only tactic in their bag of tricks.

No, the U.S. government's high-frequency active oral research program, which has the acronym HARP, H-A-A-R-P. Well, the high-frequency active oral research program sought to use high-energy electromagnetic technologies to impact not only weather, but things like earthquakes and hurricanes and tsunamis and the disruption of global communication systems. And this is, of course, according, underlined by no less than Dr. Michael Chasudovsky of the University of Ottawa. Dr. Michael Chasudovsky, say that ten times fast. He underlines, indeed, once again, that HARP is seeking to help control weather on behalf of nations and against her enemies.

In the past, even powerful men like General George Patton sought to influence the weather and natural elements as a weapon by hiring pastors to pray to God to change the weather. And now, in our overweening hubris, mankind seeks to control the forces of nature as God's right to rain down rain, literally as a weapon against our enemies. Huh. The prospects for the future are pretty grim, according to Dr. Robach. He says, if one country wants to control the climate in one way and another doesn't want it, or if they try to shoot down the plains, if there's no agreement, it could result in terrible consequences.

Unquote. Terrible consequences, indeed. What our text today tells us is that one far greater in power and wisdom is already using the elements of nature in executing wrath upon his enemies. God has done so in the past, and God will continue to do so until the end of time. This is what our text is telling us today.

It's not forecasting, foretelling some future events in any way, shape, or form. No. He's telling us what God is doing now, in this day and age, as well as throughout redemptive history. And this is because all of creation is Christ's inheritance. It is Christ's possession.

All of it. Every square inch, every dust particle, and every bit of dirt. Consequently, all of its elements are his to do with as he pleases. And Christ pleases to darken the sun, to turn the moon blood red, to cause great disturbances in the skies, and to shake the earth profoundly. The prophet Haggai sees this coming, doesn't he?

In Haggai chapter 2, he says, For thus says the Lord of hosts, Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land. Oh, yes. And he did it in Joshua's day to possess the land of Canaan, didn't he? Once again, we have been seeing the strong parallels between the book of Joshua and the book of Revelation. Just as Joshua used the elements of creation to help conquer the land of Canaan on behalf of Israel, so the new Joshua is using the elements of creation to take his inheritance, all of creation, on behalf of his co-inheritors, we, the church.

And John goes on to tell us that he's doing this today to possess all of creation. As one of my favorite scholars, a teacher named Adela Yarborough Collins puts it, she says, Images from Exodus and the conquest are intensified and universalized, Dr. Collins says. Images from Exodus and the conquest are intensified and universalized, unquote. Joshua, in the conquest of Canaan, stopped the sun in the sky. Didn't he?

Joshua, remember, using the elements of creation, stopped the sun in the sky for a day to conquer his enemies. Well, Joshua, in the conquest of all of creation, will use all of the heavens and earth through redemptive history to conquer his enemies. The conquest is the new paradigm for the book of Revelation. But it is, as Collins says, intensified and universalized. It's not just local in the land of Canaan, but now all of creation intensified and universalized.

Well, let's see today how our text does document this for us. Revelation chapter 6, verses 12 through 17, which we have just read. And our title today is Elemental Wrath, right? Elemental Wrath. Because in verses 12 through 14, we see that as the elements obeyed the will of Joshua in executing wrath, so the elements obey the new Joshua as he executes his wrath upon the interlopers to his inheritance.

The Canaanites were interlopers on the inheritance of Joshua in Israel. And so the lost pagan world are interlopers upon the inheritance of Christ and his co-inheritors, the church. As we have already clearly documented in lessons previous, the seven-sealed scroll is the will and testament of the Father to the worthy Son who is able to open it. Is he not? He is the Lamb of God who has earned the right to inherit the inheritance ensconced in the seven-sealed scroll.

And beyond a shadow of a doubt, the average man on the street in the ancient Roman world would have recognized such a document, a seven-sealed scroll, as precisely this, a will and testament of a Father to a Son, witnessed and sealed by seven witnesses. And that only upon the death of the testator would the will and testament be opened and brought into effect. Hebrews tells us this, and Hebrews chapter 9 confirms this for us.

Hebrews chapter 9 verses 15 and 16 say, therefore he is the mediator, that is Christ, is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. Testator must happen first, doesn't it? And so we saw that each seal of the seven seals in succession, they would all be opened and a portion revealed, even as it is here in the apocalypse. And we have seen them in succession, haven't we?

The first four seals reveal the extent of his possession, that is the four corners of creation, one by conquering. Remember that first horseman came out conquering and to conquer? And then we saw the fifth seal reveals the prize of his possession, that is the church. The fifth seal reveals the church. I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.

And then these are those of whom it is hymned, right? In chapter 5 verse 9, these are precisely those of whom it is hymned by your blood. You ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, unquote. And then the sixth seal reveals the power of his possession. Now, right?

The one we're looking at today. The sixth seal reveals the power of his possession, which is all of creation at his disposal. Who needs swords and bombs and the electromagnetic pulse rays, right? When you have all of creation at your disposal. And that's what our text tells us today.

There's nothing, nowhere, and no one who escapes Christ's sovereign oversight. Such is his salient of sovereignty that every element of creation seeks out his enemies to punish, to chasten, to expel. There's nowhere to hide, nowhere to run. If the earthquake misses you, the eclipsed sun will find you. If the eclipsed sun misses you, the blood moon will get you.

If the blood moon escapes you, the fallen stars will crush you. If you dodge the fallen stars, the collapsing skies will roll you up. And if you're not rolled up in the skies, you will be rolled out by a flattening surface of the earth. Oh, in fact, so inescapable is this inundation of judgment that it is called de-creation. And scholars have long pointed this out, that this is, in fact, the reverse of creation in Genesis.

David Chilton, one of my favorite scholars, says, the collapse of the universe, God ripping apart and dissolving the fabric of creation, unquote. That's what's happening here in the book of Revelation. In precisely the reverse order of its creation in Genesis, no, this creation is de-created in Revelation. And that's perfect symmetry, isn't it? First book of the Bible, Genesis, we see its creation.

And in Revelation, the last book of the Bible, we see its de-creation. First of all, we see the earth, do we not? The earth. As one victim of the recent earthquake in California commented, I suddenly realized that there was nowhere I could go to escape. When the whole earth beneath your feet shakes, where are you going to go?

It's primal, man. Yes, God's judgment using all of creation, the earth included, is primal. It's primal, man. Even Isaiah puts it this way in chapter 13 of Isaiah, therefore, I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken out of its place at the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day. His fierce anger.

Oh, the earth decreating. We also see the sun decreating, right? In the ancient world, an eclipse was always an evil portent of judgment, especially for kings and princes of the earth. That's the sense here of the sun becoming black as sackcloth. It's reminiscent of the recent event in 2017, isn't it?

The eclipse, total eclipse of the sun by the moon. And on that day, Amos says, on that day of judgment, in Amos chapter 8, declares the Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon and darken the earth in broad daylight. Oh, yes, the sun is coming after you, sinner. But so is the moon, as we see in our text today. And unlike John Haggy's pathetic attempt at prophecy in his book, The Four Blood Moons.

Were you a sucker? Did you buy this book? Four Blood Moons. Something is about to change. Oh, yeah, something's about to change.

All right, Mr. Haggy. And indeed, our Lord's blood moon, a lunar eclipse, actually portended a real catastrophe, and that is the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. Oh, yes, Josephus tells us about this in his chronicle of the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, which much of Revelation is pointing to, not some far-off, distant year 2020 prophetic fulfillment, no, but a soon, right, and near at hand, as John says, judgment. And indeed, this is what portends the destruction of Jerusalem and then later the destruction of Rome as well.

And such phenomena, blood moons and eclipses, they're stock images in the Old Testament prophecy as well, right? Joel chapter 2 says, the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood for the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And there's been many days of the Lord. There's been many days of judgment, many comings, many parousias in the past, not just one imagined fantasy pre-tribulational rapture. That's not what this is talking about.

No, he was talking about the judgment upon Judah, and now the judgment upon Israel in A.D. 70. And then also the stars are being de-created here in our text today. Shooting stars were also evil portents for astrologers and kings and princes, and they would summon their court astrologers, the kings and princes would. They would summon their court astrologers to determine what shooting stars or eclipses or blood moons, what they meant for the throne, especially during a meteor shower. It's easy to see why the stars became images of rulers too, and kings and princes all through scripture, and those of other religions too, for that matter.

But here, a complete collapse of the governmental order is pictured. Once more, this is stock imagery from the Old Testament too. And Daniel prophesying about Antiochus Epiphanes, who was a Greek king who trashed the temple. Daniel says, out of one of them came a little horn. That was Antiochus Epiphanes.

Back in B.C. days, this little horn grew exceedingly great toward the south, toward the east, and toward the glorious land. It grew great even to the host of heaven. And some of the host and some of the stars it threw down to the ground and trampled on them. That's an image of Antiochus Epiphanes conquering places like Syria.

He tried to conquer Egypt as well, but then turned his wrath toward Jerusalem and the temple as well. In any case, the stars being decreated, falling from the skies, if you will. And then we also have an allusion to the firmament, right? Every time I open a shade, I can't help but think of this verse. The sky vanished like a scroll that's being rolled up, right?

And this is a companion image which describes the tumult and chaos of all created order, both physical and governmental orders. The skies and their objects were for times and seasons, right? Any Christian familiar with his Old Testament, and you got to be familiar with the Old Testament if you're going to understand Revelation, and so many Christians aren't. They think it's all about the future and all about, oh, it's going to be the day of rapture, and then we're going to have the seven-year great tribulation, and then we're going to have Armageddon, Gog and Magog.

No, this is predicting and foreshadowing, prophesying about the near future in John's own day in the first century, AD 70, the destruction of Judea. Yeah, I'm sorry. I apologize. The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and then later also the destruction and conquering of the Roman Empire. So any Christian familiar with his Old Testament would realize that John was drawing on reliable images from the Old Testament.

As Isaiah says in Isaiah 34, all the hosts of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their hosts shall fall as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree, unquote. And then not only the firmament, but we also see the land de-creating, do we not, in these verses? And we're looking at, right now we're looking at verses 12 through 14. We see the land going away as well, being de-created.

Oh, brother and sister, there's nothing more solid, more permanent, and enduring than a mountain, right? Seemingly. Everything around the Grand Teton in our valley, Grand Teton, I think of right away, all of it may road or collapse, but not it, right? Or so it seems. Mount St. Helens, Krakatoa, they're testaments to the fleeting nature of even mountains and islands.

They all fled away, didn't they? The whole of Yellowstone, for that matter, sits on a boiling cauldron of molten lava, called a hotspot, and it's overdue to blow, too. Nahum captures the same sense of foreboding, and he says, the mountains quake before him, the hills melt, the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire. The rocks are broken into pieces by him, unquote. The prophet Nahum, indeed, foreshadowing our very text today. And indeed, no doubt, the Apostle John had him in mind when he wrote this text. Well, the Lord God used creation.

We've seen this as we read through the book of Joshua, the sun standing still in the sky for a day, right? The Lord God used creation to assist Joshua in taking possession of his inheritance. Great hail fell from the sky, too, for that matter. All over the book of Joshua, we see this. He arrested the sun in its course in order to buy Joshua some daylight to destroy the interlopers trespassing his possession.

And the Lord God still uses all of creation to assist the new Joshua, the Lord Jesus Christ, in taking possession of his inheritance. Remember what Dr. Collins says, images from Exodus and the conquest are intensified and universalized, unquote. Oh, the conquest under Joshua is intensified and universalized here in Revelation as the new Joshua conquers. Did you know that you have these weapons, dear brother and sister? Did you know that you have these weapons on your side as we conquer?

We are co-heirs with Christ. We do not have the presumptuous hubris to think that we can call down judgment at our command as our enemies think they can do. The CIA may seed the clouds, but God has created and owns them and rides the very clouds as a chariot, does he not? DARPA may experiment with plasma rays, but God has created, he owns, and he is sovereign over the stuff of the sun. The Manhattan Project may have harnessed the power of the atom to create the first atomic weapon, but the Lord God is master over the entire periodic table, and he uses it for his sovereign purposes, dear listener.

As we use the weapons of our warfare to conquer, and we have indeed seen that Revelation unfolds this for us, we have the weapons of our warfare to conquer, and that's the blood of the cross, not the weapons of man, and by extension, then the blood of the saints. And we also use our worship services, the sacraments, the word of God and prayer, all these are weapons in our arsenal. And as you use them then to conquer, as you use them to take possession of your inheritance under Christ, know that in perfect harmony with them, the new Joshua is right behind us with the power to facilitate with all of creation, his conquering.

He's got all of creation in his armory. Oh, dear listener, we're going to leave off here and return to this theme then next week. But just know indeed that this is what our text unfolds for us today, not some far-off future single series of events, but this has been reprised all through redemptive history, as our Lord Jesus Christ uses all of creation to take possession of his inheritance. Does he not? Yes, he does.

Glory be to God. This has been Pastor David Bass at New Geneva Orthodox Presbyterian Church with a moment of truth. And we meet for holy worship on Sunday at 10 a.m. at 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard. And you can call us for more information at area code 208-523-0196. Come and join us for worship Sunday, 10 a.m. 101 4th Street on the corner of 4th and Boulevard and call us 208-523-0196.