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14The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

15Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,
“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” 16And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17saying,
“We give You thanks, O Lord God, the Almighty, who are and who were, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. 18“And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

19And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

What about that media coverage of the Boston Bombings!! Anybody else get sensory overwhelmed by the 72 hours of non stop yakking?

While Covering Rutgers Coach Mike Rice, Media Ignore Gosnell Trial -

Media Bias: A basketball coach who shoves and curses at his players merits constant coverage by a media also transfixed by Newtown. But a Philadelphia doctor on trial for murdering a woman and seven babies? It's ignored. Those who get their news from the three major networks have probably not heard of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, now on trial in Philadelphia, charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of third-degree murder for killing seven babies who survived abortions and a woman who died after a botched pain-killer injection. Everybody has heard of Mike Rice, the disgraced former Rutgers basketball coach who was fired after video surfaced of him shoving, kicking and yelling at his players, throwing basketballs at them and —most damning —using "homophobic slurs."

According to the Media Research Center, in one week Rice received 41minutes, 26 seconds of air time on ABC, CBS and NBC in 36 separate news stories. Gosnell received zero coverage.
So much for the media adage that "if it bleeds, it leads." Whether one is pro-life or pro-choice, there ought to be agreement that a squirming infant on a table outside the mother's womb is as worthy
of protection from harm as children in classrooms in a school in Connecticut.

If Dr. Gosnell had walked into a nursery and shot seven infants with an AR-15, it would be national news and the subject of presidential hand-wringing. Instead, Gosnell is ignored, charged with the deaths of seven aborted babies who were born alive and then killed, their spinal cords cut with scissors. Kermit Gosnell faces 43 criminal counts, including eight counts of murder in the death of one patient, Karnamaya Monger, and seven newborn infants.

Additional charges include conspiracy, drug delivery resulting in death, infanticide, corruption of minors, evidence tampering, theft by deception, abuse of corpse and corruption. Gosnell's clinic was inspected only after a federal drug raid in 2010. It was the first time the facility had been inspected in 17 years because state officials ignored complaints and failed to visit Gosnell's Women's Medical Society, the clinic's official name, for years.

Although charged with only seven counts of infant murder, witnesses have testified that he may have murdered more than 100 babies outside the womb in the three decades the clinic has been open. One witness says she saw Gosnell perform his "procedure" on 30 infants. According to another, Gosnell said in one instance, "'This baby is big enough to walk around with me or walk me to the bus stop.' "

President Obama pushes de facto repeal of the Second Amendment while exploiting the Newtown massacre of children, on the grounds that if it could save just one life it would be worth it, while as an Illinois state senator he twice voted against a bill (SB1082) titled the Born Alive Infant Protection Act. That bill defined a baby who "breathes or has a beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord, or definite movement of the voluntary muscles,
regardless of whether the umbilical cord has been cut" as a legal person entitled to the full protection of the law, regardless of the
circumstances of its birth.

Florida legislators are considering a similar bill to require medical care be given to an infant who survives an abortion. Alisa LaPolt Snow, the lobbyist representing the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, testified that her organization believes the decision to kill an infant who survives a failed abortion should be left up to the woman seeking an abortion — and to doctors like Kermit Gosnell.

Regarding coach Rice, "We've all been in environments, basketball courts, locker rooms, where the coaches can get fiery, they can get
animated with you," CBS special correspondent James Brown allowed, "but putting your hands on a player and engaging in that kind of, those kind of homophobic slurs and abusive behavior, you don't treat animals that way." Regarding Kermit Gosnell's house of horrors, few in the mainstream media have said anything." end quote.

Are you a bit stunned and confused about a world that can condone the murder of living squirming babies big enough to walk you to the bus stop, and that at the same time wrings it's hands over other viable children senselessly murdered with guns and bombs.

Does it seem a bit bizzarre and rediculous that the same lawmakers who won't touch a women's "reproductive rights", (btw, that's the right to have sex with anyone she wants any time she wants and murder any resultant babies in case you're not tracking with me yet) are trying to fix things by taking liberties and freedoms away from law abiding people?

Why is the world such an evil place? What kind of human puts nails and bb's in a pressure cooker with explosives and murders 8 year olds? What kind of human can take scissors and snip the umbilical cord of a healthy baby? 100+ times! For $$$. and make a joke about one of them walking him to the bus stop.

Seared conscience; 1Tim4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron,

Their conscience's are cauterized. No feeling anymore. Broken.

Murderer from beginning; John 8:44 "You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

That brings us to the base line problem. Satan, the murderer and the liar is the ruler of this world. He has the authority to reign. The kingdom of this world is the authority to reign of Satan. Thus the kingdoms of this world are in place at his command.

OK, listen for a minute because I think I'm going to say something important. Evil is not rational. There is no order to it. God is rational. God is order in chaos. Remove God, = gain chaos. We're seeing it in our nation right before our eyes. That's the only rationale that works.

Think of this frightening thought. Satan has the authority to reign, but he is "restrained" right now. 2Thess. 2:7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. What will the world look like when the restrainer is taken out of the way? It's shockingly evil now. What then?

Rev. 11:14 The second woe is past; behold, the third woe is coming quickly.

Chronologically, the final 3 trumpet blasts are the three woe's. The first 2 are past at this point. The third woe is the 7th trumpet. Within the 7th trumpet we'll see another 7. Seven bowls of final wrath.

I may be wrong, but time wise, it seems like all of this is happening at the same time.

Remember in ch. 10 the angel who stood in the sea and on the land who reached into heaven said; 5Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his right hand to heaven,6and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, WHO CREATED HEAVEN AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE EARTH AND THE THINGS IN IT, AND THE SEA AND THE THINGS IN IT, that there will be delay no longer,7but in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, then the mystery of God is finished, as He preached to His servants the prophets.

Time's up. I think you've got chaos on earth. Satan's dethroned. Armegeddon is threatening to destroy the earth, physically. The 7 bowls of God's final wrath are all poured out. And in the midst of that unbelievable chaos and destruction, The Lord Jesus Christ appears in the heavens, and you hear the loud voices in vs. 15

15Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”

Every creature, living or dead, in heaven, on earth, or under the earth will hear this announcement. All the demons. All the angels. All men, alive. All men, dead. Every created thing from all ages will hear this announcement.

Robert and Sherr shared a question that their daughter Shaylynn had in a theology class she was taking. "Give an exegesis of the underlying theme that runs through the entire Bible"

I took a stab at it, and it fits perfectly with what we've been talking about tonight. Here's what I wrote;

An Exegesis of the Whole Bible in 450 words

The theme of the entire Bible is the 'Kingdom of God'. But first we need to re-orient our traditional view of the word 'kingdom'. We think of Real Estate, with a King, boundaries etc. The United Kingdon. But biblically, the word means something slightly different. In the original languages the word meant "authority to reign".

Jesus tells a story of a man who traveled to Rome to 'receive a kingdom'. That was indeed how it would happen in Israel. Rome had ultimate authority and Rome decided who the local governors would be. Herod and Pontius Pilate were both governors who answered to Rome. And they received their 'authority to reign' from Rome.

So in that sense, the Kingdom of God, is the Authority to Reign of God.

This is what we pray for from the time we are little children forward. Think about it, maybe for the first time. We say, "Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Those words are profound!

The problem stems from the very first chapters of the Bible. God gave man, Adam, the 'authority to reign' on earth. But when Adam sinned, that authority was transfered to Satan. 1John 5:19 'we know that we are of God, but the whole world lies in the power of the evil one' Satan is the god of this world. He has authority to reign.

The entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation, is the story of God taking back this world, from Satan. "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"

He begins with individuals, the Patriarch's. Then a nation. The jews. Then a Messiah who is the ultimate heir of this world. Then the church for 2,000 years. Then 7 remaining years of Jewish history after the church is gone, which is the tribulation period. Then the cataclysmic events that precede the 2nd coming of Jesus. Then a thousand year reign of Jesus on this earth in which that little prayer is finally answered. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

Everything in between from Genesis to Revelation has something to do with that theme of Jesus, paying the price of our sin, and returning to take back this earth from Satan and reigning forever with the people that He purchased with His blood. The Kingdom of God.

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.”

This statement in Vs. 15 is the climactic point of the entire Bible. This is where everything in the plan of God from Adam forward is going.

The kingdom (btw, singular 77X, not plural in the original language); the authority to reign in this world has become the kingdom, the authority to reign of our Lord and of His Christ.

We talked about why the world is so screwed up. Why babies and 8 year olds are murdered. Why the world looks the other way, or looks in all the wrong places. Because Satan is the god of this world.

This is the moment when that changes. This is the moment when that changes! The authority to reign in this world now belongs to Jesus, the Christ.

and He will reign forever and ever. When this day comes, the reign of God on Earth is forever and ever. Satan is done. Evil is done. Lies are done. Murder is done. Evil governments are done. Death is done. Tears are done.

16And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God,

Worship is the correct response. The power and wisdom and glory that are on display when Jesus takes this world away from Satan are beyond words.

But worship demands words. I think maybe what the 24 elders say here is a congragational prayer. A congregational song. I hope I'll be there saying these words along with these elders. What a response, if all the redeemed are saying these words together!

17saying,
“We give You thanks, Thanks because we were helpless, our plight was that we were sold into slavery to Satan, and He has purchased us with His blood and bought us out of slavery and forgiven our sin. We didn't do any of that! He did it all. We give you thanks!

O Lord God, the Almighty, Almighty. All powerful. All knowing. All present. He is Lord of all.

who are and who were, note: if your translation says "who was, and is and is to come, the best manuscripts omit the who is to come. It was put there by some helpful scribe because that's what it says every place else. But here it's redundant. He Has Come! The author understood this. There is no mistake when he says who are and who were; who is and who was

because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. This is the reason for the thanks!

We've been unpacking this song of worship, and I recounted some of the reasons we're thankful;

He purchased us with His blood. He washed our sins away, made us clean.

But even redemption is US centric. Man centric.

Ultimately, there's a greater reason for thanks, and it's what the elders say next;

We give you thanks . . . because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign.

This is a concept that's still foreign to us in our fallen condition. Our natural fallen tendency is to think of thanks for something WE got. It always revolves around US.

But here we give thanks because Jesus used His great power to reign. He used His great power to take this world away from Satan, and set up His throne instead.

What we'll learn in heaven some day is that we were created to bask in the glow of the Glory of God. The more He glorifies Himself, the more we'll rejoice.

Our greatest joy will be in His greatest Glory! More Glory, more joy. More Glory, more joy. It's like gravity. Created into the order of all things. MOre Glory, more joy. We don't see it now because we're held captive in this fallen world.

Eye hath not seen, neither hath ear heard...the Glory and the thankfulness that we will have when this event is done. So the 24 elders...in worship...thank Jesus for reigning.

What does that look like. Satan deposed after 60 centuries.

Jesus alludes to this massive sea change in the story we visited earlier in Luke 19. A man goes to Rome, or wherever, to receive a kingdom, an authority to reign ... but in verse 14“But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us. And he returns, and rewards his slaves, but what happens to the ones who hated him and tried to stop His Kingdom's advance?

18“And the nations were enraged,

and Your wrath came,

and the time came for the dead to be judged,

and the time to reward Your slaves the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great,

and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

Lk. 19;25“And they said to him, ‘Master, he has ten minas already.’26“I tell you that to everyone who has, more shall be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.27“But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”

The parallels between Jesus story on his way to Jerusalem to be crucified, and what the elders say here in their worship, are staggering. It's all mixed up together in vs. 18.

For those who rebel and hate God and His Son, Jesus; wrath, judgement, destruction, forever.

And for the slaves of Jesus, who crossed over, out of Satan's kingdom and became slaves of God, and of the Lord Jesus, and feared Him, Reward.

I especially love the last 4 words in that little section. the small and the great

the small and the great!! That gives me so much hope and comfort. I read constantly, what the saints from other centuries wrote down. The John Bunyan's, and the Hudson Taylor's, and the Adoniram Judson's, and on and on and on. And some times I wonder if I'm even saved. My little impression on my generation around me is so miniscule.

I'm thrilled that when Jesus rewards His slaves, He rewards the under-achiever's along with the over-achievers. the small and the great

Notice also in the Luke 19 account; “A nobleman went to a distant country to receive a kingdom for himself, and then return.13“And he called ten of his what? ten of his what? slaves In Vs. 18 where your version says bond-servants . . . . we need to get over this. The greek word is slave. If you don't want to be a slave, you need to sign on with the other group.

19And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder and an earthquake and a great hailstorm.

Verse 19 seems to mess with your chronology doesn't it. MacArthur and Pentecost and Cyrus Schofield have got this chronology all pigeon holed neatly, but this verse has it all mixed up.

The temple in heaven is opened, Jesus is Reigning, the Kingdom has come, The ark of the covenant is revealed, and in the second half of the verse, we're back in judgement. Lightning and thunder and earthquakes and hailstorms. This sounds like the bowls of wrath in Chaper 16.

Yes. I think when that seventh trumpet sounds, all of this happens together! What a show! In John 17, Jesus prayed that we would see His glory!

When that 7th trumpet blows, we are going to see His glory! Awesome glory!

The bowls poured out! The nations enraged! Satan deposed! Jesus retaking this earth! Slaves rewarded! Enemies destroyed! Jews saved!

Are you ready?