The passage of scripture from which our teaching is taken this morning is found in Revelation chapter 6. If you have your Bibles, open them to Revelation 6 verse 12 to 17. This is God's word. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the full moon became like blood. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth, and the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll and is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place in the kings of the earth, and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in caves and face among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day of wrath has come, and who can stand? Here ends the reading of God's holy word. Father in heaven, as we come to consider your word, pray that you would open our hearts and minds, in Jesus' name, amen. Some of you might remember, fifteen years ago, a mine collapsed in Chile, trapping thirty-three men alive. It began as a normal weekday shift for the thirty-three miners working in a hundred and twenty-one year old San Jose copper gold mine, set in the mountain in Chile's Atacama desert. But around lunchtime, a rock, later said to be twice the weight of the Empire State Building, fell from the mountain and caused the mine to cave in. All thirty-three men were sealed inside, trapped more than seven hundred meters below ground, five kilometers from the entrance. They were there for sixty-nine days before they were finally rescued, all sixty-nine alive. Earlier that same year, on January 12, an earthquake devastated Haiti, killing two hundred and thirty thousand people. The hours and the days after it first hit, I was aware of the mounting death toll because the internet kept updating the totals, and it grew more and more grim. But every so often there was some light, some hope, some account of a miracle rescue. Rescuers hauled a girl alive from the ruins of Haiti's capital on January 27, fifteen days after the earthquake. She was severely hydrated and so weak she could barely speak. Ten-year-old Darlene Etienne managed to whisper, thank you to her rescuers. Might be of interest to you that the song, the Haiti song that's in your service folder was written in response to that incident. So what must it be like, I wonder, to suddenly be buried under rocks and dirt? I've never spoken with anyone who's been trapped by an earthquake, but I remember a story told by a great friend of mine in seminary, Billy Johnson. Billy was a man, not quite my height, weighed about three hundred pounds, and he could tell a story. He told a story about somebody he knew named Jim Uzzle, who was a jovial person. Although he had advanced in years beyond this story, any time he told it a seriousness came over him, he said, a deadly, earnest seriousness. He said the first thing that happens is there's panic. Panic to get out. And it's dark, it's completely dark and black, so dark that you literally cannot see your hand in front of your face. After that, if you're pinned or have been hurt, the pain floods over you. As the hours pass and no one responds to your cries for help, you realize that you may not see light again, or your friends, or your family, or your wife, or your children. Then comes the tears and the sobs. Then a thought hits you. Water. Suddenly you're thirsty, and there is no water, nor is there any hope of water, and the air is close and may be running out. As Jim Uzzle told this story, he appeared almost trance-like. There exist letters written by trapped coal miners as they realized they were going to die. Following are from miners in a Tennessee mine in the early 1900s. From Paul Harmon, he wrote, dear wife and children, my time has come, I trust in Jesus, he will save, it is now 10 minutes to 10 o'clock, Monday morning, and we are almost smothered. May God bless you and the children, and may we all meet in heaven, goodbye till we meet to part no more. James Brooks wrote to my wife and baby, my dear wife and baby, I want you to go back home and take the baby there, so goodbye, I'm going to heaven, so meet me there. Henry Beach wrote, Alice, do the best you can, I'm going to rest, goodbye dear little Ellen darling, goodbye for us both. Albert said the Lord had saved him, do the best you can with the children, we are all praying for air to support us, but it's getting so bad without any air. Albert said for you to wear his shoes and clothing, it's now 2.30 o'clock. Paul Harmon is in Audrey Wood's hands, Ellen I want you to live right and come to heaven. Raise the children as best you can, oh how I wish I could be with you, goodbye all of you, goodbye, bury me and Albert in the same grave. My little Eddie goodbye, Ellen goodbye, Lily goodbye, Jimmy goodbye, Horace. There are few of us left alive, oh God for one more breath, Ellen remember me as long as you live, goodbye darling. I read other stories of men who had been trapped in explosions and work accidents and earthquakes. These had comforted themselves with seeing their family again, but what is absolutely consistent is they all wanted out, desperately they wanted out, which is what makes our passage so amazing, so stunning, so incredible. Rather than wanting out the men and women here depicted in Revelation 6 are crying, pleading and begging for the rocks to fall on them, to bury them, to cover them up. The very thing that people who have suffered in an earthquake are trying to escape from is the thing that these people are asking to happen to them, for the rocks to fall on them. They call to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of wrath has come, and who can stand. What are these people saying? That they prefer death and devastation of an earthquake to overwhelm them than to stand in the presence of the throne of God and have their sin revealed. Do you hear what they're saying? Their unforgiven sin, their own personal guilt before the holiness of God is more frightening than being buried by an earthquake. All of those people in the chilly mind disaster, all of the people in Haiti who died in the earthquake, all of them wanted out. Anybody who's ever been trapped wants out, but here in Revelation 6 we have people asking for that to fall on them rather than stand before the lamb. So we need to ask ourselves what's more frightening to us? While we are alive and healthy and have, we think, years to live, it's easy enough to make light of our sin. We can wink at it and promise ourselves that God will wink as well. But the scripture tells a different story. Sin, our sin, is our most ruthless enemy. Someone recently said to me, I am my own worst enemy. He spoke more truly than most people realize. Maybe you've heard the story of a London newspaper years and years ago, ran an article and asked the question, what is wrong with England? G. K. Chesterton responded with two words, I am. This passage tells us how horrible our sin is, that people would rather have rocks, fall on them like an earthquake or a mine disaster than to stand before the lamb. All people are sinful. Romans says, for all have fallen short of the glory of God and the wages of sin is death. You might be thinking, well, does this apply to me? So whom does this apply? Verse 15 tells us of six classes of people, kings of the earth, presidents, dictators, leaders of nations. That includes the prime minister in Canada, the president of the United States, I don't know what they call the guy in Russia, but it includes all of them. All of them will have to give an account of their lives before the lamb on the great day of wrath. Princes are the next in line for power. Power is going to run in the next election for prime minister or for an MP. Generals are military powers. The rich CEOs like Elon Musk, who supposedly is worth a half a trillion dollars, half a trillion. He and Larry Ellison, the founder of Oracle, I don't even know what Oracle is, but I'm sure some of you do. They go back and forth as to who's the richest. Right now it's Musk. So kings of the earth, princes, generals, the rich, the mighty, which includes strong men and women, athletically and intellectually. And then finally every slave and every free man, which includes all the lower classes, which the majority of us are in. All of them, all of them, asking for the rocks to fall on them, asking for the mind to collapse on them, asking for the earthquake like in Haiti to bury them, rather than stand before the lamb. All people of every type and from every class are included among those who will want to flee the wrath of God, even if it means being buried by an earthquake. So no matter who you are, you are subject to this final judgment. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is something about verse 16 I want you to notice. It's the wrath of the lamb. Who is the lamb? Let me read some Bible passages related to the lamb. We talked about last week when Abraham was instructed by God to take his son, his only son whom you love, and sacrifice him on the mountain in which I will show you. And as they were going up the mountain, Isaac said to his father, you hold the fire in the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? And Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son. And he did. You know the Passover, Moses called for the elders of Israel and said to them, go and take for yourselves lambs according to your families and slay the Passover lamb. You shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin and apply some of it that is in the basin to the lintel and the doorpost. And none of you shall go outside the door of this house until morning. So they were to kill the lamb, dip the hyssop branch, put it on the doorpost. He said, for the Lord will pass through and smite the Egyptians and when he sees the blood on the lintel or on the doorpost, he will pass over your door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your houses and smite you. So early indication here is that the blood of the lamb is what saves us. And what's interesting is the Israelites, had they not put the blood of the lamb on their doorpost, they would have lost their firstborn. If an Egyptian or another foreigner had put the blood of the lamb on their doorpost, they would not have been attacked by the destroyer and their children would be saved. Then he says, you shall observe this event as an ordinance for you forever. When you enter the land which the Lord has given you, as he promised, you shall observe this. And when your children say, what does this right mean to you, you shall say, it's the Passover sacrifice to the Lord who passed over the houses of the sons of Israel and Egypt when he smote the Egyptians but spared our homes and the people bowed low in worship. Isaiah 53, which we've often read, he was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth like a lamb led to the slaughter. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Mark 1412 says, on the first day of the unleavened bread when the Passover lamb was being sacrificed, his disciples said to him, where do you want us to go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? Elsewhere it says, if you address as the Father, the One who impartially judges you according to each one's work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth. This is 1 Peter 1, knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from the futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of a lamb unblemished, the spotless blood of Christ. Revelation 5, 12, worthy is the lamb who is slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and glory and honor and praise. It is the lamb of the Scriptures slain for the sin of his people. This is the lamb who has purchased salvation for all who believe. It's the very lamb of God, the Son of God, and all in the end will flee from him if they have not already fled to him. Very familiar passage in John chapter 3, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life, for God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world. That's later. But that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe is already judged because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment that the light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than the light for their deeds are evil. You see, men love darkness. Men love the darkness of the collapse of a mine on them or the earthquake burying them in rubble. They love that darkness rather than the light because they knew they were sinful and they couldn't stand before God. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come into the light that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. I'll ask again, do you see it? Do you see that those who are being judged preferred the darkness, even the darkness of being buried in an earthquake? They prefer that to the light of the world. People ask the question, who can stand? The only answer is Jesus. He's the light you long for though you be buried under the mountain of your own sin. He's the water that you thirst for springing up into eternal life. You cannot stand on your own. Your sin is too great. You can't undo it. You can't make it okay. The only way you can stand is in Jesus. He made him who knew no sin to be sinned that we might become the righteousness of God in him.