Turn in your Bibles with me to
Revelation chapter 16. The title of the message is The
Final Battle. And that's what was described
in Zechariah 14 that Brother Jim read, talking about how there's
coming a day which it will all be ended, the last day. Christ will win the battle. It's
always been so. There's never been any doubt
that Christ and His church will win this final battle. But there's
a lot of symbolism here brought forth in Revelation 16. We've
been talking about the seven vials of God's wrath. Manifestations of God's judgment
here on earth. And the first four vials, those
are things that proceed throughout the last days from the time of
Christ's first coming to his second coming. And then these
last three vows are leading up, the fifth vow and the sixth vow,
leading up to the seventh vow, which is the final battle, which
is the second coming of Christ. And I want to show you that.
Look at verse 16 of Revelation 16. This is the close of the
sixth vow, which is a preparation for the end of time, the second
coming of Christ. It says, He gathered them together
into a place. Now, what does He gather together?
The armies of the world against Christ and His church to do battle. and he gathered them into a place
called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Now you've heard that term Armageddon
and I'm sure you've heard all the mythology and all the wild
stories about it. Most people believe that Armageddon
refers to a physical valley just northeast of Jerusalem. They
call it the Plains of Megiddo because of that word Megiddo
and the end of this word, Megiddon, which is really a misuse of it,
because of the plains of Megiddo, it was the site of several battles
in Israel's history. And in those battles, it seemed
like the people of Israel were defeated, but only God stepped
in and won the battle. So there were battles in the
valley of Megiddo. And this is the case of the final
battle. When it's all come to an end,
When this world's coming to an end, when Christ comes again,
here's the point that we cannot win the battle. We who are saved,
the church. But the battle is the Lord's.
Now how many times does he tell us that in different ways throughout
the New Testament? The battle is the Lord's. One
of the battles fought in Megiddo was the battle that Gideon fought.
You remember the story of Gideon. Took 300 men and defeated, I
think it was the Philistines, Well, God was the one who won
that battle. My point is, it was not won by
the power or the goodness or the cunning of men and women. It was God's power. And that's
the way it is in the final victory. It's His power, not ours. It's His wisdom and His goodness,
not ours. But there's a lot of false preaching
on this subject A lot of people say, well, at the end of this
age, the armies of the world, and you talk about the countries
of this world, China and Russia and all that, that they're all
going to assemble on this physical plane called Megiddo to defeat
the nation Israel, the physical nation, the one that's there
now. You know, there's a somewhat, I don't know, maybe they don't
want to call it a war now, but there's a skirmish going on now.
And a lot of people believe, well, it's going to be kind of
like that, that the armies of the world are going to assemble
in this physical place, the Valley of Megiddo, and they're going
to go against Israel, physical Israel, and what's going to happen
is Israel's going to win the battle, basically. because Christ
is going to come back and this is going to be a physical battle
fought with physical weapons, even atomic bombs, things like
that. Now listen to me. That's not
what Armageddon is. And I know the Bible uses symbolic
language in describing these battles. Like we were talking
last week, Frank, about, you know, with the horses, the blood's
gonna be up to the bridles and all that. Well, it's going to
be a very, very tempestuous battle, but it's a spiritual battle,
and we'll get to that in just a moment. And there will be physical
battles on earth all through the New Testament age. Christ
said that in Matthew 24. He said there'll be wars and
there'll be rumors of wars. And there have been, and there
still will be, and there will be until he comes again. You're
going to find fights and fusses, skirmishes, even wars among nations,
among peoples, all through. Because that's the plight of
man. The history of man is written in blood. And you know that so. And I know, you know, I grew
up through the 60s and we were You know, you heard the peaceniks,
you know, and the song, all we're saying, give peace a chance.
Well, it's not going to happen. Not on this world. There's always
going to be violence. There's always going to be wars
and rumors of wars. But now the battle throughout
the New Testament age, Satan has been permitted and even appointed,
now I know people don't want to hear this, but this is the
Bible, by God to make war on the church. We read about that
in Revelation 12. And that's why in passages like
Ephesians chapter 6, turn over to Ephesians chapter 6, let me
show you this. And this proves that what I'm
telling you is true, that this is a spiritual battle. Not a
physical battle. It's not fought with guns and
knives. We fight with the Word of God. That's our weapon. And Paul brought that out in
the book of 2 Corinthians. But look at Ephesians chapter
6. And look at verse 10. You know
this passage. Finally, my brethren, be strong
in the Lord and in the power of His might. You see, our strength
is not our own. In this battle, this spiritual
battle, our strength is not our own. If it were left up to us,
we'd be defeated already. But be strong in the power and
the might of the Lord. And verse 11, put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to withstand against the
bullets and the arrows and the atomic bombs of the devil. No,
the wiles of the devil. Now what are his wiles? His deceptions,
his lies. You see what I'm saying? This
is a battlefield of the mind. It's a battlefield of the heart.
What does Satan use in his persecution of people and his deception? He tells a lie. False gospels. False gospels of salvation by
the works and the wills of men. That's Satan's weapon. And he says, verse 12, for we
wrestle not with flesh and blood. See, it's not physical, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wicked
spirits. And so he says, wherefore take
unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done, all to stand, and stand therefore
having your loins girt with truth. Now read the armor of God. You
go ahead and read the whole thing there. And every piece of that
armor is spiritual. Related to the gospel. Related
to the truth. He doesn't ever tell us to pick
up a gun and shoot anybody. He didn't tell us to draw a sword
and cut anybody's head off. Now we may, there may be times
we have to defend ourselves physically and that's okay. But what I'm
saying, the battle that is being spoken of in Revelation 16 Armageddon
is not a physical battle. It's a spiritual battle. And
Christ is the victor. Now even though Satan has been
allowed to persecute and to attack the church, he's not gonna win.
The victory has never been in doubt. And you know where that
was proven? On the cross of Calvary. When
Christ went under the wrath of God for his people, having our
sins imputed to him, and he died and he was buried, he arose again
the third day. That's victory. That's life from
the dead. That's righteousness established.
One of the pieces of the armor of God is the breastplate of
righteousness. You know why it's on the breastplate?
It cannot be penetrated. It's a perfect righteousness.
It's called in the gospel the righteousness of God because
it was brought forth by the God-man, Jesus Christ, as the ground of
our justification before God. How do we stand before God? We may be getting older, weaker. We may get sick. Some of you
all have experienced cancer. I've experienced heart disease,
all of these things. All these things, boy, we look
like we're defeated, don't we? Now, you young people, you look
like you've got the world by the tail on the downhill slide
right now. But if you live long enough,
it ain't going to last, as they say. You know, I sit down up here. When I get up, I'm kind of stiff.
You ever see Tim Conway on the Carol Burnett Show? That's what
I feel like sometimes. So I thank God it's not a physical
battle, because I'd be one of the first ones gone. It's a spiritual
battle. And the righteousness in which
we stand before God is a perfect righteousness that the devil
cannot penetrate. He'll shoot his arrows of accusation. But what does God do for us?
He tells us, who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Christ
has won the battle. And we're just waiting for the
appointed time. It may come in our day, it may
not. We may die and go on to be with the Lord. And when He
comes back again on this battle of Armageddon, we'll come with
Him. If not, we'll be caught up in
the air. But that's the battle. But what
is Armageddon? Armageddon is, he says in the
Hebrew tongue, verse 16, it's a combination of two words. Har,
H-A-R, and Har means mountain. Now there is no mountain in the
Valley of Megiddo, so this is a mountain and Megiddon or Magadon
is assembly or gathering. Now there are some translations
that translate it as slaughter, but it means gathering. It's
the mount of gathering. And so on the final day when
Christ comes again, on the final day of judgment, the whole world
in opposition to Christ and His church, where the last show of
opposition to Christ, His church, and His truth will be defeated
and judged forever, never to return again. It'll be over. There'll be no more battle. Christ's
victory, as I said, has always been certain. On this day of
Armageddon, Satan and all of his followers, who are his followers? You remember in the book of Revelation,
we see three symbols that represent Satan and his armies. The first
symbol is Satan himself, that's the red dragon. That's symbolic
now, the red dragon. The second and third symbol are
two beasts, one that arises out of the sea and one out of the
land. The one out of the sea represents ungodly governments,
nations. And the one that rises out of
the land represents false religion. And here, in this passage, we
see that they're called the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet,
three. The unholy trinity, as it were. Well, Christ is gonna defeat
them all. And along with the kings and the nations who serve
them, they'll be totally, they'll be finally defeated. Peter described
it in 2 Peter chapter three. And we may go there in just a
moment. But this is judgment day. That's what Armageddon is.
This is the second coming of Christ. His wrath will be poured
down upon the ungodly and the only ones who will stand in that
day. are those who are saved from
their sins by the grace of God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
I want to be found in him, Paul said. This seventh vial judgment
that begins at verse 17 describes that battle and the victory of
the Lord over his enemies. Look at verse 17, the seventh
angel. The seventh vial judgment, the
seventh bowl, pour down his bowl, his vial into the air. Why does
he pour it out into the air? Well, there's one thing I know
that you'll never be able to get away with in this world,
and that's air. You gotta breathe to live, isn't
that right? If somebody cuts off your air,
you're gone. And what he's saying is this
judgmental wrath of God is something that the ungodly will not be
able to get away with. They may go east, west, north,
south. They may dig under the ground.
They may rise up. They can't get away from it.
It's the wrath of God that abides on all who do not rest and believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. What I'm telling you is this
your only way out of this. Your only hope is Jesus Christ
crucified and risen from the dead. And it says, and there came a
great voice out of the temple of heaven. This is the voice
of God. This is the truth of God. Coming
out. And what's it saying? From the
throne, from the temple, from the throne, from where God's
glory resides. And here's what it's saying.
It is done. It's over. No more. No more, this earth
will be destroyed, it'll be burned up by the wrath of God, but the
people of God will be caught up with Him. I think about, when
I see that it is done, I think about what Christ said on the
cross in John 19, 30, it's finished. The wrath of God, which the people
of God deserve and have earned because we're sinners, our wrath
was finished at the cross. He said it's done there. Christ,
as our surety, as our substitute, as our Redeemer, took the full
measure of God's wrath for all of His chosen people. And who
are they? Those who believe in Him. Those
who have God-given faith. Those who put on the whole armor
of God. Who stand before God washed in His blood. Clothed
in His righteousness. It's done though. That's the
message of Armageddon. And he says in verse 18, look
here, he says, there were voices, there were thunders, there were
lightnings. See, all of these are manifestations of the power
of God to destroy this world and all who are in it. And he
says, there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were
upon the earth. So mighty an earthquake and so
great. Now there's going to be physical
manifestations of God's wrath, but look over at 2 Peter 3. Now again, understand, this is
a physical, I mean a spiritual battle, not a physical one, but
the earth physically will be destroyed. It will be. Look at verse 10. 2 Peter chapter three. But the
day of the Lord, that is his second coming, will come as a
thief in the night. Now in 1 Thessalonians, Paul
tells us that it won't overtake his people as a thief because
we expect him to come. Now we don't know when he's coming.
We don't know the day or the hour, but we do expect it. So he won't overtake us as a
thief, but this will be to the unbelieving world. A thief in
the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great
noise, the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth
also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. You see that? God's gonna destroy this world
with fire and he's gonna make a new heavens and a new earth,
wherein dwelleth righteousness. Well, back over to Revelation
16 now. Look at verse 19. And the great city was divided
into three parts. Now the great city there is the
city that was great in the eyes of men. It's Babylon. Babylon
in the book of Revelation is descriptive of false religion. The great harlot. And it'll be
divided into three parts. And the cities of the nations
fell. And great Babylon came in remembrance
before God to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness
of his wrath. Why three parts? Well, remember
there are three symbols, three beasts, the red dragon, the beast
that comes out of the sea, the ungodly governments, and the
false prophet. Up until this time, they are
united against Christ and his church. But in this day, they're
going to be divided. They're going to hate each other. You know in Mark chapter 3 what
the Lord said about a kingdom divided against itself cannot
stand? That's what this is. I thought
about this. You remember when Christ was
crucified in Acts chapter 4, it said the kings of the earth
with the Jews and the Gentiles They all gather together against
Christ, against the Holy One. These are entities that naturally
hate each other, the kings of the earth, the Jews and the Gentiles.
But they all gather together in unity against Christ and His
church. And that's the way it is with
the red dragon and the beast and the false prophet. Up until
this point, they're all together, united against Christ and His
church, but then He's going to divide them. into three parts,
and in Babylon, false religion's gonna come into remembrance.
How's he gonna remember them? He's gonna hold it against them. Do you remember the Bible says
that for the people of God, it says that he will remember our
sins no more? Well, what that means is he will
not charge us with our sins. Again, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? He charged them to Christ. That's
why that doctrine of imputation is so important, folks. That's
the ground of our salvation. Christ went to the cross based
upon our sins, charged to his account, and he paid that sin
debt by his blood, his death. And our sins were put away. We
were redeemed by the blood. And his righteousness is imputed
to us. So God will not remember our
sins anymore. He will not hold them against
us. He will not impute them to us. He will not condemn us for
them. Christ has already been condemned
in our place. But what about Babylon? Oh, he'll
remember her. He'll remember her sins. They'll
stand before God, all those who were in Babylon, unbelievers,
that's who it's talking about. will stand before God without
Christ. No blood to wash away their sins,
no righteousness to justify them, they're on their own. And they'll be condemned under
the wrath of God. They'll drink of the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Verse 20 says, every island
fled away, the mountains were not found, the earth being destroyed,
And there fell, verse 21, there fell upon men a great hail out
of heaven. Remember when the hail came down
on Egypt before Pharaoh let Moses and the Hebrew children go? Well,
just the same way, but this is gonna be worse. Every stone about
the weight of a talent. Somebody said that's, I think
one, I've read two tons to a little bit less, but he says, enough
to kill you. And look here. And men blasphemed
God, because of the plague of the hell, for the plague thereof
was exceeding great." What a picture. Men and women being under the
wrath of God, but there's no repentance, there's no faith,
there's no turning to the Lord, there's only blasphemy. My friend,
the day of mercy, the day of grace is over at this time. When
Christ comes back again, Somebody said, well when he comes, I heard
a guy say this one time. He said, when he comes back again,
then I'll repent. Oh no you won't, it's too late
then. You'll blaspheme God. You'll
stand up in human pride and depravity and claim that you don't deserve
what you're getting. Fact of the matter is, you do
deserve it. And that's why we who know Christ,
Don't you thank God that He doesn't give us what we deserve and what
we've earned. That's what grace is all about.
Grace is not getting what we deserve or what we've earned.
It's free. Free to the worst of us. This is the day of mercy and
grace gone. And it shows us that it takes
the grace and power and goodness of God to bring sinners to repentance. And this is God's purpose for
His elect whom He ordained to eternal life. God's not willing
that any of them should perish, but they should all come to repentance. Let me close the message with
this. Look back up to verse 15 of Revelation 16. This spiritual battle, remember,
Armageddon, Christ coming the second time to defeat His enemies,
finally. Destroy this earth. He will catch
up. That's the rapture now. His people
will be caught up. He'll come back with those who
have already died and gone to be with Him. And He'll catch
up. He'll rapture. He'll catch up those who are
on earth at that time. His people will be safe. and then he'll destroy the earth
and bring all who are ungodly to judgment. And they'll be pronounced
under the wrath of God forever and ever. So look at verse 15
again. He said, behold, I come as a
thief. Blessed is he that watcheth. Are you on the watch? Now the
watch doesn't mean that you're to sit down and try to do some
biblical math and figure out the date and time he's coming
again. To watch here means watch for your soul. And what that means is this.
Understand that as much as you should give your time and your
effort to the things of this world as you go through in a
godly way, understand this is just a very short period of time. Eternity is forever and ever
and ever. Can you understand that? Can
you grip that? Forever and ever and ever. In
the Bible, you know, they talk about 3 score and 10. That's
70 years old. That's what I am now. And it
says it like this in a human way. He says, anything more than
that's a gift from God. Well, the whole thing's a gift
from God. If you're 16 years old, that
16 years was a gift from God, even though you may not recognize
it. I hope you do. But this life is short. Job said
that. He said, it's just like a puff
of air. And then it's gone. So watch.
What are we to watch? The word of God. Don't even watch
for the signs of the times. People say, oh, there's a war
in Israel today. That means the Lord's coming
back. I don't know that. There's always been wars over
there. Heck, that place has always been in turmoil. If you listen to these These
guys, these false prophets, the Lord would have come back a thousand
times. Who are the people of God today? Who is the true spiritual Israel? Read the Bible. Believers. That's right. Believers. So be on the watch, and then
it says, He that watcheth and keepeth his garments. Now, what
are our garments? Well, those are the, that's symbolic
now. Those are the garments of salvation. The garment of his righteousness
imputed. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness without works. I stand before God with
a perfect standing No debt of sin to pay. It's already been
paid. We're going to sing a song here. Jesus paid it all. And
He did. All the debt for the sins of
His people. So that debt's paid. I stand
before God righteous in His sight, not based upon my works, but
based upon the work of Christ in His obedience unto death.
He's given me the garments of salvation, the garments of His
grace, the garments of life. Hold on to it. Keepeth those
garments. Now we know that the only way
we're going to keep them is by Him keeping us. But He says keepeth
His garments lest he walk naked. Nakedness in the Bible is symbolic
of standing before God without righteousness. exposed to the
wrath of God. But if you're in Christ, you're
not exposed to the wrath of God. He took it all. He drank damnation
dry. He drank that cup. It says, and they see his shame.
The Bible says, he that believeth shall not be ashamed. Why? Because we stand before God in
Christ, and we don't have anything to be ashamed of in Him. If I
stood there on my own, I've got a lot to be ashamed of. But in
Christ, I have not one thing to be ashamed of. For He is my
Savior. He's my surety. He's my substitute. He's my righteousness, my redeemer. He's my intercessor, my meeting.
He's my Lord and King. and we don't have to be ashamed
of him. Amen. All right, let's get our hymnals
and turn to hymn number 125, Jesus Paid It All, 125. Let's
stand and sing.