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Tom Harding

Behold, The Lord is Coming Back

Revelation 16:10-16
Tom Harding August, 28 2022 Audio
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Revelation 16:10-16
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,
11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
12 ¶ And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

In the sermon titled "Behold, The Lord is Coming Back," preacher Tom Harding addresses the eschatological anticipation of Christ's return, emphasizing the importance of being vigilant and prepared. He argues that Christ's second coming will be sudden and unexpected, likening His return to a thief in the night as stated in Revelation 16:15. Harding supports his points by referencing various scriptural passages, including Revelation 1:7, Matthew 24:44, and 1 Thessalonians 4:16, which collectively highlight the certainty of Christ's return and the accompanying judgment for the unrepentant. The doctrinal significance of this sermon lies in its teaching on the necessity of holding tightly to the righteousness of Christ and remaining faithful in a spiritually dark world, assuring believers of their eternal security in Him while warning against the dangers of unrepentance and reliance on self-righteousness.

Key Quotes

“Behold, I come as a thief. He comes, that is, suddenly He comes, when no one is expecting the Lord Jesus Christ to come back.”

“Blessed is He that keepeth His garments. What is that? We'll find out... I don't want to be clothed in my filthy rags.”

“The Lord is coming back. He's coming back in the hour that we think not.”

“This is talking about a spiritual battle of the forces of evil against God Almighty. That's Armageddon. And really, the word is made up of two words: Mageddon, which means mountain of assembly.”

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

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Okay. Now you look back at Revelation
16. Look at verse 15. And this is so encouraging
to us. Behold. Behold. You take a good look at this.
You stop and meditate upon this for a while. Behold, I come.
Behold, I come. Who's coming? The Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, Behold, I come. I come
as a thief. He comes, that is, suddenly He
comes, when no one is expecting the Lord Jesus Christ to come
back in the hour that you think not, the Son of Man coming. Behold, I come, blessed, blessed,
blessed is He that is looking, watching for the Lord to come
back. Blessed is He that keepeth His
garments. What is that? We'll find out. We'll find out in a moment, lest
ye walk naked, that is, naked before God. I don't want to be
clothed in His righteousness, don't you? I don't want to be
clothed in my filthy rags. That would be shameful, wouldn't
it? That would be like being naked before God. Now I'm taking
entitlement for the message from what's said in verse 15, behold
I come. Behold, I come." The Lord is
coming back. Hold your place there. Remember
how we started in the Revelation study in chapter 1? Turn back
over there. Revelation chapter 1. This is
a revelation of Jesus Christ. He says in verse 7, Behold, He
cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, and they also
which pierce to Him, and all kingdoms of the earth shall wail
because of Him. Even so, even so, Amen. He said, verse 8, I'm Alpha,
I am Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning and the ending,
saith the Lord, which is, and was, and which is to come, the
Almighty. So we started our study with
the Lord saying, behold, I come. That is, He's on His way. And
then if you find Revelation 22, turn over there. The last chapter,
you know what the message is? He says, I come. It's all about
the Lord Jesus Christ coming. Look at verse 20. He which testifies
these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so. Even so, come. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
back for us. He's coming back in the hour
that we think not. He tells us to be ready. In Matthew
24, we find the Lord saying, Be ye also ready,
for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of Man cometh."
Now people down through the hundreds of years have been setting dates
and times and places. Remember what we read just a
moment ago in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5? The times and seasons,
you don't need to know. The Lord does know. We do know
this, our Lord said, if I go away, I'll come again and receive
you to Myself that where I am, there you may be also." In that
24th chapter of Matthew, the Lord talks about His coming back.
He says, as a lightning shines in the east and goes to the west. How fast is that? Well, that's
pretty fast, isn't it? Even so, He says, I come. The whole Old Testament Scripture
says, all the Old Testament Scripture says, the Messiah is coming,
right? To Him give all the prophets
witness. The New Testament Gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John tell us that the Messiah is born. that the Messiah is
here, and ministered among us, ministered among His people,
and accomplished all our salvation. That's what Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John said. The Lord has come. We've waited
for Him. We've seen our Savior. And then
the epistles of Paul, Peter, and John, they tell us that the
Lord Jesus Christ, He's coming back. We read that a moment ago. It's interesting there in that
1 Thessalonians chapter 4, where it talks about the Lord Himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, the voice of an archangel. But in each chapter of those
five chapters in 1 Thessalonians, in every chapter, at the end
of the chapter, it mentions the Lord is coming back. The Lord
is coming back. And some think that is one of
Paul's first epistles. And he writes there about the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this chapter, Revelation
16, we have the pouring out of the seven vials of God's wrath
upon Satan, upon his allies, upon the dragon, The beast and
the false prophet and all those who despise and reject the Lord
Jesus Christ have nothing to look forward to but wrath and
judgment. I want to be found in Him when
He comes back. Turn over here to Romans. Hold
your place there and find Romans chapter 5. I want you to read
this with me. In the book of Romans, Chapter
5, we read that the Lord Jesus Christ came and died for the
ungodly. Romans chapter 5, when we were
yet without strength, verse 6. In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet, peradventure, for a good man some would even
dare to die. Now watch this. God commended
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. How are we saved from wrath? being justified by His blood. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." He ever lives
to intercede. for us. We shall be delivered
from the wrath to come because the Lord Jesus Christ took all
our sin, took all of our judgment, took all of our wrath. Therefore,
there is in the Lord Jesus Christ no judgment, no wrath, no wrath
for us. Now, in our study today, we see
the Lord sending two more of His angelic messengers of judgment,
of doom, of wrath upon this reprobate world. Now, we see this taking
place throughout human history. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
pouring out judgments and vials of wrath in the days of Noah.
What was that? There was wrath, but there was
also mercy in that ark. In the days of Sodom and Gomorrah,
there was wrath and judgment, but also mercy. God delivered
His people out. So we see these vows of judgment
poured upon sin, the ungodly, according to God's purpose, according
to God's grace. And it's been going on since
Adam fell, since sin was introduced, when rebellion was put in the
heart of a sinner, rebelling against God. Now, a lot of people
ask, Preacher, are we living in the last days? Absolutely. Absolutely. Since the Lord's
coming, and the Lord dying, and being resurrected for us, we
are living in the last days. We're going to see in 2 Timothy
chapter 3, in the last days, there shall be perilous times. Now doesn't that describe our
day? Perilous times. Lest we despair, we as believers
know all things come by the decree of God. all things are working
together for our eternal good, for the good of God's elect,
to our eternal advantage. One day soon the Lord will come
back, final judgment will take place, the elect of God will
be glorified forever with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why
he says, wherefore, comfort one another with these words. Remember what we read a moment
ago? The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with
the voice of an archangel, with the trump of God and the dead
in Christ shall rise first. And then we which are alive,
somebody's going to still be living upon this earth when the
Lord comes back. We which are alive and remain
shall be caught up with them in the clouds to meet the Lord
in the air. And so shall we ever be with
the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words." Isn't that a comfort to us? It is to the
believer. to be forever with the Lord Jesus
Christ, to worship Him in spirit and in truth with no distractions,
to worship Him perfectly, and to sing unto Him worthy as the
Lamb that was slain, to receive all honor, glory, and blessings
of power both now and forever. Now, back to chapter 16 of the
Revelation. We want to look at today the
fifth angel and the sixth angel leading up to that battle of
Armageddon. Armageddon. The fifth angel says
here, verse 10, poured out his vial, we know it's the vial of
the wrath of God, full of the wrath of God, upon the seat of
the beast, this is the beast out of the sea, we studied about,
I think it's chapter 13, and his kingdom was full of darkness,
full of darkness, no light, no truth, and they gnawed their
tongues for pain, when this fifth angel
poured out his vial of wrath, and they blasphemed the God of
heaven. They didn't believe and trust Him. They spoke evil of
the God of heaven, the God on the throne, because of their
pain, because of their sorrows, and they repented not. It did
not change their mind. That word repentance means a
change of mind. They repented not. They had no
change of mind. when they experience the wrath
of God. The fifth angel pours out his
vial of wrath upon the seat, it says there, of the beast.
That seat there is symbolic of the center of his power and of
his throne, the beast out of the sea. And upon the place of
the beast, his authority. Now, who is this beast? Turn
back to Revelation 13. This is the beast out of the
sea. That's the monster that comes out of the sea. Again,
this is symbolic language. Revelation 13 verse 1, And I
stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of
the sea, having seven heads, ten horns, and upon his head
ten crowns, and upon his name the names of blasphemy. And the
beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like a bear,
and his mouth like a lion. And the dragon gave him power
in the sea and great authority. Now this beast out of the sea,
as we talked about before, represents the wicked governments of this
world who are in opposition to the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If you've read ahead in chapter
17 of Revelation, it tells us that these are the governments
of this world who are in opposition to the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything that is contrary to
the way of the sovereign salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, notice
it says there, I bought the seed of the beast, and his kingdom,
verse 10, was full of darkness. His kingdom had no light. It
was a kingdom of darkness. And they gnawed their tongue
for their pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven. Everything
that's contrary to the way of salvation in Christ is nothing
but darkness. full of darkness, and false doctrine,
and superstition, and the religious ceremonies of man. It's full
of darkness, no light. It goes back in the reference
that was given to Exodus 10-21, when God, through Moses, brought
a plague of darkness upon Egypt. Remember, for three days, there
was darkness everywhere, so dark you could feel it. They couldn't
move, they couldn't see one another. But it says that the children
of Israel had light in their dwellings. You see, Christ is
our light. Even in this dark world, Christ
is the light of life. Consequently, those who are in
this kingdom of darkness have no light, have no life, they
have no salvation. Only truth brings light and salvation. and light. Our Lord said in John
8, I am the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. You see, the
Lord Jesus Christ, by His grace, we are born into this kingdom
of darkness. He calls us out of darkness into
His marvelous light. He translates us out of the kingdom
of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. He does that. By nature we love darkness, not
light. This is condemnation that light
is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than the
light. We have to be called out of the kingdom of darkness. into
his marvelous light. Satan and his friends, who prayed
as angels of light, who were made self-made, who transformed
themselves into ministers of righteousness, are nothing but
agents of death, darkness, and damnation. Now, we've read this
before. If you don't want to turn, you
don't have to, but if you want to turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11, it talks about The false prophets, those who are
sent of Satan, who speak his lies, 2 Corinthians 11 verse
13, for such are false apostles, deceitful workers. And that's
what Satan's main business is, to deceive people. Deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed to an angel of,
what is that? He says, I'm light. In reality,
he has nothing but darkness. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works. Now, I'm not
talking about the righteousness revealed in the gospel. I'm talking
about preaching human righteousness for acceptance with God. Thank
God he called us out of this darkness into his marvelous light.
And notice what they do when they experience his kingdom of
darkness. In the vial of God's wrath, they
blaspheme the God of heaven. because of their pains and their
sores, and they repented, they repented not. They blasphemed
the God of heaven." Here we see the terrible end and the righteous
judgment of God. Being in great pain, they chewed
their tongues off. But still in their heart and
in their thoughts, they spoke evil against God. They couldn't
speak it outwardly. but in their heart it was still
rebelling against God, the carnal-minded enmity against God. They blasphemed
God and remained unrepentant. Remember verse 9 in our text,
Revelation 16, when the fourth angel poured out his vows, The
scorched men with fire, with great heat, and they blasphemed
the name of God, which had power over these plagues, and they
repented not to give Him the glory. If you look to the last
verse in chapter 16, verse 21, And there fell upon men great
hail out of heaven, and every stone about the weight of a talent,
and men blasphemed God because of the plague, of hell and the
plague was exceeding great. They still, when God beats them
to nothing, they still rail and blaspheme God. You know what
that tells us? It shows us something of the
total wicked depravity of our own human nature. We will not,
what a monument to God's, what a monument to man's rather total
complete depravity and rebellion in their heart against God. It
only hardened their heart. They weren't broken with the
wrath of God pouring out upon man. You see, God must grant
and give repentance to the acknowledging of a truth. We know faith like
repentance is the gift of God. God must grant repentance. God
must grant faith or we'll perish in our sin. You can preach wrath
and wrath and judgment and judgment, judgment to come, judgment to
come, and you can beat up on people and preach the eternal
condemnation of a just and holy God, unless God grants repentance
towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will never
bow, will never submit. Like I told you before, In Romans
chapter 2, it's the goodness and mercy of God revealed in
the Gospel that brings us to Christ. It's the goodness of
God, the mercy of God. Now, the sixth angel. There's more to come. And these
vials of wrath, as I've said before, they've been going on
for a long time. God's been pouring out His judgment,
pouring out His wrath upon this earth, and there's more to come.
There's more to come. The show's just getting started.
The sixth angel poured out his vial of God's wrath upon the
great river Euphrates during that Iraq war. Remember? Everybody
was talking about the Tigris River and the Euphrates River.
Well, here God says when he pours out this sixth vial of judgment
upon the river Euphrates and the waters thereof are dried
up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared
to cross over that river when it's dried up. And then he says,
I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of
the dragon, we know that's the devil himself, out of the mouth
of the beast, the beast out of the earth, the false prophet,
and out of the false prophet, for they are spirits of devils,
working miracles which go forth unto the kings of this earth,
the kings of this world, and deceiveth them, deceiveth them,
the whole world, gather together, gather them to the battle of
the great day of God Almighty. They think they're going to gang
up on God, and they think they're going to win. Now, let's look
at some of these things here. The sixth angel, pours out his
wrath, which only further aggravates the enemies of God, to rally
their forces and to wage war against the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, our Lord said to Peter,
upon this rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. But to no avail, we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The sixth angel pours out his prescribed measure as a vial
of God's wrath upon this river, Euphrates, and it was dried up.
Now this river that flowed through Babylon of old was the life of
that city and culture. You remember we studied when
Israel was carried away into 70 years of captivity, Daniel
and Ezekiel, and when they were carried away into 70 years of
Babylonian captivity, God delivered them. They were carried over
the river Euphrates. And God put them in captivity
for 70 years because of their sin and their rebellion against
God. And then God raised up a king from the Persian Empire. We read
about and studied him. His name was Cyrus, remember?
God raised up Cyrus, the king of Persia. who was a type and
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Isaiah 44, we study that Cyrus,
a pagan king, was a picture and type of the Lord Jesus Christ
in his office. He's called, God calls him, my
shepherd and mine anointed. Now, how was God going to deliver
the children of Israel who were 70 years in captivity? He raised
up this pagan king named Cyrus the king of Persia, and he conquered
the Babylonians. You know how he did it? He dammed
up the river, and stopped the river, and Babylon became impotent,
and Cyrus conquered Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, and all those,
and the people of Israel walked over on dry ground, and were
delivered, and went back to, remember we studied it in Nehemiah
and Ezra? the rebuilding of the walls of
the temple, and rebuilding of the temple, that actually happened,
didn't it? But, but, this is talking about,
again, the river Euphrates, and Babylon we're going to study
about that's fallen, symbolic, this river is symbolic of the
resources of the wicked and what they trust in. in their doing,
their righteousness, and their idolatry. When the Lord dries
up their strength, dries up their false hopes, their dreams, dashes
their dreams in pieces, they are prepared to march. It says
they're the kings of the East, are prepared to march against
God's people, God's saints. Well, read on. Verse 13, And
I saw, as that was happening, John sees in his vision three
unclean spirits, and we're told here the spirit of devils in
verse 14. Like frogs, three unclean spirits
like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon. Now we know who
the dragon is. is that great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil, Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world, chapter 12, verse 9, out of the mouth of
the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. Talking
about the beast out of the sea and the beast out of the earth,
which is a false prophet. For they are spirits of devils
working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and
the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day
of God Almighty. Now, let's look at some of these
things here. Satan and his allies marshal
their forces of evil to do battle against God and his church. This
unholy trio here, called the dragon, the beast, and the false
prophet, this unholy trio, they gather themselves together to
do battle against the Holy Trinity. The unholy trio, Trinity, they
marshal their forces to march against the Holy Trinity of God
Almighty. They have unclean spirits, it
says there. Unclean spirits. It says they're
spirits of devil. Devils. Devils. Like frogs. Frogs. You see that? Frogs. They just, you ever, we've got
a neighbor next door that's got a swimming pool. And at one time
it was just so full of frogs. Frogs. And when you walked out
the back porch, all you could hear is croak, croak. It was
so annoying. It was just frogs, frogs, frogs,
bullfrogs, croaking, croaking, croaking. They really didn't
say anything, they made a whole lot of noise. That's what false
prophets do, they just croak. They croak, they croak, they
croak, they make a lot of noise, but they don't say anything.
Now it's interesting, this word that's given to us here, frogs,
can also be rendered fraud. They're frauds. They are fakes. Talking about the false prophets.
Like frogs in the mud and the muck, delighting in uncleanness,
or like defiled lepers, they're infected with sin. This uncleanness
proceeds out of their mouth. They speak the filthy lies of
Satan. They are false prophets who promote
and preach falsehood of salvation by works, by what the sinner
does. Isn't that exactly what the serpent
did in the garden? A frog came along, a fraud came
along, and told Eve that you won't really die if you eat that
fruit. You'll be like God! It was a
lie, wasn't it? God said, the day you eat, you
will surely die. And Satan added one word. You
shall not surely die. Well, we know the story. Sin
entered in and death by sin. Now, lest you think I'm too hard
on false preachers, listen to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ
as He described the frogs in His day. The Pharisees, the Sadducees. Listen to what He said. You are
of your father the devil. And the lesser your father will
you do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He abode not in
the truth, because there's no truth in him. When he speaks
a lie, he speaks of his own, for he is a liar. And he's a
father of lies. They're still croaking today
the same lie, sinner, save yourself. The second thing we see there
in verse 14, They are spirits of devils, working
miracles. Working miracles. You remember
what our Lord said about those miracle workers in Matthew 24,
24? For there shall arise false christs,
false prophets, and show great signs and wonders, insomuch that
if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect of God. They are spirits of devils, claiming
to work miracles, miracles, miracle workers. They are not miracle
workers, are they? Let me just read it to you over here
in 2 Thessalonians. Let me read it to you. Talking
about the mystery of iniquity, this is 2 Thessalonians 2 verse
8, Then shall the wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with
the Spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness
of his coming, even him whose coming is after the work of Satan
with all power, signs, and lying wonders." They say they work
miracles. of unrighteousness, and them
that perish, because they receive not the love of the truth, that
they might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie, that
they all might be damned, who believe not the truth, but have
pleasure in unrighteousness." They go about these spirits,
or spirits of devils. They say they work miracles.
Now, there are a lot of people down through the years who claim
great miracles, faith healers and so forth. They're frauds. What is their message? It's not
salvation of the Lord. Their message of salvation depends
on you. That's how we distinguish who
is the true prophet of God and who is the false prophet of God.
Now, here's the fourth thing we see. They gather and marshal
all this hellish, devilish inspired army against God to the battle of
God Almighty. You see what it says there in
the last part of verse 14? They gathered this army together,
this ungodly army, led by this ungodly trio, to gather them
to battle that great day of God Almighty. Now, in the midst of
all that, the Lord says in verse 15, I come. When it gets right
down to the last, the dark, bleak, when the wicked seem like they're
winning, when it seems like there's no hope for us at all, the Lord
comes back. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed
is he that watcheth and keepeth his garment, lest he walk naked,
and they shall see his shame. The Lord is coming back. He's coming back. He said, for
a little while, and he that shall come will come. We read, Behold,
I come quickly, even so Lord Jesus come." When the armies
of Satan think they have managed to defeat the church, crush the
influence and spread of the gospel, the Lord will come back and defeat
openly. He will show who is Lord. The angels declared the Lord
would come back. You remember in Acts chapter
1? which also said to the men of Galilee, Why stand ye gazing
up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken
up from you into heaven shall so come again in like manner
as you see Him go up into heaven." He's coming back. It will be
a terrible day for the wicked. They will try to hide from Him.
You remember we read in chapter 6, They cried to the rocks and
the mountains to hide us from the face of the wrath of the
Lamb of Almighty God. Revelation 6, 14-17. So it will
be a terrible day for some who stand in opposition to God, but
it will be a blessed day. A blessed day for those who die
in the Lord. Look what it says in verse 15,
I come, the Lord's coming back. Blessed is he that is looking
for me. And blessed is he that keepeth
his garments, lest you walk naked and God sees your sin, your shame,
which is sinful, sinful. It will be a blessed day for
the saints of God. You see, the saints of God are
looking for His coming. Titus put it this way. when Paul
writes to Titus, looking for that blessed hope and glorious
appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave
Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and
purify unto Himself a purchased people, zealous of His glory. Blessed is he that watcheth.
The day of the Lord will come as the thief in the night. Now,
two other things. Blessed is the man that keepeth
his garments. That word keepeth means to hold
tightly, to hold tightly to your garments. Now, what is he talking
about here? I know this, he's not talking
about the filthy rags of our self-righteousness. He's not
telling us to lay hold of the filthy garments of our self-righteousness. He's telling us to lay hold of
the garments of salvation and the robe of righteousness provided
freely in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember He said in Isaiah 61.10,
He clothed us with the garments of salvation. He'd given us the
robe of righteousness in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want
to hold on to my filthy rags. Do you? Let them go. Let them
go. They're nothing but gum. Lay
hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Look unto Him for all of salvation. Blessed is that man that holds
on to Christ. The saints of God, by His grace,
Persevere in faith. They are kept by the power of
God. I will be their God, he says, and they shall be my people.
You see, we're kept by the power of God. They will not be found
naked in that day, shameful in that day. He's able to keep us
from falling and to present us faultless, unblameable, holy,
unblameable in His sight in that day. Because we'll be found,
not in ourselves, but we'll be found in Christ. Our Savior,
our Lord, our King. This is the garment that He has
given to us in salvation. Turn one page over to Revelation
19. You see, Christ is the Lord our
righteousness. Revelation 19 verse 6, And I
heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the
voice of many waters, as the voice of mighty thundering, saying,
Hallelujah for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and
rejoice and give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb
has come and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her was
granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, that's the garments,
clean and white, for that fine linen is the righteousness of
the saints. Where did they get that righteousness?
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputes righteousness without
works. Lay hold on the Lord Jesus Christ
and do not let go. That's what he's saying there.
Now, behold, the Lord says, I come. Blessed is he that, watch it,
is looking for the Lord. We don't know the time or day,
but we're looking for the Lord to come. That keep his garments to lay
hold upon the Lord Jesus Christ, our righteousness, and we're
clothed before Him without shame, holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in His sight. Verse 16. He gathered them together. That is, God gathered all these
forces of evil together against the Lord and against His Christ.
He gathered them together in a place called in the Hebrew
tongue, Armageddon. Armageddon. Now, we're going
to come back and look at this next week. But I'll give you
this one note on Armageddon. Notice on the reference there,
it gives on the word Armageddon, Judges chapter 5 and Zechariah
chapter 12. And if you go back and read those,
there's called a valley of Megiddo. A valley of Megiddo. And God
gave the people of Israel a great victory in that particular valley. But this that he's talking about
here is not a valley. a little geographical valley
between mountains. A lot of people think that they're
going to gather all the armies of China and Russia and all these
different armies and they're going to march against Israel.
And they're all going to meet in this valley of Megiddo. And
there's going to be a great nuclear holocaust and a great nuclear
war. And we better stand with Israel. If we don't stand with Israel,
we're going to be all defeated. That is absolute nonsense. That's
all that is. This is talking about a spiritual
battle. A spiritual battle that's been
going on ever since God announced in Genesis 3 that the seed of
the woman would crush Satan's power. Armageddon has been going
on. This is a spiritual battle of
the forces of evil against God Almighty. That's Armageddon. And really, the word is made
up of two words. Notice, A-R or H-R, A-R. Mageddon, which means mountain
of assembly. Mountain of assembly. Some think
this is in reference to the mountain of Zion, God's church, God's
family. Here's what we see. We see all
the forces of evil marching against God's church on Mount Zion, and
who wins? We know who wins. Let me show
you who wins. I can make good on that. Turn
to Revelation 19. I'll show you who wins. Revelation
19. And I saw 19. Revelation 19,
19. So we're not looking for a...
Everybody's talking about Armageddon, aren't they? How many books have
been written about Armageddon? You go on Sermon Audio. I looked
the other day. If you type in Armageddon on
Sermon Audio, 844 sermons on Armageddon. And all of them are
talking about this battle God's going to dry up the river Euphrates,
and China and Russia are going to attack Israel. Now wait a
minute. Don't they have helicopters?
Jet airplanes? God doesn't need to dry up the
river. He's talking about spiritual
Babylon, God drying up their resources, their hope. So this
is talking about a spiritual warfare against God's people
on Mount Zion. But we win, because Christ wins. Revelation 19, 19. And I saw
the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered
together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and
against his army, those with him. And the beast was taken
with the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, which had
deceived them, which received, you remember the mark of the
beast? And their hand and their forehead? And them which worship
his image, they were both, both were cast alive into the lake
of burning with fire and brimstone. Who's going to win this spiritual
battle? The Lord Jesus Christ. And we
are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Tom Harding
About Tom Harding
Tom Harding is pastor of Zebulon Grace Church located at 6088 Zebulon Highway, Pikeville, Kentucky 41501. You may also contact him by telephone at (606) 631-9053, or e-mail taharding@mikrotec.com. The website address is www.henrytmahan.com.

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