Turn with me to Revelation chapter
16. Revelation chapter 16. I'd like to begin this evening
right where we left off this morning. I'd like to begin reading
in verse 10. I'll read through verse 15, and
Lord willing, we'll try to deal with those verses. 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, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their
pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. 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. And I saw three unclean spirits
like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth
of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, 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. Behold,
I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth,
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his
shame." I have entitled this message tonight A thief in the
night. As we look in verses 10 and 11, the Scripture says that we actually
are seeing the judgment of God poured out. One of the seven
last plagues that were spoken of in chapter 15. upon what is
called the seat or the throne or the power of the beast, the
heart of the problem, sin itself. Now, you remember in the desert
when there were five great offerings that were offered, sacrifices,
offerings. One of those offerings was called
a sin offering. One was called a trespass offering. Now, the sin offering that was
offered in the Old Testament under the Levitical priesthood,
that was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, our sin all of
God's elect. He was dying in type, showed
in type what He Himself would personally do at Calvary for
what we are, the sin offering. The trespass offering that was
offered was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ dying for what
we do. Well, back in verses 2 and 3
of the that we looked at this morning, shows the judgment of
God upon what we do, the manifestations of sin itself. Verses 10 and
11 right here reveal judgment for what men are, sinners, the
seat of rebellion. And it says, we'll look at that
10th verse again, "...the fifth angel poured out his vial upon
the seat of the beast." Now again, I cannot tell you this enough. I can't hear it myself enough.
Remember, it's so easy in our minds to create a picture. I
know how I am. I see things. I know differently
than most people. I look at things and I look at
somebody And I'm looking at the distance between the eyes and
where the nose lines up and the mouth and the crevices. I'm not
trying to inspect you. Just the way I look, I see things
like that. But we create things in our mind. As soon as I say, the angel poured
out his vial, we get a picture of a bowl, which is what the
Scripture reveals. But remember this, the pouring
out of the vials, is actually the preaching of the gospel.
It's the declaration of what God is doing in absolute judgment. So it says that the fifth angel
poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast. It's sin itself. Now, sin. We talk about this. We talk about its effects. sin
itself, to get down to the heart of it. And I'm certainly, I'm
not going, I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not going
to be able to relate to you sin. But I can tell you a few things
about it. I know that in Romans 6, 6, Paul in speaking to the church
at Rome relates sin as being That old man. That's what he
called it. Or the principle, or the evil,
or the inward power that actually produces the effects that are
outwardly seen. Now we see the manifestations
of sin. The trespasses. But there's something
that produces that. And it was called, Paul says,
That old man, this is what Romans 6, 6 says, knowing that our old
man is crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed
that henceforth we should not serve sin. Sin. Turn with me to Romans 7, 5.
I want you to look at something. Romans 7. Verse 5, Paul says, when we were in the
flesh, that is in a state of unbelief. When we were in. When we were in. Obviously, when
you look at the phrase, when we were, well, it obviously is
saying something that was in the past. When we were in the
flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in
our members to bring forth fruit unto death." When the motions,
the passions, the affections, or the corruptive desires, the
motions of sins which were by the law, not that the law produced
rebellion in us, but it means that those passions were actually
called up or called on the carpet. If you understand what I'm saying.
The law itself revealed it. The law showed what we are by
nature. And those, it says, they did
work. They were actively operating. The body of sin, it was almost
as if it's personified. The body, the old man. So the
Scripture says back in Revelation 16, Verse 10, the fifth angel
poured out his vial upon the seat, the throne, the heart of
the beast itself, where everything originates, upon sin, that old
man. Now, for the believer, Paul says
that we know this, our old man crucified with him. What about
those left to themselves? That old man is still there.
the throne, the reigning nature of sin itself. But Scripture
says that for us, because that body of sin, that old man crucified
with him, that that body might be destroyed, the power of it,
that henceforth we should not serve it, bow to it, worship
it. And the Scripture says, This
fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and
his kingdom was full of darkness. Full of darkness. The kingdom
of the beast, which was the beast that we looked upon, it was full
of darkness. Turn back to Exodus. I told you
this morning, we look at these judgments. Exodus chapter 10.
The judgments in Egypt. or is the actual, the parallel
of what we see judgment taking place today. Exodus 10, 21. Exodus 10, 21, And the Lord said
unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there
may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which
may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward heaven, and there was thick darkness, in all the
land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither
rose any from his place for three days, but all the children of
Israel had light in their dwellings." What a picture right now of the
glorious illumination that God has given His people. those left
to themselves in darkness and unbelief, sin found on them,
where that old man has not been crucified with Christ. I know
this, all those for whom Christ did not die, they serve the law
of sin. It reigns in them. That old man,
that seat is there, unchecked. raining, and they are in darkness. But for you that believe, just
like in the nation of Egypt, in Egypt there was darkness.
They didn't even move. They could feel it, the Scriptures
said. It was nothing but in Israel. They could see. We see. We see today in a land of darkness
all around us spiritually. God's people see. You that believe,
you see. You hear. You perceive Him. Darkness. Ignorance. This is back in Revelation 16.
It says, The angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the
beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, ignorance, and obscurity. It rained in the land. And it rains in those that believe
not. God Almighty has sent darkness. A darkness, the Scripture says,
it could be felt. And here is the judgment of God
in this life. As I said, remember these seven
last plagues. This is judgment now before final
judgment. The judgment of God upon all
those who have the mark of the beast written in their forehead.
Man, man, man. Written in their right hand.
I can do it. I can do it for God. I'm powerful, I can do this.
That's 666. And in the hand, the right hand
of man, they worship the beast. And the Scripture says that God's
judgment is upon them and spiritually they're in darkness. They can't
see. Jeremiah 13, 16 says, Give glory
to the Lord your God before He cause darkness. That is, withholds
light. And before your feet stumble
upon the dark mountains, and while you look for light, He
turns it into the shadow of death and makes it gross darkness."
Scripture says His kingdom, back in Revelation 16, the kingdom
was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain. They gnawed their tongues. They chewed. That's what the
word means. It does mean chew. They chewed
their tongues. The word tongues there is the
same word as we're studying in the book of Acts. It's languages.
Languages. They chewed, gnawed on their
languages because the Scripture says they gnawed their tongues
for pain. or because of. But now the word
pain there is one that would throw us if we didn't understand
exactly what the word. The word pain there actually
means their labor. The word means labor, their work,
their occupation. It's an occupation to them for
their pain, for their work. And here I believe we see the
effect of all that shall be found possessing the guilt or the seat
of sin upon them, all for whom Christ has not paid their debt."
Scripture says they gnaw their tongues. God will judge them
and they will, not only in this life. Men stand up proudly and
blasphemously, speak against the God of heaven. And they gnaw
on or chew on or handle on is what one of the words could be.
That word gnaw. They gnaw on the language that
they're speaking because of their labor, because of what they're
doing. And they will not only in this
life, if God leaves a man to himself, he'll gnaw on his language,
that blasphemous language, now and forever and in hell. He will chew on that language
and remember always before Almighty God how He has spoken. The Scripture
says there will be gnashing of teeth. That's what Matthew 8.12
says. The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Chewing
on that language. Chewing on their tongues. Spiritual
darkness in this life. and will result in eternal darkness. But right now, judgment in the
form, as I've said, of the seven last plagues, judgment before
judgment, I look and I realize even as
I'm preaching and thinking right now, my, but for the grace of
God that would have called me out of darkness and given unto
me a heart for His Son, that He would not leave me to myself."
All God would do to send a man to everlasting judgment is to
leave that man alone. Just leave him alone. Leave him
to himself. And that man will die in rebellion
against God. I had somebody ask me the other
day, They said, what if somebody truly desired to come to Christ? They wanted to come to Christ.
They wanted to. And they weren't one of God's
elect. And they wanted to. I said, they won't. What if they
did? They won't. Why? Because they don't have a heart
to. That's what the Scripture says. They will not come. They
will not come. The Scripture says that Almighty
God leave a man to himself, leave a woman to himself, and will
judge the very seat, the very heart of the judgment, I mean
of the sin that is within him, that which he had to judge in
his son. Being made sin, those left to
themselves will have that sin judged by Almighty God. They'll
gnaw their tongues for their labor, for their pain. But what
is and how do we know? What's the evidence of this gnawing
of their tongues? How is it gnawed? Well, just
like in verse 9, here in verse 11, they blasphemed the God of
heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they repented
not of their deeds. How do you know one that chews
on the language of disrespect and rebellion against Almighty
God, gnawing their tongues? How do you know? The Scripture
says they defame and speak against the God of heaven. They blaspheme
the God of heaven. Men are so blind by nature They
think that they have fair speech, as we looked at in Proverbs 7
of the woman. A picture of false religion that
flattereth with her tongues. With her, much fairer speech.
She enticed a man. False religion today stands up
and says, we hate the devil. We hate everything that's against
God. We love Jesus. Outwardly, they
say things that you'd listen to and you'd say, how do you know? How do you know
what's the difference? The bottom line, it comes down
to this. Who's God? Who is God? Is God Almighty, the Author and
Finisher of salvation, or is man the author and finisher of
salvation? That's what comes in. Remember
what we read last week. The Lord said, I chose you, and
because I chose you, they hated you. Because I chose you, because
I'm God, because I'm sovereign and I have the right to set my
affection on one and to pass by another one, and they hate
you for that. Men hate God because He's God. The Scripture reveals
that judgment upon the seat of the beast produces what's called
a gnawing of the tongue, a chewing on the language. And the way
you know it is they blaspheme the God of heaven. They speak
against God Almighty. But even though judgment is poured
out upon the wicked and they gnaw on their tongue, for their
pain or for their labors, for their occupation because of what
they are doing, having to eat or taste the bitterness of their
false language by blaspheming God. The Scripture says, just
like in verse 9, at the end of verse 11, they have repented
not of their deeds. They didn't do it. They didn't.
God Almighty leaves a man to himself and that man will not
repent. He will not change his mind about
how God justifies a sinner. He won't. He will not. A man
will lie on God. He'll gladly deceive others because
he himself is deceived. And unless the Lord reveals himself
to the deceived one, he'll never change. Not only will God's judgment
in the form of what's called the last plagues be seen now,
And we see it now. When you begin to realize what
you're looking at when you look around and you see what's going
on and you see unbelief, that's not by accident. He worketh all
things after the counsel of His own will. And when you see ignorance
and darkness, men are doing exactly what they want to do. God is
giving them exactly what they're wanting to do, and they're in
darkness, and they love it, and they're not going to blame God
for it. They will not receive the love of the truth. Remember
this, the only reason you believed is because He gave you a new
heart. Had He not given you a new heart, you that believe, you'd
do the same thing, and I would too. And we rail on God and blaspheme
God and say, I'm not going to have that. That's not God. That's not love to me. I don't
see love in that. That's exactly what we'd say.
And we'd gnaw on our tongues because of our labors, because
of our occupations. But leave a man to himself and
he's going to taste the judgment of Almighty God. Well, verse
12, and the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river
Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, and the way of
the kings of the east might be prepared." Now, I believe that
to the judgment of God in this life, God is preparing. He is in the process of preparing
all men, allowing them to think that they are victoriously defeating
the church. The false religions of this world
in their opposition to the Lord, the Lord's Bride is doing what
they want to do and God is setting them in perfect array for destruction. What we are about to see is the
preparation for Armageddon. We'll read that. That's over
here in the next, that's in verse 16. I stopped with verse 15,
but verse 16 says, He gathered them together into a place called
in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. Now we see a lot about that,
Armageddon. And I will say that, Lord willing,
it will be next week before we'll deal with Armageddon, but this
is what it's leading up to. The Scripture says in verse 12,
The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates."
Now, we looked at this back in chapter 9, so I won't go into
the depth of it, but I'll just say this to remind you. The great
river Euphrates was the symbolic boundary that separated the city
of destruction, Babylon itself, which we deal with in this book
as a picture of the great whore, the harlot, false religion. And
the Euphrates River was that river that separated the land
of Canaan and Babylon, the great plain of Babylon. Well, back
in chapter 9, when we saw the river Euphrates, there was a
trumpet that was blown concerning the great river Euphrates, a
warning. Well, the warning wasn't heeded.
And if God leaves a man to himself, he never is. And now we are going
to see the judgment of God upon it. Because of Satan's hatred
for God and his people, the Lord Himself is going to allow Satan
to come up against God's elect, attempting to destroy the bride,
and in so doing, is going to accomplish two things. He's going
to bring swift destruction upon Himself and the wicked of this
world. That's the first thing that I
can tell you is going to happen. And secondly, He's going to accomplish
God's will and purpose toward God's people by using man's hatred
to chasten the elect and to wean their heart away from this world
and cause them to cast themselves upon the mercy of Almighty God.
Think about how often. when we find ourselves in dire
straits. And we do. I had something that
came up today that just... And I, thankfully, would be reminded,
casting all your care upon Him. Why? Because He cares for you. Ask Him. Ask Him. And the only
thing I could do is say, Lord, I know this. I know that You're
going to work all things after the counsel of Your own will,
so I know this. I know that whatever happens, God's going to bring
it about. I know that. Lord, would You
give me a heart to be reminded of that? Cause my heart that
You've given me to be reminded of that. So I realize this. The Lord is going to take the
bringing end of this Armageddon. And it's going to be actually
God's will accomplished in the destruction of all rebellion
and the chastening of His people because He loves them. And they'll
cast their selves upon Him and He'll save them. Now Armageddon,
though it's portrayed as a huge atomic battle, is not that at
all. Don't be looking. I don't care
what All these guys with all the charts on all the television
programs, I don't care. I don't care. I just don't care. Finally, I think I got Brother
Scott to that point. I just don't care. That's not the way the Scripture
reveals that things are going to be. Armageddon is actually
the great and final defeat of Satan by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, you know that's so. You know that so. But events
have been leading to this great climactic event. And in these verses that we are
going to consider, we are shown some of what is taking place
as this event hastens. The Scripture says in that latter
part of the twelfth verse, when the 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."
Now, the kings of the east, you probably have it in your margin,
but turn to Isaiah 41. Isaiah 41, verses 1 and 2, it
says, "...keep silence before me, O islands, and let the people
renew their strength. Let them come near. Let them
speak. Let us come near together to
judgment, who raised up the righteous man, that is, the Lord Jesus
Christ from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations
before him, and made him rule over kings. He gave them as the
dust to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow." Now, these
kings of the east, who are they? They are all that stand in rebellion
against God. All the kingdoms, everybody that
stands in rebellion against Almighty God, they are going to have to
deal with the righteous man from the east. That is who they are.
And verse 13 relates the way that these kings of the east
shall ultimately appear before Armageddon. So here is what I
am saying. Are we going to have any idea
who these people are? Yes, we are. Yes, we are. He
that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Let me tell you what the
Scripture says. These Scriptures are going to
summarize who they all are, summarized under these three right here. Verse 13, these kings of the
east, the enemies of God manifested what's called by actually three
unclean spirits. They're in verse 13. I saw three
unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon,
out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false
prophet. Now, the kings of the east, the enemies of God, they're
manifested in the scriptures right here as three unclean spirit,
like, or as the scripture would say, has the character of, like
frogs. The word frog there is actually
the word that we would best describe as a fraud, a fraud. It's not a play on words. The
word that we use for a doctor or someone that is trying to
impersonate a true doctor, say a doctor, somebody would say
he's a quack. That is the word quack. A fraud, a fake, a charlatan. That's what it is. That word
frog right there is actually, look at the way it says, I saw
three unclean spirits Like frogs. They weren't frogs. It was like
a frog. It was something that was descriptive
of these three unclean spirits. Crooked. Not straight. Not true. Now, knowing that these frogs,
they were like frogs, and the word frogs there means a frog
or a quack or a charlatan, a shyster, an impersonator, somebody that's
trying to appear to be something. Turn back now to Exodus 8 and
that judgment. I want to look at this carefully
because it's important. We're dealing with this right
now in where we live. Exodus 8, verse 1, And the Lord
spake unto Moses, going to Pharaoh, and saying to him, Thus saith
the Lord God, Let my people go, that they may serve me, if thou
refuse to let them go. Behold, I will smite all thy
borders with frogs." Now, remembering what we just said the symbolic
significance of the frogs were. Frauds, lies, charlatans. You let my people go or I'm going
to send darkness, lies. God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe, let my people go or I'm going to
send frogs. And the river. where you drink
what you think is your refreshment, shall bring forth frogs abundantly,
which shall go up and come into thine house and into thy bedchamber,
into thy bed, into the house of thy servants, upon thy people,
in thine ovens, in thy knees." Everything you eat, everything
you drink, everything you think is going to give you life is
going to be frogs, flies. I will send you Let my people
go, and the frogs shall come up, verse 4, both on thee, upon
thy people, upon all thy servants. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying to Aaron, Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over
the streams, over the rivers, over the ponds, and cause frogs
to come up into the land of Egypt. And Aaron stretched out his hand
over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered
the land of Egypt, and the magicians did so with their enchantments
and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. These spirits, what God is setting
forth to us in Revelation 16, this great day of Armageddon
as it's coming to a head, let me tell you what the Scripture
says you can be looking for, to know who Almighty God has,
according to the pouring out by the sixth angel in verse 12,
the vial upon the great river Euphrates that separated, that
was the boundary that kept really Babylon from coming in to the
land of Canaan. and dried up the water, that
the way of the kings of the east might be prepared that God Almighty
would allow them to come in to the great day of Armageddon.
God is setting them up, letting them do exactly what they want
to do. And John says, I saw, in verse 13, three unclean spirits
like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the mouth
of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet. We know
that these spirits, which are like frogs, come out. of the mouth of these three,
the dragon, the beast, the false prophet. So we realize that what
these frogs represent is lies, lies, frauds. And the Scripture
says back in Egypt, the magicians did so with their enchantments,
their magic spells. How are these actually revealed
in this day? Look at verse 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. These are the lying wonders. Whenever the Lord sent His apostles
into this world, to preach the Gospel the way that God confirmed
that they were of Him was with signs and wonders. But you know
the thing that accompanied those signs and wonders? The Gospel. The message that they preached
was confirmed by the miracles and signs and wonders. The Egyptians
had magicians that emulated what they did, what Aaron And Moses
did by the power of Almighty God. But they didn't have the
message. They weren't the servants of
God. They were magicians, tricksters, liars. They produced. So the
workings of these pretended miracles and lying wonders is the masterminded
attempt of Satan to deceive God's elect. That's what he's trying
to do. You remember when we said this?
Water that came out of the dragon's mouth and he was going to try
to drown the woman. But the Lord, the Scripture says,
but the world opened up her mouth and received the water that came
out of the mouth of the dragon and helped the woman. Almighty
God is keeping her, protecting her. These false miracles that
we see that are prevalent today, the Lord is saying, They're liars. They don't preach the gospel.
The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And all of these
people, I don't care if it's the miracle water that you get
or the prayer cloths that you get or the faith seeds or seed
faiths. I don't care. Listen to what
they're saying. Paul says, if they don't preach
the gospel that we're preaching to you, let them be accursed.
They're liars, they're hucksters, they're deceivers. And you want
to know how it's going to all be brought up to a head? Miracles. The Scripture says,
For there, Matthew 24, 24, shall arise false Christs and false
prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that
if it were possible, it's not, but if it were possible that
they would deceive, even the very elect. They'll look at that
and they'll say, that looks real to me. But listen to what they're
saying. If you don't hear the gospel,
it's not of God. He has not sent that man. It's
the gospel. It's not the miracles. It's not
that they don't appear to be real. But the reason that the
elect are not deceived is because the true sound of the shepherd's
voice is not heard. My sheep hear my voice and they
follow me." He said, ìA pretender, a stranger, theyíre not going
to follow.î These are the forces of this world, satanic, political,
religious evil, in Godís timing brought to this appointed hour.
And our Lord reminds us of the certainty of his second return
and final victory. I'll just read this verse, verse
15, and we're going to stop. Our time is up. Back there as
he's gathering up, gathering them together, the spirits of
devils working miracles, they go forth, lining themselves up. And then the Lord says, Behold,
you that believe, listen, I come as a thief in a day that you
think not. Blessed is he that watcheth.
and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his
shame." God Almighty is bringing all of this to head. He is going
to honor Himself. He is going to avenge His people.
He is going to avenge the honor of His name. He is going to bring
all these things and the chastisement of His people because He loves
them, brings them to Himself. Blessed are... Who are these? The question is, who are these
whose robes have been washed white in the blood of the Lamb? These are they that came out
of great tribulation. These are they that God sealed.
These are they that God's kept. These are they that God's protected
and everlastingly loved. That's who they are. And all
those that Almighty God has left to themselves, they're going
to do one thing. They're going to rebel against
Almighty God. And the Scripture says, as we
looked at this morning, Lord, You're right. They're worthy.
They're worthy. They're worthy. But unto us that
believe, what do we say? Lord, You're worthy to receive
all honor and glory and praise. You redeemed us. You bought us. Lord, when we weren't looking
for You, You came for us in Your infinite mercy in grace and saved
us. Thanks be unto Him who is worthy
of all of our praise.