Good evening everyone. Good evening
everyone. I hope you had a good day today.
I'm not sure if you got to the animal park, but when the sun
came out I was very excited. One of the wonderful things about
apps that we're seeing is declarations going out into the world. And
with all the talk and thoughts about Revelation, I can't help
but love that the Church and our Saviour stand united and
call, and call out into the wilderness for the Lord's people to be revealed.
And it's amazing to be part of that. And we have much to be
thankful here in Australia and the way the Lord's blessed us
over these 10 years. And I pray that we just be very
thankful. So let's just say thank you now.
Heavenly Father, as you work in our lives, we see the frailties
of who we really are in the flesh. And those strengths that we rely
on just fade away, Heavenly Father. And I thank you for that. I thank
you for that reality that all the things that are set against
us just proof the wonders of your grace, Heavenly Father.
And I pray that you would just continue to use this little church
Continue to keep us faithful. Continue to always, Heavenly
Father, be present in our services and grow us and strengthen us
and refresh our souls in the wonders of your grace, in the
finished, perfect work of your dear Son. Father, we just call
that you would work in our hearts and in our lives that we might
be more and more aware of the wonders of your grace. I pray
that you send your Spirit to us, Heavenly Father, and as you
reveal the wonders of that grace and the intricacies of the beauty
of the work of Christ, that we would be in awe and that we would
be humbled and that we would continue to be reminded, Heavenly
Father, that there is only one secure place, and that's in you. Thank you for your blessing upon
us. I pray for Alan, that you'd strengthen him in the pulpit
tonight, and again, that you would just cause your gospel
to be declared and to be received. And I thank you for the mercies
of your grace. For those that can't be here, those that are
on our hearts, those we witness to, those we love so much, please
work mightily in their lives, Heavenly Father, and give us
opportunity with them. We thank you again for your amazing
grace in your dear son. We pray by the power of your
Holy Spirit. Amen. I think we're going to
start with Psalm 26. ? Whose broad stripes and bright
stars ? ? Through the perilous fight ? ? O'er the ramparts we
watched were so gallantly streaming ? The messenger descends on the
cross of Calvary, Christ's Redeemer sets free. In the time which
God has set, the Spirit made for His slave to regenerate. We were born for God's own praise. Now your birth has been fulfilled. Say the glory to your will. Sing this song of joyful praise. Hear our praise to Christ our
Lord. Well, it's good to be with you
again. It's quite a marathon, but it's
a great delight and it's such a privilege to have such lovely
fellowship. We, you know, the conversations
with Angus and Lisa and the rest of you, it really is a delight
to us to be here. We're feeling very much at home
and that's good. Don't worry, we're not feeling
so much at home that we're not going to go home, but... It's a delight
to be with you and to have this opportunity because it is quite
a marathon to try and summarize the book of Revelation in I reckon
what is now going to be by the time we've finished Sunday the
7th 10 sessions if we count the twos on the Sundays it's probably
going to be 10 but with the time that is left There isn't time
to do everything. I've had to make a decision that
some things have got to be missed out, I'm afraid, because I want
to keep Sunday the 7th to be looking in chapters 21 and 22. And then tomorrow, I want to
look at chapter 17 and chapter 20. So of necessity, I'll very,
very quickly in a sentence, when we get to them, say something
about them. But tonight the passage is chapters 15 and 16. 15 and 16, which is the fifth
revelation of the seven of the book of Revelation. Remember
what the purpose is always. The purpose is to show God's
servants the things that must happen. shortly, the things that
must happen as the kingdom of Satan, which is this world, is
replaced, is defeated, is subdued as Christ's kingdom, the kingdom
of God, is that which is triumphant and is victorious in the end.
And it's the whole story, the opening of the seals and the
blowing of the trumpets and all of these things that we've seen
in the different visions, the different perspectives on how
God accomplishes that purpose. So here we have in chapters 15
and 16 a new perspective on the history of the world. particularly
towards the end, increased detail, increased intensity of many of
the same sorts of judgments that we've already seen in earlier
visions. Because where we're coming to,
at the end of chapter 16, is the end of this space-time creation. God states it clearly, that's
the end of space-time creation. Remember the purpose then. It's
to comfort God's people. It's to give us assurance that
all things are in his control. The world around that so often
looks like it's careering along without any thought for God or
his people or the purposes of God is entirely under the control
of God. He is in control. We have no
need to fear, as he says so often. Fear not, little flock. Don't
be afraid in this world. Don't be unsure. You're on your
own. You've come out of false religion.
I'm going to show you what false religion is like. We'll look
at that tomorrow morning. But it's assurance that we're
in the plan and purposes of God, to accomplish His purpose, to
accomplish His purpose of His glorious eternal kingdom of righteousness
and peace. It's to give us patience. When's something going to happen?
Don't be worried. It's going to happen. It'll happen
when God brings it to pass. and we can just rest in that,
we can just rest in the knowledge that all things are in his hands.
And the other purpose, the other purpose is to give a warning,
a clear warning to anyone who has ears to hear, and of course
that's the gift of God to give ears to hear, that in this world
it's coming to an end and the judgment of God is going to fall
because God in his character cannot tolerate sin and God must
punish sin and the end is coming and any Any sin, all sin, must
be punished. It's either punished in the Lord
Jesus Christ on behalf of His people, or it's punished in the
people themselves. And if you are outside of Christ,
here is the warning. Heed the warning of these verses,
of these chapters, that show us clearly, as it was in the
days of Noah, the end is coming, the judgment is going to fall.
So this vision, this fifth vision, is given to show us more of what
must shortly come to pass as God gains the final victory over
Satan and over his kingdom of Antichrist. As he answers his
people's prayer, what is his people's prayer? Lord, teach
us to pray. This is how to pray. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. This is the prayer of God's people.
Not that, oh, let's all get on nicely together and this world
go on forever. No, God's kingdom to come. It's
a kingdom of perfect peace and righteousness with no sin, with
none of the effects of sin. Is that not what we long for?
That's the prospect that's held out before us. Now, in summary
then, in these two chapters, we have the seven vials. You
know there were seven seals on the sealed book? The seventh
one of them opened as seven trumpets of judgment, and the seventh
one of them, which is in chapter 11, opens as seven vials, here
in chapter 16. And here we see the removal of
God's people from this world, and we see the church in glory. So first of all then, and I'm
not going to take it in the order which it appears in the text,
but I'm going to take it, first of all, looking at the seven
vials of God's judgment poured out. And what do I mean by vials? Vessels, little vessels, little
pots, which have got symbolically the judgments of God in them,
and they're given to angels to pour them out, to inflict the
final judgment of God on the sin of the world. We had the
seven seals with the seven-sealed book that we saw in chapter 5
and verse 1 in the second vision. And those seals were opened by
the one alone who is qualified to open them, which is the Lord
Jesus Christ. the lion of the tribe of Judah in the capacity
of a lamb as it had been slain. Because in that capacity and
that capacity alone, he alone is qualified to satisfy the justice
of God for the sins of his people. So his kingdom will be populated
by people, though sinners, yet saved by grace. People whose
sins in this space-time creation would condemn them to hell, but
because He has come as their substitute, and stood in their
place, and borne their sins in His body on the tree, on the
curse of tree, He has borne the curse for them, and therefore
has redeemed His people from the curse of the law. So then,
The seven trumpets come after the seventh seal is opened, that
opens as seven trumpets, and then the seventh trumpet opens
as seven vials of wrath. You can see it in Revelation
11 and verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded.
And there were great voices in heaven saying, the kingdom of
this world has become the king... I know I'm reading it differently
to how it is in the King James, but I think that's how it is
in the original. It's not the kingdoms, it's the kingdom. This world,
this world unity of kingdoms, this kingdom of the world has
become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall
reign forever and ever. And the details are not given
just that it's going to happen, but the details come in chapter
16 of Revelation, as the vials are poured out. It unfolds as
seven vials of wrath. The vials of wrath. Here we are, where is it? verse 7 of chapter 15, and one
of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden
vials full of the wrath of God who liveth for ever and ever.
What's this about? Vials full of the wrath of God. Well, the wrath of God is the
complete answer to the sin of the world. It's God's holiness
in contrast to sin. This is what it is, the vials
of the wrath of God is God's holiness in contrast to the sin
that must be punished, the sin whose price must be paid to the
law of God, for it's offended the law of God. And these vials
spell the final end of Satan's kingdom. Now, throughout the
visions, because they're different perspectives, and with intensity
increasing towards the end, we've seen it already. We've seen it
ever since we first looked at the second vision, and implications
of it in the letters to the churches in the first vision, if you actually
go back there, and see what Christ is saying to his people about
how the end will come for them and the state that they will
be in in glory with him. But in the second vision, in
chapter 6 and verse 12, there you see the end, in a very high-level
summary, that the end of this creation is going to come. You
know, these things look so permanent, don't they? We look on the things
that are temporal of this time as if they're so solid and permanent
because they interact with our senses. We can touch them, feel
them, see them. But Paul tells us that it's not
these things that are really the abiding things, it's the
things which are unseen. The things of the Spirit of God
are truly the eternal, permanent things. These things are passing.
God is going to roll this creation up as a scroll. This is going
to be taken away, this that seems so solid, this that seems where
all your worldly hopes are. This is why, to believers, God
says, seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.
All these other things that you need for now, for this life,
will be added to you. He's a God who cares for us.
He causes all things to work together for good in this life
and in that to come, for those who are called according to His
purpose, those who love God, who are called according to His
purpose. Then, when the sixth seal is
opened, we see a glimpse of the end as well. We hear of earthquakes,
of cosmic cataclysm. We see fleeing from wrath in
chapter 11 and verse 15. We've just seen it, that seventh
trumpet sounds, and we hear about final victory, and lightnings,
and voices, and thunderings, and earthquake, and great hell.
It's speaking of this solid creation being ended by God. In chapter
14, in the end of chapter 14, we see the final harvest. We've
had the wheat harvest, where the people of God are taken out
of this world immediately before the grape harvest. I'm talking
symbolism. the winepress of God's wrath,
the final punishment on the sin of the world. We've seen that
picture. As we go along, these are all different views of the
same history and of the same end, but with increasing detail,
with a different perspective, and showing the intensity increasing
as we get towards the end itself. The winepress of God's wrath
and the blood of 1600 furlongs long to the horse bridle's depth.
It's talking of total destruction of those who worship the beast
and his image. Who worships the beast and his
image? I'll tell you simply, it's just
like it says, those whose names are not written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. If you are not in the Lamb's
Book of Life, if you are not worshipping and following the
Lord Jesus Christ, if you are not clearly a believer in him
and the gospel of his grace, then by definition you are one
of those who, whether you like it or not, whether actively or
passively you are worshipping the beast and his image, and
therefore you are under the wrath of God, you are under the condemnation
of God. So then come to chapters 15 and
16, where we see the end in greater detail, described by these seven
vials of wrath and retribution for sin. Because God must punish
sin. The soul that sins, it shall
die. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. The wrath of God is against all
sin and rebellion against Him. It's fundamentally opposed to
His character. Now we'll see further detail
later in chapter 17 to 19, leading up to the new heaven and the
new earth and the new Jerusalem and its glories and its bliss,
but for now we see great detail of the actual end being brought
about, and in chapter 15 and verse 1, we see a great and marvellous
sign. I saw another sign in heaven,
great and marvellous, seven angels having the seven last plates,
for in them is filled up the wrath of God, the payment of
God, for the sin of the world. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus the Lord. Here
we see, then, we have this great and marvellous sign, and that
reminds me of Psalm 118 and other places in the Scripture. Jesus
himself quoted it. The stone which the builders
refused is become the headstone of the corner. This is the Lord's
doing. It is marvellous in our eyes.
It's the work of Christ. The chief cornerstone is the
one that the religious world rejected, but he's become the
head cornerstone, the one on which the entire foundation of
the spiritual temple of God is built. The church of God is built
on it. The dwelling place of God with
his people is built on our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the Lord's
doing. and it is marvellous in our eyes.
And great and marvellous, this sign, is because it's the culmination
of all that Christ has accomplished. It's the culmination of it. It's
the triumph of all that our Lord Jesus Christ is. God become man,
a body prepared, that in that body he might do that which the
law required of his people, that in that body he might bear his
sin, as a man he might bear sin, and that as a man he might shed
real human blood for the sins of real human people, his people.
It's all that he is, and all that he has accomplished, all
that he's accomplished on the cross, in his death, in the shedding
of his blood, in bearing that sin of his people. So in verse
1, we see preparations for the coming of Christ, the coming
of Christ in final glory. I saw another sign in heaven,
great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues,
for in them is filled up the wrath of God. Christ is coming
again to end this world. And here we have these beings,
these glorious beings, these angels, holding the balancing
judgments, the wrath of God, to destroy all sin and rebellion
from this created order. They're ready to go. You know,
the starting gun of the end is just about to be fired. There
they are, ready to go. They've got the wrath of God
in these vials. Now for now, let's just skip
verses 2-4 and go down to verse 5. We'll come back to 2-4 later
on, at the end. They're coming out of the heavenly
abode of God, these angels. After that I looked, it says,
and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in
heaven was opened. And the seven angels came out
of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and
white linen, speaking of their holiness, and having their breasts
girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave
unto the seven angels seven golden vials, full of the wrath of God,
who liveth for ever and ever. One of the four beasts, I think
that is speaking of creation. This is the creation which Paul
writes to the Romans. He's groaning in travail and
pain. He wants this sin, what it has
become, In the fall, it has become the kingdom of Satan, and it
groans and travails. It wants that to be finished.
It wants it to be finished. So it's one of the four beasts
representing creation who gives to the seven angels seven golden
vials full of the wrath of God, which is going to complete the
final destruction of this creation, the final judgment of it. And
verse 8, And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of
God and from his power. And no man was able to enter
into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were
fulfilled. It's like Moses in Exodus chapter
40, speaking of the tabernacle and the glory of it. In verses
34 and 35 there, It's the glory of God there, and it says that
no man was able to enter that until justice had been seen to
be satisfied, and so it is here. This justice of God's punishment
of sin must be seen to be satisfied, it must be completed. So then,
moving into chapter 16, in verse 1, I heard a great voice out
of the temple saying to the seven angels, this is God giving them
the command, go your ways and pour out the vials of wrath of
God upon the earth. The wrath of God, the retribution
for sin is to be poured out. And the first went, we'll just
read through them, the first went and poured out his vial
upon the earth. We've already seen before in
the trumpets and in the seals that it is this literal physical
creation which is affected, that is subject to the judgment of
God. God comes and pours out a vial upon the earth. And there
fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark
of the beast." Do you remember that from chapter 13? They had
a mark. There was the beast out of the
sea, there was the beast out of the land. And this is the
kingdom of Antichrist. And all the people of the world
worshipped the beast. They were fully in favor of it.
What is the beast? It's this world consensus of
unity. It isn't actually a physical
beast that looks like a giant dinosaur. That's symbolism. What
it is, is this world of the consensus of unity without the justice
of God in the blood of Christ. He pours out his vial of the
wrath of God upon the earth, and this noisome and grievous
mark comes on those which had the mark of the beast. Do you
remember towards the end of chapter 13, all the people that worshipped
the beast, they had a mark on them. Not a literal, physical
mark, but they had the stamp of ownership and allegiance to
that kingdom of Satan, which is the kingdom of this world
without Christ and without His justice. And it sounds like a
pretty grievous thing that comes upon them. Things are going to
get unpleasant, shall I say, in the justice of God to pay
for sin. The vial is poured out and its
effects are serious. Verse 3, the second angel poured
out his vial upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead
man, and every living soul died in the sea. Do you remember earlier
we heard about the trumpet blowing and things affecting the sea,
and it's like, well, the sea is a great source of food, and
it's a means of trade, and it was badly affected. This sounds
like it's absolutely finished. It's finished, it's turned to
blood, whatever it means, I don't know, but the blood of a dead
man. It is finished. This creation with its sea and
all of its resources is finished. And the third angel, verse 4,
poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters,
and they became blood, the fresh water, that which we need to
interact with, that which we need to imbibe to survive as
people, is going to end. And I heard the angel of the
waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord. Why? Because these judgments,
these vials, are just. These judgments are just. God will be vindicated in this.
When people see the justice of God and the righteousness and
holiness of God for what it really is, He will be vindicated. This
is not extreme. This is what sin deserves in
the judgment of God. For they have shed blood, they
have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given
them blood to drink. For they are worthy, they deserve
it, is what that means at the end of verse 6. These vials of
God are poured out on the earth, on the sea, on fresh water. We then go on and we see, I heard
another, verse 7, out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God
Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth
angel poured out his vial upon the sun. I don't think it's talking
about spiritual things, it's talking about reality, this creation,
that great big star that shines on us. The power was given unto
him to scorch men with fire, and men were scorched with great
heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over
these plagues. But they still repented not.
nor did they give God the glory. Do you see it's all affecting
creation on the sun, the sun, the real sun. So this world and
the sun, astronomical bodies, the judgment of God to finish
this creation, clear from this chapter, is poured out literally
on this creation. You know we have various lobbies,
green lobbies and others, all pointing out the way in which
aspects of the Earth are becoming less able to support life in
all sorts of ways. They talk about pollution, there's
this great concern about man-made global warming and sea level
rising and so on and so forth. There's no end of it, and although
it's on a very small scale as we see it so far, you can see
hints that what is Being described here is the culmination of that
when it's taken to its ultimate extent. God is gradually, through
the seals and the trumpets and then the vials, God is gradually
making this world less able to support comfortable life. Verse
10. The fifth angel poured out his
vial upon the seat of the beast, this worldwide kingdom, this
consensus of unity without Christ. He poured out his vial upon the
seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they
gnawed their tongues for pain. They gnawed their tongues for
pain. It was getting really hard. to live in it. Do you know how
the people in chapter 13 all worshipped Antichrist? They worshipped the beast, they
were enthralled by the wonders of the beast from the earth.
They worshipped the beast, the Antichrist of God in this world.
But now, the fifth vial of God is to make that beast not seem
so attractive. His seat is darkened, his kingdom
is full of darkness, so much so that for the people in it,
they gnawed their tongues for pain. And how did they react
to God? Verse 11, they blasphemed the
God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. But they
still didn't repent, not of their deeds. It's grace that brings
repentance. They still didn't repent. Then
the sixth angel comes. and pours 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." As we look
at these vials, there is nothing new compared with the seals of
the second vision and the trumpets of the third vision. They're certainly not sequential.
It's not that one vision finishes and then the next one starts.
In some ways, it's all already started. But these vials clearly
speak of finality. This really is the end. It's
the end of God's judgments, the end of his retribution for sin
in this space-time creation. The seals, you might remember,
spoke of harm to a quarter of humanity. The trumpets spoke
of harm to a third. Remember your fractions? A third's
bigger than a quarter. It's getting worse. It's increasing. But the seals speak of complete
harm, complete destruction. Those vials of 1 to 4 speak of
the destruction of this world as a place to support life, just
like the first four trumpets did. The kingdom of Antichrist
that we saw in chapter 13 has the full support of everyone
apart from Christ's people. It tells us that. Not those whose
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The Kingdom of Antichrist and
the people in it, they love its material comforts. its political
cooperation, its economic prosperity, the wonders of its science and
technology, the brilliance of its medicine. But these four
vials at the end completely destroy these things by destroying the
world's capacity to support life. So then, the fifth vial, as we've
just seen, darkens the rule of Antichrist. People no longer
worship him. Because why? I think because
the first four vials have gradually undermined his dominion, his
attractiveness in the eyes of the world. And then in verse
12 we have this sixth angel pouring out his vial upon the great river
Euphrates, and the water thereof was dried up, that the ways of
the kings of the east might be prepared. Now what is this talking
about? In the Old Testament, when the
land of Israel that was given to Abraham and his descendants,
and they came out of Egypt from the captivity to go and inhabit
the land that the Lord had given them, was from the Great Sea,
the Mediterranean Sea, the borders of it were from the Great Sea
and Sinai in the south, and over in the east it was the river
Euphrates, was the nominal border, the nominal eastern border. that
kept the world of those that had some knowledge of God. You
know, what advantage, asks Romans, what advantage is there in being
a Jew? Much every way, says Paul. Because why? Because to them
were given the oracles of God, the scriptures, the truth of
God. Other peoples were not given it. They didn't know it. It was
there in that land that the influence of God and the truth of God had
swayed. But the river Euphrates formed
the eastern border of it, the eastern boundary, and separated
the great mass of peoples beyond it that had never had any cultural
influence of the white horse riding forth in the first seal
of the Seven Sealed Book. It had never had any of that
influence. It was outside of what we might
call Christendom. We know Christendom is full of
error, and we know that in truth we see, as this unfolds, that
Christendom is truly anti-Christendom, in terms of the true Gospel.
Nevertheless, it had some knowledge of the things of God. But the
borders beyond separated from people that had no knowledge
of that. The only knowledge they had was
the knowledge they had from creation, that tells you that there is
a God in heaven who has made all things. But in the sixth
vial, that separation is taken away. In the sixth vial, the
borders are opened for a complete intermingling, or as it is here,
for the kings of the East to come. that the way might be prepared
for the kings of the east. And in verse 30, that's the nations
that are called in scripture Gog and Magog. You read about
them in Ezekiel 38 and 39, I think it is. Great battles between
Israel and the peoples of Gog and Magog. Ezekiel 38 and 39,
almost very closely matches these verses and what Revelation says
about the peoples of Gog and Magog. Now, of course, don't
ever lose sight of the fact that the peoples of Gog and Magog
are also counted amongst that innumerable multitude, that no
man can number, that is in heaven. Because the people of God, God
so loved the world, he drew his people from throughout the world.
So from the peoples of God and Magog come those who by sovereign
grace are brought to know the truth of the gospel of grace.
But in terms of the purposes of God, in the finishing of this
space-time creation, it's as if The old barriers, the old
borders of the world are taken away and there's this complete
mingling, there's this complete mixing up of that which never
had any Judeo-Christian influence with that which was the nominal
Christendom people of God. And it comes. with these unclean spirits. Look
at verse 13. I saw three unclean spirits,
like frogs, come out of the mouth of the dragon. And, you know,
to most people, the idea of a frog is not a nice thing. It's a sort
of a slimy thing that jumps erratically. And we have loads of frogs in
our pond at home. Of course, it's spring back there,
and our pond, as we left it, was absolutely full of frog spawn.
But it's not a nice prospect to pick up the frog, it's not
an appealing thing. I think that's why the terminology
is used here. But these 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. Three frogs from the
dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. Does that not sound
like a trinity? It's the infernal trinity. It's
Satan's trinity. He's always trying to mimic God,
but with his falsehood and without the justice of Christ and the
blood of Christ. And what are these frogs doing?
They're doing anti-Christ missionary work, to try to unite all the
nations together, but in the process they only ferment conflict
between them. I saw them come out of the mouth
of those three, 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. I wonder if these are, you know,
when we're warned about false Christs and false prophets coming
and performing miracles and wonders and doing all these sorts of
things that would deceive. Who would they deceive? Everybody.
Even the elect, if that were possible. But it isn't possible. God's people are not deceived.
God's people will not be deceived. These frogs go out. a final attempt by Satan and
his infernal trinity to send out falsehood into this world,
to get them to work miracles and to be impressed with them.
But in the process it only ferments global conflict. Now, skip verse
15 just for a moment, we'll come back to it shortly, and go over
to verse 16. And he gathered them together,
this is the devil, his infernal trinity, he gathered them together
into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, the Battle
of Armageddon. It's well known, of course, the
Battle of Armageddon. What's it about? Well, Again,
like all of the book, it's symbolical. It's echoing, if you like, Mount
Megiddo, near the valley of Jezreel, which was the great battlefield
of Israel and the defeat of God's enemies. on occasions. In Judges
5, verse 19, we read of Deborah and Barak having a victory there
at Megiddo. It's symbolical of the people
of God having a victory. In Ezekiel 38 and 39, there again
we read about this great battle between Israel and the peoples
of Gog and Magog. The heathen nations beyond Euphrates
fighting with the people, the nominal people of God. Remember,
the nominal people of God, it was only according to Revelation
11, the center of the temple, the core of the temple that was
the true people of God. That which looked like it on
the outside really wasn't. That which looked like it on
the outside was representative of Christendom. which is in truth
anti-Christendom. But this is the final destruction,
the battle of Armageddon is this final destruction of this space-time
creation, as the stronghold of Satan and Antichrist is destroyed. You see in verse 17, the seventh
angel poured out his vial. This is the seventh vial being
poured out into the air. And there came a great voice
out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done. It is done. Do you know, that
is just as Christ said on the cross of Calvary. when he there
had borne the sins of his people, to pay the sin debt of his people,
and he cried there before he gave up the ghost, it is finished,
it is done. The sin is paid for. The sin
was paid for in the Lord Jesus Christ for his people. Here,
this is the final judgment of God falling on this kingdom of
Antichrist, It is done, it's the voice that comes from heaven.
Justice is satisfied, it is finished, as on the cross when Christ paid
the sin debt of his people, it was finished. Here, at the battle
of Armageddon, at the end of all things, the voice says, that's
it, the sin is paid for, the final judgment has fallen. And
it goes on in detail, there were voices and thunders and lightnings,
And there was a great earthquake such as was not since men were
upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And
the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of
the nations fell. And great Babylon came into remembrance
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness
of his wrath. and every island fled away, and
the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great
hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent.
That's a lot. I'm told it's about 50 kilograms. It's like a big, heavy double
bag of cement. Heavy. And men blasphemed God
because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof
was exceeding great. This is the final judgment, the
final end of the kingdom of Satan. This is the end of history, as
we have it here. There's more detail, there's
more perspective to come, but this is the end of history. A
great earthquake, a complete shake-up of the earth. pictures
of real physical destruction. It's exactly what we're told
in other parts of the scripture. It's exactly what the Lord Jesus
Christ told his disciples in Matthew 24 about the end. This
physical creation is coming to an end. Could anything Could
any warning be any clearer than it is here? We don't need to
speculate. You know, people get into the
details and try to speculate about what every detail could
be, and they try to form a huge great jigsaw puzzle that has
every piece fitting perfectly into their model of how we should
understand things. I don't think we need to do that.
We don't need to speculate about the details and argue with one
another about, well, what does it mean when it says every island
fled away? It means the end of this creation
is coming under the judgment of God. Don't wait for any more
proof that it's true, as the vials only stir up blasphemy. This is the message to the world
around. If you're hearing the world around, don't wait for
any more proof that this is truth. The vials, when they come, they
don't bring men to repentance, they bring men to blaspheme God. They do not repent. So there
we have a vivid picture of the finality of this creation. But
let's think about Christ and his people as we finish this. In verse 15 of chapter 16, we
have a little reminder from the Lord to his people. Verse 15,
he says, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. You see, he's reminding his people,
he's coming again. He's coming, as a thief, unexpectedly. He's coming unexpectedly, when
the world doesn't expect. He's coming as a thief. The thief
doesn't advertise to you that he's going to rob your house
tonight. He comes as a thief, and Christ will come in an unexpected
way. But the blessing is upon those
that are watching for it, and are keeping his garments. What
does that mean, to keep your garments? We're clothed with
the garments of salvation, the garments of the righteousness
of God that were made in him who bore our sin for us. And
if we don't have those garments of salvation, we walk naked.
When Adam and Eve were in the garden and they sinned, they
realized that they were naked, they were sinners before God,
they were ashamed. If he loses those garments, he
will walk naked, and they will see his shame. But the people
of God don't. We watch. On the tiptoe of faith,
we watch for him coming again. As the end approaches, God's
saints will find life harder. But we don't know when he's coming.
He's coming as a thief. But he will come, and he takes
his people to heaven. as a thief out of this world,
before those vials of wrath fall finally on this world. In Luke
12 verse 40, Jesus says to them, Be ye therefore ready also. For
the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not. there was
apparently a teacher in a biblical college and he was speaking to
his students about the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he asked them, he said, do you think Christ is going to
come today? And he said, no, I don't think so. And he went
around the group and they all said, no, I don't think so. He
said, oh, that's interesting. The son of man cometh at an hour
when ye think not. They'd all said they didn't think
he would come. And he said, the scripture says you'll come at
an hour when you think not. Just as the wheat was harvested
before the grapes, end of chapter 14, the wheat is the people of
God taken out before the final judgment falls. Just as the witnesses
of chapter 11 are taken up to heaven before the final judgment
of the seventh trumpet falls, I believe we are being taught
here that Christ will remove his elect before the seven vials
reach their full and final intensity, before the battle of Armageddon
when the unbelieving world, as it were, self-destructs. What
are we to do? What are the people of God to
do? Watch. Keep your garments, lest you
walk naked and they see your shame. Watch. Anticipate Him
coming. Keep the garments of salvation.
What are the garments of salvation? Isaiah 61 verse 10. Greatly rejoice
in the Lord, for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He's clothed me with the righteousness
of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. Because that's what 2 Corinthians
5.21 says. He who knew no sin was made sin
for his people that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. When you come to the marriage
supper of the Lamb in chapter 19, you see them clothed in white
garments. What are those? It's the righteousness
of God in Christ that is given to his people. So we're living
on the tiptoe of faith, looking, expecting, anticipating, longing
for what awaits. Look at chapter 15 now in verse
2. Look back there. Because you
see, that's the way round it is. God's people are in glory. I saw as it were a sea of glass
mingled with fire. This is at the start of 15. And
then that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his
image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name,
they stood on the sea of glass having the harps of God." This
is God's people in glory. This is like Israel beside the
Red Sea. You know when they came through
the Red Sea on dry land, and they stood there, and Moses said
to them, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And
they stood there, and they watched God save them from their enemies
that were coming to destroy them. There was the sea, which to them
was this wonderful thing that had just saved them from the
Egyptians, and yet at the same time it was that which was to
destroy the Egyptians. It's salvation and destruction
there, a sea of glass mingled with fire, just as the blood
of Christ speaks salvation and judgment. Simeon, I think it
was, when the baby Christ was brought by his parents to the
temple. And he said of him, this child
is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel. He's
the saver of life unto life and the saver of death unto death. There is the picture of salvation
from the justice of God against sin, because he's taken his people
out of this situation by justifying them in the blood of Christ.
That was typical Egypt. the people coming out of Egypt
and crossing the Red Sea, was typical of Christ and His church. And the people sang Moses' song
there in verse 3. They sing the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and
marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are
thy ways, thou King of the saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
and glorify thy name, for thou only art holy? for all the nations
shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made
manifest. This is the song of Moses and
of the Lamb in glory. It's praise for the total and
final vindication of the victory of the cause of God over that
of Satan. This is when the kingdom of God
has triumphed and the people of God are there in glory and
we see greater detail of it as we get towards the end of the
book. We see different perspectives of it, but it's the same truth
that all the people of God are taken out of this world before
it is finally judged justly for its sin. So then it's praise
and total vindication. And the question is this, are
you ready? Are you watching? anticipating
and expecting, looking for Christ, looking to Christ. This is what
we're told, isn't it? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, expectant The world around dismisses God's
word as implausible scaremongering when we talk of this. That's
because the God of this world, Satan, has blinded the minds
of those who believe not. The natural man does not receive
the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness to him,
neither can he know them. Why? For they're spiritually
discerned. But God gives his people the
spiritual discernment to see that these things are true, that
these things are true, and to flee. to Him, to flee to Christ,
because we know that in Him and in Him alone is the salvation
from these certain final judgments. Who knows when they will come?
All of the signs, Jesus said, look at the trees, look at the
fruit trees, you see the buds coming, you see the flower, you
see the fruit. Watch the signs of the times.
It is not unreasonable on that basis to look at things that
are happening in this world around us and to see the time is getting
short. It is coming. It's not at this
intensity yet, but we have a foretaste of it. We see signs of it coming.
This world is going to end. Christ is coming to take his
people out of the world. Read in Thessalonians, you know
the passages. He takes his people out of the
world and then the final judgment falls. Those who are outside
of Christ need to really take this seriously, really heed these
words of God. If you neglect the warnings,
then there is only yourself to blame. Think about it. In the past, as we've tried the
truths of God, what has ever proven to us to be untrue? Answer
to the believer, absolutely nothing. So what else would make you think
that any of this might be untrue? Amen. ? There's another righteousness
? ? Blinding me of my glorious rest ? ? It's claiming those
in which I rest ? ? I lift up my head ? ? Oh, shall
our standing ground remain ? ? For who shall my God be ? ? Down the steps he hath flowed
me ? ? For me a full autumnal day ? ? That never passed in
graduation day ? ? Now here to old Weissberg's home ? without exceeding Thy gracious
birth, that all who do Thy wills will be. May Thy peace abound,
O God, I believe, Love in your heart is love most
great. For me a full atonement made,
an everlasting ransom paid. Thank you, Alan. It's a timely
reminder. We have Alan here in a sense
to celebrate the culmination of our year that we look to the
Lord in his mercy and keeping and preserving us for 10 years.
What a great deliverance and what a great deliverer and what
a great saviour we have. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we pray that you'd send us to our homes and to our beds in
safety tonight, but with the thoughts of eternity on our minds
and the thoughts of the wonder of redeeming love. and the power
and efficacy of our Lord Jesus Christ. We do thank you, Heavenly
Father, that he sits on the throne of this universe, and all things
are worked together for the good of your people, called according
to your purpose. Heavenly Father, help us to be
reminded again and again of the extraordinary wrath that was
poured out upon our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore can never
ever be poured out again on any of those for whom he died. Help
us Heavenly Father to treasure the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We thank you for gathering us
together, we thank you for the promise of you being with us
and we do thank you that you have promised to give your people
seeing eyes and hearing ears. Help us to watch, Heavenly Father,
to heed your warnings. and most of all, Heavenly Father,
to praise and to worship our glorious Redeemer. We thank you
and we pray for Alan as he ponders tomorrow's message as Heavenly
Father and pray for us as we might hear that you might be
the one who speaks through your servant to the hearts of your
people yet again. We commit ourselves into your
hands, Heavenly Father, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank
you.