And he gathered them together
into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. And when you think of all that
you've heard about Armageddon, and everybody's heard that word,
usually it comes from some religious person or
organization or another. Even the world and the movie
industry, of course, play off of it. When you think about how
that's represented as the epic struggle between good and evil
that's gonna ultimately destroy the world, it's the last, you
know, it's the end of the world. It's such a great war between
good and evil that it results in the final destruction of the
world. Think about that and then compare that to the word of God.
It's a great contrast. Great contrast the word Armageddon
is described in Strong's concordance as the proper name of an imaginary
place There is no Armageddon in a physical sense It's not
a physical location It's not a physical battle It's not nuclear
weapons destroying the earth. It's not and Even as a spiritual
Truth which it clearly is it's a spiritual reality But even
in a spiritual sense, it's not an epic struggle between good
and evil. There is no such thing But this is a spiritual representation
of what God is going to do to all of his enemies False religion
in particular. He's not going to wage war with
them He's going to just destroy And that's what we're gonna see
happen here. It's just that simple. He's just gonna destroy it. Let's
look at what it is according to God. I look at the first phrase
of the verse. He gathered them together into
a place. Who's in control here? Who's
doing what he wants to do? Who has a free will in this matter? God Almighty gathered them into
a place. Not a physical place, it's not
a physical gathering. This is God simply separating
the tares from the wheat, just like he said he was gonna do
in Matthew 13, 27. Please turn there with me. Matthew
chapter 13 and verse 27. This is what we're seeing now.
This is another description, another representation of the
exact same event. We're gonna see that just dead
clear in the word of God. Matthew 13, 27. So the servants of the householder
came and said unto him, sir, didst thou, didst not thou sow
good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tears?
And he said unto them, an enemy hath done this. The servant said
unto him, wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But
he said, nay, lest while you gather up the tares, you root
up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And in the time of harvest, I,
I will, I will, you don't. That's the gospel. Quit, stop. Stand still. I will. I will say to the reapers, gather
you together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn
them. But gather the wheat into my
barn. Now, does that sound to you like
an epic struggle between good and evil? Go cut the tares out
and burn them. See the sovereignty and the power
of our God in this. The God of religion in this weird
world where they talk about Armageddon and things leading up to that
is not the God of the Bible. Did you notice the word gather
there in Matthew 13? Go and gather ye, gather ye. That's what happened in our text
in Revelation. He gathered them. He gathered
them. I will gather, I will gather
the tares. I will say, gather them. And
they'll be gathered when God gets good and ready. It's not
so of the God of religion, but our God manipulates his enemies. He gathers them to exactly where
he wants them. And then he simply, when he gets
good and ready, annihilates them. That's what this is. It's God
destroying his enemies. Armageddon, a compound word meaning
hill, and the second word, to gather in troops or crowds. It's just a word describing what
God just did. He gathered into a big pile the
troops of the enemies. It's not some hill, some earthly
hill somewhere. It's a pile of God's enemies
that he's gonna burn up. Just like he said, bundle the
tares together, stack them up, and we're gonna burn them. That's
what this is. It just simply signifies what
God's doing here. He gathered this crowd of troops
into this symbolic hill, and the hill, again, it's not some
earthly structure. People talk about You know, the
mountain of Armageddon and the place of, the valley of Armageddon
and all that, it's just a spiritual picture of the pile of tares
that have been gathered in bundles as described there in Matthew
13. Armageddon is a hilled up pile of God's enemies. gathered together so he can destroy
them. If you were gonna burn a pile
of leaves or weeds or whatever, you'd gather them into a pile,
a little hill, and you'd burn it. That's what God's doing. Does that sound anything like
the Armageddon that you've heard about in this world? Listen to the Lord's expounding
of that parable from Matthew 13. Turn now, I should have had
you just stay there, but turn to Matthew 13 again if you, Switched
over, but look at verse 37 now. Matthew 13, 37. And he answered
and said unto them, he that soweth the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. The good
seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the
children of the wicked one. The enemy that sowed them is
the devil. The harvest is the end of the
world. That's what we're talking about
tonight. And the reapers are the angels, as therefore the
tares are gathered and burned in the fire, So shall it be in
the end of this world. That's our text. The son of man shall send forth
his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things
that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them
into a furnace of fire. There shall be wailing and gnashing
of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun. Man, they're gonna shine like
our Lord Jesus did on the Mount of Transfiguration. They're gonna
be just like him in the kingdom of their father,
who hath ears to hear, let him hear. God does as he pleases,
when he pleases, with whom he pleases. Verse 17 in our text. And the seventh angel poured
out his vow into the air. And there came a great voice
out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, it is done. He didn't say it is on. He said,
it is done. Wait a minute, I missed it. I missed the battle. No, you're
in the battle now. Armageddon is not the battle
We're in the battle now, and if you don't know that you're
probably getting your tail kicked to be quite honest with you Because
we do anyway apart from God's grace Armageddon is not a battle Armageddon
is the end of it. It's the end of the battle and
it's only called a battle because we do fight and We do, there
is a warfare. He that warreth entangles not
himself in the affairs of this life that he may please him who
hath chosen him to be a soldier. Put on the whole armor of God
and fight the good fight of faith. All scriptural phrases and words.
But from God's point of view, this is the kind of battle when
God told David. David said, Lord, shall I go
into battle with this enemy? And the Lord said, go, I have
surely given them into your hand. That's this kind of battle. It's not a battle like this world
fights battles. It's just watching God win. It
stands still and see the salvation of the Lord. How much of a battle
was it when God brought the armies of Pharaoh the entire army of
Egypt into the Red Sea and turned them upside down and drowned
them. How much of a battle was that? Was that a great war against
good and evil? That's how God wages war. There's no question as to the
outcome. We win because he wins. He giveth us the, what? Through
our Lord Jesus Christ, the victory. over every enemy we have, Satan,
death, hell, every enemy. He giveth us the victory through
Christ winning the victory. God doesn't struggle. We do,
but God doesn't. God wins the battle for us and
gives us the victory. Now, remember that the pouring
out of the vow is the preaching of Christ. That's what these
messengers are doing. They're pouring out the same
message that was the cause of celebration and worship for those
described in chapter 15, verses two through four. That was the
initial reaction to the pouring out of these vials, God's people,
those who were born of God, the seed he planted. But here the preaching of that
same gospel is that which brings about the final destruction of
those who love not the truth. It's not, I say this every week,
don't I? It's not complicated. How do
you miss that? How do you get the charts with
the chronological lines and the battle and the dragons? And I
don't know where that comes from. Armageddon is not that. It's
not that. It's not the great epic battle
that the song talks about. It doesn't matter how many times
you sing it. It's still wrong. He pours out his vow, the cause
of celebration and great worship for the people of God. And yet
the same gospel is the destruction of God's enemies. And notice
that the messenger pours out his vial, that's the preaching,
but where does the voice come from? Verse 17. The voice is not the messenger's
voice. Though he preached the gospel,
he poured out the vial, but the voice came from the throne. saying he's done. That's how
it is when the gospel's preached. This is God's message. We're
just ambassadors of the king. This is God's word. We're just
delivering the message and he's got to speak to the heart. I
can't speak to your heart. Right now, the voice from the
throne tonight, you know what it says? We know what it says.
He told us what it says, come. The Spirit and the bride say,
come, let him that heareth say, come, and let him that's thirsty
come. That's the voice of God and those
whom he say, come. But then the voice from the throne
is gonna say, it's over. It's over, they're not coming
to Christ then. You know, that's all over. Now is the accepted
time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. If I knew when the Lord was gonna
come back, if I knew when this great day of the Lord that's
described in our text would come, I could say, you know, you've
got two or three years, but you better start. But as it is, I
say now, just like the scripture does. And when it is done, when it's
over, this is what it looks like, verse 18. And there were voices
and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake.
Now we could spend quite a bit of time trying to discern what
these are, the different things, the voices, there's voices from
heaven. That may well be, I'll tell you
this, the ungodly, Those who hate God are gonna hear the gospel
in a whole different way on that day than they do now. They're not gonna hear it with
ears of faith. They're never gonna have that.
Blessed are your ears. Do we appreciate that? Do we
thank God for that blessed our ears for they hear? The ungodly,
their ears will never hear, but they're gonna hear a lot different
than they do now on that day. They're not gonna be able to
just dismiss it then. They're not just gonna be able
to, you know, get on with some kind of life and forget about
what the preacher said. There is no life. There is no
anything. God is gonna speak in power and
they're gonna know they've traveled with the wrong one. in that day. The voices, I don't know specifically,
thunders and lightning. God has thundered before in the
scripture. When he speaks, it'll get your
attention, I guarantee. And it doesn't matter where you're
at. It doesn't matter where you're at. And lightnings, swift and
destructive judgment and justice. Great earthquake, the absolute
shattering of every foundation. An earthquake is so frightening
because the one foundation that we have, the one thing I can
count on is if I walk on this earth, I'll be held up and supported. When you can't count on that
anymore, that's scary. All of the foundations will be
pulled out from under the ungodly. Everything they trust, everything
they stand on, everything they rely on. shaken to its core. Such as was not since men were
upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. I don't
know, honestly, whether this part is figurative or literal. I don't know. It doesn't much
matter as far as the teaching of it. I know that because of
the spiritual realities that will come to pass, there will
be corresponding earthly realities that come to pass. There's no
question about that. If this is part of that, I do
not know. I don't know, and neither can anyone else answer that question.
What we can be absolutely sure of is that God has always put
a difference between his people and this world, always. If you're
one of his, don't worry about it. I can tell you that on the
authority of the word of God. When the devastating plagues
swept through Egypt, the children of Israel were protected. It didn't come near them. On
Passover night, the children of Israel were protected when
God saw the blood of the lamb on their door. God said to them,
listen to this. I probably should have you turn
to this. Yeah, let's look at this, because
I've quoted this a lot, but not all of it. I want to look at
some of the context in Psalm 91. Look at Psalm 91 in verse
two. When you hear about all these
thunderings and lightnings and the earth itself being broken
up, think about this, Psalm 91 too. I will say of the Lord,
he is my refuge and my fortress. My God, in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee
from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wing
shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield
and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for
the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day.
nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy
side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not
come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou
behold and see the reward of the wicked, because thou hast
made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most high, thy habitation. There shall no evil befall thee,
neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. That doesn't
mean nothing bad's ever gonna happen to you or you're never
gonna get sick, clearly. There is nobody that that would
be true of, anybody, nowhere. But what it does mean is what
sinners deserve for their sin, you'll never get. You'll never get, and if the
Lord does, allow you to get sick. I know people don't like to say
God allows something, but let me tell you something. If he
don't allow it, it ain't gonna happen. He's got to allow it. He says,
not for you. It's not gonna come near you.
It's not gonna happen. So we do trust in him and this
is of course spiritual language Speaking of our security in Christ
Safe, though the worlds may crumble and they are According to our
text they are going to crumble But we're safe So whatever this
is in this verse in our text clearly not good. I It's God's
wrath against his enemies is what it is. We know what it is.
And by God's grace, that's not us. We were enmity with God by
nature, but no more, no more. If our house is built upon the
rock, when this storm described in our text comes, we are safe,
we are secure, we are unmovable. My hope is built on nothing less. than Jesus' blood and his righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name, who he is, his character,
his attributes, his person. On Christ, the solid rock, I
stand. Verse 19 in our text, and the
great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God
to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his
wrath." It's a picture here. It's called, I believe, an anthropomorphism. It means when you speak of God
in human terms. It's as though God remembered,
oh yeah, I need to destroy them. It's kind of, it's a very good
way to express it. Because this is so simple, isn't
it? It's so simple. Armageddon is God just piling
up his enemies and burning them. And it pictures him here just
saying, oh yeah, I need to destroy them. And he piles them up in
a big pile and burns them. That's a very simple picture. That's the power of God. Of course,
he didn't forget about them. He doesn't forget anything. It's
his figurative language. It's as though he had forgotten
about it because he put up with their evil for so long. They might well think he's forgotten
about their evil because they've gotten away with it seemingly
for a long, long, long time. Babylon in this verse of course
represents false religion Anybody that knows the history of the
Tower of Babel and the in Babylon the great Knows what this represents
all who hate God are included in this judgment, but specifically
mentioned is false religion Particularly mentioned Babylon means confusion
by mixing It's the opposite of the simplicity the singleness
that's in Christ It's a mixing of grace and works Which can only be in the imagination
of sinners because grace and works don't mix and Romans 11,
six. It's a mixing of Christ and anything
else. The simplicity that's in Christ
simply means the singleness. Christ is all. It's not Christ
in my obedience. It's not Christ in my decision.
It's not Christ in anything. It's Christ. Salvation's a person. It's him alone. If you add anything to Christ
and his perfect righteousness, his perfect sin offering, his
perfect salvation, what you are left with is anti-Christ religion,
not Christ, false religion. Babylon, confusion by mixing,
by mixing anything. Confusion by mixing results in
the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath being given to you. And that's a drink that no one
will be able to refuse. But when God in his infinite
grace by the preaching of the gospel saves a sinner, when he
gives faith to a sinner and removes the confusion, He, what does
he do? He shuts you up to Christ. There's no mixture anymore. There's
no confusion. It's him. I've got to have him. The woman with the issue of blood.
Her life got real simple all of a sudden, didn't it? Real simple, naming the leper.
Imagine he had a lot on his plate. until the day he became a leper.
And then there's no confusion about it. I've got to have somebody
that can clean me, that can cleanse me, that can heal me. What do
I gotta do? Let's call for the prophet. Prophet
told him what to do and he scoffed at it. That's this world. You tell people whose lives are
a disaster, you need to hear from God. You need to hear the
gospel. And they scoff at that. Well,
going back to your, you know, have at it. Have at it. I hate to see it. But what in
the world did you ask for if you didn't want an answer? When God has mercy on a sinner
and he reveals the all-inclusiveness that's in Christ, you just have
one need. You just have one business to
take care of now when you see what you are before God. Revealing
that Christ himself is salvation, he makes it so that that sinner
must have Christ. then the cup of God's wrath is
still drunk, but not by that sinner. That cup has got to be
drunk. God, by grace through faith in
Christ, reveals that the Lord Jesus Christ drank that cup of
the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath for me. He doesn't drink it because I
decided that I wanted him to. He just shows me that he drank
it for me. It's already been done. Salvation's accomplished. We
don't preach, here's what you need to do. We preach, look what
Christ did and believe. Look who he is. Look what he
is for a sinner, everything. He drank it dry and I will never
taste a drop from that cup, but these ones will. The Lord Jesus Christ bore my
sin and the consequences of my sin on Calvary. What a blessed hope. In verse 20, every island fled
away and the mountains were not found. The self-sufficient and
the proud are gone now. They're gone. There's no one
self-sufficient anymore. There's no islands anymore. A
believer's not an island now. We're not self-sufficient at
all. We need God. We need his son. We need his
people. We need his church. We need each
other. He's made it that way. You can
try to do it another way if you want to. The self-sufficient and the proud
are gone those who are saved are not islands or mountains
They need the Lord Jesus Christ every hour they need his church
And they've been humbled by faith in Christ You see it's You're saved by grace through
faith, and that's not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, lest any
man should boast. Compare our text here to this
passage in Isaiah 2. Please turn there with me if
you will, to Isaiah chapter 2. I want us to read this together.
This is the best exposition of where we're at in our text. This
is what's gonna happen right here. When God gives you other
descriptions of the same thing, it's time to read them and listen
to what God says, hear it by his grace. Isaiah 2.10, here's
this day we're talking about now when the islands and the
mountains are gone. There's not any more spiritual
islands or mountains. Look at it, verse 10, enter into
the rock and hide thee in the dust for fear of the Lord and
for the glory of his majesty. The lofty looks of man shall
be humbled and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the
Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty and upon
everyone that is lifted up and he shall be brought low and upon
all the cedars of Lebanon that are high and lifted up, and upon
all the oaks of Bashan, and upon all the high mountains, and upon
all the hills that are lifted up, upon every high tower, and
upon every fenced wall, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and
upon all pleasant pictures. And the loftiness of man shall
be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low, and
the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. The idols he shall
utterly abolish and they shall go into the holes of the rocks
and into the caves of the earth for fear of the Lord and for
the glory of his majesty when he ariseth to shake terribly
the earth. An earthquake like none has ever
been on this earth before. What is it all about? The Lord alone. shall be exalted
in that day. That's why he's gonna pile up
all of his enemies in a big pile and absolutely annihilate them. Everyone that exalts himself
above God. Verse 21, and there fell upon
men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight
of a talent. And men blasphemed God because of the plague of
the hail, for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Absolutely
amazing. Huge hail stones, a talent of
silver weighed 100 pounds, and a talent of gold weighed 200
pounds. If these were stones of ice,
like we think of hail, Think of the weight of that. Water
is one of the heaviest things in this world. Don't know exactly
how much they weighed. It gives the weight of them here,
the weight of a talent to let us know that this just simply
means utter annihilation. It means the leveling of every
living thing. But what's remarkable about this
verse is that when these enemies seek, They're going to see this
happen. Once they're crushed, they won't
be blaspheming God, but they're going to see this happening.
They're going to see people being crushed by the wrath of God.
Can you imagine what it would look like? Can you picture somebody
getting smacked with a hundred pound chunk of ice? The horror
of that. And they see that happening,
but are they gonna fall on their face and beg God for mercy on
that day? No, they're gonna blaspheme God.
They're gonna blaspheme God. This is the deep, terrible hatred
for God that is the heart of a sinner without his grace. I don't know what pictures you
get in your mind when you think of sinners, but it changes all
the time because we see new horrors all the time, don't we? We see
them in ourselves. It's much harder to see them
in ourselves. But we see them in this world
and we know what we are. We know we're the same. We know
there's no difference. But the difference that grace
makes, but this is the woman that walks around with a purse
that says, in gay we trust on it. This is the man that holds
up the sign that I saw that says, when Christ comes back, let's
crucify him again. These are the people. who, when they were caught, when
they were, the terrible wretches were caught in the absolute idiocy
of their stupid idolatry, worshiping a gold cow, and a line is drawn
in the sand, and Moses says, who's on the Lord's side? They
still won't cross that line and say, I'm with God. This is who
we're talking about. Even more evil than all of that
put together is the evil in those same black hearts that presumes
to be able to please God by something we do or don't do, and tramples
under their nasty feet the precious blood of God's Son. These are just openly expressing
the evil pride and hatred that's in the heart of every man, woman,
and child in this world. It's a wonder God doesn't pile
all of us up and throw us in hell. Paul wrote, if any man
loved not the Lord Jesus Christ, if you refuse, you think about
this tonight. If you refuse to give a hoot
about the one that made you, gave you everything you have,
gave you your mind to think with, gave you food to eat and water
and everything. And you have everything. We have
nothing we didn't receive from him. He made you and has given
you everything you have. And if you still defy him and
shake your fist in his face and spit in his face, Paul said,
there's no place for you but hell. May you be accursed. When the Lord Jesus comes back
to this earth, may he put you in hell. That's just right. That's just the right thing to
do. The only remedy for this destruction
that's described in our text, the only escape from the fierceness
of God's wrath is Christ. Christ is the city of refuge. He is the rock that's higher
than we. And the only time is now. And
the only way is by the preaching of the gospel Believing on the
Son of God, that God have mercy on us all in him. Under the blood
of Jesus Christ, safe. May we sing that in our hearts
as we go from here and thank God for our refuge. The Lord is my rock, whom shall
I fear? Whom shall I fear?