Thank you ladies. Those words
were based on the last three verses of the book of Habakkuk. Alright, let's go to Revelation
this morning, chapter 16. Revelation chapter 16. I had actually intended speak this
morning on the subject of Armageddon. But as I made preparation for
that, there's something else here that I kind of got an interest
in and it needs to be said before we get to that message. And so
the Lord willing, next Lord's Day morning, As I say, the Lord
willing, we'll talk about Armageddon next Lord's Day. This morning
I want to talk about gathered for the final battle. That is, gathered for Armageddon. God's going to gather all of
the forces of evil together. He's going to gather them Himself
for this last battle. That is of Armageddon. As we know, John has seen seven
angels, which each one of them held in their hand a golden vial
of wrath that was reserved for those who are unwilling to be
saved upon the basis of God's grace only. through the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation. Oh, that's a powerful
word, and that's a loaded word. A wonderful word, salvation. If you want to see man's depravity,
and man's wickedness, just look at man who is unwilling to be saved, made righteous before
God, by God alone, but man wants to make some contribution to
this salvation himself. That's evidence of man's wickedness.
That's evidence of man's depravity. We love the doctrine of God's
salvation, salvation which is in the Lord Jesus Christ, The
word itself, salvation, has different shades of meaning, all of which
are necessary in order to bring someone like you and someone
like me from the downhill of filth and sin and misery up into
the presence of God. Salvation has several different
shades of meaning. I'll mention these to you briefly. Salvation, first of all, means
deliverance. Deliverance. Deliverance from
what? Well, self. Salvation from self. Salvation from sin. Salvation
from Satan. Salvation from the world. Salvation from everlasting destruction. It's deliverance. Deliverance. The Lord delivers the captives. Deliverance is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. Salvation means deliverance.
Salvation also means spiritual well-being or spiritual health. Our Lord Jesus is the great physician
of sin sick sinners. And His salvation means the restoration,
the full restoration of the spiritual well-being, the spiritual health
of the soul. Something awful happened in the
Garden of Eden. The leprosy, the awful disease
of sin entered in and we became sin-sick, we became diseased. Disease, and the Scripture says
when sin is finished, it bringeth forth death. Thank God there's
a great physician for sin sick souls. His name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the only one who can heal
sinners. And actually the healing has
already taken place by His substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary
who His own self bear our sins in His own body on the tree,
that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness by whose
stripes you were healed." What did it take to heal us of our
diseases? What did it take to bring a restoration
of spiritual health? It took the substitutionary sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus, Why did he die? He died to deliver his people. He died to bring a restoration
of spiritual well-being and health. Salvation also has the idea of
prosperity and riches and wealth. Not physical wealth. We're talking about being rich
in grace. Rich in mercy. In fact, these are riches that
no man can calculate the value of them. We have Christ Himself
who is said to be the pearl of great price. He is the treasure and His Gospel
is the treasure. And we read in 2 Corinthians,
and I know this is specifically for preachers, but it's really
for all of us, we have this, this treasure in earthen vessels. What is the treasure? The treasure
is the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. In fact, He is the treasure. And we have this treasure. We have Him ourselves. We're
rich. What does it mean to be saved?
It means to be enriched by God Himself. Oh, you may be a poor
person. You may not have too much money
in the bank. Well, that's okay. You're rich
toward God. But on the other hand, you may
have much of this earth's riches But if you don't have Christ
Jesus, you're the poorest of the poor. Listen, we have the
Son of God, and in Him, we have been made before God to be right. We have the wisdom of God, the
righteousness of God. We have redemption, we have sanctification
in Christ Jesus. We are rich beyond description. That's part of salvation. It's deliverance, a restoration
of spiritual well-being or health. Salvation means spiritual prosperity,
spiritual riches. Let me give you another shade
of the meaning of salvation. Victory. We're victorious in
Christ Jesus. There's no enemy. that can overtake
us. There's no enemy that can defeat
us. Now, do you as a child of God, do you have enemies against
your soul? Well, you certainly do. You're
your own worst enemy. Yeah. And then there's that,
oh, the lion who goes about seeking whom he may devour. Now, he can't
devour you, but he can sure according to the will of God, cause you
troubles. But we're more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. We're victorious through Christ
Jesus. We can't be defeated. You can't
be defeated. Because you stand in the Lord
Jesus. You're under the everlasting
arms of God. You're hidden. Your life is hidden
with Christ Jesus in God. Nothing can get to you. You're
safe from all harm. Nothing can do you any damage. You're no danger. No wonder David
could say, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow
of death, He said, I'm not running. I'm not anxious. I'm walking through the valley
of the shadow of death. And listen, all of our lifetime
is a valley of the shadow of death. You're always in the shadow.
But you can walk. Because you can't be defeated.
Every enemy of your soul has already been defeated by Christ
Jesus. He who is the King of Kings,
He has defeated sin, He's defeated Satan, He's defeated the world,
He's defeated the grave, He's defeated death. We're more than
conquerors through Him who loved us. This is the salvation that
is of God. And this is the salvation that
belongs to the Lord's people. It is the full and absolute deliverance
of all of His people from every enemy. It is the full restoration
of spiritual health. It means we're enriched. We're
enriched. We're victorious. This was all
established according to the purpose of God and owed eternity. We were purchased by the blood
of the Lord Jesus when He gave Himself for us. The Spirit of
God has exercised omnipotence within us. You know the same
kind of power that raised Christ Jesus from the grave? That's
effectual in us. That's what's brought us back
from the spiritual grave. The Lord has raised us. This
is God's great salvation. And it's a salvation fully of
grace. It is all of grace. It involves
no works, no contribution on our part. You don't lift a finger
in this. This is all of God. All for His
glory. All according to His accomplishment.
And He receives all of the honor for it. Do you have a problem
with that? I don't have a problem with that.
I'm thankful. But there are some people, that's
just too much grace for them. Yeah, they just can't put up
with, they will not condone a salvation that's all of God and all in
Christ Jesus. There are some people who get
upset over this truth. I'll give you an illustration. You know, when David, he squared
off against Goliath and defeated him, he cut off his head, the
great giant, all that mighty Philistine, nobody else would
They were all afraid of him. Everybody turned coward in front
of Goliath. But David said, is there not
a cause? Is there not a cause? And he
goes after him with five smooth stones and a slingshot. And he
brings him down and then he takes the giant's sword and cuts his
head off. And everybody's rejoicing in
David's wonderful accomplishment. But there was somebody who was
upset. And you wouldn't think he would have been, but he was
upset. King Saul. Because he saw the praise that
David was receiving. And Saul's son Jonathan went
to the king. Went to his daddy. And said to
his father concerning David, He did put His life in His hands. He killed the Philistines. And
the Lord wrought a great salvation for Israel. How can you be upset? Why aren't you rejoicing with
the rest of us? How can you be envious? How can
you be jealous for some of the glory when David got the victory? God, through David, wrought a
great salvation for all of Israel. And listen, here is our message.
God, through Christ Jesus' substitutionary sacrifice, He wrought a great
victory over our enemies. How can you be upset with that? And yet some are. How come I can't get in on some
of the glory? I want to get in on a little
bit of the credit. These are the people upon whom
the wrath of God is going to be poured out. People who would
not be saved who have no interest in this salvation, this deliverance
with all of its different shades of meaning that I've already
laid out for you. People who wouldn't be content
to be saved by grace alone, through the doing and the dying of the
Lord Jesus alone, but they want to make some contribution. A
vile, A golden vial of wrath will have to be poured out upon
you. Because of this much, we can be certain, the Lord's not
going to share His glory with anybody. Not you, not me, not
anybody else. This is God's great salvation.
And to those who find this gospel to be repulsive, And the natural
man does. Unless we're regenerated by the
Spirit of God, we won't bow to God's way of saving sinners. And if we persist, if you persist
down this road, if I'm speaking to somebody here this morning,
or somebody on the internet, and you still persist in this
idea, surely, this is ultimately dependent upon me. You keep going
down that road, you keep going down that road, you'll end in
utter destruction. Utter destruction. The Lord may
even be pleased to send you a religious lie that is sure to damn you,
if you want to have the truth. Those who want to have the truth,
leave themselves open to the wrath of God. And He may send
you a non-truth that you'll grasp. It's an interesting situation
here in Revelation chapter 16 verse 12. The sixth angel poured
out his vial upon the great river Euphrates. The water thereof
was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared." This is in preparation for something. And I saw three unclean spirits,
like frogs, that come out of the mouth of the dragon, that
is Satan, and out of the mouth of the beast, pagan world governments
and out of the mouth of the false prophet, false religion. But
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 gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. This river flowed through and
provided great commercial advantages for Babylon. This river stands
for two things. First of all, it's a supply route.
Of course, it supplied water, but it was also the means by
which goods and things that were needed, daily supplies, were
sent from other cities to the city of Babylon. Here, the river
Euphrates dries up which means that men have to come together,
they have to work together, they have to lay aside their differences,
and those who come together will join themselves with the Babylonians,
that is, with false religion. It's the kings coming. Babylon
stands for false religion. Here come the kings to join them.
So you now have an ecclesiastical presence, a religious presence,
in other words, and a political presence, and they come together. But a river does more than that.
A river does more than provide means for water and shifting
and receiving of goods. Secondly, a river often forms
a boundary, a dividing line between geographical places. The Ohio
River is about a mile from us here. It is the dividing line
between this state and Ohio. Just like the Euphrates River
was a boundary. It divided lands. It formed a
line of separation. It's interesting, the first time
the river is mentioned is in Genesis, the second chapter,
as being a river running through the Garden of Eden. The second
time it's mentioned is in Genesis chapter 15 and verse 18. In the
same day, the Lord made a covenant with Abraham, saying, Under thy
seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt, Nile, the
Nile River, under the great river, the river Euphrates. The river
Euphrates then was the boundary line, the dividing line, which
from the Nile River on the south side, the promised land extended
all the way to the Euphrates River on the eastern boundary. That was the boundary line that
divided it. So here's what I'm saying. Euphrates
River formed a boundary line, a dividing line, But in this
Scripture, it says the river is now dried up. What do you take away from that
preacher? The Lord is going to remove all barriers, divisions,
obstacles that separate men, all lines of separation between
false religions and antichrist governments, enabling them to
all come together in order that they might all
be defeated at the final battle. And this is God's doings. Remember
these golden vials of wrath? They're given forth by Christ
Jesus. He's in the middle of the temple. He's in the middle
of the church of the redeemed ones. And He is the one to whom
all heaven and earth bows because all authority has been given
to Him by virtue of the fact that He successfully finished
the work that God gave Him to do in the covenant of grace.
The work of saving His people from their sins. And therefore, the Father says
in Psalm 2, the Scripture that you read, ask of Me. I'll give
you the heathen for your inheritance. It's all been given to Christ
Jesus. And here's our Lord in Revelation
chapter 16, and He says toward the end of time, right toward
the end, I'm going to dry up that which divides men, that
which separates men, enabling all of the enemies of the gospel
to come together as a great ecumenical group, as well as a philosophical
group and a governmental group, I'll gather them all together
for the last battle, where they'll all be defeated. Here's a question. Has the Lord
ever dried up such a river before? Well, yeah. Look at Luke chapter
23. Let me show you. River is symbolic, you see. It's just symbolic. As is much
of the book of the Revelation, it's something that's symbolic.
Has the Lord dried up using this symbolism? Has the Lord ever
dried up a river before? Look at Luke chapter 23. Our
Lord Jesus has been arrested. He's been taken before the Sanhedrin.
He's taken before Pilate. And here we have in Luke chapter
23, our Lord Jesus standing before
Pilate. Verse 3, Pilate asked Him, saying,
Luke 23, 3, Art thou the king of the Jews? And he answered
him and said, Thou sayest. And said Pilate to the chief
priests, And to the people, I find no fault in this man. They were
the more fierce, saying, He stirreth up the people, teaching throughout
all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. When Pilate heard
of Galilee, He asked whether the man were a Galilean. And
as soon as he knew that he belonged under Herod's jurisdiction, he
sent him under Herod, who was over Galilee. This is Herod Antipas. This is not Herod the Great.
It's one of his boys. He's called a Tetrarch. He's a governor over one-fourth
of the kingdom of Herod the Great. This is the same man... You know,
Herod the Great died during our Lord's very first year. Herod
the Great was the one who ordered the deaths of all the little
babies two years old and under when he couldn't find Jesus of
Nazareth, Jesus who was born the King of the Jews. Herod the
Great ordered the deaths of all the little babies. Remember?
Well, he died the first year of our Lord's life. He died and
now this man is Herod Antipas. He's one of his boys. He got
a fourth of the kingdom. Another boy got another fourth,
and then another boy got a half. But he got a fourth of the kingdom.
He got Galilee, and the area to the east of Galilee, the Perean
area, that's what it's called. So our Lord had a Perean ministry. That's the area of Herod. He's
called the Tetrarch. He's also called Herod the king. So here's Pilate talking to Jesus
And then he finds out, oh, he's from Galilee? Hey, I'll give
this to Herod, because that's his jurisdiction. So, Herod was
at Jerusalem at that time. Verse 8, when Herod saw Jesus,
he was exceeding glad. For he was desirous to see Him
for a long season, because he had heard many things of Him,
and he hoped to have seen some miracles done by Him. He questioned
with him many words, but he answered nothing. And the chief priests
and scribes, they stood vehemently accused him, that is, mightily
and forcefully accused him, and Herod with his men of war sent
him and knocked and mocked him and arrayed him in a gorgeous
robe. He sent him under Pilate, and the same day, a river dried
up. You get the figurative language
here. The same day Pilate and Herod, which up to this point
is like a river divided them, boy. They were jealous of one
another, envious of one another. The one had power, the other
had power. But the Lord dried up that river
that divided them. And He dried it up because they
had a common enemy. that man who stood in front of
them, Jesus of Nazareth. That same day, Pilate and Herod
were made friends together. For before this, they were at
enmity between themselves. There was a division between
these guys. There was something that separated
them. Whatever the issue was, and there's no need for me to
go into the various reasons that men have given concerning their
division. It just was there. It was like
a river. But the river dried up. The river
dried up and they both came together. Because the kings of the earth,
they set themselves, that's what you read, the kings of the earth
set themselves together against the Lord. and against His anointing. And this is even more clearly
seen in Acts chapter 4. Go to Acts chapter 4. If you want to see in Acts chapter
4, the river dried up between ecclesiastical authorities, religious
powers, and governmental powers, you only have to go to the cross.
That's where you really see it. Here in Acts chapter 4 verse
26. I'll even back up to verse 25. This is
part of what Ron read to us from Psalm 2. Acts chapter 4 verse
25. who by the mouth of thy servant
David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people
imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood
up, the rulers gathered together against the Lord, and against
His Christ. for of a truth against thy holy
child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate,
with the Gentiles and the people of Israel." Are you talking about
two peoples that couldn't stand one another? The Gentiles and
the Jews. To the Jews, the Gentiles were
filthy, dirty dogs. They despised them. In fact,
if you had sat down on a rock, if you were a Jew and you sat
down on a rock where a Gentile had sat, you had to be ceremonially
washed and cleansed because you got Gentile filth all over you. There was a river that divided
these two groups and the authorities, the civil
authorities, And the religious authorities, they were all at
one another constantly. But the river dried up. You know who dried it up? The
Lord dried it up. So that they were all, last three
words of verse 27, were gathered together. If they were gathered together,
who did the gathering? Who gathered them? The Lord gathered
them, verse 28, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined,
decreed, predestinated, ordained before to be done. You see, the
Lord had ordained Christ must die. Because in old eternity
God the Father gave Him a people more numerous than the stars
of the sky or the sand on the seashore. They're His people. His elect. His chosen ones. He stood in the covenant of grace
as the surety of His people. And in that glorious covenant,
in which all of our salvation was ordained, And that glorious
covenant Christ stood for us. And we were in Him. And God has
always looked to Him, our surety, our representative, our substitute
for full satisfaction to His justice and His law, even down
to answering for our sins. For Christ had to die under the
wrath of God. He had to die. How's it gonna
come to pass? A river's gotta dry up. Hey, he who made the river, he
can dry it up. He can dry it up. Hey, he made
a way through the Red Sea, and then he brought it back together.
He made a way through the Jordan River, and then he brought it
back together. And here our Lord, Here are groups of people separated.
Well, they can't stand one another. There's enmity, animosity, hatred. They despise one another. But
the river dried up. And the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus, being found to be the enemy of them all, dies. according to the eternal purpose
of God in order to save His people from their sins. God dried up
the river of division in order to accomplish His purpose. After all, Christ was the Lamb
slain from before the foundation of the world. His death was prophesied
and pictured in the Old Testament. It had to come to pass. And yet,
how could people of different backgrounds, nationalities, people
who couldn't even tolerate one another, how could various religious
groups, Pharisees and the Sadducees, man, they fussed and bickered.
They couldn't stand one another themselves. Pharisees believed
in resurrection. Sadducees didn't. They fussed,
carried on, but the Lord dried up the river in order to bring
to pass His purpose. And I'm telling you, know the
Word of God is telling us. Go back to Revelation chapter
16. In the end, and I don't know
when the end's going to come, but in the end, the Lord is going
to dry up the rivers that separate men and the enemies of our Lord
are going to come together. Even now we see a great ecumenical
movement. You know here recently, here
in Ashland, there was like a day of prayer. You read about it
in the newspaper. You know virtually all of the
denominations were represented. A Baptist, began the service,
and a Roman Catholic ended the service. And in between, speakers
from various religions in this area who have, they have different
beliefs in their own ways, and yet they're all alike in this
way. They all believe in salvation
by works. Salvation by some contribution of man. All of them do. I don't
care if you're talking about the Baptist, or the Catholic,
or the Presbyterian, or the Episcopalian, or who it is. They all believe
salvation is ultimately determined by the will of man, or the works
of man, or the worth of man. They're all peas in the same
pod. And they all got together. They
all got together down there. Had a big service. Had a write-up
in the newspaper about it. Had pictures in the newspaper
about it. Oh, isn't it wonderful? I'll
tell you what God is doing. Drying up the rivers. He's drying
up the rivers. Permit me to say this even though
I'm a bird. Birds of a feather flock together. Do you know how these religions
can get together? It's because they're alike. Oh,
they have little small differences. But they're all the enemies of
God. That's right. The enemies of God. God's going
to round up all of His enemies. And that's what's in view here
in Revelation 16. God is rounding up all of His
enemies. He's gathering them all together. Who do you think is sending out
the three frogs? This is God's doing. These three
unclean spirits? These devils? No wonder John
said in 1 John chapter 4, try the spirits, whether they're
of God. Because many evil spirits have
gone out into the world. Here's three of them here. When
you talk about trinity, you're talking about a group that works
closely together. Very closely together. Here's
an unholy trinity. A hellish trinity, if you will. Here's the unclean spirit coming
out of the mouth of the dragon. against God the Father. Here's
the unclean spirit coming out of the mouth of the beast against
God the Son. Here's the unclean spirit coming
out of the false prophet against God the Holy Spirit. The unholy
trinity against the holy trinity. He says in verse 14, they're
the spirits of devils working miracles. It even says in Matthew
chapter 24 These unholy spirits, they'll do so many wonderful
things. If it were possible, it isn't,
but if it were possible, they'd deceive the very elect. That's
what Scripture says. They'd deceive the very elect. They speak lies and hypocrisy. They're the spirits of the devils,
verse 14, working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the
earth and of the whole world to gather them. God is always doing His work. Child of God, don't ever lose
sight of this. Our God sovereignly governs in
all things. And here we might wonder, before
we got to this verse, what in the world is going on? And now
we know the Lord is gathering these together to the battle
of the great day of God Almighty. And then the Lord Jesus says
in verse 15, Behold, I come as a thief, I come as a thief when least
expected. Blessed, happy, highly favored
is he that watcheth. He who's looking to Me. Look
unto Me and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 2. Looking, looking to Him. We're always looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher. of our faith. Blessed is he that
watcheth, that looks, and keepeth his garments. Do you have the
righteousness of Christ Jesus? Or are you dressed in the filthy
garments of your own self-righteousness? I'll tell you, if you are, in
fact, you are naked as it says. And your shame will be exposed.
I'll tell you who won't be ashamed in that day when the Lord Jesus
Christ comes back. Those who are robed in His righteousness. Those who are washed in His blood.
Those who are saved by His grace. Oh, and I ask you this morning,
this salvation that's all of grace, and all in Christ Jesus,
is this your salvation? And in my heart, I say yes. This is my salvation. And I haven't
made one little contribution to this salvation. If I needed
to, I would ruin it. And you would too. Oh, the Lord,
He's always doing His work. Don't lose sight of that child
of God. I know amid the trials of life
and disappointments and difficulties, we can lose sight of these things,
but our sovereign Christ who redeemed us, who is our mediator,
who is our advocate, who is our go-between, our great High Priest,
the One by Whom and through Whom we enter into the Holy of Holies
to do business with God. He sits upon the throne and He
rules all things to bring to pass God's eternal purpose and
He's working all things out for the good of His people. And in
this, we should rejoice.