All right, let's look at the
passage that Brother Joe just read in Revelation 16. Now I've
entitled the message this morning, The Final Battle. The Final Battle. And the text
that I'm really going to refer to most is verse 15. of Revelation
16. You've read probably much of
this before. If you haven't read it, you've
heard about it. People talk about Armageddon. You've heard that
term. You may have some ideas on what
it is or speculation. You may have seen other people's
ideas. You know there's a lot of controversy, a lot of disagreement,
a lot of A lot of stuff about it. But let me tell you, before
I start into this, let me show you what is important for us
as the children of God to really know and understand that which
binds us together. Now we can think of a million
things that could separate us. Now we can do that, and I'll
tell you what, people are drawn to those things. I mean, people
love to separate over issues. But let me tell you what's important
for us to know that binds us together in the true Christian
community and fellowship, and it's in verse 15 of Revelation
16. Whatever you think or know about
this, here's what you must know, here's what we must agree on.
And that is this. He said, Behold, I come as a
thief. That's talking about the second coming of Christ. When
he says he's going to come as a thief, what he simply means
is that we don't know the day and the time that he's coming.
It doesn't mean that he's going to take the church by surprise.
Now, he'll take the world by surprise. The world would be
caught off guard. But we expect him to come. I don't know the
day and don't know the time. It's foolish for anybody to try
to figure out the day. It's unscriptural, it's disobedient
for anybody to try to figure out the day and the time of his
second coming. Because the Bible says, Christ said, no man knoweth
that hour or that day. And so that's foolishness. But
we know he is coming. We expect him to come. So he's
not gonna take us by surprise, but he'll come as a thief. He'll
come when you don't know that he's coming. And the world won't
expect him. But now, here's the key for us
now. Blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
Now, isn't that strange? In other words, at the second
coming of Christ, what you're to be concerned with, basically,
is your garments. What clothes are you wearing?
Does that mean the preacher's got to wear a tie? Well, you
know better than that. We'll talk about that, all right?
So let's look at this. Now the reason I chose this passage,
the final battle, we've been talking in the last several months
and I've been preaching in the last several weeks about the
Christian warfare. I've talked a lot about the warfare
between the church and the world. That's a continual warfare as
long as we're in this life, on this world. We're in the world,
but we're not of the world. We're against the world. The
world is against us. Paul said in Galatians 6, 14,
God forbid that I should glory, boast, have confidence in. God
forbid that I should glory, save, accept in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
That's what we glory in. That's what the church glories
in. That's what a believer glories
in, the cross of Christ. What he accomplished on Calvary
to put away my sins and to make me righteous before God. That's
what I glory... I have nothing else to glory
in. But then he said, by whom the world is crucified unto me. And I unto the world. Galatians
6, 14. In other words, the world looks at me as being cursed of
God. And I look upon the world as being cursed of God. Why?
If you don't have Christ, what do you have? Cursedness. That's
it. sin, death. So there's a warfare
between the church and the world, and it's a continual warfare.
Now, that warfare is already won by the Lord Jesus Christ.
He told his disciples before he ascended into glory, he said,
you have tribulation in the world, but I've overcome the world.
How do we gain victory over the world? Through Christ, the victor.
That's how we gain victory over the world. That's how we gain
victory over death and the grave. Oh, death, where's thy sting?
Grave, where's thy victory? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. He died, he was buried, he arose
from the dead. There's our victory right there. Listen, if you have any victory
there, it's in him. Nowhere else. The doctors cannot
save you. Now they may prolong the process,
and that's only by the sovereign will of God. Isn't that right?
Because the Bible teaches that the hour and the way of our death
is already appointed of God. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh
away. The Lord killeth, the Lord maketh
alive. That's what the scripture says.
So they may prolong. Listen, nothing we do on this
earth can save us. from death, but Christ can and
did for his people. And then I spoke several weeks
on the warfare between the flesh and the spirit. That's the inner
warfare that a believer has. We're saved by the grace of God.
We're righteous in Christ, perfect, complete in Christ. But in ourselves,
we still have this flesh to deal with. That's the sinful desires
and thoughts and motives, ideas, ways. that are just so natural
to us. That's what some men call the
old nature and that's fine. That's fine. That's what we are.
Sinful, fallen human nature. But then God the Holy Spirit
imparts to us spiritual life, gives us ears to hear, eyes to
see. That's what some men call the new nature and that's fine
too. I don't deny that. I just tell you be careful how
you define nature. Some go too far with that. They go outside the scripture
on that. We have new life. We have a new
heart. We have ears to things that we
know and see and believe and love that we didn't know and
see and believe and love before because of the Holy Spirit's
work in the new birth. And there's a continual warfare
within us, in our minds, in our consciences, in our hearts. Paul
described it in Romans chapter 7. Now where's our victory there?
Oh, wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
my Lord. Christ is the victory over the
flesh. That's right. There's no other victory but
in Him. Keep your eyes focused on Him. Keep your gaze on Him,
whom to know is life eternal. Plead His precious blood at all
times, even when men accuse you. And especially when Satan accuses
you. That's the third thing. I've
talked several weeks here about the warfare between the church
and Satan. Satan is defeated. He was defeated
by the Lord. His defeat, his demise, his eternal
damnation has been a fact. In the mind and purpose of God
from eternity, he cannot win. But he has been allowed by God
to plague the church, to hound the church for a while. That's the wisdom of God. It's
the glory of God, ultimately. We may not be able to figure
out all the whys and the wherefores and the hows and all that. That's
all right. But Satan has been allowed to do that. And Christ
defeated him on the cross. That's when he was cast out.
That's when Satan's power over death, his power to accuse in
time, was put down completely because Christ was made sin for
us. Christ who knew no sin, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. So that when Satan
or his allies, whether they be human or whatever, accuse us,
we can say with confidence, there is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. We can say, who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. That's
what we plead. That's how you defeat Satan,
pleading the blood of Christ. We read about that in Revelation
chapter 12. There, you remember, he said
they overcame, verse 11, they overcame him, that is the devil,
the accuser of the brethren, who accused them day and night.
It says in Revelation 12, 11, they overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb. That's how you do it. Satan cannot,
his accusations cannot stick to a blood-bought sinner. That's right. Clothed in the
righteousness of Christ and by the word of their testimony.
What is the word of our testimony? Christ and him crucified. God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross. And they love not
their lives. And they're not gonna hang on
to this world and deny Christ. That's what that means. Now,
Satan has been allowed to hound you. As one old preacher said,
to dog you. to accuse you, and he's been
doing it, and he knows his time is short, but it's coming to
an end. A final end. That's what this
passage in Revelation 16 is about. Here's the final victory. Here's
when it'll be no more. Satan's accusations, Satan's
Satan's houndings will be no more, it'll be over, this world
will be ended, and that's what it's all about. You see, remember
this, there's a great spiritual warfare, a great conflict going
on behind the scenes of human history. Man cannot see it by
nature. The physical eye can't see it,
that's why man denies Satan, that's why he denies things like
that, what the Bible says about sin. This warfare is ultimately
Even though Satan has been allowed to hound the church, to accuse
the church, this warfare ultimately is between Christ and Satan.
It began, as recorded back in Genesis chapter 3, when man fell
Man took sides with Satan against God. That's when we, the whole
human race, were ruined by the fall. We fell into sin and death,
took sides with Satan against the world. That's why we're born
naturally, or spiritually rather, dead in trespasses and sins,
walking according to the prince of the power of the air in league
with Satan until we who are chosen of God and bought by the blood
of Christ are regenerated by the Holy Spirit But that battle
began back there. Remember he said in Genesis 3.15,
Satan would bruise the heel of the woman's seed, that's Christ,
but he would bruise Satan's head. And he did that on the cross.
We saw that warfare played out, actually worked out in Cain and
Abel. The very first recorded worship,
attempts of man to worship God after the fall. That was the
very first recorded attempts of man to worship God after the
fall. In Genesis chapter 4, here's
Cain. Cain took sides with Satan. He
brought the works of his hands. That's what Satan does. Remember
we talked last time how Satan in 2 Corinthians 4, his goal
is to keep sinners from seeing the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. He wants you to think that you
can establish your own righteousness before God. And he'll work hard
to get you to work it out. That's satanic. That's what Cain
was doing. He brought the works of his hands. Satanic religion. You might have heard the term
the false prophet here in Revelation 16. That's what the false prophet
does. It's false religion. That's the
religion that inspires men and women to seek God's favor, God's
salvation, God's blessings by their works. You see, salvation
is not by works. It's by grace, grace, grace,
grace. And then here comes Abel. And
what's Abel bringing to worship the Lord? What is Abel expecting
to receive God's blessings from God based upon the blood of the
Lamb? Pictured Christ. And there it
is. So even though Satan has been
enabled to hound the church, his time is short and it's coming
to a final end. And this warfare, it's going
to continue to the end of this age when Christ will put Satan
and all evil powers down and destroy them completely. And that's what's called Armageddon.
That's what Armageddon is about. Now let me give you three things
this warfare does not mean. First of all, it does not mean
that God is not sovereign. God is absolutely sovereign and
in control. Even this warfare between Satan
and his church is within God's sovereign will and decrees from
the beginning. God has decreed or predestinated
or predetermined the history of every nation. Satan never
has is not now and never will take God by surprise. Now he may take you by surprise.
And he may take me by surprise. But he never takes God, he never
sneaks up on God. He can't do it. God's omniscient,
God's in control. And God does not do anything
or enact anything as a contingency plan or a plan B. God has always
been, is, now, and will always work all things after the counsel
of his own will. That's what the scripture teaches.
And Jesus Christ is the absolute and unconditional sovereign over
the history of all nations. I believe that. It's what the
Bible teaches. But at the same time, in the
fulfillment of God's purpose in history, according to his
wisdom, He's determined that the accomplishment of his sovereign
will would come through much struggle, great conflict, that's
why we have this conflict with the world, that's why we have
this conflict within, that's why we have this conflict with
the devil, that ultimately God might be glorified in all things.
You know what it's all for, you know that. It's to show forth
that the power and the praise belong only to God. You cannot
depend on yourself. I cannot depend on myself. We
can't even depend on each other in this matter of salvation now.
We have to depend on one alone, Jesus Christ and him crucified.
And I'll tell you something right now, that's what that watch therefore
means when he says in verse 15, blessed is he that watcheth.
Now that means to be on your guard. That means to be awake. You know when thieves come to
steal things from your house, they come usually at night when
you're asleep or when you're gone. And what he's saying here
is don't go to sleep in this matter. You need physical rest,
but in this spiritual matter, stay awake. And don't be an absentee
believer. That means be involved in the
glory of God, in the worship of God, in the ways of God. That's
what it means. But how do you do that? You keep
your watch, your eyes, your gaze upon Christ and His glory. You just keep focusing on Him.
No matter what goes on around you, you just keep focusing on
Him. and all of it for his glory.
So it doesn't mean God is not in control. Secondly, it doesn't
mean that the outcome is uncertain. The outcome is certain. The outcome
is determined. God has the victory. Satan cannot
win. This is not a game we're playing
where we're trying to figure out who's gonna score the most
points at the end. And even though Satan and his
evil angels and demons have been allowed to make war, Satan's
been cast out. We read about that. Look back
there at Revelation 12, verse nine. It says, and the great dragon,
that's Satan, was cast out. The old serpent called the devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Don't
think of that as geography or displacement. That's talking
about what Christ did on the cross. In other words, he was
put down. That's what that means. Satan
was put down. in time. Now it's always been
that way. Like I said, even Abel pled what?
The blood of Christ. But in time it had to be accomplished
because what God has purposed before time must have its accomplishment
in time. Why? Because we're creatures
of time. He created this world for his
glory. And it's all about that. I had
a man write me one time, I preached this on TV, And he said, well
now Armageddon refers to Christ's battle with sin on the cross.
Well, I don't believe Armageddon does refer to that. Because the
Bible does teach that even though Christ put down Satan on the
cross, Satan is still allowed to hound the church. You can
read about that again in Revelation 12. But here's the point. This
battle is not ours, it's God's. It's like Moses standing on the
shores of the Red Sea and the children of Israel looking back
behind him and seeing Pharaoh's army coming to kill him and they're
murmuring and complaining and worrying, which is what? Unbelief. And what does Moses
say to him in Exodus 14? He says, stand still and see
the salvation which is of the Lord. The battle's not yours. He will fight for you. How do
you know he'll fight for you? Well, where's your gaze? Where's
your look? Where's your mind focused? If
it's on Christ and him crucified and risen again, that means the
Lord fights for you. That's right, it's faith in Christ. Our victory is certain in Christ,
but only in Christ. Christ is our rock. Upon this
rock I'll build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it. He's the rock. Peter, not you, not me, not the
denomination, Christ is the rock. And then thirdly, it doesn't
mean this battle is physical or fleshly or worldly. Our weapons
of our warfare are not carnal. We read that in 2 Corinthians
10. And Christ said, my kingdom is not of this world. Now look
over at Revelation 16 in this manner. You know, this whole
passage, Revelation 15 and 16, speaks of seven last final plagues. Seven final plagues. Just like as in Egypt, before
the Hebrew children were delivered out, there were plagues, there
were 10 plagues back then. That's God's judgment, 10's the
number of God's law of judgment, judgment upon people. Seven is
the number of finality and completion, God's perfect work. And just
as there were plagues that came upon Egypt just before Israel
was delivered from their bondage, these come upon the world just
prior to the final destruction of this world, the final deliverance
of the church in Christ, His second coming. And He gives these
plagues. There's seven of them. We won't
go over all these plagues. But these plagues are things
that happen throughout the last days. between Christ's first
coming and second coming, and they're manifestations of God's
wrath upon the earth against sin. Just like there were, these
are called the vials. Look over at Revelation 16, verse
one. He said, I heard a great voice out of the temple, that's
the church, saying to the seven angels, messengers of God, go
your ways and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the
earth. The vials, that's a measured wrath. Some translations say
bowls of wrath. They call these the bowl judgments.
Well, in the book of Revelation we had seal judgments. That's
where you had a sealed book and the seal had to be broken. Christ
is the only one who has the authority and power to break the seal and
reveal it. And those sealed judgments, it was said of them that they
took away a third part of the earth. In other words, there
was a great destruction, but it wasn't complete, just a third.
It's not a literal number, you can't count that. But he's just
saying that God's wrath up to this point has been measured,
has been tempered with his long suffering. And then you had the
trumpet judgments, and the seal judgments took a fourth part
of there, and the trumpet judgments that came later took a third
part of there. In other words, it got worse.
But here, here, it's without measure. Look back at Revelation
15, verse one. He says, 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. This is the full measure of it.
This is the final end of it. Not a fourth of it, not a third
of it, not tempered with God's long-suffering. You see, as it
was in the first, but now it's a full measure. This is it. That's
what that means. This is it. This is finality
right here. This is the end of the world
as we know it. They make jokes about that on
TV. They make fun of it then, but
this is no joke here. This is it. And then he starts
giving these seven vials. He reveals them in Revelation
16. They come in different forms. There's physical things that
happen on the earth. There's plagues. There's death. There's scorching heat. Read
Revelation 16, verse 8. Look at this one. And the fourth
angel poured out his vow upon the sun, and power was given
unto him to scorch men with fire. You know what that is? It says
in verse nine, men were scorched with great heat, blasphemed the
name of God, which hath power over these plagues, and they
repented not to give him glory. That's global warming, my friend.
That's real global warming. That's not this fake stuff. That's
real global warming. I do believe in global warming,
don't you? There it is. but not like what the scientists
do. I'm talking about God's wrath. Now let me say this. How are
we to view these manifestations of God's wrath as the people
of God? I'll tell you how. Christ taught it in Luke 13,
how we're to view them. It's not by becoming self-righteous
and saying, oh man, those folks got what they deserved. Well,
did they get what they deserve? Well, what would any man or woman
get if we got what we deserved? What would we get? Wrath, damnation. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, the wages of sin is death. No, that's
not the way we're to look at them. We're to look at them this
way. It's of the Lord's mercies that
we are not consumed. That's how. Oh Lord, thank God
for his mercy to us and especially his eternal mercy in Christ.
Don't ever become puffed up and self-righteous over God's wrath
falling upon anybody because it is of the Lord's mercy in
Christ that we don't get what we deserve. That's what he taught
in Luke 13. But look at this. Look at verse
12. He says in the sixth angel, now this is what is the revelation
of Armageddon, the final end, the final battle. He says the
sixth angel poured out his vow, his measurement of wrath, the
full measure of God's wrath upon the great river Euphrates. And the water thereof was dried
up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
If you remember studying world geography back in, or world history,
You remember the great river Euphrates? I always remember
studying the Fertile Crescent over there in the Mideast. In the Fertile Crescent, there
were two rivers always mentioned, the Tigris and the Euphrates.
The first mention in the Bible, the river Euphrates, is in Genesis
chapter 2 and verse 14. It was one of the four rivers
that came out of the mainstream that fed the garden and then
went out to the world. The river Euphrates. What does
Euphrates mean? It means fruitfulness. That's
what it means. And when the Euphrates dried
up here, what's that talking about? Well, you know, in the
garden, what happened? You know, man fell. And all the
fruitfulness of the garden and all the fruitfulness of the rivers
turned into what? Turned into sin. Dead works,
dead fruit, fruit unto death. That's what happened to this
world. This world became cursed. And so when man fell, the whole
earth was cursed. And the next time you see this
river Euphrates, there's several mentions of it in the Old Testament.
But look here, he talks about when the river Euphrates dried
up and the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. It's
a preparation for the way of the kings of the east. Well,
that river Euphrates, it was a river that ran straight through
the city of Babylon. And you know Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar,
the king of Babylon, he conquered Israel, conquered Judah, and
took him into captivity. And after 70 years in captivity,
God sent a deliverer to deliver his people out of Babylon. And
you know how they did it? You can read about it in the
scriptures. They did it by drying up, damming up the river Euphrates
and cutting off the life flow to the city of Babylon. That's
how they did it. They didn't have to break down the walls.
They didn't have to destroy the walls. They didn't have to break
down the doors. It was an act of deliverance that was ordained
and empowered by God. And that enabled the people of
God to go back. They were still in captivity
under the Persian Empire, but it enabled them to go back and
rebuild the temple in Jerusalem and rebuild the city. Now this
whole thing here is in the context of the fall of Babylon. Look
over at Revelation 14, look at verse eight. Babylon, it says,
and there followed, Revelation 14, eight, It says, and there
followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. You see that? That great city,
because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath
of her fornication. Who's Babylon there? Babylon
represents false religion. Look over at Revelation 17, turn
the page. Look at verse five. Babylon is
false religion that holds in bondage The whole deceived world. You remember I talked about Satan?
Babylon is a servant of Satan. And Satan deceives the whole
world. That is, those who are so connected to this world that
they won't even think about or seek the Lord Jesus Christ. And
this Babylon, it's called Mystery Babylon. Look here in verse five
of Revelation 17. It said, upon her forehead, this
is a woman, a symbol of a woman riding a beast. Upon her forehead
was the name written, Mystery Babylon. You know what that means?
That means this is a symbol that must be revealed. This is not
a literal city on earth. This is not something you can
find on the map. It's a mystery. It has to be revealed by God.
If he was talking about a literal city of Babylon, I could show
you on a map what that is. But this has to be revealed.
This is mystery Babylon, the great, Babylon the great, the
mother of harlots, that's talking about spiritual harlotry and
abominations of the earth. It's those things which are in
the service of Satan that are against Christ and his church,
against his gospel. So what's he saying here in Revelation
16, 12? He's saying that God, when Christ comes, here's what
he's gonna do. He's gonna dry up the river Euphrates. He's gonna dry up everything
that feeds and nourishes Mystery Babylon. He's gonna dry it all
up. Everything that feeds and nourishes false religion is gonna
dry up completely. It's gone. That's what he means. And what's he gonna do? He's
gonna make way. He's gonna prepare the way of
the kings of the east. Now, who are the kings of the
east here? Well, a lot of people say that's enemies of God coming. I don't believe it is, because
if you look in the Bible, first of all, when the literal Euphrates
was dammed up back during the Babylonian captivity, what'd
that do? That made way for the people of God to go back to Jerusalem
and rebuild the temple and rebuild the city. They came from the
east. That's where Babylon was. And
I think about the birth of our Savior. Remember when he was
born? Who came from the east, guided
by the star? The three kings of the east.
And in the Bible, whenever it comes out of the east, what does
it refer to? It talks about something good,
something blessed of God. Like the rising of the sun in
the east. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
the son, S-O-N, of righteousness who comes from the east. And
what he's saying here is all this is making preparation for
the people of God who are made by Christ based on his blood
and righteousness, kings and priests under the Lord. This
is a preparation for the in-gathering of the people of God. That's
what it is. This is our victory. This is
nothing we don't, we don't have to be afraid of this. This is
a preparation for the glory and in-gathering of the people of
God by the sovereign Savior who's coming. And look at verse 13.
He says, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of
the mouth of the dragon, the dragon is Satan, out of the mouth
of the beast, the beast is ungodly governments, and out of the mouth
of the false prophet, that's ungodly religion. Interesting,
these frogs, They're poisonous frogs. And they symbolize false
prophecy. You know, frog, the thing about
this, somebody, I was listening to a message on this, and they
made this point, and it's a good point. You know, frog doesn't bite you. Its weapon is its tongue. You
ever seen a frog get a bug? Well, what is false religion?
False prophets. Their weapon is their tongue,
their false doctrine. And they hop around here to there,
and they're slippery. And this frog is a term that
is sometimes used in the Bible to mean a huckster, a fraud. That's talking about false preachers
who preach salvation by the works and the will of man. And they're
in service of the dragon. And they're in service of the
beast, ungodly governments, and the false prophet, the unholy
trinity. We have the holy trinity, God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There's the
unholy trinity, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.
And they have their ministers, and it says in verse 14, look,
for they are the spirits of devils working miracles. What miracles? Those are the deceptive miracles. Lying wonders. We read about
that in 2 Thessalonians 2. Which go forth unto the kings
of the earth and the whole world to gather them to battle on that
great day of God Almighty. All in preparation. for the second
coming of Christ. Now, go down to verse 16. I'm
going to come back up. He says, and he gathered them
together into a place called the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
Now, it's called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. There's no
Greek translation in the New Testament for it. In fact, there's
no word in the Greek language that's even found like this.
What is Armageddon? Well, the word The closest we
can come to it is simply this, that it means the Mount of Assembly,
or it means the Mount of Slaughter. Some people say it's actually
a geographic location in the Valley of Megiddo, over near
Israel, in Israel. I don't know why it would be
called Ar or Har, literally, H-A-R, because that means mountain,
doesn't mean valley. but it's harm again. If it does
refer to Megiddo, there's three times in the scripture where
there was a great battle fought there. One by Jehoshaphat, that
is the King Jehoshaphat. That means God judges incidentally,
God's judgment against wrath. And one by Gideon. He wasn't actually in that valley,
but his name is kind of related to this word, Megiddo, Gideon.
And then won by King Josiah, who was actually killed, but
the battle won by the Lord. And in all three battles, here's
what happens. Just basically, just to put it
all in a common denominator, it was a battle where the people
of God were at their ropes in, had no place to go, no victory
in sight, and God stepped in and delivered them. That's what
that's all about. God stepped in and delivered them. And in
this battle of Armageddon, whatever you believe it is, however you
look at it, I'll guarantee you, it's a battle that God, by His
sovereign power, is going to win, period. Now is that enough? If that's not enough for you,
go ahead. I mean, whatever you want to go with. But I'm going
to tell you something, the victory is still God's, and that's what
it means. Well, now here's the issue. When
this battle comes, look at verse 15. Here it is. Blessed, he said,
behold I come as a thief. You don't know when it's gonna
come. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest
he walk naked and they see his shame. Do you see that? What's
it talking about? It's simply saying that our only
hope in this battle is our only hope as in every battle. That
we be found in Christ. washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness. What is our garments? Look over
Revelation 19. Here's your garment. This is
the marriage of the Lamb, the marriage of Christ and His church. It says in verse 5 of Revelation
19, Revelation 19, And a voice came out of the throne,
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and the voice of many waters, and
as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad, and rejoice,
and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come,
and his wife hath made herself ready. Now that's the same as
watching and keeping. And it says, and to her was granted,
and you know what that means? Given, means it's a gift. That she should be arrayed in
fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness
of the saints. There's your garment. Now what
is the righteousness of the saints? Some commentators will say, well,
that's the righteous works of God's people here on earth. Well,
I want to tell you something. That's not right. There's not
one saint from Genesis to Revelation in this book here, whoever is
portrayed as standing before God, pleading his righteous works
on earth. Not one. Any time you see a saint
of the Lord standing before God, what are they pleading? The righteous
merits of Christ on the cross. That's it. His blood. His righteousness. And you can go, listen to what
it says now in Revelation 16. Listen to this language now.
Don't miss this. Whether you agree with me about
Armageddon or what, don't miss this. This is what's important. You notice there it says in verse
15, blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments. Instead
of that keep there, it means hold it near to your heart. It
means hold on for dear life. You won't let this go. This is
it. This is the most precious treasure
you have. That's Christ and the merits
of his obedience unto death. And it says, lest he walk naked
and they see his shame. Now, do you see that? When is
the first time in the Bible that man was ashamed? Genesis chapter 2, isn't it? Genesis chapter 2, it says, well,
they weren't ashamed. In Genesis chapter 2, it says,
they were both naked, Adam and Eve, the man and his wife, and
were not ashamed. Now they were naked and they
weren't ashamed. But then later on, in chapter 3, they fell.
And they ran and hid from God. And what did they do? They got
fig leaf aprons together to put over them to hide their shame. Because they didn't want to be
exposed naked. And that's a picture of being exposed naked to the
wrath of God. Exposed to the wrath of God.
What did God do in Genesis chapter 3? about their shame. What did he do? Genesis 3.21. He took off the
fig leaf aprons, because that's just a cover, that's like false
religion, and he slew an animal. He shed blood, and he gave them
coats of skin. And that took care of the shame.
What's that a picture of? That's a picture of the death
of Christ on the cross. "...who himself, because of our
sin charged to him, was exposed to shame, exposed to the wrath
of his Father. But out of his shame, out of
his death, came..." What? "...that blessed, fine, linen,
white, glistering robe of righteousness that takes care of our shame."
And the Bible tells us that those who are found in this day without
Christ shall be ashamed. In Romans chapter 9, it talks
about Israel following after the law of righteousness, trying
to make themselves righteous by their works, and they stumbled
over the stumbling stone. They wouldn't receive Christ.
They wouldn't bow to Christ. They wouldn't submit to His righteousness.
And it says, they shall be ashamed. But my friend, if you stand before
God in Christ today, or at your death, or Armageddon, or at the
judgment, if you stand in Christ, you shall not be ashamed. Don't
have anything to be ashamed of. He's the Son of His love. He's
the Son of glory. Blessed is He that watcheth and
keepeth His garments. What are my garments? And somebody
says, well, that's plural because it refers to this righteousness.
Get away from that stuff. That's referring, it's plural
because of the fullness of the blessings that come to his people
because of his one sacrifice for our sins. The imputed righteousness
of Christ. That's what that's talking about.
Standing before God. Yes. Yes, we have the work of
the Holy Spirit. But what does He do in working
in us? He shows us the preciousness
and the value and the confidence that we can have in the blood
of Christ. That's what He does. I stand before God without sin. I stand before God already having
been judged of all my sins in Christ. I stand before God holy
and righteous in His Son. And that's our victory over sin,
over Satan, over the world, over the flesh. That's the victory
at Armageddon. Whether they drop an atom bomb
or not, that's our victory. It's our garment, being in Christ.