Lord, we love you. We thank you,
Father, for just the amazing grace that you give us, Lord,
the overwhelming mercy that comes every day. Father, in the midst
of so many obstacles and so much pestilence and bothersome things
that, Father, are really nothing in the face of what your Son
suffered in the judgment of the cross and of death. Lord, we
come tonight, Father, to open your word and to see your face
and to see the victory that you give through the judgment of
your providence and your judgment over evil. Father, we labor to
understand and to worship more, and we labor also, Father, that
we might see those around us who are not in the faith come
to salvation. Father, we pray desperately that
you would bring them to eternal life. that You would open their
hearts and minds and ears to hear. And Father, that You would
send us into the harvest, that You would send us into the world,
that You would send us even into each other's lives to continually
preach the gospel so that we would honor and glorify You in
the redemption of Your people. And Lord, we pray these things
in the name of Jesus. Amen. Revelation chapter 16,
it's a longer chapter than most people...I mean than most that
we've gone through, most people. And as we get started, I want
to say that most people come to this text, and this is one
of those areas of John's writing that really tests what we have
learned through other means. So, for example, here is where
we get the idea of the battle of Armageddon. and the Valley
of Megiddo and this text is one of the most twisted, misapplied
portions of John's Revelation that you'll find. Even when people
correctly deal with some of the other areas of this letter, we
find a lot of times people don't even know where to begin. So
what they do is they go online or they go buy a book and they
find a resource that'll say, well, this means that, and these
people here, and for the most part, a lot of times, if you
look back in the last 75, 80 years, because there's not a
history of this stuff much further than about 100 years. We start
seeing people say, well, this is about China, or this is about
Middle East, or this is about that. We had J. Vernon McGee, who did Through
the Bible radio for years, and it's still syndicated internationally
in about 20 different languages. And he does like a Read Through
the Bible commentary radio show, and he did it for years. He died
in the late 60s. He swore up and down. He knew
with all certainty that The context of chapter 16 was that Russia
would invade the United States somewhere in the 80s, and of
course, he was wrong. You know, and everywhere you
turn, there's somebody else trying to make a statement of when this
is, and as we've already learned, John has not revealed things
as to when, but he's revealed what. And John's what is the
victory of Jesus Christ in the context of the suffering of His
people and His sovereignty over evil at every turn. So let's look here. This is the
fifth vision out of seven. So we've got two more visions
and then the letter's finished, pretty much. So this is the fifth
vision out of seven and what we're seeing here is what's happening
now to those that are on the earth. I'll read the statement,
I'll read the text one at a time and then we'll go through and
talk about them. Chapter 16 verse 1 says, Then
I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels,
Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath
of God. Now remember last week I said
that the latter part of chapter 15 actually goes with this. But
I wanted to teach this latter part in the sense that we saw
these angels coming out of the sanctuary, or the Holy of Holies,
and this is showing us that the wrath of God comes from His righteousness,
it comes from His holiness, it comes from His presence. And
so this is not something that is just happening arbitrarily,
but rather it is something that's directly related to God's justice. Here, then, this loud voice comes
from the temple. This is God Himself speaking
and commanding these angels, then, to pour out His wrath.
We've seen the seals, we've seen the trumpets, we've seen thunders,
we've seen all sorts of things. And now we're going to see the
culmination of what God's wrath looks like. This book is telling
us what Jesus is revealing in His purpose and judgment throughout
all of history. And Revelation 16 is now one
of these times where we're starting to see something from a different
perspective. We're starting to see the totality
of judgment. And so as we get started, I want
you to recognize that. Several things. One, these judgments
are poured out on three different audiences. And then there's a
result of that judgment. And at the end of this tonight,
I'm going to read something out of 2 Peter that will help us understand
it a little bit more in relation to the New Testament church.
Verse 2 says, So the first angel... So here are these angels. They're
in the Holy of Holies in the picture now. And they're being
told by God to pour out the bowls which contain the wrath of God. It is done. Here it comes. So
the first angel went out and poured his bowl on the earth
and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore
the mark of the beast and worshipped its image. So what do we see
here? Now, what happens is that although
you all contract with me as I've been talking about the imagery
and the pictures that we see in this letter, sometimes when
we get here we go, wait a minute now, we thought we were seeing
a recapitulation from earth, from heaven, from earth, from
heaven to different points of view of the same thing. We thought
this was something about history, like calamity. Now this is being
very explicit. and specific that there are certain
people who are having this place. Well, keep in mind what's happening
here. This final trumpet, the seventh trumpet, the seventh
seal, and now these bowls, if you will, is sort of like the
unpouring of what God's judgment is like. And so here is this
vision that's showing us what the seventh seal and what the
seventh trumpet brings. Does that make sense? So now
we get this, well why is there seven bowls? Because it's a full
and complete and perfect and holy judgment. That's the point
of the pictures here. And now these people who took
the mark of the beast, and the mark of the beast, 666, the number
of man personified, an unholy trinity, evil, evil, evil. This
is what we see who are those who are marked by their father,
the devil. Keep in mind that Jesus himself
explicitly taught that those who are not in Christ are the
children of Satan. Those who are in Christ are the
children of God. So there is no neutrality when it comes to
the world. No human being that lives this
day under the sound of my voice or has ever lived on this earth
except Jesus Christ, the God-man. No human being has lived in a
sense of neutrality after Adam and Eve fell. None. So that everyone
who is not a believer of Christ is a child of Satan. That's it. It's black or it's white. Those
who are children of Satan, in the sense as Paul teaches, in
whom we once were, like the rest of humanity, objects of wrath,
being captured and did things that were contrary to the holiness
of God. We were those who actually were living according to the
flesh, hostile in mind, hostile in deed, wicked. We bore, if
we were not in Christ, we would bear the mark of our father,
the devil. What is it? Evil? Malice, selfishness, pride,
self-righteousness, all the things that we see the scripture teaches
that are sin. Everyone who misses the mark
of God, which is to fall from His glory, the word sin means
to miss the mark of holiness. So the mark of unholiness is
the mark of the beast. So the very attitude, the things
that we think, the things that we learn, the things that we
do with our body and the things that we do with our hands, that
is what identifies us as those who are either in the world or
are in Christ. It relates a little bit to what
John says in his first epistle. He says, I ask you brothers to
pray for those who commit the sin that does not lead to death.
I do not say pray for those who commit the sin that leads to
death, but pray for those who commit the sin that does not
lead to death. Now what is the sin that does not lead to death?
any sin that a believer commits. It does not lead to death because
Christ has died for that sin. So the antithesis is, or the
other aspect of that is, is that John is trying to say, don't
pray for people to straighten their lives out and repent of
sin if they're not in Christ, for there is no way that their
transformation of their morality and the transformation of their
life is going to have any bearing on their eternity. So it would
be best for us to see who they are and the evidences of their
life that we pray that God bring them to faith rather than have
them act as though they are in faith. Because many people can
actually act Christianly. I would suppose that in comparison
to the world, most people that we know act Christianly. We know
the few that are just like flat heathens, like, oh yeah, we know
they're lost. But for most case, most people we can think of,
they act somewhat Christianly. But acting Christianly is not
righteousness. Even as Christians, then we act
Christianly, it's not righteousness. Jesus' obedience is righteousness,
not ours. So our righteousness is just
a half-witted effort if we're trying to gain righteousness
or favor. And the same thing is true for
the fact that the world looks in some way as though they're
trying to gain the favor of God. Friends, we who...or those who
live according to the flesh, even when it looks somewhat moral
and Christian, they are still wicked and the acts of righteousness
and morality is still wicked. Well, I'm a good guy, I don't
curse or smoke or drink or date women who do, you know that old
joke. And it just...so what? Well I tithe or I serve or I
preach or I pray and I help the needy. The idea of a local pop
star, not a local but a popular pop star who died recently in
the last few months, I saw something online where it was talking about
all the philanthropy that he produced in his life and all
the care that he gave and all the money that he donated to
good causes and to help children. And the comment was made, well,
he seems more Christian than most professing Christians, even
though this man died professing atheism. And I responded to a
particular person who was talking about this with someone. I said,
the biggest thing you need to understand is that none of this
is biblical in the first place. God has not called the church
to feed the flesh of the world. God has not called the church
to satisfy the hunger and the longings of unbelievers. Jesus
Himself refused to do it a second time in John chapter 6 when they
came and followed Him and they said, how is it that you came
here? And He says, I tell you the truth, you come after Me
not because of who I am and the power that I hold and the miracles
that I do, but rather you came because you wanted to eat again.
Do not labor for the bread that I fed you. Do not labor for the
bread that goes to the stomach and comes out in the excrement
of your body. Do not labor for that which perishes, but labor
for the bread that endures to eternal life. You must eat of
My flesh." And see, believers eat of the flesh of Christ. What
does that mean? That means in every hunger of
every fiber of our being is satisfied in the person of Jesus, in His
righteousness. We trust alone in Him. We trust
alone in Him for salvation. We trust alone in Him for peace.
We trust alone for Him in all things. The opposite of that
are those who, even in their incredible morality, even though
they may be pastors of the so-called gospel and head churches and
head ministries and head orphanages, it does not put them in right
standing with God. They too are those who are carrying the sign
of the beast. They too are the ones who have
the sign of the beast, 666, on their minds and their hands.
For they have fallen prey to the lie and they worship the
beast, which by the way looks like a lot of congregations,
instead of worshiping the one true God who is Jesus Christ.
And I heard this voice and it said, pour out this bowl on the
earth and harmful and painful sores came upon the people. who
bore the mark of the beast and worshiped his image." Now see
the pictures that we've seen thus far. We've seen pictures
early on in chapter 5, 6, and 7, where people were running
trying to hide from the judgment of God. Now this is not a literal
action. This is not how it's going to
look. And the world's not going to start and shaking and everything.
Oh no, what's happening? God's Jesus running. It's a quick,
instantaneous thing. Paul teaches that very clearly
in the New Testament. Jesus Himself, I'm coming like
a thief in the night, the parable of the twelve virgins, and all
of these things. There is a preparation that is
always to be ready for the coming of Jesus because He's going to
come in an hour when is unknown and unpredictable. You cannot
tell when it's going to happen. Be prepared. And how are we prepared
to meet Jesus Christ? By trusting fully in who He is
and what He's done. By trusting in the gospel of
Jesus. Believing, striving, trusting, leaning, holding, grasping. All
of those are the same word, faith. That's what faith is. And it's
not an action, it's a holding to Christ. It's something that
we believe. And that in itself, according
to Paul, in Romans and in Ephesians, is a gift from God. It's something
that supernaturally is given to us by God's grace and the
hearing of His Word. And we know because of what Scripture
teaches, it is because God in His mercy, before the world began,
purposed to save His people. And we believe because God has
purpose for us to believe. And it's effectual in the context
of the temporalness of this world when we see the reality of the
gospel, when we profess Christ continually forever. But we're
not those people who bear the mark of the beast, but rather
we are those who bear the mark of God, the name of God who is
Jesus Christ. And these plagues, these boils,
these sores, is supposed to remind the readers here of the judgment
that God put on. I think it was the sixth plague
that God put on Egypt. And the sixth plague of Egypt
was that He caused boils and sores and like leprosy to appear
all over the bodies of the Egyptians. Now imagine this for a moment,
I don't know if you've ever had any type of, what is it called,
infection on your skin, but I've seen times where people have
gotten a cut or a sore or something and it gets infected and then
when it heals, there's a scar there forever. Chicken pox used
to be a thing. When I was a kid, you know, when
the neighbor got chicken pox, we all went over and played with
the neighbor. Everybody needed to go ahead and get the chicken
pox over with. Now, you can't find any chicken
pox anywhere. I'd like to have a little box
of it. But you know, we can't find it anywhere. And I remember
some friends, even, you know, we graduated high school, they
have like chicken pox scars. They were so bad, it scarred
them. Imagine the judgment of God with boils, open sores, after
they healed what they looked like. How many years in the generations
of Egypt did people walk around with scars to be reminded of
the judgment of God? And that was temporal judgment.
This picture here is supposed to teach us and remind us that
those who bear the mark of the beast, this judgment's not temporal. It's not about pouring sores.
All of a sudden, I mean, you know, imagine the chaos. Can
you imagine when everything, if it played out like a movie,
all of a sudden all the people next to us start breaking out
in sores and we're not, okay, you're apostate. I mean, you
know, you've got the sore Baptist church and the clean Baptist
church. I mean, it's just ridiculous to consider the implications
of now beginning a literal, wooden literal reading of this text.
We read it continually in its same thought process, in its
same visionary System. And so here these plagues that
are given, not only do they bear the mark of the beast, but now
also they will bear the mark of the judgment of God. That's
the real thing that's trying to be said here. They will bear
the mark of the judgment of God. Worse than the locusts that sting
under the trumpet. Under the fifth trumpet, these
scars will not go away. These scars will reveal this
horrific judgment of God and the coming of the Lord and His
wrath is like the deep horror and the shame that come with
having sores all over your body. And you would think that people
like lepers in the day, they weren't even allowed inside the
walls of cities, but yet they had to carry some kind of gong
or bell or instrument of noise and they had to hit it continually
and yell on their own voice, unclean, unclean, unclean. Could you imagine that being
your life? Here is the wrath of God coming
in such a place you would want to die but you will not die.
You will not escape the wrath of God. That's the picture of
what these boils and sores are. They will not escape. They will
seek death but they will not die. They will live forever under
God's justice. Verse 3, the second angel poured
out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a
corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. Now
you see, sea, I remember we did this last week, sea, sea, sea,
sea. You see that the sea, sea. You see these words, like, as,
it became like the blood of a corpse. He poured out his bowl into the
sea and everything living that was in the sea died. This like
and as, that's an instrument of Gosh, what a literary instrument
called simile. And this simile helps us to realize
this is not a literal sense that God's pouring into the seas to
turn them into blood. He did that in Egypt, which is
why now we see this picture again. But what is the purpose of that? Well, what are the seas to begin
with? Seas are encompassing of the entirety of the world, of
a massive and overwhelming omnipresence. For example, if we think of God's
sovereignty, we can think of it like a sea, it covers all
things. If we think of God's judgment, we can think of it
like a sea and it covers all things. And also remember, beloved,
that the sea connects everything to itself. All the land of this
world is connected by sea. The land sits in the sea, as
we talked about last week. And the sea, during the time
of this writing, was the only way to get around. They did not
have airplanes and and big ships that could just quickly get across
the oceans. It took months, if not years,
to travel by ship. And here, this sea is the trade
route, this transit route for these people. And God, in His
providential judgment, is showing here that His judgment and His
wrath is complete, not only against the human beings and their physical
bodies, but also in everything that they do and everywhere that
they go. They can't escape it. They can't escape it. There's
not going to be anything left. Everything that you've built
in this world, John is showing us, is gone. There's not going
to be anything left. You will have nothing to turn
back to. There's no glimmer of hope. There's no option of peace. There's no memorance. There's
no anything. There's no great-great-aunt somewhere
that you know is going to send you a check for $100 to help
you buy groceries. There's nothing. God's judgment
is absolutely, eternally perfect and complete. And this here will
teach us that even the seas of the earth will be destroyed.
The seas will be stopped. This day of the Lord is a picture
of God's final judgment. Verse 4, the third angel poured
out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water and
they became blood. Not only are the road maps of
water gone and destroyed and the objects of trade and commerce
gone, but also God is destroying the very life source of humanity. God will not allow there to be
water because judgment will destroy it all. I don't know what it
really looks like but I think that Jesus as He says that I
am the living water and that all who come to me shall never
thirst or hunger again. I'm not so sure that we can understand
or comprehend the reality of that. But friends, I think that
anything we eat or drink in eternity will be just for the pleasure
of it, not for the need. I really do. Does it matter?
Not really. Is it biblical? We don't know.
It's just an assumption. It's just a word thought. Something
to consider. But there is nothing for sustenance.
How long does the human body live without water? Do you know? Not long. Not long. I've heard of people lasting
a week without fluids, but it's rare. It's rare. And this angel in charge of the
waters say, I heard the angel in charge of the waters say this,
Just are you, O holy one, who is and who was, for you brought
these judgments. For they have shed the blood
of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve. Isaiah 49, I believe is where
that comes from. The enemies of God will drink
their own blood in judgment. Now, I'm not saying that that's
literal, but that's the picture that we see here. For people
who see the continuation of judgment, the continuation of persecution,
the continuation of evil, and the continuation of wickedness.
And beloved, we suffer as God's people. And when we suffer well
and we suffer in joy, then the world that suffers without that
comes against us because they sometimes don't understand it,
but most of the time they hate it. Why did Cain kill Abel? Because Abel's works were righteous
while his were evil. See, Cain hated Abel because
he was acceptable to God, because he was righteous. How was Cain
righteous? Because Christ would fulfill
the righteousness of God in his lifetime. Abel's just, I didn't
say that wrong, did I? Okay, I said something wrong
the other day. I said it backwards, didn't I? Okay, Abel's, Abel
was righteous because of Christ's obedience and Christ's righteousness.
So then if, oh yeah, there it is. So Abel's salvation and he
was righteous before God and his works were righteous because
of what Christ would accomplish. Because before Christ even lived,
in the incarnate state, Jesus is eternal, but before Christ
came to earth as a man, Christ had justified Abel. That's beautiful. That's a beautiful
thing. Cain, however, was not. So no
matter what Cain did, if Cain had taken the same exact steps,
taken the other half of that exact same lamb and offered it
as a sacrifice the same way Abel did, it would have been unacceptable
because no good work outside of Jesus Christ is acceptable
to God. No prayer, no praise, no worship,
no benevolence, no ministry, no love, no nothing. No relationship,
no passion, no compassion is acceptable to God if we are not
in Christ Jesus. And I heard the altar saying,
verse 7, yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments. Remember, this is the hope of
this revelation, that God is true and just, beloved. This is the hope of this revelation,
that God is true and just. That's the point. That's why
it was written way back in the beginning of this letter. We
see that it was written so that those who read it would be blessed.
Those who read it would have the joy in the midst of pain.
Those who are the sealed of God, the completeness of God's people,
the 144,000, the myriads and myriads and multitudes and multitudes
of every nation, tongue and tribe, we worship the Lamb because the
Lamb was slain and therefore we do not have to be. But everyone
else is slain. forever slain, and the recompense
of God continues to pour. This chapter 16 is showing that
God destroys everything related to the life of the wicked, and
all that is left for them is to drink the fullness of His
judgment. Think about it. Does the Scripture
not teach, even Jesus Himself teach, that He drank the full
cup of the wrath of God? So therefore now the enemies
of God for all of eternity will drink the fullness of His wrath,
which is the shedding of their blood forever." How does that
work? We have no idea. I can promise
you anything we can think of is going to be wrong. It's going
to be worse than that. Jesus makes the comparison of
the valley of Gehenna. He talks about hell being a place
of eternal darkness, but yet eternal fire that gives off light.
He talks about hell being worse than that. He says hell will
be like where there is gnashing of teeth and the worm never dies. It's never. It's going to be
worse than that. What's worse than that? The wrath
of God. The wrath of God. There is no
torture ever devised of man that could compare anything to the
judgment of God's recompense, the judgment of God's wrath,
the judgment of God's justice and righteousness. Not only is
he going to destroy the sea, the water, the life, the human
beings, his judgment will also bring judgment against the creation. As we see in Romans chapter eight,
which was subjected, what, futilely to sin. The sun did not sin,
the trees do not sin, but yet they are subject to the consequence
of sin because of sin. So therefore, in the same way,
creation will experience a rebirth. as we see in Genesis, Revelation,
Romans chapter 8 where the whole of creation is groaning as a
woman in childbirth in order to look forward to the what? To the adoption of the sons and
daughters of God because when we see our resurrection, when
we see the day of the judgment, creation in itself is going to
celebrate its renewal. This fourth angel, verse 8, poured
out his bowl on the sun. and it was allowed to scorch
people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce
heat, and they cursed the name of God who had the power over
these plagues. They did not repent and give
Him glory." Man, what did God do with the sun in Egypt? He
brought darkness. God brought darkness, but here
we see that His day of judgment is not going to bring darkness,
but it is going to bring absolute light. His judgment is going
to bring the reality of what the lake of fire will be, a scorching,
a forever consequence of unbelief. a complete and forever heat of
final judgment. We call it, or the Scripture
calls it, the lake of fire. Revelation 7, 16 teaches about
the sun, but it says that those who are sealed by the Spirit,
sealed by God, will not be scorched nor harmed by the sun and the
heat of the sun. The result of this judgment is
what? What happens when God's judgment
comes against the reprobate? Do they say, I'm sorry? Do they
say, please help me? Forgive me, I didn't mean to.
I'm sorry, I was stupid. Oh, have mercy. They never say
those words throughout the entirety of Scripture. We never see that
as the case. We never see that as the case.
In judgment, people who are in judgment curse the name of God
and do not repent of their deeds. There is no such thing as a person
screaming and kicking to stay out of hell who is not born of
God. And we don't have to kick and
scream because Christ has suffered hell in our place. Christ has
suffered judgment in our place. Christ has suffered death in
our place. We will never know God's wrath
because Christ took it. We will never know it. We will
never be shown what it looks like. We will never experience
it any way because Christ took it, all of it. And those who
are unbelievers, those who hate God, would not want to escape
hell to be in His mercy, even during judgment. These judgments are poured out.
on the people of Satan. That's what these last eight
or nine verses have shown us. Those children who belong to
him. Verses 10, 11, 12, 13, all the way through 16 show us that
these judgments are poured out on Satan. Look at this. Verse
10, the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the
beast and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed
their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for
their pain and sores. They did not repent of their
deeds. Here we can see the same context of what we saw in verse
9, except now it's not just unbelievers, but it's also the devil. The
devil is in judgment with all the wicked. The devil and one
third of the heavenly host are in the lake of fire with all
who do not believe. Satan is in the same place with
those who followed him and bore his name. Friends, this is a
real, this is a reality. I sort of say a real reality
as opposed to a false one. You know, that's dementia. This
is a reality. This is something that very few
pulpits want to go to. Very few churches want to hear. Very few people who hear it actually
recognize it as a blessing. See, that's what's crazy. It's
a blessing that God brings Satan and all unbelievers to judgment.
It's a blessing that God brings justice upon wickedness. It's
a blessing. And we should be at peace with
it. We should be celebrating this reality and longing for
the day when God brings justice. Not only is the throne of the
beast, but the beast himself, his entire kingdom plunged into
darkness. We see that those are people. It says it right there.
So we know that we see these beasts. It's not a person, it's
not a particular government, but it is all the governments.
It is all the institutions of men. For there is only one king
and there is only one kingdom and that is the body of Christ,
the bride of Christ. Everyone else is the beast's
kingdom, who is Babylon, which is indicative of the evil world,
the cosmos. And here we see that all of the
kingdom of Satan will never see glory. In 2 Thessalonians this
past Sunday, teaching on reprobation and teaching what God does toward
the reprobate, we see that there is never an opportunity for Satan
to have himself revealed in any instance where he can be glorified
by his people. Now you might think that evil
is run amuck in the world today. And you may think that the evil
has its dominion in a constant war against God and that is true
in one sense, but every piece of action and every inch of movement
that the devil and unbelievers and the wicked do in this earth
is by not only the decree of God and not only the purpose
of God, but by the very will of God. They do nothing apart from God's
providential purposes. This angel pouring out this dark,
this bowl to bring the kingdom of Satan into darkness, no one
will ever see any shining opportunity to gaze upon it. It will never
receive the light of day. There will be no gloating by
the wicked. Even in that instant, they will not say, hey, I raised
hell for a little while. They will not say that. There
will be nothing. No opportunity to declare, look
at me, which is what Satan's wanted the whole time. One second
of glory would be enough for Satan to feel justified. One
second of glory would be enough for Satan to feel vindicated.
But you know he'll not receive that. Christ will come and in
swiftness He will put all the kingdom of darkness into darkness. The people that are with Him
will gnaw their tongues in anguish. Look at that imagery. You ever
gnaw your tongue? You know what that means? That
the experience of torment is so bad that you bite your tongue
in half. so that the pain of your tongue
being severed from itself can take away the pain of torment. It's a known fact that people
who are under torture sometimes are taught to do that because
the pain of the tongue being cut into is sometimes worse than
the pain of torture and it can move things. It's like my father
used to say when I would stub my toe. He said, well, hand me
your hand. or I'd hit my head, he'd say,
well, hand me your toe. He'd stomp on my toe. And what'd you
do that? Make you forget about the pain in your hand. That's
why people are gnashing their tongue. If they can transfer
the focus of their pain to something that's lighter than the judgment
of God, it will not work. And as they're gnawing their
tongues in anguish, they are cursing the very God of heaven
because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent
of their deeds. As darkness came over the people
of Egypt, so will there be utter darkness or finishing of the
kingdom of Satan. It will come to an end. When
the curtain closes on the symphony, it's dark. When the curtain closes
on the theatrical, all the lights are gone. The show is over. There's nothing else to see.
But at the end of the show, the lights come back up that we might
go about our merry way. When God draws the curtain on
wickedness, it's over. The next light that they will
notice is the flames of torment, nothing else. Verse 12, the sixth angel then
poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water
was dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the east. This
is where I've seen some very creative discussion on China,
Russia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, all these different places. Oh, this
is what it's going to be and they're going to come in here and it's going
to be so much blood it's going to run 1600 stadia high. They're
going to be swimming horses through blood. How many people would
have to be slaughtered on dirt to have that? You see what I
mean? So if we're going to read that literally, then let's read
the whole thing literally. Let's get a ten-headed dragon.
Let's get a beast. C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. could depict some of
this for us. But this sixth angel dries up
the river Euphrates. So what is the river Euphrates?
What's the significance of Euphrates to the people here? Anybody got
an idea? It's their life. Everything they had came through
it and every source of life came from it. Even their crops came
from it. It is that nowadays. And so without
the river Euphrates, this place is just an isolate, desolate
nothing. There's nothing. It also has
another meaning. In the Old Testament, there are
several things that come to mind when we think about the river
Euphrates being dried up. First is, of course, Exodus chapter
14 when we think about the drying of the what? Red Sea, where God
used the drying of the Red Sea that the Israelites could walk
on dry land. They didn't walk on bog, they
didn't walk on muddy dirt, they walked on dry land. So God dried
up the sea, and they walk through it. And then we saw the song
of Moses and the Lamb last week in Revelation 15, where they
sang the song of Moses, and that's the song he sang when then God
turned the water back down and drowned the Egyptians. Praise
you, Lord, for you are righteous and true and just, and hallelujah,
let's worship, you just killed everybody. I mean, that's the
truth. Why? Because it's right for God to
kill wicked. It's right. We don't feel sorry
for that. We celebrate the fact that we're
not destroyed because Christ took our suffering. Christ took
our judgment. Christ took the penalty of our
sin so that we can sing, hallelujah, Lord, for you're true and you're
just in your judgments. God is true and just in the judgments
that he gave to Jesus, beloved. Not just to the wicked. He's
true and just because He gave judgment to Jesus. He put judgment
on Jesus because He had forgiven so many people before Jesus.
And God is not a liar. So therefore, that which He decreed
to save had to be saved in reality. The Red Sea. Also, Jeremiah. Jeremiah 45, 50, somewhere in
there. There's a place where it talks
about the judgment of God on the people of Babylon by God
drying up the Euphrates. That prophecy there. Also, King
Cyrus through the prophet Isaiah. We see the chronicle there where
God is telling His people that He will dry up the Euphrates
to make a way for Israel to march in, for the army to march in
sideways and attack Babylon so that he could be the liberator
of his people. So in this then, the sixth angel
poured out his bowl in the great river Euphrates, it's a double
understanding of the judgment of God. Number one, God destroys
the very life source, as we've already said about the rivers.
The Euphrates is the most important. He draws up the very life source
in judgment. And also it's a reminder that
God draws up all of the water for redemption when the armies
of God take over the enemies of God for the people of God. If you and I were sitting in
cells listening to the screams of our brothers and sisters in
Christ as they were being tortured, if we had just had our children
taken from us and put into boxes and shipped someplace else and
we read these words, we would surely, surely rejoice that one
day God will, in His great judgment and justice, suck up the life
of the wicked and He will bring victory. And I saw, now we're
back to the dragon, coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out
of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false
prophet, three unclean spirits, simile again, like frogs...like
frogs, okay? It's not Kermit. Know who it
is? It's not a frog even. It's unclean
spirits. This reference again to an unholy
trinity. This whole idea, remember, remember,
what is Satan the father of? Lies. He never tells us who he
is. Satan has never revealed himself
as the devil. He's never come to anyone in
this earth. He's never manifested a thought in this world where
someone was like, you know what, the devil, the enemy, the word
means adversary, evil one. That's what devil means. He poses
as an angel of light. And so what he wants is to steal
away the glory. He wants to stand on stage, per
se, and say, man, look at people love me because how great I am. So he's the father of lies, therefore
everything that he perpetrates is a lie. It's a falsehood. So
he takes what is truly glorious and he tries to replicate it
in some way where he can steal away the focus. He can steal
away the worship. He can steal away the following.
That's why we've got to be very careful, beloved, not to look
at this end time stuff as this incredible like Ghostbusters
garbage. Where all this nasty, mean, wicked,
and evil-looking stuff's coming? Friends, the devil is not coming
to look evil. He's coming to look holy so that
we'll worship Him and His spirits. They're demonic
spirits, verse 14, performing, just like 2 Thessalonians, performing
signs and wonders who go abroad to the kings of the whole world
to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. I think it's symbolism, just
like all these other plagues are symbolic or actually allusions
to the plagues of Egypt. Right, over Roman frogs. And
that's the picture of this. Look at verse 15. Behold, this
is parenthetical. That means it's in parentheses.
It's not in the context of the statement. It's just shoved in
there. It's sort of like Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. By grace you've been
saved. Just that sticking in there right there. This is parenthetical.
Verse 15, here's the key to the whole chapter. Behold, who's
speaking this? Jesus, behold, I am coming like
a thief. Blessed is the one who stays
awake. Blessed is the one who keeps
his clothes on, that he might not be naked and be exposed."
Now think about that, and we'll talk about it in a second. And
they assembled them at a place in Hebrew that is called Armageddon. Uh-oh, wait a minute, everybody
goes, there is an actual name of some place. Hallelujah, praise
God, God's given us a name. No he hasn't. No he hasn't. It's like it's not anything coming
out of the tabernacle. Does the tabernacle exist? It's
been gone a long time before the temple was ever built. The
tabernacle. I mean before the temple was
ever destroyed. Armageddon. This is not a battle in real
life. This is not the enemies of God.
This is not Satan blowing his fake trumpets and coming up to
the place where all of a sudden now he's amassed enough wickedness
in the world and enough kings to come together and say, I think
we've got a chance at licking Jesus. What does that look like? We've been watching Transformers
way too long. We've been watching TV way too
long. We've read too much Dante. We've been reading stuff to such
a degree. Nothing wrong with reading Dante.
I'm just being funny. But it's not a depiction of Scripture.
We've been looking at the stories that depict Gabriel up there
with his sword. And he's doing all the nice moves.
Maybe it'd be lightsabers. I don't know what it would be.
Maybe the devil's Darth Vader. It's not going to be like that.
There's no way that the creation can fight against the Creator.
There's no way that there's ever going to be a battle line drawn.
Nobody's standing out there like Goliath and thumbing his nose
at God, waiting for the Israelites to come out and fight. When some
coy little ruddy kid comes out there and says, do you hear him
cussing about our God? Why don't y'all get your butts
out there and kill him? You go kill him, dummy. That
I will. It's not going to be like that.
This isn't talking about that. It's not a battle. It's a continuation
of the assembly of God's enemies. All of God's enemies live all
over the world. Who are they? The lost. The unbelievers are
God's enemies. They are not God's children.
One of the worst attacks on the gospel of Jesus Christ that has
ever been perpetrated in our day, this month, is that the
Roman church would say that all people are the children of God. That's not true. Only those who are saved by the
Lamb of God are the children of God. Only those who will find
themselves in the mercy seat of God, Jesus Christ, are the
children of God. God will never bring judgment
against His children because He put judgment on His Son. So
therefore, all those who are unbelievers have continued to
assemble. Beloved, the darkness of wickedness
and sin and just the demonic is continually growing in our
world. Do you see that? It's continually
growing. Now I've got friends that I love
dearly and they'll hear me say this in about ten days. They'll
get around and listen to this and they'll go, oh, I'm done
with him, but I don't care. I do care, but I don't care.
I'm not going to withhold truth because it's going to hurt somebody's
feelings. But there is no way in Scripture that there is any
place ever in context of anything that's ever been written or said
by God that teaches that the world full of humans and full
of depraved, wicked individuals is going to get progressively
more moral and righteous and usher in some kind of reunion
with Jesus Christ and the people of the earth. Things are getting
worse every day. And every time someone is born,
if they don't believe in Jesus, evil is multiplied. And every
time somebody dies, if they're not trusting in Jesus, they await
judgment for their evil. This unholy trinity, these frog-like
things, or things that are like frogs, that they're everywhere,
slimy, all over the place. These beasts, these two beasts,
Satan, the false prophet, they produce signs, and wonders, and
messages, and movements, and paradigms. They produce all sorts
of philosophies, and ways of men, and things that seem right,
but in the end lead to death. They produce all this stuff because
people would rather... Jesus says that people like signs
and wonders, but He condemns them for that. He condemns them
for that. He says, you people seek signs
and wonders, but you're looking at it. Look at me, Jesus says. I'm the sign. I'm the wonder.
I'm the righteousness. I am the Lord Jesus. I am the Christ. I am Messiah.
I am the one that come from heaven. I come to do the will of the
one who sent me. Only he who came from heaven can take you
back there. You can't go to God the Father
without a guide. You can't go to God the Father
without a high priest. You can't go to God the Father
without a perfect sacrifice. Jesus is the sign. Jesus is the
truth. Jesus is the way. Jesus is the
life. Demonic force in our world is
being allowed, and not just allowed, it's a bad word, is being used
by God to continually bring just decay and destruction and delusion
and deceit against the people of God, against
God Himself. For just as Jesus said to Paul,
or Saul, He stops Saul on the way to Damascus, and what does
Jesus say? He says, Saul, why do you persecute me? The crazy thing is, is that Paul
persecuted God's people, Christians, the way. He didn't persecute
Christ in any direct sense, but to persecute God's people is
to persecute God. People are not God's people because
of the blood that flows through their veins, or the genealogy
of their lineage, or the lineage of their genealogy. They are
not God's people because of their heritage or traditions or history. The only people who are God's
people are those who have the promise of the covenant of Abraham.
And those who have the promise of the covenant of Abraham are
all those who are in Christ. There's Romans, the latter part
of Romans 9 and 10. What about Armageddon? Well,
this day of judgment is soon, it's coming. Armageddon, Megiddo,
the fortress city on the foot of Mount Carmel. Israel fought
here a lot. Deborah and Barak at Mount Tabor,
I think is how you say that, fought the Canaanites. Saul was
defeated at Gilboa. This is all in the Megiddo Valley. Josiah died there against his
battle with the Pharaoh. What was his name? There you
go, Nico, got it. Elijah battled with who? Who
was it? What was her name? Jezebel. It
was all right there. So this was not the place that
Israel went to war. And here's a picture of all the war, all
the fighting, all the treachery, all the tension, and all of the
enmity between God and evil. All of it, not portions of it,
not a position of it, not a particular people of it, but all those who
are not in Christ, all those who are opposed to God, all of
them. This is what the revelation is showing us here, that the
fullness of all the enemies of God, are going to be as if they're
in battle in this valley and God is going to do something.
Look at verse 17. We're back at the 15 there. See, it seems scary, doesn't
it, when we start seeing John write about all the enemies of
God gathered together against us. Isn't that weird? It's a
way to lose your nerve. But in verse 15, Jesus puts that
parenthetical, I'm coming. I'm coming like a thief too.
I'm not going to knock on the door and I'm not going to announce
myself. I'm going to come right in the middle of the night. I'm
going to come when you least expect it while you're sleeping. He said, so my people
stay awake. My people stay dressed and stay
ready. It's like the night of the hurricane. I never put on
my pajamas. I never took off my shoes and
I never put up my flashlight. And I sat there all night listening
to all night. We ought to be more ready for
Jesus, more attentive for Jesus, because he is victorious. The
judgments are poured out on the entirety of the cosmos. So verse
17, I'm almost through. The seventh angel poured out
his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple
and from the throne saying, it is done. So that's what we're
waiting on. That's what these people were
waiting on. That's what they were looking for. They were waiting on someone
to give them security. And that seems to be the only
theme. Isn't that the only application we've taken home now for what,
20 weeks? Maybe not the first five. Take home a headache during
those. But I mean, think about it. Isn't
that the application of all of this? Is that we are now victorious? He poured it out, it's done,
it's finished, the seventh bowl, it's done. God has done all the
work of redemption and all the work of justice. the great city,
or there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder,
a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was
on the earth. So great was that earthquake." What is this a depiction
of? The depiction of judgment. It's a depiction of like when
God met with Moses in the tempest of Mount Sinai. It's a picture
of the thunders that pealed that we saw that John was not allowed
to reveal. Remember, do not write these
down. This great city was split into
three parts, and the cities of all the nations fell, and God
remembered Babylon the Great. What's that mean? That means
the record of wrong was brought forth. You know God doesn't forget. God doesn't forget any sin we've
ever committed, any sin we've ever considered, or any sin that
we've ever adored. He will not forget for those who are lost. That time you rolled your eyes
at your mother, here's an eternity in hell. That time you refused
to obey the speed limit, here's an eternity in hell. That time,
that time, that time, that time. God will remember the sins of
the reprobate and He will make her drain the cup of the wine
of the fury of His wrath. Think about that. He will drink,
we will not, they will drink the entirety of the cup of God's
wrath. And it says in verse 20, every
island fled away and no mountains were to be found. and great hailstones,
about 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on people, and they cursed
God for the plague of hell, because the plague was so severe. So
see, this doesn't play out in time like this, but it's a depiction
of the vastness and the completeness and the severity and the righteousness
of God's judgment against them, all the while those who are not
in Christ cursing. If you look at verse 1 of 17,
it says, Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls
came and said to me, Come, and I will show you the judgment
of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom
the kings of the earth have committed immoral sexual immorality, and
with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on the
earth have become drunk. And He carried me away in the Spirit
into the wilderness and saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that
was full of blasphemous names." In this next week, we're going
to start seeing the picture of exactly why the judgment of God
is necessary. And we see there that it's not
talking about kingdoms and armies, it's talking about people. That's
what chapter 17 tells us. Individual lives and souls who
are worthy of judgment 2 Peter, Peter writes in chapter 3. You
can turn there with me and I'll read this and we'll close. This is talking, Peter talking
to Jewish Christians who have believed in Christ and forsaken
Judaism completely. 2 Peter chapter 3. And they're concerned with the
coming of Jesus Christ. When shall He come again? And
they will say, where is the promise of His coming? For ever since
the fathers died, fell asleep, all things are continuing as
they were from the beginning of creation." What does he mean?
Problems and sin and evil and wickedness and all these things.
I thought Jesus was coming to rescue us from all this. He is,
in His time. Verse 5, for they deliberately
overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and
the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word
of God. And that by means of these, the world that then existed
was deluged with water and perished. That's the flood of Noah. But
by the same word, the heavens and earth now exist are stored
up for fire. That's the great judgment. And
being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. But do not overlook this one
fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years is as one day. The Lord is not slow
to fulfill His promise, as some count slowest, but is patient
toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all
should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will
come like a thief. And then the heavens will pass away with a
roar, and the bodies of heaven will be burned up and dissolved,
and the earth and the works that are done in it will be exposed.
Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of
people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because
of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and
the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn? But according to
His promise, we are waiting for new heavens and new earth in
which righteousness dwells. Therefore, beloved, since you
are waiting for these, be diligent to be found by Him without spot
or blemish and at peace. And count the patience of our
Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote
to you according to the wisdom given him." That's Hebrews, by
the way. As he does in all his letters and when he speaks in
them of these matters, There are some things in them that
are hard to understand which the ignorant and unstable twist
to their own destruction as they do other scriptures. You therefore,
beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried
away with error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
But grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior. To Him be glory both now and
to the day of eternity. Amen. There's a context there,
2 Peter, as well in one of those words. In one of those verses
in 2 Peter 3, 9, for the Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise
of some counsel on us, but is patient toward you, not wishing
that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
In the context there of His audience are those Christians. And as
we know in the fullness of that letter, we start to see that.
That is a proof text a lot of people use to say that God wants
to save every human being. That's not the point. This wasn't
written to every human being. It was written to the Christians
who happen to be Jews. But this shows us here, beloved,
that we are not to lose heart while we're waiting for the judgment
of God, that it will come at the perfect time and the perfect
moment, and that until that time, we rest and we grow into the
knowledge of His grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, and then in doing so, the doxology of our lives
is to Him be the glory now and forevermore throughout all the
days of eternity. Amen. And as we sing that song
this day in our hearts and minds in the midst of pain, we shall
one day sing that song together forever. Never to cry, never
to gnash our teeth, never to be discouraged, never to fear,
never to doubt, never to worry, never again. Wow. Let's go today. So with that,
beloved, I pray the Lord to just Bless you in the hearing of this
Word. Let's pray. Lord, would Your Word be true? Work in us all that You intended
for us to hear and see this moment. And Father, we thank You that
we can understand this truth and that we don't have to twist
it to some level of weirdness. And we don't have to try to apply
it where it has not been applied and thus rile people up into
the different direction that was intended for it to be written.
But Lord, help us to be settled in our spirit. Settled in our
spirit to know that we are yours and are sealed in Christ and
nothing shall take that away from us. And settled in our spirit
to know that your righteous judgment is good and right and holy. And Father, let us be settled
in our spirit with the command you've given us to continue the
work of the apostles as we preach the gospel to each other and
to the world, that you would draw all your people to yourself
and that others who are destined as the way they live and destined
in their unbelief for destruction, if you do not save them, Father,
we pray that you would save them, if it be your will. Send us into
the harvest, in Jesus' name, amen.