Now, as you know, last week I
made the point that when it comes to Armageddon, and we'll look
at the word, that most people look at this as a physical battle
that's going to take place in a place, what they call the Valley
of Megiddo, which is in the Mideast there, Palestine. great armies fighting a physical
war, and I don't agree with that. I don't believe that is supported
in scripture, and I'm going to show you several reasons here
about that, but there's a couple things you need to keep in mind.
First of all we're in the last days and of course we have to
understand now when we talk about the last days that we're talking
about the the New Covenant the New Testament days that began
with the first coming the work finished work the death burial
and resurrection and the ascension of Christ That's the beginning
of the last days the scripture says Up to the time of his second
coming And we are in a portion of scripture talking about the
pouring out of the bowls or the vials of wrath that take us up
to the very end of time when Christ will return to gather
his people unto himself and to make all his enemies his footstool,
what the scripture says. Well, first of all, keep in mind
this, that the Lord told his disciples, it's recorded in Matthew
24, it's recorded in Mark chapter 13, that throughout the last
days, there are going to be wars and rumors of wars. So there's
going to be physical battles. I mean, we see that today, don't
we? with terrorism, declaring war on terrorism. We see wars
between countries. We see civil wars, political
wars. But you know what he was saying
there? He wasn't saying that that's going to be what the future's
like. He's simply saying that the future is going to be like
it already is. Everything's going to go along
just like it always has. When has there never been a time
in the history of the world since the fall of man that there hadn't
been wars and rumors of wars? I mean, the history of fallen
man, fallen in Adam, depraved man, is a history written in
bloodshed. So what he was teaching them
was as we approach the second coming of Christ, things are
pretty much going to go just about as they always have. People
are going to be married, they're going to be given in marriage,
he said. They're going to do this, they're going to do that.
There are going to be wars. So there will be physical wars,
nobody's denying that. But this final battle What I
believe the scripture teaches is a spiritual war that will
come to its culmination in the second coming of Christ, who
is the victor. But look at 2 Corinthians 10. He says in verse 1, he says,
Now I, Paul, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,
who in presence am base among you, he's talking about himself
there, but being absent and bold toward you, But I beseech you
that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence
wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us
as if we walked according to the flesh. In other words, Paul
is talking about the power of the word of God, not the power
of the person. In other words, the message that
Paul's ministry as an apostle, the success of it, was not owing
to his pulpit presence or his eloquence or his personality. And I'm going to tell you something,
false religion, whatever success they have, that's pretty much
what it is. I mean, you get a preacher in
there who's got, like I said, the pulpit presence, the personality,
the eloquence, the charisma, and people flock in. He can entertain. But Paul says, we don't walk
according to the flesh. The power and success of Paul's
ministry, which was the Lord's ministry through Paul, was the
message of the gospel of how God can be just and justify the
ungodly. How God saves sinners, how God
reconciles sinners to himself, and how sinners are reconciled
to God through the merits of the obedience and death of Jesus
Christ. His blood, the power of His blood.
We sing that song, there's power in the blood. Do we really believe
that? And His righteousness imputed, that's the message. And if the
Holy Spirit empowers it to be the gospel, as the power of God
and salvation. So we don't walk in the flesh,
but we're in a battle. We're in a spiritual warfare.
And look what he says in verse three. He says, for though we
walk in the flesh, that is in this physical body, in this physical
world, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, not physical, not fleshly. It's not guns and
knives and tanks and atomic bombs. But mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds. Now what strongholds is he talking
about? Look at verse 5. Casting down
imaginations. Now you might have in your concordance,
if you've got a concordance in your Bible, you might have there
for the word imaginations the word reasonings. And that's what
he's saying. How does the natural man reason
these things out? Well, he does it on the basis
of a lie. That salvation is conditioned
on him and he's got to make the difference. He's got to do the
work. And so our weapons are not fleshly. We're not to pull a gun on him
and say, now confess that Christ is your Lord. Anybody who's ever
done that in history is going against the teachings of Christ.
It's false Christianity. But we cast down imaginations
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge
of God and bringing into captivity every what? Thought. Our battlefield is the mind.
Our preaching, our witnessing is aimed at the mind, not at
the body. And he says, to the obedience
of Christ. And I believe that's talking
about Christ's obedience as the only ground of our salvation.
Now with that in mind, go over to Revelation 16. You see, we're
not in a physical battle. This is not draw swords or load
up the tanks. That's not the kind of battle
the church is in against the world. The kind of battle we're
in is a spiritual battle. And it's going to come to a culmination.
And what it says here, look, now we dealt with this last week,
but this is the sixth angel, verse 12. That's the messenger
of God, all right, poured out his vial or his bowl of wrath
upon the great river Euphrates. Remember, the river Euphrates
is symbolic of that which feeds and gives life to Babylon. Babylon is a symbol of false
religion. That's what this is. There was
a literal river Euphrates that ran through the city of Babylon
when the Jews were in captivity. And the way God delivered them
was by King Cyrus of the Medes and the Persians, his generals,
he had them dam up the river Euphrates and it dried up and
it cut off their life source, their physical life source. And
he conquered the city of Babylon, the great city of Babylon, without
drawing a sword. They gave up. No buildings were
destroyed. And what it says here, and the
water, verse 12, the water thereof was dried up that the way of
the kings of the east might be prepared. The kings of the east
refers to believers who are made kings and priests unto God. So
what he's saying is here in this inn, in this sixth vial, The
lifeblood of false religion, Babylon, which stands in opposition
to Christ and the gospel and his church, is going to be cut
off, dried up, that the way of the kings of the east, which
are believers, will be made clear, be prepared. And what this is,
this is preparation. For the final end of all things,
the second coming of Christ and the gathering of his people who
are symbolized here by the kings of the east. Those that come
out of the east are those who come in Christ. He is the sunrise. He is the son of righteousness. And he says in verse 13, and
I saw three unclean spirits like frogs, that's reptiles, come
out of the mouths of the dragon, three unclean because of the
unholy trinity, the dragon, which represents Satan. And incidentally,
how do we defeat Satan? Do we get with an atom bomb? Look over at Revelation chapter
12, where he talks about the devil. Look at verse nine of
Revelation 12. How do we defeat Satan? What
is our weapon? What is our victory against Satan? It's not through human armies
and human weapons. But look at verse 9, it says,
The great dragon, that's Satan, was cast out. And that's talking about him
being cast out at the death of Christ, which was victory over
Satan. He bruised the serpent's head. Cast out that old serpent
called the devil and Satan, the many names, which deceiveth the
whole world. Now, when any of you Armenians
come along and say the word world always means everybody without
exception, point them to this verse. Because it says here,
Satan deceives the whole world. Well, we know that doesn't include
the people of God, God's elect. So he says here, he deceives
the whole world. He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with him. Verse 10, I heard a
loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation. and strength
and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ, for
the accuser of our brethren is cast down." Satan's accusations.
He's going to accuse the brethren. Well, what does the Bible say
about the brethren in Christ? Who shall lay any charge to the
account of God's elect? Who can condemn us? But Satan's
going to accuse the brethren. And he says, which accused them
before our God day and night. Now look at verse 11. How do
we overcome him? How do we beat him? And they overcame him by
the blood of the lamb. We plead the blood of Christ
for our salvation. What can wash away my sins? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace.
This is all my righteousness. Isn't that right? And the word
of their testimony. Well, what is the word of our
testimony? Well, you could state it different ways, but one of
the ways, one of my favorites, Galatians 6.14, God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. We boast
have confidence in Christ crucified and risen from the dead. And
they love not their lives unto death. That's an emblem of repentance.
In other words, we've turned from, we've taken up our cross
to follow Christ, and we've turned from ourselves. Now go back to
Revelation 16. Well, that's how we defeat Satan. And so in verse
13, these three reptiles, frogs, came out of the mouth of the
dragon, that's Satan. And out of the mouth of the beast,
that's the beast that came up out of the sea, which represents
ungodly, anti-Christian governments, empires. And out of the mouth
of the false prophet, that's the agent of the beast that came
up out of the land, which represents false religion. The false prophet. And he says in verse 14, he says,
he says, for they are the spirits of devils working miracles. They
will listen. They'll do some impressive things
that will impress the natural man. And we've, I referred to
second Thessalonians chapter two, the, the line wonders. of Satan, they're wondrous in
the eyes of men, but it's based on a lie. And that's why I've
always told you, you know, when these people come along talking
about the faith healing and the miracle working, the thing that
caps it all off is what gospel do they preach? Do they preach
salvation conditioned on Christ, Him alone, His blood, His righteousness? Or do they preach salvation conditioned
on the sinner? Because if they preach salvation
by the works and the wills of sinners, I don't care what else
happens. I don't care if the guy is really
healed. It's a lying wonder, and that's what it is. He says
in verse 14, which go forth unto the kings of the earth. See,
there's the kings of the earth, as opposed to the kings of the
east. Kings of the East being the elect of God, the redeemed
of the Lord. Those who are justified before
God in Christ by His righteousness imputed. The kings of the earth
are in the service of Satan. And of the whole world, there's
the whole world again. To gather them to the battle
of that great day of God Almighty. Now look at verse 15. Behold,
I come as a thief. What does that mean? Well, that
means he comes unexpectedly to the world. The world's not expecting
this. Not really, not the way he's
coming now. I know there are false preachers
and false believers who believe in the second coming of Christ.
But I guarantee you, they're not expecting this. They're like
the Jews of old who, in expecting the first coming of the Messiah,
what did they expect? They expected the Messiah to
come in victory, riding on a white horse, yielding a sword, and
who would conquer all the enemies of the physical nation Israel
and pat them on the back and say, well done, fellas. They
didn't expect Christ to come and be a substitute on a cross
for the sins of his sheep. They didn't expect that. Somebody
asked me one time, how do unbelieving Jews interpret Isaiah 53? You
know who they think? I've talked to about two or three.
You know who the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 is to an unbelieving
Jew? Israel. Israel, not Christ. But you know what? There was
an evangelist named Philip who disagreed with him. Philip was
a Jew. He went out and preached Christ
from Isaiah 53, didn't he? Acts chapter 8. And that's the
whole thing. That's the whole thing. He's
coming as a thief. Now, we, as the people of God,
do have no idea of the day and time of his coming. But it won't
be like a thief to us. You know why? Because we expect
him to come any time now. In fact, the Bible says that
we are lit to live our lives clinging to Christ, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, continually pleading
his blood for the forgiveness of all our sins, continually
pleading his righteousness imputed for our whole salvation, our
whole acceptance before God, nothing else but Christ crucified
and risen. And we're to live our lives clinging
to him in continual expectation that he could come at any time.
He's coming. Look at verse 15. That's what
he means in this next line. Blessed is he that watcheth.
That means to stay awake. That means to be aware of things. It means to be focused. Our hearts
are fixed, the scripture says in the Psalms. My heart is fixed
on Christ. I'm not looking to anyone else
or anywhere else for salvation, for deliverance. Flee from the
wrath to come. Well, where are you going to
flee to? Well, watch, be awake, be aware,
it's in Christ. And so we settle, we fix our
eyes upon Christ by faith. And I've got in your lesson here,
that's more than just a glance or a wink. It's not looking in
him one day and then looking away. Now I know that we as believers,
because we're still a sinful people, we can get diverted,
can't we? Problems, troubles, and even
prosperity, we can get diverted. But be aware of that. Know that
that can happen. and pray that the Lord will keep
our eyes. You know, the only reason we
persevere is because we're preserved by the grace and power of God.
Now that's it. I'm gonna talk about it a little
bit this morning from 1 John 3 about how we are to abide in
Christ, continue in him and nowhere else. So that's what it's talking
about. Now this is the work of the Holy
Spirit in a justified person to fix us. And then he says,
fix us on Christ. He says, and keepeth his garment. Don't you love this language?
Look at it again, verse 15. Behold, I come as a thief, blessed
is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked
and they see his shame. Keep means to guard. It means
to cherish. It's kind of like holding it
close to your chest. It's like, you ladies, when you
had that first child. The first thing you wanted to
do when that child was born, you wanted to hold that child
to your chest, didn't you? You wanted to hold that child.
And I got news for you, we men did too. We fathers did too.
I can remember when Aiden and Neil, when Aiden was born, my
grandson, and then Neil, my second one, one of my big, greatest
joys in life was sitting in my recliner, reclining back, and
having one of those children on my chest just rubbing their
backs, and we'd both go to sleep. And it was love. And you know
what I'm talking about. This is something you cherish. That's what it means. And what
are you keeping here? Your garments. Well, what are
those garments? Well, we could go all over the
scripture to prove the same thing, and that's talking about the
righteousness of Christ. It's talking about the garments
of salvation. Isaiah 61 speaks of that. How do you know it's talking
about the righteousness of Christ? Well, it says, lest he walk naked.
Where's the first place in the Bible? Let's go to the law of
first mention, the scriptural interpretation. Where's the first
place that nakedness appears in the Bible? Fall of man. Adam and Eve. They were naked. Now they were naked before they
fell. And so we were talking about
that thing one time. I think they knew they didn't
have any clothes on, but they just didn't have the shame with it.
They didn't have the shame. And the shame had to do with
Everything had changed. Their relationship with God had
changed. And nakedness in the Bible is
a symbolic way of speaking of standing before God in shame
without a righteousness that answers the demands of His law
and justice. That's what it means. Think about
that. You know, there's a beautiful
picture of that in the book of Zechariah. What is it, chapter
three or four? Some of you Bible scholars. You
know where Joshua the high priest is standing before the bar? God gives Zechariah this vision
of Joshua, who was a man named Joshua, who was the high priest
of Judah at that time. And he's standing before the
bar of God's justice, and he's clothed with filthy rags. And that represents man's, I
think it's Zechariah 3, but that's symbolic of the filthy rags of
man's own works righteousness. Remember Isaiah in Isaiah 64
said, our righteousness is our filthy rags. And it looks good
to men. It's like those in Matthew 7,
21 who stood before God and said, Lord, Lord, haven't we preached
in your name? What are they doing? They're
presenting their reason for God accepting them. What they think
recommends them unto God. And it looks so beautiful. Haven't
we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And in God's sight, you know what it is? It's iniquity. We stand before God in a righteousness
that cannot be taken away, that cannot be contaminated, that'll
last forever. So therefore, it cannot be the
righteousness of man. It's the righteousness of God.
And that's what he's talking about here. That's the only hope
we're going to have. And he says, if you walk in nakedness,
what are they going to see? Your shame. But the scripture
says that those who stand in Christ, read it in Romans 9 and
Romans 10, those who stand in Christ shall not be ashamed.
Why? We have nothing to be ashamed
of if we stand before God in the righteousness of His Son. So everything about this points
to the symbolism of a spiritual, real relationship with God. Look
at verse 16, that's where we're going to conclude. I'm going
to talk about that word Armageddon in just a few minutes. He gathered
them together in a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. Armageddon. What does Armageddon
mean? Well, as you know, most people today, because of the
dispensationalism and all that, they think that's in reference
to the plains of Megiddo, which is northeast of Jerusalem. And
there are the plains of Megiddo. There were several important
battles in Israel's history fought there. I've got some references
there in your lesson, in the book of Judges, in the book of
second Kings and in those battles it's true that Israel was always
in an impossible position where they couldn't win and unable
to deliver themselves from the enemy but God stepped in and
he won the battle well now we know that on our own we can't
win any battle Remember when Christ told his disciples, he
said, in the world you'll have tribulation, but be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world. Our victory over sin, our victory
over Satan, our victory over death, our victory over the world,
our victory over the flesh, it's not by our power, it's not by
our goodness, it's always by the power of God in Christ. So
I will be quick to say, look, if this is a physical battle,
which I don't see anything in scripture that supports that,
If it were, and if you want to disagree with me on that, as
I told you last week, listen, we live in a free country. You
have the right to be wrong. So either way, if it were to
be a physical battle, I know this, it's not going to be won
by the power of man. It's not going to be won by the
weapons of man. It's going to be won by the power
of God in Christ. All right? So we'll settle on
that, and that'll be our point of unity as far as how we interpret
the Scripture. So you may say, well, I believe
it's going to be a physical battle. Okay. I don't think you can support
it scripturally, and I probably know you won't take the time
to really go in and try to do that. But either way, it's not
going to be won by the power of man. It's going to be won
by the power of God. All right? So that's the key
thing. Our victory is in Christ. But
I believe it's a spiritual battle. I believe that it's a spiritual
battle that is just describing the final end and culmination
of all things. The word Armageddon, now you
can read this in your lesson. I won't go into all this history.
But it's really the word Har, H-A-R, dash, Megadon, or Magadon
as they would pronounce it. And it literally means Mount
of Gathering. Now there are some translations that call it the
Mount of Slaughter. But it's symbolic of the final
day of judgment where the last, last enemies of Christ will be
finally defeated, judged forever, never to return again. And you
go on and, like I said, you can read this on your own. I won't
go into all that. I'll pick up some next week on
that too. But I'm running out of time,
so we need to close now, all right?