Let's take our Bibles now and
turn to Revelation chapter 16. Our lesson this morning is concerning
the last great battle for the souls of men. Now let's read
together Revelation chapter 16 verses 12 through 16. And the sixth angel poured out
his vial upon the great river Euphrates. And the water thereof
was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits
like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the
mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth
unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather
them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, Christ said, I come as
a thief Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest
he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together
into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. Now these verses tell us of the
last great battle for the souls of men, Armageddon. There have been thousands of
books and a multitude of sermons on this great battle. But most
of them are not within a million miles of the truth of it. Talking about nations against
nations and world wars and nuclear holocaust and all sorts of things. But the word Armageddon is only
used one time in all of scripture. Just one time. And my strong
concordance simply defines this Hebrew word as symbolic. Symbolic, that's what the word
means, Armageddon. Whatever Armageddon is, it's
not physical, it's spiritual. Armageddon is not a nuclear holocaust
nor a war which encompasses the whole world, though they may
come to pass in our time. Armageddon is a spiritual conflict. One which has gone on continually
since the beginning, but now on a much greater scale. There's a spiritual conflict
which goes on in the hearts of men, believers, continually.
Now he doesn't have a conflict until he's saved. When God gives
him a new nature, puts a new man within him, now he has a
conflict. The flesh wars against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh. It wars, it's a battle, it's
a continual struggle. And these two are contrary. They're
totally opposite of one another. One wants this, the other wants
that. And it's like a tug-of-war in
a man, going back and forth. It's a battle, a conflict. There's a fixed and certain fact
that is the experience of every true believer. Paul said in Romans
7.21, I find then a law, a fixed principle, that when I would
do good, evil is present with me. is present in me and is present
with me and is present against me. And all through that chapter
he talks about that spiritual battle. He said, I delight in the law
of God after the inward man. Don't you? I don't see anything
in the law of God contrary to you. His law is good, it's righteous,
it's good, it's holy. There's nothing wrong with his
law. Believers approve of his law, but they understand they
can't keep it. He said, I delight in the law
after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin, which is in my members. So there's an internal battle
which rages on in the hearts of true believers who can only
find peace as they walk with the mind of Christ. And that's
what Paul said, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? I thank God through the Lord
Jesus Christ. So then with the mind. I serve
the law, the mind of Christ, seeing that law fulfilled and
seeing that law exalted and honored in him. And then secondly, there's
an outward battle that rages in this world where the gospel
is declared to men. Paul wrote to the Corinthians
and he said this, though we walk in the flesh, that is, we live
in a condemned world, suffer certain weaknesses and disabilities
but we walk in the place we do not war against the place we
don't uh... we don't lock sinners up we preach to them we don't take
them out and burn them at the stake we preach to them This
warfare is not after the flesh. We don't war after the flesh.
We do not assume that men are able to submit and able to hear
and able to reason or understand. We don't war after the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through
God to the pulling down of their strongholds. these false refuges
built by religion and sold to deceive men. He said, casting
down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against
the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ. So this external battle for the
souls of men is fought by the means ordained of God. We don't,
I hope we're not as foolish as some to go out here and get banners
and march up and down the street and get committees and send them
to Washington and go up there and lobby, you know, trying to
legislate morality in our country. We don't do that kind of stuff.
We use the means that God has ordained. to tear down these,
to bring down these imaginations and to destroy these false refuges. We use the means that God has
ordained, the preaching of the gospel, the presence and power
of the Holy Spirit. Our weapons are not carnal, but
they're mighty through God. We couldn't tear anything down.
You know, the first spies that were sent into the promised land,
they went over there and they looked and they saw those walled
cities. One city, its wall was so broad
they could take four chariots abreast and drive it around that
wall. Jericho, this big, mighty city. And when they went into it, how
are they going to breach that wall? How are they going to get
through that wall? How are they going to deliver those people
that are inside that refuge? How are you going to destroy
that refuge? You're going to blow the trumpet. What? Going to blow the trumpet. What's
the trumpet? That's the gospel. You're going
to sound the gospel. And when you do, those walls
are coming down. Coming down. So our weapons are
not carnal, but they're spiritual. And here's the means after that
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And this second type of warfare,
I believe, is what our text in Revelation 16 is talking about. Of course, both warfares are
included in it, but mostly he's talking about this external battle. The battle over the souls of
God's elect rages even as we speak. The weapons of the old dragon
are being wielded against the church and the weapons of the
spirit are being used to overcome the adversary. Now let's talk
a little bit before we get into this about this river. Here's
this angel. We know these angels are ministers
of God and he has this golden vial. and he's carrying the plague
of God and the wrath of God in this golden vial and he goes
out to this river Euphrates and he pours out the wrath of God
on the river. So what is so significant about
the river Euphrates? And I found out when I studied
this that that river is named all through the Old Testament.
All kinds of significant events took place around the river Euphrates.
But what I recalled immediately when I read this was our study
that we did years ago back in Genesis chapter 2. He said that
there was a river that flowed east from Eden. What is Eden? That's Adam's beginning. That's the beginning. That's
the place of the beginning is Eden. And this river flowed out
of Eden into the garden. And it watered everything in
the garden, and then that river, as it flowed out of the garden,
branched off into four heads. And one of those four heads is
Euphrates. Now this river can't be anything
except the sovereign, redemptive purpose of God. That's what this
river... Everything in the beginning drank
from it. Everything in the garden drank
from it. And as it spread out and run
throughout all the world, everything in time and eternity drinks from
that river of God's redemptive purpose. Everything that's going
on. So now he's talking about the
end of time. And he said the angel poured
out his vial on the river and the river dried up. What's he
talking about? He's talking about God through
the preaching of the gospel. Those are the things that restrain
men and keep men from being as evil as they could be. And God's
withdrawing that. He's taking that away. That preacher
preached and they didn't want to hear it. They didn't want
to receive it. They bowed up and said, no, I
wouldn't serve a God like that. That river dried up. God's everlasting
purpose of grace to that place was withdrawn. And as it's withdrawn,
he makes the way for the kings of the east. He opens the door
for false religion. He opens the door. Here in our
text, he talks about the old dragon, and he talks about the
beasts, and he talks about the false prophets, And he talks
about all of these things together. And out of their mouth was frogs. Frogs. Slimy old frogs. Some frogs are poisonous, did
you know that? Deadly poisonous. Old pygmies
used to get that frog over there in Africa and they'd rub that
dart in it and shoot it in them monkeys. Boy, them monkeys just
fall out of the tree from that point, deadly point. Frogs, all kinds of frogs coming
out of the mouth, not only of the beast. Now you remember the
beast is world government. The beast is false religion.
And what is the mouth? What is the mouth of the beast? What is the mouth of the dragon?
False prophets. Huh? He likens them unto frogs. Slimy
old frogs. And it's coming not only out
of the mouth of the false prophet, and not only the mouth of the
beast. It's coming out of the mouth of world government. It's
coming out of the mouth of religion. It's coming out of all of these. This is what's coming out. Is
that what you hear when you hear them talk? Can you recognize
and see that? How they'll promote any kind
of religion under the sun except the religion of God. The gospel
of God's sovereign grace. I heard a preacher here recently,
he brought a message on predestination. His opening remark was this.
If you don't believe in the God of absolute predestination, you
might as well go out here in the yard and dance around a totem
pole. Is that too hard? It's so. Did you know everything that
was accomplished was accomplished according to the predestination
of God? Those kings, when Christ went
to that cross, those kings gathered together with the Gentiles and
the Jews and All the priesthood, everything, they were all gathered
together to do what? What God's hand and God's counsel
determined before to be done. Now if that's what was done at
the cross, how you gonna believe in a God who doesn't predestinate
all things? Even the death of Christ was
predestined. Not only that, he said, not a
sparrow can fall to the ground without your Father. That's pretty
insignificant, isn't it, a sparrow? But he ain't falling until God
says it's time to fall. Now we see what's going on here,
all of these things. Everything in Eden and everything
in the garden and everything in the world drinking from this
river. And this river, this river of
God's purpose, how does it flow? It flows through the preaching
of the gospel. It has for thousands of years
and it continues to flow. And where it doesn't flow, where
God dries it up, you can just, you count on this, those people,
the way has been opened to them to gather them unto the battle
of this great day. It's made the way for them. They
wanted that way, they chose that way, they delighted in that way.
God said, here it is. Here it is, come on. Come on. Now I'm going to tell you something,
nothing short of an intervention of God is going to make any difference. In that day, there's going to
be a handful. He likens it to two prophets
who lay dead in the street. few and not even recognized by
religion as a threat, that they lay like a dead prophet in the
street. So overwhelming. is religion,
that when you try to talk to somebody about the purpose of
God or the salvation of God or the death of Christ or any of
these things, when you go to talk to them about it, they say,
now wait a minute, are you saying that everybody else is wrong
and you're right? Huh? You see what I'm saying? The power behind it is these
miracles. He said these devils, these frogs,
these devils that are coming out of their mouth, these work
miracles. These prophets, they go out and
work miracles. They don't go out with horns
and a pitchfork. They go out in the form of soup
kitchens. They go out in the form of hospitals. They go out in the form of schools. They go out to house the homeless,
and all of those things are good in itself, but they don't go
out for that cause. They go out to promote the doctrine
of devils. That's what it is. And that's what he's saying.
You just opened a door. You've opened a door. And God
does, and made a way for those kings to come together with these
kings. And that's what's going on today. They don't know they're a part
of it. They don't know it's a universal thing, but it is. John said, we know that we are
of God. God has confirmed that in our
hearts. The Spirit gave witness with
our spirit that we are sons of God. We know that we are of God. We know the truth. This truth
flows through the scriptures. We know that we are of God. And
the whole world, the whole world, lieth in wickedness. Ain't that
what he said? And that's what's going on. Gathering
them together, gathering them together. And the more gathered
they are, the more sure they are that they're right and successful. I remember the Baptists back
in, I think it was 1970 or 1980. I think it was 80. They said
a million more in 84. That's what they were preaching. A million more in 84. The more
that's gathered in, the more confident they get, the more
accepted they are. My soul, why wouldn't you accept
religion? It's on every corner. Well, if it was as evil as you
say it is, Preacher, wouldn't government shut it down? No. Governments are deceived by it,
too. And the bigger it gets, The stronger their assurance
is, the more they feel like they're victorious and they're doing
all this in the name of God. Every bit of it. Their God. But what's really going on is
they're being gathered to the battle of that great day. There's a day coming in which
this world, being deceived by the old dragon and his prophets,
shall set themselves against the people of God. The place
in the Old Testament, if you want to read this this afternoon,
where this battle of Armageddon is no doubt rooted, is in Judges
chapter 4 and 5. Israel finds itself pitted against
King Jabin the Canaanite. And his spoilers, these men who
go out and spoil the enemy, his spoilers are sent out to ravage
the fields and plunder the crops of God's people. And they're
so numerous. This army is so great and so
numerous that the Israelites are afraid to show their faces
in public. And Israel was not able of themselves
to wage war against this king. This king had 900 chariots of
iron. Iron chariots, armed to the hilt,
driven by experienced men. Israel didn't hardly have a spear
to their name. But there was a battle fought,
and if I remember right, it was fought right beside the river
Euphrates. And it was fought by the waters
of Megiddo. That's where Armageddon comes
from. And heaven fought for them and
they cried, O my soul, thou hast trodden down strength. And so it is that Armageddon
is symbolic of every battle which when the need is the greatest,
when the odds are overwhelming, the Lord steps in and the battle
is his. I remember he told one general
of his, he said, you got too many men. He said, too many?
He's already outnumbered two to one. He said, you got too
many men. So he cut them down by about
half. Lord said, you got too many men. He whittled them down
to a handful, went out and whooped that big army. And you know who
got the glory? Not the general. God got the
glory. And that's what's going to happen
in this end battle. He's going to show you odds that
you can't even imagine. You can't even imagine. And he's
going to destroy every one of them all at once. And the place
is Armageddon. Armageddon. It's symbolic of
every battle, which when the need is the greatest, the Lord
suddenly appears and conquers his enemies and saves his people. You remember old Sennacherib.
He had 185,000 standing against Israel. And the angel of God
came out and slayed them. all by itself. That's a shadow of Armageddon.
But the real and final Armageddon coincides with that time of Satan's
little season. It says in the very end Satan
should be loosed for a little season. That's what it's talking
about. And in this time the world under
the Leadership of Satan through governments, anti-Christ religion,
the beast, and false prophets will gather themselves together
against the church for one last battle. And the church will cry
out for Jehovah to help, and at that time, the Lord Jesus
Christ himself, like a thief. He's not being expected. He's
not being looked for. The world doesn't even consider
that he's going to do this. And in a time when they think
they've won the battle, he's going to appear in the clouds
with all the glory of his father's house and with all his holy angels. And the battle will be the Lord's. And not one of his people gonna
fall. Not one. This great battle of
Armageddon. He said these spirits that come
out of these false prophets are the spirits of devils. And I don't know what these three
things is. He talks about these three spirits. I don't know what
these three spirits are. But I'm going to speculate a
little bit and just tell you some of the things that I think
they represent. I think they represent the will
of man. That's an evil spirit. That's a spiritual doctrine that's
being taught by false religion. The second is the works of man.
The works of man. You can be saved, Russell, if
you'll just keep the Sabbath. If you serve him, if you pray
enough and give enough, walk straight enough, That's doctrines
of devils. That's what that is. The will
of man and the works of man and the glory of man. Our Lord said,
you do what you do. You pray. He said, I'll give
you that. You pray three times a day. But you do it in the marketplace. And you do it to be seen of men.
And when you give, you give where everybody can see you. Why you
do it? To be seen of men. And when you
fast, you don't go and put your, clean up and comb your hair and
everything. He said you mess your hair up
and get your face. You want everybody to know you're
fasting. Oh no, I can't eat today, I'm fasting. You do it to be
seen of men. And he said when you do it, you
got your reward. You got what you's after, the
glory of man. That's what you go. Doctrines of devil. And they're
called unclean spirits. That is, these things that they
preach, if we want to look at them in a spiritual context,
that's what our Lord said about eating his body and drinking
his blood. He said my words are spirit and they're life. So if
we hold this thing in a spiritual context, These things are unclean
under the law to eat. We don't eat frogs under the
law. I'm not saying you can't eat frog legs. Just listen to
what I'm saying. Under the law, they were unclean.
And they're likened under these unclean frogs. And we're forbidden
to eat them. And they're called unclean. And
they're called frogs to indicate God's judgment of them. As He
sent frogs upon Egypt. They're called frogs to describe
their abominable and repulsive character. And they're called
frogs because they represent all satanic ideas, plans, methods,
and hell-born enterprises. Frogs. And though this army is ruled
by and inspired by Satan, yet it has the appearance of an evangelistic
army. And these spirits of devils go
into the kings and the people of the world and they work miracles. And they go in assemblies called
churches and organizations like hospitals and they go in the
name of missions and orphanages and all this type of things.
And they go in the name of soup kitchens and halfway houses.
And I could go on and on. They go working miracles and
so they appear, as Paul says, angels of light and ministers
of righteousness. And all of these things serve
a good need, but what makes them evil is why they're doing them. You know, religion, he said,
encompasses sea and land. They'll go to any end to make
one proselyte like unto them. And when they've made him, he
said, he's two-fourth more the child of hell than the one who
made him. That's what he's talking about here. And these people
being deceived, being given over to a strong delusion by God,
he's made the way. And here they come and they gather
together. And now you've got the whole
world opposed to what's left of God's church. Now he's going to appear and
he'll get all the glory from Armageddon. just as he has through
all the types of Armageddon throughout the scriptures. So take hope
in that. Thank you.