Well, we like to start our services on Sundays
to say welcome to anybody.
If you're here in our room for the first time joining us
or if you're joining us online for the first time, welcome.
We're so glad you're here to worship with us
here at Hosanna Christian Fellowship.
This morning, oh, I am Pastor Nathan, by the way,
for those of you that may be new,
and this morning we are coming to the description
of the end of the world.
I did not wanna open this study by saying
today is the end of the world because,
considering what's going on in our world,
that might scare some.
But we're coming to the description of the end of the world
in our study of Revelation.
For some, for some of us, it might be easy to think
as we go through life in this world that,
if people just saw enough miracles,
if people just saw enough signs and wonders,
that of course they would be converted, right?
Many of us have had experiences with God
in our own personal relationship, and we're like,
wow, this is just mind boggling and so definitive for me,
and if someone else just had this experience,
they might immediately come to know the Lord,
but sadly, we know that's not true.
We even know in the gospels that people saw Jesus
raise Lazarus from the dead, and they still did not believe.
You know, in the tribulation period specifically,
and we've been studying this in the book of Revelation,
that people will see so much miraculous activity,
both divine and demonic, and many,
and yet many will still follow Satan,
still follow the demonic and reject God at this time.
Well, today, we are gonna look at the last
of the last judgments of God in the context of Revelation.
We've been looking at all of these judgments
through this book as God has given this vision
to John the Apostle, laying out what the end times
will be like, a time period that Jesus described
as the worst period in Earth's history.
It's called the tribulation period.
The last three and a half is specifically referred to
as the great tribulation period.
This whole time is referred to as the day of the Lord.
There's many other titles for it.
And we've looked at the seven seal judgments.
We've looked at the seven trumpet judgments.
Last week, we took a look at the first five bowl judgments,
and now we've come to the very end
of this seven-year period known as the tribulation time,
the final moments before Jesus returns again.
And so the last two bowls we're looking at today,
the sixth and seventh bowl judgment, set up a war,
a final war that is coming between man and God,
where God is gonna just finish it.
He is gonna say it is done, and it is gonna be
God's final judgment upon the sin of mankind
and their rejection of Him.
And then we're also gonna see what looks to be
a renovation of the face of the Earth.
A picture, if you will, of Jesus taking back
the property that belongs to Him,
doing some intense demo and renovating the place
in preparation of His millennial kingdom.
Collectively, these last two judgments
are the end of the world as we know it.
But we're gonna pray first, because I always like
to pray and glorify God and think of Him
and who He is and what He's done
before we get into these very heavy, heavy teachings
about what's to come upon the Earth.
God is worth our worship.
He is worthy.
He is almighty.
He is just.
He is holy.
He is righteous.
He has so many wonderful things,
and He deserves our praise, amen.
Let's pray.
Father, we love you so much.
God, it has been a difficult and a tough study
as we've been walking through Revelation,
seeing what is to come upon the face of this Earth
for those who reject you.
God, we're living in a time right now
as things are unfolding in our world
that are very compelling in the picture
of end times teaching and what is to come, Lord.
But God, despite what is happening now,
despite what has happened in the past,
despite what is to come in the future,
you are still God.
You are still almighty.
You are still holy and just.
You are true.
You are right.
You are love.
You are light.
God, you are perfect.
And Lord, we can trust you in all things.
We can trust you in all ways, Lord,
because we know that you are in control of everything.
And so we trust you, God.
Lord, today as we come to study the final two judgments
that are gonna effectively end
this era of Earth's history, God,
that are gonna bring to a close this time
before your coming reign upon this Earth,
Lord, I pray, God, as we look at the devastation
that is to come, as we study, Lord,
the picture of what is gonna be poured out
and the destruction and the death
that is gonna come with it, Lord,
God, we would again be reminded,
Lord, of how you feel about sin.
That sin is serious.
That sin kills.
That sin destroys.
And Lord, that even means that those who persist in sin
and reject you to the day of judgment,
it'll be because of their sin that they are destroyed.
But Lord, we still have time on this Earth now
to share the truth and the hope,
to share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And so Lord, encourage us, God,
as we look ahead what is to come,
let it be a motivator to us that are here now
to share truth with people,
to share the hope that is in Jesus Christ.
And God, those of us that know you,
we have so much to worship you for
and we have so much to praise you for
because you are so awesome.
And so God, we worship you now in preparation of today.
We love you and we thank you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
We are in Revelation chapter 16,
starting in verse 12 as we are looking at
the final two bowl judgments
at the very tail end of Revelation.
So read with me Revelation 16 verse 12.
It says, the sixth bowl,
the sixth poured out his bowl
on the great river Euphrates
and its water was dried up to prepare the way
for the kings from the east.
Then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs
coming from the dragon's mouth,
from the beast's mouth,
and from the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are demonic spirits performing signs
who travel to the kings of the whole world
to assemble them for the battle
on the great day of God the Almighty.
Look, I am coming like a thief.
Blessed is the one who is alert and remains closed
so that he may not go around naked
and people see his shame.
So they assembled the kings at the place
called in Hebrew Armageddon.
This brings us to what is known as the end of the world.
The end of all things.
We've been studying through Revelation
looking at this time frame as God has given it
to John the apostle and we've seen a lot.
And we've touched on many times through this
and I fully acknowledge that there are numerous
different interpretations of what these events mean
and how they unfold.
And I respect all those different interpretations
as I ask you to respect mine
and the interpretation of this church.
As we have been studying through Revelation,
we see Revelation as a chronological telling
of the judgments of God during the seven year period.
Seven seals followed by seven trumpets
followed by seven bowls.
We have seen similarities in these judgments
but we've also seen these judgments
have many differences and have seemed to escalate
as God is ever increasingly pouring out
his judgment on the earth all with an eye
to getting people to realize he is God Almighty.
They are sinners and they should turn to him.
And yet sadly as we've seen throughout Revelation,
many continue to dig in their heels
and blaspheme the name of God
knowing it is God pouring out these judgments
and yet refusing to bow the knee to him
and unfortunately then falling under
ever increasing judgment.
Well as we get here to this sixth bowl,
it starts out with telling us about this
great river Euphrates and this isn't the first time
we have seen this river specifically mentioned
in Revelation.
The last time was back in Revelation chapter nine
where we were in the trumpet judgments
and we read about these four demons
that were bound at the great river Euphrates.
The word it uses there is angels
but the word simply means a supernatural being
and so they're fallen angels that were incarcerated there
but it says that they were there bound
and prepared for a certain time
and at that time they were then released
as part of that judgment where they went forth
with an army of 200 million
and were allowed to kill one third
of the human population on the planet.
That was the first time we read about this river
in Revelation and now we read about it again.
And the reason is because the area of the river Euphrates
is a very important area biblically.
We do know going back to Genesis and stuff
that the river Euphrates, the area of this river
is where civilization began on earth.
Euphrates River is called the great river.
It's a famous river, it's a historical river
and it was originally the eastern border
to the promised land that God had given
to the children of Israel.
Now Israel never actually took all of that land
but it was the land given to them
and Euphrates River was the eastern border.
It was also incidentally the easternmost border
of the Roman Empire at its height
and that's just an interesting detail
because we see in the end times prophetically
that there is a one world government
led by the Antichrist and many refer
to this one world government as a revived Roman Empire.
And so again we see this area of the world
that has been a part of so much in history
brought back into the picture.
This river's region of the world
has also been the source of all kinds of strange
and just weird wickedness from the very beginning of history.
We do know that somewhere in the area
of the Euphrates River in a delta
that was formed by the Tigris and Euphrates
was where the Garden of Eden was located.
This garden was the garden that was infiltrated
by evil Satan himself.
This garden area was where the first sin was committed,
where the first lie was told,
where the first murder was committed,
where the first grave was dug.
This area of the Euphrates River
has been a significant problem area
for mankind from the very beginning.
It was where Nimrod defied God,
rebelled against God we read about in Genesis
and really rallied together a precursor
of a one world religious movement.
As he gathered everybody together and said,
we're gonna build a tower that's gonna reach
all the way up to the heavens
and they started building what was called
the Tower of Babel.
And you know it was then that God then struck down
a little judgment upon the people
and confused everybody's language
and then pretty soon nobody knew how to talk to each other
and they scattered.
The Euphrates region historically
has also been the location of some of Israel's
most oppressive enemies.
It's where the Ninevites came from.
The Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Medo-Persians,
cultures that feature prominently
in the eschatological, prophetical look
of what's to take place in the end times.
Essentially it's where world history began
and it's gonna be where world history has its end.
Now why does this river need to be dried up?
It tells us right there.
Its water was dried up to prepare the way
for the kings from the east.
That was why.
Now the Euphrates River in some places is 3,600 feet wide.
That's a big river, okay?
Some places it's anywhere from 30 to 60 feet deep.
To give you an idea, from the floor to the ceiling here
is about 30 feet, so double that
and that's how deep the Euphrates River is
at certain places.
That's really, really deep.
Now it's dried up so that these kings from the east
can come across it.
Now the big question is, who are the kings from the east?
Nobody knows, right?
There's a lot of ideas, but it's one of those things
in Revelation where we say nobody knows for sure.
Nobody knows for sure who the kings from the east are.
Now if you look at the geographical map
and you look east of the Euphrates River,
you're gonna find India, China, Pakistan,
North Korea, Japan, and many others.
Collectively, this area of the world, however,
east of the Euphrates River, holds the greatest percentage
of the world's population that exists today.
And this area of the world also possesses
some substantial military might.
So we don't know exactly who they are,
but whoever they are, they're gonna march
and they're gonna march west
and they're gonna march over what is a dried up
Euphrates River coming into what is the land of Israel
to attack Israel and to attack Jerusalem.
But for those of you that like to conjecture about things,
when it says kings from the east,
that word east literally means rising sun.
That's what the word means.
So it's literally the kings of the rising sun
are gonna march.
Now some people go, well that's describing
the Asian nations of the east there.
That's describing places like communist China
and so some think that the kings of the east
is referring to communist China
that is possibly gonna ally with Japan.
And for those of you who don't know,
Japan's flag is the rising sun, right?
So some people make connections like that.
We also know that it could be the Muslim nations
that are marching because they hate Israel
and there's Muslim nations over there,
east of Euphrates.
We know that China has actually supplied
many of those Muslim nations with weapons.
So it could be Iran, it could be Pakistan,
it could be India, it could even be Afghanistan
because our country was kind enough to donate to them
millions of dollars of very high end military technology
when we botched leaving that country a few years back.
But the point is is that there's gonna be nations,
kings from the east leading their nations towards Israel
and some of these nations might think
at the time that this river dries up,
look what a miracle.
Our gods have provided a miracle for us
so we could finally go destroy Israel the way we want to.
But it's the true God actually setting a trap
and leading these nations to the slaughter.
If you look in verse 13 of Revelation 16,
it says then I saw three unclean spirits like frogs
coming from the dragon's mouth, from the beast's mouth,
and from the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are demonic spirits performing signs
who travel to the kings of the whole earth,
the whole world.
So it's not just the kings of the east
that these spirits go to,
but the kings of the whole world to assemble them
for the battle on that great day of God the Almighty.
So again, these kings, these world leaders,
whoever they are, they're deceived by demonic spirits
and they're deceived by a really interesting vision here.
It says these demonic spirits that look like frogs
are coming out of the mouth of the dragon,
that's Satan, the Antichrist which is the beast,
and the false prophet.
These spirits are coming out of their mouths
and it says specifically that these spirits
are able to perform signs.
That means to perform miracles or apparent miracles
and these miracles, these signs are then convincing
these kings, these leaders of the world nations
to come together to attack Israel.
Now, you know, I read stuff like this
and I just think poor John,
he had to see some really weird stuff
in this vision God was giving him.
Some really strange things that he had to look at
and then in his vocabulary, he had to figure out a way
to describe some of these things, to write them down
so he could pen this letter as he was directed to do.
And so he says that these spirits, they look like frogs.
Right, they look like frogs.
Now, frogs to ancient cultures,
many ancient cultures were disgusting.
Frogs were a picture of a gross, slimy, foul thing.
That was the picture.
I know some of you today, you like frogs
and you think, oh, they're so cute
and you see the cool little cute pictures of frogs
and yeah, that's fine, but in ancient cultures,
many people thought frogs were foul.
They were representative of something disgusting.
In fact, to the Jewish culture specifically
and to the Persian culture,
frogs were specifically considered unclean and defiled.
And so touching them or having any interaction with them
would make one unclean and defiled.
But it says these frogs came from their mouth.
And so what we see as a picture here is this disgusting,
unclean, defiled, demonic something coming from their mouths.
Now, some people look at this and they see it
very specifically as metaphorical.
And so the idea that this is coming out of their mouth,
they go, oh, well, that's referring to the speech,
the things they are saying.
And we've seen that picture earlier
in the description of the Antichrist and the Beast
that they can have this evilness come from their mouth
and it was a reference to the wicked words they would use,
the oratory they used to manipulate people
and to get the world to do their bidding.
And so some go that's disgusting, unclean,
defiled, demonically inspired speech.
And of course, as we've seen in earlier in Revelation
that the source of this demonic power and influence
is Satan himself.
We saw earlier that it was Satan pictured
as the great red dragon who gave authority to the Beast,
the Antichrist, he gave authority to him
and the false prophet and through them was given them
the ability to perform signs and miracles.
And there is some conjecture on whether they were
false miracles or actually real miracles that got allowed.
But the idea is that these signs performed
and the things spoken by the Beast and Satan
and the false prophet are influencing the rulers
on the earth towards Satan, towards evil,
towards wickedness and ultimately are gonna influence them
to march upon Israel and Jerusalem.
But it specifically says that these demonic spirits
performed signs.
So it could also be that there was actually
some demonic spirits that kind of came out of their mouths,
flew out of their mouths, were called forth,
called into being by Satan and the Antichrist
and the false prophet.
They were manifested, if you will,
and these spirits actually were spirits out there
performing signs and wonders to deceive these kings.
Now when you think about that,
when we look at some of the atrocities
that have happened on our planet,
perpetrated by governments and government leaders,
and many atrocities that are still happening
worldwide today, we see things like child trafficking
and organ trafficking and just some foul things
that are perpetrated by those that have the power
to do what they want or at least what they think,
it's hard not to consider that there are indeed
many rulers and governments that are truly
demonically controlled today,
that have demonic spirits behind them,
influencing and manipulating them.
I mean today when we look at an entity like Hamas
that would butcher babies and decapitate babies
out of hate, I mean what pathetic cowards they are,
and yet it's their leaders that would lead them
to do these horrific things.
And then, I mean we could even go back further
and we see worldwide in our country,
you have government officials even in our country
primarily from one political party
that really aggressively wanna advocate
for murdering babies in the womb
all the way up until the moment they're born.
And they wanna call that healthcare.
And you look at stuff like this and you go,
yeah, demons are behind some of this evil
and this wickedness that exists in our country today.
But look at verse 14, it said these spirits
traveled to the kings and assembled them for battle.
Now we're gonna come back to verse 15,
but if you jump up to verse 16 it says,
so they assembled the kings at the place
called in Hebrew Armageddon.
So these kings and their armies,
they come into Israel into a very specific place
to fight against Israel, whom Satan and the Antichrist
and the false prophet hate.
We've looked at that when we looked at the woman
that was being persecuted by the dragon,
and we saw that as a picture of Satan
just being against God's chosen people Israel.
That you go all the way back through the history,
God chose a people group, Israel,
to enact his plan through.
And they have been far from perfect.
They have sinned greatly in so many different ways,
but still it was God's sovereign choice
as he chose this people to work in and through them,
to send the prophets through.
And then the Messiah, the savior of the whole world,
not just Israel, was born through that nation of people.
And then Satan trying to stop all that
through the Old Testament and ultimately failing
as Jesus came to the earth and was born and lived and died
and then said, okay, well I'm just gonna oppress this people
because there are prophecies that are yet unfulfilled
that pertain specifically to the people group,
the nation of Israel and the Jews.
And Satan's like, if I could wipe out that nation,
if I could destroy that nation,
well then God can't fulfill his prophecies
and ha ha, God's a liar.
And so the persecution and the anti-Semitism
that has been prevalent throughout history
is just railing today.
And yet we know that there is a plan.
And so Satan hates Israel, hates the Jewish people,
simply because they are God's chosen people.
But in verse 16, as they are assembling to this place
called Armageddon, it's not just a fight against Israel.
It's a fight against God.
It's war against God, which is really the foundation
of mankind's problem in our sin.
We're in a war against God.
And we've already seen throughout the book of Revelation,
especially by this time at the very tail end of Revelation,
the world has already acknowledged,
the unsaved world has already acknowledged,
we know that these judgments are coming from God Almighty.
They're acknowledging it.
There's a place now where people are like, God is real,
and I still hate his guts.
And so they gather together.
What deception to think that they could defeat God, right?
These spirits go forth, and whether it's actual spirits
or just words spoken, but these people go,
yeah, yeah, we should gather together.
Let's get our military might together.
Let's get our nations and our militaries together.
Because we could defeat God.
Really?
The ocean's gone, it's all blood.
Yeah, but whatever, we could still fight him.
We got bullets, pew pew.
The sun burned out.
Yeah, but we have missiles.
I mean, it's like deception to think
that they could defeat God.
And what deception to think that mankind
would ever have enough power to finish off the Almighty.
But Psalm two anticipated this.
In Psalm chapter two, verses one through three,
it says, why do the nations rage
and the people's plot in vain?
The kings of the earth take their stand
and the rulers conspire together
against the Lord in his anointed one.
Let's tear off their chains
and throw their ropes off of us.
And that's why people rage against God.
They think when God says, hey, don't do this,
it's bad for you, it's gonna hurt you,
it's gonna hurt your family, it's gonna hurt your friends,
it's gonna hurt your kids.
And people go, how dare you try and put chains upon my,
however I wanna live.
And that's the nations raging against God.
Don't tell me what to do.
And God's like, I'm just trying to tell you
what to do so you're happy and healthy and blessed.
Don't dare tell me what to do.
And so they have this idea that they're gonna come
against them and it was spoken all the way back there
in Psalms and so Satan, knowing that Jesus' second coming
is close at hand right here at the very end of tribulation
through the deception of the antichrist
and the false prophet and these spirits,
he brings the military might of the world together
to gather in Israel thinking
that they will indeed overcome God.
And we see a picture of the mindset of them at the time
when we jump forward to Revelation chapter 17
verses 13 and 14, this is what God says.
He goes, these have one purpose,
speaking of the nations of the world,
and they give their power and authority to the beast.
These will make war against the lamb,
but the lamb will conquer them
because he's the Lord of lords and the king of kings.
Those with him are called chosen and faithful.
And so the nations of the earth think
we're gathering together, we're gonna come and defeat God,
we're the ones doing this, we're the ones initiating this,
we're finally gonna cast off the yoke of God
and his religion, but Zechariah gives us a picture
of this from God's perspective.
It says this in Zechariah 14, two,
I, God speaking, will gather all the nations
against Jerusalem from battle.
Who's doing the gathering?
God's doing the gathering, it's a trap.
And then verse three of Zechariah 14, it says,
then the Lord will go out to fight against those nations
as he fights on a day of battle.
And so this is all a part of God's plan,
this is all a part of God's will,
and God will stand against them,
God gathers them together, and they will lose.
They will lose.
So we'll come back to verse 15, but in Revelation 16, 16,
again it says they assembled the kings of the place
in Hebrew called Armageddon.
This is what the whole sixth bowl is about, is this battle.
Now Armageddon, it's a word we've spoken out before,
it's a word that conjures up maybe images
of end of the world movies we've seen, right?
Remember back in 2012 when everybody was convinced
the Mayan calendar is right, and so there was that movie
that came out, and I've always been a fan
of apocalyptic movies, way back in the day, Mad Max,
you guys remember that?
After nuclear war, and there's a guy running around,
and it's like everything got destroyed
but black leather outfits, I guess.
And I've always been a fan of like,
oh, what would it look like, what could it be after that?
And God's like, here you go, Revelation, right?
So, but Armageddon, it conjures this idea.
The word Armageddon, actually the original language
is Har-mageddo, and so the word means
in the original language, the mountain of Maggedo, okay?
Now there's no real mountain there in Maggedo,
there's a hill, and we're gonna talk about that in a moment.
So it's the mountain or hill of Maggedo,
or it could also be translated
the mountain of the plain of Maggedo.
And so if you've ever had the opportunity to go to Israel,
one of the stops on Israel trips is what you see there,
that is the hill of Maggedo, that is the archeological dig,
the ruins, that is the city of Maggedo,
and that valley you see past it,
that is what is referred to as the Valley of Armageddon.
It's this large flat plain that lies
next to the hill of Maggedo.
Now, this area is 60 miles north of Jerusalem,
and today, as I said, it's an archeological dig.
And what they have found as they've dug into it
is there's actually like 20 or so cities
that have been there at different times,
one built on top of the other.
And so this hill serves like as a lookout
over this huge valley,
which is actually the meeting of two valleys there in Israel.
One is called the Plain of Ezdreelon,
and the other is called the Valley of Jezreel.
And this whole valley, this huge flat area,
is what's referred to as the Valley of Armageddon.
Now, if you visit there today,
you'll notice that this valley is just very beautiful.
It's filled with fruits and vegetables and farms and homes.
I mean, it's a really beautiful thing to look out upon.
But historically, it's often been a battlefield.
200 or so different battles have been fought
in that valley called the Valley of Armageddon.
Pharaoh has fought there.
Lord Allenby of the British has fought there.
Samson defeated the Philistines there.
Titus, the Roman general, fought there.
The Crusaders fought battles there in this area.
Shennachara of the Assyrian fought there.
Antikyos Epiphanes, who is the precursor to the Antichrist,
he fought there.
There's a whole bunch of people
that fought battles in this valley.
In modern times, it was the site of battles in World War I.
It was the site of much fighting in 1948
in the Arab-Israeli War.
Napoleon, who's thought to be one of the most brilliant
tactical minds of history,
said that this valley is the most natural battlefield
that he has ever seen in the entire world.
This valley that's up there has been the site
of so many great victories and great tragedies for Israel.
In Judges chapter four, it was the site of Barak's victory
over the Canaanites.
In Judges chapter seven, it was the site of Gideon's victory
over the Midianites.
You remember that story, right?
God said, hey, Gideon, go to battle.
And he's like, all right, I got this huge army.
And he goes, there's too many people.
What are you talking about, dude?
Like, their army's bigger.
Yeah, yours is too big.
And he whittled it down, whittled it down.
He said, okay, now it's like, what, 300.
Go fight.
Okay, Lord.
So you're gonna like go out there and do a thing, right?
No, you're gonna go and you're gonna follow
my really weird instructions.
And it defeated everybody, right?
Great victories.
But in 1 Samuel chapter 31,
this valley is where Kingsall and his sons were killed.
In 2 Kings, it was where King Josiah
was defeated and killed.
And so it's a place of battle, historically, great battle.
And so the kings of the east, it says,
they'll come to this valley.
The nations of the earth will be gathered into this area.
But when it says the Battle of Armageddon,
it's not just referring to all the fighting being
in this valley here.
This valley is representative of the larger battlefront
that is the entire nation of Israel.
And we know that because in Revelation chapter 14, verse 20,
it told us that the battlefront will encompass 180 miles.
Remember, it said that the blood will rise
to the bridles of the horses for 180 miles.
180 miles is, incidentally, the measurement
of the entire nation of Israel, north to south.
So the entire nation is gonna be a site of fighting.
And so the scope of that measurement in Revelation 14
tells us that the Battle of Armageddon,
or at least it tells me the Battle of Armageddon
is not just one battle, but it's a series of battles.
It's a campaign, if you will.
It's a series of fights collectively known
as the Battle of Armageddon.
Now, in Revelation 19, we're gonna look at great detail
at the conclusion of this battle,
where we're gonna see the kings of the earth
under demonic influence gathered together
for this all-out attack.
And we're gonna see the Antichrist leading the charge
of this attack.
And then there, we're gonna see that Jesus
then returns with the armies of heaven,
standing down on the Mount of Olives,
where he will once and for all defeat the forces of evil,
cast the Antichrist and the false prophet
into the lake of fire.
And that'll just be a really graphic picture
of the full execution of him trampling
on the great winepress of God's wrath,
as he finalizes and put it to an end.
After that, we're gonna read about Satan being bound
for a thousand years and imprisoned into the pit.
And during that thousand years will be
the millennial kingdom of Christ,
where Jesus will be here on earth
reigning for a thousand years.
It's gonna be a horrific battle though.
It's gonna be a war to end all wars.
It's gonna be gruesome, it's gonna be horrific.
But it's a part of the judgment of God,
as he has continually put out,
hey, I will save you if you call out to me.
That does mean obedience to God.
That does mean living his way.
That does mean living according to his word.
It does mean acknowledging God,
you're God, you know best.
But people will refuse that.
They say, no, we want our sin.
We want our depravity.
We want our whatever.
And they will stand against God.
But that all brings us to the seventh bowl.
The wasting of the earth or the renovation of the earth,
depending on how you look at it.
Revelation chapter 16 verse 17, it says,
then the seventh poured out his bowl into the air
and a loud voice came out of the temple
from the throne saying, it is done.
There were flashes of lightning and rumblings
and peals of thunder and a severe earthquake occurred.
Now, we've seen this type of stuff
in a few different stages of Revelation
that when God is escalating things,
taking the next step, we see this noise
and this commotion and this voice coming from heaven.
And so it goes on to say that there was a severe earthquake
like no other since people have been on the earth.
So great was the quake.
Telling us that this particular quake
is not like any other earthquake that has happened.
There have been other earthquakes in prior judgments,
but right here it's saying this quake is unlike any
that has happened in prior judgments
and at any point in history.
The great city split into three parts
and the cities of the nations fell.
Babylon the great was remembered in God's presence
and we'll look at Babylon in greater detail
in Revelation 17 and 18.
It says he gave her the cup filled
with the wine of his fierce anger.
Every island fled and the mountains disappeared.
Enormous hail stones each weighing about 100 pounds
fell from the sky on people and they blasphemed God
for the plague of hail because that plague
was extremely severe.
Now that is a very brief synopsis of the end.
The end of the end, the end of the world.
The moments right before Jesus comes
to set up his kingdom on the earth.
This is the last final plague, the seventh bowl.
You'll notice there it says that the angel
poured it out into the air.
Some read that to say that this is a very direct
focused judgment against Satan because the Bible tells us
that Satan is the prince of the power of the air.
And so they go this is a metaphorical judgment
against Satan.
It could be that, but as we read it,
this judgment of God's wrath being poured out into the air
results in a series of very real physical cataclysms
in the atmosphere and cataclysms on the earth itself.
And so it could be both, right?
It is a judgment against Satan,
but it is also a final judgment upon the earth
and those upon it.
Now every natural disaster that has ever happened
up to this point, every earthquake, every hurricane,
every everything, every tornado, every disease,
every plague, all of that, all of that were just warnings,
if you will, of what God will do in the end.
They were just samples, if you will, precursors
to what God's gonna do in the end.
And you'll notice there that after this bowl is poured out,
God says it is done.
It is done.
Now does that sound familiar to anybody?
Right?
You remember when Jesus hung on the cross?
And the full wrath of God against sin was placed on him?
What did Jesus say?
It is finished.
The seventh bowl, it's at the end of the world
and God is pouring out his full wrath on sin.
Again, if you wanna look at it that way,
he says it is done.
It's interesting, you go back into the gospels
and you see when Jesus said it is finished,
there was a local earthquake.
Here, when God says it is done, there's a global earthquake.
The judgment on the cross brought grace into the world.
It brought the opportunity of salvation for everybody.
That the prize had been paid,
the atonement had been laid on the altar,
the lamb had been slain.
And now through faith in his shed blood,
salvation was attainable for everybody.
Not a temporary salvation where you would have
to come back next year and make another sacrifice,
but no, a permanent salvation, cleansed.
From that point forward, every sin you've ever done
and every sin you will ever do is paid for
by the blood of Jesus.
What marvelous grace was given to us in that moment.
And from that point on, when people would look
to the cross and say, yes, I'll let Jesus take my sin,
the punishment for my sin, I will trust him to be my savior.
I will let God's full wrath fall on him for my sin.
I will believe in him, take him as my Lord, follow him.
When people have done that, from then until now,
they're making the wise choice.
They're making the right choice, the best choice,
but the wrong choice is, it always has been,
to refuse him, to harden your heart as many will do
in the end times as we've been seeing and many do today
and end up facing judgment on your own
without Jesus as your advocate.
That's the wrong choice.
But either way, whether you choose to let Jesus
take the punishment for your sin
or you choose to take it upon yourself,
it will be finished, it will be done.
The matter will be settled.
Somebody will pay the price for sin.
It can either be Jesus on your behalf or it could be you.
That's really the gospel in a nutshell, isn't it?
We've sinned against God.
We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
There's nothing we could do to pay the price.
There's nothing we could do to atone for our own sin.
We try.
We try and, well, I'm a good person.
Well, I'm not as bad as that person.
You know, and God always responds to us,
that person isn't the standard.
I'm the standard.
And we think, well, I only told a little lie,
but still a lie.
I didn't rob a bank, I just stole the ream of paper from work.
You're still a thief.
I'm not actually cheating on my spouse.
I'm just watching pornography all the time.
Jesus said, you lusted in your heart.
You've committed adultery.
We've all sinned.
And God has been trying to get the world to understand
that I have to judge sin because I'm holy,
and I'm just, and I'm righteous.
I can't just turn a blind eye and let it go.
And some of you in this room today,
maybe watching online today, you're going,
well, God hasn't judged me yet.
Maybe he's okay with my sin.
No.
To show you how not okay with your sin he is,
Jesus died on the cross,
was brutally tortured and bled out for your sin
to pay the price for your sin.
But you don't get the benefit of that
until you call out to him in faith,
until you trust in Jesus and put your hope in him
and say, God, I receive that free gift.
I receive your death in my place.
But if you don't do that,
that wrath that poured out on Jesus will pour out on you.
You will get the opportunity to pay your own price
for your own sin, and that breaks God's heart.
Says for he loved the whole world, that includes you,
that he sent his son.
That if you would believe in him, you would be saved.
You would not perish, but have everlasting life.
And God just pleads with you.
And I know some don't like that word,
but it's please, let me save you.
Because without the salvation, I will judge you.
But what we see here at the end of tribulation,
is this judgment pouring forth,
the full wrath of God, finalized.
And the planet is radically changed.
It's radically affected.
It's remodeled, it's rearranged, if you will.
There are some that even see this radical rearranging
of the earth as God preparing the earth
for the millennial kingdom that he is about to establish,
as he is gonna touch down on earth.
We have these massive, grand,
global earthquakes, it tells us that cities are leveled.
It tells us that islands are moved,
that mountains are flattened.
We're reading about the atmosphere continuing
to be changed and affected with thunder and lightning,
and something happens in the atmosphere to the point
that results in 100 pound hailstones falling from the sky.
You ever been hit by a hailstone?
The little ones hurt, right?
The little ones hurt.
They wreck your car, they wreck your car.
They hurt, they wreck your car, they break your windshield.
100 pounds?
Crazy.
It's like I said earlier, it's like Jesus taking back
the place that he originally built,
and doing some demolition so that he can restore it
to what it was before we gave away the title deed
and ruined it all.
And this restoration could be a return
to pre-flood conditions.
Some commentators see that, that the earth is gonna be
restored to a pristine condition for this thousand year
reign of Christ, right?
We get that from this.
It says there's earthquakes and islands moving
and mountains disappearing.
You guys remember what happened in Genesis chapter six
and seven during the flood?
I'll read a verse to you.
Chapter seven, verse 11.
It says, on that day, all the sources of the vast
watery depths burst open, and the floodgates of the sky
were opened, and the rain fell on the earth
for 40 days and 40 nights.
It's believed that before the flood, there was this canopy,
this vapor canopy that was around the earth
that created pristine conditions that blocked UV radiation
from the sun, that made it so perfect that it allowed humans
to live to a thousand years old, which was the lifespan
during those early years.
And it says that during the flood, water came from below
that the vast watery depths burst open.
There were streams, fountains underneath the earth
that burst open and water came forth.
And then the canopy, the floodgates of the sky were opened
and the water came from below and above it.
It flooded the entire earth.
It says that the water surged, and it surged to the point
that later on in Genesis says,
the mountains covered as waters surged above
the highest mountains by more than 20 feet.
Now in other translations, that phrase vast watery depths
is fountains of the deep, so there's just like springs
of water, if you will, fountains that burst open.
Now, there's some conjecture on this,
but when I read stuff like that and you look at science
continental tectonic plate shifting and stuff,
some of you have read some of this,
but it's pretty widely accepted that at one point
all the continents were together
and it was this massive supercontinent called Pangea.
You guys ever heard of that?
And when you study plate tectonics,
they know that continents are shifting and moving,
but at one time it appears that they might have been
one supercontinent together, all connected.
I think Genesis six and seven when the flood happened
is likely when the continents we know today were formed.
That's a personal opinion.
I believe that's possibly when Pangea was broken apart
and the continents were forced apart as this water burst up
through and on shoved tectonic plates apart.
Speculative, I understand,
but that's my personal opinion.
But since then,
I've been thinking about this,
and I've been thinking about this for a long time.
But since then,
the earth has just been active with earthquake activity
all over the earth.
As these tectonic plates continue to shift and move.
Why?
Why has there been earthquake activity from then until now?
Because we live on an unstable earth.
We live on an unstable earth that's not destined to last.
As we're seeing here in the seventh bowl,
the final judgment here,
we live on an earth today that is destined
to break up again and move and shift.
As it says, the islands flee and the mountains disappear.
What is that describing?
It's a massive geological shifting is gonna take place.
And some even say the effect on the weather
with the lightning and all this stuff,
it's gonna ultimately result
in that vapor canopy being restored.
And people aren't gonna die like they do now,
and life stands are gonna be expanded,
and things are gonna go back to pre-flood conditions.
You know, again, speculative, but there are ideas here
that something is changing radically upon the earth.
But regardless of how you see all that,
I see that Jesus is stepping in
and rearranging the living room.
He is stepping in and repainting and renovating.
I think it's gonna result in no more rifts and fault lines.
Everything's gonna be exactly how he wants it.
Then there's gonna be this thousand year
millennial reign of Christ,
and then after the thousand years,
it tells us that yeah, he recreates it all together
when there's a new heaven and a new earth.
Hallelujah, I can't wait for that.
But verse 19, it mentions the great city.
The great city is split in three parts.
What city is this?
There's a couple ideas.
Some people go, well, it's back to the old city.
There's a couple ideas, some people go, well, it's Babylon.
Babylon is a city that's split into three parts
because, well, it's mentioned right there in the verse,
right?
The city is split into three parts,
and the cities of the nations fell,
and then it says Babylon the great was remembered.
So people go, of course it's referring to Babylon.
Additionally, Babylon is referred to as the great city
in Revelation 18, 10 and 16 and 18 through 19, verse 21,
whole bunch of places.
You'll see verses like, whoa, whoa,
to the great city as it's talking about Babylon.
So that's one interpretation.
Another interpretation people have is that
the great city is Jerusalem,
and the reason they think that is because
if you look at verse 19,
some read it as making a distinction
between the great city and Babylon.
If you go back to it, it says the great city,
and then it says, and the Gentile nations,
and then it talks about Babylon.
So people read it as making a distinction between the two,
and again, they'll go back to earlier in Revelation
when we had the story about the two witnesses,
and they were murdered,
and their bodies were left to rot on the street.
It said that they were left to rot on the streets
of the great city where Jesus was crucified.
Well, we know where Jesus was crucified, right?
Jerusalem.
So, and then on top of that,
Zechariah has a prophecy that when Jesus returns
and his feet set down upon the Mount of Olives,
it tells us that the Mount of Olives will split in two
from the west to the east.
Well, if you look at a map,
the Mount of Olives is directly west of Jerusalem,
and if the mountain splits in half
and the split goes west and east,
one of those splits is gonna directly go through
the city of Jerusalem,
and so some see that there's gonna be some type
of great earthquake there
that causes this geological trauma.
There's a split, and then the city then splits
into three parts as a result of this,
and on and on and on.
And that ties into another prophecy in Zechariah
where it says that there were water flowing
from Jerusalem all the way down to the Mediterranean
and all the way down to the Dead Sea,
and then during the Millennial Kingdom,
there's gonna be fishermen in the Dead Sea.
And so people go, yeah, there's gonna be a split
and the city's gonna be broken apart as a part of this.
So, again, I don't know either way, right?
I personally lean towards Jerusalem,
but I won't make a case for that to die on.
So, but it says then 100-pound hailstones fall from the sky.
So the very last thing God does,
the last element of his wrath,
the last bit of activity of God's judgment,
the last moment, if you will, are these big hailstones,
these big blocks of ice falling from the heavens.
And you say, why is that the last thing?
Why hailstones?
Why not more meteorites?
Why not balls of fire, right?
Isn't that how God judged in the Old Testament?
Fire, right?
But why hailstones?
Well, you go back to the Old Testament,
what was the penalty for blasphemy?
It's being stoned to death.
Having large, heavy rocks cast upon you,
crushing you to the point where you die.
And so God is gonna do that very thing rightfully,
because as we read here, even in the judgment,
man is still blaspheming God.
So let's close with verse 15 real quick.
I wanna jump back to that.
This is Jesus speaking.
He says, look, I'm coming like a thief.
Blessed is the one who is alert and remains closed
so that he may not go around naked.
And people see his shame.
This is a comment, like as John is seeing this vision,
it's being revealed to him, it's like Jesus just jumps in
and makes a quick commentary regarding what he is seeing.
You know, the coming of Jesus Christ is often compared
to the coming of a thief.
We see that in 1 Thessalonians 5, verse two.
It says, for you yourselves know very well
that the day of the Lord will come
just like a thief in the night.
And what does he mean by using this phrase,
like a thief in the night?
Well, what do you think about when you think
of a thief in the night?
It's not someone who knocks on the door and says hi.
About a week and a half ago, two weeks ago,
my mom's car got stolen from in front of our house.
Thief in the night.
They didn't show up and say, excuse me,
I'm gonna take your car for a joy ride,
we'll leave it in Santa Ana,
pick it up in a couple weeks.
No, they didn't tell us that.
The idea, and we got the car back by the way,
praise God, so.
But the thief in the night,
it's the idea that it's the arrival of something sudden,
something you're unprepared for,
something that could be even dangerous,
and you go, wow, Jesus coming like a thief in the night,
something unprepared for,
that doesn't sound very comforting.
It's not meant to be comforting, all right?
The idea of Jesus coming like a thief in the night,
this is for unbelievers.
This is for those that don't know him.
You see, Jesus never comes as a thief for those
who belong to him.
First Thessalonians 5, 2.
You know that the day of the Lord,
and this was referring to the tribulation time period,
will come just like a thief in the night.
And then in verse three, he goes on to say,
when they, speaking of nonbelievers,
say peace and security,
when they think everything is okay,
when they think all is well,
destruction will come upon them.
And then in verse four of First Thessalonians 5,
he says, but you, brothers and sisters,
speaking of the saved,
you're not in the dark for this day,
or this time period to surprise you like a thief.
For you are all children of the light
and children of the day.
We do not belong to the night or the darkness.
For the church, Jesus doesn't come as a thief.
He comes as a bridegroom.
Now it says, be ready for him to come,
but he doesn't come as something dangerous,
something that's trying to take something from you.
He comes as a bridegroom.
We see that in First Thessalonians 5, 9.
For God did not appoint us to wrath,
but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So for the believers, we are waiting and watching for him,
because he's gonna return.
We don't know exactly when he's gonna return.
So yeah, it could be a sudden thing,
but the idea is we're expecting it.
We're not doing like the world does,
and the world will do during tribulation
and say there is no God, there is no return,
there is no judgment coming.
It's never gonna happen.
We're expecting it.
We're ready and waiting for him to take us to himself,
and the coming of this time of judgment upon the world
will take the world completely off guard.
They will have no idea and not be ready for it.
And it's just sad, because after all the treaties
and all the peace accords and all the UN humanitarian
efforts, the world's gonna think we're making
the world a better place.
We're making the world a better place.
We're making it good, we're making it all it should be,
and then it all falls apart very rapidly
in the span of seven years, very suddenly,
just when they think all is well.
And what does Jesus say here as John is watching
the conclusion of all of this?
He steps in and he goes like blessed is the one
who is alert, the one who is watching,
the one who is waiting, the one who is dressed,
clothed in righteousness, right?
Blessed is the one who is ready that they wouldn't
be ashamed, but they would be ready to go
when their Lord shows up to call them home,
taken away, saved from all this tragedy,
all this wrath, all this devastation.
As John is seeing the end, and he's seeing
the worst war ever, and he's seeing the final judgment
of God, and Jesus steps in and says, yeah,
praise God you're not gonna experience any of that.
Praise God you are saved from that.
In 1 John 2, 28 it tells us, so now little children
remain in him so that when he appears we may have
confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
That's the mandate we live under today as Christians.
We're looking forward to his coming,
but how do you get to this place of having confidence
and not being ashamed at him at his coming?
It's living for him today.
It's living in obedience to him today.
That's how you walk in this place,
live in this place of having confidence.
That when Jesus shows up with the shout,
with the trump and says, come home,
you're not like, oh shoot, I'm in the middle
of this sinful thing.
How do you make sure you're not in the middle
of that sinful thing?
You just strive to live in obedience to him.
You just study his word, you pray, you worship,
you say God I want my life to glorify you,
and you just endeavor to do it, he's calling you to do.
All the while watching and waiting and expecting
and anticipating the day when we're caught up
into the clouds as it says to meet the Lord into the air,
or meet the Lord in the air prior to his wrath
falling upon the earth.
So judgment is coming, we know that.
What we've been studying and looking at in Revelation
is yet future.
We've been seeing this vision that John has given,
it's very detailed, it's very graphic.
It's nothing anybody can prevent,
but it is something you can escape.
It is something you can avoid.
Paul said to the Thessalonians, Jesus is the one
who delivers us from the wrath to come.
So many scoff and dismiss and wave off any talk
of coming judgment as ridiculous.
That's just silly.
That's just Christian propaganda,
it's fairy tales that the church tells,
and that's exactly why they're gonna be caught off guard.
That's exactly why they're gonna be caught off guard.
This is exactly why judgment will come upon them
as a thief one day.
And I believe one day we'll be preceded by,
where did all the Christians go?
They are just suddenly gone from this earth.
And yeah, I think people are gonna be like,
aliens, UFOs, or some other silly ways to describe it.
But God forbid by this time, this tribulation time,
that people's hearts aren't so hardened against Jesus,
so hardened against truth, that when that time comes,
they simply cannot, will not repent,
even in the face of judgment.
This whole book, Revelation, has been pointing to
and warning of God's judgment against sin,
his judgment to come on sin for generations.
It's been pointing to that.
Sure, we talk a lot about and focus on now today.
It's been pointing to the cross,
where God the Father placed his judgment of sin
on Jesus, the Son of God.
That place where Jesus suffered and died for you and me.
That place where he said, it is finished.
I have paid your price.
I have died for your sin.
Trust me for salvation.
But it's also been pointing to what will come
for those who reject that,
to the judgment that will fall upon the earth,
that will fall upon those on the earth who have sinned,
where God will one day say,
you wanna pay your own price for sin, it is done.
You have a choice.
If you don't know Jesus today, you have a choice.
Make the right one.
Make the wise one.
Choose grace, choose mercy, choose forgiveness,
choose salvation for all the sin that you've done.
Choose to be saved from the penalty to come
for all the sin that you've done.
Choose the shelter of Jesus Christ.
Choose to be safe in the one who took all the wrath for you.
That you would avoid the full wrath to come
on all those who don't have that protection.
That you would be protected by the salvation
found in Jesus Christ.
Amen?
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you God for our salvation.
Lord, we know your judgment is coming upon this earth.
And God, it's hard not to wanna see that come quicker, Lord,
when we look around and we see things like child trafficking
and other horrors that are taking place on this planet.
It's hard, Lord, not to get eager for you to come drop
judgment upon those who would murder children,
who would terrorize others,
who would take hostages and kill them.
But Lord, even in that, we trust your wisdom.
We trust your timing.
We trust your will.
Because Lord, we know there are still people here
on this earth that don't know you, that need to know you.
There are people, Lord, that need to hear the hope
of the gospel of Jesus Christ before judgment comes
that they too would be saved.
And you're calling us to be a part of that work.
So help us, Lord, to be bold and to share our faith.
To study that we would understand your will and your word.
That we would be willing and ready to pass out a gospel
tract if that's what you want us to do.
To have a conversation if that's what you want us to do.
But regardless, Lord, that we would live as obedient people
knowing that how we live for you is also a part
of our witness.
And Lord, may we be diligent in doing this
because we know the time is coming, God.
When you're gonna take your church out of this world
and you're gonna begin a process, a seven year process, Lord,
of pouring out your wrath upon sin.
And even in that, God, you're gonna provide evangelists
and witnesses that people can still get saved
during that time.
And Lord, we pray for those that don't know you
that their hearts would not be so hardened against God
and so hardened against truth that they would resist you
to the point of death.
But instead, Lord, we pray, God, that you would just
do that work, plowing the field of their heart,
that the seed could be planted,
that the seed could be watered and the seed
could be harvested, that the fruit would be soul saved
to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Lord, we thank you for your word and we thank you
for these warnings, God, that they would be motivation
for us to get out into the field
because the harvest is ready, Lord, that we would be
a faithful church in doing what you've called us to do,
to preach the gospel, support the gospel,
proclaim the gospel, do everything we can
that the gospel would go forth, Lord.
We love you, we thank you, God.
Help us to never take our salvation for granted
but to live in just abject gratitude.
We love you, it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's worship, guys.