If you asked the average person to imagine what the end of the
world would look like, they may most likely point to
catastrophes and natural disasters like tsunamis,
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, meteor strikes, famines,
droughts, and other things. And that perspective is not
entirely mistaken, because the scriptures themselves tell us
that events like these will in fact unfold in the last hour.
However, humanity's last chapter will go beyond these things, and
that is precisely what John is going to remind us as he
continues to explain to us the seven bowls of God's wrath.
You see, what we're prepared to see is that God's judgement in
the final days will also reveal itself in and through the
political realm as structures of leadership will give way and
governments will unravel. You see, last time we were
together, we looked at the first four bowls and they focused on
God's wrath through the creative order, the natural world.
And we saw these instruments in our universe that God originally
designed to be for our good suddenly become means of
punishment. Things like springs and rivers
and the sun itself began to punished evil doers.
And as unsettling such predictions are, there are still
3 bowls left. And we are now going to see a
transition from the natural world into the arena of power
structures and kingdoms and rulers and governments.
And we're going to read about it first together in Revelation 16,
beginning in verse 10 down through verse 16.
And we are seeking to better understand how God will carry
out His justice against evil before He ultimately claims all
things for himself. Revelation 16 verse 10.
The 5th Angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast,
and its Kingdom was plunged Into Darkness.
People nod their tongues and anguish and curse the God of
heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their
deeds. The 6th Angel poured out his
bowl on the great river Euphrates, and it's water was
dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east.
And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of
the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false
prophet 3 unclean spirits like frogs.
For they are demonic spirits performing signs, who go abroad
to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for the battle
on the great day of God the Almighty.
Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays
away, keeping the garments on, that he may not go about naked
and be seen exposed. And they assemble them at the
place that in Hebrews called Armageddon.
Father, we ask, please help us with these words.
Help us with these prophecies. Help us with these details.
We are asking in prayer. We are aiming, Lord, by Your
grace to receive clarity. Oh there is so much rewarding
clarity. We need clarity, Lord, so that
we can better understand You, Your ways and what You ask of
us, provided by the work of the Holy Spirit through the inspired
Word of God. In Jesus name we pray.
Amen. You know this very well and I
never get tired of saying it. The Bible teaches that one day
the Lord Jesus Christ will bodily return to this world, and
he will rule and reign from a throne in Jerusalem.
And when he does that, he will influence the globe in
righteousness, peace, and justice in an unprecedented,
unparalleled, comprehensive way. This is what we look forward to.
This is what we long for. And yet the Bible is also clear
enough to tell us and prepare us that there's going to be another
unique global reign in the days to come, enforced by not Christ
but the not a but the Antichrist.
And he will spread a satanic deception that will permeate the
nations and subjugate them with such severity and evil.
But you and I just read it. Hopefully we paid attention and
saw it that the Holy Spirit shows us that this future
dystopian regime will one day very swiftly come to an end and
the beginning of the termination of the reign of the Antichrist
will happen when the 5th bowl is poured.
Outlook again at verse 10 and notice how this bowl will be
poured out on the throne of the beast, telling us that this
judgement will be laser focused upon the headquarters of the
Antichrist. And the result of this divine
intervention is that it will plunge the Kingdom of the
Antichrist Into Darkness. And because we know up to this
point that the Kingdom of the Antichrist will be
international, it will be universal.
Then we can safely conclude that this darkness will also engulf
the entire world, at least those who serve and follow the beast.
Now this is something so important to understand this
darkness. It isn't metaphorical.
It isn't moral. If we honor the parallels that
John is making, drawing from the events from the Exodus, then we
have to understand that this is indeed a literal darkness, in
the same way that there was a literal darkness that plagued
Egypt for three days. We can't believe that there was
literal darkness then and not in the future.
So this in no way is an allegory.
This is actual, and beyond the terror and the misery caused by
a complete blackout of both natural and artificial light,
there's a clear message being conveyed here with this
judgement. The Antichrist, who could not
save his followers from the wrath of God, remember when God
afflicted them with sores, also shows us here that he could not
defend his own throne. Think about it.
The power of presidents, prime ministers, dictators, kings,
from our perspective is great. But from heaven's point of view,
whenever God wishes, he can turn off the lights of their
kingdoms. He can turn off the lights in
the minds of these rulers like Nebuchadnezzar, who became like
an animal in a second, and he can in fact veil the moon and
shut down the power grid as he will do here.
It's no wonder that the psalmist says in Psalm 2 when he
addresses kings and verse 10. Now therefore, O kings, be wise,
be warned. O rulers of the earth, serve the
Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling.
Unfortunately, the Antichrist nor his subjects will take heed
to this ancient call. Instead of fearing, instead of
trembling with joy, instead of kissing the sun like Psalm 2
verse 12 says, they will gnaw on their tongues and curse God.
You know what the word gnaw means?
Chew. They will chew on their tongues
and with their lips they will blasphemy God.
I'm not sure if you noticed this, but did you catch how the
descriptions of the 5th bold judgement resemble Jesus's
description of hell on more than one occasion?
Christ Jesus said of those who will not enter the Kingdom of
heaven, that they will be cast out into what outer darkness?
And in that place of darkness there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. And then you come here and
realize that these people, the masses at this time of the
tribulation period, are essentially being brought to the
brink of hell. They are so close to the eternal
reality. They're just getting a sample
and a measure of it on earth. And here's the most astonishing
part. They don't repent.
You know, there's some people
who come up with some clever arguments or express some
disturbances with the ways of God, especially with hell.
And some things that people say are like, well, isn't it a
little extreme that hell is eternal?
Wouldn't God want to give another chance of those who
experienced his full fury and realize the mistake of their
ways, that if they cried out for mercy in that place, why
wouldn't He rescue them? Why wouldn't He deliver them
from that place? And here's how I respond.
Who says everybody in hell will cry out for mercy?
Where did you get that idea from?
Because here you have the world experiencing hell on earth, and
instead of crying out for forgiveness, they're cursing
God. You think everybody in hell is
going to ask God to deliver them?
Some will weep and some will nurse their teeth.
You brought me here. I curse you.
And they will do so forever and ever and ever.
Did you know that the last time the word repent appears in the
Bible is in the verses that we just read?
The last time the word repent appears in the Bible is in this
text, verse 11, and it's not presented to us in a positive
sense, rather as a refusal to do so.
They did not repent of their deeds.
Something interesting happens after this point because twice
already in the section about the bold judgments, John tells us
that the people curse God twice already and refused to repent.
But look what happens at the 7th bowl, the last one in verse 21,
Revelation 16, and great hailstones, about 100 lbs each
fell from heaven on people, and they cursed God for the plague
of the hail because the plague was so severe.
So the people's cursing continues.
But did you notice that there is no mention of repentance, even a
refusal to do so? This suggests that after one
bowl following the next, by the time you get to the 7th, the
hearts of the people have become irreversibly hardened.
So much so that the Holy Spirit even doesn't even tell us that
they rejected. Repentance wasn't even a
thought. And the severity of the hardened
hearts of these people will reveal itself further in the
sixth bowl, not only through their words against God and his
Christ, but now in their willingness to wage war against
Him. That's what the 6th bowl is
about, preparation for battle with God.
And that preparation will take in a take place in an area
called Armageddon. Look again here, verse 12.
The six Angel poured out his bowl on the great river
Euphrates and it's water was dried up to prepare the way for
the kings from the east. Now we we saw that a lot of
rivers have been contaminated already have been damaged having
cut off as sources of water. But now one of the rivers out of
The Who knows how many in the world are in focus, the great
River Euphrates. Why?
What's so important about this? And, well, it's one of the
longest and most important rivers in the Middle East, even
to this day. And besides the fact that this
river has been used for the rise and development of many empires
and civilizations over history, it is also something that the
Bible shows us regarding important past events and
clearly future ones. And how we make sense of this is
when we recall what God told Abraham in Genesis 1518, that
the great river Euphrates will serve as the eastern boundary
point of the land promised to Abraham and his descendants.
And what you find following that throughout Israel's history is
that many of Israel's fiercest enemies cross the Euphrates
River in order to seek to besiege them and conquer them.
And so this river, biblically speaking, has become a symbol of
enemy invasion. And that is precisely what's
being presented here. That association from the Old
Testament continues into the new.
Though it is only mentioned twice, Euphrates is only brought
up twice in the entire New Testament, both times in
Revelation. And so with this background in
mind, when you read about this, you have to understand that God
himself is setting the stage for a war.
God is he is preparing the platform for the kings from the
east and the world to make their way toward the land of Israel
for battle. That is confirmed in verse 16.
And they assemble them at the place that in Hebrew is called
Armageddon. It's the only place in all the
Bible where Armageddon is mentioned.
It translates to Mount Megiddo, and what troubles some
interpreters is that there is no mountain identified in such a
way. There is no Mount Megiddo, and
so what's likely being described here is the hillside surrounding
the plain of Megiddo. Because there is a plain called
Megiddo, and Megiddo biblically speaking and even in history,
has been a region that determined decisive battles.
It was Deborah and Barack who overcame Sisera in Judges
chapter 5 near Megiddo. It was Pharaoh Nico who
destroyed and killed King Josiah in the same plane.
And these are just two of many examples.
So then the question that we were left with when facing this
truth of the Euphrates and also this place called Armageddon is
what exact battle is going to take place here?
And the answer is multi layered, but it definitely includes a
global confederacy, an attempt, a desperate final attempt to
eradicate what remains of the Jewish people in the land of
Israel. Have we seen this before in the
Book of Revelation? You remember the dragon in
Revelation 12? After being evicted from heaven,
one of his first things that he does is find the woman who
symbolizes Israel, who flees into the wilderness and out of
his mouth comes a flood of water to try to sweep her away.
And as we progress in the timeline of the last days and
the judgments of God, we find here that near the end of
everything, there is yet another effort to try to do what Satan
has been trying to do all along, delete Israel from the world.
But at its core, it's driving force behind all that we're
going to see here is actually found in Revelation 17.
The core reason for this is what we find in the very next
chapter. It's clarified.
Look at Revelation 17, verse 12. And the 10 horns that you saw
are 10 kings who have not yet received royal power, but they
are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with
the beast. These are of one mind, and they
hand over their power and authority to the beast.
You see what's happening here? There's this confederacy,
there's this alliance. These kingdoms give all their
authority to one man, the beast, the Antichrist.
For what reason? Look at verse 14.
They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them,
for He is Lord of Lords and King of kings, and those with him are
called and chosen and faithful. It's clear, isn't it?
The nations will gather in the land of Israel to ultimately
face off against the Lord Jesus Christ Himself in order to stop
Him from doing what He promised. And that was to save the Jewish
people and reign from the Holy City and rain from Mount Zion
and establish his government, fulfill the promise that God
made to David that one of his sons would rule eternally.
This is what they are trying to stop.
And maybe you're like me and wondering at this point.
Hold on, so you're telling me that the world population has
been afflicted with oozing sores, can't find drinking water
no matter where they look, are enduring a heat wave, are
plunged Into Darkness, and the top priority of the world
leaders is to take whatever energy and resources they have
left to go to war with God? This is absurd.
This is irrational. This is crazy.
How can this be? And fortunately, we're not left
in the dark, because the Holy Spirit tells us how it is that
such a thing will actually take place.
Look again at Revelation 16, verse 13.
And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of
the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false
prophet, 3 unclean spirits like frogs, for they are demonic
spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole
world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God
the Almighty. Here's one of the clearest
references to the unholy Trinity.
You have the dragon who represents Satan.
You have the beast who is the Antichrist, and you have the
false prophet who is the right hand man of the beast.
And notice here that John sees demonic spirits proceeding from
each of them, these vile beings sent out across the world to do
what? Seduce world leaders to work
together to meet in the plain of Megiddo at the face off against
Jesus Christ, the Messiah of the world and the Messiah of the
Jewish people? But how is this actually going
to work you may ask? Notice how the word mouth is
repeated 3 times in verse 13. The mouth of the dragon, the
mouth of the beast, the mouth of the false prophet.
So this repetition is obviously intentional, and it's an
emphasis. It's to suggest that the primary
means of recruiting the world to come against Jerusalem and her
king. You ready for this is through
demonically inspired propaganda. And notice that John describes
these spirits as resembling frogs.
I don't know how you feel about frogs, but frogs appear more
than once in the Bible. And again, we are honoring what
John is doing by the spirit. He is taking from the details
and the events of the Exodus. And we know that one of the
plagues that the Egyptians faced was the littering of frogs
across their land. And so John by the spirits
borrows that specific plague, brings it into this moment in
order to, in symbolic terms, to let us know that in the final of
the final days leading up to the return of Christ, there is going
to be a plague. What kind of plague?
1 of indoctrination and disinformation, one that will
convince the world to rise up against Israel and the God of
Israel. And guess what?
It's going to work and they will indeed give themselves to the
wishes of the Antichrist. And what will make this message
rooted in demonic thoughts will be authenticated because we read
that they don't only come from the mouths of the participants
of the unholy Trinity, but that they will also perform signs.
It makes you wonder if these world leaders are feeling a
little hesitant to follow the lead of the Antichrist after all
these disappointments. And yet, there will be this
final effort on his part to win their allegiance afresh.
They'll say, OK, let's do it. Who knows what will be said, but
it will succeed. Now, I want us to pause here for
a moment and reflect. When people think about demonic
activity, they often limit it to visible manifestations like
convulsions or unfiltered vulgarity and perversion.
Well, the Bible presents something a little bit more
complex when it comes to how demons work.
I want to remind you today through God's Word that demons
use words, that there is demonic activity not just in the future,
but even now in the realm of government, in the political
arena. And more than that, demons very
much capitalize on those who use their mouths to shape the
opinions of the public. And that is going to be
something very prevalent in the last days.
So here's what this means for you.
And I be careful what you listen to.
Oh, they might have wonderful personalities.
They may be witty, they may receive the wider applause, and
yet their arguments, their theories, their messages, their
podcasts can very well be rooted in demonic deception.
And people are eating it up. I didn't.
I didn't come to Christ until 20, the age of 20.
But even before that, I can recollect what the world was
like, and I can't think of any time in my lifetime where
theology is being discussed on this level in the secular world.
All of a sudden, people are becoming experts in eschatology.
Be careful what you're listening to and how it may be influencing
you, because demons use people's mouths, and the only way you and
I can discern what's true and false is by soaking your mind in
the Bible. That sounds cliche, doesn't it?
Well, cliches are important sometimes because even though we
know this, we don't practice it, and we have footholds in our
minds and we don't guard these ears and we don't compare what's
being said to what's been said by God.
And then we begin to sway and shift and doubt.
You know, I was reflecting on this on my way here.
Actually, Paul said something astounding in Romans 11 verse
25. When Romans 11/25 is quoted by
by most, they quote the second part and they forget the first
part. It's in that verse where we
learn that a partial hardening has come upon Israel until the
fullness of the Gentiles come in.
You heard of it, right? Do you remember what Paul said
before in the same verse? What did he say?
Lest you be wise in your own sight.
I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery.
And then he says, Brothers, a partial hardening has come upon
Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in.
But notice what he said. Lest you be wise in your own
sight. What's the context of that one
translation says Lest you be wise in your own opinion.
Do you think people have opinions about Israel today?
Yeah, even in the church. And guess what?
A lot of those opinions are not based on the clarity that we
have about God's plan for this people.
They are unaware of the mystery. They're speaking from the place
of ignorance. Have you done your due diligence
to study the Bible from cover to cover to come to your
conclusion, your conviction, your doctrine of the people of
Israel? Are you being informed by the
podcast that you're listening to on your way to work?
Is that where you're getting your source of information from?
Why do you believe what you believe?
Have you gone to the Old Testament?
Have you gone to the New? Have you seen how they
harmonize? Have you seen where things
contradict? What do you know about it from
the Bible? You know what the Holy Spirit
says to Paul, to Christians, I don't want you to be unaware.
In other words, we can't settle with, well, I just don't know.
No, the Bible says, I don't want you to be unaware.
The Bible doesn't want you to just say, I don't know.
So clearly, based on Paul's words, as difficult as some of
his teachings are to grasp right away, there is clarity.
There are answers, clear enough answers that when somebody
speaks about what we should believe in the Bible concerning
the certain doctrine, we can say hold on, hold on, hold on.
That's not right. It may be popular today, but
it's not right. So don't settle remaining in the
dark or confused, Paul says. I don't want you to be unaware.
Now here's where this becomes even more comforting for us.
Like many parts of the Book of Revelation, the brewing battle
that John is describing here is nothing new.
John is completely aligned with the prophets of old, the
prophets of old who have told us throughout the centuries that
there is a battle of battles, that there is a final face off
between God and the forces of evil, and it will take place in
the Holy Land. You know, some people say the
land there, that small section that's no bigger than New
Jersey, it's not so important. Well, clearly it's important to
God because things are going to happen there.
I usually don't do this, but I'm just going to read to you verse
after verse after verse. Put it in your pocket.
And if you're wrestling with these verses, know that God can
give you clarity and answers about them.
And we will look at these Old Testament prophecies in the
weeks to come, especially next week.
But just listen. Just take it in.
Don't allow yourself to go into autopilot mode and get
distracted. Lean in and listen to what this
is, ancient prophecy I'm reading.
I'm not reading the newspaper to you.
Ancient prophecy that's been preserved by God for our
instruction and our inspiration. Listen to what the prophet Joel
says in Joel chapter 3, verse one to three.
For behold, in those days and at that time when I restore the
fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations
and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat means the Lord judges, and I will enter into
judgment with them there on behalf of my people and
MyHeritage. Israel, because they have
scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land.
Whose lands? It it's God's everybody's.
Oh, it's belongs to them. No, it belongs to them.
Oh, that's what happened at this point.
OK, figure it out. Well, my Bible says it's all
gods, and he gets to do what he wants with it.
They have divided up my land, so I'm going to enter into judgment
with them. We think.
Well, you're talking about land in the Old Testament.
We're in the New Testament. Land shows up in the New
Testament too. We just looked at Euphrates and
we looked at Armageddon. So clearly land is still
relevant unless you want to make this all symbolic.
Armageddon means this and it happened in 19.
This. Is it past or is it future?
Hopefully you've been here long enough to know there's a case
for the future. View Zechariah 12 verse 2.
Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to
all the surrounding peoples. The siege of Jerusalem will also
be against Judah on that day. Pause.
Zechariah loves to use that phrase on that day, and when he
uses it, especially from chapter 12 down to chapter 14, it speaks
about the final day. On that day verse 3 says I will
make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples.
All who lift it will surely hurt themselves and all the nations
of the earth will gather against it.
Do you think when God says all, he means all?
On that day? Verse 4 declares the Lord.
I will strike every horse with panic, and it's rider with
madness, but for the sake of the House of Judah I will keep my
eyes open when I strike every horse of the peoples with
blindness. Zechariah 14 Verse one.
Behold, the day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken
from you will be divided in your midst.
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to
battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered,
and woman raped. Half of the city shall go out
into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from
the city. Then the Lord will go out and
fight against those nations as when He fights on a day of
battle over and over and over again.
The prophets predicted a face off between God and the rest of
the world. Who will come up against the
holy city to try to eradicate God's promises through the
Jewish people and to try to stop the Son of God from entering
into the world to fulfill what He said to David and to us?
And if there's any take away, there's a lot that was said.
We'll hopefully explore these more in detail next week.
But if there's any key take away from what you just heard now, it
is that God himself is going to orchestrate these events.
How many times do we read? I will, I will, I will, I will.
He's going to lay it all out. He's going to move the pieces at
the right time. It will be fulfilled.
And that should comfort you. You're saying how?
Because in Revelation 16, we see demons at work, we see unclean
spirits persuading and drawing the nations in.
But in the background, according to the Old Testament and even in
the New, we see that it is God who ultimately manages it all.
He is sovereign even over demons.
He is sovereign over kings. And he will allow them to do
what they want to do, thinking that they're actually going to
be victorious, when in fact, it's going to be a trap.
So you can imagine how they're going to think, oh, there's the
the river Euphrates drying up. This is our chance.
Let's make our way. Not realizing that they're
walking through their own judgement.
Have you ever thought this? I've thought it.
Doesn't the devil read the Bible?
He does. He knows more than most
Christians, actually. I'm sure he read Revelation 16.
Has that ever dawned on him like this is going to happen?
This is my faith. Even though I possess a man
known as Antichrist and convince the world to come against
Christ, it's not going to work. Pride is a powerful thing.
Pride is very powerful. And Satan is so filled with
arrogance that he actually thinks, even though this has
been inscribed from eternity past, that he can change it and
he can convince those kings. If we work together, we can
actually do this. We can win the world back to us.
We can stop the anointed one from coming.
They've already acknowledged that God was the one who's
behind all these plagues. It's not like they're a bunch of
atheists going to Jerusalem. They know that God is behind us,
and Satan's going to convince them we can actually win.
Pride is scary. Lord, keep us humble.
And what this battle is actually going to look like is described
for us in Revelation 19. Revelation 16 is just a
preparation. Revelation 19 is when Christ
actually comes. And what we're going to learn
there is that this isn't really going to be much of A battle.
It's going to be over in a moment.
And I won't go to that chapter just yet.
It'll surely be the climax of our study of this book.
But here's how we're going to end.
You know, we're approaching the the completion of the bold
judgments. And there's a pattern in the
series of judgments that we've seen before in the former ones,
you remember the seal judgments that were broken, the trumpet
judgments that were blasted in each set.
Whenever we come to the 6th item on the list, there is an
interlude. There is a pause, there is a
break, and the purpose of that break is to offer inspiration
and encouragement and hope as we are reading about this gloom and
doom. And we come now to this last set
of judgment. And what do we find?
Yet another interval in verse 15.
And if you have a red letter edition, then you will know that
these are the words of Jesus. And even if you don't, you know
it's Jesus based on the content. Behold, I am coming like a
thief. Blessed is the one who stays
away, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked
and be seen exposed. So consistent with the former
judgments, but a lot more brief. Did you notice when we looked at
the seal and the trumpet judgments at point number six
for each of them, those bricks were much longer, sometimes
chapters long. Why is this reduced to a
sentence? Because these judgements are
moving quite rapidly. Everything is happening in such
quick succession, One after one after one.
They overlap, and so the encouragement must be short.
Do you know why? Because Christ is coming back
soon anyway. And here's what this means for
you and I. The summary of this beatitude is
simple. Be ready.
Jesus says, I've told you in advance in detail of how I'm
going to return and what's going to happen.
And your response is to be ready.
One of the practical benefits of studying prophecy is that it is
designed to position us to remain in a continual state of
preparedness. And yes, this, this call in
verse 15 in great part is for those who are living at the time
of the great judgments of God through the bowl judgments,
however they apply to us. It's as though Christ interrupts
and he speaks to the reader, his children, his disciples, his
service, and he says be ready, stay clothed.
Clothing here speaks of righteousness, it speaks of
deeds, it speaks of character. Be mindful of my return.
Don't lose sight of it. Is it possible to not think
about Jesus returning? Absolutely.
There's so much going on in this world and I'm fully aware that
there's so much going on in your world.
And perhaps you're there thinking, preacher, if you only
knew what my house looks like. I have so much work to do.
If you only knew what my mornings look like.
I love my children, but it's a workout every morning.
If you only know what it's like to go to the store.
If you only what it's like. I have so much going on and here
you are telling me to think about Jesus coming back.
Yes, you go to a church called Maranatha.
And may I suggest something that you meditating on the return of
Christ has greater implications of how you think about this
world than you think that thinking about being ready for
Christ will actually help you filter how you perceive all the
things that you think are so overbearing and troubling and
distracting. This isn't me.
This is Jesus saying be ready. Blessed is the one who stays
awake. Meaning what?
You're aware, you're constantly aware Christ is coming back.
That's what it means to be awake if you're not thinking about
that. I'm not saying it has to be
uninterrupted thoughts. I'm saying though it has to be
regular. If it's not, may I say this in
love? Wake up, You're asleep, you're
asleep, you're a child of God, yes, but you're taking a very
long nap, spiritually speaking. And because of that, you are so
consumed with this life. I'm not saying that we have to
be so heavily minded that we don't do anything practical in
this life or enjoy anything in this life.
You know this very well. At the same time, you are called
to be heavily minded and it will change absolutely everything
about who you are the more you ingrain that in your meditation
and your thinking. Think about it.
Remind yourself of it when you turn on the news, which I
suggest you don't, to be honest. But if you do, how much do you
think about prophecy? I'm not saying take headlines
and make them and force them into the Bible.
I'm saying the simple thought, Lord, I thank you that you're
coming back. You're going to clean up all
this mess. Is that a hope in you or is your
hope in a candidate? God help you if it is.
Well, if I'm not careful, I can keep going on here.
Here's my question Now for the person who's in this place who
may not be a Christian, do you have the absolute assurance that
when Jesus Christ comes back, you'll be ready to face him?
You know, if there's any kind of preaching that we need in these
days, is this kind of preaching taking advantage of every church
service to remind people that Christ is coming back.
The world itself is acknowledging that everything is
falling apart. Why aren't preachers taking
advantage of it and telling the people who are coming in with
all their troubles and all their worries and more than that,
maybe with a dead spirit. Hey, listen, there's a bigger
picture going on here. Do you realize that what's
happening on the news, on the media, there are spiritual
forces behind it. Propaganda is real and it's
powerful. It is not just something that
people in power do, it's something that belches out of
hell and your soul hangs in the balance.
All of what's going on, if we really think about it, boils
down to this. To ensure that your soul doesn't
get saved, that Satan can deceive you and distract you and
disorient you enough where you don't think about the most
important decision in your life. And it is this.
What will I do with Jesus? What will I do with the Son of
God who died for me? What will I do when all of this
comes to an end? And it is my great privilege,
and I do it in fear and trembling, to let you know that
the best thing you can do, the only thing you can do if you
want to save your soul, is give it to Jesus.
You're a Sinner, and so am I. But you can be saved today if
you understand what Christ has done for you.
He died for you. We're reading Revelation, but
you have to understand that Christ did something before He
does all of this, and that's die on the cross.
He died a real death. He hung up, Tortured, yes,
beaten, yes, But more than that, taking on your sin, your sin,
everything that you've done, He took it upon himself.
And God dropped his wrath on him instead of you, and He absorbed
every ounce of punishment that you and I deserve.
Every single thing that you've done.
He is received on your behalf in terms of retribution and divine
justice. And He wants you to believe
that. And not just believe that as a
historical truth, but to accept it as a gift from Him that
liberates you and makes you a child of God.
You see, believing what Christ has done will turn you from an
enemy into a child of God, a rebel into a redeemed, a
follower of the Antichrist spirit to a lover of the true
Christ. So my invitation is simple
today, and I mean it with all of my heart, receive Jesus Christ
today. Give your heart to Him in this
moment while the songs are being sung, bow yourself before him
and say, Oh God, please save me. I came into this place and I
realized that this book is much more relevant than I imagined.
It gives commentary and all the chaos in the world.
I understand that this is true. And if these prophecies are
true, then surely what you did for me is true.
You're the truth. And so I give myself to the
truth. If you really give yourself to
Jesus Christ today, you will know that you are saved.
You will know saying, how will I know?
The Spirit of God bears witness with our spirit that we are
children of God. Hallelujah.
And it is my hope, especially as we go through this series, that
there will be not one person who would leave one message in
Revelation unsaved. May Christ be glorified though.
We thank you for the service. Thank you that your word is so
relevant. It's so applicable.
It has answers for every age and Lord, we find ourselves in a
culture where people are saying a lot of things.
More than ever. We have platforms in every
direction that we look. So many ideas and proposals and
documentaries and debates and interviews.
We need your help to discern at all.
Not to despair, but to be ready. So, Lord, we pray that leaving
this place, there will be this aggressive hunger for the word
of God to coat our minds, to protect our hearts.
Lord, if we're going to be knowledgeable and anything, may
it not be in politics, may not be in socioeconomic ideas, may
be in the Scriptures, the word of God, Only you can, only you
can create that desire in our hearts and we pray that you
would use this service to do just that.
We magnify your name today in Jesus name, Amen, Amen.
Let's stand church. Let's worship the Lord.