Sermon

“The Bowl Judgments” Revelation 16 (Part 2)

Calvary Chapel Secret Harbour

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  1. Open your Bibles to the Book of Revelation chapter 16.

    Revelation 16 chapter mention

  2. We got part way through it on Sunday and we find ourselves in

  3. this journey, which we will get through fairly reasonably

  4. quickly over the next few weeks. In the midst of the seven ball

  5. judgements, 7 seals, Jesus broke the seven seals on the scroll.

  6. Then they'll they'll 7 trumpets. Now we're part way through the

  7. seven ball judgements in the Book of Revelation in the

  8. period. Now, this part of the Revela

  9. tribulation is often called the Great Tribulation.

  10. Now we examine the first four bold judgments, as I said Sunday

  11. morning, and their cataclysmic impact upon the earth and those

  12. living on the earth through this period.

  13. And with the judgement specifically falling,

  14. especially, we noted upon those who had taken the mark of the

  15. beast that said we'd worship His image, and we're living in

  16. accordance to the Antichrist Kingdom.

  17. And they had rebelled totally against God by taking the mark,

  18. by worshipping the image. They had deliberately made the

  19. choice to reject the gospel and the forgiveness of God and the

  20. work of Calvary. Verse 10.

  21. Then the 5th Angel poured out his ball on the throne of the

  22. beast and his Kingdom became full of darkness.

  23. I find this ironic. And they gnawed their tongues

  24. because of the pain. Again we read they blasphemed

  25. the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores.

  26. Their sores remember incurable and did not repent of their

  27. deeds. That meant that they were doing

  28. things that they needed to repent of.

  29. The 5th bold judgement, the Antichrist Kingdom.

  30. God says Kingdom of darkness. Yep.

  31. OK then that's what it truly shall be, a Kingdom of complete

  32. darkness. Such was the darkness that it

  33. terrified people. They could not see.

  34. Their hand in front of their face will not be able to see.

  35. And this brought this terror upon them and they blasphemed

  36. God through this period because they in this period, all the

  37. other bold judgments will remember they're cumulative.

  38. They still have the sores. They were still in agony, the

  39. Bible tells us, and there was nothing to drink.

  40. The Bible tells us that God is light and what does Satan do?

  41. Second Corinthians tells us that Satan masquerades, pretends to

  42. come as an Angel of light, but really he is the Prince of

  43. darkness. In John chapter 8 verse 12,

    John 8:12

  44. Jesus spoke to the people again saying I am the light of the

  45. world. He who follows me shall not walk

  46. in darkness, but have the light of life.

  47. So those who follow the Antichrist during the great

  48. Tribulation period, you're not going to walk in the light,

  49. you're going to walk in darkness.

  50. Pretty difficult to walk in the darkness.

  51. In John chapter 3 verse 19, and this is the condemnation that

    John 3:19

  52. the light has come into the world.

  53. Jesus men loved darkness rather than the light.

  54. So God says that's what you love instead of me.

  55. OK I'll give it to you because their deeds were evil and it

  56. says remember we read they did not repent of their deeds, they

  57. blasphemy God. The 6th ball is prepared and

  58. poured out. Verse 12.

  59. Then the 6th Angel poured out his ball on the great river

  60. Euphrates. You remember the river Euphrates

  61. as mentioned in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 2, when

    Genesis 2 chapter mention

  62. the the main rivers there and it's water was dried up.

  63. You'll also remember Babylon, the city of Babylon, Great

  64. Babylon comes and was built through with the river Euphrates

  65. flowing through it, and it's water was dried up so that the

  66. way of the kings from the East we introduced to a new group

  67. might be prepared. So notice this is an action, a

  68. judgement that is allowing something else to occur that

  69. will happen later. So it's setting the plan, making

  70. the pieces fall into place for the kings of the East.

  71. Not just yet, but a few chapters later and I saw three unclean

  72. spirits, demonic beings like frogs coming out of the mouth of

  73. the dragon, Satan, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the

  74. mouth of the false prophet, Satan, the Antichrist, the false

  75. prophet, What are they? The unholy Trinity?

  76. See, Satan is copying everything that God has done.

  77. He is the Antichrist in place of, for they are spirits of

  78. demons. Don't have to work out.

  79. You know what they are. They're not frogs.

  80. They perform signs. And I'm deeply worried again as

  81. I hear we have people passing through certain churches at the

  82. moment bringing their prophecies and their their, their, their

  83. signs and their wonders. And I go, when will people

  84. actually wake up and sit in front of those people with their

  85. Bibles? But the answer is people who sit

  86. in front of such people don't open their Bibles because they

  87. are forever learning and never coming to the knowledge of they

  88. are seeking after such things. And you know what the devil's

  89. going to give you exactly what you have in place of the truth.

  90. In place of the truth. And so the demonic beings

  91. performing signs, miracles, which go out to the kings of the

  92. earth, another group of people. So we have these kings from the

  93. East and now these other kings, other countries, nations are

  94. involved of the whole world to gather them is the preparation

  95. to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

  96. So God is moving here, all the bits and pieces.

  97. I'm going to dry out the River Euphrates to prepare for we know

  98. what's coming, the great battle, the mighty river.

  99. River Euphrates, 2800 kilometres in length.

  100. The Euphrates River passes through four countries, through

  101. Turkey, Syria, Iraq and the waters of the Persian Gulf.

  102. The river originates in Turkey, flows SE through Syria and Iraq,

  103. and joins up with the Tigris in Iraq to form the shut Al Arab

  104. which empties into the Persian Gulf.

  105. This mighty river at this time, under this bold judgement, the

  106. 6th bold judgement completely dries up.

  107. How it happens, I don't care. I'm not interested in people go

  108. well, Was it so? So do we have a volcano or was

  109. there an earth? I don't know.

  110. I don't care, the Bible says. It dries up, God dries it up,

  111. it's gone and it creates a super highway to the Middle East

  112. heading to Israel. When this happens, God draws

  113. into battle kings from the East. It says as well as other kings

  114. of the world anti Semitism that you and I are seeing at this

  115. moment. You and I should be the most

  116. excited people in Christendom. We are on the verge of the

  117. rapture because we are on the verge of the tribulation.

  118. Euphrates up to this time has been a natural boundary in the

  119. Middle East. It forms a barrier of separation

  120. for the Holy Land. It is through this pathway, now

  121. dried up, that a massive military March will occur to

  122. pursue and attack who? Israel.

  123. Why? Anti Semitism and a desire by

  124. look who's God's allowing this to happen?

  125. But who's organising this? The beast.

  126. Remember the unholy Trinity, these these spirits, these other

  127. three demonic spirits, all from these and it's driven because

  128. this this, you know, and it breaks your heart because I just

  129. wish that anti semitism would back away.

  130. But here's the sad and you know, when we were in Hawaii, I spent

  131. a couple of nights really troubled seeking the Lord up and

  132. down, up and down. And I wanted to pray about

  133. certain things. And one of them was like God, I,

  134. I, I am broken. I, I, I struggle as I read about

  135. Israel. I really do, you know, and my

  136. heart goes out for the nation of Israel and I know so does yours.

  137. But here's, here's the reality. It's not going to change.

  138. It's not going to get any better.

  139. It's only going to get worse. And that's what I've got to come

  140. to the realisation is OK, this is what's actually going to

  141. occur. So I've got to realise this

  142. doesn't mean I stop praying for them.

  143. It doesn't mean I stop loving them, but it means I've got to

  144. adjust how I'm praying and what I'm praying and and continue and

  145. do what God wants us to do. And so anti Semitism is just

  146. going to grow and grow and be more and more inflamed with this

  147. absolute demonic desire to destroy the Jewish people.

  148. These armies are going to this little nation.

  149. Why? To annihilate them Because Satan

  150. wants God's chosen people removed.

  151. It started way back, doesn't it? Through the Old Testament,

  152. that's carried on through to seize their land, annihilate the

  153. Jews, seize their land, and now the other thing.

  154. And there's this whole change of mining that's going on around

  155. the world. And Trump's done it with

  156. Ukraine. He's signed a a deal there.

  157. We see it now in Israel. There's something going on in

  158. Israel and it's even happening. I was talking to Reece now Alcoa

  159. here. There's a whole new thing about

  160. rare earth minerals and the rare earth minerals, according to

  161. Reese, he's telling explain a bit today.

  162. Are these minerals that are used for what?

  163. You know what military weapons you've got to have these rare

  164. earth minerals for all the new military weapons which every

  165. nation in the world now bar Australia, we're still at 3%.

  166. Every nation in the world bar Australia has increased, they're

  167. spending on their military might and and China holds the largest

  168. amount of this rare earth at the moment.

  169. That's why Trump was very keen to get that agreement with

  170. Ukraine. Smart men.

  171. And so it's to destroy the Jewish people, to seize their

  172. land, all the natural rich resources besides the rare

  173. minerals that they have natural gas.

  174. You remember when we went to Caesarea one time, Yanni said,

  175. see out there, they used to have all these boats coming in

  176. because they had to import all their energy, you know, bring in

  177. all they call they, they had no natural resources for power

  178. found natural gas. Now they have off Caesarea there

  179. they have the the gas fields and they, they, they, they set, they

  180. set. Now the kings of the East is

  181. literally in the Greek, the kings of the rising sun, where

  182. we've heard that before, the kings of the rising sun, the

  183. Orient, a huge military confederation, China and Japan,

  184. who are natural enemies forming together, Pakistan, India, they

  185. will be unaware. These nations, the kings of the

  186. East, however, that it is God who was drawing them into this

  187. last great battle in Ezekiel 3839, which this isn't this.

  188. Remember, it was God who put the hook into the leader of the

  189. confederacy. You will come down and attack

  190. Israel. You know what we're going to do?

  191. We're going to attack Israel and it's God doing this.

  192. Satan's involved his unholy Trinity of himself, the

  193. Antichrist and the false prophet will send unclean demonic

  194. spirits frog like in the sense of their foulness because frogs

  195. in the Bible member are unclean can't say that to a French

  196. person but and being unclean to entice the world into this

  197. conflict. So Satan's gathering everyone.

  198. Hey you guys, let's join up. Let's take on this problem

  199. people. They're causing all the

  200. problems, which was the same mantra that Hitler used.

  201. It's them in Egypt. This was the second plague on

  202. the land detailed in Exodus chapter 8.

    Exodus 8 chapter mention

  203. Remember the plague of frogs came out and then Pharaoh said,

  204. oh, come and stop, stop, stop. And then all the frogs died and

  205. then they were all rotten everywhere.

  206. They were everywhere throughout the house.

  207. These frog like demonic creatures were used deceiving

  208. signs and wonders to draw these armies into Israel for battle.

  209. Satan's motive? What is it?

  210. Destroy Israel and the city of Jerusalem?

  211. Why is that? Satan knows if he can achieve

  212. those two things, One, Christ will have no Holy Land or people

  213. to return to. That's why they're to be

  214. annihilated. Yeah.

  215. How how is it that all the nations that have attacked them,

  216. even back to the days of Esther, right back.

  217. Why was it that they just wouldn't, you know, suppress

  218. them or cap every time the PLO came out, still is.

  219. And Hezbollah, their their cry is to annihilate Israel,

  220. eliminate them. It's just carried on throughout

  221. the Bible and into today so that Christ will have no Holy Land or

  222. people to return to. Secondly, and no holy city to

  223. what? Establish the throne of David, a

  224. throne that will be forever and ever where He'll rule and reign

  225. for 1000 years. That's the aim of sight.

  226. We now have this wonderful parenthesis.

  227. However, verse 15, all of a sudden, behold, I'm coming as a

  228. thief. Blessed is he who watches and

  229. keeps his garments lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

  230. Now those who believe that the church is to go through the

  231. great tribulation, they go, ha ha, see this and they make much

  232. of this verse. But Jesus Christ in the Bible is

  233. not coming for his church. What?

  234. As a thief? We're not going to go, Oh, Jesus

  235. is here. Oh wow, I didn't know that and

  236. you should have told me when did he start telling us John chapter

    John 14 chapter mention

  237. 14 and before we're what are we what are we doing as as as the

  238. truth. We're looking and waiting and

  239. expecting each day you don't go well, I think I might be robbed

  240. today I might be robbed today I might be robbed today about a

  241. thief turns up me. Hey, we've been robbed turned up

  242. when I wasn't expecting. It's important Jesus Christ is

  243. not coming for his church as a thief.

  244. Know that He returns for the church.

  245. How? In Ephesians that tells us what

  246. are we the church? We're his bride.

  247. He's coming back as the bridegroom and what is the

  248. bride? She's waiting.

  249. Can't wait for the bridegroom to turn up.

  250. He's returning for the church as the bridegroom since the church

  251. is His bride. Get the language right, get the

  252. text right, get the context right.

  253. With the coming of a thief, there is a dread and a fear that

  254. our possessions will be robbed and our goods destroyed.

  255. But the Bible tells us we are not what of the night, nor of

  256. the darkness. Therefore we have No Fear of the

  257. Lord's return. You go, Oh man, Jesus, go.

  258. Oh, scared. The death of Jesus coming.

  259. No, we long, we expect, we pray. Come quickly.

  260. Lord Jesus, how wonderful it is when God brings to us hope in

  261. the midst of our troubles, right?

  262. Slam smack in the midst of this. To the people who are getting

  263. saved, people still getting saved in the tribulation period,

  264. I'm coming. Hold on.

  265. In the midst of our troubles. God does that, doesn't he?

  266. In the midst of our fears, God turns up.

  267. You say I'm here. The second coming of Jesus

  268. Christ will be, however, a massive surprise to so many who

  269. are not looking for his coming, not expecting, and he's going to

  270. come as a thief, but not to those who are watching and

  271. ready. Matthew 24.

  272. Jesus here is encouraging those who have made a commitment to

  273. Him in those difficult days of tribulation to remain strong in

  274. their faith. Jesus will come as a thief only

  275. to those who are unsaved and not looking for or expecting him,

  276. but not so to those who are looking and watching for Him.

  277. Verse 16. And they gather them together to

  278. the place called an Hebrew Armageddon.

  279. Now this is telling us what's going to happen.

  280. So the river Euphrates dried up. This is what's going to happen.

  281. Not yet. Chapter 19.

  282. The only reference in Scripture to Armageddon is here.

  283. It comes from 2 Hebrew words ha and Megiddo.

  284. Armageddon means mountain of destruction or mountain or hill

  285. of slaughter. Now those of you who have been

  286. with us to Israel, how do we view the valley of Megiddo?

  287. We go up on what? Mount Carmel.

  288. Mount Carmel, where Elijah took on the prophets of Baal.

  289. And as we look out, what do we look out on this great vast

  290. valley? Megiddo.

  291. The ancient city of Megiddo is 96 KS north of Jerusalem and

  292. overlooks the valley of Megiddo. He was at that valley that

  293. Barack, not Barack Obama either, but Barack or Barack really was.

  294. Deborah, remember, defeated the Canaanites Judges 4.

  295. Gideon defeated the Midianites in this location Judges 7.

  296. He was in this location, sadly, where King Saul made his death

  297. one Samuel 31. King Josiah also died at the

  298. hands of Pharaoh here in battle. 2 Kings chapter 23.

    2 Kings 23 chapter mention

  299. In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte made his way to this location and as

  300. he looked out across Megiddo, he called this location.

  301. This is the greatest natural battlefield on earth that I've

  302. ever seen. According to verse 16, the final

  303. great world battle will be fought in Ha Megiddo.

  304. It will be a place of great slaughter, which is also another

  305. meaning of the name butchered. But the drying up of the

  306. Euphrates, which leads to this great gathering of the world's

  307. armies to this location, is setting the stage for the

  308. physical enablement of those forces from the east and the

  309. other kings to March and bring their tanks and whatever else to

  310. this location. It's setting them the stage.

  311. Verse 17. Then the 7th Angel poured out

  312. his bowl into the air. Notice that's interesting one

  313. the other's been upon the earth and places like the oceans, the

  314. springs. This one's into the air and a

  315. loud voice. Ah, another loud voice.

  316. Why is a loud voice getting our attention?

  317. This is important came out where of the temple of heaven from the

  318. throne saying it's done, it's done.

  319. There were noises and thunderings and lightnings.

  320. I'll stop there. The 6th plague is not this

  321. battle. That comes later in Revelation

  322. 19, the 7th ball Judgement. This ball is poured out into the

  323. air and another loud voice cries out.

  324. It is done. The greatest earthquake, it

  325. says, and there was a great earthquake.

  326. Such a mighty and great earthquake.

  327. Now note this read in your Bibles.

  328. Read it with me. Such a great as had not occurred

  329. since men were on the earth. So there's never been a greater

  330. earthquake like this one that's going to occur in the

  331. Tribulation period. No greater.

  332. Now the great city that's Jerusalem was divided in three

  333. parts. And the cities of the nations,

  334. New York, London, Sydney, you name it, all cities, Tokyo, all

  335. the cities around the world that are around Babylon that's

  336. rebuilt perhaps where the Antichrist is.

  337. Collapse. The 7th bowl Judgement.

  338. It's done. The first bowl poured out upon

  339. the earth. Second ball poured out on the

  340. oceans. The third ball poured out on the

  341. rivers and the springs. The 4th ball poured out with the

  342. scorching sun. The fifth ball poured out on the

  343. throne and the Kingdom of the Antichrist.

  344. The 6th ball poured out on the Euphrates River.

  345. The 7th ball poured out into the air.

  346. Why the air? Let us remember that Satan is

  347. described in the Bible in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 2, as

    Ephesians 2:2

  348. what he is called the Prince of the power of the year, the

  349. Spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience.

  350. From the throne, from the temple, from the very temple and

  351. the altar comes these words. It's done.

  352. It's done. When Jesus finished his work on

  353. Calvary, he cried out. It's finished.

  354. God's final bold judgement has fallen adverse.

  355. And there were great noises, thunderings and lightnings.

  356. There was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great

  357. earthquake as has not occurred since men were on the earth.

  358. This earthquake will not be able to be measured its magnitude on

  359. the Richter scale. There'll be no, no measurement.

  360. Now cast your mind back Boxing Day, December 26th, 2004 when a

  361. magnitude 9 quake struck and more than 230,000 people lost

  362. their lives. Remember viewing the map of

  363. Arche and the tidal waves that came in just once?

  364. There was a pole pulp and it's nothing just took them gone.

  365. This earthquake is worldwide. That's terrifying.

  366. Terrifying. Whole islands will disappear.

  367. Yeah. Hawaii, Bali, you name it.

  368. Islands. Don't worry about climate

  369. change. They're gone.

  370. Whole islands disappear. The entire topography of the

  371. world as you and I know it, will be radically changed.

  372. The holy city of Jerusalem, the Bible tells us, will be split

  373. into 3 sections. Now we've walked through those

  374. tunnels. I don't like walking in those

  375. tunnels that much because they're kind of like this.

  376. And I'm going there. Ever An earthquake occurred here

  377. and it goes. It's just going to go.

  378. I'll be a ham sandwich. Whilst the other great cities of

  379. the world the Bible tells us will be destroyed, including the

  380. rebuilt Babylon, the headquarters of the Antichrist

  381. is that it? Verse 21 and great hail from

  382. heaven. Notice the wording from heaven

  383. fell upon doesn't say what the earth doesn't.

  384. Notice this, it says fell upon men.

  385. That's specific. Great hail fell from heaven upon

  386. men each hailstone. Now we get a description of the

  387. individual hailstones about the weight of a talent.

  388. What happened? Men blasphemed God because of

  389. the plague of the hail. Since that plague was

  390. exceedingly great. I can't imagine the tsunamis and

  391. the waves and the absolute sheer terror.

  392. The world is just gone. God's gone.

  393. What is? And then this hailstorm.

  394. Those who escape death from the massive worldwide earthquake

  395. will not escape this event of massive hailstones falling at

  396. speed, plummeting from heaven with individual hail, we're told

  397. here, weighing more than one talent, OR in today's

  398. measurements, more than 45 kilos each.

  399. Actually blocks of ice, 45 kilos at speed and just drive you

  400. straight, drive you straight plummeting, slamming upon men.

  401. It was the 7th plague that fell upon Egypt.

  402. It was similar but sadly notice after all this men blasphemy

  403. God, it tells you why does God put that in there?

  404. Why don't we read that? Because God's trying to show no

  405. matter what I've done, no matter what I do, I'm just revealing to

  406. you. And we, we, you know, people

  407. say, oh, brotherhood of man, no, there's a little bit of good in

  408. everyone. Now the Bible says there's no

  409. good in anyone. We're all sinned.

  410. We're all falling short of the glory of God.

  411. And God has offered us mercy, grace, that which we don't

  412. deserve. And throughout this time, people

  413. will be accepting it, but many, the majority rejecting it.

  414. Tonight I want to ask you because I want to ask you once

  415. again, it's so important. Where do you stand?

  416. Where do you stand in all this? You go, oh, this is just a lot

  417. of nonsense. I don't believe any of this is

  418. the foundation you have placed your soul on.

  419. Unshakeable. It says in the book of Hebrews

  420. that God will shake everything that can be shaken.

  421. What can't be shaken? I tell you what can be shaken in

  422. your house, your finances, your health?

  423. You know this building, the ground on which we stand, the

  424. oceans, the mountains, everything but your faith in

  425. God, faith in Jesus Christ, because it can't be shaken.

  426. You know why? Because the wise man has built

  427. his house upon a solid foundation.

  428. He's heard the Word and he's abided.

  429. And then you plant your feet upon the rock, a rock that can't

  430. be moved. There is no more important

  431. decision in your life today than those listening as to whether

  432. you have received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

  433. You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ had a man ring me

  434. through this week. He left a message on our phone.

  435. He said, oh Pastor Keith, you know you don't know me Da da da.

  436. I want to get married and and I also, you know, would like to be

  437. baptised. And I rang back Sunday afternoon

  438. and he got he lives up north somewhere.

  439. Anyway, at the end of the day, he says I'm not one of the born

  440. again Christians. I said that actually to be a

  441. Christian you have to be born again.

  442. You must be born again. Oh, I guess you're right.

  443. Then I said no, I'm all right. That's what Jesus said to be a

  444. Christian, you must be born again, must be born.

  445. I want to ask you tonight, are you safe?

  446. Because during this period of the Tribulation period,

  447. everything that the world thinks is solid and sound and a place

  448. to park my soul, God's going to go.

  449. I'm going to show you there's only one place safe and it's in

  450. my hands.