Last Days of the Last Days - 7 Angels, 7 Judgements: Revelation 16 - Revelation: The Apocalypse

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

And many women, wherever you are in your journey with Christ today, don't wait.

Don't wait.

This is coming like a thief in the night.

I don't know how many of you had your houses broken into, or your car broken into, or maybe you've been robbed.

It just such there.

You had an agenda, you had a plan, you were going to the store, or you went into the store, or you went on vacation and you came back, and someone, someone had violated you.

Like a thief in the night.

Today, Pastor Steve continues his series on the book of Revelation.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on The Road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

Once you listen to a video right now, it's an audio.

You're not going to see it on the screen.

This is one of the members of our church who I interviewed about end times questions that I had.

He is a high-level intelligence operative with the federal government, and so his face is not going to be shown.

Some of you who know him closely probably recognize his voice, but he preferred not to be on the screen.

So if you just listen up to his thoughts as it relates to America in the last days as well as the armies of the North and the armies of the East, let's listen to this.

You know, a lot of people talk about the fact that in Revelation you can't find America.

It's not clear where we are in the latter days as a nation.

We do have the armies of the North.

We have the North Armies of the East.

But where, you know, from your from looking at it even from a space war games perspective, what seems to be our role in the Middle East?

Probably more on the side of the European Union.

We are more of an extension of Europe, uh, of the British Empire, of Europe, than we are of any other country.

We are we are the English-speaking nations.

So from that aspect, we are, I mean, it would take an extensive discussion in theology that there are many allusions to America uh in in various parts of the Old Testament.

Um you have to realize that when those prophecies were made, we weren't even known about.

So how could how could uh John even prophecy of America when it wasn't no one if he did, no one would know what he was talking about?

Right.

So a lot of the prophecies in um in the Old Testament allude to a nation.

Um how do you say the ships of Kidd and there's various allusions to another place, but it doesn't say what it is, mostly because no one would have understood it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But I think that our tie would be more with European Union, and the reason why is because we have NATO today.

Yeah, that's basically what we are.

Yeah, yeah.

And then so that plays in the revelation because then the one world government is going to be coming through the Ten Nation Confederacy, the rise, the resurrection of the old Roman Empire, and that's the player number one.

Yeah.

Then the king of the north would be Russia.

Okay.

And that would be Ezekiel 38, the resurrection of Russia coming back, that God brings Russia back into the Middle East, according to Ezekiel 38.

And then you would have the third major player would be the kings of the East, which our leadership has been concerned greatly about, is the rise of China as a major power in the world, particularly in Spain.

So we are in Revelation chapter 16.

Revelation 16 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles or you have our app, you turn to Revelation 16.

For you that are new to the road, or this is your first time here, you've come at a very weird Sunday.

Um we are we we've done 40 messages in the book of Revelation, and chapter 16 is not exactly the most exciting chapter from the perspective of those who don't know him.

If you come here today and you do not have a personal, wholehearted, uh, vital, dynamic, growing, intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, you have everything to fear today.

And um, if you come and you have a personal walk with God, this is exciting stuff because we're gonna be already raptured out.

We're gonna be at the mezzanine, we're gonna be watching this from heaven.

There's also gonna be a raised-up church.

And this church has been, uh folks have been getting saved now for almost seven years through the 144,000 Jewish billigrams, kosher billigrams, that are preaching the gospel across the globe.

In chapter 16, look at 1616, look at 1616.

This is that famous verse about Armageddon.

It says, and they gathered together to the place called in the Hebrew Armageddon.

And Armageddon is kind of a literary phrase, and I looked it up this morning when I was doing my prayer time, and I guess there's a video game called Armageddon.

Uh Bruce Willis made a movie called Armageddon in 1998.

And so Armageddon is more of a literary phrase of the war that ends all wars, a nuclear war, the final war.

Well, this is where it comes from.

It's the only place in scripture where it is written, where it's noted, and and so it's taken on kind of this mystical meaning to so many.

But actually, what we're gonna look at here is the rise of the Antichrist, which we've been studying over the last few months.

It's uh at this time of one-world government, we're at we're at the end of the end.

So this is the last days of the last days of the tribulation period, and then God's wrath is about to be poured out.

So turn real quickly as a review.

Look back at chapter six.

So in Revelation chapter six, you had the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the lamb opening the seven seals, and a quarter of the population of the earth dies during this period.

Then in chapter seven and into eight, we see the seventh seal, which then opens up the seven trumpets.

And you'll notice in eight, one, it talks about silence in heaven, and then the third trumpet, a third of the waters are struck.

So already the earth is in turmoil, even as this antichrist with his prophet, under Satan's banner, this unholy trinity, have a military and spiritual government over the earth.

Now go back to chapter 15, look at verse 8.

In 15.

It says, the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

So it's the same seven angels and the opening of the seals and the trumpets, and there's this silence again.

It's as if God is brooding over what he has to do.

The earth has had chance after opportunity after chance to repent.

And those that have taken on the mark of the beast are not going to repent.

We're going to see that in chapter 16.

And he's about to unleash his wrath upon unrighteousness and rebellion and sin.

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, 16.1, saying to the seven angels, go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth.

The feeling I get, men and women, is that God doesn't want to do this.

That his heart is breaking.

It's not his will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And it's on his heart.

But now the righteousness of God trumps the love of God.

And it's that love of God that loves the righteousness of God.

And he's about to unleash his wrath upon the earth.

I like when it says loud.

Loud.

Twenty times in Revelation, it talks about things being loud.

Now, for you that are over 60, and sometimes you speak of the music being a little bit loud.

I want to let you know we're preparing ourselves for heaven.

It's really loud up there.

We try to keep the decibel level in the 80s.

Just want to let you know that.

But we're not going to trust your app.

We trust our team back here.

But we're preparing ourselves for a loud voice from heaven.

And guess what, men and women, if you're a Jesus follower, you're going to hear it.

It's not a soft voice this time, it's a loud voice of the coming of the Lord.

And so now he releases these seven bowls.

So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast, like those who worshipped his image.

And the word here for loathsome sore is Hellkos.

It means ulcer.

So ulcers.

If you remember, at the time of Moses in Egypt, it was boils.

It's possibly the same thing because of the illusions here that we see are so closely related to God's mighty supernatural work with Moses and Pharaoh.

Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea.

Remember, we're at a third, where a third of the oceans and the seas have been destroyed.

And it became blood.

It wasn't like blood, church.

It became blood as of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died.

Pretty interesting to think in terms of that because of the oxygen levels and how that would be affected.

It's noted by Henry Morris.

He writes this in this toxic ocean, nothing can survive.

And soon all the billions of fishes and marine animals and marine reptiles and innumerable varieties will perish, thus still further poisoning the oceans and contaminating the seashores of the world.

The oceans will have effectively completed their age-long function in the earth's physical economy and will die.

As God created every living soul in the water, so now every living soul will die in the sea.

So 70% of the earth's surface, church, is ocean, and every creature will die.

That's why I said, you know, you came to the road at a very interesting Sunday.

I just want to encourage you.

Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they also became blood.

The Amazon rainforest called the lungs of the earth generate about 20% of the earth's oxygen.

With the rivers turning to blood, however, it will kill the rainforest.

And this will leave humans gasping for oxygen because of the state of the earth.

But I want you to look at the attitude and the worship and the heart passion in heaven.

And I heard the angel of the waters.

First time and only time we see angel of the waters in scripture.

What is that?

Angel of the waters.

And as I meditated on that, I thought, you know, there must be, I wonder if there's an angel of aborted children.

I wonder if there's an angel over the widow.

I wonder if there's an angel of widows, an angel of widowers.

I wonder if there's an angel of betrayal.

That when we pray, they come.

They're there.

They're there for you.

An angel for the divorced.

For those who have been broken, for those who've been betrayed, that there's an angel there.

I don't know.

I don't know.

It doesn't.

We just have this angel of the waters, and it just made me wonder about angels.

How they work, they're ministering spirits from the throne.

I believe there's angels over children that that die in the womb.

Something something special there about God's heart.

Well, this angel, this angel has come to actually be a ministering spirit of God in wrath.

But this angel worships.

You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have judged these things, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, for you have given them blood to drink, for it is their just due.

This is, beloved, divine retribution.

No one at this throne is saying, Why, God, why did you take my husband?

Why did you take my child?

This is now the cry of those who see the righteous acts of God.

Each one of us in this room has been betrayed and we've been broken and we've been ripped off at times by people.

And God sees that and he understands that.

And now it's the time to judge that.

It is over.

This is not a time of repentance.

This is a time of God's divine retribution being released upon the earth.

And I heard another from the altar saying, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments?

How many of you cried out to God at some point and said, Why, Lord, this?

Why, Lord, that?

That's not fair.

Have you figured out yet that life's not fair?

And it does seem like the unrighteous get the upper hand and the righteous get ripped off.

This is where we're going.

That's good news.

There will be judgment.

As sad as it is, there will be judgment from the Lord.

The fourth bowl.

And the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire.

This is what's interesting here.

The signs and wonders that are happening at the in the time in Egypt with Moses, same results as we're seeing here in the last days.

And men were scorched with great heat, but they blasphemed the name of the Lord.

Who has power over these plagues.

He has power to stop them, and they actually blaspheme him.

We don't know of any, I mean, maybe there were, probably there were, because we don't know about every soul in Egypt, the millions that saw the signs and wonders during the time of Moses, but there's nothing in Scripture that would indicate that anyone really got saved or anyone really repented.

And again, we see this.

They blaspheme the name of God, who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.

I've heard it so many times over the years.

If I could just see a miracle, if I could just see an angel, I'd believe.

Or if I could just see God, you know, grow an arm out, I would believe.

If I could see a leg get grown out, I would believe.

I've seen legs grow out.

Now, not a three-footer.

But I have seen a three-incher right before my eyes, many times, probably a dozen times, I've seen a leg go just go.

And the guy says, and they didn't say come out.

They said, come out.

You know, you don't have to change the tone of your voice when you are asking God for stuff.

You don't have to wear white shoes.

You don't even have to ask for money.

But a couple of my friends who are more gifted that way, I'm not a leg grower guy, but they seem to be.

And they have been there and we've seen it.

Like, leg would you come out in the name of Jesus and it comes out.

Now that increased my faith and my excitement and my joy in a miracle-working God.

But most of the time it doesn't change most people's hearts.

It's the love of God, and it's the grace of God that changes hearts.

And so we see here signs and wonders, and nobody's getting saved.

Isn't that incredible?

So chance after chance.

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness.

This is really interesting.

So God shuts out the light.

And they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.

They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

May 19, 1780, in New England, in the middle of the day, it turned pitch black.

No eclipse.

No one till this day even knows what happened.

March 19, 1886, Wisconsin from a sunlit day was completely black for 10 minutes.

Still, no one knows why.

December 1904, Memphis, Tennessee.

March 1911, Louisville, Kentucky, same thing.

All of them have the same thing in common.

No one understands scientifically what happened, and everyone felt it was the end of the world.

There'd be this supernatural darkness, like we see in Egypt.

I mean, God just shuts off the light.

Nobody repents.

They still bless in the Lord.

So even this brooding Jesus from the temple is even in this giving one more chance.

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues, they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.

Now it's interesting.

The same gentleman that I interviewed, that you heard audio today, spoke of the Euphrates River, and he works mainly in satellites.

And he said, you can satellite, you can check on Google and satellite the Euphrates River.

And men and women, this river was so large and so expansive at one time that Genghis Khan couldn't cross over during his world conquest.

He had to go around it.

But today it's almost dried up.

It's almost dried up.

Some would say because of global warming.

And other reasons, it's kind of a marsh right now.

Interesting, isn't it?

Now here's what's more interesting, in my opinion.

The headwaters of the Euphrates River come out of and in the area of Mount Arrat.

Can you imagine the total drying up of the Euphrates River and Mount Arat, obviously, because of all that we've heard so far, the uh cap.

Of the earth have melted, the melting of Mount Arrat, and yet the drying up of the Euphrates River, guess what you're gonna see?

Noah's Ark.

So in the last days, there's Noah's Ark.

Another sign and a wonder.

I know the gentleman who has been and seen Noah's Ark.

He lives in Colorado Springs.

And uh you're probably gonna hear him speak here sometime.

Great guy, but he's been there.

But the whole earth, I mean CNN, Fox News, everybody will be there.

ABC, CBA, CBS, even MSNBC might be there.

They don't want to be the last one, they usually are.

But I mean, you know, they they they trail behind all the other guys, and um they do the best they can.

But but there everybody on the whole earth is gonna see Noah's Ark.

Another sign and a wonder, and nobody's gonna repent.

Wow.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs.

Has anybody ever done any research on this?

I haven't on what God's deal is on frogs.

Because frogs really, they really get ripped off in scripture.

Um He doesn't say they're frogs.

I mean, these are not, these are not demonized frogs.

It says they were like frogs.

So some reason, I mean, I wouldn't say a frog is the most handsome thing in the world, that's for sure.

You, you know, you you kiss it, prints, I mean, there's all kinds of fairy tales about frogs and everything.

But but this is like unclean spirits like frogs.

If I was a frog, I would not be happy with the way I'm depicted in scripture.

But I saw three unclean spirits like frogs.

They're not frogs, so frogs are cool, they don't cause warts, but coming out of the mouth of the dragons.

So we know from past study that Satan coming out of Satan, out of the mouth of the beast, which is the Antichrist, and out of the mouth of the false spiritus, the false prophet.

So the unholy Trinity releasing these unholy spirits to go across the globe, for they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to battle for that great day of God Almighty.

Remember, we're leading up to Armageddon.

In a couple verses, we're leading up to Armageddon.

So these spirits come out of the unholy Trinity, they come out of the Antichrist, they come out of Satan, they come out of the false prophet, they go to this ten nation confederation, they head into Russia, they move into China, probably India, Japan, European Union, to now inspire them, empower them for this great and final battle.

That's why Jesus says, you know, don't trust in just signs and wonders.

That the enemy will come even in signs and wonders.

Interesting.

How many of you are familiar with Rudyard Kipling?

He's one of my favorite poets and writers.

He wrote this, and you'll you'll be familiar with this phrase.

You might have studied in school.

East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet.

The problem with that phrase is it's taken out of context.

Let me read you what he actually wrote in its whole context.

East is east and west is west, and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment seat.

So he was actually speaking of this passage and Armageddon.

And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

For they are spirits of demons, performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty.

Joel prophesies this in chapter 3, verse 2.

I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people, my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations.

They have also divided up my land.

Jesus said, For false Christ and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

So everything's getting set up.

And men and women, wherever you are in your journey with Christ today, don't wait.

Don't wait.

This is coming like a thief in the night.

I don't know how many of you had your houses broken into or your car broken into, or maybe you've been robbed.

It just is sudden.

It's there.

You had an agenda, you had a plan, you were going to the store, or you went into the store, or you went on vacation and you came back, and someone, someone had violated you.

Someone violated your territory.

Someone violated your body.

Someone violated your space.

Right?

It was like a thief in the night.

Verse 15.

Behold, I am coming.

Christ is coming as a thief.

Blessed he is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

As much as we've studied this, and I believe that Revelation 16 is the fulfillment of Matthew 24, when Jesus spoke of the last days, it still will be like a thief in the night.

It will come suddenly.

Are you ready?

Men and women, are you ready with what you view at night when everyone's in bed on the internet?

When you're alone in your car and you're downtown.

Are you ready?

I think what he means here is that he will come like a thief in the night, not necessarily always meaning in the last days.

It does mean it here.

But that he comes and we don't know the day or the hour when it's time for us to go from the earth.

This is what Jesus says in Matthew 24.

Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.

But know this that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.

And then in Matthew 25, which is right after this, is the prudent virgins waiting for the groom.

A love doing weddings for young couples.

And weddings are cool.

I mean, I think weddings are really cool because it's such a picture of the coming of the Lord and our relationship with Him of intimacy.

But it's always exciting when you have a couple that have waited.

I mean, they've really waited.

And they're like, let's get done with this ceremony.

My parents made me do a reception, but I want the honeymoon, man.

And you see them, they're like, they're like, this at the reception.

And there are lots of huggy stuff going on and everything.

It's like, man, get we need it, we need to just do the reception for the parents and just let this couple leave.

Just go.

I heard this week about one couple that during the reception nobody could find them.

For about 20 minutes.

And then they came back.

They look really happier than when they left.

So we got this beautiful, beautiful bride.

It's called the church.

That's us.

We're preparing ourselves for this awesome, beautiful, gorgeous, powerful, loving groom.

And it's kind of like we could reverse it, like we see in a wedding.

It's the groom, in a sense, watching us, the bride, come down the aisle.

And men and women, as you make choices to say no to pornography and to say no to sexual immorality, and to start saying no to pot, to start saying no to drugs, and start saying no to illicit relationships that you're involved in, you're getting beautiful.

And you, oh man, I didn't wait.

And I have messed up.

Well, be a virgin again.

Be a virgin again.

Repent.

Come to Christ.

He will completely, absolutely forgive you.

And then we leave the past behind.

He does a new thing in the future.

That's the beauty of the gospel and the good news of Jesus Christ.

It's the greatest news the world has ever known.

And so you know, you look at, you know, you're this bride, maybe you just got saved, or maybe you've been saved a while, but you've never really gotten serious about it.

And you're sitting there, and there's the groom over there, and you're really, really dirty, but but the blood of Jesus covers you.

You're saved, but barely.

That's the way most of us come in, right?

And then you start walking down the aisle and you hear this sermon, and you go, oh, I need to work on that.

And you give it to the Lord, and you get a little bit cleaner.

And then you keep walking down the aisle, and here's a bouquet now.

And then here's a dress.

Or a camo outfit, you know, whatever turns you on, you know.

And as you're walking down the aisle, you're becoming more and more Christ-like.

We call that discipleship.

We call that becoming a wholehearted, all-in, burn the boats disciple.

We don't come with all the material.

We don't all just become that one day.

I mean, I love the testimonies of some people.

Man, they were, you know, into everything that's bad and they got saved, and now everything went great for them.

Actually, I hardly ever hear that anymore because we're becoming more authentic and real in our testimonies.

But the reality is, as we struggle to know Christ, we're actually being transformed into his likeness.

Isn't that exciting?

Everybody smile.

It's exciting.

He does the work as you surrender to him.

And they gathered together at a place called in Hebrew Harmageddon.

Sixty miles north of Jerusalem.

Over 200 battles have been fought at Armageddon.

This is the same battlefield where Gideon fought the great battle over the Midianites.

The great armies of the world will gather there.

It's not just a literary phrase, it's a real place.

I've been there twice.

When we go to Jerusalem, when we go to Israel in the future, I'll take you there.

And it's just this massive, massive valley.

And all of the armies that are left upon the earth will gather there.

And in chapter 17, we'll cover what actually happens there.

And then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done.

And there were noises, getting noisy again, thunderings, lightnings.

God really digs thunderstorms.

I dig thunderstorms.

I think thunderstorms are super cool.

Unless you're on a 14er and you're trying to get down and there's a lot of rocks around.

I will say that's not good.

But that's the kind of feeling.

If you've ever been in that, makes a hair just stand up, and you realize you could die here.

That's what people are feeling right now.

There's a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as has not occurred since men were on the earth.

Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon, which we're going to cover in the next two chapters, was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone, about the weight of a talent.

So hundred-pound hail.

Just and this will be important when you go back to verse 16 in the next chapter about what happens at the Battle of Armageddon.

Men blaspheme God again.

Because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great.

So, saints, I want to say be encouraged.

Be encouraged.

You're gonna be saved, you're gonna be delivered.

Maybe we'll be in heaven, I believe, that we'll be raptured out by then, but why don't you turn to your neighbor and say he could be wrong?

Because uh some of some great saints believe we in our in the last days that the rapture will come at this point.

I believe we'll have already been raptured for the very verses that I shared with you, but only God knows.

Here's the point pray for an early rapture, but prepare for a late one.

So are you prepared today?

Are you walking in holiness?

Are you walking in joy?

The fastest way to joy is opening this book every day and praying it.

And I would say, go to our PB and J, but we don't have any more of these because they're all gone.

So you can go online and you can see what we're on for this week through June.

But if you don't have a regular time with the Lord, a devotional life, just go to our PB and J, Prayer, Bible, and Journal.

That's what PBJ means.

Open it up, just go to that and just start praying that and say, God, I want the joy of the Lord.

How many could use a little more joy of the Lord these days?

That's right.

And so ask for it.

Ask for, God, I need joy in my marriage.

I need joy in my singleness.

I need joy in my college.

I need joy in my room.

I need joy in my family.

I need personal joy.

When we get finished with Revelation, we're gonna go through a series on worship and prayer.

But after that, we're going into Philippians.

And I'm gonna call it the joy leverage.

Joy leverage.

You know how a leverage works.

Joy, the fulcrum, the leverage that joy can bring.

Start praying that and watch the power and the fire of God come.

Can you imagine God in heaven?

He's going, I just don't want my saints to be joyful.

I don't know why Paul wrote Philippians.

And he wants joyful saints.

Don't you want joyful kids in your family?

Well, where's family?

He likes joyful kids.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

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Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.