The Battle at Armageddon (The 6th Bowl) | Revelation 16:10-16 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Bible Study Series)

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.

Revelation 16:10

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

Psalms 2:12

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.

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

Judges 5 · chapter mention

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

Revelation 17:12

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.

Revelation 16:13

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

Romans 11:25

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.

Joel 3 · chapter mention

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.

Zechariah 12:2

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.