The Battle at Armageddon | Revelation 16:10-16 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (4/26/26)

Well, Maranatha Bible Church, good afternoon. Welcome to the Lord's Day service. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And let us rejoice and be glad in him today.

As we begin our service, may the Lord throw wood on the flames of our hearts to increase our love and our desire to know him, to rejoice in him, to delight in him throughout this service and throughout this day. I want to read from Psalm 111 as we begin our service this afternoon. Psalm 111. Praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart in the company of the upright in the congregation.

Great are the works of the lord studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him.

He remembers his covenant forever. He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the inheritance of the nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just. All his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness.

He sent redemption to his people. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it have a good understanding.

His praise endures forever. Father, we thank you. Praise the name of the Lord. We praise your holy name today. We give you all honor, all glory, all adoration.

Lord, our hearts need you today. Father, may you put in our hearts a deep longing to know you more, a deep longing to be with you forever. Lord, may the cares of this world, may the enticements of this world and the temptations be like dust and ash in our mouths compared to gathering together as your people to worship you in spirit and in truth, ignite in us a passion today for you. Illuminate our hearts and our mind by the power of the Holy Spirit to truly see and savor everything that you are in your word as it is proclaimed today. Help us now, we pray.

We are needy people, Lord, and we need you to give praise to you. To you be the glory and to your people, may we receive your joy. In Jesus' name, amen. Church, will you please stand and join your brothers and sisters together as we sing to the Lord.

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Lord, with our praise, with our with our hearts, we crown you afresh today. You are seated at the right hand of majesty. One day, you will come to this world again, and we believe that, Lord, and we long for that. We, with the spirit, say, come, Lord Jesus. We're tired of this world, Lord.

All the corruption and the tyranny and the lies and the deception, all the sin and the temptation. Lord, free us, complete our redemption, and come that we may crown you. And, Lord, until then, help us crown you with our obedience, with our minds, with our souls, with our strength this afternoon. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Or would you turn to somebody, welcome them to the Sunday afternoon service before you're seated. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

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Yeah. Yeah the new building that we'll be entering into in a few short weeks, tomorrow is the official closing day, tomorrow at 10AM. Yes. So just know that, we are so grateful for all the funds that have been raised, and, it's just been amazing to see who has partnered with us from within and from the online community. So blessed.

And yet, we are still, aggressively seeking to give more and more and trust that, it won't be very long before we can say in one announcement, we have no loan, we have no debt, and, we can focus on other things. So be praying for that. Trust the Lord for that provision. He's already done so much, and we know that he is not done yet. And as that's happening, I have a couple of announcements.

Maybe actually just one. I told you that the closing was tomorrow, and so that is the next, massive milestone for us as a church family. And we will keep you updated after this week about the exact day for the grand opening on a Sunday service. It won't be too too long, but there are some things that we need to do in the building before we open those doors. So be praying for that.

And if you sign your name on the sheet there to serve in different ways in preparation for that, just be expecting an email or a phone call or a text giving you, just a heads up of when we'll be going there together to do all that we need to do. Besides that, we have our conference at the end of the month of August, twenty seventh to the August 30, and, registration for that will be open on June 1. And so be mindful of that in your calendars, and we will do our part to update you as we approach that registration day. I wanna get straight back into what we were doing just a moment ago to sing to the Lord, but I wanna just admonish us today in a very practical sense before we go into the book of Revelation. We're looking at a lot of prophecy these past few months, and we will continue to do so in the next few months.

So I wanna take advantage, especially, what we do here during these announcements is we wanna go to the word and exhort from the word. And so I just want I want you and I to be people who are mindful that as grateful as we are to be saved by grace, we should be very, very, very much ambitious to become strong Christians. Strong Christians. I'm so grateful that this church is growing. I mean, that's a wonderful sign of health.

But one of my nightmares, and that's not an exaggerated term, is that a church would grow with only spectators. There's a lot of churches that have spectators, A lot of church ministries and leaders that are satisfied with spectators. This isn't one of them. And by the grace of God, this leadership will do all that it can to preach the word, to always keep it according to God's standard, and to shepherd to the best of our capability for people to be strong Christians. I'm talking about joy filled, passionate, focused Christians.

You know, there should be a demand from the members every single week that as you walk into this place, no matter how you came in, to say, give me something, preacher. Give me something for my my worship beyond these services. Give me something for my marriage that's that's hanging by a thread. Give me something so I know how to raise my children more effectively and more Christ honoringly. We just we just need you to give us something from the word.

That demand should always be there, and the supply should always be there. And one of the ways in which the word of God inspires us to be strong Christians is by giving us examples of strong Christians. You know who came to mind this week for me? A man by the name of Epaphroditus. Not an easy name to say, but what an example of a strong Christian.

And let me just read to you a couple of verses that show that one of the marks of a strong Christian is a selfless Christian. Listen to what Paul says about this man in Philippians two verse 25. I've thought it necessary to send you Epaphroditus, my brother, and fellow worker, and fellow soldier, and your messenger, and minister to my need. Like, how much more can you say about one man? This is Paul saying this.

Paul had a high standard. Epaphroditus met it and he gives a glimpse of why he was adorned with such titles and honorable terms. Verse 26, for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. You know what Paul could have said and it would have made sense? He was distressed because he was ill.

He was sick. How bad is his sickness? The next verse says, he was near to death. He was distressed because he was ill. We would say, yeah, that makes sense.

You know what also might make sense to a lot of us believers? He was distressed because nobody knew that he was ill. Is that possible? Is it possible for Christians to be bothered when nobody really checks up on them the way they would like to be checked up on? That in no way gives us permission not to be a community or to express our needs, but Epaphroditus goes beyond that.

He was distressed because the Christians knew that he was sick. Think about that for a moment. Think about how selfless this man is. He was worried because the Philippians heard that he had an illness and he didn't want him to be stressed. He didn't want to be riddled with anxiety.

He didn't want them to be concerned. And so him and Paul got to talking and Paul thought it would be best to send Epaphroditus to relieve them of this burden because they didn't have the communication that you and I have today. What kind of man is this? I'll tell you what kind of man he is. A strong Christian.

So selfless that he's not concerned about his disease. I'm sure he was because he prayed about it to some extent and he had Paul pray about it, but it's not recorded nor was he disturbed because nobody knew about his plight. He was disturbed by the fact that Christians did know about it and it hurt them and he didn't want them to be hurt. And so he wanted to get into the next flight, no flights there, the next train ride, no train ride, the next available vehicle on its way to Philippi in order to alleviate the concerns of these Christians. I wanna be like that.

I hope you wanna be like that. The only way we can be like that is if God makes us like that. Let's ask God to make us like that today. Lord, we have come with a righteous demand. Humbly, we've come to you hungry for righteousness, thirsty for righteousness.

We want to be more like Jesus. And you've given us examples of men and women possessed with the spirit of God and reflected in real life scenarios. And so Lord, we pray that you use every song, every verse that's read, every point that's preached, every interaction with brothers and sisters today to help us become stronger Christians. We bless you and we love you. In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen. Let's stand. Let's worship. Trusting that God can make us strong in our faith.

Lord from sorrow steeped by call, my Should my life be torn from me, As your holy church goes forth, in the holy spirit's heart, with the glories of the gospel to explain. To exclaim. Now we pray your kingdom come. And we pray your will be done for the honor and the glory of your glory.

We thank you for gathering us here again on this Lord's day. Each time we gather, Lord, it is a gift from you. And we thank you, Father, for the gift of our very breath and the ability that you have given us, the means in which we have come here to worship you. And we ask, Lord, we continue to ask and pray that as the service goes on that your Holy Spirit would lead our meeting. Your Spirit would fill each person here.

And we ask especially as we receive your word that your word would have a power through through the spirit, Father, to change our hearts, our minds, our lives, and we believe and delight in your word today. Thank you, Lord. We give you all honor and glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

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 judgment 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 punish evildoers. And as unsettling such predictions are, there are still three bowls left. And we are now going to see a transition from the natural world into the arena of power structures and kingdoms, and rulers, and governments.

And we're going to read about it first together in Revelation 16 beginning in verse 10 down through verse 16. And we are seeking to better understand how God will carry out his justice against evil before he ultimately claims all things for himself. Revelation 16 verse 10. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People nod their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores.

They did not repent of their deeds. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. 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, three 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 am 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 assembled 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 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 fifth bowl is poured out. Look again at verse 10 and notice how this bowl will be poured out on the throne of the beast.

Telling us that this judgment 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 judgment. 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 two when he addresses kings in verse 10, now therefore, oh kings, be wise. Be warned, oh 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 two 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 blaspheme God.

I'm not sure if you noticed this, but did you catch how the descriptions of the fifth bowl judgment 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 are 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 are 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 wanna give another chance of those who experienced his full fury and realized 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 gonna 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 seventh bowl, the last one in verse 21. Revelation 16, And great hailstones about 100 pounds 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 seventh, 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 sixth 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 at verse 12.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great River Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East. Now we we saw that a lot of rivers have been contaminated already, have been damaged, have been 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 one?

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 fifteen eighteen 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 assembled 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 Barak who overcame Sisera in Judges chapter five near Megiddo.

It was Pharaoh Niko who destroyed and killed King Josiah in the same plain. 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 multilayered. But it definitely includes a global confederacy, an attempt, a desperate final attempt to eradicate what remains of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.

Have we seen this before in the book of Revelation? You remember the dragon in Revelation 12 after being evicted from heaven, one of his first things that he does is find the woman who symbolizes Israel who flees into the wilderness and out of his mouth comes a flood of water to try to sweep her away. And as we progress in the timeline of the last days and the judgments of God, we find here that near the end of everything, there is yet another effort to try to do what Satan has been trying to do all along. Delete Israel from the world. But at its core, it's driving force behind all that we're going to see here is actually found in Revelation 17.

The core reason for this is what we find in the very next chapter. It's clarified. Look at Revelation 17 verse 12. And the 10 horns that you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour together with the beast. These are of one mind and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.

You see what's happening here? There's this confederacy, there's this alliance, these kingdoms give all their authority to one man, the beast, the Antichrist. For what reason? Look at verse 14. They will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of lords and king of kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.

It's clear, isn't it? The nations will gather in the land of Israel to ultimately face off against the Lord Jesus Christ himself in order to stop him from doing what he promised and that was to save the Jewish people and reign from the holy city, and reign from Mount Zion, and establish his government and fulfill the promise that God made to David that one of his sons would rule eternally. This is what they are trying to stop. And maybe you're like me and wondering at this point, hold on. So you're telling me that the world population has been afflicted with oozing sores, can't find drinking water no matter where they look, are enduring a heat wave, are plunged into darkness, and the top priority of the world leaders is to take whatever energy and resources they have left to go to war with God.

This is absurd. This is irrational. This is crazy. How can this be? And fortunately, we're not left in the dark because the Holy Spirit tells us how it is that such a thing will actually take place.

Look again at Revelation 16 verse 13. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three 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? Seduc world leaders. To work together to meet in the plane of Megiddo and to 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 three 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 Spirit 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? One 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, okay. 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 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 wanna 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. We don't guard these ears and we don't compare what's being said to what's been said by God. And then we begin to sway and shift and doubt. You know, I was reflecting on this on my way here actually.

Paul said something astounding in Romans 11 verse 25. When Romans eleven twenty five 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 gonna happen there. I usually don't do this, but I'm just gonna 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's 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 three verse one to three. For behold, in those days and at that time when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley Of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat means the Lord judges. And I will enter into judgment with them there on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land.

Whose lands is it? It's God's. Everybody's, oh, it belongs to them. No, it belongs to them. Oh, this is what happened at this point.

Okay. Figure it out. But my Bible says it's all God's and he gets to do what he wants with it. They have divided up my land, so I'm gonna 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 wanna 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 two. 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 three 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 four declares the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic and its 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, a 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 takeaway, there's a lot that was said. We'll hopefully explore these more in detail next week. But if there's any key takeaway 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 gonna lay it all out. He's gonna 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 gonna be victorious when in fact it's going to be a trap. So you can imagine how they're gonna 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 judgment.

Have you ever thought this? I thought it. Doesn't the devil read the Bible? He does. He knows it more than most Christians actually.

I'm sure he read Revelation 16. Has that ever dawned on him like this is gonna happen? This is my faith even though I possess a man known as the Antichrist and convince the world to come against Christ? It's not gonna 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 is gonna 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 gonna learn there is that this isn't really gonna be much of a battle. It's gonna 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 bowl 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 sixth item on the list, there's an interlude.

There's a pause. There's 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 would 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 breaks were much longer, sometimes chapters long. Why is this reduced to a sentence? Because these judgments 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 servants, 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 the store. If you only know 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 heavenly 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 heavenly 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 gonna 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, it's 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. And it's 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 wanna 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 has 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 on 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.

Lord, 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 it 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 in anything, may it not be in politics, may not be in socio economic 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.

May we see your kingdom come, Father, they all will be done in all the earth. In all the earth.

We are living in historic times. There are things that are happening before us in our world that are quite incredible. But never forget this, what it comes down to is that this is a battle for the truth. This is about knowing what's true, knowing what's false because that's what's driving all that we're seeing, what people believe ultimately. So dear Christian, cling to the Bible, know it, read it, study it, discern it, compare it, everything you hear from this pulpit, go to the Word of God and test it.

I can say that confidently because the authority of this church is not a man. It's Christ through His Word. Every time the Word of God is preached, that's Jesus speaking to us. And we are his people, and we are receiving from him. So may his word be exalted, not just in this place, but in the new place.

And may it only amplify what we hear every single week abroad for his glory. Until then, Lord, we ask, keep us faithful. Keep us strong. May we encourage one another, yes, in practical things, but also in the truth. Make us brands who examine everything according to the scriptures.

Be with our time of fellowship. Be with us as we go from this place to our respective homes and workplaces. Oh, Lord, help us be strong in you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

May the living Jesus Christ go before you this week. And by his grace, Trudy Terry, we'll see you again. Take care.