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Okay, let’s take our Bibles and let’s turn to Revelation chapter 16 and we’ll be looking verse at verse 12 through 21 this morning. Revelation chapter 16.
And as you turn there, I want to say that some time ago I was there was a article in um in the US USA Today and it described how parents today seek to initiate their children into a world of all faiths.
One woman who ran a ceremony service was asked by a couple to conduct a service for their baby.
Their baby was called Greer. The mother said, “We just want a large spirit to guide our daughter, but we didn’t want to get specific.
I want all her bases covered.” The couple said, “We we just do Christianity light.” And Greer, she believes angels and fairies and leprechauns and Santa.
So this kind of illustrates the low value placed on scriptural truth that is prevalent in our culture.
The Apostle Paul did warn Timothy that a time would come when people would prefer light light spiritual meeting meals and would not tolerate substantive substantive teaching where he did say the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
See, Paul predicted that false teaching would increase and be embraced by many because it caters to the needs of the flesh.
He said they have a craving to be entertained and a desired uh for teaching that leaves them feeling good about themselves.
Paul instructed Timothy to combat this by teaching doctrines from the word of God that were substantive.
And the purpose of the instruction would be to correct, to rebuke, to encourage others.
And as believers, we are all called to obey the word of God, to learn the word of God, and then to teach the word of God.
And we are not called to scratch the itches of our culture.
If we stand on the word of God, you won’t fall to error. At least you’ll be able to detect error when you hear it.
So Christians who hold to sound doctrine and live by it will increasingly become a target of those who do not believe in or have regard for God and his Bible.
They will regard the book of Revelation as some fanciful fiction.
They they will not be ready for what’s coming.
And they will hate the God of the Bible and his followers.
We’ve already seen that in Revelation.
Well, the terrors of the Lord will come to the earth and we must be ready because the time is near. We must make and help the next generation to be ready because the time is near.
So, let me bring you up to speed of where we were and where we’re going. We have here in Revelation chapter 16, the seventh trumpet sounds.
The third woe judgment comes containing the bold judgments and declaring Messiah’s kingship over that which was claimed by the antichrist.
The first four bowls affect the whole earth.
There is a completeness that’s connected to these judgments.
They also magnify God’s sovereign and holiness.
sovereignty and holiness and and really expose the darkness and the deprave privity of men’s hearts.
We’ve been looking at the pouring out of God’s wrath and now we look at the second part here.
We’ve already seen the first bowl. All the bowls are being poured out. The bowls of God’s wrath. We saw the gangranous torturous sores poured out on the world. We saw secondly the second bowl global red tie where the seas turned to blood. The third bowl was the gory red rivers. The fresh inland waters are also turned to blood. Then we see a kind of a doxology that is given in the text where it shows us the reason why God pours out his divine justice on the world. And the first one was that the Lord pours it out uh to satisfy his own holiness.
Secondly, the Lord pours it out to grant the plea of justice to those who’ve been killed by in in the tribulation and been abused by governments from the beginning of time. And then the Lord pours out his wrath to affirm that his judgments have always been righteous and true.
Revelation 16:E7 says, “Yes, O Lord God the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.” And then the fourth bowl was global warming that the sun scorches people. And how do the people respond to all these things that are coming upon the world? Well, in verse number nine of chapter 16, they blasphe the name of God and they do not repent or give him glory.
And before I go on to the sixfold today, I would like to mention a connection that’s really important to understand what’s going on in this text and the scripture that we read from Daniel this morning is important to get what’s happening here.
So before I go to the sixth bowl, I would like to mention a Daniel connection from the bowl number five. And if you look at Revelation 16 verse number 10 and 11, it says this.
Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkened and they gnawed their tongues because of pain. And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains, their pains and their sores. And they did not repent of their deeds. But in verse number 10, it does tell us that the beast does have a kingdom during this time. And that becomes important because you say, “Well, what kingdom is this?” Well, this is the fourth kingdom or the second part of the fourth kingdom that will be on the earth that God pours darkness right over the headquarters of Antichrist revealing the true nature of his evil diabolical kingdom. And that is the only place really where the throne of Antichrist is mentioned in scripture at all. What does God do? He shuts off the lights. The scorching heat and the thick darkness darkness comes upon his kingdom and Antichrist evil religious system and economic system and government are brought to a halt.
So what does Daniel have to do with this? Because Daniel in his vision saw four world kingdoms.
The first kingdom was the head of gold where he’s and these kingdoms were described in a colossal statue. The head of gold was the Babylonian kingdom.
And then there was the arms and the chest of silver which was the Medo Persian kingdom. And then we saw the belly and thighs of bronze. That was the Greco or Greek kingdom. And then then we saw the legs of iron and feet and the iron and clay. That was the Roman kingdom.
And what it said in Daniel is that this Roman kingdom would be strong, but part of it would be brittle.
that they’re that they will not adhere to one another or even even as iron does not combine with pottery. In other words, iron represents strength and clay represent weakness that the Roman Empire. Now, these are world governments that the Bible says have already uh taken place. These are world governments and Rome was strong in law. It was strong in organization. It was strong in military might, but the empire included so many different people groups that it created weakness.
And as it says in one translation, the people will be a mixture and will not remain united.
So Rome was in power during the time that John wrote Revelation.
But if you know anything about history, Rome was never taken over by an army. It fell apart by itself.
And so many theologians believe that there is going to be a revived Roman Empire that’s going to be headed and it’s the fourth empire mentioned in Daniel and it’s going to be headed by the antichrist.
So this image depicts a period of time referred to by Jesus as the time of the Gentiles. If you ever read that in scripture, you may say, “I would wonder when that is.” And I wonder where it started and when it ended. Well, the period that that period of the timing of the Gentiles began in 605 BC when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, the first kingdom, and continued through the 70th week of Daniel until Christ’s literal return to earth. So, we are now in revelation in the middle of the tribulation period, the 70th week of Daniel. So, now this becomes very important to understand that.
So this period will end when Christ returns to establish his kingdom which Daniel mentions as the fifth kingdom, the final kingdom, the last kingdom, the eternal kingdom. So during the time of the Gentiles, no son of David will prosper ruling over Israel at all.
In fact, this is what Jesus said in his in the Gospel of Luke. Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.
So, the time of the G Gentiles we’re going to see end in at least chapter 16 here, which gives us a picture of the rest of the book of Revelation. And there’s no doubt that the mystery from Daniel was about how God changes times and seasons and he removes kings and he sets up kings and he makes history serve his will and his glory and his love. So the time of the Gentiles was a total change in human history. And during the time of the Gentiles, there will be four successive kingdoms climaxed by a fifth kingdom that will destroy the other four and fill the earth.
In fact, that’s what it says in Daniel.
It tells us that God, the God of heaven, will set up a kingdom and which will never be destroyed. That kingdom will not be left to another people. It will crush and put an end to all the kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. And then Daniel went on specifically to say, it will be like a stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and this stone will crush the iron and the bronze and the clay and the silver and the gold. And the great God has made known to the king that was Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the future. Well, we open up Revelation and we have it taking place. It shows us where it happens. So the rock that was cut out by um not by human hands was of course not a kingdom that would be done or created by human intention or power. The rock is identified as God’s kingdom which smashes the other human kingdoms and God’s kingdom will expand and take over the world just as the rock became a huge mountain that the final kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and that kingdom will be the kingdom of God.
So the stone is Christ’s kingdom and it was cut out of the mountain without hands and it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, the gold. The final representative kingdoms of gentile world powers will end and that will be the end of the times of the of the times of the gentiles.
So this fifth kingdom is the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the king of kings and the lord of lords. Now from that from gleaning from that we get several observations that God maintains control of all earthly kingdoms no matter how evil they might seem to us. History is linear and not cyclical.
That means history is moving toward a final goal.
A goal that God ordained before the creation of the world. Secondly, human enterprises decline as time goes on. Things aren’t getting better. No matter how much we know, they’re getting worse. So the great image not only changed in value from head to foot, from gold to clay, but it also changed in strength from iron mixed with clay and it was weak. So while human beings operate on the idea that we get better and stronger with time, God’s vision undercuts that our understanding completely informing us that the opposite is true.
Therefore, it will be difficult for things to hold together at the end of the age. And that’s what we see in the world today. Things are falling apart.
Governments are falling apart. People groups are falling apart because we will never be able to hold together because human beings can’t hold it together. We will destroy what God has given us. But there’s a a third observation and that the kingdoms of the world are transient.
Only God’s kingdom will be eternal. that Jesus will return, destroy his enemies, establish his kingdom. And that also means our hope is not in kings or presidents or governments or laws or political alliances or global peacekeeping organiz organizations or moral and ethical crusaders. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. See, that where is where our hope must lie.
So with all that said, Antichrist’s kingdom will come swiftly to an end.
And with that in mind, we get the sense that these bold judgments in Revelation are quickly quickly bring once they start, they quickly bring the world and its empires to a swift termination.
Now that all said, let’s look at Revelation chapter 16 verse 12- 21. And let’s consider the sixth bold judgment.
This also starts the stage of the campaign of Armageddon. That’s the last battle that there will be. And we often hear of the battle of Armageddon as if it’s one battle. Actually, uh there’s more than one battle that will take place. In fact, if we really understand Armageddon, there’s really no actual fighting.
Armageddon will in truth be a staging area of all the armies of the world who are called together by the antichrist.
And that’s what we find in this section of scripture. Now, let’s see it. The sixth seal is global war.
The great river Euphrates is dried up.
Notice in verse number 12 of chapter 16, it says this, “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river the Euphrates and its water was dried up so that the way the way to be pray so that the the way would be prepared for the kings of the east.” Now, the Euphrates River is a natural boundary between the east and the west.
It’s a good barrier against armies that would attack and it’s about 180 miles in length. Now, I’ve read commentaries on this and people try to make this spiritual. I don’t know how you make it spiritual.
Doesn’t mean anything if you do. It’s got to be literal because of what it says here. It says that this river is dried up. Who’s it dried up by? By God himself and by the angel who pours out this bowl upon it. So the kings of the east may mean that the kings of the rising sun. Remember the sun rises in the east.
Now some people believe that this is the oral O oriental nations but it’s more likely it more likely refers to Mesopotamia not China.
Also the fact that Antichrist’s capital will be the city of Babylon and it will sit right on the banks of the Euphrates River and give credence to the kings of the east. that will be Mesopotamian kings.
And Mesopotamia actually means high place of two rivers. A land the land around and between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. And of course that would be the the the the modern lands of eastern Turkey uh to the Persian Gulf.
And today most of Mesopotamia is Iraq and small parts of Syria and Turkey. But these nations there will do something a bidding for the antichrist.
But so God lays the path. He arranges the path on what’s going to happen. And then notice in verse 13 and 14, the people are actually assembled.
It says, “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 spirits like frogs.” Now, what what was the antichrist doing?
He was allying all the nations of the world with these frog demons.
And we see very clearly here the unholy triumphvirate.
We see the dragon himself is the counterfeit father.
The antichrist, the lawless one is the political figure.
He would be the counterfeit son. And then the false prophet would be the counterfeit Holy Spirit. and he would be the minister of propaganda.
So this unholy triumvirate is clearly identified by the unclean spirits that proceed out of their mouth. Again trying to mimic Christ because Christ kept saying out of whose mouth comes a two-edged sword. So again they’re trying to counterfeit the real Christ.
And so what do they do? They assemble all the armies of the world to this one place in the Middle East.
And how do they do that? Well, by their character, they end up deceiving people by working miracles for the purpose of persuading kings and nations and dis by deceptive propaganda. And keep in mind that the dragon, which is Satan himself, gives the antichrist the power, a throne, and great authority because he will be the ruler of the final world empire spoken of in Daniel.
He has a method. How is he he’s going to gain a following? Antichrist, the the man of lawlessness, will truly be an amazing figure and will display a subtle magnetic draw upon the people of the world and the rulers of the world.
And it will be done by these unclean spirits like frogs. Now you say, well, why why do you think you mentioned that? Because I think this is an indication to the people on earth who are believers that these individuals that that are doing these great signs and wonders before the people of the earth are actually demons because frogs in the Old Testament are classified as unclean animals.
and and all of Israel was warned in Leviticus chapter 11, “Do not render yourselves detestable through the swarming things that swarm, and you shall not make yourselves unclean with them, so that you become unclean.” So this is a warning to believers not to be pulled in by all these incredible magnetic type of signs that is going to pull the world into one place to battle against Israel and the Messiah.
And what is their mission?
Satan had a particular goal in mind.
To to reach his goal, he must deceive the whole world and get them to worship him. Now that he has successfully accomplished that, the next goal is to get the kings and dignitaries of the earth to come together to battle. Look at verse number 14 of Revelation 16. It says, “For they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world. For what reason? To gather them together for war of the great day of God the Almighty.” So, Satan is getting all the armies of the world to come to the Middle East to fight against Israel and God’s people.
And the persuasive power of this demonic trilogy convinces these world leaders to actually come.
It will be the greatest military campaign of all time.
And this is the influence that carries these earth dwellers to this place. It will be earthly, sensual, devilish wisdom that gets them there.
It will lead away from the true God and it will inspire hope, but not in the God Almighty.
actually the opposite of it. So these eastern kingdoms help to gather the rest of the armies to the world of the world to this particular place.
Now this is a an absolutely devastating time for the world and a very very difficult time to stand strong as a Christian as a believer in Christ Jesus.
So what does what does the Lord do? He always gives an element of hope to those who are going through this or going through anything that is hard. So there’s a kind of pause in Revelation chapter 16.
And notice what he says to those believers in verse 15. He says, “Behold, I am coming like a thief.
Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame. So in other words, sandwiched in between these verses is this very important warning and admonition to the tribulation saints.
He wants them to be ready.
He wants them to press on to the end.
He says, “Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes.” That’s a picture of a person who remains awake and fully clothed while in the heat of battle in readiness for the return of Christ.
Now, there’s some background that goes to that.
As the priests kept watch in the temple, an officer of the temple would would uh go around and uh every watch with a lighted torch before him. And if any of the watchers did not stand up and say to him, “Oh, officer of the temple, peace be to you.” and it was manifest that they didn’t answer, they would be asleep.
So he had the authority to beat them with a staff and to the right to burn their clothes on the spot.
So if a person’s clothes was burned, he would be naked and everyone would know he failed to stay at his post and watch.
So it was very crucial that watchfulness would be taken seriously in light of the impending doom and the second coming of Christ.
In short, in short, the message to the faithful is this.
When you see the gathering armies of the world at Armageddon, then you can know that the second coming is just right around the corner. So, don’t give up.
Don’t quit when you’re so close.
And people are going to need that then.
And then notice in verse number 16 it says, “And they gathered them together to a place which in Hebrew is called Haramageddon.
Megiddo Megiddo is the ancient city of northern Palestine on a strategic part of the plane of the valley of Jezrael in Israel.
And why that place? Not only that, it is a huge plane, but it is also called the place of battle because Pharaoh Tutmos the third fought a battle against the Canaanites there. Deborah and Barack fought a battle against also the Canaanites there. Gideon fought a battle against the Midianites there.
Ahaz by the arrows of Jahu died there. Saul against the Philippines fought there in that valley.
And the good king Josiah died in battle with Pharaoh Niko at that place. So that place was called the place of battle.
And the writer wanted us to see the Hebrew symbolism behind Armageddon.
And consequently, the valley of Armageddon is actually the biblical valley of Jezrael. It is here the nations led by the antichrist and their god-hating forces will gather against Jerusalem and the Jewish people and the believers with the purpose to destroy them. That’s the reason why all the armies of the world came there to destroy this one place. And Israel has always been the focus of battles.
Everybody’s trying to destroy them and they’re still there.
In fact, the Bible tells us that in Zechariah, I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. God says that. See, God is in control of history and he’s sovereign over all of it.
But I want to mention that this brings me to the place in Revelation 16 verse1 17 and now this is the seventh bowl and this is global devastation.
This is where this is the destruction of the gentile world power and where the fifth kingdom crushes the final gentile kingdom.
This is where it happens.
And notice what it says. Then the seventh angel, verse number 17, poured out his bowl upon the air. Let me just stop there.
This is the last of the bold judgments.
The angel steps up, pours pours out his bowl upon the air.
That is the Ereal region above the earth. It’s space.
And not only does it point to the whole planet, but the whole realm of humanity.
And you get the sense of a final judgment, a a totality, not just in one in the parts, but in the whole.
And if you didn’t notice this completeness of judgment on the four elements of in the natural realm have already been brought up in chapter 16. It’s been upon the earth. It’s been upon the water.
It’s been the fire. And now it’s the air. That means the completeness of what God is doing. He’s bringing everything to an end. So at the end of the second vision of Revelation with the pouring out of the seventh bowl, the last bowl, we get the sense of an ultimate conclusion.
And it is ultimate.
The first thing that is ultimate in verse number 17 is the proclamation from heaven. Notice what it says in the middle of the verse. And a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, “It is done.” It’s like a megaphone, a megaphone sounding voice that everyone hears and the voice comes right out of the temple of God. Remember the only one in the temple of God is God himself.
The c the temple is closed until God finishes the wrath of God.
So this means this is a supreme endtime pronouncement by God himself. For it is his voice who sounds out from the supreme place of control and authority.
And it points to God being in control and bring all things to a proper end.
And what’s the divine ultimate pronouncement?
It’s done.
It’s over.
The finality of God’s proclamation.
He even uses the the the perfect tense here in scripture. The final judgment of God has already occurred and we are at the conclusion of the present age.
And to say it another way, history as we are familiar with it has ended.
Instead, God has has brought us a the dawn of a new age. And that new age will be the age of the kingdom of God where Jesus Christ himself will rule and reign in the millennium on the throne of David and he will sit there ruling the world. That will be the fifth world empire that the Bible describes.
If we know anywhere else in the Bible where we hear the similar pronouncement is when Jesus bowed his head and gave up his spirit and what did he say? It is finished. The same thing. That means you never have to go back and do that again.
This is over.
The finality of this vent event was put in motion by Christ’s cry on the cross. It is finished. And now we see in scripture it is done. The end of world history.
Now even though we have more seven more chapters in Revelation, we have here what they call in grammar and inclusio.
And what is that? Well, in this verse, verse 17, it says it is done. If you go over to chapter 21 of verse six of Revelation, you’ll find the saying again.
Revelation chapter 21 verse number six it says then he said to me it is done. I am the alpha and ome omega the beginning and the end and I will give to the one who thirst from the spring of the water of life without cost. That will be the end end before the eternal state before the great white throne judgment and all the things that takes place at the end.
So in other words, this the sandwich of an inclusio one verse and then another verse and everything in between.
We’re looking at everything in between in the next seven chapters.
So the samblas just plays out further in more detail the same judgments as those in the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments and the bold judgments. And the next point as the great tribulation comes to an end, a number of cataclysmic events will occur. And these cataclysmic events will be a result of the seventh bold judgment being poured out on the world. We’re talking about a global thing here. This is not just a localized thing.
And what is that?
Look at verse number let’s let’s see the the ultimate climactic event that the Bible describes in verse number 18.
It says, “And there there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peels of thunder, and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came upon the earth so great an earthquake was it and so mighty.” So what we have here that these events take place in the last stage of the tribulations just before the campaign of Armageddon and we see that the creation is trembling at the pronouncement of the end.
And the Bible says there’s going to be an earthquake like no other earthquake that ever was and ever will be.
It will be a worldwide earthquake.
Even Mark, the gospel of Mark tells us in for those days will be a time of tribulation such has not occurred since the beginning of creation which God created until now and never will.
And what’s the severity of this event of this event? If you look what happens in verse number 18, in verse number 19 it says this that the earthquake was so severe the great city was split in three parts. Now I believe the great city is was already mentioned in revelation of being Jerusalem and the great city split into three divisions because the city and just because the city is split into three parts doesn’t mean it’s completely destroyed. It could be that God is making it ready for what will come next, his rule and reign on earth in Jerusalem. That’s just my observation.
And then also in verse number 19, and the cities of the nations fell.
Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.
See, the the sins of Babylon come to God’s attention.
And remember, God remembers how Babylon caused the world to commit spiritual adultery. That’ll be more in the later chapters about Babylon.
And the reason for her judgment, that the world is led astray by the immorality, the idolatry of the final unholy empire of Antichrist.
So the nations are drinking the wine of their own sin, the wrath of God.
And the people of the world are participating in a lifestyle and an ideology that is anti- good and God is judging that also.
And Babylon has been the worldwide corrupting force which had lured nations into a kind of insane spiritual immorality.
All the cities of the world will be destroyed. All the cities of the world.
This is global disaster.
People will be living in an uh a real insanity.
I think we’re living in that already.
I mean, the perversion of male and female roles, the travesty of abortion, offering up children on the altar of demons, sexual perversions are on the rise of all different kinds and types.
No common sense. What is what was right is wrong. What what was up is down. What was good is evil. What is evil is good.
That’s insanity.
Nobody could survive with that kind of ideology.
and the world won’t survive.
And according to Zechariah the prophet, not only will Jerusalem be split in three divisions, but the but the Mount of Olives will be split into two parts, creating a valley running from east to west. And the new valley will pro provide a way of escape for the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the earthquake that will destroy the city.
So the earthquake is also described in in the uh Joel, the prophet Joel where it says, “The Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem and the heaven and the earth tremble.
So there will be total devastation.” If we look back to Revelation chapter 16, look at verse 20.
How total is it? It says and every island fled away and the mountains were not found. So many geographical and seismological con convulsions will occur on the planet and many changes would take place.
All the mountains and islands flood away. It’s actually the word vanish.
Literally vanish.
All the mountains leveled.
Mountains that were created after the flood are all leveled.
Islands that were created by volcanoes all over the globe gone.
Isaiah 40:4 says, “Let every valley be lifted up and every mountain and hill be made low and let the rough ground become a plain and the rugged terrain a broad valley.” These prophets already had it there of what’s going to take place.
But one of the final blows in the seventh trumpet is found in verse 21.
Notice what it says.
And huge hailstones about 100 pounds each came down from heaven upon them.
It’s hard to imagine the destruction and death caused by these huge blocks of ice which fall from the sky.
Buildings and human beings will be crushed by these gigantic hailstones.
Now, Grant Osborne searched, he was one of the commentators and he searched the book of uh the Guinness Book of World Records and he found that the largest hailstone in recorded history was 2.25 pounds.
It fell on Bangladesh in April 14th, 1986, killing 92 people.
Could you imagine what 100 pound hailstones will do to a world, to a population, to what it’s ever left, it will just destroy it.
So with these earthshadowing events in the campaign of Armageddon, the great tribulation will come to an end.
The bowls of God’s wrath will not produce softened hearts, but hard and corgible hearts.
And how ugly is rebellion when you look at it from this vantage point. How righteous our God and worthy to be praised by his grace, his mercy, his goodness. Yet that is not what happens.
So what we see here is the ultimate display of the human heart of human depravity. And notice what it says in verse 21. It says, “And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail because its plague was extremely severe.” They blasphemed God. The third commandment is in view here. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. For the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
that these wicked people have moved far past the boundaries of that command.
So these wicked people will not only profame but also blaspheme the very name of God because of the extreme severity of the plague of hell uh hail and God in whom they know they curse to his face.
And brethren, as I mentioned last time, how twisted and dark the human heart is.
And if it wasn’t for God’s grace toward us to give us his spirit and his word to transform our minds so we would know the good, the acceptable, and the will of God, we would be just like these people.
Yes, the human heart is twisted and dark.
And it ends up cursing the God who created them and ultimately the God who will judge them.
They refuse to change their evil ways and give glory and honor to the God of heaven. And so the only thing that is left is the judgment of God.
And people still curse God.
And one thing that’s interesting about this passage is there’s no repentance mentioned at all now. It’s like repentance is off the table.
So their hearts were like stone to God and their consciences completely calloused with no regard or feeling toward a holy God of mercy, of grace, and of righteous judgment.
So just can imagine I know this message is a little message is a little different today but I thought I’d just lay it out for you as the scripture lays it out because this chapter alone should make you want to be ready and not be found naked. That means you’re watchful. You’re attentive.
You know what’s going on.
You’re staying, you’re keeping one step ahead of everything else. You’re not deceived by the news or by all the new AI stuff that’s being put on the internet that looks real but is not.
You can’t be duped by those things. And we’re just in the beginning of that deception. How massive is that deception going to be as time goes on when they get way better at it and they take your words and use your words against you?
and convict you of crimes that you never committed, put you in places you never were, say things that you never spoke, and use it against you.
It’s already being done, but they’re getting good at it. See, so the deception is going to be it’s going to be incredible.
So, you have to be ready. You have to know the word of God. You have to know God’s plan. You have to know what’s going on. And not only that, we should know so we can m get the next generation when we’re gone ready if God carries because the end is at our doorsteps.
I mean, if you look through the Gospels, Jesus said in Luke 12:40, “You also must be ready for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” See, God didn’t give us the timing. He didn’t give us the month and the day and the hour he’s coming. He just said, “Be ready.
Be ready.” And I think if that’s one admonition we get from this chapter is that because these things are not fantasy.
These things will be reality.
And I don’t know, it may be people sitting in this room.
It may be people that we know that are going to end up in that generation.
So we have to be ready.
So the question is, are you ready?
Do you know the Lord as your savior? Are you sure of that?
If you died today, you know where you’re going.
If you had to stand before the Lord today and give an account of your life, what would you tell him?
Because remember, if one does not have Christ as their Lord and Savior, the one who’s taken the wrath for sinners, they will receive the wrath of God for their sin.
That’s why hell is eternal. And that’s a real place, too.
So, brethren, where do you stand today with the Lord? I pray that you are ready to meet the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, not as your judge. Amen. Let’s pray.
Lord, this morning as we consider these heavy passages of scripture, Lord, use them for our benefit, to increase our sobriety, to increase our spiritual maturity, to increase our holiness and godliness, to make us know that life is very very short but eternity is very very long.
And I pray Lord that we really would examine ourselves to know and make sure that we know that we are one of God’s children and that not that we know you but you know us.
And so Lord, make us soldiers in these days to stand strong and to pass on the truth to those who haven’t heard it yet, to get the gospel to those who haven’t heard the message yet. And I pray Lord that in these days you would save many and make them ready for what’s coming because we know Lord the kingdoms of the world will end and your kingdom will begin and it will be an eternal kingdom and an everlasting kingdom and we’ll be in that kingdom with you and that will be a time of great rejoicing great singing and great joy and I pray this in Christ name.