The Great Battle

If you have your Bible, and I hope you do, Revelation chapter 16 is where we're
going to be this morning. And if you are new to Redeemer, we have been an
ongoing study through the book of Revelation. We've been going through this for many
months now, and we've come to a portion in Revelation 16 that is one of the better
-known parts of the book of Revelation, for one reason, because there is a word in
Revelation 16 that is only in Revelation 16. It is about a battle that will take
place, a battle described for us in Revelation 16 and beyond. And the only name for
this battle, the battle of Armageddon, that word is only found here.
And just to remind you of the context here, Revelation 16 is telling us about God
pouring out bowls of wrath on the earth and the last time we were looking at this
we saw Seven angels given seven bowls of wrath and we looked at the first five of
those seven bowls God pouring out judgment on those who have rejected him or those
who have ignored him Those who are following the dragon and the beast and the false
prophet and in these five bowls of wrath, John is seeing and describing a vision of
the deconstruction of the world, that the de -creation of the world. If Genesis 1
tells us about God creating the world, Revelation 16 is telling us about God
uncreating, destroying his creation as he gets ready for the new heavens and the new
earth. And that's what we see in Revelation 16 and beyond, and then when we get to
Revelation 21, we see the recreation, the new heavens and the new earth. And so
we're going to look this morning at the second half of Revelation 16, where the
sixth and the seventh bowls of wrath are poured out, and these bowls are a picture
of the final day of the Lord, when the final days of the universe,
before everything is destroyed, as Jesus comes as He returns. And we've been,
we've seen this picture of this last day already in Revelation, back in Revelation
chapter 6. In fact, turn back a few pages to Revelation chapter 6 and look at
verse 12. So the Revelation 6 starts with the seals that are being opened on the
scroll. And When the sixth seal is opened, Revelation 6 .12,
it says, "When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great
earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth." Excuse me,
sackcloth, "The full moon became like blood. The stars of the sky fell to the
earth. The fig tree shed its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished
like a scroll that is being rolled up. Every mountain and island was removed from
its place. Now that's describing the destruction of the universe. Then the kings of
the earth and the great ones and the generals, the rich and the powerful, everyone
slave and free hid themselves in the caves among the rocks of the mountains. Calling
on the mountains and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who
is seated on the throne from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of their
wrath has come and who can stand. That's the same thing that's being described in
the sixth bowl of wrath. Jump ahead to chapter 11, and when the seventh trumpet
sounds in Revelation chapter 11, a voice from heaven declares, "The kingdom of this
world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign
forever and ever." So each of the cycles of judgment that are described in
Revelation with the seals and the trumpets and now the bowls, end with a description
of the terrible day of the Lord when the universe is destroyed and the new heavens
and the new earth come in. And that's where we are again in chapter 16. I've said
this before, but keep in mind, you don't read Revelation chronologically. It's not
that these events happen, and then these events happen, these events happen. No,
you're seeing it cyclical, so it's a description of these events, and then we're
going to look at it from a different perspective, and then from a different
perspective, but it's describing the same cycle that's going on. And these visions
that John is describing for us give us an image of what's gonna happen during these
timelines. Think of these images like an art gallery that you're in where you're
seeing the images on the wall and they're designed to evoke in you an emotion.
They're designed to provoke you to thinking deeply about what it is that you're
seeing. Each of these bowls being, or poured out, each of the seals being opened,
these are designed to be an artist rendering of what the last days are gonna look
like. And we'll see when we get to chapter 17, John actually goes back and gives
us a zoom -in, a close -up look at what these last days are gonna look like. We'll
go back and look at how the battle between good and evil transpires, how Satan is
brought down and how things intensify as the return of the Lord draws near.
So I want us to look at the verses we're gonna unpack this morning. And I want
you to know up front, I'm gonna be suggesting something in these verses that will
be different than what you've probably heard about the coming Battle of Armageddon.
I'm gonna give you maybe a minority report on how we should about these verses,
so there is your teaser for this morning, okay?
Let's pray again, Lord, we need your help as we approach this text,
anytime we open your Word, we need divine guidance, so give us ears to hear and
give us hearts to obey. Speak to us by your spirit, we pray in your name, amen.
Revelation 16, beginning at verse 12, follow along as I read, this is the word of
God for the people of God.
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 battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his
garments on, That he may not go about naked and be seen exposed and
They assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called
Armageddon But the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice
came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done And there were flashes of
lightning, rumblings, peels of thunder, and a great earthquake, such as there never
had been since man was on the earth. So great was that earthquake. The great city
was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered
Babylon the Great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath.
Every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones,
about a hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people, and they cursed God for
the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe. Amen. May God bless this
reading of his word. The grass withers and the flower fades. The word of our God
will stand forever. So, here's how I want us to outline what we've just read,
but put these in categories. First, the sixth bowl is a picture of the world
getting ready for the battle that will come on the great day of the Lord Almighty,
preparation for this ultimate battle. And in it, we see the allies uniting in verses
12 through 14. In verse 15, we see Jesus giving his followers the battle plan that
they should follow as this battle draws near. And then verse 16, the Armageddon
verse is where it talks about what the field of battle will be, where the field of
battle will be. And then the seventh bowl is the end of the world as we know it.
I feel fine. And then, I'm sorry, I had to. And then, following that, interpretation
is complete in verses 17 and 18 and Babylon the world system is destroyed in verse
19. So we're going to walk through this passage in just a minute and we'll spend
most of our time looking at the sixth bowl and just a little bit of time at the
end looking at the seventh bowl. But I want to take you back and remind you of
the principles of interpretation that I'm using as I come to this book and to this
passage in particular, because I want you to see why I'm coming to the conclusions
I'm coming to about how we should understand these verses. No doubt, you know,
with this book maybe more than with any other book in the Bible, there are good,
gospel -loving, Bible -believing scholars, people who affirm the authority,
the inerrancy, the infallibility, the sufficiency of God's Word, and they read these
passages and they come to very different conclusions. And that's why when we come to
these passages, we have to maintain a posture of theological humility, which doesn't
mean that we are soft on the authority of God's word. It just means we acknowledge
that there are things here that are difficult to understand. We have to be careful
not to become hardened and dogmatic about our interpretation of these verses when
it's not as clear as other passages of scripture are. So the interpretive principles
that I'm employing as I come to this book and how I understand it, I see, as I
read through the book of Revelation, a lot of symbols and metaphors. I see probably
some symbols and metaphors that other people don't see. In fact, other people would
look at it and say, you shouldn't see that as like that, you should see that as
literal. And I would say, well, that's not how I see it. So we disagree on those
things. But if you were here a year ago when we started our study of revelation,
you remember that I talked about four primary ways that people tend to interpret
revelation. There's some people who are called preterists. You may have heard that
word. These are scholars who believe that what John is describing here is something
that has already happened in human history. They typically assign this to the fall
of Jerusalem in 70 AD. So they see these as symbolic descriptions of what has
already happened. That's the Preterist view. And the second interpretation is the
historical method. These are people who see revelation happening more chronologically.
They see it happening as almost a timeline progressing that starts at the beginning
of the church age and ends when Jesus returns, so they might say, "We're in the
Philadelphia in the era today. We haven't gotten to the Leia to see an era yet."
They would see it kind of happening. They would say the seals judgments have already
passed, but the bowls judgments are still ahead in history. Third approach, probably
the most widely held and widely taught over the last 100 years in the US is what's
called the futurist approach. And these are scholars who say that what's being
written here is descriptive of what will be unfolding for us in the future, in the
final days leading up to the return of the Lord. For the futurist, most of what
we're reading is describing things that have yet to happen in human history, but
things we should be on the lookout for because these things are coming. I have
embraced what is called the idealist view of understanding this. The idealist says
that what's being described here relates less to specific events or specific people
and more to types of events or types of people that we see happening throughout
this era. So I see many passages in Revelation describing types or symbols and not
necessarily specific events or people. So, in general, a futurist will look at a
passage like the one that we've just read, and when they read, "The kings of the
east are assembling to come through the dried up river Euphrates," they will say,
"Well, that's talking about rulers east of Israel who are going to come through a
dried up Euphrates riverbank as they prepare for an invasion of Israel.
And when the Bible talks about 100 pound hailstones falling on people in the last
days, you should be expecting 100 pound hailstones to fall from the sky on people
in the last days. And let me just say, that's a valid,
I look at those people and say, I can't argue with you in terms of your method.
I see how you get to that conclusion, it's a reasonable conclusion to come to. It's
just not the conclusion I come to. So I'm just laying that groundwork for you
because I want you to hear in my interpretation the background for this. And the
scholars who would hold to a futurist view, they will say, "Of course there are
symbols and metaphors in the book of Revelation, but the right way to understand
this is that the book is talking about literal events unless it's clear that it's
talking about symbols or metaphors, and they may be exactly right in their
interpretation. I just don't think so, okay? When I read Revelation, I see symbolic
and metaphorical language as being so overwhelming, so it's there so often that I
just find myself gravitating toward that not necessarily is my first interpretive
thing, but I'm wide open to a symbolic understanding because of how often I see
symbols and metaphors. You go back to chapter one, and when Jesus is described in
chapter one, he's described as having a two -edged sword coming out of his mouth.
Now my future friends would say they don't believe that's a literal description. They
don't think the vision of Jesus had him opening his mouth and a sword coming out.
I look at that and saying, "That's setting for us an interpretive framework from
which we should go forward." So when we hear things like that, we should be
thinking, "Is that a symbol of something bigger?" Of course, the two -edged sword
coming out of Jesus' mouth, his word is like a sharp sword. That's what Hebrews
tells us. The word of God is living an active, sharper than any two -edged sword.
So it's describing the power of God's word, the destructive power of God's word,
coming out of the mouth of Jesus. The passage we're in, this chapter,
talking about bowls of wrath being poured out on the earth. I don't think, I don't
think most people think that seven angels have seven literal bowls that they're
pouring wrath out of. I think most people understand that's symbolic, metaphorical,
that something's being poured out on the earth. It's covering the whole earth. I
don't think the trumpets that were described in the trumpet judgments mean that there
were actual trumpet sounds. I don't think the seals that are described in the seal
judgments mean that there's actually a scroll and that seals are being pulled off of
it. So it seems to me that when we have a sixth angel pouring out a bowl of
wrath here, and we say it's clearly a metaphor, then it's not reasonable to say,
when the next thing is that the water of the river Euphrates dries up to prepare
for the kings of the east coming through, that that might be a metaphorical
expression as well. That's how I get to that. That's why I think that, especially
when the next thing that happens in this passage is that there's a dragon of beast
and a false prophet and they open their mouths and demonic spirits come out and
they look like frogs.
And could there be a day coming when there are three human beings who open their
mouths and you see demonic spirits coming out like frogs? That could happen. I think
it's pointing to something symbolic. I also come back and I think most of most
scholars agree the primary purpose of this book, the primary message for the readers
of Revelation in John's day and in our It is the same,
it's to prepare us for the final day of the Lord. I'd say the primary message is
this, that life in the church age from the time of Jesus' ascension until his
return is going to be hard. Don't be surprised that living as believers in this
world as we lead up to the coming of Jesus. Don't be surprised that that's hard.
If somebody told you, "If you'll just give your life to Christ, things will be easy
for you after that. They were lying to you. Somebody told you that you can expect
everything to be peaceful and sweet going forward. No, in this world Jesus said you
will have tribulation, and the writer John is telling through the revealed word of
God to the churches in his day, don't be surprised that it's hard, harder than you
thought it was going to be, that there's persecution coming your way. Believers
should expect and not be surprised by intense opposition to the message of God.
When you share the gospel with people and they get mad at you, that should not
take you by surprise.
That's a normal response for sinful people. That opposition may ebb and flow over
the centuries, but it as far as the final day draws near. So I don't know when
the final day is. We're closer to it than the people in first century were.
And we see intensification and opposition to the things of God in our day.
Does that mean Jesus is coming soon? Maybe it could get much worse than what we're
seeing in our day. I don't know, but we should expect When we see things getting
more intense we should say the Bible told us this is what would happen before Jesus
came back and in the face of Opposition and persecution and trials and hardship God
is calling us to overcome to conquer to persevere Don't fall back. Don't give in
don't stand don't cave Stand firm walk by faith The the purpose of the book of
Revelation is to say to people As things get harder, overcome, endure,
trust, and this is the last point, trust that God will be victorious, his enemies
will face judgment, evil will be defeated, and your faith in him will be vindicated
ultimately. As things get harder and you're tempted to go, "This isn't working.
I just need to cave. I just need to quit. I'm going to quit trying. you need to
hang in there and trust, your faith will be vindicated on the last day. That's what
the writer of Revelation is telling us.
So what is specifically or symbolically being described in Revelation 16,
these bowls of wrath and judgment being poured out, the message of this passage is
the same as the message of the whole book, which is it's going to get bad as
Jesus gets closer, hang in there. Stand firm. Don't capitulate. I like how Nancy
Guthrie put it. I've quoted her before. She said "Revelation was written to fortify
Christians to live in the world, enduring its harsh treatment and alienation with a
firm confidence that this world is not all there is, that in fact what may seem
like defeat is going to give way to victory." You want to sum up what Revelation
is all about, what chapter 16 is all about, this is what it's all about. Revelation
is filled, I think, with a lot of symbolic imagery, metaphors all given by God to
help fortify us as His children in the face of opposition as things get harder in
the world. So with that framework in place, let's go back to the passage we're
looking at this morning, and let's walk through it, and I'll show you what I see
here. In verse 12, the sixth bowl is poured out. Those who oppose God and His
people are coming together again seeking to destroy those who would follow Him. This
is a war between those who hate God and His people and those who love the Lord
and follow Him. That's the clash that's going to occur here. Revelation, When we
read about Babylon, Babylon is an archetype, and we'll see this as we get in 17
and 18.
Babylon doesn't exist anymore. The kingdom of Babylon doesn't exist. But in the
ancient world, Babylon stood for the people who had strength and built an empire
apart from God, rejecting God. In fact, not just rejecting God, but persecuting the
people of God, enslaving the people of God. So when we read about Babylon in this
passage, we're reading about an archetype of those who want to destroy, enslave,
and persecute the people of God. Babylon was the first-- think about this.
From the time of David, when the kingdom was established, until 587 BC,
there were a number of times, so David was king in about 1 ,000 B .C.,
Babylon comes in and conquers Jerusalem in 587 B .C.
There had been a number of opposing armies that had come against Israel in that 400
-year period from David until the fall of Israel, and Jerusalem had always stood
firm. There had been wars and skirmishes, but any time they came to attack
Jerusalem, they were defeated. But when Babylon came, what happened? Babylon was
successful. They destroyed Jerusalem. So when you see Babylon mentioned here in
Revelation, it's talking about those who will come in power against God's people, and
there will be destruction, because that's what Babylon represents. By the time John
is writing Revelation, Babylon is not a world power. Of course, in our day, there
is no Babylon, so Babylon in Revelation I think is a symbol for all of the kings
and the people of the earth, political, social, economic kings who have power, people
who have power and authority who oppose and come against the people of God.
And the Euphrates River here, again it could be talking about an actual drying up
of a portion of the Euphrates, God did that with the Red Sea when Israel was
parting the Red Sea. But the Euphrates is that natural boundary between Babylon and
leading toward Israel. And I think what the writer here is seeing is that boundary
is being removed. That thing that had kept Babylon at bay from the people of God
is going to be removed in the last day. The natural barriers that have been a
protection for God's people are going to be destroyed. By God's hand, God is going
to dry up that so that Babylon can come and invade. So when I read verse 12, John
is seeing the waters of the Euphrates dried up, the kings of the east marching on
Israel. I see God removing his restraining grace and allowing the enemies of God's
people to advance against them as the day draws near. And I see in the sixth bowl
what has always been true for God's people throughout the church age, which is
people in power who are aligned with the dragon and the beast and the false
prophet, they want to silence and destroy the church. That's not unique to our age
or our era, is it? We don't live in a time when all of a sudden people in power
want to destroy God's people. I think John is pointing out here that there's a day
ahead when the powerful enemies of God pictured as the kings of the east like the
and kings of old will come to wipe out the church. One by the way, one additional
reason why I think this is symbolic and metaphorical is that these hostile advancing
armies coming across the Euphrates, in our day that's not how warfare would be done.
So if the kings of the east, if the Iranians and the Iraqis were ancient Babylon,
were going to attack Israel, they wouldn't march troops through the dry up Euphrates.
They'd have aircraft carriers, and they would have fighter jets, they'd have other
ways. You don't need to drive the Frades to get your troops to the battlefield. So
I think it's metaphorical there. When you get to verse 13 here, you've got once
again what we've called the unholy trinity, the dragon, the beast, and the false
prophet. They are the unholy trinity, they are mocking the holy trinity,
Father, Son, and Spirit. Satan, and those who serve him in government and in
society, are leading the efforts against God's people, and it is a coming battle
that's going to happen. It's a war against the church, but again, I'm suggesting it.
I don't think it's going to be a geopolitical battle. I don't think it's going to
be a military battle. I think it's a war of ideas, a war of worldviews, a war of
allegiances,
a war of lies against the truth of God. The reason I think that is because verse
13, what happens is out of the mouth of these godless leaders, out of the mouth
come the demonic spirits like frogs. Well,
what comes out of the mouth? What we speak, what's in your heart comes out of your
mouth. It's their speech. They are speaking words of opposition. They are marshaling
forces. It's not just that They're arguing against God's people, but they're giving
commands and directives against God's people. And I think the demonic spirits
appearing like frogs are an illusion back to the plague in Egypt where the frogs
covered the land. But again, that's not clear. I think that's probably what that's
pointing to. But I see this primarily as a war of worldviews. The goodness and
greatness of God Against the enemies of God who say as Richard Dawkins did God is
not great who who slander and blaspheme the name of God and Those who are who are
warring against God They will be able to perform signs and marvels that could be a
reference to modern technology You know the whole trust the science movement that
some of the marvels and miracles or they say, "We don't need God anymore. "Look at
what we can do for ourselves. "We don't need to trust God, "we can take care of
ourselves." But the, and I said in my notes,
this always gets dangerous when it comes to me, do I do this or not?
You can't be dogmatic. We have people in our day who think that we should be able
to control the climate,
that if we just do the right things or stop doing the wrong things, we can control
the climate.
What they're saying is we don't need God.
We can take care of this on our own. We just make this adjustment here and that
adjustment there, and we'll live in... No. Who controls the winds and the waves? Who
controls the fires?
Okay, that's enough from off the notes.
These forces are all in alignment, coming together against the common enemy, God and
His people. And that's the battle that I think verse 14 is talking about. It's a
battle that's been going on for centuries. You go back to France in the 1700s,
the Enlightenment period. France declared war on God as a result of the
Enlightenment. The leaders in France came up and said we're going to build the
society apart from God and just show how superior it is to everything. In fact I
don't know if you know this but in France in the Enlightenment period they decided
that the Gregorian calendar was worthless and that we'd be better off with cycles of
10 days, instead of cycles of seven days, why seven days, we're gonna do, so they
had a new calendar, it was a 10 day calendar, and I don't remember if you got a
day off every 10 days, you worked for nine and then you were off for 10. Well
what happened to that?
Nobody's following that anymore because that experiment didn't work, because God said,
you shall work six days and on the seventh day you rest, and you break that cycle
and and it's going to break you.
The culture wars that have been taking place in this country since the '60s are
wars against God's way and the way of wisdom of man.
I think these clashes, these culture wars are many Armageddon's,
precursors of the ultimate conflict that will come and be worldwide as the day draws
nearer. I think they're a prophetic foretaste of what John is seeing when the sixth
bowl of wrath is poured out on the last day. In fact, some have suggested, and I
think it's right, that what John is seeing in Revelation 16 is the prophetic
fulfillment of Psalm 2. You know, Psalm 2 is one of the most quoted Old Testament
passages in the New Testament. Over and over again There's a reference to Psalm 2,
and what we see happening in Revelation 16 sounds a lot like what David said in
Psalm 2, where he said, "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against
the Lord and against his anointing, saying, 'Let us burst their bonds apart and cast
away their cords from us. And how does God respond? He who sits in the heavens
laughs. The Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath
and terrify them in his fury saying, "As for me, I have set my king on Zion,
my holy hill." That's the picture in Psalm 2 of what we're seeing happen in
Revelation 16, and it's happened again and again throughout history, and it will
culminate in a worldwide expression of this as this clash of the people of God
against the people who hate God, warring against one another in how we're supposed
to live our lives. We're seeing it in pockets today, it's gonna get worse as Jesus
draws nearer. Here's another reason why I think this is ultimately a spiritual
battle. It's what Jesus says in verse 15, the battle plan that he has for those
who belong to him. Let me just say, if you want to get everything about the
theological interpretation and how we understand symbols and metaphors, you can set
all out of sight. Don't set aside verse 15. Verse 15 is the application of this
passage for us. Jesus says parenthetically in the midst of describing the sixth bowl,
he says, "I am coming like a thief." Now here's what he means by that.
He's saying, "I am coming unexpectedly and unannounced." And what that means for you
is you should be in a posture, a permanent posture of being alert,
on guard, ready, awake, paying attention.
In fact, the simple understanding of what Jesus is saying when he says, "I'm coming
like a thief," is just that. So be alert.
If a thief, if I told you, "Guess what? I heard a thief is coming to your house
tonight." How many of you would say, "Well, we'll just turn off the lights at 9 .30
and go to bed?"
You'd stay up in the living room with your shotgun, right? Getting ready for the
thief who's gonna come to your house. Not gonna come to my house. You'd be alert.
You'd stay awake Knowing that a thief is gonna come Jesus is saying I'm coming like
a thief. So stay awake Stay alert and the battle plan is don't become When we talk
about staying awake, it's don't become spiritually complacent. That's what That's what
staying awake means. Don't drift into spiritual complacency. This goes back to
Revelation 2 and 3, the letters to the churches where Jesus was talking to these
churches. You become spiritually complacent. Wake up. Strengthen what remains.
Behold, I'm coming.
Other Bible passages speak to this. In Luke 21, after Jesus curses the barren fig
tree in Luke 21, He warns the disciples about leading spiritually barren or fruitless
lives. He says, "Watch yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation
and drunkenness and the cares of this life, and that day will come upon you
suddenly like a trap, for it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the
whole earth, but stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to
escape all these things that are going to take place and to stand before the Son
of Man.
Now Jesus, some of you need to go back and meditate on those verses right there.
Stay alert. Jesus is saying, "Pray that you have strength. Don't just assume,
'Well, I'm in Christ. I'm going to be fine.'" No. Pray that you have strength to
endure what's coming.
It's going to come on you like a trap suddenly. It's happening to all of you.
You need to stay alert and awake and be ready. Do your push -ups today because you
may need tomorrow the strength that you're going to need. Matthew 25, Jesus says,
"You don't know the day or the hour when this is going to happen. Therefore, keep
alert." So that's the first admonition to believers, there is a battle that's coming
and intensifying as the last day comes. Stay alert.
Stay awake. Be spiritually prepared. Stay spiritually engaged. Keep doing your
workouts. Stay strong.
This is not Jesus saying, "A military battle is coming. Therefore, get the forces
here and put the tanks there and get the aircraft." No, he's saying it's a
spiritual battle that's coming, stay spiritually alert and aware.
So does that describe you? Would you say I'm a spiritually engaged,
alert person? I am paying attention to spiritual danger in my own life and in our
culture. I'm watching, I'm staying in the game,
I know where the spiritual temptations and threats in my own life are. I know the
traps that are set for us in the culture. I'm on guard against these things. Or
would you say, "I'm just kind of going through life and hoping for the best." That
second posture, you're going to get crushed as things intensify. And we see people
deconstructing their faith today because they didn't stay spiritually alert for what
was coming.
Two weeks ago, at the beginning of the week, the weather people started warning us
about what was coming. You remember? They would say, "Heavy snow is coming by the
end of the week. We got radar maps. In fact, a friend of mine texted me this
radar map. You see there? This was Thursday afternoon that he texted me. And you
see his take cover, he says down here, In the text message that he sends to me
right when that snowstorm was coming So I sent back a text and said we are
hunkered down frozen pizzas in the freezer fresh firewood all dry and in the garage
He texted me back and he said yes, but how's your supply of diet coke?
He knows me pretty well The point is when you knew the snowstorm was coming you
got prepared for it Jesus is saying it's coming, stay prepared. Don't wait and
think, well, this isn't going to come. You made preparations. You got prepared. You
went to the store. I saw you at the store. There was no stuff left at the store.
You got it before I got it.
Jesus wants us to be living in a perpetual state, ongoing state of spiritual
readiness, waiting for His return. Stay alert to danger. Stay awake. And the second
part of the battle plan from Jesus is stay clothed in the gospel.
Stay clothed in grace so that you're not naked and exposed.
Again, I think we're to understand this metaphorically, symbolically,
not literally. I don't think Jesus is saying, "And make sure when you get up in
the morning you put on your pants because you don't want to be naked when the
battle comes. I think he's saying metaphorically here, you need to stay spiritually
clothed. Remember the lukewarm church in Laodicea in chapter three? The church that
was not alert to their own spiritual malaise? And Jesus said to them in Revelation
3, 18, "I counsel you to buy from me white garments "that you may clothe
yourselves, "and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen. So what this means
for us practically, spiritual alertness and preparedness means that we're not only
alert to what's coming, but that we walk in grace, that we stay clothed in the
grace of God in the gospel, and we don't drift from that. We don't think something
else is going to keep us safe and protected. We don't live in shame.
We don't live in guilt. We don't live with our sin exposed and uncovered. We follow
Jesus in obedience. When we slip and stumble, as we will do, we go back to the
cross, and that's where we find the grace that covers our sin.
The spiritual battle plan that is coming in advance of Jesus' return,
the battle plan according to Jesus, stay alert, be watchful, clothe yourself in grace
every day. Embrace the grace, cover yourself with it. Never forget,
this is why we say often, "Re -repent, re -believe the gospel every day." That's how
you stay spiritually ready for what's coming.
This is not Jesus instructing us how to prepare for a climactic military battle, but
how to prepare for the daily spiritual battles that are coming and are going to
intensify as the day draws near. So now we get to verse 16 where it says,
"They assembled themselves in a place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon." Now if
what's being described here is an ideological battle between the forces of darkness
and God and His people, then I would suggest that this verse is not pointing
pointing to a specific geographical location. One of the reasons I don't think this
is pointing to a specific geographical location is there's no place in Israel called
Armageddon. Do you know that, that place, there's no geographical location like that.
There is this place. This place is Tel Megeddo. This is a national park in Israel.
I've been here. It's located in the Jezreel Valley. If you're up on Mount Carmel,
where Elijah had his encounter with the prophets of Baal, and you look out, you're
looking out over the Jezreel Valley, and this national park, which is is called Tel
-Magedo, that in fact, yeah you so you can see where it is. It's just south and
west of Nazareth. That's where the Magedo is on that on the Jezreel plain. The
orange parts there are the Palestinian -controlled areas, so up in the top area
that's what's called the Golan Heights. This big orange part in the middle that's
the West Bank and then that little orange part that's down by the Mediterranean
that's the Gaza Strip. Those are the three areas controlled by the Palestinian forces
today. The rest of the maroon or the red colored that's Israel and And the Valley
of Mageddo, Tel Mageddo is south and west of Nazareth. So most people, when they
see the Battle of Armageddon, they think this is gonna take place, if they see it
as a literal fulfillment of a conflict, it's gonna take place in this Valley of
Mageddo that we go back to the picture, so we can see that's where the National
Park is. And the reason there's a National Park there is because there were a lot
of battles that took place in Israel in the Old Testament that took place in this
very area and that's why this area is marked out as a national park. It's like
battlefields we have. Last October when I was in Pennsylvania I went to a little
suburban Pennsylvania town that is known more for its battlefield than it is for its
community. It's the town of Gettysburg and everybody goes there and all the way if
I say Gettysburg you don't think of a town in Pennsylvania, you think of a
battlefield. If I say to you Waterloo, you don't think of a little town in Southern
Belgium, you think of a battle that took place there. If I say to you Maghetto,
the Maghetto Valley, and you're a Jew, you think of it as the battlefield area. Now
here's the thing, the word here,
Armageddon, it's putting together two Hebrew words, "har" and "magedo," the word
"har," the Hebrew word "har" means
"mountain." Our "magedon" literally means "mountmagedo." Go back to the picture.
There aren't any mountains there. The Jezreel Valley, the "magedo," there's no
mountain there. If you said to "Jew, have you been to Mount Magedo?" They would
say, "What are you talking about?" Like saying, "Have you been to the mountains
"in Stuttgart, Arkansas?" No, it's flat rice fields there,
right? That's all we got there, duck blinds. So to talk about Mount Magedo,
you gotta be talking about something metaphorical when you talk about that. So why
is John seeing a vision of a mountain where there's no mountain in the Maghetto
Valley? I think what it means this, Maghetto Valley was a place that was a
battlefield. Derek Thomas said Maghetto was the battlefield of Israel. It's where
Deborah and Barak took on the Canaanites. It's where the Philistines go back.
We're not ready for his quote yet. That's coming up. It's the site where King Saul
was slain by the Philistines. The Maghetto Valley is where Gideon defeated the
Midianites. The Maghetto Valley is where Josiah died fighting against the Egyptians.
So this geographic location for Jews meant the battlefield. Derrick Thomas says,
now we can show the quote, "It is altogether appropriate that Maghetto should
symbolize the location of the battle of the Lord against the forces of darkness, and
That final cataclysmic battle should be pictured as taking place here.
If I said to you, there is a great Gettysburg coming, if there is a great Waterloo
ahead, you would understand what I'm saying, not that there's going to be something
actually happening in South Belgium, but there's a battle brewing. And I think that's
what's being pictured in Revelation 16, 16.
Okay. Let me wrap up. We're going through a lot here. Let me just wrap up the
seventh bowl real quick. Let me point out that the Bible is saying here that we're
living in the middle of an ongoing cosmic struggle that's been going on around the
time, but it's going to get more intense. There have been times when it's been more
intense. It does ebb and flow, but it's never not happening. This spiritual battle.
We did a series a few years ago where we looked at Ephesians chapter 6 and the
spiritual battle that takes place, that Ephesians 6 talks about putting on the full
armor of God, we're to do that every day because the spiritual battle is going on
every day. And in 2 Corinthians 10, we're told that though we walk in the flesh,
we're not waging war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not of
the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments in
every lofty the opinion raised against the knowledge about, taking every thought
captive and obedience to Christ. So I think the spiritual warfare that's being
pictured here as the battle of Armageddon, I think the final battle will be much
bigger, much more widespread and much more aggressive. But I think the nature of the
battle is what we've read about here, not waging war according to the flesh, but a
destroying of strongholds and tearing down spiritual strongholds. And I think as
people in our day, in our world today, right now are being,
there's actual spiritual battle taking place. People in our day being martyred, people
being imprisoned for their faith in Jesus. Last year the number of people who were
martyred for their faith worldwide was just under 5 ,000 people. 5 ,000 people put to
death because they believe in Jesus. If that same number is happening today, that
means that in this service somebody is dying worldwide that a dozen people today
will die for their faith in Jesus. As the great day of the Lord draws near that
number will increase persecution will increase imprisonments will increase martyrdom
will increase and we need to stand firm stay alert stay clothed in grace persevere
take up the full of our armor of God wield the sword of the spirit destroy
strongholds That's the battle plan. Now, seventh bold, okay.
God is declaring his victory in the seventh bold. The last bold of wrath, flashes
of lightning rumbling, peels of thunder, great earthquakes such as there's never been
in verse 18. This is what I said. It's the reversal of creation. It's the de
-creation of the world. We've seen these same words used earlier at the end of the
seals, at the end of the trumpets. We saw lightning flashes of thunder. This is
used throughout Revelation. It gets more intense each time, which is again saying as
it gets closer it's going to be more intense. The final great earthquake, the writer
of Hebrews is talking about that when he talks about the removal of all things that
are shaken, all things that have been made in order to that which cannot be shaken
remains. We should be grateful for receiving a them that cannot be shaken, offered
to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe of this, for our God is a
consuming fire. I think the writer of Hebrews is understanding the earthquake that's
going to come. There may be a physical earthquake, but there's going to be a bigger
disruptive spiritual earthquake that's taking place, and we got to stay stable in
that. The splitting of the great city in verse 19 into three parts. Some people
think that's the city of Rome. I think it's talking about a splitting of what
Augustine called the city of man. The great city is the city of man. It's a city
that exists apart from God. It's what the people and when they built the Tower of
Babel were trying to build. God is showing his power and authority and sovereignly
ruling over human rulers and kingdoms. He's splitting them into pieces. Babylon is
the prototype of the city of man as opposed to the city of God. Islands disappear,
mountains disappear, huge hailstones rain down among the wicked. This recalls what
happened back in Joshua chapter 10 when Joshua was leading the people against the
Canaanites. God threw down hailstones in that battle to bring about a defeat. And
John is saying in the same way that God did that, that's a story that everybody
knew from Israel's history, about the time that the hailstones defeated the 100 pound
hailstones are gonna come. So the people who are warring against you, God's gonna
destroy them with 100 pound hailstones. And just as we saw with plagues four and
five, as all this takes place and the people do not repent, or it's not plagues
four and five, the bowls of wrath, just as we saw when that happened, when God
poured out his wrath, people did not repent. They cursed God. Same thing happens
here at the end. They curse God to the very end. Okay, let me wrap up with this.
Something back in verse 19, "We're told that God makes the wicked people of Babylon
who reject him drink the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath." That's from
Psalm 75. So Psalm 75, the Psalmist says, "It is God who executes judgment,
putting down one and lifting up another, for in the hand of the Lord there is a
cup with foaming wine well mixed, and he pours from it, all right,
pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the
dregs. The cup of the fury of God's wrath is coming on all flesh,
but this is the same cup that Jesus was talking about in the Garden of Gethsemane.
When Jesus said, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass me by.
He was talking about him having to drink the cup of God's wrath.
For us,
the cup of the fury of God's wrath
It's what you and I deserve to drink,
and it's what you and I would have to drink
if it weren't for the grace of God in drinking it for you. The only reason any of
us will not have to face the cup of God's wrath on the final day is because Jesus
drank it for all who call him Lord, who submit to him,
who surrender to him, who worship him, who follow him, who serve him.
He bore the fury of God's wrath so that you and I do not have to experience it.
Did he drink it for you? Here's how you can know whether he drank it for you.
Does he have first place in your life. He came to have preeminence. Is he first in
your life? Do you, like Jesus, say to God, "Lord, not my will. Your will be done
in me." I talked in the message last Sunday when we were all home about God being
our commanding officer. Is he your commanding officer?
I've always loved three questions that John MacArthur shared in an interview I did
with him one time. I said, "So If somebody says to you, "What must I do to be
saved?" He said, "Well, I'd say what Paul said to the Philippian jailer, 'Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ.'" And I said, "Well, but what does it mean to believe?" And
he said, "I ask people three questions. Question number one, do you love God?"
Somebody says, "I want to be a Christian." Question number one, do you love God?
Not perfectly, but is that the inclination of your heart? Question number two, do
you hate sin?
If you say, "I love God, but you don't hate sin, you're a liar." Now you don't
hate sin perfectly either. You don't love God perfectly. You don't hate sin. But is
that the inclination of your heart that you hate sin? And then the third question
is, are you willing to follow Jesus? Do you love God? Do you hate sin? Are you
willing to follow Jesus? Those are three pretty good diagnostic questions to say, "Do
I have to drink the cup of God's wrath or has Jesus drunk it for me?" Do you
love God? Do you hate sin? Are you willing to follow Jesus?
That's what it means to be saved.
And if you're looking at those three questions and saying, "I'm not sure the answer
is yes for me, yes I love God, yes I hate sin, yes I'm willing to follow Jesus,"
then let's talk.
Because there's bad stuff coming and you need to be ready for that day.
You can today say, "God I know you love me. You've demonstrated your love for me.
While I was still a sinner, Christ died for me. Lord, I love you because you first
loved me. And I understand I'm a sinner. I understand I deserve your wrath.
But Lord, I want to turn from that. I hate that. I want to follow you.
I commit my life to you. I will worship you, follow you, serve you, obey you. I
surrender. That can be the decision you make today. Pray with me, Father.
This has been a challenging passage for us to work our way through.
I pray that what is most clear here would be what stays with us,
that we need to be alert and that we need to be clothed in grace.
I pray that one here today would be able to offer that as their testimony and that
they would stand firm in the midst of that. And Lord, I pray for any here today
who would say, I'm not sure that's true about me. I pray that your spirit would
draw them.
They would know your love in a way like, like Brooke was talking about this
morning, that they would experience that transformational work in their own heart,
that they would walk in new ways.
We ask these things in Your name, amen.