Revelation Study Ch16 Cont B

That's the way to make sure it picks up. I don't know what the live streams Jack got down here.

You're good.

Yeah.

He's done the last of it, and he did it.

Well, good morning.

Good morning.

Would one of you gentlemen like to open us up.

With a word of prayer?

Mr. Berry, Mr. Smith, Mr. Burt, paper, scissor, rock.

Who wants to do it?

I'll pray.

OK.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your love for us. We thank you for the fellowship that we have in you. And we thank you for your word. We pray that you'd be with Brother Mike as he shares, that you would bless his time of study, and bless us as we receive.

We pray that you would use this time to strengthen us in our faith, and grow us in our love for you and for one another. Let's confess and then we pray. Amen.

We'll take your Bible.

Turn to Revelation 16. I was a little overambitious last week, thinking we would finish.

Silly Mike.

So we'll give it another. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

Read the whole chapter again. Revelation 16, beginning in verse 1. Then I heard a loud voice from the temple say, to the seven angels go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of wrath of God. So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and it became loathsome and malignant swords on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshipped his image.

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became like blood, that of a dead man. And every living thing in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood.

I heard the angel of the waters saying, righteous are you who are and who were, O holy one, because you judged these things and they have poured out the blood of the saints and the prophets and you have given them blood to drink.

They deserve it. And then I heard from the altar a voice saying, yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his bowl from the sun and it was given to him to scorch men with fire and men were scorched with a fierce heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues and they did not repent so as to give him glory.

Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and the kingdom of it became darkened and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their swords and they did not repent of their deeds.

And the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its waters were dried up so that it could prepare the ways for the kings of the east. And then I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs for they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the great war of the great day of God the Almighty.

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 see his shame. And they gathered them together to the place which is in Hebrew called Har-Megidion.

And then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done and there was flashes of lightning, sounds, peals of thunder and there was a great earthquake.

Such there had not been since man came upon the earth so great an earthquake was it and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts. The cities of the nation fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath and every island fled away.

And every mountain were not found.

And huge hailstorms that of about a hundred pounds each came down from heaven and the men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail because its plague was extremely severe. So, last week we.

Did a run through.

Of the Armageddon, Har-Megidion, Valley of Jezreel and how those, that plain is not really a mountain it's a plain and how we should understand it based on how the flow of redemption and history happened bringing from the Old Testament into what is it trying to convey here.

Now, I do want to let you know that there is a mount here obviously.

There is a mountain here.

It is Mount Carmel and anybody remember what happens at Mount Carmel?

Or Car

Good. Yes, that's exactly right. And if we're looking at what's being conveyed here, okay? If what's being conveyed here is these demonic spirits were going out to gather together these people for a showdown with God.

What happened at the Mount Carmel? It was a showdown. And it was somewhat funny. I mean, I guess if you've got a twisted sense of humor like me, I think it was.

Somewhat hilarious.

That's it. And he begins to mock those gods. And I've often been told and in recent days there was something on the news it's funny, it's the first thing I thought about.

It's a.

Well-known guy who claims to be a Christian. I'm not saying he's not. Don't know. But he's one of the talking heads that think they have the answers to life. And he said, you know, we shouldn't mock.

We have, as Christians we should never mock another religion.

And I'm like.

Man, they did it.

They did it pretty often.

In the Old Testament.

We should take their prophets down.

How did Elijah deal with the.

False prophets?

Yeah, and on top of that, they would make fun of them. Hey, you go down, you cut down a piece of wood you chop it, you make it into pieces, then you take some of that wood you then put it on the fire to cook your food over, then you sweep up all the refuse, you throw it in the trash can and then you bow down and talk to the very thing that you whittled.

I mean, that's mockery. But in the sense of what took place at Mount Carmel this was a showdown between Baal and God. This is what they want. You want it, you got it. Once again, God says, okay go ahead.

You want it? And time and time again, they had their opportunity to go, okay, we're done our God's not real. I mean, they cut themselves, they flogged themselves, they did all kinds of things and then finally God says, okay, watch this.

And what happens in a.

Split second?

That's right. It consumes them and it's over. What's being conveyed here? I mean, if we take what takes place this battle doesn't.

Last long.

And remember, we've got these parallels, so if you go back.

To.

Chapter 11 remember it talks about the two witnesses and how they're going to be prophesying and can anything happen to these two witnesses? How do I understand the two witnesses? I understand the two witnesses.

At good morning. How do I.

Understand the two witnesses? I'm teaching. I don't care what you think about the two witnesses yet. How do I see the two witnesses? The church, remember, okay? Now if you think they're really Enoch and Elijah.

Okay, we can.

Still get along and be friends. But I believe it's a picture of the church. It says as long as they're prophesying, they're what? In the Mike Collier translation? Indestructible. They can do whatever they want.

They have the power to stop rain. They have the, hey, and even in that, if you remember, I said, hey, these guys have Elijah-like qualities. Okay? They can call down fire. They can stop rain. They're doing all these things.

They were basically miracle workers to testify that they were God's appointed people. Well, once that, you follow that through in chapter 11 and you get what happens once they're done prophesying. The beast comes up out of the abyss, wages war with them, and when it looks like they're about to be defeated by the armies of the world, what happens?

Boom! Jesus appears.

And it's over.

Okay? Same thing. Now you move forward to chapter 16, you have the battle of Armageddon with a gathering together of the great, of all these people of the world. I mean, it's all the nations of the world.

I do believe this is talking about the final day, the final battle. Now, do I think it's going to be armies against armies? That's not what's being conveyed here. Okay? How did overthrowing kingdoms happen in ancient times?

By two people having a face-off, okay? That's what's being conveyed here. You have the powers of darkness, the prince of the power of the air, and the powers of the gospel, and they're converging and they're fighting.

How long does that fight take? The whole intertestamental time. I mean, the whole interadvent time. Look, we are in the church age and we are fighting against the prince of the power of the air. Now,.

Are.

We winning? We're winning in the sense of the gospel's making great ends. Look, we often think, and look, my post-millennial brothers, they have a huge problem when you see that evil is continuing to progress.

But what happens is, I just had this conversation with somebody and he's like, well, I like your perspective better. I was like, oh, so you're now going to convert.

Over one conversation.

You have two lines, two.

Parallel lines.

You've got evil,.

It's.

Progression until,.

And I'm just going to put here until.

Armageddon, okay? Let's just do that, okay? This, I do believe, Armageddon is demonstrating the final day. It's it. It's over. Jesus descends. He speaks the word. As Micah said last week when he was talking about the man of lawlessness, how is the man of lawlessness is killed?

By the word of his mouth. It says by the breath of Christ's mouth. Well, what happens in Revelation.

19? It's the.

Sword that comes out of his mouth. And this is going to be it. Well, as evil's progressing, so's the gospel. It doesn't mean that one,.

That.

These can't run together. Well, the post-millennials say eventually, this is going to overcome this, okay, to where there's no evil in the world. I'm sorry, you read your Bible, it ain't nowhere. You can do hermeneutical hopscotch to.

Some of the.

Mustard seed. You can say, hey, you talk about the little stone cut without hands in Daniel, and what is it talking about? Well, that's talking about the Christianization of the world. No, it's not. It's talking about the kingdom of Messiah going out and making a difference in the world, not conquering the world.

Hey, I just want you to know it's not here to beat up on post-millennialism, because when we get to that in a few weeks or months, whatever long it is, when we get there, I will deal with every one of them, okay?

There's nowhere in Scripture where it says that things get better. Don't get better. Things get worse. Does Jesus return to a Christianized world? Show me that chapter and verse anywhere in any, hey, even in any of Jesus' parables at the end, at the end of the Olivet Discourse, does He return to a saved.

World?

Just take this passage right here. When Jesus returns at the Battle of Armageddon, if He's returning to a saved world, why have.

A battle?

Why?

Okay?

So, how I understand it,.

Evil is.

Extending on a parallel line that the gospel is going out. And they will converge one day, right.

Here, when the last.

Martyr is killed and when the last of the elect is called in, and that's it. There's no reason to continue on, is there? That's it. So, when we finished last week, we ended at the end of verse 14 and I said I would pick up in verse 15.

And it says here, Behold, I am coming like a thief. What does it mean when somebody says, I'm coming like a thief?

Sneaky. Sneaky. And they're.

Coming in a time which you don't know. Hey, it's not like you got the Comcast guy or the Xfinity guy. Sorry.

You got the.

Cable splicer coming and he says, hey, I'm going to be there between 12 and 4. At least you know he's coming sometime between 12 and 4, but they normally show up at 530.

But, you got.

He says, hey, I'll be here between here and here. At least you're home,.

You're prepared.

When a thief's coming, he doesn't say, hey, check it out, Brian, I think I'm going to come rob you and your family somewhere around 230. So make sure y 'all are away. Make sure your gun's put in a safe so I don't get shot.

Okay? No, the point is I'm coming and it's going to happen in such a way that you don't know when it happens. This is this could very well be Christ speaking. It says, behold, I am coming quickly. Or, I am coming like a thief in a time in which you will not know.

And then he says this. This is one of the Beatitudes in the book of Revelation. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men not see his shame.

So, first of all, why should you stay awake? Sure. What does it mean to stay awake? Hey, does anybody's pastor say stay sober or alert? Anybody? That's the idea. Yours says awake. Mike? Watchful. Okay, that's the idea.

So, even in the parables when Jesus was saying, hey, be alert. You don't know when the Son of Man is coming. Stay awake. Be alert. Remember the virgins and all that, how they weren't prepared. They weren't ready.

They weren't, all these things and people weren't ready. Just like the guy who says, I'll build more barns and do this, but he was not prepared when he says, today your soul is required of you. So, the idea is not, hey, let's just take a bunch of five-hour energy drinks or cellulose or whatever garbage y 'all drink to stay awake.

Coffee. Whatever it is, that's not what he's talking about. Be alert. Be prepared and be ready at all times because you don't know when he's coming. When that thief comes, he's coming and he's going to take away your goods.

So, if you were awake, you would be prepared to put a bullet in his eyes when he comes through the door. In this case, be prepared because when Christ comes, it's over. There's no more time to prepare.

No putting off till the next week. No putting off, oh, well, I'll do it when I get old. You know what? I've heard that. Every time I do evangelism, I'll do it when I get old, but you keep moving the bar of old.

I remember when 30 was old. I'm 52 and go, wow. I remember when 50 was old.

Yeah. Then,.

I hear my dad talk. He's 77. Mike, I'm really not that old. Say it again, Dad. It's like we move the bar. So, if those people are waiting till they get older, that day may not come. That day may not come.

So, be awake. It says and he keeps his clothes. What does it mean.

To keep clothes?

Why should you keep your clothes on? It's not hard.

The text tells us.

So that he will not walk about naked and men see his shame. If you remember back in the beginning of the book, however long that's been, I think it was in the church of Laodicea, it said that these people would be clothed so that they would not show their shame.

What is it about showing your shame? What does it mean so that you do not, so that people do not see your shamefulness? Shame began, were you raising your hand? Oh. Shame began where?

In the garden.

In the garden. Hey, one of the best verses to me in all of the Bible is when you get to the end of creation and you have Adam and Eve and their creator walking in the garden of whom I believe was the pre-incarnate Christ.

I believe he is the one that was walking in the garden with them.

And it says that.

They, everything was very good and they were naked and what? Unashamed. Unashamed. But what happens when they join forces with the serpent? Shame. So certainly, we could talk about all the things but what was the result of that immediately?

It was shame and then they thought that they could then hide from the all-seeing God and it's not like Jesus was walking around in the garden going, Adam, where are you at? And he didn't know. He was actually calling out to Adam so that Adam would say, okay, I'm hiding because I did something.

Wrong. Okay?

Jesus knew where they were at. But they didn't, once again, hey, this could be the effectual, you could use this for the effectual call of God. Did Adam reach out to God and say, hey, I screwed up? They hid, so who had to go do the searching?

God did. Same thing with man. It's been that way from the beginning. If God doesn't go do the searching and the catching and the arresting, it ain't happening. Men don't seek God. Men don't search for God.

Men don't want to be made right with God until first what? God reaches out with his hand of grace to the human being. So in this case, it says just so that they will not walk about naked and men will not see their shame.

And I do believe this in its the imagery is that they be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Okay? That's how I understand it. Somebody has another idea of what this is being said. Because look, if in our sinful state we're ashamed, what has to happen for us not to be ashamed?

Just like Adam and Eve. I want to make that correlation. Adam and Eve, what made them no longer being ashamed to walk out? They were covered. And we know what took place in that. Obviously the inference is that God had to shed the blood of an animal.

It doesn't say that, but how do you get a skin? Yeah, something's got to be, and we know this through, even when you get to the murder of Abel, the opportunity for Cain to then make a sacrifice for his sin, a covering, and how I understand that, look, it says the offering is at the door.

Okay? You remember that? If you go back and you read that, that word means sin offering. It's at the door. And what he says, all you have to do is take it. Seize it. God provided that for Cain, and he said,.

Nope.

I'll go this way. So in this case, God provides for us in Christ to be clothed in his righteousness so that we can walk around. What?

Unashamed.

Unashamed. And then it says in verse 16,.

And they.

Gathered them together to that place which is called Armageddon. We already did all that. No reason to regurgitate all that again. And then you get to verse 17,.

And it says,.

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

Now,.

This is it. When I say this is it, we have gone through seven seals. We have gone through seven trumpets. We have now seen the pouring out of the seventh bowl, or in the King James, the vial. It is over.

Meaning,.

God's revelation of his progressive parallelism of the destruction of the wicked is over. It's it. Not saying that this is the end of history. This is the end of the revelation of the end of history. You understand me?

Is that confusing? No? Yay? Nay? Clear as mud? Okay. So, this is the end of the revelation. So, let's just say this. When you get to the seventh bowl, because you may be thinking this in your mind, Mike, are you saying, when we get to the seventh bowl, that is the end of the world?

Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying.

Has the seventh bowl been poured.

Out? No. It hasn't, because we're not done yet. In the sense of, end of history. Has the seventh seal been broken? No. It hasn't been broken.

Because if each one of these ends.

In final judgment, it ain't happened yet. It ain't happened. But it will.

The.

Book of Revelation,.

Proleptically,.

Anybody ever heard that weird funny word? It's.

Either I prefer the prophetic perfect. It's.

A lot of times speaking as if it is already done. Okay? That's what proleptic means. It's speaking as if this is already over.

Well, technically.

Speaking, seventh seal, seventh trumpet,.

Seventh bowl have not been poured out because they are the final judgment. And if you, we could go back, obviously we don't want to have time to do it now because we want to finish.

Today. We could go.

Back through and I could show you where those breaks are and how I understand where those gaps are. Look, we don't insert gaps where gaps aren't. Okay? Like our dispensational brothers who put a huge gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel.

We don't do that because the Bible doesn't do that. But we do see where there is a gap where it says, how long before you judge these people? And you remember way back in the seals, until what?

Until all of your brethren.

Died just like you. Wow! So now we know that gap is legitimate. So how long is that going to take for the.

Martyrs.

To die just like those ones that were calling out from under the altar in the fifth seal? All of church age. All of church age. That's why I just said earlier, when you get to the end of the church age, it'll be because the last martyrs died and the last of the elect is called in, justified, given the Holy Spirit, adopted into the beloved, and it's over.

There's no reason to continue on because that which had been decreed in eternity past has now culminated in the personal work of Christ and in the calling in of His people. So when this seventh bowl is poured out, it's over.

It's done. Meaning, this is the end of all things, and how do we know it's the end of all things? Because the same thing that takes place in the seventh seal,.

Seventh trumpet, and now in the.

Seventh bowl, you see these same characteristics. Lightning flashes, sounds, peals of thunder. How many times have we seen that? Already in the book. And every time, that is supposed.

To be a.

What we would call a theophany. All through the Old Testament, when you've seen lightning, thunder, smoke, an earthquake, who usually appeared?

God. Think about.

Mount Sinai. Remember when they came out? They told He sprinkled them with, when He got the ten words, remember the ten commandments came before the tablets, and He got the ten words, He sprinkled them with the blood of an animal, and they told Moses, hey, it's a little scary up.

There.

You just go, hey, y 'all remember what He tells them? You go up there and they don't even know the terms and conditions yet. Never sign a document till you know the terms and conditions, even if the print's that small.

That's why they talk real fast at the end of the commercial. They do that because they're trying to set the hook on it. Well, they didn't even give the opportunity. Hey, you go up there, Moses, and whatever God tells us to do, we're going to do.

Well, one of those will be don't make any graven images. He ain't gone but 40 days, and what are they doing? They're down there partying. He says, hey, it sounds like war. He says, no, that sounds like dancing, and he says they're down there making sport, and they wasn't playing badminton.

That's not.

What they were doing. Making sport means they were having an orgy. That's what they were doing. So when they come down,.

You see.

In anger, he slams the tablets down, which I do believe is a picture of him going, you have broken the covenant. And when he slams that down, he gets angry. Some people believe that Moses flew off the handle.

I do not. Do you remember what Moses says? He says, whoever's on my side, come over here. And then he says, get you a sword.

Do you remember what he said? Anybody remember that? He says, you go.

Through each tent. Basically, if they don't repent, you strike them.

Dead. Remember how many he killed that day?

3 ,000 people. 3 ,000. That was not Moses flying off the handle. That was Moses saying, look, you violated. Let me show you what God's law says you do to idolaters. You kill.

Them. Yes, ma 'am.

Yeah, because he said, you're not going to make my house, meaning he was speaking of, actually speaking of what Jeremiah said, you're not going to make my father's house a den of thieves. You robbers.

This is supposed to be a house of prayer of nations. Hey, if you remember where he did that, you remember where that took place? That took place in the court of the Gentiles, which is where? That's where the nations were.

That's where the Gentiles were supposed to come in and be able to pray. Now, dude, I love at the end of that, well, it's not the end of that week. That happens on Monday, on Wednesday. Remember what he says then right before he goes over to the other side of the, onto the Mount of Olives to give the Olivet discourse?

He says, I leave your house. So at the beginning of the week, he says, my house at the end of the week, you want your house? You can have it. Your house is left desolate, meaning the glory of God is leaving.

You'll be talking about that in Ezekiel. And what happened just as Ezekiel, in the book of Ezekiel, right before the destruction of Jerusalem, he saw the glory of God go and sit on the Mount of Olives.

The same thing happens that week. Jesus does what? He leaves the Temple Mount, walks down through the Kidron Valley. He goes up 2 ,640 feet. He sits on the Mount of Olives and calls condemnation.

Down on Jerusalem.

That's good stuff. Even if you don't think so. Now, we see those theophanies of earthquake such as there had never been upon the earth. Great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. So we've seen, like even in the seventh trumpet, we saw lightning, thunder, but you notice what it's saying here.

This is intensifying. It's the same things, but so mighty that this has never happened before. So great an earthquake that it has never happened since men have been on the earth. And it's great, and it's so great, now this can get complicated, so great that the city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.

Mike, does yours say nation fell? Everybody says nation. If I remember correctly, and Burt might have the Greek text right there. If I remember correctly, it's the cities of the nation fell. Is that right?

Yeah. And we'll talk, we'll get more into that when we get into 17 and 18.

But this is.

The city of the nation, this is speaking of one, complete destruction. Now, how do we understand the three parts? I'm going to give you a couple of how.

It has looked at in the.

Past.

Just because I think it's fun to look at.

Now, if you're a full preterist,.

And if you don't know those.

Categories, don't worry, next week we'll go through all of those, because I have to.

Go through those as we go through the.

War of Babylon. Preterist means in the past.

So, if you're a preterist,.

You see the city is.

Split into three parts, right?

The preterist would say that this is historically speaking about.

Jerusalem. Anybody remember what happened when Jerusalem, what happened?

It was, in many ways, split into three parts.

You say, well, how? Not like it was, they went through there and they put out boundary lines, but you had.

John.

Of Gishallah,.

You had.

Simon, who was a zealot.

Actually, technically, all of these were.

Zealots.

Three-way civil war in Jerusalem. That's what was going on in Jerusalem at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem. We often think, I've said this how many times, and it is important to understand historically what was going on at the destruction of Jerusalem.

The Jews were killing themselves, okay? The Jews were slaughtering themselves. You had the Jewish wars that started up in Galilee around 66. They were working their way down. They made it to Jerusalem trying to get away from one, trying to get away from Vespasian, who was the general at the time.

I've got to speak a little faster.

Trying to get away from the Romans.

As they made their way down from Galilee.

They had the big.

Battle that you can read of in Josephus, where it says the city,.

I mean the sea was made like.

Blood, and there was like 6 ,500 bodies they said. Forget about his numbers, okay? There was enough blood to make that sea look red, and it ran down the Jordan River, okay? I don't care how many bodies.

Hey, I'll just say this.

Y 'all remember when they decapitated, when ISIS decapitated those 20 men on the.

Shore of Saudi Arabia, think it was? Libya.

Anybody see how much blood of 20 men on the shore? Imagine let's just say Josephus was wrong and it was half. They were cutting their heads off as they came in the boats and their hands off so they would bleed out.

Imagine, let's just say it was 3 ,500. That's going to be pretty.

Red, okay?

So, as they were making their way from that civil war to Jerusalem, you had these three factions that were fighting one another in the temple complex. And I'll be honest with you, if these guys would have quit fighting and killing each other, they probably could have overthrown Rome.

Just be honest with you. They were bad to the bone. But they were fighting each other. They were trying to.