{"id":18999,"date":"2019-09-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-01T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-050-they-did-not-repent\/"},"modified":"2019-09-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-01T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-050-they-did-not-repent","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-050-they-did-not-repent\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 050 – They Did Not Repent"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18999","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 050 - They Did Not Repent","sermon_date":"20190901","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7013,"sermon_slides":7014,"sermon_mp3":7017,"sermon_id":"91191220147141","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"16:10-16","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThey Did Not Repent\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 9-1-19\n\nRevelation 16:10\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 50\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book Revelation, chapter 16 and verse 10. The title of our message this morning is They Did Not Repent.\u00a0 We are continuing to move through our verse by verse study through the Book of Revelation, coming near the end of the Book, believe it or not, at least the judgment section of the book where the various trumpet judgments have already been sounded and now the bowl judgments are being poured out on planet earth.\n\nChapter 15 sort of prepared us with a heavenly scene for these judgments and chapter 16 they start to become a reality to the earth dwellers living on the earth at this time.\u00a0 The bowl judgments we started to study last week; the first bowl was poured out and boils began to appear on the skins of lost humans.\u00a0 And then bowl number two, the sea became blood.\u00a0 Bowl number three the fresh water supply of the earth became destroyed.\u00a0 And bowl judgment number four the sun (s-u-n) began to scorch man.\n\nAnd we now move into the fifth bowl judgment were darkness comes over the entire earth.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Revelation 16:10, you\u2019ll notice what it says there, \u201cThen 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.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice it kind of almost reads like a math lesson, first angel, second angel, third angel, fourth angel, fifth angel, etc.\u00a0 So there\u2019s an obvious chronology to these judgments; there\u2019s an obvious chronology to the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 And as this fifth angel pours out the fifth bowl darkness comes upon the beast\u2019s throne and the beast\u2019s kingdom.\n\nIt is interesting that when you look there at verse 10 it seems that this judgment is confined just to the unbelievers because it talks about this judgment of darkness coming upon the beast and his kingdom; it seems like this one, not all of them but this one is more geared towards unbelievers.\u00a0\u00a0 And that\u2019s something that\u2019s important to understand.\u00a0 According to the Scripture all unbelievers as\u00a0 I speak are currently under the judgment of God; the wrath of God abides on them.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because the penalty for their sin has never been satisfied in the person of Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s like having a gift given to you but you\u2019ve never received it, you\u2019ve never opened the package.\u00a0 What good is a gift if it\u2019s never received.\u00a0 And so the lost sinner must receive what God has given and the only way to receive a gift from God is by faith alone, and that exempts people from the coming judgment and the wrath of God.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting here it mentions the throne of the beast and of his kingdom.\u00a0 You say to yourself well, you\u2019re not really saying that Satan has a kingdom are you?\u00a0 And I\u2019m here to tell you this morning that\u00a0 you bet your bottom dollar Satan has a kingdom.\u00a0 In fact, not only does he have a kingdom, he has an actual real throne.\u00a0\u00a0 You might recall back in Revelation 2:13 when we were learning about the church at Pergamum Jesus something very interesting to that church.\u00a0 He says \u201cI know where you dwell, where Satan\u2019s throne is.\u201d\n\nThere are some places on planet earth that are of such a diabolical nature that literally the throne of Satan resides in that part of the world.\u00a0 In the first century it was Pergamum, and it goes to show us exactly what is happening in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 There was a very real kingdom of darkness that is being evicted from the earth.\u00a0 Acts 26:18 puts it this way, this is the calling of the gospel.\u00a0 \u201cto\u00a0\u00a0 open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to the dominion of God\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Colossians 1:13 says this of the Christian.\u00a0 \u201cFor He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.\u201d\n\nThe reality of the situation is you\u2019re a resident of some sort of kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re either a current resident of Satan\u2019s kingdom marching according to Satan\u2019s drumbeat or\u00a0 you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and the moment you become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ your whole identity changes, it transfers and changes.\u00a0 Your citizenship, Philippians 3:20, is now in heaven.\u00a0\u00a0 [Philippians 3:20, \u201cFor our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;\u201d]\u00a0 And\u00a0 you now find yourself on the winning side of history because what is happening in the Book of Revelation as these various judgments are taking place is the kingdom of Satan is being uprooted, it\u2019s being thrown out, it\u2019s being evicted.\u00a0 And the world is being prepared for the glorious kingdom which is to follow, the millennial kingdom later leading into the eternal state.\n\nI\u2019m a member of that coming kingdom, how about you?\u00a0 And it\u2019s so enlightening, it\u2019s so invigorating to look at live that way with all of life\u2019s problems.\u00a0 Today what are we focused on with the news?\u00a0\u00a0 The mass murder that happened in Odessa, or we\u2019re focused on problems happening on the Israeli border, or we\u2019re focused on Dorian and Florida and all of these kinds of things.\u00a0 You know, if I wasn\u2019t a Christian I would be just so weighted down with life but becoming a Christian is such a wonderful experience because you believe the promises of God, you have the promises of God but you\u2019re not a citizen of this kingdom.\u00a0 This kingdom is going down; this kingdom is being evicted and there\u2019s a better world coming.\n\nIn fact, what it says here in verse 10 is that the kingdom of the beast and his throne will be thrown into darkness by God.\u00a0 [Revelation 16:10, \u201cThen 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,\u201d]\n\nLast week we were talking about the sarcastic nature of these judgments.\u00a0 We saw the sea becoming blood like a dead man, and why God allowed that judgment to come to the earth, they had shed the blood of His servants, the prophets, the world system had, and now God sarcastically sort of says you like blood, you like to shed the blood of My people, then I\u2019ll take\u00a0 your entire ocean and fresh water supply and turn it to blood like a dead man, the sarcasm of God showing exactly who is in control of things.\u00a0 Man thinks he\u2019s in control, man thinks he\u2019s going to have the last word but it\u2019s not so.\u00a0 God is in the heavens controlling these various judgments.\u00a0 To be sure, He\u2019s giving grace to people, opportunities to avoid these judgments, but these judgments will come to the earth nonetheless.\n\nAnd isn\u2019t it sort of a sarcastic variety for God to take the throne of the beast and his kingdom, a kingdom of darkness spiritually, and to end that kingdom with physical darkness.\u00a0 Do you like the darkness you\u2019re in God says, well then fine, here\u2019s some darkness for you.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting, there\u2019s perhaps a parallel passage in Matthew 24:29, this is a passage that has always intrigued me.\u00a0 Jesus, of the end times says this: \u201cBut immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light\u2026.\u201d isn\u2019t that interesting, why doesn\u2019t it say the moon will be darkened and the sun will not give its light?\n\nI mean, after all throughout human history until modern times people thought that the moon was just as much a source of light as is the sun.\u00a0 And now we know through modern astronomy, etc. that the moon is not really a light generating source at all, it simply reflects light.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that Jesus had that understanding 2,000 years ago?\u00a0 He said, \u201cthe sun will be darkened,\u201d the source of light, and then the moon will not be able to refract the light. In other words, Jesus\u2026 and you\u2019ll find this many times in statements all over the Bible, is making statements way ahead of His time, way ahead of what modern day science or humanity will ultimately discover.\u00a0 And you ask yourself well who is this Jesus, you get the feeling that He manufactured this universe and how it works.\u00a0 That\u2019s why He is able to make statements like this.\n\n\u201cBut immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light.\u201d\u00a0 In human history such a statement would seem laughable but isn\u2019t it interesting how technology has caught up to the things that Jesus said and we now take it for a fact that the sun is the light bearing source and the moon simply reflects the light.\u00a0 I find statements like this fascinating, all over the Bible.\u00a0 Statements like these where God takes Abraham outside and He tells him to count the stars.\u00a0 And He says as the stars are innumerable so shall your descendants be.\u00a0 And God sort of sarcastically says to Abraham, \u201cCount the stars if you\u2019re able.\u201d\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting throughout human history mankind thought he could number the stars.\u00a0 I could take you to many different ancient writers that thought that they had the number calculated and figured out.\u00a0 And now with the invention of the Hubble telescope and all of these scientific advanced devices we have we learn that there are so many stars out there, they\u2019re innumerable as far as human ability to count those stars is concerned.\n\nIsn\u2019t it interesting that the Bible reveals that understanding in 2000 B.C.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll find these kind of things all the way through the Bible.\u00a0 God has built so many things into His Word to demonstrate to us that this book is not a normal book.\u00a0 This is something that was breathed into existence by God Himself. It has within it the fingerprints of an omniscient God.\u00a0 I know of no other alleged holy book that is able to do these kinds of things that the Bible does.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice there in verse 10 that man begin to gnaw their tongues because of the pain as the satanic beast kingdom of darkness is now plunged into darkness.\u00a0 It says there at the end of verse 10, \u201cand they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.\u201d\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that sort of a preview, if you will, of what hell itself is like? How is hell described in the Bible?\u00a0 It\u2019s described as gnashing of teeth in the darkness.\u00a0 Matthew 8:12 says, \u201cbut the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 25:30, Christ says, \u201cThrow out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s a preview of eternal retribution.\u00a0 It\u2019s a preview of hell.\n\nYou say well, Pastor, you\u2019re just trying to scare everybody.\u00a0 The reality of the situation is I\u2019m just as scared by these predictions and prophecies as you are.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we are proclaimers of the gospel; here at Sugar Land Bible Church there\u2019s a way out.\u00a0 We talk about being saved all the time; what are we being saved from exactly?\u00a0 These very severe kinds of judgments in the eternal realm that are destined to come to planet earth.\u00a0 Yes, those things are a reality but there\u2019s an escape.\u00a0 The escape is through the cross of Jesus Christ, where Jesus Christ entered history and bore our wrath in our place.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice the reaction of humanity there in verse 11, it says, \u201cThey also blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores\u201d and watch this, \u201cthey did not repent of their deeds.\u201d\u00a0 You would think by this particular time in the various judgments that we have studied that the human heart would be softened and\u00a0 yet it typically does not work that way.\u00a0 The longer a person stays away from God the more difficult it is to reach that person with the gospel.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 It relates to the hardness\u00a0 of the human heart.\u00a0 The human heart becomes progressively harder and harder and harder against God as one moves through life.\u00a0 This is why the Bible says today is the day of salvation.\u00a0 [2 Corinthians 6:2, \u201cfor He says, \u2018At the acceptable time I listened to you, and on the day of salvation I helped you.\u00a0 \u2018Behold, now is \u2018THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,\u2019 behold, now is \u2018THE DAY OF SALVATION .\u201d]\n\nWe think we\u2019re going to postpone a decision for Christ, postpone believing in Christ, I\u2019ll do it next month, I\u2019ll do it next\u00a0 year, I\u2019ll do it next decade, I\u2019ll do it in the final third of my life, completely oblivious to the fact that as time unfolds the opportunities start to decrease, not because of God and His grace but because of the nature of the human heart.\u00a0 That\u2019s why at this church we emphasize children\u2019s ministry; this is why we have a fulltime children\u2019s minister, Casey Cunningham.\u00a0 That\u2019s why my wife, as we\u2019re speaking today is not here in the auditorium, she\u2019s teaching the children.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we promote Vacation Bible School, because our goal is to get to these kids before the world system can get to them.\n\nAnd I praise the Lord that I had somebody share the gospel with me in my teen years.\u00a0 God only knows, as I think about it, what could have happened to me as I moved on from my teen years into my college years and beyond.\u00a0 What would have become of me had I not trusted in Christ at an early age.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this sermon They Did Not Repent.\u00a0 Because you see that showing up in this series, particularly Revelation 16, over and over and over again.\n\nNot only did they not repent but they blasphemed God.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure we understand what that word \u201cblasphemy\u201d is.\u00a0 In Greek this is the definition: to speak against someone in such a way so as to harm or injure his reputation.\u00a0 In the legal system we might call this slander,\u00a0 you speak a harsh word, you speak an evil word, you speak an untrue word against somebody and your intent in doing so is to damage that person\u2019s reputation in the eyes of other people.\u00a0 If you do it in writing the legal system will call it liable.\u00a0 And here humanity in its hardness against God is doing that very thing against God.\u00a0 It\u2019s not as if, as we\u2019ve studied this book, God hasn\u2019t given multiple chances to people.\u00a0\u00a0 But as the judgment continues the human heart continues to grow worse and not only are they in a state of non-repentance but they\u2019re actually speaking harshly against God with the purpose of being derogatory towards His reputation in the eyes of other people.\n\n\u201cThey did not repent,\u201d now there\u2019s a word that needs some unpacking today.\u00a0 What does that mean, to \u201crepent\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 The Greek word for repent is \u03bc\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03ad\u03c9 (metanoe\u014d)<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a compound word, two words making up a single word.\u00a0 You might recognize the word meta<\/em> as in change.\u00a0 Metamorphosis, change.\u00a0 If\u00a0 your cancer has metastasized it\u2019s changed from one part of the body to another; meta means change, noe\u014d simply means mind because from the word noe\u014d you get the word notion or ideas that come from the mind.\u00a0 Repentance is commonly mistaken today as penance.\u00a0 After all repentance sounds like penance doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 So they think it\u2019s some sort of religious activity that you have to put yourself through in terms of works to make yourself right with God.\n\nThat is completely foreign to the Greek definition of repentance.\u00a0 Repentance literally is to change\u00a0 your mind.\u00a0 It\u2019s to change your mind about the person and the work of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And it occurs simultaneously at the point of initial faith in Christ. You say well do you believe people should repent or should they believe?\u00a0 Or should they believe or should they repent?\u00a0 My answer is yes, because they are two sides to the same coin.\n\nYou know, when I was sixteen years old I, at that particular point in my life as an unsaved religious person was trusting in my own works to gain salvation.\u00a0 In fact, I was asked at the age of sixteen if you were to die today how would you get to heaven?\u00a0\u00a0 I mean, what would you say at the pearly gates; let\u2019s pretend there are pearly gates, people think Saint Peter is at the gate, right?\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure the Bible really teaches that but let\u2019s pretend.\u00a0 What are you going to tell Saint Peter to get in?\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m a good person, look at me!\u00a0 It\u2019s all about me, right?\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019ve done this and I\u2019ve done that and I\u2019ve done this and I haven\u2019t done that, and I haven\u2019t done that and I haven\u2019t done that, and how faithful I am at the point of that works mindset that somebody recognizes the deficiency in my thinking and shared with me the gospel, where Christianity is not about what man does for God .\u00a0 The world of religion teaches that.\n\nWhat the Bible teaches is what God has done for man.\u00a0 And you hear the gospel and you understand the gospel and you trust in the gospel.\u00a0 And the moment I trusted in the gospel in its purest form or sense, not the gospel of works, the gospel of grace, I believed, which means I trusted in Christ and something happened in my mind; my mind changed!\u00a0 No longer was I trusting in self and religiosity but I was trusting in Christ.\u00a0 I believed and I repented; I repented and I believed because they happen simultaneously.\u00a0 And this is what is necessary for people to enter into a relationship with God and be spared from all of these horrific judgments that we\u2019re reading about.\u00a0\u00a0 They need to repent, change their mind.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what it is in your mind that\u2019s a roadblock; maybe you think Jesus is just a good man and not God.\u00a0 Change your mind about that!\u00a0 Maybe you think you can save yourself.\u00a0 Change your mind about that in an authentic way; you go from lack of trust to trust, repentance, change of mind and consequently a person is saved.\n\nBy the way, it\u2019s not a repentance from something, it\u2019s a repentance to something.\u00a0 It\u2019s a repentance to God.\u00a0 I used to think repentance meant I\u2019ve got to turn away from this sin or that sin or that sin or that sin and believe me, that\u2019s appropriate to do once a person is saved.\u00a0 But your capacity to turn away from a sin or two doesn\u2019t save anybody.\u00a0 Alcoholic synonymous is filled with unsaved people, many of them I would assume, who were successful at turning away from certain sins that were debilitating to them, and yet they\u2019re still not saved!\u00a0 Turning away from alcohol doesn\u2019t save anybody; it\u2019s changing your mind about Christ and resting your assurance on Christ\u2014that saves!\u00a0 And then my goodness, do you know what happens?\u00a0 The Holy Spirit comes into you and you start to receive a new nature.\u00a0 And then\u00a0 you go back to your alcohol and the Holy Spirit all of a sudden starts to nag at you and says that\u2019s not a good idea, you don\u2019t need to go back to that anymore, I\u2019m your safety, I am your security Jesus says.\n\nTurning from alcohol or whatever it is doesn\u2019t save anybody.\u00a0 That\u2019s something that God will work in your life in the area of growth in Christ once you are in Christ.\u00a0 And so many people want to get the cart before the horse and they turn the gospel into a gospel of works, don\u2019t smoke or chew or go with girls that do, when in reality abstaining from those things doesn\u2019t save anybody.\u00a0 There are an awful lot of people on the day of judgment that are going to plead their self-righteousness before God.\u00a0 I was doing the same thing up to the age of 16.\u00a0 God, I turned away from this and I turned away from that and I did this and I did that and yet it\u2019s not until a person understand the grace of God, the gospel of Jesus Christ and are changed their mind about that; that in and of itself alone saves and humanity will not do that because of the increasing hardness of the human heart.\n\nThis, of course, is not something that we\u2019ve seen for the very first time; this phrase, \u201cthey did not repent\u201d shows up many, many times in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Revelation 9:21 says, \u201cand they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.\u201d\u00a0 They \u201cloved the darkness rather than the Light for their deeds were evil.\u201d\u00a0 [John 3:19, \u201cThis is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.\u201d]\n\nThose who love the darkness rather than light hate the light for the light exposes.\u00a0 The light will expose what\u2019s wrong with our lives; it will expose our condition but then it will give us a solution for the answer, which is faith alone in Christ alone, a faith unto repentance which is the only kind of faith you can have, an authentic change of mind.\u00a0 And then all of a sudden\u00a0 you\u2019re regenerated and your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit and now you have a new mind with new thoughts and new ambitions and new desires and the Holy Spirit will start to clean up things in our lives little by little.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad He doesn\u2019t do it all at once or I probably would have been killed by the process a long time ago.\u00a0 God is so gracious in how He works with us and deals with us and yet you can\u2019t even experience that initial grace unless one\u2019s mind is changed, a repentance unto God through alone in Christ alone.\n\nSo the kingdom of the antichrist has now plunged into physical darkness and notice, if you will, the six bowl judgments, verses 12-16, you have the drying up of the Euphrates River.\u00a0 Notice, if\u00a0 you will, verse 12, \u201cThe sixth angel\u201d so there\u2019s a\u00a0 chronology, \u201cpoured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.\u201d\u00a0 Now I believe that this judgment is not the same as trumpet judgment number six that we studied earlier but it\u2019s highly related.\u00a0 Trumpet six happens earlier, bowl judgment number six happens later but the two are highly related in this sense: what is happening in trumpet six is there was a summoning of the kings of the east into moving their way into northern Israel, a place that\u2019s geographical identified here as Armageddon, for the final battle.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to learn in this paragraph that it\u2019s demonic forces assembling that army in that part of the world.\n\nAnd now as a giant army is moving from the east it\u2019s expedited, chapter 16 verse 12, the way is prepared by the drying up of the Euphrates River.\u00a0 The Euphrates River is now dried up to prepare the way for the kings of the east that were already spoken of in trumpet judgment number six.\u00a0 So the pathway is already coming and now the pathway is sort of leveled, making the journey all the more easy.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice here it says \u201ckings of the east,\u201d plural, that\u2019s an army that John earlier describes as something that can\u2019t be counted it\u2019s so high, ten thousand times ten thousand times two, sometimes translated two hundred million.\u00a0 That\u2019s what this army represents.\u00a0 And you have to understand something about the Euphrates River.\u00a0 Iraq in between the Euphrates and the Tigris is located in a part of the world called Mesopotamia.\u00a0 Potamia in Greek means river or rivers.\u00a0 You\u2019ll recognize in our county the Potomac named after that Greek expression Potamia, river, Mesopotamia literally means between the two rivers.\u00a0 Which rivers are we talking about?\u00a0 The Euphrates and the Tigris.\u00a0 As that giant army is moving from the east into northern Israel suddenly the Euphrates River itself is dried up to prepare the way.\u00a0 The Euphrates River separates, therefore, the Middle East from the Far East.\u00a0 It\u2019s the natural boundary between the two, and now that boundary with bowl judgment number six has been removed.\n\nAnd I believe that there is a case to be made that somebody is controlling the armies of the world from that region.\u00a0 Do a word study on \u201ceast.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of interest; east in the Bible always refers to Babylon. In fact, the Garden of Eden, assuming the flood didn\u2019t alter some of the geography that we understand, the Garden of Eden was most likely in that part of the world, in the east.\u00a0 In fact, in Genesis 2 you\u2019ll read about the Euphrates and the Tigris, that\u2019s the same Euphrates and\u00a0 Tigris that we have today, maybe it is, maybe it isn\u2019t, that\u2019s not something worth starting a new church over.\u00a0 The Garden of Eden was probably in Babylon or modern day Iraq.\u00a0 The tower of Babel once stood in that part of the world.\u00a0 That was where Satan launched his first attempt at one-world government. The New World Order, a one world system of economics, politics and religion that excludes God, a building project that God stopped dead in its tracks, Genesis 11.\u00a0 If I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly that\u2019s the same venue where Satan will try this again and ultimately succeed for a season.\n\nYou say well, is that really taught in the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 You\u2019ll see it when we get to Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 The east is also where the magi came from.\u00a0 Remember on all our Christmas cards the magi?\u00a0 I\u00a0 like the bumper sticker \u201cWise men still seek Him.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 2:2 says they came from the east.\u00a0 What\u2019s in the east?\u00a0 Babylon.\u00a0 [Matthew 2:2, \u201c\u201cWhere is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.\u201d]\u00a0 In fact, they were most likely people who had been influenced by a prophet who had been there, I don\u2019t know, 600 years earlier, named Daniel.\u00a0 When Daniel successfully interpreted Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream in Daniel 2, at the end of Daniel 2 Daniel was elevated into the ranks of what we might call the Magi.\n\nAnd centuries later I believe these magi had an understanding of Daniel\u2019s prophecies.\u00a0 They understood Messianic prophecy. That\u2019s why they were seeking Him at a particular time in history following a star.\u00a0 But the Magi came from the east and when this giant army comes from the Far East into the Middle East I believe that it\u2019s being summoned from what we would call modern day Iraq or Babylon or the capital of the antichrist which is destined to be built in that part of the world.\n\nSo we haven\u2019t gotten to Revelation 17 and 18 yet and we haven\u2019t even seen Babylon destroyed\u00a0 yet but already in the Scripture you\u2019re seeing certain evidences that Babylon has to be rebuilt.\u00a0 You see it sort of hinted at in trumpet six, and bowl six.\u00a0 Babylon has already been spoken of prophetically in Revelation 14:8. [Revelation 14:8, \u201cAnd another angel, a second one, followed, saying, \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.\u201d]\u00a0 And there\u2019s a lot more to come on the whole subject of Babylon.\n\nNow people say well, the Euphrates River, east of the Euphrates River, you don\u2019t take that literally do you?\u00a0 I mean, isn\u2019t the Book of Revelation a book of symbols?\u00a0 The truth of the matter is Revelation is a highly symbolic book but not everything in the book is a symbol.\u00a0 Typically speaking when symbols are used in the Book of Revelation it will alert you to the fact that it\u2019s a symbol by saying a sign, or something of that nature.\u00a0 But when you study the pieces of geography in the Book of Revelation my understanding is every single one of them is a literal place.\n\nAsia, chapter 1, verse 4, literal.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:4, \u201cJohn to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace<\/strong>, from Him who is and who was and who is to come,\u2026.\u201d]\u00a0 The seven letters to the seven churches, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum,\u00a0 Thyatira, Sardius, Philadelphia Laodicea, all literal places that you can visit even today.\u00a0\u00a0 So why should the Euphrates River that\u2019s going to be dried up be understood symbolically\u201d\u00a0 Jerusalem is literal.\u00a0 Armageddon, we\u2019ll mention it in just a moment, is an actual place on planet earth in northern Israel, a literal place.\u00a0 And the millennial Jerusalem, the beloved city, is very literal as well.\n\nNow if I can confuse you a little bit more one of the things that we\u2019ve talked about in this series\u00a0 is the Book of Revelation, when you get into that futuristic section is typically chronological.\u00a0 That\u2019s why it keeps saying first bowl, second bowl, third bowl, first trumpet, second trumpet, third trumpet, first seal, second seal, third seal, and these trumpets and seals and bowls they had to pull out like a telescope.\u00a0 In other words, seal seven launches the trumpet judgments; trumpet seven launches the bowl judgments.\u00a0 And so you can sort of follow a basic chronological structure in the Book of Revelation but where it gets confusing is there\u2019s five times the chronology stops to give you a hint or more information about something that\u2019s happening in the sequence.\u00a0 The chronology stopped in Revelation 7 alerting us to more information about the 144,000 Jewish evangelists.\u00a0 The chronology stops again, Revelation 10 and 11, and then it stopped again in chapters 12-14.\n\nAnd you say well, this is getting confusing, we\u2019re going and breaking, going and breaking.\u00a0 Well, try the brakes one more time\u2026 we just came to another one.\u00a0 The chronology just stopped.\u00a0 It typically stops in between the six and a seven in a series.\u00a0 We just finished, didn\u2019t we, where we\u2019re reading about the sixth bowl judgment, now the chronology sort of stops to describe a little bit more about that bowl judgment, number six.\u00a0 And it starts to describe the gathering of the nations, how these nations of the earth are actually going to be gathered into northern Israel.\n\nAnd take a look if you could at verse 13, Revelation 16:13.\u00a0 Notice what it says here.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I saw coming<\/em> out of the mouth of the dragon\u201d who\u2019s the dragon?\u00a0 Satan, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 20:2.\u00a0 [Revelation 12:9, \u201cAnd the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.\u00a0 Revelation 20:2. \u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;\u201d]\u00a0 \u201cAnd I saw coming<\/em> out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast\u201d who\u2019s the beast?\u00a0 That\u2019s the antichrist.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026and out of the mouth of the false prophet,\u201d who\u2019s the false prophet?\u00a0 That\u2019s the antichrist\u2019s assistant, beast number two. \u201cAnd I saw coming<\/em> 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\u201d look at this, \u201clike frogs;\u201d\u00a0 doesn\u2019t that remind you of the Book of Exodus.\n\nIn fact, when we get to the seventh trumpet, towards the end of it, I\u2019ll be showing you the parallels between the Book of Exodus and the Book of Revelation and explaining why there\u2019s a deliberate paralleling between the two books. What is God doing in the Book of Exodus?\u00a0 He\u2019s taking His people out of four hundred years of bondage in Egypt.\u00a0 What\u2019s He doing in the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 The ultimate exodus, He\u2019s taking this whole world out of the satanic bondage that it\u2019s currently in unto the kingdom of His Son,\u00a0 Jesus Christ, a kingdom that you\u2019re part of will be reigning in.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I think it keeps paralleling with the Book of Exodus.\n\nBut it\u2019s interesting here, what you see developing in verse 13 is what I would call a satanic trinity.\u00a0 We have a trinity, don\u2019t we.\u00a0 God is one but He has expressed Himself in three personages, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The Son is not the Father, the Father is not the Holy Spirit, etc. they\u2019re unique in their personages but they all share the same essence of deity.\u00a0 Now try explaining this to your thirteen year old at home during your devotional time; I can\u2019t explain this.\u00a0 This is one of the great mysteries of Scripture, how God is one but He\u2019s expressed Himself in three personages.\n\nAnd I know this much about Satan, he\u2019s a cheap counterfeit.\u00a0 What God has Satan wants.\u00a0 What God has Satan aspires to, after all, isn\u2019t it Satan who said he would be like God?\u00a0 Isaiah 14:12-15.\u00a0 [Isaiah 14:12-15, \u201cHow you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! [13] You said in your heart, \"I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. [14] I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.\" [15] But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.\u201d]\n\nSo God has His trinity, Satan has his trinity, not the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, but the beast,\u00a0 the dragon and the false prophet.\u00a0 Why is it that Satan seeks to take his program and parallel it as close as he can to God\u2019s program?\u00a0 There\u2019s a very simple reason, it\u2019s harder to recognize a wrong if you do that.\u00a0 Not only does it relate to Satan\u2019s ambition to become God but when he makes his program look almost identical to God\u2019s program he pulls people in because it looks so real.\u00a0 It looks so spiritual.\u00a0 It looks so heavenly.\u00a0 And there are many, many people in this world that have bought into false religious systems because those systems use the name Jesus and they don\u2019t know enough about the Bible related to how to identify a counterfeit and it looks good and it looks real.\u00a0 The Bible says \u201cthere is a way that seems right unto a man but ends in destruction\u201d or death.\u00a0 Proverbs 14:12.\n\nThat\u2019s why Satan does this.\u00a0 In fact, Satan\u2019s program is so real that he even has the ability to perform signs and wonders.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 14, \u201cFor they are spirits of demons\u201d watch this, \u201cperforming signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.\u201d\u00a0 Am I reading this right?\u00a0 Satan or the dragon is performing signs?\u00a0 In fact, when you look at this slide I have on the screen, I\u2019ve used this many times here before but it\u2019s a record of every miracle that happens in the Bible that God has nothing to do with.\u00a0 Does God perform miracles?\u00a0 Of course He does.\u00a0 But there are miracles transpiring in the Bible that are not rooted in God.\n\nAnd the culture today is being prepared for this end time program through the false belief that if I have an experience it must be from God.\u00a0 I\u2019m here to tell you that not all experiences are from God.\u00a0 Satan can perform counterfeit experiences.\u00a0 That\u2019s how Islam started.\u00a0 Mohammed allegedly had an angelic visitation.\u00a0 That\u2019s how Mormonism started.\u00a0 I mean, think about those two systems; Islam and Mormonism.\u00a0 It\u2019s so interesting to study the commonality between the two.\n\nAnd how many people around the world march to the drumbeat of those two systems steeped in a works oriented mindset, not in the grace of God\u00a0 because they believed something that sounded right?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If we\u2019re going to emphasize anything in these last days of the church we\u2019re going to emphasize the Bible because the Bible and your understanding of it is basically the only thing you have to keep you out of that ditch. That\u2019s why the Bible is called, as part of our spiritual warfare, The Sword of the Spirit.\u00a0 This why Jesus when tested in the wilderness by Satan quoted the Scripture three times.\u00a0 And yet many, many people don\u2019t know much about the Bible.\u00a0 I have people that say to me all the time I don\u2019t know much about the Bible. Well, there\u2019s an answer to that\u2026 READ THE BIBLE!\u00a0\u00a0 Well, I can\u2019t, because I get hung up on this one thing and I get confused and so I give up and I quit.\u00a0 Is that how you learn geometry?\u00a0 Is that how you learned algebra?\u00a0 Is that how you learned anything in life, you just quit when you can\u2019t understand something.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t understand something move on to another part of it but keep moving through it.\n\nYou know, most Christians by way of statistics have never really read the Bible.\u00a0 I mean, I\u2019m talking about reading it from cover to cover.\u00a0 And there are a plethora of programs and plans that you get on today, calendars where you can actually read through the Word of God.\u00a0 And the more you do that the more your mind is being insulated from the satanic deception that already is in the world and is likely to increase. 1 John 4:1 says, \u201cBeloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God for many false prophets have gone into the world.\u201d\u00a0 What if Joseph Smith or Mohammed had done that at an early age?\u00a0 The world could have been spared from two diabolical works oriented systems.\n\nI hope you test everything that is said to you from this pulpit by the Word of God because for all you know I could be a false teacher too, couldn\u2019t I?\u00a0 I could say something wrong, I\u2019m not an infallible interpreter.\u00a0 I\u2019m not the authority here folks.\u00a0 The authority here is the Bible. Sugarland Bible Church, doesn\u2019t that make \u201cBible\u201d our middle name?\u00a0 Make the study of Scripture a priority in your life.\u00a0 That\u2019s how you grow.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s how you develop as a Christian.\n\nSo Satan is performing these signs and he\u2019s summoning these nations from the East (plural) into this place called Armageddon. You\u2019ll see it there in verse 14, \u201cFor they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go to the kings\u201d plural, \u201cof the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.\u201d\u00a0 You might want to jot down Zechariah 12:2\u00a0 which teaches basically the same thing as a parallel passage.\u00a0 It says, God speaking through Zechariah says, \u201cBehold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup that causes reeling to all the peoples around; and when the siege i<\/strong>s against Jerusalem, it will also be against Judah.\u201d Jerusalem will be a cup that causes the reeling of the nations.\u00a0 The imagery here is drunkenness, that\u2019s what the cup means, intoxication.\n\nCharles Feinberg in his very excellent commentary on the Book of Zechariah says, \u201cIn the time of our passage all the nations will be\u00a0 bitten by the virus\u00a0 of anti-Semitism.\u00a0 There will be in the world an irrational hatred for the Jewish people.\u201d\u00a0 And this is what gathers, this is the demonic instigation and inspiration that gathers these nations into that part of the world to shut down Israel and to shut down even the return of Christ coming to Israel.\n\nIs our world being set up for that?\u00a0 Who\u2019s on the TV all the time today?\u00a0 Four women in Congress, the President calls \u201cthe squad.\u201d\u00a0 I love that name.\u00a0 And what are these four women about?\u00a0 I mean, the statements that they make don\u2019t come from somebody that\u2019s hosting a website, some professor in a college somewhere.\u00a0 I mean, these are statements coming from duly elected members of the House of Representatives and to be completely accurate with you I am absolutely shocked at some of the things they say about the Jews and the Jewish people..\u00a0 I mean, I can\u2019t even believe they\u2019re saying these things let alone acting representatives of the American government speaking this way.\u00a0 What does [small blank spot on tape] say?\u00a0 In the time of our passage the issues of the earth will be smitten by the virus of anti-Semitism.\u00a0 The world is being set up for the very things that the Bible predicts the things that are coming.\n\nLook, if you will, at Revelation 15: 16, \u201cBehold, I am coming like a thief.\u00a0 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.\u201d\u00a0 For years and years and years and years and years I thought that was the rapture.\u00a0 I have people writing to me all of the time that want to post on our SLBC Facebook page their own rapture beliefs, telling us how wrong we are in believing that the church will be removed from the earth before the tribulation starts; we\u2019re going to be here for most of it they tell me.\u00a0 And they want to use the Sugar Land Bible Church Facebook page as their platform to do it, in which case I just hit delete, delete, delete, delete, delete.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 Start you own Facebook\u00a0 page.\u00a0 Why are you hijacking our Facebook page.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what we believe here!\u00a0 And essentially what they\u2019re saying is this is the rapture, He\u2019s coming as a thief in the night.\n\nFolks, this is not the rapture.\u00a0\u00a0 You know how I know that?\u00a0 Because the rapture is a comfort.\u00a0 Every time the rapture is described in the New Testament it\u2019s a comfort.\u00a0 John 14:1, the first reference to the rapture, \u201cDo not let your heart be troubled\u2026.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 1 Thessalonians 4:18, \u201cComfort one another with these words.\u201d\u00a0 Titus 2:13, \u201cLooking for the blessed hope.\u201d\u00a0 Can I ask you a simple\u00a0 question?\u00a0 If a thief breaks into your house in the middle of the night, which is the imagery here, are you comforted by that?\u00a0 There\u2019s no comfort here at all.\n\nDr. Thomas Ice says, \u201cSome become confused how the rapture could possibly be comfort since they incorrectly associate the thief in the night imagery with the rapture.\u00a0 Such a thief breaking into one\u2019s house in the middle of the night is harmful and a negative occurrence.\u00a0 People disassociate such negativity with the rapture.\u00a0 However, the New Testament never analogizes the rapture with the coming of a thief.\u00a0 While the New Testament uses \u201cthief\u201d in imagery seven times none of those references contextually allude to the rapture.\n\nNow I\u2019m really on thin ice because I grew up with a video series called The Thief in the Night<\/em>.\u00a0 And the premise of the series is that Jesus in the rapture is coming back as a thief in the night.\u00a0 And now I\u2019m learning that that whole series is wrong.\u00a0 If this is not the rapture what is this \u201cthief in the night\u201d?\u00a0 Here\u2019s what it is; it\u2019s the world in their unrepentant state, doesn\u2019t it keep saying \u201cthey did not repent\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 The world in their unrepentant state being caught off guard by the return of Christ and experiencing His judgment.\u00a0 And they\u2019re going to be caught off guard, let me tell you, because Revelation 19:17-18 says there\u2019s going to be so many dead bodies that the vultures will come and gorge on the flesh.\n\n[Revelation 19:17-18, \u201cThen I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, \u201cCome, assemble for the great supper of God, [18] \u00a0<\/sup>so that you may eat the flesh of kings and\u00a0 the flesh of commanders and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great.\u201d \u00a0[Times New Roman\u201d] \u00a0Malachi 4:5 describes the second advent of Christ as the great and terrible day of the Lord.\u00a0 [Malachi 4:5, \u00a0\u201cBehold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord.\u201d] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Think about being in a godless state when the second advent hits planet earth.\u00a0 And think about being caught off guard like a thief in the night.\u00a0 And people say to me well, they\u2019re going to know it\u2019s coming because it\u2019s in the Bible.\u00a0 You mean to tell me that the people in the tribulation period that are non-repentant have their prophecy charts all organized? <\/strong>\u00a0I mean,\u00a0 you\u2019re dealing with people that are just shocked at the return of Christ.\n\nAnd that\u2019s why when you to go verse 15, the one we just read, \u00a0it says, \u201cBlessed is the one who stays awake.\u201d\u00a0 Now there are in the Book of Revelation seven blessings, the Greek word makarios<\/em>, translated \u201cblessing.\u201d\u00a0 And here\u2019s the third of the seven.\u00a0 There\u2019s a blessing upon the spiritually prepared.\u00a0 If you\u2019re spiritually prepared you\u2019re blessed because you won\u2019t be caught off guard by this.\u00a0 You know why you\u2019re prepared?\u00a0 Because you\u2019re clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And you are not a candidate for God\u2019s wrath because God can\u2019t judge righteousness.\u00a0 And so there\u2019s a blessing, number three of the other blessings we\u2019ve studied thus far, now number three, of spiritual preparedness.\n\nVerse 16 and we\u2019ll conclude there; you\u2019ll notice what it says there in verse 16.\u00a0 \u201cAnd they gathered them together in the place which in the Hebrew is called Har-Magedon\u201d or Armageddon.\u00a0 Where are these nations going as they\u2019re summoned by antichrist from Babylon, from the Far East to the Middle East as the Euphrates River itself is dried up to expedite the path.\u00a0 Where are they going?\u00a0 You\u2019re given the place of geography here, Armageddon, the place where the nations will be gathered.\n\nNow, just like the word repentance is a compound word the word Armageddon is a compound word.\u00a0 It comes from the Greek word Har meaning mountain, and Megiddo meaning valley of Megiddo.\u00a0 It\u2019s the mountain and the valley in northern Israel where this final battle is going to be fought.\u00a0 And the blood is going to flow as high as the horses bridles for two hundred miles.\u00a0 It\u2019s where human history is going to end in this area.\u00a0 I\u2019ve stood there myself, been there myself.\u00a0 In fact, Napoleon, one of the greatest battle strategic strategists of all time said this, as David Jeremiah, in his book, What in the World is Going On<\/em> quotes Napoleon.\n\nJeremiah says: Why Megiddo?\u00a0 Why would this be the location of the world\u2019s final conflict?\u00a0 One of the world\u2019s greatest military figures gives us the answer.\u00a0 In 1799 Napoleon stood at Megiddo before the battle that ended his quest to conquer the east and rebuild the Roman Empire.\u00a0 Considering the enormous plan of Armageddon he declared, (quote) \u201cAll the armies of the world could maneuver their forces on this vast plain.\u00a0 There is no place in the whole world more suited for war than this.\u00a0 It is the most natural battleground on the whole earth.\u201d\u00a0 (close quote) WOW!\u00a0 The things in the Bible make sense why this battle is going to be fought there.\n\nYou say well, pastor, this is just crazy the way you\u2019re talking.\u00a0 You mean to tell me that all the nations of the earth are going to very rapidly conglomerate in that part of the world?\u00a0 I have to be honest with you, as a young Christian when I heard preachers talking the way I\u2019m talking I sort of mentally dismissed it; it just couldn\u2019t be that way.\u00a0 And then the gold forehead, do you remember that?\u00a0 1991, Saddam Hussein, how he annexed Kuwait and you remember how it got the world\u2019s attention, just like that.\u00a0 And you remember how fast all the nations of the earth, George H.W. Bush was our President at the time, gathered into that part of the world just that fast, lickety-split!\u00a0 And I thought to myself wow, the Bible is not far from wrong.\u00a0 And we see evidence of how that could happen so fast if you look at recent history.\u00a0 And then we come to the seventh bowl judgment and I\u2019m glad we\u2019re stopping here because that one\u2026 let\u2019s just put it this way, there\u2019s \u201ca whole lot of shaking\u2019 going\u2019 on.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nSo next week we\u2019ll take a look at that final bowl judgment.\u00a0 But the reality of the situation is the judgment of God is coming.\u00a0 And the only thing which spares a person from the judgment of God is the applied righteousness of Christ. God will judge every person He sees that is not clothed in the righteousness of Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s that simple!\u00a0 And how do you get clothed in the righteousness of Christ?\u00a0 You repent or simultaneously trust in what Jesus has done and the moment that happens God looks at you as if you\u2019re just as righteous as His Son.\u00a0 And that\u2019s something you could do right now as I\u2019m talking.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of walking an aisle, joining a church, filling out a card, giving money, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord where you trust in Him and Him alone for salvation.\u00a0 You receive a gift that you\u2019re not worthy of, none of us are!\u00a0 But it\u2019s real; your position has changed!\u00a0 And consequently there is no longer condemnation for those that are \u201cin Christ Jesus!\u201d\u00a0 If it\u2019s something you want to do now you can do it right now as I\u2019m speaking, in privacy.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you need more explanation I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray!\u00a0 Father, we\u2019re grateful for the Book of Revelation and the things that it speaks to us and reveals to us.\u00a0 Help us to be people here that embrace the council of Your Word and walk accordingly.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t