All right, why don't we go ahead and get started? Hopefully you can grab an outline in the back. We're going to do chapters 15 and 16 this morning. Ha ha. We'll see. We'll see how far we get, but a lot of good stuff here, and I'm going to try to tie some things together this morning. At least to me, maybe not to you. Things are are seeming to be more clear as I continue to study and read the commentaries and seeing certain patterns and agreements. So I'm seeing them. That's encouraging. I hope that you're seeing them as well, but let's pray as we turn to God's word. Father in heaven, we just want to pause as we turn to your word. We ask for wisdom. We ask for your spirit. We ask most of all, we would be changed by your word, Father, that we would become more like you, that we would be more serviceable to you in your kingdom, and that we would be a blessing to others. And that's what we pray for in Jesus name. Amen. So a quick summary. Let me just give you sort of like the overview of what we've done now in the last several quarters as we've been looking at revelation. I just went back through and wrote up this summary of the first 14 chapters. All right. So chapter one was an introduction with the opening vision of Christ and the churches. Remember, he sees Christ and then a magnificent vision. And he sees the seven churches, the seven lamp stands. And then chapters two and three were dictated letters by Christ to John that were to be sent to the seven Gentile churches in Asia Minor. And there were more churches there. And we looked at that. But these seven were singled out. And in those letters were encouragement, exhortations, rebukes, warnings and promises, particularly in each letter to overcomers, to those who overcome. And in each letter, there was a final exhortation to hear what the spirit is saying to the church is, not just to your church, so that all of the letters were for all of the churches. Then in chapter four, we saw the opening vision of the throne room in heaven. And then the scroll with seven seals in chapter five, then only Christ could open. Then the seven seals were opened in chapter six and seven. And they had the terrifying judgements of the four horsemen and the persecution of the saints in chapter six, but also with the assurance of comfort for the martyrs who were pictured as being under the altar, and offering to God as it were. And the sealing of the 144,000 took place in chapter seven. Again, the assurance that God wouldn't lose any of his own. Then in chapters eight and nine, there were the seven trumpets and their terrifying judgements that were brought about by each one of them. Then in chapter 10, shifted gears with a mighty angel descending from heaven, promising an end to the delay. And he had in his hands a second scroll now for John to prophesy from, because the first scroll has been fully opened, all seven seals. Then in chapter 11, we have the measuring of the temple and the worshippers, the worshippers measured. Again, reminding us that we're talking about symbolic language. And then the two witnesses of God who were able to strike their enemies with various plagues, including fire and drought and blood as often as they desired, and they do so until they complete their witness. And at that time, the beast is allowed to war against them, to overcome them and to kill them. And the whole world celebrates for a very short time, but then God revives the two witnesses and causes them to ascend to heaven in a cloud. And their enemies clawed them. And scripture says some of them were then killed in the earthquake, and the rest of them were greatly afraid and gave glory to God. And again, we cut to heaven with the 24 elders, praising God for taking His power and raining, and for destroying the nations, and rewarding His servants, the prophets, and the saints. Then chapter 12 introduces the great sign of the Book of Revelation, the woman, in her universal glory in labor with a son and a dragon trying to kill him, as soon as he's born. And then he tries to kill her after the son is caught up to God's throne in heaven, where he's protected. And the dragon and his angels are then thrown out of heaven, and they try to destroy now the woman and her children, who it has said, keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. And then chapter 13 introduces two beasts, who are given great power and authority by the dragon, and they make war on the saints, and they overcome them, and they have authority over every tribe and tongue and nation, and they deceive and are worshiped by all those who are not written in Christ's book of light, which was written before the foundation of the world. And they worship Him in His miraculously fabricated image, and they bear His mark, the mark of His name, the number of His name, six, six, and then last week. We saw, again, the 144,000, singing, secure, and with Christ, and at the same time an announcement of the fallenness of Babylon and the wrath of God that will come upon all those who worship the beast, and then the earth is harvested, and the wicked are tormented forever, and the winepress of God's wrath as their smoke goes up forever and ever, and that brings us to chapter 15. So, quick summary of what we've seen so far. Chapter 15, let's begin, verse 1. This is the final sign in Revelation. There's only three signs that are given in Revelation. Even though the word sign appears seven times, it usually appears as this signs the false signs that the false prophet is doing. The final sign is verse 1. Then I saw another sign. This is the last time he sees a sign in heaven, great and marvelous, and what is that sign? Seven angels having the seven last plagues. For in them, the wrath of God is completed. The other two signs, if you don't remember, 12 won the sign of the woman in heaven. The great sign, it's actually called a great sign, this woman, again, closed with the sun, etc., and then there was another sign which was the dragon in heaven, and that was verse 3. So the woman in heaven, first sign, the dragon in heaven, second sign, third and final sign, the seven angels having the last of God's wrath. And so this seems to me to be an admission that the book of Revelation is largely about, the outpouring of this wrath of God. And here it's going to be finished in these seven bowls. It's going to be complete. It has become, it will be done. So the angels bring this final portion. It's described as plagues, seven angels, seven plagues, again, seven, the number of completion, the number of perfection. Then we see the victorious believers in verse 2, and I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass having harps of God. Now, the sea of glass we saw in the throne room of heaven in chapter 4, verse 6, and we heard harps from heaven in chapter 14, verse 2. And the harps are often pictured in Psalms of praise. The mingled, the glass mingled with fire, could refer to the fact that these victorious worshipers of God, victorious over the beast, have this peace and this victory in part by martyrdom. They're killed. And so there was a baptism by fire. They have the peace, the sea of glass, but it's mingled with fire. It was brought to them by the fact that they were martyred. The beast seems to be equated with his mark and the number of his name. Notice that in this verse. They have the victory over the beast, over his image, over his mark, over the number of his name. To have victory over the beast is to have victory over the mark. To have victory over the mark is to have victory over the beast. And to have victory over him is to not worship him, but in fact, to continue to worship God, to take his number, to take his name, is to worship him. And so worshiping him is to take his number and vice versa. To take his number is to worship him. I think maybe we're seeing here three images of the same thing. The number, the worshiper, to have his name, whatever it's to be one who is against God and for Satan. And the one who believes in God is the one who has victory over all these things as well. You can see the matter of spiritual life or death that's connected in these things. If you're spiritually alive, you're not a worshiper of the beast. You don't have this number. If you're spiritually dead, you are. And you don't have the victory. Then he has conquered you. And so clearly, then, the victory is in not worshiping the beast, but worshiping only God. And that was what the victory was. In verses 6 and 7 of chapter 14, when that angel flying in heaven had that universal everlasting gospel to preach to every tribe, nation, tongue, and people, saying, what, fear God, give him the glory, the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heaven in the earth and the sea in the springs of water. And so those who listen to that gospel have victory over the beast, those who don't, don't. And the beast appeared. It's interesting. He appeared victorious over the two witnesses because he kills them in chapter 11. He appears victorious over the saints in chapter 13 verse 7, where it's said it was granted him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. That's clearly victory, right? And yet, here are the saints in heaven. And they actually do have victory over him. And so the beast who killed the witnesses in chapter 11 who overcame the saints in chapter 13 verse 7, but in both of these apparent victories, he was actually defeated by them. Why? Because they were faithful unto death. And that's the victory. They were faithful unto death. And so it looks like the beast beast. And he does, in effect, kill their bodies. Remember Jesus says, don't feel it fear those who can kill only the body. And that's all they can do. That was his victory. It's, it's pales in comparison to the reality that they are now with God singing, rejoicing. He didn't have a victory over them at all. And what are they singing? Verse 3, they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, the song of the Lamb. And great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are your ways of King of the saints. The king of the saints there is, you may have a different word. There's a pretty much an equal textual witness for the king of the saints, or the king of the ages. And there's even a few that say King of the nations. And first Timothy 117 Paul says, King of the ages, now to the king eternal, we translate it, ages eternal, same thing. Now to the king eternal, you know, this immortal invisible only wise God be honor and glory forever. And so it could be that they are actually saying, just and true are your ways. Oh, king eternal, king of all the ages. And so for the Moses and now the saints, you know, 1500 years separating them and yet he is the king of all the ages. I sort of lean towards that one, but he's also the king of the saints and he's also, you know, the king of the nations. So we have this 144,000 in chapter 14 verse three, who were singing then with harps and the song of Moses and the lamb. Now that's interesting. First of all, we could say, well, there's no Old Testament slash New Testament separation in the people of God. Moses song is the song of the lamb and vice versa. And of course, we get a song of Moses in Exodus 15 on the shores of the Red Sea as the bodies of the Egyptian. Or being washed up as it were and they sing this victory song of the horse and the rider being thrown into the sea. And of course, the deliverance out of the Exodus out of Egypt in the Exodus is the typological representation of our deliverance, right? From bondage to sin Egypt, the house of bondage. I mean, that becomes the picture of salvation for the rest of scripture. Really God is the one who brought you up out of Egypt out of the house of bondage to into the promised land God saves us from the true bondage of Satan and sin. And he brings us into the ultimate promise land, which is the new heavens and the new earth. But there's actually a song of Moses that's even more said to be the song of Moses. In fact, it's said to be the song of Moses multiple times in Deuteronomy chapter 31, beginning in verse 19, where Moses writes, therefore write this song for yourself and teach it to the sons of Israel, put it on their lips, that this song may be a witness for me against the sons of Israel. So here's Moses saying, this is my song in Deuteronomy 31 and he begins to talk about it. But then it shall come about when they have many evils and troubles. This song will testify before them as a witness. It shall not be forgotten. So Moses wrote this song, verse 22, the same day and taught it to the sons of Israel. Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel, the words of this song, and the words of the song are in Deuteronomy 32, verses 1 to 43. It's called the song of Moses. And it actually says the last verse, verse 43, rejoices on nations, plural, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants and he will render vengeance on his adversaries and he will atone for his land and for his people. So a coming together of the nations and Israel rejoicing as God defeats his enemies, the song of Moses. And of course the lamb is truly Jesus and there was a lamb in the accident. There's so many other things that you could say about that. And Christ is often likened to Moses. Moses gave the law on the mountain. Christ gave the strengthening of the law on the sermon on the mount. Moses inaugurates the covenant with a meal with the elders which foreshadows Christ, instituting the Passover in the upper room with the apostles. Moses gives them bread from heaven. Christ is the bread from heaven. I mean we could spend the rest of the day talking about this. But God's righteousness then is vindicated. You see that in verse 4 of this song, who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name. For you alone are holy. All the nations shall come and worship before you for your judgments have been manifested. All right, so fearing God is to glorify him. The reason is God alone is holy. Everything else that's holy is derived from God. And that all the nations shall come. That's a promised repeated over and over again in the Old Testament. Let's give you a handful of verses there. Psalm 22, 86, 117 Isaiah 45, 66, Jeremiah 16, Zachariah 2, 8, Malachi 1, over and over again all the nations. Right, God's land is actually the whole world and that's what we learn in the great commission. It's no longer come out of the nations into this little land that's your land, go into all the world because it's all mine. And that's what we do. And so the reason for the world to worship God is what his judgments have been manifested. Now that's interesting because that means they're seen. God's judgments are seen therefore fear him, therefore worship him. How are they seen? Verse 5, after these things I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was open. There's so many rich Old Testament things here. We've talked about these a number of times. That phrase, the tabernacle of the testimony, it only occurs twice in the New Testament. It occurs more than 150 times in just the first five books of Moses. Tabernacle of the testimony, tabernacle of the testimony. What was the testimony? The tablets of stone, the Ten Commandments. It was put in the ark. The tabernacle was the place where the ark was. The tabernacle of the testimony is the tent where the ark was, where the testimony was. And this is the symbol of God's presence, the ark, the seat where he put his feet as it were. And so the tent of witness has the ark of the covenant, which is the testimony of the covenant of the Ten Commandments. This is the second and last time this temple will be seen opened in heaven. The first time was 11, 19, then the temple of God was opened in heaven. And the ark of his covenant was seen in the temple, and there were lightnings, and noises, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. Heaven itself will be opened in chapter 19, verse 11. And so here we have the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven opened, and then what do we see? We see these angels. Out of the temple came seven angels having seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having chest girded with golden bands of seven angels, seven plagues. Again, seven golden bands, bright linen, reminiscent of the special clothing of the priests, or of angels who are sometimes said to be clothed in bright clothing. Daniel, chapter 10, verse 5, I lifted my eyes and looked and behold a certain man clothed in linen whose waist was girded with gold. So Daniel sees an angel girded with gold here. The angels have this golden sash. The seven bowls of wrath and one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels, seven golden bowls, full of wrath, of the God who lives forever and ever. The seven bowls of wrath, the wrath on the wicked world, symbolized repeatedly by drink in the Old Testament. By the way, this is again an image that nobody takes literally. We so quickly understand this figure that we don't even realize it, right? But think about it. Literally, we're getting pictured a bowl that has liquid in it, that's wrath. It's literally true the wrath of God is drunk from a bowl, and I guess you feel it in your body. Obviously, that's a picture, right? That the cup of blessing is something that you drink. You drink God's blessing. God's blessing is on you. When you get up, when you leave, it's on your house, it's on your produce. That's a symbol, right? Because a cup and being able to drink something is a blessed time and so also to drink something that is God's wrath is a symbol that God's wrath is on you. And to drink, it means you're going to have. I mean, when you drink something, it's in you. And so it's a picture, again, of the wrath of God about to be poured out on the world, and that this would be God's judgment, God's anger. You see this, again, repeatedly in the Old Testament, Psalm 75 verse 8, in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it. And all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the drags. Again, a picture of what? The wicked will get all of God's wrath, all of God's eternal wrath. It doesn't mean that actual people will be drinking cups. It means they will have God's wrath poured out upon them. Jeremiah 25, 15, the Lord of Israel said to me, take from my hand this cup of the wine of the wrath of God and make the nations to whom I send you drink it. Jeremiah didn't actually go around with a cup, but why? It's a picture of God's wrath will be given to the wicked, to these nations. All right. So then the last verse and 15, the temple was filled with the smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. Now we get that image a lot. If you read your Old Testament, you know that several times in the Old Testament, several key times, the smoke of God's presence would fill an area, the tabernacle, the temple, whatever, and no one would be able to go in. That's happened several times in the Old Testament. When the tabernacle was first completed in the wilderness in Exodus 40, verse 34, after we remember Moses gets all those intricate instructions, after he finishes everything, verse 34 of chapter 40 then says, then the cloud, the cloud that was symbolized God's presence, then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting. And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. So Moses himself who spoke with God face to face when God makes this sort of supreme holiness image, Moses can't even go in. Right? And we see the same thing when Solomon completes the temple in 1 Kings 8, 10, and it came to pass when the priests came out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. So when the temple was completed, when the tabernacle was completed, this repeated image that happened. And you get that second one, repeated in second Chronicles because Chronicles retells the stories of kings from a little bit of a different perspective. The house of the Lord was filled with the cloud, second Chronicles 5, so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house. So we get this image repeated. Here it's happening as the temple is opened and the ark is seen and the tabernacle is open to pour out the wrath of God. So these angels come out of it and you can think of the ark as it were and how the ark itself was used at several points to pour out the wrath of God when the people look in the ark and they all die and so forth. And so this symbol of God's holy presence and when God's holy presence is among the wicked and the wicked pervert at the die. And so now this is opened and this presence is coming to the earth and it's going to bring all of God's wrath to the earth and there will be no entering the place where you would enter to intercede until the wrath is done. So that would symbolize what? There's no stopping it. There's not going to be any intercessors. Lord, please delay your wrath again. No more delay. And that's what revelation has been saying. That there's no possibility of intercession at this point. Nobody can get into that presence. Nobody can come before God and say, have mercy one more time on them. Lord, God's mercy is now empty and now his wrath is going to come. So if we go back again, the seals of persecution, the seven seals, lead to the trumpets of judgment, the seven trumpets and now this results in the seven bowls of wrath. So all of these seven's perfections, these trumpets announcing the earth not repenting, now the wrath counts. Several different ways of saying that some of them see this as different ways of participating in the same event. So what might be a seal of persecution to you could be a trumpet of judgment to somebody else, else could be a bowl of wrath to somebody else. So Christian being martyred, somebody sees that who's been, I don't know, flirting with sin and that's a call to judgment. The judgment, wow, I better get right with God and then the person who's actually killing them may be hardened to the point where now God's wrath is on them in the same event and the same thing that could be happening. And so are we seeing something like that with the seven's repeated, the same kind of thing from a different perspective, persecution on the part of Christians judgment announced to those who might still repent and wrath upon those who are not no longer going to be able to repent, something to think about. Let's get into chapter 16. First three bowls of wrath versus one to four, then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth. So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the man who had that notice, who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. So here with the wrath, it's very clear from the very beginning there's a distinction only those who are not sealed of God who have therefore the mark of the beast are going to suffer the wrath of God. And remember that's a promise repeated over and over again in scripture. If you're a Christian, you never suffer God's wrath. You may suffer tests and trials, you may even suffer martyrdom, but that is not the wrath of God. God will actually reward you even more for any of those things that you endure for him. But the wrath does go upon all those who have the mark and all those we know who are not in Christ will suffer God's wrath. So the first went and poured his, okay, so the loathsome sore, then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea. First one on the earth, second one on the sea, it became blood as of a dead man, a little bit of a twist here. Blood of a dead man is coagulating a stinking blood and notice every living creature in the sea died. Then the third angel poured his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood. So we get judgment on the land, judgment on the sea, oceans, judgment on the rivers and springs, fresh water, again symbolizing the whole planet the exact same thing we saw in the trumpets. The first three trumpets were also judgments on the land, on the sea, and on the rivers and springs in that order. Revelation 8.7 to remind you, the first angel blew his trumpet and their followed hail and fire mixed with blood and these were thrown on the earth. So there's the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up and a third of the trees and all the green grass, now the little bit of a difference here. On the earth with the bowls it's only on those who have the mark of the beast. On the earth with the trumpets it wasn't even on people per se. It was on trees and on the ground and the third of the earth itself was burned up so there's a somewhat of a distance. It's not actually hitting the people and certainly not hitting all the people who weren't believers. The second angel, and again I'm still in Revelation 8, verse 8 blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood, not the blood of a dead man and not all of the sea. Only a third of the sea. So you see that restraint still under the trumpets, no more restraint now in the wrath. A third of the living creatures in the sea died. A third of the ships were destroyed and the wrath, all of the sea creatures died. You see the difference? The bowl of wrath, all of them die. In the trumpet, a third. There's a warning level still in the trumpet. That's the idea of a trumpet. The trumpet is a call to attention. Wrath, it's too late. The third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch and it fell on a third of the rivers and a third of the springs of the water. So again, same thing, the third trumpet, the fresh water but it's only a third again, not all of them as it is with the wrath. And a third of the waters become warm wood and many people died from the water because it had been made bitter. It just says all the rivers and springs without a third, just as all the creatures in the sea die. So the trumpet judgments came only after God's servants were sealed in chapter 7. The bowl judgments fall only on those who have the mark of the beast, which is the counter part to the seal of God on 144,000. In chapter 7, verse 3, if you remember, do not harm the earth of the sea until we have sealed the servants of God on their forehead. And then all the sealing happens, the rest of chapter 7 and then chapter 8, the trumpets begin and it again, it doesn't affect those who are sealed of God. So similarities, great similarities. Then we get an interlude and the second three bowls beginning in verse 5. So chapter 16, verse 5, and I heard an angel of the waters. The angel of the waters there was the angel of the fire earlier, just the angel that's given authority. Remember, God is sovereign. This is a good reminder to us. The earth just doesn't work by natural laws that are impersonal. We can understand natural laws and we understand how water condenses on the ground and evaporates in the whole process of photosynthesis with the sun and the plants. We understand that, but God is the one who's making all of that happen in every step of the way. And so often you'll get angels being described as the angel of the fire, the angel of the water. Well, in the spiritual realm, maybe that's what's actually happened. That it's actually angels that cause the so-called laws that we think so much of to work all the time because it's God governing them. It's actively God. Let's not be deceived. God is not a deist. This universe just doesn't happen because we're allowed to understand it that way and God works consistently. Everything happens by the power of God, by his authority and by his permission. Nothing, there is nothing else. You know, the law of gravity is God. God making things work the way that they do. So that's just a good reminder here when you read the angel of the waters. God has assigned way I understand that. God has assigned certain things that are attributed to the water to this particular spiritual being. And we can see it in the so-called natural laws that work because God is a God of order. All right, so in the first three trumpet judgments, a third was effective. No limitations, right? Every living creature, et cetera. With the trumpets, there was an interlude after the fourth trumpet, crying a triple, whoa, whoa, whoa, because of the last three trumpets that are coming. Here, the herald interludes only after the three judgments, not four. And what does he do? He doesn't cry, whoa, to the, you know, on the earth, to what's coming. He just praises God for what has been done. He praises God for the judgments of the wicked. This is something that I know some Christian struggle with, but the judgment of God in revelation is not bad. It's actually good. It's actually God winning. It's actually God destroying his enemies. And if you're on God's side, you will be praising him, right? I mean, that's what will happen. Just like if you were in battle, you know, in the battle of the balls or whatever in Germany in December. And you see, you know, the tanks of patent finally coming up to relieve that stone, you're going to be cheering even though that means Germans are going to die. You're not thinking of it that way. You're going to win the battle. Well, the ultimate battle is between good and evil, God and Satan. And those who align themselves with Satan and when God finally takes the victory, all those on his side will rejoice. That means at, yes, the death and destruction and the throwing into hell of the wicked, but that's what the victory is. We just got to remember that. The victory is the destruction of the wicked. And so the angel was saying, you are righteous, so Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to come, very thing that was said about Christ, because you have judged these things for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets. And you have given them blood to drink. It is their just do. They celebrate the justice of God as he gives back to the wicked. It could finally, after so much delay, after so much mercy, after so much long suffer, finally God does and God will fully and perfectly judge every single one of the wicked. That's the point of the mark, right? And there's a sense in which Satan marking all of his own actually, you know, does a service to God. Well, there they are. Those are the ones to be destroyed. The ones who have the mark even as he has already sealed his own. So let's move down then to the fourth bowl, verses eight and nine. Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plates and they did not repent. And give him glory. All right, so the sun is affected now by the fourth bowl. The sun was affected. Let me remind you by the sixth seal in chapter six, verse 12. The sun was darkened in chapter eight, verse 12. The fourth trumpet was poured out on the sun and the sun was there darkened. Here the opposite, rather than darkened intensified, you know, the sun is given this power to scorch. That's not completely unique in scripture. Psalm 121, verse six, and then the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night. So there was a promise to God's people that the sun will no longer strike them. Isaiah 49.10 says the same thing. Revelation, chapter seven, all the way back in chapter seven, verse 16, and this is about the seal to 144,000. Neither shall they hunger anymore nor thirst anymore. The sun shall not strike them nor the heat. So we've already seen this in Revelation. It's not completely unique. I read one of the commentators, he said, this is completely unique. Well, he didn't look at his scripture or not. It's often said that the sun strikes, even in the book itself. The sun will no longer strike those who are sealed with God. Well, this is the wrath of God, and it's poured out on all the wicked and on none of the righteous. The fifth ball, verses 10 and 11, then the fifth angel poured out his ball, notice on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became full of darkness, and they nod their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven. The God of heaven, by the way, is a title that's used in Daniel to refer to God to pagans. The God of heaven, that's who God is. Paul does the same kind of thing at the areopicus in Acts 17. The God who made the heavens and the earth, he's telling them the only God. Well, that's who they're blaspheming here. Because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds, again, they did not repent. Well, these folks are hardened to the point where they will not, and yet the scripture just notices that if they wanted to, they could have. But they don't want to. They hate God now. They're hardened in their wrath, and the wrath comes. And it's silly, because if they would repent, they would be delivered, but the very thing that they're doing is bringing more. But that's what sin is. It's contradictory. It's irrational. So the beast thrown in this kingdom is darkened. In the sixth seal the sun was black. The moon was blood. The stars fall. In the fourth trumpet, a third of the sun, moon, and stars are darkened. At the fifth trumpet, the abyss opens and the sun is darkened by the smoke that comes out of the abyss. And by the way, the ninth plague on Egypt was darkness. And so here, again, the darkness, judgment of God. The locus of the fifth trumpet were told to harm those not having God's seal with the result that those who were stunned by them longed to die, but they could not. Here we see the same kind of thing, gnawing their tongues in pain and blaspheming God as God judges them for their sins. The sixth bowl in verse 12, now we're going to make some neat comparisons here. Verse 12, then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, your fratis, and its water was dried up. So that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. Now we're going to say a lot about this here. The water was dried up. Remember back in chapter 9, verse 14, there were four angels said to be bound at the river your fratis earlier, and that the trumpet released them. They were released at the sixth trumpet, trumpet, here at the sixth bowl, the water is dried up. And when you have angels of water and angels of fire, the idea of angels being released so that what do they do? Well they do what they're supposed to do, dry up the water, could be the same exact thing, described in two different ways. One more of at a warning stage, now at the wrath stage. The water is dried up to prepare the way of the kings of the east. In chapter 9, the angels were released to kill a third of mankind, and how do they do that? Through an army of 200 million. And John says, I heard the number, because you would read that number and think, that's not right. And so John asked, under the express spirit, I heard the number. It was 200 million. And that's how in chapter 9, after the sixth trumpet, the angels kill a third of mankind here, the sixth trumpet dries up, or the sixth bowl dries up the river so that the way of the kings of the east would be prepared. So again, just to read it to you, chapter 9 verse 14, saying to these sixteenths, who had the trumpet, released the four angels who are bound at the great river, Euphrates, so the four angels who have been prepared for the day and the hour and the month and the year were released to kill a third of mankind. Now the number of the army of the horsemen was 200 million, I heard the number. Same thing, Euphrates and the great judgment and death, and now hear Euphrates right up. And by the way, in Israel's history, whenever they were defeated by a Syria, by Babylon, the armies had to cross the Euphrates, and you can read in the Old Testament how God enabled them to do that. But it was the last border as it were. And so now in this last, in the wrath of God, again, those these same images. Then in verse 13, I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet. There you see the unholy trinity, right? The dragon, the beast, and here the second beast is called the false prophet. So he is the false prophet. And the frogs are also one of the plagues of Egypt. They're also an unclean animal. It's not said in what way they are like frogs. Notice it says like frogs. Don't say they're frogs. Like frogs. Right away, we're told this is a simile, you know, like or as, something similar. But again, think of the idea of the uncleanness and the loathed sumeness of frogs to Israel because they're these unclean animals. And again, the stench of that plague in Egypt. And Hendrickson says they represent the same satanic, hellish ideas, plans, projects, methods, and enterprises hell-born and introduced by hell into the sphere of thought and action. He says, that's what this is. And I thought about this, you know, that these frog-like things coming out of Satan that bring, if Hendrickson is right here, just horrible ideas and judgments to the world, hell-born ideas. He says, hellish plans, projects, methods, enterprises, anything born of Satan that just is loathed sum and horrible. And I couldn't help but immediately think of some of the most sort of astonishing things today that when I was a kid, nobody would have dreamed of gay marriage. I remember in the 90s, when they were starting to advocate for gay unions, even everybody on the side of it, well, you can't only a man and a woman can be married. I mean, you younger people don't know that. Everyone, everyone on the left assured us, it's not about marriage. We'll never have gay marriage. We just want equal representation for the unions. It was assured that would never happen. And then the whole trans movement with, you know, little children being taught now, you can be a girl if you're a boy. And actually, kids having their genitals cut off without their parents known. You can read these things are happening in the public schools. And it's just terrifying. I mean, how is that not, you know, out of the mouth of Satan himself to attack the very image of God, male and female and say, no, there isn't such thing. Be whatever you want. I mean, it just seems to fit to me. So the spirits of demons doing signs for the purpose of gathering a great army in chapter 13, verses 13 and 14, the prophet did signs that deceived the whole earth. Verse 14 of chapter 16, they are spirits of demons doing signs to gather the kings of the whole earth, same kind of thing that the false prophet was doing earlier. To gather them to battle for the day, the great day of God Almighty, again, God else should die, the God of all the earth. These aren't covenant names of, you know, Israel's God. This is the way the pagans would understand God. And then we get this phrase in verse 14, to get, to get of the earth and of the whole world. It's the Greek phrase, epitase, oicuminase, holace, on the whole inhabited world. This word always means the whole world, four times in the New Testament. And I'll give it to you right here. Luke 4.5, then the devil taking him up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the whole world, oicuminase, of the whole world, in a moment of time. Clearly that's the whole world, that the Satan is showing Jesus in the temptation. Romans 10, 18, but have they not heard? Yes, indeed, their sound has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. Oicuminase has to be the whole world. Revelation 3.10, because you have kept my command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which will come upon Oicuminase, the whole world to test those who dwell on the earth. And in the Old Testament, nine times, and it always means the whole world, a couple of verses. I'll give you Psalm 17, 15. Then the channels of the sea were seen, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, O Lord. Psalm 72, 8, he shall have dominion also from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, the whole world. And so this image of God gathering the whole world for judgment, the final judgment. The result of the work of these demons, verse 16, the deceptive false sign performing spirits is the gathering together at Armageddon. It's a place in Hebrew called Armageddon. Now the 200 million man army, remember, at the sixth trumpet all come together into the land of his work, doesn't name the place there. Armageddon, par, magito, the mountain, the mountain of magito. The problem is there is no mountain in magito. It's a plane. There have been all kinds of ways to try to understand this and to try to interpret this. What does he mean by par, magito? Well, let's look a little bit about what happened at magito. Mount magito is in Galilee. It's more than 60 miles north of Jerusalem. It's a plane, not a mountain. It's where Deborah and Barack defeated Cicero. It's where Cicero was killed by Pharaoh Neko. It's not the place where anybody defeats Jerusalem. It's too far north. To call a plane a mountain is perfectly fitting in apocalyptic literature. It seems to me, members of Echoriah chapter 4, verse 7, they will say the mountain will become a plane and they will say grace to it. Some say this is a civil conflict, the dispensationalist, the future Jerusalem, the preterist, the past, Jerusalem. Some say this spiritual conflict between God and Satan. It's the all male and some of the postmills, some of the postmills are with the preters. Verse 15 says, Behold, and I skip 15 on purpose, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garment. Blessed, he walked naked and they see his shame. Clear allusion to the words of Jesus, echoed in many of the books in the New Testament. The key feature is coming as a thief. It doesn't mean coming secretly. Sometimes it's interpreted that way. It doesn't mean coming furatively. It means coming unexpectedly and we know that because whenever it's explained, it's always explained that way. Luke chapter 12, verse 19, Jesus said, but know this, if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house open. You also must be ready for the son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect. So Jesus there says about a thief and it's when you don't expect. Revelation 3.3, remember then what you received and heard, keep it in repent. If you will not wake up, I will come like a thief and you will not know. At what hour I will come, that's the aspect of the thief we are to understand, not the secret but the unexpectedness. 1 Thessalonians 5.2 Paul says, you yourselves are fully aware the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night and then verse 4. But brethren, you're not in darkness that the day would overtake you like a thief and then verse 6. So then let us not sleep as others do but let us be alert and sober. We don't want to be caught unexpected. That's the thief image.
And so second Peter actually says the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will pass away with a roar. The heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved. The earth and its works will be exposed. That doesn't sound like a quiet secret. That's the thief that Peter is talking about. Not quietly, not secretly. Well we have to stop on the seventh goal. So this, I'm really seeing the similarities between the bowls and the trumpets and yet the intensification at the same time. I think it's, you know, and yet the assurance of God's people at the same time. It seems to me that there's a lot coming together, a lot to be encouraged about. Any questions, comments as we wrap up? We'll do the seventh bowl, Lord willing next week and get into chapter 17. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you for your word, Lord. We thank you that while we can't say that we understand definitely exactly what is being said. We can see as a comfort father that we ought to receive that your people are protected and blessed, that they have the victory and that your justice is full and complete. And so, Father, we just pray that your kingdom would come and your will would be done and that we would continue to walk in it. Not afraid, but bold because you've already won the victory. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.