I actually think this might be a shorter sermon, so we'll see.
That's not a very common occurrence.
But the name of the sermon is The Timing of the Vile Judgments.
The Timing of the Vile Judgments.
Notice what it says in Revelation 16, verse 1.
And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways and
pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
Now if you remember a while back as we talked about in Revelation chapter, starting in chapter
number 8, we talk about the trumpet judgments, and here it talks about the vial judgments.
Now these are not the exact same thing as the trumpet judgments, and there's a lot of
confusion and a lot of different opinions.
And I'll just tell you, here are some of the opinions on the timing of when this occurs.
Now for us, we remember the first 11 chapters kind of tell the story of Revelation, and
then the next 11 chapters kind of go back in time and focus on different things and
cover some different things.
Some people believe that basically the first seven seals happen, then the seven trumpets,
and then the seven vials.
Well, that's not true, okay?
We know that the trumpet judgments are part of the seventh seal, okay?
So it's not seven seals take place.
Obviously there's a lot of opinions on the end times.
People believe in lots of different raptures and a lot of different things, and there's
a lot of confusion.
And look, we would be in this series for a couple years if we disproved every false thing
that you ever hear preached on us.
I haven't really done a whole lot of that, but that's one of the theories that all seven
seals happen, then seven trumpets, and then seven vials, okay?
Another theory is this, that people believe the first seal happens, then the first trumpet,
then the first vial, then the second seal, then the second trumpet, then the second vial.
Now that would make Revelation very confusing, right?
Because if you're just bouncing all over the Bible, no, it doesn't have to be that confusing,
okay?
What the Bible teaches, we know that the first six seals are not the wrath of God.
It's actually the antichrist, and the first several, it's before he takes reign, and then
all of a sudden we get to the great tribulation.
But then the seventh seal contained in that are the seven trumpet judgments.
Now here we're talking about vial judgments, and we're going to see here tonight these
are not the exact same thing, okay?
But what we see is that basically when the first trumpet judgment happens, the first
vial judgment is going to happen basically at the same time, roughly right at around
the same time.
So basically, you know, the trumpet and the vial will happen around the same time, the
first and the first, and then the second and the second, and then the third and the third.
So it's not going to be seven trumpets, then seven vials.
They're going to kind of line up one and one, two and two, and three and three.
You say, how do you know that?
Well, what we're going to do tonight is we're just going to compare in Revelation chapter
16 with the trumpet judgments we saw earlier, and we're going to see that they're not the
same thing, but they line up very well together, okay?
And so notice what it says in Revelation chapter 16 verse 2.
And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth, and their fellow annoys him
and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast and upon them which
worshipped his image.
Now in verse number two, I want you to see that this vial is poured out upon the earth,
okay?
And the main thing we're going to look at is the location of where these judgments are
taking place, because what you're going to see here is in the first vial that this vial
is poured out upon the earth.
We'll go back to Revelation chapter 8, and we're going to be bouncing back and forth,
so I recommend keep a finger in Revelation 16.
We'll be there, back, there, back, going back and forth.
And so remember the first vial judgment we saw, it poured out upon the earth, okay?
Revelation chapter 8 verse 7, and here we have the first angel.
And notice what it says in Revelation 8 verse 7.
The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they
were cast upon the earth.
And the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.
So notice here as well we see it's upon the earth, okay?
So the first vial and the first trumpet, these judgments are taking place upon the earth.
You say, Brother Stuckey, you know, aren't all of the vials and trumpets taking place
upon the earth?
No, because in the Bible, earth is not referring to this entire planet.
When you read the Bible, the earth is referring to the ground, not the water, okay?
The rivers are not called the earth in the Bible, okay?
So sometimes you'll see verses like, you know, we'll say, you know, to the end of the earth,
and you know, the flat earthers think like, oh man, we get a point, we fall off.
No, it's just saying the water's about to start, okay?
So you have the earth and you have the seas, and you see that all the way back in the beginning
in Genesis.
But you know, when it's saying upon the earth, it's referring to the actual ground, not in
the waters, okay?
That's what it says in Revelation chapter eight, verse eight, Revelation chapter eight,
verse eight.
And the second angel sounded, and as it were, a great mountain burning with fire was cast
into the sea.
As we said before, when it says as it were a great mountain, what that's saying is it's
not a great mountain, but it's like a great mountain.
It's something that's kind of similar.
So I would say it's a large object, and it says it's burning with fire was cast into
the sea.
Perhaps it's referring to a meteor, something huge that's going to take place.
But the key to locate for this sermon is that it's cast into the sea.
Do you notice that?
And it says a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea.
So where is this judgment taking place?
It's taking place in the sea, right?
And then it says in the third part of the sea became blood.
And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died, and the
third part of the ships were destroyed.
And so we see that one third of the sea becomes blood, a third of the creatures die, a third
of the ships are destroyed.
And so this judgment is not taking place on Earth, it's taking place in the sea.
Now go to Revelation chapter 16, Revelation chapter 16.
And so right here we see the distinction between the Earth and the sea.
We see how the Earth is actually referring to the ground and the sea is actually referring
to and there's different types of bodies of water in the Bible.
Just like today we have ocean, sea, rivers, lakes, and you know, I'm not an expert at
all those definitions to be honest, you know, I'm not sure how we make all the distinctions.
But same thing in the Bible, you have different bodies of water.
It's not just, you know, Earth and water, they have different ones.
Here it's mentioned the sea, okay?
Notice what it says in Revelation chapter 16, verse three, Revelation chapter 16, verse
three.
And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea.
You notice that when it came to the first one, it was upon the Earth, upon the Earth.
Here it says upon the sea, okay?
This is taking place upon the sea.
Now if you remember from Revelation chapter eight, what it said was a third of the sea
became blood.
Notice what it says here, and the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea and it became
as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea.
So now the entire sea is filled with blood.
Now every living soul dies.
And so the one that we saw in Revelation chapter eight, it affects one third of the sea and
this kind of finishes the job, okay?
It's kind of like the Nile River back in the land of Egypt where it just all becomes blood,
okay?
All of their water just becomes blood, it says.
And so everything's going to be, you know, turned to blood and every living soul died
in the sea.
So if you ever wondered, could, you know, fish survive and just swimming in blood?
Obviously not, according to the Bible, okay?
They all die.
And by the way, you know, this is God's judgment.
This is not the antichrist.
This is not the devil.
So you say, well, how much does God care about the animals?
Well, you know, he is willing to destroy them.
Obviously he's harming, you know, men as well.
This is the wrath of God upon them, but you know, all these animals are taken out.
It's not like he makes sure, well, we got to, got to protect them first, okay?
Now notice what it says in Revelation chapter 16.
So the first trumpet and the first vial was upon the earth.
The second one was upon the sea, okay?
Notice what it says in Revelation 16 verse four, Revelation chapter 16 verse four.
And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters.
So this is different than the seas.
It's another body of water, but it's not the exact same thing.
The other one was the seas.
This says upon the rivers and fountains of waters and they became blood.
And I heard the angel of the waters say, thou art righteous, O Lord, which art and was and
shall be because thou has judged thus.
And so look, God's judgment shows that the Lord is righteous, okay?
You wouldn't judge the world like this, you know, if we were in God's position, but God
is a righteous and holy judge, the Bible says.
Verse six, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou has given them
blood to drink, for they are worthy.
And I heard another out of the altar say, even so, Lord God almighty, true and righteous
are thy judgments.
And so since you shed the blood of saints and prophets, I'm going to fill up your waters,
your seas, and your fountains, rivers and fountains of waters with blood.
Go to Revelation chapter eight, Revelation chapter eight, Revelation chapter eight,
Revelation chapter eight, verse number 10.
And in Revelation chapter eight, verse 10, notice what it says, and the third angel sounded
and there fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp and it fell upon the third
part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters.
And it didn't say in Revelation chapter 16, upon the rivers and fountains of waters.
And so this is different than the seas and this judgment, this trumpet judgment is coming
upon the third part of the rivers and upon the fountains of waters, okay, a great star
falling from heaven.
This could be, I guess what we would call a shooting star, probably when we're saying
a great star falling from heaven, it's probably like our modern day, we say a shooting star.
And it says in verse number 11, and the name of the star is called wormwood.
And the third part of the waters became wormwood and many men died of the waters because they
were made bitter, okay?
Now look at Revelation chapter eight, verse number 12, Revelation eight, verse 12.
So the first three line up great, right?
Upon the earth, upon the earth, upon the rivers, upon the rivers, or upon the seas, upon the
seas, then upon the rivers and fountains of waters, upon the third part of the rivers
and fountains of waters, okay?
Revelation chapter eight, verse 12, Revelation eight, verse 12, and notice what it says here.
When the fourth angel sounded and the third part of the sun was smitten and the third
part of the moon and the third part of the stars, so as the third part of them was darkened
and the day shone not for a third part of it in the night likewise, okay?
Now go to Revelation chapter 16.
And so that judgments upon, you know, the sun, the moon, the stars, kind of, you know,
the cosmic things out there.
And so here we're going to see that the judgment in Revelation chapter 16 is upon the sun,
okay?
So in Revelation 16, verse eight, and the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the
sun and power was given onto him to scorch men with fire.
So it seems to indicate that the scorching is probably coming from the sun because this
is upon the sun.
And so it's kind of like you're seeing these kind of oscillating temperatures because if
they're making the sun dark, that's going to drop the temperature and yet they're also
scorching men with fire.
So I'm not saying these are necessarily at the exact same time, but they're roughly around
the same time.
I would say during the wrath of God, you're probably seeing the temperatures are going
to kind of go up and down, okay?
It's probably not going to be like paradise.
You walk outside and it's perfect.
It's probably part of the judgment, but it says power was given onto him to scorch men
with fire and men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which
has power over these plagues and they repented not to give him glory.
Now look, wouldn't you think that when all these judgments are taking place, you would
say, I got on the wrong side, forgive me God, give me another chance.
I mean, wouldn't that be logical at this point when the wrath of God is being poured out
upon you that you would say I was wrong, but notice what it says in verse nine and they
blaspheme the name of God.
I mean, it's like you can blaspheme God all you want.
It doesn't change the fact God is God and it's like, you know, today we have, you know,
all the Christians say how they would, you know, love Jesus if he was here.
They would love the prophets and everything and it's like, it's never been like that in
this world, right?
I mean, they always hate the message of God.
Okay.
And most so-called Christians aren't saved and we know that.
Okay.
And so look, the Bible says here, these people blaspheme the name of God.
And I believe a lot of people that are so-called Christians today will line up and take the
mark of the beast and will change sides because if they don't have the Holy Spirit inside
of them, when the deception comes, they're probably going to be deceived.
Okay.
And the result of this is these men blaspheme the name of God.
Okay.
These women, everyone, they're blaspheming God's name instead of giving him glory.
Okay.
That also kind of shows us that when a person becomes a reprobate, there is no second chance
because these people take the mark of the beast and you know what?
When this happens, they blaspheme the name of God.
They repented not to give him glory.
It says he has power over these plagues.
It kind of reminds you of the story of Egypt, right?
Because it mentions plagues here in verse number nine and when the plagues came down,
you don't see Pharaoh saying, oh man, I was wrong.
You see him being stubborn.
Now you do see his men saying, you know, knowest thou not that Egypt is destroyed, but yet
later on you see them against the Hebrews and it's like, you know, for temporarily they're
like, okay, but then all of a sudden they changed their mind.
You say, why?
Because when people are not saved, they're just not going to like the message of the
Bible.
And here we're dealing with people that are reprobates and even though the judgment's
there and it's obvious God is the real God, they still deny it.
Why?
Because they don't want to believe in the God of this book.
It's not that it's not logical.
People just don't want to believe it.
Okay.
Now go to, um, go back to revelation chapter nine, revelation chapter nine.
And what we've seen so far is four trumpets, four vial judgments, and they all line up
together.
Okay.
These are lining up.
And so we're not seeing seven trumpets and then seven vials.
We're actually seeing, you know, the trumpet and then the vial, trumpet, vial, and those
are lining up together each individual wants.
Okay.
And this one is going to kind of really prove that as well, that it's not the trumpets and
then the vials.
Okay.
Notice what it says in revelation nine verse one and the fifth angel sounded and I saw
a star fall from heaven onto the earth and to him was given the key of the bottomless
pit and he opened the bottomless pit and there arose a smoke out of the pit as the smoke
of a great furnace and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the
pit.
What we're seeing here is we're seeing darkness is developing because there's a great smoke
and you know, it's filling everything with darkness and you know, this is, this is common
when there's like volcanoes for example, there's a lot of smoke in the air and what it will
do is actually prevent the sun from heating the earth.
And here we're seeing there's so much smoke and obviously there's going to be a lot more
than from any volcano I'm sure.
And you know, it's becoming dark.
It says verse three and there came out of the smoke locus upon the earth and onto them
was given power as the scorpions of the earth have power and has commanded them that they
should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any grief, green thing, neither any trade,
but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.
And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented
five months and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion when he strikeeth a man.
Go back to revelation 16, revelation 16, revelation chapter 16.
And so what we saw was we saw darkness mentioned, okay?
And you know, we're also going to see darkness mentioned here in revelation chapter 16 verse
number 10 and the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast and his kingdom
was full of darkness and they nod their tongues for pain.
And so when it says his kingdom's full of darkness, I think it's literally referring
to his kingdom's full of darkness, okay?
So we're seeing these ones line up.
Now I do want you to notice something though.
In verse number 10 it says in the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast.
Now who is the beast referring to?
The antichrist.
Okay.
He's referred to the beast throughout the book of revelation and so this beast is referring
to the antichrist.
So his vial is upon the seat of the beast and then notice this and his kingdom was full
of darkness.
Whose kingdom?
The beast, right?
His kingdom was full of darkness.
That lines up with the beast.
You say, what are you saying?
I'm saying that the antichrist is still the one that's reigning on earth at this time.
You say, what does that mean?
It means the millennial reign hasn't started.
Okay.
Now this is going to be important because at the end of revelation chapter 11 or toward
the end, we see that Jesus Christ is then in control.
Okay.
But here we see in revelation chapter 16 at this time, who's in control?
The antichrist.
It is still his kingdom.
Okay.
And so that's why it shows you that at the end of revelation, when basically the kingdoms
of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign
forever and ever, we know that the millennial reign is starting, right?
But here later on, we see that the antichrist is in control.
Does that mean that Jesus will lose a millennial reign?
No, because the antichrist is going to be thrown into hell, right?
Thrown into the lake of fire.
He's going to be thrown in there.
Okay.
And so look, he's not going to come back and take the kingdom.
He's not getting out.
The beast and the false prophet get thrown into the lake of fire.
Now the devil's going to get out, but what I want you to understand is this, that in
revelation chapter 16 verse 10, we see that the beast, the antichrist, it is still his
kingdom.
You say, why?
Because the events of revelation 1610 are before the seventh trumpet from revelation
chapter 11.
So that's why we're seeing that these, the trumpet, first trumpet lines up with the first
vial, the second trumpet, second vial, you know, et cetera.
Okay.
Revelation chapter 13, revelation 13, revelation 13, revelation chapter 13.
And look, the truth is this, when you're studying revelation, like I don't, I don't believe
the book of revelation is, is really necessarily that confusing, especially as it says it's
meant to reveal information.
But there are some, a couple of basic things that if you understand the foundation that
the book repeats itself, it's going to make it make a lot more sense when you're reading
it.
I had read revelation many times before I really fully understood it.
And yeah, I mean, I was confused and then you just get a couple of pieces of the puzzle
put in for you and then you're like, Oh, okay, now I'm getting it.
Okay.
And so the antichrist, you know, he takes power midway through Daniel 70th week and
he's going to last for three and a half years.
Okay.
Notice what it says in revelation 13 verse one, and I stood upon the sand of the sea
and saw beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns and upon his horns,
10 crowns and upon his heads, the name of blasphemy and the beast, which I saw was like
onto a leopard and his feet, whereas the feet of a bear and his mouth is the mouth of a
lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seat in great authority.
So the dragon, the devil gives the power to the antichrist verse three.
And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound was healed and
all the world wondered after the beast.
And so the resurrection of the antichrist from the dead is going to be what makes people
believe him.
And look, that's going to be a miracle.
That's going to be pretty believable.
I mean, if you see somebody rise again from the dead, it's going to be kind of hard to
deny that.
Okay.
And you know, it's going to be the greatest deception the world's ever seen.
And so the antichrist is going to rise from the dead.
This is midway through Daniel 70th week and it says they worshiped the dragon verse four,
which gave power onto the beast and they worshiped the beast saying, who is like onto the beast
and who is able to, who is able to make war with him.
And there was given onto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was
given onto him to continue 40 and two months.
Okay.
Three and a half years.
Now realize the second half, and I don't, I don't want to go into it and take all kinds
of extra time, but the second half, as I've mentioned of the seven year period is actually
43 months instead of 42 because after time goes by, you add an extra month.
So there's 42 months because it says it doesn't say three and a half years because that could
leave it as a confusing thing.
It says 42 months.
Okay.
So he's going to be basically be in power until like 30 days before there's that hanging
month where there's extra information, things happening.
Okay.
But he's going to continue 40 and two months.
And so in revelation 16, 10 where it says his kingdom was full of darkness, he's still
the one in control.
Now go to revelation 11, revelation 11, I tricked you guys.
You guys started to turn to revelation 16, but no revelation chapter 11, revelation 11,
revelation chapter 11 and look at verse number 15 and I quoted this verse to you, but let
me read it to you.
And the seventh angel sounded and there are great voices in heaven saying, the kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign
forever and ever.
So there's no question in verse number 15 that the kingdoms of this world are become
the kingdoms of our Lord.
Now I want you to understand something because there's a lot of weird doctrines on revelation
and one doctrine teaches that we're supposed to bring in the millennium.
Basically like we take the kingdom and once we've taken it, we kind of hand it over to
Christ.
Now I haven't really spent any time talking about that because there's so many bizarre
teachings in revelation and there's so much just great information just explaining what
each chapter is talking about.
So I didn't want to take the time, but look, as we're just looking over these verses, that's
obviously not the case.
Okay.
The God is here, the Lord is here and he's pouring out his wrath and you know what?
There's this great battle and he's going to win this and he takes the kingdom.
Okay.
That's what takes place.
Now go back to revelation chapter 16, revelation 16, revelation chapter 16.
This is why I don't, I'm not too worried about trying to take control of the government or
take political power.
Like I know a lot of Baptist churches are really into that, but it's just like, you
know, when it comes to the kingdoms of this world, they're always going to be the kingdoms
of the devil until the Lord takes them.
Okay.
And so I'm not saying it's wrong to look at anything on politics or whatever.
Sometimes I look from time to time, but I'll tell you what, it's because you know, actually
today is like the first time in a while I've actually was watching some stuff on politics
for like 15 minutes.
I was watching stuff on China and they were talking about so many different countries
that China is trying to take control of and stuff like that.
And I told my wife, I could see how this could get interesting because every day it's like
this war might happen.
This war might happen.
I mean, they mentioned like 10 wars that China might be involved in and probably none of
them are going to happen.
Okay.
And it's like, it's, yeah, it's very interesting.
And you know what?
It puts you in fear and it's just like, quite honestly, you know what?
Whatever's going to happen out there is going to be what happens out there.
All we need to worry about is trying to serve God.
Okay.
And this world is going to be corrupt.
It's going to get worse and worse and worse.
Why?
Satan is the God of this world.
Okay.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Revelation 16 verse 10, Revelation 16 verse 10, and the fifth angel poured out his vial
upon the seed of the beast and his kingdom was full of darkness and they nod their tongues
for pain.
Now remember it talked about the locusts taking place at this time period.
And so this is going on and they have power to hurt men for five months and men want to
die and they can't die.
And so then in verse 11 and blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and their
sores and repented not of their deeds.
So once again, they're blaspheming God because of things that have, you know, happened to
them.
They're angry.
Okay.
And so turn to Revelation chapter nine, Revelation chapter nine.
I will say this as you're turning to Revelation nine.
One thing it mentioned was they repented not of their deeds.
Notice how, you know, the Bible does make when it wants to specifically say deeds or
works or your actions.
Okay.
And it's just like when it comes to salvation, we have to repent of our unbelief.
We don't have to change your actions or anything like that.
These men are bad people.
They don't change their actions.
They still hate the Lord.
They still want to fight against him.
Okay.
Revelation chapter nine, verse 13, Revelation nine, verse 13.
And it says in Revelation nine, verse 13.
And you know, it's an interesting thought though when they repented out of their deeds
because these people are reprobates and they can't change their actions.
They're never going to change.
They're always going to hate the Lord.
They're always going to try to do harm and everything.
They can't, can't change their actions.
Now none of us can completely repent of all of our deeds or actions or repent of all of
our sins or anything like that.
Obviously we know that, but when it comes to reprobates, they're not going to change
when your conscience is seared.
It can't be un-seared okay.
Revelation chapter nine, we're on the sixth trumpet in the sixth vial.
Notice what it says in Revelation nine, verse 13, Revelation nine, verse 13.
And the sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar,
which is before God, saying to the sixth angel, which had the trumpet, loose the four angels,
which are bound in the great river Euphrates, okay, bound in the great river Euphrates.
And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour and a day in a month
and a year for to slay the third part of men.
And so here it talks about the great river Euphrates.
Now go to Revelation chapter 16 real quickly, Revelation 16, Revelation 16.
Now one thing that some people believe, and we don't teach this, we don't believe this,
I'm disproving this in this sermon.
Some people believe that the first 11 chapters happen and it kind of gets to the end and
then it kind of goes back in time for a few chapters and then it jumps forward past the
events of Revelation chapter 11.
But we can see that's not the case with the verses that we've looked at and everything.
That's why we're kind of going in depth on this.
And so tonight is I guess a bit of a Bible study, not so much like really preaching.
But Revelation 16 verse 12, it says in the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great
river Euphrates.
I mean that lines up perfectly.
There's no question about it, okay?
Upon the great river Euphrates, and notice this, and the water thereof was dried up,
that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Now go to Genesis chapter 3, Genesis 3, Genesis 3 real quickly, and I want to show you something.
I've talked about it a little bit.
Genesis chapter 3, Genesis chapter 3 verse 24, Genesis 3 verse 24, and it says in Genesis
3 verse 24, so he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims
in a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life.
Now I believe these things line up.
I've talked about it before.
I'm not going to go majorly in depth about this.
But what I want you to understand, go back to the book of Revelation, Revelation, I believe
you have these four cherubim that are basically bound in the great river Euphrates.
And what's interesting is that in Revelation 16 verse 12, what it said was the water thereof
was dried up.
And so what's keeping them down there?
What's their cue where they can basically leave?
Well, once the water's dried up, it's like they want the water to dry up.
They're down there bound in the great river Euphrates and everything, just I guess they
can stay under water for more than a couple of minutes and not die and everything.
And they're under water and everything.
And then once the water dries up, it's like, all right, it's our cue and boom, they get
to go.
And so I believe the water being dried up is a significance there.
And that's when the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates, they are
let loose once the water thereof is dried up.
And so look, this makes sense if you understand that the trumpets and vials are happening
concurrently or together, okay?
And so notice what it says in Revelation 16 verse 13, and I saw three unclean spirits
like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out
of the mouth of the false prophet.
Now I believe the three unclean spirits are referring to one unclean spirit for the dragon,
one for the beast, one for the false prophet.
You might think it's three for each of them.
You know, you could read that either way, either way, I guess.
But you know, it says three unclean spirits come out.
And then it says in verse 14, for they are the spirits of devils working miracles, which
go forth onto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle
of that great day of God almighty.
And so look, all of this wrath has been poured out, and yet they're still sending out deceiving
spirits to confuse people and deceive people and to get people on their side for this great
battle that's going to take place, okay?
What is this battle?
Well, notice verse 15, Behold, I come as a thief, blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth
his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon, okay?
Now I believe we have all heard of Armageddon before, okay?
That's a phrase that people that never go to church have probably heard of Armageddon.
This is actually the only time it's mentioned in the Bible, okay?
So it's kind of surprising.
It's only mentioned one time, but it's really famous.
I remember watching the movie a long time ago.
There's that Bruce Willis movie, Armageddon.
And maybe this is a future trivia question, Bible trivia.
That's the movie that got me addicted to worldly music.
I really loved Aerosmith after that movie.
And before that, I didn't really listen to a lot of music.
And then that movie Armageddon, and by the way, that movie is not exactly the same events
as what takes place in Revelation, okay?
This battle of Armageddon, we're not going to outer space to blow up, I can't remember,
blowing up rocks or mediators or whatever they're doing.
Look, I don't think you could even do that.
I mean, I think that's a little bit ridiculous.
But anyways, so we're getting ready for this battle, which is called Armageddon, okay?
Now this battle actually takes place in Revelation chapter 19.
Now we're not gonna look at it tonight.
We're gonna talk about it several weeks from now because, you know, they're getting ready
for this battle.
But the next couple chapters are actually focused on the destruction of Babylon, okay?
So the next several weeks, we're gonna talk about Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18.
Then in Revelation 19 is actually the battle of Armageddon that's, you know, really famous
and really well known, okay?
Now go back to Revelation chapter 11, Revelation 11.
Revelation chapter 11.
And in Revelation chapter 11, verse 15, the Bible reads,
And the seventh angel sounded, and there are great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign
forever and ever.
So the significance here is basically that the Lord takes the kingdom, okay?
We see that in Revelation chapter 11, verse 15.
And I want you to go to Revelation 16, Revelation 16, Revelation 16.
Revelation chapter 16, and it says in verse 17,
And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice
out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done, okay?
Now this phrase, it is done, or it is finished, this is mentioned many times in the Bible,
and it doesn't mean, hey, the end, we're at Revelation 22, but this phase is done.
Obviously talking about the trumpets and the vials, those are done.
And at this point, the kingdom now belongs to the Lord, okay?
That lines up with Revelation chapter 11, okay?
Then it says in verse 18, And there are voices and thunders and lightnings, and there is
a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake
and so great.
So this is the greatest earthquake that's ever existed.
And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell,
and great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give under the cup of the wine of the
fierceness of his wrath.
And so look, it is done, and then Babylon is going to be judged, and then you have this
battle of Armageddon that's going to take place, okay?
And so then it says in verse number 20, And every island fled away, and the mountains
were not found, and there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about
the weight of a talent, and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for
the plague thereof was exceeding great.
Okay?
So I think it's pretty clear when you line up these trumpets and these vials.
And look, I know people that, you know, I've talked to, people that are soul owners that
have different opinions.
I know people that think, you know, the first 11 chapters happen, then for a couple chapters
it goes back in time, but then it jumps forward.
But I don't think that lines up when you compare them.
The first trumpet lines up with the first vial, the second, the second, they just line
up perfectly together.
Now the rest of the book of Revelation, because we still have a lot of weeks left to finish
this, okay?
Don't think that, oh, it's only one chapter per week from here on out.
There's a lot of information left to cover.
Now if you've ever seen these left behind movies, because I've been studying prophecy
a lot really to prepare these, you know, future sermons we're going to preach, like they'll
talk about the battle of Gog and Magog, like that happens, you know, it can happen in any
moment and things such as that.
And there's a lot of confusion out there and it's like, some people wonder, is that the
same as the battle of Armageddon?
So we're still going to be spending a lot of weeks just so we can dissect each of these
points because there's a lot of information.
And you know, these last couple chapters have been kind of more basic foundational understanding
on things.
The next several chapters go pretty deep, okay?
But look, you know, when it comes to reading our Bible, we need to study and know God's
word.
We need to love reading God's word.
Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and getting to read your
word and to see these things in Revelation 16 and how they line up.
And you know, thank you for giving us a book where we can actually read and know about
what is going to take place, where we don't have to be in the dark about it, but we can
prepare ourselves if we choose to, God.
Help us to be a church that loves reading your word, whether it's from the book of Revelation
or the book of Ezekiel or the book of Leviticus or one of the gospels or wherever, God, help
us to love your word and continue to learn.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.