Man, tonight I'm continuing the sermon from last week on the overview of the Book of Revelation.
And so we've already gone through the first 12 chapters.
Chapter 13 is probably one of the most famous chapters in the Book of Revelation because
of course it's talking about the Antichrist and the Mark of the Beast and how no man can
buy or sell without this mark and this one world system and so it's a very important
chapter.
We're going to talk about foreshadowings in the greater context of the whole book of
Revelation and so let me just give just a super fast review.
I don't want to spend a lot of time reviewing but if you remember we went through the first
half of the Book of Revelation and the first five chapters are in many ways introductory.
You don't really get into the future events until chapter six, right?
Obviously there are all kinds of symbolisms and foreshadowings in those first five chapters
but they're really introductory and the action starts to take place actually in Revelation
chapter six.
And if you remember the first thing that happened were those series of seals were opened.
And the seals were opened and you had things like warfare, famine, pestilence with those
first four seals being opened matching up perfectly with what Jesus Christ described
in Matthew 24, Mark 13 as the tribulation or the time of affliction and so forth.
Then with the opening of the fifth seal you had martyrs that appeared talking about being
killed for the cause of Christ and so forth because after the midpoint of what we call
Daniel's 70th week, after the halfway point of that week then there's a time when Christians
specifically are being killed.
So the first events of the first four seals are just happening to the whole world, right?
I mean just everybody's suffering the consequences of warfare and famine and pestilence.
It wasn't specifically directed at God's people.
But then with the opening of the fifth seal all of a sudden we have martyrs who are being
punished for the cause of Christ.
And then with the opening of the sixth seal we have the sun and moon darkened and that
is when Christ comes in the clouds according to Matthew 24.
He gathers his elect from the four winds from the one end of heaven to the other.
So by comparing Revelation 6 with Matthew 24 we can kind of put these things in their
proper context.
So Revelation 6 we had the seals but then before the opening of the seventh seal we
had this chapter that interrupted in chapter 7 where we had the angels saying hurt not
the earth neither the sea nor the trees until we've sealed the servants of our God in their
forehead and then we have the sealing of the 144,000 and then we just have a great
multitude appearing in heaven of all nations, kindreds, tongues and that is obviously because
the rapture has just taken place.
Matthew 24 verses 29 through 31 places the timing of the rapture at the sun and moon
being darkened after the tribulation, sun and moon are darkened, boom.
That's when Christ comes in the clouds and gathers the elect.
So it shouldn't really surprise us that in the book of Revelation after the sun and moon
are darkened, boom, a great multitude appears in heaven from all nations, kindreds.
Then after that interlude in chapter 7 the seventh seal is opened.
It's all fire and brimstone and then God begins to pour out his wrath upon this earth in those
seven trumpet judgments.
And if you remember by the end of chapter 11 we were done with the seven trumpet judgments
and there was a sort of finality saying the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms
of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.
And so seven years have gone by and it's time for the millennial reign of Christ but then
you're kind of looking at the book and there's still 11 chapters left, right?
So chapter 11 kind of seems like all that stuff's over but then when you get to chapter
12 all of a sudden, boom, you're back at the birth of Christ which seems a little weird,
right?
So here's what's going on.
When you understand the book of Revelation as being two halves, chapters 1 through 11
are pretty much flowing in a chronological order.
Then we start over in chapter 12 and we have the same chronology again from a different
angle.
This should not surprise us because this is one of the main features of the Bible, right?
Parallelism.
All of these doublets giving everything twice.
This is the way that the Bible frequently does things and the most famous prophecy book
of the Old Testament, Daniel, does the same thing, right?
The first six chapters are in chronological order.
Then boom, chapter 7 you go back and 7 through 12 are in chronological order.
So we got to chapter 12 and so because of what I told you about chapter 12 being like
a reboot or starting over, just as the book of Revelation started out in chapter 1, you're
at the first century AD with John on Patmos and then you have tribulation, then you have
sun and moon darkened, rapture, then you have God pouring out his wrath, well we should
expect to see the same events play out in the same order in the second half and that's
exactly what they do.
So we saw that in chapter 12 there's a period described that lasts for three and a half
years.
It also is mentioned as being 1260 days, right?
Because 1260 days, 42 months, three and a half years, time, times and half a time, these
are all referring to that same period of time, three and a half years.
So we saw that in chapter 12 specifically, again it was mankind in general that was being
persecuted, not specifically God's people but just people on this world in general are
suffering the devil is just hurting people through.
We know from the earlier part of the book, war, famine, pestilence, the anti-Christ taking
over, whatever.
Then at the very end of chapter 12 verse 17 here's the key verse, after the dragon fails
to destroy the woman which represents earth, which represents mankind, which is basically
like Eve from the Garden of Eden, you know the serpent and the woman have that enmity
all the way back to Genesis 3, here's the key verse, Revelation 12 17, and the dragon
was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep
the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
So now we're seeing a specific targeted attack upon those who keep the commandments of God
and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
How is he going to do that?
Well the dragon's going to do that by empowering the anti-Christ who is going to make war against
the saints.
So just to help you grasp the timeline here, the events of the first four seals take three
and a half years.
So three and a half years for those events of the first four seals.
Then at the midpoint, because we had 1260 days in Genesis 12, at the midpoint is when
the anti-Christ becomes the anti-Christ and begins to make war with the saints.
That is equivalent with the fifth seal being opened.
And then shortly thereafter, just literally a matter of a couple months after, quite a
short time, two and a half months, 75 days or so go by and then you're going to have
the rapture and then you're going to have God pouring out his wrath for slightly less
than three and a half years.
So tribulation lasts a little bit more than three and a half years, God pouring out his
wrath lasts for a little bit less than three and a half years.
And so I hope that that helps you kind of get a big picture here of what's going on.
Now sometimes we'll label what happens up to the midpoint as the tribulation and then
what happens after the midpoint as great tribulation just for that short period before Christ returns.
So we're jumping in here in chapter 13.
Where are we?
We're at the midpoint and we're seeing the anti-Christ rise to power as he begins to
make war with the saints and kill Christians and that's what we see with the martyrs and
the fifth seal.
So let's jump in here.
And remember chapters 12 and onward are highly symbolic.
Things were more literal in the first half of Revelation.
In this second half things get a little bit more symbolic and so they're a little tougher
to understand.
Look at chapter 13 verse 1 it says and I stood upon the sand of the sea and saw a beast rise
up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon
his heads the name of blasphemy and the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard and his
feet were as the feet of a bear and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave
him his power and his seat and great authority and of course this is very much not literal
right?
He's seeing this beast but it is figurative.
It's symbolic.
It represents something.
It's representing like an evil government system basically and look what the Bible says
in verse 3.
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 they worshiped the dragon which gave power
unto the beast and they worshiped the beast saying who is like unto the beast?
Who is able to make war with him?
And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies and power was
given unto him to continue forty and two months.
And again we are talking about the second half of Daniel's 70th week right because it's
starting at the midpoint when he receives this deadly wound and his deadly wound is
healed and everyone's worshiping him.
Now the point here is that he is impersonating Jesus Christ because the word antichrist literally
means in the place of Christ or instead of Christ.
He's a fake Christ.
He's an imposter Christ and so he basically dies and comes back from the dead and so he's
basically impersonating the Lord Jesus Christ because of course that is the quintessential
miracle of Christianity.
The crux of the Gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ so this is
a perversion of that because of the fact that this is not a legitimate resurrection because
a legitimate resurrection is something that only God can do.
There are certain things that the devil can do.
The devil can do lying signs and wonders.
But the true miracle of raising the dead is something that God alone can do and if you
remember when Moses is facing off with those sorcerers in the Old Testament in the book
of Exodus there were certain things that they could impersonate, there were certain things
that they were able to fake and do and perform through the power of Satan but then there
were other things where they were unable to duplicate the miracles that Moses did and
they said this is the finger of God.
Because the devil has power but there's a limit on his power and what he can do.
And what seems to be happening here is that when the Antichrist receives this deadly wound
it seems to be that thereafter his body is just simply possessed by Satan.
And not to make it weird or anything but he's basically like an undead is what it seems
like that he's somehow revivified but he's not actually legitimately raised again like
Christ where he's actually immortal or actually living again as we would understand the resurrection
of Christ.
And so he is an imposter and he's going to continue for 42 months so that's the second
half of Daniel's 70th week, the second half of that seven year period he opened his mouth
in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle and them that dwell in
heaven and it was given unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them and power
was given to him over all kindreds and tongues and nations.
Now again here's the key connection 1217 right Revelation 1217 the dragon goes to make war
with the remnant that have the commandments of God, have the testimony of Jesus and then
when we jump down to 1317 the Antichrist is making war with the saints because that's
how the dragon makes war with the saints through the Antichrist, through the beast.
And so that's an important connection to make between those two things.
Now some people would say well when it says he received a deadly wound he didn't actually
die.
Now here's the thing I would say that a deadly wound means that it killed you number one.
Number two if the whole world is wondering then this must be a pretty amazing miracle
from people's point of view and just recovering from a seemingly deadly wound isn't really
that big of a shocker.
I mean I remember there was some politician down in Tucson that got just shot in the head
at point blank range but she still survived you know everybody's not worshiping her and
wondering and marveling and stuff like that.
Whereas this seems to be that the Antichrist is coming back from the dead as we mentioned
earlier.
Okay and then it says in verse number seven that power was given him over all kindreds
and tongues and nations.
Now in order for him to have power over all kindreds, tongues and nations you have to
have a one world government right.
You have to have a one world system in order for one man to be ruling over everyone.
And this is clearly where we are headed in our world today.
A lot of people just want to say that everything in Revelation is just figurative or that it
already happened or that it's happening throughout history but we would strongly hold to a futurist
view of these things.
Obviously we know that there have been shadow fulfillments of these things in the past in
the first century AD for example but when it comes to what's still coming Revelation
is describing things that are going to affect the entire world.
And as we see the day approaching, as we get closer to this we see how these things could
realistically literally happen the way that they're described in the Bible.
And so could we imagine in 2024 a world where all nations are under the rule of one governing
body over one ruler?
Absolutely because we're already sort of seeing that embryonic world government in the form
of the United Nations and organizations like that.
And so we're already headed that way.
Also we're going to see in a moment the mark of the beast.
No man can buy or sell without the mark of the beast.
Well that's very easy to imagine us moving toward a one world currency.
As the world becomes a smaller and smaller place and it becomes so quick to travel here
and there and as business interests become multinational then obviously it's just going
to make sense to stop having so many different currencies but that everybody is going to
use the same currency.
And then you can see how that currency would eventually go digital.
Because what's the point in carrying around a bunch of dirty pieces of paper and a bunch
of metal coins?
Right?
It's just so much easier and more convenient to just use some kind of an electronic currency.
Let's face it, in reality the way that most of us live our lives right now is we pretty
much do everything electronically anyway.
I mean think about all the bills that we have, right?
And when we were kids our parents are writing checks and paying all those bills every month.
You know, how many bills do I write a check for each month?
Zero.
My wife writes one check per month.
I don't sit around writing, we don't write a bunch of checks for bills and everything.
It's all just electronic.
It's just moving numbers around on a computer screen.
That's pretty much what we do anyway.
And virtually everywhere we go, when we pay, we don't use cash.
I mean I virtually never carry cash.
I'm pretty much just walking around swiping my card.
And you can see how that would easily evolve to something that's just biometric where it's
just a mark in your hand or in your forehead.
You can't buy or sell unless you have this mark in your hand or forehead.
Super easy to envision this.
Even in 2024, I mean if these things began to happen in the next few years, this would
not be far-fetched or shocking at all.
Now imagine reading this in the 1700s, you'd be thinking like, well, how does that work?
Or well, this must not be literal.
In 2024, we can see how these things would literally happen.
One world government, one world religion.
We're already seeing a lot of religions uniting and you know, the Pope is saying nice things
to Islam and saying nice things to Hinduism and they're all, you know, going to these
ecumenical world council of churches and all these different things.
You can see how religious leaders of the world would unite in a one world religion.
All the currencies of the world would unite into one electronic currency.
You could see how the governments of this world would be part of a one world system
with this man, this fake messiah at its head, right?
And here's the thing.
What gets people to accept something like this is the horrors of war.
You know, when you go through the horrors of a world war and you're going through famines
and pestilence and violence and everything, you know, if anybody fixes it, seemingly,
you're just so happy and you don't care and you can see how people will go along with
some crazy things and even have maybe a cult-like following for someone just simply because
they've been through the ringer of all the events that we've seen in the tribulation
up to this point.
And so we see that he's going to make war with the saints, he has power over all kindreds
and tongues and nations.
Look at verse number 8.
All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book
of life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
Okay, so all people out there who are reprobates, they are going to worship him and anybody
who worships him and receives his mark becomes a reprobate, meaning that once a person receives
the mark of the beast, they can never be saved, okay?
Once you receive that mark and you're forerunner in your hand, you know, you are damned.
You will go to the lake of fire.
The Bible's clear on that repeatedly throughout the book of Revelation.
Now we have all kinds of Bible teachers coming out and saying, you can take the mark of the
beast and still be saved.
What an absurd teaching.
You know, John MacArthur, by the way, another fake PhD, was asked, you know, can someone
be saved after taking the mark of the beast?
I don't see why not.
You know, you have Peter Ruckman and his crowd teaching that people can be saved after receiving
the mark of the beast.
Folks, that is garbage, okay?
Those who receive the mark of the beast, their names are not in the Lamb's book of life because
they are eternally damned, okay?
They cannot be saved.
They will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into
the cup that is in the nation.
They will be tormented day and night in the presence of the holy angels, in the presence
of the Lamb.
The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever, whosoever worshipeth the beast and
receiveth the mark of his number or his name.
It's very clear in Revelation Chapter 14.
And so if you take the mark of the beast, you're done.
So then people inevitably come along and say, well, what happens if a Christian takes the
mark of the beast?
And again, this is one of those hypothetical type questions that is a wrong-headed question
simply because of the fact that it will literally be impossible for a Christian to take the
mark of the beast.
It's the same exact mentality where the Bible says that someone who blasphemes the Holy
Ghost has no forgiveness, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.
People come along and say, okay, well, what if a Christian blasphemes the Holy Ghost?
Not going to happen, okay?
What the Bible's talking about with the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost is an unsaved person blaspheming
the Holy Ghost and thereby losing their opportunity to ever get saved in the future.
So an unsaved person can get saved any time they want to, but they could cross a certain
line with God where now they've lost their chance.
Here's one way to lose your chance.
Die without Christ.
I mean, if you die without Christ, you can't get saved.
It's like people struggle with this, like, isn't there always hope?
Well, I don't know, tell that to people that are already in hell.
Tell them there's always hope, right?
No, there's not always hope because once you die without Christ, you're done.
But guess what?
Some people are done before they get to hell because if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost, you're
done.
And again, this is not about Christians losing their salvation.
Christians cannot lose their salvation.
They have eternal life.
They shall never perish.
They're children of God.
No man can pluck them out of God's hand.
So many verses that clearly talk about the eternal life that Christians have.
What we're talking about is unsaved people losing the opportunity to get saved in the
future.
No man who is indwelled by the Holy Ghost is going to blaspheme the Holy Ghost.
The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is something that unsaved people would do, potentially.
Another thing, adding to or removing from God's Word.
This is not something that saved people do.
Look, saved Christians are still sinners after they get saved, right?
After we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't stop sinning, right?
We are still tempted and we're still susceptible to the sins that are out there.
You know, what are some sins that Christians could fall into?
They could fall into stealing, murder, adultery, gambling, drugs, drunkenness, right?
Fornication and adultery.
Is it impossible for a Christian to do these things?
Of course not.
You know, the Bible is constantly warning us about covetousness and the love of money
and fornication and adultery and all these things, theft and all these things that we
could potentially backslide and get into.
I'm not saying that Christians aren't going to commit grievous sins because you could
even commit some really serious sins if you get away from the Lord and get out there living
a sinful, worldly life.
Even as a saved Christian, you could do some horrible things.
But here's what you're never going to do as a saved Christian.
You're never going to become a devout Roman Catholic.
You're never going to go join the Mormon Church.
You're never going to become a Muslim.
It's just not going to happen, my friend.
And those are two very totally different things.
Why?
Because you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Yeah, you can walk in the flesh and commit a bunch of awful sins if you're not walking
in the Spirit, but what you're not going to do is stop believing in Jesus, start believing
in some other religion.
And here's a big one.
You know what you're not going to do?
You're not going to believe in the Antichrist.
When the Antichrist shows up, no saved Christian will be fooled by him.
None.
That's why the Bible specifically says in Matthew 24 that false Christs will arise and
if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect.
You know what if it were possible means?
It's not possible.
It's saying that these guys are so slick that if it were possible, they would deceive the
very elect.
And that's what it is not possible for the elect to be deceived by the Antichrist.
So therefore, when the Antichrist comes on the scene, many people in this world will
be deceived but saved, born-again Christians.
No matter how bad of a Christian they are, no matter how lame they are, no matter how
backslidden they are, no matter how carnal they are, no matter how long they've been
out of church, they're not going to be like, this is Jesus.
This is it.
This is the second coming of Christ.
This is the Messiah.
It's just not going to happen.
Are we clear on that?
When you're saved, you're not going to believe in the Antichrist, period.
So it's not like, hey, I'm teaching you guys this because I'm really hoping that you don't
get duped by the Antichrist.
Because just by virtue of you being saved, you're guaranteed not to fall for the Antichrist,
period.
The Holy Spirit is all you need to make sure that you're not going to believe in the Antichrist.
You're not going to be susceptible to his sorcery, okay, because you're saved.
You have the Holy Spirit inside you.
He's not able to deceive the elect.
Here's what you have to understand.
Receiving the mark of the beast is always associated with worshipping the Antichrist.
This isn't just something where you just go down to the post office and just fill out
a form and you just get the mark of the beast or something.
This isn't just a matter of paperwork.
This is the thing where in order to receive the mark of the beast, you have to literally
worship the Antichrist, okay.
Now people inevitably will ask the question and say, well, what if a Christian just really
just wants to go along to get along and they're just stupid and they're just thinking in a
wrong-headed way.
And so they just say, you know what, forget it, man.
I'm just getting the stupid thing.
You know what I mean?
Like I'm just going to pretend to worship the Antichrist.
I'm just going to receive the mark of the beast just in order to just kind of, you know,
make my life go smooth.
I want to be able to buy and sell, whatever.
This is what people will ask.
But here's the thing about that.
Stop and think for a moment.
What is the purpose of the Antichrist in instituting the mark of the beast?
The purpose is to make war with the saints.
If saints could get this thing, that kind of defeats his whole purpose of what he's
even trying to do because he's trying to kill the saints.
And so here's what I would say is a possible answer to this.
And I'm not being dogmatic about this because obviously this is just my speculation from
where I'm standing in 2024.
You know, maybe in 2050 or 2075 people will think about this differently.
But where I'm standing in 2024 I could easily see how when you would get the mark of the
beast that you would basically have to say some kind of an oath or you'd have to say
some blasphemous thing or something in order to pledge allegiance to the beast and to the
dragon for which he stands or whatever.
You'd have to do some kind of an oath or you'd have to do some act of worship.
Now what I've said in the past was like maybe you'd have to do some act of worship that
is so repugnant to an actual saved Christian that no saved Christian could bring themselves
to do it.
That's kind of just a simple explanation of it would be something that no saved Christian
could bring themselves to say or do.
But I think an even more likely possibility is that there will be some kind of technology
used just to see if you're telling the truth.
So you go down to CVS or whatever to go get the mark of the beast and you go down there
to worship the antichrist, and I'm joking about that, but you worship the antichrist
and then basically if you're not actually doing it from the heart, if you don't actually
mean it, you get sent to secondary because a little buzzer went off or something.
And that might sound far-fetched but of course the brain scan technology is constantly increasing.
You know we're not dealing with like polygraphs from the 1970s anymore.
You know we're talking now they can scan people's brains while they're alive.
They can see what's going on in their brain.
And so if this happens 20, 30, 40, 50 years from now, think about even how much more advanced
that technology is going to be where it would just be a simple matter of you go down to
your local church to go worship the antichrist and receive the mark of the beast or whatever
and they'll have a way of weeding out the people who don't really mean it.
And you know the Bible says, you know, he that seeketh to save his life will lose it.
You know he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
You know it could be a situation where the weak Christians who are just trying to save
their butt, they just end up getting arrested for doing a fake profession of faith with
the antichrist.
And again that's just my imagination, that part.
But biblically, here's what I can tell you is a fact biblically.
Anybody who takes the mark of the beast is going to hell.
Every saved Christian has eternal life, therefore do the math, saved Christians aren't going
to receive the mark of the beast.
They won't be able to.
For whatever, however you want to figure that out, you have a better theory than I do, that's
great but that's just the long and the short of it.
And so we have the antichrist and then we have the false prophet who's pointing people
to the antichrist.
It says in verse 16, he causeth all both small and great, we're in chapter 13 verse 16, rich
and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads
and that no man might buy or sell save he that had the mark or the name of the beast
or the number of his name.
Now why is it the hand or the forehead?
I think it's the hand because that just makes the most sense.
I mean if you're going to do a biometric payment method it makes sense that you would just
do it in your hand, right?
You just reach out your hand and just scan it, just tap to pay or whatever.
And then the forehead could be probably just if someone doesn't have a hand or something,
you know, everybody's got a forehead.
And let's say there's that odd person who doesn't have a forehead, they probably have
a hand so we're okay, you know.
It's a rare bird indeed that lacks both a forehead and a right hand.
So it pretty much is going to cover virtually everyone.
And so of course the mark of the beast, the number 666 is famous.
So now what should we expect to see next?
If this is the opening of the fifth seal, right?
If this is the martyrs, if this is the beginning of the second half of Daniel's 70th week then
what we should expect to see next would be the things that we saw in Revelation 7 like
what, you know, sun and moon darkened, Christ coming in the clouds, gathering the elect,
the sealing of the 144,000, right?
That's where we should be at in the story here.
And that is what we would see in chapter 14.
The first thing we see in chapter 14 verse 1, and I looked and lo, a lamb stood on the
Mount Zion and with them 144,000.
So it's not a coincidence that back in Revelation chapter 6 when we had people being martyred
for the cause of Christ then boom, next chapter 144,000.
In chapter 13 we got people being killed because they're not receiving the mark of the beast
and then boom, 144,000.
Same thing.
In chapter 7 after the 144,000 we had the great multitude appearing in heaven that no
man could number.
So now we should expect to see the rapture in this passage in Revelation 14 and that's
what we see.
Now first of all we have the 144,000 sealed toward the beginning of the chapter.
Then we have all of these foreshadowings of wrath and judgment that are coming because
so far if we're up to the fifth seal then the wrath of God hasn't begun to be poured
out because the great day of his wrath comes with the opening of the sixth seal, sun and
moon darkened.
So let's see what we see here in verse number 7.
It says in verse 7 of chapter 14, saying with a loud voice, fear God and give glory
to him for the hour of his judgment has come.
Similar to the great day of his wrath has come.
And worship him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters and
there followed another angel saying Babylon has fallen, has fallen that great city because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath for fornication.
Of course that is not happening quite yet but he's foreshadowing that, he's predicting
that.
In this verse the third angel followed them saying with a loud voice if any man worship
the beast and his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his hand the same shall
drink of the wine of the wrath of God which is poured out without mixture into the cup
of his indignation and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of
the holy angels, in the presence of the lamb.
The smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever and they have no rest day nor night
who worship the beast and his image and whosoever receive it the mark of his name.
Notice how those two things always go together, worshiping the beast and receiving the mark.
They're going to hell, they're going to burn forever and you can see that hell is not temporary,
you can see that it's an eternal punishment.
Now after all these forebodings about the great day of his wrath has come, judgment
has come, Babylon has fallen, you know predicting that it's going to be destroyed and so forth.
Then we get to verse 14, and I looked and behold a white cloud and upon the cloud one
sat like unto the Son of Man.
Now look this isn't really that hard to identify this, who's the Son of Man?
That's one of the most common ways, actually it's the most common way that Jesus Christ
identified himself on this earth, constantly referred to himself as the Son of Man.
So we have the Son of Man coming upon a cloud, it's exactly what we see in Daniel chapter
7, it's exactly what we see in Matthew 24 talking about Christ coming in the cloud,
this is the rapture.
Christ comes in the clouds, he has on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp
sickle and another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on
the cloud thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time has come for thee to reap for the
harvest of the earth is ripe and he that sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the
earth and the earth was reaped.
So we have Christ the Son of Man comes with a cloud and reaps the earth.
That's of course gathering the elect from one end of heaven to the other.
Now look, and the Bible uses this kind of language elsewhere about saved people being
gathered in the end of time.
For example, Jesus talks about the parable of the tares of wheat and in that parable
he says how the wheat are the children of God, the tares are the children of the wicked
one.
Tares are weeds.
So the weeds are the children of the devil, the wheat are the children of God and he says
gather the wheat, gather together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them
but gather the wheat into my barn.
The reapers are the angels, the harvest is the end of the world and on and on.
So this is not a one off kind of a metaphor here.
Other places in the Bible, the rapture, the resurrection is like an unto a harvest.
In fact, in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 the resurrection is like an unto a harvest.
Christ the first fruits, what are the first fruits?
The first fruits are before the main harvest you have some plants that just mature a little
bit faster and so you have some fruit that's just ready to go early and those are the first
fruits.
Before the main harvest is ready you have some outliers that are ready early.
So you have Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ that is coming and then
cometh the end and so forth.
So you have the first fruits, Jesus, then you have the first resurrection at Christ
coming in the cloud, that's the main harvest, then you have the gleanings after the millennium
and the gleanings are when after the main harvest you go back and get the things that
you missed.
And so that's what's going on here with this.
Christ comes in the clouds and the earth is reaped.
Now how do we know this is a good reaping and not a bad reaping?
Well let's keep going and see what comes next.
So first we have the Son of Man comes in the cloud and he reaps the earth.
Then another angel, verse 17, came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having
a sharp sickle, and another angel came out from the altar which had power over fire and
cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle saying thrust in thy sharp sickle
and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth for grapes are fully ripe.
So notice we already saw the earth reaped by Jesus in the cloud.
But now the earth is being reaped again by a different angel.
Does everybody see that?
And then it says the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the
earth and cast it into the great wine press of the wrath of God.
And the wine press was trodden without the city and blood came out of the wine press
even under the horse bridles by the space of 1600 furlongs.
And again remember the first eleven chapters of Revelation are much easier to understand
than the second half.
The second half is a lot more difficult and so it's highly figurative, highly symbolic
so we have to try to kind of interpret this based on what we know from the teachings of
Jesus, based on what we know from the first half of the book, based on just comparing
scripture with scripture.
So he gives us a more basic version in the first eleven chapters.
Starting in chapter twelve it's a lot more obscure.
But let's just break this down.
What's the basic symbolism of what's happening here?
What we have is Christ comes in the cloud and reaps the earth.
Then another angel comes and reaps the earth and gathers the vine of the earth and puts
it into the wine press of the wrath of God.
So the idea here is if you're not part of that first reaping you're part of the second
reaping and the second reaping is you're going into God's wrath.
So the first reaping represents the rapture where basically the wheat is gathered into
God's barn, God's barn being heaven.
When it comes to the second reaping you're not going to sit there, you don't necessarily
need to take it somewhere else, you just need to bind them in bundles to burn them.
And so that happens on this earth.
The world, the people of this world are thrown into God's wrath.
Now obviously they're not going into a literal wine press.
But the idea is an image of putting people, what is a wine press?
A wine press is basically putting people in a box where you step on them until they're
crushed and the juices come out.
I mean think about it.
What's a wine press?
There are places in this world where traditional winemaking still happens with human beings
stepping on grapes.
You go to a place like Georgia, not talking about the United States now, but I'm talking
about in Asia, right, the Western Asian country of Georgia, close to Armenia, Azerbaijan and
all that stuff.
That country of Georgia over there, they have traditional winemaking where they still have
human beings stepping on grapes.
And so they're crushing the grapes and then the juice runs out, gutters, and that's what
we're talking about with a wine press.
So the idea here is humanity, wicked people, the ungodly, the unsaved, being put into a
wine press of the wrath of God where they end up being crushed and instead of wine coming
out, rather blood comes out, right?
Because when you crush humans, grape juice doesn't come out, right?
Blood comes out.
And the Bible says blood came out of the wine press, but again there's no literal wine press.
Nobody's literally getting stepped on.
This is just figurative language.
It's a parable about the fact that God's going to pour out his wrath on this earth.
After he removes his people, he pours out his wrath on the earth just like we see in
Luke 17.
Okay, so you've got to compare scripture with scripture and look, some people just kind
of glaze over and say, oh, this is just too hard and too complicated.
Well, you know what, just go back to your cartoons then, but you know what?
Like God wants us to study to show ourselves approved and here's the thing, some things
in the Bible are really easy to understand.
Some things are more difficult.
This is why the Bible can last you a lifetime.
You know, there's some stuff for you to work on right away, but when you've been saved
for 20, 30, 40 years, you'll still be able to learn something and you'll still be able
to study the book of Revelation and go deeper and understand on a different level.
And so what we have here is a number given that blood came out of the winepress even
under the horse bridles.
So think about a horse standing up and it has a bridle, so that's a certain depth, right?
I don't know how many feet that is.
I'm not really a horse person.
Who's a horse person that would want to throw a number on that?
And don't come at me with the metric system, but who's a horse person who wants to tell
me how high is a horse bridle?
Because otherwise I'm just going to start making stuff up here.
We're just all a bunch of city slickers, super urban church here.
Well, you know, I'm just going to say like four feet.
Who thinks that's crazy?
Who thinks that I'm in the ballpark?
Like four feet off the ground or something, you know, five feet.
I don't know.
Seems like aren't horses kind of like up to your faces level sort of when you're looking
at them?
Sort of?
No?
Give me a number then if you're going to shake your head at me.
I feel like I look horses in the face on like once every five years when I come into contact
with one.
You know, I don't know.
So four or five feet, right?
It's not that important, but anyway, four or five feet deep is what we're talking about
up to the horse bridles by the space of 1,600 furlongs.
Now again, this might seem like a tough number at first, but furlongs are actually a number
that we're familiar with, believe it or not, because a furlong is an eighth of a mile.
So all of our streets in Phoenix that are an eighth of a mile apart, right?
Forty-eighth Street to Central Avenue, that's 48 furlongs.
Twenty-fourth Street to Forty-eighth Street, right?
Twenty-four furlongs.
A furlong is an eighth of a mile.
And so 1,600 furlongs is how many miles?
200 miles, right?
1,600 furlongs, 1,600 divided by eight is 200.
And so therefore, we're talking about a river of blood that's like five feet deep or four
feet deep or whatever number you want to put on it for 200 miles.
So we're talking about an incredible number of dead bodies that would produce that kind
of a bloodbath.
Now here's the thing.
Some people have tried to calculate, you know, how many people is it?
It's impossible to calculate and here's why.
I'm sorry.
I don't think it's that funny.
I'm just...
I have a horrible cough.
It's not COVID.
All right.
I promise.
I don't even think I'm sick.
It's like a residual from when I was sick.
I feel great.
But here's why you can't calculate it because you don't really know how wide this river
is.
You know, we're given two dimensions but we're not given the third dimension, right?
Because we have a length, 200 miles, and then we have a depth up to the horse bridles.
How wide is this thing?
We don't know.
And so therefore we can't make any kind of calculations about this.
But I don't really need to do the math to know, hey, that's a lot of blood.
You know, if you have blood that's four or five feet deep for 200 miles, I don't care
how wide it is.
I don't care if it's like three feet wide.
That's a lot of blood.
So it's a bloodbath.
I don't know how many feet wide this thing is.
It's not important.
God doesn't want to give us too much information.
He's just given us a really dramatic picture of the bloodbath that's coming.
So then what do we see next?
Of course, we're going to see the wrath of God.
Now remember in the first half of the book of Revelation, the wrath of God was characterized
as seven trumpet judgments.
Now we're going to see that the wrath of God is poured out in the form of seven vials of
God's wrath.
Or if you have the modern versions, it's the seven bowls, which just sounds super lame
because vial sounds so much better.
Anyway, I hate the bowl judgments.
The King James just sounds so much cooler, I'm sorry.
But chapter 15 is just like a little introductory short chapter, eight verses where the vials
are kind of being handed out.
And then the vials are poured out in chapter 16.
Now I submit to you that the seven vial judgments are happening at the same time as the seven
trumpet judgments from earlier.
So it's just another angle of looking at the same events.
Now the seven vials and the seven trumpets are not the exact same thing.
But they are related.
They are connected.
They go together.
And if you compare first trumpet, first vial, second trumpet, seven vial, you can see very
strong connections between these.
So the way that this would happen chronologically, though, is that they would come one after
the other, trumpet, vial, second trumpet, second vial, third trumpet, third vial, fourth
trumpet, fourth vial, fifth trumpet, fifth vial.
Now some people would say, well, how do you know, Pastor Anderson, that you're right about
that?
Because a lot of people would say, no, it goes the seals, then the trumpets, then the
vials, whereas I would say it for sure goes the seals and then the trumpets.
But I would say the vials are overlapping with the trumpets.
They're happening at the same time as the trumpets.
Because again, what did we say about the whole book of Revelation?
That it's telling the same story twice.
So this is the second telling of the same story.
It's another way of describing God's wrath in the second half of Daniel's 70th week.
But here's the proof.
I've got some proof for you that there's no way that the vials come after the seventh
trumpet, but that rather the vials and the trumpets are concurrent.
Look for example at, we're in chapter 16 of Revelation.
Let's just look at a few vials just to kind of get oriented here.
It says in verse 2, the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth and there fell
a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast and upon them which
worshiped his image.
So when God begins to pour out his wrath, the first thing is that the people who took
the mark of the beast specifically get punished.
They break out in a horrible source.
I picture them as like looking like a meth addict.
You know, and again, maybe this is just me using my imagination, but you know, this grievous
sore, I just picture them having like meth sores all over their body and then they're
like, you know, whoa, that mark of the beast technology, it's under a recall.
Everybody's got this horrible sore.
But it's actually the judgment of God upon them.
Now look, here's a key point I want to make.
If the grievous sore is falling upon those that receive the mark of the beast, that means
there's a lot of people that didn't receive the mark of the beast.
And here's what you have to understand is that the mark of the beast does not get fully
implemented.
Because you might wonder like, how are Christians going to survive?
Are all Christians going to be killed?
How's this going to work?
The Bible says, except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved.
But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.
So when the Antichrist implements this mark of the beast, okay, it's only going to be
very short-lived.
So there's going to be, yeah, you have to receive the mark of the beast or you're going
to be killed.
You can't buy or sell without this thing.
But in just a matter of a couple months, Christ comes in the clouds and ruins the party and
those days are cut short.
And so when this vial is poured out, the people who've received the mark of the beast get
these horrible sores.
It's probably a minority of the people who were just kind of the first ones down there
to go get this thing.
Because think about it, my friend, do you really think that every single unsaved person
is just going to go for the mark of the beast?
Do you think Alex Jones is going to be down there getting the mark of the beast?
Just stop and think about that.
And there are a lot of people like, and look, Alex Jones is not saved.
There are a lot of people like Alex Jones out there that are not going to cooperate.
Not because they're saved but just because they just don't cooperate with anything that
the government is going to be telling them to do.
There are going to be people who are skeptical about it for various reasons.
Probably people that are in more like remote and outlying areas are going to be less likely
to, you know, have this thing fully implemented.
There's going to be a pushback.
That's why they're even going to be killing people who don't do it because, you know,
there's going to be resistance and whatever, okay?
Again, we don't know exactly how this is going to play out but I will say this, not every
unsaved person receives the mark of the beast.
Now it does say that all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not
written in the book of life.
It doesn't say everybody on the planet is going to worship him, it says everybody whose
names are not in the book of life.
Now a lot of people erroneously think that if you're not saved your name is not in the
book of life.
That isn't true, okay?
You could study your Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
Here's what you'll never find.
You'll never find anyone's name being added to the book of life except before the foundation
of the world.
So you read the entire Bible, nobody's name is ever added.
It only ever talks about people being removed.
And so that leads us to conclude that everybody's name starts out in the book of life.
God's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance and if
a little baby dies, obviously they go straight to heaven, they haven't reached any kind of
age of accountability yet and the Bible clearly tells us in several Old Testament scriptures
that the baby who dies automatically goes to heaven and, you know, it's another sermon
for another time.
I've preached those sermons.
But the point is that everybody's name starts out in the book of life, okay?
That's why the Bible says that if you overcome, if you believe that Jesus is the son of God,
it says I'll not blot out your name out of the book of life but I'll confess your name
before my father, before his angels.
So there's only ever a removal that happens because all the names are written in there
from before the foundation of the world.
And again, I challenge you to find in the Bible people's names being added.
What you actually find are just that they were written before the foundation of the
world and you only see people being removed or blotted out, okay?
And so the idea here is that every reprobate, every single reprobate whose name is not in
the book of life, they will worship the antichrist, all of them, and any just Joe unsaved person
who's not a reprobate, when he worships the antichrist, now he's a reprobate and now his
name's not in the book of life.
So everybody's name starts out in the book of life but if you die without Christ, your
name's removed.
If you blaspheme the Holy Ghost, you're blotted out.
If you add to or remove from God's word, your part is taken out of the book of life, okay?
If you receive the mark of the beast, your name's no longer in the book of life.
So this is where we could mistakenly think that just every single person on the planet,
that Alex Jones is just going to be just worshipping the antichrist.
It's a little far-fetched, isn't it?
And it's not even biblical because if every single person who was left received the mark
of the beast, then pray tell me why is a sore only affecting those who have received the
mark of the beast?
It's not like that's a group of people, a subset of the population.
Also think about what about children, you know?
It's not like everybody's going to be getting the mark of the beast in their little child
because little children don't need to do commerce.
This is something that's probably going to be for adults.
But let me prove to you that the vials are not following the trumpets but rather happening
at the same time.
Vial number one, we have the sore.
Vial number two, we have water turning into blood.
Vial number three, we have the fresh water is being turned into blood.
Again we're not talking about literal blood but it's turning the color of blood.
It's turning toxic, undrinkable, poisonous, whatever.
And then we have the fourth vial is poured on the sun and people are being scorched with
great heat and it's like summer in Arizona, just all over the place.
But here's the key.
Look at verse 10.
The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast and his kingdom was full
of darkness and they gnawed their tongues for pain.
Now stop and think about this, there are a couple of things we can learn here.
When the fifth vial is poured out, the antichrist's kingdom, the beast's kingdom is full of darkness
and they gnawed their tongues for pain.
That tells me he's still in power, am I right?
Because if he's got a kingdom and his kingdom is filled with darkness, that tells me he's
still in power.
Well here's the thing about that is that power was given unto him to continue for 42 months.
Here's the thing.
When Christ comes in the clouds and cuts his reign of terror on the saints short by coming
in the clouds, trumpet sounds, Christians are raptured and then God begins to pour out
his wrath on this earth, that does not mean that the antichrist stops reigning.
He continues to reign while the plagues are being poured out on this earth.
Does everybody understand that?
So even though the great tribulation upon God's people only lasts for a couple months,
he's continued for 42 months.
So even after the rapture takes place he continues being in power for years as God
pours out his wrath.
That's why it says with the fifth vial that his kingdom is full of darkness and they gnawed
their tongues for pain.
Now the other thing I would point out is that with the seventh trumpet it said the kingdoms
of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign
forever and ever.
So if the seventh trumpet is when the kingdoms of this world are transferred over to Christ
and Christ is going to rule and reign, that clearly hasn't happened yet with the fifth
vial because it's still the beast's kingdom.
The beast has not been removed from power yet.
Does everybody understand that?
That's why it makes more sense that the fifth vial is happening around the time of the fifth
trumpet because these are two parallel accounts.
Then it actually works well.
The sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the water thereof
was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Seventh angel poured out his vial into the air and if you look at the seventh vial and
the seventh trumpet there are a lot of similarities there.
Now here's the thing about that.
We talked about how the first half of Revelation is parallel with the second half.
So chapter 6 of Revelation is parallel with chapters 12 and 13.
Chapter 7 of Revelation is parallel with chapter 14.
Chapters 8, 9, 10, and 11 are parallel with chapters 15 and 16.
But now chapter 17 and onward we're going to get into new ground that we've not seen
at all in the first half of the book because remember the book ended in chapter 11 with
the seventh trumpet.
God's done pouring out his wrath and now the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms
of our Lord and of his Christ.
That's where we're at here with the seventh vial with the lightnings, thunders, voices,
the earthquake.
Seventh vial, seventh trumpet have brought us up to the same point.
Now we're getting into the new material.
So what do we have for the end of the book?
I'm going to quickly wrap up and then we'll be done with this three part overview.
There's not going to be a fourth part.
But the idea here is that chapters 17 and 18 are specifically about the destruction
of Babylon.
Now according to chapter 18 the destruction of Babylon takes one hour.
So basically it's easy to squeeze this in at the end as far as the timeline of God's
pouring out his wrath and we're just about to start the millennium.
There's time for just a quick destruction of Babylon because her destruction comes in
one hour and it's just a very quick thing.
Now I'll just briefly mention this because we did do a documentary about this called
Babylon USA.
Also in the revelation series if you listen to my sermon on chapter 17 and my sermon on
chapter 18 I go into lots of detail about this.
But in chapter 17, and chapter 17 is a pretty important chapter for understanding revelation,
but in chapter 17 we sort of just talk about the spiritual Babylon which is kind of just
an evil entity or spirit that has existed all throughout history.
And the Bible kind of traces this through various Babylon type empires.
Starting with Egypt, Assyria, and then getting into Babylon where we're getting the name
from and then going into Persia, the Greeks, and the Romans and then finally there's an
end times Babylon.
And so this is something where all throughout history various religions and various governments
could be metaphorically seen as Babylon.
And so I grew up hearing it preached that the Roman Catholic Church is Mystery Babylon.
And I would have to say to that, Amen, because there's so much similarity between the Babylon
of Scripture and the Roman Catholic Church and it's that same pagan idolatry of the Greeks
and the Roman Catholic Church because Rome is the Babylon of the first century A.D.
And I strongly believe that in 1 Peter chapter 5 when Peter says the church of Babylon salutes
you, I think he's talking about Rome and just calling it Babylon.
That's possible that he's in the literal city of Babylon, but I don't think so.
I think he's probably talking about Rome.
That makes more sense.
Because of course we know Peter went to Rome because he had to become the first pope.
Just kidding.
That's a fraud.
But the point is that Babylon is carried on, that spirit carries on into the Roman Empire
and institutions like the Roman Catholic Church and everything like that.
And so chapter 17 goes into some more detail about the politics of the Antichrist and the
Ten Kings because remember when the Antichrist was first introduced in chapter 13 there were
the seven heads and the ten horns.
That stuff's explained a little bit in chapter 17.
You know how the ten horns are the ten kings, the seven heads are seven mountains.
You know Rome is the city of seven hills of course and then not only that, mountains in
the Bible represent empires.
The seven empires are of course like I said Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome.
That's why he says you know five have fallen, one is and the other's not yet come.
And again there are multiple layers of meaning because you could count the Caesars, you can
count the empires, but I would strongly say that you know the Roman Empire is that sixth
empire.
Five are fallen, one is, the other's not yet come.
The future will be the end times, new world order, you know end of the world type Babylon.
But that's chapter 17.
When we get into chapter 18 however, because chapter 17 is kind of just talking about Babylon
in general and going into all this stuff about the Antichrist and the horn and all this stuff.
But when we actually get to chapter 18 and even parts of chapter 17 and we're talking
about the actual city that's getting destroyed, the actual place that's getting destroyed,
Babylon of the end times, you know what place are we talking about, right?
Because Babylon has been associated like we said with Rome and the Roman Catholic Church
and so you know some people would say well it's Vatican City getting destroyed or it's
Rome, Italy getting destroyed or whatever.
People have different theories about this.
I strongly believe that the place that's being destroyed in Revelation 18, if this were to
happen any time in the near future, is the United States, that we are Babylon.
And we did a whole documentary called Babylon USA and let me just give you the short version
because you say well that sounds crazy or whatever, but let me just give you the short
version, okay?
Whatever place is getting destroyed in chapter 18, all the merchant ships of the world are
mourning and saying no man buyeth our merchandise anymore.
You know, where are we going to sell all this made in China crap because nobody's buying
our stuff anymore now that Babylon's destroyed.
And Babylon that just thought that they were just so invincible and they could never be
defeated.
So whoever Babylon is in chapter 18, it's some end times empire that thinks that they
can never be defeated, they can't be touched, nothing bad's going to happen to them and
when they get destroyed nobody's buying stuff anymore because they're just like wow this
was the biggest customer.
Now look, if this happened in the next ten years it has to be the United States because
that's the number one consumer of junk from all over the world.
We're the ones who would say nobody can touch us, you know?
And you know what's so, the silliest theory, okay, because look I can see why people would
want to say it's the Vatican, it's the Roman Catholic Church.
That actually makes a lot of sense because in many ways Rome is Babylon.
The really dumb theory is saying oh it's Jerusalem.
You really think Jerusalem is buying the world's crap because they're not.
It's crazy.
Also, Jerusalem has its own role to play in end times.
Whenever people say Jerusalem is mystery Babylon, it's so dumb it doesn't fit at all.
And the thing that is funny about this is it's just people they get so anti-Jewish that
they've got a hammer in their hand and everything starts looking like a nail.
And here's the thing, like I get it, I get it, okay, the synagogue of Satan, I get it.
I believe it.
Marching to Zion, you know, we've said it all.
I believe that, okay?
I understand that but the problem is that some people will go overboard and just everything
is the Jews, it's just like Jews, Jews.
It's sort of like some of these guys with the flood, you know, just flood, flood, flood,
you know.
It's just like Jews, Jews, Jews, Jews, just oh, the Jews, you know, Babylon, the Jews,
you know, just everything.
Mystery Babylon is not Jerusalem.
It's not the Jews, it's absurd, okay?
It's about, and again, just watch the documentary, I'm not going to go through the whole thing
for the sake of time, I'm going to spare you, okay?
That's a sort of ridiculous theory.
And by the way, let me just say for the umpteenth time, I do not hate Jews, okay?
We just go on record right now, I don't hate Jews.
I hate queers but I don't hate Jews, okay?
Because look, here's the thing, Jews are just like other unsaved people.
Now look, are some of them evil reprobates?
Yes, but not all of them are and you know what, a lot of Jews are just, they're just
born into that culture, born into that religion, born into that ideology and you know what,
they're just living their life and they just don't even care and they just don't even know
about it.
And you know what, I've won a few Jews to the Lord over the years and I hope I win more
Jews to Christ over the years, you know?
I don't just hate all Jews or something, I just don't, okay?
And I don't think you should either.
Now look, is it a wicked religion?
Yes, but so is Catholicism, so is Islam, so is Hinduism.
There are going to be some super wicked people in those religions and there are other people
that are just born into it, just going through life, don't care, whatever.
So we don't want to get overboard in our just, you know, negativity toward Jews.
Obviously we're against Judaism but Jews are not necessarily always going to be the enemy
or something, right?
We don't want to get overboard with that.
There could be just nice normal people that are Jewish just like there are nice normal
Hindus, Muslims, whatever.
We're not just going to think of every Muslim as just, you know, a suicide bomber or something,
you know?
Although, you know, the chances of that are never zero, okay?
Anyway, so anyway, I don't want to go off on a big thing about that but the city is
destroyed in Revelation 18 and again, highly figurative but I think the fact that whatever
this entity is is buying all the merchandise and some people get hung up on city versus
country but in the Bible times we have city states.
The city of Babylon stands in for the whole empire and so, you know, that's probably what
we're talking about.
Just to make it quick because I said this is the final installment, Revelation 19 is
basically when Christ comes on the white horse and actually sets up his kingdom because he
basically destroys the anti-Christ, right?
The anti-Christ has continued for 42 months, Christ shows up, destroys him and then in
chapter 20, we actually have the millennium, people ruling and reigning with Christ a thousand
years.
Then after the millennium, people rebel against Christ and then they're destroyed.
We have that final great white throne of judgment and then in chapters 21 and 22, we have the
new heaven and the new earth.
So that's the basics.
I might do eventually another sermon sometime soon about the millennium or, you know, something
along those lines but that's basically the overview of the book of Revelation and I hope
that by explaining these things to you, I'm just giving you food for thought.
Here's my goal is that you pick up the Bible and you read the book of Revelation and it
makes more sense to you than before you heard this sermon.
So if a lot of the stuff that I said in these sermons didn't quite click with you or it
kind of went over your head or you weren't sure what I was talking about at times, that's
okay.
All I care about is that when you open the book of Revelation and you read it, you understand
more than if you had not listened to it.
You know, not that everyone's dumber as a result of having heard these sermons but that
rather you would actually have a greater understanding from hearing these sermons and I believe that
you will because if you actually read the book, you will see that what I'm saying makes
sense.
You'll be reading it and you'll be like, oh yeah, here we go, look, oh, it's tribulation,
oh, there's the rapture, oh, God's pouring out His wrath.
Well, book just started over, oh, tribulation, oh, there's the rapture, oh, God's wrath.
And it just makes so much sense.
And also if you do want to do a deep dive on this or if you're just looking for a decoration
for your garage or man cave, you know, we have literally hundreds of these Daniel 70th
week charts, you know, those really nice Daniel 70th week charts that brother Richard Miller
designed back in the day.
He got those back in that room back there and of course they're free, we don't sell
anything here.
They're free and not only that, even for people that are watching at home, we will mail this
to them.
If you're in the United States, we will mail you one of those charts.
Just email the church, email address, give us your address, we'll send you one.
If you're physically here, you can go back there, grab one and we want you to have it.
If you're in a foreign country, you know, we can send you a high quality PDF instead
of us spending like $40 to ship it to you.
You know, maybe we can just send you the PDF and you can just print it out on your end
for like 10 bucks or whatever, you know.
And you know, what do we need to do, send you the 10 bucks or whatever?
We're giving you a free PDF folks.
That was a joke.
All right.
I wasn't serious.
So the point is, you know, we'll get to the PDF.
If you're in the US, we'll send you the physical chart, okay.
We're not mailing this to any failed states like South Africa or anything.
So all right.
Let's have a word of prayer.
Lord, we thank you so much for the Book of Revelation, Lord.
And I know that some of these things are a little bit hard to understand.
And so I hope that no one's frustrated tonight or confused.
But Lord God, help us all to study and learn and understand these things.
If it happens in our lifetime, it'd be nice to know what's coming.
And even if it doesn't happen in our lifetime, Lord, there are a lot of just timeless truths
that we can learn from the Book of Revelation about your holiness, your wrath, your love
and mercy, and just who you are, Lord.
And so please help us all to read the Book of Revelation.
And Lord, help us to enjoy it because we understand it.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.