We've been going through the handout that I have, and I've made a chart just so we can
kind of reference it, but I figured most people have no idea what I'm pointing at up here,
so that's why I have a handout for people to look at.
And we've been going through the book of Revelation, but specifically this morning sermon has a
little bit of a recap.
We were talking about the end of this world that we saw in Matthew chapter number 13.
Now in Revelation chapter 21, where we started here, he's talking about a new heavens.
He's talking about a new earth, and that's where I really want to get to at the end of
this sermon, but we're going to try and recap, kind of get to where we were, and then we'll
go into the end, the new heavens and the new earth.
So as we were kind of going through, we kind of, let's just do a little quick recap.
Basically when we look at the book of Revelation, it starts out with saying, look, I'm going
to show you things that thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall
be hereafter.
And from Revelation chapter number 1, it's the things that he saw.
Revelation chapter 2 and 3 is the things that are.
Then in chapter 4, he starts off in saying, hey, here's all the things that shall be.
So we get in all the future.
We see with the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, he takes the book out of the hand
of him that was sitting on the throne.
It's covered in seven seals, and these seven seals, no man could open, saving the Lamb,
the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
So he starts opening them.
That's why we start off here with chapter 6 verse 1.
It's when the Lord Jesus Christ opens the first seal in the book of Revelation.
So he kind of went through.
All these seals, as you study them, the first five, they're all dealing with death.
They're all talking about the wrath of, you know, the Antichrist of the beast and his
constant death.
Then we get in the abomination of desolation, where the Antichrist will declare himself
God in the temple.
Then we see that there will be a short space, which will be great tribulation, where not
only is the Satan wanting to just persecute mankind in general, he's now honing it in
on the Christians, those that are believers.
The Bible says he's making war with the saints.
But if that was allowed to continue, the Antichrist would wipe everybody out.
So the Bible makes it clear the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come, and the Lord Jesus
Christ is going to rapture unto himself those that are alive and remain.
Also he's going to bring with them those that are asleep in Jesus.
Then we see the 144th seal.
We have the great multitude in heaven, which, you know, we see the rapture, and then we
see all these people in heaven praising God in every tongue, language, and so on and so
forth.
Then we have the seventh seal.
Now like I said, when you study the end, the end of this world, it's in the seven seals.
But during each seal there's different events that are happening.
And these events are not necessarily perfectly as far as time goes, right?
Like this little section is three and a half years.
This huge section is also three and a half years.
So it's more so to get the sequence of events.
So at the seventh seal, when we were going through our Bible, Revelation is constantly
in chronological order.
It's just going through chronological order, just showing you exactly.
We saw the first seven trumpets as we were kind of going through our Bibles.
Then as we get to Revelation chapter 11, he just has some concluding statements, some
concluding things.
He's not like starting over again or going back.
He's just making concluding statements about the fact that the beast was in power for 42
months and the two witnesses were there for 1260 days.
So then when we get into Revelation chapter number 12, which again I explained this morning,
it's like a flashback.
You know if you're watching a movie and you kind of see all the events and then all of
a sudden in the middle of the movie they have a flashback.
Well it's still when you're watching the movie, it was in the middle of the movie that you
saw that, it's just that the timeline is somewhere else, right?
So in Revelation chapter 12, I still believe that's in a perfect chronological order of
what John saw.
He's explaining to us in the order he saw it.
It's just at Revelation chapter 12, we get a flashback.
He goes all the way back to where you see some woman that's being delivered of a child.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then we see the devil wants to destroy that child.
Then we see the devil wants to persecute the woman, which is where we kind of got this
part of the timeline.
Then we see that the Antichrist will be given power for 42 months.
That's what we saw in Revelation chapter 13 verse 5.
And then we also see that he's going to make war with the saints.
He's going to cause small and great to receive a mark both in their hand and in their forehead.
And this is where there's going to be great tribulation until the rapture, until the Lord
Jesus Christ comes in clouds.
That's basically where we kind of left off.
So you say, well that was really quick.
Well if you want to hear that in more detail, you can go back and listen to this morning's
sermon where I actually went through all these different points.
We're just kind of reading through the book of Revelation.
So let's look back at Revelation chapter number 14 verse number 1 in our Bibles.
We kind of got a quick recap of where we were and where we're headed.
In Revelation chapter 14 verse 1 it says, And lo, and I looked, and lo, a lamb stood
on Mount Sinai with them 144,000, having his father's name written in their foreheads.
So if we've been paying attention where we're going, we have the mark of the beast, we have
the great tribulation.
Then what do we have next?
We have the 144 sealed.
So is this out of order?
No, it's constantly lining up.
It's constantly showing exactly where we're going.
So even in Revelation when we start off in chapter number 12, it's going to continue
in a very chronological order, in a very chronological sense.
Then in verse number 16, we had read this earlier this morning, it says, And he that
sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
So this is a picture that he's saying, look, I'm going to reap that which is good, all
the saved people, and all the tares are going to be gathered together, and they're going
to be burned.
Not only that, it also describes it as the great winepress of God, where he's going to
really wreck havoc on the unbelievers.
That's where we see this winepress.
It's coming when?
With the seventh seal is the great winepress.
Because all those that are saved, they're not appointed unto wrath, is what 1 Thessalonians
chapter number 5 says.
And you know, if you listen to any pre-trib rapture, you know, sermon, or you listen to
these guys that try to prove the pre-trib rapture, they'll say, well, we're not appointed
to wrath.
That's true.
We're not appointed to wrath.
The problem is, is they try to say, well, you're raptured somewhere over here.
You get raptured somewhere over here and not on the chart.
Well the problem is, is the antichrist is making war with the saints.
He's making war with those that are Christians, and you don't have a single verse in the Bible
that proves that.
All the Bible makes it clear when the rapture is, what the timing is.
So let's keep going.
Let's go to chapter 15, verse number 2.
So we're going to see, continuing the same thing, he says, And I saw, as it were, a sea
of glass mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory, over who?
The beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand
on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Now how did they get the victory?
They got the victory because they were raptured.
They were on this earth.
They did not take of this mark.
They're Christians that are surviving through this great tribulation, and then they're in
heaven now all of a sudden.
So it fits perfectly with this great harvest that we see, Revelation chapter 15, verse
2.
So now what's going to happen?
Now we're going to have the seventh seal broken again.
We've already gone through and we saw the seven trumpets, but now we're going to get
more information about the same timeline.
Let's go to chapter 16, verse number 2.
And this 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 worshipped
his image.
So we have the first vial, and you say, where did that come from?
Let's read verse 1 again, too.
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.
So according to the timeline, after we have the great harvest, after we have people praising
the Lord that's come out of this great tribulation, what do we have?
We had silence for half an hour when the seventh seal was broken.
We had seen that earlier in the chapter.
But then he says he's going to pour out some kind of vial.
He has vials.
Now interesting thing enough is if you look at the chart I have, and even if you look
at this board, you'll kind of see kind of what looks like a time gap between the first
trumpet and the first vial.
That's just from my opinion of how the sequence of events are.
They could be happening simultaneously.
We're not exactly, I mean the Bible doesn't make it exactly clear, but when you look at
what's happening in the first trumpet, and you look what's happening in the first vial,
you can tell they're directly related.
And to me it makes most sense that you have the trumpet and then he's pouring out the
vial.
That's just why I have it staggered that way, but it could be very well at the exact same
time or simultaneously, basically approximately the same time.
But we see the events that are happening.
I mean it's just perfect parallel.
What does it say in the first one?
There is a noisome grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon
them which worshipped his image.
So basically everybody that's taken this mark, something happens to them, something goes
haywire in that chip they got, and they get this grievous noise and sore.
Now the first trumpet was hail and fire with blood.
So if you look at those two you say well that doesn't really necessarily seem like it's
fit together exactly.
And really the evidence I don't believe just necessarily comes from this first trumpet
and the first vial.
But as we continue to go through we're going to see basically they have the same coordination.
So at the same time there's a trumpet, they have hail and fire mingled with blood, and
then also there's a vial poured out.
And as we keep reading we'll see how these actually fit together.
Look at verse number three now.
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 what's the second judgment?
The vial judgment is that there's a lot of dead creatures in the sea.
Now if you look where I have it on this chart, that would be in coordination with eight verse
number seven.
So keep your finger here and go to Revelation chapter number eight.
Revelation chapter number eight.
And let's look at verse number seven.
I'm sorry, verse number eight.
So skip down, look at verse number eight.
And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast
in the sea, and 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.
So we see when the second trumpet sounds, we have this great mountain of fire cast in
the sea, and all of these animals and these sea creatures are destroyed.
Now flip back to Revelation chapter number six, number three again.
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 you're saying, look, it's fitting together perfectly when you start lining these two
up.
And as we continue to go through, that's why we can see in the timeline these are going
to line up.
And as we go through, it's going to have the same endings, the same beginnings.
It's all in the same wrath of God.
He has these trumpet judgments and these vial judgments which seem to be in perfect coordination.
Let's look at verse number four now.
Sixteen verse number four.
He says, and the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters,
and they became blood.
So first it's the sea that he's causing some kind of wrath on.
Now it's the rivers and fountains, it's the drinking water.
It's what you and I like to drink.
Well keep your finger here, let's go back to Revelation chapter number eight.
Revelation chapter number eight, and let's look at verse number ten.
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 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.
So again, we see the trumpet judgment, he's causing the waters to be bitter.
Then we see in the vial, look, he's causing, you know, destruction on the waters, he's
causing them to turn into blood.
So we see the coordination of the trumpets and the vials, and we're going to continue
to see this.
Let's go to verse number eight now in chapter sixteen, and I'm going to go through these
a little bit quickly, just because I want to get to some of the other stuff.
Let's look at verse number eight, it says, And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon
the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.
And the men were scorched with great heat and blasted in the name of God, which had
power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him the glory.
Now in the fourth trumpet, it says that a third of the day of the sun and a third of
the moon would be smitten.
So it's like almost somehow, you don't get as much daytime, but the daytime you get,
it's worse than Phoenix.
It's worse than the 127 degree heat that they get, it's going to literally scorch men.
So we see the coordination, all these things kind of line up, they have the same characteristics.
Let's keep going through this, let's look at verse number sixteen now, skip down to
sixteen in chapter sixteen.
Well let's read number ten, I think we've missed one more, let's read verse number ten.
And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast, and his kingdom was
full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven,
because of the pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.
Now in the fifth trumpet, what happens is the locusts from hell, they come out, and
it says their smoke is ascending up and up, and it's causing things to be dark.
Well guess what, the kingdom of the beast is dark, it's the reason why it's dark, because
of the locusts that were coming out of hell, and the smoke that's coming out from hell.
And I liken this, if you were grilling, and you know you kind of put your lid on the top
of all your grilling, but then you were to lift it up, now it's just like all this smoke
coming out.
I mean imagine, God just kind of lifting the lid on the earth, with all the fire and brimstone,
all the smoke that would be pouring out of the earth, and this is where these locusts
are coming from, right?
This is this great army of locusts with the scorpion tails that are stinging men.
I mean they're just blaspheming God because of this great punishment that they have.
And this was considered the first woe.
Whenever we were studying our Bible, the first woe was these locusts from hell, and the smoke
and the torment that's coming up.
So the beast is getting great suffering now.
I mean the beast's kingdom is receiving punishment right now, and that's important to keep in
mind as we continue to go through this.
But we see the beast is receiving great punishment, and Jerusalem is getting punishment, his kingdom
is becoming dark because of this.
Look at verse number 16 now, and it's talking about the antichrist, he says, he gathered
them together in one place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon, and this, well,
let me skip back, let's go back to verse 12, I'm sorry, I'm skipping one.
He says, in the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the
water there was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.
Now in the sixth trumpet, we had the great army that was raised up, the army of 200 million.
Well in this one, the Euphrates rivers dried up to basically prepare a way for a great
army to come into Jerusalem.
And then when we get to verse 16, we're going to see, and he gathered them together into
a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
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.
And there were voices and thunders and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as
was not, since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great.
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 unto her the cup of the wine
of the fierceness of his wrath.
So there's basically, what happens is the Euphrates river is dried up, preparing a way
for all the kings of the earth to be gathered together at Jerusalem, where the beast kingdom
is, where there's going to be a final battle, the final battle of Armageddon.
Now not only that though, the seventh was issued, and it says, there's a voice that
said it's done.
You know, when we read the seventh trumpet, it didn't really tell us what that was either.
But then we also had all these thunderings and voices and an earthquake, that matches
up perfectly with the same thing of the voices and the thunder of chapter number seven, or
the trumpet of number seven.
So basically, let's go, if we would, to chapter number 17 now.
Chapter number 17.
Let's look at verse number 16.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are upon the beast, these shall hate the whore and
shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
So now basically the seven trumpet judgments, the seven vile judgments have been finished,
and the Lord says, well I remember somebody else I want to punish, the whore of Babylon.
And then when you start reading in chapter number 17, it says, hey, I'm going to show
you who the whore is.
He says he sees a whore, she's riding on a beast, and the beast has seven heads, and
he basically has ten hordes coming out of one of these heads.
Now then he says, well I'm going to tell you what that means, because you're like, what
does that mean, right?
Well let's back up, he's going to tell us, look at verse 9, and here is the mine which
hath wisdom, the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth.
And there are seven kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come,
and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
So he's basically saying, look, when I use the word mountain, a lot of times it could
just mean kingdom, or it's talking about a great kingdom, and he's saying there's seven
of these from this beast.
Now as you study your Bible, you'll see that in Daniel, there's basically four kingdoms
that are mentioned.
But he's saying, look, there's seven.
There's five that are fallen, there's one that is, and then there's one to come.
And even later he'll explain, there's actually an eighth, which is of the seven, is what
he says.
So you say, well who are these seven kingdoms?
Well in Daniel, it's clear who four of them are.
I mean there's not really a question.
Babylon, the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar, that's one of the first kingdoms that we see in the
book of Daniel specifically, okay?
Then he also says, look, there's going to be the Medo-Persian Empire.
That would be the second in that succession.
Then he says, look, there's going to be a Grecian Empire, where the Grecians are going
to come in.
Then he says there's going to be a fourth kingdom of iron.
He doesn't explicitly tell you who that is, but we can tell through history and through
the Bible that it's the Romans.
And we see it's what?
Caesar, right?
We have Caesar, Caesar Augustus, he's even mentioned in your Bible in Luke chapter number
two.
And the common denominator of all these kingdoms is their worldwide kingdoms.
They're ones that are basically influencing the whole world.
They have control over a majority or total control of the world.
Now if you go back, you have the Grecian Empire, which what?
Alexander the Great.
Then you have the Medo-Persian Empire.
It basically starts off with Darius the Mede in the book of Daniel.
Then it has Cyrus the Persian.
Then you even see in the book of Esther, Ahasuerus, basically.
Ahasuerus is another king of the Persians, okay?
They say which one is it?
I think at the height of their, you know, kingdom basically Ahasuerus and Esther is
kind of like the main guy, but it doesn't really matter specifically to me who the person
is.
And then we also have with the Babylonians, we have Nebuchadnezzar.
We say that's just four.
Well, I believe when you study your Bible, there's actually two before those.
You would have the Assyrian Empire and then you have the Egyptian Empire.
Clearly with the Egyptian Empire, you have who?
Pharaoh.
Pharaoh ruling the world.
And let's turn in our Bibles back to Genesis, if you would.
I think I have this in my notes.
Genesis.
Go to Genesis chapter number 41.
I want to take a long time on this point because it's not super important.
It's a little bit of my personal opinion from reading the Bible, who these seven are.
But the truth is that they're seven.
And you can't deny that the four in the book of Daniel are four of these kings that he's
talking about.
But if you look at Genesis 41 verse 57, we're going to see an interesting thing that happens.
Basically I believe that God basically allowed Egypt to become this one world government
or this one world power to basically save many people alive.
And that's what even Joseph says.
But look at verse number 57.
It says, in all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn because that the
famine was so sore in all the lands.
So the Egyptians gained a great amount of wealth at the time of Joseph.
Why?
Because there's famine in all the earth.
And guess what?
People need to eat.
So you know what?
All of them come to Egypt and they just keep buying and buying from him.
And you know the Egyptians, they're like the government.
They're like eventually they just start taking the money from the people.
Then they mortgage their lands.
Then they just come indebted.
Then they institute like a 20% tax on all the people.
So basically they just become filthy rich.
I believe that's when you basically get your pyramids and you get all these great cities.
It even says how the Hebrews built great, you know, treasure cities like Ramesses, you
know, in your Bible if you study it.
So that's one of the empires I believe that's very clear in the Bible.
If you study Romans chapter number 9, I believe it is, or 8, he's talking about Pharaoh, how
he raised him up, basically to declare his name on all the earth.
Then if you study your Bible, you have the Assyrian Empire.
Go to 2 Kings, if you would, 2 Kings chapter number 18.
And if you study world history, the Assyrian Empire by some historians is regarded as one
of the most powerful kingdoms of all mankind, one of the most influential, you know, kingdoms
at that time or even just of all time.
Look at verse number 34, 2 Kings 18 verse 34.
Where are the gods of Hamath and of Arpad?
Where are the gods of Sepharvayim, Henna, and Ivah?
Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?
And you say, what's happening?
I'll give you a quick context.
Basically Rab-Sarris, the administrator of Sennacherib, Sennacherib the king of Assyria,
is coming to invade Jerusalem and when he's knocking on the door, he's saying, look, what
nation have we not already destroyed?
We've already destroyed every other nation before us.
Their gods haven't protected them.
Why do you think your god's different?
So basically from the context we can learn, he's bragging about the fact that they've
basically done this great conquest.
They've already, you know, taken over all the world basically.
They're just knocking on the door of Jerusalem.
Now we study from the Bible that Jerusalem's not eventually taken over.
And even in some of these other empires, there's maybe small little sections where they're
not necessarily ruling, but we see generally they're just this great world power.
So you could say, hey, there's five that have already come.
What, the Egyptians?
Then we have who?
Then we have the Assyrians.
Then we have the Babylonians.
Then we have the Medo-Persian Empire.
Then we have the Grecians.
So that's five.
Then he says, one is.
Now when is John writing the book of Revelation?
I mean, he's writing it at the time of Christ, right?
So who's in control?
The Roman Empire.
We have Caesar Augustus.
You know, we have these type of people that are in control.
Caesar Augustus might have already been dead when he wrote this book, but I'm just saying
in general we have the Romans that are still in control.
Then he says there's one more.
And then he says, out of the seventh will arise the eighth, which is of the seventh.
Now who's the seventh?
It's the Antichrist.
And the Antichrist is of the seven is what the Bible teaches.
So you see, whatever the Babylon system is, that's basically what's going to give him
his rise, give him his power.
So let's go back to Revelation, if we would, Revelation.
And let's go back to chapter number 17.
Look at verse number 10 again.
And there are seven kings, five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come.
When he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth
into perdition.
And look at verse number 12.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet,
but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
Verse 14.
These shall make war with the lamb, and the lamb shall overcome them.
For he is lord of lords and king of kings, and they that are with him are called and
chosen and faithful.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the horse itteth, are peoples
and multitudes and nations and tongues.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are upon the beast.
These shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her
flesh and burn her with fire.
For God hath put it in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree and give their kingdom
unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the
earth.
So basically what are they saying?
Well there's these ten kings that are not of the world religion.
They're not of the world power.
They're just ten other kings that are on this earth, and they hate the whore.
So who's the whore?
The whore is the one that's in control of all the kings of the earth.
There's basically the master boss, the whore of Babylon.
She's in control of all the world, and then you have ten kings of this earth.
They don't like this whore.
So they basically give all of their power and their kingdom unto the beast.
Now I'm not going to prove this, but it even talks about how the antichrist destroys a
couple of them and just takes them by force.
But mostly they're just giving unto their kingdom unto this beast, and that's his kingdom.
Is his kingdom the whore's kingdom?
No.
The ten kings are the ones that deliver their kingdom.
They hate the whore.
So what do they do to the whore?
Let's read 16 again.
And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall
make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
So who destroys the whore according to the Bible?
The ten kings.
The ten kings hate the whore.
Now is the antichrist ruling over the whore?
No.
He's ruling over their kingdom.
So if you say, well, who's the antichrist ruling over, well, according to the Bible
he's ruling from Jerusalem, is he not?
I mean, the antichrist is the one ruling.
He gets the power over Jerusalem and the kingdoms that are given to him from these ten kings.
The whore is somebody the ten kings hate and they burn her with fire.
Now if you think of just the wording of whore, what do they do to the whore?
They used the whore, didn't they?
They abused the whore.
The whore's the one that's giving them the ability to do a lot of these things, right?
The whore's riding on their back.
They're telling it nice things.
They're being nice to the whore.
They're just using the whore because it's a whore.
That's why it's called the whore.
And then guess what?
They hate the whore, though.
Once they get into power, once the antichrist is now established as this seventh king, or
he's the eighth, basically, he's coming out of the seventh, he's basically using the whore
to basically come in and then he's just going to be the eighth.
But he's going to continue a short space.
Why?
Because we see he's only in power for what?
Forty-two months, okay?
So let's keep going in chapter 18, verse 8.
So we're talking about Babylon.
Let's skip, I want to go back again.
Let's go to just verse 1.
Chapter 18, verse 1.
And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven having great power and
the earth was lightened with his glory.
And he cried mightily with a strong voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
and has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of
every unclean and hateful bird.
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication and the kings
of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth are waxed
rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
So he says in verse 4, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her,
my people, that ye be not partaker of her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Verse 5, for her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities.
Reward her even as she rewarded you and double unto her double according to her works and
the cup which she hath filled her double.
How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow giver.
For she sayeth in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow and shall see no sorrow.
Now keep your finger here because I want to go back to Zephaniah chapter number 2.
Keep your finger here and say where is Zephaniah?
It's in the minor prophets.
And I'll give you even more proof that the Assyrians is one of these kingdoms.
Let's go in our Bibles to Zephaniah chapter number 2.
It's very close to the beginning of your New Testament.
There's Zechariah and before that it was Haggai and then you have Zephaniah.
Look at chapter number 2 and verse number 15.
It says this is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am and
there is none beside me.
How it should become a desolation and a place for beasts to lie down in.
Everyone that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his head.
So in Zephaniah we get some prophecy of Babylon that it's going to be destroyed.
And you say well who's he talking about here?
Well skip back to verse 13.
And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh
a desolation and dry like a wilderness and the flock shall lie down in the midst of her
and all beasts of the nations.
Both the comrade and the bitter shall lodge in the upper lentils of it.
Their voice shall sing in the windows, windows, I'm sorry, desolation shall be in the thresholds
for he shall uncover the seed of work.
So what do you see?
He's talking about how he's going to be destroyed and then what?
All these birds are going to live in it.
The comrade.
And if you study the Old Testament, if you go back to Leviticus and you go back to Numbers
and you're reading about the unclean and unclean beasts, look these are unclean beasts.
These are the cage of every foul unclean and uncaged bird or whatever the Bible is describing.
So it says every unclean and hateful bird and every foul spirit.
So whatever's going to happen to this city, Mystery Babylon, it's basically going to become
a desolate wilderness where just basically the worst animals are living in it.
Let's go back to Revelation chapter number 18.
So we saw a picture of a city that he's going to destroy that he's going to call Babylon
in the future.
Who do you call it?
The Assyrians.
So that's even more proof that we have that the Assyrians was one of those kingdoms that
we were talking about.
Let's look at verse number eight.
Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine and she shall
be utterly burned with fire for strong is the Lord God who judges her.
Now it's interesting because she's basically saying I haven't suffered at all yet, right?
I mean, isn't she saying I'm sitting as a queen, I haven't had any sorrow.
Haven't we been going through all this?
I mean, we even see that the kingdom of the beast has been darkened.
How could the whore, if it's the same kingdom as the beast, be like, look, I haven't had
any sorrow even though my kingdom has been darkened, I'm suffering all these great things.
Basically the whore is basically getting away from this as much as possible.
Obviously mankind in general is receiving the wrath of God, but I'm saying his target
has not really been on this whore.
This whore has just kind of been sitting and she's still arrogant, she's still prideful
about who she is and in one hour she's going to be destroyed by who?
By the ten kings.
Now of course it's through the Lord Jesus Christ's will.
It says that it's through God's will that he's destroying her.
It says in verse number nine, and the kings of the earth who have committed fornication
and lived deliciously with her shall bewail her and lament her when they shall see the
smoke of her burning.
Standing afar off from the fear of her torment saying, alas, alas, that great city Babylon
and that mighty city, for in one hour is thy judgment come and the merchants of the
earth shall weep and mourn over her for no man buyeth her merchandise anymore.
So when he's talking about, and then he goes through all the merchandise they're buying.
So when you first start off in chapter number 18, again, you have to pay attention to what
he's saying.
He's saying Babylon is fallen.
Now again, this is what I said in the morning service.
If I said it's time for bed, does that mean everybody's already in bed tucked away sleeping?
No, it just means, look, now it's the time for this to happen.
We still got to brush our teeth, we still got to get in our pajamas, a few things got
to take place, but it's time for bed.
And look, when he's talking in Revelation chapter 18, he's saying, look, it's time for
Babylon, Babylon's fallen.
It's going to happen.
This is the time.
This is what we're looking at.
Then he kind of goes on to explain how it's going to happen and all the events because
then he kind of explains, look, he even tells his people to get out of there.
How would, why would you tell people to get out of there if it's already been destroyed?
He's just saying, look, the time is now that it's going to happen.
Let's go to verse number, let's go to verse 21 now.
It says in verse 21, and a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast
it into the sea saying, thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down
and shall be found no more at all.
So not only is it burned with fire from all these 10 kings, then we see a great angel
cast in the sea and it's gone.
I mean this city is literally wiped off the map.
I mean it's just completely utterly gone.
Look at verse number 24, and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of
all that were slain upon the earth.
So basically this whore was just going around killing a bunch of prophets and saints.
You say, well, who is the whore?
Who is mystery Babylon?
Right?
Well, first of all, for it to be a mystery, I don't think the Bible is just going to straight
up tell you.
That's just my personal opinion.
Now there are certain mysteries in the Bible that are solved for us, the mystery of the
gospel.
You know it was a mystery back that in the Old Testament that God would reconcile the
Jews and the Gentiles together in one body.
So that after Christ has come, it's no longer a mystery.
Now we know.
But when it comes to mystery Babylon, he gives us a lot of indications.
But some people would say they believe this theory that Babylon is Jerusalem.
But here's my question.
How is that a mystery then?
I mean what was the mystery?
He's like, hey, it's Jerusalem, and I'm going to show you this great mystery.
Guess what?
It's Jerusalem.
He's just like, what?
What was the mystery in that?
So I think honestly it's going to be some city that fits this bill.
Now if we look at the world that we live in today, there's pretty much only one country
that fits the bill of Babylon, a one world system basically in control of the whole world,
has all these exports coming in that we see in this great list, fits the bill of saying
I've never been a widow.
I've never suffered any sorrow.
I mean just really prideful and arrogant.
It really fits the bill of America.
So you say, is Babylon America?
Well does the Bible say that?
No.
So I would never be dogmatic about something that the Bible doesn't say explicitly, right?
We can interpret things and we can understand things.
What am I going to say definitively?
Well it's killed by the 10 kings.
It's not where the Antichrist is ruling from because look, it's been destroyed.
It's been cast in the sea.
How is the Antichrist in Babylon right now in the sea and then he's going to guess what?
Get wiped out in Armageddon because that's the exact next event.
Let's look at chapter number 19 now.
And after these things, so is this before the destruction of Babylon, during or after?
This is after.
So what's happened?
Babylon has been destroyed by the 10 kings, then it's been cast into the sea.
So he's saying, after that, I heard a voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia,
salvation and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are
his judgments for he hath judged the great whore.
Well that just, I mean, you were wondering if it was before or after the whore.
He just told us they're literally singing and praising because the whore has been judged.
The whore is gone.
I mean, there's nothing to do with the whore anymore, which did corrupt the earth with
her fornication and avenged the blood of his servants at her hand.
And again, they said, Alleluia, and her smoke rose up forever and ever.
Now let's kind of skip a little bit.
So basically what happens?
Babylon's destroyed.
Now if you look at certain charts, they'll put the destruction of Babylon and the Battle
of Armageddon really close to each other in the timeline.
I'm not saying that that's wrong.
Basically just to space it out in the chart.
I mean, I kind of spaced them out.
They could be happening pretty quickly because Babylon's destroyed in one hour.
So then the Battle of Armageddon could happen the same day.
It's very possible.
But it's after.
There's no doubt that it's after.
There's no doubt that the sequence of events is the destruction of Babylon, then there's
what?
The Battle of Armageddon.
Because then we have what?
Let's see what the Battle of Armageddon, let's look at 19 verse 17.
And I saw an angel standing in the sun, he cried a loud voice, saying to all the fowls
that fly in the midst of heaven, come and gather yourselves together unto the supper
of the great God, that ye may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of captains and the
flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and of the flesh
of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make
war against him that sat on the horse and against his army.
And the beast was taken and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him,
with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and then the worship
of his image.
These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, and the remnant
were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceedeth out
of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.
So what happens?
Basically, after Babylon's destroyed, then the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on the great
horse, he's called Faithful and True, he has the name Word of God written on his thigh
is what the Bible says, he's going to come with the saints and he's going to destroy
all those at the Battle of Armageddon.
Now here's the foolishness, if you believe that Jerusalem is Babylon, isn't Babylon under
the sea?
I mean, where are all these great armies gathered together that the Lord Jesus Christ is literally
going to slay with the sword that comes out of his mouth?
It makes it clear that when you get these events, you know, if you're just kind of cherry
picking different events, maybe you could kind of get a weird idea.
But if you just lay them out on a chart, it becomes impossible for the Battle of Armageddon
and the destruction of Babylon to be the same place.
So you say, well, who's Mr. Babylon?
Well, it's not wherever the Battle of Armageddon is, that's for sure.
You can't read the Bible and understand that at the same time.
So he destroys everybody.
Now what happens?
Well, let's see in verse number, let's look at chapter number 20.
So I don't have that on this chart anymore.
Basically, we're ending into the second page, the second part of the chart, the back page.
And for sake of time, I don't even know if I'm going to get through all, there's some
things I'm going to skip.
So if you look at this chart, the cool thing is, is if you go and you study Matthew, Mark,
Luke, when you talk about the Olivet Discourse is what is the fancy theological term, you
know.
It's basically when they ask Jesus Christ when's your coming and when's going to be
the end.
And if you look at it, it describes through Matthew 24 all the events that we see in 1,
2, 3, 4, and 5.
He starts off with that.
Then in Matthew 24 verse 29, he says, immediately after the tribulation of those days.
So he's saying after the tribulation, after the tribulation, after the tribulation.
That's when he's going to, the sun and the moon are going to be darkened, okay.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come in the clouds with the great sound of a trumpet.
It makes, it lines up perfectly with all the events that we see on this chart, that we
see in the Bible.
They fit like a glove.
You can go look them up.
And you say, is this every reference in the Bible?
No.
There's so much imagery and so much foreshadowing and so much prophecy throughout the entire
Bible.
But it's all going to match Revelation.
We were looking at the revealed, you know, information from the Bible.
Don't go back to Zephaniah and try and get all the events in sequence.
Don't go back to Isaiah and try and figure all this out.
No.
Get Revelation and then go back in the Old Testament and see where these things line
up.
See what part you're in.
And this is where a lot of false doctrine creeps in because they'll try to put the new
hurt, the new heavens, the new Jerusalem somewhere on this list.
And you're like, whoa.
When you start seeing things match up here and here, you know you're here, okay?
Or when we start going into things of in here, we can see that's where we are in the timeline.
And the difference between these is a lot.
Because guess what happens right after the seventh trumpet, right after the destruction
of the whore and Jerusalem, the Battle of Armageddon, a thousand year reign of Christ.
That's not a short period of time.
So then when you get past the thousand year of Christ, we're going to enter into, you
know, the new heavens and new earth.
That was the point of this sermon.
So we have the marriage supper of the Lamb, Revelation chapter 19 verse 7.
We already saw that.
What was that?
It's where all the birds eat the flesh of all these armies that were gathered together
against the Lord at the Battle of Armageddon.
Then in chapter number 20 verse 4, what do we see?
And I saw thrones and they sat upon them and judgment was given unto them.
And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the word
of God and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his
mark upon their foreheads or in their hands.
And they lived and reign with Christ a thousand years, but the rest of the dead lived not
again until the thousand years were finished.
This is the first resurrection.
So he's saying, look, the people that are going to rule and reign with Christ are those
that were saved, those that got to be a part of the first resurrection.
And they're going to enter into the millennial reign of Christ where Christ is literally
ruling and reigning in Jerusalem, where he's already slayed everybody, you know, at the
Battle of Armageddon.
So now he's coming down and he's going to set up the great, his kingdom, his millennial
reign.
That's the marriage supper of the lamb.
You say, what's the marriage supper of the lamb?
It's where all the birds are eating the flesh of all these kings that he just destroyed.
Okay.
So let's look at chapter verse number seven now.
And when the thousand years are expired, wow, that was a quick thousand years.
You know, you're reading your Bible, the millennial reign of Christ, there's really not a lot
of information about inside those thousand years.
There's really not.
There's some, there's different places that you can kind of look at and get a picture
and idea of what's going on.
But Christ is ruling with a rod of iron.
And if you read Psalms chapter number two, that talks about the Lord Jesus Christ ruling
and reigning with a rod of iron.
So that's a cool place that you could look up.
Let's go and look at verse number eight now.
So after that thousand years, that was real quick, all right.
And shall go out and deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog
and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
So what happens after the thousand years?
Basically, there's peace on earth.
The Bible says there's perfect peace, why?
Because we have God's laws instituted.
Because the Lord Jesus Christ doesn't put up with filth and smut and sin.
He's going to rule with that rod of iron and he's literally going to punish people what
you saw in your Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
That's what he's going to use to rule and reign.
We're going to actually see all of the God's laws instituted from the Lord Jesus Christ,
okay.
But what's going to happen?
At the end of the thousand years, there's no devil.
I mean, Christ is ruling and reigning, there's been no devil.
Now the devil's been loosed, he's been let out of hell.
This is basically, there's two people, well, let's see, there's three people that I can
think of that came out of hell.
The Lord Jesus Christ, the Antichrist, and the devil.
Other than that, I can't think of another one that really comes out.
But we see the devil somehow gets loosed by God allows him to go out.
He deceives the nations and they come together again to have a battle against Jerusalem.
Now the thing is, with the battle of Gog and Magog, it has some similarities to the battle
of Armageddon.
So you have to be careful when you're reading Old Testament prophecies of either of those
events that you have the right one.
Why?
Because one's separated by a thousand years.
One's a lot different than the other and this is again where a lot of false doctrine comes
in.
I was going to go through Ezekiel.
We study Ezekiel chapter number 37, 38, 39, it explains in detail the battle of Gog and
Magog.
Basically, there's not even weapons on the earth.
There's no security system, there's no fences, people are just living because it's peaceful.
I mean, just basically think of the most, you know, paradise type place that you could
imagine on this earth today.
People are just frolicking and having fun.
All the weapons have just been turned into tools because there's no need.
There's no warfare, there's no any, it's just peace.
I mean, there's nothing.
So when an army comes, well, there's no way to defend themselves.
They don't really have any tools.
So they're basically all retreating into the city of Jerusalem.
Now they're surrounded by this great army and the Bible makes it clear that God will
destroy all of these armies with fire that comes out of his mouth, okay?
Let's go to Revelation 20 verse 10 now.
So I just, that was real quick.
I was planning on maybe going through a lot more of that.
You can study if you want Ezekiel 38, I have some references here where we see these type
of events being lined up, okay?
Look at Revelation 20 verse 10, and the devil that deceived them was cast in a lake of fire
and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and
night forever and ever.
That's a verse I love to use soul winning, but it's great to get it in the context.
You say, what's the context?
Well, at the battle of Gog and Madog, he's going to destroy all of them and then this
is when the Satans finally cast in a lake of fire forever.
With who?
With the beast and the false prophet that have already been there.
They were there at the beginning of the battle of Armageddon.
At the beginning of the battle of Armageddon, the Lord Jesus Christ took them alive and
threw them in the lake of fire.
And then guess what?
The devil finally gets thrown in there after that thousand years.
So you see, God uses the devil one last time.
That's basically why God even lets the devil exist.
He just uses him to deceive people that hate his truth, that don't want to believe on his
name.
He just is a tool of God to accomplish his will.
Let's look at verse number 11 now.
And I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God and the books were opened.
And another book was opened, which is the book of life and the dead were judged out
of those things which are written in the books, according to their works.
And the sea gave up the dead which were in it and death and hell delivered up the dead
which were in them.
And they were judged every man according to their works and death and hell were cast in
the lake of fire.
This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
So this is what's known as the great white throne judgment.
This is where you do not want to be an active participant.
This is the judgment where you don't want to be the star of the show.
Because the star of the show is all those that have never believed on the word Jesus Christ.
Those that haven't put their faith in him to save them.
They were trusting in their works.
And when you look at Matthew chapter number 7 and you see the people stand before God
and they're saying, look, we prophesied in thy name and we cast out devils and in thy
name we've done many wonderful works.
And what is Christ saying to them?
I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
This is that type of judgment.
They were wanting to be judged by their works.
And guess what?
They're going to be judged by their works.
And when you're judged by your works, guess what it looks like?
A lot of iniquity.
If you were to line up all your works, guess what God's going to say?
Lots of iniquity, buddy.
And I never knew you.
He doesn't say you used to know him.
He doesn't say, well, I knew you for a little bit.
He never knew you.
Because once you know him, you know him.
Once you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says you've been given everlasting
life.
You've become a son of God.
You're sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
You've been passed from death unto life.
You're in his hand.
How could he be taken out of his hand?
It's impossible.
That's why once you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you receive the free gift
of eternal life, a gift, not something you're in for, not something you paid for.
What you receive, that's how you're saved.
That's how you're written in the book of life.
Now how many people are unsaved and surviving this?
None.
What does it say in verse 15?
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire.
So who do we have left?
Saved people.
That is it.
Now here's the thing.
If you read Revelation 21 and 22, guess who we're dealing with?
Only saved people.
So sometimes people read Revelation 21, they'll talk about a difference between like the really
cool saved people and the like not so cool saved people and it's like, look, you don't
understand.
You got things out of order.
Look, it's only saved people that we have left.
Only the people that are written in the book of the life of the lamb.
Okay, so look at verse 21.
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth were
passed away and there was no more sea.
That's an interesting earth because you know the earth we live on has like majority sea,
majority water.
The new heaven and the earth has basically no sea.
It says no more sea.
I mean they might have rivers or something but apparently there's no sea.
Look at verse 2.
And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband.
So what do we have?
We have the great white throne judgment where everybody that's not saved is cast in the
lake of fire.
Then what do we have?
We have the new heaven and the new earth.
Then what do we have?
We have new Jerusalem.
Now let's look at verse number 5.
And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, write, for these words are true and faithful.
So he's made everything new.
Look at verse 6.
And he said unto me, it is done.
I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.
I will give unto him the thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
So now we have the literal end.
What happens?
Eternity.
Now it's the end, the end of time.
We saw in Revelation chapter number 10, it said there would be time no more.
We have the end of this world, which is basically coming unto the millennial reign of Christ.
So basically we have the end of this world.
Then we have this last little bit.
Then we enter into the new heavens and the new earth.
Who's going in?
Those that are written in the Lamb's book of life.
Only those that are saved.
So when we read Revelation chapter number 21, who is it applying to?
It's applying to the saved.
Now this is pretty cool.
I like reading about, you know, this, this city that we have.
I think I have it in my notes somewhere.
Give me one second.
So let's look at verse number 20.
Okay.
For a second.
He says, uh, I'm sorry.
Let's go to verse number 10.
I was looking at the wrong chapter.
Verse number 10.
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.
Now when he describes the city, he describes it as a beautiful place.
But not only that, look at the size of this thing.
He says in verse 16 and the city lie four square and the length is as large as the breadth
and he measured the city with a read 12,000 furlongs.
The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal.
Now there's different ways to interpret this verse and I'm not going to be super dogmatic
about how he's measuring it.
Some would say that he's measuring the whole perimeter.
Okay.
Some would say that he's measuring just a side, right?
So when I, when I read this, I initially just thought a side, but it's possible it's just
a perimeter.
You say 12,000 furlongs.
What's a furlong?
A furlong is an eighth of a mile.
So if you were to divide, you know, 12,000, okay, by eight, you're going to get 1,500
miles.
1,500 miles.
Now again, I don't know when to get, do I get my chart out again and show you how big
things are?
Like the whale?
The whale is like a hundred feet tall, but this is really tall because it says, look,
in every direction, this is a cube that's 1,500 miles in every single direction.
Now you could say, some people say that it was the perimeter, so they divide it by another
four.
So then it'd be 375 miles.
Either way, that's a lot.
Because here's the question.
How far would I have to go up to get into space?
Does anybody know?
Anybody have an idea?
It's 63 miles.
So think about this.
The new cube, the new city is going to go at least 375 feet.
It could be 1,500 miles up in the sky.
It's going to break the atmosphere.
It's going to be some, I mean, basically again, this is a new earth though.
So we don't know exactly what it looks like, but this city is massive.
I mean, this thing can fit a lot and lot of people.
And look, I'm excited.
They show people the earth and some people made a cube sit on the earth.
The edges don't even touch the earth because the curvature of the earth, because the sphere
that we live in, because the globe.
So I don't even know how it's going to work, but I just, I mean, they show this cube.
It's so big that if you put it on the curved earth, the edges are kind of like sticking
out.
This thing on the center, it even says the wall is 144 cubits.
Now a cubit, according to, you know, the size of a man, 18 inches, this would be 216 feet
tall wall.
I mean, I've never seen a wall this tall.
I mean, basically the wall of China, you know, it's not, it's not even close to that.
There's some dams that kind of get this tall.
We're talking about 216 feet.
That's very tall.
That's like a 20 story building or a 23 story building.
I mean, this is a huge wall that's surrounding the entire cube that they live in.
You say, how many feet is that?
If it were, you know, 1500 miles, that would be 7.9 million feet tall.
I mean, when you put it in kind of, you know, numbers that you can understand, I mean, I
still get 7.9 million, I was really tall.
This is a great city that we get to, you know, every that's saved, every that's in the last
book of life.
This is where you're going.
That's where everybody else is going, to the lake of fire.
Hey, that's some good motivation to want to, you know, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
receive his free gift that I get to go to this great place.
Let's look at verse number 22 now.
So, it doesn't necessarily say that the sun and moon are gone.
It's just saying in this city, they don't need, you know, they don't need any light.
All the light is just coming from the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's so bright that he just lights up the entire city.
And there's not even a temple.
They are the temple.
They're the ones who gets worshiped.
They're who are worshiping.
It looks at verse 27.
Now, there's so much false doctrine on verse 27.
People say, well, there's the really good Christians that were serving him and they
get to go in the city.
And then these like lesser Christians, they don't get to go in.
But who does he make it clear that's going to go in?
Those that are written in the lands book of life.
Now who do we have left on the earth?
Those that are written in the land.
Everybody gets to enter into the city, okay?
It's not talking about a special group.
If you're not in this group, it's because you're in the lake of fire.
There's not, there's not three options, okay?
There's one option.
There's two options, basically, right?
You're in the lake of fire or you're in the lands book of life, which means you get to
enter into this city.
And he's saying, look, no one's defiling.
Why?
Because we're washing the blood of the lamb.
Because our sins are not forgiven, or forgiven, they're forgotten and we put on a new man.
We have a new glorified body which cannot sin.
We've been sanctified.
We've been born of God.
He that is born of God cannot sin, okay?
Look at verse 22 now, or chapter 22, I'm sorry.
And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of
the throne of God and of the lamb, and in the midst of the street of it, and on either
side of the river, there was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits,
and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the trees were for the healing of
the nations.
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the lamb shall be in
it, and his servant shall serve him, and they shall see his face, and his name shall be
in their foreheads, and there shall be no night there, and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign forever and
ever.
Now this is the conclusion.
This was it.
But let's see what his concluding statement is, verse six.
And he said unto me, these sayings are faithful and true, and the Lord God of the holy prophets
sent his angels to show unto his servants the things which must, what, shortly be done.
So again, when we were dividing the book of Revelation, we had three categories, right?
The things which thou hast seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be.
So everything from Revelation chapter number four up to this point is that shall be.
That's that future part that he's talking about.
And then he basically just makes some concluding statements of the book of Revelation chapter,
you know, the end of Revelation.
Now Revelation, I believe, when you just kind of plot it out, you just kind of put it on
a chart, you let the Bible explain itself, interpret itself, it's a pretty simple book.
The problem is people come in with preconceived ideas, preconceived doctrines, other things,
or they're trying to use Isaiah and Zephaniah and Zechariah to give you this timeline.
Get the timeline from Revelation and then take the Old Testament and conform it to this.
And then conform it to the revealed, obvious interpretation.
And it becomes really clear.
It's really simple.
Everything falls in part perfectly.
And then we get into the new heavens and the new earth, which we get to enjoy.
I'm excited about the new heavens and the new earth.
I mean, I can't even imagine the joy that we'll get to have when we're in this great
place worshiping God and the Lamb.
Notice it keeps saying God and the Lamb, and the throne of God and the Lamb, and His throne,
and the Lamb's throne.
Why?
There's God and there's the Lamb of God, which is Jesus Christ, okay?
Now let's look at verse number seven.
Behold, I come quickly.
Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Skip down to verse 12.
And behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as
his work shall be.
I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
So he tells us all the end.
He's already told us everything that's going to happen.
We already have the beginning and the ending already declared.
Now look at verse number 14, okay?
We're going to destroy some more false doctrine.
Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life
and may enter in through the gates into the city.
For without are dogs and sorcerers and whoremongers and murderers and idolaters, and whosoever
loveth and maketh a lie.
I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and offspring of David and the bright and morning star.
So again, some people take verse 15 and they'll try to say, well, there's these special Christians.
You know, there's Christians that really love God and really follow his commandments.
I want to meet the Christian that says he doesn't make any lies.
First of all, second of all, even if you believe that stupidity, the only people that will
be here are already written in the Lamb's book of life.
They're sinless.
All their sins have been forgiven.
It's all the saved.
All the saved are entering into this city.
Now here's the problem.
Sometimes people will take passages about what?
The millennial reign of Christ and they'll apply it here to try and confuse you, to try
and draw you away.
Because look, only certain people are going to enter into the city of Jerusalem when the
Lord Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning.
That is the saved.
That is those that are ruling and reigning with Christ, the believers, the saints.
Look, not everybody's just allowed to enter into Jerusalem during the millennial reign
of Christ.
But guess what?
In the new heavens, the new earth, guess what everybody is?
Is everybody saved because everybody's believing in the Lord Jesus Christ because everybody's
written in the Lamb's book of life.
Look, there's plenty of unsaved people on the earth and the millennial reign.
Who are all the people that are coming together against the Lord?
That are coming against Jerusalem to destroy them?
They're not written in the Lamb's book of life.
They're devils.
They're sons of the devil.
They're not ones that have been entering in.
They've been rebelling.
And even if you study your Old Testament, it'll talk about the nations that won't go
up and serve the Lord every year.
Because every year, the Lord Jesus Christ will require every nation to come and worship
Him in the millennial reign.
He says the nations that don't get no reign.
They get no reign that year.
So if you want to be cursed of God, don't follow His commandments.
Sounds a lot like the world we live in today, right?
You follow God's commandments, you receive blessing.
You don't follow God's commandments, you get cursing.
So let's conclude this, okay?
Look at verse number 20.
He which testified these things says, Surely I come quickly, Amen, even so come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Amen.
And he warns in verse chapters number 17 and 18, if any man would add or remove from this
book, he'll add to them the plagues that are in this book and remove his name out of the
book of life.
Saying you damn your soul when you start messing with God's pure words.
Now look, this chart that I gave you, I'm not going to say that it's 100% flawless or
exactly accurate.
I'm just trying to give you a sense of all the sequence of events, okay?
And I tried my best to get it lined up.
If I have something that disagrees with the Bible, believe the Bible.
Believe what the Bible said.
But this is just a tool to help you to see how the events line up.
And I think if you study throughout other passages, you can come back and you can kind
of look at it and say, hey, is this lining up?
Is this following, you know, where are we at in the story?
Where are we at in the timeline?
That way we won't be confused.
And I don't think God wants us to have false doctrine.
I think God wants us to understand all the Bible.
Revelation, in my opinion, while it's probably a strong meat of the word, I think if you
just slow down, you just kind of read what, you just pay attention to what you're reading,
you take it in coordination with the other chapters, it all fits in perfectly.
And we see it's perfectly chronological.
Then it comes back, it's more chronological.
Just like everything in the Bible, Matthew, hey, story, it's chronological.
Then we go back in Mark, chronological.
Then we go back in Luke, hey, chronological.
Then we go back in John, chronological.
They don't even all start in the same spot.
Mark, it just starts out with the Lord Jesus Christ already being an adult.
If you read Genesis chapter number one, you basically get all of creation, the first six
days of creation.
Then you start in chapter number two, he gives you the seventh day.
Then all of a sudden he goes back to the sixth day and explains what happened on the sixth
day.
He explains in detail what happened.
This is the whole Bible.
The whole Bible will do this constantly where it'll go back and give you more detail.
As you pay attention, it's pushing the timeline further.
It's just going a little bit further.
So when we studied in Revelation chapter number four, or six, okay, all the way to chapter
10, we kind of stopped at the seventh trumpet, didn't we?
Did we get in the new heavens?
Did we get in the new earth?
Did we get in the destruction of Babylon?
No.
So then when he starts over again in chapter number 12 and he's going through, now we get
into Babylon.
Now we're getting into Armageddon.
So he's going even further.
So he's pushing the story even further.
And that's what you see throughout the Bible.
When you're studying your Bible, it's all chronological.
When you study Genesis all the way up into Esther, that is the history of the Old Testament.
Then you have the poetic books, right?
You have Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
Those are just your poetic books, but they're all chronological.
Job to the Song of Solomon is chronological, but it started back over.
It's not starting where Esther ended.
Then you have what's called the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.
They are all in chronological order.
You start out with Isaiah and it goes back.
So it's not exactly falling when Solomon's ended, okay, it's actually a little bit further
in the future, but it's all chronological from Isaiah to Jeremiah to Ezekiel.
That's in perfect chronological order.
Then you get to the minor prophets.
What happens?
Again, chronological order starting with all the prophets, Hosea, Joel, Amos.
So you go through all the 12 minor prophets, chronological order again.
Then you get into the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
These are just the same, you know, stories given to us.
Then what happens after that?
You get Acts.
Acts actually goes back to Luke, chapter number 24, where it was picking off.
It picks up the story a little bit again.
We see the Lord Jesus Christ is standing there talking with him, then he ascends him to heaven.
Then Acts pushes the story again further.
And at the end of Acts, that's basically the history of the New Testament, except for
the little exclusion of Revelation, that's basically the history of the New Testament.
Then you have the Epistles, and the Epistles are doing what?
They're going back to Acts and telling you about things that happened in Acts.
So you can take the letters that Paul written and you can take the internal evidence and
you can kind of figure out, oh, this is Acts 19, oh, this is Acts chapter number 20, okay.
Then when you get all the way to Revelation, we have the Apostle John, and he tells us
about the things that she saw, the things that are the seven churches which are in Asia.
Then what does he do?
He pushes the dialogue further.
He tells us what's going to happen in the future.
And then Christ says, look, this is the end.
This is the entire history of the world.
This is the beginning and the ending.
We got the end of the world, the end of this world, and the new heavens and the new earth
when we enter into eternity, which is considered the end because guess what, there's no time.
Time does not exist in eternity.
Does that kind of make sense?
So I really like this sermon topic.
There's so much more that we could cover in great detail.
I figured maybe it'd just be a great help to give you a little overview, give you an
overview of the end, when are the events taking place.
So when you read Matthew 24, when you read Luke 21, when you read 1 Thessalonians 4,
when you read 2 Thessalonians, when you read all these books of the Bible, you read the
Old Testament, Isaiah and Jeremiah, and you see the imagery, you can know where we're
at in the story, okay.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, so much for your word.
Thank you so much for the revelation of your Bible.
I pray that as we study your Bible, that we'd be diligent and we'd just let the Bible interpret
itself, that we wouldn't come out with preconceived ideas and notions.
And we just thank you so much for the free gift of eternal life, that we one day will
get to see your face, that one day we'll get to enter into that great city and we'll get
to see you light up the place.
I thank you so much for all the things that you've blessed us with.
I pray that we would continue to shine your light of the gospel while we're on this earth,
that we'd see the importance of reaching people with your word and turning them to truth because
the truth is those that are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life will be cast in the
lake of fire for all of eternity.
I just thank you so much for everyone in this room.
Bless them this week.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.