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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you can all find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started. We're going to start this evening off in song number 125, the solid rock. Song 125, the solid rock. Song number 125, the solid rock. Let's get a little first. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness fails its lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. On every high and stormy gale, my anger holds within the layer. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. So his covenant is blood, support me in the roaming flood. When all around my soul gets laid, he then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. He shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then hear him be found. Rest in his righteousness alone, God bless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Great singing, everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for Steadfast Baptist Church, for Pastor Shelley and his family and all the brethren that are gathered here. Lord God, please bless Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit. Help him to preach an edifying sermon so we can all be lifted up together for your holy name, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, our next song is going to be 263, Verily, Verily. 263, Verily, Verily. Song number 263, Verily, Verily. Oh, what a Savior that He died for me, from condemnation He hath made me free. He that believeth on the Son saves me, hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. All my iniquities on Him were laid, All my iniquities, my aim was paid, All who believe on Him the Lord has set, hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. Though poor and needy, I will trust my Lord, Though weak and simple, I will leave His birth, Oh, glad message every child of God, hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. Though poor and needy, I will not doubt, For in the coming He will not cast out, He that believeth on the truth shall, hath everlasting life. Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Verily, Verily, message ever new, He that believeth on the Son is true, hath everlasting life. Thank you so much for coming to Stead Past Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, just lift your hand up real quick. Our ushers will come by and get you guys a bulletin. On the front, we have our Bible memory passage. And then on the inside, our service soul-winning times. Please make sure you're turning in your soul-winning to your soul-winning captains. On the right is a list of several ladies who are expecting. Please be praying for them. Also upcoming events, on the 16th is the baby shower for the Jacksons. On the 23rd is preaching class. The 30th is a soul-winning marathon. We're going to meet here at the building. So if you'd like to go soul-winning with us, we'll meet here at 9 o'clock in the morning. We'll go out for a few hours, have lunch, and then also go in the afternoon as well. I would assume all Saturday soul-winning is just going to be suspended. So regular soul-winning times that are on Saturdays are just going to join us here. Also, we have Easter, the 31st this year, so it's a little bit earlier. That evening service, we're going to have our communion service. And then on the 9th, it's going to be an event for one of our friends, Verde Baptist Church. They have a youth rally, so if you'd like to, there should be a sign-up sheet. April 13th is another soul-winning marathon. It's going to be happening in Shreveport, Louisiana. And we'll be heading out there in the morning. It's a great area to go soul-winning. Down below is the details about the baby shower. If you'd like to attend, it's from 1230 to 2.30. All ladies are invited. It is for their baby boy. They're registered on the baby list. If you'd like to RSVP, please do so to Ms. Milstead. Also, if you'd like to bring a dessert to share, that's definitely encouraged, but you don't have to. And it is nursing's only preferred. On the back, we have our prayer list. We usually talk about this on our midweek service. We've been praying for Brother Hall. We've also been praying for the Cooley's stepdad for his cancer treatments, Ms. Naeem. We've been praying for her grandmother for her vision, health, and salvation. We've been praying for the Carlson's mother, Rebecca, for her health. We've also been praying for Ms. Stewart, Ms. Miller's friend, Ms. Tamara, for cancer as well. And then we've been praying for Brother Goodwin for his job and work. So that's pretty much all I have as far as the prayer list. We'll go ahead and say a quick word of prayer as a church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this evening and for all of us to be able to be gathered here. Thank you so much for how many ladies are expecting in our church. Thank you so much for that blessing. I pray that you'd just be with them during their pregnancies. I pray that you would just bless their children's development. I pray that you would help them to have a timely birth. And I pray that you would also help all these people that were mentioned that are struggling with various illnesses and diseases and sicknesses. I pray if possible you could just give them just a speedy recovery or give them health. I pray that you'd also be with them during this tribulation, just give them comfort and peace. I pray that you'd also help us to be a bold witness to those that need to hear the gospel, that they could be saved. And I pray that you'd also give favor to our church members that are needing something for their job or work or just financial blessings. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're going to sing our Psalm of the Week, which is 150. Psalm 150. We do have a special handout that has that. Or you could even just use the King James Bible, but Psalm 150. Alright, that's Psalm 150. Praise be the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him with love firmament of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the songs free and hard. Praise him for the temple dance. Praise him with sweet instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals. Praise him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord. Praise be the Lord. Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son. Praise God the Holy Ghost. Praise God in three persons. Alright, great singing everybody. You can all turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter number 16. Revelation chapter number 16. Revelation chapter number 16. Revelation chapter number 16. The Bible reads, 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. And the first vial went and poured out his vial upon the earth. And then 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. 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. 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. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, thou art righteous, O Lord, which art and wast and shalt be because thou has judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and thou has given them blood to drink for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun and power is given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues. And they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast and his kingdom was full of darkness. And they nod their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds. And 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. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. 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 thunderings 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. And every island fled away and the mountains were not found and there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven. Every stone about the weight of a talent and man blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Revelation chapter number 16, Lord. I pray that you bless Pastor Shelley and fill him with your Holy Spirit and that we'd be able to make applicable changes in our lives. Pray us in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Revelation 16, we're getting into the end times judgment. We've got to kind of that final moments of Daniel's 70th week and we kind of fast forward, we kind of fast track in this chapter through that last section where we have these seven judgments that are being poured out on the earth. And this period of time is probably about 42 months minus 75 days because they really got started doled out approximately after Jesus Christ has reaped the earth and that reaping is all the saved at that point in time. So according to the text, according to the Bible, Christ is going to reap the saved that are alive and remain and those that were already dead in Christ or asleep in Christ he's going to bring with them. And that's considered a resurrection. Now that, I believe, and it seems very likely could be about 75 days after the midpoint of Daniel's 70th week. Daniel's 70th week is kind of describing the final seven years of the world as we know it. And so that final seven year period about halfway through the Antichrist is going to declare himself God and he's going to make everyone receive a mark in their hand, small or great. And pretty much everyone's going to be lining up to take this thing except for Christians and Christians are going to be heavily persecuted for not receiving the mark, for going against the Antichrist. The Bible makes it very clear that the devil is aiming all of his animosity and wrath towards the saved. He's going after the remnant of the woman seed which are the people who believe in Jesus Christ. And that's what's called Great Tribulation, a Great Tribulation period because more Christians are going to be slain in that period of time than pretty much any other time in human history or ever again. And so that's just going to be a major martyrdom of Christians. Well, immediately following that period of time, we are going to have a great judgment doled out. In chapter 14, it talked about that reaping. Chapter 15, we didn't really change timeline. We were just getting more details. It's talking about those that are saved, us being in heaven and we're glorifying God and the vile judgments are being set up. They're being ready to be doled out. And in chapter 16, now we're unleashing those vile judgments on the earth. It says in verse 1, Now, I would interpret that essentially the way these things are being doled out is they're not all being doled out at the exact same time. That essentially there is a space of time in between each judgment. And I don't know that they're all even necessarily equally spaced, but it seems to be when you kind of read the text that God's rolling out one judgment and a space of time goes and then another judgment. Very similarly to how the judgments rolled out in Exodus with Moses upon the Egyptians, that they'd be rolled out and there would just be this time period upon which they're experiencing the judgment until Pharaoh would finally ask for it to go and then it would go. However, here's the difference. In Egypt, those judgments would kind of dissipate. These seem to compound, meaning not only did that first judgment get rolled out, it's not like that one goes away and then the second one comes. It's like you're still experiencing one and then you get two as well. And then you get number three as well. It's kind of like how interest works at the bank. It's called compound interest and it just keeps hammering you. It's the same way when it comes to these judgments that they're compounding and so you're not just experiencing just one. You're experiencing one, two, and then three, and then four. So they're being told by God, hey, go pour them out, and we get this first one. Now, in Revelations chapter 8 and 9, we had already read about certain trumpets being blown. And I believe what's kind of happening here is that essentially you have the first trumpet sounding corresponding to the first vial being poured out. Now, it doesn't say that in this text because 8 and 9 is talking about the trumpets and then here it's talking about the vials. But when you look at what's being described, it sounds like the exact same event. So my understanding is it's pretty much these are happening simultaneously. Trumpet 1 and vial 1, but it's not necessarily all the vials being poured out. So you kind of have like trumpet 1 and then vial 1. It says here in verse 2, So the first judgment is some kind of a punishment to those who have received the mark of the Antichrist. So we talked about people getting this mark to buy or sell, but think about how short-lived this mark was. Because if you got it on day one, let's say you were the first in line to get the mark of the beast. You were the number one guy to get it. Well, if we're right and Christ returns in 75 days, think about it. It only benefited him for 75 days. And then now it's hitting him like a ton of bricks because they're going to get this grievous sore from having received the mark. Now, I don't know what that means. I think that there's a lot of interpretations here. One could be, let's just say that this mark really is a microchip that's planted into people's skin. Well, it could be that there's just some kind of an adverse reaction to them having this implanted chip that ends up causing them to have some kind of a horrible sore on that part of their body where that chip is. Because God did not design us as computers where we're putting chips in and out of our body. I know that Elon Musk is trying to figure out how to put chips into people's brains and he thinks they're going to become super humans. But at the end of the day, I would only think it makes sense to have some kind of a chip or some kind of an implant when you have a physical deformity or some kind of inadequacy that it's going to try and make better. But I think if you're a perfectly healthy human, this is a bad idea. You know, they're supposing that they can take this Neuralink or take chips and plant it in people's brains that are blind and then give them sight. Well, you know, if they can do that, then I don't see why that would be necessarily harmful or wrong. But if someone says, hey, you have perfect vision, but if we put this chip in, you can see even better. No, I don't want that. No, I'm not really interested in trying to tap into what you think is more potential. But obviously if someone suffered brain damage or an injury or some kind of a problem and they're connecting certain parts of the brain back together, albeit through technology or whatever advances we have in medicine, you know, I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing or a wrong thing if they could help people regain use of limbs. They were paralyzed or they're blind or something like that. Look, there's nothing wrong with that, in my opinion, theologically. But at the same time, God didn't design us to have that. So you kind of have to then also accept the risks of whatever it is, you know, putting chips into your brain. What if it fries? What if it goes haywire? Could it electrocute you? Could there be some kind of a poison that is released in your body due to the toxins or metals that are associated with this particular chip? There's always going to be risks associated with these type of things, so you kind of have to outweigh or measure what's better. Is it better to just stay blind or would you like to take whatever risks are associated with the chance that you may be able to see? And that's for each individual to make up their mind. But think about this tradeoff for the people that receive the mark. They get to buy or sell for 75 days and then now they get this horrible sore, they're going to get this horrible punishment. And some people think, like, why is God punishing me by not giving, you know, by making it where I have to be on an earth where I can't buy or sell, you know, without this mark? But think about it. The people that got it are going to get this horrible punishment. Just like somebody, you know, a child might think, why do my parents want me to save money I got on my birthday rather than just blow all of it? Right? But, you know, there's always an opportunity cost to every decision and there's always a yin and a yang. I mean, yeah, I'm sure if I just spent all the money I had right now, I could have fun for 30 minutes or an hour or whatever. But as soon as the money runs out, now I'm going to be feeling all kinds of pain and suffering from having done such a thing. So it's like, hey, I want to take the pleasure of taking this mark or whatever benefit it has. But you know what? There's always a negative consequence to disobeying God. There's always something you're going to reap from what you sow. If you plant wickedness, well, you're going to reap wickedness. And if you're going to receive this mark, God is going to dole out a horrible punishment for having received it. You know, I've heard some Christians, so-called, people like John MacArthur or other Christians indicate, oh, Christians can take the mark. And I'm thinking, like, even if that was true, which that's not true at all, anybody that takes the mark is damned to hell for sure. That's what the Bible teaches, okay? But even if you could, it's not like that would be a good idea because you're still going to experience a horrible punishment for having received the mark even if hell was off the table. Even if you could say, like, definitively, you know, take the mark and just lie about it and just pretend like you like the antichrist even though you don't or something. You know, there's a horrible punishment associated with that. But again, never take the mark. If you're saved, I don't really have to worry about it. You're not going to get it. You can't get it, according to the Bible. So it's really kind of a moot point. But at the end of the day, there is going to be a horrible punishment to those who take the mark. It could not even be a chip. I've seen another technology. It's called Lucifer Ace. It's a really interesting name, okay? And Lucifer Ace is a real thing. It's basically some kind of a dye where it's injected into your body, some kind of a liquid dye. And the reason why it's given the name Lucifer Ace is because the word Lucifer means light bearer. And essentially this gel will go in and they have these little dots, these little micro dots. And whenever they scan it with a particular infrared scanner or some kind of a different device, it will light up and they can see it. It's kind of like how if you scan with like a blue light or something, you know how a scorpion skeleton will like glow in the night? Similarly, they can inject this kind of dye or this kind of, maybe I'm using the wrong word, but essentially they're just injecting this kind of liquid into the body that has these micro dots and they could use a phone and just kind of scan over it. And those micro dots would be something similar to like a QR code or to a barcode that they can scan. And then that's a unique identifier. And then from the computer systems, the server somewhere, they have all your data because they have a unique identifier. So that gel could be similar to like getting injections like the COVID shot and then think about the horrible things that have happened to a lot of people that have received that. So that could be another option. There could be another thing where God just supernaturally gives them some horrible pain that has nothing to do with the actual mark. It doesn't even have to be related to the mark. And think about this, God does this consistently in the Bible where he punishes wicked people with some kind of a physical illness. I want you to go to a place, go to Exodus 9. Keep your fingers, we're coming right back. We'll go to Exodus 9. Here's some examples. How about when the Philistines take the Ark of God? God ends up giving them emerods in their secret parts. Boy, that's a grievous sore. And that's something that's noisome, meaning it's annoying. It really is not something pleasant. You don't want such a thing. And that's not even necessarily related to taking the Ark. I don't think because you have the Ark, you're just going to get emerods. That just to me is some kind of a supernatural punishment. Now, there could have been a naturalistic explanation. Maybe God used rats or used some kind of... I've heard this and I don't know, it could be true. Because I think that they literally like worshiped rats. Maybe they just allowed a lot of rat infestations to happen in their part of the world, in their cities. And because of that, they ended up getting these grievous sores of emerods. I don't know, or maybe God just literally punished them with that. I'm sure they were into fornication, so it could have spread like wildfire. I mean, there's all kinds of different options there of what God could have done. He also punishes people with leprosy. And he does it supernaturally at times. You could think about Miriam. Miriam, she ends up getting punished by God. And there was nothing obvious about something she did physically. She's just punished by God for having spake against the man of God, speaking against Moses. And so just by speaking against the man of God, God could just punish you with a grievous sore or some kind of wound. But here's one that's really close or really similar. And again, the 10 plagues on Egypt are very reminiscent of what we read about here in the end times plagues. But look at Exodus chapter 9, verse number 8. And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blanes upon man and upon beasts throughout all the land of Egypt. And they took ashes of the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven, and it became a boil breaking forth with blanes upon man and upon beasts. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boil was upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. And notice some kind of a horrible boil as a result of Moses doing this particular action. Now again, I don't think that this was purely naturalistic because you could just take ashes and sprinkle them up. It's not like everybody in the room is going to get a boil or something like that. God just is using that as some kind of a symbol or some kind of a metaphor of how God's just going to spread this airborne disease or something that's going to then just infect the Egyptians and cause them kind of a boil. So God can really do whatever he wants with anything he wants. And I would say God constantly is breaking the natural laws that we have. He's just causing all kinds of things to happen that would not happen naturally. So it's important to not think like, well, there's no way for God to punish me naturally speaking. Okay, but he can get you supernaturally. It's like, hey, I'm in perfect health. I don't do anything unclean. I'm not around anybody that's diseased. But then God could just sneak a disease in there and get you anyways if he wants to. There's no way to escape God. And so instead of just being so concerned with the natural sometimes, sometimes it's better to just be concerned with the supernatural and being right with God. And so go back to Revelation chapter 16. I wanted to show you that. We're not going to, for sake of time, go to every single one of these parallels, but almost everything that we read about here is going to have almost a direct parallel to some of the plagues that we read in Exodus chapter, you know, all those different chapters. There's several different chapters there. But those 10 plagues that are read about in Exodus. It says in verse number 3, 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. Now, if you read this in parallel with chapter 8, keep your finger and just flip to chapter 8 for a second, it's not saying literally everything in the sea, it's just saying everything in that portion of the sea. So in Revelation chapter 8, look at verse 8, And the second angel sounded, so this is that trumpet, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into 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 notice when we compare Scripture with Scripture, in Revelation chapter 16, it's saying everything dies, but that was within the context of that portion of water that became blood. So it's saying the portion of the water that became blood, which was a third, that's where everything in that section died and was destroyed. And that's an important just principle to always remember, that sometimes when the Bible uses words like all or every, that there's still a context around that, and that we want to make sure that we're understanding the context upon which the all and the every are used. Sometimes the Bible uses all and every, and it's just literally all and every. Of course, Calvinists like to think that the word all never means all, but of course it does mean all in certain contexts, but we don't want to then also say that there isn't context, because there is always context. We always want to make sure we understand Bible and Scripture in the framework of the context upon which it's given, and we want to compare Scripture with Scripture, because sometimes not all the context is provided in one passage. You have to use multiple passages to get the correct context overall, and then apply those verses. We see in verse number six, it says, well, let's read verse number five. Did we read verse four? I'm sorry, verse four. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art and wast and shalt be, because Thou has judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments. So in the third, it's kind of similar. We had a section of the sea turn into blood. Then now we have rivers and fountains of water. In the previous judgment, if you'd read chapter eight, verse eight, it was this great mountain burning. Now, I kind of lean towards that's probably some kind of an asteroid or comet, but it could be interpreted as maybe just like a volcanic eruption. It could be either. I don't know exactly which one that is, but essentially it's some kind of natural phenomenon mixed with a supernatural phenomenon in the sense that we have an actual real object being dumped into the sea. Here we just kind of have a lot of the waters just turning into blood, and I don't know exactly what's the cause of this, but the emphasis is on the fact that they are killing people and shedding blood, so then God is deeming it righteous to give them blood to drink. It's interesting because God likes to judge things with an equitable judgment. Like, hey, for your blood, I'm going to give you blood, eye for an eye. I'm going to talk about that towards the end of my sermon, but we see those in heaven praising God for being a righteous judge. It's emphasized in verse five. It says, and I heard the angel of the waters say, and it's interesting, the angel of the waters, I don't know what that means, but the angel of the waters said this, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art and wast and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. Now, I really like this verse, and I like this phrase, and what's interesting is this particular phrase is kind of exclusive to the King James in a lot of ways, but think about what's being said. When it says art, which art, that is a present tense statement. So what the Bible is saying is God is currently, right now, he is righteous. What is righteous? Doing right. Doing right. Then he says next, and wast. Wast is alluding to the past, saying that not only is God righteous right now, he was righteous in the past too. When? At all times. There was never a time when he wasn't righteous in the past, and currently there's nothing about God that's not righteous. He's currently righteous, and then this is what I also like about it, and it says this, and shalt be, meaning also in the future infinite, God's always going to be righteous. So there's never a time when God wasn't righteous. God currently is righteous, and there's never a time in the future when God will not be righteous. God is always going to be righteous. He's always going to do right. And this is in stark contrast to what people think about themselves going to heaven. They'll say, you have to repent of your sins to be saved. But by saying that, you could say that, let's say someone truly repented of their sins, which is impossible. But let's just say someone did. And of course, you could be in a current state of not sinning, right? Now, this is what I've heard some people say. They've said, well, if you can hold, if you can, you know, abstain from, you know, doing something bad for five minutes, then you could abstain from doing something bad for the rest of your life, right? If you could not be sinning right now, and I'm like, okay, let's try that to other things. How about, can you hold your breath for five seconds? How about five minutes? How about the rest of your life? Just because you can do something right now, doesn't mean you're going to be able to sustain that forever in the future, okay? And those who believe in this repent of your sins, one thing that they're definitely not, is they, the lust. If we were going to say, your righteousness, were you righteous in the lust category? And it's no, because you've sinned. In order to repent of your sins means you had to have sinned, meaning in the past, you were not righteous. And here's the thing, God's not going to let anyone into heaven that doesn't have perfect righteousness. It's not like, oh, what about your present state? Your present state is meaningless, because the only way you get into heaven is righteous in the past, present, and future, and that's no one. For all of sin, it comes short of the glory of God. The only one that's holy, the only one that's righteous, the only one that art and was and shalt be, is God Almighty. And of course we, we can be present righteous, and when we're completely redeemed, we'll be future righteous, but you know what we'll never have been? The lust. We'll never have been the lust category, because we've been redeemed, we've been saved, so that makes God unique, that makes God completely different than the rest of us. He's the only one that's holy. That's what we read in chapter 15, remember verse 4? For thou only art holy. Only God. And what is holy? Set apart. Different, unique, special, and sanctified. This is what, these words mean the same thing. Set apart, sanctify, holy. All mean the same thing, they're used interchangeably, and God is set apart. God is sanctified, God is holy, God is the one that's righteous, and the cool thing is God will never not be righteous. He always was, is, and shall be. Now, if I read this in the NIV, which, I have to use my phone, sorry, I don't like to carry trash around with me, but if I read the NIV in verse number 5, it says, then I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, well they had to add that charge there, okay, you know. You are just in these judgments, O Holy One. So weird. You who are, and were. But you know what, they don't put the shout be. And, pretty much all modern versions don't do that. The ESV, it says, and I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, just you are, O Holy One, who is, and who was. So, again, like, almost every other modern version takes it out, and this is what most people say, like, you know, the King James is an error here. And they make a big deal about this particular passage, and this is a very controversial passage when it comes to the King James only position. But, you know what, I like this doctrine. I like what the Bible is saying here. You know what it resonates with? The Holy Spirit inside of my heart. And you know what doesn't resonate with my heart? O Holy One. You know, it doesn't really have the same ring to it, okay. And look, obviously God is considered the Holy One, and there's nothing wrong with that language. It's not like that language is bad or any way. But, you know what, the way the King James says it is just, it just sounds better, okay. And, you know what, they say, oh, so you're going to just pick the Bible based on how it sounds? You got it right. You know, my sheep hear my voice. You know what Jesus said? Hey, they're not going to follow a stranger. They're not going to follow the voice of a stranger. So you better believe that I judge Bibles based on what they sound like. Oh, you just think it sounds better. Because it does sound better. I don't even think it sounds better. It objectively sounds better, folks. Okay, the King James Bible is a majesty. It's a masterpiece. There's nothing like it. I don't think you ever could craft a Bible like this ever again in English. I'm not going to say that the Bible couldn't be a masterpiece in other languages because I believe it's a masterpiece in every language. But at the end of the day, it's locked in and settled for the King James Bible. It's locked in and settled for English. We don't ever need to change. We're never going to change. And we love every word of it. You say, well, there's not a lot of evidence for that verse. Well, you know what? I like it. Oh, well, you're just, you're just trusting what the translators did. Well, you know, why did the translators put it this way? I mean, do you really think that they were just willy-nilly with the Scripture, the effort and energy that they put in for seven years? They're just like, they've got all the way through the Bible, and then they're just like, towards the end, they're just like, eh, let's just wing it, you know? Like, let's just start making stuff up at this point. No. Obviously, they took their time, and they studied. And I would object to the translation committees of many of these modern versions. They have literal sodomites on some of their committees and the people that were working for them. Okay, so, you know, you can like it or lump it, but I'm going to stick with the King James Bible no matter what. And frankly speaking, it's funny to me that they'll get really mad, and they'll act like, how dare you use a King James Bible because of this? And I'm thinking like, well, did we really change any doctrine? Did we really do anything major to the text, like, we sneak something in? Whereas they literally will just take out whole verses, whole sections, whole paraphrases, I mean, just taking all kinds of things out of the Scripture, and things that affect doctrine specifically. And it's like, this only just made the doctrine better. Okay, so if we're going to compare the differences, you know, our differences that they get mad about are meaningless. They're just a nothing burger. And then the differences that we point out actually affect major doctrine, and they affect what people believe. And so I think it's really obvious that this is the Bible, you know, the King James Bible. That's why we only use the King James Bible. That was a side point, all right? Let's keep reading here, verse 8. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat and blaspheme the name of God, which hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give him glory. Now, I think it's also interesting in verse 9, when it talks about them blaspheming the name of God, it sounds like they know where this is coming from, right? I mean, if you have this horrible thing happening to you, and you're blaspheming God, it sounds like they're making the connection that these things are a result of God. It doesn't sound like there's a lot of atheists at this point, you know what I mean? But I would even submit today, atheism is just a dumb thing, because they know God exists, they just want to pretend like he doesn't. And think about it this way. Just blasphemy in and of itself is just such a proof text of God's existence, because people, when they're upset and they're going to blaspheme, why wouldn't they say, like, Joe Biden or Adolf Hitler? I mean, think about it. If you're an atheist, okay, almost everybody hates Hitler. Like, pretty much everybody thinks he's a horrible person. Or maybe Charles Manson, or maybe it's Donald Trump. You know, depending on who you are, one of those three you probably hate if you're an atheist, right? I'm sure that there could be someone else. But they supposedly don't believe God exists, but they do know all three of those people existed, for sure. So when they're mad, why wouldn't they use that person's name as an expletive, right? Wouldn't they say, like, oh, Donald Trump, you know? Or Hitler, man. Because, you know, they know that that's at least, like, a real person that was bad in their mind, right? And so I'm just saying, like, why wouldn't they say that? Why wouldn't they say Allah, right? Or why don't they say, you know, some Hindu god? Vash, you know, something. Vashmu, or who? That's probably a Pikachu character or something. I don't know. Why don't they use some of those things? Right? Or even in their science fiction, they've got their villains or something that they don't like. Oh, Vader. Darth Vader or something, right? Maybe they like Darth Vader secretly. I don't know. But you would think, like, why wouldn't they use any other thing? Why do they use the name of God? You know why? Because they know that it's real. And because it's real, it has power. And they like blaspheming God's name. They want to blaspheme God's name, and they know that it's real. They're not like, oh, flying spaghetti monster. They don't say that. And the reality is, when someone blasphemes, it's typically not something that you think about. You didn't make a conscious decision. You know what happened? Your heart poured out real quick. We just got to see a glimpse of what's actually inside here. Because you smash your thumb with a hammer, you don't have a second to think about it. Your heart comes out immediately. And what is in their heart? The blasphemy towards God. They hate God in their heart. That's why blasphemy even is a thing. If there was no God, if the God of the Bible wasn't true, then people would not be consistently blaspheming the name of God when they're angry, upset, or in these moments of passion. The reason why they're blaspheming God is because they know that God exists. And they know when these plagues are happening that it's a result of God that's happening. Now again, I'm not going to say that during this period of time that there isn't still some level of deception. They may still, if you ask them on the street, say like, Hey, who's doing these plagues? They might say it's the two witnesses in Jerusalem. And I still think that's kind of a valid way to interpret all this. But the reason why they're blaspheming God is because what's eking out of their heart, they know it's from God in their heart. Even though they may not admit it, they're still kind of deceived, they're still kind of confused on this particular issue. But notice again, they're not blaspheming some false God, they're blaspheming God. And he's the one that has the power over these plagues. They're also not repenting. You know, some people would think like, Oh, well, if you go to hell, then you'll change your mind. But, you know, they're kind of living like a hell on earth and they still don't change their mind. Notice that? Their hearts are hardened. Another way to word this is they're reprobate. Some people also don't understand the reprobate doctrine. People that are in hell are 100% reprobates. Like, there's not a non-reprobate in hell. Now again, some people are reprobate before they get to hell, but at the end of the day, everyone in hell is a reprobate. It's not like they're redeemable. There's no getting out, there's no purgatory, they've been completely rejected and they hate God. It says in verse number 10, And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. Hey, I'm noticing a pattern. More punishment, they blaspheme God and don't repent. More punishment, they don't repent and they still blaspheme God. You want to know what hell is filled with? A lot of blasphemy towards God and a lot of no repentance. And again, the repentance here is in the fact that they won't accept the gospel. That's what it is. Even though, of course, they're also going to keep sinning. Now again, there's a conflation here because when we get saved, we have the Holy Spirit inside of us and we have the new man. And the new man doesn't want to sin. And so many times, if not most of the time, when someone gets saved, they do make a change. Now here's the thing, do you have to make a change? No. Are changes automatic? Absolutely not. Do you know what people make changes? The people that got saved, those are the people that do repent of their sins. The reason why they're not repenting of their sins is because they're not getting saved because they're not putting their faith in Jesus Christ because you have to first cleanse that which is inside before the hour could ever be cleansed. That's why people that are not saved aren't really repenting of their sins and don't clean anything up. It's fake or temporary in their particular situation. And so these people are going to have no hope unless they believe in Jesus Christ. Verse 12, Now, again, it's really interesting the pictures here. We see frogs coming out of the mouth. But notice it says this in verse 13, And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon. I think that this is, again, something that's kind of similar to how the Bible talks about how the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus Christ as a dove or like a dove. That it's not like a dove came down from heaven. It's the manner upon which it came out. So it seems like these spirits maybe move like a frog. And frogs have a very specific movement pattern, don't they? They hop in a very interesting pattern. So perhaps the way these spirits or unclean spirits move is they kind of move in some kind of a hopping style or manner and that's what's happening. Or, you know, it could be their description as far as their physical description. I think it's most likely just the manner in which they move. I think something that we can take note of here is also the fact that unclean spirits are controlling men. Right? I mean, we see them saying these things and these unclean spirits are going out and then they're controlling people. I think it's to represent the reality that false doctrine and bad things that people say affect people. You can't just be unaffected by false preaching, by lies, by deception. It has an impact on people. And so it's important that we combat false teaching. You know, the Bible talks and emphasizes the idea of shutting the mouths of people. Like, we want to shut their mouths up because they shouldn't be saying nonsense, false doctrine, false teaching. Because the more that they open their mouth, the more the unclean spirits just pour out of their mouth and say things. In the Old Testament, you have certain prophets having unclean spirits come unto them and they preach lies unto the king. They preach lies unto the king and they get rebuked by Micaiah, the man of God, and he's saying, hey, the other man of God gets upset and he's like, hey, what are you talking about this unclean spirit coming into my mouth? You know? But you know what? There are literally unclean spirits pouring out of the mouth of false prophets today. Kenneth Copeland and T.D. Jakes and all the freaks that live in this area, just constant unclean spirits being poured out of their mouths and they affect people. Also notice that we're not really fighting, always, a flesh battle. We don't war against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against these unclean spirits. Again, people will say everything is the Jews' fault or something like that. But it's not really the physical Jews that's the problem. It's the problem that there are vessels for these unclean spirits. It's that they're being led by the prince of the power of the air, the devil, and the devil is using them as minions. But it's not like literally every single one of them. There are some Jews that could still be reached with the gospel and still get saved. It's just certain people in really high positions of power and authority that have basically just given themselves over to allow demonic spirits to take control of them. I think that's how the book of Twilight was written. The author literally said that she would just, at night, just kind of open herself up and allow this spirit to visit her in the night and they had this relationship or something. And then she would just write down whatever this spirit is telling her. And it's just like these demon spirits are just giving these Hollywood actors and actresses their scripts and their movies and their ideas and their songs. I mean, why do you think almost every major rock band, their music is just pure Satanism? And, in fact, even the band names themselves are often very anti-Christ, very God-hating names. I mean, you can think of a band like Pantera. Which, you want to know why Pantera is so Satanic? Because it's found in the Talmud and the Talmud literally calls Jesus Christ the son of Pantera. It says, like, Ben Pantera, which Ben is like son of and Pantera is the name of a Roman soldier that they believe committed adultery with Mary and caused Jesus Christ to be brought forth. They literally just use this name Pantera as like a cuss word to talk about the Lord Jesus Christ. And then it's some coincidence, right, that a rock band in America is named Pantera. No, no, no, it's not a coincidence, folks. Avenged Sevenfold. You want to know where that comes from? Oh, yeah, it talks about from people in the Bible being cursed by God for killing people. And how they're going to be avenged. Cain was avenged Sevenfold if anybody killed him. But, you know, it's a weird mark on them saying that they're evil and that they're Satanic and that they're a reprobate. Why would you literally want to take that name? I mean, Judas Priest, I wonder, that one's pretty hard to figure out, right? I wonder where that guy got that name from, right? I mean, virtually all of these people are just pawns of the devil. They're unclean spirits that are literally leeching onto and taking control of these people and manifesting themselves in these people. And then they're celebrated at the Emmys, at the Grammys, at all of these award shows. Look, it's just a demon-filled, Satanic ritual. I mean, why do you think they've become so Satanic as of late? I guarantee a lot of them are literally demon-possessed. Many of the Hollywood celebrities and people that are looked up to in our world, the idols. I mean, think about it. The idols of the Old Testament were literal rocks and stones. And what the Bible says is when they were offering sacrifices under those idols, they were actually worshiping devils. And here's the thing. The Hollywood celebrities of our day are literally called what? Idols. There's a show called American Idol. And let me explain something. They are demon-possessed. And when you're worshiping America's idols, the Hollywood idols today, you're often not even worshiping that person. You're worshiping a literal devil and unclean spirit. Oh, but I got their poster on my wall. Oh, but I love all the things they do. They're such a good actor. You want to know why they're such a good actor? Because they're not even in the driver's seat, folks. Because there's a literal demon doing all the acting for them. Acting all crazy and Satanic and weird and perverted. All the smut and the filth that these people do and are into. You're like, ah, you just are envious. I'm not envious of being demon-possessed and being in their little pedophile club. I'm not interested. But let me tell you something. There are real demonic spirits out there that are controlling people and we combat them with this, the sword of the spirit, the word of God. We are fighting a war of words. It is not a flesh battle. We need to preach the gospel. And you know what gets people out of demonic possession? The gospel of Jesus Christ. You know what stops people from ever being possessed? Preaching the gospel and getting them saved. And we want to make people saved before they become reprobate. Because if they keep hardening their heart and no one comes to help them soften that and get that right, it will get so hard that it will never be fixed just like these people. We keep reading about people where their heart is broken at this point. It's just become too hard and it's not going to ever accept the gospel. Verse 15, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed he that watches and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Now, I believe that this verse is kind of interesting because it says, Behold, I come as a thief. You know, obviously we've already had the rapture. That's already happened. And I think it's accurate to label that the second coming. Because the Bible describes in the text as Christ coming with clouds. So the word coming is used for that reaping event. But I don't think that that means that he can't ever come again. Because if you think about it, he comes with clouds, he reaps us. But then we're still in heaven with the Lord and he has 144,000 going out with him for this period of time. There's another coming that's actually mentioned in scripture and that's going to be this battle of Armageddon when he's coming. And I believe that's what's being alluded to here. He's talking about that specific arrival. Some people will reject pre-trib, which is great, but then they kind of subscribe to the second coming being what's called post-tribulation. Post-tribulation, but not pre-wrath. We're post-tribulation, pre-wrath. But there's also a post-tribulation, post-wrath view. When I was growing up, that was the only view I ever heard about. So anytime I ever heard post-tribulation, I always heard this view. Where basically when Christ comes on the horse, that's the second coming. And that is when, again, some people disagree on that even being a rapture or not. I don't want to get into all these fringe views, but that is another view that's out there. I think it's just more accurate to understand that the Bible's not putting numbers here. It doesn't say anywhere the second coming, and it's not saying the third coming or the fourth coming or any of those kind of things. We have to read everything in a context, right? And we've already established the timeline, and this is already post the rapture. We've already established that, so it can't be talking about the rapture. So I believe it's just alluding to when he returns from heaven, he comes with the white horse into the battle of Armageddon. Now, then he says, Behold, he comes as a thief. Why is he coming as a thief? Well, the whole world is rejecting him and doesn't really believe in him, so to them he's going to come as a thief. Also, to me, again, this is another verse that kind of helps me think that I'm right, that the world is kind of deceived into believing the two witnesses is kind of the cause of everything. Because in their mind, if you kind of get the timeline, all these plagues are happening during their ministry and their witness, and then everybody's gathered here, and then they overcome the two witnesses and they kill them, and they're rejoicing and giving part, and they're partying thinking, like, sweet. And then what happens? All of a sudden, Armageddon. And it's like he comes on them like a thief, right? Because they're unaware of what's going to really happen, and he's coming upon them. Now, it says here, Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they shall see his saint. I think that, of course, this verse we can take application from, but it's probably geared towards those who end up getting saved during that period of time. You know, the 144,000 are going out preaching the gospel. God willing, many people will still get saved in that horrible period of human history, but also that they'll continue serving God. You know, being clothed is often a picture of righteousness. In 1 John, let's go there for a moment. I think it's chapter 2, the last part of chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2, it's just a few pages to the left. Yeah, look at verse 28. The Bible says this, And now little children abide in him, that when he shall appear, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. You know, there's a possibility to be embarrassed when Christ returns, and the parallel here is being naked, right? If you showed up at church, it's like, good job. You come naked, that's embarrassing, okay? Right? Like, so it's kind of in the same vein of the sense that like, hey, Christ is back. It's like, cool, but you're naked. So you're kind of like embarrassed that you're not in a good state, that you're not clothed, and often that clothing is a picture of righteousness. And so it's just kind of illustrating the importance of being righteous, even when Christ returns. You know, some people think like, I just want to go and hide until Christ gets back, or hide during these periods of time. But you know what? It's better to be having righteousness than doing right, and not be, you know, living for yourself. You're going to be embarrassed. There's going to be some level of shame associated with that. The Bible talks about the judgment seat of Christ, which is not this period of time, right this moment, but there is going to be a judgment seat, and I believe that the judgment seat is most likely like day one of the millennial reign. Okay? So you could argue that it's maybe at the rapture, but I don't really believe it's at the rapture. I believe that essentially we get rapture, resurrected. Then he's going to come down, and we're going to enter into the millennial reign. And as Christ is setting up his kingdom, that's when he's going to reward all of us. That's when we're going to literally inherit the earth, and we're going to receive our recompense of what we did. Okay? And so I think that there's kind of a two-fold aspect of the reward. That's when we really get to realize our reward. That's when we get to have them. And so it's going to be a blessing to those who what? Actually had something to be rewarded by, as opposed to those who I just made it by the skin of my teeth, right? And I don't really have anything. You know, it's going to be those that have their gold, silver, and precious stone that are going to really rejoice in the judgment of Christ. Now the judgment of Christ, the judgment of Christ, is not going to have any kind of bringing up of sin. It's not going to be, you know, your sins are separated as far as the east is from the west, but you could have no works that were good. They were of no eternal value, and so therefore they're burnt up. They don't really benefit us anything. And so therefore you made it into the Millennial Reign. You're there with us, but you're not as greatly rewarded. And then there's going to be some people that I would argue are going to be inheriting ten cities. They're going to be inheriting, you know, large sections of the earth as part of their domain. I don't know how it works. A lot of speculation, but for sure there's going to be rewards, and for sure we're going to experience the rewards of our work in the Millennial Reign of Christ. And so it's important to have been doing right, and especially even for these people. Who do you think, of people that survived through all this, and now Christ has come down, and we're into the Millennial Reign, which of those people do you think is going to reward the better, or allow them to have the most power and authority? It was the people that were doing something in that period of time, not the people that were just living it up and taking advantage of sinning in that period of time. Verse 16, And he gathered them together in a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. Notice the word Hebrew. You know, the Bible emphasizes Hebrew in Greek. Verse 17, And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done. So we have the different plagues, and essentially we talked about four rivers and fountains of water turned to blood, eight, somehow the sun, something happens to the sun, and it causes even more heat. So if you thought Texas was hot, just wait, all right? Then the fifth was darkness, kind of reminiscent of those plagues that we read about in Egypt. Perhaps, you know, the Bible talks about the sun being darkened, and maybe just the way that the sun's darkened, or however that works, it just kind of affects that section of the earth. So it's just like, if you're in the Middle East, you're just in darkness no matter what, as a result of some cosmic change that God has performed. Also, the Euphrates is dried up as that sixth punishment, so that great army can be gathered together for that Armageddon. And then in verse, I'm sorry, the seventh one, you have a great earthquake being mentioned. It says, Such a great earthquake, in verse number 18, 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. This is really interesting. It says in verse 20, And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. Did you notice there's this, like, interesting little tidbit? It says in verse 18, And there's a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake. It doesn't say, like, forever. Like, this is just the greatest earthquake that's ever happened. It's like as long as men were on the earth. And then it also has an indication here about islands disappearing and mountains not being found. Now, again, I don't know. This is just a thought. There was a topography change of the earth before men were on it, where essentially the dry land appeared. The dry land came up, and all the water was gathered together as seas, because the Bible talks about, at first, the entire earth's surface was covered in water, and how the Spirit of God was moving upon the waters, okay? It's interesting how the Spirit can move upon waters when he has no body. That was a joke, okay, obviously. That's for those people out there that don't think God has any kind of shape or form, all right? How do you move without a shape or a form? I don't know how that works, okay? But anyways, somehow, something happened with the earth, and land came out, and that caused the water to essentially gather together in seas. You know what that tells me? A couple things. Number one, there must have been enough water already on the earth and exposed to cover the entire earth. Because it's literally saying there was a period of time where literally the entire earth was covered. But here's the thing, as you raise certain elements of the earth or the topography, you can now have a change in how the water settles, okay? And then you essentially have a topography change. Apparently, there's another topography change. Now here's the thing, as you take land, if you raise it up, if you're raising portions, what's happening is the surface area is condensing, it's getting smaller. So as the surface area is getting smaller, that's making the waters go down, okay? I'm sorry, yeah, go down, because they have more area to cover, right? Think about it, in order to push the land up, if I had the land by my hands, like I had one side of an island and the other side, and I'm pushing it up, the earth's going upwards, right? It's kind of going in this upward trajectory. But then there's more space now that that water has to cover. So what would happen to the water level is it would go down, it would recede a little bit, okay? So what would be the opposite effect? What if I took the mountain and I start pushing the mountain down, okay? Well then the land's going to stretch out this way and it's going to compact the water and it's going to cause the sea level to what? Rise. So if you have every mountain descending down and making it more level, what would that cause? Well it would cause sea level to rise, and you know what happens when sea level rises? Islands disappear, okay? Because islands are very, very close to the sea level. If you've ever been on an island, you'll notice, it's really close. And also, you know, a lot of coastal areas might be impacted by that. If the sea level is greatly and dramatically, you know, rising. So I think that's just what it's describing. It's basically somehow the topography of the entire earth. I mean the earth's just shaking and rattling and the plates are moving and essentially just mountains and everything is just kind of leveling out. And as a result of that, it's causing islands to even be covered in water. It says in verse 19, And the cities of the nations fell. It's like God's just in one single move. Just basically just reconfiguring the earth. I mean by just the earth shaking. I mean it doesn't matter how much steel and rebar and everything you have on the earth. This kind of an earthquake, it's all going to be rubble. Everything is just wiped out. Everything is destroyed. The entire earth is going to be completely different. So whatever you build is not going to last, folks. I mean I don't care what structure you build, the Statue of Liberty is coming down. Okay? Every idol and every graven image and every building, Trump Tower is going down. The White House is going down. The Burj Khalifa, boom! I mean it's coming straight down, folks. It's all just going to be destroyed and all just turned into rubble. Every single last one, every section, every city is just falling. And it even says the great city was divided. Now, again, what's been the context here so far? Well, if you notice in verse number 10, The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness. We've been talking about the beast and his kingdom. Where is his kingdom? Well, his kingdom is basically set up where the temple of God is, the holy place. That's where he went and blasphemed. So that's Jerusalem. So I think it makes perfect sense, and I think the Bible alludes to the idea of this great city being Jerusalem, where the Antichrist is set up, it's his kingdom, and God is judging that particular city. He's already been judging it. It's not like he started judging it just now. He's been judging it. That's where the beast is. That's where the darkness is. That's where everything's been focused. Everything's been focused on the Middle East. It's been focused in on Jerusalem. That's where I guarantee the vast majority of people have marks. That's where the vast majority of the locusts are. That's where the two witnesses are. That's where the darkness is. I mean, if you were going to say, where is God's judgment just like emphasized and focused, it's just like Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. I mean, just everything's happening here. It's the focal point. It's the epicenter of everything that's been happening. But now it's done. Now we're over. What happens? Then every other city just gets a quick judgment of rubble. And then what does the Bible say? It says in verse number 19, And great Babylon came in remembrance before God. Now why in the world would it bring up this idea of remembrance? First of all, let's think about it. Obviously this is kind of tongue-in-cheek because God is omniscient. It's not like God is like us entirely, but He uses certain language to kind of explain Himself. But in some ways, I think that there probably is some truth to how He thinks, that while He is all-knowing, that maybe He's not necessarily dwelling on every single piece of knowledge at all times, that He does have a current thought or a current, you know, whatever, however that works. I don't know how it works because obviously God can somehow simultaneously understand everything that's happening right now in all of our thoughts and knows the number of the hairs on our head, and He's hearing all of our prayers simultaneously. I don't know how all that works, but in some sense it's like He has a current thought too, you know. And in that sense it's saying like His current thought was not Babylon. So here's the thing. There's no way in my mind for you to reconcile Babylon being the great city. So really, there's some people that say, I think that Babylon is Jerusalem. But if that's true, then who's the great city? I don't know, but to me the great city is clearly Jerusalem. Now, there's lots of places where the Bible uses the word great city. It talks about Jerusalem being a great city. Usually what it means by great city is just simply it's a city with a lot of people in it. And, you know, Nineveh is a great city, okay? I don't think this is Nineveh that we're talking about. But I believe it's pretty clear that Jerusalem has been the focal point of God's judgment. It'd be weird to say like, after punishing them for 42 months, I finally remembered them. It's like we've been doing it for that long. But you know what's an area that really hasn't been focused on? How about America? We've been focusing in on the Middle East. You could almost see if America, which was Babylon, how God's kind of been not really focused on them, not really punishing as much them. Think about this. Only a third of the sea turned to blood, and all the ships are burned up and destroyed, and all this stuff is dead. When we get to Babylon, and we haven't gotten here yet, I'm going a little ahead of myself, you know, what happens is a lot of people are in their ships crying about Babylon. It would be weird if that was the same place where all this blood and destruction and death had happened. That seems non-congruent. It seems like this area has been kind of unaffected. There really hasn't been anything happening. So it's most likely that the blood and the sea and all that was, again, the Middle East section, perhaps near Europe. It could be the Mediterranean Sea that was a lot of that, or some portion of Africa. I don't know. I don't know what it is, but I'm just saying that portion, maybe it's the south portion below India. I don't know. I don't know exactly where it is, but I'm guessing it's probably not near Babylon. That would be a safe guess. And again, that makes sense that America is kind of far removed geographically from all these other places. So we're able to kind of be unaffected by a lot of these things. And maybe it's not that we're unaffected, but it's just not nearly as severe. It's not nearly as prevalent. It's been kind of just like hammering in this one location. I mean, think about it. I'm pretty sure the two witnesses is where a lot of the action is going to be happening. Okay, and they're in Jerusalem. They're in the holy city. So it makes sense to then believe that Babylon is literally any city other than Jerusalem. Like, I'm not going to say that I know for sure which city is Babylon, but I would say this. I feel that Jerusalem is the last city on my list. Like, of all the cities you could possibly wonder, it's the last one. Okay? It's a weird idea, and I don't even know why people want that to be true, but some people do believe that it's true. I think that it just doesn't match Scripture whatsoever. And so I think it's most likely probably New York City. Or it could be like a conglomerate of New York City and Washington, D.C., something over there. It's got to be a port city. Again, Jerusalem's not really a major port city. And think about this. New York really does have, like, the U.N., kind of already has the ten kings. New York is an epicenter of business, trade, world commerce. Many Jews live there. I'm not saying they rule the world or anything, okay? But there's a lot of things that connect with New York City being a possible end times Babylon. It's literally got the Statue of Liberty, and I guarantee God hates that thing with a fervent hatred, okay? So if you were to ask me right now, I would say that's my most likely candidate, but I could be wrong, okay? And so I would think that that area is going to be destroyed really bad. The Bible says in verse 21, And there fell upon men a great hell out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent. And the men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hell, for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Now, just to finish, I think when we think about this chapter as a whole, there's one just kind of main word that comes to mind, and that's just judgment. And that was what was emphasized in the text. In verse number seven, it says, And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. This is a major chapter on the judgment of God, and specifically that something, that His righteous and true judgments. Because you can judge someone unrighteously. You can judge someone falsely. But the thing is, God judges people with truth and with righteousness. God is the perfect judge. What is to judge? It's to form an opinion. Now, this is what's so funny. People say, I don't judge. Oh, so you don't have any thoughts. You're brain dead. I mean, if you don't judge, you have to be brain dead, and even then you might be judging. But other ways to understand judging is sentencing, governing, ruling. Here's a definition that I came up with on my own, as to what I think the Bible is alluding to or talking about when it talks about judge. It's to render fair and a righteous recompense. Now, judgment doesn't always have to be negative. Judgment can be a positive thing, like, I judge this person to do good, so I'm going to give them good. I judge this person to do bad, I'm going to give them bad. But what good judgment, true judgment, righteous judgment is, is giving the right recompense to the right action. And that's why it's talking about, hey, they killed a bunch of people in blood, so we gave them blood to drink. God is saying, this is the right way to judge this. This is why the Old Testament law is so important. God is saying, hey, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, why? Because God is a righteous judge, and when He judges something, He's going to give an equal and an equitable punishment for such judgment. I had tons of places I wanted to go to in the Bible, but we're not going to go to any of them, okay? Except for maybe one, okay? Go to Psalm 37, go to Psalm 37. This is an important concept. God judges. The Bible says this, for I, the Lord, love judgment. For I, the Lord, love judgment. God is going to be known for all of eternity as being a judge. And what's being emphasized consistently in the Bible is the judgment of the Lord. In verse 5, we read, thou art righteous, O Lord, which art and wast and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus. The reason why we will recognize God as being righteous from the past, present, and future is because of how He judged. The way that God judged is how we are going to recognize that He's righteous, that we're going to recognize that He's holy, that we're going to recognize that He's good. Judgment is a key and a pivotal understanding of Christianity. It is a major component of Christianity. And you know, it is so antithetical for Christians to constantly talk negatively about judgment. Oh, I'm a Christian. I don't judge. Well, you're not a Christian then. Christianity and judgment are one and the same. Jesus Christ said to judge not according to the parents, but to judge righteous judgment. Jesus didn't say don't judge ever. He said judge righteous judgment. Does the Bible give caveats and say, hey, don't judge as a hypocrite? Yeah. Does the Bible say, hey, first clean yourself up before you judge? Yes, it does. Does the Bible say, hey, things that you don't understand and can't comprehend, don't judge those things? Yes, it does. But you know what it doesn't say? Never judge. It never says that. That is not what the Bible teaches. And you know what? God loves judgment. The Bible talks so much about God judging, and specifically even in the earth. There's a psalm that I've been trying to set to music, and I kind of have it. I just haven't finished it. I want to sing it. But it's Psalm 58, and I love the ending part of it because it says that the righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance. He shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked. So the man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous. Verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth. Sometimes we think, oh, God only judges in the afterlife or something. No, no, no. God judges in the earth. And everything that we're reading about in Revelation chapter 16 are judgments in the earth. You got the mark of the beast? Get a sword. Hey, you killed people? Drink blood. And then they're going to experience locust from hell. They're going to experience literal darkness. They're going to experience all kinds... I mean, that's just the precursor to hell because hell's darkness too. They're going to suffer all kinds of pain and hail and fire and earthquake. And here's another thing, the loss of everything. What does the earthquake kind of represent? The loss of everything. And you know what? Going to hell is just the loss of everything. Psalm 37, look at verse 28. For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints. They are preserved forever, but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. Notice that the Bible says that the Lord loveth judgment. There's so much on this. I would love to spend more to talk about it. But really, just to sum it up, think about this. If God always gives an equitable judgment... Hey, you poke someone's eye out, you get your eye poked out. You rip someone's tooth out, you lose your tooth, right? You steal their sheep, you have to give them another sheep back. It's like basically God's constantly giving people what they deserve and a righteous judgment over and over. So think about it this way. If you reject an eternal salvation, what would be the just recompense for that? I mean, if what's offered to you is a forever redemption, where you get unlimited pleasure and bliss that you don't deserve, and it's offered to you freely, and you reject that, what would be the righteous recompense? Well, it would be the opposite, wouldn't it? What would be the opposite of that eternal damnation? Some people think like hell doesn't make sense or doesn't seem like the right judgment. It is the exact right judgment. It is the perfect judgment because of how good salvation is. Because of how good salvation is and because of what's being offered and put on the table, then the opposite has to be the worst thing imaginable that's offered unto people. And you know what? We'll be able to sing in all of eternity of how righteous God was for doling out such a judgment. It's hard to fathom how hell... You know, people are like, I just don't think anybody deserves hell. Everyone that goes to hell deserved it because they rejected eternal salvation. They didn't want that. And as a response, what do they get? Eternal damnation. And we can look at God and we can see that He has a righteous judge. He's the only righteous judge. He's the only one that doles out such a thing. You know, for other gods like Allah or the God of Islam, you know, there is no justice with Him. He just simply waves His hand and just does whatever He wants. It's willy-nilly. There's no reasoning or logic. Think about the God of Calvinism. Also not really making any sense. Why would you send someone to hell when they didn't do anything? I mean, if Calvinism is true, then God is not a just judge. He's not a righteous judge. The reason why someone gets eternal damnation is because they rejected eternal salvation, which is the fair and righteous recompense for such an offering. Whereas those in Calvinism, they'll say they just go to hell for God's pleasure. God doesn't get pleasure in just burning people in hell. You know what God gets pleasure in? Having righteous judgments. That's what God gets pleasure in. Having judged rightly. Saying, this is what's fair. This is what's equitable. This is what's right. This is what's true. And in every single instance, God will always judge what's right. And we should fear God. Because you know what? Tomorrow, whatever you do, God will give you a fair and an equitable recompense to what you do tomorrow. So if you do good, God is going to give you something good for that. If you do something evil, watch out. Because sometime in the future, you're going to get an equitable judgment for that. And those who fear God will actually take that seriously. Your actions demonstrate how much you fear God. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us this chapter. And thank you for being such a righteous judge. For always doing right. For being equitable and fair. And I pray that we would have a greater fear of God in our lives. And I also thank you that we don't always get what we deserve. That sometimes you allow mercy to triumph over judgment. But I pray that we wouldn't take that for granted. That we would fear the Lord. That we would understand that there's always going to be a recompense. That you judge us in this life. And I pray that we would take seriously the moments that we have now to try and reach a dying and a lost world. These people will be eternally damned if they don't accept the Gospel. I pray that we would take it seriously. That we would have a desire in our hearts to see people saved. And to live our lives to be pleasing unto you. That we would be clothed and that we wouldn't be embarrassed and ashamed when you return. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. For our last song we're going to go to song number 397. Song number 397. Little is much when God is in it. Song number 397. Little is much when God is in it. Sing it out. In God's field, now bright men, There's a work for all to do. Hark the voice of God is calling, To the heart is calling you. Little is much when God is in it. Pray for God, for wealth, for fame. There's a crown and you can win it, If you'll know in Jesus' name. Does the place you're long to be heard, Seem so small and little known? It is great when God is in it, And you'll not forget his home. Little is much when God is in it, Pray for God, for wealth, for fame. There's a crown and you can win it, If you'll know in Jesus' name. Are you made aside from service, Body born from toilet care? You can sit with me in the battle, In the sacred place of prayer. Little is much when God is in it, Pray for God, for wealth, for fame. There's a crown and you can win it, If you'll know in Jesus' name. When the conflict here is ended, And our race on earth is run, He will say to all the faithful, Welcome home, my child well done. Little is much when God is in it, Pray for God, for wealth, for fame. There's a crown and you can win it, If you'll know in Jesus' name. Good singing everybody.