Transcription
Revelation 16 is right there. It's, we're right in the middle of the tribulation events that go from chapter 6 to 18. That are constantly flipping between two cameras: Heaven, Earth, Heaven, Earth, Heaven, Earth. You know, and the angels come up and they blow their trumpets or dump their bowls, and we see them in heaven, and all of a sudden we see what it's doing on Earth. And as soon as you get that time and space, you know, the, the history and the geography going.
The Book of Revelation, it's just, it's just the most beautiful script for a movie that God sent us. But if you don't see that, it gets real confusing. So always look for where are we? Are we up in heaven around the throne and the angels and God and the angel leading John around? Or are we down seeing what's happening on Earth?
But this is what we're looking at. What happens when people get what they really want? See, God, Ecclesiastes 5 and verse two says, "Be careful what you say. God is in heaven and you're on Earth. Let your words be few." What, what is Solomon in Ecclesiastes saying? He's saying, God actually hears what you say, and he reads your heart, and he knows what you really, really want. Watch out, you might get it.
Okay, what happens when people on Earth get what they really want? Earth becomes literally a living hell. What do I mean by that? Chapter 16 gives everyone on Earth an opportunity to experience what hell will forever be like, and gives them a chance to say, "God, I don't want that. I don't want that. I don't want that." Because remember, during chapter 16, we still have that gospel angel going, "Hey, you can fear God and turn from your sin and worship him." But if you don't, here comes another bowl.
Okay, number one, verse one: "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple." So where are we? We're in heaven, saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth." Now, these bowls, again, remember 404 verses in Revelation, 800 connections back to the Old Testament. It's massive. It's like a web. These bowls are right out of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. All that Tabernacle stuff, all those sacrifices. Part of what they're doing there is they're collecting blood in these bowls and doing all kind of, and, and the other offerings in these bowls.
What they are is they're kind of like, if you ever go to a really high-end, you know, Italian restaurant, they don't have round bowls that look like cereal bowls. They have these wider, shallower, and they bring out the pasta in these fancier bowls. That's what these are. They're the, they're not deep, they're shallow and they're wide. And so these angels are walking out with these basins or bowls of wrath, God's anger poured out on sin. And they're picturing for us how God dumps his wrath on the earth. And they go like this. So that's what happens. And they pour out the bowls of wrath.
So the first angel went, he poured out his bowl on the earth, and look what happens. This is the gross part. "A foul and loathsome sore came upon men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image." Life without Jesus is kind of like incurable cancer. That sore is like a picture. And remember I told you about Petti Frank Peretti, the, the Christian, uh, fiction writer in the '80s that wrote the most amazing book about all this stuff about angels and demons and the battle, the unseen battle going on? And one of his books, he portrays sin as black tar oozing out of people. You know, you can't see sin. I mean, the, the actual spiritual entity of sin, which is rebellion and lawlessness against God, it's invisible. It manifests itself in behavior, but you can't see sin. So Paretti illustrates sin like this black oozing. And, and people would be talking, I mean, it's really gross, and the black would ooze out of their mouth, kind of like they were lying or whatever. And the people would be look, you know, men would be looking at women, and black tar would be oozing out of their eyes, you know, understand what I mean? He was saying they were sinning. And he illustrates sin with black tar. God illustrates sin like a foul and loathsome sore, like a cancerous tumor growing on people. Wow.
Now, how, how are the people reading this supposed to get something good out of that? Well, Revelation, we have hope because they were living immersed in a sea of lost humanity. And lost humanity believes in evolution, reveres the earth, denies biblical creationism. So God sends the final divine environmental destructions to show them who's in charge. So the early church was saying, "Wow, all these people around us that have built these 100-foot-high temples with these giant columns and everything, that their whole life revolves around, the judge is going to get their attention someday." Now, we hope he gets this group's attention now when they hear the gospel.
So God, the Son, the Creator, systematically destroys the atmosphere, the oceans. That's what these bowls are. And they're seeing him get the attention. And by the way, the chapter we're in right now ends with one of the most well-known parts of the Bible. And we use "Armageddon" in language all the time. Uh, recently a coastal storm on the East Coast, they called it "Snowmageddon." You know, and then they had this traffic jam, and they called it "Trafficmageddon." What are they talking about? They're news people, Weather Channel, CNN, New York Times, they all know the vocabulary of the Bible, and they know that there's this big thing coming. And that's what we're looking at. And this is, this is the run-up to it. Armageddon is here. The, the coming across the Euphrates is here. The three demons like frogs going to battle are coming. In the middle of that, all of them are these bowls. Sorry, I didn't have a bowl, I just have a pot, but you know what I mean. You kind of understand what it is. It's something being poured out. And the first one are these sores. We're looking at, uh, the sea, uh, the seas become blood and all die.
Now, look at the parallelism. When we were down here in the trumpets, only a mountain hit the oceans, and only a third of all the creatures died. Uh, a burning, you know, mountain or something came down and hit, and a third of the trees died. But here, they, it doesn't talk about the trees. But then the rivers and waters, a third were destroyed. All are destroyed here. A third of the sun, all of the sun. So you see there's, there's a little bit of parallelism. But the big thing about chapter 16 is it goes from the judgment of the thirds to the judgment of the all. God finally says, "All the lights are going out. All the waters being poisoned." And that shows it's, it's getting faster and faster and faster on until the culmination. Because Armageddon is interrupted by the second coming. You understand that? Armageddon battle, it's, it's a unique battle. There aren't shots fired. They're all gathering to fight God. And God, the Son, shows up. We'll see in chapter 19, and he just speaks, and they just all die. It just, it's amazing.
Okay, point number two, verse three. "The second angel comes out of the temple and pours his bowl on the sea, and it becomes like the blood of a dead man, and every, not a third, every creature alive in the oceans." They cover 78% of the surface of the Earth. That means more than 3/4 of every living thing dies instantly right there. And the third angel poured his bowl on the rivers and springs of water. You know, the Great Lakes and all these beautiful lakes everyone fishes in up here in the Adirondacks, and they become blood, which makes them undrinkable.
And I heard the, oh, now this is curious. I underlined it because I didn't want you to miss that. "The angel of the waters." You see the mythology and the Greek pantheon and all the religions of the world all talk about deities associated with water, oceans, storms, everything. Did you know that every era usually has a little grain of truth in it? God does watch over everything, and he does have an angel of the waters. Earlier, I didn't, uh, emphasize it to you. It talked about the angel that had to do with fire, and there's the angel that has to do, I already told you, with Greece and with Persia and everything else. And so God is far more involved in everything around us than most of us really think about. But the angel of water said, "You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and was and is to be." Which talks about God's eternality, his self-existence. Remember way back first week we talked about all those 25 attributes of God? They're more, uh, the attributes of God are more illustrated in Revelation than any other book in the Bible. The Book of Revelation is probably the most complete revelation of the character of God, and it is absolutely the most complete revelation of Jesus Christ.
Now, that's one question on your test. The first verse of this book, it's the only book in the Bible, the first verse actually gives the theme in such a clear way. And that is, the first word of this is *apocalypsis*, that means unveiling of Jesus Christ. So Jesus Christ is unveiled as what? That's what I've been telling you every hour. All that I need, the whole book is unveiling Jesus Christ. Jesus is what I need when I'm like John in chapter 1, lonely. When I'm like the churches in chapter 2 and 3, kind of not doing what I'm supposed to do. When I'm like the saints wondering where I'm headed, that's chapter 4 and 5. Jesus is all I need. I'm going to worship Him. And Jesus is all I need to make sense of the world, that's 6 to 18. And Jesus is all I need to write all wrongs, that's chapter 19. And Jesus is all I need to clean up the environment, because that's what he does in chapter 20. And Jesus is all I need forever, that's 21 and 22. See, the whole book is about Jesus revealed as all I need.
"For they have shed the blood of the saints and the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is their just due." God is not mocked. Whatever you sow, you reap the wrath of God because of their horrible things they've done.
Okay, now we're in verses 8, 9. "The fourth angel comes out, pours his bowl on the sun. Power was given to him, the sun, to scorch men with fire. As men are scorched with great heat, they blaspheme the name of God who has power over these plagues." How do you like that? And they did not repent. That shows the absolute hardness of people's hearts. It's the same thing that went on in Egypt. Do you remember Moses and the gods of Egypt? And there they're squaring off, and Pharaoh is the head of all the religions of Egypt. And Moses, little Moses, who struggled talking, he had like some kind of speech impediment. He says, "God, don't send me, send Aaron. I can't talk." And God says, "I'm sending you, and I'll send Aaron too, and you will talk." And he does. And he squares off with the gods of Egypt. And one by one, if you know anything about Egyptian, the pantheon, those plagues hit every one of the key gods. I mean, they worship the cows, all the cows died. They worship the sun, sun goes out. They worship the Nile, it becomes blood. They worship the fish in the Nile, the fish died. They worshiped the frog, there's so many Egyptian frogs in their deity drawings, he multiplies the frogs. You understand what I mean? Everything in their pantheon is hit. Right here, God is hitting everything that mankind needs, like the sun, and they refuse. They harden, just like Egypt and Pharaoh. Humans harden their hearts. They won't give God glory.
Then verse 10: "The fifth angel poured his bowl on the throne of the Beast." So the headquarters city. Sounds like it could be, you know, uh, some Western. It's probably some Western city, you know, Western European. Uh, it might not be. Did you know that, uh, if you look at a map of the Roman Empire, if I was teaching in the book of Acts, I'm sure that, you know, Chris did this. You look at the Roman Empire. Then, did you know that right now, 2/3 of what used to be the Roman Empire is Islamic? And if the Lord carries for for 20 more years, it'll be far more Islamic. Did you know the birth rate for those, uh, refugees that are coming into Europe? I mean, they have an average of four, five, or six children each family. Do you know what the average UK, German, Nordic country, French, Italian, Western European country, you know what the average birth rate is? 1.7, 8, 9, maybe that's high. You know what that means in one generation, in 20 years? That means that the number of Western Europeans is shrinking just like this, and the number of Islamic refugees moving in is going up exponentially. France will be primarily an Islamic country in 20 years. Italy, the United Kingdom. You understand what I mean? So it's very possible that the Antichrist over Western Europe, the revived Roman Empire, is involved with Islam. Why do I say that? Oh, why, I hate to go back, but when we were in chapter 6, how were the martyrs killed? Do you remember? It says, "The souls of those beheaded." What is the prime way of Islamic execution? Beheading. It is very possible that the leader of the revived Roman Empire is a follower of Allah, and he merges all the religions of the world. We'll get to that in the next chapter. They don't repent.
Now look at verse 10. He poured his, I mean, back to this. He poured his, his bowl on the throne of the Beast, which could be Rome, could be wherever it is, uh, could be, you know, in somewhere in the Middle East. "And his kingdom became full of darkness, and it's so dark they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven." And look again, they, they know God is doing it, and they refuse to respond to him. They won't repent.
So all the people getting this letter, most of them are slaves, most of them are suffering, most of them are persecuted, most of them have no choices in life. If you're a slave, you didn't have a choice in life. You didn't save money and go to school. You just worked from sunrise to sunset or later. Okay, how do you keep from depression? How do you keep from hopelessness and emptiness? Jesus is all I need. I, I know Him. I love Him. I know where I'm going. I know what's coming ahead. I know God's going to right all wrongs. I can live for God in my ever-darkening world. I can make my little job as a slave become an offering for God. I can become the best slave of whatever for the glory of God. Wow. See, that's why Christianity entered Caesar's house. Paul says that in Philippians, "Those of Caesar's house greet you." Wow. Who were those people in Caesar's house? Soldiers and slaves. And those people were coming to Christ because they could never be the emperor, they could never have riches and wealth in that system. Back then, there was just too much of a divide. And they had Christ, and that's all they needed.
Well, it's really interesting when you think about this theme of getting what you really wanted. Bonnie and I, one of our privileges was pastoring in Rhode Island. I'll never forget those years that we were in Rhode Island, the most Roman Catholic state. And the first thing, I mean, we moved to Rhode Island, and the first thing I saw in Rhode Island was this guy. Everybody knew him in our little tiny town. He was this black belt, ex-Navy SEAL, bodybuilder guy. He walked around town with two 10-pound barbells. He just wore tiny shorts, his athletic shoes, and sweat. He was built like, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be built, if you ever heard of him, or Mr. Universe, whoever you've seen those bodybuilder guys. I mean, the perfect V, the little tiny waist, and I mean his arms, he just effortlessly were pumping 10-pounders. So we all knew him. He was a little disgusting, his shorts were too short, he was really showy. And, uh, he would cut across our parking lot of the church. And so one, you know, I mean, everybody, everybody knew him. No one knew him. Everyone had seen him. One day I was sitting at my desk at that Rhode Island, very quiet, docel church. My secretary, provided by the church, was 80 years old because one of their other pastors had, you know, maybe not been, you know, discreet. And so they decided they're going to give all their pastors a very elderly secretary, so nothing happens. You know, I said, "Oh, great. You know, I'm, I, I love 80-year-old secretaries." She's only about this high, sweet as can be. I heard a commotion outside my door. I heard her kind of bumping against my door like this, and I heard someone talking, and she was saying, "No, no, no." And so I came to the door and I opened it, and there was this little 4-foot-5, 80-year-old secretary trying not to touch Mr. Sweat. It was him with the shorts. She was going, "You can't, you can't go in there. He's studying the Bible." And this Mr. Power Walker guy said, "I want to see the father." He was Roman Catholic. "The father, the priest." Me. He wanted to see me. I said, "Okay, let him in. I want to meet him." She didn't like it. She backed up, you know, and kind of the sweat off of her hands. And he came in, dropped his barbells, and he looked at me and he said, and he told me his life story. He was all that stuff, Delta Force, you know, special commando, Mr. Weightlifter, black belt. He says, "I always get what I want." He said, "I go to every night to a different bar in Providence. He said, "I look over the bar, find the prettiest, most striking woman in the place, and I come and I slide into the seat next to her and just put my arm around her, hoping she brought a guy with her." Because he said, "If the guy has got anything to him, he'll defend that's his girl, and he'll come up and do something like push me or threaten me or, you know, make a motion toward me." And he said, "I can knock him out just like on TV." You ever seen, you know, how quickly Jason Bourne can just, it's like it's funny, you know, any of those people, they just knock them out. He said, "That's what I was good at. He said, "I always got the girls. Every night, I always get the prettiest girl in every bar because he said, "I knock out the guy, and she thinks I'm amazing and goes home with me." And he says, "You know what?" He says, "It's the most empty." He said, "I got everything I wanted, and I found it empty." And he says, "The reason I'm here is I walk across your church parking lot on Sundays." And he said, "Walking between the people getting out of the cars, going in and helping their kids and handing them their Bibles and putting them in strollers and everything." He said, "I feel something I don't feel anywhere else, anywhere, not even in the bars, nowhere." He said, "I feel something." And he said, "What is it here?" I said, "I realize what he wanted to know about salvation." And so I took my Bible and I started on the Romans Road. And he's standing, dripping in front of me on the carpet. I mean, wearing just those little shorts and just sweating profusely. And I was holding my Bible up, reading it. And after I got done, I was getting ready to ask him if he wanted to be saved. And I pulled my Bible down, and he was gone. And I thought, he didn't hear the ending. And then I looked, and he was lying face down on the ground. He said, "You just described me." He said, "He was falling before the Lord, asking for forgiveness." Unlike the people in Revelation 16. And the good news is, and that's why I printed this out for you, um, I led him to Christ. I mean, he's on the floor already, so I got down on my knees, and we prayed and called in the name of the Lord, and he got saved. He got up so excited. I handed him a paperback Bible and I said, "You can start reading this. This is the New Testament." He came to church. That was like Wednesday. On Sunday, he was in church. By the way, he was wearing clothes. I didn't even know he had clothes. He was wearing clothes, and he had his paperback Bible, and he had read between Wednesday and Sunday the New Testament from Matthew all the way. He got to Titus and he said to me, "I found myself in the Bible." I said, "Where?" He said, "Titus 3:4, 'For we ourselves were also once foolish,' he said, 'that was me. Disobedient,' he said, 'deceived, serving lusts and pleasures, living in malice.' He said, 'I love to beat people up, and envy and hateful, and hating one another. But,' he said, 'on Wednesday, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. And he said, 'that it was nothing I did, but his mercy he saved me and washed me and poured on me abundantly through Christ. I'm an heir.'" And I said, "Boy, you need to be baptized." Because we baptized people, and they gave their testimonies. And I thought, wouldn't it be a powerful thing for all these people in New England who thought he was, you know, a little because of the way he dressed and everything, to hear that testimony? So he stood in the baptistry in front of the entire church at our next baptismal service and read that verse. And he said, "I, you might not recognize me, but he said, 'I'm the one that used to walk across your parking lot.'" And he told the whole story. Now, that's what God would like to happen to everyone. But that's not what happens in Revelation.
And what, what I think about is, we need to let God grab our heart. That we are given the gospel. In fact, I was telling one of you, um, that told me you're going to be an electrician. I said, "You know, I just reloaded my wallet. Here's my gospel track." I use the famous God's Simple Plan of Salvation gospel track. They only cost a nickel, and I give so many of them out. I used to give out those 50-cent tracks. They're hard to keep in stock. So I bought the five-cent ones that just have the scripture, God's Simple Plan of Salvation. I take it, I say, "Lord, I pray you'd give me a divine appointment to share your word." I put it in my wallet and look. You hear the stories. I mean, this guy came busting down my door, uh, and everyone else that, that you just ask, ask God, say, "Grab my heart. I want to live the way you want me to live in these dark days." And there are a lot of people like Mr. Power Walker that need to hear the gospel. Some of you don't feel like sharing the gospel. So I advise you, if you've never done this before, you ought to find John Piper's Anthem. All you type in Google is "Piper Anthem," and this will come up. And this is how to overcome any besetting sin. You heard Justin say it, avoid. Remember he said, "You get a flip phone or whatever the avenue of sin is." Piper says the same thing. Avoid the sights and situations that arouse unfitting desire. Say no to every lustful thought within five seconds. You go, "Well, I'm a girl and I don't have those awful, base lustful thoughts." Did you know it's just as bad to lust for clothes, hair, nails, outfits, the perfect figure, as it is the, the kind of the gross lust that some people think are gross? Did you know the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are all equally horrible? The lust of the eyes is for finer things, you know, the better shoes, the better whatever. And all of them are lusts. And lust is an extreme desire for something other than God. And so, uh, turn your mind forcefully toward Christ is all you need. Hold the promises and pleasures. You know, this is how Piper talks. I love the promises and pleasures of Christ firmly in your mind till it pushes everything out. Enjoy a superior satisfaction. I said that to you the first week. I said, "You know what? You want to feel the power of God? Say no to sin and ask Jesus to help you. You'll feel this surge of grace." Paul put it this way in Romans 6: "Where sin abounded, what grace superabounds, overflows." You get this blast of grace. Piper calls it a superior satisfaction. And move on into useful activity. Usually, when I find young people that are struggling with anything, I say, "And tell me a little bit about the verses you're memorizing and meditating on." They go, "You mean my assignments?" I said, "No, I don't mean your assignments. I mean the verses you find in the Bible that exactly meet the needs of your heart to pursue Christ. What are you meditating on?" Turn to that, and it's amazing what the Lord will do.
Well, back to, uh, chapter 16. Now, number six is coming out of the temple, pouring his bowl on the Euphrates. It dries up, and all of a sudden, they, out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the Beast, so out of Satan's mouth, out of the Antichrist's mouth, and out of the false prophet's mouth are spirits of demons performing signs. And they go all over the world to the kings of the world and gather them together to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. And the place is called in Hebrew, Har Megiddo. So the plain of Esdraelon has a hill called Har Megiddo. It's a perfect triangle-shaped battlefield. And God is summoning through those demons, because of the sixth bowl, all these armies to come. And they come. Why is that? Because God has already staked his name on Israel. In Hosea, he calls Jerusalem "my city." And in Jeremiah 31, he said, "He will gather all these people to fight against him." It's the, it's the finale of the world. Armageddon is God gathering them to fight. He describes it, by the way, Zechariah 12 and 14 is unbelievable. It says that all these armies come, they're gathered around, and as the Lord returns, you remember what happens? It's really gross, but the Bible says it, so I'll repeat it. Their eyes, all these soldiers coming to fight against God, see the returning Christ. Look up at Him, and they don't have their eclipse glasses on, and their eyes melt in their sockets. And it says their tongues melt, dissolve in their mouths, and they die. That's why I said it's a little anticlimactic. There's not a shot fired. Jesus returns and melts all those enemies. Jerusalem, during the tribulation period, is the focus of all the nations on Earth. Did you know I always think about poor Zechariah? Zechariah is writing in the 6th century BC about Jerusalem. The church history, or or Jewish tradition tells us that he actually lived and walked around Jerusalem. What did Jerusalem look like in the 6th century, uh, after the Babylonian captivity destruction? It looked like a whole bunch of burned, blackened, tumbled rocks. There were a few people living here and there. And he said that the Lord, "The Lord will go forth and fight against those nations when he fights in the day of battle. And his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which is in front of Jerusalem." And all the nations of the Earth are going to be coming there. And he, he must have thought, "Why would any nation of the Earth come here? There's nothing here. It's all broken down." But see, God knew what's coming. Israel is the focus of every news. Everybody's covering Jerusalem. I mean, there are news bureaus where they have reporters and people that are taking pictures. And Washington D.C. is important, New York's important, Moscow's important, you know what I mean? Beijing is important. And but boy, for its size, Jerusalem is unbelievable. Everybody wants to know what's going on there. Why? Because God says, "These are my people." By the way, God says that in the 6th century BC, and he says it at the end of human history. History. And so they're still his people. They were 2600 years ago, they will be seven years from now at the second coming of Christ. Seven plus years from now, because we don't know when he's returning in the second coming. And Jerusalem is not only always the Jewish people are my people, but the city is always my city.
Well, what does Armageddon look like, uh, real quickly? Daniel 11 kind of fills in the pieces that Revelation 16, where we are right now, and 19. 19 is Jesus coming down to Armageddon. 16 is all of them coming to Armageddon. Daniel 11 is where they come from. It says the kings of the north come, the kings of the East come, the kings of the South come, and the Antichrist comes from the West. That's why we always say that the Antichrist is leading the revived Roman Empire, because that was always West. See, the Roman Empire was here, and it, they were struggling with Parthia, and they had this, and they had the fringe of the Black Sea, but it was always west of Israel. So the revived Roman Empire comes. The kings of the South, kings of the East, kings of the North.
Well, let's think a little bit about charts. Okay, here's a great chart. This is, you've already had Daniel, or you'll have Daniel. This is Daniel's 70 weeks. 69 weeks, an interval. During the interval, Daniel says Jesus is crucified, Jerusalem's Temple is destroyed. Then after an undetermined amount of time, the final seven years, the final week. By the way, it doesn't say in Daniel "week," it says "heptad." It's a heptad, is a group of seven. So there are 69 groups of seven, and then there's one group of seven. And Daniel tells us in the middle of the one group of seven, there's going to be this covenant enforced and then broken. And at the middle, the abomination of desolation is set up. And that launches the whole period is called the tribulation. But that middle point launches the Great Tribulation. You all know this. The second coming is the yellow. This is for sure. That's the red is the battle of Armageddon. We've been talking about it. It's chapter 16, chapter 19, Zechariah 12, Zechariah 14. We know the temple's rebuilt. We covered that all yesterday. You, and here's the rapture. This is before the launching of the Antichrist's reign. But look at this. What is this? Oh, that's Ezekiel 38, 39. When is that going to happen? That's a good question. When is that going to happen? Is Ezekiel 38 the battle of Armageddon? Well, that's interesting. In the battle of Armageddon, everyone comes east, west, north, south. In Ezekiel 38, 39, very specific countries come. So here we go. World War I is what most people think Armageddon is. I would be cautious about that. It appears there are two battles. It appears there's a battle at the front end of the tribulation, and we know for sure there's a finale Armageddon. World War I may not be what we're reading about in Revelation 16 that I just read to you, because there's a war in Psalm 83, there's a war in Ezekiel 38-39, and then we have this Daniel 11 and Revelation 16, and also Revelation 19. So what's the difference between them? Well, let's just look at headlines. You all know this. Iran has been bucking all the UN and US and everybody else, you know, nuclear inspectors, and have been quietly making enriched uranium. They either already have it or they're like within a week or two of having enough fissile material to assemble an atomic bomb. And you say, "How could they do that?" Well, remember the Pakistanis have had an atomic bomb, you know, for decades, and there are many poor Pakistanis that can go anywhere. The Chinese have had atomic knowledge, and there are many poor Chinese that would defect and take their knowledge with them. The Russians, you understand what I mean? There is a lot of knowledge about how to make atomic bombs out there. The French gave their resources for Israel to make theirs in the '50s. So I mean, I, there's no doubt Iran will probably get their atomic bomb. So what's the headline says, "The strikes needed to defeat Iran's capabilities would require a coordination with the United States." Uh, US-Israeli relations have deteriorated, but since Netanyahu returned to power, the Biden administration would not allow the US Air Force to help Israel. Do you know what a conflagration would start if Israel attacks Iran? Well, guess what? I didn't have time while I was working, while I was typing these words on this half of the slide, a headline came through both Bloomberg and the New York Times. Those are both very reputable places. And what they said is, "The US expects Iran to fire a volley of missiles and drones at Israel within the next week." Not Houthis, not Hezbollah, not Hamas. Iran. Israel instantly got on and did a newscast this morning. They said, "If Iran, if one missile comes from the territory of Iran, we will go in and destroy their atomic facility." Remember, the Israelis invented the neutron bomb. Did you know that? The Israelis invented the neutron bomb. Do you know what the neutron bomb is? It's an amazing bomb that doesn't destroy buildings. If they hit the Word of Life campus with a neutron bomb, it would just devastate every living thing. The fish would die, the trees would die, all the grass would die, all of us would die, and the buildings should all still be here. It's a great invention, so you don't have to clean up. And also the neutrons would dissipate. It's a little different than the plutonium and U-238 and all the stuff, cesium and everything that comes out. All I'm saying is, we're living in unusual times.
What does Psalm 83 say? That's a different war. In Psalm 83, it describes the Moab, the Hagarenes, Gebal, Ammon, Amalek, Philistia, Tyre, and Assyria. And we read that, and we go, "Ah, that's really interesting." But those people did not all simultaneously ever were they in power attacking or threatening Israel. Never. They're from a, a very vast timeline of people. I mean, you know, you know all these from the Bible. I mean, the Philistines, the people of Tyre, you know, they were helping build the temple. The Assyrians, I mean, but look who they are now. The people that used to live in Moab are now inhabited by the Palestinians and the central Jordanians. The Hagarenes, where was Hagar from? The Egyptians. Hezbollah is Gebal and Northern Lebanon. Ammon is the Palestinians and Northern Jordanians. Amalek are all the Arabs of the Sinai area. Hamas of the Gaza Strip is Philistia. Uh, I mean, they even call themselves Palestinians, which is after Philistia, the Philistines. Um, Tyre is Hezbollah and Southern Lebanon. And Assyria are the Syrians and Northern Iraqis. Did you know it's very possible that the Ezekiel 38 war is not Armageddon? What happens, by the way, in the Ezekiel 38 war? It says they come from the north, the Scythians, which are the ancestral inhabitants of what we call Russia today, and all of the hordes of that, which would be all of Uzbekistan, Turkistan. Iran is named by name. Northern Africa is named, and Ethiopia and Sudan are named. I mean, the Houthis are being armed by Sudan and Iran. And they're, I mean, this is all shaping up. This war might happen anytime soon. What happens in that war? Well, it's very interesting. We have a NATO member that's in that group, and Turkey has now aligned with Iran against Israel. And that's a NATO member that's a member of the Western European group. But the bottom line is, Ezekiel 38-39 war is when all of Russia's sphere of influence. This is from Bloomberg, by the way, the news service. Russia is right now behind Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. And the US has the support of Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, of course, Israel. It's really, uh, you add Turkey in there, and I mean, and, and you add, you know, Sudan. I mean, it's, it's just unbelievable how close, without knowing the Bible, the news services are getting. And basically, what happens is, um, and this is, by the way, uh, a commentator I took this out of their commentary, who believes Ezekiel 38 is Armageddon. But basically, they say, Magog is Southern Russia. Gomer, Togarmah is Turkey, Syria. Persia, of course, is Iran. Libya is Libya, and Ethiopia is Ethiopia. And they will attack Israel. This is not the Antichrist. This is not Armageddon. This is not the final war. But when that happens, Israel, by the way, defeats them. But in the defeat, it's kind of like Gladiator. If you've ever seen Ridley Scott's movie, do you remember Russell Crowe beats the bad guy? But then what does he do? He goes. That's what happens to Israel in Ezekiel 38, 39. They defeat the armies, but it devastates them. So they are like dying, weak. And that's when the Antichrist rises. And this, this is so interesting. We're seeing the kings of the East helping Russia in the Ukrainian War. Putin would not be making it without Xi. The kings of the East are helping the kings of the North. Uh, I'll get more on that when we get to chapter 19.
Let's finish chapter 16. "The seventh angel comes, pours the bowl in the air and said, 'It is done.'" "And out of heaven came thunderings, lightnings, on earth a great and mighty earthquake, never before on earth. The great city was divided in three parts. All the cities of the nations fell. Look at this, every island on earth is shaken. There's never been an earthquake like that. Mountains were not found." See this? That's why Armageddon, I mean, Armageddon is really the end. It changes the topography of the earth, which is what we see happening during the Millennium. "Every island is shaken. Mountains were changed. Hail falls from heaven, each one weighing the weight of a talent." And there, there comes the human response. "They blaspheme God."
Okay, so that's how chapter 16 ends. What are we supposed to do with all that? What were the first, uh, the second generation Christians supposed to do with all this? What are all the churches throughout and believers throughout all the ages supposed to do? Well, did you know Jesus, after he described everything I told you in Matthew 24, finishes Matthew 24 and goes into Matthew 25, applying prophecy? Now, some people don't like Paul. They think he, you know, uh, brought up this rapture thing and nobody else brings it up, and they say, you know, all kinds of stuff. Well, do you trust Jesus? If you don't like Paul, how did Jesus say we're supposed to apply prophecy? Well, look at this. Matthew 24:24, 25:25. Jesus has six applications. He said, "I wrote all this so you could trust God's words. It is going to happen." I wrote all this so you could look for my return. And he talks about what he's, he wants us to be looking for Him when He comes. While we're waiting, he says, "I want you to do your job." Remember, he said, "You're a good and faithful servant." You all know those words. "Well done, good and faithful servant." It's in context of prophecy. If you really believe prophecy, you will say, "Lord, remember the circle I told you about?" You step in the circle and say, "I want to do what you've called me and gifted me to do." Fourthly, remember the parable of the, of the virgins, the 10 virgins. That's one of the applications. You know what he said? "While you're waiting for Christ to return, you ought to check and make sure you're really a Christian." Why? Because Matthew 7 says there are going to be many people that thought they were Christians on that day. "Many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, didn't I do many things for you? Didn't I prophesy? Didn't I do all these great things?'" And the Lord said, "Yes, you did all of them, but you're not saved." Jesus had a recurring theme that many people speak the language of, of Christ, but they don't have the new heart. See, it doesn't matter how many times you've prayed anything. Did you get a new heart? Did you get a new spirit? Did you hear two days ago what, uh, was it Justin? Was it? Or no, it was Jonathan. He was talking about Ezekiel 36:26 and 27. What does that say? Or no, was that Drew? That was Drew. I don't know. I listen to all your classes. But do you know what that verse says? "A new heart also I will give you, a new spirit I will put within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you this heart that wants to obey me." That's salvation. Not have you gone forward? Not have you tied a ribbon? Not have you prayed a prayer and repeated after me? Did you get a new heart? That's who's saved. And Jesus, that's, that's a main point. 13 verses of his application. Then he said, "Don't waste your life." Your life is like getting a talent. Make sure you do what I gave you to do. And then he says, you know, they, in his parable, they say, "When did we see someone poor and, uh, or no, when did we see you poor and naked?" And Jesus said, "When you saw anybody, and you were Christlike to them, it was me you were serving." He said, "I want you to go through life living like Christ." The church of 2024 is not characterized, by and large, in the public eye, as looking like Jesus Christ. They are issue-oriented, they're fighting, they're very politicized, they're very materialistic. In fact, Barna and Gallup and everybody else says Christians are just as likely to get divorced, to live together before marriage, to drink alcohol, to be dishonest as, you know, declared Christians and non-declared Christians. You know what he's saying? All the posters, people need to examine their faith and start living like Christ. That's the essence of salvation.