We come now the description of the end of the world. In chapter 16 verse 12, "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to 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 am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great."

It said that there was a famous explorer who was captured by some savages in South America and they were all around him and about ready to pounce on him and he came up with an idea. He thought he'd pull a cigarette lighter out of his pocket and show them his magic. So he pulls a lighter out and he says, I'm a fire maker! And they're all looking at him with their eyes, beady but ready to pounce at any moment. And he flicks the thumb and out bursts the flame and they all fall back in astonishment. And he says, see! Magic! Thinking I've got this one sealed up. He was confident. It's magic, he said. And the chief, looking at him, replied, you're right. It is magic! This is the first time we've ever seen a cigarette lighter work the first try. Then he knew he was in for it.

I think a lot of times we figure that if the world could just see enough dazzling miracles, signs, and wonders that they would all be converted, they would turn to God. That's simply not true. The tribulation period will see more miraculous activity, both divine and demonic, but they will follow the demonic and they will shun God during this time. We are in the last of the last judgments of God as far as reading about it in the book of Revelation. It's the worst period on earth. It's called the great tribulation period, also called the Day of the Lord. It has many titles. Jesus simply said it was the worst. And now we come to the end. We've had seven seals, we've had seven trumpet judgments, and we're in the middle of the seven last bowl judgments of this period. It's at the very end of this seven-year period. The last three-and-a-half years and the very few moments of time in that period before Jesus comes again. We see here that there's a war that is coming as well as a renovation of the face of the earth. All the end of the world.

William Shakespeare wrote of the horrors of war when he said, O war thou son of hell. Nobody likes war. Well there are a few people, I imagine, that grin at the thought of going to battle, but most people hate the idea of warfare. And as much as we hate the idea, only 8% of world history has been a time of peace. The rest has seen war in various parts of the earth. In fact, it's estimated that from 3600 BC there have been killed in war 3 billion 640 million people. And that the value of destruction from all of the cumulative battles that have gone on would pay for a golden belt to encircle the entire earth. It would be 100 miles wide and 33 feet thick. Pure gold. That's the value of destruction. Every single day there's a war taking place somewhere. Right now there's a war taking place somewhere on the earth and the warfare seems to increase over time. That is, there's more people killed today, there's more wars today, than there were ten years ago. What about the future? What wars will take place in the future? Well Jesus said there would be wars and there would be rumors of wars, those would be signals of the end. We have seen already a lot of warfare in the book of Revelation predicted. But then also He predicted that final phase of history that He said would be the worst of any other time, warfare included. In fact, Jesus in Luke 21 described the great emotion that people worldwide would feel during this time. He said there will be distress of nations with perplexity. Men's hearts will be failing them for fear and the expectation of those things that are coming upon the earth. That's the general emotion of people during this time of history.

And the Bible predicts a final war that comes in several stages. We call it the battle of Armageddon and it's featured here in this sixth bowl. I remember during the Gulf War, Saddam Hussein said that it would be the mother of all battles, you remember that? He was wrong. The mother of all battles is yet to come. A war unlike the world has ever seen. Now it's already been bad, we have seen the fourth seal when it was opened to reveal the contents of the scroll, the fourth seal we saw that a fourth of the population of the earth will be wiped out. and then there was the sixth trumpet that was blown and when that trumpet was blown, a third of earth's population that was leftover was killed, which makes around half of the earth already during that time wiped out. And now comes this final war, unquestionably it will kill millions and millions of people. As we look at these last verses, the final two bowls, I want to divide it up this way: the war of Armageddon in verses 12 through 16 is spoken about. It's even mentioned in verse 16. And then the wasting of the earth, which I guess is God's prerogative, isn't it? He made it. Beginning in verse 17 through 21. And then finally, a word of assurance that's sandwiched right in the middle there, in verse 15, by Jesus Christ.

First of all, this war of Armageddon. We notice that in verse 12, the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. Now this isn't the first time we've encountered the river Euphrates in the book of Revelation. We saw it in Revelation chapter 9 when 200 million are prepared for battle. Some think it's 200 million demons, others think it's 200 million soldiers. But the river Euphrates was mentioned. It was a time when the world would be prepared for a battle. The area of the river Euphrates is really where civilization all began. The Garden of Eden, most think, is at that final place where it goes into the Persian Gulf in Iraq, in that area of Kuwait, actually, was the Garden of Eden. This is where civilization began---the Fertile Crescent. This is where the first sin was committed, the first lie was told, the first murder happened, the first grave was dug, the world began here and the world seemingly ends at this place. The river Euphrates itself, it's a long piece of water. It's 1800 miles long. And because it's so long, it's called the great river. It was always called that. It was the boundary line of the Roman Empire and anything east of that was east as far as Israel was concerned. That was just the eastern part of the world, the Orient. The headwaters of the Euphrates are at Mount Ararat, does that ring a bell for any of you? Something is resting on Mount Ararat, in a glacier---it's the ark of Noah. In fact, it's been discovered and many are still trying to get at it. And it flows from Mount Ararat and goes across the Middle East and it empties out into the Persian Gulf. Why does it need to be dried up? It says so that these people can come across, the kings from the east.

In some places the Euphrates is 3600 feet across and 30, 40, 60 feet deep. But more than that, the reason it needs to be dried up is if we take this all in context, we have seen one of the bowl judgments was a scorching heat that comes upon planet earth. And if it comes the way the Bible indicates it's going to come, it will be such a scorching heat. The temperature of the earth will rise to the point that these great polar ice caps will begin to melt. And if they begin to melt, including the glacier up in Mount Ararat, you can imagine what that will do to the earth. It could raise the river level up to 200 feet and completely wipe out great cities of the earth. Affecting Mount Ararat, it would flood the entire Fertile Crescent. The Euphrates would be massively over flooding its boundaries. Now if some of the scholars are correct that the ark is up there at the 15,000 foot level, Ararat is 17,000 feet high, it's a huge glacier, if it begins to melt, what will the world say when that ark comes floating down? Just a thought. This river is dried up so that it says the kings of the east, or the kings from the east, might be prepared.

A survey of 100 commentaries on the book of Revelation yields 50 different interpretations of who the kings of the east are. Who are they? They are, here it is, here's the answer: the kings of the east. Because that's what it says. Who are the kings of the east exactly? I don't know. Some rulers from the Orient, from the east, who are prepared to march across and invade Israel and meet at this valley of Armageddon. Today the east, east of the Euphrates, the great areas of India, China, Pakistan, so forth, this area of the world has most of the world's population and it has great military potential and they will march. Literally, it's the kings of the rising sun, Anatolia in the original language, anything east of the Euphrates River, and some people say well this is Red China. That's a possibility. Mao Tse-Tong once said that in the battle for the world, China will field an army of 200. Interesting number to pull out. That's what he said. What is interesting, and I'm pulling the 200 million because it says that over in Revelation 9 in this same context of Euphrates, there weren't 200 million people on earth when John predicted that. In fact, a lot of people scoffed at it. Now it is definitely a possibility and so it could be China, as some say. We don't know who it is exactly. It could also be Muslim nations. They would have a reason to attack Israel. And we know that China has supplied Muslim nations with arms so it could be people from the area of Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, India---Muslims from that area who would swarm into Israel. There is a dam controlled by the Muslims in Turkey that could virtually dry the river, though I see this really as a supernatural drying. If there's that kind of inundation of flood waters on the earth.

And it would seem, at least the armies coming across would think, this is great! It dried up! It's miraculous! As if God is doing them a favor, when in fact He's leading them as sheep to the slaughter. It's a trap. It's sort of like the Red Sea when it dried up and Pharaoh and all of his armies came after the children of Israel, it also was a trap. In verse 13 and 14 we have these kings being deceived by an interesting vision: "And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out," ribbit, "of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty." Poor John. He had to see some of the grossest things in that vision. Yeah I'm looking and I see these three guys and frogs come out of their mouths---slimy frogs. It's like a bad pizza nightmare or something. And yet he sees it. Frogs were considered not only disgusting to ancient peoples but unclean and defiled to Jews, to even Persians. Many people of that culture of those cultures saw frogs as unclean so the metaphor of this slimy frog that represents an evil spirit coming out of the mouth of the dragon which we saw as Satan in chapter 12, the beast which is the Antichrist, chapter 13, the false prophet which is his religious sidekick, his representative, we've already read about these characters, indicates that the Antichrist and the false prophet, inspired by demonic activity, demons coming from Satan, will influence the world by their speech. That's the source of influence, the words of the mouth, and by miraculous signs and wonders. We already know that the beast, the second beast, the false prophet, will be able to animate an image of the Antichrist, make it come to life, fake a resurrection, so to speak. And that the world will marvel at it and will worship the Antichrist because of it. So there will be a demonic influence during this time, the spirit of the New Age will come alive, and influence kings and nations to come in this battle.

It brings up an important point. I believe that many rulers and government today are demonically controlled. It has to be. There's no other way to explain some of the atrocities that happen still today and have happened in history. You think of Adolph Hitler. There's no other way to explain what he did and how he thought apart from demonic activity. Killing of 6 million Jews. The weird thoughts in his head. And it's common knowledge that he hired spiritists, mediums, and conferred with them over battle plans and future strategies. Which brings up a point for us: pray for your leaders. The Bible tells us to pray for kings and all those who are in authority that we can live and lead a peaceable life. We're to pray for them. Now why did these nations come? Remember what has come so far in these bowl judgments? They come in darkness, they come with boils, they come after being scorched by heat and still they come. Why? Perhaps it's one final attack against Jerusalem---to get Israel. But there's something deeper than that. They're actually fighting God. It's as if they have been deceived into believing that there's enough power in their favor to do God in. We're gonna fight God! God thinks He's so big, wait till He sees us! Now that is deception. But Psalm 2 anticipates this. It says, the kings of the earth set themselves, the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Christ and they say let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us.

Now turn over to chapter 17 or look down at it if it's on the same page. In verse 13: "They are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast," that is, these nations, "These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful." Satan, knowing Jesus' Second Coming is close at hand, this is the end of the end, through deception of the Antichrist, the false prophet, brings the military might of the world together, gathered in Israel, and thinking that they're going to overcome God. But here's the rest of the story. This is God's perspective now. Listen to Zechariah predicting this. The prophet says, God says I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it. Then the Lord will go out against those nations as He fights in the day of battle. So it's really not the battle of Armageddon. It is a campaign. It is a military war. But it's not a struggle. It's not like God calls in extra troops to finish up the job. He just simply puts an end to it---takes over. It is a hostile takeover you might say. They're toast; they're history. He will fight against them.

The gathering place, notice, is called Armageddon. That's the Hebrew name and it is an actual place 60 miles north of Jerusalem is a valley and there's a mound, there's not a mountain, though the term Armageddon comes from two words meaning the mountain of the plain of Megedo. It is simply a mound. It's an archeological dig today of 20 some cities layered upon one another. And it forms a lookout point over a valley. It's a huge valley. In fact, it's called the Valley of Armageddon. It's the meeting point of two valleys, the plain of Ezrulun and the Valley of Jezreel. It's beautiful today, filled with fruits and vegetables, kibbutzim where people live and flourish. But it is a gathering place. It is a battlefield. Throughout history, it has been a battlefield. 200 battles have been fought in that valley from the pharaoh to Lord Allenby of the British, Samson defeated the Philistines there, and Napoleon when he came to Israel looking over that valley said it was the most natural battlefield in the entire world that he had ever seen. Titus the Roman fought a battle there. Shenekara of the Assyrian, Antiochus Epiphanes, and a whole bunch of other dudes have fought in that place.

And so they will come to Megiddo but not just to a valley. After all, this is a lot of people representative of all the nations. In fact, it says a couple chapters back that the battlefront will encompass 200 miles, 160 furlongs we read in chapter 14 verse 20. And that is the stretch of that whole battle. And 200 miles is roughly the measurement of the whole land of Israel from north to south or from that valley all the way down to the Dead Sea. And so this is the campaign of Armageddon and I say it's a campaign because there are several attacks, several battles you might say, wars that are fought during the tribulation period. And I want to give you a quick chronology of events because you've got predictions that are in the book of Daniel chapter 11 as well as the New Testament, Ezekiel 38 and 39. It seems that the first attack comes from the kings of the north, Gog and Magog, that's chapter 38 and 39 of Ezekiel. Russia and her allies that is identified as that area of Kazakhstan, Russia, the Soviet states banded together will invade Israel and be wiped out. This leaves the beast, the Antichrist, in clear control of the world system headquartered probably at Jerusalem. The remainder of the armies at the kings of the north will band together with the kings of the east and the southern kingdoms, Northern African alliance, and flood into Israel to do battle with the Antichrist and his troops. They'll converge at Megiddo and surround Jerusalem and Jesus Christ will then return, Revelation chapter 19, and put an end to this nonsense and take the title deed to the earth, which is rightfully His.

So that is the war of Armageddon in a nutshell. Then we have in verse 17 the wasting of the earth and this is something the earth has never seen. "Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, "It is done!" And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake," now we have seen this already at a few different stages in Revelation. There's noise and thunder and big commotion and a voice and an earthquake. But listen to what it says: "Such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth." That's pretty substantive a description. "Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon," which is outlined in 17 and 18 of Revelation, "was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about," 100-125 pounds, "the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of hail, since that plague was exceedingly great."

Now this is the time of the end. This is the end of the world. This is right before Jesus comes to set up His kingdom upon the earth. And there's one final plague---the seventh bowl poured out upon the earth. And it's a series of cataclysms in the atmosphere, upon the earth itself, a renovation, you might say, of the earth. All natural disasters up to this point, including earthquakes and hurricanes and tornados and diseases have all been, as bad as they are, warning samples of this final bowl. It's the end. Notice God says it's done. Does that ring a bell? Remember when Jesus hung on the cross? When the judgment of sin was placed upon Him, on Calvary, He said, it is finished. Now it's the end of the world and God has judged the earth and He says, it's done---it's finished. Even as Jesus said it, God says it now, and an earthquake punctuated the events of Calvary. It was a local earthquake it says, and here a great earthquake that covers the entire earth is felt. There's a point I want to bring up. The judgment upon the cross brought grace and from that point on, when people look back to Calvary and say, yes, I will let Jesus Christ take my sin, I will trust Him to be my Savior, I will let the wrath of my sin fall upon Jesus Christ and I will believe in Him and take Him as my Lord, I'll follow Him as my Savior. That's the wise choice. The wrong choice is to refuse, to harden your heart, as many will do during this time and still do today, and then they will face the judgment of sin. Either Jesus takes it or you take it, basically. And there is the judgment of God's wrath upon Jesus, which brings grace, and there's this final judgment which just is full of wrath. One person said the trouble with some people is they want to have Easter without Calvary. There are a lot of people like that. They want the joy and the pleasure and heaven and everything else without going through the cross of Calvary. You can't do it.

Here God says: it is done. It is finished. And there are some awesome changes that take place. Islands flee away, mountains flee away. It's done---it's over. This is the renovation of the earth, as we're going to see in just a minute. This is when the lion lies down with the lamb. This is when people live to be a great age like in antediluvian times, before the flood. This is when the kids can play with the snakes and it won't hurt them. This is when somebody dying at 100 years old dies as an infant. Can't believe that he died so young---he was only 100. It sounds like pre-flood conditions that Isaiah describes and all of that will be enabled by this renovation of the earth that happens during this time, getting ready for the millennium. Notice the seventh bowl is poured out into the air. Now some people make a big deal about Satan being the prince of the power of the air, this is the judgment of his kingdom and that sounds mystical and all that but I think it's best to see this as the air around us, the air around the earth, the atmosphere is affected. Great environmental changes will occur in the air. What else could be responsible for 100 pound ice cubes coming from heaven that we read about toward the end here? Notice the word great. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's mentioned all over the place here. You might even call this a great chapter because it's mentioned so much. Notice in verse 18 there's a great earthquake. In verse 19 the great city is mentioned. Also in the same verse the great Babylon. Verse 21 great hail and it's called the great plague. That's great. Everything's great in these verses.

First of all, a great earthquake and the description, "as had not occurred since men were on the earth." We've always had earthquakes. We've had earthquakes since men lived on the earth and they're increasing year by year. In fact, Jesus said to His disciples, one of the signals that you'll know that the coming of Jesus is near, among other things, is the increase in earthquake activity. The Associated Press said, "Earthquakes around the world this year killed almost as many people as in the ten years preceding. More than 52,000 were killed in one year by earthquakes." There have always been earthquakes, there will always be earthquakes, they will increase, they have increased but there will be a great earthquake that the earth, in totality, will feel. It will be a shaking, all of the prophets predicted it, the writer of Hebrews quotes one of the prophets when he says this in Hebrews 12: yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven. This indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. That means that everything that you have now is temporary. It's gonna be shaken; it's gonna be dust. So it's best to live as if we're passing through. We'll find that in the admonition of Jesus Christ in verse 15.

But this final shaking of the earth, this great earthquake that affects the whole world and the cities of the earth fall, will probably put the earth back into its state as it was before the Fall, before the curse, and before the flood. Remember in chapter 6 and 7 of Genesis, when the flood happens, not only does it rain a whole bunch of days, but it says the fountains of the great deep were broken out and waters gushed out over the face of the earth. From that point on the fountains of the deep were broken up and I believe that's when continents were formed, islands were formed, oceans were formed, and the tectonic plates were formed in the earth. Since that time there's been earthquake activity. We live in an unstable earth. Why? Because the earth after the curse was not destined to last. And folks, with all due respect, as hard as the earth people try to perpetuate this planet, they won't do it. It is not designed to last. It's designed to break up once again. You know, it's sort of like wanting to keep a Christmas tree alive after Christmas. I love Christmas so much, man, I just want it all year long! And so you plant it in the front yard and there's no roots, but you just stick it in the dirt and you water it and you paint it green when it starts turning brown and you put bumper stickers out: Save the Christmas Trees. But it's gonna die! It is dead. The earth was not designed by God to last. He will have to renovate it and then after 1,000 years, recreate a new heaven and a new earth.

Notice it says the great city was divided into three parts. What city is the great city? Well, there's a few guesses. Some say it's Babylon because it's spoken about in chapter 17 and 18. I don't think it could be because both the great city is mentioned and distinguished from Babylon in the same verse. I think the great city is none other than Jerusalem. Why? Well, remember chapter 11 verse 8 the two witnesses were killed? It says their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city where also our Lord was crucified. What city was Jesus crucified in? Jerusalem. Not only that but Zechariah said that at the end, when all the nations gather together in Israel to fight this great battle, this is what Zechariah said will happen: in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west. Well when you split the Mount of Olives, guess what city you split? Jerusalem---that's where it's at. So the Mount of Olives will be split into two, Jerusalem itself as a city will be split in three parts, and after this earthquake, and probably because of it, something awesome is gonna happen in Israel for the millennium. Zechariah 14:8: in that day it shall be that living water shall flow from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, which is the Dead Sea, half of them toward the western sea and both summer and winter it shall occur. Other prophets say that men will be spreading their nets out by the Dead Sea catching fish. Can you imagine in the Dead Sea? That's why it's called the Dead Sea---because it's dead and there are no fish. But men will be fishing in the millennial kingdom during that time.

If there's one thing Israel needs, it's water. And so these great cataclysms that take place for Jerusalem will enhance it. Then it says, "Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." We know that islands are mountains in the sea and islands being taken away and mountains being taken away, this renovation is the gentle terrain like in the Garden of Eden, before the flood, before the fountains of the deep were broken up. It's like winding the tape backwards. In places where water never was and dirt never was, will be. There won't be any rifts, any fault lines, which run from the top of the globe to the bottom, from Alaska to the bottom of South America, from Siberia all the way down to New Zealand. They will be taken away and some even feel that God will put a canopy once again over the earth---a shroud, a canopy of clouds like many think happened before the Flood, which is why people lived so long during that time. No ultraviolet radiation can penetrate which causes the aging process that it will revert back to that. Whatever. These are mega cataclysms which, once again, teach us this earth ain't home. We're just passing through. And we ought to live that way. Malcolm Mugridge once said the only ultimate disaster that can befall us is to feel ourselves at home here on earth. As long as we are aliens, we cannot forget our true homeland. Now look at what else happens. It says at this end of this: "And great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent."

Have you ever gone to the store to buy ice? I worked in an icehouse in Hugo's Delicatessen in California and I'd have to get customers ice. They'd come and buy a 25 pound block of ice or 50 pound block of ice and those things are heavy. Imagine a 100 pound ice cube careening out of the heavens. And that's the last thing that God does. The last element of wrath, activity of God's judgment, is these careening stones coming out of heaven. Why hailstones? Well what is the penalty in the Old Testament for blasphemy? Being stoned to death. And God will do it and it says that men still, look at the end of this, "Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great." If you think signs and wonders convert people, think again. They'll know who did it. These stones, they'll be dodging them and they'll be cursing God to the last breath. Man apart from Christ in the fallen state is bound toward blasphemy. And they do it to the end. And this is the end. This is it. It is done. After this Jesus Christ comes to reign in chapter 19, chapter 20 describes the kingdom, and chapter 17 and 18 simply fill in the blanks of something we haven't yet discussed, which is Babylon.

Let's go back and we'll close with this one verse. There's a word of assurance given by Jesus: "Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." You know Christ's coming is often compared to a thief? Paul said He comes like a thief, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Why a thief? Because it speaks of suddenness, unpreparedness, and danger. You say well that's not very comforting. The point is this. He comes as a thief, not for believers, this is as far as unbelievers are concerned. He never comes as a thief for believers. Listen to what Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5: you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night but you, brethren, are not in darkness that this day would overtake you as a thief. He comes to us as a Bridegroom, not a thief. We're waiting and watching for Him but it will take the earth completely off guard. After all of the treaties and things passed and we're making the earth a better place. It all falls apart. It's sudden. It's where they're unprepared. He finally says blessed or oh how happy is the one who watches, keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

Watch. Be on guard. I think the description here is of a soldier. In ancient times, soldiers slept with their clothes on. They didn't put their skivvies on and go to bed. Why? Because if they were attacked in the middle of the night, not only would they look goofy, but they'd be dead. You need your clothes on, your sword at your side, your helmet nearby, so you can get up and fight. And if you were caught without being prepared, with the proper clothing, if they didn't kill you, you would be dishonorably discharged. There would be a shame that would happen. And this brings to mind the words of John, not here in the book of Revelation, but 1 John chapter 2 and now little children abide in Him that when He appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. How do you get to a place of confidence and not be ashamed? Well are you living for Him? Are you watching for Him? Every Christian is waiting for Him but not all Christians are watching for Him. Is there a difference? Big difference. A group of sailors were out to sea and they were coming back home after several days and as they were coming into the dock, the skipper put his binoculars up and was looking and said, I see Bill's wife and I see Joe's wife and Frank's wife and George's wife and there was one guy on board and he didn't see his wife. They came to the shore, these men embraced their wives, and the guy who couldn't find his family rushed home, wondering if something was wrong. He came in the door and his wife said, honey, so glad to see you. I've been waiting for you. He said, you've been waiting for me but these men's wives were watching for them. Many wait for Jesus Christ but are you watching? Do you look in anticipation like a bride would be waiting for the bridegroom? Jesus can come and will come at any time.

Folks, this is what's coming on the earth. This is the future. It is very detailed, you cannot prevent it but you can escape it. As Paul said to the Thessalonians, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. When it comes to God's wrath upon the earth, as Paul said, He will deliver us from that wrath. You know how many people scoff at this stuff? People who aren't believers, a study in Revelation is nothing more than an amusement. It's a lot of fun. Let's see what these kooky Christians can come up with, with this weird text. What stuff can they make up? At the coming of the Lord---this is goofy! My grandmother talked about that, ancient people talked about it, the world goes on and on and on. That's why it will take them as a thief one day. And they realize uh-oh. A man who loved barometers saved up and he bought the finest one he could find. He lived on Long Island. It was made out of burled wood and brass and he bought the barometer, took it out of the box, put it on his mantle, but it was defective, he thought, because the needle kept pointing to hurricane. It was a beautiful day, the weather had been nice for days, it kept saying hurricane. He'd smack it and say what's wrong with this thing? Finally he said, I'm gonna write a nasty letter to the manufacturer, wrote the letter, drove into New York City where he worked, mailed the letter, that day he came home in the afternoon, not only to find the barometer missing but his home. It was right. It pointed to hurricane. He didn't believe it. This book has been pointing the warnings of God for generations. It's been pointing to the cross where God took judgment of sin and put it upon Jesus Christ and said it is finished and then it points further to the final judgment that will come upon the earth when God says it's done. You can believe this book. You can believe the warnings of Scripture. And the inevitable, smartest thing to do is to trust the One who said it's finished on the cross. Take that judgment.