God's people said, Amen. Good singing. Praise the Lord. Well, we're so thankful you're here with us tonight. Welcome and welcome to those watching online on the live stream. And we are thankful for another service to worship the Lord, to sing praises unto him, to hear his word, and to have a prayer time later. and much to be praying for. Our missions conference begins on Sunday, and so we're very excited to have a couple of missionaries arrive and be with us, and our special speaker, Brother Samuel Esquivel, is gonna come and challenge us. The conference will be all day Sunday, and then Monday through Wednesday each night at 7.30 p.m., so we hope you can join us, be with us, and I know the Lord's gonna encourage us, will challenge us, convict us, teach us, and I'm praying that he does all of the above in my heart, praying that for all of us as well, And so, we're looking forward to that. And then, of course, next week is also Election Day. I don't know if you heard about that. Maybe some of you may have heard that. And so, we want to be praying for our nation, too. You know, I think as Christians, I think there's really two fundamental truths that we have to always remember. I think, first of all, as Christians, we realize that we're living in this nation and that we have an opportunity to be good citizens. And so, I definitely think it's a wise thing to vote, to exercise that right, that privilege, the responsibility to vote. And what I do is I vote my biblical values, I look at the two major parties, and I go by my Christian understanding, and I have to make a decision. I trust that you make the right decision as well. And so we, I think, have to participate. I think when Christians sit back and don't let their voice be heard, then you can't complain for four years, I think, right? And so I think we should exercise the privilege and responsibility of voting. But then as Christians, we also understand the sovereignty of God, that God's in control, and that who's the one that puts leaders in power? It's the Lord. And so no matter who's in the White House, we know who's sitting on the throne in heaven, and that's who we worship. That's where we know the true solutions are. And so these two things, that we have a responsibility, but ultimately we're trusting in the Lord, and he will make a way for us. So I trust God would guide each of us, but would guide our nation. You know, I think America really needs to get back to the Lord. And we want to pray for revival. It's going to take God's people. Revival starts with God's people. And so let's pray for all of that. Well, a couple of quick things. We're praying also for Sister Comfort, and she gave us an update recently that she's gonna be having, her surgery is scheduled, I believe, for middle of November, and it's gonna be with Sloan Kettering in the city, and she shared a couple of things here with my wife. I won't read the entire message, but she had a great discussion with her doctor, with her surgeon, that prepared her with some of the options And it's colon cancer, they're gonna remove a piece of the colon. And the concern is that they may also have to remove her uterus because there's complications. And so the doctor explained that in the middle of the surgery, that's when they'll have to make that decision. And so we'll just pray that God's will is done. But the surgery is gonna be up to five hours under anesthesia. And so please keep her in prayer. I'm sure she'll give us more updates that she's not going to be able to be with us tonight, but Lord willing, we'll see her Sunday and just keep comfort and prayer. If you can get a chance to write her a note or send her a text message. I'm sure that would be appreciated. But we know that God's in control. God's going to lead her and guide her through all of this. All right, let's take our Bibles tonight and we're going to be in Revelation chapter 16, Revelation chapter 16. And we'll pick up in verse 10. We started in the first half of this chapter, verses one through nine last week, and tonight we'll pick up in Revelation 16, verse 10. Revelation 16, verse 10 says, and the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast. And his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 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 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. 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 men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail. for the plague thereof was exceeding great." Let's stop and let's pray together tonight. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you that we get to come and open up your Word and study these wonderful words of prophecy, Lord, that you saw fit to record and preserve for us. And Father, you have a divine purpose in us studying these prophecies, that we would know what's coming down the pike, And Lord, your word tells us that we might know what manner of man we are to be in light of these coming events. Father, I pray that you would help me as by your Spirit's power to preach this with boldness, with wisdom, with love, with compassion. I pray that you would use it to minister to the hearts of all your people tonight. And Lord, our prayer is that you would give us assurance of the salvation that we have in Christ and also give us a burden for lost sinners that will face your wrath in this terrible day to come. And so Lord, bless this time we pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Amen. Tonight, I want to preach on the great day of God Almighty. The great day of God Almighty. And last week we started this chapter here, Revelation 16, the last seven plagues are going to be poured out upon the earth in the form of seven vial, or you could say seven bowl judgments. And seven angels are going to literally pour out the wrath of God in the last times of the book of Revelation here. And these judgments are the last cataclysmic events leading up to the climax, which is the second coming of Christ. That's where everything is heading towards, the return of Jesus Christ on this earth to destroy the wicked, reward the righteous. And so it's going to be a very terrible time and a very intense time of judgment. Several Old Testament prophets call it the great and terrible day of the Lord. And these events are not just random events, not just because God is just all of a sudden randomly deciding to do this. No, God always has a purpose for all that he does. And I think there's a few things for why these judgments are coming. First, we've looked at this to vindicate the righteous. to vindicate the righteous. When God judges evil, he's also showing that righteousness prevails. And these judgments are an answer to prayers of saints that were martyred, that were killed up in heaven. And God is seeing the hurt, the pain, the turmoil of the innocent, of the righteous, and he's doing something about it. And praise the Lord for that, that God punishes evil. And the second purpose is judging the wicked is really justice. Judgment is justice. Again, so the wicked need to be punished and so God is going to deal with all of that with these end time events. And you know what the sad thing is? God is dealing with the sinful hearts of men and men are showing their sinful hearts in the midst of these judgments. In verse 9, in verse 11, and verse 21, tell us that sinful man, in light of these terrible judgments, will not repent. They won't seek the Lord. Instead, they'll blaspheme God. They'll shake their fist at God. They'll still firm their back up and still resist God, still resist Christ. Isn't that sad? So we see the wickedness, the depravity that's in man's heart. And so, of course, God's going to have to judge them and deal with them. So number one tonight, let's begin by looking at the fifth bowl judgment, a plague of darkness, in verses 10 and 11. And this judgment is directed at the Antichrist and his government. And the Bible says in verse 10, the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues for pain. If we compare these different prophecies, I think the beast referred to here is the Antichrist. He's that political leader during the Tribulation period, and so God is literally going to bring this judgment upon him and his government. And it's interesting, the fourth judgment was the sun's brightness and scorching men with its rays, right? And now this fifth judgment is darkness that God brings. In Amos chapter five, verse 18, the Bible says the day of the Lord is darkness and not light. Darkness and not light. Now some people interpret this darkness to be an allegory or spiritual. And they say that it's not a literal, it's a symbolic darkness, maybe talking about that the fact that there'll be political unrest or anarchy or there'll be some type of just collapse of the government. And all of that, I'm sure, is going to be taking place, but I don't think you have to say that this is symbolic. I think we take this literally, especially when you remember a lot of these plagues point back to the plagues that happened in ancient Egypt. And those plagues were literal plagues, right? The plague of darkness literally happened in Egypt. And certainly there was a spiritual reason for that plague, but it was still a literal plague of darkness. And it's interesting, the Bible says in verse 10 that this darkness caused people to gnaw their tongues for pain. And I want you to see that this darkness really is a preview of hell itself. their gnawing, their pain. The Bible says hell is a place of weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Jesus said in Matthew 25 that hell is a place of outer darkness. Outer darkness. So you hear wicked sinners sometimes mock and scoff and say, I'm going to be in hell with all my friends. And I'm going to have a big party in hell. And they make light of hell. Well, the reality is it's a place of outer darkness. You won't even be able to see your hand in front of your face in hell. And so this darkness here is a form of a preview of the eternal damnation that's coming. And so this judgment is poured out, but then sadly in verse 11, the response of man, they blaspheme God. They blaspheme the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds. They repented not, may that not be said of us tonight that we are unwilling to repent and get right with God when confronted with our sin. But then number two, the sixth vial or the sixth bowl judgment in verses 12 and following. And we see in verse 12, the sixth angel pours out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates. And the river Euphrates is mentioned throughout the scripture. And in Genesis chapter two, we're told, referring to the Garden of Eden, that It was one of the great rivers that came out of the Garden of Eden. And so it's very prominent in our Bibles. And the Euphrates River is 1,780 miles long. And the river serves as a natural boundary between the Middle East and the Far East, you could say. It was a boundary even in the ancient Roman Empire. And it was the boundary of the promised land that God gave to Israel. And so this obviously is showing that there's geological significance to what's happening. The location matters in what's happening here. And if you know your Bibles, you know that the Bible talks about there's going to be, and we're going to see here, this mass alliance of armies that rise up against Israel, really against God. And here the Euphrates River is going to be judged. And if you keep your place here and you go back to Revelation chapter 9, it's not the first time we saw judgment on the Euphrates River. Go back to Revelation chapter 9 and verse 13. Back at the sixth trumpet judgment, the Bible says, And the four angels were loosed, which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men. And notice this, and the number of the army of the horsemen were two hundred thousand thousand, and I heard the number of them. I'll help you with the math. That's 200 million soldiers that the Bible is saying is going to be able to march across from the east. And so many Bible teachers that I'm inclined to believe that is talking about China, perhaps. and an army, a large, massive army that will be able to march across the east. And think about this, we just saw in Revelation 16 that the Euphrates River is going to be dried up here. And so imagine it's dried up and perhaps a road is paved for easy access. to enter into the Middle East. And that region, by the way, is modern-day Iraq and Iran. And so we know that the Middle East has always been this hotbed for conflict. Well, all of it is setting the stage for the worst conflict the Middle East will ever see, which is the Battle of Armageddon. Daniel chapter 2, verse 44, speaks of tidings out of the East. And so this judgment is preparing the way that kings of the East will be able to come and attack Israel. And so we see the stage being set for the Battle of Armageddon. Look at verse 13. Then John sees this other vision. He sees unclean spirits that look like frogs that come out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. Now, if you remember frogs, there's another connection back to the plagues back in ancient Egypt. And so these are demonic spirits here that John sees that appear like frogs. And these demonic spirits have a job to do. They're commissioned to gather the kings of the earth together to assemble them for war. And the Bible literally says in verse 14 that these spirits, they're devils, they'll work miracles. And they'll go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to battle of that great day of God Almighty. So they're going to gather all these armies and leaders of these armies to do battle during that great day of God Almighty. I want you to know that the Bible throughout the Old Testament predicts this coming day. I want to show you a few scriptures tonight. Let's go to Joel chapter 2. Joel chapter 2 and verse 20. Joel chapter 2, verse 20. The Bible says, but I will remove far off from you the northern army and will drive him into a land barren and desolate with his face toward the East Sea and his hinder part toward the utmost sea and his stink shall come up. And his ill saver shall come up, because he hath done great things. Many people believe that this prophecy points to the nation of Russia, perhaps, the nation to the north of Israel that has two seas that serve as its boundaries, that will rise up and attack against Israel. If you also study the book of Ezekiel, especially chapters 38 and 39, you hear about Gog and Magog and other key cities that also point to Russia, an invading army from the north. And so we see invading armies from the east, invading armies from the north, and it'll be nations from all around the world. And some people wonder, what about America? Today we are Israel's strongest ally. And I'm encouraged by that, by this administration here that has really strengthened that relationship. And I know you've heard in the news there's been peace deals that have been made. That's a great thing. But we don't see America really mentioned in end times prophecy. And there's a lot of speculation as to why that might be. To me, I only see two options, really. I see that either there's so many Christians that the rapture takes place and there's not really much of a nation left. Or sadly, we see the effects of just godlessness, immorality, wickedness take place, and America really isn't a world power, isn't really mentioned, isn't really much of a nation, perhaps it's gobbled up in some other union. So it's hard to really know for sure, but we do know that the armies of the world will go after Israel. And I wanted to show you a few scriptures more about this. Go to Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah chapter 14. Zechariah 14 verse 1 says, Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city." And so think about this prophecy here that really has a near and far kind of a connotation here, the nearness of of the judgment with Babylon, but also pointing to the Battle of Armageddon that we're talking about tonight in Revelation. And we saw the unclean spirits were sent forth. We see that sinful nations, sinful men decide to go and attack Israel. But we mentioned the sovereignty of God, that this is really all a part of God's program. God is allowing this to happen. In fact, you could say causing this to happen. He says, I will gather all nations against Jerusalem. So really, the devil has his plans, sinful men has his plans, but ultimately God is the one that's in control. All of this is moving along for his program, for his timeline here. And nation will rise up against nation, really nation will rise up against Israel, but ultimately nations will rise up against God. Go with me to Psalms chapter 2, the second Psalm. Psalm chapter 2 and verse 2. The Bible says, the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together, notice, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. But notice verse four. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Let's skip down to verse number nine. He says, Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Yes, the Lord's anointed, the Messiah, that's Jesus Christ. These nations who think they're gonna come and they're gonna have victory, well, they're gonna have to face the Lord's anointed. That's Jesus, the coming king. And he's going to come with a rod of iron to dash them in pieces, the Bible says. And so it's very significant what we see happening here in Revelation 16. And I think it's really interesting to consider, perhaps, how it's going to happen in light of our current events. And we see kind of the stage being set with, again, the Middle East always being this hotbed of conflict and activity. And the Bible says in Revelation 16 that they'll be gathered together in the place in the Hebrew called Armageddon, literally the Valley of Megiddo. And there'll be this campaign, this war, this battle. When we get to Revelation chapter 19, we'll see this battle more specifically and when Jesus Christ returns to defeat all of these armies. But here, Revelation 16, the Bible hints at that and says that Jesus Christ is going to come as a thief. That means literally he's going to come and surprise them and shock them. These wicked armies are going to be shocked. He says in verse 15, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments. lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Speaking to the fact that we need to be ready for the Lord's return as Christians. And the idea here is that we need to be robed in his righteousness, right? Good works won't cut it. We need the righteousness of Christ. And he gives us that through the gospel. We thank God for that. But the return of the Lord is going to come as a shock to these wicked nations, these wicked armies. And so the Bible assures us that he's going to return and he's going to have the victory. It's interesting. In verse 14, it says, the great day of God Almighty. So the focus is really on God. It's his day. He's in control and he's going to have the victory. And so when we think about this battle that's coming in the future, how can we kind of reconcile what's happening in our day? Because in our day, I mentioned, there seems to be sometimes peace deals made and things happening. And here's my take on that. I think peace is a good thing, and it should be embraced and sought after. Nations should seek peace. But as a Christian, I understand that it's really temporary. All of it is really temporary because of what the Bible predicts will take place in the future. So it's a great thing for nations to seek peace, one with another, but any peace deals made now are gonna be temporary. Then number three tonight, the seventh vial is poured out. The seventh vial is poured out, and the Bible says in verse 17 that the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air. And that's interesting. He pours out his vial into the air, and perhaps the book of Ephesians chapter two tells us that Satan is the prince of the power of the air. And so this is an attack, a judgment on Satan and his demons and his minions. And when this vial is poured out, there's going to be a great voice from the temple of heaven that shouts out and says, it is done. It is done. And with this announcement, the Bible, God is letting us know that there's going to be no more delay, that the final judgments are coming and no one can stop it. In the sense, God is saying that His mercy, you could say, that His delaying this is no more. Now it's time for judgment. It is done. William Newell, the Bible teacher, said this, men would not have the Savior's, it is finished, on Calvary, so they must have the awful, it is done, from the judge. In other words, on the cross, Jesus cried out, it is finished. The sin debt was paid and men have an opportunity to receive that payment, to receive forgiveness of their sins, but they've rejected Christ. So now they're going to have to hear it is done, not from the Savior, but from the judge. And then when that point happens, it's too late. They're going to face God's wrath. And this judgment is poured out and the Bible describes terrible earthquakes that will take place, and terrible thunderings and lightnings in verses 18 and 19. Again, showing God's sovereignty, his control over the earth. And the Bible says in verse 19, the great city was divided into three parts. So the great city will be split up into three parts. Now, these cities of the nations here, A lot of speculation, but I think it's talking about the prominent Gentile cities of the world. Perhaps cities like New York City, Washington DC, Rome, and Paris, London, the major cities of our world. And then the question is, what is the great city that's divided into three parts? What is that great city? Some believe it's talking about Babylon, and Babylon certainly is mentioned here. Some think it's perhaps Jerusalem. I believe, and I think most Bible teachers believe that it's referring to Rome, which is really spiritual Babylon. We're going to see that in Revelation 17, the very next chapter, that's going to be the emphasis, spiritual Babylon, which is really seated in Rome. And so I believe that's what the city, the great city is referring to. This great city is going to face God's wrath, God's destruction. And the Bible says, verse 20, every island fled away and the mountains were not found. Think about the massive topological shifts in the world. And again, environmentalists are warning us that, well, we got to start using clean energy to avoid worldwide destruction. Listen, man isn't causing that. Man isn't responsible for that. God is sovereign over the world. God is the one that has a plan for the earth. And when it's time for these judgments to come, no one can stop it. God is the one that has a program for the earth. And when it is finished, he's going to be the one that's going to tell us it is done. And so he's going to completely shake this world. Verse 21 says there fell upon men great hail out of heaven, every stone about a weight of a towel. That's about a hundred pounds. And I've never seen or heard of hail that large before. Can you imagine the destruction? And this hail is obviously going to be torment and torture and devastation. And what's going to be the response of men? They're going to blaspheme God. They're not going to repent. The Bible says, and men blaspheme God because of the plague of the hail. For the plague thereof was exceeding great. We know hail is something that God has used in the past as his tool for judgment. Again, he did that in Egypt also. And he's trying to get men's attention, but they won't respond. Instead, they rebel. Despite all their suffering, despite all their pain, and someone said this, pain and suffering alone are not evangelists or apostles. We see the sinful heart of men. I mentioned this last week that man's heart is so sinful, so wicked, only the Holy Spirit can transform someone's heart. Only the Holy Spirit can convict a man's heart and break through that heart of stone and show him his desperate need of Christ. And so in our evangelism, we pray first and we'll say, Lord, you have to do this. We're just the messengers. We're just sharing the gospel. The Lord is the one that saves souls. And people have to be willing and respond. But we see the wickedness and hardness of man's heart. And you know what? That's why we shouldn't be so surprised. Where people, sometimes we wonder, why aren't people getting saved? They have had so many opportunities. Perhaps they've been, they've had opportunities, they've been to church. They've had people witness to them. Maybe you've witnessed to them. We pray for them. And the Bible's letting us know the hardness of man's heart. But you know, we continue to pray. We continue to pray because we're not here yet. We're not here in the book of Revelation yet. There's still hope. Today is a day of grace before this time of judgment comes. And so as Christians living today, reading all of this ought to motivate us and invigorate us to get the gospel out now. before it's eternally too late. Now is the time for us to be launching out, sending forth missionaries, and we have our conference next week. That's why we go through all this trouble and fly in missionaries here and give the missions every week and we sacrifice and we do all this because we know the great need of the hour and getting the gospel out. We know that sin has a grip on men, but the Bible says where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And we pray for God's grace to abound in the hearts of sinful men. But this chapter describes many things that are great. It describes the great city we just talked about. It describes great evil of men. It describes the great tools of God's judgment. The great heat from the sun in the fourth judgment, the fourth vial. The great river, Euphrates, dried up in verse 12. A great earthquake in verse 18. Great hail and great plagues in verse 21. But all of this ultimately points to a great God, our great God Almighty, the Bible says. If we skip back to verse 14, the end of verse 14 says, it's the battle of that great day of God Almighty. You see, it's all about God. because the focus is His omnipotence, His sovereignty. He's gathering these nations together. He's raining down His wrath, His judgment upon the earth, and it's gonna be His day of victory. And I want you to know that the following events, really, the next chronological event that will take place is the return of Jesus Christ. And if you're saved tonight, you're going to return back with him. We'll all be riding white horses, the Bible says. Returning back, and he's going to judge all these wicked nations, and he's going to crown himself as king. And so, all of this points to a great God, a great God Almighty. And tonight, if you're saved, you're trusting in that great God. And we're going to share in that great day of victory. And if you're not saved, you need to be concerned about that. And today is a day of salvation. Today is a day of grace that we need to get that settled and repent before it's too late. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful, Lord, for these prophecies that you give us. Lord, what a blessing it is that you tell us all of these things that are coming. Pray, Lord, that we would be wise and be diligent, understanding the needs of the need of the hour. Understand these things could be right around the corner. But we believe that the rapture is imminent. And once the rapture takes place, all of these events will happen very shortly. So Lord, help us now to do our best to get the gospel out. Help us now to gain assurance that we are genuinely saved and we're in Christ. And Lord, I pray that you would now give us a burden to reach the lost, our friends, family, loved ones, and lost nations all around the world as we send out missionaries. Lord, would you continue to enable us and work in us. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed tonight, maybe you're here tonight, and maybe you say, Pastor, I don't have that assurance that I'm saved. I don't have that assurance that my sins are forgiven, that I have eternal life, that I won't be there during these days of judgment. I lack that assurance. I need to be saved. I have some questions about that. If that's you tonight, would you lift your hand? We want to pray for you. Say, I'm not sure if I'm saved. I have some questions and doubts about that. Lift your hand. We'll pray for you. Well, praise the Lord. Lord, we're thankful for the profession of the Saints tonight. We pray, Lord, that you would just continue to strengthen us and encourage us. Bless the remainder of our