Take your Bibles, turn to Revelation chapter number 16. We're going to look at verse number 10, down through verse number 21. These are the last three of the bold judgments that we are going to be considering. entitled this Just Comfort, what we find here is the really two kind of asides. So it's interesting, as we look at the bold judgments, you have 10 bold judgments, and there's two specific things that are brought out and were given attention to when it comes to that. One of them They're almost like asides, right? And so one of them is focused on the righteousness, the justice of this. God is concerned about defending his character. And then the second one is focused on comfort. And that comfort that is there is directed towards believers. And so last week we had considered the justice because that was the focus of that. And this week we will consider the comfort even more. But I want to begin by just thinking through the whole process of what's happening here. How many of you always enjoyed show-and-tell when you were in elementary school? Show-and-tell, right? What's not to enjoy in show-and-tell? Maybe you didn't like being the person when it was your time to get up and to have to stand in front of everybody and talk about something and show something. I thought about bringing up a number of show-and-tell items. here this morning, and I probably should have. Some of you will put that in a comment box later to say, yes, that would have been good to do. But nonetheless, show and tell is something that we're all somewhat familiar with. And maybe show and tell is used to create interest. Maybe it is just to share something that is found interesting. Maybe show and tell is used to inform. Maybe sometimes it is actually there to reveal something. If we think about it for a moment, I think to some degree, we can recognize how God has both maybe done the opposite. He hasn't really shown and then told, he's told and then shown that this is something that God regularly does. Our God is one who not only understands our need for understanding, but he shows us different things. And many times we're in that position where it's like someone can tell me something and I'm not gonna believe it until I see it. And maybe that's where you live. You say, you may tell me something, but I'm skeptical. And until you prove it, I'm not gonna walk down that road. I'm gonna stand separate from it. And I won't believe until you prove it, until you show it to me. It's interesting that God has done that over and over and over again. We are told the truth by God about our world in the Bible that He has given to us, but then He regularly shows that to us as well. It is a constant thing for us, and it has happened in generation after generation. Consider for just a few moments the history of the world and how God has told truth and then he has shown it to us. Think about the Tower of Babel. God had said, don't do it, and if you do it will go badly. They did it anyway. And so then God had to show it to them, right? Think about the flood. What happened during the flood? God had said, here's what you need to do, live according to these rules. A man went and did their own thing and so God intervened and he showed the error of their ways. The exodus. The Exodus is another tell-and-show kind of dynamic, as God told Moses that this is what's going to happen, go and tell Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They didn't believe him, and then he began to show them systematically, this is what is going to occur. The conquest of the promised land, the birth and death and resurrection of Jesus, Even the rapture, even the tribulation, even the second coming. God has always been a tell and show kind of God. Think of Noah, if we could just focus a little bit on that. It's reasonable to believe that he told others about the coming of the flood anywhere from 100 to 120 years that he preached. That as they built the ark, he was preaching and telling people, this is coming. And it was truth, right? But people did not believe them. The concept of it actually raining blew their minds. The concept of needing a boat was beyond whatever perspective they had. And so they didn't believe, they didn't believe. And so then finally, it happened. God showed it to them. Think of Kadesh Barnea. when the children of Israel, after seeing the miracles of God, after seeing Him, you know, part the Red Sea, after seeing Him deliver them from the pursuit of the Egyptian army, and then they come and after preserving them through the wilderness all the way up to Kadesh Barnea, the edge of the promised land, And then they go in, they come back and they say, it's too much. There's no way, right? And God said, don't doubt me. But they did. And then he showed them the consequences of that choice. Think of Mount Carmel. Elijah challenges the prophets of Baal to a worship duel between them and himself. And what a wonderful job the Word of God does in just describing that. And it's almost like you're there, you can see it. As Elijah confronts the prophets of Baal, he mocks them, he challenges them. They are able to do nothing. Baal does not respond and we know why, God said why, because Baal is not real. And then God sends fire from heaven to consume even the very dust around the altar and the altar itself. He told them and then He showed them. This is a pattern of our God. We see it happening again and again throughout the many generations of humanity. And then again, in dramatic fashion, at the end of the world, it'll happen again. And so this morning, we're going to look at the remaining bowls of God's wrath being poured out in verses 10 through 21. And then we're going to consider the implications of that from those who follow him and those who do not. Because what happens is God tells these truths, he shows these things, and he calls people to these decision points. And you think about each of those times that I described, there was a decision point, there was a decision point, there was a decision point. And that is true in our own lives, that we are brought to these points of decision. Who will we follow? And so as we begin, we're gonna start by just walking through the passage. So look at Revelation chapter 16, verse number 10 and 11. Here we find the fifth bull. The fifth angel poured out his bull on the throne of the beast. And its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds. Now earlier, we had read that the dragon gave his throne, which represents his rule, to the beast. And so this throne of the beast is the kingdom of Satan, the dragon. And it represents the authority that is there. And the consequence here is that the kingdom is now darkened. When you saw the fourth trumpet, we're talking here about the fifth bowl. But if you remember back to the fourth trumpet, darkness descended on a third of the heavens, but now the darkness is comprehensive. You know, darkness is often used as a metaphor for what a person understands, what they, quote-unquote, see, right? And if they are in the dark, then they do not understand. Surely that is meant here. I think it is also a physical darkness. And that's why we see the response of the people. But you say, why gnaw your tongue? Is that what happens at nighttime? You gnaw your tongue? That seems odd, right? What if there is persistent darkness? What if there is psychological anguish that would come from a persistent and comprehensive darkness? Well, I think what we're dealing with here is actually a cumulative effect. The citizens of the Kingdom of the Beast are in agony over what? We'll look at verse number 11. They cursed the God of heaven for their pain and their sores. Do you remember the sores? That was the very first bowl that they was poured out and their bodies were covered with these painful sores. And so he's talking about something that happened the very first bowl. And then he also talks about this, we can also imagine that part of what he's talking about with this pain is the scorching that they endured from the fourth bowl, the sun that was scorching their sin. And we would also imagine the challenge of regular life by water being turned to blood, now this persistent and continual darkness. And again, it's interesting that this is just over the kingdom of the beast, that this is where this is being levied upon. And so all of this accumulative effect causes them to do what? Verse 11, they curse the God of heaven for their pain and their sores. So, this is the only place in the book where the throne of the Antichrist is mentioned and it is, I think, clearly contrasted to the voice from the throne of God that we see later on in verse 17 that says it is finished. The message is clear. The beast has authority, but it's delegated. It's limited. And ultimately, God has control over even his control. So that's the fifth bowl. But then we are quickly introduced to the sixth bowl. And this deals with the Euphrates River. So verse number 12, the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeping his garments on that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Well, the Euphrates River is the northeastern boundary of the Promised Land. It's the largest river in that part of the world, and it served as an eastern boundary, not just for Israel, but for the Roman Empire when they were in control as well. Exodus chapter 23, verse number 31. Here, as they were heading into the promised land, God makes it clear. He says, I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, from the wilderness to the Euphrates. For I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, you shall drive them out before you. So what would that look like? I don't know if you can see this well. But obviously this is a larger Israel than what we would typically imagine, right? Typically we would imagine Israel, the land this way, but the boundary that God described is significantly larger. That's the Israel that he's talking about. Presumably, that will be the Israel in the final days. Presumably, you notice I keep using the word presumably. Some assumptions are being made. Presumably that's part of the covenant that the Antichrist will make with the people of God, is that he will give them the land that God had given to them. And that ultimately that forms part of that covenant that ultimately he breaks three and a half years into the tribulation. And so you'll notice then, a little bit hard to tell, but this right here is the Euphrates River. And so when we see this being talked about in Revelation chapter 16, where it talks about the Euphrates River being dried up, that obviously creates an opportunity for these nations over here, all of the stands, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Turkey, it creates an opportunity for them to come into Israel, the boundary. the natural boundary that would create a challenge or a natural boundary there to keep them out would be removed. And that's what's being talked about. Now you say, well, is it possible that this is a metaphor, that we're not talking about the river of Phrase actually drying up, but we're talking about whatever boundary is there to keep these kings of the east And you say, east of what? East of Israel, to keep the kings of the east from coming into Israel, that whatever boundary that is up will be removed. Could be. It could be entirely metaphorical. But it seems like there is probably some actual physicality that's tied to it as well. We will find out, is the bottom line. But could that be? You know, in your mind, I mean, you know, we can go all kinds of places for this. Wouldn't it be kind of amazing if one day a giant firewall is called the Euphrates River, right? And that when that comes down, Israel gets invaded. I mean, you can imagine all kinds of things that this could be. But ultimately, what we find is that this will be removed, whatever it is, and it's going to allow the enemies of God access to the people of God. Now that seems weird, because this is a bowl of God's divine wrath. And so why is God pouring out His divine wrath in a way that's going to harm the people of God? That's going to open up the way for the people of God to be harmed. That seems bizarre, right? But... The believers are not being delivered, they're being attacked here, but God is giving them what they desire. So let me say it differently. God is giving these unbelievers what they want. He says, you want to destroy Israel? Here's the way to do it. You want to attack my people? Here's the way to do it. He is actually giving them what they desire. And you say, how is that wrath? But this is really, if we could just grasp this singular point in this entire message. on any time that we get what we want. And it is not what God wants for us. It is bad for us. And that is exactly what is happening here. That God is giving them what they desire and he has stopped saying, I'm going to stop you from that. And he simply says, fine. And he lets them loose. And that's devastating. Think what that was like for Eve, when she said, I wanna take eat of the fruit, and God said, I'm not gonna stop you. Now you say, well, God didn't show up and actually say that, but in effect he did, didn't he? And so Eve got what she wanted. How did that go for Eve? Pretty bad. You think about that in your own life, right? When I get what I'm after and it isn't what God desires for me, it is devastating. And that's what's occurring here. And so we see in verse number 13 and 14, the unholy trinity that's mentioned together for the first time. He says, I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. The mouth of the dragon, Satan. the mouth of the beast, and the mouth of the false prophet. And so you have this unholy trinity. And several images are made clear. There are three unclean spirits. These are demons. These are fallen angels that issue forth from their mouths. Remember Jesus? What issued forth from his mouth? It was a sharp sword. Well, coming out of the mouth of these three figures are demons. And these demons go about, verse 14, it makes it very clear, they are demonic spirits. You say, what are demonic spirits? They are fallen angels. They are doing what? They are performing signs. So they go about doing miracles. Now that sounds a lot like what was happening in Egypt, doesn't it? Where the magicians could do miracles similar to what Moses was doing as well. And so these counterfeit miracles, they're allowed to do these counterfeit miracles for what purpose? Notice what it says, verse 14, they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. And so what are they doing? They are doing signs, they're doing miracles in order to convince people to follow them. So I would say again, this has always been the purpose of miracles. Signs are there to verify the messenger. So think of the confusion that would happen because here we're talking about these demonic spirits, these demons that are going about and they are performing signs that are causing people to believe something that they should not believe. They are very much interested in deceiving the world. It says there as well, you say, what is the deal with the frogs? Great question. Three unclean spirits like frogs. Probably it is tying it back to Egypt and the plague of the frogs. Frogs were seen as creatures that are unwholesome, that are full of disease, they are unclean. And so you have these frogs, so three unclean spirits like frogs. It's probably that kind of idea, it's connecting it back, but ultimately the larger purpose is for us to understand what they are doing. They are deceiving the nations in order to gather them for battle. When? On the great day of God Almighty. When the second coming actually occurs. And so that brings up verse 16. You say you're skipping verse 15. That's an aside. It's a response of believers. So we're gonna cover it. But I want us to look at the last part of this bowl. And that's verse 16. And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. And so this is the last part of the Sixth Bowl. They all gather together in the Valley of Jezreel, the arm of Megiddo. And so we see here the old Megiddo Fortress. This is the Jezreel Valley right here. And you can see I tried to put up a little bit of a topographical map. And so you can see how if you're going to have a large amount of people, that are going to be any place in Israel, where are they gonna gather? It's gonna be here. That if you're looking for a staging ground to have millions and millions of people, then the Jezreel Valley is the place to go in the arm of Megiddo. And so they would gather here, looking to ultimately attack Jerusalem. But nothing here, because of the mountains and the hills, gives an opportunity to do that well. And so this, by the way, right now, is called the breadbasket of Israel, because it's full of where they grow grain. And so it is an area that is, you know, as flat as it gets in Israel. And so it's a great opportunity there to gather troops. Now, why would the false trinity call upon the nations to attack the people of God? Well, they cannot get at God, but they can get at those who are gods. And that is exactly what they are doing. That they are gathering together all the nations to attack the people who would stand with God. And an easy illustration of this is if you gave somebody a picture of somebody that they hated and they got so upset and they hit the picture or they stabbed the picture or they tore the picture up. The idea is that they were attacking something that was not the person. It was just the image. But that was the best they could do. Their hatred for that person was so much that they even destroyed an image of that. And that's the idea. The people of God are going to be the image of God. And so they become the focus of this hatred, this desire for that to be destroyed. This is the sixth bull. And then we see the seventh bull. Earthquake and hailstorms. This is the storm Theophany. Theophany, the revelation of God. And God has often revealed himself in the storm when he is demonstrating his power. He did this for Elijah. He did this for Moses. This is what happened when Moses got the commandments up on Mount Sinai. The storm Theophany was in play. Elijah, this is what happened on Mount Horeb. And this is what's going to happen again and again. We see this revealed with all of the judgments, but here we see it revealed very clearly. So let's read it, verse 17. The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And a loud voice came out from the temple, from the throne, saying, it is done. And there are flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on earth. So great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And God remembered. Babylon, the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. Can you imagine an earthquake that levels everything, even the mountains? No mountain was to be found. This is globally devastating. That's what we're talking about. And great hailstones, about 100 pounds each fell from heaven on people and they cursed God for the plague of the hail because the plague was so severe. So it is the voice of God, if we go all the way back, A loud voice came out of the temple from the throne. It's the voice of God that proclaims that this is happening. It states it with finality. It is done. What does that sound like? Jesus on the cross, it is finished. It really is the finalization of that which was put in motion with Jesus on the cross. When Jesus says, it is finished, this is God's echo, it is finished. And he is saying this at the end of all the world, the eschaton. The perfect tense is used here to stress the state of affairs resulting from an action. God does an action and it is now finished. That's the idea. This is the first time the earthquake is called great, even though the hailstorm is called great in chapter 11. But the description of this being greater than anything that has ever happened since people were on the earth is kind of reminiscent of the Olivet Discourse, where Jesus spoke of the days of tribulation as being unequaled from the beginning. In his commentary, Grant Osborne, talking about the hailstones. Grant Osborne noted that one of his students figured that a hailstone, such as what it's describing here, would be about 17.6 inches in diameter. It'd be about 60 pounds per cubic foot. The Guinness Book of Records, 1997, the largest hailstorm recorded in history was 2.25 pounds, and it fell in Bangladesh, April 14th, 1986. So 2.25 pounds, hailstones were falling in Bangladesh. This would be like 60 pounds per hailstone. Can you imagine what that is like? In 1986, when it fell in Bangladesh, it killed 92 people, that hailstorm, when they were falling like that. Can you imagine what this would be like? It's mind numbing. The largest ever recorded in the United States was 1.67 pounds. And that fell in Kansas. But this is such a formidable picture of final judgment. It is devastating. And what is it intended to do? All of it is intended to create these decision points. these moments for both unbelievers and believers. And so let's think about them, these decision points for unbelievers. The call here is to turn to God. The bold judgments are the final chance to repent. God has told and told and told and told. God has shown and shown and shown and shown. Over and over again, he has said, turn to me, Turn to me, turn to me. And this is the final chance for any human to turn to God. And in proving the powerlessness of any earthly God, In the Egyptian plagues, he showed that the Egyptian gods were powerless. So here are people living during the tribulation, they're trusting in the false trinity, and yet it is God who is causing all of this destruction. And it's intended to turn their hearts towards him, because he is showing that the gods they're following are not worth following, that they cannot stop him. And he's making it very, very clear. This is God's mission, it always has been, to call people to himself. It is their final chance to repent. If we notice in verse 11, their response. In verse number 11, you can see the response there at the very end. They did not repent of their deeds. They cursed the God of heaven. So here's the reality. They know who is doing this to them. So can you imagine living during that time? You're following the beast, you're following the Antichrist, and the God of heaven is causing all these issues, and you know it's from him, and yet you still do not repent. You do not turn to him. It's a conscious decision after all that he has done. We see this again in verse 21. They curse God again because the plague is incredibly severe, but rather than turning to him and seeking his forgiveness and demonstrating their dependence on him, they focus only on their pain, not on the message. And this is what happened in Egypt. Like Pharaoh, the unbelievers do not listen to God's message to them. They think only of their plight and they blame it on God rather than their own sins. They blind themselves to the fact that they're there because of choices that they've made. And they ultimately embrace the false narrative that this is cruel of God because it's in that cruelty that God is calling them to himself. But please remember, that it was not, this is not all unbelievers living during that time. Remember Revelation 11, verse 13. That said, at that hour, there's a great earthquake, a tenth of the city fell. 7,000 people were killed in the earthquake and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of Heavens. And I'd made the argument that giving glory to the God of Heavens right at that moment is them accepting God as their God. That we're talking about salvation back then. That it actually accomplished what God was desiring, was to call people into a saving relationship with Him. But all of this prepares us for chapter 20, verse 11 through 14. And you say, what's that talking about? That's the final judgment. And it is necessitated by the continuous refusal of the unsaved to respond to God's offer of salvation. Now, maybe we would ask the question, why would Satan lead his followers in such a manner? God is pouring out this bowl of judgment. And what it does is it opens up the way for all of these armies to gather in the Valley of Jezreel in Armageddon in order to attack God and ultimately to be destroyed. Surely Satan knows this. Why would he possibly lead his followers to do that? Satan knows that he can't defeat the Almighty God. And so what's happening? Well, I would suggest that what is happening is exactly what Satan thinks will happen. So we imagine that Satan loves his followers the way that Jesus loves his followers. But that isn't the case. It's far from it. Satan does not care at all about the people who follow him. He does not have love for them. He is not looking to bless them. He does not need them, nor does he want them. He hates them. It is so antithetical to how we would view a leader. But the reason we view leaders that way is because God is our leader. And so we view God as being the epitome of leadership. We have this hardwired, this kind of hard-baked into us. And we say a real leader is a leader who loves well. But that isn't Satan at all. He's not doing that. He never has. He wants to destroy. What did he do for Eve? Was that loving for Eve? No. For Adam, no. It wasn't. It was the opposite. It was harmful for them. But this is exactly what Satan does. Satan lies and he deceives and he says, I am doing this for your good when he is lying. He is doing it for their harm. And he is not interested in being good to anybody ever. You've heard the phrase, of kind of like the idea of waking the sleeping giant. When I say waking the sleeping giant, what does it bring to mind? There we go. Yeah, right? Exactly. A World War II. A lot of times we think exactly of the attack on Pearl Harbor and what had happened there. And it's a good picture of how the United States had adopted a neutral stance to the war. And until that sleeping giant of the United States was provoked, then the United States was going to try to do its best to stay out of the war. It provided support, but it wasn't directly involved. But after that sleeping giant awoke, Then the next time that the Japanese attempted the very similar kind of thing they did at Pearl Harbor was the Battle of Midway, right? And in the Battle of Midway, the results were way different. Because this time, the sleeping giant was awake. Well, this is exactly what will happen at Armageddon. And again, I would say Satan knows this. Again and again and again God has said people have said I defile you God show up and you and I will go face to face and God has said I won't do it because I love you and Satan has attempted to provoke that again and again and again and so one day he will bring Everybody to that point so that they might be destroyed why because he doesn't love those people God does and And so he's bringing them to the point where they will be killed by the one who loves them. And even in that, Satan thinks there's some measure of victory. But you'll notice that God also calls believers to a decision point. If the decision point for unbelievers is turned to God, the decision point for believers is stay faithful to God. Look at verse number 15. The ESV helpfully puts this in quotations. Quotations are not in the original, just so you know. That is an interpretive thing that they did. I think they're right in the sense of that it's intended to be an aside. But notice what it says. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. You know, the first thing for us just to pay attention to is the first person exhortation from the Lamb of God himself. Christ here warns, behold, I'm going to come like a thief. The point of Jesus coming like a thief is that he's going to show up without warning. And so if you know a thief is going to come, that's going to be really problematic for the thief. And so he's saying, I'm coming like a thief. The point is believers stay vigilant and remain faithful. They need to stay awake because they know that the thief is coming. They need to remain dressed, prepared for that which they know will occur. Probably there's a nod towards those white garments that are given to believers. Don't turn away from your identity in Christ. That kind of idea. And so this is a call to vigilance. It's a call to loyalty. Stay committed to the Lord Jesus. Don't turn away from him no matter the confusion that surrounds you. Can you imagine if you are a believer living during the tribulation that I hope my eschatology is right and that's not me? But here we are, if we're living during the tribulation, and you're reading God's word. and you're seeing these miracles, reports of miracles being done, and you're reading God's word, and it's saying, there is others who are saying we should turn away from the God of the Bible and follow a different God. And it's like, but maybe they're right, and these miracles are being done, and to stay faithful to God means losing your life, and you have all of this turmoil that's there, and then you read these words from the Lamb of God. Blessed is the one who stays awake. So why is there such a need for a clear warning? You have the gathering of the forces of evil. You have the deception of the false trinity. You have the apparent hopelessness that surrounds them during this time. Satan looks like he's winning at that point in history. Let me ask you this. Does it look like Satan is winning today? as it looked like Satan is having his way. A couple of years ago in Berlin, a 71-year-old restaurant owner was sued for hate speech. You know why? Because he had, or she, excuse me, had Bible verses all over the restaurant walls. And so she was sued for hate speech. In the United Kingdom, A big well-known bank closed the bank account of a Christian charity that offers therapy for those who want to leave homosexuality. And they said, you can't do that. And they shut it down. Four days ago, Fox News posted an article about a new report that showed that nearly 70% of enforcement actions executed by the Biden administration's education department targeted faith-based and career schools. 70% of enforcement actions. In a press release published by the American Principals Project, they drew on newly obtained data, finding that 70% of the Department of Education's enforcement actions dealt with those faith-based career schools, even though those schools, so 70% of their actions dealt with them, those schools represented less than 10% of students in the US. And to their reporting, it is a very clear faith-based target. That report notes that two of the nation's most prominent Christian universities, Grand Canyon University and Liberty University, were subject to intense scrutiny by the education department. Both of these institutions faced record level fines worth significantly more than all penalties imposed over the past seven years combined. all penalties imposed on every college in the past seven years, including ones like Penn State and Michigan State. They had penalties of 2.4 million, 4.5 million that related to the Jerry Sandusky and the Larry Nassar sexual crimes deals. It's like, okay, is that, Persecution. Well, a department spokesman for the education department sent a statement saying that a school's religious affiliation or non-profit status has absolutely no bearing on our oversight and enforcement actions. Well, they said no. They said it had no bearing. Do I know for certain that that exactly was motivated by that? Or could there be other things involved? Sure, there could be other things involved, but here's my point. is that believers will be targeted. I don't think anybody's gonna argue that, are they? That ultimately that is going to be the future plan and it is the current plan. And so I'm not trying to get everybody up in arms, I'm simply saying, Hey, this is a reality. This is a reality that we face, but it is a reality that we face that we do not have to let it scare us because we follow a God who is completely in control. You know, the final battle is coming and Jesus reminds believers that he will come like a thief, so be ready, be spiritually alert and be loyal. One of the seven blessed statements in the book is located here, where he says, blessed is the one who stays alert. And so these judgments have a pastoral function in the lives of believers in that day and in our day. They are to live in light of what's coming, of the eschaton. So as we close out this message, let me just question or put into application some of these decision points, because we're faced with these as well. The first is this, who will you follow? You know, this is easy to answer as a believer, but yet it is very easy for us to slip away from that. The question of who will you follow is really a question of who will you trust? And again, we think of Adam and Eve. And we think of how they followed God and yet in those moment, in a moment, they trusted Satan. And in that trust, they stopped following God and they veered away. And dear friends, that's what you and I face. That's the danger that's there. That is the alertness that we need. And so that brings up the second question. To what are you paying attention? It is so easy to get distracted. It is so easy to get focused on things that are not that important. on things that will ultimately fade away, on things that are not the most important and significant thing for us to pay attention to. And so that call from Jesus is a real call. And if you listen to that call and you just brush it aside, can I just ask you to examine your heart right now? Did you hear that call to stay alert? And did you just say, ah, it's not a big deal? Because if you did, you are ignoring the words of your Savior. This isn't Steve. This is the Lamb. And the Lamb says, pay attention. Stay alert. And friends, if you don't take heed to that, then you are not listening to your God. Wow. And you say, well, I didn't mean to not listen to him. I was just... Right? That's the point. That he is saying, be spiritually alert. And this is a comfort to us. It's an encouragement to us. It's saying these things are crucial. They're important. You can't ignore them. And you say, but I got so much else going on. And it says not more important than this. Not according to Jesus. And you say, well, it still might be. And I'd say, you're wrong. You're wrong. It isn't. This is more important. So who or what do you desire? I've made the point throughout this message that we need to desire the right things because whatever you desire, you will get. Whatever you desire, you will get. And if you are not training yourself to love the right things, then you will get the wrong thing. The very thing that God has been telling you, don't pursue this. And if that's what you're after, you will get it. You will get it. You will get what you want, but it will devastate you. It'll destroy you. If you seek pleasure, you will find it. If you seek God, you will find it. If you seek wealth on some level, you will find it. If you seek God, you will find it. This is the decision point. This is what God lays out before us. This has always been the case. And Satan comes along and he says, what do you want? I'll give it to you. You want this? I'll give it to you. This is what makes you happy? I'll give it to you. And all along he knows that it's devastating, that it'll destroy your soul, that it'll tear you apart from the inside. And he doesn't care because he doesn't love. And Jesus says, learn to love the right things. So how do you do that? How do you learn to love the right things? Here's an easy experiment. Most of us have had extra time over this Thanksgiving holiday. And you probably fed the things you loved. Maybe that was a pun. You took your time and you did the things that you loved to do. And in doing that, you reinforced that love. You trained yourself to love it a bit more. Isn't that fair? And if you said, OK, but I also love these other things. I just chose not to do any of it. Then what did you do? You told yourself that you have other loves that are more important than that love. And again, I'm not trying to say that anything is necessarily wrong in and of itself. The question is, what is my heart? Where's my heart? What do I love? And it's not that hard to figure out what I love. Because when you have that time to spend any way that you want, and you are not restricted by anything, then what do you go to? What do you do with it? I'd say, that's gonna tell you what you love. And you say, well, I love the wrong things, Pastor Steve. And I'd say, you and me both. That's why I need Jesus, to change me. Because he can help me to love the right things. because those are the things that ultimately matter. Let's close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for our opportunity to examine your word, to wrestle with it, to see these truths that are so clear for the end days, but how they have such pertinent application for us today. And Father, we need your help and your guidance. Lord, we desire to follow Jesus. May we see him clearly. May we love him more. May we follow his path. May we go where He leads. In Jesus' name we pray.