So the plan for today is to go through chapter 15 and 16. The two chapters really form a unit. And so I probably won't spend nearly as much time in 15 as I do in 16, but that's the plan anyway. And the other part of the plan is I'm going to read the entirety of 15 and unpack that a little bit. But when we get to 16, I'm going to sort of take it a chunk at a time. or you could say a bowl at a time. So let me pray for the word. Our Father under God, we pause before we even begin to read your word to ask you to bless it, Lord. And we pray that you just allow us to be able to understand it, Lord. Give us ears that actually can hear a spiritual truth and hearts that can take it in and minds that can understand it, Lord. And change us for the better because we spent time with you and in your word together. We thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. So this is chapter 15 of Revelation. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous. seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass. having harps of God. They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the saints. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested. After these things, I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. And out of the temple came the seven angels, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having their chests girded with golden bands. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. So there's our chapter. And I'll just unpack this a little bit and then we'll move to chapter 16. You see in chapter 15, the description of the thoroughness of the wrath of God, the completeness of the wrath of God. There's seven angels. It mentions that they have these seven plagues. We're going to see the seven bowls. They're also here, but we're going to see them being poured out in chapter 16, number seven, completeness. So it's the fullness of the wrath. It's going to be completed. We'll see that in the next chapter. We've seen this unfolding of this temporal intervention by God in the form of wrath in the breaking of the seals, and then the blowing of the trumpets, and now we're at the bowls of wrath being poured out. And earlier when we saw those images of the seals, it was a partial impact on planet Earth with humanity. In Revelation 6, So I looked, and behold, a pale horse at the breaking of the seal. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades that followed with them. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, right? It's partial, it's not the entirety of the earth. In the trumpets in chapter 8 verse 7, the first angel sounded and hail and fire followed, mingled with blood and they were thrown to the earth and a third of the trees were burned up. But in the judgment of the bowls of wrath, it's complete wrath. I saw another sign in heaven, verse 1. Great and marvelous, seven angels having seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete. You're going to hear in chapter 16, it is done. It is done. So we have the imagery of a sea of glass. We've seen that before in chapter 4, verse 6. Before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal, and we talked about that a little bit. It maybe points to a little bit of the otherness of who God is. He's separate from his creation. But here it's a little different. I saw something like the sea of glass or a sea of glass mingled with fire. Some see the symbolism in that as God's illuminating presence to his own people. And you'll see that in Exodus, when God decides to manifest himself in the form of a pillar of fire. It's a pillar of light and comfort and the presence of God in the night camp for the Israelites. At the same time, that pillar of fire was a symbol of judgment against God's enemies, right? And you see that like in Exodus 14.24, the Lord looked down upon the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and he troubled the army of the Egyptians. So it could be both of those symbols in this glass mingled with fire. And I believe this is the only place in the Bible where we see men and women, I guess, but humans with harps. That seems to be the imagery we always got in the cartoons when I was a kid. Daffy Duck or Donald or somebody would go up to heaven and you'd see them up there strumming his harp. Maybe they got it from this passage. William Coopers wrote a hymn called By the Sea of Crystal. And it's a really good hymn, but listen to this. I'm not going to read the whole thing. I'm not going to sing it either. I'm just going to read you a part of it. By the sea of crystal, saints in glory stand, myriads in number, drawn from every land, robed in white apparel, washed in Jesus's blood. They now reign in heaven. with the Lamb of God. Unto God Almighty, sitting on the throne, and the Lamb victorious, be the praise alone. God has wrought salvation. He did wondrous things. Who shall not extol the holy King of kings?" Isn't that a great hymn? What a great... Maybe we'll sing that. That'll be one of the ones we sing when we get to glory. So the song of the redeemed, verse 3, it says that they sang the song of Moses. And you remember the song of Moses from back in the book of Exodus was a song of praise to God because God was a deliverer. God was a redeemer, had redeemed them through the Red Sea and so on. And just a little bit of that from Exodus. Chapter 15, verse 3, the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his army he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them. They sank to the bottom like a stone." And then you get to verse 11, "'Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You in your mercy have led forth the people whom you have redeemed and have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. Can you see why we'd be singing this in glory? Lord, you're the one who redeemed us. your church and brought us to your holy habitation. And that's what they're singing. They're also singing the song of the Lamb. And we have the lyrics recorded in Revelation 15, 3. Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the saints. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested." And this comes on the heel of us studying the book of Revelation and seeing the unbelieving world bow its knee to the Antichrist to worship the image of the beast. But here, in glory, something else is going on altogether. The saints are worshiping God. And there's a temple in heaven. Verse five, after these things I looked and behold, a temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. The tent of witness you read about. In Hebrews, there's a point being made that When Moses was given the blueprints for the tabernacle, the meeting place for God and worship, when he was given those blueprints, it was a copy of the real, is what it says in the book of Hebrews. So that's why it had to be exactly right. A lot of what was structured there with the temple was really pointing to Jesus Christ. I believe that's why in the book of Malachi God's so mad at the people for bringing blemished animals to sacrifice, because that was supposed to be a representation of the true sacrifice that was to come. And to bring some old blemished lamb wasn't a true representation. A picture of the coming of Jesus, who's the Lamb of God, that came to take away the sins of the world. But like in Hebrews chapter 8 in verse 4, there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things. As Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." It was important. But here in Revelation, he looks and behold, that pre-word of, hey, listen up, look, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. Here's the real. Now, people would debate whether or not there's actually a temple and what not is symbolic. I don't think that's the point. The point is that the earthly worship was really a picture of eternal things, of glorious things beyond themselves. There are seven angels. They have bright linen, maybe representing purity, the radiance of heaven. They have golden chest bands. Some suggest dignity, coming with the authority of God, God Almighty. And there's one of these living creatures, these four living creatures, there's one of them. These are the guardians of the throne of God, right? They're before the Lord. And so this living creature gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls, B-O-W-L-S, bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. And nobody can enter the temple. So you get a picture of God alone in his temple as wrath is being poured out as the picture of the presence of God. Robert Mounts writes in his commentary, no one can approach God until his wrath is complete. The time for repentance is over. The patience and long suffering of God have been exhausted. The doors of access to the presence of God are closed and judgment has begun. That's kind of an ominous passage they're saying there in the commentary. And there's these seven bowls of wrath. In Leviticus, in chapter 26, verse 21, God says to the Israelites, he expects their obedience. And he says, then if you walk contrary to me and are not willing to obey me, I will bring on you seven times more plagues according to your sins. And here, this very thing is being carried out across the entirety of the world. So chapter 16. I'll just look at this one bowl at a time. So the first bowl is verses 1 and 2, where we'll see loathsome sores, is the way it words in my New King James. Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth. So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his mark. Now you're going to see, as we've seen in previous chapters, that these plagues, these wrathful acts of God upon humanity, are going to mimic somewhat the plagues that God performed against Egypt. And you'll see that here as well. When you go back to that story in Exodus 9.9, it says it will become fine dust, and all the land of Egypt, and it will cause boils that break out and sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt." And we see something very similar here with these loathsome sores. And they seem to linger a bit because it talks later in the chapter about them still having sores and being angry with God because of this. Kendall Easley, in his commentary, writes, there is a correspondence with the sixth of the Egyptian plagues, but the literal sense need not be pressed here. The intention is rather to indicate the painful and incapacitating disorders that follow in the wake of persistent sinning. That's actually Philip Hughes. Kendall writes, those who received the mark of loyalty to the Antichrist were in turn marked by God with painful disease. And do notice as we go through this that none of this wrath is poured out on believers. None of it. This is specifically honing in on, it says, those who had the mark of the beast. And basically were not loyal to God and not loyal to Christ. So the second bowl, the sea, turns to blood in verse 3. Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man. And every living creature in the sea died. And again, notice it's not a third of the creatures of the sea, or a couple of the creatures, or a certain type of creature. It's all the creatures. Every single living creature in the sea dies. Again, this harkens back to the plagues in Egypt, doesn't it? If you remember the story. And let me read a little bit, if you don't remember it. In Exodus 7. Verse 20, it says, and Moses and Aaron did so just as the Lord commanded. So he lifted up the rod, struck the waters that were in the river, and the sight of Pharaoh, and the sight of his servants, and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood. The fish that were in the river died, and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river. So there was blood throughout all the land. of Egypt. So there, where it was just a river, an isle, in a particular country, judgment against the nation of Egypt, here it's worldwide. It's the entirety of God's judgment being poured out. In Revelation 8 and 9 we saw something similar, but it was a third of the ocean that became blood. But this is the totality of God's wrath and judgment. And notice that it qualifies or describes the blood. It's not the vivacious blood of life. The Bible keeps equating that in the Old Testament, in blood. They were told not to drink blood. If you remember the Jerusalem Council in Acts chapter 15, that was one of the requirements was not to offend the Jews. We're Jew and Gentile coming together. Don't drink blood. There was life. It was symbolic. And we know that if we didn't have blood, we wouldn't be alive. No, it's not vivacious. It's the blood as of a dead man. Coagulated. Stinking. It's putrid, is the picture. It's like poison. And Mephet Keistmaker, in his commentary, picks up on that. And he says, this causes famine and death to all who depend on the bounties of the sea, for the oceans of the world became a picture of pollution. Whatever is going on here, whether that's symbolic or whether that's a reality yet to be seen, but it's definitely a picture of the fullness of God's wrath being poured out. The third bowl, now all the water is going to turn to blood. In Revelation 16, let's pick it up in verse 4. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is, and who was, and who is to be, because you have judged these things. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, for it is their due. And I heard another from the altar saying, even so Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. That's the response of the angels and the one from the altar that's calling out to God. So water is essential for life, right? And so we see judgment at that level. The wages of sin is death, the Bible says. And the wrath of God is being poured out, this time unmitigated, unlike prior in the book. Robert Mounce writes, Note that God's wrath falls on those who have declared themselves to be his enemies. God's people are nowhere to be found in this saga of divine judgment. While Christian believers may suffer at the hands of the wicked, not even Jesus, the perfect man, was immune from that. They will never be subjected to the wrath of God poured out in the last days upon the followers of the beast. And notice in the text, and I focused on it for myself because it meant something to me, is that God in this section of the third bowl is being praised for his perfect holy justice. The punishment was equal to the crime. Did you read that? Lord, they poured out and shed the blood of the saints and the prophets. And so you've given them blood to drink. We even use that language ourselves a little bit when we talk about somebody who's murderous. And we use language like, they're just bloodthirsty. Right? Same type of language. You shed the blood of the saints. You enjoyed publicly martyring Christians. And now you're going to drink blood, is what the Bible is saying. The fourth bowl, men are scorched. Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun. And power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat. And they blasphemed the name of God, who has power over these plagues. And they did not repent and give him glory. In Revelation 7, it's promised of God's people in Revelation 7.16. They shall neither hunger any more, nor thirst any more. The sun shall not strike them, nor any heat. But of the unbelieving world, a world that's in rebellion against God, a world that's bowed its knee to the image of the beast, won't listen to the preachers, won't listen to the testimonies. To them, actually in the original Greek, it reads like this, men were scorched with great scorching. It's doubled for emphasis. The focus is on the torment. And interestingly enough, these plagues are poured out and nobody's repenting. Nobody's crying out to God with a contrite heart. Oh Lord, we deserve this, but please have mercy. You don't see that anywhere. Instead, they blaspheme God in response. We saw that earlier in the book. They blaspheme God because of what they're going through. I can't remember who this commentary was, but they wrote, since this is one of the last plagues, their impenitence is now incorrigible. And they show this by blaspheming the name of God and refusing to glorify him just as the anti-Christian beast to whom they have sold themselves does. Right? And he goes back to Revelation 13.5, and he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, right? The little horn of Daniel. In Malachi, the prophet prophesies in chapter 4 and verse 1, For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch." Right? It's a complete judgment. Not even a root will be remained with this pouring out of God's wrath. The fifth bowl, darkness and pain. And that's verse 10 and 11. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent. of their deeds. It becomes sort of a theme here, is no matter what God does in judgment against them, they won't say enough's enough and cry out for mercy. So this bull is poured out on the throne or the kingdom of the beast. His entire kingdom becomes full of darkness. Well, it's already a dark kingdom spiritually. And now it's darkness and totality. Ephesians 6.12 says, We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age. It's the darkness of this age. A wicked oversight by Satan and his minions. Jesus said this to Nicodemus in John 3, part of that fantastic conversation. But here's what he said when you get to verse 19. And this is the condemnation. Why are people condemned? This is the condemnation that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Light came and they loved darkness. They couldn't get their hands out of dark things because they loved them and wouldn't come away from that to embrace Christ. So God's people will not experience this. And I'll give you an example because I keep going back to the plagues of Egypt. And I think I read this a couple sermons ago, but let me read it to you in this context. So this is Exodus 10, beginning in verse 21, and it says, Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, darkness which may even be felt. So Moses stretched out his hand towards heaven. And there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from this place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." And beloved, if there's a group of Christians that go through this final judgment, they're going to be shielded by God. And I don't know how. Supernaturally, God will shield them, just like He made the Israelites' houses. And the plagues didn't fall in Goshen. Their houses were well lit as the enemies of God's people were undergoing God's temporary wrath for three days. It was only three days. This is the fullness of God's wrath. And the Bible speaks in those categories. John, especially, loved, by the Spirit, to use the analogy, if you will, of light and darkness. You see that all through, especially 1 John, you see it all the way through, but even the Gospel. But listen to a writing of Paul's, the apostle. In Colossians 1.13, in this context, it says, speaking of our salvation, he describes it this way. He, meaning God, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And 1 John would say, well, that's the kingdom of light. You've been transported by a work of God Almighty in your salvation out of where you were. We were darkness, and we loved darkness, and we embraced darkness. We lived in darkness. We were under the sway of the prince of darkness. And God, by His power through repentance and faith, conveyed us or transported us out of that into the kingdom of His Son, which is the kingdom of light. Isn't that a beautiful thing? The sixth bowl, the Euphrates River is going to dry up. And this is a bigger chunk of scripture. I'm going to take it down to verse from 12 to 16. 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 earth, to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Behold, I'm 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." So a lot there, we'll unpack it a little bit. So the drying of the river. I think most are agreed that this is, whether symbolic or reality, is saying that the way of invasion has been opened, right? That block. And John's day, he would have been thinking of probably Rome, right? And the attack, because Rome eventually would fall. Some of the commentators go there. And I'm going to read you three. And you can pick which one you like the best. But here's Robert Mounts. And he writes, the Euphrates, marked the eastern boundary of the Roman Empire. The land beyond the river was controlled by the Parthians, an enemy nation greatly feared by the Romans. For the Euphrates to dry up, would symbolize the imminent danger of invasion from without. This destruction of ancient Rome foreshadows the ultimate collapse of all secular power and authority at the end of history. So he seems to take more of a figurative view of what's going on here. Warren Wiersbe, who tracks a little bit more dispensational, says the drying up the river, he has a futuristic view, so it's all future. So the drying up the river will make it possible for the army of the kings from the east to come to Palestine and invade the Holy Land. So that's another view that's held by quite a few people. And then a keismaker takes sort of a symbolic view. He says, all restraints and obstacles have been removed so that the ungodly forces can do their destructive work. The moral code of God's law has ceased to influence society at large. And the mystery of lawlessness is at work in full force. And he's borrowing that language from Thessalonians, where Paul writes about this. So the drying of the river, one way or the other, it's either symbolic or real, it's opening the way of invasion. And it's to go to a place that we'll look at in a second called Armageddon. So before we get to that, we are confronted again with this unholy trinity, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. And from the unholy trinity are unclean spirits, these demonic spirits. And John says they're like frogs. I can't, I have a lot of commentaries. I mean, people are talking about how icky frogs feel and all this kind of thing. All I can say is that frogs, according to the dietary law to the Jew, were unclean animals. You can see that in Leviticus 11.10. And these are called unclean spirits. So that might be the reasoning for the frogs. But the demonic forces sent out to deceive, verse 14, for they are spirits of demons performing signs, right, that's supposed to wow people, and which go out to the kings of the earth, And of the whole world, so it's not localized, this is a worldwide deception, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Now don't forget, God is omnipotently behind all this, sovereignly, right? He doesn't cause evil. He doesn't create evil spirits and whatnot. But God is sovereign above all this, carrying out his perfect plan. And we'll see what that battle looks like, at least in my interpretation. I think when we get to chapter 19, it won't take long. Jesus on his white steed. And the horror of the scene in that chapter is that the hem of his robe, his white robe, is drenched in blood. And it's a picture of his conquest and victory over all enemies. So how does this take place? I look at this and I think, one, this tells me, Larry, never, ever put your faith in political leaders. Never. I'm not saying we can't support them. I'm not saying we don't vote for them. I'm not saying any of that. But don't put your eternal hope in them. Don't think, oh, this one will really take care of us. No, you put your hope in the king of kings, in the Lord of lords, because all of these leaders are open to demonic influence. And when I was reading this, I thought how these spirits are out, and you almost picture some creepy scene where they're doing almost like the magicians with Pharaoh, right? Doing their tricks and dazzling Pharaoh, and speaking their lies, and whispering in their ears, and all of this. It's a picture of just a satanic influence over all the leaders of the entirety of the world. And it reminded me of a story in the Old Testament. I want to read it to you, because to me it's a remarkable story. But it's in 1 Kings chapter 22, beginning in verse 19. It's just a handful of verses here. But the backdrop here is that the king has gathered around him false prophets that are lying to him. And he's buying it hook, line, and sinker. And so in this story, Micaiah is a true prophet of the living God. So that's probably enough for a background to get what's going on here. So it says, then Micaiah said, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead? So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. Then a spirit came forward, Doesn't say what kind of spirit. Then a spirit, little s, right? Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. The Lord said to him, In what way? So he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, You shall persuade him, and you shall prevail. Go out and do so. Therefore, look, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the Lord has declared disaster against you. Now Zedekiah the son of Chenanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way did the spirit from the Lord go for me to speak to you?" Right? Sarcasm. And Micaiah said, indeed you shall see on the day when you go into the inner chamber to hide." Right? They're kind of going out of here. So the king of Israel said, take Micaiah, return him to Ammon, the governor of the city, and to Joash, the king's son, and say, thus says the king, put this fellow in prison and feed him with the bread of affliction and the water of affliction until I come in peace. Listen to the last word. But Micaiah said, if you ever return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me. And he said, take heed, all you people. I just thought that last line, I had to get to that last line. I love that the Lord led Micaiah to say, if you come back from that battle, God didn't speak through me, because I'm telling you, you're dying on that battlefield. And I just read that because you think, well, how could this happen? Well, there's a story in history where it did happen. You could imagine the president, or the king, or the emperor of some country, with all their advisors, But they're actually getting satanic advice. And ultimately at the core of it is this evil spirit that's conjuring up and convincing and persuading these leaders to revolt, in this case against God Almighty. So in the middle of all this, there's this call to vigilance to the people of God. In verse 15, Behold, I'm coming as a thief. Well, we've heard that many times before, and it's being said here as a reminder. Blessed is he who watches, right, vigilance, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. Well, if you go back in Revelation chapter 3, I think this is to the church of Laodicea, verse 18, where Jesus says to the church, "...I counsel you to buy for me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed." And that's almost exactly what's being said here, is, hey, church, keep your clothes clean. Keep your holy robes on. The only holy robe we got is Jesus Christ. We're in Christ. We're cloaked in His righteousness. In Revelation 7.14, we see these are the ones who came out of the great tribulation and washed their robes, made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It's those that have been washed by the blood of the Lamb. We sang a couple songs today about that. And then lastly, these kings, these leaders, these emperors are all being led by this wicked, evil, unclean spirit that's whispering in their ears to go to Armageddon. They gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon. That's a difficult word, guys. It's hard to unpack exactly what that's saying in the original. A lot of scholars say, well, it's talking ultimately about Megiddo. And some would say, well, the prefix on the word would be like the mount of Megiddo. And others would say, no, this is a different prefix than some of the originals. And it's really the city of Megiddo. And so some say, well, the Megiddo is built on a plateau, but this seems to be a plain. Well, down below is a plain. And famously, many, many biblical battles have been fought there. After biblical times, there's other battles have been fought there. So some say that's what they're talking about, a literal, all-on battle, World War Final, and it's going to take place there, on that battlefield. Some see here a tide of Mount Carmel. I don't know if I can go down that path, but some see it. Some see it simply as a code for a rallying point. Armageddon itself is just a code that the armies will rally. He writes, I regard the term Armageddon as a symbol by which God delivers his people from harm and demonstrates that he has power and might to overthrow his enemies. So could be, you know that. And then the seventh bowl and the entire earth is shaken. Verse 17. 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. And again, that same theme of the men will not repent, men will not turn and cry out for mercy, poured into the air this time. Probably a heavenly perspective, you can imagine pouring out into the air, impacting the earth. And this thundering and lightning, it's usually in the appearance of God, Mount Sinai, you have peals of thunder and lightning and all this, the power of God. Is this physically the shaking of earth? Some say it's metaphorically the shaking of all of human institutions right before the coming of Jesus Christ. It says the great city, it's like divided by three, it's being destroyed. I think that's a reference to Babylon. that's fallen, right? Chapter 14 says, chapter 17, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, of all the abominations on the earth. We'll unpack that more when we get to 17. So the wicked worldly system is completely and utterly shattered. Whatever is going on here, I'd say, whether it's figurative or whether it's actually occurring exactly physically like they say here, it's the complete and utter shattering of the world system one way or the other. The disappearing mountains and fleeing islands. It's a picture of cataclysmic changes instantaneously. What comes to mind for me is the making of the new heavens and the new earth. Things are going to be different. And here it's talking about hail that's like 100 pounds each. We don't know exactly what talent, because it depends on what culture it is. They have different weights for it. Imagine a hundred pound hail ball falling. And how could anybody survive that to even blaspheme God? If this is literal, but maybe it is literal. And instead of repentance, sadly, they curse. And I'll close with this. Because guys, people put their faith in the things of this world, and we're told over and over by our Lord not to do that. Don't put your faith in the things of the world. Don't wrap your hands around the things of the world. Don't love the things of the world. Be children of the kingdom. Love the things of God. And we don't have to worry about our world being shaken, so to speak, when we put our faith in God. And I have to read Hebrews 12, and I'll close with this, beginning in verse 25. where it says, See that you do not refuse him who speaks, for if they did not escape who refused him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he is promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven. Now this, yet once more, 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. Therefore, and here's the writer's point, Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire. Right? God's kingdom won't be shaken. We don't have to fear these things. We should warn people. They need to flee the darkness and come to the kingdom of light. That kingdom will not be shaken. But all these world structures, all these banks, all this cryptocurrency, it's all out the window one day. Don't put your hope there. Put your hope in Jesus Christ. Let me close. Our Father and our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that we've come to a kingdom of our Lord that cannot be shaken. And Lord, let us be confident in that. I thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Receive the blessing of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ.