Let us turn, please, to the book of Revelation. And today, by the grace of God, we are going to seek to cover Revelation chapter 16. This chapter has 21 verses, and it deals, basically, beloved brothers and sisters, with the final judgment of God upon the face of this universe, this world. In fact, when we get to chapter 16 of the book of the Revelation, we can see how God's wrath against men is being poured one bowl at a time in conclusion of the tribulation period. Let me read the chapter first of all, so we have it before us. Chapter 16 and verse 1. And I heard a great voice out of the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go your way, and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out the bowl upon the earth. And there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his bowl upon the sea, and it became as the blood of the dead men, and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his bowl upon the rivers, and the fountains of the waters, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and which wast, and shall be, because Thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of the saints and prophets, and Thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blessed in the name of God, which hath the power over those plagues. And they repented not to give Him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his bowl 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 their pain and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river of 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. And they are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, and 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 watches, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gather them together unto a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And a seventh angel poured out his bowl 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 lightning. And there was 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. Reading such a chapter as Revelation chapter 16 is a very discouraging in a sense chapter to read when we understand from these verses what is going to happen in a future day in the tribulation period, especially in the second half of the tribulation period. It is amazing. That's why for us, it's so precious to sing that song that we have just sung of the Lord Jesus, of Yeshua, the Messiah, how great He is and how precious the Messiah, how faithful He is. And He's superior than anyone else. And He's the one that we can sing to Him. And we can praise Him and be occupied with Him because of what He has done for us, who believed on Him and accepted Him as our Lord and Savior and Messiah. But for those individuals, dear beloved brothers and sisters, who are going to remain behind here after the heavenly company, the Ekklesia, the church is going to be taken out of here, for them it's going to be awful. is going to be a time such as never been before, the greater part of the tribulation period. The judgment of God, the wrath of God that is going to fall upon these individuals that rejected the Messiah who came and offered salvation for them. And so what we have here in chapter 16 in verses 1 to 21, we have the final bold judgments that are going to come the judgment of the wrath of God against men, which will fall at the second half of the tribulation period. If you remember by way of introduction in our last ministry meeting, we read in chapter 15 of the revelation in verses 5 to 8. And what did John see in chapter 15? He saw heaven open and he saw a vision of a temple which is in heaven and if you remember we read in this verse 5 of chapter 15 and after that I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was open What does he see? In fact, in chapter 15, he says, I saw. You notice? He looked and he beheld, he saw. And what did he see in verse 6? The seven angels came out of the temple, having seven plagues, clothes in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And notice what he heard them receiving. It says in verse 7, And one of the four living creatures gave unto them the seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who liveth forever and ever. And they received now the last judgment that they were going to pour upon the face of this earth. They received those seven bowls from the hand of the one that liveth forever and ever. And now in chapter 16, we begin to see how those bowls and what kind of judgment are they going to be. Now let's go through those verses one by one so we can see those seven final judgments at the end of the seven year tribulation. We begin of course with verse one first of all and you notice now John not only see, now he hears. You remember chapter 15 and verse 5, he looked and he saw. Chapter 16 and verse 1, he heard. Now what does John hear? John hear the command to go out of the temple in order to pour out those judgments. It says in verse 1, I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels. Go your ways and pour out the bowels of the wrath of God upon the earth. Now, you know this expression, I mentioned it before already. The wrath of God is mentioned, I think, by the very same word. The wrath of God is mentioned about 10 times in the Scripture. It's mentioned in Psalm 78 and verse 31. It's mentioned in the Gospel of John 3, verse 36, and Romans chapter 1. For the wrath of God revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. Here is the wrath. This is the climax. God's righteous indignation we read over here. And now the command that was given to those seven angels, you go and now you pour those bowls of God's final wrath against men upon this earth. Notice that the pouring is upon the earth at the end of verse one. But John hear the voice from heaven, but the judgment is going to be here upon the face of this earth. Now look at those judgment one by one. Everyone almost of this judgment, at least majority of those seven less judgments, are really connected with the judgment that God poured upon the Egyptians when our nation, the Hebrews, the people of Israel, came out of Egypt 3,500 years ago, when God delivered Israel, our nation, into liberty after 430 years of slavery by the hand of the Egyptians. The first one is verse 2, it says here, And the first went, and he poured out the bowl upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. The first one of the seven final judgment is that the first angel poured the bowl of the grievous sore. I was looking in various passages in the scripture and one of these passages was very helpful to see that and that was found in the book of Job. I don't know if you remember when God allowed Satan to cause Job to be punished or to discipline Job. And you remember what we read in the earlier chapter of the book of Job? In the second chapter, it says that Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord. This is Job 2 and verse 7. And he smote Job with boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. He was filled with boils. It says here in verse 8 of Job 2 that what Job did, it was so irritating to him that Job took a patched, in other words he took a piece of clay and he started to scrape his body all over. He set down among the ashes and he took a patch to scrape himself with all because it was so itchy and so uncomfortable from the top of his head to the sole of his foot. Can you imagine? It says here that the first one of this bold judgment will be that God will smite this earth with a grievous sore upon the men. Now notice who are these people. Men is M-E-N is plural. Men which, number one, they took the mark of the beast. Number two, they worship the image. Now you remember when we started chapter 13 of the Revelation, in chapter 13 we saw that those were the ones that did not follow the Messiah, and they followed this counterfeit Messiah. And the false prophet made an image unto the counterfeit Messiah in the temple in Yerushalayim. And there are those who followed this wicked man and acknowledged him as God, worshipped him and followed after him. And we know from chapter 14 that that was the final chance that they have had to be saved by the very fact that they rejected God and followed the Antichrist and took the mark of his name and the mark of the beast. They have lost the opportunity to be restored to God. And that was the final opportunity that they have had. And now we find out that God is now pronouncing judgment upon those that took the mark of the beast, and they worshipped the image. You find it in chapter 13 verses 14 to 18, and chapter 14 verses 9 and 10, that God would judge them. He promised this. And here, at the end of the tribulation, they end up to be filled with boils. You know, God did the very same thing to the Egyptian. In Hebrew, that word called Shechin. Sores all over the body that are really, as it's mentioned elsewhere, almost like wound in the body that producing discharge. Pass, they call it, a wound and many of them all over the body. Can you imagine how people have felt at this time? They were in pain, they were in sorrow, but they have made a choice to follow the Antichrist, the counterfeit Messiah. So that is the first bold judgment in Revelation chapter 16. Now it's moving on look at verse 3 there is a second bowl judgment in verse 3 the second angel poured his bowl and that is called the bowl of the seas water turning into blood look at verse 3 and the second angel poured out his bowl upon the sea and it became as the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea Now here's that second bold judgment. Here we find out the salt water that were used, you know, the seas in scripture oftentimes refer to the nations. Also the seas is that which divide nation from nation. We call it, you know, I'm going overseas, meaning that I'm going to another country. I'm going overseas. Now the seas were used for ships and for boats and for people to go from one land to another land, from one area to another area. But what happened right now? Now all the seas, this is the salt water, are turning into blood. It says here, the blood of a dead man. It again reminds us, brothers and sisters, of what happened to the Egyptians when Moshe, the people of Israel were there, and how God had used Moses to turn the water into blood. And they could no longer, at least in this case, they couldn't go from one place to another. And it says in verse 3, the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea. You know, the fish, the whales, all the creatures, sea creatures have lost their life. It's almost similar to the other judgment that happened in a prior chapter in Revelation chapter 8 in verses 8 and 9 when one third of the sea creatures died. But at the end of the tribulation, just before the coming of the Messiah, all living creatures will die that are in a salt water in the seas. Can you imagine the stench, the death, the smell that is going to occur here during the end of the tribulation period? Notice the next verses now, verses 4, 5, 6, and 7. The third angel pouring out his bowls, this time is not the salt water that he deals with, but he's judging the rivers and the fountains and he turning them into blood. This is no longer now the salt water. You see, we don't use the salt water for drinking, for quenching our thirst and meeting our need. We are using the sweet water, the rivers and the lakes and the fountains. We are using these waters in order that we can meet our need to quench the thirst. But look here in this verses 4 to 7, that third bowl that being poured by the third angel. And the third angel poured out his bowl upon the rivers and the fountains of the water and now they became blood. Now what you gonna do when you have no drinking water? You are unable to function, unable to live. You cannot live without water, without drinking water. Usually when someone fast, he will not drink or he will not eat and he will just take a sip of water every once in a while to quench his thirst. But otherwise, without sweet waters, how can a person survive? The Bible tells us in verse 4 that the sweet water, similar to what happened in earlier judgment in Revelation chapter 8 and verses 10 and 11, there only one-third of the sweet water was becoming bitter. But here, beloved brothers and sisters, not one-third anymore. It's all the rivers and all the fountains of the water, they became blood. In verse 5, notice what the angel of the water is ascribing righteousness to God. He says in verse 5, I heard the angel of the waters saying, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, which was, in which shall be, because thou hast judged thus. You see, the angel is saying to the Lord, this is God. You are the one who was. You are the one who is. You are the one who ever will be. You are just in what you are doing. You are right in what you are doing. See, the grace that God have extended to man, have the time have passed. Men rejected him. The offer of salvation to men in general during the church have passed. The church is in heaven. Now the people on earth, Israel, the nation, the 144,000 Hebrews, the two witnesses, and so on, and they're presenting the gospel of the kingdom. And men still reject the gospel. And the angel is proclaiming in verse 5, God, Lord, you are right. You are righteous. You know, some people tell us today that God is not right. God is not fair. He's not doing the right thing. You know, how can God send someone to eternal separation from him? If God was love, how can he had done that? Well, here we find out that this is the final note. In other words, here we can see that God has exhausted all His grace to be provided for man. Not that there is no more grace, but man refused it. And because God is just and righteous, judgment will prevail, will come. And so we find out that this angel proclaiming and ascribing righteousness to God. In verses 6 and 7 of these verses, also we can see why God is righteous. For they have shed the blood of the saints and of the prophets. For thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. The people that will experience what is going on here during the tribulation are also guilty. You know what they are guilty in? They have shed the blood of the saints and of the prophets. Now, if you remember, during the tribulation period, there will be many Hebrew saints and Gentile saints who will believe in a Messiah, and many of them will be killed because of their testimony to Yeshua the Messiah. Well, who killed them? Who caused them to lose their lives? It will be the Antichrist, the false prophets, and those that follow them. And that's why the angel is saying here, God, you are right in what you are doing. These people that are right now experiencing the time of judgment have earlier, prior to this time, had persecuted your people. They persecuted the prophets. You remember we read chapter 11? They have killed the two witnesses. You remember we read even earlier in chapter 6, they have killed the saints of God. In fact, if you just go back to chapter 6 for a moment and look what it says in verse 9. It says, this was in an earlier judgment where the seals were open. It says in verse 9, And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them which were slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they have held. You see, people during the tribulation, Jewish people of Israel, among the Jewish people, and many from the nations, they will follow the Lord, and they will stand for His Word, and they will testify for the name of Yeshua the Messiah, and ultimately they're going to be killed. They have been slain by the false Messiah, and those that followed after Him. It says here, they have been slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they have held. And so now the angels say in that the third pouring of the bowl of judgment, listen God you are right, you are righteous in what you are doing. You are just in what you are doing. These are the ones that have slain your prophets. These are the ones that have slain your saints. In verse 7 it says, Another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgment. God, whatever He does, even though it seems to be so harsh, but whatever He does, He is true and He is righteous. You remember what Paul said in his epistle to the Romans? Let God be true and every man a liar. And that's what we learn here in Revelation chapter 16 and verse 7 in the third bowl judgment that fall at the end of the tribulation upon the earth. Now let's move on. Look at this, verses 8 and 9. We have the fourth angel pouring out his bowl. And what is his bowl? What judgment will that be? This is the bowl of this great heat that's coming from the sun, which will scorch men here in this world. Look, it says, and the fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun this time. And the power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat. And look at this, brothers and sisters, you would think when somebody is being tormented in such a way, the heat of the sun is scorching the body of mankind, you would think that in pain and in such a condition, men will turn to God and say, God, help me. But look what we read here. According to verse 9, when men were scorched with a great heat, what did they do? They began to blaspheme God. They began to curse God. It says in verse 9b, they blasphemed the name of God which has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and gave Him glory. You see, you know, we don't even realize how hard the heart of man is. That's what the Apostle Paul is saying, that the heart of man is desperately wicked. Well, Jeremiah says it in the Old Testament, but both of them together, O wretched man that I am! That was... Paul is saying it in Romans 7. The Lord is saying it through the Prophet Jeremiah. Men by nature does not change unless the Spirit of God is doing a work in his or her heart. They blessed in the name of God. They repented not and they did not give him glory. No wonder today when we reach and speak with the gospel and people still harden their hearts. And you ask yourself why you reject God so much? The natural man simply hardens his heart. Even if God is reaching out and seeking to discipline them in order to bring them back to himself. Apparently here they blasphemed the name of God and they did not repent and they did not give him glory. And we are moving on, as we are talking about those final judgment of God. By the way, the word blaspheme in Greek is blaspheme, blasphemeo. In Hebrew the word is naval, l'navil. Remember the name of the man that is called Nabal. His name is Naval. And Naval means to despise someone. When David was rejected by Naval, it's written in the book of Samuel, as his name, so he is. That's what the Hebrew name Naval means. In fact, in the book of Psalm, we read in Psalm 14 and in Psalm 53 concerning the very same Naval is mentioned there. In Psalm chapter 14 and verse 1, it says, The fool says in his heart, there is no God. Or the fool or Naval. Naval says in his heart, God. No, I don't have any interest in you. I do not want you in my life. This is the very same word when we are talking here about blaspheming. L'navel, to blaspheme, to despise, to reject God. And that is what we read here in verses 8 and 9 about the fourth angel who poured out that next bowl. Look at the next verses now. in verses 10 and 11 we are reading now about the fifth angel that pouring his bowl this time listen brothers and sisters he is pouring it out upon the seat of the beast Verse 10, The fifth angel poured out his vial, his bowl, upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness. And they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blessed him the name of God, the God of heaven, because their pain and their sores, and they repented not of their deeds. Now that is also very interesting. You remember that it says here, it's expressing the word here, the seat of the beast. And it's also used the word, and his kingdom. You know, by the middle of the tribulation period, as we have studied this earlier, the count of it, Messiah, will seek to take the place of the ruler of all the world. So he will have, in a sense, two places in the religious realm. He's going to be in Jerusalem because he will situate himself in the city of Jerusalem. 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, he will stand in the temple claiming to be God. But he's not going to be situated there all the time because he will have to have to deal with all kinds of other affairs in his rule over this world. And therefore the image is being situated in Jerusalem and he will be situated in another place and you will see it later on in a place that is called Babel or Babylon. And so he will have his political area and his religious area, Babylon, the city of Babylon and the city of Jerusalem. And here we find out that the fifth angel pouring upon the seat of the beast and his kingdom, he's pouring darkness. There will be a period of time where there will be darkness. But it is interesting, it's not going to be all the world, and I tell you in a moment why. Because the darkness will fall upon his kingdom, but his kingdom is not yet total. Why? Because if you remember, in the middle of the tribulation, as we read Matthew chapter 24 and also Revelation chapter 12, there will be the remnant of our nation Israel, who gonna flee from the city of Yerushalayim. And they're going to go to the mountains, to the desert place, which is present day Edom, present day Jordan, Petra, Bozrah area. And they will be preserved by God for three and a half years. So there will be darkness over all the kingdom of this beast, with the exception of the place where God will preserve his Hebrew people, the nation of Israel, for the second half of the tribulation period. And I took a note of it. If you just go back to Exodus for a moment, I wanted to see the connection here with Israel coming out of the land of Egypt. If you go to chapter 10 of the book of Exodus, verse 21, 22, and 23, and look what we read, very similar. Exodus chapter 10, verse 21, that's where the judgment of God fell upon the Egyptian doing Israel slavery there. It says, Then the Lord said unto Moses, verse 21, Stretch forth thine hand towards heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. It was so thick, that darkness. And Moses stretched forth his hand towards heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. And then the Bible adds that which is in connection with God's people, the Hebrews. It says in verse 23, And they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. It's so precious, you know, God can cut the darkness from light. He can kind of put darkness all over many areas of this universe, but he can leave a little section where there will be lights in the dwellings of his own people. And what we see here in Revelation chapter 16, that God have caused darkness to come only upon the kingdom of the beast. And no more! In other words, He has always preserved light for His people. And as He is preserving them in the second half of the tribulation period, in this area that is called Bozra or Petra, in the wilderness, in the mountains, present day Jordan, in this area there was no darkness. Just the same like in old time in Egypt, where all the land was such a thick darkness, and yet the Hebrews had lights in their dwellings. This is a miracle. Only God can do that. I remember sometime in my driving on the highway on the way home, it's pouring rain in Toronto and I'm on the highway and all of a sudden there's a place where boom, there is no rain at all. It's like there's a line where everything is dry. and I'm riding on a highway and I say wait a minute I just came from a storm and rain and flood of water coming down from heaven and then all of a sudden the whole road is dry and you ask yourself the question what happened well I mean this is nature that's the way God have done things but when it's going to be in connection with the fifth bold judgment that's going to fall upon the seat of the beast where he's going to be situated And also upon His kingdom full of darkness, and yet it's going to be limited to where He was in control. But there will be lights among the people of Israel, the Hebrews, who are going to be preserved in the second half of the tribulation. They are not yet believers. They haven't acknowledged that Yeshua is the Messiah, but they're going to be preserved until the second coming of the Messiah, the end of these seven judgments when they're going to acknowledge the Messiah. And therefore God is preserving them and protecting them until that final time is coming of the second coming of the Messiah. So I thought this is so precious. It's so encouraging to see here what's happening. If you just go back for a moment to chapter 12, just to show you how God will preserve them. In chapter 12, it says here in verse 13 of Revelation 12, And when the dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman, namely Israel, which brought forth the man child, namely Yeshua the Messiah. And to the woman were given two wings of great eagle, that she might flee or fly into the wilderness, into hell. her place where she is nourished for a time, one year, and times, another two years, and half a time, together three and a half years, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent, this is Satan, verse 15, cast out his mouth of water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. This is the war against the people of Israel. And the earth helped the woman. And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. Verse 17 says, And the dragon was wrath with the woman, and he went to make war with the remnant of her seed. The woman here in the text is Israel. And he was warring against the people of Israel, seeking to destroy the people of Israel. God in a supernatural way preserve for the second half of the tribulation the Hebrews in that location that we know it from other passages like Isaiah 63 and Isaiah 34. The place that is called Edom, Bosra, Petra, present day Jordan. That is so interesting to see what's going to happen in the future day. So there is a hope for the nation of Israel. There is a preservation for the nation of Israel, which we can see even as we study now those verses. It says also in the Fifth Judgment, at the end of this, that they blaspheme the God of Heaven. They continue to blaspheme Him. There was thick darkness. And you would think they would turn to God. And they still refuse Him. And they not only refuse Him, they bless Him, they curse God, they bless Him in His name. And it says at the end of verse 11 that they repented not of their deeds, their doing, their action. They are still continuing on to do their own will, their own deeds, and they did not turn back to God in repentance. So we move on now, and we get to the climax. Actually, verses 12 to 16, we have the preparation for what is known today as the Armageddon War, or Har Megiddo War. And in verses 17 to 21, we have the war itself. in the six and the seven bowls that are being poured here in chapter 16 at the end of the seven year tribulation. And so we read in verses 12 to 16 that the bowl of the battle of the great day of God Almighty is being poured out. And look what it says it first of all in verse 12. And the sixth angel pour out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates. and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." You see, Euphrates was actually one of the borders of the nation of Israel when God had promised to the people of Israel the promised land. Israel never had that. Euphrates is where the city of Babylon is being situated. Euphrates is where Mesopotamia is and the kings of the East. These are human kings. And what happened? The Euphrates will be dried. In other words, God will dry up the Euphrates River in order to enable the kings of the East, plural, to cross over to come against the people of Israel. And you know, no wonder if you believe that God have opened the sea to our own people, the Red Sea, when Israel came out of Egypt. And if you believe that God stayed the Jordan River, that the people of Israel could enter into the Promised Land. God can do everything. He can dry up the Euphrates River as it says here. You don't need to go over the bridges. You don't need to go underneath the tunnels. You can simply walk across the Euphrates River in order to march towards the promised land. And so in verse 12, you see the Euphrates River is being dried up. It is interesting because the Euphrates River is mentioned earlier. If you just go back for a moment to chapter 9 and verse 13, if you remember, it says there, "...when the six angels sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, which is before God, saying to the six angels which had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the great river Euphrates." You see, what's going to happen here, the Euphrates, is being a starting point for which the war against the people of Israel will come. In the first half of the tribulation, in the sixth sounding of the trumpet, out of the Euphrates came the demons that were there. And you remember, there was a demonic activity. There was 200 million demons who had been loosened up during the tribulation to cause havoc here in this world. That was demonic army that came against Israel and against the nations of the world. But here we are not talking about demonic activity. Here we are talking about human army that is going to come against the nation of Israel. Look at this now. We read verse 12. that the sixth bowl was poured and the great Euphrates river was dried up, that notice that the way of the kings of the East might be prepared. Now, the East in scripture always has to do with Mesopotamia. We're not talking about far East, we're talking about the East. East always has to do with Mesopotamia. You only have to read Matthew chapter 2 where the wise men who came from the East Where is he that was born the King of the Jews? Well, they came from Mesopotamia. They came from Babylon area. They came where Daniel and our people Israel were there for so many years. And they have been there by the rivers of Babylon where they have wept before God because they remember Zion. And so now those rivers are being dried up. And now it's enabling the kings from the East, led by the Antichrist, to come against the nation of Israel for that final war that many call the War of Armageddon. We're going to talk about it in a moment. verse 13 now look at the whole counterfeit trinity false godhead is involved in leading those armies of the kings of the east against israel look it says in verse 13 and i saw three unclean spirits like frogs they were not frogs but they were like frogs unclean spirit they came out of number one the mouth of the dragon this is satan Number two, out of the mouth of the beast. This is the beast from the sea, the counterfeit Messiah. And thirdly, out of the mouth of the false prophet. This is the second beast of Revelation chapter 13 coming out of the earth. This is the false prophet. So you can see now in verse 13, the involvement of the whole counterfeit Godhead. Satan, the Antichrist, or the counterfeit Messiah, and the false prophet. And it says here in this verse 13 that John saw unclean spirits come out of their mouth of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. And here we can see that in other words there were demonic spirits that were used by Satan, Antichrist, false prophet to influence the kings of the East to come against the people of Israel. Because in verse 14, look what it says, these evil spirits that came out of the counterfeit Godhead, they influenced the kings of all the earth to come for this battle. It says in verse 14, for they are the spirits of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth, listen, and of the whole world. Why? to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. You see the whole false Godhead here, Satan, the counterfeit Messiah and the false prophet are influenced by demonic activity. We know that Satan is a falling angel, but all demonic activity and what's happening? They, those three triune, counterfeit triune are sending those evil spirits to influence the kings of the east so they will come now be drawn and come against the people of Israel and the Bible calls it the battle of that great day of God Almighty and I want to make a note here dear beloved brothers and sisters oftentimes you read books you listen news you watch movies and they call it the Armageddon war Now it is really, biblically speaking, it's not what you call the Armageddon War. The war is called by its biblical name. And this name is very clear. It's chapter 16 and verse 14. It is called by its biblical name, the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. That's the name of this battle. I know they call it the Armageddon War, and I'm going to show you in a moment why. But it is really not the Armageddon War. It is the battle of the great day of God Almighty. This is the climax. This is the final battle that is going to be between men, between the Antichrist against God's people, where God is ultimately going to judge those armies, and the Antichrist, and those that follow him. And so, in verse 14, we see what is coming. They are influencing, those evil spirits are influencing these kings, that they will come, the kings of the earth, and to gather themselves into that battle. Now, where will they gather? Look at the next verses, verses 15 and 16. It tells us where they will be gathering themselves. Look, there is a parenthesis for a moment, verse 15, the Lord is speaking. And what does He say? Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Now there is a little break. Actually, we should really read verse 14 and immediately verse 16. But all of a sudden, between verse 14 and 16, there is a little clause in which the Messiah himself is speaking. And you notice what he says? I come as a thief. I'm going to come as a thief. Now a thief never come when you expect him to come. When a thief want to come to your house to steal something from your house, he doesn't tell you, you see, listen, I'm going to be at your house at that time and I want you to know it's going to be alright. So what you're going to do, you're going to be ready there, you're going to watch him because if you're going to come at a certain time, you're going to be ready because you want to stop him from thieving, right? You would agree with me on that. but you see here the Lord Yeshua the Messiah is speaking a word of comfort to the one that are experiencing the tribulation period and those who believe us and he's saying to them listen I'm coming as a thief to you I'm not going to be coming as a thief but I'm going to come as a thief for those who do not expect me to come see to the unbelieving world Yeshua the Messiah is going to come as a thief to the believers we should always be and they in the tribulation should be in anticipation of the promise of his coming so the fact is that it's like an encouragement for those what you call tribulation saints who are still alive here He's saying to them, I'm coming as a thief. And I would like for you to turn to Matthew 24 to see the connection with what he already said to his early disciples before even the church was born to his Hebrew disciples. in Matthew chapter 24 and verses 43 and 44. Yeshua before, He left this world. He was speaking to His Hebrew disciples about the tribulation period in Matthew chapter 24. And He was telling them in verse 42, Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord does come. But know this, that if the good man of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man is coming. You see, in chapter 24, it's a scene of explanation about the tribulation period that Yeshua spoke to His disciples, Hebrew disciples, as if they would experience the tribulation period. Now, of course, they didn't, because immediately after that, Yeshua died, He rose, He went to heaven, sent the Holy Spirit of God, and the church was born. and those early Hebrew believers now became the first fruits of the church age and they will be raptured just like you and I before the tribulation will come but in a prophetic setting brothers and sisters if you carry on Matthew chapter 24 and Pass it, if you will, over the church age and placed it right here in Revelation chapter 16. It is the same Hebrew of a future day, whom the Lord is speaking there and He's saying to them, as He has said here in Matthew chapter 24, watch therefore. Watch, he says, for you do not know the hour when the Lord will come. He says, but know this, that if the good men of the house had known the watch when a thief will come, he would have watched, and he will not allow the thief to do what he wants to do when he comes to his house. Therefore, he says, be ready, for in an hour when you think not the Son of Man, the Messiah will come. And so here in chapter 16 of the book of the Revelation, here it's so beautiful where the Lord is pausing here, and in verse 15 He is saying to them, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and he keepeth his garment, lest he walk naked, and they will see his shame. You know the believers of the tribulation period are exhorted to be alert. The Lord is coming. The Messiah is coming. He's returning. He promised to come to restore the nation of Israel. Watch and be ready for the coming of the Messiah. He's going to come to establish the Messianic Kingdom. This is very encouraging to understand it, how the Lord is speaking to their hearts, even in a time such as dark as the time of the tribulation period. Now, please allow me to read also 1 Thessalonians. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. You see, the believers at Thessalonica, they were young believers, and they had accepted Yeshua, the Messiah, and they were Gentiles, but they became part of the church, but they were very much concerned that the tribulation is going to come immediately, and what's going to come to their family members who have died? And here is the Apostle Paul encouraging them and he's saying to them in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Look what he's saying to them in verse 1. But at the times and the season, brethren, ye have not need that I will write unto you. Verse 2. You yourself know perfectly that the day of the Lord, the tribulation, so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say peace and safety, then sudden destruction will come upon them, as travail upon a woman with a child, and they shall not escape. Then He continue in verse 4, For ye brethren are not in darkness, that this day should take you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober. for they that sleep, sleep in the night, they that are drunk and drunken in the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for the helmet of hope of salvation. For God has not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Yeshua the Messiah." I read verses 1 to 9 of 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And you see what Paul is doing here in that 1 Thessalonians passage? He's encouraging the believers of the church age not to be worried and to be discouraged. He says, listen, you know that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. In other words, it's going to come suddenly, unexpectedly. The world will continue to do its own thing. But you, brethren, you don't have to worry about it. I don't need to tell you anything about it. You know that the tribulation period will come as a thief in the night. And their voice saying to them, you know, you better be ready for the taking up, for the rapture of the church. Don't worry, the tribulation will come. It will come as suddenly. The world will not expect this, but you are to be expected to be watching for the coming of the Lord. Now listen, for the coming of the Lord to take you to glory, not to worry about the tribulation time, because you are going to be taken out of here. He says, look, he says, ye brother are not in darkness. that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are not in darkness. You are believers. You have the light. He's saying to them, you are all the children of light and the children of the day. We are not, and notice the Apostle Paul including himself, we are not of the night nor of darkness. You see, when you and I have accepted the Messiah, we are not of darkness anymore. We are children of light. Now sometimes, unfortunately, we walk in darkness because of sin and disobedience to the Lord. But we are not of darkness. We are of light. We are the children of light. And to us, to the believers, we have a promise that God has not appointed us unto wrath. This is verse 9 and that word wrath in verse 9 is talking about the wrath that we are talking about of the tribulation period. So we know that the believers have not been appointed unto wrath. I know that some have a problem with this and they believe or at least they think that the Christians, that the Messiah followers will be going through the tribulation. But brothers and sisters, according to all what we have studied so far, the Church will not be healed during the Tribulation. And even 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 and verse 9 said, God has not appointed us unto wrath, but He appointed us to obtain salvation by our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. And so here He is warning like He is going to come as a thief in the night and He is in encouraging the Hebrew believers of the tribulation, period. He's encouraging and he's saying to them here in verse 15, and I'm back in our chapter. Behold, I come, a blessed is he that watches and keepeth his garment, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. In other words, you encourage saints of the tribulation, be faithful, be steady, continue on. Yes, it's not going to be easy, but continue on. We have a similar exhortation for us in another passages. As we walk here in this world, we are exhorted to be faithful and continuing to follow after the Lord. Now I want to read verse 16 also, but if you allow me please to read verse 14, to jump over verse 15 and into verse 16, you will see that they are matching together. It was like a parenthesis in verse 15. So I'm reading verse 14 again. For they are the spirit of demons, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and the whole world, to gather them together to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Verse 16, And He gathered them together unto a place that is called in the Hebrew tongue, Har Megiddo. It is actually, I think if I'm correct, it's the only time in the Bible, at least in the New Testament, where the word Armageddon is mentioned. Ohar Megiddo. The Hebrew word is two words. Har means mountain. Megiddo is the name of the mountain. It means the mountain or the hill of telling. It comes from the word Lehagid, to speak forth. And you see what happened. Megiddo, Mount Megiddo, is situated in the north of Israel. It is a hill, a mountain, which just not too long ago, a few of us have been there. and right below Har Megiddo stretches out the whole valley of Jezreel. In Hebrew we call it Emek Yisrael, not Emek Yisrael, but Emek Yiz-ra-el. It is the valley of God's sowing, is where God sows. That's the meaning of that name. So when the gathering of the kings of the east will happen, when the three spirits coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the beast and the false prophet will draw the king from the east. They will come all the way from the east and on a dry shard through the Euphrates River and they're going to gather together in the area that is called the Valley of Jezreel. And that will be the starting point of the war against the people of Israel. And that will be from there. their own, they will seek to destroy the people of Israel, to go over the city of Jerusalem, and ultimately to take the remnant who are there in the place preserved by God in Bozrah, Petra. Now, I don't know, I hope I'm clear to you, because it's not easy to grasp those verses. Now, just for a moment notice, it says here in verse 16, He gathered them together. Notice that verse 16? Who is the he? Well, we just read prior in verse 13 and 14 that we saw that there was demonic demons who came out of the dragon of the beast and on the false prophet to bring together all the armies of the kings of the East. So you would think it would be that Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophets are the ones that bring them in. But actually, beloved brothers and sisters, it is the work of God. It is God who draws them. It says in verse 16, He gathers them together. into the place that is called in Hebrew, Har Megiddo. It is God who gathered the nation together to come there because He has to deal with the Antichrist and his armies. In the prophet Zechariah, which we read today, in chapter 14, verses 1 through 3, it says, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming. That's the tribulation. And thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee. and I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle." God is saying through the Prophet Zechariah, I'm going to gather them together because I have a dealing with the nations of the world as they have persecuted the nation of Israel. I have a dealing with the nations of the world and the Antichrist. I'm going to gather them together. It says in verse 3 of Zechariah chapter 14, Then shall the Lord go forth, and He will fight against those nations as when He fought in the day of battle. The Hebrew prophets already spoke about it years ago, long before the Messiah was born, long before the church age began and ended. The Hebrew prophets were already speaking about the time when God is going to bring the armies of the whole world to come against Jerusalem, against Israel. On the one hand to discipline his people, on the other hand to once and for all to deal with the armies of the Antichrist and the place that they will gather to will be the valley of Jezreel which is right below the hill of Megiddo, Har Megiddo. Well, let's just conclude now with the last verses here of chapter 16 and the conclusion here with the seven final bowl that's been poured by the angel. And this final one is all the last chaotic convulsion that is going to happen here on the face of this earth. I'm going to read those verses. Notice verse 17. The bowl was poured on the air. See that verse 17, the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. And there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven again, the temple of heaven from the throne saying, it is done. Here is the consummation. It is the consummation of the tribulation period. It is done. It is going to be the end. It is finished. Really, it's a culmination. Verse 18, the great earthquake such as never been before and there were voices and thunders and lightning and there was great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth so mighty an earthquake and so great. You know, just when we hear about those earthquakes that happen in many countries, in Turkey, in many other countries, in Iran, and in other nations, in Japan, and all these earthquakes that come, it is situated in only one area, and another area, and another area. But this is a worldwide earthquake. This is the culmination that how God is going to judge the military, the armies of the Antichrist. The earthquake is going to happen is such as never been before. Beloved brothers and sisters, look at verse 19. The city of Babylon came to remembrance before God. God will remember the city of Babylon, verse 19. And the great city, that is the city of Babylon. 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. Now you know we have in the Bible from cover to cover this Babylon. Genesis chapter 11, the Tower of Babel, confusion, rejection of God. Revelation chapter 16 and you will see we're going to talk about it chapter 17 and chapter 18 that city of Babylon is going to be revived in the end of the age and there it is the count of it Messiah will rule from there. This is the headship of his kingdom, that he is going to have all nations being subjected to him. And Babylon confusion symbolize rejection of God. They started that in Genesis 11, and they will conclude that in Revelation chapter 17 and 18. What Babylon is confusion and rejection of God. You remember when our people, Israel of old, when they disobeyed God, Daniel chapter 1, it was the king of Babel, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, who took the Hebrews down, the Jews, down to Babylon. It is Psalm 137, by the rivers of Babylon we sat down and we remember Zion and we wept there. It is Babylon, it is a place of rejection of God, despising the things of God. Well, this great Babylon came in remembrance before God. What to do? To give unto her the cup of wine, the wine speaks of blood, of the furiousness of God's wrath. He's going to pour, if you will, His judgment upon the city of Babylon and those that are affiliated with the city of Babylon and with the so-called the kings of this world, which will be headed up by the Antichrist. Look at that in verse 20, the islands and the mountains were destroyed. It says in verse 20, every island fled away and the mountains were not found. There was a rearrangement, if you will, and destruction that will occur here in this world. The islands disappeared, fled away. You look and there was an island, and then you look again, there is no island, disappeared totally. The mountains were not found. You look at the hill before you and it was existing, but everything is going to be crushed into pieces. There will be tremendous time that last days. And finally in verse 21, listen to this beloved brothers and sisters, there will be hail that going to come down from heaven upon men. Now, I don't know about you, but there was an experience in my life when I was young in Jerusalem where there was raining which turned to hail. But later on, every ball of this hail became bigger and bigger and bigger. And if you got hit by one of these hail balls, you could hurt yourself. Well, look what it says here in verse 21. There fell upon men great hail out of heaven and every stone about the weight of a talent. It had been said that a silver talon's weight is about 125 pounds. Can you imagine the size of the hail that is going to fall down upon this earth? And what it will cause to happen to man here? It says here, and men, you would think that finally men will turn to God. Here is now the time where men will turn to God and will accept the Messiah. But this is the third time we read in Revelation chapter 16 that men blessed Him, God. We read it three times, beloved brothers, in these chapters. We read in chapter 16 verse 9, men were scorched with great heat and they blessed him God. And then in verse 11, and they blessed him God. And now in verse 21, men blessed him God because of the plague of the hail. For the plague thereof was exceeding great. And brothers and sisters, with the end of chapter 16, really, the tribulation is ended. The tribulation is ended. Judgment of God fall upon men. God judged them, as we read in Zechariah chapter 14. He gathered them together to this battle. They will seek to destroy the Jewish people, Israel. They will go all the way from Har Megiddo, from Valley of Israel, all the way to the city of Jerusalem. And past Jerusalem, going to go to Petra, Bozrah, trying to destroy the remnant that God will preserve there in Bozrah. And it is to there that the Messiah will come in his second coming according to Isaiah chapter 63. And with these verses we conclude really the tribulation period. Now why do we have more chapters at the end, chapters 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22 of Revelation? It's because in those chapters 17 and 18 and 19 which we're going to discuss, we have an additional information about Babylon. In chapter 17 we have the religious Babylon. In chapter 18, we have the political Babylon. So we have an additional information about what is going to happen here at the end of tribulation. And finally, in chapter 19, we get the second coming of the Messiah, which will lead us to the millennial chapter 20. and ultimately to the eternal order, chapter 21 and chapter 22. But we have to stay tuned until those chapters are going to come before us. And with these verses, we have concluded Revelation chapter 16. Can you say Amen to that? Amen.