In the sermon titled Armageddon, Scott Brown discusses three dominant themes: 1) God unraveling the schemes of the devil on a global scale, 2) God disarming the greatest powers of the world to protect his church, and 3) the promise of happiness for those who keep their garments clean. The drying up of the Euphrates signifies the judgments of God and the rescue of His people. The unclean spirits, like frogs, represent the corrupting speeches and influence of the wicked world. Brown emphasizes the importance of keeping one's garments clean, as they symbolize the condition of one's whole life. The sermon concludes with the reminder that it is God who paves the way for the dissolution of evil in the world and protects His church against the greatest powers.

Open your Bibles to the inerrant all sufficient sweeter than honey word of God to Revelation 16 fine verse 12 revelation 16 verse 12 and we'll read to the end of the chapter. Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits, like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold I am coming as a thief blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame And they gathered them together in the place called, in Hebrew, Armageddon.

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, it is done. And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found, and great hail from heaven fell upon men, each hailstone about the weight of a talent. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail since that plague was exceedingly great.

Let's pray. Oh Lord, we pray that you would give us such understanding of what your spirit is saying to your church here in this place that we would acquire wisdom that we would see the world the way that you do the way it really is and Lord that you would come and do your work through these words in our hearts amen please be seated so you recognize we're at the final two outpourings of the bowls of wrath in the book of Revelation. We've already covered the first four. But as we move through these verses, there are three dominant themes that I want us to see. And the first is that God will unravel all the schemes of the devil on a global scale, Armageddon, that's the word that describes it.

And the second thing I want us to see is that when the church is up against the wall, against all odds, when his church is the smallest, feels the smallest, God disarms the greatest powers of the world, the whole world, to protect her. And then thirdly, in the face of Armageddon, There's a promise here in this passage. It's so beautiful. I was tempted to just deal with this one verse today. God promises happiness for all those who keep their garments clean.

That's verse 15. Garments are a metaphor. Garments, your garments, my garments, everyone's garments is a metaphor of the condition of your whole life. That's why God gave you garments. And here we find the Lord telling us to keep our eyes fixed on Christ, to be vigilant, to keep our garments, to keep watch because our garments are symbolic of our whole life and they distinguish us from the world.

So those are the three things that I'd like for us to see. Now also, see the pictures. What remarkable pictures again. You know, by virtue of the fact that we as a church have been going through the book of Revelation, we have been a church for which God wanted to see pictures, pictures of doctrine, symbolic pictures and they are so gripping. Look at the ones in this passage.

Here's what I believe. God wants to grip us in a different way through symbolic vivid pictures and God wants to startle us through these pictures. He wants to wake us up through these pictures. He wants to instruct us through these pictures. He wants to grow us up through these pictures because This is doctrine in pictures.

The first three verses of Revelation tell us that these are symbols of other things. This is pictorial theology. And so God has been laying before us these pictures to visualize the great doctrines of the Bible, the doctrine of God is visualized, of Christ, of the world, in pictures of the church, of the devil, of idolaters, of heaven, of the immoral, of angels, of God's throne, we've seen pictures of holiness. How do you get a picture of holiness? Well, it's right here in this passage.

We've seen pictures of his beauty, pictures of his love, pictures of his power, pictures of his omnipotence. There's one picture after another. And if you, these doctrines are given to us in pictures. This is a perfect book for children, children, have you seen, check out the pictures in this passage alone. You know, right in these verses before us, we have golden bowls poured out.

Golden bowls are symbolic all over the scriptures of holiness, of worship. They are objects of worship. These bowls of judgment are objects of worship before God. They are articles of worship. But You have the drying up of a massive river, the river Euphrates, which is, picture the Mississippi drying up in a second.

You have frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon and the false prophet and the beast. You have a battle of the great day of God, it's God's battle. And you have a thief, isn't that interesting? Jesus Christ depicts himself as a thief coming to get his church. You have Armageddon, this word that everyone has heard.

You have Babylon, you have a great earthquake, an earthquake bigger than any earthquake in the whole world. You have the cup of the wine of the fierceness of the wrath of God. You have hailstones over a hundred pounds, imagine that. So this is doctrine in pictures, children see the pictures, you are seeing the glory of God before you in pictures. He wants to be so vivid in your mind, He wants to rivet your whole heart on the way things really are and he's giving you these pictures to understand the doctrines.

And parents, I hope that you're doing that. I hope you're connecting the visions with the doctrines to teach your children doctrine in pictures. Now there's this wonderful promise in verse 15 that God delivers a promise of happiness to those who keep their garments, who watch, who keep their eyes fixed on Jesus, who keep their garments clean so that they would not be found naked in the day of judgment. But you can't miss the beauty of the promise. It's one of the Beatitudes.

There are seven Beatitudes in the book of Revelation. We'll talk of them later on. But this is a wonderful beatitude. Beatitudes remind the believer of the happiness that there is, the consolation, the joy there is in following Jesus Christ. And they lift us above the smoke and the fire, the troubles in our own lives and in the whole world.

And they're meant to steady your soul, they're meant to guide your thoughts, they're meant to show you how to walk. So we'll touch on these, this beatitude and the other beatitudes. There are these very startling pictures of worldliness here in this passage of Scripture. Now remember the context, remember where we are. There are three cycles of history that are depicted.

The first is depicted in the seal judgments. We've already covered that. Then the trumpet judgments, they are cycles of history. They depict things that happen in the world throughout history. They end in the Second Coming, all of them do, as this cycle here in the outpouring of the bowls.

Now my understanding of this, and I recognize it's very humbling to try to preach through the book of Revelation, to try to understand everything in it. But that my understanding is that the first five bowls correspond to the time of the seven seals and the trumpets, but these final two bowls, they seem to me to be depictions of the things that happened just before the final judgment. That may not be right, but that's the way I think of it. You can see the escalation, though, in the ferocity of the judgments and of the works of the devil. It does seem to me this when we get to the end of the seventh judgment, we are right before the end of the world.

But at the same time, we need to recognize that this is not the absolute end because the next two or even three chapters continue to speak of the destruction of Babylon. We started we started hearing about Babylon in chapter 14. God is is giving one picture after another of just how devastating Babylon is to the human soul, but also how devastating God is to Babylon. God is destroying Babylon. When we get to chapter 17, the details are unfolded of the destruction of Babylon, and then the following chapter, and then the end shall come.

But God is going to give us, you know, quite some time to meditate on the destruction of Babylon in order to lure us to him, in order to separate us from the world, in order to help us to see the horrible plans the devil has for those who follow him. So there you have it. Now we're entering into the sixth angel and his bowl. If you have an outline in front of you, you can see where we are going here. We'll handle, first of all, this sixth angel and his bowl in verses 12 through 16.

I want to point out three elements of the impact of the sixth angel as he pours out his bowl. And the first impact is that the way is paved for judgment. Verse 12, then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates. Can you picture that? A massive river and a bowl is poured out on it.

The bowl is literally being poured out on it and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared." So the angel pours out his bowl and bam, the river disappears and a way is prepared. It's a way for the kings of the east. Now, what would an Israelite think of when he hears the kings of the east? And what would an Israelite who knew his Bible think when he reads and the water, its water was dried up, what would that person be thinking? And the way of the east and the kings of the earth is used in various places in the Bible.

Now, Over the years, you've probably been aware of this, dispensational writers, dispensational movie makers, they tell us that the kings of the east are kings from different nations and they're going to cross over the Euphrates River and over the years, you know, it was thought that it was the Turks and then it was Japan during World War II. It was claimed that Japan was gonna be that one, then it was Hitler, then it was Russia. These of all now have happened in my lifetime. Then it was the European Union. You know, the world got very excited when there were 10 nations added to the European Union.

That's the 10 horns, you know, that represent and then there actually was the 11th nation and the 12th and the 13th and the 14th and the 15th nation, so that didn't work out too well. Then it was Iraq and Saddam Hussein, who was the king of restored Babylon, he's going to come over the river and attack Israel, and then it's China, and so is that what it means? And I think we just have to ask the question that we've asked many times, you know, what, how does the Bible speak of these things? And we should look at our Bibles to do that. In Ezekiel chapter 43 verse 2 we really get a picture of what it means that something is coming out of the east.

And in Ezekiel 43, it's the glory of God that's coming out of the east. And behold, the glory of God, the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters and the earth shone with his glory. And then the next verse in verse 4, And the glory of the Lord came into the temple by the way of the gate which faces toward the east. The Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 24 verse 27 says, for as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be, for wherever the carcass is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

So what you have, what you have here in the Bible is when, when the East is spoken of, typically it has to do with the glory of God coming. And then you have this matter of the Euphrates and you have the water drying up. A barrier, a barrier has been removed as the waters have dried up and the barrier is signified by the river Euphrates. Now in modern warfare you don't need, you know, a river is not a barrier. It's not a barrier at all.

It might have been a barrier for Cyrus when he wanted to take over Babylon but it's not a barrier today with advanced weaponry. But in the history of mankind, Euphrates has tremendous significance. In fact, mankind began on the banks of the Euphrates. And here, it looks like the end of mankind will happen, at least in the banks of at least a figurative Euphrates at minimum. Gregory Beale commenting on this, he says, in the Old Testament God is always the one who dries up the water.

God is always the one who dries up the water either for redemption or judgment. And he's, then he makes a comment about John, the apostle. He says, John understands this pattern typologically and universalizes it. Babylon now represents the world system. Babylon will be desolate forever and not rise again.

This symbolic identification stands despite attempts to maintain a literal view. Revelation 14, 8 asserts that she, Babylon, has made all the nations drink from the wine, from the wine leading to passion and her immorality. And then he says this, and just as Babylon has been universalized and become symbolic, so the Euphrates cannot be literal, a literal geographical reference to the Euphrates in modern Iraq, Syria and Turkey, it must be figurative and universal despite those who contend that the reference is literal. Therefore, the drying up of the Euphrates pictures how the multitudes of Babylon's religious adherence throughout the world become disloyal to Babylon, disenchantment with Babylon as a prelude to Babylon's judgment and final judgment itself states that the kings of the earth, the political arm of the wicked world system will turn against the economic religious arm and destroy it. You have, so What you have here is a picture of barriers taken down and the wicked forces of Babylon drawn into the battle, drawn across the barrier.

God is actually drawing them. The demons are calling them, but it's a God that's luring them in. It's a God that's entrapping them by bringing them over this, these waters of Babylon. Now, the rivers have driven, have dried up in the Bible. Their waters drying up seems always to be symbolic of God's rescuing his people and destroying the wicked.

It was that way in the days of Noah. The waters devoured the wicked and they dried up and they set the captives free who were in the ark. You have God drying up the waters before the conquering of the land of Canaan in the Jordan River. The waters were dried up and they marched in to take the land of Canaan. The most dramatic probably the, probably the, the, the illustration that is most prominent in this is the drying up of the Red Sea in Exodus chapter 14.

Here in, in the drying up of the Red Sea you have this very common scene where the people of God, they are so small, they are going to be wiped out, the armies of Pharaoh are pounding the hooves of their horses to destroy the children of Israel, they're backed up against the Red Sea. There's no hope, there's nowhere to go, and God opens up, he dries up the rivers, and the children of Israel pass through. Moses says, don't be afraid, the Lord will fight for you. It's when the church feels small, when the church is surrounded, when it seems like there's no hope, God has dried up the rivers and he saves his people. And in Egypt, regarding the Egyptian army, God not only saved his people by allowing them to pass through the barrier, then he swallowed up the Egyptian army and devoured them.

As Moses says, do not be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which he will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace." So I want to suggest that the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates is like many of the symbols in Revelation, that they are symbolic of God removing a barrier in order to bless his people and to destroy the wicked. You know, God actually used Cyrus to dry up the waters of the Euphrates in order to attack Babylon and to thrust down the king of Babylon and rescue the people of God and give them money to go back and rebuild their temple. Cyrus, Cyrus came in and he diverted the waters of the Euphrates, dried them up so his army, by surprise, conquered Babylon, the greatest civilization in the region.

You can imagine what kind of logistical challenges that must have been to divert the water of the Euphrates and he marched across the dry Euphrates and delivered the people of God. There are various places where you can read about this. Isaiah 44 Verse 27, who says to the deep, be dry, I will dry up your rivers. Who says to Cyrus, he is my shepherd, he shall perform all my pleasure. Saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built and to the temple your foundation shall be laid.

Isaiah makes it very clear that the rivers drying up signify God preserving his people and in Isaiah chapter 41 we read these words, who is raised up from the east, who in righteousness called him to his feet, who gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings. They shall be dust to his sword." So this is speaking of Cyrus. It was God who raised up Cyrus from the east. The glory of God making waves in order to put down the wicked. Well, so what should we say about this, about our own souls?

How do we press this into our own souls? I think that we should—we should be comforted that it is God And it is God alone who is paving the way for the dissolution of the evil of this world. And against all odds, the church being very small, just like at the Red Sea, where there's no way out, no hope of rescue, but there's not absolutely no way because God is the one who controls the waters and removes the barriers in order to judge the wicked. So this first element is that the way is paved for judgment by the drying up of these waters. And then the second element of the sixth bowl, the demons gather the unclean for battle.

It's a very interesting pattern that you see in Scripture. The devil takes action, but actually it all turns back on him. And that's the way that God is dealing with the devil during this age. And what we see here is that there are three unclean spirits coming out of the mouth of the dragon. Notice there are three personalities here.

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 to the whole world." but look at this language, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God almighty. You have these unclean spirits gathering the other unclean spirits to come across for this battle, and they are lying spirits. They have God-defying speech. They're filthy like frogs.

Imagine, it's like frogs coming out of their mouths. It's really the corrupt words of the world. It's the corruptions of the frogs of Hollywood that speak into your heart and tell you to follow your heart. These are the frogs. These are the demonic voices that you hear.

These are the corrupting speeches that you hear from the devil. The talking points of the ungodly, these are the frogs coming out, they're demonic spirits and it says in verse 14, they're performing signs, demonic signs. Now, what is a sign? The word that is used here is referring to something that points to something else. A sign is something that points to something else just like a road sign.

A road sign isn't the road, it points to the road. And signs are messages. Signs point you in a direction. And the demons are messaging that and God, God you know has them giving these messages. Now, in the Bible you have many of God's people performing signs like this, pointers.

They're pointing to something. For example, God had Isaiah to walk barefoot for three years. Now, if you read Isaiah and Jeremiah, you'll see God had these prophets do many things as signs, dozens of signs. They were pointing to something. Signs don't always necessarily mean miracles.

They have to do with messages that point you in a direction. I likely think that's what this is. It could indeed be miraculous things. But don't forget Jesus, you know, Judas gave the Pharisees a sign, very same language. Judas gave the Pharisees a sign by kissing Jesus that this is the one to arrest.

It was a sign, it was a pointer, it wasn't necessarily a miracle. And so, they aren't necessarily miracles but they could be like miracles, like the magicians in Egypt, like the warning in Deuteronomy 13 where you have someone who's doing amazing things and you're tempted to follow them. They're even in your family, don't follow them. That's Deuteronomy 13. But these are signs, these are amazing pointers, a pointing to amazing things and don't be amazed, don't be amazed by amazing people.

Don't be impressed by impressive people. Don't be moved by moving people. Satan here is assembling his forces and God is ruling it all. And by the way, notice that this is God's battle. You see it in the language, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

This is God's battle. You know, the demons, the demons, they think, they think they're going to war, actually they're getting into a war that they will lose and it's the kings of the earth, they join together. Psalm 2 speaks of the kings of the earth. They gather together and then God laughs at them. And then, and then we find that they're gathered at Armageddon, verse 16.

And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon, Armageddon. Now this is one of the most well-known words in the whole Bible. In fact, just this, just three days ago, the Wall Street Journal had a title of one of its articles, Space Armageddon. Politico had a title just this week, whose job is it to prevent Armageddon. So, who's going to prevent Armageddon?

Any ideas about that? But this word Armageddon only appears here in the entire Bible. And it's actually a mix of two words, har which means mountain and magad which means to cut off. It means to slaughter. That's the literal interpretation of the word.

Now there are writers like Meredith Klein and others who have written long books about the mountain of God, the mountain of the Lord, the mountain of God's judgment. And I tend to think he's probably right. This refers to a mountain of judgment where God, a figurative mountain of judgment where God destroys his enemies. And, you know, there really is nowhere where you find the phrase Battle of Armageddon. You have this battle that takes place here in this place and of course there is a plane that people call Megiddo.

But har, Megiddin means mountain, it doesn't mean plane and the valley of Megiddo is about 14 miles wide, it's about 20 miles long and frankly it's not large enough to get, you know, 200 million Chinese soldiers in that space. And, you know, this comes from Revelation 9, 16. There are those who say that the 200 million, which I think are demons who come to kill a third of mankind in Revelation chapter 9, 16. Well, Revelation 9 says nothing about an army coming from the east, says nothing about the plane of Megiddo. I'm just not sure we should connect those two things.

It's possible. The valley is bounded by a couple of one hundred, one thousand foot hills. I'll tell you, I'll read you how William Hendrickson describes this. I think this is what it is. Armageddon then is a symbol of every battle in which when a need is greatest and believers are oppressed, the Lord suddenly reveals his power in the interest of the distressed people and strikingly defeats his enemies.

And really, that's what you find if in this valley, if it has anything to do with this valley, the very first battle fought, there are many battles that were fought right in this battlefield. And the first battle was fought against Caesara during the days of the judges, remember Barak and Deborah. And Caesara had 900 iron chariots, they were so outnumbered, It was just a horrible mismatch. They were going to be destroyed, no question about it but God defeated them from heaven. Go read the account, it's absolutely astounding.

It was God from heaven that came down. Gideon defeated the Midianites in that same location in Judges Chapter 7. You know, the Six-Day War was fought there in, I believe it was 1987. But I, what I believe this whole language of Armageddon points to is that God from heaven fights against the forces of darkness in behalf of his outnumbered people just like he did in the days of Barak and Deborah, just like he did in the days of Gideon. And he's just like he did in the days of the Exodus when the children of Israel were backed up against the Red Sea.

God moves in behalf of his people. Joel chapter 3 verse 2 speaks of this very clearly. And what's happening is that the unclean spirits are gathering their forces to battle. Now, But here's what's so clear about this. This is a setup, this is a trap, this is God setting them up.

The devil's work always turns back on him and they draw themselves into a trap. The devil's ways are his own punishment. Because God is greater than all these things. Now you might think that this is Russia or China or Japan or Saddam Hussein. We can talk about that.

I think this is a picture of victory, the victory of God, in behalf of an outnumbered people, of which the church is today. We are outnumbered people, there's just no question about it. Have you felt a little bit smaller than the rest of the forces that are out there today. You know, you get canceled, you feel pretty small, but don't worry about it. Don't worry about it.

Who will rescue us from the Battle of Armageddon? No one, no one. God, God is going to do his will. And then the third element in the sixth bowl is really a reality for God's people in the midst of all these things that are happening. It's the happiness of those who keep their garments clean, the happiness of those who watch, keep their eyes on Jesus and who keep their garments clean.

Well, that's what the church should do. The church feels very small. The forces of the world are very great seemingly to all of our eyes. But yet, there is something that we can do, all of us can do that. That's listed here.

Verse 15, behold I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. So you have several words that I think need to be understood. Watches, keeps, garments, and of course nakedness and shame. Those are the messages that are here.

Of course, the first thing you notice is the unexpectedness of Christ's return that He is coming as a thief. No one knows the day or the hour, the Apostles were very interested in that. Lord, when is the time when you're going to restore your kingdom? In Acts chapter 1, Jesus says, well it's not for you to know times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. That's what you do.

You are filled with the Holy Spirit. And so there are three things to watch. First of all, to watch, to be awake. And this is really I think the heart of what we ought to focus on here. Keep your lamp lit.

Are you ready? Is your soul ready? Have you been feeding your soul? Are you watching? Are you keeping your eyes on Jesus Christ?

Are your eyes on all the distractions, all the idols that you're trying to get rid of? Get your eyes off of your idols. Keep awake. Jonathan Edwards commented on this. I thought it was very interesting.

I'll just paraphrase how he talked about this. He said that If you knew that a thief was coming, you would keep your clothes on when you got into bed. And he says, you don't want to get out of bed with no clothes on, he was a little bit more graphic than I am here. If you don't have your clothes on, then the thief will see you naked. That's what he said.

And he's talking about this verse. Be ready. Have your clothes on. Always keep your clothes on. Always be clothed in white.

He says, blessed is he who watches. Now, I take this to mean that we're vigilant in keeping our eyes on Jesus. Are you being vigilant in keeping your eyes on Jesus Christ? Are there other things that have got your vigilance so that you don't, you know, you're not keeping your eyes on Jesus Christ. And then, you know, it's this whole matter of what you are watching for in this world and what you're dedicated to in this world, watch, he who watches, you're watching for the coming of Jesus Christ.

I take that to mean that you are anticipating and drinking in His love on a daily basis. That's the essence of your life. You know, people often say, you know, I don't really have time. I don't really have time to read my Bible. I don't.

Well, you know what? God gave you a whole day called the Lord's day. He gave you an entire day if you want to to read the Bible. Don't tell me you're not ready. Don't tell me you don't have time to read your Bible.

Well, maybe there's other things going on on that day or other days of the week, keep watch. And then he says, keep your garments, blessed is he who keeps his garments. Now, in this context and in the context As far as I can tell in the whole Bible, because I've traced this idea through the whole Bible a number of times. But in this context, garments refer to your whole being. Garments refer, reflect who you are.

Garments are metaphors and clothing is a metaphor of your whole being in the Bible. It's you are, it's kind of what you, you are what you wear and it's, your garments are, are, is a metaphor. You should be very careful when you think about it. Your garments are given to you as a metaphor. In Genesis chapter 3 verses 1 through 26, clothing was given to mankind to cover their shame.

Clothing is given to remind you that Jesus Christ has covered your shame. It's not for you to flaunt yourself. It's to remind you of what Jesus Christ has done. In Job, clothing is a metaphor for righteousness. I put on righteousness and it clothed me.

Justice was like a robe and a turban." Job 29 14. In Isaiah chapter 61 clothing is a metaphor for salvation in the same way that a bride decorates herself on her wedding day. Isn't that beautiful? He says, I will rejoice greatly in the Lord. My soul will exalt in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation.

He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with jewels in Psalm 132 verse 9 the servants of the Lord are clothed with righteousness and shouting and joy. In Zechariah Chapter 3 verse 4, there's a removal of your filthy garments and your given and your garments which are replaced with clean garments is a metaphor of your forgiveness. In Genesis Chapter 35, Jacob instructs his household to put on different garments as a sign that they're renouncing foreign gods. And in Exodus 19, the clean garments are pictures of consecration when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. God calls them to establish their covenant before God and to wash their clothes and consecrate themselves.

In Matthew 22, the Lord Jesus Christ tells a parable of a wedding feast where there's an imposter in the wedding feast. He's identified by not having wedding garments on. And in 2 Corinthians, Paul speaks of standing before the judgment seat of Christ, either clothed or unclothed. In Galatians 3, 26 and 27, Paul tells the Galatian Church that the very act of put on clothing is a metaphor of putting on Jesus Christ. And he says, clothe yourselves with Jesus Christ.

It's signified in baptism. In Revelation 3 verses 4 through 5, the faithful Christians in Sardis, they have not defiled their garments and they walk before the Lord in white garments. By the way, in this, you know, garments appear over and over again in Revelation. In Chapter 6 verse 11, the martyrs are clothed in white robes. In Revelation 7, 13 through 15, those who are before the throne are clothed in white, in robes of white, washed white robes.

In Revelation 15, the angels are clothed just like Christ is clothed earlier in Revelation. So, What should we say about this? Keep your garments. Horatius Bonner says it like this, keep your garments all about you that when the Lord comes, he may find you not naked but robed and ready. Do not cast off your raiment either for sleep or for work.

Do not let the world strip you of it. Keep it. Hold it fast. It is heavenly raiment. And without it, you cannot go with your Lord when he comes." So keep your garments.

Keep your garments. And this is one of the seven beatitudes that we find in this book. This is the second or the third beatitude. The first beatitude is blessed is he who reads, who hear the words of this prophecy and heed the things that are written in it. It's a blessing for those who hear and read.

The second beatitude is in 1413. It's a blessing of those who die in the Lord. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. And the third is this one here, Chapter 16 verse 15. Blessed is the one who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame." Now I've been quoting at the end of every sermon one of these Beatitudes and every sermon I preached, the very first beatitude in the book.

So keep your garments, Keep your garments. In other words, how are you doing with the Lord? That's really the question. And then the seventh bowl is poured out, 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. Now the language here it is done doesn't necessarily indicate finality it it speaks of something that has come to pass, something that has been brought to bear, brought into being.

And as I said earlier, with this Seventh Bowl, I think we are brought right to the precipice of the Second Coming. It's not the Second Coming yet. Babylon is still going to be dealt with, within great detail in the coming chapters. And there are three judgments here in this seventh angel's bowl. And the first is in verse 18 and 19 where nature is unleashed.

And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as has not occurred since men were on the earth. Now, the great city was divided into three parts and the cities of the nations fell." this is very dramatic. You have this thunder, you have thunder, you know, and Job says God has made a path for his thunderbolts, is God who does that. You see the same language in Zechariah 14. Now this is an earthquake like no other earthquake that's ever occurred in the world since the beginning of the world.

Now, there have been earthquakes, big ones, you know, the largest earthquake in recorded history happened in 1960 in Chile. And it was the Valdivia earthquake, 9.5 on the Richter scale and what happened was a section of the subfloor off the coast of Chile about the size of California, it shifted 50 feet. And the shock from it was felt for 600 miles, the largest earthquake in the history of recorded earthquakes and it unleashed tsunamis that fanned out all across the Pacific Rim. Tsunamis were washing over Australia, Japan and then even to the Aleutian Islands and 6000 miles away in Hawaii, the city of Hilo was destroyed by 35-foot waves. So lots of people died with just a shift, a 50-foot shift in the ocean floor, just one place in the world.

This is some kind of shaking that's going on throughout the whole world. And this is really all about bringing God's hand of judgment down upon Babylon. God does these things in order to give the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath as this text says. So you have these natural unleashings of the natural world. Then you have there's no more safety here in verses 20 and 21.

Every island fled away and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men. Each hail stone about the weight of a talent." Now, these literal islands, they could be, I mean, Indonesia has like 17, 000 islands. Finland has 178, 000 islands. Norway has 239, 000 islands around it.

There's a lot of islands out there. But this is a massive work of judgment. And then you have these hailstones, a talent, a talent is a little over 100 pounds. You know, imagine a 100-pound sack of concrete coming through your roof, your car might get totaled. These are, These are tremendous tumults in the earth if they are absolutely literal.

They may, they're most likely are literal elements to all of them. And then the third judgment in the seventh bowl is men's hearts are hardened. This is the end of verse 21. Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since the plague was exceedingly great. And so men blasphemed God as a result of all these things.

So what shall we learn? What are some applications from these verses? And how should these things shape us? How should they shape your life and my life? And I think the first thing is take your life, take your sins seriously.

God is pouring out His wrath upon sinful mankind. Whenever you see the wrath of God poured out on mankind, you must understand what it means. It means that the greatest expression of wrath ever poured out in the history of the world is God's wrath on his son and he poured out his wrath on his son for my sins and your sins. It would be most appropriate when we see manifestations of the wrath of God not to think about the other guy but to think about how God, how merciful God has been by pouring out his wrath on his son so that we would be protected from the wrath of God. By his stripes we were healed.

The Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all. So, think, take your own sins seriously. And then secondly, be comforted. We are a church, we're a local church, and we've been reminded here in Revelation where we are in history, we know where we are in history, we are living between the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ, we know exactly where we are, we don't need to be confused about history, We know where we exist in this historical scheme. There are two great historical events, the first coming of Christ and the second.

We are, you know, on one side of the field, you know, headed toward the finish line between two goalposts where that's where we are. We're somewhere on that field. And these are the end times. The end times began at the resurrection and they will end at the second coming. And these seven seals that we've encountered and these seven trumpets and now these seven bulls, they're just telling us what's going to happen in the world.

In other words, You know, God wants to mature his people, have a mature understanding of what's going on in the world. Okay. God's ruling the world. You're between the first and second coming of Christ. And, you know, you really don't need to worry about where history is going because we are, we've seen here that God, God is the one who's doing it.

And, you know, this has been a little too close to home. I know there have been tremendous assaults on liberty, personal liberties, ecclesiastical liberties, economic liberties that are rolling over the world right now. But for us, we know where we live. We live in between these two wonderful events in the world. But here's what's critical.

This chapter and the chapters ahead proclaim the complete dissolution of the systems and the personalities of worldliness in the world. Babylon is coming down, the rulers of the earth are coming down, the tyrants over individuals and families and businesses and the climate, they're all coming down. The tyrants are all coming down. Their days are numbered. They will lure themselves into a great destruction and they will be their own worst punishment.

Their own worst punishment. And then, this whole matter of Armageddon, this conflict, this great conflict, This day is coming and it'll fall so hard. So we can rest in that sense. And then finally, okay, the final application of this whole thing is what do we learn from this? What is the meaning of this promise of experiencing the happiness of clean garments and watching?

What is this? Behold, blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. So watch, make vigilant observations about your life. Remove everything that hinders. Be careful, Moses said, be careful to obey over and over again.

Don't be careless about anything going on in your life. Take care of everything going on in your life and keep watch. And what does the face of the Lord Jesus Christ mean in the midst of all the things in your life? And then keep your garments. This has to do with purity, the beauty of salvation.

You know, salvation doesn't make you ugly. Salvation doesn't fur your brow. Salvation doesn't make your face red. It doesn't raise your blood pressure. It doesn't cause you to speak harshly.

It doesn't harden your heart. Salvation puts you in white garments, clean and white, free, free from condemnation. And that means that you should keep yourself from every unprofitable thing. Is there any unprofitable thing that you're engaging in in your life. Run away from everything that hinders.

Keep your garments, keep your garments. They distinguish you from the world. Keep your garments. They tell you that you're following Jesus Christ. It means that you're pressing into your sanctification, you're not taking your life lightly, you're growing in the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're longing for the pure milk of the Lord, you're calling on the Lord as he may be found.

So, seek the Lord, seek the Lord. Now, part of that just has to do with infusing your mind with the goodnesses of God and His word. Here's some advice. You might say, well, I've been having a hard time getting into the word, I just haven't really felt like it, you know, like that. Here's some advice.

Don't regulate your involvement in the word of God by how you feel. Rather say, this is my life, this is what I do, this is when I do it, this is best for me, I do it automatically, I don't do it emotionally. That's the only way I've ever found to be able to have my heart in the word of God. And when I get up in the morning, I do the exact same thing every morning, and I go straight to my chair, and I do the same thing every morning. It has nothing to do with my feelings, it has nothing to do with anything except this is who I am, this is what I do.

And I say, Lord, counsel me, teach me in the way in which I should go, change my mind, purify my heart, make me think right thoughts, And prepare me actually, prepare me to actually be a pastor in this church whose mind is fixed on Jesus Christ. And so I don't do any of that because I feel like it. The same thing with prayer. I don't decide every Wednesday whether I'm gonna go to prayer. I decide one time.

That's what I would encourage you. Just decide one time. I'm gonna gather with God's people. You don't have to make this decision. You don't have to anguish over this decision every week.

Just make one decision. Do it because you know it's good, you know God called you to gather with your brothers and sisters. Don't do it because you feel like it, don't do it because you have time for it. Do it because it's your life. It's your life in this world.

Well, the Lord is so kind to give us instructions in the ways that we're walking now, and I pray that these things have been helpful. Blessed are those who read and keep the things which are written in this prophecy. Would you pray with me? Lord, Lord, here we are. We're before you, we're a little church, and we've just seen all these remarkable images of your glory of rivers drying up and frogs coming out of mouths and and the devil coming in on himself and garments white.

Oh Lord help us to keep our garments. Amen.