Mike Bickle discusses the sixth bowl from Revelation 16:12-16, emphasizing the dramatic and terrifying implications of God's judgment that leads to the gathering of the nations for the battle of Armageddon. He explains how God allows the kings of the earth to be deceived by unclean spirits, leading them to openly rebel against Jesus, whom they will mistakenly perceive as the false messiah. This deception is part of God's plan to reveal the depths of human rebellion and to transition natural history into the age to come. Bickle warns of the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit that will occur during this time, as the nations will attribute the works of God to evil, ultimately leading to their judgment. He encourages believers to remain vigilant and connected to God amidst the escalating deception.

In the name of Jesus to release the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Lord, we ask you for living understanding to be released now as we consider the plans of your heart for this planet in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, tonight we're going to be looking at Revelation 16, verse 12 to 16, which is the sixth bowl. You have to read this bowl carefully. You have to pause. You have to think what are the implications behind these very dramatic statements. You read it casually and quickly, you'll miss it. This is the bowl of the 21 judgments. This is the one that terrifies my spirit the most in the grace of God. I mean, my spirit trembles when the implications of the sixth bowl, when they really come into focus. Paragraph A, natural history is often described in the media and just even some that study prophecy is the superpowers blowing up the world with a nuclear exchange. That is not how natural history ends. And notice I say natural history, because human history is going to go on forever. Billions of years left of human history. But natural history ends in a battle, and it's unusual. It's not between the East and the West, Christianity and Islam, and in the sense that some of our thinking right now, it's a battle between a Jewish king coming from heaven in a in a literal military conflict with all the kings of the earth in the Middle East. That's how natural history changes, switches to the age to come. It takes a little while to get your mind around that, because we've often have the idea of Jesus appearing in the sky, we go away, then we're done with the earth. He is coming to have a hand-to-hand combat battle with the kings of the earth. And I don't want to push the words hand-to-hand, but I mean up front, up close personal contact with them. And this is a strange idea for many people to get their mind around, but it's a clearly biblical concept. And the sixth bowl describes the events that set up this great personal conflict with Jesus and the kings of the earth. Let's read verse 12 of Revelation 16. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the river Euphrates, and the water was dried up, so that the way for the kings of the east may be prepared. Now God is the one drying up the river, but it's unusual, because he's going to allow evil kings to do the evil that's in their heart. He's going to make a way for their evil to be manifest on a world stage. So that's already kind of throws you off. Then verse 13, verse 12 is God's part of this judgment. Verse 13 is what happens in the aftermath. I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, that's Satan. An unclean spirit coming out of the mouth of the beast, that's the antichrist, and the mouth of the false prophet. Now it goes in verse 14 to describe the meaning of this. Verse 14, they are spirits of demons that are performing supernatural signs and wonders. So the dragon, the devil, the false prophet, and the antichrist, they speak and by the words of their mouth, demons are dispatched or released to do miracles. And these miracles convince the kings of the earth to gather at Armageddon to go to war against Jesus, a Jewish king who's fully God and fully man, who's come to the earth. Verse 14, they are spirits of demons performing miracles, signs and wonders. They go out to the kings of the earth. There's 232 nations in the earth right now. So they go out to the several hundred kings of the earth to gather them to a battle. Again, natural history doesn't end with a nuclear exchange or with a comet hitting the earth and everything's oblivion. It ends with a battle. And it's the battle of the great day of God. It's the battle of the day that God has waited for. It's the great day. It's His day. He has been waiting for this battle throughout human history. Verse 16, and the kings gather with their armies, we find out later, to a place called Armageddon. Paragraph B, the sixth bowl describes the judgment of God. It's a judgment from God that releases deception on the kings of the earth. Now it's God's judgment, but the judgment results in evil leaders of the earth being emboldened in their sin and in their pride to walk out the thing that's in their heart to stand against God in open war. B, the sixth bowl describes the nations being deceived to come to Armageddon to war against Jesus. And the reason this is the Lord's judgment, God sees the evil that's in the heart of rebellious men and He wants that rebellion that's in them to be openly manifest, because it's not repented of. He sees the depth of unrepentant rebellion that's hidden. He says, I want to bring it to the surface. I'm going to bring it out in the open. And it's in that context that God's going to cleanse the earth. He's going to win the nation of Israel. And He's even going to warn the nations concerning the rebellion at the end of the millennial kingdom. We'll look at that later. Now the Satan's goal in the sixth bowl, he wants to rally all of the resources of the nations. I mean, imagine 232 nations and their armies in unity. The first time in history, all of the armies of the earth have been in unity. But it's a unity to do evil. And they gather together. Of course, what the devil wants, he wants the guilt of warring against Jesus and blaspheming the Holy Spirit. We'll see in a minute why this will amount to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. He wants the guilt of this to cover the earth. And he wants to use all the resources of the earth in the battle. Paragraph C. Now the key question is this, why would Satan prioritize this? I mean, why would Satan go to such an extreme to get all the kings of the earth in one place? And then the next question is, why would all the kings of the earth do it? I mean, if there was a call right now for all the kings of the earth, all the prime ministers, all the presidents to show up with their armies in one place, it would obviously be ignored. It would seem ridiculous beyond measure. It's never happened in history. But something is taking place so dramatic that every king, prime minister, president, whatever title they have, according to their nation, with their national armies, they gather to one place on the earth. Now the reason they're doing it is because they're going to fight Jesus. They're going to go to war with Jesus. Now what you might think of, just kind of casually reading it, is that they're going to war against Israel. Israel is not a threat to them. Israel has a very small, ill-equipped army that is no threat to all the kings of the earth. They are not going to this great extreme and this great expense in order to all fight a little unequipped Jewish army. They're gathering to actually go to war with Jesus in his resurrected body. Now that throws us off because it's so absurd we cannot fathom such a thing. They will obviously lose. But the problem is they think he's the false messiah. They will think about him what we think about the antichrist. We know the antichrist has great power but he will be defeated. They will believe Jesus has great power but they will believe he's an imposter and he can be defeated. So they're actually gathering across the nations. It's the most unusual crescendo event to shift natural history to the age to come. Only God could have thought of this script. It says in revelation 17 verse 14. These that means the 10 main kings in the antichrist empire because this all the kings all 232 kings or whatever the number would be then you know several hundred couple hundred kings but the 10 are the leaders of them. They will make war against the lamb not just against Israel it's not just they're you know really warring against Israel and figuratively warring against God. No they're actually in battle with the greater David. Jesus is the greater David, the greater Moses, the greater Joshua engaging in a real battle in the land of Israel. It says in revelation 19 the kings of the earth and their armies will make war against Jesus and Jesus will kill them and their blood will flow throughout the land even over a 200 mile area their blood will fill cover the land of Israel. We're getting ahead of ourselves. Paragraph D. Now the context in the storyline of the book of revelation is the seventh trumpet has already happened and the rapture of the church and Jesus has come in the clouds the trumpet has been blasted the saints have been gathered Jesus has landed on the earth we don't know where he's marching on his way up through Edom which is the biblical ancient name of modern-day Jordan he's on his way to go to Jerusalem to this battle and to the Mount of Olives where he will split the Mount of Olives and a very dramatic series of events that are related to that. Now for the nations to go to war against Jesus he has to be on the ground they're not shooting cannons in the sky they're not shooting arrows or guns or they're not aiming their weapons in the sky to try to hit an army in the heavens he's actually on the earth it's clear in the scripture you I give you a lot of passages to read through but it's it's a uh it's an established clear idea from the old testament prophets. Now much of the church doesn't think about it but if you study the old testament prophets the idea is very very clear paragraph e they are coming to fight Jesus who they believe to be the false messiah again we have confidence that the antichrist will be defeated even though he has great power he'll do great signs and wonders but we are not troubled because we know that our God the real God the true God has much more power than he has well the antichrist is going to reverse the whole thing he's going to say I'm the true messiah I had a head wound I rose from the dead I have a an image a statue that talks and breathes I call fire down from heaven along with the false prophet I am the true God Jesus is the imposter so he's going to do a role reversal and deceive the nations paragraph f now the antichrist is the angel of light I mean satan is he comes as an angel of light means he masquerades as that which is totally opposite of what he is he he appears in history as a good angel of light as an angel of goodness and the antichrist will show himself as an angel of light and that's how he will seduce the nations but he will say that Jesus is the false messiah and the angel of light who's masquerading the imposter and the antichrist with signs and wonders will convince the nations that defeating Jesus is not only necessary it's doable they will say we must defeat him it's doable if we do it together I have the power of God is what he will say we can defeat this false anointed false messiah named Jesus of Nazareth paragraph g Jesus said for the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven and all the earth will see it the believers and unbelievers everybody will see him coming on the clouds and if you read the rest of the verse that's when the church is raptured the trumpet is the the sounding of the trumpet the church is raptured but this war in the book of revelation is after Jesus is in the clouds it's when he's on the ground so the war described in revelation 16 that they're gathering to Armageddon for the in the battle actually is described in revelation 19 when he enters into Jerusalem what's happening here in in the in the sixth bowl is before the battle takes place and it's after Jesus has appeared in the sky and everybody has seen him Jesus is now in the storyline of revelation he's on the ground or he's going to be in a in a moment and he's going to be marching up to Jerusalem to engage them in battle top of page two any of this because this is new to some of you any of this that you cannot find bible verses for throw it away i want to encourage all of you challenge everything you hear but don't challenge it by your church traditions challenge it by the bible actually have the bible open when you challenge it check out the verses don't go by well i was always taught that isn't really that shit that's not the best way to approach the bible i was always taught it the other way now the underlying concept is the blasphemy of the holy spirit at the sixth bowl that's why it's so terrifying it's a global blasphemy of the holy spirit well let's look at the concept of the blasphemy of the holy spirit in matthew chapter 12 verse 24 the pharisees said about jesus this fellow does not cast out demons except for by behelzebub by a demon in other words the way that he he operates in power is by the power of the devil the devil is the one anointing him not god so jesus said you don't really want to go there because you're not really sinning against me when you say that you're sinning against the holy spirit who's working through me because they were attributing the power of the holy spirit in jesus's ministry they were attributing it to the work of satan and jesus went on to say verse 31 matthew 12 well he was the the uh the his teaching is if you call the work of the spirit the work of a demon you are blaspheming the holy spirit and that's the one sin you'll never be forgiven of they were attributing the the ministry of the holy spirit in jesus's life to demons and this is what satan the antichrist the false prophet are going to convince the kings of the earth that the work that jesus is doing is actually a counterfeit it's false it's not of god it's actually of the devil and they're going to present themselves as of god and it will be the great delusion that will cover the nations just before the great drama concludes and jesus takes up his throne in jerusalem paragraph b blasphemy of the holy spirit is a final and a full rejection of the holy spirit's ministry it's the greatest evil that a human being can do in god's eyes is blaspheming the holy spirit now the devil comes and whispers in people's ears it's very common i've prayed for many people through the years i think i blaspheme the holy spirit if you care about it then you haven't done it i mean that because if you a person that blasphemes the holy spirit has no desire for repentance and they don't care at all that they've done it if you are afraid you've done it it's impossible that you've done it paragraph c now we're going to look at one of the most overlooked prophecies about the end times but it's very significant and it relates to the sixth bolt paul the apostle prophesies about the development of wickedness in the generation the lord returns and it has its highest description related to the sixth bowl of what he prophesies here we'll look at it 2 thessalonians chapter 2 verse 7 paul said the mystery of lawlessness is already at work now that's an interesting phrase that lawlessness lawlessness is mysterious now lawlessness and you could put the word sin there the mystery of sin the mystery of iniquity what paul is saying it's been working throughout church history but it's going to come to a fullness in the generation that the lord returns there is something mysterious about lawlessness and here's the mystery i'll just kind of i'll just kind of lay it out that in the presence of the glory of god and jesus's full manifest power in the presence of it men will choose the devil in the presence of the glory of god and even in the presence of the truth about satan they will choose him over jesus it is mysterious how rebellion takes root in the heart of a man that's empowered by pride that if a man gets into rebellion and pride it's mysterious that even in the presence of the glory of god they will choose darkness now you and i we can't figure that out i mean we know we choose sin we've done plenty of sin but we hate the sin we do and sometimes we have blind spots in our character we don't see the sin we do but when we do see it we go oh no that's not what i want to do and if we give ourself to it even intentionally we're grieved but this mystery that in the presence of the glory of god men will still choose evil they will still choose evil paul said you're going to see this mystery it's been working throughout church history but it's going to come to a crescendo in the generation the lord returns particularly at the sixth bowl verse 8 paul says the lawless one that's the antichrist that's the title for the antichrist he will be revealed on the world scene verse 9 the coming of the lawless one of the antichrist the coming of him is in accordance with the working of satan with all power with all signs and with lying wonders the antichrist is going to operate with lying wonders he's going to have a significant amount of great miracles but they will be lying wonders verse 10 we're getting to the prophecy in a minute the prophecy is verse 11 and with all unrighteous deception among those who did not receive the love of the truth that's it right there billions will refuse the love of the truth for this reason here it is god will send a strong delusion to the nations that's what's happening in the sixth bowl when he dries up the euphrates rivers and releases satan to do that which is the the the highest thing on his heart in terms of his strategy of the nations god is releasing a strong delusion to the wicked he's going to allow them to have freedom to do outwardly the wickedness that's deep in their heart and he's going to embolden them to do that which they love he will allow them to fully walk out that which they have chosen in a consistent way in terms of resisting the holy spirit look at verse 11 god will send a strong delusion this is an end time prophecy you don't hear that prophecy quoted very often but it's a very significant one and we find it in the sixth bowl that's what the sixth bowl is about here's here it is that the nations would believe the lie there is a thing called the lie now there's a lie in all through history the devil's always a liar but there is a particular series of events and ideas that paul talked about as the lie and in the generation the lord returns and the antichrist is doing false wonders and lying wonders he will convince the nations to buy into the lie and the lie we get more insight on it in the sixth bowl what the lie is and the lie is that jesus part of the lie the lies many facets to it part of it that jesus is the false messiah and the nations of the earth must rally under the true god to fight jesus with the confidence they will defeat him that's the lie and that's the delusion of the sixth bowl paragraph d now paul spoke about the mystery of sin the mystery of lawlessness how i mean as as believers born-again believers the holy spirit working in our lives we can't imagine somebody believing they could defeat jesus it's like what it's called the delusion the lie but it's more than that they will believe they can defeat him while witnessing his glory in front of them this is the delusion this is the lie that lucifer bought into when he was the worship leader around the throne of god in the very presence of the glory of god he conceived he could challenge god and win it's the same lie on a global eschatological meaning an in-time level a global application of the lie that in the presence of the glory of god they could actually defeat god and the mystery is that when the pride and rebellion of man which are so overlapped but they're fueling each other men are emboldened against god at a level we cannot imagine it's when the mystery of iniquity will have its full outworking where satan will send the lie and god will take his hand off of them and turn them over to a strong delusion because it's the decision that's deep in their heart against god he says i will let you do that which you love to do i will give you the liberty to be emboldened in all of your rage against me now this is how human history transitions to the age to come now it says in first timothy chapter four the spirit explicitly says that in the latter days some will depart from the faith some will even leave the faith by paying attention to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons and there will be many manifestations of that they're already operating now but the full manifestation of the doctrine of demons the highest one is when the kings of the earth are in unity for the first time in history the kings of the earth are in unity but they're in unity about the necessity and the the necessity of warring against jesus and the confidence that they will actually win and defeat him that will be the ultimate deception in human history it says in paragraph e romans chapter 1 verse 26 it describes god's working with people who choose sin and you read the whole passage and actually it says it three times i only mentioned two times in the notes but if you read romans chapter 1 at the end there verse 24 to 28 three times god gives men over to sin and every time god gives men over to sin it's because they've chosen it he allows them to do what's in their heart and when he gives them over what he's doing is he's taking his restraining hand off of them and allowing them to increase in their capacity to sin and then later he gives them over again in an increased capacity and then they continue to sin and then he gives them over yet another time and in romans 1 28 it's called a debased mind a seared conscience where they cannot respond to the holy spirit at all and this is what's going to happen on a global level as god will give over the kings of the earth to a debased mind and they will be emboldened to gather to armageddon to go to war against jesus top of page three paragraph b jesus referred i mean paul referred to the greatest deception in history as the lie now again there's lies the holy that the devil has been telling all through human history and those lies are all part of the big lie but there is a lie that emerges in the hour that the anti-christ is on the earth and there is a that's related to his false signs and wonders and miracles and many buy into the lie the sixth bowl paragraph b is a terrifying judgment because god is allowing the lie to sweep away people who have chosen not to receive the love of the truth he allows the full consequences of their choices to bear down upon their conscience in other words their conscience are progressively defiled and seared and they will go to a place we can't imagine it's called the mystery of iniquity the mystery of lawlessness they will end up in a posture against jesus that we cannot even imagine it will be so enraged and so emboldened and so unresponsive to jesus in in the positive sense paragraph c now a prototype of the sixth bowl where the devil releases uh lying spirits throughout the earth to win over these 230 or 40 or 50 kings of the earth whatever the number actually is at that time his nations you know they all kinds of new configurations on the world map in first kings chapter 22 ahab the king of israel a wicked king of israel was the recipient of a lying spirit ahab was asking a prophet for direction and god sent a lying spirit to ahab the wicked king now most of you know ahab you might not know it because his wife is jezebel now you know about jezebel ahab and jezebel were the ones that were at war with elijah they were the ones killing all the prophets of god so we know about jezebel and elijah but ahab is the king jezebel's the wife the queen and so this is a man that's hardened against the lord and he and he uh asked the prophet i'm gonna go to battle will i win and look at this very unusual heavenly scene first kings chapter 22 verse 20 the lord said now up in the council of the lord in heaven he's asking all of those before his throne who will persuade ahab to go to battle because i want him to fall i want him to be killed in battle who will give him a false message and one of the spirits this is an evil spirit because we have clear uh precedent in the scripture like in job where satan could appear before before the presence of the lord and say hey you know and negotiate about joe and demon spirits accuse us in the presence of god so a spirit said i will persuade him and the lord says uh you do that which is according to your nature oh lying spirit but i have need of thee you can go i'll give you room to go and talk to this king so the lying spirit verse 22 this spirit said i will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the prophets because ahab had a whole host of prophets and the lord said good persuade him give him boldness to go to battle and so this lying spirit went forth all the false prophets gave these powerful words ahab was emboldened in his pride and rebellion he said victory is for sure and it was completely false this is the sixth bowl in a miniature way paragraph f now this is i'm not gonna i'm just gonna point out this passage in and uh matthew 12 verse 43 matthew 12 verse 43 to 45 when jesus describes an unclean spirit and i'm not gonna i'm just gonna kind of let you see the passage there you can read it on your own you have the notes if you don't you can get them out on the table on the way out or get them on the internet jesus describes how a demon works in a man and the demons cast out of the man but then the man doesn't repent and the demon comes back seven times stronger and you can read the passage it's a pretty well-known passage you know if a demon gets cast out of a person and that person continues in their sin they will end up in a far greater bondage later and it says at the end of verse 45 the last state of the man is worse than the first which is a you know a perilous situation but here's the point i want to make he said so also shall be this wicked generation demons affect generations in the way i mean entire generations and time frames are assaulted by the deluding power of demons in the way that humans are now he was talking to the first century he said this generation will be seven times worse because you have rejected the messiah you will be demonized in delusion beyond anything that you have ever experienced in your delusion right now this principle will be walked out in a global way in the generation the lord returns there will be demonic activity at a global level now you say why do we care about this well it's the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the first five bowls leading up to the sixth bowl all of these god is trying to wake up the nations so they are not swept away with delusion at the sixth bowl the judgments that precede this are actually building in intensity to wake up individuals and nations so they will not be swept away in the delusion of the sixth bowl and so believers will read the judgments of god in the book of revelation and they were some of them will have a wrong attitude say lord how could you be this cruel and the lord says you don't understand the sixth bowl you don't know where history is going i will not violate the free will of the human spirit but i am going to arrest the attention of the earth in increasingly more intense ways as things are building up to the sixth bowl because when the sixth bowl happens there will be a global blasphemy of the holy spirit and so as i understand the sixth bowl though it's after the rapture we won't be here in the sense of with natural bodies we'll be with the lord we'll be watching it all unfold i mean we will be witnesses of the whole thing because once we are raptured and with jesus we are forever with the lord and he's right in the middle of this conflict and we are witnessing and participating in it at different levels but the reason it matters to me now not just so that i can you know kind of like you know hit you and next you go hey i know what's coming next i studied the six bowl watch this you know here we are resurrected bodies that's not the reason i want to know this so i can whisper to you you know as it's unfolding hey i studied this really in depth back you know in the the early days back on the earth that's not why i'm studying it i'm studying it because it makes all the other judgments it gives a perspective to them and it gives a dimension of mercy because this is what jesus is wanting to deliver the nations from this hour of the sixth bowl you can study that matthew 12 a little bit more on your own there's all kinds of principles because jesus is talking about humans individual people and then suddenly surprisingly he applies all the principles to an entire generation being demonized and of course the fullness of that in a historical sense will be at the sixth bowl i mean what a terrifying passage i mean this whole thing just makes my spirit tremble the whole the whole all the principles related to this i just say lord this is so intense roman numeral four now what's going to happen the demons are going to convince the 232 kings plus and all their armies to gather to jerusalem and again this is unprecedented we're kind of you know you read those verses and you kind of get used to the idea imagine again talking to every prime minister and king and president of the earth and convincing them to show up personally not just in their ambassador to show up personally and to bring their armies all in one place at one time it's just it's an unthinkable concept but it's going to happen at the end of paragraph a well let's just look at a the gathering of all the nations and all the leaders of the nations to the battle of jerusalem is one of the major themes in biblical prophecy it appears it's emphasized over and over and history is leading in that direction right now and the prayer movement will be dynamically connected to it but here's the interesting thing is that god will have a role in gathering all the nations the devil will have a role and the sin of man will have a role all three of them will play a part and of course it will all be orchestrated under god's grand purposes that will overrule everything but the devil in his rage will play into it and man in his sin will play into it but god is doing this as well so people have said who's bringing all the kings to jerusalem or to the to armageddon which is the military staging area up north we'll look at that in a moment who's doing this is the devil doing it yes is god doing it yes are men doing it yes all three answers are right and there's enough bible verses for all of them it's mysterious it's terrifying it's glorious god is orchestrating something so vast so in depth paragraph b and you can read the verses on your own in zechariah there god will gather the nations to jerusalem it's god doing it well i thought the devil was it's the devil too well how could god and the devil both be doing it they are god is over it's all god's overruling the entire process top of page four he says in paragraph d i will gather all the nations i will bring them to the valley of jehoshaphat the valley of jehoshaphat is a it's a uh uh it's not an actual name of a valley but it's a description of the area next to jerusalem the valley of jehoshaphat just say in your mind jerusalem god says i'm going to gather all the nations and i'm going to enter into judgment with them there well god won't you just judge the nations wherever they're at he goes no i'm going to get all the leaders of the earth and all of their armies in one place at one time the devil's gonna do it and i'm gonna do it and we're gonna have a showdown to transition human history into the millennial kingdom god will cleanse the earth and remove all the leadership that's wicked in one stroke and he will do it in jerusalem it says in joel chapter 3 verse 11 assemble and come all you nations let the nations be awakened let the nations it's god speaking awakened nations actually god stirring their pride you think you can take me i challenge you wake up and stand before me and come and present your case to me he's calling the nations to wake up he's stirring them up in their arrogance come to the valley of jehoshaphat there i will judge the nations and then he goes on describes it as the valley of decision this is the place where all the nations of the earth and all the individuals of the earth will have to make a decision are they for him or are they against him of course we make that decision many times between now and then but there is an actual historical hour where this this nations will be forced to decide god will not allow any neutrality everyone has to choose one way or the other in the full sense in that hour of history there will be no neutral ground the paragraph e all the nations will be brought to jerusalem and in the process jesus is going to win the nation of israel to himself in salvation i mean only jesus could think of this strategy to win israel to himself and he's actually giving a thousand year gift of mercy he's warning the nations at the end of the millennial kingdom who will rebel and walk this out again he's warning them even through these events not to do it in that hour and all through the millennial kingdom you can be sure they'll be telling the story over and over yet at the end even after jesus has reigned for a thousand years in the earth there will be nations men will rise up and rebel against jesus again it's the it's the lie it's the delusion it's what lucifer believed he could do in this this uh pride that we can't grasp the measure of this pride that lucifer has had in in god's presence this same spirit of pride will be worked in the leaders of the nations the time at the end of the tribulation and again at the end of the millennial kingdom it will happen again paragraph g now this is interesting that it says in the in the verse that right there the notes in revelation 16 verse 13 i'll just let's let's go to that verse 13 let's back up a paragraph john said verse 13 i saw three unclean spirits like frogs they were coming out of the mouth of the dragon the beast and the false prophet this is very strategic i mean significant it's coming out of the mouth of satan the dragon this is the only time in human history satan has come out from behind the behind the scenes he's come out in the open on the world stage this is a radical thing satan is always the great puppet master behind the scenes working through the others this is the only time on a global stage satan comes out of his cover this is how desperate he is he wants all the nations rallied together and he wants all the nations brought into the guilt of standing against jesus i mean that satan would do this tells us the extremity of the situation and the desperate nature of the kingdom of darkness because the next thing that happens to satan after this is he's cast into prison for 1 000 years he is desperate right here he's not right now he's behind the scenes again he's the great puppet master pulling all the strings and nobody actually sees him face to face i mean he appears to a person here and there for a moment but i'm talking about on the world stage he comes out into the open that's how desperate he is his next assignment is prison for 1 000 years in revelation chapter 20 verse 1 he goes to prison let's go to top of page 5 what else go to j let's go to paragraph j the bottom of 4 you can read some of the other notes on your own so i'm going to bring this to an end in a few moments why is god doing this paragraph j jesus will lure the wicked into a divine trap in order to display his power on a global level this is what he did in a small way through pharaoh now in pharaoh's day it seemed really big but it was only a prototype of what's going to happen at the end of the age the scripture says to pharaoh romans 9 verse 17 the scripture says to pharaoh for this very purpose i've raised you up pharaoh and the antichrist is the end time pharaoh for this very purpose i've raised you up for this reason antichrist i've done this for this reason kings of the earth i've allured you to jerusalem that i would show my power in you in your resistance you would give me an opportunity in a context to show my power to all the earth and my name will be declared to all the earth through what i do through you and again this is not just a one it's an event it happens and it's over throughout all the millennial kingdom this story will be told it will be captured in the educational institutions in dramas in whatever dvds are in you know 500 years from now it will be captured this story will be told thousands and thousands of times through every type every expression of society from the education to the arts to the music the great drama at the end so the lord's name he has laid out the plan with such clarity it will be talked about and god will be boasted in for a thousand years on the earth because of this plan and here ahead of time we are grasping it and we are proclaiming it even before it unfolds and the church the forerunners will will will will proclaim the certainty of god's wisdom and god's victory even before the plan and the battle unfolds top of page five armageddon now you can read that on your own just a couple paragraphs but but armageddon is not actually a battle armageddon is a military staging area armageddon is a is a piece of land it's referring to up in the north the jezreel valley it's about 15 miles wide about 20 miles long that's the staging area up north the the great battle we typically are referring to when we talk about the battle of armageddon it's actually the battle for jerusalem armageddon's up north about 60 miles the battle itself is down south in jerusalem surrounding the city so i call it the armageddon campaign because the antichrist puts his armies in there for the whole three and a half years and at the end the kings of the east join in but there have been armies there for the whole uh three and a half years of the tribulation there's been a battle there's been many battles in that three and a half years from the armageddon staging area and at the end it escalates to a global level so there's many battles in the armageddon campaign the chief one the one that's most notable would would more accurately be called the battle of jerusalem when all the nations are warring to take over the city of jerusalem and to fight against jesus in a direct way you can read more on that roman numeral six the eschatological wine press now what does that mean well eschatological just means in times when something we talk about something eschatological it pertains to the final events related to the coming of the lord that's what we mean in a popular definition there's a wine press what is a wine press and i'm not gonna go through the notes but i'll just reference them in the ancient israel at the time of the harvest all the grapes were harvest and they would get a big wine vat you know i'm just making this up i don't you know there's all different sizes maybe it's 10 feet in diameter maybe it's three feet high and 10 feet diameter they put all the grapes in the wine vat in the press and the people would get up and they would stomp you you've seen that most of you could picture it or they would use stones to do it and they would smash the grapes and then the wine juice would they would extract it so big wine vat and the people at the celebration would stun them and the wine would get all over their clothing and their garments and after the maybe the maybe uh other times they use big stones to smash the grapes and then they would drain the grapes off jesus said there's going to be a great wine press at the end of the age there's going to be a big vat it's not 10 feet in diameter it's about 200 miles it's the whole of the land of israel will be my wine vat and i'm going to call all the wicked kings and all of their armies and i'm going to make sure they believe they will defeat me i will get them all to show up they will all show up and i will hem them in in my wine vat and i personally jesus speaking i will trample them with my own feet and i will destroy them and their blood will flow for 200 miles that's what it says in romans i'm in revelation 14 verse 20 for 1600 furlong which is nearly 200 miles which is from armageddon in the north down to eden and basra in the south where jesus is marching up he says i'm going to bring all the leadership of the earth together that's wicked for the first time ever in one place and i'm going to destroy them all in one stroke and their blood will flow through the lot the land and it will be the celebration of the harvest of the new age all the wickedness will be dealt with and i will call it my wine press well i will trample the grapes myself in this battle that's what jesus is doing calling all the nations to jerusalem they think they're going to fight him and when he's calling them to his wine press to shift natural history to the age to come you can read the verses there because it's a it's a uh a graphic description in isaiah it's mentioned in joel john mentions it that jesus is going to trample the wine press and the wine press isn't the whole earth the wine press is that geographic area right there around jerusalem it's about a 200 mile area he says i'm gonna him and everybody and there's no escape patch and i'm going to have all the leadership together and i'm going to get rid of them all in one time the devil's going to help get them there on the premise they can defeat jesus jesus is going to get them there he's going to actually send a spirit of delusion to get them there they will be going for victory he will be leading them there for their defeat and anybody that makes it to there and they go to war against jesus it's because they ignored his warnings between now and that time and that could be some decades from now the point of it is we are listening to the spirit and we're obeying the spirit and we're not going to be found unresponsive because there will be even believers that can end up there if they don't say yes to the lord now they can progressively deny the lord and that's what this passage is talking about even where jesus interrupts it and at the very end of this which we won't look at and he tells believers hey believers i'm coming like a thief in verse 15 he says you better be paying attention well let's just go ahead let's just go to there let's go to the end the end of page six and i'm skipping the part of the kings of the east and we'll look at that at another time and there's a special role the kings of the east have we're skipping that just for time's sake but look what jesus says in verse 15 right here in the middle of the passage he's describing it he says oh by the way church he goes i realize you will have been raptured at the seventh trumpet and this is after the seventh trumpet but i want to tell you something if you're still on the earth at this time it means you've been swept away by deception and i'm warning you now to watch pay attention to me keep your garments stay connected to me because there's a series of events there's an escalation of sin temptation persecution and deception there's an escalation of sin an escalation of persecution an escalation of deception that even my people can get swept away in if they're not paying attention so jesus actually interrupts himself he interrupts i mean the story the narrative of the angel talking to john and says he breaks in and says if you're there in that time that means you've fallen into the escalation of deception he says keep your garments because i'm coming like a thief but if you're watching and you're paying attention you will have no concern about that escalation of deception in that day but it is actually i don't study this because i'm thinking i'm going to be there i'm studying it because i want to understand god's plan for the end of the age and i want to be a forerunner and a faithful witness that's trumpeting it and understanding the judgments leading up to this are redemptive to wake up the church and to wake up the nations so that everybody can escape this who wants to well the lord wins in this great battle and he brings the nations to his wine press and he tramples them this is the jesus that we love and he's doing it because of love he's doing it because there is no other way to deal straightforward with the sin of the nations and so as i study this my spirit trembles but i think of the majesty of his wisdom i think of the superiority of his love and his power and i say lord i want to i want to be near you i want to understand you i want to grasp what's going on as you unfold your purposes across the nations and i want to be ready watching and waiting keeping my garments watching and waiting i want to be connected to you i want to be a vibrant spirit and connected to you long before the escalation of these events amen let's stand just as the worship team comes i'm just gonna i just want to wait on the lord for just a moment i'm going to ask you all just to put your bibles down for a minute let's just wait on the lord lord here we are and this most serious insight into your plan lord we say we want to be connected to you we want to understand the mysteries of your heart and your plan for the end of the age holy spirit come and touch us even now i ask we just wait on you we ask you holy spirit for your presence we ask you for your presence to come and rest on us even now in these early days of your great plan speak to us call us to your heart just the instruments play here we are lord holy spirit come and touch us lord we want a responsive heart to your word so we're just gazing in our heart before him we're waiting on him lord we want to understand we want to feel your heart in this magnificent passage