Mike Bickle provides an overview of the Book of Revelation, emphasizing the dual nature of the 'Day of the Lord' as both great and terrible. He explains that only those in God's favor can endure the coming tribulations, which will be marked by severe judgments and the rise of the Antichrist. Bickle highlights the importance of understanding the straightforward symbols and chronological structure of Revelation, assuring that the book is meant to be comprehensible to all believers. He encourages the church to prepare for the greatest revival and the challenges of the end times, reminding them of God's protection and the ultimate victory of Christ.

The overview of the book of Revelation, Roman numeral one, this is where we typically start with this main theme when we talk about the end times, it's the day of the Lord. Because the day of the Lord has two extremes. Joel chapter two says the day of the Lord is great, that's extreme number one. And the day of the Lord is very terrible, it's extreme number two. And the question is, who can endure it? Who can survive it? And of course the answer is only the people who are in the favor of God. Revelation chapter six, verse 17, connects with that theme of the day of the Lord with the same question, who can stand or who can survive? The kings of the earth cry out for the great day of his wrath, it's come. It makes sense to the unbelievers that the wrath of God is breaking in on the earth. And they're asking the question, who is able to survive this great onslaught? Paragraph A, the book of Revelation gives us the most information on the end times of any book in scripture. I think that's pretty obvious to most of you. The book of Revelation emphasizes the unfolding of the day of the Lord, which is the passage right there in chapter six, verse 17, which refers to the unusual events, the positive ones and the negative ones that are related to the second coming of Jesus, just before and just after the second coming of the Lord. Now for those of you that are a little bit nervous about the book of Revelation, I want to say that much information, much of the information in the book of Revelation is very straightforward. There are seven main symbols in the book, but most of it is straightforward. But people have heard for years that the book of Revelation is too difficult. Nobody understands it anyway. And they're mostly referring to those seven main symbolic symbols in the book that are really quite easy to understand because the Bible explains the Bible. B, the first extreme of the day of the Lord is that it's great. It's a great day. It's an awesome day. It's a wonderful day. And of course, it's a great day for those who are responsive. The greatest revival in history is yet to come. It's the church's greatest hour is soon coming. Paragraph C, the second extreme is that the day of the Lord is very terrible. And that is for the rebellions. It's a very, very terrible day because they will experience trouble from four different sources. We covered this last week. This is just kind of way of review to get kind of get us ready for the book of Revelation. Source number one is that the unbelievers or the rebellious will experience the most severe judgments of God. God causes tribulation upon them. Later down the paragraph, uh, secondly, they're going to experience the rage of Satan through the Antichrist reign of terror. Satan and the Antichrist are going to bring tribulation on people. Number three, the actions of evil people. Evil people will bring tribulation on people. And the number four, there will be convulsions in nature. Earthquakes and storms. They will also bring tribulation on people. So the great tribulation doesn't point to only one source. The primary source of the trouble is the Lord answering the persistent rebellion coming from the earth towards him. But there's four different categories of tribulation that happen in the great tribulation. Paragraph two, Jesus talked about, he used the term, the great tribulation. Let's read this, uh, two sentences. It's very well known, but I feel like we have to read it with an open mind for a fresh impact. This is one of the most startling statements, prophecies in the whole Bible by the mouth of Jesus himself. Don't minimize this prophecy. Don't reduce it. Don't bring it down to less than its meaning. Jesus said in Matthew 24 verse 21, there will be a great tribulation. There will be great tribulation. Such has not been since the beginning of the world, nor shall ever be. There's coming a time that nothing before it or after it will compare to it. In verse 22, and that's often verse 22 is omitted. Unless these days were shortened by the sovereignty of God, no flesh would have been saved. In other words, no flesh would have physically been spared. Nobody would have survived physically is what it's talking about. Paragraph eight, Jesus prophesied about the great tribulation. He was emphasizing the negative dimensions of the final three and a half years before his return. This will be the most severe time in history. This will surpass all difficult times in history. Some theologians look for the fulfillment of the great tribulation in 70 AD. That is a significant mistake. In 70 AD, there was a picture. There was a partial fulfillment of trouble for Israel, but nothing close to it threatening the survival of the human race worldwide. It was nothing close to that. So don't read any books and dismiss the book of Revelation as fulfilled in history from 70 AD. Jesus said, if these days were not cut short by God himself, no human being would survive on the entire planet. We've never ever known such a day as this. Let's go to paragraph B, top of page two. I have the seven purposes of the great tribulation. I won't go through those. You can look at those on your own. Seven different purposes of the great tribulation to purify the people, the great in gathering, et cetera. Paragraph C. I don't ever weary of saying this principle. It's my desire as a teacher that everybody would be able to say this principle. I don't care if you say it in your own words, change the words, but be able to articulate this concept any way that you want. But here's the principle that God uses in judgment. God will use the least severe means, which is the great tribulation, to reach the greatest number of people at the deepest level of love without violating anyone's free will while he is training the future rulers of the earth. Let's say that again. God will use the least severe means. The great tribulation is very severe, but the Lord would say it's the least severe to get the job done. To bring the greatest number of people to me in the deepest level of love without violating their free will while I'm training them to rule the earth. Because these saints that come to him that grow in love, that God will answer even their difficulty and their faithfulness by giving them government over the earth after the Lord's return. Paragraph D. I say this at most every presentation or teaching on the end times. There will be supernatural protection. You can't stress that enough. But you can read that on your own because we cover that point so often. Let's go to Roman numeral three. The outline of the book of Revelation. I have seven parts now. You can break down the book of Revelation many different ways. You could make it five parts. You know, you could put it together various ways. So this isn't anything that I would insist on this exact layout. But I think it's a practical one. First, I want to, in introduction for the first part, I want to say what the book of Revelation, the very first verse of the book of Revelation, it's called the revelation of Jesus Christ. Which God gave to Jesus to show his servant things which will shortly take place. God the Father is revealing Jesus through the book of Revelation. The book of Revelation is not mostly about events. It's mostly about a man who's leading the events. God the Father gave Jesus or gave the release to reveal Jesus in this book. Now, here's what the Father said. I'm going to, he says, John, I'm going to tell you things. But these things, if you meditate on them and understand them, they will lead you to a man. The things will cause you to think of the man's wisdom and power and his passion for you because he's the man who's leading these things. The book of Revelation must bring us back to the man Christ Jesus. Paragraph A, first part, Revelation 1. John is commissioned to reveal the beauty of Christ Jesus. The preaching on the end times is the preaching on the beauty of Jesus when properly understood. I hear it all the time where people say, you know, I'm not really into the end times. That is a, I understand the concept, but it's a very misinformed concept. It's as though there's Jesus and there's another subject called the end times. The end times is the subject of Jesus's leadership over the earth. The subject is Jesus. Paragraph B, the second part, is the seven letters to the churches, to the seven letters to the churches of Asia. Now, these seven letters are exhorting us, giving us encouragement, more than exhorting, giving us assurance and promise, giving us insight into the particular issues throughout all the church age, but these particular issues will come to a place of, they will come to a head in the generation that the Lord returns. The negative temptations will come to a head, and yet as well as the positive rewards of the Lord will come to fullness. So these seven letters are very, very relevant. To identify the struggles as well as the promises of God and how he promises to help us and the eternal rewards for overcoming. The seven letters are a very critical part of the end time message. The third part is Revelation 4 and 5. It's the heavenly court. It's one of the grandest scenes in Scripture. Where God the Father and God the Son are together and all the host of angels and God the Father has the scroll in his hand and Jesus takes the scroll and it speaks of the whole end time scenario, the whole end time plan, and we'll look at that in a few minutes. But the end times, the end time events are commissioned by the Father and they're taken into Jesus's hands. Jesus takes responsibility for the unfolding of the end time scenario, the end time events. It's all about his leadership over the planet in the final hours before his return. Let's go to paragraph D. The major section of the book of Revelation is chapter 6 to 19. This is by far the largest section. This is the great tribulation, the final three and a half years before the Lord returns. It's in this large section that we find the three numbered judgment series. Those are, there's three judgment series and they're numbered. Each one of them are numbered. There's seven seals. The first seal, the second seal, the third seal, on up to the seventh. The second judgment series is also numbered. It's the first trumpet, the second trumpet, the third trumpet on up to seven. And the third judgment series is numbered as well. It's called the bowls of wrath. The first bowl, the second bowl, the third bowl. So we find three judgment series and each of them are numbered. And the numbers are significant. The numbers will be very significant. It's God's gift to us that he numbered these judgments. Because after the third one, we know what the fourth judgment event is going to be. The world won't, but we will because they're numbered. They unfold in chronological sequence. They unfold in order. And in the unfolding of them, they will be very helpful to us to understand what's coming next. E, the ultimate event is Jesus Christ as a man coming back. Revelation 19, verse 11 to 21. And in his return, he comes as a Jewish king. He marches up into Jerusalem to fight a battle against all the kings of the earth. He wins the battle and he establishes his authority, his kingship on the earth. It's Revelation 19, verse 20, 11 to 21. We all know the passages. It's just absolutely awesome. The sixth section is Revelation 20. Talks about the millennial kingdom, the thousand-year kingdom, the great white throne, etc. You can read about that. Most of you are a little bit familiar with it. And then the seventh section is Revelation 21 and 22. It should be Revelation 21-22. It's the last two chapters. It's the describing of the heaven, the heavenly realm coming down to the earthly realm. Heaven comes down to the earth. We don't go away to heaven. Heaven comes to the earth in the final estate. Now, saints, between now and the second coming, when we die, our spirit goes away to heaven. But we're waiting for the time when heaven comes to the earth and we get our resurrected bodies. And we live on the earth with a resurrected body. That's, there is a 2,000-year holding pattern between the cross and the second coming, where our spirits go to be with the Lord. And our bodies do not. Our bodies stay in the ground. And we don't have a resurrected body in heaven, because we don't need one to relate to the environment of heaven. It's heavenly. But when the heavens come back to the earth, we need a resurrected body, because we're going to relate to a physical earth, and we're going to need a physical body to do that. So Revelation 21 and 22 is the ultimate ultimate. It's the heavenly realm coming together with the earthly realm on the earth. Let's read, go to Roman numeral four. The main structures of the book. There's two, you know, in the structures of the book, there's two main features. There's, if you get this, these two main features, and you understand the seven symbols in the book, the seven main ones, you are really going to be on your way to understanding the book of Revelation. And incidentally, the book of Revelation was meant to be understood by everybody. The book of Revelation was written to illiterate peasants throughout church history. It was not written only to the educated. I mean, the Lord wrote it to the educated, but not most of human history has not been educated. The book of Revelation was written for everyone in the earth to understand it, even just by hearing it. An illiterate man, a peasant in a mountain village could hear it and understand it. That's how simple the book of Revelation is. We got to get rid of this Revelation phobia. That many of the scholars in the last hundred years have vexed the church with so much scholarship that the book seems impossible to understand. And it means what it says. It says what it means. There are seven main symbols. They're easily understood because the Bible makes it clear what they are. And you understand these two main structural features and those seven symbols, and you are on your way to understanding the book of Revelation. A, the first feature is the five chronological sections. And you can look at it later if this is new to you. You could kind of take the notes. And we have the notes on the internet. So you can get those. If you don't have them in your hand right now, you can get them tonight when you go home. You're free to copy them and edit them and change them around, do anything you want with them. There's five chronological sections. Number one, under A, in the five chronological sections, the events happen one after the other in chronological order. That's the point of a chronological section. The storyline of the book unfolds one event after another in a logical sequential, or it happens one after the other. The second seal follows the first seal. The third seal follows the second seal. It unfolds chronologically. It's easy to understand the main storyline of the book of Revelation. The basic truths and the chronological sections are really straightforward. If you just took the chronological sections and put them all together, you would find it's a startling story. I mean, the story is massive. The story is startling. The story is frightening and glorious, but it is straightforward. It's not mysterious to understand. It means what it says and says what it means. Let's go to B, top of page four. This is the challenging part of the book of Revelation, are the five parenthetical sections. Top of page four, B, the five parenthetical sections. Parenthetical, that's one of my biggest words I know. I know antiphonal and parenthetical. The five parenthetical sections. A parenthetical section is a parentheses. This section is in a parentheses. It's like the angels putting a pause on the storyline, and he sits John down to tell him what's going on behind the scenes. Number one, the parenthetical sections are the interpretive sections of Revelation that answer the deep questions that come up because of the severity of God's wrath seen in the chronological sections. Like John sees the first chronological section, the first seal, the second seal, the third seal, the fourth seal, the fifth seal, the sixth seal, and he's a little overwhelmed at the gravity and the severity of these judgments. His heart is troubled, and he has two main questions. And it's the same two questions that you have and I have. And it's the same two questions that our friends and family and neighbors and workers and the marketplace, everyone has the same two questions. They may use different language, but it's the same two questions. When they read the chronological sections, you know, the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven bowls, they watch the storyline. Their number one question is here in paragraph two. How come these judgments are so severe? If you take them serious, you have to ask the question, how could a God of love release such violence on the earth? That is a question that has to be answered when you read the chronological sections. And so the parenthetical sections is a parentheses, is a timeout. It's a pause in the storyline. The angel like pulls John aside and says, John, how are you doing? After those seals, one fourth of the human race dies in the fourth seal. John's reeling. He's staggering. It staggers his mind. He's one fourth of the earth. How did things get so out of hand? What happened? What went so bad that required this kind of severity? So question one, why so severe? We got to answer that. And the parenthetical sections answer those questions. The second question. Okay, it's going to be severe. But what about us? What about the church? Are we going to get destroyed in the wrath? Are we protected? Is God anointing us? Are we in his favor? What about the church? Will we, how will we avoid deception? How will we know? How will we be prepared for the intensity of Satan's attack against us? What about me? Very important question. I call it sanctified selfishness. It's a, you're supposed to ask that question and you're supposed to care. And of course we do by nature. How can I avoid the pitfalls? How will I be prepared for the intensity of Satan's rage against me? How long will it last? Number four. Already mentioned this, but I'll just say it again. I think that these sections, I think of these sections like the angel talking to John in a pastoral way. I think of, again, the bowls or the seven trumpets now. I'll use it as another illustration. Trumpet one, trumpet two, trumpet three. And by the time he gets to the sixth trumpet, John again is reeling. I mean, he just, you know, kind of gained his composure after the seals were released. He had a little time out. The angel put the storyline on pause and he went and he talked to John heart to heart about why these things were so necessary and how God was going to look after the church during this great severity. And he says, John, here's the basic answer. God is going to be present in power. He is going to protect his people. And men become so wicked. There is no other answer. But to stop them with judgment, because if they have their way, they will kill the whole church as well as the rest of the human race. And they will offend God in their outrageous sin because it's it's sin will get so carried away. It will become so massive across the whole globe. That billions of people will choose a devil as their Messiah. He's called the Antichrist. And they will freely follow his leadership and they will participate, partake of his of the spirit that he lives in. They will partake of his deeds and they will weigh the entire world down with wickedness. That's the answer. And if they're not stopped by the judgment of God, they will kill the whole church. They have not stopped by judgment of God. They will kill the whole human race is what God said. This thing is so out of hand. Nobody will survive if God does not check it. So we take a step back and say, well, how wicked is wickedness going to be? And that's what these parenthetical sections tell us. It gives us insight into the measure of the wickedness that is going to be permitted because God's going to allow the free will of man to be fully exercised in darkness and fully exercised in light. And he will not stop either one of them in terms of the choice of the heart. We can have as much of God as we want or as much of the devil as we want. And in this final time frame, millions, hundreds of millions will go. Billions will go in both directions and they will exercise their free will to the uttermost. Number six. Number six, when we understand the relationship between the chronological sections, the five sections that just tell the story line upon line in its order, the events fall one after the other in their logical historical order. When we understand the five chronological sections and we understand the five parenthetical sections, incidentally, a parenthetical section comes after each chronological one. Every chronological section is so severe. It has a time out for the angel to talk to John kind of heart to heart. Let John get his composure and then it goes right back to the story line again. If you understand those five sections, chronological and their five parenthetical ones and their relationship to each other, you get those down and those seven symbols. I'm telling you, I'm going to say it again. You're on your way to having the basic foundational understanding of the book of revelation. Now the book of revelation in its fullness, a billion years from now, we'll still be discovering new things about Jesus. The word of God. Do you know this Bible that we're reading? This is the same Bible you will be fascinated by a billion years from tonight. The Bible doesn't go obsolete. Once we get, once we meet the Lord, I'm in a billion years from now, I'll be talking to Stewart Stewart. That's if he'll let me up there. Stuart, Stuart, look at this song of Solomon. Look at this chapter one, verse five. Well, he knows what verse five is. I'm dark, but lovely. That's that's what that's what verse five is. That was quick, Stuart, because he will still be dark and still be lovely a billion years from now. That's good. That was quick, Stuart. Let's look at Roman numeral five, the seven primary symbols. The seven primary symbols, a paragraph, a all the events, all the numbers. This is very important. All of the events and all the numbers are to be taken in their plain meaning. Their literal meaning. Unless the book of Revelation specifically says they're symbolic. You hear this all the time by scholars who don't see the book of Revelation as having any relevance to our future. They want to dismiss it all as something in the past because then business will go on as usual and everything will be the same tomorrow as it is today and their retirement and their golf game. Everything is going to be undisturbed. But you can't get rid of the plan of God by writing off. The Bible is symbolic. It's going to happen. The greatest glorious revival and the greatest tribulation is going to happen. It's yet future. There's no group of theologians that can dismiss it. They can, you know, the good old boys club can get together and dismiss it. But God is good has given us this because he intends to to fulfill it. But you find it common commentaries. I've read many of them. They go, well, everybody knows all the numbers are symbolic. Absolutely not. That's absolutely wrong. The events and the numbers are symbolic when it says they're symbolic. And when it doesn't say they're symbolic, they're meant to be understood in their plain sense, their literal meaning. The burden of proof is not on proving the book of Revelation is literal. God always means what he says and says what he means. The burden of proof is where what parts of it are symbolic. And the exciting part is the book of Revelation tells you when it's symbolic. I don't know how many times I've counted, maybe eight or nine times. The angel says, now, this is a mystery, John, and I will tell you what the mystery means. John goes, thank you. Or this is some is a symbol. The stars in his hands are angels and the lampstands are churches. This is what it means. The angels telling John it's a symbol. If the angel does not tell John it's to be taken the numbers and the events in their plain meaning. That just takes the most of the difficulty right out of the book. And that's what's meant to do. Be top of page five, the first symbol. And it says it's a symbol. It says, and then it then it interprets it. That's how come, you know, it's a symbol because it says it is. The dragon is always Satan. It says it clearly. It says the dragon is Satan. There you have it. Now we got six more. The first one was easy. The second symbol is called the first beast. He is a symbolic of the Antichrist. The Antichrist is called the beast 36 times in the book of revelation. He's wild. He is unreasonable. He cannot be tamed. He cannot be coaxed. He cannot be domesticated. He will look very dignified and very reasonable, but he's a wild beastly being on the inside. Nothing contain him nothing. And that's what the book of revelation is telling us that billions of people will choose this wild demonic man as their Messiah, as their leader, they will worship him as God. They will choose to, and they will partake of his spirit and of his deeds and of his wisdom, and they will pollute the earth with it. D another beast. Now that term is only used one time, but it can confuse you if you don't know it. It's only one time right there. Revelation 13 verse 11, another beast. And that speaks of the false prophet. Every other time he's called the false prophet, but it makes it clear in the book of revelation that the other beast is the false prophet. The book of revelation tells you real clear. So, so far, all three of these are really straightforward symbols. E the seven heads, the seven heads, you'll find that a couple of times they speak of seven. They are symbolic of seven world empires through church history that persecuted Israel, their, their European and middle Eastern empires and in the Roman where the Roman empire was. And in the middle East, those seven empires, all of them are going to come to the most evil part of all of them are going to come to a head and be manifest in the final antichrist empire. That's going to be based in that same geographic area. And what history is going to document and give us insight into the tendencies of wickedness and evil from these seven empires are all going to come to a head in the antichrist empire. So we have insight from history as to how wicked this is going to be. That's one of the reasons why I study. Uh, World War II, I'm an amateur historian minus one. I'm not, I wouldn't give myself that much credit even saying amateur. I'm less than that, but I've, uh, I have a lot of interest in World War II. I have a lot more interest in the word of God. So, but I studied this a bit on the side because, uh, World War II is one of the clearest pictures of the beastly nature of the antichrist kingdom. Adolf Hitler and the Nazi third Reich is a wild, uncontrollable, untamable without any mercy cruelty in the midst of dignified culture and dignified men. They became beastly overnight in their behavior. Anyway, these seven heads speak of seven world empires and they're all in the Middle East and, and, uh, uh, Europe. And they're meant to be understood. So we know they are going to culminate. They're going to crescendo. All of their strengths of wickedness are going to come together in one empire. That's why those seven are supposed to be paid attention to. And I have those, those nations down there and all, I would say all, but certainly the vast majority of Bible teachers through history who take the book of revelation and its plain meaning, they all agree on these seven, uh, empires. Let's say maybe 98% of them do. There's always some guy that's got another idea, but they're, they're easy to understand which ones they are. You can be sure you understand them. Number, I mean, uh, paragraph F the 10 horns. Now the book of Daniel speaks about these 10 horns as does the book of revelation. And it means the same in Daniel and in revelation. The 10 horns speak of a future. It's not happened yet. A future 10 nation confederation, 10 nations are going to come together in unity and help the antichrist. They will be ruling not consecutively through history. They will rule simultaneously together. At the same time, they will exist as Kings and they will work together with the, uh, with the, uh, antichrist. And those 10 kingdoms are all in the Middle East and Europe. Same place where the seven heads, the seven empires, Middle East and Europe. That's where the intensity of the conflict, it'll be a worldwide conflict, but that's will be the epicenter of darkness in the earth. But the church and the Middle East and Europe, God desires by the spirit of prayer that it would be victorious in power, even in the midst of being in the epicenter of darkness. That's what the seven letters are all about saying. You can be where Satan's very throne is and you can have power to overcome if you want. Gee, the harlot Babylon, the harlot Babylon. It says it's a symbol. It's a mystery. It's a city. It's the literal city of Babylon. Just like Jerusalem has been reestablished after, uh, 2000 years of laying in the dust, so to speak. Suddenly Jerusalem has become a world-class, or a city the whole world is preoccupied with. The same thing is going to happen with Babylon on the Euphrates River. Saddam Hussein was really energetic about restoring ancient Babylon. He did not succeed, but it will happen. And that city is a literal city, just like Jerusalem is. And it will have a worldwide religious and economic center. It's about 50 miles south of Baghdad, the ruins of that city. Everybody knows where the ruins are because they're archaeological sites, etc. That city will be reestablished. And my guess is it will be related to finding oil or some kind of oil enterprise. Well, that's just a guess, not a prophecy. Because that's a common idea from a secular point of view as well, that there's much oil in Iraq. And my guess is, uh, part of it, there's going to be spiritual and there's also going to be physical, practical, uh, financial, uh, considerations in this. But probably oil will have something to do with it. But it's going to become a world-class city again. All of history, redemptive history, is the conflict of two cities, Babylon and Jerusalem. And that was the conflict way back at the beginning. And that will be the conflict at the end as well. It's a literal city. And seventh or H, the woman with the man-child, the woman is the faithful remnant of Israel through history. The man-child or the male child is Jesus Christ. And those are the seven symbols, the primary symbols of the book of Revelation. Beloved, they're not that difficult. The harlot, Babylon, that's a city. The male child, that's Jesus. The ten horns, that's ten nations. The seven heads, that's seven nations, empires through history. The first beast, the Antichrist. Another beast, the false prophet, the dragon, Satan. You're ready to teach the book of Revelation on an international platform, go for it. You've already got the whole thing down. You got it. Look at your neighbor and say, hey, I think I got this. So somebody lied to me. Somebody told me I couldn't get it. I got it. I'm ready to go teach the world. Well, maybe you might get a second or third study before you take off. Okay, top of page six. Top of page six. Now the three numbered judgment series. There's three of them and they're numbered. There's more judgments in the book of Revelation than these three series. But these are the, this is the backbone of the book. This is the structure of the book. The great tribulation is built around these three judgment series. And they're numbered ones. They're numbered one to seven, each one of them. A, the three judgment series are God's judgment against unbelievers. They are God's judgments, not just unbelievers against the Antichrist infrastructure worldwide. It's God breaking Satan's worldwide infrastructure by judging it in the way that Moses broke Pharaoh's infrastructure through the 10 plagues of Egypt. They are against unbelievers. More particularly, they are against the infrastructures of darkness. I'm talking about the practical, physical ones. I'm talking about the economic systems, the supply lines, the food, the oil, the light, the electricity of that empowers the resources that empower the Antichrist kingdom. The book of Revelation is God answering us. We don't read the book of Revelation and go, oh, no. We read the book of Revelation and say, thank you that prayer is heard in heaven. And God sends these fiery missiles from heaven to disrupt the resources of the Antichrist kingdom because of our prayers. These three judgments are against unbelievers as God purges the earth. They are number one. They are literal. These 21 events are literal. They are not symbolic. They are not fulfilled in history. They might have a historical counterpart that was a partial fulfillment. They gave us a prophetic picture of more to come. I'm all for that. God has given us many prophetic pictures in history where a little bit of a prophecy was fulfilled, a down payment. So we would have encouragement and clarity for more to come at the end of the age. But don't look at the prophetic picture and get so enamored with it that you forget it's pointing to something far greater that's coming at the end of the age. These judgments are literal. Number two, they are future. Number three, they are progressive. They increase in intensity. The trumpets are more intense than the seals and the bowls are more intense than the trumpets. And they are numbered. They are in a sequential order. They follow one after the other so that the praying church is actually releasing them through global intercession with understanding confirmed by the written word of God. When the second trumpet goes forth and the sea, one third of the sea turns to blood, then we're going to pray for the third trumpet. And the prayer rooms across the earth release it, Lord. And the Lord's going to disrupt the water supply in the third trumpet. Then the fourth trumpet, after the water supply, it gets disrupted. You'll prophesy to your neighbors. You think that sea turning blood's bad. The drinking water is going to be bad real soon. They're going to say, nah, it's not possible. Say, yeah, it is. As a matter of fact, one third of the earth. They'll say, how do you know that? It's going to happen just that way. Then after the third trumpet, we're going to go back into prayer rooms, millions of all the earth. And the next prayer assignment that we're going to be in concert with the head of the church, Jesus. So we're going to turn off one third of the lights of heaven. Go to your neighbor, say, do you think that water supply thing was bad? They go, I'm thirsty. Say, okay, well, come on over in the name of the Lord. Water flows from a rock like it did in the days of Moses. But say, before you come on over, let me tell you this. Then a week or two, the lights are going out. One third of the lights. They go, what? They go, it's going to happen. And we're going to be in unity with the prayer movement worldwide. And then the fourth trumpet will happen. And one third of the lights will become darkened in the earth. I mean, the lights of the sky, the sun, the moon, the stars. The fact that they're numbered is critical. It's very, very important for the prayer movement as it unfolds. Roman numeral eight. Let's look at the chronological section. The first one, there's five of them. The first one is the six seals of judgment. There's seven, but the seventh one unfolds in just a moment down the road. Let's look at B. Now, the interesting thing about these six seals or all the seven seals, actually, they are released by Jesus, not the devil. This is confusing to people. People are unclear about this, but be clear about it. The Bible's clear about it. Revelation six, one. John said, I saw the lamb. I saw the lamb opened the seals. He opened each one of them. Jesus is the one that released the first seal, the white horse. He released the Antichrist. He's the one that gave the Antichrist time and authority to operate, to allow evil to come to its fullness, so he could bring forth the end time church in its purity. Jesus released the first seal. He will release it in the future. It will not surprise him. The Antichrist won't come out of nowhere. And Jesus goes, oh no, where did he come from? He says, I'm the one that gave you your authority. And by the way, it's a measured authority. And it will, the end product of your rage, Antichrist, is that the harvest will come in and the church will be purified and men's wickedness will come to light. And then they will be judged for it. Then we have the red horse and black right on through. You could read that on your own. Roman numeral nine. Now, after these, well, no, let's look at, let's go back to B number four. That'd be kind of a key one to look at, B4. The pale horse, the fourth seal, one fourth of the earth dies. So John is seeing this. He's going, oh my goodness, one fourth of the earth dies. Let's go to the next Roman numeral nine. So now John's a little overwhelmed. And the last section ends with the question, for the great day of his wrath has come, Revelation 6, 17. That's the very last line of the chronological section. It says, who is able to stand? Who could endure this? Who can survive it? That's the question. And like the angel says, okay, pause. Let's put the storyline. He puts the recorder on pause, so to speak. He says, John, how are you doing? John says, well, who can stand? I mean, who will survive this? And the angel's coming over here. And he tells him, A, there's an interlude. The angel says, well, there's going to be 144,000 Jewish believers. Not only 144,000, they will be the model of victory. We're going to hear about them several times. They're going to be a model. God will protect them. God will save them. He'll put a seal on them. They won't be hurt by the judgments. And the power of God will be on them. John goes, really? He goes, yeah. He goes, who thought of that? Jesus says, that's my idea. Those are my brothers. I want to anoint them real heavy. Good. John writes that down. He goes, okay, I'm getting a little encouraged. John goes, okay, what about the Gentiles? Do you have to be Jewish to be saved? Paragraph B, there's going to be a multitude of Gentiles who stood true under the power of God to the end. Many will be martyred. Many will not. Martyrdom isn't the issue, because Jesus is coming in a minute. And if you're not, if you're martyred, you come with him. If you're not, well, you get caught up in the air. So in a minute and a half, it's all going to be the same anyway. The point isn't that they're martyred. The point is they did not draw back and compromise. That's the point. God protected them. They stayed steady. So John sees, B, Revelation 7, verse 9 to 17, a multitude of all nations. I'm just, I'm believing it's over a billion people from every tribe and tongue. All these Gentile believers, red hot in their love for Jesus in the most severe time. John goes, well, you've got this whole thing figured out. The angel says, no, the father and the son have so thought through everything. Believe me, they will stand, the people of God. John goes, okay, okay, I'm recovering. Let's get on with the storyline. So the angel takes it on, pause, off. And he goes, now it says, you ready for the next chronological section? And John, this made up conversation. So don't quote this. John says, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready. So it's a second chronological section. Now it's the trumpets. Oh, the trumpets are more severe than the seals. If you think that the seals were bad, the trumpets are far more severe than the seals. So John, oh no, one third of the earth dies again. Let's look at a paragraph E, paragraph E, look at these. The first four trumpets are on nature. God's judgment on nature, because remember, God is judging the natural resources. God is judging the safety of the antichrist infrastructure, his worshipers, the antichrist armies. He's judging the supply lines of a whole global army. The first four trumpets are on nature. Number one, the vegetation burns. Number two, the sea is destroyed, the third. Number three, we already went through this a minute ago. The water, the fresh drinking water is poison. Number four, the lights in the heavens are darkened. And the number five and six change, because demons are released to torment unbelievers. So here's where we're preaching the gospel. We go turn from darkness. They go, we love darkness. And the Lord says, I'm going to now give them the darkness they say they love. I will let them have the demons they are worshiping, and they will discover the demons they worship, those demons actually hate them. But the people, unbelievers don't know that. They think that the demons that they fraternize with, the demons that they live in participation of darkness with, they think the demons will somehow reward them for faithful service. The demons will kill them when they have liberty. The demons hate their servants. And so this is actually the mercy of God, because if they don't repent by being face to face and encounter these demons, they will go to the lake of fire forever with these demons. This is an act of mercy. So now we find in the sixth trumpet, number six, and they're one third, oh no, John's losing it again. Oh, I can't bear it. He's overwhelmed with pain and compassion. Angel says, stop, pause, pause. John, sit down. What's wrong? Oh, this is horrible. I can't deal with it. Why? Why is this necessary? What's going to happen to us with all this severity? So John, so the angel goes, okay, let's talk. Let's have another parenthetical section here. Another, another, uh, you know, it's fireside chat, just the angel and John. And then this second parenthetical section, he tells them you can read it on your own. God is going to give prophetic messengers. Chapter 10 is fantastic. And you may not get it just by reading it casually one time. God is going to give messengers. John saw the, what he called the seven thunder prophetic messages. He saw seven prophetic messages, seven prophetic insights. And the Lord said, don't, don't write those in the book of revelations. Stop. It goes, I'll reveal it to the people in that hour. Don't put, write it. Don't write it. Just John thinks, oh, well, Lord, I think this would really help him. He says, yeah, I'll give it to him. I'll give it to him later. Don't write that. But I want them to know there's something that I want to give them. So go ahead and mention that you got the revelation. Just don't mention what it is. And in that hour, they will be hungry to enter into a deeper realm of the Holy spirit and the word. So God's going to release in time messengers. We are not going to be left in the dark. We're not going to be swept away unaware. We are going to have clarity. Jesus said in revelation 22, 16, he goes, I am the bright and morning star in the darkness of the great tribulation and the dark night of the great tribulation. Jesus will show himself as the bright star. He will show us light. So we will be spared from deception. He will dazzle us with his brightness and his splendor. And he will be a morning star that will be the assurance that the great millennial day is dawning any moment now. That victory is assured. He says, tell John, he goes, John, tell them I'm a bright and morning star. People go, Jesus is the bright and morning star. He goes, well, when the darkness of the great tribulation hits, there will be nothing they value more than the brightness of my light to them. I will not only show them the way and keep them from deception. I will dazzle them with my splendor and my brightness. They will be lovesick all the way through it. So the second parenthetical section is saying prophetic messengers are coming. There's going to be a great prophetic anointing. Roman numeral 12, the third chronological section. We're on page eight. The third chronological section. It's the seventh trumpet. This is when the second coming events begin to take place. At this last trumpet, at the seventh trumpet, many wonderful things happen from our point of view. The storyline is really exciting from our point of view, but from the point of view of darkness, this is a very, very frightening day because Jesus comes in great power in the sky and he terrifies the whole earth. The whole earth who does not worship him says, who was that man? What was that? He comes in power and it says every eye will see him. He comes in the glory of the father. That's the seventh trumpet. Roman numeral 13. Now there's going to be a parenthetical section. This is one of the most significant ones. I'm not going to go into detail because I want to be done in just two or three minutes here. But in this third parenthetical section, this is a, I want you to circle this one. Revelation 12, 13 and 14. I've put more time in terms of the parenthetical section on the third one because it shows us the war in the spirit. Satan is at war with the human race and with God and Satan's primary strategy of war is to raise up the Antichrist and the false prophet. And so we understand Satan's war tactics, what he's going to use, how he's going to use them. All of his tactics, his main ones are revealed to us in the word of God. Okay, let's go. Let's see, page nine, about the middle of it. We're going to skip the part of the third parenthetical section. But just know it's Satan's war strategy. We get insight into it. We're going to stand. But this gives us insight why the judgments are so severe because men are going to choose to follow these two evil men that are filled with the devil. The fourth chronological section. It's the seven bowls of wrath. Seven bowls of God's wrath. They break out. You know, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. This is the most intense of all. This is where the judgment of God comes to its ultimate fullness right here. Then the fourth parenthetical section, we have the fall of Babylon. You can read that on your own. By the way, the fall of Babylon, Revelation 17 and 18. Revelation 17 is the most complex of the symbols. It is the, if you can understand Revelation 17, it is the most challenging chapter in the book of Revelation. So if you start with chapter 17, you feel a little bit kind of lost. Give yourself a little bit of a break. Maybe go back to the seven letters. You work your way back up to chapter 17. That is clearly the most challenging. But the symbols are very clear. It just takes a little while to work through them. You got to get a little bit familiar with them. That's why we have E12 groups. We talk about them. But the fall of Babylon, this economic system is coming down. This worldwide religion, it's coming down. God promises, don't put your hope in it. Don't join it. Don't trust it. It is all coming down. Don't be deceived by Babylon is what the message here is. Don't be deceived by Babylon. Don't be intimidated by the other parenthetical section, by the Antichrist, the false prophet. But don't be deceived and lured by Babylon's economics and its false religion. Because this false religion will tell you, you can sin all you want. You can fraternize with devils and have the favor of God because we're all one in the spirit. And I'll have all kinds of religious deception. It's filled with unholiness and lies. Well, then we go on to the fifth chronological section. Right there at the top of page 10. The millennial kingdom, the second coming of Christ to Jerusalem to defeat the Antichrist. The armies are surrounding the nation of the city of Jerusalem. The armies of the nations are surrounding Jerusalem. And Jesus walks in as a warrior king into the city and defeats all the opposition. And then the final parenthetical section is the end. It gives us insight into how the heaven is coming to the earth. How the heavenly realm is coming to the earth in all of its fullness. Amen.