Mike Bickle emphasizes the prophetic significance of Jesus as the victorious King at Armageddon, drawing from Joel 3:1-2, 9-17. He describes the gathering of all nations for judgment in the valley of Jehoshaphat, where God challenges the nations to prepare for war against Israel, despite their apparent strength. Bickle highlights the divine taunt to the nations, urging them to confront God, while assuring believers that Jesus will ultimately protect His people and establish His reign. The sermon underscores the cosmic implications of this battle, where even the heavens will testify to God's authority and the coming of His kingdom.

Well, this is the 11th class and we're at the session notes 13. We'll do this, take a break after a few, after we go through this and take a 15-minute break then come back and do the 12th and final class and then we'll have a question and answer time just to kind of give you the overview of the afternoon. Well, let's read it. Joel chapter 3, we'll begin with review a little bit in verse 1 and 2 and then we'll take up with verse 9 to 17, which is really the subject of Jesus the victorious King at Armageddon. We'll look at chapter 3 verse 1, for behold in those days and at that time I will bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, and I will gather all the nations, and I will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with all the nations at the valley of Jehoshaphat, which I believe is just outside of Jerusalem. Because there's nowhere in the Bible where it tells us exactly what the valley of Jehoshaphat was. We only know that King Jehoshaphat had a great battle and a great celebration to the Lord in the valley right outside of Jerusalem and many believe that's called the valley of Jehoshaphat. I believe it is. And the other fact is that the rest of Scripture says that the great end time battle is around the city of Jerusalem. And so the valley of Jehoshaphat is just outside Jerusalem. Verse 9, proclaim this among the nations, prepare for war. I mean this is really a unusual statement because the nations never announce let's start a war. The nations always announce let's have peace. But while the Antichrist is bringing the nations into a false peace, the prophets of the Lord are saying get ready for war and everyone's saying what are you guys talking about? I mean this is a statement that in its context is so bizarre to the natural mind that somebody would actually prophesy this. Well, we'll get to that in a minute, but that's a statement every time I read it I'm just trying to read the passage right now. I just I go, oh my goodness who would have the nerve to say that to the earth when it's in a pseudo peace. Anyway, verse 9, prepare proclaim this O prophets of God tell all the earth prepare for war. Wake up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near that means to the city of Jerusalem. Let them come up and engage in battle at the city of Jerusalem. Beat your plowshares into swords because a plowshare was a agricultural equipment. So go melt down the metal and make a sword out of it. Stop farming and get ready for battle. Take your pruning hooks and again use the equipment and turn them into spears. And let the weak say I am strong and this is in context. He's talking about let the weak soldier instead of drawing back in timidity. Let him say I'm ready for this great battle. But as we'll see in a few moments, this is a divine taunt. God's taunting the nations with this because these are evil men. He's telling this to. So this isn't a verse that you use where let the weak say I'm strong. This is he's telling the arrogant men of the earth who are hesitant to get involved in this battle. He goes bolster up your courage and your pride and come and stand against me. So you think you can? Let's do it. So it's really a challenge. It's a taunt. There's a divine sarcasm in this statement here. Verse 11. Assemble and come all you nations. Gather together all around again the city of Jerusalem. Come and lay siege to the city of Jerusalem. I dare you lay siege to Jerusalem. Cause your mighty ones to go down there. Joel stops in the moment of this prophecy and he calls out an intercession for the angelic involvement to break in. Then he goes back to his prophecy. Let the nations be wakened. Let them come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat again around the area of Jerusalem for there I will sit to judge all these nations that surround the city of Jerusalem. What the Lord's saying is I will destroy them. Put in the sickle. This is again, this is an intercessory cry. It's actually a prayer to the angelic realm again. Put in the sickle. For the harvest is ripe. Come. Go down to that battle around the city of Jerusalem O angels of God. For the wine press of God's wrath is full. The vats are overflowed. For the wickedness of the nations is great. I'm adding a few words in there. Just I'm trying to give you the sense of it before we break it down. So you have a kind of an idea where we're going. Verse 14. Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon will grow dark and the stars will diminish their brightness. And the Lord also will roar from Zion. Now Zion is the city of Jerusalem. He will utter his voice from Jerusalem. This is meaning after the Lord returns. He's in the city of Jerusalem roaring to the earth. And when he does this, the heavens, the sky, you know, the sun, the stars, etc. will shake. The earth will shake. When this man, fully God and fully man, when he roars from Zion, all of creation will obey him again. The reason I say again, because he's the one that created in Genesis 1. Creation obeyed him the first time. But don't worry people of God. The Lord will be a shelter for his people when everything is shaking. And he will be a strength for the children of Israel. And when all these things happen, when this drama unfolds, you will know that I am your God. This is Jesus of Nazareth. You will know Israel that I am the Creator God and I'm your God. And I am your protection, not your enemy or your adversary. And he will dwell. Jesus will live as a man. But again, fully God, fully man in his resurrected body. He will live in Zion. That's the city of Jerusalem on the holy mountain in Jerusalem. He'll actually live there as a man. Now when he does this, Jerusalem shall be holy and no aliens, which means no foreign armies will pass, no foreign armies will pass through her in a hostile way again. Okay, let's look at Roman number one. Kind of give you the overview of the whole passage there. This is a very dramatic story. Storyline that God is orchestrating. God is allowing the free will of man to play into this to the fullness. That people in their free will will choose to love God and others in their free will will choose to hate God. And the Lord will allow what's in the heart of man to come to the surface in fullness. And he will allow Satan to use his power to the fullest to persuade man. Because he's confident that his son Jesus has more power than Satan has. But Satan in this hour of history can have unusual liberty to move, to persuade men to stand against God. That's what happens in the end time drama. The paragraph A, the drama of history, of natural history, doesn't come to an end when we say Armageddon beaten by a big nuclear explosion. You know the Hollywood themes, Armageddon always means a bomb. And that's not how natural history comes to an end. Incidentally, history never comes to an end. I use the word specifically, natural history. Because a million years from now history will keep, will continue to be made. The earth will never end. So we don't believe in the end of the world or the end of the earth. We believe in the end of the age. We believe in the end of the time frame in which Satan interferes with the government of the nations. That's what's coming to an end. Satan's involvement in the government of the nations. Well, the natural history doesn't end by one nation blowing up another nation. But the scripture makes clear it does end in a military conflict, but it's not about bombs. You know, it's not east versus west. But rather it's evil men and their armies against God. It's men against God. It's not men against men per se. It's men against God. That's what the battle of Armageddon is about. And so the kind of the Hollywood take on it completely misses what's happening in the Armageddon concept. Now the church will be on the earth in those final years and it will be the church's hour of greatest victory in power. Because some have been taught that we're gonna be out of here and then the drama begins after we're gone. No, we're gonna be anointed and we will the church will walk in victory and be dynamically used of God in the midst of this great drama. Paragraph B. There'll be a great revival. There'll be great persecution. There'll be a judgment of God on the Antichrist and there will be the wrath of Satan against the church all of them operating together. But the net result will be the great harvest will come in. Israel will get saved and the church will be purified. Paragraph C. Jesus will stand in the sky as a human king. As a man. He'll stand in the sky. Now no king has ever stood in the sky. Ever. And he's leading his army into battle, but he begins in the sky. What a... What a completely unexpected ambush this is to the Antichrist. I mean for real. I mean it seems funny. It is sort of a funny to think about, but it is a divine ambush. Because as the Antichrist and his army, his armies and the armies of the earth are gathering around Jerusalem. They are looking to the right and to the left and they only see this weak decimated nation. And that's the greatest military force in history the Antichrist army. They look right, they look left and they go there's no match. There's no contest, but they don't look up. And they walk right into an ambush from heaven and they're totally destroyed. And there's only one group of people on the earth saying this ahead of time and that's the prophetic church. Because the army that will ambush the Antichrist armies, I mean this great military force, it's an invisible army right now, but it won't always be invisible. Meaning it's angels and saints that are in heaven and saints now, but we get our resurrected bodies. So the natural eye can't see that army right now. So as far as they're concerned, it does not exist. We see it in the Word of God. So as far as we're concerned, it does exist. Top of page 131. Now those that have the abbreviated notes that you got when you walked in, the pages aren't the same because I made the notes a lot smaller. But you could get the full set of notes on the internet. Roman numeral 2. All the nations are gathered for judgment. So he says this, he says it twice in Joel 3. Verse 2, I will gather all nations. Then he says it again in verse 9. I will gather all nations. Now never in history have all the nations gathered for anything. Not even the Olympics. Never in history have all of the nations gathered. Not a sport event. Not a military conflict. Not even a United Nations context where they're all coming for peace or for economic summits. Never has this happened. The only true world gathering in the most strict sense of every nation will be this gathering around the city of Jerusalem, and it will be a military conflict. So it's an unprecedented statement. All the nations will gather. You know, you just take a step back and think, how could anybody get all the nations together? There is no man on the earth, no force that could get all nations together. Although it's never happened except for the Word of the Lord, the Lord Himself. He says, I will enter into judgment with them there. I will enter into judgment with them there. The Lord says, in other words, I'm going to destroy them there at the city of Jerusalem. To enter into judgment means this most powerful military force will be decimated. Now again, there's only one group of people saying this ahead of time. Guess who that is? It's you. Meaning it's the prophetic church in the earth, but it's the mostly the people, the young folks, that are learning it and growing in the knowledge of this as one year turns to ten and ten to twenty and however long it takes before this is happening. But this military force, just to get your mind around it, is so powerful and so big and most of the nations are celebrating it as a unifying peacekeeping army. But the prophets will say, it is not a peacekeeping army. It is in fact a demonic army. And in fact, it won't keep peace. It won't bring peace. It will be destroyed by God. I just cannot imagine the hostility the nations will feel about that message. You look at Joel chapter 3 verse 2. That's a great verse until you have to say it. And it's and it's cool to say it in a Bible study with unified people. The Bible's in a classroom like this, but you say that. You say that before the United Nations, and you're looking at the very leaders face-to-face. Be a tough day. Paragraph A. The Lord will gather the armies of all the nations into one place. Again, this is unprecedented. I challenge you to try to picture this. Never has anything like this happened. Even the world wars were just a few of the nations in reality. You know, there's 238 nations in the earth. I mean the world wars might involve 50 nations or I don't actually know the number, the technical number. But you know, there's four or five main ones, three, four main ones on each side type thing and in secondary nations. But 238 nations are going to be involved in this. He says in Zechariah 14 verse 2. Let's look at verse 2 specifically. I will, this is the Lord speaking, I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem and the surprise statement and actually at first it looks like they will win. They will capture the city of Jerusalem. Now, I'm glad this is in the Hebrew Bible. Because when I talk to Jewish leaders, and I've shared this with a couple of them, not many, I go, your prophets said it. This is in the Old Testament. This isn't a New Testament apostle. This isn't a Gentile believer. This is an Old Testament prophet. Your guys say this. So, thank you Lord for putting that in Zechariah 14 if you're gonna make us say it. But at first, it looks like all the armies, all the nations win because the city of Jerusalem will be captured in the future. It really will be. And I believe we should pray against hostility for Jerusalem because we don't know when, we don't know what to what degree, we don't know what's gonna happen. So we pray always for the peace of the city of Jerusalem. We never pray for this to happen. We actually pray for peace to break in and then we just let the Lord sort out the details. Now when it says all nations, it doesn't mean every single person in the earth. It doesn't mean the whole population of the earth. It means all the armies of the earth. Now this word all, you know, this where I'm at, when the word all is used like this, you never know what prayer might stop. Because out of 238 nations, Lord is it possible there will be some nations that won't be involved in this? And I don't know because the word all means all, but sometimes the word all means, it's a broad-stroke statement, meaning, you know, that is the trend of where the nations are going, but it says all. So, but I'm gonna keep praying that America won't get involved in that. And we listen, we see what what happens. You never know what what happens with prayer. But again, all means all, but sometimes it's it's a a general term and not a very precise term. And other times it's a precise term and you don't always know how prayer will affect that. Because some people say, well, we might as well just give up and give in. I go, no, prayer, you never know what God might do. That's the message of the book of Joel. Perhaps, perhaps, God will do what you don't expect. This is talking about all the military, the military personnel. It's not talking about all the general populations, meaning all six billion people of the earth don't go to Jerusalem. They're simply, that's not what it means, but there wouldn't be enough room if they tried. But there will be millions of soldiers, but not billions of people. Okay, let's go to paragraph B. At this time, Israel will not be a great military power. Israel has, you know, unusual military might in this moment. And that's good and bad, meaning it's good because there's hostile nations that keeps them at bay, but it's bad because Israel trusts in their military, not in God. But the Lord's going to sort that out on his own time, in his own way. So in some ways, Israel's military is part of their problem. And in some ways, Israel's military, again, it keeps some of the evil at bay and it causes it to be slowed down. I'm going to quote a verse from Daniel 12, verse 7. This is an important one. I don't have it on the notes. Daniel 12, verse 7. Where an angel, you can just write it down if you don't want to look it up, but Daniel 12, verse 7, write it down. An angel appears to Daniel and he raises his hand before God and swears an oath. He said, I swear to you. And what he promised is that Israel, as a power, would be completely shattered in the end time. That's a very graphic, heavy description. Completely shattered. But what he's promising is that it would only last three and a half years. For time, time, and half a time. And that means a year, two years, and a half a year. Time, time, and half a time. The word time in this context means a year. So the angel swears. He says, I swear to you, Daniel. Israel will be completely shattered, but it will only be temporary. So Israel will not have an army that can contest this international power base of the Antichrist. Now, it's the true David and Goliath scenario on a end time or an eschatological context. It's David and Goliath played out before the whole world. Goliath being the Antichrist armies, and David being Israel with no weapons, just a slingshot in the name of the Lord. It really will be that replayed. It's meant to be understood that way, actually. Paragraph C, Israel will not only be weak, they are pictured in the Bible. Again, I don't have this verse either. Zechariah 14, verse 4 and 5. Write that down. Zechariah 14, verse 4 and 5. Israel is pictured, when the Lord returns, as being trapped against a mountain with no place to escape. They're surrounded. There's a siege, which means the armies surround the city of Jerusalem. They can't get out. They're in the middle of the city, starving. They've already taken half the city to prison camps. The other half are resisting. It's a resistance army, a resistance effort. They're holding on, and I don't doubt that a number of them will be holding on, because they've heard the prophetic proclamation of the saints for the time leading up to that, that this drama would happen. And they're going, what if it's true? Let's hold on. And eventually, they cry out to Jesus. When all their options are removed, they cry out to Jesus, and Jesus comes and answers them. Zechariah 14, verse 4 and 5, it describes Israel trapped against a mountain, a number of them. Jesus appears, puts His foot on the Mount of Olives to split the mountain so they can escape. It's an amazing thing. Instead of the Red Sea splitting coming out of Egypt, He actually causes the mountain, the Mount of Olives to split to make a way of escape. You read that on your own. It's quite a passage. Matter of fact, Zechariah, I'll read this. It says, in that day, He'll put His feet on the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives will be split in two. It will form a very large valley. Look at this, Zechariah 14, verse 5. Then you shall flee through the valley, because they're trapped against the wall. And they can't hardly believe their ears. So the prophet says, yes, then you shall flee. Because, I mean, Zechariah actually goes, yes, you heard me right. I'll say it again, you shall flee. They're thinking, flee? But the Messiah is here. And the answer Zechariah might give is, yes, He's here, but you escape. He's doing some things right now. He'll come back and talk to you just in a few moments. But you just escape right now. It'll be a very dramatic day. Those guys running through that mountain will go, did you see what I saw? He looked Jewish. He looked human. He looked divine. He split the mountain. Who is that guy? And finally they sort it all out, and they call Him their Messiah. But this is the Red Sea drama played out again. But they're in Israel instead of just coming out of Egypt. But it's not only that the Father, I mean, not only that the Father is calling everyone, all the nations to Israel for the battle, it's unusual. Paragraph D, Satan is calling the nations to the battle as well. So who is it? Is it God or is it Satan? Both of them are calling the nations to the battle, but for different reasons. Top of page 132, paragraph F, there's a third factor. It's not only just God calling the nations. It's not only just Satan calling the nations. Men go to the battle because of, look at Ezekiel 35, 11, their anger, their envy, and their hatred of Israel. Men say, you know, whether it's God or the devil, we hate that nation. And with envy, we want their stuff. We want their stuff. I'll add a verse to the notes that you'll want. Ezekiel 38, verse 11 to 13, Ezekiel 38, 11 to 13, talking about the end time scenario where men want to come to steal the plunder from the people of Israel. They come for the gold, for the wealth of the land. So they're not, you know, so much demonic or divine, that's not on their mind. What's on their mind is the gold to steal from the land of Israel. So there's three, paragraph G, there's three forces working together, but with very different motives. God is working in the angels, Satan is working in the demons, and sinful men in the earth are motivated by greed and anger. Let's go to the top of page 133. Page 133, paragraph Roman numeral 4, understanding the Armageddon campaign. Now, a lot of people just say the battle of Armageddon, and that's actually not a biblical term. The battle, you never see the term, the battle of Armageddon in the Bible. Armageddon is actually a geographic area up in the north part of Israel. And Armageddon, as you can read the notes, we won't go through it all, is a, it's a, it's a military staging area. It's the place where the nations gather to get organized, and then they deploy the armies throughout, not only Israel, but out the entire Middle East. So Armageddon is the military staging area. It's not actually where the battle takes place. It's where the hostile armies touch down, and rally, and mobilize, and deploy the main battles actually down in the south of Israel, in the land of, I mean, around Jerusalem. It's, and Armageddon is up north. Armageddon is actually a military campaign, in reality. That's not a biblical term either. There's nowhere in the Bible that says it's a military campaign, but the Bible describes it that way. Because there's a number of battles that the Antichrist wages in Israel in the Middle East. So the Armageddon campaign is a series of military battles over a three and a half year period. So it really is an entire campaign that lasts for three and a half years. And it's more accurate to talk about the Battle of Jerusalem. That's what most people mean when they say the Battle of Armageddon. Armageddon is the organizing place, the staging area. Jerusalem is where the battle takes place. You can read a little bit of that on the notes. We'll skip over. Let's go to Roman numeral five, top of page 134. Roman numeral five. Now I've kind of laid out what's happening here in Joel. So now we can kind of, kind of have a context to understand what's happening here. We're in Roman numeral five. Joel chapter three, verse nine and 10. Now this is God, this is the Holy Spirit speaking this. And it's the prophetic church that obeys this command, this exhortation. Proclaim among the nations. Tell them this. Prepare for war. But go beyond that. Wake up the mighty men, the soldiers. Wake them up. It doesn't mean wake them up like, you know, that they're physically sleeping. You know, go knock on their door. That's not what he means. He means their, the pride of their heart and their animosity against God is there. They have arrogance and animosity against God. Stir it up. Wake it up. Provoke them. Challenge them to take a stand against God, because they've already set their heart against him. Let all the men of war draw near again to the city of Jerusalem. Let them come up to Jerusalem. Tell them to beat their plowshares and their swords and their pruning hooks and the spears and let the weak man say, I'm strong. This is a very dramatic passage of scripture. What it is, it's a divine challenge. It's a taunt. Because the nations, this international Antichrist army is so strong. There's no military force like it in history. I mean, it doesn't exist right now, but I'm saying when this army is in place and this coalition of nations is in place, there will be nothing comparable to it in history. It will be that strong. Israel will be so weak that the angel described Israel as shattered. And so we go completely opposite of what they would think. We have talked about the church and the prophetic church says, oh, nations, God challenges you to fight Israel. And they go, it's a million to one. We don't understand what the challenge is. Well, what we're telling you is this. If you go to war in Jerusalem and we want you to go, go, because they've already made their contract with the devil. They've taken the mark of the beast. They are the reprobate. They can't be turned. They've already covenanted to be Satan worshipers to the end. I mean, it's permanent. It can't be reversed. So that's what it means by reprobate. So the Lord wants them now to gather together all the kings of the earth into one place. Again, never in history have all the kings of the earth gathered in one geographic place ever. But God's going to provoke their pride. And so the church, the prophetic church, the prophetic voice is going to say, these people are going to say, if you go to Jerusalem and God will destroy you and he will do it through the as you go to war against the nation of Israel, the God of Israel will destroy you. These nations go, what are you talking about? And the odds are so against Israel and so in our favor. And then the prophetic church takes it up a notch in verse 10. It says, you better be desperate. You better use all your possible resources available. Matter of fact, you're going to need so much more weapons than you have now. I mean, it's already a million to one odds type thing, but that's not enough. A million to one odds isn't enough in your favor. And these kings, these are smart guys. You're going, what are you guys are completely crazy. We say, no, here's what we here's what we tell you to do. Take your mill, your agri, your agricultural factories, convert them into military. Factories, rearmament, meaning you're going to have such a desperate battle. You're going to have to take the, all the agricultural factories in your entire nation and turn them into a rearmament plants to make machine, to make weapons. So it's not a million to one, but it's a million to one. All of you have great amount of weapons and then you're still going to lose. Now, not only that, the world is at peace for the first time in history. I mean, the first time since the nations have developed in history. I mean, past the garden of Eden in those first few years, first Thessalonians five, three, I don't have that on the notes either. Paul, the apostle said at that time, they will be saying peace and safety. The antichrist is going to bring an artificial. It's it's a temporary artificial. It's not real peace. And the earth will be saying there's peace and safety for the first time under this man's leadership. And we will say, no, it's time for war. And not only that, you're going to be totally destroyed when you go to war. Israel undoubtedly will be saying, would you guys be quiet there? I mean, there will be people in the church that will say this is false. There will be the Israel people in Israel say, stop it. The United Nations will say, stop it. Everybody will say, don't say this. But the prophets of God will say it. Because the prophets of God believe in the word of God. Because the army, the ambush that God is setting up isn't is coming from the sky. And at that point in time, it's an invisible army. It's going to be visible after the war, after the battle starts. But up to that point in time, it's an invisible army. And the ambush is coming from above. So they say, take your plow shares, take your plowing instruments. Your tools, use the factories to make military equipment. And tell the weak, meaning tell the man who doesn't like war, the timid man who he's not a mighty soldier, he goes, I'm not really into war. That's not what I'm into. Tell that guy to get with it and join the army, because you're going to need every single person available. Again, this challenge is so bizarre to the minds of the nations, even to some in the church and certainly in Israel. They're going to say, would you stop provoking the nations? Page 135. So this is a pretty intense commandment to say these things. We're going down to paragraph D, because I've already just said the other stuff. Paragraph D, David described this battle. Remember the last session I said Psalm 2 is that famous Psalm describing the great conflict. And David describes the great conflict. This conflict has been going on for 3,000 years. David was alive 3,000 years ago. He was alive 1,000 years B.C., about 3,000 years ago. And so this has been happening for 3,000 years. But it has its full, complete fulfillment around the Armageddon campaign and the battle for Jerusalem. Why do the nations rage? Why are the nations raging against God is the idea. And David's letting us see the emotional condition of the armies that are gathering. They hate God, perfectly hate Him. These are not just kind of carnal people who compromise. They hate God. They rage against Him. As a matter of fact, John the Apostle quoted this verse, Psalm chapter 2, verse 1. He quotes it in Revelation 11, 18. I don't have that in the notes. He quotes this verse. When the seventh trumpet, da-da-da-da, the seventh trumpet and Jesus comes, all the kingdoms of the earth. He quotes this verse. The nations will be raging in anger against the God of Israel. They will be so angry at Him. And they will be plotting a vain thing. They will be plotting this proud, this proud, vain plot, this scheme against God to destroy Israel and to eliminate Israel. And the prophetic church is going to tell them you're plotting vanity. It doesn't matter if the odds are a million to one or whatever they are. It's vanity. You're going to lose. It's a false plot. The invisible God is going to show Himself visible in the man Christ Jesus. And another verse I don't have on the notes, Revelation 19, 14. Jesus is coming with an army from heaven. Revelation 19, 14. He's coming with an army from heaven. This call to Jerusalem is a trap. God's trap. He's calling them to an ambush. Because here's what He wants to do. It's unthinkable what the Father is planning. He's going to get all the kings of the earth into one setting at one time in the land of Israel. Then, I'm using figurative language. He's going to get them all in one room. Then He's going to lock the door. All the kings. We're talking all 238 kings. Because typically when all the armies gather, that's one thing. But the presidents typically don't show up to the battle site when their armies go. So it's one thing to have all the armies gather. That's never happened in history. The first time ever will be in the future. But this is more than the armies. This is the heads of state actually show up as well. They go. I mean, what an inconvenience for them. They travel across the world. They show up. They get in the land of Israel. Again, it's like a big room. God locks the door. He says, now I have all the kings of the earth in one setting. And He kills all of them and changes the leadership of the earth in one day. That's what the battle of Armageddon is about. He executes every single head of state, gets rid of all of their cabinet members, and then gives the leadership of the nations to a whole new group of people and begins the Millennial Kingdom. That's how the nation, that's how this age transitions to the age to come. That's called the wine press of God. Because a wine press is like a, you know, like in ancient Israel, they'd have a wine press. You know, a really big one would be like the size of this stage. That would be a really big one. You know, maybe it'd be about four feet deep or five feet. They would put, it wouldn't be this big, but just for the sake of the illustration, they would put all the grapes in this big container. Then the people would get inside the container and they would stomp the grapes. You know, it wouldn't be really four feet deep. It'd be about a foot deep, actually, but they would stomp them. And then the grapes would become grape juice. And then the juice would drain down in the, down at the bottom. It would drain out and that's how they made wine. So the big vats where they put the grapes in, where they stomp the grapes, that's called a wine press. And then the grape juice would, you know, would run out in the pointed places down at the bottom of these big vats. Then they would turn that juice into wine. Jesus said, I am, or what the Word of God says, I mean, I am, God is going to have a wine press. But it's not going to be a big container like the size of this stage. It's going to be the whole land of Israel is the wine press, particularly the city of Jerusalem. And I'm calling everybody together, all the kings, I'm locking the door and I'm going to stomp them myself. And their blood is going to flow. And I'm going to turn the leadership of the earth over to an entirely different group of people with different values that have relationship with me. That's what the Bible means by the wine press of God. It's a terrifying concept. And that's what Joel's going to talk about in a moment. It's like, it's only one time in history, and it's the city of Jerusalem and the surrounding land of Israel. That is the big wine press. That's the big room, so to speak, by the analogy, where God locks the door and he won't let them out. And he kills every one of them. Look at bottom of page 134, Roman numeral six. It says, assemble. Verse 11, come all you nations, gather together. Cause your mighty ones to go down there. That's actually an intercessory cry to the angels to be involved, and they will be. Matter of fact, Jesus brings all the angelic hosts with him when he comes. They're, they're totally involved in the battle before, during, and after. Let the nations be wakened. Let them come to the valley of Jehoshaphat. In other words, the city of Jerusalem. I will destroy them as they surround the city of Jerusalem. They're going to take over the city. And because they take the city for a moment, they capture the city. They think they're going to win, but the whole thing turns suddenly, and God then kills all the nations, all the leaders of the nations. He goes, I'm going to judge you. I'm going to destroy every one of you. Top of page 136. Now, I'm not going to go through this, paragraph C, but you can read this on your own. The famous Psalm 45. We sing through Psalm 45, Abed and I hop in the worship of the word sets, worship sets. Psalm 45, it says, gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one. This is actually talking about Jesus at the Armageddon campaign. That's actually what it's talking about in context. So you read that on your own. This is Jesus marching up to the land of Israel, to Jerusalem, to draw his sword against the nations. That's what it's talking about. And what's interesting is I don't have it here, but on Psalm 45, I start here in verse 3 on the notes. Go back a verse to verse 2. Psalm 45, verse 2. Do you know what that is? It's that famous verse. We sing it a lot at IHOP. You are fairer than the sons of men. You are more beautiful than all the sons of men, Jesus. And the beauty of Jesus is manifest at the Armageddon campaign when he confronts oppressors and removes them forever from the earth and turns the government of the earth over to righteousness. That's the context of which the psalmist says, Jesus, you are fair. You are more beautiful than all the sons of men. That's verse 2. I don't have that on the notes, but you can read this throughout. I mean, read Psalm 45. But look at verse 7. God has anointed you with the oil of gladness. The gladness of God. What a strange thing at first. And the beauty of God is connected with the battle of Armageddon. In what way is his beauty and his gladness manifest in this context? Because he's driving wickedness and oppressors and persecutors off the earth and making the earth righteous. That's the context. It's the day of his gladness. Let's turn to page 137. Roman numeral 7. Put in your sickle. This verse 13 is terrifying. When I read verse 13, I just, I tremble. Put in your sickle. For the harvest is ripe. Come, go down. For the wine press is full. The vats overflow. The wickedness of the nations is great, is the idea. So what you'll, you'll see here is that you can read the notes on your own. John quotes this verse, Joel 3 verse 13. He quotes it in Revelation chapter 14 verse 17. He pulls back the veil and gives us more of the context of what's happening here. Because here, it's an intercessory cry, put in your sickle. For the harvest, meaning the evil harvest of the earth is ripe. But we don't know who Joel is talking to. Who is talking to who? And John comes along, you know, 500 years, 600 years after Joel, 600 years later. And John the apostle in the book of Revelation, he pulls the veil back. And we find in Revelation 14 verse 17. In heaven, one of the angels says to the other angel, Joel 3 13. One angel says, O angel of God, put in the sickle of God's judgment. Because the earth is ripe in her sin and she's ripe for judgment. So we know this is a heavenly conversation going on around the throne of God. There is coming a time where the angels will be involved in the end time judgment. Jesus will be involved. The whole people of God will be in understanding of what's happening. And then the reason for this, for putting in the sickle, putting in the sickle means it's time to judge the earth. That's what Revelation 14 explains to us. Why? Because the harvest is ripe. What harvest? The harvest of sin, meaning God has allowed sin to mature. He's allowed the free will of man to be fully exercised to the full degree. And for the first time in history, sin has reached a level beyond any other time in human history. It's even surpassed the days of Noah. The earth is ripe. Come down. He's talking to the Jesus. He's talking to the angels. Come down and confront it and free the people that are oppressed and bring righteousness to the earth. It's time for a crisis experience to transition the earth to the age to come. The wine press is full. Meaning all the kings are now assembled in the wine press. That's a terrifying thing. The wine press is full. They're all there. All of their presidential kingly cabinets are with them. Their top military leaders are all there. The wine press is full. Matter of fact, the vats, the containers where the grapes are in, all of the right people are in the vats. They're overflowing with these wicked men. For the only time in history, go now, confront them. And then Jesus goes down from heaven and kills all of them. That's why I say the Jesus of Armageddon who confronts oppression and wickedness and the Jesus of Christmas who brings peace and goodwill to all men is the same Jesus. There is no contradiction in him at all. Many people only think of the Jesus of Christmas and the Jesus of Armageddon. They want to get rid of him. It's impossible to get rid of the Jesus of the Bible. Because he is going to bring peace to all men, the Jesus of Christmas, by confronting this reprobate heart of the leaders of the earth on a global level and a simultaneous, all together at the same time. It's the most dramatic hour of history. Okay, let's look at page 138. It's coming to an end here. Roman numeral 8. Multitudes, multitudes. We're in Joel 3.14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The valley of decision is that valley of Jehoshaphat, meaning every leadership, king or president, prime minister, whatever, chancellor, every king and his top leadership and his military command, they all have to decide, are we going or are we not going? And the fate of their nation and the nations of the earth are all in the balance as to what people do in that day. It's called the valley of decision. All of human history and the destiny of nations are set in a finalized way based on this decision here. It is the decision of all decisions. Military, political. It is such an important hour. Now, they don't see the armies of heaven, so they don't believe what the prophetic church is saying. They're going, whatever, this armies are coming and we're all going to get killed. We don't believe that. The Antichrist and the devil and the false prophet have been doing signs and wonders, seducing them to come, promising that it will go good for them. So they're thinking, we better go because there's miracles backing up that we should go there. It will be good for us personally, for our military and political career. It'll be good for our nation. But those prophetic people keep saying we're going to be killed. We don't really buy that. And all through the nations, there are those going, the word of God is true. It is bad if you go. And other people saying, no, that great world leader of the Antichrist, that won't be his name, that he'll be called something real cool. He's promising us goodness and victory. And every single nation will be in the hour of decision. Because human history from them to the entire millennial kingdom will flow based on these decisions. It's called the Valley of Decision. But in a personal way, we're all in the Valley of Decision in a very small way even now. The Valley of Decision is how the nations decide to line up for the battle of Jerusalem. That's really what it is for the battle of Jerusalem. Are they for God or against God? Or are they ignoring the whole thing? We're all in the Valley of Decision in a very small way right now. The nations right now, just read the news, they are already lining up in the battle for Jerusalem against Israel. The Valley is already happening in a figurative sense. Roman numeral is top of page 139. So we'll end with this. Just, I'll just read, make a comment or two. Roman numeral 9, Joel 3, verse 15 to 17. I'll tell you how important this Valley of Decision, this hour of history is. The sun and the moon and the stars will back up and confirm the message of the prophetic church. Talk about signs in the heavens. This Valley of Decision is so significant, the stars, sun and moon, they will be affected. And Jesus will roar from Zion. He'll utter His voice from Jerusalem. He comes right after that. Verse 16, when He roars from Zion, that means He's already in Jerusalem. His feet have touched the Mount of Olives. It's split. The Jews that were trapped against the mountain, they fled. They meet up again with Jesus real soon. But they said, you know, we're getting out of here for now. We'll sort out later what just happened. But we're running right now. Jesus roars from heaven. I mean, He roars from the earth as a man, but He's fully God, fully man. He's the person that acted in Genesis 1. The Creator God, Jesus of Nazareth, still has authority over the heavens and the earth. Always did and always will. That's the man we worship. That's the man we obey. We don't cast off His word. We obey this man. The Valley of Decision is so significant. It's related to these glorious messianic signs. No man has ever been in a messianic sign means the signs in the heavens, the stars and the moon. The stars and the moon and the sun will give witness and they will testify to the coming of Jesus. There's no man that comes and the stars testify of Him. There's only one man that the stars testify of, Jesus. When He was born, the cosmic powers in the sky, they were affected. When He died on the cross, they were affected. When He comes back, they will be affected. He's the only man announced by the stars because He's the only man who commands the stars. The power over the stars is connected to Him as the Genesis 1 Creator. He's the only man who His scenario, His drama, His end-time drama, He has command over the stars. Here's why. Because when the stars and the sun and the moon are affected, the whole earth stops and takes notice. I don't mean curiously, they're filled with fear. There's only one man with that kind of power and it's the man coming to destroy the Antichrist. So when it talks about the stars and the sun and the moon, it's saying He has the ability to affect them and to seize the attention of the whole world. And the stars and sun and moon will be prophetic signs. The end-time prophets will give words and they will be affected. The heavenly bodies will confirm those words of the end-time prophets in the end-time scenario. That's part of Joel's main message. He gives it three times. In Joel 2.11, verse 31, and then here in 3.15, he says the heavenly bodies will confirm the end-time scenario, the day of the Lord scenario. Signs in the heavens. Jesus will come. He'll roar from Zion. He will be so zealous against the Antichrist. When he roars, it will shake the entire earth because it was his voice that created the earth. I mean, literally when he speaks, the earth will shake. Who is this man? What he's saying to the earth. He says, I'm the creator God. And I will use the very creation to judge those who will not obey me, their creator. Then he says to Israel, Israel, this terrifying beautiful God, the Psalm 45 God of beauty, this terrifying God that the heavens and are obeying. He will be a shelter for you if you call on him, which is Joel 2.32. He said, if you'll call on him, if you'll call on him, he will protect you. He loves you. He'll protect anyone who calls on him and obeys him. In verse 17, and you will know that I am the Lord, your God, you will know me. We will have an intimate relationship. This is what the whole storyline is about. We will know each other and we will be together forever. Amen. Take a few minute break, 15 minutes. We'll come back and we'll do the final session.