Video Transcript: The Last Battle - Armageddon

Now, I just want you to notice here, that when Gog who is the leader of this evil realm of Magog, this mysterious, evil power comes against God. It seems like the powers of evil are all gathering against God. But God says, I'm bringing you. I'm luring you, I'm making sure that you are where I want you to be. God is too smart, to be caught by surprise. And God is too powerful not to be in charge. So long before the end, God says, here's how it's going to go. And I'm going to bring on the powers of evil and let them take their best shot. But on that day, the day that God shall come against the Land of Israel declares the Lord God, my wrath will be roused in my anger, or in my jealousy. And in my blazing wrath. I declare on that day, there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. All the people who are on the face of the earth shall quake at my presence. So it's not just a an earthquake in Israel, and the mountains shall be thrown down and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumbled to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Lord God, every man's sword will be against his brother with pestilence and bloodshed, I will enter into judgment with him and I will rain upon him and his hordes. And then many peoples who are with him, torrential rains, and hailstones, fire, and sulfur. 

So I will show my greatness and my holiness, and make myself known in the eyes of many nations, then they will know that I am the Lord. And you son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I am against you, oh, Gog, what a terrible thing to have said, I am against you when God says that it doesn't matter who is on your side, I am against you. And I will bring you about and drive you forward and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north and lead you against the mountains of Israel. You shall fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hords and the people who are with you, I will give you two birds of prey of every sort, and to the beasts of the field, to be devoured. Speak to the birds of every sword and to all the beasts of the field, assemble and come gather from all around to the sacrificial feast, that I'm preparing for you a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood, you shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth. And you shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots tears with mighty men, and all kinds of warriors declares the Lord GOD. So you have this gross picture of the enemies of God obliterated and the the vultures and the buzzards and everything else coming in to feast on them. Gog's army is dead meat is simple way of saying that. 

Now, let's move from the book of Ezekiel. which is apocalyptic, visionary way of communicating to the book of Revelation, which is a New Testament, apocalyptic or visionary way of communicating with various pictures nowadays, you know, we sometimes have political cartoons, or symbols of things. And John, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit was very skilled in doing that. There are these forces of the future that we've talked about previously, there is Satan himself that terrible seven headed dragon, as he's pictured in Revelation. And, along with him three great powers. Beast, number one who symbolizes mainly oppressive government and the powers of persecution against God's people. There's deceptive religion, this beast that has two horns and kind of looks like a lamb buttocks like a dragon, and deceives people the power of religious deception, and then this seductive culture, Babylon, as pictured as a prostitute writing on the beach. And so you have these powers. And we've seen that these forces of the future are already at work in the world now. And that's why the Bible tells us about them, not just so we can speculate about the very end, but because the Bible wants to know how these things are already at work, not fully released to do their worst. But nonetheless, at work. 

Satan is bound and limited in many ways, but still at work. political persecution and pressure are factors in many parts of the world. Deceptive religion, and attempts to fool people into false ideas about Christ or to deny Christ completely are out there. And there's always that pull of culture, of money, of sexual perversion, of greed. And, and so these are forces of the future and Revelation 12 and 13 talk about those forces and then points out that at the end of time, they'll reach their full realization, the beast or else were called in the Bible, the man of lawlessness, becomes a final terrible world ruler. He's got his religious flunkies to help him along, and a great civilization, that's all part of that picture. So as these powers come to their fullness at the end of time, the book of Revelation talks about them, and introduces us to them in Revelation 12, and 13. But then, in the rest of the book of Revelation, it shows us a couple of things, it shows us how well things turn out for the people of God. And as repeated visions of that. 

And it shows us how badly things turn out for the enemies of God, and gives us repeated visions of that. When you read Revelation, from 12, through the end of the book, you shouldn't just think that it's all a sequence that now here's one set of events. And once you've seen that set of events, now a whole brand new set of events, and then another whole brand new set of events. Instead, it's the same battle, being portrayed again and again, from some different angles. Armageddon, the last battle is often how we think of it. But in chapter 14, it talks about this great harvest of the earth where an angel swings his sickle. In Revelation 16, it talks about the battle of Armageddon. In Revelation 19, it talks about the rider on the white horse Christ riding in and wiping out the Beast and False Prophet. In Revelation 20. It talks about Satan leading out the nations and dog and Magog and Gog and Christ obliterating the forces of evil. 

Now, I believe that the best way to understand these visions of Revelation is to understand them as giving different portraits of the same basic set of events, but sometimes focusing in over here and say, Okay, here's what's gonna become a Babylon. Okay, now let's, let's do a little bit of flashback again, and then focus in on what becomes of the beast and the false prophet. And now let's do a little flashback again in Revelation chapter 20. And let's go right over what happens to the worst of them all the dragon. And so it does a little bit of a review of Satan and then of his release, to go out and do his worst and of his destruction. And to understand those, I think, just to understand overall what's going on there as one great second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, one devastating defeat of all of his enemies gathered to battle against him.

So let's, let's look in a little more detail at some selections from Revelation Chapter 14. There's a series of angels who announced judgment. And here's some of the quotes," fear God and give Him glory because the hour of His judgment has come fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, notice already it talks about the fall of Babylon in 14 and its gonna talk about it again in 16 and it's gonna talk about again in 17 and 18, so is in it this the one time thing again that okay is that one time thing of that Babylon is over, we're not talking about that anymore. It's repeated again and again, the smoke of their torment goes up forever. And ever these worshipers of the beasts, that theme comes up again and again. And then at the end, and Angel swung is sick all across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great wine press of the wrath of God. So the harvest of the whole earth is one picture of the final battle of the final judgment. Jesus Himself, you'll recall, use that picture a number of times.

One famous story he told was the story of the wheat and the weeds. And he says, At the end of time, the angels are going to come and harvest the holer, and separate the wheat from the weeds, and the righteous will live forever in their father's kingdom, and the wicked will end up in the fire of hell. So Jesus said these things and his disciple John received these visions from Jesus in Revelation to communicate much the same thing. So there's this great judgment or harvest of the earth, them in Revelation 15 and 16. 

You hear visions of seven angels with seven bowls, containing seven plagues, which are the final wrath of God upon the earth. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last for with them, the wrath of God is finished. That's, by the way is another phrase, which indicates to me that this is the same judgment as Revelation Chapter 20. And the other chapters of Revelation because it says, This is it. This is the outpouring, we're this the wrath of God is finished. 

One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God. And as those are poured out, there's kind of echoes of the plagues on Egypt and other great judgments of God throughout history, that people get painful sores on them. 

The second one, the seas become blood, the third one the rivers become blood, then the sun scorches, then there's a plague of darkness, then the Euphrates River is dried up. And that's a plague in a sense, but it also opens the way for all these forces to cross over against the people of God. And then there's a dreadful plague, which involves an earthquake and hail. So that sounds familiar, of course, because in Ezekiel 38, and 39, you hear about that terrible earthquake, and the hail and all of that. So here's just the Ezor from chapter 16. 

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs, for they are demonic spirits, performing signs, to go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle, on the great day of God, the Almighty, behold on coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping His garments on so that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. 

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings peals of thunder, and the great earthquake such as there has never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake, the great city was split into three parts. And the cities of the nations fell. And God remembered Babylon the Great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath. And every Island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones about 100 pounds each fell from heaven on earth. All of that is basically the result of three words. It is done. There with, I kind of almost mislabeled this sermon, the last battle. It was supposed to be a battle, you know, all the forces gathered, and the armies lined up. And then it is done. And everything falls apart. The voice that made the universe can unmake it or anything in it in a moment, and that's what he does. And that's what happens to the forces of evil as the Bible says, when it's not talking just envisions the Bible. Gods is once more owl shake to the heavens in the earth. And the only thing that's gonna remain is what can't be shaken. And so make sure that you have already now in this life, the things that cannot be shaken because everything else is going to shake. 

And it's going to shake so hard that nothing's left. And then Revelation Chapter 19, gives us yet another vision of the end. And this is the vision of the rider on the white horse whose robe is dipped in blood whose name is the Word of God, who has a name inscribed on him King of Kings and Lord of lords. And when he rides for, it means doom for the beast and for the False Prophet. And I then there's, this is again, an echo from Ezekiel 38 and 39, an invitation for the vultures and the magpies and the buzzards and all the others to come on because there's, there's me some good eaten here, I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice, he called all the birds that fly directly overhead, come gather for the great supper of God to eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captain's, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him, who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it, the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshiped its image, these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were godge with their flesh. 

So the beast in the false prophet are just thrown straight into hell, the beast, we know is going to be some sort of great and terrible ruler. At the end of time, we've considered that before. Revelation says His number is man's numbers 666. And there's different ways of trying to figure out what that adds up to because in Greek, they used letters of the alphabet to represent numbers. So you can do various ways of calculating, and I'm just not going to go there too far. I will say this, however, that when you take 666, 7 is the number of completion. Seven is the number of fullness. And so a triple six is a man's number, it always falls short of that fullness, and that perfection. On the other hand, if you do add up the Greek letters of the name, Yay, Zeus, Jesus, it actually turns out to be eight, eight, eight, more than perfection, more than fullness. So whatever calculations and computations anybody does, the number of a man is never going to add up to perfection. And the number of Christ is always going to be more than the fullness of all perfection. And it does mean of course, that that Antichrist, that false prophets, that all the forces of evil combined, have zero chance of success against the power of the Lord. 

And then Revelation Chapter 20. And when the 1000 years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog to gather them for battle. Their number is like the sound of the sea. Now, notice this, I believe is this very same event described in slightly different words as we had in chapter 16, verse 14, demonic spirits performing signs, go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle, the great day of God Almighty, so God and notice that Gog and Magog are the ones mentioned in Ezekiel, as they marched up over the broad plane of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them. And the devil had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. So Revelation 20 is where the camera zooms in on the devil. You've had previous cameras zooming in on what happens to Babylon, then zooming in on what happens the Beast and False Prophet now, you same same battle, but zooming in on the dragon himself. So when we look at the last battle, and at these various passages about it, I'm not going to speculate about which nation on earth now might be the leading candidate to be Gog. 

There have been some who said, Well, the word Rosh is the Hebrew word, Rosh or had sounds an awful lot like Rosh, Well, that was convenient when we don't like Rosh so much, but it is really pretty poor interpretation. Just because a Hebrew word happens to sound like a word that we have in our vocabulary. There's a lot of speculation about who these various nations might be. I'm not going to go there right now when it happens. will be recognizable to the people of God. But meanwhile, what happens with the last battle? Well, you have the Lord's overwhelming presence makes a very quick end of it, and a very quick end of his enemies. In these passages in Ezekiel as well as in the battle of Armageddon described in chapter 16, you have this earthquake, like no earthquake that ever happens, where everything is shaken, and everything falls apart, except those who belong to God. 

And you have the hail stones and fire from heaven, depicted in these various passages. And in Ezekiel as well as in Revelation, you'd have a bloody banquet for birds and beasts of the slain. Now, I want to I want you to follow this fairly carefully. In Ezekiel 38, and 39, these things happen to the evil armies of Gog and of their leader, Magog God are the evil armies of Magog, that's a realm or a nation or some entity, and God is their leader. Now in Revelation 14 through 19, these things, being overwhelmed by the Lord's presence, and earthquake hailstones, and fire and the bloody banquet, these things all happen to Babylon, and its leader, the beast, so Babylon and Gog are wondering the same to Revelation 20, Satan gathers Gog and Magog for battle, but they end up in hell. Now, just to understand what's going on here, the things in Ezekiel 38 and 39 are true of both revelation 14 through 19, and Revelation 20. Now, there are some outstanding and wonderful Christians and fine scholars who believe that revelation 20 is an entirely different set of events than that described in Revelation 14 through 19, or in Ezekiel 38 and 39. perhaps 2, what I want you to notice here is that the things described of Gog, and Magog in Revelation 20, are parallel to Ezekiel 38, and 39. But the judgments in Revelation 14 through 19, also parallel Ezekiel 38, and 39. So you have these judgments, you have this defeat and what this all means is that the last battle of Revelation 20 against Gog and Magog and Satan is the very same as the Battle of Armageddon. 

In Revelation 16, these are not different events, 1000 years apart, as best I can understand, and many other interpreters too. Now, as I said, this isn't something that Christians ought to get into fistfights over. So you know, you know there's 1000 year gap between what happens to the False Prophet and the Antichrist and what finally happens to the devil, there are some folks who interpret it that way. I'm trying to explain why I'm not persuaded of that, because of how Ezekiel 38 and 39 are parallel by the same stuff all the way through revelation, including Revelation Chapter 20. So again, Armageddon, the last battle is the harvest of the earth. That's the battle of Armageddon. That's where the writer defeats the beast. And it's also the last battle against Satan. It's all the same thing, Christ coming to judge, the enemies of God gathered against him. And so, Revelation 12 through 16, have introduced us to these forces of the future and told us some things about him, and said that they gathered Armageddon. And then in Revelation 17, and 18, the cameras swoops in, and it tells you what becomes a Babylon or the prostitute. And Babylon is the same as Rome, because Babylon is on the seven hills. 

So Babylon and Rome, and Magog and the prostitute are all lumped together. Again, remember, this is political cartooning, not trying to tell you exactly which nation which is Babylon is one part of the world. Rome is in another. And maybe the final city, that is the capital of the evil empire might be a different geographical location than either of those I don't know. But Babylon, Rome, may Gog the prostitute, they all stand for a final, seductive culture. And the most important thing to know about that one is, it's going down, fallen, fallen, is Babylon, the great, then after talking about the fall of Babylon and God's judgment on it, then you get the judgment of the beast and the False Prophet in Revelation 19, when the rider on the white horse returns, and there we see that the beast is the same person elsewhere called Antichrist elsewhere called Gog. In 2 Thessalonians chapter two called by the Apostle Paul, the man of lawlessness, and that's the final oppressive government, and then he has his side kick, the second beast at False Prophet, which is the final deceptive religion. Now, 2 Thessalonians 2 says the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. 

John says many Antichrist are already in the also you got to be alert all the time. And only he who now restrains it will do so until he's out of the way. So right now those forces are, are present in some sense but being restrained. But when the restraint is lifted, then Satan does his worst. And these powers do their worst. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill by the breath of his mouth, and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. That's what the last battle amounts to. As I said before, it's not much of a battle. He brings to nothing by the appearance of his coming, or as the Bible elsewhere says, earth and sky fled from his presence. So the lawless power is at work, it's on a leash, it's going to be under unleashed in full force near the end, and then be wiped out by Jesus appearing in that sort of non battle, if you will, of Armageddon. 

And then revelation 20 gives us the final judgment of Satan himself. We've seen the camera zoom in on Babel and zoom in on Beast and False Prophet. Now, it backtracks a little and zooms in on that old dragon. Remember, in Revelation 12, that dragon wanted to swallow up the woman and couldn't, and the dragon was cast down. Now, we haven't heard a whole lot about the Dragon for most of revelation after that. It's mostly his flunkies, his minions that you hear about. But now it gets back to him what becomes a him and we read about the devils do when the 1000 years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison, he'll come out and deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth to gather them for battle, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the Beast and False Prophet were. And they will be tormented day and night, forever and ever.

Harvest Armageddon, the defeat of the beast, the False Prophet of Satan. This is what the Bible speaks of as the Second Coming of Christ or the day of the Lord, or the day of judgment. And this is a day that Christians longed for, and pray for, there is something terrible about that day, but also wonderful about that day. Today, I'm not focusing all the wonderful promises that the Lord is bringing in and creating the new heaven and the new earth. Because first there is a great cleanup project that needs to be done. And first, we need to understand that great warning that God says, Okay, I've been holding things back, I, we sometimes wonder why God doesn't get rid of the powers of evil? Well, the Bible says that he's patient, that he doesn't want to separate the wheat from the weeds just yet, because he doesn't want to destroy any wheat. 

The Bible says that those last days would be so terrible that if even the elect would perish, if that were possible, but it's not. The elect can't be lost any more than God can be defeated. But in the meantime, God is patient with evil if God appears in his full force, and in his full power, the earthquakes, everything, disintegrates, fire swallows up everything, and that is end of story. So we live in a time where God has not unleashed that kind of appearing, and that kind of judgment on the earth. And so it's time for us who have not yet turned to him to do so while we have the opportunity, because the Bible says, everyone who does not have their name and the Lamb's book of life, will be thrown into the lake of fire along with all these other enemies of God. If you have a question, while What about that 1000 years, how can the defeat of Satan not be 1000 years later than the defeat of the beast and the False Prophet? The answer to that, I believe is that the millennium is now we're living in the period when Satan is bound and cast down and restrain. You may say, Well, how in the world can that be? There's lots of bad stuff going on in the world. Well, I'll get to that in a minute. We're living in the period when Christ's reign is already underway, Jesus announced the kingdom of God is near. He came to bring God's reign in his first coming. 

The first resurrection has already happened for millions of people. Jesus said, a time is coming and has come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. There is a resurrection that happens right inside you, when you hear the voice of the Son of God, and you receive new birth. And there is also a first resurrection that happens in a sense, when the soul of a believer leaves this life and goes to be with Christ in heaven. One thing I think John wanted to communicate of those souls raining from Heaven was that even though the powers of evil were killing many Christians in his day, he was saying, Do you think they're defeated? So they are ruling right now? They are already raised to thrones. And already because many Antichrist have already gone out into the world because the power of wickedness is over. already at work this also means that millions have already refused the beasts Mark even before the beast shows up. Millions have already come to life and are now reigning with Christ on heavenly throne now about that binding of Satan. Here's what Jesus said, if by the Spirit of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you are how can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, the kingdom of God has come upon you. I am binding Satan. I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and overall the power of the enemy and nothing shall hurt you. 

Now, I've been talking about what's going to happen at the very end of the world. But don't forget what's already happened. In the coming of Jesus already. Satan has been bound and limited. Already, Jesus has given his people authority to tread on the great serpent. And so we need to participate in that binding of Satan right now. And in that reign of Christ, right now in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now is the judgment of this world now will the ruler of this world be cast out? Notice Jesus, this is Jesus talking 2000 years ago, he says, this is happening now. I'm judging. And when I'm lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself. Now, here, the word cast out, by the way, is the same Greek root as casting Satan into the pit. In Revelation 20:3, the reason the Son of God appeared, not just that he will appear, the reason he appeared the first time was to destroy the works of the devil. So he's already in the process of destroying much of the devil's work, he died and that through his death, he might destroy the one who has the power of death. That is the devil. So a great day is coming. 

But let's also remember that a great day already came in that first coming of Jesus Christ, and a major blow has already been dealt to Satan. And he's already been cast down and bound for a very long period, we sometimes read that phrase, Satan will no longer deceive the nations and we think well, come on, he's deceiving the nations all the time. But he's not not in the sense that he was before the first coming of Jesus. Before Jesus came, God's purposes were largely focused on the nation of Israel. And only they have those scriptures, and only they really knew to any degree, that the word of God and when the coming of Jesus, the gospel spread to nation after nation after nation after nation, Satan did not have the nations under darkness anymore. He was not deceiving those nations completely. And so the gospel continued to spread. Another way of thinking of that something that I've talked about with you before is that the Bible says Jesus expresses certain things in his parables, the Apostle Paul expresses the same things in his prose, and Revelation expresses them in pictures. And what you have is a two stage process of becoming first the Messiah comes as a planter. And then the kingdom is mixed the wheat and the weeds are growing together. And then he comes again, as the harvester for the harvest of the whole earth. You go from a mixed kingdom, to a perfected kingdom, in Paul's prose, especially First Corinthians 15, he talks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And he says, Through Jesus's resurrection, he's already raining, and he's going to keep raining until he puts all his enemies under His feet. 

So there is this rain right now where Jesus is raining. And then at the end, believers are going to be resurrected, not just Christ resurrected, but Jesus resurrected, and God will be all in all. So there's that two stages, the first coming and the second coming. And then in Revelation 20, you have Satan bound, during this millennial reign of Christ, where Christ is raining now and we're Satan is limited, then Satan is released for a short time, where the powers of evil do their worst. And then Satan goes from being bound to being released to being burned in the lake of fire. And so you go from the millennial reign, which is now to heaven on earth, when the New Jerusalem comes out of heaven from God, those are the blessing promises of God for his people. So near the close of this present time, Satan will be released and Antichrist unleashed. 

Then Jesus is coming again. And again. He's going to come very loudly, very visibly. Nobody's going to wonder what happened to those people who are missing because he's going to be here with a lot of noise. And with a lot of power of dead believers are going to be resurrected, living believers are going to be transformed and caught up to meet Christ. Just as in old times, people would go out to meet a king who is coming back to his rightful throne in his town, a delegate He would go out to meet him and welcome him. And the Bible says when Christ comes in power and glory while the nations are shaking, while his enemies are tottering and being crushed, his people will be rushing up, to meet him, and to welcome him in the clouds on it on his way to the earth. And so living believers will have our bodies transformed, those who died will be resurrected will be caught up to meet the Lord Jesus Christ, God's enemies perish at that appearing. And that White Throne Judgment that we saw at the end of Revelation occurs, all the unbelieving dead are resurrected. And they're judged according to God's books, God has a books that record everything that ever happens and everything anyone has ever done. And you do not want to be judged by the content of those books. Okay? If you're going to be judged just on the basis of how good you've been, and what you've accomplished, and how worthwhile you are, and how much you deserve heaven, you are doomed. There is no hope.

But there is another book, the book of life, the Lamb's book of life, and if your name is in the book of life, and how does your name get in that book of life? Well, God writes that name in that book of life. And if your name is in that book of life, you're a person who has repented of your sin, you've trusted in Jesus, in his dying to pay the penalty for your sins and take the punishment for you, in his resurrection, to give you eternal life. And he is the only one who qualifies anybody to be in that book of life. So it's absolutely important that your name be found written in the book of life. And we don't want to be judged according to God's books that simply record what we've done. Satan and all of God's enemies go to hell. And Christ presents his church to the Father heaven comes to earth, and believers rain. Now, one difficulty with a message like this is there's a bit of brain strain. Okay. And there might be a few people say, but that's not quite my view. And so then the mind is working. Now what, what's wrong with what he just said, and trying to sort out those passages and how they fit together, because your view might be slightly different from mine? 

Well, as we reached the end of the message, let's just put brain strain on hold, okay. And let's just think about this. The enemies of God added all together, masked under the supervision of Satan himself, with every last demon in the universe chiming in, and every wicked, unrepentant person alive on Earth, with all of the most powerful, with all have their greatest weapons of war, with all that they can bring together against God's people will last a millisecond, when the face of Christ appears. This is what we need to understand here. We need to understand how great God is. One of the worst things that can happen to us in this world is that this little event, or that that petty person is seen by us as to be something so overwhelming, or this hardship in our life are this attack of the evil one. And these things are not as big as they look. Okay? They are not as big as they look. On that day, even we Christians are going to be somewhat embarrassed, I think, by how we saw thought certain things were kind of big. And we're kind of powerful. And we're going to say, even of Satan himself. What was the big deal about him? That was sure easy. God didn't seem to have much trouble with him, did he? The only thing that keeps Satan or anybody else among the wicked alive is that God has a reason for letting them go on a little longer the way they do. When we see God, just think of this. 

On that day, you're going to realize that all of the galaxies in the universe and all the knowledge of the universe is packed into this one person who shows up in all his glory. The first time he showed up, he was just a little kid in the manger. Just a carpenter, just that guy down the street that we know and we don't see anything so special about him. Just that guy hanging on a cross and getting buried in a borrowed grave. What's so great about him and when he comes again, then, then the wicked will cry for the mountains to fall on them in the rocks and hills to cover them and hide them from what does it say hide them from the face. They cannot bear the face, the face that called the whole universe into existence and now says, it is done. That universe is done. I have a new heaven, and the new earth, and those whose names are in my book of life are going to inhabit it, and everybody else is going to get what they wanted. They are going to get to live forever. Without me, you do not know what it is like to live without him. Because every good thing comes from him. Every good thing in your life has come from him. You have no idea what it is like to live without God, that the fiercest atheist in the world has zero notion of what it is to live without God, because you live in an entire beautiful universe. Despite all of its problems and weaknesses, he still upholds it, he still keeps so many good things he still since so many good gifts from heaven. 

And the Bible says he does that so that we'll reach out for him and find him because in him we live and move and have our being. Without him youth, you got nothing and nowhere but a lake of fire. And there are only two kinds of people those who say to God, thy will be done, and those to whom God says, Thy will be done. And that is what happens on Armageddon. You. You wanted to oppose me, you wanted to have it out with me. You now have your wish. You want a God as your enemy. You have him as your enemy, forever. I am against you. Oh Gog. There is no, it's just a word on saying or that we read out of the Bible. Now, when that when those words come straight from God's mouth, at the end, I am against you, oh Gog, it is done. We cannot begin, we cannot begin to imagine that. And so friends, if you're not right with God, you better start trying to imagine it because it's going to be a reality. And get right with him before that day comes. 

And if you've been troubled by the enemies of God, by the troubles in your own life, just realize there's only one person in the whole universe that is worth worrying about, as Jesus himself put it, do you not, don't worry a bit about those who can destroy the body and can't do anything after that. Worry about him who can destroy both body and soul and hell. If we worried about God, all of our other worries would seem this big. And when you're right with God, you don't need to worry about God. And the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. You don't have a brain until you know that if there's only one person worrying about. 

But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom once again the true wisdom, the fullness of wisdom in our Lord Jesus Christ, then you know, that you've been justified by faith, you have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and you pray, come quickly, Lord Jesus, come again, and bring that new heaven that New Earth where righteousness dwells, where the river of life flows, where the Tree of Life is sweet to the eating and, and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations, where we walk streets of gold, where we dwell forever in joy. That's what God is preparing for those who love Him. And our entire life is a path towards that. It is either the path to life, or the path to damnation. Walk the path that leads to life. 

Dear Lord, we pray that you'll not only give us intellectual understanding of details in your Word, and the various divisions, but also Lord, just a hard response to the the greatness, the power, the majesty, the splendor of the Lord, and the squalor, and the weakness of the powers of evil, and that we may even now see through the eyes of the Prophet, that we may even now, see with a vision of your word, and stop worrying about evil and start trusting more and more in you. And until that great day comes Lord, may we be found faithful in our own generation, walking with you spreading the Good News, the news that changes many of your enemies into friends, so that they too can welcome the day of your appearing rather than trembling or, or fleeing from it. So we pray, Lord, that many more people, even in our world today will come to know you as the Mighty God, the Creator, the Savior, the one who lives and reigns forever. And we pray that we will be ambassadors for you wherever we go, that your love will be seen in us. We know Lord, that we battle not with the weapons of this world not with guns and bullying and imprisonment and persecution of enemies. Those are not the weapons he wants to use. And so help us to use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and on the left, the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God, and to live holy and pure and loving and tender and compassionate lives that people around us may see your light and be drawn to you during this day of mercy. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.