Well, let’s take our Bibles and turn to Revelation 16:12–16. We’re in a series on prophecy: Things to Come. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit, promised by the Lord Jesus, was to lead His apostles, or disciples, into a knowledge of things to come. We have an outline of the future in the Bible, and we should have a love for that and an excitement about studying it. And so, we’re in a series, Things to Come, and this morning we’re coming to look at the battle of Armageddon, a message I’ve entitled “War of the Worlds.”
Now, it’s heavy stuff. Maybe before we get there, a little bit of humor. Someone sent me this, that as Armageddon comes, you’re going to find that Sports Illustrated will have the cover page with these words: “Game Over.” The Ladies’ Home Journal will offer you to lose ten pounds by Judgment Day on their new Armageddon diet program. Inc. Magazine will recommend ten ways you can profit from the apocalypse. CNN will simply say, “The world is coming to an end. Women and children are most affected.” And then maybe JC Royal will offer you a final sale.
But, whatever the case might be, we are moving toward what the Bible calls a campaign in a place called Armageddon. We’re going to take time and read our text. It’s Revelation 16:12, and here’s what we read:
“Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl . . .” These are bowls of God’s wrath being poured out on the world.
“Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its waters was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
“‘Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.’
“And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.”
After the surrender of Imperial Japan and the end of the Pacific conflict, General Douglas MacArthur said these now famous words—words that he would later repeat in his farewell address given to the United States Congress. He said this: “We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.”
Fast-forward. We have the inauguration of our 40th president, Ronald Reagan, who, as he took office, was kind of overwhelmed by the complexities of the Middle East and the tenuous nature of Israel’s existence being surrounded by well-armed Arab enemies. On Friday, May 15, 1981, he scribbled in his own diary these words: “Sometimes I wonder if we are destined to witness Armageddon.” In fact, three weeks later, on June 7th, on a Sunday, he received news that Israel had attacked and bombed the Iraqi nuclear reactor. Later on in the day, he wrote in his diary, “Got word of Israel bombing of Iraq—nuclear reactor. I swear I believe Armageddon is near.”
Not too long ago on NBC’s Meet the Press, John McCain, Senator McCain from Arizona, was asked what would happen if Iran ever gets a nuclear bomb, to which he replied, “I think we could have Armageddon.”
H. G. Wells, a historian living one year into the atomic age, said this: “For man and his world, there is no way out. And all people have an idea we’re looking down the muzzle of a loaded cannon.” Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the Russian dissident, said this: “Today’s world has reached the stage which, if it had been described in the preceding centuries, would have called for the cry: ‘This is the Apocalypse!’”
Now, I collected all of those quotes, and I bundled those reflections because I want to provoke you, and I want to invoke myself, to the thought that among us, for some time now, the world’s leaders, politicians, and thinkers have had a growing sense that the world and history is marching quick step toward something akin to Armageddon.
Ours is a nuclear atomic age. We have enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world a hundred times over. Ours is a day when the Middle East is on fire. Ours is a day when tensions continue to rise between the West and the East. We look out on our world, and there are localized wars and rumors of wars that could metastasize into something global at any point. These are challenging times. These are frightening days.
It was interesting. I was playing over at Black Gold Golf course a while ago with one of the men in our church, and we were a twosome. Towards the end, they attached a single player to us, and we became a threesome. As we were getting to know this man, we found out he was in from Maine. His wife was at a teacher’s conference here in California, and he decided to play a round of golf. As we got talking, I can’t remember what triggered it, but this man said to us, “The world is a scary place right now.” I think we have all got a sense that something bad is about to happen. Got to witness to him. He wasn’t a believer, but as he looks out on the world, he’s got a sense something bad’s about to happen.
“Armageddon” is a word in our dictionaries, and it’s a thought increasingly on the minds of world leaders and thinkers and maybe in your own thinking. And so, to that end, we want to turn to Revelation 16:12–16, where we learn about a series of events, emergencies, and engagements that will take place at a location called Armageddon. And they will lead up to, and they will end with, the second coming of the Lord Jesus, when He returns in power and glory to establish His kingdom on earth visibly and victoriously.
We’re in our series Things to Come. We’ve looked at the rapture. We’ve looked at the judgment seat of Christ in heaven following the rapture. Having looked at what’s going on with the church in heaven, we then focused on the earth. And Jesus tells us that during that time, there will be a period of seven years called the Tribulation. It will be unparalleled and unprecedented in its terror and its horror, leading up to His return. And, during that time, a man will emerge. The Bible calls him the man of sin, the lawless one, and the Antichrist. We looked at his rise, and we looked at his demise. And we saw that before we have the advent of the true Christ, we will have the advent of the false christ.
I want to come back to the idea of the Tribulation and the appearance and advent of the Antichrist because that’s tied in to what has commonly become known as the battle of Armageddon, one of the great last wars of human history. The pages of human history are stained with blood. Remember how Paul profiles the fallen nature of man in Romans 3:15? He tells us man, by nature, is quick to shed blood. He runs toward bloodshed.
Human efforts to bring about lasting peace in the world has failed. The UN has beat very few swords into plowshares. It wasn’t but a half a century ago when Neville Chamberlain stepped from an airplane waving a piece of paper, having visited Munich and met with Hitler. And he had a sense: “Peace for our time.” How wrong can a man be?
In recent years, we have had the Abraham Accords under the Trump administration, which seemed to indicate a new era in the Middle East, only to be followed up by, in recent days, the attack on Israel—the worst in its history beyond the Holocaust. In fact, some cynic has said that peace time is the time the nations take to reload. And Jesus tells us, doesn’t He, in the Olivet Discourse that prior to His coming, there’ll be wars, multiple wars, and then rumors of war still to come. And then it will finish with this great war at the end of history that we’re reading about here in Revelation 16:12–16.
Now, I’ve got several things I want to say about the war of the worlds: the place, the providence, the push, the phases, the prospect. But, before we even get there, a little bit of housekeeping. I was tempted to call my sermon “The Final Conflict,” but then I was reminded Armageddon will not be the final conflict. In fact, there will be a rebellion after the millennial kingdom, according to Revelation 20:7–11. So, you’ll have the battle of Armageddon leading to the return of Jesus. Then there’ll be the setting up of His kingdom. It will last for a thousand years, and then you’ll have another rebellion led by Satan, who will be loosed by the providence and sovereignty of God.
Number two, this passage is only one of several. In fact, if you go back to Revelation 14 and you go forward to Revelation 19, this event or these events are spoken of. You can also go to Psalm 2: Why do the nations rage against His Anointed; and how God’s going to rule them with a rod of iron; and He’s going to laugh at them in their derision. You’ve got Joel 3:1–17 and the Valley of Jehoshaphat, when God gathers the armies of the world to destroy them there in a slaughter. You’ve got Zechariah 12. You’ve got Zechariah 14. There are other passages beside this one.
And then, the title that’s given to this era or this event is “the battle of that great day of God Almighty” at a “place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.” But it’s also called the “day of the Lord’s vengeance” (Isaiah 34:8), the winepress of God’s wrath (Joel 3:13; Rev. 14:19). It’s called the “awesome day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31), “the harvest” (Joel 3:13). The day of the burning of God’s wrath like a furnace (Mal. 4:1). It’s also called “the great and dreadful day of the Lord” (Mal. 4:5).
Okay, let’s jump in. The place. Now, strictly speaking, the Bible does not talk about the battle of Armageddon. We do. But you really won’t find that phrase in the Bible—“the battle of Armageddon.” In fact, in our passage, Armageddon is used to describe not a battle but a place. Look at verse 16. We’ll begin with the end of our text, and then we’ll go back up to the front of our text. “And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.” Armageddon is a place; it’s a location. In fact, if it’s anything, it’s a staging area for the end-time conflict that will ultimately be fought over Jerusalem.
If you look at Zechariah 14:1–3, God will gather the nations to come against Jerusalem. Jerusalem will collapse, and the nation of Israel will be on the edge of extinction. And Jesus Christ will return, according to Zechariah 14, to the Mount of Olives. Ring a bell? Yeah: the sermon Jesus gave on Mount of Olives, called the Olivet Discourse, and how He’s going to return.
If we were maybe to be more balanced, maybe a little bit more nuanced, it’s a place and an event—a bit like Gettysburg. Gettysburg is a place, but it’s also a place where a tremendous event took place that shaped America’s history.
Now, let’s get into the topography a little bit, the geography of Armageddon. It’s the northern gateway to the land of Israel. It’s a geopolitical hub. It’s the intersection between Europe, Africa, and Asia. It’s 14 miles wide, 20 miles long, and lies about 60 miles north of Jerusalem. It’s also known as the Plain of Esdraelon or the Valley of Megiddo or the Valley of Jehoshaphat. It can be and has been described as the cockpit of military history. Tremendous battles have already been fought in that geographical region. In fact, Napoleon stood over the Valley of Esdraelon at the place called Armageddon, the Valley of Megiddo, and he said of that stretch of land, it’s “the world’s greatest natural battlefield.”
I’ve stood there several times. Our tours visit there, and we have stood at an elevated point looking at that valley, just one big flat piece of ground that stretches for miles and miles. It’s a great staging place for armies, for sure. In fact, right in the middle of it, you’ll find in modern-day Israel an Israeli air force base that’s underground, ready to respond to any violation of Israel’s borders within minutes. But, as I’ve stood there, I’ve tried to imagine the sound of battle and the cries of dying soldiers echoing down the corridor of time.
If you know your Bible, this is the place where Barak defeated the armies of Canaan in Judges 5. It was the place where Gideon met and smashed the Midianites in Judges 7. It’s the place where King Saul perished in 1 Samuel 31. If you wind the tape forward, Titus and the Romans used this place as a natural corridor to come in to Israel, as did the crusaders in the Middle Ages. British general Allenby, who’s buried in Westminster Abbey, used this corridor to defeat the Turks and the Ottoman Empire in 1917, where he then went on to liberate the city of Jerusalem from the Turks. Soldiers of every nation under the sun have pitched their tents there, and they will do it again. This is the place.
Now, before I leave the idea of the place, there’s a fascinating insight that I’ve got from several writers. In fact, if you turn the pages of military history, the first recorded military campaign that goes back to the 1,400 years before Christ is recorded here in this region, in Armageddon, in Megiddo, in Esdraelon. It was fought by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III as he sought to expand Egypt’s empire. He came up against the coalition of Canaanite tribes. And the events of that battle are recorded and can be found in an ancient temple in Luxor in Egypt. In fact, Thutmose’s victory allowed him to continue marching into near Asia to expand the Egyptian empire.
Think about that: 1,400 years before Christ, we have the first recorded military campaign. Where? Armageddon. The first recorded campaign. The last recorded campaign. Now, remember this. In the book of Revelation 1:7–8, Jesus is described as “the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” How interesting, as we look at this aspect of prophecy, that we’re taken from the beginning to the end in a place called in the Hebrew, Armageddon.
Let’s move on. Number two, what I call the providence. Now we go up to the front of our text, verse 12: “Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.” Now, again, we believe prophetically, we’re in the Tribulation; we’re in the second half of the Tribulation. We may well be bumping up against the days leading up to Jesus’ soon and sudden return as the thief.
Now, we’re told here that the river Euphrates is dried up to make way for the armies from the east to come and gather to the battle of the day of God Almighty. I’ve called it the providence because I believe God’s behind it. You’ll see here that it’s an angel that pours out this bowl. It dries up the river Euphrates. You’ll see in verse 14 that all that’s going on in and around Megiddo and Esdraelon and Armageddon is all to do with that great day of God Almighty. You get a sense God’s in charge of this; God’s orchestrating all of this. And, in fact, I believe it will be God who will miraculously dry up the river Euphrates.
Now, there’s a different perspective. In fact, if you study today, you’re going to find out that the river Euphrates has several dams built at different points. In fact, Turkey has dams at the headwaters of both the Euphrates and the Tigris. In fact, in recent history, they dammed up the river Euphrates for a time. And there are different dams that have contributed to the highs and lows of that river in terms of water flow.
Could it be that man will dry up the river Euphrates within the providence of God? Yes. But I favor the idea that just as with the other bowls and the other trumpets, these are supernatural cataclysmic actions of God in the last days being visited on the earth dwellers. I like what the MacArthur Study Bible says: “God providentially draws these kings and their armies in order to destroy them in the battle of Armageddon.” God is luring them to come from the east to the west across the river Euphrates, and He’ll dry it up for that sake. I mean, do we need to go back to the Red Sea and the Exodus to remind ourselves God’s very capable of doing that? And, given the supernatural, dramatic nature of the last days, I lean in that direction.
Who are the kings from the east—since we’re talking about this providence. Well, all kinds of theories. In fact, there’s some 50 theories. But you know what? As I was taught, when the plain sense of the Bible makes sense, retain it as the main sense. Who are the kings of the east? They’re the kings from the east. “East” here in the Greek means “the rising sun.” They are the kings, monarchs, rulers from the rising sun, which has led many, including myself, to conclude that we’re dealing with oriental rulers—China, Japan, Pakistan, India. And they will descend in the last days in the Middle East.
I like what John Walvoord says in his commentary on Revelation: “The massive specter of communist China alone, with its population of more than 1.3 billion people, makes such an invasion a reasonable prediction.” I’ll leave it there. That’s all I need to know. It helps me to think that in the last days, a conglomeration of Eastern nations, oriental leaders, will make their way across the river Euphrates that God will dry up because God is luring them into His net.
Now, what’s the purpose of them coming? Because you’ll also see here in verse 14 that demonic spirits will draw out “the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle.”
So, there are two schools. One would be that possibly they’re in rebellion against the Antichrist. Remember, the Antichrist rises to power. He declares himself to be God in the middle of the Tribulation. He sets himself up as God in the temple in Jerusalem. He breaks covenant with Israel. God begins to judge his kingdom, and the thinking is that during this side of the Tribulation period, all the prosperity and all the peace that he has brought in the first part of the Tribulation is now beginning to melt away. He’s losing grip, and perhaps these kings see an opportunity to topple him. Possibly. So, the thought is these Eastern kings are coming west to fight the Antichrist who emerges out of a power bloc of Western nations. I think that’s fair.
The second possibility is that this is a last-ditch act of hatred toward Israel. They’re coming to join with the Antichrist, and they’re going to attack Jerusalem because we’re seeing all of these judgments from God. And there is a sense that these plagues are from God. Therefore, they go up against the holy city and the people of God, the ancient people of God, Israel. If you were to push me, that’s where I would lean.
Now, some come up with a kind of hybrid—that they initially come to fight Antichrist, but as God pours out His judgment, the enemy of your enemy becomes your friend. And they join forces with the Antichrist and go up against God’s kingdom as expressed in the nation of Israel in Jerusalem.
But I lean toward the second idea. I think they’re coming to join forces with the Antichrist to go up against the people of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. I’ll give you the reason I believe that. If you go to Zechariah 12 and then Zechariah 14—which I believe is dealing with what we’re dealing with in Revelation 16—here’s what we read in Zechariah 12: “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: ‘Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness [or trembling] to all the surrounding peoples’”—notice—“‘when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it. In that day,’ says the Lord, ‘I will strike every horse with confusion.’”
You go over to chapter 14:
Behold, the day of the Lord is coming,
And your spoil will be divided in your midst.
For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem;
The city shall be taken,
The houses rifled,
And the women ravished.
Half of the city shall go into captivity,
But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Then the Lord will go forth
And fight against those nations,
As He fights in the day of battle.
And in that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives.
Notice: “the Mount of Olives.” Ring a bell? The Olivet Discourse, the promise of Jesus’ return.
So, I lean to the idea that whatever’s going on, the kings of the east are coming west. God providentially drives up the river Euphrates, and they cross over and head toward the Valley of Megiddo, the place called Armageddon, the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Plain of Esdraelon. And God’s design is that they would come there so that He might destroy them. They come to make war against Israel, and the God of Israel makes war with them and smashes them like a piece of pottery thrown to the ground. He will laugh at them in derision (Psalm 2:1–6). In fact, God will use the wrath of man against Israel to His praise (Psalm 76:10).
Now, quickly. Here, again, I want to come back to something I touched on last week. We’ve tried to encourage ourselves in the midst of all the chaos and catastrophe of the last days: God is sovereign. He’s the Lord of history—and that means the last days of history.
We saw, didn’t we, in looking at the Antichrist in 2 Thessalonians 2:6, that when he is revealed after the falling away, after the removal of the Holy Spirit indwelling the church, after the gathering of the church to Christ, he will be revealed in his time. “In the season of him” is the literal Greek. And we saw that God is in charge of the seasons of life and that everything has its purpose.
We noticed, didn’t we, in Revelation 13:5–7, that when the beast, the Antichrist, appears, authority is given to him, and authority is granted to him to speak and to rule. By whom? By the one who grants all rulers authority, good and bad: the Lord (Rom. 13:1–7).
We need to just encourage ourselves in our own moments and in the darkest times in history that the Lord has His hand on the tiller of history, and He’s directing it to its determined end. Can you remind yourself today—and be still and know that He is God—that God is in heaven, and He’s doing whatever pleases Him (Psalm 115:1–3). The train of human history is on time, and it’s going to get to the terminus under God’s guidance.
Notice again, as I’ve pointed out, this is “the battle of that great day of God.” And it’s good to remind ourselves of that. Remember what we saw in one of our first studies in Things to Come? Robert Morgan, in his book The 50 Final Events in World History, shows us that the book of Revelation loops. It goes from heaven down to earth and back up to heaven. And you’ve got this constant looping of earth to heaven, heaven to earth, through the book of Revelation.
In chapter 1, you’re on earth. At the end of chapter 1, you’re in heaven with the glorified Christ. In chapters 2 and 3, you’re on earth with the seven churches. In chapters 4 and 5, you’re in heaven before the throne and the saints of God worshiping God. In chapters 6 through to 7, you’re on earth with the seals. And then, in chapters 7 through 8, you’re in heaven with the great multitude before the throne of God, the Tribulation saints. In chapters 8 through 11, you’re back on earth. In chapter 11, you’re back in heaven, when the cry goes out to the kingdom that this world will become the kingdom of our God. And it goes on like that.
The purpose is to make sure that whatever you see going on on earth, remind yourself that something else is going on in heaven, that history is not a runaway train, that there is a throne and there is one who sits on it. All that’s happening on the earth is being governed by heaven, and the church is crying out to God to vindicate the blood of the martyrs and bring the triumph of righteousness within history. And it happens when Jesus eventually comes.
Now, here’s a thought, something to take away with you today. There’s this formula in the book of Revelation. For some, it’s a baffling book, and yet this formula helps us to understand it’s not a baffling book and we’re not living in a baffling world. Heaven is in charge of earth, and God has got His hand on human history. There’s no panic in heaven, only plans. When the world is churning and turning and burning, there is a throne and one who sits on it who’s worthy of our worship because He’s redeemed us out of every tongue, tribe, and nation. He’s the Creator God who will take the title deed of earth and return and take it to Himself. He may come as a thief in the night, but He’s not coming to steal what’s not His.
I was telling our staff about a story I came across this week about the British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Once, in a hotel lobby, he met a woman that he knew he knew, but he couldn’t remember her name and things about her. And so, in the conversation, he was scrambling to try and remember who she was. Then, he remembered she had a brother, and so he thought, “Hey, maybe I can trigger something here.” As he was talking to this distinguished-looking woman, he said to her, “You’ve got a brother, haven’t you?” And she said, “Yes.” “Well, how’s he doing?” To which she replied, “Oh, he’s doing real well, and he’s still the king of England.” That’s kind of embarrassing, isn’t it? Oh, he’s doing well, and he’s still the king of England.
My friend, when life baffles you—and you’re trying to make sense of a situation, and you’re scrambling for answers—I want to remind you God’s well, and He’s still king. Life is under His government, and history is under His control.
Let’s move on to what I call the push. We’ve looked at the place. We’ve looked at the providence. Now we’re looking at the push. While there is a providence from above—God will dry up the river Euphrates to facilitate the movement of the orient rulers west to join with the Antichrist in the last days to go up against the city of Jerusalem—there is a push from below. Look at verses 13–14: “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon . . . the beast, and . . . the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world.”
When you think about nations rising up against God, you go, this is madness. Do they not realize their arms are too short to box God? How do you explain the madness? I mean, God’s judging them. There’s every evidence that they are on the wrong end of God’s rule. But the madness is demonically produced. While God is at work, the devil is busy. Hell will vomit out through the mouths of the unholy trinity, a deluge of demonic deception. It will be demons manipulating, diluting, and deceiving the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them. So, remember, God’s gathering them in providence and sovereignty, but the devil’s gathering them in madness, in a last act of defiance. And the demons are producing that. We talked about the unholy trinity: the devil, the dragon (Rev. 12:3); the Antichrist, the beast (11:7); and the false prophet (13:11).
Why use the image of a frog? Because that’s what it is. These aren’t real frogs, okay? There’s no kind of manifestation of Jabba the Hutt. The spirits are like frogs, and maybe it’s a throwback to the plagues of Egypt. Remember how God visited Pharaoh and his house and the land of Egypt with a plague of frogs in an act of judgment? And just as frogs symbolize God’s judgment, so these frogs, demonic symbolisms, are a plague of Satan visiting the earth for the purpose of deceiving kings and whipping them up into a rage of anti-Semitism. The frog is an unclean animal in the Bible. So that’s kind of where we’re at. But I’ve already kind of hinted at, what’s the purpose of this? It’s to whip them up into a rage of anti-Semitism, where they, alongside and with the Antichrist, will drive toward Jerusalem. And they will gather around the holy city.
Here’s an interesting little footnote. Notice verse 14: These demons will perform “signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.” You and I need to remind ourselves that demons—not in every case, but largely speaking—can affect governing bodies, that hell can deceive governments and often does.
There’s an interesting verse in Daniel 10:13, where Daniel’s been praying for God’s protection and deliverance. The angel Gabriel comes to him and says, “Daniel, I got a little delayed. I would’ve come to your rescue sooner than this, or I would have come to answer your prayer sooner than this, but I was engaged in a fight with the prince of Persia.” It’s clear from the context that the prince of Persia is a demonic figure and force. But this demonic entity would seem to be at work in the rule of Persia over Daniel and his people and the holy city. The prince of Persia is a demonic figure and force.
How do we explain the evil that’s taking root in our country? How do we explain the evil that’s generating this collapse of Western culture? I think one path of explanation is: demonic. Of course, there are other contributing elements, but is it not demonic when we see the celebration of the butchering of children within the safety and the sanctuary of a mother’s womb? Like, literally celebrating it. Is it not demonic and evil where we’re watching the abolition of the family as defined by God? Is it not evil where we’re seeing the multiplication of homosexual marriage and transgender weddings? Is it not evil where we’re watching the removal of Judeo-Christian morality from public life? Is it not evil that we watch, in major cities in Europe and our own country, this rise of anti-Semitism?
What’s producing that? Could be demonic spirits of demons at work—which would remind us, by the way, to pray for Christians in government, whether at the Senate level or at the Congress level or at the state level or here locally or those who are in school boards. It’s spiritual warfare that’s going on, and we need to pray for their protection and their courage in the face of a tide of evil. That’s how you can explain all that’s going on.
So, we’ve looked at the providence. We’ve looked at the place. We’ve looked at the push. Two more thoughts quickly, what I call the phases. Now, this is a study in itself, so I’m going to kind of shortchange you here. But I want to do this sermon in one go. We’ll pick up threads of this when we look at the future of Israel, when we look at the Second Coming, when we look at the millennial kingdom. But look at the phases.
Remember what we said? The Bible really doesn’t talk about the battle of Armageddon. Armageddon is a place where the armies of the world will gather, but the battle will really be focused in Jerusalem. But, if you were going to call it anything, you’d call it the war of Armageddon. When God dries up the Euphrates River, and demons drive the nations from the east to the west, those are the beginning phases of a series of events that will lead up to the end of the Antichrist and his armies and the return of Jesus to the earth and the deliverance of the nation of Israel. That’s why we call it the phases of Armageddon.
I mean, look at the Second World War. It was a war, but wars are a series of battles. We’ve got the Battle of Normandy, the D-Day landing. We’ve got the Battle of the Bulge. The Second World War was a series of battles. There were different phases to it, and it’s the same here when we get to the last days.
And here we are in the sixth bowl, and the first phase is the drying up of the river Euphrates. We’ve covered that. But that’s the first phase of what we might call the phases of Armageddon. A glance at the world map shows that that will include the modern nations of India, Pakistan, China, Japan. And they will move against Israel under the leadership of the Antichrist.
The second phase is, again—we kind of touched on it in our text—that the Antichrist gathers the kings of the east, and he assembles them in the Valley of Megiddo, or Armageddon. And we see that the demons here call out on the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to Armageddon.
Now, the third phase would be the fall of Jerusalem. We read, didn’t we, in Zechariah 12:1–3 and Zechariah 14:1–2, that God will gather the nations to come up against Jerusalem. And Jerusalem will fall. The city will be destroyed, and women will be ravished. And a few will escape.
That, then, brings us to phase four, which we see again in Zechariah. When the nations go up to fight against Israel, God will fight against them as the King of Israel. In Zechariah 14:4, we have that. That’s the second coming of Jesus. I mean, Jesus picks that theme up in the Olivet Discourse. When you get into the second half of the Tribulation, you’ve got the abomination of desolation, and Jesus says, “And those who are in Judea and Jerusalem need to flee.” And you better hope you’re not pregnant, and you better hope it’s not winter, because you’ve got to move fast. That takes us into Revelation 12, when the woman who gives birth to the child—which is Israel giving birth to Jesus—has to flee into the wilderness because Israel’s being pressed by the Antichrist’s regime. And so, Jerusalem falls. Israel again is in peril. And Jesus comes.
Phase five will be Jerusalem’s rescue. We will see next, when we look at the second coming of Jesus as we take you to Revelation 19:19, that Christ is going to come and smite the nations with the sword out of His mouth. We saw in 2 Thessalonians 2:8 that Jesus will destroy the Antichrist and his regime and those in alliance with him with the breath of His mouth. And so, you’ll have the enemies of Israel destroyed in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. You can read about that in Joel 3:17¬–19 and in Zechariah 12:1–9.
Then, you’ll have phase six, which is really interesting. Remember that throughout the Tribulation, the Israelites have been fleeing and hiding. When Jesus comes again, He will descend to an area called Edom, and He will deliver a remnant of Jewish people who have been hiding. According to Isaiah 34:1–7, Isaiah 33:1–5, and Joel 3:19, they will be hiding in the city of Petra in modern Jordan. They will have fled to Petra. You can read about that in Old Testament prophecies. So, Jesus returns. He liberates Jerusalem. He saves the remnant. And then He goes and gathers those who have fled to the city of Petra in Jordan. And then, at this point, you’re having the restoration of Israel. They’ll be looking at Him whom they pierced, and all Israel will be saved because the deliverer will come out of Zion—Romans 11, which is the passage we’ll look at.
And then, finally, the seventh phase will be the end of the beast and the false prophet, who, according to Revelation 19:20, are cast into the lake of fire.
That’s the phases: Euphrates dries up; Antichrist’s armies assemble; Jerusalem falls; Jesus comes to the Mount of Olives; Jerusalem is liberated, and the Antichrist is defeated; the remnant of Israel is saved, and those in Petra are gathered to enter into the kingdom; and the beast and the false prophet are judged.
All right. Finally, what I call the prospect. This will be verse 15. In verse 15, we have a welcome pause. I mean, this is heavy duty stuff, but we’ve got a pause here. We’ve got a nice parenthesis. “Behold, I am coming as a thief”—that is, coming as a thief to the world. It’s going to surprise them. He’s going to take from them all that they have. “Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.” This is one of the seven beatitudes of the book of Revelation. There are seven “blessed” verses in this book. Hopefully, you’ll take some time to find them. This is one of them. The famous one is back in Revelation 1:3, where you and I are encouraged not to ignore the book of Revelation: “Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.”
But Jesus is encouraging the saints of the Tribulation. Remember, the church has been caught up. The church is in heaven. It’s the church who will be the saints who will return with Jesus. What we’re dealing with here is those who have come to faith through the two witnesses and the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. So, Jesus is encouraging the saints of the Tribulation to remain strong during an unprecedented time of horror. He will come as a thief to the unsaved and ungodly when they are not looking (1 Thess. 5:2–4). But those who have made a commitment to Jesus need to stay awake to the reality of His coming again to deliver them and redeem Israel.
Several commentaries have pointed out there might be a little bit of a historical background to this image—an interesting take here as we kind of move toward wrapping up. If you go and read The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim, a great Jewish historian, he says this, that during Jesus’ time in the temple in Jerusalem, there were guards who would guard the temple, especially at night. And then, there was the captain of the watch who would do his round. And if he found a guard who was asleep, do you know what happened? They took their clothes off them, burned them, and sent them home naked. They would have to scurry through the back streets so that their shame wouldn’t be exposed. Could well be an image here. Hey, don’t be found sleeping. There are consequences to that. Stay awake.
And the point would be, wouldn’t it, to you and me even in the church age: We need to stay awake. We need to be alert. We need to be spiritually ready. We need to put on the whole armor of God. We need to watch and pray, for the time is near (1 Pet. 4:7–11). We need to be always abounding in the work of the Lord because at any moment, the moment could happen that will change us forever (1 Cor. 15:58).
John Flavel, the great Puritan, said, “The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God.” I hope you’re fighting that fight.
Now, I’m going to tease you for the study that will come in a few weeks on the Second Coming. Jesus says here He is coming as a thief. Blessed is He who watches. This is the promise that Jesus is going to come suddenly and descend on the unbelieving world and will spell disaster for the armies of the Antichrist.
And we talk about the battle of Armageddon, or more strictly the war of Armageddon, but I want you to just take this thought as we close. The battle is over before it begins. It’s not really a battle. We talk about the battle of Armageddon, but it’s a slaughter. It’s a one-sided affair. It’s over before it starts. When Jesus comes, we read that He’ll come with “the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron” (Rev. 19:14–15).
J. Dwight Pentecost tells us that Jesus will say two words: “Drop dead.” That’s it. It’s over. Reminds me of that kind of funny scene in the first Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark. It’s a kind of iconic scene within Hollywood, where Indy now is against this kind of fierce Arabian warrior. Remember that? The big guy’s imposing. He’s got his crescent sword, and he’s whipping it around, like, I’m going slice you into little pieces. And there’s a crowd that gathers, and there Indiana Jones stands, his life under threat. And after a few minutes of all of this boasting and brashness, he just pulls out his revolver and shoots the guy. Game over. And we all kind of laugh. It’s a kind of humorous moment, but that was a fight that was over before it started. You might have your sword; go ahead and swing it. But I’ve got a revolver.
And the armies of the world will come up against Jerusalem in all their pride and arrogance and brashness, and an omnipotent God will humble them in a second with the breath of His mouth and the brightness of His coming. Over and done.
Here’s what I’d say to you, lest you fall into the trap and go, “That was a good message this morning. Pastor was true to the text. But again, what’s Armageddon got to do with me—my family, my marriage, my job, my feelings, my mood, my temptations.” I would say: everything. And, as we leave, I’d tell you, number one, evangelize the loss. We don’t want our loved ones caught up in these days that lie ahead. We need to tell them to flee from the wrath to come. And we need to be bold and break into conversations and, at other times, let the conversation come to you. That man on the golf course didn’t realize he was talking to a pastor and another Christian, and we kind of gently laid into him once he told us, “You get a sense the world’s all messed up and something bad’s going to happen?” “Oh yeah, totally agree. Amen and amen, brother.” Then we preached the gospel. That’s what the Bible says. So, evangelize the lost to expect justice.
I can tell you: as a police officer in Northern Ireland, I fought bitterness. I found it hard to forgive men who had shed blood. And I was really troubled when we got the guy, and he got away because of intimidation or a threat to the home of the witness. In fact, there’s a phrase in the Irish language, “Tiocfaidh ár lá,” and they would often say it to us: “Tiocfaidh ár lá.” Gallic. You know what it means? “Our day will come.” We’re going to win. I dealt with that from Psalm 37 and Psalm 73. Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers. They’ll soon be cut down. And what escapes the courts of men will not escape the judgment bar of God.
Evangelize the lost, expect justice, and finally, engage the fight. This battle is at the end of history, but do you get any kind of sense you’re in a battle? Do you get any kind of sense that the Christian life is warfare, that evangelizing is hard, that being holy is tough? You got to fight for every inch of your spiritual growth and sanctification? I’m going to encourage you to engage the fight. Put on the whole armor of God. Let the world know what side you’re on in the battle between heaven and hell, God and devil, light and darkness, truth and error.
William Booth of the Salvation Army said, “While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out . . . I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight.”
Billy Sunday said, “Listen, I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I’ve got a foot, I’ll fight it as long as I’ve got a fist, I’ll butt it as long as I’ve got a head, and I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old, fistless, footless, and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to glory [heaven].”
Lord, we thank You for the saints of God who have fought the good fight of faith. Lord, help us to fight. We’re all involved in skirmishes that are part of a big war. We’re on the devil’s hit list. We’re behind enemy lines. And so, help us to fight. Help us to stand in the evil day. Help us to do our part. We thank You that Armageddon’s Yours to fight. But soul-winning and sanctification is our fight. So, help us to fight. Help us not to surrender. Help us not to give in to sin and become another casualty, where the ranks of the church are thinning for faithful men and faithful women.
Lord, thank You for reminding us You’re sovereign, that You’re well and You’re still king. And Lord, I pray for anybody that is within our hearing today or during our broadcast, that they would flee from the wrath to come. Help them to see that the clouds are gathering; the storm is coming.
Ronald Reagan was right. We’re near Armageddon. General MacArthur was right. We’ve had our last chance. The next war will be horrifying. But it won’t only just be an act of man. It’ll be an act of God. And we pray and ask these things soberly in Jesus’ name. Amen.