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Once again, welcome. Please open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 16. Revelation chapter 16. I'll be reading from verse 10 to 16 this morning. Just picking up where we left off last week. Revelation chapter 16, verse 10. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened.

And they gnawed their tongues because of pain. And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings of 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 spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty.

Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked, and men will not see his shame. And they gathered them together. To the place which in Hebrew is called Harmageddon. Well, this probably wouldn't be the text I would choose right after the day my daughter got engaged.

I have this little notes that I put in the Bible when significant events happen. Sometimes I write a little note as between what verses that significant event happened. And so I have one here. Liza and Jackson are engaged here right between the fourth and fifth bowl judgment. Don't read anything into that.

Just curious fact. But our hearts are full today. And in case you didn't know, of course, you already know now, Liza is engaged to a wonderful young man, Jackson. Many of you know Jackson, and very thankful for Jackson and the union that has been forged and made together in ministry together.

Friends for a long time, ministry partners for a long time, and now to be husband and a wife. And so we thank you, and many of the Jackson's family is here, and so thank you for rejoicing with us and celebrating with us. Maybe prayer. Appreciate that. But I learned something this week while preparing for our little celebration.

We knew this day was coming, so we thought we would prepare ahead and be ready for it. I learned, I do not know how to hang wallpaper. We thought we'd do this nice little tree of that famed century tree on campus and put it on the wall. I started right into it, and not only did I figure out very quickly that I do not know how to hang wallpaper, but so did everybody else in the room.

And they were afraid to say, no, that's not how you do it. Finally, one contractor that was there said, Pastor Tom, no. Just let my guys do it. And so that's basically what happened. Well, as we just read, and as we're working our way through Revelation, a question keeps coming up in my mind.

And maybe it's coming up in your mind. When will this battle between good and evil be over? And why does it keep going on? Why doesn't evil just concede? It's very obvious, especially at this point in the book of Revelation, it's very apparent that God is God. The dragon is not.

The beast is not. His false prophet is a liar. And yet, globally, still people prefer to serve him. Why? And especially after what we've seen with the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, and these first four bold judgments that we've seen. The world is in disarray. They know exactly who has the power.

They know, we've already read in our text, they know this is the God of heaven who has power over all of these plagues. Why doesn't evil just give up? I think Revelation gives us that answer. You see, Revelation not only gives us a picture into God's heart, as we see through Revelation, He is constantly pushing people to the very end of their existence.

He's pushing them and putting them in a place where they have to look up to Him. And over and over again, many do. And so there's a great multitude that comes out of this time of tribulation. God has left His witness so that people will hear, even in this late hour of human history, He is active in bringing people to Himself.

And we see the heart of God, He takes no delight in handing somebody over to evil. Permanently. But Revelation also gives us insight into the very heart of evil. And the answer to the question: why doesn't evil just concede? Well, just to bring you up to speed, where we've been going through the book of Revelation, we opened up six seals, and then when you open up the seventh seal, boom, seven trumpets emerge.

And when the seven trumpet judgments come, and then when you get to the seventh trumpet, boom, seven bowls come out. And so that's the structure of future events, planet Earth, as described in Revelation. And this is the tool, the means by which these truths are shown and revealed to the Apostle John.

So we started working our way through these six bowl judgments, or the seven bowl judgments. And this is the ministry of these seven bowl angels. Chapter 15 and chapter 16 are about their ministry, who they are, what they're to accomplish. And so the first bowl we looked at already.

The first bowl poured out in verses 1 and 2. They became sores upon the people. Far grosser, more malignant, more awful than the picture I have upon the screen. But you get an idea: sores. Second, seed turned into blood. Verse 3, everything in the sea died. We've already seen a third of the sea creatures died.

Now, everything, the God who made the sea and filled it, is also the one who has the power to terminate the existence of every living creature in it. And that's exactly what the second bowl depicts. Then there is the third bowl. And this is a bowl of judgment upon the freshwater supplies of earth, the streams and the springs.

And there is a righteousness, an angel, the angel of the waters, the one, the steward over the waters, says in verse 5: Righteous are you who are and who were, O Holy One, because you judge these things, for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.

They deserve it. So there is this testimony that God's judgments are right. And what God is doing through this, He's not just trying to bring humanity to an extinction, He's explaining, He's showing the nature of evil itself and preparing us for the judgment. And then the fourth bowl is poured out.

Fourth bowl, verse eight. Is poured out on the sun, and it was given to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give him glory.

And that's where we left off. Here is the final plagues being poured out, or judgment upon the sun. The sun is then given this unique ability to scorch people, unlike it has in the past. And instead of bringing about a worldwide repentance, they know God has the power over these things.

And what do they do with their mouth? They blaspheme. They use their tongue to slander. They curse God. You see, what's happening in the book of Revelation is it's telling us about that end of human history. Genesis gives us a look into the beginning of humanity. Revelation gives us that picture into the last chapter of humanity.

And as you understand Genesis, you understand where humanity came from, you understand the issues they faced, you understand how sin came into the world, and in the end, you see how God is going to deal with it. And as you begin going through the Bible, you realize there are two histories on the macro level.

Humanity. On the macro level, there are two human histories. There is the human history of those who go their own way, those who do not want God in their life, those who prefer their own way, excuse sin, justify sin, redefine sin, or dismiss sin altogether. They go their own way, and they are going to be incarcerated and punished forever.

That is the macro of that human history. Then there is another macro, and that is the opposite. There is another kind of people under a whole different kind of spiritual father. One from above, Heavenly Father, their history is different. Their history is that they do come before God.

They do acknowledge sin. They do understand that they have fallen short. There is a rightness. God has made a provision for them to come back into his presence and to be there and to dwell with him. They're the ones who find beauty in God. They find wisdom in him and they turn to him and they embrace him.

They bow their hearts before him. They worship him. And they are going to have an eternal bliss and eternal blessed state with Father forever. Those are the two macro human histories. But then in between, there's a whole bunch of micro human histories. And even to us, how do we fit in this big picture?

There is those micro. Where are you? Where are you in this? Do you understand? It's no surprising that, not surprising, that the biggest theological debates are surrounded around Genesis and around Revelation, the beginning point of human history and the ending point, and you can expect that's exactly where Satan wants to cause the most confusion.

Because if you don't know the beginning and you don't know the end, he can get you going in any kind of direction. But once you approach Scripture as it was given to reveal, listen, we cannot know anything about our origins. We can know nothing about the end of human history unless God chose to tell us.

And that's exactly what He does. He gives us the beginning, He gives us the end so that we can make sense out of everything in between and understand exactly where we fit. What human history are you on? And to make proper adjustments so that you can change. Yes, you can change eternal destiny right here, right today.

If you belong to the kingdom of the world, you can change. You can cry out. That's the provision. That's the good news. That's why the building's here. That's why we're here. And so, what we want to do is just even as we keep looking through this passage of wrath, God's final wrath.

This is the end of the end. As we see and work our way through this, don't miss the big picture that this is God laying out human destiny so that you will change yours by putting your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, coming under his kingship. So let's.

The first four bowls of judgment under the ministry of these seven bowl angels were upon the people of the beast. The people of the beast. And now in these next two bowls, we'll look at the next two, bowls five and six today. They are upon the kingdom of the beast.

As you look at the text, you'll see why you can see this expressed there. So let's, again, let me just jump right in. And so you're going to see, first of all, the kingdom of the beast, it's going to be poured out. The wrath is going to be poured out upon his throne.

And then it's going to be poured out on his allies, upon his throne and upon his allies. And I want you to see this so that you'll soften your heart to him. And I don't care how long you've been walking with God or if you don't walk with God today, soften your heart to him.

That's the exhortation. This is coming. This is who he is. Regardless if it happens in our lifetime, and it is coming. And even if you have a theological school that this has happened some other time or whatever, there's no misinterpreting the exhortation that's being given in light of these truths.

And so, fifth bowl is the darkness upon the throne of the beast. Look back at verse 10. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened, and they gnawed their tongues because of pain. So the first poured out on the earth, the sword, the second on the sea, the third, the rivers.

Every time it's poured out, something devastating happens. Fourth is upon the sun. And here, it's upon the throne of the beast. The throne of the beast. Now, this is the place of his ruling authority. There have been a lot of attempts to pinpoint precisely where that is, and a lot of speculation on that.

But what's clear in this text is it's on that seat of power, the Washington, D.C. of the beast's empire, wherever that may end up being. Certainly referred to as Babylon the Great, and we'll come more to Babylon the Great, wherever that location is. But it's clear that it is a place, it's a place of his ruling authority.

Now, keep in mind what's happened as we've walked through this last several chapters. The beast was out, or the dragon was ousted from heaven. He had a thing against the son who was to rule the nations. And so he attacks. He's cast out of heaven and all of his minions by Michael and his angels.

It's really not even a contest. It happens. Boom. He's out. And in his retreat, and all this end time stuff, and all the prophecies, and all that is happening globally, it's really a general in retreat. It's not that there's any hope, even in the dragon's mind, that it's going to prosper.

He's already been cast out of heaven, his accuser of the brother, his case settled. But it's clear that he goes and sets up a ruling center to make one last expression of hostility against God. And so He, the dragon, sets up this beast. He empowers the beast, the political component of this final expression of hatred.

And then he inspires this false prophet, the religious component of this final hostility toward God. And for 42 months, God has allowed his capital to remain. But here with the fifth bowl, it becomes the focal point of God's judgment. You see how God is bringing in like a siege, and now he's come to the throne of the beast.

And look at, he pours out the bowl on the throne of the beast, and look back at verse 10, and his kingdom became darkened. His kingdom became darkened. And this speaks of a deep darkness. Think about it. It goes from a scorching sun of the fourth bowl to darkness.

Now, his throne is localized. It has a place, a seat of power. But his kingdom is worldwide. So the darkness is probably over the whole world with a few exceptions. Places where God's people are, and they have light. Darkness, and you can see this pattern in Scripture, this judgment.

Wrath and darkness seems to go together quite a bit. You remember the darkness in Egypt over the ninth plague? You remember that? Let me read to you in Exodus 10, verse 20. But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not let the sons of Israel go. Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward the sky, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even a darkness which may be felt.

Think about that. Felt darkness. How do you feel darkness? So Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days. But all the sons of Israel had light in their dwellings.

God made a distinction. But after the three days of darkness under this Egyptian judgment, came the death of the firstborn of Egypt. If you'll remember, that's the tenth. After three days of darkness came the death of the firstborn of Egypt. And just as Pharaoh was powerless to do anything about it, so will be the beast.

See a pattern of judgment. What came upon Egypt? Unless there's worldwide repentance, guess what? That's what's going to happen to the planet Earth in its full united expression of hostility to God. And so a pattern. But there is also another time that darkness and wrath came together, and that was at the cross.

You remember that? You remember? Mockers in Mark 15, verse 32. Let this Christ, the king of Israel, now come down from the cross so that we may see and believe. Let this Christ, if he's king, let him come down because a king is supposed to rule. A king isn't crucified.

A king rules. If this really is the king, let him come down now from the cross so that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him were also insulting him. In verse 33 of Mark 15, when the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.

And it was at that ninth hour that Jesus cried out with a loud voice. And in verse 37, he uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. So after three hours of darkness came the death of the firstborn of God. Listen, we must all Face God's wrath. We must all face it.

You know what? No one was exempt from Noah's flood. No one was. Not even Noah. We used to have a thing with our young man that was coming and visiting one of my firstborn daughters. And his name was Noah, as you know. And so the joke was, no one's coming to see you today, right?

Noah. Noah. No one is. Was that a call from Noah? Anyway, I don't know what had my mind go there, but under the Noahic flood, no one was exempt. Those who were in the ark did face God's wrath, but they did so in a safe place. But they went through it.

We must all face God's wrath, and you will either face it at the cross upon your king, or you will face it like Pharaoh did, and the beast and his people will. And let me tell you something. At the cross, what a king. Took the whole wrath of God.

And those in him are safe. And they are made like him. But if you do not face the cross vicariously through your king, Jesus Christ, you have to face it on your own outside the cross. But notice back. So his whole kingdom becomes darkened. Look at verse 10.

And they gnawed their tongues because of pain. They gnawed their tongues because of pain. Literally, they bit their tongues. They chewed their tongues. They kept chewing their tongues because they were in such pain. And we're not talking about like a wince of pain. We're talking about a very intense kind of pain that seeks distraction of the mind by clamping down on your tongue.

That is the kind of pain that this text is describing. And it's difficult to understand how darkness can cause such pain. But that's what the plain meaning is connected. This to. Now, some suggest that the pain they're experiencing is due to the accumulative effects of the previous judgments.

I mean, they've got sores, they've been burnt by the sun, and they're in all kinds of pain because of that. And that's going to be evident because they are going to, there's the pains in the very next verse going to be referred to the pains. But here, the word pain is connected to the plague of the darkness.

I don't know how that works. But you remember, under Pharaoh, the darkness was said to be felt. Well, under the beast, darkness is said to be painful. The bottom line is, that's just what it says. The world hasn't seen anything like this. Great pain. That's the bold judgment.

Now, in verse 11, we see the people's reaction. Look at the people's reaction. And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they did not repent of their deeds. So they blaspheme, they're biting their tongues, and the only time they loosen it is to blaspheme, to slander God, because of their pains.

And this is plural: the accumulative effects, the sores, the thirst, the scorching heat. And they did not repent. There is no change of mind. That's the point here. Even though the beast is publicly seen as inferior, and they already know God has power over these things, and their beast does not, their champion doesn't, instead of confessing God as God, they double down in their hostility against him.

They have no change of heart towards God. They have no change of heart towards their deeds, who have been worshiping idols and killing innocent people simply because they have not received the mark of the beast, simply for their alignment with God of heaven, and they couldn't just tolerate them.

They would kill them. So they prefer lies to truth, killing people rather than living with them, and cursing God rather than blessing him. And they have no intention of changing. This is exactly why Adam should not have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And what God is doing from Genesis to Revelation, he is teaching humanity the difference between good and evil. What is evil? Non-conformity to God. What is good? Conformity to God. And humanity has to learn it. This is where evil goes, it's irrational. And instead of using their tongues to repent, what do they do?

They use their tongues, afflicted tongues, to blaspheme God. They didn't learn. At this point, God's not trying to convert these people. What he's doing is he's revealing his righteous judgment in a manner that will teach his people and the angelic order something about the rightness of his judgment.

These people are aligned with evil, and they're going to stay with evil, and they're going to be judged along with all evil. He's preparing us for this judgments that are coming. Not just the rightness of these judgments here, but the great white throne judgment. God's judgment are right.

You see, if evil cannot repent because it is evil, then evil must be separated from God forever. Evil doesn't repent. That's what evil is. It's non-conformity to God, content to be that way, and aggressively committed to be that way. That is evil. That's why evil doesn't repent. It doesn't change because it's evil.

And because evil doesn't change, the only hope for humanity is that you divorce yourself from evil by going to the Cross, the place of spiritual execution. That's where you must go. And that's where evil is defeated in your own personal life. And for those who don't, they are going to be separated forever because God is good.

And those who are allied with evil must be separated from those allied with God. You see, Revelation gives us more than just the end of human history, it gives us the why, the why of judgment. Evil is non-conformity to God, it's his world. And the Bible reveals evil people as those who do not want God in their lives.

What about you? Oh, you may not have the full expression of this, but do you want God in your life? Or do you want to go your own way? Listen, there's this notion that thinks that, okay, if God just pushes hard enough, eventually people will turn. This whole notion is false.

These people should turn. They should get it by now. They don't love God. They don't want to love God. Listen, people who don't want God in their lives do things that God wouldn't do, and they don't do things that God would do. Well, guess what? He's going to rule his kingdom.

But in his grace, he warns. He takes no pleasure in the destruction of anyone. He wants all of us to turn, embrace him, and live. Let's go on to the sixth bowl. The sixth bowl, and this is where the Euphrates is dried up, but it's aimed at his allies, the beast's allies.

Look at verse 12. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. Well, it's evident that waters dried up. We have water, the streams turning into blood, and then here in this bowl, we have the waters being dried up.

Connection being in between, you have this scorching heat. And by the way, at the headwaters of the Euphrates is Mount Arat, and the mountains around Arat. Ararat. And so you can imagine that even at this time, after a great intense heat, that there could be lots of snow melt, and maybe even that snow melt may be the only fresh water supply left.

And so there is going to definitely be a need of humanity, but it's not so much as a reprieve as it is to be able to allow them to assemble. But here, water dried up, the great river Euphrates. And that's a very important river in Earth's history. It's one of the rivers that flowed out of Eden.

It was the eastern boundary for the Roman Empire, and somewhat really the boundary between east and west throughout history, you could say. It was also the eastern boundary of the land promised to the seed of Abraham, all the way to the end. And they never occupied that. Genesis 15, Deuteronomy 1, Deuteronomy 11, Joshua 1, all this speak of the Euphrates being the eastern boundary of the land promised to the seed of Abraham.

Also significant on the Euphrates, just downstream, is the city of Babylon, the ancient city of Babylon. And this is the great nemesis of Jerusalem throughout. Scripture. And clearly, this Babylon on the Euphrates is in some way clearly related to Babylon the Great, whether in principle or whether in location.

We'll talk more about that later. But idea, clearly, Babylon the Great, using that name is to bring your mind to ancient Babylon to understand what's being said. We'll look at that more in coming chapters, but I don't know, many of you may remember the first Gulf War. Remember you, I know many of you probably are born after it.

But for those of you who are around, you remember Saddam Hussein comes to power, or is in power, and it wasn't a Make America Great Again movement, it was a Make Babylon great again movement. He was, if you'd hear the rhetoric of Saddam Hussein, there was this appeal to ancient power, that great Babylonian power, that world leader of that ancient world.

And there was in him that appeal to this ancient power. Well, all that there in This region, Euphrates. But the effect, it's clear what's happened here is that the river is dried up, and the kings of the eastern realms can easily advance into the land of Israel and join the rest of the world in its campaign against God.

Now, look at verse 13:14. 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 spirits of demons, performing signs which go out to the kings of the whole world to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty.

It's going to take more than just a dried riverbed to get people to come in. It's going to take a major campaign of deception. So the dragon opens his mouth, and an unclean spirit like a frog comes out. I'd love to talk, I'd love to spend some time about demonic thought here, just like in terms of biblical revelation about demons and that, but we're not going to spend time on that this morning.

But the idea that these spirits come out, the dragon opens his mouth. It is a breath. It is deceptive. And it is. The spirit behind it is calling people to a war with God to mobilize. And so you have the deception on several fronts. You have the mouth of the dragon.

You remember what characterized the dragon was his rage. His emotional rage against God, against the woman, against the son who was to rule and reign. Emotional, there's a rage, a deception that goes out to put the world in a rage. And then under the beast, certainly his jurisdiction is political.

He is the ruler, so there is going to be a political deception that goes out of his mouth, his propaganda that brings these forces from the east into the west and to a united front allied against God in the land of Israel. There's a third, the mouth, the deception that comes out of the false prophet.

This is a religious deception. Remember, Jesus is going to talk a lot about false Christs in us. And so you're going to have emotional, political, and religious deception. These are lying spirits that are going out for the purpose of gathering people in their rage and hostility. They're going to have the political reason to do it.

It, they're going to have the religious reason to do it, and they're going to have the emotional rage to do it. And that, coupled with the dried-up river, is what's going to bring the nations together for this great day of war of God Almighty. And this has been prophesied, Joel 2, throughout Zechariah and throughout Scripture.

It's interesting, you have a biblical precedent with Miciah in 1 Kings 22, where God actually used demonic spirits or used the deception to bring people together, and where Ahab met his doom. I won't get into that. I would love to share that with you, but time's getting away.

But here's the point: God is not the author of deception, but God is going to give the nations over to the deception so that they will come. If the people prefer lies to truth, they will be given over to the lies and they will reap the consequences thereof.

What about you? Are you one who keeps bringing yourself under the truth of God's word and letting it shape you and shape your thinking and shape who you're supposed to be and how you're supposed to act? Or are you constantly preferring that excuse, blame, all that, and reasons not to come under his Lordship?

But this is going to be an allied force. The kings of the East, literally, the expression from the land of the rising sun. That's where they're going to come. From the kingdom of the rising sun. That's who's going to come. Kingdoms. But it's going to be an allied force of East and West like never before.

But look at next, what happens in verse 15. Behold, parenthetical thought right here in the middle of this: Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.

I'm going to put this off till next week. This is so uncharacteristic. Jesus Himself interrupts the sequence right between the bold judgments, and he makes this statement: Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.

This touches upon the great themes of the whole book, and I want to spend a little time next week just putting that all together so you can see how this relates to the whole and how rapture, there's very few places where you might see rapture in Revelation. This is one of them, and I want to share all that thought.

With you. But here's his point, just for now. He is coming, and those who are not ready, no matter how orthodox their profession may be, are going to have their sinfulness exposed. But as we keep going, you look at verse 16, you see the result of this six bowl.

And they gathered them together to the place in Hebrew, which in Hebrew is called Har Mageddon. Ar-Megeddon, is how you might have heard it before. Speaking of the mountain of Megiddo, Megiddo is a city in the plain of Jezreel. It's not really, the city itself is not really a mountain.

Some say it's the Tell, but the Har Megeddon, which means mountain, could easily depict the hill country of Megiddo or the mountains around Megiddo. But many battles have been fought at this spot, Megiddo. It's Hebrew. Let's keep in mind that he has to tell them this is what it's called in Hebrew.

It's a Hebrew place name, a place there associated with Megiddo, a Hebrew place in the land of Israel. That's the gathering point. And it's clear they gathered them to the place. It's a very specific place. Notice, to the place. And You got the audience was in Asia Minor, so he's going to have to explain a little bit.

That's why he uses this. This is Hebrew. But several important battles have been fought there. Deborah and Barak in Judges they fought against the Canaanites there in Judges 4 and 5. Gideon against the Midianites there in Judges 7. Saul fought the Philistines there in 1 Samuel 31. It's a place where Josiah died in battle in 2 Kings 23.

But as you think about, and it's large. If you've ever been there, it's massive. Napoleon said it's the perfect place for battle. Just like a massive place for a stage for the entrance of armies and everything. Well, the size of this military venture is going to certainly be larger than what the Jezreel Valley can even hold.

But this area may very well serve as that command center that orchestrates the assemblies of the military units and their deployments all around the area of Israel up to 200 miles that we've already seen in chapter 14 that there seems to be a 200 it's a it's a huge build-up of military forces.

What's happening here? A gathering. Do you remember what we read? In Revelation 14:19, you remember there was an angel. So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God.

What do you do with grapes before you crush them? You have to gather them and put them into the place of crushing. This is very much connected with what that ain't that depiction of the angel gathering the grapes of wrath together and throwing them into the wine press for their crushing, and that's what's going to come in the seventh bowl.

So even though the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet are doing the deceiving, it is ultimately God gathering them together for the final crushing. So we've looked at the fifth and sixth bowl. Fifth, darkness upon the throne of the beast. Sixth, the deception upon the allies of the beast.

All this is a depiction of wrath upon the nations, upon the beast and his kingdom, and all of those. Allied with him. Why doesn't evil just give up? Because evil does not cease being evil. It does not repent. Evil knows no repentance. That's the essence of evil. Non-conformity to God and no desire to change it.

That's evil. Let's talk about our micro-human history. We've looked at the macro-human history. We see where human history is going. Now let's bring this back to our own heart. Is your heart evil? Do you redefine sin? Do you dismiss sin altogether? Do you justify it, excuse it? Do you despise those who confront it?

Or when God's chastisement does come from above, that you double down and instead of it humbling you, it angers you against God? That ultimately you sin and you blame God or you excuse? That's the heart of evil. Let me tell you what your future will be if that's you.

It will be one of growing frustration and rage against God and his people. Yours will be that insane cycle of sin, judgment, and rage. And that is a Cycle you will never come out of unless you turn. But let me be on that. Let me tell you, you will miss the most blessed condition in all of creation.

What is that? To be an image-bearer of pure goodness. That's what you're called to be. That's what you were created to be: is to be an image-bearer of pure goodness. And to be an image-bearer of pure goodness, you have to experience God's pure goodness. And so put that on display, not just here, but in for all eternity.

That is the beauty and privilege of being a human being. And that's what sets us apart from the rest of creation. So do not harden your heart. Or it may very well become permanently hardened. Listen, God wins. And God will separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the tares, the good fish from the junk fish.

You see this theme throughout the whole thing. When you understand Genesis and you understand Revelation, all this separation and the characteristic of light and dark, and the children of light and dark, and what's going to happen at the end, all falls into place. It's spoken of over and over and over again.

God's hardening Pharaoh's heart. Was only part of his judgment upon him, but it was part. Everything else that happens to Pharaoh was simply God showing himself to be God. So, what do we do with all this? Be wise, pay attention, soften your heart. You know, this past week, as I told you, I tried to hang wallpaper.

Everybody watching me knew pretty quickly I didn't know how to do it. And not only that, I knew I really didn't know how to do it. So, you know what? The best thing to do was let somebody who knew how to do it do it. You know, I don't know how to be God.

Neither do you. Why don't you just let him be God? Turn to him today. Soften your heart. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we come before you confessing that you are God, there is no other, and our hearts are so often reluctant to come under your way and to simply wait for you.

And so, Father, I thank you for this truth that even in the midst of judgment, you are warning us, you are admonishing all readers, and you are blessing them in the process. You are navigating our hearts and souls away from this precarious Soul condition that gets comfortable with sin and excuses sin and refuses to have a change of mind and heart about sin.

So, Father, we thank you for your revelation and we ask for you to illuminate that revelation in our hearts and make it personally applicable so that we will know how to respond. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.