Armageddon, ISIS, and the Middle East Crisis
Sermon Transcript
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All right. What do you do with a title like “Armageddon, ISIS, and the Middle East Crisis”? It kind of pulls together not only what we’re studying in the scriptures, but it’s an attempt to understand a little bit of what’s going on in our world today. You know, the Middle East has been in crisis for as long as anybody can remember. I can’t remember a time in my lifetime that one of the lead stories in the cycle of news wasn’t about something going on in the Middle East. Every president that has come along, every politician, you know, wants to get a group of people to go over to try to strike some kind of of a peace accord or something to bring peace to that part of the world. Because it’s starts there, and then it spills out into other places. We’re living in a time where terrorism is just sort of the common experience. I mean, this summer it’s just been incredible. Just one incident after another rooted in that part of the world. You ever wonder why there is such conflict in the Middle East and why people can’t seem to solve it and create any lasting peace in that part of the world? I’m gonna try to simplify it for all of us this morning. But if you remember two things, you’ll have some understanding of why there’s conflict in the Middle East. And here are those two things: Ishmael versus Isaac, Sunni versus Shiite.
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Now, there’s a lot behind all of that, but let’s talk a little bit about it. You remember in the early chapters of Genesis we meet a guy named Abraham who grew up in a pagan land called the Ur of Chaldees. That’s modern-day Iraq. Abraham was an Iraqi, we might say. And he was a pagan worshiper, but God called him out of the Ur of Chaldees. And he met the one true and living God. And He says, “Abraham, I know you're wanting to settle down at the age of 75 and settle into a nice cozy retirement there in the Ur of Chaldees, but I’ve got other plans for you. From you, I’m gonna make a great nation.” Well, he was married to a woman named Sarah. They hadn’t had any children. They were childless. They had tried year after year after year, decade after decade. But they couldn’t have a child. But God came along and said, “Abraham, if you travel with Me on a journey to a land which you do not know, I will make a great nation of you. And from you and your offspring, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. And I’ll bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you.” And Abraham signed up, and he went on that journey. And he was expecting his wife, even beyond the age of childbearing, to have a child because that’s what God promised him. But year after year passed. And 15 years—mark that down—15 years into the journey they were still childless. What were you doing 15 years ago? What promise were you hanging onto from God’s Word and it hasn’t materialized? Have you got the kind of faith to journey with God for 15 years, waiting on Him to do what He said he was gonna do? Well, Abraham and Sarah grew impatient. And it was customary in that part of the world at that time that if you couldn’t have a child with your wife, then the handmaid would do. And Sarah, in a moment of frustration, just said, “Hey, take Hagar my handmaid and have yourself a child.” It was never part of God’s plan any more than polygamy was part of God’s plan. But Abraham, in his first act of no faith, had a child with Hagar. And that child’s name was Ishmael. And if you study, you know, the Arab nations, what we learn is that the Arab nations came from the line of Ishmael, pretty much. It was another 10 years, 10 more years. Abraham is 99 now. He and his wife still haven’t had a child. What were you doing 25 years ago? Have you got the kind of faith that would last for 25 years, heading to a land that you do not know, wondering, God, where are You? I know what You promised back here. That’s why Abraham is the father of faith. Oh, his faith kind of went up and down. But in the 25th year since they left the Ur of Chaldees, his wife Sarah gets pregnant. And she laughs at the whole idea. And they name that promised child Isaac, which means “laughter”. Yeah, I’d be laughing too. It’s just a crazy thought, crazy idea. But they followed God by faith for those 25 years. Of course, the nation of Israel came from Isaac. Isaac versus Ishmael. They’ve kind of been in conflict for as long as we can remember. And that’s part of what’s happening in the Middle East. That’s just an ongoing conflict between Isaac and Ishmael.
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And then there’s this Sunni versus Shiite thing. I wrote down some notes here because this gets a little bit complicated. This is within Islam itself. There are Sunnis and there are Shiite Muslims. 85% to 90% of Muslims are Sunni. That leaves 10% to 15% of Muslims are Shiite. You say, “Well, what are they fighting about?” Who the rightful successor to Mohammed is. And some say it’s a blood relative. It has to be a blood relative. And they point back to guy, way back to Mohammed’s time, who was a cousin and a blood relative of Mohammed. He’s the rightful successor to Mohammed. The Sunnis—and Sunni means “tradition” or “custom”—they say no, customarily it’s a non-blood relative. It’s this guy over here who’s the rightful successor to Mohammed, and he was a devout follower of Islam. He’s the rightful successor. And they can’t agree on this. And so they’ve been fighting, Sunnis and Shiites, in that part of the world ever since Mohammed died. You know, who is the rightful successor to this? Both Sunnis and Shiites, Islamic, hold to an apocalyptic scenario of the end of days that’s rooted in their religion called Islam. Both believe in a messiah-like figure. They called him the Mahdi. And they believe that the Mahdi will come and be joined by Jesus to rule the earth before the Day of Judgment. They have their prophetic scenarios and their end-of-days scenarios as well. The Sunnis are waiting for the Mahdi to arrive. The Shiites believe he is already here. You’ve heard of the twelfth imam or the hidden imam. You get a lot of that discussion out of Iran, which is a 100% Shiite nation. They’re the only nation that is 100% Shiite. The other one is Bahrain. In Iraq, the majority of people are Shiite, the rest are Sunni. And there is this conflict that dates all the way back to the time of Mohammed as to who the rightful successor to Mohammed and this religion are. Therein lies the conflict in the Middle East.
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Now, Sunnis and Shiites, which are both Muslims, are unite din their hatred for Isaac, for Israel and her allies. It’s kind of one of those “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” things. They can get together as long as the enemy is Israel and anybody who is an ally of Israel. So Al Qaeda and ISIS, they are Sunni terrorists. And like all Muslims, they have an apocalyptic view of the ends of days, and they have their own scenarios worked out. Why am I giving you all of this background? Well, because in one sense it helps to explain what’s happening in the Middle East today and what part it plays in Bible prophecy. When you see all of this happening with the Islamic nations, it makes me think of Ezekiel 38 and 39, which prophecies a war that many scholars believe has not be fought on planet earth, but it’s with Russia and her Islamic allies coming against the nation of Israel. I believe that’ll happen shortly after the rapture and perhaps at the beginning of the Tribulation period. But when you see this conflict between Sunni and Shiite, between Isaac and Ishmael. And when you see the Islamic nations beginning to form allies, you know, it just reminds you of Ezekiel 38 and 39. Because as the end of the age comes, the enemies of Isaac will form against her. Even what’s happened in Turkey recently, the failed coup attempt…Turkey has always been a fairly liberal to moderate Muslim country. I was in Istanbul several years ago, spent three or four days there. And things were, you know, pretty reasonable. There were mosques everywhere. You’d never see a cross. But they’re relatively moderate when it comes to their Islamic leanings. That changed about a month ago. That failed coup attempt, well, now it’s falling into the hands of more extreme Muslim leaders. And it doesn't surprise me. Because Turkey has been a major, major player in Bible times and will be a major play at the end of the age. And they will also form the alliance of Islamic allies with Russia that wage war against Israel. You just watch Turkey in the days ahead, and you watch this Sunni and Shiite conflict that’s going on. And it spills over into the United States of America because, again, they hate anybody who is an ally of Israel. And it gets back to the two conflicts that I mentioned earlier.
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Now, to say all of that, why do we believe the Bible’s end times scenarios are more trustworthy than say, for instance, the Koran’s? Because every major world religion has prophecies. And even the Koran has their end time scenarios. Why do we hold the Bibles up as trustworthy and not look at the Koran and say, “Well, maybe this Mahdi that they’re looking for is the true messiah that’s coming back?” Mark Hitchcock, who is a very good writer when it comes to matters of Bible prophecy and these types of things, has written a wonderful book called ISIS, Iran, Israel: And the End of Days. And he addresses this very question, and I think it’s important for us to kind of nail this down as we think this through a bit. He says in here the Bible is a book of prophecy. We all know that. But listen to this. It contains about 1000 prophecies. About 500 of which have already been fulfilled down to the minutest of details. He says, “With this kind of proves track record, we can believe with confidence that the remaining 500 yet-to-be-fulfilled prophecies will come to pass at the appointed time.” He says, “Someone once commendably said, ‘We don’t believe in prophecy because it’s contained in the Bible, but we believe in the Bible because it contains prophecy.’” He says, “Prophecy is the most credible proof of the uniqueness and divine inspiration of the Bible.” I run into people from time to time who says, “Oh, Pastor, all that prophecy. I’m a pan-millennialist. It’ll all pan out in the end. I don’t worry about all that stuff.” Well, you’re missing out on a whole lot in the Bible. Do the hard work to kind of piece this together and figure it all out because fulfilled prophecy is one of God’s strongest evidences that this is a divinely inspired book. God sets a standard for Himself that any of His prophets, a prophet of God…you want to know whether it’s a true prophet of God or a false…100% accuracy. That’s the Lord’s own standard. Hitchcock goes on to says, “About 110 prophecies were fulfilled in the life and ministry of Jesus alone. And 33 of them—very specific and distinct—were fulfilled during the final 24 hours of Jesus’ life on earth.” Did you know that? And we’re not talking about some vague, horoscope kind of “you’re gonna have a good day today” prophecy. We’re talking about very specific things. He says, “Fulfilled prophecy validates the Bible and all the precious truths it contains.” Now, you say, “Well, can’t the Koran make the same argument? Can’t other religions of the world make the same argument?” No, they really can’t. He says, “Islam makes no real claim that the Koran has foretold events that have come to pass. It lays out an elaborate end times scenario but provides no objective basis for believing that it will come to fruition. One must take it solely on faith. The Bible, on the other hand, gives overwhelming, credible evidence that its prophecies come true and therefore provides a solid basis for our confidence that it’s prognostications about the future will also come to pass.” He says, “The Bible has a proven track record we can put to the test.” And he’s right about that.
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So with that in mind, let’s turn back to the pages of the trustworthy scriptures and Revelation 16. John opens up this chapter by saying that he “heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.’” Remember, the seven-year Tribulation period is characterized by 21 specific judgments that fall upon the earth. And those are categorized or grouped together into three groupings of seven: the seven seal judgments, the seven trumpet judgments—we believe those happen in the first half of the 3 ½ year Tribulation period—and then come the seven bowl judgments. This is probably happening in the latter half of the Tribulation period, the last 3 ½ years. This is the time period where Jesus said the world has never seen tribulation like this. And except for the Son of Man coming and shortening these days, humankind would not survive. And one by one, John goes through these seven bowls. Let’s go through them quickly at a pretty good pace and just summarize a few things.
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Verse 2 he says, “So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.” By this time in the seven year Tribulation period, the abomination that causes desolation has taken place. The Antichrist has set himself up for worship. He has destroyed the false prophet and the false religion and made himself the sole object of worship in the world. He has tied the economy into this. Remember the 666 economy and nobody can buy or sell without the mark of the beast? Well, as all of this begins to happen, this bowl of wrath is poured out upon the earth and painful sores, skin diseases and other things, begin to inflict those who have bowed down and worshipped the beast and have taken the mark of the beast. Oftentimes painful sores like this and skin diseases are outward signs of an inward corruption in that person or in that people group. Even Moses talked in Deuteronomy 28 about a time coming when the boils of Egypt will inflict the inhabitants of the earth. And many scholars believe that that prophecy has not yet come true and is future even to Revelation 16.
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John goes on to say, “The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.” Earlier, in the book of Revelation and with the seal judgments and the trumpet judgments we had water sources turning to blood. But it might have been a fourth of the earth or a third of the earth or some portion of the earth. Now every source of water on earth has turned to blood, reminiscent of the plagues of Egypt. But can you imagine the environmental disaster here? And people looking for a drop of water because the supply is ruined. All the marine life now—not just a third, not just a half—the remaining marine life in the oceans is dead. Just unspeakable environmental disaster and tragedy here. And why is this happening? Verse 5, “And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “‘Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!’ And I heard the altar saying, ‘Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!’” This is in response to the blood of the martyrs. And, remember, a lot of people who come to faith in Jesus Christ during the Tribulation period, their blood will be shed. And they are seen earlier in the book of Revelation under; the altar of God crying out in prayer to God, “When will you avenge our lives?” This is the time He avenges them. And the angel says, “Just and true are your judgments, O Lord.” Even as He is pouring out His wrath, God always does it in a way that is just.
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Verse 8, “The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.” You know, the earth that we live in, everybody knows, hangs in a delicate balance. Our distance from the sun, the rotation of the earth, the revolution around the sun, and all the planets in our solar system…very, very delicate balance. (0:19:00.0) That just gets out of balance ever so slightly, and astronomists and scientists tell us it changes everything. All God has to do is to change the tilt of the earth slightly, it’s distance from the sun, even the ozone or the atmosphere, and that sun that warms us by day becomes a scorching, scorching star and produces heat on the earth beyond human habitation.
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Reads on in verse 10, “The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.” Now, again, reminiscent of the Egyptian plagues under Moses, darkness comes upon the planet and directly targeting the kingdom of the beast. The Antichrist is in full control of the religion, the politics and the economy. (0:20:00.0) Many believe that he is controlling these elements from Rome, from Jerusalem and from a rebuilt Babylon. But darkness comes over the earth. We take for granted the light of the day, do we not, that the sun provides and the moon at night and the stars. Darkness comes over the earth. And with the scorching heat and the darkness, you would think that people’s hearts would turn to God in repentance and saying, “Lord God, help us.” But just the opposite takes place. A little insight into the human heart that is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it,” the Bible says. People curse God as their gnawing their tongues and gritting their teeth. The Bible says, “They did not repent and give Him glory.” Doesn’t say that once, it says it twice. Just the hardness of the human heart that’s produced as a result of these plagues.
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Verse 1, “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.” Very interesting here, the river Euphrates and the Tigris River, they’re in that location on planet earth known as the cradle of civilization. You go back to the early chapters of Genesis, and the description of the Garden of Eden mentions the Euphrates River, the Tigris River, and two other rivers that we really can’t pinpoint right now. Many believe the topography of the earth was changed dramatically as it relates to those two rivers when Noah’s flood came through. But there were four rivers right in and around the Garden of Eden, two of them the Euphrates and the Tigris River. Again, one of the reasons there is such conflict in the Middle East is, if you remember earlier in our study of Revelation, there were four just filthy, mean, nasty demons that had been locked up in the abyss right at the Tigris and Euphrates River. Okay? I think that has something to do in the spirit world with the conflict that comes out of that part of the world. But this sixth angel who pours out his bowl, it dries up the River Euphrates. It’s the largest river in Western Asia, 1800 miles. And many people believe that it will provide a dried up roadway for a 200 million-man army that will come from the east, many believe this being the Chinese army. That China will be marching. That China will be rising and joining the Islamic nations and Russia and others to fight against Israel at the end of the age.
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John goes on in verse 13, “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,”…Remember the unholy trinity? The dragon being the devil, the beast being the Antichrist, the false prophet being the second best. The unholy trinity he sees coming out of the mouth of these three “three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.” This is setting the stage for Armageddon. Yeah, Armageddon, ISIS, and the Middle East crisis. It’s a pot of stew that’s been stirring since the beginning of human civilization. And it comes back to this place on the earth, the cradle of civilization. Verse 16 says, “And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Har Megiddo” or Armageddon. Har Megiddo in the Hebrew language. It’s an ominous word, isn’t it? I mean, if you want to get somebody attention, title a move that you’ve got coming out from Hollywood…title it Armageddon. And you’ll get people who likes those kinds of apocalyptic movies going to the movie theaters. I listened to a guy this week who was trying to sell his book through some social media sources. And, believe it or not, he titled it Armageddon: Why Donald Trump Is Gonna Beat Hilary Clinton. And I thought, what in the world does that have to do with Armageddon? But any cheap use of the name or the word “Armageddon” to sell a movie or to sell a book...did you know that the world Armageddon only appears once in the Bible, and it’s right here in Revelation 16.
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Now, the conflict, the war that it’s referencing, oh, you’ll find it Daniel. You’ll find it in Zechariah. You’ll find it in Revelation. You’ll find it in several places. This is the culmination of the enemies of the Lamb of God. This is the culmination of the enemies of Isaac, of Israel, the chosen people of God and the nations of the world coming to a place in the Middle East. Armageddon means “the mount of Megiddo”, Har Megiddo. And there is place that, well, when we travel to Israel in November we’ll go there. And we’ll stand on top of that mountain. And we’ll look out over the valley of Jezreel, this vast, open valley. Napoleon stood there once and said, “This is the greatest battlefield ever.” And it will be the place where the kings of the earth come and wage war against Israel. That battle will be so great that Revelation 14:20 says, “The winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress as high as a horses bridle for 1600 stadia.” That’s about 200 miles. Now, whether that’s a literal description of this river of blood that will flow for almost 200 miles or just a symbolic way of saying the world has never seen bloodshed like this before than what it’s gonna see at the battle of Armageddon. In one sense Armageddon is a final conflict. In another sense it’s a campaign of wars that really starts at the beginning of the Tribulation period. Because remember the four horsemen of the apocalypse? The first four seals that are unopened in heaven are seen as four horsemen that ride out. The second one, the red horseman, he is red because he is a war horse and he sheds blood on this earth. There has been war going on all throughout the Tribulation period. It gets worse and worse as we get closer and closer to the end of the age. And finally the great armies of the world, including China and Russia and the Islamic allies, coming together. And they gather in Har Megiddo. They gather in the valley of Jezreel for the final conflict, fighting against the Lamb of God, fighting against Israel, whom He loves. And the only thing that prevents that war from annihilating all of humanity is the second coming of Jesus Christ.
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Now, before we get to that—and there is a reference to it here in Revelation 16 I’ll come to in a moment—but the valley of Jezreel and Mount Megiddo is about 100 miles from the city of Jerusalem. This conflict is so great and there is so much going on that the impact is even felt in the city of Jerusalem itself. And that bring us to verse 17. “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 a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.” It’ll make a 7 point or an 8 point or a 9 point on the Richter scale look like a day at the park. It goes on to say, verse 19, “The great city,” the great city a reference to Jerusalem, “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,”…listen to the geographic and topographical changes that take place. “Every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God,”—a third reference to the inhabitants of planet earth cursing God, not repenting, but cursing God—“they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.” They’re marching against Israel and towards Jerusalem. And the impact of this…I mean, there’s celestial wonders. There are wonders in the sky and in the climate and in the weather. There’s a great earthquake, hailstones 100 pounds. I mean, the world has never seen that. Reminds me though of the time when God was having a conversation with Job. And He says, “Do you know where the storehouses of hail are?” I mean, God, in His sovereignty and in His great power, can put together a 100-pound hailstone and fire it to planet earth. And according to the angel who poured out the third bowl, He is just and true every time He does that.
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There’s a funny, kind of whimsical reference to the second coming of Jesus Christ, a broader description of it in Revelation 19. And we’ll get there in a few weeks. But I love verse 15, between verses 14 that talks about the kings of the earth coming together in the Valley of Jezreel and the mention of Armageddon in verse 16. These words are in red in my Bible because they’re from Jesus. And John writes this, “Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!” There are gonna be some streakers during the Tribulation period. Do you know that? Some people who are naked as a jaybird when Jesus comes. I’m not talking about physically naked. You might have got up naked this morning. Don’t quote me on that, but you might have. Came out of the shower, walked into the closet, got your clothes for the day. You clothed yourself, all right. But the nakedness that John is referring to here and that Jesus is referring to is not a physical nakedness but a spiritual nakedness. You know, you can either try to clothe your spiritual nakedness in your own robe of righteousness…and you know what the Bible says about our attempts to do that? By the way, that’s religion. But the Bible says that God looks at those clothes like filthy rags. And there are people on this earth that’ll be here during the Tribulation period that that’s their best hope. “You know, if I just do good enough. I’ve got these clothes of righteousness, my own righteousness. I’m doing better than the person next to me or over here. This person’s, you know, cheating on his wife, cheating on this business, and I don’t do those kinds…” And it’s a comparison game. And they’ve gotten all caught up in religion. The Bible would say you’re as naked as naked can be. And to you Jesus is like a thief. Nobody likes to have a thief come to their door at night, and especially when you’re naked. Beware the thief who catches you naked, all right? That’s just something you’ve got to write down today. That’s a take-home thing today. Beware the thief who finds you naked? Who is that thief? It’s Jesus who will be a thief to you, coming at an unexpected time, at a time you weren’t thinking about. You weren’t waiting for Him. You weren’t watching for Him. And you’re as naked as naked can be spiritually because you’re not clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. You say, “Pastor, what’s that? What is the righteousness of Jesus Christ?” Well, it’s what Paul had in mind in Galatians 3:27. He says, “You who were baptized into Christ,” in other words, you were identified with Jesus Christ and faith in Him. You have clothes yourselves with Christ. You put on His righteousness. Isaiah 61 says, “I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God, for He has clothes me,” listen to this, “with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.” Are you clothes in the righteousness of Jesus Christ this morning? That’s the only way Jesus won’t be a thief to you. Because if you’re clothes in the righteousness of Christ, then the question becomes, are you waiting for Him and are you watching Him?
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There’s another contrast here between the clothed and the unclothed. There’s the contrast between those in darkness and those in light, okay. John says here, “Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed.” A thief comes at night, doesn’t he? He comes in the cloak of darkness. And there are a lot of people in this world and during the Tribulation period that are walking in darkness and not in light. But the Bible tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5:4, “But you are not darkness,” speaking to believers in Jesus. “You are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.” No believer in Jesus Christ ought ever to be surprised at the coming of Jesus Christ. But Jesus wrote a letter to a church in the 1st century in a place called Ephesus where He warned that they had fallen asleep. They weren’t awake. He says, “Remember then,” Revelation 3:3, “whatever you received and heard, keep it and repent. If you will to wake up, I will come like a thief,” He says, “and you will not know at what hour I will come against you.” I just say beware the thief who finds you naked.
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If you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your savior and you’re relying on your best religious effort and your own robe of rightness to put on, it’s just a filthy rag in God’s eyes. Put on the righteousness of Christ, who died on the cross for your sins, who paid the penalty for your sins, who lived a perfect life and who met the righteous standard. It’s kind of like this. You ever take a test in college and it’s a hard test? And it’s a pass/fail test. And you know you're not gonna pass it. Maybe you get to take it three or four times, and every time you fail the test. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if somebody else could come along and take the test for you who always gets a perfect score? And then somebody in the test place and the school says you can take that test score and apply it to your account. That’s what Jesus did for us. He perfectly fulfilled the law of God, lived a perfect life, a sinless life. He took the test for us, and He passed with flying colors. Then He died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins. And if we place our faith and trust in Him we can take His test score and apply it to us. Or to say it in another analogy, we pick up His robe and clothe ourselves in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. That make sense? If you’ve never done that today, today is a day of salvation. Today is a day, by faith, to place your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and put on His righteous robe. Take off your dirty, filthy rags of human and religious righteousness that always falls short and never gets a good score on the test. And in the process you go from darkness to light. And you stand waiting in anticipation of the soon return of your savior Jesus Christ. He’s no longer a thief that comes at an unexpected time when you're not looking. Oh, to those who are in darkness, He’ll be unexpected. And the world will gnash its teeth and groan and moan at His coming and will curse God. And they will not turn to Him.
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These are sobering words, but there’s this wonderful thread of hope in here. Isn’t it? Where John just, ever so briefly, points us to the second coming of Jesus Christ. And when you go to Revelation 19, and in verses 11 through the end of the chapter you read a more detailed description of the second coming of Christ and this battle called Armageddon. We’ll get there in a few weeks. But Jesus’ soon return is what the New Testament calls the blessed, blessed hope of the Church. And in the midst of ISIS and Middle East crisis and thoughts of Armageddon and all of this doomsday talk, don’t lose your hope, friends. Don’t lose your hope, believer in Jesus Christ. Lift up your head and look, because your redemption is near. And His name is Jesus, and He is coming soon, just as He promised. Just as He promised He would. Let’s pray together.
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Father, thank You for Your Word. And thank You for just the opportunity to study through these passages this morning. Help us to apply them to our life. And help us even as we go through this exercise we call the Lord’s Table, doing so in remembrance of You, but also looking ahead to the soon return of our Savior. I pray that this little fellowship meal that we partake in that reminds us of our Savior’s death would even draw some who are in darkness right now to come into the light of Jesus Christ. And we pray this in Jesus’s name and for His sake, amen.
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