And with this fifth bowl poured out on this seventh trumpet. The pain that they felt, they doubled down. They just defied God nonetheless. Pain never justifies blasphemy. It's one of the great lessons from the book of Job.
It's one of the great lessons from the book of Lamentations. Pain does not justify turning on God. Mm. This generation, at the time that this great tribulation period takes place. They want Antichrist to be their God.
This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the last book of the Bible, Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about cross-reference radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Revelation chapter 16 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio.
God is going to pull the trigger one day. It's going to happen. And this morning's message is entitled Blasphemers of Armageddon, because that's what they are. And as you know, we lament the loss of souls, we are also grateful that. Those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ are not going to be our neighbors in heaven.
God knows what He's doing, and by faith we trust that. The just shall live by faith. We trust God. Even if we don't like his methods, we trust God because we know him. And we know him enough, and this is something that.
He has allowed and has given to us.
Now last session I stopped At the end of the fifth trumpet, before completing, the five trumpet woes Well, we got to the fifth of seven trumpet woes. And we're going to cover that a little bit in verse 11, that fifth bowl. came from the seventh trumpet. I'll put it and confuse you with that. Verse eleven, they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.
Now again, this is the fifth Bowl of the seventh trumpet. and the darkness and pain that will come When God pulls the trigger. Amos the prophet talked about it, Joel the prophet, Zephaniah, Isaiah there so many of the prophets they talked about these things that would come in very clear language. Listen to what Amos says. Woe to you.
who desire the day of the Lord. For what good is that day of the Lord to you? It will be darkness and not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion and a bear met him or as though he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him. Is not the day of the Lord darkness and not light?
Is it not very dark, with no brightness in it? And what Amos is saying is, when God begins to judge the world in his wrath, there's no escape for the guilty. There's just not going to be a way out. Christ will be the only way out. And with this fifth bowl poured out on this seventh trumpet, the pain that they felt, they doubled down.
They just defied God nonetheless. Pain never justifies blasphemy. It's one of the great lessons from the book of Job. It's one of the great lessons from the book of Lamentations. Pain does not justify turning on God.
This generation, at the time that this great tribulation period takes place. They want Antichrist to be their God. They want to worship him. They have deliberately refused the Bible. the God of the Christians, the God of the Old Testament, and they're quite indignant at the thought that God would judge them.
For this very thing. And he will.
So, you know, what use is this to me now? I don't plan to be here as a Christian. I will be raptured. I'll be gone.
Well, this is part of our message to the lost souls that are around us. To ask them, are you familiar with the book of Revelation and what's coming? Because God has told us. The pain did not drive them to their knees. They stiffened up in defiance against God.
as did Pharaoh. These who worship the Beast harden their heart against any love coming from the Creator. And then they went on to damn those Who received the grace and the kindness and looked for any way to harm him? This is going to happen. The trigger is going to be pulled.
is going to take place And did not repent of their deeds, it tells us in verse 11. the depths of their depravity. They're so depraved that pain did not cause them to call out to God for relief. Romans 1, Paul talks about haters of God. They exist.
It's hard for Christians to remember or to even just be mindful that there are people. that actually hate God. Isaiah writes, For the people did not turn to him who strikes them. for what they had done. They did not repent of their deeds.
There were things they were doing that were evil. And now that's the Fifth trumpet, I mean, bowl, pardon me, of the seventh trumpet.
Now we come to the sixth bowl, verse twelve. 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. This A sixth one drying up the Euphrates. The largest river in that region.
Now, again, for our teens, don't let these little details bore you. Like, what do I care about how long the river Euphrates is?
Well, in those days, in the days that John lived, it was a very big deal. and it's going to be a big deal up to the end. This is a river that goes 1700 miles through Turkey, Syria, and Iraq, and it's going to be a big part. of the final judgment of God. And its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
Well Turkey in particularly They've uh built dams across this Euphrates River At times, the water is very shallow, if not dried up, because of the upstream damming of the river.
So, downstream, there's not much.
So, what the point, why that's significant to us That was more difficult in John's day, but is very practical to day. Which is part of the revelation.
So many of these prophecies were not possible in John's day, and they are now very much possible.
Now, these Eastern kings. They intend to secure their interests in the region. They don't want Antichrist to just wipe out the Jews and take all the resources of that area. They want to make sure their interests are secured, but they're going to hate the Jews also. God is bringing these nations there.
Because they are afraid. That the beast Well gain absolute dominance. over, for example, the trade routes, never mind the natural resources. And today, there are trade routes that run in that part of the world and are being built in that part of the world that have some pretty ambitious intentions. Again, now teens, what do you care about?
trade routes. And shipping lanes.
Well, pretty much everything you have on, and much of that's in your house, and the stability of the economy. And when you go to Walmart and you see the shelves are packed with stuff, shipping and commerce. has a lot to do with your life. And if you're living in these days, And you're a leader of a country, you're going to be very concerned, as it is to this very day.
Well, There is a Turkey-Iraqi corridor that is being developed. and it's going to run from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. That's going to open up a lot of cash and profit for those nations and others too. A network of railways and roads and the shipping ports. They're very active doing this even now.
Then there is the Israeli United Emirates Corridor That's running from the Persian Gulf, from the ports of Bahrain, and all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. Israel is planning the Ben-Gurin Canal. which will compete with the Suez Canal. That's going to go from the Gulf of Akbar through Gaza into the Mediterranean. This is commerce with Western civilization from uh the Eastern kingdoms of the world, from Japan and from China and Vietnam, places like that.
Incidentally, Uh you know, Egypt runs the Suez Canal. But Egypt will never again attack Israel. Because Israel has told Egypt That if you do it again We're going to blast those dams you have, the Aswan High Dam, for example. We're going to blast that. That would be catastrophic for.
For Egypt. And that's just a side note. Why don't we see Egypt uh coming against Israel today militarily as they have in the past. And well, that's one of the reasons.
So there are things happening on the earth that or leading up. To this period of time. where these events will take place. These armies of the East the and of Western civilization. Their intentions Towards Edrup.
Are towards Israel are very hostile. Listen to what Zachariah said.
Now, remember, these prophets wrote thousands of years. before these events events took place. That should make a person say, Well, if there's any degree of accuracy with these things and they are I should look into them. Zechariah wrote, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. 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. Every word of that is true. There's nothing symbolic there. There's no metaphor.
It's just straight out fact. with the exception of the world as drunk with their concern with With Egypt. Pardon me, I keep saying Egypt. With Israel. I've got the whole Suez Canal thing in my head.
Jesus said, When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near. And in the context of what Zechariah is saying and what Jesus said, It is not the past times when the Roman legions destroyed Jerusalem. These things are future because they involve all nations. The revelation is God telling. his people, and anyone who will listen.
The future. This is sure to happen. No doubt about any of these things. Jesus said, I have told you before it comes. that when it does come to pass, You may believe.
The goal of the book of Revelation is to excite faith. In Christ. To pick team, what team are you going to serve on? What uniform are you going to wear? What flag will you fly?
None of this is irrelevant. all of it has something to do with me as a Christian. If I know that, well, God has got the future, He's laid it out, no one else has got this. He has my future too. He cares about me also.
No matter what I'm facing, no matter what anxieties I have. In the end. I will stand. bright as the sun. With the Lord.
In the end, His care for me will be total. And I'll never have to worry again. You say, Yeah, I want something right now. The just shall live by faith. Regardless, Of where you find yourself.
Look, it, if you think. A pastor comes into the pulpit and doesn't have problems like you You are mistaken. If he pretends that he doesn't, he shouldn't be there. Is that the same maybe not identical problems? But he has problems also.
He has fears, he has concerns, he has struggles. But he'd better have faith. You better trust that God is who He says He is. and never back down from that. And when I pray to God, I talk to Him about the things I don't like, some of the things that He's allowing or not allowing, I talk to Him about those things straight out.
Because he already knows. What's the sense of hiding it? And then I get up off my knees, or I get up off my face. And I go do what I'm supposed to do. in Christ.
And I won't stop loving the Lord. I won't stop serving the Lord because I struggle. Because of this or that. I'm in it. Into heaven And it is writings like this that do it.
It is the preaching of God's Word to me. In the scripture, that does it. There will be converts in the Great Tribulation because converts will make converts in the midst of all of this mayhem and horror. That's how powerful the word of God's truth is. And again, if you are a teen, especially if you're a teen, And there's so many things that you don't yet know and go through in life.
You still can invite the Holy Spirit. to fill your heart. to excite you. About The reality of God's Word. You can rejoice that God is still saving souls from this evil world now and will be until He returns.
The prophecy about these kings from the East says that the Euphrates will be dried up to prepare for them. It doesn't say they make it through.
Well, we'll come back to a little bit of that. Verse 13: 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. You see, that's why you carry concealed.
Because you shoot something, you see that. I'm sorry, you're going down. I can't let you get away. Anyway, this, of course, is spiritual.
So you have these real things that are going to take place, and then God sort of says, oh, and by the way, remember. There's a real devil pulling the strings. These things have forced my hand And so he inserts these. Things along the teaching throughout this extraordinary book. Imagine being Isaiah and Ezekiel and saying the things that they said and not living to see so many of their prophecies come true for hundreds of years.
In some cases, thousands. In some cases, it's still not done. but many of them were profound prophecies and they did happen. But those men preached as though God showed them something. And that's what we're supposed to do.
When you share your faith of Jesus Christ, you're supposed to preach like God has introduced you to the Lord Jesus Christ and He is your Savior and you have voluntarily. Submitted to that and worshipped Him. You're supposed to preach like it's real because it's supposed to be real.
Well, back to this these unclean spirits Now, verse 14 will tell us these are spirits of demons.
So we know this is now spiritual. We don't have to guess about that. Thing about frogs. Because they'll eat anything they can eat. And these three, this demonic trio Will destroy anything they can destroy.
They will consume to destruction anything they can. This is spiritual warfare that is going to be taking place simultaneously with the material warfare going on. And so out of the mouths of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, that satanic trinity. Man is an inferior trinity. He has a body, he has a soul, he has a spirit.
Is the divine trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? This is the evil Trinity. The dragon is identified in Revelation 12. As Satan, the supreme source of evil, then and now. The Beast is the Antichrist.
the human persona of Satan, of the dragon, There's coming a person so vile, so evil, That Nowhere in history has it been matched. This person is going to show up. And the false prophet, both he and the beast, are identified in chapter 13. We covered that. The false prophet is the one world occult leader.
The apostate church will be here with their rainbow flags and all that stuff. They're going to still be here for this. And they're going to be tolerated so long as They also worship the beast, just as it was in the days of Rome. Rome tolerated other religions as long as you worshipped the Caesars. Satan incidentally also hates them.
He hates the Antichrist. He hates the false prophet. They're just useful flunkies to him. He's out of his mind. And so are those who allow him to take control of their lives as this Antichrist and that false prophet.
And the false prophet is getting the world leaders. into the occult. into the spiritual realm. Deliberately, well, this isn't new. There have been many.
World leaders. Who are into Satanism and human sacrifice.
So again, the micas in the micas. That's the profit. The Incas You can see where that went wrong. They um They were deep into human sacrifice, deep into the occult. When they went out to conquer, it was so they could get more sacrifices, people to sacrifice.
Anyway, verse 14. For they are spirits of demons performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth. and the whole world to gather them to battle the battle of the great day of God Almighty.
Well, we're told right out this is spiritual. Throughout the Great Tribulation there's these high levels of spiritual activity. You can go to parts of the world today or certain communities and you can see people possessed. By the devil. You you can go to, say, New York and see some of these people on the streets.
Doing vile things. And this is not human. This is not human behavior. This is just not somebody who's, you know, down and out. This is spiritual.
Or because they refuse to come to terms with who God is and who He is not. Great, great deception. Than what we know now is headed towards the earth. And the internet is just helping along. Even with AI, it's kidding now.
You can't tell. Am I looking at something that's AI generated? Or is this really happening? We read an article, he said, Did a human write this? Or did did a uh artificial intelligence put this together?
I was in a discussion with AI. I was tempted at the end to say thank you. I didn't, because I know it's a robot. But I'm discussing things with this. AI.
Why is AI so liberal? I'm asking these questions, and it's arguing with me politely. Uh anyway. It's very admirable. But it is Making the planet ripe.
for what's coming. And whatever signs are granted to these demons will be used to further deceive the deceived because that's how they want it. That's those are the apples they like. And so they're going to get them. 2 Corinthians Thessalonians.
And most of you know that. And you know, one of the things about giving in-depth Bible study is you have. You have Christians return to the study and they begin to, you know, if they weren't already, they know the word. And so as you're preaching, you're giving them what they already know. And well, they're gonna have to just take that.
You can't always light, you know, more candles in the dark because you're also preaching to. Those who are not on that level. who don't know these things, who've never connected the dots, maybe never even heard them. And so I say that. to you veteran Bible students, so that when I read to you again a verse that you're familiar with, understand.
It's for others too.
So 2 Thessalonians Paul was writing to that church because they were all confused about did we miss the rapture? You know, are we going to now be in tribulation? And Paul wrote the second letter to the Thessalonians saying, you know, you haven't missed it. And here's what's going to happen while you know you haven't missed it. And he says to them, The man of sin is revealed.
the son of perdition, that's the Antichrist. who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits as God. in the temple of God Showing himself that he is God.
Well, that's pretty intense. This guy's going to think he's divine. He gonna believe it. And he's going to have the power. to inflict punishment and those who won't accept him.
He is the ultimate narcissist. and human form. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan. with all power, signs, and lying wonders. and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish.
because they did not receive the love of the truth. that they might be saved. and for this reason God will send them strong delusion. that they should believe the lie. that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
You like those apples? How do you like those apples? You got what you wanted. How many unbelievers don't know about this? How many Christians should be at mealtime saying, Lord, thank you for this food?
And I pray that you would send my way.
Somebody. who will listen to what I have to say that you've given to me. As Paul said, that which I first received, I delivered to you. Mm. So these end time studies, you say, well, are they for rookies?
Are they for new believers?
Well, when Paul wrote the Thessalonian church, that church was only a few months old. And he's writing to them about the rapture and the end times. He didn't say, well, you know, it's too deep for you. He let them have it. And aren't we glad he did?
This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston. This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreferenceradio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube.
There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
Well, we hope you'll join us next time here on Cross Reference Radio. Hello. I didn't know it's
