Admonition Podcast

Let's begin with a word of prayer, then we'll get into our study.

Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day you've
blessed us with, grateful for this life and the opportunity that we have in this life to

serve you, to glorify your name, to honor you and to study your word, to know what you
would have us to do and how you would have us to live, to know concerning the provisions

that you make for your kingdom and for the church.

And how that you provide for the church and have since its very beginning.

Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.

We pray that you be with the nation that we live in.

May it not become a a wholes wholly corrupted thing, but rather have the influence of the
Word of God continuing to pervade it.

Lord, we pray that you be with us as we stand up and as we speak the truth in this nation
and throughout the world.

We pray that you will give us strength and boldness.

We also pray for safety and peace that we might continue that labor.

All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So in chapter 14, chapter 14 opens, and John is seeing the lamb standing on Mount Zion.

And we've got a few people who've been in the in the new converts class and been in
Jacob's class that uh are with us this morning.

So we'll go through a brief review and catch them up uh on where we are in the book of
Revelation.

When the book opens, John is on the Isle of Patmos on the Lord's Day.

And he is worshiping, he is, as the text says, he is in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and
he hears a voice behind him, and he turns to see one who is a glorified representation of

Jesus Christ.

And he hears the voice and he sees the person who is Christ, and he sees him in a
glorified state, and he is holding seven stars in his right hand and

He's surrounded by seven lampstands, and it is the seven stars are the seven churches.

The seven golden lampstands are the messengers of the seven churches.

And John is told to write.

Now, to be clear as we open the very first few verses, John tells us explicitly that the
vision and the revelation that was given to him was shortly to come to pass.

And the things of which he wrote were at hand.

So any interpretation of the book of Revelation that does not first abide by what John
tells us very clearly by inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the things were shortly to

come to pass and were at hand, any interpretation that doesn't mat match that is wrong.

So

As John writes to those seven churches, as Jesus gives him instruction to do in chapter
two and chapter three, he writes to those seven churches and as he concludes those seven

brief letters to the seven churches, chapter four opens and he sees an open door.

So he sees the open door in heaven, and he the in the implication you're supposed to
understand is he goes through the door.

He goes into the very throne room of God and he witnesses the glory of God in vision form.

And so he sees the throne.

And he sees the glory of God around the throne.

He sees an emerald rainbow around the throne.

And he sees a sea of glass before the throne.

We're going get back to that in just a little bit.

He sees a sea of glass and he sees four beasts that are before the throne, and they look
kind of like the four beasts of Ezekiel's prophecy.

And he sees the four beasts before the throne, and whenever the four beasts are there
before the throne, they praise and glory and offer worship to the one who sits on the

throne.

But he also looks around the throne, and there's twenty four elders.

And he sees the twenty-four elders sitting on twenty-four thrones with crowns upon their
head.

And whenever the beasts fall down and worship the Lamb, then the elders take their crowns
off, the crowns of victory, Stephanos, and they cast them before the throne, and they

worship the one who sits on the throne.

I think I said the Lamb.

I'm ahead of myself.

Alright, so chapter five opens, and then we see a similar image, except

John looks to the one who's sitting on the throne, and in his right hand is a little book.

And in the scroll that is, sorry, a scroll, and in the scroll is written within and
without, but it's sealed up with seven seals.

And so they look through heaven and earth, under the earth, that is, those who are in the
grave, those who are alive, those who are in heaven.

No one is found who's worthy to open the scroll, to loose the seven seals.

You had to have authority to do that.

Once it had been sealed by the one who sits on the throne.

No one's found who's worthy.

John begins to weep, but one comes to John and says, Don't weep, for we have found one who
is worthy to open the scroll.

And it is the Christ, the Messiah, the Lamb that was slain, the lion of the tribe of Judah
is found, and he's worthy to open the scroll.

So the Lamb goes and takes the scroll from the one who's sitting upon the throne, and
again worship commences.

In heaven.

For the elders and the beasts fall down and declare the lamb to be worthy.

They declare him to be God.

So chapter six opens.

And the seals are beginning to be opened by the Lamb, the one who is the lion of the tribe
of Judah.

So he opens the first seal, and it's a white horse.

And the white horse goes forth and he's conquering.

And it's not the Antichrist.

The color white everywhere you find it in the book of Revelation is holy.

It is a picture of Christ and his church, and they're going forth and they're conquering.

But when the church and when Christ are being victorious, who opposes that?

Satan does.

The world does.

Jesus made it very clear that not only is it Satan and it is is it Satan and his angels
that we face in this life, but that the world itself is that not the physical world, not

the earth, but the world of the ungodly hate Christ and they hate those who follow him.

And so when the church goes forth and starts conquering, what does it conquer?

It conquers Satan.

It conquers the world.

It conquers darkness.

It conquers that which is evil.

Well, as a result of that, the evil pushes back.

And so the second seal is open and you begin to see persecution coming in the form of war.

Then the third seal is open and you see persecution coming in the form of economic
difficulties.

Then you see the four the

The fourth seal opened, and you see persecution coming in the form of plagues and death
and the grave.

Okay?

There's a progression of hardship coming in answer to the victory that is that is
beginning in the form of the church.

It's important to realize in the book of Revelation: everything that you see that's good
has an evil counterpart.

It it has its opposite in the book.

All right, so fifth seal is open, and the reason why we spend as much time as we do on
these seals is they're the precursor, they're the forecast of everything that's gonna

happen later on in the book.

Fifth seal is open, and you have the saints who are who have been killed for the testimony
of Christ and for the word of the testimony of his name, and they're under the altar of

the Lord in heaven, and they're crying out, God, how long are you gonna let this go on?

How long are you going to let the world persecute and kill us?

And they're told they're given white robes and they're told to rest for a little while.

And then the sixth seal is open.

And the sixth seal is open, and the sun turns to darkness, the moon turns to blood, the
sky rolls up like a scroll, the things start falling, persecution begins, the rich, the

mighty, the wealthy, they all run under the mountains and call for the mountains to fall
down on them.

To protect them from the wrath of the Lamb.

And that sixth seal is a forecast of what's coming in the later chapters.

But it's visionary language, it's prophetic Old Testament language about a nation falling.

Okay?

You're not supposed to look for a point in time in history where the sky rolled up like a
scroll.

You're not supposed to look for a point in history where the sun went dark and the moon
turned to blood.

You're supposed to understand what the Old Testament prophets taught their people to
understand, and that is that God can make the world turn against a nation.

So then, before the judgment commences, it's been forecasted, it's been prophesied, it's
been revealed, before it commences, an angel comes forth and says, Wait, wait, wait, don't

start yet.

We've got to mark all of God's people.

God's people don't get judged by God's judgment on the world.

They got to go through it.

They gotta suffer through it, but they don't get judged by it.

And so they get the name of God written on their forehead.

Then the seven trumpets commence.

Seven trumpets are seven partial judgments.

We're gonna get in chapter 15 into the seven bowls, which are seven full judgments, which
correspond to the seven trumpets, which are partial judgments.

So a third of this and that get destroyed in the partial judgments.

A third of men, a third of this, a third of that.

It's a partial.

Partial judgment, it's an opportunity for the world that is being judged to repent.

Because they see this partial judgment, they go, you know what?

I gotta fix some things, or I'm going to be judged.

But like many in the days of Israel, they would see the partial judgment and they'd begin
to wonder why God is judging them for all the sins of their fathers.

When they're so honest and righteous and and guilt free.

So the world doesn't repent.

At the end of the sixth trumpet, as the seventh is about to commence, there's another
pause.

And John sees this mighty angel, and he's got one foot on the land and one foot on the
sea, and he's got a little book in his hand, and John's told to go take the little book.

And he's so told to go consume the little book.

This is again in Ezekiel picture.

And so he takes the little book from the mighty angel and he eats it.

He consumes it.

And it's the word of God, and it's sweet in his mouth, but it's bitter in his belly.

He's got to tell the Christians that they're going to survive this, that God's going to
provide for them through this, but it's not going to be pleasant.

They're going to suffer, but they're going to get through it.

So again, another picture, two witnesses.

As the two witnesses come forth, we see first two olive trees with two golden lampstands,
and the olive trees feed the oil into the lampstands, and the lamp the lights never go

out.

God's word will never be destroyed.

God's message will never stop.

God will always have a messenger to deliver his message as long as this world stands.

So God's

Light never goes out.

But we see another picture of the two witnesses, and the two witnesses are here
represented as two prophets.

They go forth, they speak, and the picture looks like Elijah and Moses.

They go forth and they they do the works of prophets.

They dec they call down fire from heaven.

They they they provide uh the word of God and they declare the word of God, and as long as
they're declaring the word of God, they can't be touched.

But then when the prophecy's finished.

The world goes and kills them.

And they leave them dead in the street for three days and they don't even bother to bury
them.

They instead throw a party as they rejoice that they don't have to listen to the word of
God anymore.

Three and a half days later, God resurrects them, brings them up into heaven, and judgment
commences.

The point is this to the church you're going to tell the world what God has to say.

You're going to be faithful and God's going to provide for you, and some of you are going
to die.

But that's not we we don't have to wait until chapter 10 and chapter 11 in visionary
language to learn that.

Revelation chapter 2, verse 10.

What does it say?

Yep.

But as you get into the beginning of that, he says, you're gonna go some of you are gonna
be thrown into prison for ten days.

The number ten has significance in the book of Revelation.

It doesn't mean ten literal days.

It doesn't mean you're gonna spend a week and a half in jail.

He says, some of you are going into prison for a complete amount of time, and some of you
are never coming out.

Be faithful unto, and the Greek means up to and including death, and I will give you a
crown of life.

So here were the two witnesses, they're faithful.

They pr declare the word of God, they never give in, and they're killed.

But God says, Don't worry, I I can conquer death.

I've done it before.

So then chapter 12 opens.

In chapter 12, you see a dragon.

The dragon is clearly labeled in chapter 12 as being a representative of Satan.

Okay?

This is a picture of Satan.

Now God is not telling us that Satan, the spiritual being, is a dragon.

Any more than God told us in Genesis that Satan, the spiritual being, was a physical
snake.

Did Satan use a snake?

Yes.

Was Satan a snake?

No.

Okay?

Now, in chapter 12, you have the dragon.

And he looks like the Roman government.

He's got seven heads and ten horns.

And he looks like Daniel's prophecy of the indescribable beast in Daniel chapter 7.

Okay?

So this dragon comes forth.

Pictured as Rome at the behest of Satan.

And what is Rome trying to do first?

Tries to kill the baby.

The woman is giving birth.

She gives birth, and the woman's representative of God's people.

She gives birth to the the Messiah, tries to kill him when he babies when he's a baby,
fails.

God takes the Messiah up into heaven, Satan loses.

So then Satan goes up into heaven, tries to make war in heaven, loses, cast back down to
the earth.

So then Satan tries to make war with the woman, but God takes her and causes her to
escape, tries to make war with the people, the descendants of the woman, the children of

the woman, God's people, fails again.

So Satan decides to imbue his power over to governmental authorities.

And so in chapter 13, you have the sea beast and the land beast.

These are just more pictures of Rome.

In its persecuting power.

You have Rome in the picture of the sea beast as the emperor and the kings of Rome.

Then you have the land beast representative of the Concilia and the high priests of Rome
that would declare either you fall down and worship Caesar or you don't get to do

business.

You fall down and worship Caesar and you declare him to be Lord or you die.

And so they offered an alternative.

You can either take part in the economy, you can take part in living, or you can choose to
hold fast to Jesus Christ as the only God, the only Lord, the only Savior.

You choose.

So either you give up what you believe and you follow and declare Caesar to be God, or
we'll kill you.

And God says.

Hold on a minute.

Let me show you this picture.

Chapter 14 opens up, and John sees the lamb, and he's standing on Mount Zion, and he's
victorious.

And the people who are with him, the 144,000 who've been marked back in chapter 7, they're
not dead.

They're not being killed.

They're not bruised and beaten and bloodied by the dragon or the sea beast or the land
beast.

They're not just nigh unto death.

No, they're singing.

And they're rejoicing.

And as chapter 14 concludes, you have God sending an angel, and the angel preaches to all
the nations in all the planet and gives them the gospel.

But when God sends forth his word, there is a hope and a salvation that goes along with
it.

But there's also a promise of judgment.

There's never been a righteous preacher of the Lord that declared hope and salvation and
no potential for judgment.

Not one.

Go find one anywhere in Scripture.

You can't find one.

You can find ones that offer judgment and no hope of salvation.

Because of the state of the world and the state of the people they were preaching to.

But you can't find any that offer hope and salvation and no promise of judgment.

So God's word always goes forth with both the opportunity for salvation and the assurance
that if you defy the Lord, if you determine to continue worshiping idols, if you continue

to

Continue worshiping Caesar as God and Satan and his authority, then guess what?

You're going to be judged.

And so, chapter 14, second angel goes forth, and he announces Babylon is fallen, is
fallen.

This is an Isaiah prophecy coming in an Old Testament picture of Babylon, the persecuting
nation that overthrew Judah and took Judah into captivity, that was God's tool to bring.

Judah to bear, but was also in that sense, it was the persecuting power of world
government.

And God says, I'm going to announce the end of Babylon before it ever gets started.

And He does the same thing here in the form of Rome.

Then the third angel followed with a loud voice, verse 9 of chapter 14: If anyone worships
the beast.

And his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also
drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of

his indignation.

He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in
the presence of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, that

they may have no rest, day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever
receives the mark of his name, and the third angel makes it clear.

You had your warning.

You've had the gospel preached to you.

You've had your warning in the form of the first trumpet judgments, the partial judgments.

You didn't heed them.

You didn't repent.

So now the full wrath of God is going to be poured out on Rome.

You say, Aaron, how do you know this isn't this isn't the UN?

How do you how do you know this isn't uh this isn't

This isn't China?

How how how do you know this isn't Russia?

How how do you know this isn't something that's gonna happen four thousand years from now?

Well the answer to that's easy.

Turn to Revelation chapter one.

Verse one, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants, things
which must shortly take place.

And he sent and signified it by his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the
word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, to all the things that he saw.

Blessed is he who reads and who hears the words of this prophecy, and keeps these things
which are written in it, for the time is near.

Back when Daniel was prophesying in the Old Testament, around, probably around 538, 539
BC, Daniel receives a prophecy.

And God tells him, here's the prophecy, here's the vision.

Now shut up the book.

The time's not yet.

Now that prophecy was going to be about the time of the Roman emperors and the church.

And God says, you know what?

It's a long way off.

It's 600 years from now.

Shut up the book.

Seal it up.

Time's not yet.

John opens his book with the time is at hand.

So I know we're not talking about China, and I know we're not talking about Russia, and I
know we're not talking about the UN, we're not talking about the US, we're not talking

about Israel, we're not talking about the Middle East, we're not talking about some global
war happening someday in the future after we're a multiplanetary species.

No, we're not talking about any of that.

We're talking about Christians.

in the first century who were faithful to God who in the first, second, and third century
were persecuted by a nation who made it governmental policy to kill Christians.

And God said, Don't worry, I know what they're going to do, and I'm going to deal with
them.

The same way God told Israel, faithful Israel, in the days of Isaiah and Jeremiah and
Daniel and Ezekiel, I know what Satan's doing to you.

And I know what he's going to do to you.

And you better believe I have reserved a remnant of

That will exit the other side of this persecution and they will be glorious.

And they will the enemies of God will not win.

So, verse 14.

Chapter 14, that I looked, and behold a white cloud, and on the white cloud sat one like
the Son of Man, having his head on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp

sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the
cloud, Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap, for the

harvest of the earth is ripe.

He who sits on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth and the earth was reaped.

The picture here is an agricultural picture of reaping a field, but the one who sits on
the cloud is the one who sits on the horse, one who's victorious, the one who rules from

his throne, it's Christ.

And he's going to reap, he's going to win.

God's judgment's going to be poured out, and God is told, start.

Commence the judgment.

Now, this isn't the final judgment.

How is Christ going to return when this world ends?

Everything that we know in this existence is going to end.

And it's going to happen and every eye is going to see it.

And it's going to happen, and those who are dead in Christ will meet the Lord.

And those who are alive in Christ will meet the Lord.

And the preceding events that will occur will not occur on this earth.

Because Peter made it clear: everything that's in this physical existence, everything that
God made, is going to be burned up, very elements of it.

Scripture is incredibly clear about what's going to happen on the last day.

Not gonna be a harvest.

So the one who sits on the cloud thrusts in his sickle and reaps.

Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, he also having a sharp
sickle, and another angel came out from the altar who had power over the fire, and he

cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in your sharp sickle
and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe.

So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth.

And gathered the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of
God.

And the wine press was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up
to the horses' bridles for one thousand six hundred furlongs.

Here's the picture.

The first one is of a harvest.

The second one is of gathering in the grapes.

And the first picture

The harvest of the earth is reaped.

The second picture, the grapes of the vineyard are taken and they're cast into the wine
press.

Where's the wine press?

Outside the city.

Uh a sickle is a really long pole with a sharp staff on the end, an angled staff on the
end, and they would sweep it through the uh through the field and it would cut down a

whole section of hay all at one time.

Okay?

So a sharp blade.

So as we're looking at this picture, a couple of things to hold in in mind.

Number one, the wine press.

That has the grapes put in it gets trampled where?

Outside the city.

When the thing that flows out of the wine press flows out, what are we told that the thing
that flowed out was?

Blood.

So, first question, number one.

Was it physical grapes that got put in?

No.

Question number two.

Was it a physical wine press they got put into?

No.

Question number three.

Is there enough blood in all of the world to flow one thousand six hundred furlongs up to
the bridles height of a horse?

The answer's no.

There's not enough human blood in the entire planet with the number of people that we have
on the planet to produce enough blood to fill 1,600 furlongs up to the horse's bridle in

blood.

So you want to know what the premillennialists do?

Well, they say, well, this is uh this this is this is blood and bodies and bones.

No, it's not not if you're gonna take this passage honestly.

In the sense of physically literal

Yes, nearly two hundred miles.

So you're talking about enough blood to be a river up to the bridle of a horse for two
hundred miles.

And the premillennialists, the dispensational premillennialists will be accurate, will
say, Well that's gonna happen and then the army's gonna show up.

Really?

What's the picture?

Well we started with a picture with the announcement of the angels of a fire, a lake of
fire that'll never go out.

Then we transition to a reaping of a harvest that was the entire earth.

Then we transition to a picture of the graves of the wrath of God being tread out and a
river of blood coming forth.

It's just three pictures of the same thing.

When God's judgment commences, there's not a nation that gets to withstand God.

Then I saw another sign, chapter 15, verse 1.

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last
plagues.

For in them the wrath of God is complete.

You saw three short visionary pictures of God's wrath being brought on the world, and now
you're seeing an e elongated picture of God's wrath being brought on the world in the form

of seven bowls with seven plagues.

Okay, so chapter fifteen and sixteen.

Is just a longer version of the end of chapter fourteen.

So then I saw another sign.

In heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels, having seven last plagues, for in them the
wrath of God is complete.

And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who have the victory
over the beast, over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name,

standing on the sea of glass, having harps of God.

Now, where was the last time we saw?

A sea of glass.

It was before the throne of God.

Now here's the picture.

God's judgment's going to come.

God's judgment's going to commence.

God's judgment is going to cause the nation that is persecuting God's people to be judged.

And as the judgment commences, John sees the sea of glass that's before the throne.

But it's not a sea, just a sea anymore, is it?

It's gone from being a still quiet almost reflective C to a C mingled with what?

Fire.

Now the picture of the sea of glass, the picture of of this from the very beginning is an
old testament tabernacle picture.

In the Old Testament, when God had Israel build the tabernacle, they built the altar, they
built the tabernacle, they built the Ark of the Covenant, and they also built the brazen

laver.

It was a great big washing pool that was lifted up high above the people.

And the labor sat between the altar and the holy place.

And the priest who offered the offering on the altar could not proceed into the tabernacle
of God unless they first washed in the labor.

Here they are on the

Offering the sacrifices at the altar.

And you might think there's no place closer to God than when you're offering the
sacrifices at the altar.

And God tells us, no, that's not true.

Because if you want to come into my presence having offered the sacrifice, you've got to
wash as a priest in the labor.

So in order to approach the throne of God, you've got to go through the pool of water.

Okay?

These are all pictures, by the way, of salvation in the church in the form of baptism.

But in the figurative view, the visionary view,

In order for the Christians, those who have been faithful, those who have been persecuted,
those who have been told by Rome you either agree to wear the number of the beast and put

his number on your hand and put it on your forehead and pr profess allegiance to him, you
either agree to that or will kill you.

John sees those who said, You can kill me, but I'll never do that.

And they've been sacrificed.

And they've been washed not just with water, but with fire.

They've gone through the process of refining.

They've gone through the process of being washed and suffering and coming out overcomers.

who are now closer and closer to the very presence of God.

They've gone through the sea of glass mingled with fire.

And what does Peter tell us happens to the faith of those who go through the fire?

He says it's purified.

It's made more precious.

It's not destroyed.

It's not consumed.

It's not burnt up.

It's made more holy.

The picture here is of Christians who've not only been saved, they've been saved, and then
they've suffered persecution to the point that there is nothing separating them from the

Lord.

And they stand in the presence of God.

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.

Now, Moses has two songs recorded in the Old Testament, and technically, I guess, three,
because there's one in Psalms, but primarily the focus is of the two.

One is in Exodus 15, the other is in Deuteronomy 32.

Both of them convey the same message.

Both of them are a declaration to God.

That God has unsheathed his sword and conquered his enemies in the form of Egypt and then
through the wilderness.

And so the song of Moses represents a song of those who have overcome persecution and been
saved by God judging his enemies.

But this isn't just the song of Moses, is it?

They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb.

These are the Christians who can sing a song like Moses, but they're Christians.

They're not Israelites, they're not followers of the old law.

They're Christians.

And they sing the song of the Lamb.

And here's what they say Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty.

Just and true are your ways, O King of the saints.

Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name for you alone are holy, for all
nations shall come and worship before you?

As they offer this song of praise, they make it clear, God, you vindicated yourself.

Not so long ago, the Christians who were overcome in the form of they were killed for the
testimony of Christ because they wouldn't give up Christ, they would not pledge allegiance

to the Lamb.

Not so long ago, they were under the altar crying, How long, Lord?

Now they've gone from under the altar, follow it.

They've gone through the fire, and now they're before the throne.

And they're saying, God, you vindicated yourself for you allowed your wrath to come full
force on the people who were killing your servants.

me get ahead here.

Alright.

So then verse five.

For your judgments have been manifested.

After these things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in
heaven was opened.

And out of the temple came the seven angels, having the seven plagues clothed in pure
bright linen, and having their chest girded with golden bands.

Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of
the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.

The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one was
able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.

John looks in the vision, and the temple tabernacle in heaven is open.

The very throne room of God, the very presence of God is open, and out of it proceed seven
angels, and they're about to deliver God's wrath upon this nation that has a allied itself

with Satan, that has embodied the very desires of Satan to destroy God's people.

And they're going to be handed the seven bowls.

You can almost watch the the procession in your mind.

They're coming out.

Here you go.

Here's judgment one.

Here's plague one.

Here's plague two.

Here's plague three.

Here's plague four.

This is all Exodus pictures, right?

This is the picture of God judging Egypt.

This is

One plague after another plague after another plague after another plague.

But it's in visionary heavenly imagery.

As if you were to go back to the book of Exodus and as you find there's Moses, and there's
Aaron, and they show up before Pharaoh.

And they say, Pharaoh, let God's people go.

And Pharaoh says, Who is this God that I should listen to him?

And so the first thing that they do is demonstrate there from the Lord Moses casts down
Aaron's rod and it turns into a snake.

Well then the magicians come along and they say, we can do that.

They cast down their rod, turns turns into a snake.

Then Aaron's rod eats all of their rods.

See, you can do things that look like you're from God, but God always wins.

And so then the plagues begin.

And if you were to picture this in your mind, every time Moses and Aaron are showing up
before Pharaoh, imagine an angel, a spiritual being preparing the plague.

And the option of whether the plague is poured out on Egypt or not is based upon what does
Pharaoh say?

So Moses and Aaron show up before Pharaoh and they tell him, God says, let my people go.

And Pharaoh says, no.

And in heaven, as it were, visionary language, the commencement order is given to the
angel holding the plague, saying, Let it go.

And the Nile River turns to blood.

It doesn't turn red because of a bunch of leaves upriver that happen to make it look like
blood.

No.

The Nile River turns to blood.

By the way, is there enough blood in all the earth to fill the Nile River?

No

But the same God who can take water and make it wine can take water and make it blood.

And so the second angel prepares the second plague.

And Moses and Aaron are told, go back before Pharaoh and tell them again, let my people
go.

And Pharaoh says, no.

And the second angel's told, let it go.

There's your picture.

We're going to see that in chapter sixteen.

This is an Old Testament picture of an Old Testament nation being judged.

But it's Rome and it's a judgment that is a final judgment from God.

We'll get into chapter sixteen next week.