Armageddon

In the Jewish synagogue today, it is custom to blow the shofar.

So, Mike blew one, of course. I just wanted to show you this one. Mike blew one before services. This is a large one. Many of them can be much smaller. As I usually bring this out and show it during the Feast of Trumpets, I always think, what was the size of that animal that came off that head? And there was one on each side. So that was a big animal. But this is blown because this is a feast of trumpets. And trumpets is an important part of the message for Christians today in this day. So I will set it there and try not to step on it. Let's go to Leviticus 23.

Leviticus 23 and verse 23. It's interesting how, of all the Holy Days, this one has the least amount of information given about it. Leviticus 23, 23. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, saying, in the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall have a Sabbath rest, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, a holy convocation, and you shall do no customary work on it, and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the Lord. It was a day of special offerings, all the Holy Days. In fact, all of the days of the piece of tabernacles that were not a holy day was still a special offering that was offered to God by the priests there in the tabernacle and then in the temple.

In order to sort of bring everything into focus and not get caught too much in details, what I want to do today is use some slides to also cover material so that we're not having to read large amounts of material. We still have some scriptures we need to read, but that we can understand about this memorial of trumpets and what this means to us today, because there's a very important prophetic message here. When we look at trumpets in ancient Israel, they were used for religious reasons and for reasons for the community reasons.

The ram's horn or the shofar was blown—sometimes there were silver horns, silver trumpets that were blown on the Holy Days and blown actually for war also—but they would be used to call the people to worship and they would make different sounds and they would know by the sound that was being made. And as I've said before, you can't play jazz on a shofar. I am amazed when I hear trained rabbis who have spent years and years and years in training, they can actually at times create a melody out of a shofar. And it takes years to do that. I mean, that's just not—it's not like blowing a trumpet with the keys and the mouthpiece. And this is a very difficult instrument to play. But they would play these and with the sound of it, they would know this was a call to worship. Also, the shofar or silver trumpets would call people to battle. When you hear certain sounds, you would know, especially the shofar, because the shofar would be carried with the troops and they would blow the shofar as a charge. You know, it was like a bugle.

So it's used to call to battle. It's to announce a coronation. When a king was crowned, they blew the shofar. And then there's a very interesting prophecy in Isaiah that says, in that day—and in that day is always a reference to the day of the Lord, one of the days of the Lord. There are different days of the Lord. But this one has to do with the primary day of the Lord that we're celebrating and we're looking forward to today. He says, in that day, the great trumpet will be blown. So there's always in the Bible, even clear back into the Old Testament, a concept that there is a trumpet at that great day. And that great day always has to do with God intervening in human history. That God actually comes into Satan's dominion and He takes control of it. And so we're here to look forward to that time when God comes into human history to take control of it. We do know that that's through Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ's return. Now, this day of the Lord involves something else in the Old Testament and also is explained in great detail in the New Testament. And that is, as Christ comes to bring God's kingdom, re-establish God's kingdom on the earth, as I talked about in Murfreesboro last week, God's kingdom exists. It has always existed. It's not as though we're waiting for God to create His kingdom. We're waiting for God to remove Satan for having dominion over us. And we return to God as our king. That's what we're waiting for. And He's sending Christ to be that king for a thousand years. And this day of the Lord had to do with the kingdom, the reign of God on earth, replacing the reign of Satan. And there was going to be a battle.

This day prophetically contains many horrible things and the most incredible truth that this world needs, that you and I need, as a purpose for our lives, as a focus for our lives. Look at Zechariah chapter 14. We're just going to look at one day of the Lord prophecy that's in the Old Testament that has to do when this day actually happens. I mean, there's a lot of events that are pictured by this day. And it's more than a day, by the way. There's a whole lot of things that lead up to a trumpet sounds and Christ's returns. And the trumpet is so loud that it says in scripture, everybody on the earth will hear it. I mean, this isn't some unknown thing that's happening. The events of this day will involve all of humanity.

Verse one, and this gets read all the time on the feast of trumpets and during the feast of tabernacles, behold, the day of the Lord is coming, that day when he intervenes in human history and removes the one who has enslaved us and brings God's rule back to earth.

And your spoil will be divided in your midst, for I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. Now that battle against Jerusalem, that's an important phrase. We have to come back to that. All the nations of the world are going to be gathered together, huge armies, to do battle against Jerusalem. The city shall be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, but the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city. In other words, the city of Jerusalem is almost going to be destroyed in this great day of the Lord. Then the Lord, it's during this time, then the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations as he fights in the day of battle. And in that day, his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives. So here's where we realize that this is God doing this through Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ left from the Mount of Olives when He ascended after His resurrection. And He told His disciples, or the angels did, He will come back in the same way. He's going to come back to the same place. What's going to be different is when He comes back, it will be visible for all humanity. He is coming back to the Mount of Olives. So now we can tie this in here, where it's talking about the Lord, it's talking about YHVH, but we can say, okay, this is God doing this through Christ. And that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, which faces Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west, and a very large valley, half of the mountain shall move toward the north and half of it towards the south. So in this collection of national armies, they come together. They're marching on Jerusalem. Jerusalem is under attack, and the Messiah comes to stand on the Mount of Olives. And He fights against them. He describes what's going to happen, and it's pretty graphic. In verse 12, He describes this very similarly in Revelation. We won't have to go through Revelation. We go through this once. The New Testament, Revelation 19 describes the same thing. And verse 12, this shall be the plague in which the Lord shall strike all the people who fought against Jerusalem. Their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongue shall dissolve in their mouths.

You know what this reminds me of? How many have seen Indiana Jones, right? That scene when they open the ark? Where did they get that from, by the way?

And it shall come to pass that that day the great panic from the Lord will be among them, and everyone will seize the hand of his neighbor and raise his hand against his neighbor's hand. In other words, all those armies in seeing this being poured out, this power coming out from this one who's coming from heaven, down to earth, the shining being with angels with him, the insanity that happens is they start to kill each other. That's the battle that happens on this day. And if we're not careful, what we look at is all the bad things that are going to happen on this day. We're given that information because we're to understand that this day pictures the only hope humanity has. And this day should be a positive motivation for our lives that we will be part of this solution instead of part of the problem. We've been called by God to look forward to this day as being part of the solution to humanity's hopelessness. Because it really is hopeless. What are the solutions to anything? No government has a solution. No religion has a solution.

I mean, we can preach the gospel, but we haven't figured out how to function entirely as the kingdom of God yet, have we? Each one of us is trying, but we're struggling in this world too. We can't change the world. We can change little bits and pieces of it. Every time you help a neighbor, every time you do something, yeah, you do something nice.

It's good. We're supposed to do that. The parable of the Good Samaritan. But you know, in the end, it doesn't change the world, does it? It doesn't change the world. It's so frustrating. The same problems are there the next day. And it's because this is the only solution. And to be part of that is the greatest blessing you can receive in life, because it changes your life now, because we become citizens of the kingdom of God now.

We're citizens of that kingdom. That is our goal. That's our home. You know, we like to think, well, the United States of America is our home. Actually, it's a temporary home. Our home is coming. Our home is coming. And right now, we live in a temporary home. That message is so important in this day. As we talk about the day of the Lord, and we talk about all the things that are going to happen on this day. Now, if we go and we start to look at the New Testament, there's three specific things.

There's other things, but three specific things that are mentioned about this day. In the Olivet Prophecy, and we went through that recently, Jesus said that He will return at the sound of a trumpet. Paul wrote that the dead will rise when Christ returns at the sound of a trumpet. So, that all has to do with this day, the coming of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the saints. But then there's this other thing that we tend to sometimes zero in on, forgetting that those first two are the most important. And that is in Revelation, John saw a vision of seven trumpets that herald the return of Christ. The problem is most of the information about those seven trumpets is not good.

It's about bad things that happen. And we can get so locked into that, we forget that that's what it takes for Christ to come and start fixing things. Because neither Satan nor the average human being will want that solution. Now that's hard to believe, but that's because you and I have been shown the solution. But for Satan and the average human being, it will actually seem to be a terrible thing, a terrible thing that's happening. Now, it's during this time of the seven trumpets that in the scripture, there's the term Armageddon. Now Armageddon is one of those words that has become a synonym for the destruction or the end of the world, right?

There's been movies that Armageddon is in the title. There are always terrible apocalyptic movies in which the world's being destroyed, or they're trying to save the world from being destroyed. So, you know, the word Armageddon means just total destruction. Actually, it does not. And we're going to look at Armageddon today. It's only mentioned in one place in Revelation. So we're going to look at that place and look what it says and where it fits in the seven trumpets. Okay. Now, to go through the seven trumpets would take hours. So once again, we're going to use some slides where you can look at the progression of things that happened during this time.

Armageddon actually comes from a Hebrew word that just, harmogetto, which means the mountain of mageto. And Armageddon was a city that actually was there for many, many, many centuries. And it's about 55 miles north of Jerusalem. And, you know, the mountain of mageto, it was on a mound. It was on a hill. It wasn't exactly a mountain. That's the ruins of mageto today. If you look, it's not on a mountain. If you can see it, it's on a hill.

If you look at it real close, you can see it's on a hill. When you look around it, it's basically a rolling plane. It's a huge valley. In the distance, you can see some hills and mountains, see them out there. It's really a great big valley. But in the middle of this valley was this hill and this city on top of it.

So it was the mountain of mageto. And it actually was a very important city. And one of the reasons why, if you're going to fight a battle in what is modern-day Israel today, over the centuries, the best place to fight it was here.

It was open ground. It wasn't too hilly. So you could fight. And by some estimation, some historians say there's been more bloodshed over this valley than any other valley in history. Army after army has marched through here. I mean, Egyptians, of course, the Israelites, Arabs, Greeks, Muslims, Christian Crusaders, Mongols, French, British. Seems like everybody's fought here one time or another. And some of the greatest generals of history, topmost of the third of Egypt, King Saul of Israel, Saladin, Napoleon, even General Alleby, which was a famous general in World War I, English general, he fought a battle here in World War I. This has been a place that people have gathered armies and had battles in throughout history. And of course, in the Bible, we know that it was here that Deborah and Barack won their great battle that you read in the scripture, and also where Gideon defeated the Midianites in the Book of Judges. So the Bible contains battles that have taken place around this place, where there was this what we would call a small town, the city of Megiddo, that sat on top of this hill. So it's a very strategic place for fighting war. And when we look at and approach the day of the Lord, or the time of the seven trumpets, let's put it in order now. And this is going to be a little bit of a recap of some of the sermons we've been doing over the last almost a year on prophecy. Oh, by the way, that's what it looks like if you're standing in it today, looking out from the center of Megiddo. You can tell now you're up high. Well, high. You're a couple hundred feet in the air. And you're looking out over this huge valley, mountains in the distance, tell... it's just... that means it's a mound. And one of the reasons it's even this high is because they just built cities on top of each other. You know, you'd use the foundation of a previous building as a foundation of another building, and then another, another. And so they would get higher and higher. And so there was just a giant mound. So one of the reasons Megiddo's this high now, even, is it just because it's totally natural? It's because there's been dozens of cities built on this. In Colossi, it's not even... it hasn't been excavated yet. It's just a giant hill. And there's some places where it's... rain and so forth is... cause some erosion. And you can look and you can see into the hill and you can see stone walls. You think, oh, there, that's the, that's the time of Paul. No, the time of Paul is about 20 feet under that.

So they have to dig through that, which they're going to start doing... they plan to do it. The Turkish government started going through Colossi and excavating that area like they have in other cities. So we have the seven seals of Revelation. So now we're going to, we're going to look at Revelation and see where Armageddon fits in Revelation. And this leads us into the seven, the seven trumpets or the Feast of Trumpets. The seven seals are the end time events culminating in the return of Jesus Christ. So we've been through that. The first four seals, the four horsemen of the apocalypse are trends and events that lead up to the tribulation. We'll give a whole sermon on that. So then with the fifth seal, the sixth seal, the fifth seal is about persecution in the church during the tribulation. And then into the tribulation, at some point towards the end of it, there is signs from heaven that something's about to happen. And that then announces the seventh seal, which is the day of the Lord. How long is the day of the Lord? We don't know. But in one place in the Old Testament, it says a year. But is that to be taken literally or not? Not sure. But it's the only indication we have. So in other words, these events happen, though, at the end of the tribulation. When God finally says, enough is enough because humanity is headed towards a place where it's going to destroy itself, it's not going to survive what it's doing to itself under Satan's rule. So God begins to intervene, but He doesn't send Christ back right away. And there's a reason for that, which we'll show in a minute. So let's go to Revelation 8. We're going to look at the seven trumpets. So you know what's happening here? We've got the seven seals and the seventh trumpet, which is the day of the Lord, announcing Christ's return. It actually has a number of events in it.

Okay. Revelation 8.

And verse 1. It says, when He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about an hour.

When He opens the seventh seal, in heaven itself, the Father, Christ, all those angels, the 24 elders, there's silence. It's almost like anticipation of what's going to happen next. Now, when you see John said he got a vision into the third heaven, the throne of God, there's thunders and lightnings and angels coming back and forth, and there's a choir singing. I mean, it is a place of activity, and it's a place of sound, whatever sound is in the spirit world. Okay. I'm not sure. I mean, you don't need physical eardrums to hear it. So I'm not sure what it sounds like. It's got to be a lot more interesting to what we hear.

Think about that. They live in a realm in which they hear, but they don't have physical eardrums to hear. That's why when you start to really look into who God really is, it's beyond comprehension. How do we understand that? I don't, because I need physical eardrums to hear. He does not. Neither do the angels. And all this is going on, and it's been going on for who knows how long, and suddenly in heaven it's silent. As everybody anticipates, what happens next?

Now what's going to happen next is what this day is all about, because it says in verse 2, And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. So now we have the seventh seal.

It's towards the end of the tribulation. The beast power has power over much of the world, although it's coming apart because there's other national armies, which we'll see in a minute.

And God says, I'm going to stop this. I'm going to remove Satan, and I'm going to stop what's happening. So you have the seven trumpets.

Now I'll just go through these, because I'm not going to spend a lot of time describing them. It's always fun to try to describe what's going to cause this, but it's a lot of speculation. We just know that at this point, two things happen. God stops. He must be holding back the consequences of what human beings are doing. He stops that. Okay? Now it's all getting unleashed. Plus, He starts doing things. And in a minute, we're going to see why He does it. Okay? You say, wow, why is God being so harsh? I mean, why is God doing this?

So the first trumpet hail and fire, and a third of all the trees and green grass destroyed. This is globally. Globally, there's hail and fire.

Now, once again, there's all kinds of speculation. Does God create the hail and fire? Is this the result of what human beings have done through nuclear war? And now there's actually, we've destroyed the ecosystem. I mean, we come up with a hundred things. Are there volcanoes going all over the place? I don't know. All I know is this is a global event. In other words, God's getting the attention of everyone. A third of the plants die.

That is catastrophic. Okay? The second trumpet, one third of the sea becomes blood. One of the sea creatures die, and one third of the ships destroyed. I don't know what would cause that. Oh, you know, it's fun to say. A giant meteorite or an asteroid hits the ocean, and that would kill off all the animals, and it would all turn red, and a third of the ships would be destroyed. Yeah, that would do it, and maybe that's what God does. I don't know. He simply says, a trumpet sounds, and this happens. Now, remember, this is towards the end. Is this going to happen tomorrow? No. The tribulation hasn't even started yet. This is towards the end of the tribulation. And when these things happen, you would either decide, God's trying to get my attention, or I'm living in an Armageddon movie, right? It's actually happened. I'm living in... So, we know these things, meaning God says, it's enough. I'm getting your attention now. I'm beginning to become involved. The third trumpet is the third part of fresh water turns bitter. So, when you start adding this all up, this is just... this is ecological disaster. This is global ecological disaster. That even the fresh water becomes unusable. Now, you think about, by the way, the seven trumpets, we know it's a period of time, but it doesn't go on for years and years and years. At most, it's a year. It may be a whole lot shorter than that, because life can't exist if this keeps going on like this. So, this is God's interaction. This is the trumpet's. Fourth, atmosphere, deteriorates so that one-third of light is filled around. Now, once again, this all makes sense if there's a nuclear war, by the way, because the nuclear winter would create where parts of the earth would not be receiving light. So, that may be part of what happens here. Whatever it is, God says, I am not holding back things anymore. I'm not letting... you know, he's not saving humanity as he keeps doing all the way out of history. I'm letting this happen, and he's causing it to happen. And each one of these is a blast of a trumpet that says, listen to me. I reign on earth, and I'm coming back to show it. You're part of God's kingdom. You just don't know it. And I'm sending Christ, God says, to come back and restore you to who you're supposed to be. This isn't who you're supposed to be. Bloodthirsty, immoral, angry, filled with hatred.

This isn't what we're supposed to be as human beings. It's what we are. So, he's saying, I'm getting your attention.

And then it gets worse. The last three trumpets are said, these are so bad, they're just called woes. You know, whoa, this is terrible. Not whoa like stop, but whoa, an Old English word that means this is horrible. This is terrible. The fifth trumpet is beast power brings about world war. So now, with all these things happening, the beast creates such a power grab that people, that nations begin to rebel against the beast. It's like I've always said, the beast power can't last very long. It's going to last less than three, about three and a half years. It's already falling apart here, so it won't even last three and a half years before it starts falling apart.

And so, you have this world war come about, national armies being formed, and beginning to fight each other. The second war, or sixth trumpet, is Asia becomes involved in the war. So now you have Asiatic armies, India, China, they're starting to form. You know, they're cooperating with the beast, they're not cooperating with the beast anymore, and the two witnesses are killed. Now, this is very interesting because at the sixth trumpet, we know how long it is before Christ comes back. Three and a half days. Three days, three nights. Or no, three and a half days. Three days, three nights, right? Three days and three nights. So at this point, when the two witnesses are killed, and the whole world is now declared war on each other, it's okay. This is it. We know what the seventh trumpet is going to happen. And then the thing is, though, you think, okay, good. Christ comes back and fixes it. No. At the sound of the seventh trumpet, now there are more problems that happen as God is sending out and trying to get the world to repent. Now, you say, why does God keep doing this? Why doesn't He just send Christ back? And the answer He gives us in Revelation 9. Revelation 9. In the midst of all the things we're talking about here, and I give you the Scriptures. I mean, these can be looked up fairly easily. Revelation 9, verse 20. This is a statement made at the end of the sixth trumpet. Okay, so it's the seventh trumpet. Oh, good. It's going to get fixed. No, God allows even worse things to happen, terrible things to happen after all this. Why?

Verse 20. But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And they did not repent of their murderers or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts. In other words, humanity, even after this, the majority will not turn to God. You say, well, how will they know to turn to God? The two witnesses will be known all over the world. It says they're hated all over the world. These are two individuals that are going to have such power that they're known all over the world. And of course, they get killed. They get killed at the sixth trumpet. And humanity isn't going to repent. Now, there are people who do repent. During the tribulation, there are people that turn to God. There's 144,000 people that are descendants of Abraham. And there's a great multitude of people, just other people, that become part of the people of God. And many of them die in the tribulation because when they repent, they now become enemies of the system that Satan has designed. And Satan wants to remove anyone from his system that follows God. You know, there's a point that says that one scripture that says Satan knows he has but a short time. He knows enough to know Christ is coming back, and I've got to stop that from happening. And it's getting closer and closer and closer. And he gets driven more and more by his own internal hatred. This is why no human government can solve anything. Because the basic problem is human nature. Satan can't solve anything because his basic nature is so filled with hatred and selfishness that he will always turn inward and destroy what he's doing. He always destroys what he's doing. Because there's no concern for anyone but himself and to be worshiped by others. That's all he wants. Remember when he told Jesus when he had fasted for 40 days? Just worship me! It's almost like he's begging him. Just fall down and worship me and I'll give you the world. I'll give you all the kingdoms. I'll give you everything if you'll just worship me. And he said, just get away from me. We only worship God.

But you get something into his character with that, almost begging him, worship me. Because I... and he lost. He says he left. He left Jesus. He couldn't win.

This is what he's going to be doing here. Worship me and some people a multitude. I mean, we don't... it may be millions of people say no.

And he goes about killing them, persecuting them. Because if you don't worship me, you have no value as a being.

And so humanity, the great majority of humanity, won't repent. And so you have the seventh trumpet. And then we have a great earthquake. And well, before the earthquake, let me go on here. We have to talk about the seven vials. Also called the seven bowls. Oh, man, this is getting depressing. When's lunch time? Remember, we're told this. And I don't know. You know, I think every generation thinks it'll probably happen in my lifetime. It's going to happen sooner or later, right? Sooner or later, somebody's going to live through this. But even if we don't, we need to know, because we need to remember we live in Satan's world. We need to always remember that. And that we have been called for something else. And there are benefits to living God's way right now. There are so many benefits to living God's way right now. I know you get tired of hearing me saying certain things, but remember, your choice is either to live this life with all of its difficulties and problems with God or without God. And with God is a whole lot better. But that's our only choice. Our only choice is live it with God or live it without God. That's it. Living it with God is a whole lot better than living it without God. We stay focused in on that, and we thank God.

If you ever say, oh, this is too hard. I don't like this. I'm missing out on too much. My life would be so much better if I didn't have to obey God and do this and do that or do the other. Just think of the people you know that are living life miserably without God. And you can be just like them.

You can be just like them.

And all the turmoil and stress we go through, this is a whole lot better.

It's a whole lot better. So now we have to go on to the seven bowls. Soars are poured out on humanity.

Mass death of sea creatures. Well, that's already happened. A third have died. The ecosystem is collapsing. There's sores. That could be once again the result of nuclear war. It could be the result of just all kinds. I mean, bubonic plague could come back when you figure what's going to be happening all over the world. You could have plagues that are just unbelievable sweeping through masses of people. Fresh water churns the blood. There's darkness. Well, remember, there was already darkness happening. It gets worse and worse and worse.

This is what Satan's way produces in the end, by the way. That's, I think, one of the great messages here. We feel like sometimes we're missing out on something, especially when you're a younger person and missing out on something. This is what it produces. It produces it on a global scale, and it will produce it sometimes in our lives on a small scale.

And then we have this Euphrates River dries up, because there's armies coming from all over Asia to come into the Middle East, where other armies are gathering, including the beast power, in order to fight each other.

Revelation 16 is very interesting in this, because here's where they come together. Revelation 16.

Verse 12. So this is that six bowl, or vial sometimes it's called, or plagues. Some translations say plagues, but in other words, it's something that's happening. Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl of the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth, to the whole world, to gather them to the battle of the great day of the God Almighty, the day of the Lord, the great battle of the day of the Lord. And notice demons. There's actually an increase of demonic activity as miracles are being performed all over the world to convince people, take your arms and come fight at the great battle. The great battle which no one will survive if Christ doesn't come back. It's an insanity of violence. But look at the state the world will be in.

Verse 15 says, Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and see his shame. In other words, watch if these things are happening, know what's happening. And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.

All this comes down to here, this valley. As armies come from all over the world, millions and millions of men's machinery and tanks and armored personnel carriers. And when you figure out how much war there's already been, there's probably people on horses and carrying old rifles too. I mean, it's just armies gathering from all over the place.

Aircraft, helicopters. And they're coming to fight each other, but something changes.

So it's hard to believe that it all comes down to this location. But you know, it's wrong to call this the Battle of Armageddon, because it doesn't say they fight there. It says they're gathered there. Remember what we read in Zechariah? They march against Jerusalem.

Jerusalem's always the focal point, because it's where Christ will reign on earth. Jerusalem is always the focal point of prophecy. It's where the temple was when Jesus was there. It's where Jesus was sacrificed for the sins of humanity. It's where He's coming back.

It's really not the Battle of Armageddon. It's the Battle of Jerusalem. But they're gathered at Megiddo. And so, then there's a great earthquake and hail, and the entire Babylonian system is destroyed.

Rome itself, as we showed when we went through Revelation 19, is destroyed by the beast and false prophet. And then, if we go to Revelation 19, which we won't go there, because I read in Zechariah, what you have is another description of the Battle of the Day of the Lord. The battle that takes place around Jerusalem and in Jerusalem, as Christ returns and all these armies who have come to fight each other come to face this invasion from outer space. Probably, that's what they'll think. I would guess. This invasion from outer space must be stopped. And suddenly, they're all working together. The only time in history where Satan gets humanity to work together, because his ways divide people. His ways is all about every person being their own God and conquering other people, right? I mean, that's what countries do. That's what people do in personal relationships. It's what so many businesses do, right? It's all conquering others.

And so, his system will always fail, because if you're under his influence, you're going to have to conquer somebody else. And he finally has humanity together to fight Jesus Christ.

And we know from Revelation 19, well, let's just go there. I'll just read a couple verses. I don't want to read all of it, because this ties right in with Zechariah. We have now an Old Testament, New Testament talking about the same thing. Because verse 11 says, Now I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse. And he who sat on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. Jesus Christ, the King of Peace, the Prince of Peace, is coming back to fight a war, because humanity won't want him.

It will become evil, will have become so present in the human mind, in the human heart, that they won't want him. Of course, they won't even know who he is. It describes what he looks like. And verse 16, And the armies in heaven clothed in white linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. And out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, but with it that he should strike the nations, that he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He himself treads the winepress in the fiercest and wrath of Almighty God. The day of the Lord is happening, and he's doing it through Jesus Christ.

Verse 17 through 21 basically describes what we read in Zechariah.

He comes down to the Mount of Olives. All the armies are coming up against Jerusalem, and he slays them by the probably millions.

Because if he doesn't, no one will survive the war that's being fought. The whole earth is going to be destroyed with biological weapons and nuclear weapons and people just killing each other. No one will survive. And you look at what happens during the seven trumpets, and you realize humanity is going to be at the point they can't survive anyways.

The ecosystem will have collapsed because of what we've done, and because God keeps saying, I'm letting this happen. In some cases, I'm causing this to happen. Repent, and the majority just won't. They will not change who they are and where they're going and what they want until they finally try to fight against Jesus Christ.

And so this is what happens then at the end, the return of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the saints. Oh, we're back to sort of what we talked about at the very beginning. This is the great positive point of all this. It's the Feast of Trumpets. And the first six, those are so bad. The seventh one is, God says, but I'm going to stop this. Because what's happening here is what humanity under Satan's dominion. This is what you're doing to yourselves, and I'm going to stop it. You think, how cruel. But remember, Christ said, if I don't come when I do in all that prophecy, nobody will live through it. No one will survive. He's saving humanity. It's just humanity doesn't want to be saved.

But because he loves humanity, he's going to do it. He's going to save humanity.

The destruction of the beast power, which includes, by the way, Satan being removed. So Satan will no longer be the God of this world. And then the establishment of the Kingdom of God on Earth. Now, some real work begins. And you've been called today to be one of those workers. You want to make sure that war stops, that crime stops, that a child is never abused again, that nobody ever starves again, that there's nobody living on the street. You want to do that? That's what you'll do. Because we can't fix it today. We can help individuals. Sometimes you help a group. You know, Mrs. Gregory's collecting things that take with her to Knoxville to help people from the flooding over there. That's great! We should do that.

In the next flood, what do we do? We can't give up. We have to keep giving. You know, we've given to the homeless here in Nashville. And some of them died because there was never enough help, right? There was never enough warm clothes. There was never enough blankets.

We can make sure that never happens again.

You know, when I was a kid in a hippie movement, in my almost hippie days, I was like, I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. The whole idea was to change the world to make it better. And it failed. In fact, it didn't help the world one bit. In fact, with all the drug addiction and other things that happened, it made it worse. We want to save the world. We want to help it. And we can't, except in little ways. And we enjoy those ways. We thank God for those ways. But tomorrow, there's another billion ways out there, and we can't do it all. But it can happen here.

Instead of living in fear of the first six trumpets, we need to live in joy. Obviously, the only way it can get fixed. And enjoy today, because the six trumpets haven't started yet. The tribulation hasn't started yet. I'm sort of glad. Also, a part of me says, I really wish sometimes just to get it over so it can be fixed. Just so it can get fixed. Just so this never happens again. Just so there's no warlord someplace that lets people starve so his warriors can have lots of food and lots of ammunition.

So that nobody sells drugs today on the streets of Nashville and some kid dies tonight. That'd be great.

Sometimes we don't want it to happen because we don't want our lives disrupted. Because we have pretty good lives. And we forget about humanity.

There's no way to even describe, we try, what the millennium's going to be like. But it's not going to be easy because we're going to have to change the world.

We are here for the memorial of blowing of trumpets.

But the blowing of the shofar isn't just about war. It's about announcing people to come and worship. And it's about announcing the coronation of the king. So yes, war is part of it. But it's also to come worship God and worship His Son, Jesus Christ, and to understand He's already king and He's coming back.

Let's end by going to 1 Thessalonians 5. I'm just going to read a few verses here.

Paul writes in verse 1, But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief of the night. It's going to catch people by surprise. You think after all those things, how could it catch them by surprise? Because they won't believe this. That's why. They won't believe what's said in this book. For then when they say, peace and safety and sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep as others do, but let us watch and be sober. Let us not become so complacent in the world that we live in, because it's so good that we forget who the God of this world is, and that we have been called to reject Him and come out of this and be prepared to serve Jesus Christ when He returns. That's what we're called to do. He's the reign in our lives now. We're to be His disciples now. We're to be the children of God now. And I'm just quoting New Testament Scriptures there, so that we are prepared for that when He returns.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are on the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. The condemnation of God in the first six of the trumpets and the bowls or the vials of the seventh trumpet isn't on us. It's on the world. He's called who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, in other words, He's talking here about being dead or alive. He changes his metaphors about sleep here. We should live together with Him. Therefore, here's what we are to do. Comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing now. I prayed about this coming together on trumpets, as I do all the time, that God would help us by moving us with His Spirit, by moving us with this Book, but also by moving us to have this closeness, this closeness, that we help each other, we comfort each other, as we see the day of the Lord is going to happen someday, that we talk about the greatness of that day, the goodness of that day. And we realize the shofar, yes.

The shofar is about war, but it's also a call to worship. And it's also a call of a coronation.