The Revelation 16:10 | Episode # 1125

February 6, 2026

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

The Revelation 16:10

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney.

This podcast is designed to help you.

Study God's word and find God's will for your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

I have. I've got.

As I've said many times today, I've got almost nothing. In fact, I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

But I did get a word of discouragement today.

While we were eating dinner, my wife told me that she checked in her Bible and that I'd been in John for two years and I'd only gotten to chapter 10.

And I just saw that as a major word of.

It wasn't a word of knowledge. It was just.

Well, it wasn't encouraging either. It was just.

It was just a word. It was information that I've taken in and so many. I have no idea what that means, really.

It was truth, right? It was just a word of truth.

But tonight we're gonna deal with,

starting in verse 10,

the fifth bowl, and we're going to deal with this just a little bit.

And it's beginning to turn around and move toward an understanding of chapter 17.

And then you're quickly moving toward what is called Armageddon. And that's actually mentioned at the end of this chapter or the battle at Megiddo.

And understanding that is part of. Well, it's part of the Revelation.

And understanding the kingdom and the darkness that is being dealt with in the book of the Revelation is important. It's not something to be diminished. In fact, the Bible says that the reading of this book has a special blessing that goes along, along with it.

And we've talked about that.

And so there's a blessing that goes along with studying and understanding the book of the Revelation. And as y' all have kind of gone through it with me, you can kind of tell that it's not a.

It's. It's not a book of darkness. It's actually a book of light and Revelation. It's not something to be hidden and hide from.

It gives us a lot of information and God open. Opens our eyes to see Those things.

Now,

one of the things that I have always, especially,

especially when you come out more Pentecostal roots,

and then you say, well, what kind of roots do you have? Well, I have Baptist and Methodist to start out with, and then I have a good bit of Presbyterian that has informed my theology.

And then my practice in many ways has been more charismatic, what you'd call charismatic or Pentecostal. And so I've got a nice.

A nice mixture of that. And by the way, most of our pastors have a mixture.

They're a mixture of those things too. They've been in all kinds of churches and either growing up or pastoring in those places.

And so we have a broad range of those backgrounds. And one of the things that is really important when we're studying, what we're going to be studying over the next couple of months is to understand that we're not going to spend time glorifying the work of Satan,

okay? Or, or.

Or doing things to make Satan seem like he is more or greater than he is, okay? And so when, when we're, when we're studying the kingdom of darkness or the work of the enemy,

it is necessary to study that. It's necessary to know what's going on around you, and it's necessary to have an understanding of the spiritual things that are taking place around you and a realization of that.

That being said,

he who is great in you is greater than he who is in the world.

You have in you the power of God, which causes the enemy and the demons to shudder and to flee.

And so it's not important that we study this so that we can act as if there's a battle that, that we. We are losing when we're dealing with Satan. It's not a battle that we're losing.

In fact, it's a battle that is guaranteed to be won.

But you'll spend a lot of time when you, if you. And, and, and you know, each area, as I brought it up, each area of my. Of my roots will, Will get into it a lot.

And oftentimes they'll begin to get carried away with,

you know,

fighting the devil rather than being the light and giving out the gospel.

Now, understanding what's going on is really, really important. Understanding how the enemy operates, who he is,

what the limitations are for the kingdom of darkness is really important so that you are informed about what's going on around you.

But they are.

None of that is going to overcome or should overcome you.

And we see that throughout the Old Testament, New Testament, and especially in the context of what we're kind of dealing with in John 10 and in the book of Joshua.

He says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. It doesn't mean. He doesn't say, yea, though I might be conquered in the valley of the shadow of death, or,

yea, though I go to the valley of the shadow of death to be defeated. It doesn't say anything like that. Okay?

That's not what it says.

He says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil. Why? Because he's with us. And if he's with us, we don't have to worry about that.

And I do want to, and I will focus on this over and over again. But I do need you to understand that the enemy is a created being.

And those who are under him are a.

Or are a organization,

an organization structure that.

That functions to.

To the glory of Satan.

Okay? All right. And so before we move into this and kind of talk about this, you need to understand that Satan was a created being.

He is. He is no more powerful and no greater.

I heard somebody even talking about this.

I can't remember where. I was listening to it on YouTube or something like that.

And he began to make Satan be the greater creature. That's the greatest creature that was ever created,

only second only to Christ.

And that's an elevation of Satan.

Okay? And you need to understand that.

And Satan is not elevated. The Mormon faith teaches that Satan and Jesus were co. Equals and brothers, and that God the Father chose Jesus's plan for the world over Satan's plan for the world.

And so that's why Satan is such a problem.

Okay?

Satan is not the co. Equal of God.

All right? The opposite of God is not God. It's not Satan. Okay? The opposite of God is all that is not God.

The opposite of Satan is Gabriel and Michael. Okay? And so that kingdom is the way it is now.

One of the aspects of the angelic host and one of the aspects of Satan that is different from you and I and is important is that Satan does not have a creative ability.

Are you following me?

Satan does not have a creative ability other than to recognize what.

What is not God and to operate in that,

okay? He does not come up with his own things.

If you'll remember, when Jesus was in. In the. In the wilderness, what did Satan do? Did Satan come up own scripture to tempt Jesus? No, he used God, the word of God.

He manipulated it a little bit,

and then he tried to Get Jesus to act outside of God's word by using God's word. Okay? Satan has created nothing.

He's made nothing.

Okay?

But he is an excellent counterfeit. Remember, Jesus has taken the authority over the earth back through us.

He's chosen to do that. Could Jesus have wiped Satan out after he was raised from the dead?

Absolutely could have. But remember, he leaving him here so that we can learn to be overcomers of the darkness. As Jesus is,

so in many ways, Satan is left here so that we can begin to understand and walk in the victory that is in Jesus Christ and to know that victory.

I don't. I'm trying to explain this in detail to you.

So when we talk about the way Satan acts and operates,

he didn't come up with a lot of new stuff.

He just really, really good at the old stuff.

He's just really excellent at doing the old stuff. The stuff that he's always done,

he does it really well.

Now if you say, well, it seems like he's coming up with new stuff. He's not the one coming up with the new stuff.

You know who's coming up with the new stuff?

We are. The Bible says that man invents new ways to sin,

not Satan.

Okay? Satan doesn't come up with any new stuff. We do. Which means that the aspect of us that is creative, and we are a creative being unlike any other being in the universe, we have a consciousness.

We have an understanding and an ability to make that which isn't something.

We can take nothing and make something out of it. Okay? We can take an idea or an understanding that is born in us and make it alive in the world.

Satan can't do that.

Okay?

Satan cannot do that.

All right? So his kingdom has limits to it, and the way he operates has limits to it.

And those limits and those patterns can be known.

Okay? Those limits and those patterns can be known.

And the main pattern I want you to think about is the pattern that Pastor Philip brought up just a minute ago. He is a counterfeiter.

Okay? He counterfeits what God does.

If God says,

I'm going to do this,

then he gets busy doing whatever it is that's opposite of that.

Are you following me? When God told Adam and Eve in the garden that Eve's seed would crush Satan's head or crush the serpent's head.

Well, he heard that.

And so what was he busy doing?

Well, trying to end the seed of a woman.

And how did he do that? Well, you know, you get the whole story of the Nephilim and The sons of God came and saw the daughters of men.

What was Satan trying to do? He was trying to breed out humanity. He was trying to get rid of humanity. And God had to end that because of the great wickedness that it caused.

And. And he created the flood.

Notice. Did Satan come up with a great grand plan to destroy God's plan on his own?

No. He just took what he knew about God and he acted upon it.

Okay?

And so oftentimes you will find this pattern at work with the enemy.

If the enemy sees you doing something or sees you saying something,

they will turn that and make that a part of how they attack you.

Are you following me? So if you begin to operate in the spiritual in some way, the enemy will figure out a way to attack you in what you're doing,

okay? To either make you afraid or make you worried or doubtful about it.

Make you uncertain about whether you're hearing from God or whether you're acting upon what God's doing.

He will do that over and over and over with you,

okay? And so if that's taking place,

you've got to understand,

if I'm being attacked, and it's quite clearly a spiritual attack,

what that means is, is that I am taking ground,

God's moving, and the enemy's trying his best to keep me from moving forward in his kingdom.

The thing he definitely wants, people who are light people are of the kingdom. The thing he wants you to do is be still and do nothing.

If you'll be still and do nothing,

he'll let you because he's smart.

And by the way, he knows everything that is knowable by seeing, hearing,

understanding it.

Okay? If it's knowable, he knows it.

If it's not knowable,

he doesn't know it.

Which means the mysteries that God talks about, he doesn't know them.

By the way, he knows the Bible inside and out,

okay? He knows it completely. He knows every bit of it. Okay, does he know your thoughts?

No,

he doesn't know what you think.

Bible says that there's only one who really understands or even knows the thoughts of man, and that's the Spirit of God.

So he doesn't know the things that are unknowable.

He knows the things that are knowable, and he knows them completely.

All right?

So understanding that when we get to this is important.

It says,

then the fourth angel poured out his bowl. This is verse eight of chapter 16.

I'm sorry, 10. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast.

Huh?

All right,

so this Beast.

Now we need to understand this because I think it's really, really important,

okay?

This beast that he's talking about is the beast out of the sea,

okay? Which we call the Antichrist. Then you've got the beast out of the land, which is the false prophet.

The beast out of the sea has a kingdom,

all right?

And it's not the whole earth.

You need to see that. He pours this bowl out on the kingdom of the beast. If it was the whole earth, he'd poured it out on all of humanity on the earth,

but he pours it out on the kingdom of the beast.

Now you're going, well, I don't know. What kingdom is that? We don't know.

We don't know.

And I'll be I, I, I, I,

as straight up as I can be. Although if I could figure it out, I know I could sell a million copies of a book,

okay? If I really knew what it was and could. Was convinced of it to the point where I knew that was Revelation from God, I would tell you, but I don't know.

You say, well, could it be America?

Could be.

Could it be Europe?

Yeah.

Could it be some confederation of Middle Eastern nations?

Sure, it could.

Could it be from South America?

Eh, probably not.

But.

But could it, could it be. Could it be the Mediterranean region of the world, North Africa and Southern Europe?

Sure, it could be. Could it be? Could it be.

Could it be out in Eastern.

Out in the eastern parts of Asia,

what we call the Far East? Could it be from there?

Perhaps, probably not.

All right, could it be those things? I don't know. Who, who is his kingdom?

I don't know. There are nations that the Bible describes that are a part of his, that are part of his group of nations that are under his. Under his, His.

His yoke or maybe his authority.

And we know those countries, they're not hard to figure out. If you know the book of Ezekiel and you know the prophecies of the New Testament and those that speak to the end days in the Old Testament, we know that Persia is a part of that.

We know that this great prince,

which is spelled R O, s of the north, is a part of that.

So we know that that's the Ross or the Rus,

which are the Russians,

okay? We know that.

We know that the former home of the church that Paul preached the gospel to,

that what we call modern day Turkey is under that influence, okay?

We know that a nation that's on the other side of Egypt,

Libya is mentioned in scripture.

All right?

We also know the nations that are not. Egypt's not involved.

We know that, okay? That they've already been under the judgment. The Bible says that they won't be under that judgment. Okay?

We know some of the nations he influences, but we don't know how he does it,

and we don't know what he uses to do that.

Okay? Now I want you to hear me.

I want you to hear me.

The enemy uses fear and darkness, which is a lack of understanding and doubt to cause you to act in ways that he wants you to act.

So if somebody comes to you and says,

this is. This is the Antichrist,

be careful.

This is how the Antichrist is going to take control.

Be careful.

I want you to hear me. God's not in the business of telling the devil exactly how to do it,

okay?

It's not. A lot of this is, is. Is not giving to. Given to us to know before.

It's given us to know after. It's clearly come about.

All right?

If you'd have told Christians a hundred years ago that there would be a great and powerful Jewish nation in the homeland or in the promised land of. Of the Middle East,

Christians all over the world would have told you, that's crazy.

All right?

Now the question is, is that prophesied? And the answer is, yeah,

the Bible tells us that he was going to draw. Draw his people from all over the world and from nations all over the world. And it happened.

Now, after it's happened,

it's quite obvious that that passage was talking about. That makes sense.

I. Before that, it seemed like lunacy,

seemed like it couldn't take place.

I'm going to tell you today, right now, if you said the core of the power of the Antichrist is going to be Iran and Russia, I would tell you, well, that's not good for him.

Russia is weak,

really, really weak and getting weaker.

Iran has had its guts bombed out,

okay?

Neither one of them are very powerful. And you go, well, that means it ain't going to happen anytime soon. I didn't say that. Did I say that?

I didn't say that.

I don't know how. What will happen, what might could happen that would cause the Antichrist to be able to rise up and those nations be strong and mighty again.

I don't have an answer for that.

I do know that those nations will fight.

Whether they're going to drive tanks,

where they're going to fly in,

I don't know totally how it's going to work. You know why? Because the Bible doesn't tell us.

Now, the Bible is going to tell us that he makes a path for them to get there.

Okay? The way he makes that path is he drives up the great river Euphrates. But that's very good. He wants you to think about the how instead of the H.

You know, these marks that we talk about. And we've got into that a little bit.

Why would the devil have a mark on his followers?

No, not so he can tell who they are. He knows who they are. Very good question. Very good answer.

Right? Because you got a mark on you.

The Bible says that you're sealed with the Holy Spirit,

that the mantle of the Holy Spirit's on you.

So he figures if we got uniforms, his team needs to have some uniforms,

okay?

He figures if. If God made man, he needs to have something he made.

So he makes that.

That idol that comes alive.

He figures if God has the Godhead of the Father, he needs to be the Father. He thinks if God has a son,

he needs to have a beast that operates as a son. If God has a Holy Spirit, he needs to have a beast that acts like the Spirit. If you'll notice, everything he's doing is counterfeiting.

Everything he's doing is counterfeiting.

So I am telling you, if you're trying to deduce from CNN and Fox News what the devil's doing,

where you're definitely in the right place,

okay? But you're not getting the right information.

He is. He is wise.

He's cunning.

He will trick you.

He will lead you away.

How do you get led away if you're a sheep?

Well, we're going to talk about it Sunday morning because the Bible says that his sheep do not listen to anyone else's voice.

Okay? And we're going to talk about that. But the truth is, is the way you don't get led away,

the way you don't get led into fear and doubt and worry is you listen to the voice of God.

Listen to him speaking to you.

And I will say this,

and I. You do need to hear this.

You are constantly barraged with knowledge and information and things that are going on around you and things that are happening in your family.

And you are in. And because you are intensely creative, you can come up with all kinds of tragedies that might happen for you and your family and the people you love.

Am I right?

How many of you, at times in your life have been paralyzed by those fears?

Okay. All right.

Been paralyzed by them?

Lived in doubt? Wondered what your future might be?

Okay.

Worried.

Each and every day,

I want you to hear me. That is your creative,

made in the image of God being operating like the enemy does.

You are trying to come up with ways that evil might take place rather than.

Rather than hearing the voice of God and figuring out what God's doing.

So many Christians spend their whole lives walking in fear and doubt and worry and discouragement rather than walking in who you've been made to be.

They do it all the time.

I want you to hear me.

The thing about this verse that gives me so much hope and it makes me feel good.

It doesn't say that Satan is in control of the whole world.

He's not in the control of the whole world.

He's not going to be in control of the Jewish people.

He's not going to be in control of those who are. Who are trusting in Jesus.

I want you to hear me if you're trusting Jesus. Jesus came to them and said, all authority in heaven, on earth has been given to me. Okay? Now, like I said before, he could have taken that.

Are you following me? He could have immediately exercised that authority in its fullness and taken over,

but he didn't.

He gave them instructions as to how to live it out until he decides to return.

Therefore, go make disciples, which means go into the world.

I'm in control.

You get to go wherever you want to into the world.

Make disciples, baptize. Teach them to obey all that I've taught you.

Walk in that. Walk it out.

As you go. Today I pray that the Lord will.

Bless you and keep you, that he'll make his face to shine upon you, and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name