Almighty, Holy, True, and Just

ReCAST Church of Mattawan iconReCAST Church of Mattawan

0 views

Don Filcek; Revelation 16 Almighty, Holy, True, and Just

0 comments

00:11
You're listening to the podcast of the Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week,
00:16
Pastor Don Filsak preaches through his series, Thy Kingdom Come, taking us through the book of Revelation.
00:22
Let's listen in. Good morning, welcome to Recast Church. I'm glad that you're here.
00:29
I'm Don Filsak, I'm the lead pastor, and I just want to point out what a beautiful thing it is when God's people gather together to pay attention to Him.
00:36
That's a really cool thing, so I'm glad that you've taken time out of your week to do that. Worshipping God is really important.
00:43
Do you agree with that? Is that a pretty important thing? And then I would also say that together is an important thing, and so when you put those two together, togetherness with God's people and worshiping
00:55
Him, that's a very, very vital part of our life and growth spiritually. So I'm glad that you're here.
01:02
I love the weekly reminder that I'm not alone in this journey. I hope you agree with me on that.
01:08
That recognition that you're not, you don't have to go it alone, but there are others on this same journey in your community with you who are here together, running together, holding each other accountable, walking and doing life together.
01:23
I'd encourage you to think in terms this week of not being ashamed to lean on others. Don't be,
01:29
I'd encourage you to lean on others and even to just think in terms of maybe calling one another this week to share your story with others, to do life together.
01:40
I think in terms of who needs your encouragement. I think a lot of times we're so busy in our week that we don't really think outside of ourselves to that extent to say who needs my encouragement this week, but then equally to think in terms of who should
01:56
I reach out to for encouragement this week. Sometimes we tend to either be really good on the side of others need me because we can be that arrogant and we can be that proud and we can be that self -confident that others of course need me, but then there's the other side of the equation that is
02:12
I need others. And so a good walk with God is a good balance in that keeping both of those in tension.
02:21
I both need others and others need me. And I hope that you are intentionally working to grow in community.
02:26
Here at Recast Church we have small groups. Now in the summertime those tend to kind of fall off and they pick up again in the spring.
02:33
I would encourage you if you are interested in a small group, please do me a favor and when you fill out that connection card, even if you've been here for a while, you got one of those in the worship folder, check that box that you're interested.
02:44
This would be a great time here before we've got a little bit of time to put small groups together for the fall.
02:50
And so if you're here and you're not currently connected in a small group community where you can do life together, this would be a great time to check that box and we can get in touch with you before the fall and get that connected.
03:04
We live in a culture where it's natural to drift away from relationships. Have you identified that? The natural drift in my life is toward isolation.
03:13
I'm just being honest. Like it's everything seems to move us toward self, self, self.
03:18
But God is calling us to alter that drift and continue to grow together. And this morning as we dive into Revelation chapter 16, we're going to be looking at the final cycle of God's judgment, his wrath in the book of Revelation.
03:32
This is the final of those cycles. We've seen the seals, we saw the trumpets, and now we're coming to the text about the bowls poured out of God's wrath in the end.
03:44
It really is a text, as you're going to see when we read it here in a moment, it's a text that covers the very clear, very, very clear wrath of God poured out on those who will oppose him in the end.
03:58
And as we encounter this text, I would suggest to you that we need each other when we come to places like this.
04:03
We actually need each other to come to places like this, texts like this. We need encouragement, accountability, and relationships that will regularly remind us of who our great
04:14
God is. Without a people of faith around us, we may quickly slip into wrong -minded thoughts about who
04:20
God is. Without a gathering where we open up our Bibles and tax our brains to understand the revelation of the
04:27
Almighty together, we may never even turn to these difficult texts of the Bible. We might stick to the places of Scripture that we're comfortable with, and that's one of the reasons
04:36
I personally am committed to taking you there, to taking you to these texts that make us uncomfortable, where we might just skim over them really quickly.
04:45
Here in the gathering of God's people, we have the opportunity to dive in a little bit deeper, to take them on, to think through them, to wrestle with them, and let them form us.
04:54
Let them change us, because we encounter God in the pages of his text. So this morning in Revelation 16, we're going to see the text provide some answers to some pretty fundamental questions.
05:05
Questions that you probably have asked at some level at some point in your life, but questions that are important whether you've asked them or not.
05:12
The first is, how stubborn and broken is the human heart when it is set against God? This text is going to give us a pretty clear picture of what the human heart looks like when it is set against God.
05:24
The second question is, what is the judgment of God against that rebellion look like? So if there is indeed human rebellion that we're going to see clearly spelled out in the text, then what is his judgment of that look like?
05:35
The third question, what kind of protection does our modern technology afford us in the end? Now you might kind of look at that and go, well where's that in the text?
05:41
But you think in terms of, we are a culture and a people who like to science our way out of things, right?
05:47
Science our way out of difficulties. We believe in some kind of sense, whether we would admit it or not, there's some sense in the back of our mind that things will just continue to get better.
05:58
We will continue to be more and more comfortable. Things will continue to improve. We will fight and continue to fight against the effects of the fall.
06:05
And even some would have thought a while ago that we're going to continue to just usher in an era of utopia where everything is just peaceful and good and we're going to get it figured out on our own.
06:16
We'll see kind of what this text indicates about that. And lastly, we're going to consider how we should respond in light of the coming wrath that God is bringing to the world.
06:25
How should we respond in the here and now? God has recorded for us that the end is coming. So in that sense,
06:31
I feel like the guy on the corner with the bullhorn, only I happen to be standing up here, but I should be wearing a sandwich board that says the end is coming because that's what this text is kind of all about.
06:42
But he did not do that and record this for us just for the people of the end times so that they could go, oh this must be the end times because A, B, and C has happened.
06:51
And a lot of times we look at the text that way and I've mentioned many times that that is not the case for this text.
06:56
He has written this to you and I here in Matawan in 2016 that we might be changed and transformed by coming to know him in the fullness of his revelation.
07:08
Not just in the parts that we like, not just in the the text that make us comfortable or make us feel good about ourselves or even just the text that make us feel super warm and fuzzy about God.
07:19
Because believe me, when we read this here in a second, this is not a text that makes you feel warm and fuzzy about God. If anything, it might move you to fear him.
07:27
It might move you to kind of tremble a little bit at the notion of what his wrath towards sin looks like and we need that.
07:34
We need that balance for each and every one of us so that you and I might be changed because of the text of scripture.
07:42
So let's open our Bibles if you're not already there to Revelation 16 and read about God's just wrath against rebellious humanity.
07:51
Revelation 16, if you don't have a Bible on your lap or a means to navigate to a Bible, please raise your hand and Mike Rogers has some
07:59
Bibles back here and you can grab those, grab one if you need one so you can follow along in Revelation 16.
08:05
It's a little bit of a longer text of scripture but I'm going to read it in its entirety. And I want you to remember that as we come to worship,
08:12
I'm going to read this and we're going to pray and then we're going to go right into worship this morning. And I want to remind you that we do not worship
08:19
God despite this text. Like some people might have the attitude that when you read this and you look at the things that God is going to do in the end, you go, well, but we can still worship him even though he does these things.
08:32
But every indication is that we should worship him because he does these things, because he is just, not despite the fact that he does these things.
08:41
So listen in. Then I, this is the Apostle John speaking and you remember he's receiving these visions, then
08:47
I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.
08:54
So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshipped its image.
09:03
The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became like the blood of a corpse and every living thing died that was in the sea.
09:14
The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood.
09:20
And I heard the angel in charge of the water say, just are you, O holy one, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and you have given them blood to drink.
09:36
It is what they deserve. And I heard the altar saying, yes, Lord God the
09:42
Almighty, true and just are your judgments. The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and it was allowed to scorch people with fire.
09:53
They were scorched by the fierce heat and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
10:01
The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.
10:06
People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores.
10:12
They did not repent of their deeds. The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east.
10:21
And I saw it coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs, for they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the
10:36
Almighty. Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed.
10:46
And they assembled them at the place that is in Hebrew called, in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
10:52
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done.
11:01
And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a great earthquake such as there has never been since man was on the earth.
11:10
So great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations fell and God remembered
11:19
Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away and no mountains were to be found.
11:27
And great hailstones, about 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on people and they cursed
11:32
God for the plague of the hail because the plague was so severe. Let's pray.
11:43
Father, we recognize the need for justice and we praise you that you are just. And we praise you that sin never goes unpunished.
11:53
And I pray that we would be a people who recognize that and believe that and trust that and see that as truth from your word.
11:59
And yet, as we can contemplate and consider the wrath that is coming, we also know a wrath that's already been spent.
12:08
A wrath that you poured out on your son on our behalf that we might stand righteous before you.
12:15
What, what amazing grace is this. What glorious truth is this, that we need not face your wrath any longer because Jesus took that for us.
12:27
And every sin that we've ever committed has indeed been punished by death.
12:34
But in your justice and in your great mercy and in your great love, you poured that out on your son.
12:46
So Father, I confess I am not worthy of that. And may we lift our voices as the redeemed, as those who praise your name, because even though we recognize your justice is rolling down and we long for the day when things will be made right, when there will indeed be true justice and righteousness and we will walk as we were intended to walk as your children.
13:07
There's a lot that's going to change between now and then. So Father, may we raise our voices and may we bring more to raise their voices.
13:15
May we seek out more worshipers for your name. Even this week, Father, give us opportunities as we lift our voices together.
13:23
Thank you for together. Thank you that we're not alone in this. In Jesus' name. I encourage you to get comfortable, as comfortable as possible while we speak about God's divine wrath against humanity's rebellion.
13:36
So, I mean, just try your best. But remember if any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts or whatever, or get up in the back to stretch out, that's available for you there.
13:47
So you're not going to distract me by doing any of that. So make yourself comfortable as possible. And keep your
13:53
Bibles open, by the way, to Revelation chapter 16, so you can see the progression as we walk through the text that the things that I'm saying, it really is the structure.
14:00
It really is the outline for the sermon this morning. And just to set the stage and reminding us where we've already been, last week's preparation, last week's text in chapter 15, preparations were made for the final cycle of God's judgment on the kingdoms of this world.
14:17
And so seven angels were issued, seven bowls that were filled with undiluted wrath of God Almighty.
14:23
The saints of God sang songs to him of how awesome he is, how just, awesome, holy, and altogether righteous is our
14:32
God. And so we talked a lot about worship last week in the context of these bowls coming down, of this wrath coming down.
14:38
Still, worship is the focus. But at the end of our text last week, we saw God literally shut himself up in the temple.
14:46
At the end, it said he went into the temple, his glory was so magnificent and his power so demonstrated that none could enter the temple until this act is done.
14:58
Until this final act, he basically isolates himself for a period of time, which is just kind of like, whoa, there's something significant, whether that's just symbolism or imagery is a little bit unclear.
15:07
How does God stand alone? I mean, he is in all places at once, and we know that. But at the same time, that's intentionally mentioned in the text that none can enter his presence during this final cycle of the final wrapping up of his wrath.
15:23
Verse one begins with God's voice then. Remember, he's the only one in the temple, so when you hear a voice coming out of the temple, God's voice, okay?
15:30
So God is the one who's speaking from the temple, and he commands, he says, let it commence, let it begin.
15:36
The seven angels are to begin pouring out their bowls of wrath on the planet.
15:43
We're gonna go through these one at a time. That's really the structure of the text this morning, is to talk about each one independently and kind of think it through.
15:51
In verse two, the first bowl is poured out, and what we see is, if you look at the text, so the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and the
16:00
ESV translates, harmful and painful sores begin to break out on those who belong to the beast, those who've been marked by his mark of ownership.
16:13
The interesting thing is, the word harmful there can equally be translated in Greek, and maybe even more picturesque, is ugly.
16:21
So ugly and painful sores is another way to translate this. This is a nasty disease.
16:27
This is a difficult, painful, pain -inflicting illness that breaks out on the skin of those who have basically bowed their knee to the evil one, to the
16:39
Antichrist, and to Satan who empowers him. The interesting thing that it really is important to point out is that who breaks out in these sores?
16:47
It's a specific segment of people. It is not all people. These punishments are not carried out against God's people, but against those who oppose him.
16:58
I want to quickly remind everyone that every indication in scripture is that Jesus Christ himself has borne the wrath of God on behalf of anyone who believes in him and trusts him to be the rightful king, and has bowed their knee to him.
17:14
He's basically said, I owe allegiance to you, and I pledge my allegiance to the Son of God, and then have asked him to save them.
17:22
So that really is the movement of scripture of salvation, is bowing the knee before the king and acknowledging that he is the king, and then humbly asking him to save you on the basis of the work that he did for you.
17:37
Faith in Christ therefore means loyalty to him, and a humble request for his protection from the wrath of the
17:43
Father which was provided through the sacrificial death. So as we march through these bowls, the wrath of God is not on those who are his children by faith in Jesus.
17:53
It's important for you to understand where are these bowls being poured out, and they're poured out on sinful, rebellious humanity who is not in with Jesus.
18:00
In the first bowl, you see it there in the text, it's painful. It's painful to all who are opposed to God.
18:07
And I'm sure that you've noticed how physical pain has a way of spoiling the recipe for a good life.
18:13
Have you ever identified, have you ever been in, you've been in pain? Raise your hand if you've been in pain at some point in your life. You're just kind of like, yeah, just this past week it was really ironic,
18:21
I'm preaching on this, and I had a really bad toothache. And it's funny how you can have a toothache, and it can just kind of get into everything.
18:28
It gets into my relationship with my wife, it gets into my relationship with my kids, and the way that I drive, and do you know what
18:35
I'm talking about? You have that, and it can really spoil things pretty quickly. And I mean, that kind of betrays something about my personality, and I'm sure it does to you too.
18:43
I mean, at some point you kind of go, man, how how easily am I bothered? How frail is my emotional state that a toothache can set me off, you know?
18:52
But we recognize that pain is a significant source of grabbing our attention, right?
18:58
And it's going to be so in the end. This is a significant first bowl. The second bowl is poured out in verse 3, and the seas are turned to blood.
19:06
And it says this in the text, all living things in the sea died.
19:13
Now, many pastors and theologians who are committed to trying to explain all these plagues in Revelation in some kind of a scientific method, or some kind of scientific what could really be going on here, you know, and that's the idea.
19:24
When somebody says, what's really going on? Well, sometimes it is just the face value. Maybe God just really turns the seas into blood.
19:32
Maybe it's literally like if you took the if you took it and did a scientific analysis, maybe it really is blood.
19:38
I don't know. But many have thought of this as maybe a red algae bloom, and it would be caused by global warming.
19:47
So you can actually see if this picture, I don't know if it's up it's not working back there, but this is a picture of a red algae bloom, and it kind of, if you look at it, kind of looks like blood.
19:56
So some people have said, well, that's probably what's going on. The use of the word lake, the blood of a corpse, allows this kind of interpretation.
20:04
It could be something that just colors it red, or makes it unusable to us, or something to that effect.
20:10
But on the other hand, maybe Al Gore is right, okay? We'll see a better reason to believe in global warming come verse 4, okay?
20:18
I believe in global warming. You're going to see that here in verse 4. The question is, who causes it? And the text is going to say,
20:25
God is going to bring it. God is going to bring global warming. It's going to happen, but it's not until the fourth bowl we'll see here.
20:31
But remember that I've been working hard to make sure that we don't get lost in the details and slide off into speculation so much that we miss the point.
20:39
What was the point? Whether it's whether it's blood, real blood or or not. How could we be discussing that in light of what the text has clearly revealed to us?
20:47
What we know is not figurative, and that is that all living creatures in the sea died. Like, do you see how we can get so spun off into these side thoughts and side concerns that we can miss?
20:58
Like the force, the impact that the text is meant to have on us.
21:04
The death of all sea creatures is like a partial reversal of the fifth day of creation. God created all of those animals in the sea and called it good.
21:16
God, who delighted to create these things and called it all good, will bring to an end that good creation.
21:26
Why? Because the caretaker, humanity, who is responsible for this place to care for it, we've broke it through our sin and through our rebellion against our creator.
21:40
And it needs a major overhaul to get back to what it was originally meant to be. And that's what we see happening here in the book of Revelation.
21:47
We see this entire movement of an overhaul that is coming upon the earth to usher in the kingdom of his son that will indeed be with justice and glory and beauty and majesty and sinless and pain -free for eternity.
22:04
Now, I don't know about you, I love watching the Nature Channel. Anybody with me on that? You love watching Nature Channel or you like watching like those documentaries.
22:11
There's a new channel that I just picked up and it's a BBC channel. And every once in a while, I haven't figured out the pattern yet, but every once in a while they're showing shows that are, you know, the ocean ones or whatever or the jungles or whatever.
22:24
And I mean, how could you get past that British accent, right? You know, the one I'm talking about. I mean, it's just like, oh, it's mesmerizing and eventually you're snoring or whatever.
22:32
But I mean, it's still really cool to see the different creatures that God has created and I love that.
22:38
Adam, my oldest son, and I are hoping to get some diving classes soon so that we can get scuba certified and take on some of this.
22:45
Like, I really look forward to that. And I have to confess that the thought of the loss of ocean life is devastating.
22:52
Is that devastating to you? Isn't that just, and I mean, just think about what an upheaval. That's kind of like, I think of it like the point of no return.
22:59
I mean, when that really literally happens on the face of this planet, how many of you think you're going, people are like, build the rocket and get to the next planet, right?
23:07
Like, it's time to get to Pandora. It's Avatar time, right? Like, we got to get out there to another inhabitable.
23:12
Some of, two, three of you knew what I was even talking about there. A couple of sci -fi geeks in here. But other than that, yeah,
23:19
I mean, I think people are going to be like, oh, we, it's over. Like, we freak out at the thought that a species, out of the bazillions of species, that's a technical scientific designation, a bazillion species on the face of the planet, and the thought that one of them might go extinct, we freak out, right?
23:38
I think reasonably. I think it's, I think it's a terrifying, a terrible thought that we would cause the extinction of any kind of animal, minus the mosquito.
23:46
I mean, well, I wouldn't mind that going away. But anyways, that's another story. But we think about how the ecological system would be impacted by this devastating, irreversible kind of damage done to our ecology on this planet.
23:58
And, you know, here we are in the second bowl, the second bowl of God's wrath.
24:04
The ecosystems and the economies of this planet will be in complete and utter upheaval and turmoil.
24:10
And then the third bowl turns over to the freshwater, and it is stricken as well and turned to blood.
24:16
Again, the imagery of blood is used, and it's quite within the scope of God's power to make the water turn into literal blood.
24:24
Now, I think we kind of just look at the current technologies that we have. Could you filter water out of blood? Yeah, we could.
24:31
But imagine the psychological toll of this bowl judgment, and it's gruesome, and it's intention of what it's meant to communicate to us.
24:39
And at this point, we encounter a mini interlude, a little bit of an interlude here. We're not just boom, boom, boom, bowl, bowl, bowl, but right here at the end of the third bowl, an angel is going to speak up.
24:50
The angel speaks up to remind us of God's character. Now, the timing is good because we're almost halfway through this list already, and we may be getting uncomfortable with God's actions.
24:58
How many of you are kind of uncomfortable with the thought of all the sea creatures dying?
25:03
Like, I'm kind of uncomfortable with that. It doesn't make me really joyful and skippy that all of this stuff is going to go down, and people are going to have blood to drink.
25:13
So we might feel just a skosh if we're honest. Now, it's not very popular to admit this, but we might feel a skosh like God is being unfair to the world.
25:23
Like, we could feel that. And I would suggest to you that you probably at this point are intended to feel that way.
25:30
Like, there's a force in the text that you're kind of supposed to go, well, really? Okay, now you're going over the top.
25:37
But the angel speaks up at the right point at the right time where we might be questioning and wondering,
25:42
God, what are you doing? And it says the angel over the waters spoke up.
25:49
Well, he seems to be qualified. He's the guy who just got unemployed, okay? So he seems to be qualified to talk about God's justice in this because he's called the angel over the waters.
25:58
And I think it's a funny thought that there is a cosmological, there's a, I mean, there's a cosmic ordering, not cosmological, but cosmic ordering going on behind the scenes that we don't routinely think about.
26:09
We were introduced to the angel over the fires in our earlier text just a couple chapters ago, and now we hear about an angel over the waters.
26:17
Do you think in those terms there's an angel who's over the water? Like, I don't, I hardly even know what that means. And it's in the text, and there's some kind of a relationship between a specific angel and water.
26:27
I don't know how that works. But he has just now, as of the pouring out of this bowl of God's wrath, been unemployed.
26:35
And I wonder if he feels relieved. Like, man, this has been a tough gig, you know, since the very beginning, controlling the waters and making the waves flow and doing all this.
26:42
And now I get a break. Or does he feel like he let the world down, you know? I mean, I was over the waters, and now,
26:48
I mean, we've let this all go, and now it's blood. But seriously, what he speaks is some very important words.
26:58
This angel over the waters, all the waters now turn to blood, says these three words.
27:06
God is just. God is just. Further, he identifies
27:13
God is the holy one. God is the holy one.
27:21
Nobody has holiness in and of themselves. Only God can rightly be declared to be holy, a word that means distinct, set apart from all else.
27:34
You see, all other things that you ever have encountered or ever will encounter are in one category lumped together.
27:43
Rocks, trees, amoebas, galaxies, and humans are all created.
27:52
Not God. He's different. He's altogether holy, completely other than anything you ever encounter.
28:03
Distinct, different. And what he does is always just.
28:13
What he does is always just. And here, the angel points out that God has made the punishment fit the crime in an ironic twist.
28:22
In verse 6, we see they have shed the blood of saints and prophets. They have been murderers.
28:29
They are the bloody people. They are the people of slaughter, who've declared open season on the people of God.
28:36
They have slit throats and spilled their share of the blood of God's people.
28:44
So God is giving them now, in the end, what they deserve.
28:51
In essence saying, if they enjoy blood so much, let them have it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
29:00
Let them have blood to drink. And I don't believe these angels' words are just strictly, strictly vindictive or ironic.
29:09
Like, whoa, God just threw it in there, just kind of add a little bit of a twist to it. But instead, they serve a point in the text to remind us of just the sliver, just one sliver of the guilt of those who are punished.
29:21
He focuses on murder and the taking of life, which is very significant, but there's more sin that's been committed that's stacked up on top of that.
29:29
This is just one sliver of the code of the judgment and the wrath of God on humanity.
29:38
God is not exacting vengeance on poor and innocent, ignorant people.
29:44
He is judging those who have hated him and murdered his people, even murdered his son.
29:51
The fourth bowl is poured out in verse eight, and the sun somehow expands and we get some serious global warming.
29:58
This is not saying that, that in the end, people will get some, you know, just you're going to be laying out at the beach and you're
30:05
Just be a quick suntan or, you know, you're going to have to be cautious about getting sunburns. The literal words are burning with flames.
30:13
It's a, I don't know what the actual mechanism is here, but people will literally die from sun exposure in significant ways.
30:21
And again, anybody with a more scientific mind, some of you are already thinking, thinking through life cycle of stars and, and what that looks like and what that implies for this.
30:30
And that can be fun, thinking through like, what, what is this, you know, is this a super giant? Is this, what does it do?
30:35
How does it expand and do all of that kind of stuff and trying to figure all of that out? But again, we can miss the point that it is
30:41
God who is doing this. It's not science that is doing this. It's God who is doing it.
30:48
Our planet will not fall victim to a chance and unfortunate failure of our star to remain stable.
30:57
Now, I think a lot of people in our culture believe that, that are not Christians, and some Christians even believe that, but there's a fear that, man, if our sun gets unstable, it's over.
31:05
It could expand. I've seen charts and graphs of man, if it goes, if it goes, if it gets out into one of these, you know, super giants or something like that, it could extend all the way out to the orbits of Saturn or Jupiter and, man, it'd just be pretty massive and it would just engulf the earth pretty quickly in that expansion process.
31:23
And so, man, we're just, you know, just live it up. I don't know what, what's your application to that? If that's, if that's your mindset, if that's the, you know, what do you, what do you do if that's the way you think it's all going to go down in the end?
31:33
Man, that would be a devastating, fearful existence that's just kind of like, just live for yourself and it's, it's all going to be over.
31:41
But our planet is not going to fall victim to chance. God has power over these plagues and it seems, according to verse 9, that the people enduring these plagues, hear it carefully, they know who to blame.
31:57
They don't blame science. They don't blame the star. They're not angry at the
32:04
S -U -N sun. I find it ironic that these atheists or antagonists to God seem to always know who to blame.
32:17
You notice that in our culture? You notice that in our media? A hurricane strikes in Louisiana and who do those who don't believe in God blame for it?
32:33
Who do they indict for that occurrence? A tsunami hits on Christmas.
32:41
Who do the atheists blame for that? I thought it was supposed to just be random chance. I thought it was supposed to just be the activities of a, of a planet that is just unstable and not really solid for us.
32:55
The atheists know who to blame. To be honest, that's the point of what I would call, and I mean, maybe it was your favorite movie on the planet.
33:02
I thought it was kind of cheesy but had some good points. God's Not Dead. Any of you see that movie? It kind of felt a little hallmark.
33:08
It's intended to make you cry or make you get emotional or something. But there, in that, spoiler alert, plug your ears if you're playing, if you've got it, rent it at home and you haven't watched it yet.
33:19
But the atheist professor is angry at the God he claims to not believe in because he took his mother.
33:26
Do you hear the ironic twist in that? Who's he blaming? The God he doesn't, he claims to not believe in.
33:33
He really believes in him. The victims of these plagues curse and blaspheme the name of the
33:40
Almighty. He is truly the one, according to this text, who has the power over these plagues.
33:48
But rather than cry out to him for mercy, they stack up against themselves more wrath by further insulting him.
33:55
They refuse to repent, which is a word that just simply means to turn from one direction and head in the other.
34:01
In a biblical sense, all humans are born in a state of needing to repent. The natural trajectory of a human life since the fall of Adam is to eternal death.
34:15
That's the natural trajectory. It is to sin that leads to death. That is the pathway that all humans are bound to.
34:22
And unless there is a turn somewhere in there to God, that our trajectory would be changed by the
34:29
Almighty to move toward God and to come to him for mercy. And that trajectory results in eternal life.
34:36
But all of us need to be knocked off of that trajectory toward death. We need repentance, a turning.
34:45
Sin leads to death. Sin leads to judgment. Sin leads to this kind of wrath.
34:51
But the sinner who turns to God finds forgiveness, peace, eternal life, and hope.
34:58
These final judgments, by the way, remember, these are not the final punishment. These are judgments, but they are not the final punishment.
35:05
The final punishment comes later in the book. But even in these plagues, there is therefore a chance to repent.
35:12
Even in these plagues is a final wake -up call. But the heart and rebellion against God wants nothing to do with him and curses him and blasphemes him.
35:21
The final phrase in verse 9 deserves its own treatment, its own explanation. They did not repent and give him glory.
35:29
What did they refuse to do? Give him glory. To give God glory is the difference,
35:35
I would say, is the decisive factor that is the difference between the arrogant, rebellious human heart and the redeemed, repentant human heart.
35:44
I like to think of King David as an illustration in the Old Testament of this giving him glory or this subtle difference in the human heart.
35:54
How many of you knew that David was a sinner? The Old Testament David. And yet he's called a man after God's own heart.
36:01
He wanted to see God glorified. He sinned gravely, but he repented deeply.
36:07
He was a weak and frail man made of thick muscles and amazing courage. I would never recommend that you go live life like David lived.
36:18
It's not what the stories are there for. I am grateful for a children's program where we don't teach our kids that, but I was raised in a program where we taught, where I was taught to do that.
36:28
I'll be like Noah, be like Joseph, be like, and there, man, be like Jesus.
36:37
Be like Jesus, that's the only hope. And how are you going to be like Jesus? You're just going to mimic him?
36:42
You're just going to try to follow him, man? He runs pretty fast. You're not going to keep up. Your only hope is that he'd pull you along, that he'd carry you.
36:51
You need a savior, not a self -improvement plan. You need someone to come and rescue you.
36:59
You're not getting out of that burning building alive on your own. You need somebody to come carry you out. So David sinned gravely.
37:13
The standard is so much higher than David. And yet David sought the glory of his Lord. He did so imperfectly.
37:21
But he wanted God to be glorified in him and through him. And you can see that as you read the Psalms by David.
37:27
A passion and a heart and a desire to honor and glorify his Lord. That's what makes a follower of Christ stand out.
37:35
Those worthy of judgment are those who refuse to give the glory to God. And they're far too eager to save it for themselves.
37:43
But the people of God are eager to make God look glorious. In verse 10, the fifth angel poured out his bowl.
37:51
And it's a specific judgment on the kingdom of the Antichrist that's shown by it being poured straight out on his throne.
37:57
His kingdom is plunged into darkness. It is the only kingdom that is cast into darkness.
38:03
How this works is a mystery to me. It could be blindness or it could be a figure of speech. And I'm open to any of these things kind of going a little bit more figurative.
38:12
What does it mean to be to be cast into darkness? Does that mean chaos? Does that mean a complete disarray?
38:19
Does that mean plunged into the depths of sin? What does it mean for his kingdom to be in darkness?
38:25
It might be again blindness. I don't know. But regardless of the way this darkness manifests itself, the result is clear for his kingdom.
38:33
When the darkness, the blood, the painful sores, and the scorching heat are all added together, the people of his kingdom, of Antichrist's kingdom, gnaw their tongues in pain.
38:42
And they once again curse God and refuse to repent of their evil deeds. And gnawing your tongue to endure and to work through the pain.
38:54
Have you ever just gritted your teeth through pain and just almost... I mean there's a word in scripture that you'll hear and we don't use it.
39:01
Have you ever heard the term gnashing of teeth? Raise your hand if you've heard that phrase, gnashing of teeth. So I'm not just doing this for my own sake.
39:07
Gnashing your teeth is grinding your teeth hard enough together to break teeth. That's gnashing teeth.
39:13
That's the kind of pain and suffering that these people are going through. This is not a beautiful picture. This is a terrifying picture of human suffering.
39:22
And again, they still curse God. They still refuse to repent. They still love their evil more than God.
39:31
And this is now the second time in our text that people refuse to repent. And now the sixth bowl is the longest and most detailed in our chapter.
39:38
Verses 12 through 16 cover this one bowl and it's more than just one thing, but it's a series of events that leads up to a final battle,
39:46
Armageddon. At first blush, it might not seem like a judgment. Like you're like, okay, these are the bowls of God's wrath, but where's the wrath in this?
39:53
The Euphrates River ceases to flow. Ooh, terrifying, right? In comparison to all these others, that's not super scary.
39:59
And you might just kind of assume that some rivers would dry up, right? Did you hear about the scorching heat? Did you hear about the sun blazing down on people and killing them from its heat?
40:09
And so you might expect a lot of strange phenomenon, like bodies of water that have always run to no longer run.
40:16
But the purpose of this is stated in the text, to prepare for the ease of travel for the enemies of God from the east to gather and come into Jerusalem against him, or actually gather in a location against him.
40:28
God is ultimately paving the way for them to come to their own demise. In verses 13 through 14, we see the strange imagery of frog demon spirit things coughed up by the false trinity, which the false trinity is
40:39
Satan, the Antichrist, and the false prophet. And those demons go about the world assembling the kings for battle.
40:46
These demons perform signs convincing the nations to come up against God. And once again, in verse 15, we get a gracious pause in the really heavy action to hear encouragement straight from the mouth of Jesus.
40:58
Now, when I was reading it, did 15 sound out of place to you? Did it stand out to you? It's in parentheses in the text of the
41:04
English Standard Version of the Bible and some of the other versions intentionally, because it's an insertion, not that somebody added it later, but it's an interjection by Jesus Christ himself.
41:17
He interrupts these judgments to speak directly to us, directly to his people. And he says, hey, hey guys, hold on a second.
41:25
This is getting pretty heavy. This is getting pretty deep. Don't forget, I'm coming. And I'm coming at any time.
41:33
So be ready. Be ready for me. So I'm coming back for you. Okay, I'm coming back for you.
41:39
You might be moved to fear in light of these judgments that are coming on the world, but I'm coming back for my children.
41:45
Stay awake. Keep your clothes on. Like, wow, this service announcement has been brought to you by Jesus, right?
41:53
Now, keep your clothes on and stay awake. Okay, I didn't know God was so concerned about what I wear to bed, right?
41:59
But now I know, and so, you know, make sure you dress accordingly. Is that what the text is about?
42:04
Is that what it's saying? I mean, my goodness. Seriously, I hope you can see that this is clearly figurative.
42:11
It's intentionally figurative. He's not saying, literally stay awake forever. You go insane.
42:18
Did you know that? You go nuts if you don't sleep. So he's not saying, all you Christians, you just need to go crazy.
42:25
Because that's not the point. It's not, stay awake, literally. Be prepared, be alert, be ready.
42:33
So God is not saying that you should never sleep. And he isn't saying you should shower with your swimsuit on.
42:39
Okay, that's not the point. Jesus is saying, I will come like a thief when you least expect it. So be alert and be ready, church.
42:47
And I believe that keeping your garments on it is a way of saying, stay in the faith.
42:53
Like the Israelites who were packed and ready to go and slept in their traveling clothes on the night before the exodus, ready for God to send them out.
43:03
Jesus is saying, be ready like that. And remember that this warning is issued in the context of the deceptive propaganda of the evil one.
43:13
What are you looking for for the next thing? Are you looking for a miracle worker to show up doing amazing things and promising good stuff to everyone?
43:22
Well, if you don't know your Bible, if you're not a student of the word, I don't know what you're looking for.
43:27
You don't know what you're looking for. How open are you to the deception of the evil one? Well, I would suggest to you, only in as much as you study the word of God, are you prepared to know truth from falsehood, right?
43:39
This is the key. Without this, you're setting yourself up to be open to the deceptions that will come in the end.
43:52
Are you studying to know the Lord so that you're not taken in by imitations? How does one remain ready, alert, and prepared?
44:01
By trusting in Jesus, by walking with Jesus, by listening to Jesus, by obeying
44:08
Jesus. A modern translation of this verse 15 could just simply be summed up in this phrase, don't get caught with your pants down.
44:19
That's what it says. Be ready, be alert, be prepared for the day of the return of the
44:26
Lord. The propaganda of the evil one will work on the leaders of the people and they will assemble for a final battle in a place in our text called
44:34
Armageddon. I want you to raise your hand and keep it up if you've heard the phrase, heard the word Armageddon, okay?
44:40
That is one of the most recognizable phrases from the entirety of Scripture, words from the entirety of Scripture.
44:47
People who don't read the Bible know Armageddon. It's used all over the place.
44:52
I just was listening to the news the other day and there's a new book out by somebody that has something to do with Trump and Hillary and Armageddon and the title of the book is
44:59
Armageddon. I'm like, people will abuse that word all over. I don't even know how that fits. I don't know what that's, what's that got to do with this final battle, whatever.
45:07
But Armageddon is a often used, often abused word. It's misunderstood and it's even misunderstood by biblical scholars.
45:15
It's difficult for us to wrap our mind around and part of it is that the wedding of the two words in Hebrew that come together just make no sense to any historians, geographers.
45:25
Nobody knows where this place is. Har means mountain. Megiddo is an actual place that isn't on a mountain.
45:35
Just an open, open flat field in Israel. You can go, the mountain of the field.
45:42
Okay, there are some mountains that are relatively close to this field, but is it
45:48
Mount Carmel? Is it, we just don't even know where this location is. So it's heavily debated, but I would suggest to you it's not even significant.
45:56
We don't have to know where this place is. You might be curious and go ahead and study to your heart's delight and you can read all kinds of people's thoughts and ideas.
46:04
And I think it's worth, if we're studying scripture, it's worth our attention. But what is significant is that humanity will indeed seek once and for all to be done with the
46:13
Almighty and they will come out against him with violence and hostility in force.
46:21
We're crazy. Humans are crazy. Like, aren't we? I mean, really? In our rebellion against our creator.
46:28
In our rebellion against he who put and knit together the elements and the atoms and the very things that we're made of.
46:35
And we might follow the evil one into his deception that, hey, I think we got him.
46:41
I think we could take him. If we all work together, who knows what humanity could achieve if we just work together?
46:50
Wow. So in case I lost you, the sixth bowl is really humanity judging itself.
46:56
That's foolish. It's ultimately us, the peoples of the planet coming together and saying, let's be done with him once and for all.
47:05
And God paves the way, the Antichrist calls the nations and the final battle is poised to commence. Don't you want to know how it ends?
47:12
Don't you want to know how this battle goes? Aren't you curious? What we're left with at the end of our text is all of the armies of the world gathered together in a location, kind of waiting for the enemy to show up.
47:24
And then our text ends. And we're not going to get back to that battle until Revelation 19.
47:31
It's not until chapter 19 that it's all going to be sewn up. But let me just say, again, spoiler alert, close your ears if you don't want to know how the story ends.
47:38
I think you probably have an idea. But let's just say, let me just kind of set your heart and mind at ease that with all that we could bring against the
47:47
Almighty, it isn't going to be much of a contest. It's not going to be a contest at all.
47:54
Matter of fact, what's interesting is that the entire battle can be summed up in a sentence. We'll see it in chapter 19.
48:02
But where our text takes us is the seventh bowl, which really is intended to be the picture after the battle takes place.
48:10
God, from his temple, the bowl is poured out in the air. God, from his temple, shouts, it is done.
48:23
I actually look forward to that. It's done. Because that's when the king is going to come into his throne.
48:30
That's when it's going to be finally done. This is the end.
48:36
This is the end. The credits have already rolled and this is the end, the end. It's all over. The last time this was shouted by God, do you know the last time that we heard this in Scripture shouted by God?
48:47
It's done. Think, maybe just change one of those words. It is finished. The first time it was shouted by God, salvation was sealed for all who would believe.
48:59
The last time it shouted, condemnation is sealed for all who oppose him.
49:07
All who reject him as their king will face condemnation. Please don't lose sight of the fact that all of these who have gathered against him have been given evidence after evidence, grace after grace, offer after offer for salvation.
49:25
And they marched out to battle against the God who bled and died for them. He is in this text removing one kingdom, the kingdom of this entire world, to establish the glorious eternal kingdom of his son.
49:40
And we pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
49:49
We're praying for this, the kingdoms of this world to fall and the kingdom of our Lord and Christ to come in.
49:57
And this final bowl brings with it cataclysm like the world has never seen and cannot survive, lightning, thunder, an unprecedented global earthquake.
50:05
John goes head over heels. He trips over himself trying to explain this earthquake, its intensity.
50:12
Nothing on the planet has ever happened like this, says John. He's given a vision of this thing and he's almost beside himself trying to explain this earthquake.
50:23
The islands all disappear, the mountains are leveled, Jerusalem splits in three parts, and all the cities of the world fall.
50:31
All of them. And Babylon, the symbol of the world systems in rebellion against God, has been remembered in the eyes of God.
50:42
And they've been made to drain the cup of God's furious wrath. Text ends in a pretty strange place, doesn't it?
50:50
If we're honest, it's kind of like, well, that's a little bit of a, you know, all this intensity and then we just get this meteorological discussion here at the end.
50:59
The final bowl of wrath brings with it a storm system that produces hail stones that weigh about 100 pounds each.
51:08
And the peoples of the earth for the third time in our text curse and blaspheme God. The largest unconverbal record of hail was an 11 pound hailstone in China.
51:18
It was claimed to be measured. Now, when you're dealing with hail stones, there's just this kind of interesting thing.
51:23
There's measurable, there's measured but unconfirmed. Why isn't it confirmed? Ice melts.
51:30
So you can't really confirm it, but it was measured at the time. Sometimes there's pictures taken of them, sometimes there's not.
51:36
But the largest unconfirmed and unmeasured was one in India around the 18th century, the turn of the 18th century, and it was declared to be the size of an elephant.
51:47
Wow, that sounds kind of incredible, doesn't it? Maybe that's a little apocryphal, we don't know.
51:53
But sometimes you can be punny and at the same time not meant to be funny.
52:03
And I want to suggest that this is a very heavy, heavy text. It's very, very heavy. And yet, let me take you back here as we wrap up to those original questions that I asked in my introduction.
52:16
To walk us through and think through how stubborn and broken, number one, is the human heart when it is set against God.
52:24
Three times in our text, people refuse to repent but instead cursed and blasphemed God. The human heart in rebellion hates
52:32
God and wants Him out of the picture. We love our autonomy. We believe that we can do better than Him.
52:40
And that's replicated in each person. You and I have lived there.
52:46
I hope you're fighting against it. You're fighting against that where you see it in your own heart. But the fact of the matter is, it's part and parcel of what it means to be a human in this fallen and broken world.
52:57
Thanks, Adam, right? Like, thanks to our original father who sinned. But the fact of the matter is, we replicate that same decision that he made time and time again.
53:10
Second, what does the judgment of God against that rebellion look like? Have you seen it? Have you seen how gruesome it is?
53:18
Have you seen how severe his hatred towards rebellion is? He hates sin.
53:25
And I would suggest this to you as an application and a contemplation for your week and just thinking about how you roll and interact with people on social media and around and what you believe because this text is meant to not just, not just that you walk out from this place and do something different, but that you believe something.
53:43
See, anybody who claims to be speaking of the God of the Bible, who doesn't believe that God hates sin and will judge sin, is revealing more about themselves than they are revealing about God.
53:57
And yet our culture is full of it. God's just a big grandfather in the sky.
54:03
He's gonna take the whole world up on his lap and just coddle us and coo with us. And is that God?
54:11
Is that the God you read here? Well, it could be if you'd cut a lot of passages out of scripture, then you could have that God.
54:20
If you wanna ignore a bunch of what he said about himself, then you can have that God. But that's not the
54:26
God who is. That's not the God who's revealed himself through the pages of this text. The third question, what kind of protection does our modern technology afford us in the end?
54:37
This is not something that technology is gonna save us from. Whatever state the world is in by the time if the
54:43
Lord tarries, if he comes back tomorrow, if he comes back in 4 ,000 years, I don't know, whatever state we're at, the invention of modern medicine doesn't solve the pain of this illness.
54:55
Invention of LED and compact fluorescent bulbs don't solve the problem of the darkness. Air conditioning isn't solving the heat problem.
55:05
We live in a culture that believes we can science our way out of everything. But the idolization of science and the idolization of human ingenuity will not in the end bring comfort to our suffering.
55:20
And what will, what will bring comfort, the only hope is the cross of Jesus Christ.
55:27
The only way that anyone will avoid the final punishment that God is bringing is through the cross.
55:37
So lastly, how should we respond in light of this coming wrath? Wrapping it up, number one, hate sin.
55:44
Hate sin, like God does. Think in terms of hating it in yourself, that's always the best place to start.
55:53
Cling to the king, proclaim the kingdom, and remain clothed with faith that acts.
56:00
Don't get caught naked. Let's take communion together this morning, remembering the sacrifice of Jesus that shelters us from the wrath of the
56:09
Father. His anger against our willful disobedience is just. But he has also provided a way for us to run to him as a redeemer and savior.
56:21
So if you're all in with Jesus, trusting in him alone for your salvation from that wrath, then come to one of the tables during the next song, take the cracker and the cup of juice to remember his body and his blood given up for you.
56:33
And then I would encourage each and every one of us to go throughout our week, fighting the destructive force of sin in our own hearts.
56:41
Cling to the king by studying what he has said about himself in his word. Proclaim the kingdom by inviting those you know who are under wrath to come under his protection.
56:51
And live out your faith clothed in the righteousness that only God provides. Let's pray.
57:01
Father, this is a heavy text. It's very serious to just look and get a glimpse of your wrath.
57:09
And here in this hour of time, we've gathered together as your people, and we're just scratching the surface.
57:17
Of your justice towards sin. And so Father, we get an opportunity to come to these tables, and I pray that those who are yours would come to these tables with recognition that Jesus is our only hope, and what a glorious, amazing savior.
57:35
If he hadn't gone to that cross, we would all have this as our destiny. Further even, eternal condemnation.
57:46
So I thank you for the promise of eternal life, and may we rejoice in that, and not be satisfied to be saved alone, but use this church to reach out to the world around us.