Ryan, I thank God so much for your gifts and talents on the trumpet, but Revelation has
completely ruined that for me.
So now every time I hear a trumpet, I think the sun is going to blow up.
So now as we turn into the book of Revelation, as we finish really the last three, we're
going to cover a lot in the last three.
I apologize for that, but I really don't, that we are doing a 10,000 foot view of Revelation.
I know that there is the BSF study that's doing like a one foot, taking 33 weeks.
I think if I would have preached Revelation for 33 weeks, you guys would have fired me.
So I went to 13 weeks, and again, re-dive into this.
Maybe you've read these, some of these sections we've actually read in our, maybe our yearly
walk with the Lord of reading the Bible, that 16 kind of toward the end, there are some
easier, maybe a little more comfort to some of this if you keep it just in those chapters.
We are doing this in the view of the entire book.
And so we have, we have chapter 16, we're going to do the entire chapter, and we're
going to look at a lot.
We're going to look at these seven bowls of God's wrath.
So again, we've used that term a lot, that God seems to have a lot of wrath, and I think
it's warranted, but the seven bowls of wrath in chapter 16 reveal the culmination of God's
final judgment.
Again, final judgment.
We are in the book of Revelation, we're in the end.
After this is the new heavens, the new earth, that we are raptured, right?
We are in glory, that life is forever different for the believer and for the unbeliever.
So we're going to get there.
It's the culmination of God's final judgment upon the earth.
It's severe, friends.
Now some of you are going, well, duh, it's been severe the entire time.
And though that is true, but this is pointing to God's unwavering holiness because he is
fulfilling his word.
He is fulfilling his justice.
And again, we have our own definitions of what justice is.
I can sit down with each and every one of you, and what is justice in the world today?
And I would get a lot of different answers.
This is the final judgment of the divine of God.
This chapter underscores God's sovereign rule, and we love and hate that, if we're being
honest.
We love that God is sovereign, but then when bad things happen, we actually hate that God
is sovereign because why would a sovereign God allow for, insert whatever trial we go
through here?
But this is also his righteous response to sin.
So we're going to look at these judgments and what implications it has for us today.
So we see in the beginning of chapter 6, the outpouring of the first four bowls of God's
wrath.
Now, I'm not sure how often we get to wrath.
I hope and I pray that we don't get to wrath easily as people because wrath has to deal
with judgment.
That if I'm going to pour my wrath on somebody, that is like a building up.
If you get to wrath because someone cut you off, friend, let's talk.
That's not the right response to someone cutting you off, even if you're in a hurry with their
car.
I would say there's probably not too many things that wrath should be the response.
Even being a parent, I mean our kids make us angry.
Our kids frustrate us just as we frustrated our parents, but wrath is not necessarily
the response that we ought to give.
And I'm just going to put it out there.
If you think you grew up with maybe more of a tyrant based parenting system, my guess
is you still didn't get wrath because wrath is a big deal.
Wrath, in my opinion, as I submit to you this morning, is really something God should have
solely because you have to kind of deal with wrath.
When you give your judgment or you pour out your wrath, there's usually a wake of whatever,
not good things behind you.
You can't dive into wrath and then the next day just be like, everything's great.
It doesn't work that way.
Wrath doesn't work that way.
So the first four bowls of wrath, chapter 16, were the first nine verses.
John as his revelation writes, then 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.
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 worshiped its image.
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.
The third angel poured out his wrath into the rivers and the springs of water and they
became blood.
And I heard the angel in charge of the water say, just are you, O Holy One, who is and
was for you brought these judgments.
For they have shed the blood of the saints and the prophets and you have given them blood
to drink.
It is what they deserve.
And I heard the altar saying, yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true, true and justice are your
judgments.
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun and it was allowed to scorch people with
fire.
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.
Notice how I don't think we should get to wrath as humans because as God uses his wrath,
he uses it in a pretty cataclysmic way, in an epic kind of way.
The first bowl brings sores upon those who worship the beast.
Again, this is going back two weeks and one week ago of you had the mark of God and the
mark of the beast.
And there are people that even in the midst of all the things that have happened, they
still choose the beast.
They still choose to worship the beast where really they're worshiping themselves.
And the first bowl brings upon these sores of those who worship, signifying divine retribution
against two things, unfaithfulness and idolatry.
One way you can unpack this is go all the way back to Genesis chapter, or sorry, Exodus
chapter 20 and read the Ten Commandments.
How do you want to know where God's going to bring his judgments and his wrath?
It's in the law that he gave.
Why?
Because he's a just God.
Oh, pastor, I don't know.
This seems like God's too judgy.
He's just maybe more judgy than I'm comfortable with.
All I can say to this is you're right.
He gets to be because he is God.
And if you struggle with that, it's because you want him on a more digestible level and
you probably want to be on the same level as him.
Well that's worth judgment.
That's worth the wrath of God.
Divine retribution against unfaithfulness and idolatry.
Why do we think if we go to those commandments, the first four have to do with giving us bounds
to the rivers, boundaries to our lives, to not have idols of anything in our world, namely
ourselves.
Money, lust, power, passion, insert whatever you may worship in your life.
God has said from the very beginning of creating his people, don't do this.
And why in the world do we give, for all the parents in the room, why do we give rules
for our kids?
Why do you tell your kid, right, Jim Wilcher, you had Deanna and Seth, right, why did you
teach them to look both ways before they cross the street?
Because you want the best for them, i.e. don't get hit by cars.
That's why we do it.
Why, hey, this pot of water is boiling, that means it's hot, don't touch it.
How many of our kids or us have touched that pot?
That's not nearly enough hands.
But that, isn't it interesting?
Instant pain.
I don't know too many people that put their hand in boiling water and go, oh, yeah, I'm
going to feel that in the morning while I have my hand in said pot.
But as Jim astutely brings out, he wants the best for us because he knows what we're going
to be capable of, that you and I are capable of worshipping idols.
You and I are capable of forgoing our first love.
You and I are capable of seeing the goodness of God and say, oh, but this is better.
He knows that about us.
That's why he's hemmed us in.
But again, we're now at the end.
For all of those that did not do that, for all of those that did not receive the grace
and mercy of the Lord, these bowls of judgment, the time for forgiveness, the time for confession,
the time to go turn 180 and follow after God, that time is over.
And I know there's some of us that really don't like that.
But God is the God of second chances, Jim.
I'm sure you've said that from the stage.
You're right.
In 2024, I have said that.
And if we're still here in 2025, I'll say it again.
And guess what?
2026, we'll see.
No, I'll probably say it too because we're not at the end yet.
Understand, there is an end.
It will happen.
And these bowls of wrath will be poured out.
The second bowl and third bowl are more his dominion and judgment over creation.
Have you been tracking with this?
Not only is there judgment for people, those created in the image of God, creation is being
judged as well.
That is one thing that some of you that have either called me, texted me, or met with me
with like, you don't understand, like, why is God, why is God ruining creation?
Because creation has sin in it as well.
We don't think about that because trees don't murder each other.
Like we don't, like, doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
But the world has sin in it.
Genesis 3 happened.
And now this is the divine correction of that.
So the second and third bowl turn the sea and rivers into blood, evoking the plagues
of Egypt, which I think is fascinating, that it's, you know, for a lot of us, if we're
going to be around during this time, we're going to go, we've seen this before.
We've heard about this before.
None of us was there when we were in Egypt, obviously.
But we understand, we recognize what God is doing.
This is reinforcing God's consistent and constant judgment throughout the Scriptures, emphasizing
his power over creation.
Now this one's interesting.
And for all of my pale brothers and sisters, this one probably hits a little harder.
That the fourth bowl intensifies the heat of the sun.
And it's more than just sunburn that you might get.
That this is the heat of the sun, a symbolic act representing God's unrestraining wrath
as the sun scorches the unrepentant.
Now for some of you, you may abhor summertime because you just burn when you go out.
I get it.
I don't.
But some of you do.
That is not, like when you get put on sunscreen, that's not God's divine wrath.
That's just your pale skin.
This is something completely different.
And what I think is fascinating is that the bowl of wrath is poured out over the sun itself.
Just think about that for a minute.
These bowls of wrath are being poured out to the entire earth.
It's not just the US.
It's not just Russia.
It's not just the Caribbean.
It's the entire world.
This bowl of wrath is being poured out over the sun, allowing the sun to intensify and
scorch the unrepentant humanity that is still on the earth.
The plagues in Egypt serve as a historical precedent showing God's judgment, but it is
going to be the present reality, the present reality of what is to come.
Let's pause there for a minute.
I don't think about this a lot, but I've thought about it before.
What would it have been to be an Israelite in Egypt during that time?
And you have to remember, you can't go in it with what we know in 2024.
So again, this is way before.
This is before the law.
This is before the prophets.
This is before everything in here.
They were slaves.
And you see these 10 plagues take place during that span of time, the last being the death
of the firstborn son.
The angel of death comes in.
And whether you go Prince of Egypt or you go Charlton Heston Ten Commandments, it's
still freaky.
It's still scary.
It still shows God's divine power as he's literally knocking off each of the 10 gods
and goddesses of Egyptian theology and mythology.
He's saying, nope, I'm stronger than that.
I'm stronger than that.
Dark, light, blood, life, animals, people.
He's bringing it back.
He's bringing it back for a purpose and a reason.
It was a judgment for the Egyptians who made an idol out of everything.
But God's bringing it back, which maybe should signify for us that we may be the New Age
Egyptians, that the unrepented in the earth, one of the marks of the unrepented is that
they make idols out of everything.
No, pastor, that's not what it says.
Well, then let's go to the historical viewpoint of the Empire of Rome during this time, which
again, you can read it as John's revelation to the judgment of the church under Emperor
Nero and those emperors during that time.
Not too different.
Romans made a god and goddess out of everything.
They were the New Age Egyptians at that time.
So how does that look today?
2024.
Not too far from 2025.
What do the idols in our life look like?
Well, we don't worship at the altar of Mars.
We don't do Amun-Ra or all the insert Roman theology gods and goddesses.
We don't.
No, we don't worship at the altar of any of those things, pastor.
No, you're right.
I hope you don't.
Like, you have a statue of a god or a goddess in your house.
Let me come in and take it because you probably shouldn't have it.
Actually, not probably.
You shouldn't have it.
Well, it was a gift.
Throw it in the fire.
I think we make idols out of other things.
Lust, politics, money, power, authority, the internet.
I don't worship the god of the internet.
I don't have Bill Gates on a plaque in my house.
That would be super weird.
But I just jump on it right when I wake up.
I'm connected all day.
I give God a what's up, probably around meal time before I eat if I remember.
I'm pretty much on it.
I live tweet everything.
I usually spend a couple hours on it, make sure that the filters all look good for my
end of the night post.
I don't worship the internet.
No, friend, you're right.
You don't.
You worship yourself and the internet.
Notice how the idols have changed.
Amen Ra was not worshiped by the Romans.
Amen Ra is not worshiped by us in 2024.
I don't know the Roman word for internet.
They didn't have one.
But insert whatever here.
I think idol worship is still going on.
So what do we do with this?
These first four bowls, we need to remember that God's justice is specific and it's righteous.
The first four bowls show God's focused judgment on those who reject him.
Even if your Instagram or your TikTok is you praying to God, lovingly I'm going to say
please stop.
Go in your closet, throw your phone away and pray there.
But this is very specific to those who reject God.
Each plague corresponds to human sin revealing God's justice.
It's not haphazard or vindicated.
It's purposeful.
It's perfect.
Some of you are like, wow, Revelation is just showing that God's a giant jerk.
Watch out.
One of these bowls is probably for you.
No, this is specific.
He said he was going to do this.
And we can even do that in our own discipline of our kids.
Okay, you just told us that you were going to punch your brother.
If you know, if you're going to punch your brother, you're going to get your tablet taken
away for a week.
Five minutes later, punches his brother.
Guess what?
Tablet's gone for a week.
Now, Carrie keeps it to a week.
I go, you were dumb enough to do it.
It's two weeks.
It's just something Carrie and I are working out.
But understand that God's justice is specific.
It's not random.
Man, I've heard that from some of you over the course of the last couple months.
Wow, Revelation just seems to be a lot of randomness.
Not at all.
This is all been said.
This is how I'm going to do it.
So it's random.
Or it's not random.
It's specific.
It's righteous and it's authoritative over all creation.
Friends, we're not done.
We got the fifth and sixth bowl, darkness and deception.
So let's read a couple of selected verses from chapter 16.
The fifth angel poured out of his hand, poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and
its kingdom was plunged into darkness.
The sixth angel gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain
and sores.
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.
And I saw 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 Almighty.
And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
Okay, so fifth and sixth bowl.
The fifth bowl covers the kingdom of the beast in darkness reminiscent of the plague in Exodus.
These match up beautifully.
It's designed to be that way, right?
Reminiscent of the plagues in Exodus 10.
This judgment symbolizes a spiritual and moral darkness ascending upon those who do evil.
And here's something that as I was reading it this week, it really kind of, there was
a lot of friction in me.
And these people had sores, now they're in the dark, and they just keep cursing God.
Because guess what?
There is no time for repentance now.
We are in the end.
Pastor, I know you keep saying it.
We get it, we're in the end.
But understand, it's pretty descriptive.
I think there's a reason why.
We are told about the anguish.
We're told about demonic frogs.
Why?
Because God wants you so badly to understand that his way, life in him, is better than
anything that you could do up until this time.
Sure, I'm sure all these people will eat, drinking, and being merry, or tomorrow will
die.
No, tomorrow you'll be tormented.
Tomorrow you're going to have sores.
Tomorrow you're going to be in darkness.
Tomorrow you're not going to be able to eat anything from the sea.
Understand that it's turmoil and it's terrorizing.
And though it may grip us, it's an understanding of this is the end game for those who follow
evil.
Little two minute rabbit trail.
We may know people in our life that are unrepentant.
We may know people in our life that don't have that relationship with Jesus.
I'm not saying this is the best way to evangelize them.
I'm not saying go to chapter 16 and go verse by verse.
You love your skin?
Well, then repent.
Love Jesus because you're going to have boils and sores.
You think frogs are cute creatures?
They're not.
For those that are unrepented, they're actually demons.
That's not a way to evangelize.
That's not a good way to get people to be scared straight into loving Jesus.
But the reality of the fact is this is all going to happen.
Wow, pastor, I don't know.
I think this is just hyperbole from God.
Friend, if you want to go there, if you want to test God in that, everything that he has
spoke about in his word has come true.
I don't think it's a good bet.
Because what's the harm?
I mean, you believe in God, none of this is going to happen.
You believe in Christ and walk in his ways to the glory of his name.
You are going to be exempt from this.
You don't have to go through these tests because they're not tests.
They're judgments.
This is it.
The six bowl dries up the Euphrates, preparing the way for the kings of the east.
And here's the thing.
What does this mean?
That the Armageddon is coming, the great battle, insert whatever movie you want to put in that
has that final battle scene, whether it's a medieval thing or something with hobbits
or whatever you want to do, this final battle scene is coming where the sinners of the world
are still thinking they have a chance.
The six bowl dries up the Euphrates, preparing a way for the kings of the east.
This indicates the gathering forces of the evil one for the final confrontation of Armageddon,
symbolizing a climactic.
Sure.
Showdown between good and evil.
It's cinematic, it seems like.
We could put this in a movie.
But understand there's history to this.
That we have to understand this divine judgment has been talked about not only in scripture
but other ancient books.
Other ancient books point to this final battle.
The Dead Sea Scrolls help us understand the evidence and the credibility of what is being
talked about.
In chapter three in Zechariah 12 discuss the gathering of the nations for the final judgment
which parallels the understanding of Armageddon.
So how do we turn from here as a believer?
What do we do with this?
First is that spiritual darkness reflects the hardened heart against God.
That when we live in spiritual darkness, you are hardening your heart against the love
and mercy of God because you don't believe that God's way is the better way.
That the way of Christ is the better way.
That the gathering for Armageddon is God's ultimate plan for judgment and victory.
Because I mean the water is starting to boil now.
We're in chapter 16.
This pot is about to blow up.
This is going and it's like wow hasn't it already?
No.
That the ultimate victory is yet to be seen.
Jesus as conqueror has yet to come and put the final period on the end of the sentence.
I was reading Warren Worsby and I was reading R.C.
Sproul this week and they both used the term God's sovereign orchestration of his victory.
And I just sat with that for a minute.
God's sovereign orchestration of his victory.
Because God's going to be triumphant over all.
His judgments will come to be.
And this gathering is not by chance.
This gathering has been taught to us.
This gathering has an eternal purpose to both redeem but then judge.
That's all part of it.
Well pastor I don't like this sound so judgy.
It is.
It's the book of revelation.
It's the final judgment.
Notice how if you go all the way back to the very first sermon which seems like years ago.
I know I've been there.
John cautioned anyone that's going to teach this book.
Because you could get to this point and say this is just hyperbole.
It's just illustration.
God's just trying to use a giant grand sermon illustration to get his point across.
I don't believe I was never convicted that that was the right way to teach this book.
Now we need to get in and through the trumpets, the bowls, the this, the that, the demonic
frogs, all of these things to understand what God's purpose and plan is for us.
It's for victory.
And so here we go.
Now we're about to leave third and head home.
The seventh bowl.
We're going to be in the end of chapter 16.
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.
And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, pearls of thunder, and a great earthquake
such as there have never been since man was on the earth.
So great was that earthquake.
The great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations fell.
And God remember Babylon the great and to make her drain the cup of wine of the fury
of his wrath.
That's a sentence.
And every island fled away and no mountains were to be found and great hail stones about
100 pounds each fell from heaven on people and they cursed God for the plague of the
hail because the plague was so severe.
Give that one up.
Hundred pound hail.
Where are my insurance agents?
Do we have any insurance agents?
I don't remember.
Nope, nobody?
What kind of damage is a hundred, Randy, what kind of damage is a hundred pound hail due
to your car?
You got a big car.
Yeah.
Mike's little Porsche, that thing's done.
Like that's, or whatever that is.
Like I mean, this is, think of this.
And it all happens because of three words.
It is done.
Where have we heard that before?
The cross.
The cross was it is finished.
And what happened?
Jesus breathed his last and now the pathway to God was restored, righteousness imputed
onto us, the justification for our sins have been brought up, we've been found Jesus and
now we have that eternal relationship.
That temple curtain was torn and now that we have salvation because of the blood of
Jesus Christ.
And notice now, it's not it is finished, it is done.
This is the great end scene to the world.
Earthquake has never ever have been experienced by the people of the earth.
And this is the completion of God's wrath.
So I want to put that in light of the cross.
Friend you and I should have been on that cross.
But Jesus, our death would have meant nothing.
The perfect God, perfect man needed to be sacrificed so you and I could have eternal
life.
That God looks at each and every one of you and died for the sins you've committed, the
ones you're committing right now, the ones you will commit.
That is the gospel for those that turn to him, claim him as Lord and Savior and get
in the fight.
It's not oh I've claimed Jesus now I can do whatever I want.
That is the wrong understanding of Christian liberty.
But understanding that I am every day in the fight because I take what God says seriously.
This statement parallels Christ's words that we see from John 19.
Indicating the fulfillment of the divine judgment.
The great earthquake and the hail represent the huge, just massive judgments and bringing
it to an end demonstrated that no power on earth can stand against God's ultimate authority.
If you go back, Haggai and Isaiah speak to the divine shaking, portraying of God's control
over nature and nations.
That there's a reckoning.
That there's an understanding that God is in control.
If you didn't, if you had a question up to this point you shouldn't now.
Why?
It is done.
Is God's judgment now complete and final?
Why do I pause there?
Because I still think some of us think after this there's still hope.
I can still come to Jesus.
No.
This is God's judgment final and now complete.
And that should mean something for us.
There's no more loopholes.
There's no more altar calls.
There's no more preaching.
No one say amen.
This is it.
And we still have a couple more chapters to go.
Because what God is doing, God is showing his people through John's revelation that
he will always have the final say.
So if you're in some sin trap or cycle of sin in your life right now, whether it's something
on the internet, whether it's a marriage thing, whether it's a dating thing, whether it's
a money thing, whether it's a power thing, maybe you're about to do something unethical
in your business or whatever it is, whatever sin is trying to get you to do, understand
you have the power to fight.
Where does that power come from?
It comes from the power of the cross and it comes from the power of the divine judgment
and the final revelation.
That God has that ultimate say.
But we should be assured.
I know it's hard, but this assures believers that all wrongdoings will ultimately be made
right by God who alone holds the authority.
You may think you have authority in life because you're a business owner, you're a parent,
you're good at a sport or whatever.
You don't.
In the grand scheme of the apocalypse, we hold zero authority.
So how do we enter into the last two sermons?
Let's walk away with some of these points.
God's judgments are just and righteous.
For all those that think God's just a heavenly jerk, at this point you're wrong.
His judgments are just and righteous.
Recognize that God's wrath is not arbitrary, but a reflection of his justice.
That reminds us that sin has consequences and that God's holiness demands righteousness.
Reflect on God's justice and express gratitude for Christ's atoning sacrifice that shields
us from the ultimate wrath of God.
Second, repentance is essential.
It's not suggestive.
It's not optional.
It is essential.
The unrepentant nature of those affected by the plagues highlight the importance of repentance.
We are called to examine our hearts continually, spend time in prayer and confession seeking
God's grace to turn away from our sin.
Third, that this should be preparing us, preparing for the final gathering.
The gathering at Armageddon points to the future moment where every soul will be aligned
either for or against God.
This should motivate us to live in faithful obedience.
So how do we do that in this life?
Friends, I've said it before, I'll keep saying it, engage in community and fellowship that
strengthens your walk with Christ and encourages mutual accountability.
Some of us think we've got to do this Christian life on our own and the only reason why you
believe that is because you want to hide.
If I get vulnerable and accountable with someone about my sin, they're going to judge me.
Not more than God will.
Their judgment means nothing.
If you don't get that, you haven't been following along.
And then finally, something that has been in since the very beginning of this sermon
series, be a light in a world of darkness.
The fifth pole darkness can be a metaphor for our increasing moral and spiritual darkness
of the world.
But we have always been, those in Christ are called to be a light on a hill.
Salt of the earth, Jesus says it.
Share the hope of the gospel with those around you, demonstrating the love of Christ in both
word and deed.
I'll also put in there and our thoughts.
Let's pray.
Father, as we finish up.