Well, thank you to the celebration band.
We are grateful for your music tonight.
We'll have to have them again, Paul.
Soon.
Be fun and do a whole thing.
Would you like that?
I want to invite you to open your Bible this evening to the book of the Revelation.
Thank you.
We are looking at chapters 15 and 16 this evening, where we pick up pace once again.
In the past, we have, in the past few weeks, we have been looking at some chapters that
did not advance the chronology of the book.
But this evening, we come back to the chronology, having filled in some of the details of the
book in chapters 12 through 14.
And now we are ready to see some things happen in heaven that will affect what happens on
earth.
In fact, you notice the outline.
Did you all get a copy of the outline as you came in?
One of the bowls, the bowls of wrath in heaven, chapter 15, and then the pouring out of the
bowls on the earth in chapter 16.
Now to put this into a context so that you will be able to kind of catch up with us,
if you have not been here for our study, give me a second to get us in focus.
Here is where we started in the book with the messages to the seven churches in chapters
1, 2, and 3.
In chapter 4 and 5, those songs that we saw in heaven, the worship of God, the unfolding
of the seals that were on that scroll.
We looked at those which were followed by the trumpets.
And now we are at this point, chapter 15, we are going to begin looking at the bowls
of wrath.
You notice that these are sequential, at least as we understand the book of Revelation.
There are some who see them as overlapping and kind of repetitive.
But if you compare what each of the seven judgments in these series contains, it seems
to me better to understand them as sequential.
And so the three and a half year point or the halfway point in the tribulation period
is somewhere about there.
As we come now to the bowls of God's wrath that are poured out upon the earth, we are
definitely in the last part of the period, the seven year period of the tribulation.
And soon will come the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me blow this up just a little bigger so that you can see we are here in chapter 15
and verse 5 as it says, and the seven bowls.
Chapters 15 and 16 deal with these matters of the seven bowls being poured out upon the
earth.
Chapters 17 and 18 deal with the harlot and the beast and the fall of Babylon.
And those two chapters sort of fill in details of what takes place here.
Chapter 19 is the great event in the book of Revelation in the return of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And then the book plays out with eternity beginning again.
So we've got some great things in store for us as we continue our study in the book of
the Revelation.
Chapter 15 talks about the preparation of these bowls as they are called or some translations
put at the vials of judgment.
In chapter 15 verses 1 and 2 we have a picture again of the sea of glass that is before the
throne of God.
We saw this earlier in the book in chapters 4 and 5.
John says, I saw another sign in heaven great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven
last plagues.
For in them the wrath of God is complete.
Changes were coming to the end and God's wrath is going to be fully poured out now.
He says, I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire.
Now here is an addition to what we saw earlier in the book.
This vast plain called a sea as it were of glass in which is set the throne of God now
is mingled with fire.
There seems to be fire that is flashing through this glass.
That seems to signify the fact that God is on his throne and is about to pour out his
judgment.
This is a holy sea before him.
And it says those who have victory over the beast, over his image and over his mark and
over the number of his name were standing on the sea of glass having harps of God.
And so here in John's primary focus are people who have been delivered out of the tribulation
period.
They are martyrs for the most part, but they have had victory over the beast, the antichrist,
and over the image of the beast and the mark that as we saw was forced upon, I shouldn't
say forced upon, was given to those who are the followers of the beast.
They had no part of that.
And they are standing on this sea having harps of God.
And there is a song that is being sung.
It is called the Song of Moses, the servant of God and the Song of the Lamb.
I don't know who arranged the songs that we heard here tonight by the celebration band,
but there is a heavenly arranger who is going to put together a couple of songs.
The Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb we brought together.
Here we have the law of Moses, the grace and truth in Jesus Christ.
They are not opposites.
They are not contradictory.
They come together.
And there is a song and the words are these.
And you will recognize one of the fine more contemporary anthems for choirs out of these
words.
The marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways, O King of the Saints or King of the Ages.
Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name?
For you alone are holy.
For all nations shall come and worship before you, and your judgments have been manifested.
A marvelous song of praise to God given to him on this sea of glass before his throne.
And then it says, after these things I looked and behold the temple that could read the
sanctuary of the tabernacle or the inner shrine.
Literally it's what it says.
The inner shrine of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven.
It was open and you say what in the world is that?
Well you remember that Moses was given a pattern from which to build the tabernacle in the
wilderness.
That tabernacle was a copy of the true tabernacle which is in heaven.
And so that is what is spoken of here.
And you remember in that tabernacle that Moses and the people constructed there was an inner
sanctuary called the Holy of Holies.
And so what John sees here now is the original temple or sanctuary in heaven is opened up.
And out of that temple, out of that inner shrine, out of the very presence of God in
the Holy of Holies came seven angels having the seven plagues.
He sees them clothed in pure white linen and having their chests girded with golden bands.
And one of the four living creatures, remember these are those unique cherubim-like creatures
that encircle the throne of God and declare his holiness and praise.
We were introduced to them earlier in the book.
One of these four living creatures came to the seven angels and the seven golden bowls
full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
And the temple, I should say he gave to the seven angels the seven golden bowls full of
the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no
one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
So apparently the inference is that there is some access to this heavenly temple normally
for the people of God.
But now as the end times are here and God's plagues are about to be poured out, access
is barred.
And the smoke of God's judgment fills this place in heaven.
And the seven angels are given these bowls as John sees them that are filled with God's
judgment for the world.
And then in chapter 16 we have the pouring out of these bowls upon the earth.
The first vial or the first bowl involves boils.
I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go and pour out the bowls
of the wrath of God on the earth.
So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth and a foul and loathsome sore
came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.
Notice that the judgments here are poured out upon those who are the worshipers of the
beast.
Someone has called this God's germ warfare.
God pours out upon the earth dwellers as they are called in this book.
That is those who dwell on the earth and his whole lives focus on the earth and who follow
the beast.
He pours out upon them some sort of a sore, a boil, a cancer we might call it.
Some understand these adjectives foul and loathsome or bad and evil as meaning malignant,
possibly the case.
This is somewhat similar to the sixth Egyptian plague back in the book of Exodus where there
were also boils that were poured out upon the earth and upon Egypt in that case.
It is sores that affect those with the mark of the antichrist.
We come then to the second vial or bowl of blood.
It says in verse 3, the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it became blood
as of a dead man and every living creature in the sea died.
And so the salt water stores of the earth are made uninhabitable for the creatures that
now live in them.
Does the sea literally turn to blood like the blood that comes out of your veins when
you cut yourself?
It's possible it does.
I don't think the language here demands that interpretation.
It is whatever the chemical change is in the water, it turns it so that it's dead and so
that it's red.
That is the main point here.
The sea, which is now the great life giver, we are told even human life would be impossible
were it not for the sea.
The sea which now absorbs the filth of man and which yet gives man food for life, this
sea will in that day be fit only for death.
And the carcasses of all of these dead sea creatures will float to the surface as every
sea creature dies.
Can you imagine the stench?
I think we could say this is going to be the mother of all stenches.
When the second bowl is poured out upon the earth and every fish dies, it's bad enough
to be around the lake when the smelt are running.
Or when there are other causes of dead fish in massive quantities.
But listen, I'm serious, can you imagine what the coastal areas of the world will be like
in this day?
So we come now to the third of these vials or bowls.
The rivers also are turned to blood.
The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, this is fresh
water, and they became blood.
And so the same thing that happened in the sea will now happen in the rivers.
The rivers and springs of the earth will pour forth blood.
Already a third of the waters, fresh waters, have been made bitter by wormwood, according
to the trumpet of chapter 8, verses 10 and 11, the third trumpet.
This will cause the water to be, I think we can say, nearly undrinkable.
The angel of the waters, which seems to be a description of this angel that pours out
the bowl on the water, says, you are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who
is to come, because you have judged these things.
They, he's talking now about these followers of the beast, they have shed the blood of
saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.
It is their just do.
And so you see now why God pours out these curses upon the water supply of the earth.
There is unprecedented martyrdom during this period of the tribulation.
And now God gives the earth blood to drink, because it has shed the blood of his people.
And from underneath the altar, and earlier in the book we saw that underneath the altar
the souls of those who have been martyred, at least part of the tribulation, and there
is this voice that comes out that says, even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous
are your judgments.
And so there is this amen, shall we say, from some of the martyrs in heaven who are saying
yes.
This angel is speaking the truth.
God is true and righteous.
Now friend, there is not truth and righteousness in our world today.
There are lies and there is wickedness.
There is deception and there is evil.
That characterizes man.
But it does not characterize God.
He is holy.
And when he brings judgment to the earth, it will be in truth and it will be a righteous
judgment.
God will give man what he richly deserves.
We come then to the fourth of the bowls, verses 8 and 9.
It is an oppressive heat.
This fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch
men with fire, and men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of
God who has the power over all these plagues.
And they did not repent and give him glory.
And so in this fourth bowl is given to the sun to scorch men.
God just turns up the thermostat on the earth.
Now this is interesting because back in chapter 8, under the fourth trumpet, the solar power
is reduced by a third.
But now God turns up the thermometer, or the thermostat, so that men are scorched with
the heat.
Perhaps God at this point in some way removes a layer of the atmosphere.
Maybe he just taps the earth a little bit closer to the sun.
Whatever he does, it causes tremendous suffering in the world because of the heat that is produced.
And remember, there is only blood to drink.
All of the water supply of the earth has been tainted by the curse of God.
All of this corresponds with what Jesus himself said in Luke 21, 25.
He said, there shall be signs in the sun, and the moon, and the stars upon the earth,
distress of nations with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring.
And what is the result of the judgment of God?
Is it that many turn to God?
No it is not.
The result is blasphemy and a hardening of the heart of man.
Who does that remind you of?
Pharaoh in the Old Testament.
God poured out the plague saying, let my people go, and he hardened his heart against God.
And he simply represented all of mankind in doing that.
Then we have the fifth of the bulls, verses 10 and 11.
Fifth angel poured out his bull on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full
of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.
And they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not
repent of their deeds.
Now the earth is plunged into some sort of supernatural darkness.
It is mysterious what is taking place.
The throne of the beast probably refers to Babylon, and we will discuss that when we
get to chapters 17 and 18 in a few weeks.
That is headquarters for him, and that seems to be where the darkness begins, and then
it seems to spread throughout the earth.
There is a mystery about it.
It is eerie.
Heat is increased, but light is decreased.
And again, there are prophecies in both the Old Testament as well as in the New Testament
that align with the very things that John sees happening here.
And the result of all of this is great pain.
These things happen in quick succession.
It's not scattered over many years, but just one after another these pains and plagues
are poured upon man.
But again, there is no repentance.
Then in verse 12 we have the sixth of the bulls.
It is a march that is directed against the people of Israel by an army.
We saw this army numbered and gathered under the sixth trumpet.
And now something happens making it possible for this army to march to the west.
The sixth angel poured out his bull on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried
up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
We don't know whether this involves more than a drought.
We can understand the drought, can't we, because of what we've seen happening.
There may be something historical or political involved here as well as geographical, atmospheric,
that allows this massive army from the east to march toward the west and toward the land
of Israel.
It may be that there is some sort of conflict and vision between this great army from the
east and the massive armies of Antichrist, which are basically Western, European, and
beyond.
And these two large power blocks now are fighting over the mid-east.
Perhaps the oil is part of that.
They are coming toward Palestine, they are coming toward Israel, and the way is prepared
as this sixth bull is poured out upon the earth.
That brings us to something of a parenthesis in verses 13 through 16.
This sort of follows a pattern in the book.
You remember that there before between number six and number seven in these series, there's
been a break.
And so now there's another break in the forward push of the chronology, and some information
is given to us regarding this battle.
It says, I saw three great, three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth
of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
They are the spirits of demons, performing signs, and they go out to the kings of the
earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Behold, I am coming as a thief.
Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew Armageddon.
We are given two bits of information here.
One regards Armageddon, the other the return of Christ.
The word Armageddon is found only here in the Bible.
Literally it means the Mount of Megiddo.
You probably know that there is a mount that is called that and has been for thousands
of years in a plain area of Israel.
It is in the plain of Ezdralon.
Many of the Old Testament battles were fought there, and even modern battles.
The Valley of Megiddon is mentioned in Zechariah 12 and verse 11 that is related here to this
name Armageddon.
You can hear something of the same sound in it.
There are demons that are involved in the gathering of the world's armies to this place.
These are called frog-like demons.
Psyche in his commentary says, they are the elect agents to awaken the world to the attempt
to abolish God from the earth.
They are frog-like in that they come forth out of the pestiferous quagmires.
Don't you like that phrase?
I think the next time my kids act up I'm going to say, you pestiferous quagmire.
They come forth out of the pestiferous quagmires of the universe to do their work amid the
world's evening shadows and creep and croak and fill the ears of the nations with their
noisy demonstrations till they set all the kings and armies of the whole earth in enthusiastic
commotion for the final crushing out of the lamb and all his powers.
These spirits of hell go forth upon the kings and potentates of the world to make up and
gather together the grand army of the devil's worshippers.
Well, you can tell that he wrote for the day in which he lived, but his language, though
flowery, is certainly descriptive of the work of these frog-like demons.
They are said to come forth out of the mouth of the dragon and the beast and the false
prophet.
They have hell's trinity, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet.
Because these demons are seen coming out of their mouths, it may be that it is their words,
their deceiving, lying words, which will be the force used by these spirits to bring the
armies together for this great battle.
Do not doubt at all that he is speaking here of literal spiritual beings who will be used
in this attempt.
And it certainly does not say this at this point, but I think that in comparing Scripture
with Scripture, we can say that events in the world do not just automatically happen.
What we see taking place in Russia is a struggle beyond Yeltsin and the democratic forces,
and that people's congress, which is a leftover from the communistic regime, these two blocks
of power in Russia represent spiritual forces that are battling it out for the future of
that nation in the invisible realm, in the heavenly realms.
That happens all over the world.
We see history on one level, but behind that there are spiritual forces.
Believe me, there is not a separation, as our world view tells us, between the spiritual
realm and the physical realm.
They overlap, they come together, and behind those political movements and military movements
in our world today there are spiritual forces that are orchestrating and battling and maneuvering,
seeking to advance the cause of the prince of darkness, Satan.
And we see that here as these particular frog-like spirits are sent out to gather the armies
of the earth for this battle in a place that is called Armageddon.
Others point out rightly that we should not look upon the Battle of Armageddon as a single
battle.
It really is a series of campaigns, and it may last for some period of months or even
years in the last half of this tribulation period.
It is a world war, really.
It is a massive outbreak of war that will take place, but it will climax in this final
battle in the Valley of Megiddo, at Armageddon, at the Mount of Megiddo.
And we will see more about that as we get to chapter 19, and we see that as these armies
come together in Israel to do battle with one another, their attention is diverted to
another army that shows up they hadn't expected.
Now it seems almost an intrusion, an interruption, but John says that there is a word from Jesus
in the midst of all of this.
Behold, I am coming as a thief.
That is, Jesus comes unexpectedly upon the world.
He is not saying that he comes as a thief to his people.
We are now to be alert and watchful for the return of our Lord, his return for his people,
for the church, the rapture of the church.
There is nothing yet to be fulfilled before he comes.
It has been true for the last 2,000 years.
It is still true tonight that the coming of Christ is imminent.
It could happen at any moment.
And in his return to the earth, likewise, his people in that day, as the tribulation
comes to an end, will be looking and longing for the coming of the Lord Jesus.
He will not come as a thief to his people.
His people will be looking and expecting him, but to the world.
He will come as a thief.
And so he says, blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments.
That's the anticipation.
That's the expectation.
The warning is, though, lest he walk naked and they see his shame, a rather strange kind
of warning.
At least one commentator says that it may be an allusion to what was done in the temple
on that day.
During the night, there were priests who were assigned guard duty in various parts of the
temple area.
And there would be an officer who would walk around to make sure that they were awake.
And if he found one asleep, they were stripped of their clothing and beaten.
And so it may be that that is the allusion here.
We do not want to be asleep when Jesus comes.
And I'm telling you, the devil is just popping the sleeping pills into God's people like
crazy today.
Especially in the Western world, so many of God's people are drowsy to the age in which
we live.
Maybe you're like me.
You read the newspaper and you hear about these things happening in the world and you
sit there and you say, am I dreaming?
Is all of this really happening?
And it is.
And it's just laying the groundwork for what God's Word says is going to come to pass in
the last days.
We don't see it all in place yet.
I'm not suggesting that.
But there were those who were quite alarmed when Russia was overtaken by democracy.
They said, wow, this is going to make us rethink all of our prophecy regarding movements there
in Europe and so on.
Well, it may be good for us to rethink some of that.
We don't have a corner in all truth yet.
But the last chapter has not been written in Russia.
And another chapter may be written this week, which will yet further the scene for the coming
of a powerful man who is going to be able to bring peace.
My daughter is not in here, so I'll tell a story on her.
As we were driving to the church tonight, I had on a Christian station.
Of course, I always listen to Christian music, you know, because I'm a preacher, right?
If you believe that, I would know.
She wanted to listen to something.
She hit the little seek button there, so it went up to a station that she sometimes listened
to.
And Michael Jackson was singing.
Blessed boy.
And Michael was talking about healing the world and beating our swords into plowshares.
I'll tell you something, he's not alone in that wish.
I mean, all of us would wish for peace.
But there's a cry for peace that is beginning to rise in our world.
And at the same time, the world is beginning to crumble and to fall apart, and especially
in Europe, which is the headquarters for Antichrist.
And as the cry for peace gets greater and war becomes more of a reality in Europe, eventually
we're going to see that cry, that prayer for peace, satisfied in the rising of some
strong person who will have the answers for Europe.
Now, whether you and I will see that or not, I don't know.
But when that takes place, believe me, Antichrist is not far away.
The whole thing is just setting the scene for what God in His Word has told us is going
to come to pass.
We must not be asleep.
We need to recognize the day in which we're living.
Then we come to the seventh vial.
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the
temple of heaven from the throne, saying, It is done.
What does that remind you of?
The cross, right?
Where Jesus said, It is finished.
There redemption was finished.
Here judgment is finished.
Now, we've got some more detail to fill in, so don't think that we're not going to talk
anymore about judgment.
The seventh vial or the seventh bowl looks ahead to the end of judgment.
It's finished.
And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings and a great earthquake, such a
mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.
Now, there are those who believe that this earthquake is a geopolitical earthquake and
not a literal earthquake, a physical earthquake.
It seems to me, however, better to think of it as a literal earthquake.
It says the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.
Some see the great city here as Jerusalem.
Others see the great city as Babylon.
I lean toward the latter view.
It says, and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine
of the fierceness of his wrath.
Chapter 17 and 18 again is going to tell us more about how Babylon is judged.
The details are given there.
The great cities of the world are now reduced to rubble.
Now, you imagine this.
Just try to think, not just of Los Angeles being hit by an earthquake, not just San Francisco,
but you go around the whole Pacific Rim, that ring of fire.
You go to Europe.
You go to the east coast of the United States, to all of the cities of the world.
An earthquake like has never struck the earth before, and the massive destruction and death,
that will take place as skyscrapers crumble and fall into heaps of dust and rubble.
So fears this earthquake that it says that every island fled away.
Friend, don't be in Hawaii on this day.
The islands of the seas will disappear.
They will go down below the waters, and the mountains that reach up into the sky are going
to crumble themselves.
Then it says, great hail from heaven fell upon men.
Every hailstone about the weight of a talent, that is 75 pounds.
Imagine a chunk of ice weighing 75 pounds, and then imagine this worldwide storm system
that begins to throw upon the earth this kind of hail.
And men fall on their knees and they cry out, oh God, forgive us of our sins.
We could wish.
Look at it.
And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly
great.
There has never been greater devastation in nature than will be seen with this seventh
bull.
Today the whole world begins to collapse.
Today it's almost as though the spring is being wound tighter and tighter and tighter
and tighter, and on this day the whole thing just goes, as God's judgment is poured out.
Well, we don't have a very nice description of future events to think about as we go home.
We can't go home very happy about the nature of man's unrepentant heart, his wickedness,
his determination to blaspheme God.
But I'll tell you what we can go home happy about.
We can go home happy about the fact that in the end God is going to be vindicated.
The righteousness of God is going to be vindicated.
Only God's people can see and understand that.
But the God who today is rejected and blasphemed by the world, the God who is ignored, the
God against whom hostility is directed in this day, is going to have the last word.
And the people of God can rejoice that he will be honored.
He will be praised.
He will be exalted.
The one who is righteous, who is and who was and who is to be, the one who will judge these
things, the one whose works are great and marvelous, the Lord God Almighty, the one
who is just and true in all of his ways, the one before whom eventually all nations will
come and worship.
I'd like for us to take our hymnals and sing before we go.
After a study like this you need something to kind of lighten you up just a bit.
And so let's sing a verse or so of 229 that says, our God reigns.
Today we look around and there is defeat on political issues and you see the people of
God persecuted and blasphemed and attacked.
And we think, where is God?
I'll tell you where he is.
He's on his throne.
And we can sing about it.
Let's do as we stand.
229.
How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him.
Who brings good news, good news, announcing peace, proclaiming news, proclaiming peace,
proclaiming news of happiness.
Our God reigns.
Have you noticed that this false prophet in Waco, Texas has been preaching to the FBI
about the trumpets and the various parts of the book of Revelation?
They're fed up to hear with it.
So am I.
He doesn't know what he's talking about because he sees himself as Jesus Christ.
And our world laughs at the kinds of things that we read in this book.
And if some of those people were here tonight, they would look at you and me and they'd
say, you better move to Waco.
They don't understand.
I think that people like this are raised up to bring discredit to the truth of the Word
of God and to the book of Revelation.
Let me tell you what this book says.
It's going to come to pass.
It doesn't please man, but it is going to come to pass.
Let's sing that third verse about Jesus' resurrection out from the tomb.
Out from the tomb He came with grace and majesty.
He is alive.
God loves us all.
See here His hands, His feet, His side.
Yes, we know He is alive.
Our God reigns.
Let's pray together.
Father, we give glory and praise to You, the One who is true and righteous in all Your
judgments and as terrifying and fearful as these events are in their description.
We nonetheless rejoice in them because they vindicate You as the God who is, who was,
who is to come and the God who reigns.
Father, we live in a day which is becoming increasingly dark, but even a little light
shines brightly when it's real dark.
May we be that point of light, that reflector of Jesus in the darkness of this world.
Lord, keep us faithful.
Carry us on in Your strength that we may be Your servants in the darkness of this age.
And this week as we face whatever is before us, remind us that You reign, that You're
on the throne, and that we need not fear.
Amen.
Good night.