All right, well this morning we are gonna be looking
at what is the shortest chapter in Revelation.
Eight whole verses.
But nonetheless, it's no less important
than any other chapter.
Chapter 15 of Revelation is an introduction
to the main event, the grand finale, the final act,
everything that this time of judgment
has been leading up to, which is the final outpouring
of God's wrath to be recorded in chapter 16
known as the seven bold judgments.
Although this chapter is filled with dread,
it is also mingled with hope and worship.
You know, after everything that we've seen so far
in Revelation, the seven seal judgments,
the seven trumpet judgments, the worst in this picture
of Revelation is still yet to come.
That these seven final bold judgments are terrible
and make the previous judgments pale in comparison
as God comes to the place of finally pouring out
all of his wrath on sin and the sin of mankind.
So as I said, chapter 16, we will get into
those bold judgments and look at what they are specifically,
but chapter 15, what we're studying this morning
is the setup, it's the introduction,
it's the pregame, if you will, before this final act.
And on one side of the story we're looking at tonight,
we have angels that are getting ready,
they are getting in position to carry out
the judgments of God because they are the executors
of God's judgment as we will study in chapter 16.
So we'll be looking at these angels in verse one
of chapter 15 and verses five through eight.
But what we also see in this chapter,
this setup to the final judgment,
is a multitude standing before God's throne,
singing, praying, worshiping God for his holiness
and his justice and those are people
that we're gonna look at in verses two through four.
But before we get to that, we also wanna spend time
praising God.
We know that God's ways are just
even when we don't understand them.
We know that God's judgments are pure and true
even when we don't understand them.
And as we've been studying through Revelation,
we know that there is a judgment coming upon this earth.
There is a time coming upon this earth
where God's patience will be over.
And we are called to be people today
that would understand what is to come,
that we would be ready and equipped to warn those
who don't yet know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
I pray as we see what's going on in the world today
that we would be encouraged that God is still in control.
God is still almighty.
God is still righteous and just.
God is still God.
Let's pray.
Father, we love you so much.
And God, we thank you for who you are.
Lord, as believers, we thank you, God,
for the salvation you have brought into our life, Lord.
We're so grateful, God, that you came to this earth
2,000 years ago, Lord, that you lived a life as a man.
Fully God and fully man at the same time,
but Lord, you lived without sin, perfect.
And yet you went to the cross to die for our sin,
for our breaking of your law.
And God, it is through that that we have salvation.
It is through that that we are able to receive
the mercy and the grace that comes from you, God.
That through the blood of Christ,
our sin would be washed away completely.
And Lord, we're still in an age here on this earth
where you are still patient.
You are still long-suffering.
You are still waiting for those to come to you
that you know are gonna come to you, Lord.
And so God, as we study this book here,
as we see what's going on in our world today, Lord,
remind us that you are just, you are true, you are pure.
You are holy, you are righteous, you are almighty.
And God, regardless of what happens beginning to end,
we can trust you completely because you are perfect.
But Lord, we wanna open this morning
by worshiping your holy name and praising you
because you are worth all of it, God.
We love you, we thank you.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's get into this morning's study, chapter 15 of Revelation.
As I mentioned, chapter 15 is really a description
of the players on the field.
It's the setup before the final judgments of God
that take place at the tail end of the tribulation period.
And what we're gonna see in the chapter this morning
is two groups pictured, two groups that are described for us.
One group is an angel or angels with a proclamation of wrath
from God, the other group is a multitude
with a proclamation of worship to God.
And so again, as we have seen in the book of Revelation
before, we see God worshiped because he judges.
And that's difficult for some people.
They think, oh, a God of love would never judge anybody.
Well, then you need to read the book of Revelation, okay.
Because God is love, but he is also holy and just.
And although God in his love provided a way for salvation,
for forgiveness from sin, those that reject that
will face his wrath and his judgment.
And so what we see here in this chapter
is God being again worshiped because he judges.
Which is right and correct, because even the terrible,
terrible judgments that we're about to see in chapter 16,
we have to understand that as these pour out upon earth
and the people upon earth, they are just.
They are true, they are right, because God is just
and true and right.
And they come after an extensive period of long suffering.
An extended period of patience on behalf of God
and multiple opportunities for sinners to be saved.
So we can't look at the judgments that are about to pour out
at the end of tribulation and go, wow, that's harsh.
That's difficult.
That's unfair because it's not.
God is perfectly just.
And so let's get into it, Revelation 15 verse one.
It says, then I saw another great
and awe-inspiring sign in heaven.
Seven angels with the seven last plagues,
for with them God's wrath will be completed.
And so we have seen many, many signs
in this revelation of Jesus Christ
that this book of revelation is.
And in a number of those places,
we've pointed out that that word sign that we see,
the word we see here in verse one of chapter 15
and in other places, what it means
is a great symbolic display, a sign.
More specifically, it means a supernatural display
intended to communicate a message.
Sometimes this word is rendered as a miracle, right?
You see a miracle, you see some type of sign
that is intended to communicate something.
And the message here is dire, very dire.
The message being communicated by this sign in heaven,
this picture that John has seen
is that final judgment is about to fall.
And you know, during this time in history
that is detailed for us in the book of Revelation,
this time that we call the tribulation period,
the seven year tribulate, the final seven years
of this era of history is called the tribulation.
The last three and a half years
is referred to as the great tribulation.
This time is a terrible, terrible time.
But it is long deserved, and it is a long deserved judgment
from God on sin and sinners
and the wickedness of mankind.
We've mentioned through our study of Revelation
and we've seen how there are three sets
of consecutive, progressively worse judgments
that God is pouring out upon the earth.
And these have been illustrated as the seven seals,
the seven trumpets, and now we're gonna be getting into
in chapter 16, the seven bowl judgments.
Now, I do state that there are some different interpretations
of these seven judgments.
Some see these seven judgments,
the seven trumpets or seals, trumpets, and bowls
as a retelling of the same seven events
throughout tribulation.
So what they see there is that these seven seals
and the seven trumpets and the seven bowls
are the same seven things.
Some people look at that and see that
in an interpretation here.
And so they say that the trumpets and the bowls
and the seals, they all describe the same seven events.
That is one interpretation of these events.
And as you read through the seven seals
and the trumpets and the bowls,
there are similarities between them.
However, I see them as 21 different,
consecutive, progressive judgments
that fall from God upon the earth during this time.
I see them as 21 different movements,
seven seals followed by seven trumpets,
followed by seven bowls that start with the first seal
where the Antichrist is introduced to the world scene,
the counterfeit rider on the counterfeit white horse
as this man introduces this time,
and then it all ends with him, the Antichrist,
being cast into the lake of fire
after his defeat at the Battle of Armageddon,
which is what the seventh bowl is all about.
And so that whole judgment there,
that Battle of Armageddon is where we see
the final destruction of the Antichrist
and the government he leads, the world system he leads,
and the city Babylon that he leads it from,
and all of that will be detailed
in chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation.
But there's a couple reasons why I believe
these seven seals and trumpets and bowls
are 21 consecutive things.
One, as you read through them,
you'll notice that the seventh seal
and the seventh trumpet both introduce
the next set of judgments.
And so what you see there is that the seventh trumpet,
or seventh seal, introduces the seven trumpets,
and then we go through the trumpets,
and the seventh trumpet introduces the seven bowls,
and so there is appearance there
that it's a consecutive thing.
But the second reason here we find in Revelation 15.1.
You'll notice there it says that
they are the seven last plagues.
And with them, God's wrath will be completed.
Now that word plagues there,
it's an interesting word in the Greek.
It doesn't mean disease like we think of,
you know, bubonic plague or something like that.
The word actually means to strike or to hit something.
So these seven bowls, these seven last plagues,
they're God's final seven strikes
upon the earth.
His final seven strikes against sin in his judgment.
But that word last there is very interesting.
When it says seven last plagues in Revelation 15.1,
that word last means last in a series of events.
I don't know, maybe like the last seven out of 21
is how that word reads.
And the reason I see it that way
is because if these seven bowl judgments
were representative of the only seven judgments
that took place during the tribulation period,
then what are they the seven last of
in the context of the book?
That doesn't make any sense to me.
So I do see the seals and the trumpets and the bowls
as 21 consecutive movements of judgment
throughout Revelation.
But additionally, I do see a refutation
of a pre-wrath, rapture interpretation here.
I do know that many people have different interpretations
of the timing of the rapture, right?
There's pre-tribulation, there's mid-tribulation,
there's pre-wrath, there's post-tribulation.
And people like to argue about all those.
I've stated many times in our study of Revelation,
we'll know when we get there.
So let's not divide over these things.
Let's discuss, but let's not divide.
Myself in here at Hosanna,
we do believe in a pre-tribulational rapture
and I've endeavored to support that
as we've been studying through Revelation.
But if you disagree, I still love you
and I hope you still love me too, okay?
But here in Revelation 51,
I see a refutation of a pre-wrath, rapture interpretation.
Pre-wrath, for those of you who don't know,
say that the church, us, the church,
we remain on the earth
through the first two-thirds of tribulation.
So it's a little different than mid-tribulation rapture.
We're on the earth through two-thirds
and then at the two-third point,
the church is taken up out of the earth in the rapture
and then they say that happens before these seven bowls
pour out upon the earth.
And one of the reasons that that pre-wrath people see that
is they say, because only the bowl judgments
are considered the wrath of God.
So elsewhere in scripture, when it says the church,
Christians, we are not appointed to wrath,
they go, well yeah, of course not,
because only the bowls are wrath
and were taken out before that.
Now, the reason I see there's a refutation
to that interpretation here
is because these seven last judgments
are the last of a larger complete series of 21,
which it says here, complete God's wrath.
These last seven complete God's wrath,
something that has already begun.
They're the completion of something that has already begun
and we actually see that in Revelation chapter six
verses 16 and 17, which is during the sixth seal, right?
The sixth seal prior to the trumpets, prior to the bowls,
it says this, and they said to the mountains and to the rocks,
fall on us and hide us from the face of the one
seated on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb,
because the great day of their wrath has come.
Who is able to stand?
So way back during the sixth seal,
the people on earth were already going,
this is the wrath of God.
So we can't say that only the bowls are the wrath of God.
So anyways, the whole tribulation period,
the whole seven years in my interpretation
are God's wrath falling upon the earth,
not just the final bowl judgments,
but what is for sure, or what is not disputed by most
or many at all, is that after the seven bowls take place
in chapter 16, God's wrath will be completed.
That isn't disputed by many, okay?
God's wrath will be done.
It'll be complete, it's done, it's over.
And after that, we will see the destruction
of Satan's ruling and reigning upon this earth.
We will see the destruction of his kingdom.
We will then see the millennial thousand year reign
of Christ established upon the earth.
And so regardless of your interpretational bent
on rapture and all that, this period of history,
specifically the tail end of the seven year
tribulation period, will be the worst
that the world has ever known.
It'll be worse than any period
that has ever existed in history.
It'll be worse than the dark ages,
worse than World War I and World War II,
worse than any war you could think of,
worse than the Great Depression,
worse than any recession.
It'll be terrible, a terrible, terrible time.
Now, if this time is so terrible,
you might ask, why does John describe it
as great and awe-inspiring, right?
What John is seeing is these angels getting ready
to pour out these last final seven judgments
upon the earth and he goes, it's great and awe-inspiring.
If it's so terrible, if it's so difficult,
if there's gonna be so much destruction and death,
why does he say that?
It's a very strange way to describe judgment.
Specifically, it's a very strange way
to describe the worst, most cataclysmic period
of judgment in the history of mankind.
Wow, great, exciting.
Why does John say that?
Well, I believe it's because what he is seeing
is the beginning of the end, that after all of this,
after this judgment, this final judgment pours out
that he is seeing the angels get ready to do, it's done.
It's all over.
All that wrath that has been escalating
through this seven-year period,
all these judgments that have been getting worse
and worse and worse are gonna be done.
And then the end comes and sin is dealt with
and Jesus reigns forever and that's why John is like,
oh, wow, we're almost there.
We're almost there.
You know, as wonderful a blessing as revelation
has been and it is a blessing, right,
it tells us in chapter one, you're blessed if you read it.
It's heavy.
It's heavy, it's difficult.
As a pastor, it's tough to study through these things
and we spent like, what, four or five weeks
in Revelation 13 and 14 and that's all about the devil
and his ugliness, right?
It's just like, I don't wanna study this, right?
I don't wanna focus on the devil and his ugliness,
I wanna focus on Jesus, right?
It's been a heavy book and as we've been going through it,
I don't know if you've been experiencing it
but we often experience these things as a church together.
That spiritual warfare seems to be heightened
and people are just dealing with things left and right
and there's problems and challenges all over the place
and the devil is just going bonkers.
And so I'm ready to get past all of this judgment.
I'm excited to get to the second coming, right?
I'm excited to get to the kingdom age and teach on that
and we're gonna get there.
We'll get there but man, isn't that a microcosm
of this life, right?
I'm tired of this life and the difficulties
and these horrible things we read about.
I wanna get to that second coming.
I wanna be face to face with Jesus and it's coming.
We'll get there but not yet.
And so John says it's a wonderful, marvelous thing.
It's great and awe inspiring that God is fulfilling
his plan and bringing it to a close
and the final is almost here.
We're almost there.
He's been recording all of these judgments
starting all the way back in chapter six of Revelation.
All this destruction and devastation upon the earth
and we've seen the seas and the waters and the grass
and the trees and the sky and the celestial bodies
judged and destroyed.
We've seen hordes of demonic activity and pain and death
and all of this and John has been recording all of this
as he's observing it but then it's almost over.
We're almost at the end.
He's glad to see it coming and he's in awe.
That word awe means excited, wonder and marvel
to see the last of these judgments fall
and it to finally be finished.
So that's verse one.
Let's skip down to verse five because as I mentioned
in the intro, we have verse one which introduces
these angels and then verses two through four
introduces this worshiping multitude
and then verse five, he goes back to the angels.
So I just kinda wanna finish the angel thought.
So jump forward with me to verse five.
We saw these seven angels with the seven last plagues
and then verse five, John says, after this I looked
and the heavenly temple, the tabernacle of testimony
was opened.
Out of the temple came the seven angels
with the seven plagues dressed in pure bright linen
with golden sashes wrapped around their chests.
One of the four living creatures gave the seven angels
seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God
who lives forever and ever.
Then the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God
and from his power and no one can enter the temple
until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
Now if any of the imagery here that's being described
seems foreign to you, it's because it's got a very specific
cultural context.
We have these angels, it says they're in linen clothing,
they have these gold sashes around their chest
carrying these particular bowls and there's smoke
and this temple called the tabernacle of testimony.
It's all language that would be very familiar
to a Jewish reader in the first century
when they got this letter.
It's all language and descriptors that are very, very
common to temple worship and so it's all temple imagery.
So we kind of have to take a step back to understand
what he's talking about here.
So this pure bright linen and the golden sashes
across the chest that these angels are wearing,
it's speaking of the type of clothing that priests
would wear, that priests would wear in the temple.
The priest's garb and the high priest's garb,
it had gold threading throughout the chest here, right?
And it was a symbol of their service to God
and so these angels are seen and pictured as serving
as priests in God's temple.
As a matter of fact, back in Revelation chapter one
verse 13, Jesus is pictured as the high priest
where we see the exalted Jesus, our high priest,
and it says that he has a robe with a golden sash
wrapped around his chest.
So it's a very similar image there.
And so that golden sash, it's a picture and a reminder
that God's judgment here in the context of Revelation 15,
God's judgment is always pure and holy and righteous
and it's always meted out appropriately.
That's this picture of this pure gold coming across
the chest of the high priest here.
But these angels, dressed similarly, it says they came out
of the heavenly temple called the Tabernacle of Testimony.
Now what is that?
What does that mean?
Well, this Tabernacle of Testimony is referring
to the place that held the Holy of Holies.
And the Holy of Holies was where the Ark of the Covenant
rested.
Initially, in the beginning, when Israel was told
to create the Tabernacle and Moses was given
all the instructions, the Tabernacle was a space
that was made out of cloth.
It was a mobile cloth compound that Israel would set up
and take down as they wandered the wilderness for 40 years
and then eventually this space called the Holy of Holies
resided within the temple as well in Jerusalem.
And so in both of these places, both the Tabernacle
and the temple, there was a courtyard.
There was a courtyard with a building that was in the center
or towards one end of this area and the reason this courtyard
was there was because it was creating a separation
between some of the elements of this area.
But the courtyard was then enclosed by a fence
that surrounded with it and you'll notice that fence
had one gate.
There was only one entrance way into this place,
this Tabernacle or in the temple you had one entrance way
to it and the reason was because there was only one way
to approach God.
There's not multiple ways to approach God.
There's only one way.
So as the priests would enter into this,
they were the representatives of the people.
And so as a priest would enter in, one of the first things
they would see when they entered through the gate
was an altar.
There's that altar right towards the front area
after the entrance to the gate there.
This is called the Bronze Altar or the Brazen Altar
and this is where the animals were brought in and killed.
Where the animals were sacrificed and their blood shed
as a sacrifice to God.
Why?
Because there was only one way to approach God
and that was through the shed blood.
That was through the sacrifice of these animals.
Past that, you would then see this larger structure
which had two rooms inside of it and the front first room
of the structure was called the Holy Place.
Inside the Holy Place, on your left,
you would see a seven branched candlestick
which was called the Golden Lampstand.
On your right, you would see a table with showbread,
also called the Bread of the Presence.
On it had 12 loaves.
And then in front of you, you would see a very thick veil
that spanned the entire width of the thing
that had a golden altar sitting right in front of it
where the incense was burned.
So this was the Holy Place.
Now, that big veil separated this front room,
the Holy Place, from the most holy place behind it,
the place called the Holy of Holies.
And so beyond that veil, there was only one single piece
of furniture, the Ark of the Covenant.
That's what existed right behind that veil.
Now, the Ark was a wooden box overlaid with gold.
And on top of it, there was a lid called the Mercy Seat.
And on top of that lid, there was these two angels
that had their wings folded out touching each other.
Now, this Ark, this Ark of the Covenant,
was also called the Ark of the Testimony.
That was another name for it.
And so thus, the room that this Ark resided in
was referred to as the Tabernacle of Testimony
because that's where the Ark of the Testimony resided.
This place in the heavenly temple
is where these angels came out from.
Make sense?
All right, so.
But why was the Ark of the Covenant
called the Ark of the Testimony?
What was the point of that?
The reason was is because of what was inside that Ark.
You see, inside the Ark, there were three things.
The first thing was a copy of the Ten Commandments.
Now, it wasn't the original Ten Commandments
because we know the story that Moses,
when he came down from the mountain
and he saw the people engaging in idolatry,
he got mad and he smashed the original ones.
And God said, well, you're gonna have to make another set.
So Moses made another set,
and those were then placed inside the Ark of the Testimony.
Why?
Because it was a testimony
to how Israel had broken God's law.
The second thing that was in the Ark of the Testimony
was a pot of manna.
If you remember, while Israel was wandering
in the wilderness, God was providing this manna,
this bread, this substance for them to eat every day,
and he sustained them.
He provided for them every single day,
and then twice on Saturday
so that they didn't have to go out and gather,
or twice at the end of the week
so they didn't have to go out and gather on the Sabbath day.
And so this pot of manna was put in there
to represent that God provided for them,
but they didn't like it.
And you go back in the Old Testament,
you read that Israel, the children of Israel,
all they did was complain about this food
God provided from heaven, right?
It didn't taste right, it wasn't spiced right,
it was too chewy, it was too tough,
whatever it was, right?
They just complained incessantly
about what God had provided for them.
And so a pot of this stuff was kept
in the Ark of the Testimony because it was a testimony
against Israel's grumbling about God's provision for them.
And the third thing that was in the Ark was Aaron's rod.
Aaron was one of the high priests,
and that rod that he carried was a symbol of his leadership.
And if you remember back in the Old Testament,
the people were arguing and grumbling
against Aaron and Moses.
They didn't like that they were the leaders,
and so they were questioning their leadership
and arguing against them, and God said,
"'Fine, you don't like Aaron?
"'Fine, we're gonna have a contest.
"'You bring whoever you want.
"'I'll have Aaron.'
"'And whoever's staff grows fruit and flowers,
"'whoever's staff's budded,
"'that's the one God's chosen to be the leadership.'"
And so the people said, okay, and they brought their people,
and they put out the rods, and guess whose rod?
Budded.
Aaron's.
And so they said,
"'We're gonna put that in the Ark of the Testimony.'
"'Why?'
"'Because it was a testimony against Israel
"'for going against the leadership
"'that God had raised up in his house.'"
So here you have this box that's at the center
of the tabernacle, in the center of the camp of Israel,
when then was eventually in the most holy place,
in the temple as well,
in the very center of the life in the temple,
and this box was a testimony to the failure of the people.
It was a testimony to the sin of the people,
that they had broken God's law,
that they had grumbled against his provision,
that they had questioned his leadership.
It was a testimony of all of that.
But then once a year, the high priest
got to go into that room,
and he got to sprinkle blood over that lid.
That lid was called the mercy seat,
because God's mercy covered the sins of the people,
and when that blood was sprinkled,
because blood had to have been shed, right?
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin.
So the blood was sprinkled on that mercy seat,
and then because of that, because that blood was shed,
mercy was then extended to them,
that their failures, their sins were covered,
mercy was granted, and so,
thus the Ark of the Testimony against the people
became the place of mercy extended to them.
This is what God, or John, is seeing
in his vision of Revelation 15.
Not all of it, though.
But as he sees these angels coming out
of the tabernacle of testimony,
and given the bowls of judgment,
John is understanding the implication
of what is being said here.
Because what John is seeing is this temple in heaven,
and if you remember in the book of Hebrews,
it tells us that the tabernacle on earth
was a model of the temple in heaven,
so what we had on earth was a reflection
of the temple in heaven.
So John is seeing this temple in heaven,
and he's seeing that that place,
that seat of mercy, that place of salvation,
right here at the end of tribulation,
is now being turned into a throne of judgment.
All of the right and proper judgment against mankind,
for the testimony of mankind sinned against God,
all that judgment is now coming out.
That in this moment, there was no more mercy.
Now prior to this moment, right,
it had been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ died, he shed his blood.
That that blood would be offered,
and the mercy of God would be granted
to whoever would call in the name of Jesus Christ.
And those who called out for that and received that,
they had been forgiven, they had been granted mercy,
but those who refused that blood,
those who refused Jesus Christ,
and this is what's been taking place
through the tribulation period,
those who had said no to all of that,
there's no more mercy.
There's no more mercy, not here at the end of tribulation.
Now the testimony of against the sin of mankind
is being judged and judged fully.
Verse seven there, it said that one of the four
living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls
filled with the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.
We might have different images on our head
when we think of bowl, right, a cereal bowl,
popcorn bowl that some of us use as a cereal bowl, right,
let's be honest.
I've done that, right, okay, so.
But no, the word for bowl here,
it's more like a saucer.
It's a very shallow bowl made for making an offering,
made for making a liquid offering.
The fancy word for that is libation, right.
If you poured out a liquid as an offering,
as an act of worship, it's called a libation.
And so these bowls are shallow.
And that's an interesting word
because there are other Greek words for bowl,
but this particular word used here is a very shallow bowl
because the picture is it's shallow
so the contents could be poured out quickly.
So the contents could be poured out real fast.
And that's incidentally what we're gonna see
in the final bowl judgments is that these judgments
fall on the earth in a very rapid succession,
so much so that there are some interpreters
that believe that the final seven bowl judgments
all fall upon earth within the last 30 day period
of the tribulation time.
So verse eight, it says,
then the temple was filled with smoke
from the glory of God and from his power,
and no one could enter the temple
until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
So no one could enter the temple.
Think about that.
No one means no one.
During this moment, not even the redeemed
could enter the temple of God.
Not even the saved that we're gonna see
in verses two through four are there in heaven.
Why?
Well, it's very reminiscent of pictures we've seen
in the Old Testament.
Specifically, there were times in the Old Testament
with Moses where he was not allowed to enter in
to the Holy of Holies because God's smoke filled it.
And he was prevented from going in there.
He was prevented from going into that presence
of God's holiness, which that smoke
and that glory all represented.
And in those times in the Old Testament
where Moses couldn't enter the Holy of Holies
because God's smoke filled it,
the picture was that the glory of God,
his holiness, his perfection,
is so majestic, so pure, so radiant
that no human can enter into the presence of God
unless invited.
We remember the story, right?
Moses is like, God, I wanna see you.
And he's like, he'll burn up, dude.
It's like, tell you what, I'm gonna hide you in the rock,
I'll pass by, you'll see my afterglow.
Moses peeked and was like, ah, aged.
It's like, and that was just the afterglow, right?
God's holiness is so majestic.
It's like, when my presence is here
and I haven't invited you,
you will not come into my presence.
And in this moment of judgment,
in this moment where the fires of judgment
are burning hot, the invitation is
for this moment rescinded.
Then on top of that, the temple was typically
the place where people would go to commune with God, right?
The temple is where they would go to offer their sacrifice.
The temple is where they'd go to talk to God,
but it tells us here that nobody was allowed
in the temple until judgment was completed.
The picture, the picture is that in this moment
at the end of tribulation, there is no more discussion.
There is no more pleading.
There's no more prayer, there's no more waiting.
There is no more mercy in this moment.
The temple is closed for God's judgment
is proceeding forth on the sin of mankind.
A dire picture, right?
A very dire picture.
At this point in Revelation, there are still many
on the earth that have not responded
to the lesser judgments that had come upon the earth.
We've read about it.
There are people on the earth who didn't respond
to the evangelism of the 144,000.
There's people on earth who didn't respond
to the two witnesses in Jerusalem.
There's people on earth who didn't even respond
to the angel flying through the sky preaching the gospel.
Come on, an angel flying through the sky
preaching the gospel.
Nah.
Why?
That wasn't an angel, that was a UFO
or whatever the weird explanation's gonna be.
So instead of responding to the gospel,
though people's hearts get harder and harder
and they don't turn, the offer of grace and mercy
doesn't turn them.
The judgments falling upon the earth doesn't turn them
and so here at the end, it's destruction.
It's the final sentence.
These last seven judgments are pronounced.
And it's gruesome.
I read, somebody wrote this prayer of a humanistic world
and I think this is gonna be the creed
of people on earth at that time
and we even see it a lot now, but this is the prayer
of a humanistic world.
Our brethren who art on earth, hallowed be our name.
Our kingdom come.
Our will will be done on earth for there is no heaven.
We must get this day our daily bread.
We neither forgive nor are forgiven.
We fear not temptation for there is no wrong
and we deliver ourselves from evil if there is such a thing.
For ours is the kingdom and the power
and there is no glory and there is no forever, amen.
Well, God has a response for that
and that's what we're gonna see in chapter 16.
So let's jump back to verse two.
That was the angels.
Let's go back to verse two
and look at the second group here real quick.
We have the angels that have gotten ready for judgment
and as they're getting ready for judgment,
at the same time, worship is happening.
John says, I also saw something like a sea of glass
mixed with fire and those who had won the victory
over the beast, its image and the number of its name
were standing on the sea of glass with harps from God.
They sang the song of God's servant Moses
and the song of the lamb.
So who is this group of people?
Standing before the throne of God, singing, worshiping.
It tells us these are people who have victory over the beast,
over its image and over its mark.
Now, there's clues here that we can kind of look through.
It says they're standing on a sea of glass, right?
And the last time we saw that was in chapter four
of Revelation that before the throne of God,
it was this sea of glass and what we saw there
before the throne of God on this sea of glass
was these 24 elders who were sitting on 24 thrones.
I believe those 24 elders represent the church
that is in heaven before tribulation starts.
That's part of the reason why I believe
in a pre-tribulation rapture.
But the church, being raptured out of the earth
prior to tribulation, guess what?
The church, this entity we call the church today,
the body of Christ, if they are raptured out
prior to the tribulation, then they didn't experience
the beast and they didn't experience its mark
and they didn't experience its image
because they weren't there for it.
But we do know that there are still people on earth
who get saved during the tribulation period.
And we see a picture of that because it says
this group that's standing here are standing
on the sea of glass mixed with fire.
Mixed with fire.
Fire is often something symbolic in scripture
to refer to judgment, to refer to persecution,
to refer to those types of things.
And so we see that this group standing on the sea of glass
mixed with fire, there's something different about them
than the elders or the church that we saw in chapter four.
Who are these people?
I believe they're representative of what we saw
in Revelation chapter six during the fifth seal
where we saw a group of believers
who had been slaughtered for their faith.
I believe these are specifically believers
that had gotten saved during the tribulation period
and then were killed for their confession.
When it says they were slaughtered,
it says they were violently and mercilessly killed
for their faith.
And we know during the tribulation period,
it's gonna become outright illegal to be a Christian.
We know that there's gonna be persecution
to the degree where if you don't take the mark of the beast,
you can't even buy and sell.
You can't go to the store to get food.
You can't put gas in your car.
You can't buy insurance.
Oh, well, you have to have insurance, right?
We see how the persecution's gonna get thick
and then people are just gonna be killed.
And we're gonna see later that there are even some
that have their heads chopped off.
We refer to these as tribulation saints,
a group of people who were killed for turning away
from the system of the Antichrist during tribulation.
The group there in Revelation six
as they're under the altar saying,
God, when are you gonna avenge our blood?
When are you gonna avenge us?
When are you gonna stop being patient?
When are you gonna stop waiting?
And God says, we're almost there, but hold on.
Well, now we see them standing before the throne of God,
which is where the sea of glass is.
But then it says it's mixed with fire
because fire is often symbolic of persecution
or that type of thing.
What we see is this group of people
are standing before God on the sea of glass.
But this representation of fire is that they had gone
through this intense persecution.
They had gone through the fires of persecution
through tribulation and were killed for it.
That they had confessed Jesus Christ
during the most anti-God period of history.
These are the ones that chapter 12 tells us
that are part of the group that's accused
by the great dragon, Satan, day and night.
It said of these people, they did not love their lives
to the point of death, but instead there in chapter 12,
they had conquered by the blood of the lamb.
That blood shed onto the mercy seat
and the word of their testimony.
But for these ones, it wasn't a testimony of failure.
It wasn't a testimony of grumbling against God's provision.
It was a testimony that they had been washed clean
by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And so after all their torture and pain
and suffering and persecution,
we finally see them here standing in heaven,
victorious over the beast.
God is pouring out that judgment
that they had been asking for.
And they're worshiping him from heaven saying,
yes, we are victors.
From an earthly perspective, people probably thought,
oh, you're those poor loser Christians,
but in heaven, they win.
And they're singing here.
It says they're singing the song of Moses
and the song of the lamb.
What they're not singing is, woe is me.
God, my life was so hard.
Lord, it was so unfair what you let me go through.
God, I can't believe it.
I mean, consider it.
They were tortured.
These are the ones that were tortured and beaten
and they couldn't buy and sell and starved
and no justice during this time.
And yet they're singing the song filled with praise,
trust, hope, and anticipation.
And we all have two options
when we're going through difficult times
and we're experiencing episodes of pain,
episodes of trial and discouragement.
One option is to get bitter, get angry,
shake your fist at God.
God, why do you allow this?
The other option is to be driven closer to God
in greater trust and greater dependence.
I read a quote that said,
with some, pain will break the back.
With others, it will bow the knee in humble submission.
And the choice is really yours in those moments.
But this group here, they chose to bow and worship.
They believed Romans 8 28, which says,
we know that all things work together for good
of those who love God
and who are called according to his purpose.
What are they singing?
The song of God's servant Moses and the song of the lamb.
Now, there's a couple different interpretations here
on what these songs are.
Some go look at this and they go,
they're two different songs, right?
They're two separate songs.
There's a song of Moses
and then there's the song of the lamb,
which then we have recorded in verses three and four.
And the reason some will look at it that way
is because if you go to the Old Testament,
there's actually three different songs
that are attributed to Moses
that are considered to be written by Moses.
One of them is in Exodus 15 after they crossed the Red Sea.
One of them's in Psalm 90
and one of them's in Deuteronomy 32,
which is probably titled in your Bible,
the song of Moses, okay?
I mean, it could be one of these songs that he's singing
and there's parallels,
especially if you look at the song in Exodus 15,
it's a song about God's deliverance of Israel
from the bondage of Pharaoh.
And this song we're about to look at in Revelation
is a song of God's deliverance of this group
from the bondage of the Antichrist, right?
So there's parallels there.
Another interpretation is that it's just two titles
for this one song we read in verse 15.
And some people look at it that
because it's a picture of the perfect union
between the law and love, right?
The law which Moses represents
and then the love covenant that the lamb represents,
the whole idea of the union
between the old and new covenants.
And so there's references found in the song.
I'm not sure which one it is
because what we have recorded here in verses three and four
is the song we're gonna look at.
So let's look at it real quick.
It says, great and awe-inspiring are your works,
Lord God, the Almighty.
So the first thing this multitude sings
and praises God for is his works.
And if they are tribulation saints,
which I believe they are, they've seen his works.
They've seen God's judgment falling upon the earth
over the last seven years of tribulation.
They've seen the miracles that God
wrought through his two witnesses there in Jerusalem.
They've seen God's miraculous preservation
of these 144,000 Jewish evangelists
that I'm sure people tried to kill,
but they were saved as we read about earlier.
They've seen his works.
And they say they're great and awe-inspiring.
And then they say, just and true
are your ways, King of nations.
So the second thing they praise God for,
first thing is his works,
second thing is his ways.
His ways, right?
They're not blaming God for what happened to them.
They're not saying, God,
it's unfair what we had to go through.
They're saying, just and true are your ways, oh God.
We lived through this terrible time
where your judgments were falling upon the earth.
We lived through it, and then we died,
and we died horrible deaths.
But you're still just.
Your ways are still just because you are just.
And the judgment you're about to pour out
on the earth for sin, it's also just.
It's right.
And then that word true there,
it means not arbitrary, but based on good reason.
Your ways, God, are just and true.
What you allow in our lives, God, has good reason.
I may not understand the reason,
but it has good reason because your ways are just and true.
And so is the judgment that you're about to pour out.
It is an honest evaluation on the condition of the world.
And then as King of nations, that's just a nod to the fact
that he has the authority to make those distinctions.
Verse four, Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name
for you alone are holy?
Third thing they worship him for is God's worthiness.
It's almost as if they're just in awe and amazement
that anybody would deny him, right?
Like, how could anybody deny God?
But that's exactly what the world does.
That's exactly what the world is doing and will do.
They're in amazement.
Like, who will not fear you?
That word fear, it's reverence and great respect
resulting in humble submission.
It's having that great respect for him
and who he is in the world.
Well, they have the opposite of that in regards to Jesus.
The world doesn't live in a way that says,
God, you're first, what you want is important.
I mean, I wanna talk about pandemics.
Our world is living in a pandemic of narcosyphosis.
Narcissism today.
A pandemic of narcissism.
There's so many people in our world,
they think the world revolves around them.
It's them, their feelings, their thing.
It's what their life is all about.
It's what they want.
And then they think, thus so should God.
God should revolve around my wants.
Instead of what it says in Revelation four
where the people said, you've created all things
and by your will they exist and were created.
The problem in the world today is I exist for my will
because I was not created.
I'm just an accident of evolution.
Or whatever cult teaching they've latched onto
that exults man.
That's why I'm here.
Too many today evaluate God on the basis
of how much he will give me what I want.
You know, I'll fellowship with his people at church
if it's comfortable enough.
I'll go to church if I'm not too tired.
I'll worship if the music is my preferred genre.
I'll evangelize as long as it doesn't scare me.
I'll give as long as it doesn't cost me anything.
I'll serve as long as it's according to my time preferences.
It's a pandemic of narcissism.
What we see this group worshiping God for here
is they say, God, you alone are holy.
You alone are holy.
This group in heaven is just saying,
I can't believe the world hasn't figured out
that God is holy.
It's all about him.
And then finally they say all the nations
will come and worship before you
because your righteous acts have been revealed.
So the fourth thing they worship God for,
first it's his works, it's his ways,
it's his worthiness and now it's just the worship.
They just worship him for the sake of his due,
all the worship.
And they recognize that that is what's gonna come to pass.
Right, this is their anticipation
of when the whole world will gather together
by force or by choice and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
That's what Philippians two tells us.
For this reason, God highly exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name
so that at the name of Jesus,
every knee will bow in heaven and on earth
and under the earth and every tongue will confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.
Hallelujah.
So here at the end, as in all of history,
there exist two groups of people.
Those who revere and respect and fear God
and those who don't.
Those who don't, we're seeing here,
will face the full wrath of God.
Those who do fear God,
those who do respect and reverence him
and have him as their Lord and Savior,
they will escape the wrath.
They will exist in a joyous worship
with their creator forever.
It's clear, it's cut and dry in that regard.
Judgment is coming.
And that's not a popular thing to say.
It's coming.
In you and me, nobody can stop it.
Nobody can stop it.
But you don't have to walk right into judgment.
You don't have to walk into the full expression
of God's wrath on sin.
For Jesus said in John 5 24,
truly I tell you, anyone who hears my word
and believes him who sent me has eternal life
and will not come under judgment,
but has passed from death to life.
I wanna close with this quick story.
It's about a dad who is walking with his little girl
out in a big, vast open prairie,
kind of like a grassland.
There was just miles and miles of this grass
kinda area around them.
And they were walking for a long time.
And after some time of walking,
the dad looked up and he noticed that off in the distance,
there was a prairie fire that was burning
and coming towards them.
This dad knew that there was only one chance to escape
because the fire was moving way too fast.
And they had been walking far too far away
from where they were.
So there was no way they could outrun the fire.
He knew that if he burned the ground around them,
all the grass immediately around them,
there would be nothing for this fire to consume.
And thus the fire would probably hit
and burn around them and keep going.
So fortunately, this dad, he had a match.
He strikes up the match, catches the grass,
you know, as quickly as he can.
It was really dry, so it caught fire real quick.
And he let it burn out to an area
and then he stomped it out as fast as he could.
Then he picked up his daughter
and he stood in the very center of that burnt section.
And the fire was raging and coming closer and closer.
And as the fire got closer, his little girl was scared.
And she was crying out and crying,
Daddy, Daddy, I'm scared.
Finally, the flames were just raging all around them.
But he said to his daughter, don't worry.
The flames can't get to us because we're standing
where they have already been.
And sure enough, the flames just burned right around them
and continued down through the field,
leaving the dad and his daughter unharmed.
You know, 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ came to this earth,
the Son of God, and he hung on the cross
where the Father poured out all of the wrath
of his judgment on sin on him.
The full wrath of God fell upon Jesus
that according to John 3, 16,
everyone who would believe in him would not perish
but have eternal life because he paid the price for our sin.
The reality is is that when you're in Christ,
you are standing where the fire has already been.
You are standing where it has already been.
You have nothing to fear at all, ever.
You have nothing to fear.
You have no wrath of God, the judgment of his on sin.
You have no reason to fear that at all, ever.
Every pain we might experience in our life,
we know that the Bible says that God uses these things
to refine us, to purify us,
and all of that is about drawing us closer to him.
But in the context of judgment
and the wrath of God on judgment is concerned,
you and I in Christ stand where the fire has already burned.
Jesus took it all on himself
so that you and I would not have to face God's wrath on sin.
That's the truth that we have today to share with people.
That's the truth many reject.
And there are many in this world today that says,
if God hated sin so much, why doesn't he judge it?
And they misunderstand his longsuffering and his patience
for neglect.
Judgment is coming.
And if you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
I pray today you've heard the Holy Spirit speaking to you
about your desperate need for him,
because without him there is no salvation.
Without him, you're a sinner who's broken God's law.
And there is no payment applied.
There is no work you can do to atone for that.
It is only the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
So if you don't know him today, come to know him today.
Let me pray with you.
Let's pray right now.
Father God, we trust you in your word, God,
and we thank you, Lord, for the warnings you give us.
Lord, your word is full of these warnings, God.
Lord, you, like a loving father, regularly will warn
your people about the consequences of sin.
But Lord, the greatest consequence is you not being our father
and the judgment that will come upon our sin because of that.
Lord, maybe there are some in this room this morning
or some even watching online that have never accepted you
as their Lord and Savior.
God, they have never come to that place of saying,
Jesus, I believe you are God.
I believe you died on the cross.
I believe you rose again.
I believe you died from my sin.
And Lord, if there are those that have never said
that I pray God even in this moment
as you're speaking to their heart
that they would pray with me.
And if God is speaking to you and you know you need
to receive Christ this morning, pray this prayer with me.
Say, Lord Jesus, I believe you are God.
I believe you came to this earth.
I believe you lived a perfect life.
A life without sin.
And I believe you died on the cross
as the only pure sacrifice.
And you shed your blood for me.
That blood being sprinkled on the mercy seat
to atone for my sin.
That I would find mercy.
That I would find forgiveness.
I believe in you today.
I believe in what you did today.
I believe it saves me today.
Thank you for loving me so much.
That you would do that.
Thank you for loving me so much
that you would provide a way for me
to escape the wrath to come.
Help me share this hope with others.
Help me warn others of the judgment to come.
In a loving and kind way, but with boldness and confidence.
In Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Well you received Jesus Christ this morning
whether you're here in our room or watching online.
We wanna help you on this walk,
this relationship you've just started with God.
And so before you leave today, we have a little packet,
we call it New Believers Packet.
Please make sure you grab one.
It has all kinds of resources in you
to help you get plugged into the word of God,
to get plugged into the worship of God,
to get plugged into all the different community groups
we have here at Hosanna, to get plugged into
all the community groups we have here at Hosanna
to be involved.
If you're interested in learning
how to share your faith more,
we have an evangelism ministry that meets every Thursday
to teach and train the skills
and then goes out all the time.
We have people in our body that are going out all the time
to share their faith, to learn how to pass out
these gospel tracts.
And if God is calling you to that
and you wanna learn how to do that, get plugged in.
But get this packet from us so that we can help you
on this journey that you've started with your creator.
For the rest of us, we know Jesus Christ
and we know the end is coming.
We say we believe the word of God, right?
We say it's God's word, it's holy and it's true.
Well, he said judgment is coming.
And he said those that don't know him
are gonna suffer the eternal judgment of hell.
Let that be a motivator to hand out a tract.
Let that be a motivator to have a conversation
if God would open up that door.
I know it's scary.
For a lot of us, it's like, ooh, it's scary
to talk to people about my faith.
But God saved your soul.
God saved you from his wrath to come, hallelujah.
How glorious is that?
He wants to do that for whoever
you're thinking about right now.
So I pray God would fill you with his Holy Spirit.
That we would be a church and a people that go out.
Pray for God's will to be done,
but be that light on the hill to shine the gospel
with people in all the different ways we do it.
You may go out with teams, you may do it on your own.
It doesn't matter, just do it in obedience to the Lord.
And watch God work through you to save others
from the wrath that is to come, amen?
Let's worship, guys.