We always like to start by saying welcome to anybody
that is here for the first time in our sanctuary
or if you're joining us online, welcome.
We're so glad you're here to worship with us today.
I am Pastor Nathan and we are gonna spend
a quick moment in prayer for Israel.
I know most of us are now aware of what's going on
and seeing news reports and developments
and granted many of those developments are very intriguing
in the light of prophecy, especially end times prophecy.
And so ultimately God is in control.
God knows and God's plan will not be thwarted
and so we just pray in the meantime
for God's will to be done but we also pray
for the safety of those that are in harm's way
and so please join me in prayer for Israel.
Father, we lift up Israel God to you.
We lift up that nation Lord that is so special to you.
Lord that you speak so readily about throughout your word
and we know God that there's a very specific plan
you have for this nation as we come to the end
of this era of Earth's history.
Lord we pray for their safety.
Lord we pray for peace in Israel.
We pray specifically for those that are still hostage
that they would be released safely without injury Lord.
We pray for the families Lord that have lost loved ones
already and we pray you would comfort them
and bring them peace.
Lord we pray for the innocent on the Palestinian side
of this conflict Lord.
God as we read that they are trying to evacuate Gaza
and Hamas is blocking the roads so that they cannot evacuate.
Lord we pray that you would just clear that away
that they would be safe.
We pray for those that are perpetrating the violence
that you would hold them accountable
that you would deal with them Lord
and we know you're going to.
We pray God for developments that are starting to happen
around the world with North Korea and Lebanon
and other areas Lord.
God just do a work, do a mighty work.
Be glorified Lord but ultimately through all of this God
may your glory shine forth and people come to know you
as their Lord and Savior.
That God regardless of what happens to them in this life
they would have the glory of eternity in paradise with you.
Heaven awaiting them because they know you Jesus Christ.
So Lord we lift all up to you and we thank you.
Do your work Lord may your will be done in Jesus name.
Amen.
All right well I do not find it,
well I do find it interesting
that we're studying through Revelation as all of this
is starting to happen around the world today.
This morning we're going to be starting Revelation
chapter 16 which is the final seven judgments
of the tribulation period known as the bowl judgments
and today we're only going to be looking at the first five
of these seven and then the reaction of those upon the earth
to these judgments of God.
If you remember chapter 15 closed with God coming
and closing the temple in heaven as his smoke
and his glory filled the temple effectively blocking off
access to what would be the place of mercy,
the mercy seat there and he blocked that place off
after the seven angels had been called forth
from the spiritual holy of holies.
Getting ready to do their task to pour out these bowls
of judgment ready to execute that judgment
which is the penalty, the penalty for the true testimony
against mankind's sin and guilt.
The picture there is that mercy and forgiveness
is no longer accessible at that moment
for that time had passed,
a very grievous time that'll come in the history of man.
Chapter 15 as it was given to John the apostle
and delivered to the churches
and has been with us ever since I believe
is very specifically meant to warn people
about the future to come.
To warn those about the future that comes
so they would turn to Christ
so that they would repent of their sin,
believe in God and who he is,
put their faith in Jesus Christ, God the son
and his death on the cross for their salvation
to trust in all of that that they would be saved.
And we know in our time today, our earth existence today,
mankind has been given many, many, many opportunities
to repent of their sin.
Many chances to turn from their sin
and to turn towards Christ
and the same will happen during the tribulation period.
That there will still be the gospel going forth,
the gospel being preached.
Mankind will still have the opportunity to turn to Christ
and we're blessed to say that during tribulation,
the Bible teaches that many will indeed turn to Jesus
for their salvation but many will not
because the world system from the top down,
the global government, the global economy,
the one world religion from the top down
is firmly against God.
Firmly against Jesus Christ in the gospel
and all that God stands for
and thus we come to chapter 16,
the culmination of this tribulation time
where God's final and full wrath
is poured out upon those who deny him.
So we'll be looking at the first 11 verses this morning,
verses one through eight and 10
detail the final or the first five bowls
that are poured out with a specific purpose
in God's plan of judgment
and then we'll be looking at verses nine and 11
which gives us a very clear picture
of man's persistent refusal to honor God.
You know, it's a bleak picture, it's a difficult picture
but if you're in this room this morning
or if you're watching online today
or you're watching this video sometime in the future,
all of this is meant to be a warning to you.
That salvation is needed
because God's judgment will come upon sin
and if you don't know him today,
you need to know him today to be forgiven
for your sin against God, for your breaking of his law
because when his judgment comes it'll be right,
it'll be just, it'll be holy
and you will have nothing to say about it
because it'll be right
but today he offers salvation to all,
all who would call upon the name of Jesus Christ
and so listen today, hear him today
and for those of us that know Jesus Christ this morning,
I pray that you would just be,
continue to be motivated.
We are given the glimpse of the future
so that we would be armed and equipped
to go out and warn people about that future,
to take the gospel to those that need it
and I pray you would be filled with the Holy Spirit of God
to do exactly that.
Well let's pray because we're gonna spend some time
in worship first and then we will get into the word.
Father God, we thank you, Lord, for your word.
We thank you that you reveal to us yourself
in your word, Lord.
We know this book is the revelation of Jesus Christ
and it shows us your heart.
God, so many of us in this world today
might wanna hear all about the love that you have
but God, when we read about your judgment
and how you feel about sin and the wrath that will be
poured out on those who continue in sin and refuse you,
Lord, it's a difficult picture
but God, we know you pour out your judgment upon sin
because you are a loving God and a loving Father
and Lord, we've seen through this revelation period
or this tribulation period as you've been pouring out
your judgments, as they've been getting increasingly more
just pervasive and increasingly more hurtful
and painful and destructive, Lord.
We know that even in that, there's a grace from you
that you would give people an opportunity
to the very last moment to turn to you as Lord and Savior.
And so we pray, God, that you would just continue
to do that even today, Lord.
We're not yet in this time of tribulation
but we know it's coming.
God, we see things happening around our world
that might be precursors,
that might be fulfillment of prophecy, God,
as we've been studying and looking forward
to what's going to happen, Lord.
But at the end of everything, God,
in every single day of our lives, Lord,
we know you are holy, we know you are just,
we know you are love, we know you are light,
we know you are perfect and righteous
and we submit our lives to you
and we pray for those that haven't yet done that,
that they would do so,
that they would recognize their sin against you
and turn to you for the salvation
that you so desperately wanna offer them.
Lord, we love you, we worship you.
We worship you in the good times,
we worship you in the bad times,
we worship you for your blessings
and we worship you for your judgments, God.
And so we worship you now.
As God Almighty, Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
who loves us so desperately,
we thank you for everything
and it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's get into Revelation this morning.
We are in Revelation chapter 16, verses one through 11
and as I mentioned in the intro,
this chapter is an overview picture
of the seven last final judgments of God
at the end of the tribulation period.
There have been a few places throughout Revelation
where we have a chapter or two
that kinda gives us an overview of all the seals
and then there's a couple chapters after that
that kinda go back and zoom in
on a couple moments during that time
and then we had the seven trumpet judgments
and then a few chapters that have gone back to zoom in.
Chapter 16 of Revelation is another one of these overviews
and then the chapters that are gonna follow,
we're gonna go back and zoom into some of the moments
that take place during these bowl judgments.
But if you remember, the word bowl there that we see
as these angels are handed these bowls,
it's a Greek word for a shallow bowl,
like a saucer if you will and it's the type of implement
that was used in ancient worship to pour out
what would be a liquid offering or a libation
and the idea and the reason we bring that up
is to point out that although the judgments
that we've seen so far, the seal judgments
and the trumpet judgments, all of these has been spaced out
over the course of tribulation
but these final bowl judgments
all pour out in a rapid succession.
Some commentators even believe that all seven
of these judgments that we read about that are so rapid
actually take place during the final 30 days
of the seven year tribulation period.
I don't necessarily know if that's the case
but I do know that they appear to pour out very quickly
and the idea of these shallow bowls means
that these judgments are gonna fall
in rapid succession upon the earth.
Now there are similarities between the bowl judgments
and the seven trumpets if you will
and there are also similarities between what we see
in these judgments and the plagues that we see
in the plagues that fell upon Egypt in the Old Testament
but I do wanna point out that although there are similarities
I do not believe that they are the same thing.
I do not believe the seven bowl judgments
are the same exact judgments as the trumpets
that are the same exact judgments as the seals.
Some do have that interpretation
but I don't see that bearing out
and there's a couple reasons why
but one of the big ones is that there are differences
between the bowls and the trumpets
and then some people even go,
oh they're the same as the plagues in Egypt.
Well there's differences although there are similarities.
For example, the plagues of Egypt,
if you go back to the Old Testament
and you read about those plagues,
there were 10 of them not seven
but they were a localized judgment.
They were a judgment that fell upon the Egyptians
and the children of Israel in the midst of that
were exempt from those things.
They were virtually untouched by these judgments
but it wasn't a worldwide judgment.
There was a very localized judgment that happened there.
Then when you look at the seven trumpet judgments
we see that they are what we call partial judgments
during the tribulation period.
If you remember it was one third of the grass
that was destroyed, one third of the waters,
one third of the seas, one third of mankind
that was affected by these trumpet judgments
but when you get to the bowl judgments
we see that they are global and they are total.
They are complete, they are a culmination,
a full expression of the terrors and horrors
of God's judgment.
They aren't partial, they aren't localized
but they are a full complete inundating of judgment
upon the entire earth.
And so for those reasons I believe they are different
than the trumpet judgments and different
from what we see in the plagues of Egypt.
But starting in verse one now, Revelation 16,
we see that these angels who were prepared in chapter 15
are now instructed to go and to execute the judgment of God.
So read with me in Revelation 16 one.
He says, then I heard a loud voice from the temple
saying to the seven angels,
go and pour out the seven bowls of God's wrath
on the earth.
The first went and poured out his bowl on the earth
and severely painful sores broke out on the people
who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped its image.
And so the loud voice there that's coming from the temple,
that's the voice of God.
God is now giving the final instructions to the angels
to go carry out his will.
And we see that the first angel here
pours out a very specific bowl
that involves the physiology of people.
We see a physical judgment falling upon the people
of the earth here.
And it's really aimed very specifically.
It's aimed very directly at those who have refused him
and aligned themselves with the enemy, Satan.
Now God doing specific targeted judgments like this,
this is not unknown to scripture.
It's something we do see elsewhere
in targeted judgments of the past.
In Joshua chapter 10 for example,
when Israel was fighting the Amorites,
if you know that story, you might remember
that large hail stones fell from the sky
and only hit the Amorites.
Didn't hit Israel, right?
God is a marksman, right?
He knows who he wants to hit, right?
He's, oops, didn't mean to get that Israel.
No, that doesn't happen with God, right?
He knows.
And so we see this example in Joshua 10
that God very specifically targeted
and was very selective in who he poured his judgment out on
like we see here in Revelation 16.
You also might remember the story of Israel
worshiping the calf when they were wandering
the wilderness there.
And in that story it tells us that the Lord brought a plague
only upon those who worshiped the calf.
Those who were obedient to him
didn't fall under the judgment.
And so, but here in Revelation 16
on this first bold judgment as it pours out,
it tells us the target.
It's on all of those who had the mark of the beast
and who had worshiped its image.
Now you might remember from previous chapters,
we learned that there would be this mark
that the false prophet and the antichrist
would bring upon the earth and this mark
that people would be required to take to accept
that would be either on the hand or the forehead
as a sign of identification
that they are then worshiping the beast.
And we were taught this in Revelation
that this is gonna be something that the antichrist
and the false prophet do to enforce their control
upon the earth during tribulation time.
We know that people are gonna have a great incentive
to take the mark because they're not gonna be able
to buy or sell without it.
So they're not gonna be able to go to the store
and get groceries and they're not gonna be able
to get gas in their vehicles.
They probably won't be able to get things
that are legally required like car insurance stuff.
They're like, oh, you don't have the mark,
you can't do business, you can't make any transactions.
And so people are gonna be like,
gosh, I have to take this mark.
But it is also clear in Revelation
that the taking of this mark,
people are not gonna be confused that what it means
is that you're worshiping the antichrist as God.
Because in the abomination of desolation,
that's exactly what he did
when he entered the temple in Jerusalem.
And the Bible tells us that he declares himself
to be God and demands worship.
And so people aren't gonna be unaware
of what it means to take the mark.
We're also told that the false prophet then creates
this image there in Jerusalem
and commands people to worship it.
And somehow this image has some type of sentience, right?
Some type of intelligence to it
where it not only makes people worship it,
but then it is able to kill people who refuse.
And so there's all kinds of conjecture
about what that could be.
We're not exactly sure,
but we know that there's gonna be this mark.
We know there's gonna be this image,
and we know people are gonna take the mark
and worship the image and know full well what they're doing.
Why does God judge that?
Because it's a direct breaking of God's law.
Specifically, the first and second commandments.
If you remember, the first commandment of God was,
you shall have no other gods before me.
So those who say I'm gonna worship Satan
by taking this mark, well, you broke it.
The second commandment, if you remember,
is do not make an idol or an image
and bow down in worship of that idol.
That was the second commandment.
Don't create some graven image and worship it.
Well, the false prophets said here's this image of the beast
and people started to worship it.
And so again, the mark in this image,
they were introduced back in chapter 13
if you wanna go review,
but those who acquiesce know full well what they're doing.
They know that they are worshiping.
And so the judgment that falls upon those
who choose this is severe.
It was a judgment that was predicted
back in Revelation chapter 14.
If you remember there in Revelation 14 verse nine,
it says, and another, a third angel followed them
and spoke with a loud voice.
And it said, if anyone worships the beast and its image
and receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand,
he will also drink the wine of God's wrath,
which has poured full strength into the cup of his anger.
Well, that wrath that has now poured full strength
out of the bowl here starts with these painful sores.
These painful sores, and now yes,
that is reminiscent on one of the plagues
that fell upon Egypt, the sixth plague specifically.
In Exodus chapter nine verse eight,
it said, the Lord said to Moses and Aaron,
take handfuls of furnace soot,
and Moses is to throw it towards the heavens
in the sight of Pharaoh,
and it will become fine dust over the entire land of Egypt.
It will become festering boils on people and animals
throughout the land of Egypt.
So a very similar judgment that's falling upon people.
Now the festering boils we read about in Exodus
are very similar or the same as the painful sores
we're reading about here in Revelation.
That word sore is just referring
to some type of open skin infection.
It could refer to an abscess or an ulcer or a boil, right?
So there's a connection here.
Now, I'm gonna spare you the graphic description of boils,
okay, because it's kind of gross,
but if you've ever had a boil,
you might be familiar that they're gross.
They're oozy, they're painful, right?
It's a very painful condition to get a boil,
and for those of you that have ever experienced one,
imagine being covered head to toe in them.
Incredibly painful, incredibly nasty,
and medically, what we do know
is that these types of skin conditions, these boils,
they're typically an outward display of an inward problem.
They're an outward display of an internal problem.
So it's not like it's acne or a pimple or something.
There's usually some type of bacterial infection
or something going on inside
that is now manifesting as this boil upon the skin.
So the idea of this judgment, this first bowl judgment,
is that the inward problem of the people
is what's being judged.
Their commitment, their affections
being given over to Satan,
their worship being given over to Satan
and the Antichrist instead of God,
they have an outward mark now
that identifies their inward alignment.
Now, the mark that's on their forehead or their hand,
that's the outward mark that says,
I'm worshiping Satan, I'm worshiping him,
and so God gives them another outward mark
that identifies judgment of that inward heart inclination.
This outward sign, the mark of the beast,
it's a reflection of your inward worship of Satan.
Well, okay, well, I'm gonna judge that,
and now you have boils all over the place, right?
Pretty gross, pretty painful.
And that whole idea that God looks at the heart,
God looks at the inside,
and then sometimes we'll have external
consequence or judgment of that,
that's also something we've seen in scriptures.
You guys might remember Jesus talking to the Pharisees.
And he said, you know,
you guys look so religious on the outside.
You look like you have it all together,
but inwardly, he said, you are whitewashed tombs
full of wickedness.
And so here in Revelation,
we see at this time of tribulation,
the inward corruption is now physically erupting,
if you will, bursting out as painful sores
and boils upon people.
Now, there's no indication here
on exactly how God caused these boils
to come upon people, these very painful sores.
There's a couple, you know,
interpretive ideas about this.
One, there could be a natural explanation,
and we do know that God does work
through the natural world he created
to affect his purposes.
And so, yeah, there could be a natural
medical explanation for these boils
that God is causing,
or it could be something completely supernatural
with no explanation at all.
Some people think that during the tribulation period,
there's gonna be nuclear fallout from the detonations
of nuclear weapons during wars
and stuff that are taking place,
and the radiation poisoning that comes from that
is usually, or can result in painful sores
and boils upon the skin.
You guys might remember when Chernobyl blew up
and the radiation went out everywhere,
people in the vicinity developed painful sores
and boils upon their skin.
So some think that there's gonna be nuclear war
during the tribulation period.
And again, I don't know if you've read it recently,
but America sent some of its naval ships
to South Korea to dock over there,
and North Korea again is going,
no, no, no, you're gonna cause nuclear war.
We're gonna drop nukes on everybody.
And so it's an interesting thing to consider.
Some think that these boils and these sores,
because they're tied to the mark of the beast specifically,
are a result of technology failing under the skin.
Chips and implanted chips to identify people,
that stuff's already been invented.
Companies are already using it, they use it on animals.
I think I referenced it once where even back in the 90s,
our own government was considering making it a law
that babies were chipped,
so that their information could be tracked,
their location could be tracked.
Fortunately, that didn't come to pass,
but one of these technologies is how they power these chips
in under the skin, in the hand or the forehead,
is through like lithium batteries.
And if a lithium battery bursts under the skin,
it causes very painful sores in the skin.
And so some people go, ooh, ooh, see, I see it, right?
The chip, if you take the chip,
God's just gonna cause all the batteries to burst one day
and everybody gets these painful sores.
But again, it could be some supernatural unexplained thing
that causes these sores,
but that's the first bold judgment,
is God very specifically goes into the earth
and targets those who had aligned themselves with Satan,
who chose to worship Satan and not God,
who have denied God's gospel,
denied Jesus Christ and he judges them physically.
Verse three, the second poured out his bowl into the sea,
and it turned to blood like that of a dead person,
and all life in the sea died.
Now again, this is very similar to the first plague
of Egypt in the Old Testament.
You guys remember that the Nile turned to blood, right?
This is also like the second trumpet judgment,
where in the second trumpet judgment,
we read that a third of the sea died,
a third of the living creatures in the sea died,
and we read that there was a part of the sea
becoming like blood, but here, there's a difference.
It's not a third of the sea becoming like blood,
it's not a third of the creatures in the sea dying.
What does it say there?
All of it became like blood,
and all life in the sea died.
It's a total judgment now, it's a complete judgment,
and it's kind of gross because it says the sea turned
to blood like that of a dead person.
Again, to spare you all the gruesome details of that,
but when a person dies, there's certain things
that happen to the blood that are pretty gross and nasty.
The blood can become very thick, very dark, very viscous,
and he's saying the ocean becomes like that,
the entire ocean, all of it, not a third of it,
all of it now becomes blood, and you'll notice there,
he doesn't say it becomes like blood,
which is one of the indicators we've seen
throughout Revelation when he's going,
I'm not saying it turned into blood,
I'm saying it became, it had the characteristics of blood.
Here he's going, no, it becomes blood.
The sea, all the oceans become blood
as this bowl is poured out upon the oceans.
Verse four, the third bowl, it says the third poured out
his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water,
and they became blood.
And so again, like the Nile becoming blood,
like the third trumpet, if you go back
and read the third trumpet, it says a third
of the rivers and springs became bitter
and poisoned as the wormwood fell upon them.
The idea here is both the salt water
and the clean drinking water is now corrupted.
But again, just like the difference
between the second trumpet and the second bowl here,
we see that it's not a third of the rivers being corrupted,
it's not a third of the rivers becoming blood,
it's all of them.
And unlike the third trumpet,
where it says they became bitter,
here it says no, no, the clean drinking water now
becomes blood as well.
And this is a critical thing to happen.
If you can imagine on the earth that all of the sources
of clean drinking water are corrupted.
They all have become blood.
You can't drink blood, all right?
It's not good for you, it is not healthy for you.
And so around the world today, places
where clean drinking water is contaminated,
you find disease, you find dehydration,
and all sorts of issues, right?
Humans need clean drinking water.
This is why there's so many organizations around the world
that will fund, to go build wells at villages in Africa
to give people access to clean drinking water
because it's such an essential part to being healthy.
But here what we're seeing is at the end
of tribulation period, all of the clean water sources
are gone.
And if you add to that what happened back in Revelation
chapter seven verse one at the time of the sixth seal,
I'll read it for you, it says this.
After this I saw four angels standing
at the four corners of the earth,
restraining the four winds of the earth
so that no wind could blow on the earth
or on the sea or on any tree.
Now, wind is very crucial to what is called
the hydrological cycle, right?
Water from the ocean evaporates into the air.
The wind carries it across the land.
In the process of it being carried across the land,
it is like desalinated or purified.
It then cools and condenses and then it comes down
back to the earth in the form of rain,
in the form of fresh water and then those fresh water
sources then flow back out to the ocean,
gets salinated again and you have this cycle
that is a part of the earth functioning
in a way it's supposed to function.
Now, imagine the wind is gone.
The clouds don't move anymore.
The wind doesn't blow anymore as we read there
in Revelation 7-1 and without the wind
to carry moisture across the land,
what would happen to the land?
It would dry out.
It would become parched.
It would become a vast desert because of lack of water
and we have areas of our earth today where we see that
because there's no water that goes across it.
It's just a wasteland, a desert wasteland.
Well, by the time we get to Revelation 16 here,
a third of the earth has already been affected
by the judgments of God.
The wind had not been blowing for a period of time
and now you add all to that in this final judgment
that all the fresh water sources now become blood.
You think about that, how long can people survive
off of soda and juice?
Not too long, right?
Some of us would be like, oh, I get to drink soda all day?
That's heaven.
No, you drink soda long enough, you start to realize,
ah, it's gross, right?
You need water, your body needs water.
Then you go, well, you know,
if this judgment falls upon earth,
we got bottled water everywhere.
Well, how long until the bottle of water is used up?
The population of earth right now is over eight billion
people, that's a lot of bottles of water.
And so what you're gonna have in this time of tribulation
is people dying of thirst.
People living in a land that is dying because it's parched
and there's no moisture and so the trees are dying
and the grasses are dying and cattle is dying.
It's just, there's just devastation.
And people look at this sometimes,
and I'm sure people during that time
are gonna be experiencing this and go,
how can a God of love even allow this?
This is, this is torturous, it's so unfair,
it's so unjust, it's so unrighteous.
Well, verse five, the angel anticipated that
and we read in verse five,
I heard the angel of the waters say,
you are just, the holy one, who is and who was
because you have passed judgment on these things.
Because they poured out the blood of the saints
and of the prophets, you have given them blood to drink.
They deserve it.
They deserve it, wow.
That's not the warm, fuzzy Jesus, right?
That's not the Jesus in the picture with the little kids
sitting on his knee and the little baby lambs next to him.
That's not the Jesus we prefer to think about.
Verse seven, it says, I heard the altar say,
yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just
are your judgments.
You know, the angel here is very quick
to defend the righteousness of God.
It's something that the church can learn from.
There's many places around the world today
where the church is quick to apologize for God.
Because we struggle with rationalizing God's judgment
on sin and consequence for sin
and God allowing consequence to happen
and we wrestle with that and so sometimes Christians
might be tempted to find themselves apologizing for God.
Apologizing for what the Bible says about things
and we can't because God's ways are just.
They're right, they're true.
In God's infinite wisdom and his infinite holiness
and his omnipotence and everything,
when God pours out judgment, there is good reason for it.
And there's no, but what about this,
but what about this, but what about this?
And this is what we see taking place here
at the end of the tribulation period.
It's like this angel is saying,
look, to the people of the earth,
you've shed the blood of those
who came to proclaim salvation to you.
Those who came to preach to you good news.
Those who did what Christ would call the church to,
that were feeding the widows and the orphans
and taking care of people and doing what they can
to get involved and all along bringing the good news
of the salvation of Jesus, that God is real,
that judgment is coming and God wants to save you
from the judgment of sin.
We've all sinned and broken his law.
We all fall short of the glory of God.
And yet instead of responding to that message,
he's saying you killed them, you shed their blood.
And since you're so blood thirsty,
God will give them blood to drink.
You want blood?
He's gonna give it to you.
The idea here, and it's really a spiritual law
that we do find throughout scripture,
is the idea, the law of sowing and reaping, right?
We've heard of that.
You sow what you reap.
You reject the free gift of salvation.
What this verse tells us is you will get what you deserve.
You reject the offer of God, you will get what you deserve.
Galatians chapter six verse seven says, don't be deceived.
God is not mocked.
Whatever a person sows, they will also reap.
You can't live a life of rejecting God, rejecting Christ.
A life of disobeying him.
A life of saying I don't care what you say,
I'm gonna do my own thing.
And not expect the punishment to come for that.
A lot of us live that way today.
A lot of people in the world have grown up in a world now
where there's no consequence for anything, right?
There's no winners or losers.
Everybody gets a participation trophy.
There's no medals.
Everybody's recognized.
We've created this stuff in our society
to take away the very concept of consequences.
The moral relativity of our culture is just rapidly
and aggressively pushing this idea
that there is no wrong, there's only right.
And it's your right and your right
and your right and your right.
And we all get to decide what our truth is.
And live however we want.
And how dare you tell me my truth is wrong?
You should be silenced for that.
You should be censored for that.
And yet what we see here is the result of mocking God.
That if you reject Jesus Christ
all the way to the point of death, it's too late.
These people that are still on the earth
during tribulation time have rejected God
over and over and over and over and over again.
And in that verse in Galatians 7,
when he said, God is not mocked,
for whatever person sows, he will also reap.
The verse goes on to say,
so if you sow good, you'll reap good.
But if you sow bad, you'll reap bad.
There are many who live thinking,
I'm getting away with so much.
God is letting me get away with so much.
I'm sinning and I know it and nothing is happening.
God hasn't done anything about it
and so therefore I'm gonna keep doing it.
And yet it may be true that God
hasn't done anything about it yet.
Yet is the important word there, yet.
Whatever a person sows, they will reap.
That's a truth.
Sometimes you reap those consequences quickly.
Sometimes you reap those consequences years later
but you will reap what you sow.
Biblically we look at very interesting examples of that.
You remember the story of Pharaoh back in Egypt, right?
He tried to drown all the young Hebrew male babies.
Right, drown them all so that the population can't grow.
Find all the male children and drown them.
How did Pharaoh die?
He drowned in the Red Sea.
Very interesting description, right?
Talking about all the waters being turned to blood.
Remember the story of Haman who built these huge gallows
to hang Mordecai the Jew.
How did he die?
He hung on the very gallows he built.
There was a French atheist in the 18th century named Voltaire
who hated Christianity.
Hated it.
Hated everything about it and he spent so much time
in his house writing these very just violent missives
against Christianity.
One of the things he wrote once is he said in 20 years
Christianity will be no more.
My single hand shall destroy the edifice
it took the 12 apostles to rear.
Well within 20 years of his death,
that house that he wrote that from
was one of the largest centers of Bible distribution
in the world.
You know, God will have his way.
And yes, God loves you.
And God died for you, absolutely.
He did.
But he did that so that you could be saved
from the judgment to come.
Because if you reject Jesus Christ,
the Bible is very clear that God will give you
what you deserve.
And God will give us what we deserve unless we allow Jesus
to take what we deserve.
That's what he did on the cross.
If you confess your sin and turn your life over
to Jesus Christ, all the wrath of God against sin,
all the judgment that he has against sin,
all of it that you deserve because you've broken his law,
all of it, Jesus removes it from you,
takes it upon himself.
He experiences all that judgment.
He experiences all that judgment in your place.
And this is a transcendent truth when it comes
to the wrath of God on sin.
Ultimately, Jesus will either take it for you
or you will get to take it upon yourself.
That's a truth, a scriptural truth that is hard
to say sometimes, but the most loving thing
we could possibly say to somebody.
If you reject Jesus Christ, you will get
the opportunity to pay the price for your own sin,
but you're not gonna like it.
And so here we see in Revelation,
the world is getting what it deserves,
getting what is due to it because it has rejected
the forgiveness and salvation found in Jesus Christ.
And we can't forget it is just, as the angel said.
It is right, as the angel said.
It is proper.
There is no way to go, God is not being fair.
God is being too hard, nope.
It's all done at this point.
Verse eight, the fourth poured out his bowl upon the sun.
It was allowed to scorch the people with fire
and people were scorched by the intense heat.
So if you had these boils fall and then boom,
the whole ocean turns to blood and all the living creatures
in it, all the whales, all the fish, all the dolphins,
the poor dolphins, right, everything in the sea, they die.
The fresh water sources all become blood.
There's no more drinking water anywhere, we can't get it.
And then now the sun is allowed to scorch people.
Now this is interestingly enough,
not the same as a similar trumpet judgment,
but in contrast to it because there's a trumpet judgment
where it says one third of the sun was darkened.
Some of you may experience a little bit
of that yesterday, right, we had the eclipse.
Anybody go out and see that?
It was in my house, we totally forgot
the eclipse was happening and so we went outside
and we're like, it looks weird, what's going on?
Right, Irene's comment was like, I feel like I'm wearing
my sunglasses but I don't have my sunglasses on, right?
And then it was like, oh, there was an eclipse, right, crazy.
But here we see that this bowl judgment,
it says the sun flares and it burns hot
and it's allowed to scorch people with fire and heat.
That word scorch there, it literally means
a painful, painful burning.
Now this could be something like a solar flare, right,
people have been talking about that for a while,
scientists, ooh, solar flares, the sun's gonna flare
and it's gonna cast this wave of radiation
and burn the earth.
Some people think it could be like an alteration
of the earth's atmosphere and how it lets light through.
You know, sometimes our atmosphere,
depending on what's going on with cloud cover,
it can like tweak the wavelengths of radiation
that are allowed through.
We experienced this in, have you ever gotten
an overcast sunburn?
Anybody ever gone out when it's overcast?
You're like, oh, there's so much cloud cover,
the sun is not even in the sky.
And you get a worse sunburn than you would
if the sun was out?
Yeah, that's simply because the cloud cover
attenuated the wavelengths of radiation
that allowed through and it burned you even more.
So some think that could be that type of thing.
Something's gonna happen.
And this was predicted in Malachi chapter four,
verse one, speaking of the end times.
He writes, for look, the day is coming,
burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant
and everyone who commits wickedness will become stubble.
The coming day will consume them, says the Lord of Armies,
not leaving them root or branches.
And so it's really a picture for those who are being judged,
a preview of coming attractions.
Right, this is the preview of coming,
this is the prequel.
Because this is what you're gonna experience
in hell forever.
As the fires of hell burn and consume.
And that judgment will last for eternity.
And so God here allows the sun to scorch them.
Verse 10, the fifth bowl.
The fifth poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast
and his kingdom was plunged into darkness
and people nod their tongues because of their pain.
Now we have all experienced blackouts from time to time.
We had one here at church a few years back.
The power just goes and nothing works anymore.
And for those of us that are so accustomed to electricity
and being able to turn on the light
and being able to have access to that,
the power goes out and we're just like cavemen.
Ah, what do we do?
How do we survive?
It's a weird thing when it happens.
Some people think that at this time of the fifth bowl
that the fourth bowl being poured out
was the sun supernovaed, right?
It supernovaed and scorched the earth
and then after the supernova it burns out and goes black
and that's the end of the sun.
And there's some interesting possibilities there
because later on it says that when God is present,
there is no need for the sun because he is the light.
Some think this could be a result of nuclear winter
if nuclear weapons are released during tribulation period
and then it creates that greenhouse effect
and it prevents the sun from going through
and so it gets hot and then it gets dark.
We're not sure exactly.
But it tells us that this bowl is poured out
on the throne of the beast.
That word throne there means,
it's talking about the throne that a king would sit in,
right, it's the idea that the throne was a symbol
of high status and high power and authority.
We read in Revelation 13, two that the beast or the dragon
gave the beast his power, his throne, and great authority.
And so his power to be able to do what he's doing,
to enact control over the earth,
to force people to worship him, all of this stuff,
and then God pours out this bowl
and the entire kingdom of the beast
is plunged into darkness.
It's like his power is being cut off.
That the beast is losing his power,
that he's been allowed to exercise this whole time.
And you know, scripturally we know
the metaphorical differences that are used often.
God is light, it tells us in 1 John.
We see that the absence of light is often used
as a metaphor for evil.
A metaphor for Satan himself.
Satan is called the prince of darkness, right?
The very first creative act of God in Genesis,
he said, let there be light.
The very first creative act of God
was to dispel the darkness, to get rid of it.
He created then the sun and the moon
and it says in light was.
In the New Testament we're called to walk in the light
as he is in the light.
And then in contrast to that, it says if we choose
to walk in sin, we're walking in light.
If we choose to walk in sin, we're walking in darkness.
Ephesians 5, 11, it says don't participate
in the fruitless works of darkness.
And so it seems only fitting that the kingdom of the beast,
this kingdom that is worshiping Satan
and all that is doused in darkness.
That's what you are, that's what you're about.
Boom, darkness you will have.
And that's very reminiscent of the ninth plague in Egypt.
Exodus 10, 21, the Lord said to Moses,
put your hand towards heaven and there will be darkness
over the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be felt.
So deep, so foreboding, so thick,
the darkness could be felt.
And then after that in Egypt came the tenth plague.
As the angel of death passed over
and the death of the firstborn came
and incidentally it was that judgment, that death,
that was what sprung Israel out of Egypt
and brought them to their salvation,
their exodus out into everything God had for them.
And then of course we know that when Jesus died
on the cross it tells us that darkness covered the land
as God's wrath fell upon him,
the wrath that you and I deserve.
But here at the end of tribulation
we see darkness falling again.
But this time the darkness is falling
upon those unrepentant of mankind, those who refuse Jesus.
And as that darkness fell on Jesus on the cross,
as he was taking the full wrath of God for our sin,
now we see the people getting what they deserve,
who have rejected Jesus and the darkness
and the judgment's gonna fall upon them.
It falls upon the antichrist,
it falls on his global kingdom
and everything it stands for
and that darkness is always just a reminder
of the darkness of sin and wickedness and evil.
Now this fifth bowl was predicted by the prophets as well
in Isaiah chapter 60 verse two,
speaking of the Lord's glory in Zion
at the end of all things.
It says for look, darkness will cover the earth
and total darkness the people's.
Joel chapter two verse two, speaking of the end times,
calls it a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and total darkness.
And then in Mark chapter 13,
speaking of at the end of the tribulation period,
right before the second coming of Christ,
it tells us the sun will be darkened.
Then of course we remember the words of Jesus
where it says men love darkness instead of the light.
And so God finally is going, you want darkness so much,
here you go, here you go.
Now it mentions there that people nod at their tongues
because of the pain.
This could be a callback to there's something
about the darkness like in Exodus
where they could feel it, it hurts somehow.
It could have something to do with some radiation
type of thing, we don't know.
But have you ever been in so much pain
in one part of your body that you cause pain in another
to take your mind off the pain in the first part?
Right, you stubbed your toe
so you pinch your hand or something.
Right, it's kind of this picture here
that they're in such pain from these boils
and pain from the dehydration and the thirst
and pain from this sunburn and now this abject darkness.
They're in just so much pain
and they're just trying to take their mind off of it.
But what is the response of the people to all of this?
Look back in verse nine.
So they blasphemed the name of God
who has the power over these plagues
and they did not repent and give him glory.
And then look at verse 11.
After they nod their tongues from the pain,
it says they blasphemed the God of heaven
because of their pains and their sores,
but they did not repent of their works.
That word blaspheme means to slander someone,
to revile someone, to defame someone,
or to speak irreverently or disrespectful about someone.
So instead of turning to God and saying,
God, we're so sorry for our sin and our rejection of you,
no, they continue to revile him.
They continue to disrespect his name
and so these first five bowls,
they're a collective picture of the plagues
upon the creation that mankind has extolled so much.
It's all about Mother Nature, it's about Gaia,
it's about us, it's about our power.
We are the pinnacle of creation and God's judging all of it.
He's judging all of it.
And yet still they did not turn, they did not repent.
Says they blaspheme the name of God
and they blaspheme the God of heaven,
just everything he is.
But it tells us something interesting there.
They knew who was judging them.
They knew who was judging them
and yet in the height of their arrogance
and the height of their stubbornness,
they would say, I know it's God, I know he is real,
I know the judgments are from him, but I will not change.
I will not repent.
And that's just an unfortunate picture
because we do see in scripture as well
that people can reject Jesus so much.
They can reject Jesus for so long
that their hearts become so hard against God.
But it's too late.
Verse 11 here, interestingly, in Revelation chapter 16,
it's the last reference in the book of Revelation
to mankind's unwillingness to change.
We will not read about it again.
This is the last time, the last reference.
They will not change.
What we see from here forward is God saying, it's done.
I've given you every opportunity.
Judgment is falling, judgment is final,
judgment is complete.
And then we're gonna move into the second coming
and all of it, but through all of this,
through all of God's judgments,
God's trying to get people's attention.
He's trying to get them to pay attention,
but we refuse and here they refuse.
They blaspheme God instead.
They blaspheme his name and now it's over.
It's too late.
You know, the time is fast coming when
you won't have the opportunity to repent.
You won't have the opportunity to be forgiven.
You won't have the opportunity to be saved.
That time is coming and the time is coming quickly,
but today you still have the opportunity.
Today you can still repent of your sin.
Today you could still call out to God
and God is listening and will still forgive you.
God is calling every single human being to repent
of their sin.
You know that word repent, there's a lot of stuff
taught about it.
It means to change direction.
That's what repentance is.
You know, being sorry and continuing to do the same thing
isn't really being sorry that the thing
you were doing is wrong.
It's just being sorry about the consequences.
Right, some are just like, I'm so sorry my drinking
is messing up my marriage.
I'm so sorry that my lying is messing up my relationships.
I'm so sorry my anger is destroying
my family relationships.
My kids are afraid of me.
I'm so sorry about the consequences of my sin,
but so what if you keep drinking and keep lying
and keep being angry and keep sinning?
So what that you're sorry?
It doesn't change anything.
I read a story about a Sunday school class
and the kids were asked what is the definition of repentance?
And one of the kids is, it's being sorry that you sin.
And another kid raised their hand and they go,
no, that's wrong.
It's being sorry enough to quit sinning.
What a unique description of repentance.
You know, God will allow the consequences of sin
to happen to us that we may turn from sin, turn to him.
He will allow the consequences of disobedience
that we would turn from disobedience and to obedience.
And repentance, it's like you're walking down the street
and God comes up behind you and taps you on the shoulder
and he goes, hey, turn around.
Stop going that way, go this way.
That's repentance, right?
He says, follow me, go my way, go my direction,
follow my plan, follow my purpose for your life.
Stop going that way, let's go this way.
That way's gonna lead to destruction.
This way is good.
And when we say, okay, I lay down my life, I'll follow you.
God, I'll follow your direction, I'll follow your way.
That's repentance, that's repentance.
The people of the world at the end of tribulation,
it tells us here, will refuse to do that, will refuse.
Instead, they blaspheme God, they slander his name,
they speak ill of him and those who preach
and teach his word.
And again, God has sent 144,000 evangelists
during this time, preach the gospel worldwide.
He had these two witnesses in Jerusalem
that were doing miracles and the whole world saw it.
He even had an angel fly through the skies
preaching the gospel.
And yet, they still won't change.
Why?
I think it's because they kept rejecting Christ
over and over and over, so much so that their hearts
hardened to the point where they were beyond hope.
Where the truth of the gospel simply ceased
to have any effect on them.
Maybe the truth of God feels that way to you today.
You've heard it, you've been to church,
people shared with you.
And the truth just feels like it's not having an effect
on your heart anymore, you've heard it.
But you refuse to let go of your sin.
You refuse, you won't stop drinking,
regardless of the damage it's doing to your marriage.
You won't stop lying, you won't stop the anger
despite the devastation that sin is bringing into your life.
You won't yield, you won't be obedient to Christ
and you have every excuse, every reason,
every justification why you can't stop the sin.
Maybe you remember a time when God was knocking
on the door of your heart.
And you heard it, and you felt it.
You felt that pull, you felt that tug,
but for whatever reason, you just would not yield
your life to Jesus.
You wouldn't surrender and give your life to him
and you said, I'll do it later, I'm too young right now,
I have my whole life ahead of me.
Then maybe you hit your 30s and your 40s
and maybe you have kids now, a family,
and Jesus is tugging on your heart and you said,
I'm too busy, I'll give my life to Jesus later.
Then you've gotten older and maybe now you're going,
you know, I'm just too old, I'm just too set in my ways.
I'll do it later and later and later.
Guess what?
You keep waiting for later, one day you'll be dead.
You'll die.
And at that point, it's over.
There's no chances left, there's no opportunity left
to get right with your creator.
Maybe he's speaking to you right now.
Maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking into your heart
right now about your need for him.
I read a story about a rabbi who was asked
by his students one time, the students said,
Rabbi, what's the best day to repent?
And the rabbi said, well, the last day of your life.
And the students were like, what?
What kind of answer is that, rabbi?
Who knows when their last day is?
If you wait for that, you're gonna miss the opportunity.
And the rabbi said, exactly, that's why you should repent
today because today might be the last day of your life.
Nobody knows when it's time for them to punch out.
Nobody knows.
The people in Israel a week ago,
I'm sure they weren't waking up that day and going,
there's gonna be this invasion from terrorists.
The people at that festival didn't go to that festival
and say, well, today this is the day the terrorists
are gonna show up and murder us.
If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,
you might be going about every day thinking,
oh, every day's the same and every day's gonna be fine.
You don't know when your time is coming.
And today might be your last opportunity
to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior
because the time is coming when judgment is gonna fall.
And if you die on this earth without Jesus,
that is the time of judgment.
And the only question there will be,
did Jesus take what you deserve?
Or is it time for you to get what you deserve?
Listen to the Lord.
Don't keep hardening your heart.
Don't keep refusing to repent.
Let go of your sin.
Submit your life to Jesus.
Be saved.
Be saved today.
Let's pray.
Father, we believe you, God.
We believe your word.
We believe it's true.
We believe in your holiness.
We believe in your love.
We believe in your grace and your mercy.
We believe that you offer salvation to us
and forgiveness to us.
But God, we can't believe that and reject
that in your justice and holiness,
you're also gonna judge sin one day.
So God, because your word teaches us, we believe it.
And God, I pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit
would work in the hearts of your people, God, to believe it.
To believe it with such passion
that we would get involved
in the mission of Jesus Christ.
In the mission of the church.
That we are here to be a light on the hill,
a beacon for the gospel.
Lord, that we are called to get involved
in helping people and ministering to people.
And we're to get involved in making this entity function
so that this entity called the church
could go out and accomplish its mission in the world.
God, I pray your Holy Spirit would move on our hearts.
To remind us of what we're a part of.
That we're a part of the most noble and important mission
that has ever existed.
That people would come to know the gospel of Jesus Christ,
that they would be saved.
And Lord, if that means getting up
and volunteering for things, if that means giving,
if we're not giving, if that means giving more,
if we are giving, if that means praying more.
Whatever that means, God,
that we are called to be a part of this mission.
And God, the reality that judgment is coming,
the reality of the devastation
that's gonna fall upon people, Lord, may that move us.
May that move us.
But God, I also wanna take opportunity.
Lord, if there's anybody in this room
that you have been speaking to this whole morning,
anybody watching online that you've been speaking to, God,
and they don't know you.
Lord, maybe it's somebody
that has never made a profession of faith.
And for whatever reason, you have them here
to hear this message this morning.
Or God, maybe it's someone who has claimed to be a Christian.
Maybe even went forward at an altar call somewhere, Lord,
but as they look at their life of disobedience,
you are speaking to them now about the reality
that they don't know you, that you don't know them,
that they don't have salvation.
Lord, those in those positions, God,
if they're hearing this right now, Lord,
I pray, God, that your Holy Spirit would knock loudly
and would knock aggressively on their hearts
that they would know in this moment that they need you
because nobody knows if we're gonna live to tomorrow.
Nobody knows what tomorrow holds,
but today, right now, God, we know you're speaking.
And so I pray that's bowed and eyes closed in this room.
If you're in this room or if you're watching us online
and God has been speaking to you
about your need for salvation,
God has been speaking to you about the life you're living,
that you're the one that's been living in sin,
thinking I'm just getting away with it.
And you've started to believe the lie
that God's never gonna judge me.
But God today is telling you judgment is coming.
But I love you so much that I wanna save you from it.
If you're hearing that, I call to you right now
to receive Jesus as your savior.
And if you wanna do that and you're in this room,
just where you're seated,
I'm just gonna ask you to raise your hand
and say I wanna receive Jesus Christ
as my Lord and Savior this morning.
If you're online and God is speaking to you,
just type it into chat, say I wanna receive Jesus.
Anybody here, anybody online,
God is speaking to you in this moment.
You know you need Him as your Lord and Savior.
You know you need to be saved.
Call out to Him, let me pray with you.
Anybody here, just raise your hand where I could see it.
All right, if you're online and you know you need Jesus,
and if you're in this room and for whatever reason,
you're not raising your hand,
it's not the hand raising that saves you.
I'm gonna lead you in a prayer.
And this prayer is calling out to God,
confessing your sin,
inviting Him in to be your Lord and Savior.
And I believe and the Bible teaches,
you do this with sincerity in your heart.
You do this in true faith.
You are saved, your heart will be changed.
God will move in your life.
You won't become a perfect person,
but you'll become perfectly saved.
And if you do try to go out and keep sinning,
it's gonna be miserable, miserable,
because you cannot continue to do that
with the Spirit living within you.
So if you wanna receive Jesus today,
pray with me, say Lord God,
I believe in you.
I believe God, you came to this earth.
I believe God, you lived on this earth.
A second person of what's called the Trinity,
God the Son, Jesus Christ.
I believe in Him.
I believe that He lived a perfect life.
I believe He died on the cross for my sin.
I believe that if I put my faith in that,
trust in that atonement,
that I will be saved, forgiven,
set free from the power of sin and death.
I do that now.
Thank you for loving me that much, God.
I invite you into my life.
Jesus, be my Lord, be my Savior,
be my Master, be my friend.
Teach me how to live for you.
Fill me right now with the Holy Spirit
and Spirit enable me to live in obedience to God.
Thank you for saving me from the wrath to come.
Thank you for loving me so very much.
It's in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
If you prayed that prayer this morning in the room,
we have some packets of prayer.
We have some packets, we have some information
we wanna give you.
We call it a new believer's packet.
But this whole thing that you're doing here
by inviting Christ into your life,
you're starting a relationship with your Creator.
And we wanna help you on that relationship.
There are certain things you do in any relationship, right?
You gotta talk to the person, right?
Marriages where nobody talks to each other,
they don't do so well, right?
But if there's communication, it's good, right?
We want you to talk to God
and we wanna teach you how to do that.
We wanna teach you how to worship God and praise Him
and thank Him for what He's done in your life.
We wanna equip you with everything you need
to have that successful relationship with God.
And so please, if you received Christ this morning,
come forward, let me give you a new believer's packet
or go out into the foyer.
There's some back there, they're in a little white envelope.
If you're online and you received Jesus Christ this morning,
let us know in chat.
Then our moderators will chat you in private
so we can get your address.
We would love to mail one to you as well.
For the rest of us, you know what's going on
around the world today, it's very compelling
in regards of what's to come.
We believe that the end is coming.
We believe it's coming quickly.
Many of us have been praying that for years,
Lord, come quickly.
One day Jesus is gonna show up.
He's gonna take us home with Him.
And it's just gonna be glorious as we enter into that.
That supper time.
That celebration with Him as the bride of Christ.
But until that happens, there's a number that God knows
of how many people are gonna get saved
before He takes us out.
It might be the next person you preach to.
And if you're not preaching to them, come on, get on it.
I wanna get outta here.
It might be the person I'm not sharing with.
We don't know.
And the point is, is we're all called to,
whether it's tracts, whether it's conversation,
whether it's our evangelism ministry,
whether it's street witnessing, there's so many ways,
but share your faith that those who don't know Jesus
would come to know Him.
And eventually, God's gonna take us home, amen.
I cannot wait for that.
Let's worship Him.
God bless you guys.