Sermon Tone Analysis

*“Patience Exhausted”*

*Revelation 16*

* *

Intro.

– As we look through the Book of Revelation, It is my hope that you have seen some of the things that I have seen.

Going into a study like this, you already anticipate great calamity and judgment on the earth and people.

But one thing I didn’t expect is the longsuffering and patience of God.

We see that God has chosen to execute his judgment on the earth with increasing intensity.

You remember that he will begin with the seal judgments in chapter six where one fourth of the earth will feel the weight of the judgments.

And when many do not repent, the trumpet judgments will affect one third of the earth.

In Revelation 9.20-21, John tells us that there will be many who will continue to worship demons and not repent.

These leave God no choice but to put an end to an unrepentant people.

God created us to bring him glory and yet many do not.

To me, this communicates several things.

First, mankind deserves their judgment for their defiance and, second, God demonstrates great mercy and patience with his creation!

He had every right, as our Creator, to wipe us out with the very first sin.

Yet he continues to be longsuffering, desiring that people would repent and give him glory.

This morning, we are in chapter 16 of Revelation.

Please turn there in your Bibles.

We come to the last of the judgments – the seven bowls of God’s wrath.

Immediately following these judgments is the return of the Lord Jesus for his millennial kingdom in chapter 19.

Chapters 17 and 18 serve as a parenthesis and do not drive the timeline forward.

So this is the last chance…

Let’s read the text to begin.

*READ Chapter 16.*

We are going to see a few things in this text.

We will begin by looking at the *Calamity.

*This is expected as we understand we are entering into the bowls of God’s judgment.

But we will then see that the calamity is caused by mankind’s defiance and false worship.

And we will see that this is contrary to the character of God.

Let’s look first at the calamity that awaits the creation in the end times.

We don’t get too far into our text, when we get the impression that God’s patience has certainly been exhausted.

It is his voice that bellows from the temple and commands the angels to carry out judgment on the earth.

These are identified as the seven bowls of God’s wrath.

We know it is the voice of God because of the ending of the previous chapter where God is the one abiding in the sanctuary (or temple, same word) and no one else could enter until after the seven plagues.

The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth.

It is important to note that there is a major distinction between the bowl judgments and the seals and trumpets.

In the seal and trumpet judgments there was a gap or reprieve.

The bowl judgments however are successive and cumulative.

In other words, there will be no relief between them.

They come right after the other.

And they are thorough.

Another characteristic of these bowls is that many of them closely resemble the Egyptian plagues when the Israelites were in captivity and slavery at the time of Moses.

So with the first angel dumping his bowl on the earth, the people are covered with harmful and painful sores.

Notice the ones who are affected.

It is those who bear the mark of the beast – those who had pledged allegiance to the Antichrist.

And you may recall that at the time of the Israelites, it was only the Egyptians that were affected by the plagues.

And God’s people were protected.

The same is true here.

These sores are similar to the sixth Egyptian plague.

The description is not pleasant.

They are defined as inflamed and running sores that refuse to heal.

And they are probably similar to that which Job experienced when he was being afflicted by Satan.

Next, the second angel pours out his bowl into the sea and it became like the blood of a corpse.

And every living thing in the sea died!

Can you imagine this?

The sea became like coagulated blood.

Couple that with a sea full of dead fish and animals.

The stench would be overwhelming I’m sure!

But we’re not done yet.

The third angel in verse 4 pours out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water and THEY become blood!

This affects all sources of fresh water!

Blood!

John MacArthur reminds us that “By the time the third bowl is poured out, fresh water will be in critically short supply.

The third trumpet judgment (8:10–11) will result in the poisoning of one third of the world’s fresh water.

Additionally, the two witnesses will “have the power to shut up the sky, so that rain will not fall during the days of their prophesying [the last three and a half years of the Tribulation]; and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood” (11:6).

The temporary restraining of the earth’s winds (7:1) will also cause drought.

With no wind to move clouds and weather systems, the hydrological cycle will be disrupted and no rain will fall.”

The things we take for granted.

The first two plagues notwithstanding, can you imagine not having the life-sustaining provision of water?

This will be devastating.

And I believe this is why we have the angel interject this reminder in verses 5-7.

The angel in charge of the water reminds the readers who God is.

He reminds us that God is just and holy and eternal and therefore it is necessary that mankind be judged.

As we look at these verses, the angel could have stopped at verse 5 and said “God, you are holy and just and therefore, this is appropriate.

Who is the clay to question the Potter?”

But then he elaborates and offers further explanation.

He tells us that they have murdered the saints and prophets of God Almighty and are worthy of judgment.

In fact, it seems as though the punishment fits the crime.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, blood for blood.

It is what they deserve!!

One thing that has really challenged my faith is my tracking updates with the Voice of the Martyrs.

I subscribed to their web feed where I get daily snippets of persecuted believers around the globe.

Here’s what I’ve concluded: We don’t know persecution.

We think we are persecuted when people ridicule us or ostracize us.

Here’s just a quick sample of a days updates: “Christian shopkeeper beaten and detained on blasphemy charges in Pakistan.

Muslims attack Christians in Pakistan.

Church buildings burned down in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Christian banned from meeting fellow believers in Uzbekistan.

The fate of six foreign Christians abducted in Yemen still remains unclear.

Please pray.”

This is just a small sample of what is going on around the globe.

Do you think that some of these folks would have a better understanding of these verses and God’s judgment?? My heart wrenches when I hear these stories of our brothers and sisters being beaten and killed.

But we also need to understand that God will avenge the blood of the martyrs.

Our God is just and holy and will carry out justice on persecutors of Christians.

What I find equally amazing is that many of the persecutors become so taken by the stand that Christians make for their faith, that many of them acknowledge God and trust in Christ.

That is often the most powerful testimony for Jesus.

This should lead us to pray for our persecutors.

The worst they can do to us is to take our lives which merely ushers us more quickly into the presence of our Savior.

They, however, would not face the same fate.

And just as God is powerful to convert a Paul, he is able to draw other hardened sinners to repentance.