The Seven Bowls
The Conquering Lamb • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Tonight, in Revelation 16, we see the wrath of God fully executed.
The wrath of a holy God, stored up since the days of Noah, will be poured out on the earth
Total destruction
Total judgment
Total justice
We see God bringing humanity into His court to answer for their sin.
The enemies of God must face up to what they have done in attempting to deceive the world
Those who dwell on the earth must answer for taking the mark of beast and rejecting Christ
Creation itself will be dissolved, making way for the new heavens and the new earth
It will be like Noah’s flood—and the ark of Christ will be the only escape.
God is not slack concerning His promise. He is slow to anger and abounding in mercy, but in Revelation 16—his slow anger will trickle down upon the world.
The dam of His mercy that has restrained His wrath will be removed and the Day of the Lord will come.
CONTEXT
CONTEXT
As we look at the Bowl Judgments, we are in the 5th of 7 cycles in Revelation.
We have seen the 7 seals and 7 trumpets as ways John describes the age of the church.
He uses them to show us the judgment of God in the world.
The warning of the judgment that is to come.
Since the seals and the trumpets represent the entire church age, there is overlap with the bowls, but the bowls is focused on the end.
What you see in the 6th seal and 7th trumpet, you see in all 7 bowls.
The bowl judgments are showing us the end of the world in detail.
Who will be judged
What the judgment will be like
What the scale of the judgment will be
And as we read it, you will see the justice of God being satisfied
He is a good judge and He longs to uphold His law
And in the end, He will.
Only those who have built their houses on the rock of the words of Christ will stand.
Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.
The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,
“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
And I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
RESERVED FOR HIS ENEMIES
RESERVED FOR HIS ENEMIES
I have three teaching points for you tonight regarding God’s final wrath.
None of them are filled with summer fun or holiday cheer
In fact, we have three chapters of apocalyptic darkness ahead before our next respite
Before our next sight of heaven
But we can’t run from these parts of the Bible.
This is one of the main reasons we are committed to faithful, expository preaching here.
No one wakes up and says, “I’m going to do a topical series on the wrath and fury of God.”
Nobody is advertising, “The Seven Bowls of Wrath: Your Secret to Understanding Life!”
But when you walk through books of the Bible verse-by-verse, you have to deal with the Bible
You have to face up to the text
You have to realize this is something you claim to believe
You seek to understand it
And even praise God for the justice you are seeing in these heavy chapters
So from here to September is tough.
Lord willing, we get heaven again on September 6th, but until then, we are on a tour through judgment and wrath and destruction.
And that is purposeful.
The Idealist/Amillenial perspective does not see Revelation as one long sequential story
We have established that, right?
I understand the book to be showing us the same events from seven different perspectives
But even with that understanding, there is no doubt that as you head toward the conclusion of the book, things are picking up steam
The cycles become more vivid.
There is more imagery
More moving pictures
More talk of the end of the end times
More of a focus on what will happen at the actual return of Christ, and not just during the age of the church
And the bowls are an example of that.
They are zooming in on the end.
We are getting a full portrait of the terrifying and yet awesome wrath of our God.
TEACHING POINT #1: God’s final wrath is reserved for His enemies (v. 1-18)
TEACHING POINT #1: God’s final wrath is reserved for His enemies (v. 1-18)
In the seven bowls, all of those who have opposed God throughout the book of Revelation are meeting their end.
The first four bowls are poured out on the earth and those who dwell on it
The last three bowls deal with the unholy trinity of the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet
And in all seven together, we see the total judgment of creation
Let’s walk through these bowls. That is what will take 80-90% of our time tonight.
The first bowl is poured out in verse 2. It is poured out on the earth and there are harmful sores all over anyone who bears the mark of the beast.
The second bowl is poured out in verse 3. It turns the sea to blood and there is death in the sea.
The third bowl is poured out in verses 4-7. The rivers and springs are turned to blood.
The fourth bowl is poured out in verses 8-9 and the sun scorches those who dwell on the earth with fire
This is complete and total judgment on humanity and the planet they live on.
If you don’t see that immediately, that’s okay—going back and comparing the bowls with the trumpets will show us.
Trumpet 1 blew and hail and fire and blood came down on the earth and burned up a third of it, along with a third of trees and grass. (8:7)
Compare that with the first bowl---it is not a third of the earth being impacted now—it is the whole earth
Trumpet 2 sounded and a third of the sea is ruined, along with the creatures in it and the ships sailing it (v. 8-9)
Compare that with the second bowl—it is not a third of the sea impact—the whole sea is turned to blood and everything dies
The third angel blows his trumpet in Revelation 8:10 and a third of the rivers and springs are destroyed
Compare that with the third bowl—the rivers and the springs are completely destroyed
And finally, when the fourth trumpet blew, a third of the sun, moon and stars are struck, which causes a third of the day and a third of the night to be ruined (8:12)
But when the fourth bowl is poured out, all of the people of the earth are scorched
No fraction is given
You can see how things have advanced in terms of judgment not being in part, but the whole.
The trumpets showed us God’s judgments in the world in the here and now.
They warned of a partial judgment that will come in full in God’s good and perfect time
But in the bowls, that time has come
God restrained His judgment in history, but at its conclusion, He will restrain it no more
Each bowl speaks to the nature of Final Judgment.
The first bowl is poured out on the land of the earth. (v. 2)
The first thing to go is the territory in which the people of the earth lived and moved and breathed
It is where they worked and were born and buried
And in all these, they shook their fists at God and rebelled against Him
They went along with the Beast and called Caesar a god
They took the mark
They rejected Christ and went with the counterfeit
And now, they answer for their sins in physical pain.
It is meant to draw our attention back to the sixth plague that fell on Egypt
So they took soot from the kiln and stood before Pharaoh. And Moses threw it in the air, and it became boils breaking out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils came upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
The second bowl is poured out into the oceans of the earth. (v. 3)
So the second thing to go are those massive bodies of water that we depended on for travel and trade and sustenance and industry
The Sea—which we have barely even been able to full explore
The most inexhaustible part of God’s creation on the earth itself
And it will just be ruined
It is a drop in a bucket to the Lord anyhow
And in a moment, His judgment will bring it to destruction
All the sailors and sea merchants despair the fall of Babylon in chapter 18
For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”
And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
“What city was like the great city?”
And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,
“Alas, alas, for the great city
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in a single hour she has been laid waste.
What humans spend history building in terms of commerce and societal structure, God will bring down in a moment.
The third bowl is poured into the rivers and springs of waters (v. 4).
If the second bowl destroys basic commerce, the third one destroys basic sources of life.
Rivers and springs are where we get our water from
For them to be destroyed and become blood, it means humans have no water to drink
We all know that to not have water is to die
So that is what is signified here
As judgment falls on the earth, death comes with it
There is no surviving this wrath
The second and third bowls remind us of the first plague on Egypt:
And the fish in the Nile died, and the Nile stank, so that the Egyptians could not drink water from the Nile. There was blood throughout all the land of Egypt.
The fourth bowl is poured out on the sun (v. 8).
The people of the earth are scorched with fire and fierce heat as a result.
This is different from the fourth trumpet where the sun is like a light bulb threatening to go out
It dims and darkens after a third of it is destroyed
There is no dimming or darkening here.
Instead, the sun is turned up in intensity and it burns up the people of the earth.
This is complete cosmic upheaval.
Romans 1 depicts people suppressing the truth of God’s existence so they can sin and not feel bad about it.
And this leads to them trading in the Creator for created things and worshipping them
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
In the first four bowls, God is punishing that.
He is showing them the folly of their choice in the judgment itself.
“You trusted in dirt and salt water and fresh water and heavenly bodies, but these are all created, temporary things.
And now, as I judge your choice to reject me and embrace the counterfeit of the world, I will show you how powerless your idol is.
I will un-create the earth.”
And do the people who dwell on the earth—those who took the mark—do they repent in the final moments of judgment?
No—that time is over.
Their hearts are given over to their sin.
God’s wrath is coming down upon them
And as judgment falls, they are resolved in their rebellion
They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
Their hearts are hard like Pharaoh’s.
And down to the very end, they are not relenting.
They will not let go of their love for Babylon and the beasts.
To the very end, they say that they know better than God.
They will not give Him glory.
Their blasphemy of Him reflects the Beast whose mark they bear
And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
As we move into the rest of the bowls, the focus of God’s wrath moves from the earth and those who dwell on it to the counterfeit trinity of the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet.
The fifth bowl is poured out directly on the throne of the beast (v. 10).
The result is that the kingdom of the beast, which is the kingdom of this fallen world, is plunged into darkness.
This is reminiscent of the 9th plague that fell on Egypt in Exodus:
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They did not see one another, nor did anyone rise from his place for three days, but all the people of Israel had light where they lived.
Notice how the people on the earth chew their tongues as a result. They gnaw on them.
It is actually the same Greek word used for a “scourging.”
They are brutalizing their own tongues here.
Why?
Because they hate that the Beast they trusted in is being exposed for what it is
ILLUSTRATION: Let me use a fairly silly illustration to help you see what is happening here.
My oldest son hates wearing a coat. He wants to be in shorts and a t-shirt all the time.
My youngest son plays soccer
We will leave for a game that starts on an April night at 6:30pm when it is about 70 degrees out.
My wife and I know that within an hour, it will be 62 degrees and chilly.
We tell my son to bring a jacket to the game.
He does not.
He then sits there during the game, clearly freezing and clearly exposed as being foolish in his decision to not wear a jacket
But then when we ask, “Are you cold?” he answers, “No.”
And then he stews in his stubbornness even more!
That is a very, very, very fractionally small picture of the attitude in the hearts of the people of the earth here.
As the governments of this world, which had been a symbol of their safety and security, come tumbling down, they are left angry.
God warned them that the Dragon’s Beast would meet his end.
God warned them not to take the mark
But they did. And now, rather than admit God is right, they will chew off their own tongues, curse at God for the pain of their bodies and refuse to repent all the way to the end.
MINI-APPLICATION: I don’t have time to stop for long tonight, but I do want to take a moment to say, “Do not take this sort of hard-heartedness lightly.”
If you love your sin so much that you would chew off your own tongue before you would admit God is right, then you must stop your cursing and your blasphemy now.
Don’t be that stubborn child who refuses a blanket to prove a foolish resolve
Don’t shake your fist at God after He shows you how thin all your idols and man-made gods are
Repent while you still have time
Before your heart is so hard that you would chew off your own tongue before you would admit the Lord is good and right in what He says
The sixth bowl is poured out on the Euphrates River (v. 12).
The results are that the water dries up
This opens the way for kings from the east
Then the dragon, the beast and the false prophet release three unclean spirits like frogs
They go about the world, performing signs, assembling the kings for battle on the day of the Lord God Almighty
And they assemble at the place called Armageddon
There is a lot here and I want to make sure we take the time to parse through it because this is one of those major points of departure with Dispensationalism and the Left Behind viewpoint
This bowl is showing us the preparations for the final showdown between God and His enemies.
The river is dried up
Invading armies are able to come into the place called Armageddon
This is not the first time we have seen the Euphrates. We need to go back to it to see if there is connection.
Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
So clearly, the sixth trumpet and sixth bowl are connected to one another
The Euphrates is a boundary holding back judgment in Revelation 9, but here in Revelation 16, the boundary is dried up. It is gone.
We can also see the importance of the Euphrates in the Old Testament.
Isaiah predicted Babylon would be destroyed when the Euphrates dried up and the Persians came from the East.
who says to the deep, ‘Be dry;
I will dry up your rivers’;
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”
So the picture here is that the boundary of judgment is gone
Just as literal Babylon fell by God’s purpose in the Old Testament, the world that Babylon represents will fall in Final Judgment.
And the picture here is also a trap.
The waters dry up and the kings of the earth think, “We can finally destroy the church!”
But they are wrong. They are actually running into this place for their own destruction.
They do this because they have fallen for the lies of the unholy trinity.
The dragon, beast and false prophet send three demonic spirit frogs who go about performing signs and deceiving the kings (v. 14).
They are like the magicians in the generation of Pharaoh, attempting to replicate the works of God.
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their secret arts. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened, and he would not listen to them, as the Lord had said.
They speak these lies for the purpose of gathering all of the world’s forces against God.
We don’t actually see the results of this battle until chapters 19 and 20.
In chapter 19, God destroys the beast, the false prophet and all who dwell on the earth
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army. And the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in its presence had done the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped its image. These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur. And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse, and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.
And then, in chapter 20, the Dragon gets his day in God’s courtroom:
And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
Not much of a battle.
They surround the saints and then just get massacred. End scene.
ARMAGEDDON
ARMAGEDDON
There has been plenty of excitement over the years about the word Armageddon and the site of it.
It comes from a Hebrew word that means “Mount of Megiddo.”
The odd thing about that is that Megiddo is not a mountain.
It is a broad plain and there is nothing high enough to be a mountain there.
That alone is reason enough for me to not be literal about the site of the final battle between God and Satan.
Furthermore, Zechariah says that Jerusalem, not Megiddo, will be the site of the final battle on the day of the Lord:
On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it.
Megiddo was a full two day walk from Jerusalem—you can’t take both Zechariah and Revelation literally
Like the other word-pictures all throughout Revelation, we are once again getting a symbol to help us understand the reality of how things will be in the end.
Megiddo was a place known for three infamous battles in the ancient world.
The soil there was soaked with blood.
In the 15th century BC, the Egyptians and Canaanites went to war there
In the time of the Judges, Deborah defeated the Canaanite kings
“The kings came, they fought;
then fought the kings of Canaan,
at Taanach, by the waters of Megiddo;
they got no spoils of silver.
From heaven the stars fought,
from their courses they fought against Sisera.
In the 6th century BC, Egypt and Judea went to war there
That is where King Josiah died
With all this in mind, Megiddo is not meant to be the address of the final battle—that would be Jerusalem, but a picture of what it will be like.
It is like John’s readers are asking, “How awful will it be? How much blood and destruction? How thorough will this judgment be?”
The Lord is giving John a picture to respond with—imagine Megiddo.
It would be like John saying to us—imagine Gettysburg.
It was the battlefield that came to the Jewish mind when they thought of war
I don’t have time to do a deep dive on Zechariah 14 tonight—but I believe there is enough evidence there that we can conclude that history will culminate in with a final battle in Jerusalem
I believe that is the physical site of the final scene of human history, and then the New Jerusalem will come down from heaven.
Megiddo is just a symbol to help us understand what will take place on that fearful and wonderful day.
The seventh bowl is poured into the air (v. 17).
God’s voice comes from the temple, from under the throne saying “It is done!”
What is done? His wrath. His purposes in history. His judgment.
The old is done. It is time for new things.
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.
There are flashes of lightning, peals of thunder, and an unprecedented earthquake (v. 18)
We got a preview of this earthquake after we saw Final Judgment in the opening of the 6th seal
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.
Again—this is the end of the end. This is Final Judgment. The language makes it clear.
Zechariah predicts this earthquake in Zechariah 14 as well—it splits the Mount of Olives
You also see the islands and mountains disappearing (v. 20)
Further evidence of God uncreating His world in judgment
And then we see that in this Final Judgment, Babylon is in the crosshairs.
We know that Babylon is fallen. It was declared by the angels flying overhead in chapter 14.
Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”
Well, now the one who made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality will drain the cup of the wine of the fury of the wrath of God (v. 19)
Like Moses forcing the Israelites to drink the water mixed with the melted down golden calf, God forces Babylon to drink up the wrath He has toward her for the sexual perversions she forced on the world
He remembers her.
That should comfort you.
God is not forgetting one ounce of all this evil in this world and He will call every bit of it to account
The Babylon that will be judged represents the evil world system and all of its faulty philosophies.
It is the collective kingdom of man, opposing God and seeking to make a name for themselves as they did with the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11...
But they will not build a tower to heaven
Instead, great hailstones of 100 pounds each come falling down on the people of the earth
Instead of building stones up, stones flatten them.
And it only causes the people of the earth to turn their mouths against God even more.
They hate him all the way to the end.
JUST AND AVENGING (v. 5-7)
JUST AND AVENGING (v. 5-7)
Before we finish up, we have two more very brief points.
You might say, is God really right to destroy the earth in this way? To judge humanity? To call down hailstones from the sky to flatten those who dwell on the earth?
Verses 5-7 help us with that.
Just before the fourth angel pours out his bowl, the third angel interrupts the proceedings and says:
English Standard Version Chapter 16
Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
And then from the altar you hear:
English Standard Version Chapter 16
Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
TEACHING POINT #2: God’s final wrath is just and avenging (v. 5-7)
TEACHING POINT #2: God’s final wrath is just and avenging (v. 5-7)
These are important statements from the angel and the altar and we must agree with them.
We have to see that God is not out of line here. In fact, He is firmly in line with what is right and just and true.
These brutes and rebels didn’t just tell some lies.
They shed the blood of the saints.
They participated in the Dragon’s regime of hatred by bowing down to the beast and going along with the slaughter of the saints
And now, having shed blood, they will drink blood.
It is no less than what is deserved.
It is a rugged picture of judgment, but it is in keeping with the language of the Old Testament prophets:
I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh,
and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine.
Then all flesh shall know
that I am the Lord your Savior,
and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
Having an angel speaking is not alarming because we have seen plenty of angels speaking, but it is more odd to see an altar speaking because it is an inanimate object.
However, the altar has been important to us in Revelation.
It has witnessed the suffering of the martyrs in Revelation 6
The prayers of suffering saints were came from it as incense in Revelation 8
And fire fell from this altar in judgment on the earth in chapter 8
And the angel of fire emerged from this altar in chapter 14 to gather the grapes
In other words, the altar has seen and heard it all.
All the sin of the world and those who dwell in it
All the suffering of the saints
All the prayers of the saints
The partial and global judgment of the world
And the altar, having seen it all, concludes that God is true and just in his Final Judgment on creation
MINI-APPLICATION
MINI-APPLICATION
Believing what the Bible says here will protect you from both sadness and anger.
When injustice tempts you to despair, you will remember—The eternal God, the Holy God—who has always been and always will be, will make sure that justice is done in the end.
When you are tempted to give up because the world is just too bad...
When you are tempted to be depressed because of all the horrible things you see...
Remember the words of the angel here—God will make sure evil gets what it deserves and He is righteous to do it.
And when injustice tempts you to lash out in anger and answer the world with the world’s violence, remember this:
The Lord God Almighty has just and true judgments.
He will make things right in the end.
Vengeance is the Lord’s—not yours.
Wait on His day of justice and rest in His goodness as you wait.
AWAKE AND ALERT (v. 15)
AWAKE AND ALERT (v. 15)
And then we close with our final teaching point this evening. It comes from the little warning and beatitude that we get in verse 15.
(“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)
TEACHING POINT #3: God’s final wrath is reason to be awake and alert (v. 15).
TEACHING POINT #3: God’s final wrath is reason to be awake and alert (v. 15).
Notice how the Lord Jesus steps in to speak parenthetically here.
He jumps into the middle of this narrative—this vision—and He speaks in the first person
Behold, I am coming like a thief
This is a warning.
A thief coming in the night is something that catches you unaware.
You don’t want to be caught unaware about Jesus’ return.
But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.
If you know a thief is coming, you stay awake and alert.
We know that the time of Jesus’ return will come suddenly, in the same way a thief comes in the night. “The great day of God the Almighty” in verse 14 is referring to Jesus’ return. That day will come like a thief.
In light of that, we do not sleep.
We are awake and alert by keeping His garments on.
Jesus says we will be blessed if we do this.
He speaks like He does in the Sermon on the Mount.
This is the 10th Beatitude
The forgotten beatitude, tucked away in the 16th chapter of Revelation
To “keep your garments” on means that you don’t take your clothes off and get into bed with Babylon.
You continue to hold to your Gospel confession
You continue to see righteousness flow from your life as God’s Spirit produces that in you
And daily, you cling to Jesus, asking Him to forgive your sin, provide your bread, and protect you from the Evil One.
You stay faithful to the One who is faithful.
If you do this, in the end, you will find that you are covered in His righteousness.
The glory that He promised to you will be yours completely.
His saving work in you will be brought to completion.
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
You are covered in His righteousness or exposed as shamefully naked before the eyes of God
Those whom He has redeemed and made righteous will keep their robes on till the end
This is no time to get in bed with Babylon
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
For with each passing day, the day of God’s wrath draw one day closer.
The day for the bowls to be spilled is getting nearer and nearer.
Hold on. For as we proclaim in our Benediction every Sunday:
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
Satan. The Beast. The False Prophet. The enemies of the church.
Hold on. Jesus’ grace is with you. It is not that long yet.