Sermon Tone Analysis

| *The Seven Final Plagues \\ (Revelation 16:1–21)* |

Revelation 16:1-21 (KJV) \\ \\

/1// And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. 2 And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

3 And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man: and every living soul died in the sea. 4 And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood.

5 And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be, because thou hast judged thus.

6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.

7 And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.

/

/8// And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

9 And men were scorched//a// with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

10 And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, 11 And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.

/

/12// And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.

13 And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.

14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

15 Behold, I come as a thief.

Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

/

/17// And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.

18 And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

19 And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

20 And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

21 And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.

/

[1]

*Intro:* The Bible provides the only true beacon of light and hope in the darkness and despair of the world.

In its pages are comforting, encouraging, and affirming words of the peace, goodness, joy, and love of salvation.

Believers are reassured as they read of God’s love and promises and of their eternal inheritance in His kingdom.

But while the Bible is a book of hope, it is also a book of judgment.

§         Because God loves righteousness and faith, He must hate sin and unbelief.

§         He cannot love truth unless He hates lies.

§         He cannot love goodness unless He hates wickedness.

§         He cannot reward unless He also punishes.

§         The Old Testament repeatedly warns of coming judgment, particularly in those passages that describe the final Day of the Lord judgments (e.g., Joel 2:28–32; Zech.

14:1; Mal.

4:1, 5).

§         The New Testament also reveals God’s judgment of sinners.

§         John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah, preached a confronting, even harsh message of judgment.

He called some of those who came to him seeking baptism snakes (Luke 3:7) and threatened them with judgment, saying, /“I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire”/ (Matt.

3:11–12).

§         John 3:36 warns, “/He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

/

§         The apostle Paul spoke of “the God who inflicts wrath” (Rom.

3:5), noted that “/the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience”/ (Col.

3:6), and described the terrifying time /“when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power”/ (2 Thess.

1:7–9).

§         The writer of Hebrews added, /For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.”

And again, “The Lord will judge His people.”

It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God./ (Heb.

10:26–31)

§         The wrath of God against sin and His final, eschatological judgment of sinners, recurring themes in the Bible, take center stage in Revelation.

§         That wrath, displayed earlier in Revelation in the seal and trumpet judgments, reaches its devastating climax with the bowl judgments described in this chapter.

Those rapid-fire judgments will take place in a very short period of time, marking the final hour of the Day of the Lord.

They are the final outpouring of God’s wrath on the unbelieving world before the return of the Lord Jesus Christ (15:1).

They are the last expression of divine wrath against the sin, unrighteousness, and blasphemy that is rampant on the earth.

§         The return of Jesus Christ described in chapter 19 immediately follows these seven judgments.

Chapters 17 and 18 go back in time to describe the destruction of Antichrist’s worldwide political and religious empire of Babylon.

(A similar recapitulation interrupted the chronological flow of Revelation in chapters 12–14.)

§         Immediately following the seven bowl judgments, the Lord Jesus Christ will return, destroy the world’s armies at the Battle of Armageddon, and establish His universal rule on the earth.

In fact, the bowl judgments foreshadow the Battle of Armageddon.

The drying up of the Euphrates River as a result of the sixth bowl will pave the way for the forces of the east to come to that destruction.

§         Since they are the final outpouring of God’s wrath, the bowl judgments will be more severe than all the earlier judgments.

Their severity is strong proof of how God feels about those who persistently, willfully reject Him.

§         This particular epoch in human history will be a fitting time for God’s wrath to reach its apex, for mankind’s rebellion against God will also then be at its apex.

§         Despite years of horrific judgments (which they will acknowledge as coming from God—6:15–17), sinners will stubbornly cling to their sin and persist in their rebellion (9:21).

Nor will the powerful preaching of the gospel by the 144,000, the two witnesses, countless other believers, and an angel from heaven bring them to repentance (vv.

9, 11).

§         Instead, their rebellion, defiance, and rejection of God will increase until the final judgments fall.

This worldwide rebellion of sinful mankind will bring the worldwide judgments of holy God.

§         These “seven plagues, which are the last” (15:1) had precursors in two other sets of plagues in Scripture: the plagues God brought upon Egypt (Ex.

7–12) and the seven trumpet judgments (chaps.

8–11).

§         There are similarities and differences between the three sets of plagues.

§         The first plagues were very localized, affecting only Egypt.

§         The second set of plagues destroyed one third of the world (8:7–12; 9:15, 18).

§         The final plagues will affect the entire world.

§         All three sets of plagues include hail, darkness, water turned to blood, and an invasion from the east, whether by insects, demons, or men.

§         The seven bowl judgments will gather together all the horrors and terrors from all the previous judgments of God.

They will completely inundate the world, bringing it to the brink of utter ruin.

As the vision of the bowl judgments began to unfold, John *heard a loud voice from the temple.*

The startling impact of loud voices is heard some twenty times in Revelation.

This* loud voice* is certainly that of God, since there was no one else in the *temple* (15:8).

His loud cry of judgment is reminiscent of Isaiah 66:6: “/A voice of uproar from the city, a voice from the temple, the voice of the Lord who is rendering recompense to His enemies./”

/Megalē/ (*loud*) appears half a dozen times in this chapter (usually translated “great”), again emphasizing the magnitude of the judgments recorded here.

His loud voice is heard again after the seventh bowl is poured out (v. 17).

1.

The *seven angels* were introduced in 15:1, 6–8.

There they were given the seven bowls containing the final judgments.

Here God commands all seven of them, */“Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”/*

2.       As are all the judgments, the seven bowls will be supernatural acts of God.

The text does not tolerate the attempts of some commentators to give them a purely natural, scientific explanation.

They will hit far too rapidly for any explanation other than that they come from God Himself.

In fact, there is only a brief pause, just long enough for one of the angels to affirm that the bowl judgments are just and righteous (vv.

5–7).

3.        Some writers have seen these bowl judgments as recapitulating the seal and trumpet judgments.

There are similarities, but many more differences, especially in the degree of devastation.

The fourth bowl has no parallel in earlier judgments.

No personal suffering accompanies the first four trumpets, but the bowls bring torment from the start.

4.       The bowls are universal, more intense than the previous judgments, and are called “the last” judgments (15:1), showing they do not go back in time to repeat earlier plagues.

*1.

**The First Bowl*

*/So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image./**

*(16:2)

a.        Responding immediately to God’s command, *the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth.*

b.

As noted in the discussion of 15:7 in the previous chapter, the bowls were actually shallow saucers.

Their contents are not slowly, gradually poured out, but dumped all at once.

c.

The sloshing out of the first bowl results in a *loathsome and malignant sore* that afflicts people.

d.       *Loathsome* and *malignant* translate two general Greek words for evil (/kakos/ and /ponēros/).