The Great Day of His Wrath
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
We have come to the last series of Judgments that are to fall on the earth. The Judgment of the “Seven Vials.” Following these last Seven Judgments is the return of Christ.
The time covered by these seven vials is the “Great day of His Wrath.”
We might say that Revelation 16 is a “great” chapter...
It describes great evil: a great city, great Babylon in verse 19.
It describes great tools of judgment: great heat in verse 9, a great river dried up in verse 12, a great earthquake in verse 18, great hail and a great plague in verse 21.
It describes a great God: His great voice in verses 1 and 17, and His great day of victory in verse 14.
The world that demanded great events and things will get them now—but not for pleasure nor profit but for punishment.
The “great” voice of command is heard by the seven angels who are to do His commandments.
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.
This is the strongest judgments that will be poured out. The cup of human iniquity is full—so is the cup of Wrath.
These last seven vial judgments, are similar to both the exodus plagues (Exod 7–12) and the trumpet judgments (Rev 8–9). However, their worldwide scope and intensity are of such a nature that they are said to be something like no other since man has been on earth (16:18).
Precursors have appeared throughout history, but they have been less spectacular.
The final and climactic manifestation is now poured out (16:1), never again to be repeated.
God Will Send Sores
God Will Send Sores
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.
This judgment falls specifically upon those who worship the Anti-Christ. The word “noisome” means “terribly destructive, painful, and incurable.”
The Greek word for “sore” means “an ulcerated, inflamed, oozing sore or boil.” It’s the same idea as an abscess…These sores refuse to be healed!
The antichrist has attempted to masquerade as the Divine Physician, but he will be unable to heal his own people.
This happened in Egypt during plague number 6 (Ex. 9:8) and were also the kind of sores that covered Lazarus.
God Will Destroy The Seas
God Will Destroy The Seas
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.
The Bible says the sea became “as the blood of a dead man.”
This is similar to the first plague in Egypt (Ex. 7:18).
It will be an awful scene and an awful smell.
Sam Gordon said, “The sea becomes an ocean which is foul, offensive and poisonous. It turns into a thick coagulated mass of fluid which stinks like a badly decomposed corpse. What a disgusting smell for an aroma conscious generation to inhale! The reek is stifling and oppressive.”
The sea of the world will become an awful scene—the stench of the sea will be worldwide. This is hard for us to imagine and get the picture—this is a worldwide judgment as the second angel pours out the second bowl of judgment.
Every living being connected to the sea dies in this judgment. Billions of sea creatures will die and float to the surface which will bring about terrible stench and disease and that alone will probably cause people to want to die.
Everything having to do with the ocean will grind to a sudden halt!
Everything is stopping…We are at the end of the world!
I’m glad that I’m sheltered by the blood of the Lamb! Aren’t you?
God Will Pollute The Streams
God Will Pollute The Streams
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.
Herbert Lockyer wrote, “This plague will be widespread in its death-dealing power. Blood, the vivid and terrible mark of death, was shed most plentifully by the beast. But the blood of the martyrs is now avenged. The beast is beginning to reap what he has sown. It is blood for blood!”
The Bible says the freshwater became blood in this judgment.
The reason is given: The wicked have shed the blood of the saints and prophets and now they will reap what they have sown and desired. God more or less says, “You wanted blood and now you have it!”
They rejected the water of life freely offered, so they now are given blood to drink...
As the waters are corrupted, plant life will be destroyed which will in turn affect the oxygen supply on the planet. God’s judgments are true and righteous.
There will be no fresh water to drink on the earth!
We think of the value of oil in the earth…Nations fight over it; wars are waged because of it…At this time in the future, water will be more valuable than oil!
This is a demonstration of the holiness of God, and in every sense of the phrase, these people had it coming.
God is just because He is angered by sin and He does something about it.
His delay is because of grace, but His pouring out of wrath is because of His holiness!
God Will Send a Great Heat
God Will Send a Great Heat
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 with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
Talk about global warming! The earth will burn like a furnace...
1 For, behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; And all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: And the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, That it shall leave them neither root nor branch.
6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, And they that dwell therein are desolate: Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, And few men left.
John MacArthur says, “Searing heat exceeding anything in human experience will scorch men so severely that it will seem that the atmosphere is on fire.”
Think about it…The people will be scorched on top of open sores and there will be no fresh water to drink to give people relief from the heat!
The Bible tells us the human response: they blaspheme the name of God and repented not...
What an undeniable and sad commentary on the depravity and wickedness of Adam’s sons and daughters. Knowing full well from whom these plagues come and why they come, they do not repent; they revile. They do not bless God; they blaspheme God...
I’ve heard it said that people in Hell are begging for forgiveness they’ll never have…I’m sure some probably do, but these won’t…The judgment of God just fuels their hatred of Him.
God Will Send Darkness
God Will Send Darkness
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.
The kingdom of the beast will become full of darkness. The implication is that this judgment will be pinpointed on the beast and his kingdom. The world will know that God is judging the Antichrist and his kingdom.
Like Pharaoh in ancient Egypt, the Antichrist, with all his power is helpless against the judgment of God Almighty. This plague begins at the very throne room of the Antichrist and then spreads to cover his entire kingdom.
He may be a powerful ruler, energized and supported by Satan, but he is helpless to defend himself against the God of Heaven!
John Phillips wrote, “Since men have chosen the powers of darkness as their spiritual guides and have scorned the Light of the world, God gives them what they want—darkness, thick darkness, a darkness like that of Egypt, which could be felt. It is a foretaste of that ‘blackness of darkness forever’ that will be the eternal lot of these evil ones.”
David Levy wrote, “The darkness will be so thick that it will cause intense psychological pain to people already in physical agony due to the festering boils and burning flesh. This will cause them to gnaw ‘their tongues in pain.’This is a preview of the outer darkness of hell that unbelievers will suffer.”
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
This is just a preview of the hell that is to come!
Again, we see they blasphemed the God of heaven and repented not...
Conclusion
Conclusion
We will finish this chapter up next week…The remaining verses speak of Armageddon and have quite a bit of stuff to cover, so we will finish this up next time...
At the cross God demonstrated His wrath and poured it out on His beloved Son.
His great love for sinners was on full display.
In the great tribulation He will pour out His wrath on rebellious and unrepentant sinners who curse His name. There will be no middle ground in that day. There is really no middle ground today. What will you do?
Will you believe in Him or blaspheme Him?
Will you confess Him or curse Him?
Will you repent or continue to rebel?
The choice is yours, and the choice is mine. The time to make the choice is now. Time will soon be gone for all of us. Judgment day is on its way to planet Earth.