The 1st Bowl: SORES (Rev 16:2)
The 2nd Bowl: SEAS into Blood (Rev 16:3)
The 3rd Bowl: FRESHWATER into blood. (Rev 16:4-7)
The 4th Bowl: scorching HEAT (Rev 16:8-9)
The 5th bowl: DARKNESS on the kingdom.(Rev 16:10-11)
The 6th bowl: Euphrates DRIED up.(Rev 16:12-16)
The 7th bowl: Earth is SHAKEN! (Rev 16:17-21)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:18-00:20
Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Revelation.
00:20-00:22
We're going to be in chapter 16.
00:23-00:36
While you're turning there, we do want to take today, as Brian said, "Happy Mother's Day." Now, when I say "Happy Mother's Day," I understand that not all ladies are mothers, but you may have been a mother figure to somebody.
00:36-00:39
Yesterday, our family did our Mother's Day tour.
00:39-00:51
We went and saw Aaron's mom, then we went and saw my mom, and then we went and saw another lady who, Though she has never had any biological children of her own, we consider her like mom to us.
00:51-00:53
An extra mom, so we are so blessed by that.
00:53-00:55
And that might be you for somebody else.
00:55-01:02
So as a way of saying thank you for being a mom or a mom figure, ladies, there are flowers in the hall on the way out.
01:02-01:03
How many are they supposed to take her in?
01:03-01:05
You can take one to three flowers, right?
01:06-01:07
So choose your own adventure there.
01:07-01:15
But it's just our hospitality team and our church's way of saying thank you so much, moms, for all that you do.
01:15-01:25
So, when I do the preaching calendar, I take a week in July, and I do the preaching calendar for the whole year, starting October all the way to September.
01:26-01:47
And there's a lot of things you have to think about when you do the preaching calendar, because you have to think about, you know, there's Christmas, and there's Easter, and you've got to be... New Testament content, and Old Testament content, and maybe a topical series, and we have some guest speakers, and there's a lot of pieces to sort of fit in the puzzle, okay?
01:47-02:01
And it just hit me a week or two ago that I might have done a bad thing this year, and that it's Mother's Day, and we are looking at probably the most horrifying chapter in the entire Bible.
02:02-02:13
So, moms, we love you, but at the same time we are committed to preaching the Word of God, a verse at a time, straight through, and we love God's Word, and we love Jesus.
02:14-02:37
And if you brought your mother today, and this is your mother's first time, you're like, "Mom, I'd like you to meet those dear, sweet people at our church." And your mother walks out of here just like white as a sheet, like, "Don't ever invite me back to that church again." But you know, in Revelation 16, there is something in this chapter that reminds me of moms.
02:38-02:43
You're like, "Oh, I can't wait to hear this." is. You're gonna see this, okay? So I want you to mark this. You're gonna see this.
02:43-03:35
It reminds me of moms. But moms have a way, when they're disciplining their children, moms have a way of letting the punishment fit the crime. Moms, do you know what I'm talking about? Because if I asked your kids, they probably know what I'm talking about. In disciplines, moms are the masters of letting the punishment fit the crime. I was reading some of these this week, and I jotted some down and I wanted to share a couple ways that some mothers had let the punishment fit the crime and this is sort of a Mother's Day gift for you. You can use these, okay? I found these online and you can use these and you don't have to thank me and your kids are going to hate me for this, but here's a couple things that I saw punishment fitting the crime. The one mother posted that when her children use bathroom words at the dinner table and you know what bathroom words are-- I'm not going to give you an example.
03:36-03:42
OK, when your kids use bathroom words at the dinner table, instead of dessert, you have to go scrub the bathroom.
03:42-03:44
I'm like, that's appropriate, right?
03:44-03:46
The punishment fits the crime.
03:46-03:48
Another-- I love this one.
03:48-03:51
Another one is this mother had a son that kept correcting her.
03:52-03:55
No matter what she said, her son would be like, well, actually, mother, the truth of it.
03:56-03:58
And it just drove her insane.
03:58-04:02
I see some heads turning looking at people that may or may not do that.
04:02-04:06
But the son was always correcting, always correcting, and the mother was just like it or what's that.
04:06-04:07
So she said, "Here's what I do.
04:08-04:14
"Now, when my son corrects me on something, "I make him write a five-page paper on that subject.
04:15-04:23
"He might find out that he's right, "he might find out that he's wrong, "but it kept him busy for two or three hours." And you know, I got thinking, there's a whole bunch of other ones, you can look these up.
04:23-04:29
But I got to thinking about punishment fitting to crime, punishment fitting to crime, Mother's Day, all that stuff.
04:29-04:33
And I thought, you know, probably the most common one, I'm sure it resonates with a lot of us.
04:34-04:36
We've either done it or we've received it.
04:37-04:43
But when you use dirty words, your mother washes your mouth out with.
04:43-04:49
Okay, how many people, show of hands, how many people have been the recipient of a mouth soaping?
04:49-04:51
Wow, like all of you.
04:52-04:53
I hope you learned your lesson.
04:54-04:55
I hope you don't use that word anymore.
04:56-04:58
It happened to me once when I was a kid.
04:59-05:13
I said some pretty bad things to, our younger brother, and I'm on the way home from, you know, shopping or whatever, and my mom grabbed me and tilted my head back and she dispensed soft soap into my mouth.
05:14-05:18
It was all like, "Ugh!" But the punishment fit the crime.
05:18-05:30
But when we get to Revelation 16, ultra-serious now, when we get to Revelation 16, the punishment fitting the crime, we're going to see this concept on a global theological scale.
05:31-05:36
And I want you, before we look at the, we're gonna go through verse at a time here, but I want you to just jump down to verse six real quick.
05:36-05:40
The last phrase in verse six, I want you to underline that in your Bible.
05:40-05:48
Last phrase in verse six, where an angel commenting on the actions of God, the judgments of God.
05:49-05:50
Look at this last phrase.
05:50-05:54
This angel says, "It is what they deserve." You're gonna see that theme throughout this chapter.
05:54-05:57
God's going to give people what they deserve.
05:58-06:00
The punishment is going to fit the crime.
06:00-06:01
God is just.
06:02-06:10
And Revelation outlining the culmination, the consummation of all things includes the judgment of God.
06:11-06:16
And God is giving those who have rejected Him and killed His people what they deserve.
06:16-06:17
The punishment fits the crime.
06:17-06:18
So this is it.
06:18-06:23
This is the final outpouring of God's wrath before the return of Jesus Christ.
06:23-06:24
Are you ready?
06:24-06:25
Look at verse 1.
06:26-07:14
John says, "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple." in heaven. We talked about that. Then I heard a lot of voice from the temple telling the seven angels go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. Okay, this is God's voice and these judgments that are coming on the earth are purely expressions of vengeance and what you're going to see is these are given in a very specific order. These seven bowls, these seven manifestations of God's judgment. It's in a very specific order because they have a cumulative effect and the purpose here is to maximize suffering. So let's look at the first bowl. If you're taking notes and the messages end up on our website.
07:14-08:16
If you want to listen through this again, if you miss some things we're going to go through this rather quickly because there's a lot to cover. The first bowl sores. Sores. Look at verse 2. "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 worshipped its image." So these sores, your Bible says, are harmful and painful. Interestingly, those are two different words in the Greek, and both of those words in the Greek mean evil. So in our vernacular, it would be like John saying, "They were horrible and terrible sores." Okay, they weren't these little ouchy boo-boos. John saw these horribly disgusting, painful, festering, inflamed, oozing sores. Untreatable and unprecedented and only affecting those who have rejected God. Okay, the people who have rejected God, rejected Christ.
08:17-08:23
I'm going to align myself with the beast, with the Antichrist, with his empire.
08:23-08:26
I'm going to receive his mark." And God says, "Fine.
08:26-08:28
You wanted the mark of the beast?
08:28-08:34
Well, here are some more marks on your body that are gonna go with that deal." So the first bowl, these horrible, painful seals.
08:34-08:36
Look at the second one, verse three.
08:36-08:48
"The second bowl, the seas turn into blood." Says, "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.
08:48-08:52
It was like the first plague in Egypt back in Exodus 7.20.
08:53-08:56
And the second trumpet, which was in Revelation 8.9.
08:56-09:00
The water's turning to blood, the only difference is this time it's worldwide.
09:01-09:05
The earth is somewhere around 70% ocean.
09:05-09:08
So this is going to be absolutely devastating.
09:08-09:15
All of the waters of the ocean waters of the earth turning to blood, thick and dark and coagulated.
09:15-09:18
And he says everything in the oceans die.
09:18-09:21
And that's a problem, because that's the very foundation of our food chain.
09:21-09:23
And suddenly, it's all dead.
09:23-09:24
Look at the third bowl.
09:24-09:25
Fresh water into blood.
09:26-09:39
Verse 4, he says, "The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood." So what happens to the oceans is devastating, but the fresh water supply becoming blood, oh, that's even worse.
09:39-09:41
There's no water to drink.
09:41-09:44
There's no water to wash your sores.
09:44-09:50
And there's no water to even refresh yourself from the upcoming fourth bowl, spoiler alert.
09:51-09:52
You're gonna need some water for that.
09:53-10:05
Verse five, "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.
10:05-10:26
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, it is what they deserve." Now this is very important, these two verses, because just to be clear, make no mistake, this isn't science as people want to explain it away.
10:26-10:33
This isn't some ecological anomaly that we're going to try to explain by natural processes.
10:34-10:37
No, no. The angel says, "This is God." This is God.
10:38-10:45
And to the people on the earth who have rejected God, who shed the blood of God's people, do you see what he's saying?
10:46-10:49
He goes, "You like blood? You want blood?
10:50-10:53
Well, guess what? Drink up. Drink up." He says, "It's what they deserve.
10:53-10:56
They shed the blood of your people, God, so they can chug it down.
10:57-10:58
It's what they deserve." Wow.
10:59-11:09
Verse 7 says, "And I heard the altar saying, And yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments." And here it seems like the very altar spoke.
11:09-11:13
Personally, I don't believe that it was an inanimate object speaking.
11:13-11:17
I don't think that the altar itself was speaking.
11:18-11:21
I believe that this is referring to the people that were near the altar.
11:22-11:34
See, my understanding of this, it would sort of be like if I was walking into church today and walking past the kids' area, And I said to you, "Man, the whole children's area was laughing.
11:34-11:45
The whole children's area was laughing." And I walked away, you wouldn't go, "Does he mean all the furniture and toys were laughing in the children's area and the walls and the carpet?" Like, no, you wouldn't know what I meant by that.
11:45-11:49
Like all the kids in the kids' area, the children's area was laughing.
11:49-11:58
That's how I understand this, because in chapter six, the saints were praying for vengeance, where? Under the altar, right?
11:59-12:11
So I believe it's these saints, when he says, "And I heard the altar," I believe it's those saints saying, "Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just "are your judgments." In other words, they heard what the angel said.
12:11-12:12
Okay, you wanna shed blood?
12:12-12:13
You're gonna drink blood.
12:14-12:19
And all of these saints basically right here are saying, "Amen!" Do you remember what amen means?
12:19-12:23
Amen means yes, yes, God, that's right.
12:23-12:25
It's the third bowl, the fresh water turns into blood.
12:25-12:27
The fourth bowl, scorching heat.
12:28-12:34
Look at verse eight, "A fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire.
12:35-12:38
They were scorched by the fierce heat." Stop there for a second.
12:39-12:41
So the first three angels, they pour out their bowls on the earth.
12:42-12:44
This one pours out his bowl on the sun.
12:45-12:50
Remember God himself created the sun and he created the sun to give us warmth and life and the plants grow.
12:50-13:05
And he created it as a sort of a servant for man, you could say, but here, The sun itself turns into an instrument of judgment as God walks over to his thermostat on his wall in heaven and cranks it up.
13:06-13:14
So the sun, obviously burning people, it would be a huge, indescribable type of suffering.
13:14-13:18
But that's not the only problem that would result from this.
13:18-13:23
With the sun being cranked up, it would also melt the polar ice caps.
13:24-13:26
I did some studying this week.
13:26-13:32
If the polar ice caps were to melt under such conditions, do you know how high the water level would raise?
13:32-13:33
200 feet.
13:33-13:36
How do you think that would affect coastal cities?
13:36-13:39
If suddenly the water level rose 200 feet.
13:39-13:41
Oh, and by the way, what kind of water is it?
13:42-13:51
Yeah, bloody, nasty, full of dead creatures, that kind of water, devastating coastal city.
13:51-13:53
It would destroy coastal cities.
13:53-13:59
And you read this and you're like, man, sores and all the blood, and now they're burning.
13:59-14:08
Like at this point, surely people are like, "God, I am sorry! I am so sorry!
14:08-14:10
And we know this is You doing this!
14:10-14:14
And I am so sorry!" Right? Right?
14:14-14:16
Isn't that what you kind of expect at this point?
14:17-14:18
Well, look at verse 9.
14:18-14:27
"They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues." In case you don't know what that means, he explains that.
14:28-14:33
He says, "They did not repent and give Him glory." Oh no, they're not going to fall on their faces and cry for forgiveness.
14:34-14:38
They're going to curse God, who they know is the source of these plagues.
14:39-14:51
They know that God is doing this, and they know that they should turn from their sin and turn to this merciful God who saves and redeems through Jesus Christ.
14:51-14:55
They know that, but they absolutely refuse to repent.
14:55-14:57
Take a note of that, because we're going to see that again.
14:57-15:01
"A scorching heat as the fourth bowl." The fifth bowl.
15:01-15:02
Darkness on the kingdom.
15:03-15:04
Look at v. 10.
15:04-15:10
It says, "The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.
15:11-15:19
People gnawed their tongues and anguished and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores." Notice the sores didn't heal.
15:20-15:27
"They did not repent of their deeds." So apparently the darkness affects only the beast's kingdom.
15:28-15:29
Like, how is that even possible?
15:29-15:34
How is it possible for darkness to just cover part of the world?
15:34-15:37
You know what? God's done it before, right?
15:37-15:39
Remember in Egypt? He did it before.
15:39-15:42
And I don't need to figure out how God does anything.
15:43-15:46
He creates worlds by speaking.
15:46-15:49
This isn't going to be anything difficult for him.
15:49-15:50
But we have this cumulative effect.
15:51-15:55
If you can try to wrap your brains around this, I've been trying all week and I can't.
15:55-16:03
But think of covered with sores, and all the water is bloody, nasty, and this intense heat.
16:03-16:04
I mean, it's warm in here today.
16:05-16:09
This is nothing compared to the intense heat.
16:09-16:16
And, "Oh, I just would like a drink of water, but there's not even water to drink." And then God turns the lights out.
16:16-16:17
Why would He do that?
16:17-16:18
Here's why I think He does that.
16:19-16:20
The punishment fits the crime, right?
16:20-16:21
Punishment fits the crime.
16:21-16:22
Do you remember what Jesus said?
16:24-16:26
John 3, verse 19.
16:26-16:30
Jesus said, "Men love darkness rather than light." They don't want to come into the light and their deeds are exposed.
16:30-16:31
Do you remember that?
16:31-16:34
Jesus said, "Men love darkness." I think that's what's going on here.
16:34-16:36
God says, "Oh, you like darkness, do you?
16:36-16:41
All right, I'll just turn out the lights, And you can sit and suffer in the dark.
16:41-16:43
Absolutely horrifying.
16:43-16:49
And it says that their pain was so great, did you see at the end of verse 10, people gnawed their tongues in anguish.
16:49-16:51
I'm going to be honest with you, I can't relate.
16:52-17:00
I've been in some pain before, but I've never been in such horrible pain that I've gnawed my own tongue because it hurt.
17:00-17:04
And you talk about the irony of punishment fitting the crime.
17:04-17:06
They're gnawing their own tongues in anguish.
17:06-17:12
the very tongues that they're using to blaspheme God, God's like, "Just chew on your tongue then.
17:13-17:18
If you're going to use that tongue to curse me, you can just sit and chew on it." The sixth bowl, Euphrates.
17:19-17:20
Euphrates dried up.
17:20-17:22
Euphrates dried up. Look at verse 12.
17:22-17:32
"The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and the water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east." Stop there for a second.
17:32-17:34
I want to be honest with you, this seems a little out of place, right?
17:35-17:41
We have suffering, suffering, suffering on people, on people, on people, on people.
17:41-17:49
And then you get to the sixth bowl, and the angel shows up, and you think, "This one's going to be really bad." He's like, "I'm going to dry up this river." What?
17:49-17:55
He's not attacking humanity, but it's very clear from the passage he's preparing for what is to come.
17:56-18:03
You're like, "Well, what's going on here?" Well, the Euphrates River was seen for ages as the boundary between the East and the West.
18:04-18:13
Now, if you've been going with us through this study, we talked about the Euphrates back in 9.14 with the sixth trumpet judgment.
18:13-18:16
Do you remember what happened at the Euphrates with the sixth trumpet?
18:16-18:20
Two hundred million demons were released.
18:20-18:22
Do you remember that? And they attacked mankind.
18:23-18:27
So what's going on here? Here's what I think is going on with this bowl.
18:28-18:34
I imagine at this point in human history, nobody's going to want to go near the Euphrates River.
18:34-18:37
Right? Because that was like the point of origin where all the demons...
18:37-18:41
I imagine people did everything they could to avoid that area.
18:41-18:42
But God has other plans.
18:42-18:47
He needs people to come to this area for what's coming ahead.
18:47-18:53
So He makes sure that this angel shows up basically to pave the way for them.
18:53-18:55
Like, "Look, we're going to make this way nice and clear.
18:55-19:05
We're going to remove the waters, which were probably nasty, and it's going to be nice and clear." You're like, "Well, that's really nice of God to do that, clear the way for them.
19:05-19:15
Well, God's not doing them a favor, because we're going to see in just a couple of chapters, God wants to bring everyone who hates Him, everyone who hates God, God wants to bring them all to one area for the final showdown.
19:15-19:18
We're going to take care of this once and for all." You're going to see that here in a second.
19:19-19:21
He's bringing them together to be slaughtered.
19:21-19:23
You're like, "Wait, wait, wait, hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.
19:23-19:31
Why in the world would people make this trip through the heat and the sores and the darkness?
19:32-19:49
I mean, wouldn't you think at this point in history, with everything that everybody's endured, they'd be like, "You know what? God, you win. I'm just going to lay here and die." What could possibly entice these people to go fight against God?
19:49-19:54
I mean, what could possibly entice somebody to do something That idiotic!
19:54-19:55
Let's go fight God?
19:56-19:58
What in the world would get people to do that?
19:58-20:01
I'm glad you asked that question, because look back at the text.
20:01-20:14
It says, "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.
20:14-20:26
For they are demonic spirits performing signs who will go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
20:26-20:28
So from the dragon, that's Satan.
20:28-20:30
From the beast, that's the Antichrist.
20:30-20:34
And from the false prophets, these three demons come out.
20:35-20:43
And John, remember we've said this so many times, John's not explaining as much as he is describing.
20:44-20:46
And like, "John, what did those demons look like?
20:46-20:48
What did they look like?" Shout it out.
20:48-20:55
"Frogs! I mean, how creepy is that?" And I don't think it was like Kermit the Frog, okay?
20:56-21:01
Like a real, if you picture a real frog with the big buggy eyes and the slimy mouth,
21:01-21:01
(gagging)
21:02-21:05
it was this, he's like, it was this disgusting looking thing.
21:05-21:11
The only thing I can think to compare it to, he said they were like, they look kind of like frogs.
21:11-21:19
To these demons, it says they influenced and enticed the kings of the earth, 10 of them, we're going to see that in chapter 17.
21:19-21:25
So these demons show up, and they entice the kings of the earth, "It's time to fight against God." They probably make quite a show of it.
21:25-21:30
"Look, we have the power, we have the numbers, God spent His power, we can take them.
21:31-21:34
And what we're going to do is we're going to assemble, and we're going to fight.
21:34-21:46
We're going to fight! We're going to fight!" It was like some locker room thing, "He's getting everybody, I'll fire it up, we're going to go, yeah, we're going to go fight against God!" And that's the showdown we're going to see in chapter 19.
21:46-21:48
I'm not going to spoil it for you.
21:48-21:50
You can read ahead if you want.
21:50-21:52
But let's just say it's not much of a fight.
21:53-21:54
Pretty lopsided.
21:54-21:59
But He convinces them, "Let's go fight." Verse 15, we have a little parenthetical statement here.
22:00-22:03
"Behold," this is Jesus speaking, "Behold, I am coming like a thief.
22:03-22:17
Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed." Wow, I had almost a whole other sermon prepared just from this statement, and maybe for another time.
22:17-22:18
just for today.
22:19-22:23
This is a parenthetical statement to encourage believers before the seventh bowl.
22:23-22:25
And here's the short version of the sermon.
22:26-22:27
It's God has not forgotten you.
22:27-22:31
The people living through this at this point might feel like, where's God?
22:31-22:34
And the interjection here is, look, God hasn't forgotten you.
22:35-22:39
You who've been faithful, here's a word of encouragement, here's a word of exhortation.
22:40-22:41
Be ready, be ready.
22:41-22:44
The imagery here is like a soldier being on duty, right?
22:44-22:48
Be dressed, be ready, because Christ's return is like a thief, right?
22:48-22:49
Sudden and unexpected.
22:50-22:51
Sudden and unexpected.
22:51-23:01
And then it says, "And they assembled them," back to the judgment here, "and they assembled them at the place," that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
23:01-23:13
So the nations are gathering at this place, which literally is Har, which means hill country, Megiddo, Har-Megiddo, which is where we get the word Armageddon.
23:13-23:14
You're like, what's that?
23:14-23:18
Well, it's a hill country 60 miles north of Jerusalem.
23:18-23:31
It's prophesied in the Old Testament in the last days, Jerusalem is going to be attacked, and God's going to make sure that everyone gets in Jerusalem's neighborhood, and that's exactly where Har Megiddo is.
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But before the battle, and I use that term loosely, the seventh and final bowl must be poured out.
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Here's the last one, the seventh bowl.
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The seventh bowl, the earth is shaken.
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Look at verse 17.
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It says, "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!'" Okay, so the bowl gets poured out under the air, and God Himself declares, "It is done." "It is done." Love that phrase. I love that phrase.
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Because God's not like a lot of us guys who start a project and don't finish it.
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Come on, any guy in here besides me?
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Anyone besides me?
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Start a project and don't finish it?
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"Oh, okay, a couple of you are man enough to confess?" God's not like that.
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God's not like that.
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Remember what Jesus said when he was on the cross?
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John chapter 19.
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Remember when he cried out?
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It is finished.
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Your salvation was purchased by Jesus Christ.
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That's how much God loves you.
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And in the midst of these horrible events, I feel that we need to remind you, God loves you.
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God doesn't delight in the death of the wicked.
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God's not taking pleasure in this.
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If you say, "God, what do you want people to do?" God says, "I want people to get saved.
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I want people to receive my salvation in Jesus Christ.
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And when Jesus was on the cross, He cried out, "It is finished! It's done!" The work for salvation has been totally accomplished by Jesus Christ.
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You can't add anything to it. You can't take anything away from it.
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You don't earn it. You don't deserve it. It's a gift that God wants you to receive.
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It is done.
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And we get to Revelation 21, verse 6, Right after Jesus said, "Behold, I'm making all things new," He says, "It is done." So this project of preparing eternity for the people of God, Jesus says, "It is done." So, right here we're talking about the judgment on the earth.
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And God says again, verse 18, "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 the earthquake.
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The worst earthquake ever.
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God grabs the entire earth with His hand and just shakes it, changing the entire landscape of the earth.
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Look at verse 19.
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"The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.
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And God remembered Babylon the Great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
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And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found, and great hailstones, about 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on people, and they cursed God for the plague of the hail because the plague was so severe." The great city is Jerusalem.
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We know that from chapter 11, verse 8.
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It's distinguished from the cities of the nations that he mentions here in the text.
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Jerusalem is going to be raised up as the capital city for Christ's reign.
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We're going to talk about that down the road.
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But do you notice he mentions Babylon.
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He's like, "God remembered Babylon the great. What is Babylon?" Well, Babylon is the capital of the beast's empire.
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"I can't believe you didn't say very much about that." Well, the next two chapters are all about Babylon.
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Okay, so we're going to get into that the next couple of weeks.
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But he talks about hailstones falling from heaven on people.
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Now, these aren't the normal hailstones.
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When we think of hailstones, what's hail made out of?
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What we think of it, what's it made out of?
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Ice, right?
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the balls of ice and actually in the Greek the word "hail" refers to anything falling from the sky and the word "stone" in the Greek always and only refers to something made out of rock. So if you're looking at this passage straightforwardly, God is dropping hundred-pound rocks on people at this point. And what do they do? As the rocks are falling, do you see the last phrase?
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here it is again, and they curse God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe. So, this is... I know there's some people sitting here thinking, "This is absolutely horrible. This is horrible. How could a loving God bring such judgment? This is just way too harsh. This is too harsh. A loving God wouldn't do something like this. I'm going to a church where they talk about about our loving God, because this is harsh.
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This is too harsh.
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Let's discuss the harshness of God for a minute, shall we?
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Can we discuss the harshness of God?
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I want you to consider for a second what God has provided and what He has promised through the gospel of Jesus Christ.
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This is how harsh God is.
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Though we are rebellious and basically spit in God's face from birth, God came to this earth Himself in the form of a man, Jesus Christ and suffered the most horrible, brutal, humiliating, painful death a human being could ever experience. He did that for you. He rose from the dead to give you the promise of the Holy Spirit, right? And we have—well, the Holy Spirit—God Himself lives and dwells inside of his people. God wants to personally indwell you and guide and encourage you and give you wisdom.
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And He promised to never leave you or forsake you.
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He promised to provide every single thing that is needed.
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And though life can be hard, we all experience blessings from time to time, right?
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Family, friends, work, children.
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We have this promise of eternity in heaven, a place of constant joy and fulfillment and forever free of anything that would ever cause any kind of pain.
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And you're like, "I think God's harsh." Really?
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Let me ask you this.
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If you think God is harsh, I want you to consider what God's provided in the gospel and what he's promised in the gospel.
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I just want to ask you a question.
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What else could God do that would make you think, "Now I think he's loving." Is there anything else that God could do?
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Anything, anything at all?
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Shout it out.
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Anything at all that you think would make God more gracious and more loving than he is?
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Anything at all?
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Shout it out.
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anything. What is it? What could it possibly be? What could God possibly give you that He hasn't already given you when He's given you Himself? And, okay, this is our God. And did you see the response of people to God in this chapter? And we see some of this in our day today. But the response of people, "I don't want you. I don't want your Son.
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I don't want your wisdom. I don't want your word. I don't want anything to do with you.
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I'm going to live life on my own terms, thank you very much.
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And by the way, the people who do want to worship you, God, I'm going to kill them.
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So, in the face of such cursing and hostility towards such a God, the question I really want you to answer is, "What should God do?" What should God do in light of all of this?
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What should God do?
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And before we get all indignant towards God for the judgments that we see in this chapter, I want to remind you in verses 9 and 11, it says that they refused to repent.
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This is the last mention in Revelation of people refusing to repent.
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This is it. This is last call.
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Oh, they could have repented. Technically, they could have repented.
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But they refused.
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And honestly, at this point, repentance isn't even on their radar.
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These people aren't sitting here thinking, "Should I curse God or should I repent?" It's autopilot. I'm cursing God.
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And this is a bitter truth, church, and I wish it were otherwise for people's sake.
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But the bitter truth is some people just will not repent.
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That's hard to swallow.
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Some people will not repent. Some people will not turn to God.
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Some people will not receive His gift of salvation.
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So what should God do?
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And somebody would say, "Let them into heaven anyways!" Really? Is that your solution?
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So you want to let them into heaven anyways?
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Well, can we bark up that tree for a second?
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You're telling me somebody that spent their entire life saying, "I don't want God. I don't want God's truth. I don't want to worship God.
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I don't want to be around God's people." Do you know what heaven is?
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God, God's truth, worshiping God, God's people.
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Do you think those people are going to be happy in heaven when every minute of every day is filled with the things that they say they hate so much?
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They're going to be miserable in heaven.
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Heaven's not the place for them.
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So God is preparing a different place for them.
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Well, some have thought, you know, maybe, you know, maybe there's another chance.
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Maybe, maybe some people have said this.
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Maybe you can repent in hell.
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Maybe, maybe, maybe the suffering of hell is so bad that it's going to make people want to repent.
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Have you ever thought that?
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Hell's so bad that there's going to be people in hell that it's just, "Oh, the suffering, the suffering is so bad, I just want to repent right now." And the answer is, "No way." Because if you think that suffering softens the heart of someone who has not allowed Jesus Christ, His rightful place in their life, then you haven't been listening to a word I've said for the past however long I've been speaking.
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Because as God is unleashing the worst suffering on earth, verse 9, verse 11, verse 21, all through this chapter, what did they do?
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They cursed God.
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What do you think is happening in hell right now?
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Do you think people were crying, "I wish I could repent," or do you think people were crying out curses to God?
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Under judgment, instead of forsaking their sin, they doubled down on it and increased it.
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And I ask you again, what should God do about that?
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These God rejecters have not only ignored the preaching of God's people, they've massacred God's people, and God is going to execute judgment for His people.
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So, in light of God's grace that's available right now, And in light of God's judgment that is coming, maybe the question isn't what should God do?
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Maybe the question that you need to ask is, what should I, let's pray.
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Father in heaven, Father in heaven, we echo what the angel said.
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Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was.
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God, we echo that.
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We echo those who cried out under the altar, yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments.
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And God, nobody likes to think of anybody suffering like this, especially you.
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But God, you have made it very clear that when people have chosen to reject their Creator, when people have chosen to reject their Savior, when people have despised the blood of the Lamb, the only alternative is to face your judgment.
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God, I pray today that somebody sitting here or somebody listening to this podcast later down the road, I pray, Father, that you would get people's attention with the seriousness of your Word in regards to these actions that you will execute.
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These aren't idle threats.
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This isn't just some kind of a warning of what might happen, God.
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This is a written account of what's going to happen.
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So use your Word, Father.
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I ask, God, that you use your Word to bring people to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, through whom you've demonstrated your love.
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We pray in His glorious name.
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All of God's people said, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 16
GROUP
What was your big “take-away” from the passage / message?
Which of the bowl judgments seemed most horrifying to you? Why?
What is the purpose of verse 15? How would you restate that, and apply that, to today?
Why would People, in the face of all this suffering, curse God instead of repent (Rev 16:9, 11, 21)? How do you see this attitude play out today?
How would you respond to someone who says, “This is too harsh! A loving God wouldn’t do stuff like this!”
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another.
