Okay, we turn to Revelation chapter 16. We've seen the cycle of the seals and the trumpets, and then the kind of interim with the plagues and judgments, and now we end with the seven bulls or sometimes referred to as the seven plagues themselves. Now, these were introduced In chapter 15, with verse 1, another sign in heaven, seven angels with seven plagues. And then there's the interim, you might recall, we finished the former section and then took it up again in verse 5. Heavens were open, out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen. So, that was introduced and now we have the seven bowls of God's wrath. And like the seals and the trumpets, in fact, this covers the same ground as the trumpets but more intense as a final, the final mat laid down of God's coming wrath. 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'm 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 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 a hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people, and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe." That's the reading of God's Word. Let us pray. O Lord, these words are difficult. Contemplation of your wrath upon the earth is difficult. Draw us to it, Lord, that we might worship you aright, that we might hope in your judgments, even as they are manifested in this world at this time and throughout history. And Lord, as we approach final judgment, set in motion by the very resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ, O Lord, may we tremble before you and at the same time look for your salvation and count on you to deliver us from the wrath to come. As Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, that they turn from idols to worship the true and living God and to wait for his son who would come and deliver from the wrath that is to come. O Lord, that is our situation as well. where we trust in Jesus Christ alone. He is our ark, He is our deliverance, He is our refuge, and we rejoice in Him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I'm not gonna read this paper at all, it would take too long, and I'm just gonna try to hit some highlights as we go through this section. This loud voice is most likely God himself. And this analogy, pouring out the wrath on earth, was common in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 10.25 that I have in bold reads like this, pour out your wrath on the nations that know you not, and on the peoples that call not on your name, for they have devoured Jacob, and they have devoured him and consumed him and laid waste." So, see, the pouring out of God's wrath because the nations have devoured the people of God, right? And that's what we have in this section as you see the wrath being poured out on those who have worshipped the image or worshipped the beast and poured out the blood of God's people. So the first angel is, remember that the mark is metaphorical, it's not a literal mark, but in keeping with the metaphor, those who are marked by the beast suffer in their skin, in their bodies. And the idea is that the judgments will be careful and be appropriate for idolatry. So there's a match here. You have the mark of the beast as a metaphor, and then as a metaphor, your skin is marked as well with harmful and painful sores. This word painful is used in Deuteronomy 28, and it's called the painful boils of the Egyptians. as he pronounces judgments in Deuteronomy 28 on Israel, if she turns away from God, okay? Those are the judgments of Deuteronomy 28. So you can see how the judgments upon Egypt are also predicted to fall on Israel so that though Israel, you were delivered, at the time of the Exodus, you will be just like Egypt if you turn away from God. You will bear the same judgments of Egypt if you turn away from God. And you will be sided with the pagans. It is faithfulness that preserves your life. And now we see that the judgments that fall on Egypt are paradigm or picture, blueprint of the judgments that will be poured out on the whole world. Although it's taking the literal boils of Egypt and using it as a metaphor for the punishment that God will pour out. Then the second bowl is tied in very closely with Babylon. If you read Jeremiah 51 that I have listed there, it talks about Babylon as a destroying mountain that will be burned up and been cast down, it will sink and not rise again. So that's the background to this idea of a mountain being thrown in, the bowl being thrown into the sea. And if you back up to chapter 8, verses 8 and 9, in the trumpet, The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and a third of the sea became blood." And that background is the Jeremiah passage that speaks of Babylon being cast down. So, this concerns, Babylon represents the whole of world society turned against God, devoted to sensual pleasures, to economic prosperity, no matter the cost, and these become, these are the great idols that are worshipped. The trumpet had to do with economic power, and so does Babylon's power. Turn over in your Bibles to chapter 18, you'll see how not only sexual immorality is there, but in verse three, for instance, the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living. And in verse nine, they committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her. Verse 11, the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her as Babylon is being cast down. In verse 15, the merchants of these wares who gain wealth from her will stand afar off in fear of her torment, excuse me. And then verse 17, in a single hour, all this wealth has been laid waste. The shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors, and all those who trade on the sea stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning. In verse 19, they threw dust on their heads as they wept. 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. Rejoice over her, O heaven. and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her." So you can see the economic overtones. And this is likely part of the reason that in the second and third bowl that the attack is against the waters. because the economic prosperity of Babylon is pictured as being on the waters, of traders and merchants on the waters. And so that which provided such luxury for Babylon and those merchants, Babylon itself is cast into the water, the burning mountain cast into the water, and this is the destruction of Babylon. It's…I'm trying to think where to…let's see. I want you to look at this little connection, starting with chapter 14, looking at verse 9. Another angel, a third, followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb." So there's the great judgment poured out on those who worship the beast. look and we read the part in chapter 16, verse 19, when the great city fell and God remembered Babylon the great to make her drink the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And so the connection between that the bowls are the pouring out of God's wrath and causing Babylon and the people of the earth to have to drink that judgment because they have worshipped the beast and worshipped in idolatry, turning away from God and, in fact, pouring out the blood of God's servants. So, let's drop to the bottom of that page just to remind ourselves what's going on. Whatever means God uses throughout history The second trumpet and second bow, and we can include the third here in a minute too, refer to the demise of the ungodly world's economic life support system. That's from G.K. Beale. Some of the worlds, and on page 91, economy would be affected at times the trumpet affected one third, all of it at other times, the bowl affects the whole of the earth. Given the final and absolute economic downfall of Babylon to which everything finally leads, we can expect many anticipatory financial turndowns and disasters resulting in great suffering, including famine and death. We should see all such disasters, whether they come through war, natural disasters, greed, foolish decisions, which are also a part of God's judgment, as part of God's present judgment, previewing, anticipating, and leading to final judgment. And I would suggest to you, not that the particular people who were affected by Haleen. It's not that, okay? We're not looking and saying, oh, those people were. It shows that this world is under God's judgment and that different peoples at different times will suffer. And the incredible economic suffering that has fallen on America through this one hurricane is exactly what is being talked about here in the pouring out of the bowls of God's wrath. Again, it's not as though he's singling out the United States, though he may single out a nation at any point, but anything that happens in the world, whether it's a typhoon that strikes Japan or something that struck Thailand, of course, years ago, tornadoes, hurricanes, they cause economic havoc. And then there are the economic downturns that are not related to natural disaster, but war itself, as we see in the Middle East. And you just think of the economic destruction that is going on there. It's easy to see the evidences, and we must connect the dots and say, the pouring out of these bowls are quite visible in our world right now, all over the place. These are terrible things that are happening. And on the one hand, you might say, well, why does God allow this? Why does God allow these things to happen? Well, remember, he's gonna pour out his full wrath in the last day, full wrath. These are just anticipations of that wrath. And all the more reason why we should hide ourselves in Christ. And what's sad is you see this refrain, they did not repent. Has America repented because of Helene striking us? Have these communities repented? Or have we as a whole, the whole world sees a disaster anywhere. We all should repent, you see. We all should, those who have not given their lives to him. And it's interesting that it said that they curse or blaspheme God. The only one outside of chapter 16 that blasphemes God is the beast. So they indeed have his mark. You see, they have his character. They are blaspheming God, even as the beast blasphemes God. fulfilling His will in that regard. And you see how allegiance to anything but God leads you into the destruction that is part of the beast's agenda. He wants to lure us away from God into final destruction. So, just a little parenthesis there to remind ourselves that these are things that are real. When we move on to the third bowl, the reminder there is that blood is figurative for suffering in general. It may mean literal death, but it includes suffering of all kinds. And you see this phrase that They've shed the blood of saints and prophets. And we read that same phrase, saints and apostles and prophets, in chapter 18 in the judgment of Babylon, which leads commentators to say, this is the same judgment on Babylon. It relates to verse 20 of chapter 18, the same phrase. This whole of chapter 16 is really about Babylon, but Babylon is not mentioned until verse 19. There's an interesting phrase. we should read, you see in verse five, just as you, O Holy One, who is and who was, it really should be translated this way, who is and who was, O Holy One. Because up to this point, we've had the phrase, who was, who is, and who is to come. Notice the change, who was, who is, the Holy One. He no longer is the one to come, you see. He no longer is coming. He has come. He's broken in. He is here in all of His majesty and holiness. And Holy One designates His sovereign uniqueness and beginning to execute in time judgment in this role as the one who is coming. So, it proclaims God's sovereignty, who was, who is, who is to come, but now that sovereignty is in action in judgment. So, who was, who is, who is the Holy One. And interestingly, verse 6 shows that it's a direct answer to the saints' plea for vindication back in chapter six, verse 10. They cried out with a loud voice, O sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell in the earth? And here's the answer to that prayer. Just as you who is, who was a holy one, you've brought these judgments for they've shed the blood of saints and prophets and you've given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve. You killed and now you are being judged and killed. Again, we're taught consistently by John that the prayers of God's people have a profound impact on history. And God's obviously ordained so that as we pray, Thy kingdom come, God does bring his kingdom. And I've said this many times, but we pray that on Sunday morning, you're praying for this to happen, that you're reading in chapter 16. That is what we're praying for, his judgment to come, his kingdom to come, because only in judgment do we have freedom, do we have deliverance in this world. So it makes you think twice, or at least to think about what you're praying for. Interestingly, this word deserve is the same word translated worthy, as in worthy is the lamb. The lamb is worthy of praise. All those who follow the beast are worthy of death. The talk of altar, this points to the people of God because in chapter 8, it mentions the altar and the incense of the prayers of God's people. And we just saw in chapter 6 the same thing. And so, this is likely those who've been praying under the altar and through the altar in heaven Now they're saying, Lord God, true and just are your judgments. And that's hard for me. It's hard to see that we are rejoicing in the judgments of God in that final day, but we rejoice for him to be exalted. This is one of the ways it has hit me, I don't know, thousands of times maybe, is I've just ached for the whole world to recognize that God indeed created this world. He didn't come here by chance, right? I just want Him to be vindicated. I want everyone to have to acknowledge that He is truly God and to acknowledge the foolishness of saying the things that this world has said. And in Philippians 2, it says, every knee will bow and acknowledge that he is Lord. And that means every knee, whether believers or unbelievers. So in some way, but that's mixed. We pray for people's salvation. We pray for the gospel to go out in the world. We have compassion on our enemies. We pray for them. We don't pray against them. And yet there's this other aspect of our life in which we pray for the final vindication of God's people and the final vindication of God Himself and the final deliverance and new creation. The new creation can't occur until all sin is removed from the world. That's just, that's the reality that we face. The fourth bow Pouring out is figurative, and the effect of each one is figurative, just to remind us this. But verse 9 underscores God's sovereign control over the plague. It shows His glorious power and justice. But instead of words of honor, they blaspheme God. Let's move on to the fifth bowl. It's directly poured unto the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness." This means that the throne of the beast directly attacks his earthly rule and authority. The darkness plague in Egypt was a mockery of Ra, the sun god, and Pharaoh, who was his earthly representative, It was a picture of the crippling blow of God's judgment of the death of the firstborn and the Red Sea disaster. Darkness anticipated what was about to fall on Egypt. And so this bowl anticipates the final judgment when believers will be cast into the outer darkness. So it's a metaphor, it's a picture, but saying that the judgments that fall on the world are pictured as a darkness that prefigures the final darkness coming upon this world, even as the darkness in Egypt prefigured the death of the firstborn that was coming and the judgment of Egypt in the Red Sea. So there's a parallel there. And as Bill says here in the next paragraph, the fifth bowl directed against world rulers who oppress the saints and foster idolatry. This could include internal rebellion against rulers and their allies or removal of political or religious power from the state. Political upheaval with all of its attendant miseries will be a darkness that marks the period of the Lamb's reign. And then we come to the sixth bowl It's unusual that the seas are dried up to make way for the kings from the east. And you'll see the gathering of the nations against God's people here in chapter 19 versus in the last half of 19. And then you'll see it again in chapter 20 verses 7 through 10. Those are not three different events. They're the same event. of the gathering of the nations against the people of God. And the frog spirits at the bottom of the page is figurative to show that the beast and the dragon and the beast and the false prophet pour out deception and corruption and desecration and deceive the nations with all that they are able to do. And we're not sure what effect this will take, but the effect will be broad and the nations will increasingly turn against believers in that day. The second paragraph on page 93, it brings the nations together to stand with the unholy trio against the church. And the same deception from the biblical perspective, but that the spiritually defiled will war against the lamb and his people. But they're drinking, as I say here, the Kool-Aid of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. Now, it gets to verse 16 and doesn't really tell you what happened, but if you want to read what will happen, then you can read the last half of chapter 19, or you can read chapter 27 through 10, and you'll see that the defeat of these forces occurs through Christ's intervention at the end. But this is a bit of a teaser in verse 16 because it doesn't tell us where this is going. Although we do have Jesus' words repeated from the Gospels, I'm coming like a thief, and then blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on. The picture is becoming naked and abhorring yourself or adulterating your life with idolatry. And so this is a statement, blessed are those who keep themselves pure from idolatry, who continue to serve Christ in the face of persecution and death. So That's the meaning there of his statement. And I'm going to skip because it's time. Just notice that Armageddon, that will explain Armageddon at the bottom of page 93. The top of page 94, I try to summarize what does this mean. It tells us that in the end, a great concerted attack will be launched against the church, the final culmination of the beast's war against the saints, which you can read about. It started in chapter 13, verse 7. It can be lined up with these events taken all together. it seems that there will be a devastating, practically worldwide attack on the church at the hands of the powers of the world. However, it's interrupted by the appearance of Christ who brings utter and everlasting destruction upon these powers." And then the next paragraph is Christ's words about the thief. The final bowl is poured out into the air. You noticed this morning what timing. We talked about the prince of the power of the air, right? His realm. And so, this indicates a judgment, a final, complete, devastating judgment upon the dragon, the beast, upon Satan himself, catastrophic, crushing his kingdom. The statement, it is done, is the completion of what was announced at the beginning of these bowl plagues, the wrath of God is finished. Chapter 15, verse one, the wrath of God is finished. And in verses 17 and following, you have that great statement of that wrath being finished. And all of the flashes of lightning and rumblings, peals of thunder, that was, you could even see that at the end, at the introduction, at the end of chapter 15, And this is always a sign, of course, of God's great judgment and descriptions in the Old Testament and New Testament of final judgment. And in prophecy, a final catastrophic earthquake attends God's final appearance of judgment. You can look that up if you'd like. And the effects of this judgment are expanded in verse 19. Babylon, which made the nations drink the wine of her passion, now must drink the wine of God's wrath. Babylon is ground zero for God's wrath. So Babylon is the engine that takes the whole train into the ravine. The cities of the nations fell. The power grid of fallen human culture, political, economic, military, religious, social, is so tightly interlocking that when its heart is shattered, the whole edifice crumbles. With Babylon's fall, all the world's cities fall." And then we just read some of the mourning of those cities and their merchants in chapter 18. Judgment is declared with the islands and the mountains, which makes way in the final case for the new heavens and the new earth. So again, I just want to, you know, let me read again what Paul says at the end of chapter one in his letter to the Thessalonians. They themselves, who came back and reported, report concerning the kind of reception we had among you, how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Isn't it interesting that they turn from idols? And that's the point of the judgments in Revelation 16, is the idolatry of having the mark of the beast and plunging ourselves into this world to protect ourselves and to turn away from God. But they turn from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. So that's our hope. That's why we began Rock of Ages. He is the cleft of which we run when the wrath of God is announced over and over in the New Testament, increasingly because of the resurrection and ascension of Christ. It's the same in Revelation that when we see the ascended Christ in chapter 5 of Revelation, that's when we see the judgments of God poured out. And each Each cycle is the same cycle, but just intensifying as you go through revelation. But we've given this picture again and again, that between his first and second comings, great judgments will be poured out upon the earth. And we see him in our day. And we thank God that he is delivering us and will deliver more and more of his sheep before that final day. So let's pray. Lord, this terrible sweep of human history in these seven bowls of wrath, it is not comfortable for us to think about it. But Lord, it enables us to see the inside story of what is even happening in our country and other nations around the world, what's happening in war and famine in the world. Lord, may this cause us to be humble before you, our great and holy God. May it all the more cause us to be thankful for the deliverance of Jesus Christ, else we ourselves would face this wrath. And we deserve this wrath. And yet you have had mercy upon us and raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenlies. Oh Lord, give us grace all the more to praise your great name for your salvation and that there will be a final day when all suffering and all misery and all sin will be removed from this world and you will usher in the new heavens and the new earth and we will reign with Christ forever. We rejoice for the glory of Jesus, amen.