[0:00] Good morning. Welcome to the service this morning.
[0:12] Are we blessed to be here? Anyone not? Why are we blessed?
[0:25] I'll put it right back to you. Why are we blessed to be here? We're free to choose? Yep.
[0:40] In the presence of God. Yeah. To be in the presence of God, in the fellowship of brothers and sisters, the greatest blessing.
[0:56] Yeah. Anyone else? Do we sometimes take for granted the blessings that God gives us?
[1:13] You know, since COVID, we have learned to be thankful and to give God thanks for the freedom to gather.
[1:26] It was something that was threatened. And so we take these things for granted because we've always had it.
[1:39] So it's good for us to dwell on the goodness of the Lord. And to be blessed means to have God's favor upon us. God's favor. And so we do have God's favor on us.
[1:56] The songs that we sang displayed, the messages in those songs displayed some of those blessings as well. And so we are gathered here this morning.
[2:16] And so we are gathered here this morning and want to continue in the passage that was read for us. And so thank you, Peter, for doing that. I've titled the message that vengeance belongs to our God.
[2:34] Vengeance belongs to our God. And we have in this series, as we're working through this, we have God's judgments upon the earth, upon evil.
[2:53] And this morning we want to cover the last set of judgments that will usher in the return of Christ. And so why is it important that we leave vengeance or pay back to the Lord?
[3:18] Why is that important? Why is that important? He knows what's best. He is just.
[3:32] And He will pay righteously. Yeah. Absolutely. And so I thought just to open, just as a reminder, let's turn to Romans 12.
[3:49] Let's pick up a few verses there in Romans 12. It's a reminder to us to endure. And so often we face injustice or we're wronged and we feel like paying back, but there's times we need to let it go, knowing God will take care of it in His time.
[4:15] Verse 17 in Romans 12. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.
[4:32] Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
[4:46] Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head.
[4:59] Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Lord, instructions to the church. As we live in the grace of God, with unmerited favor, we live before God, all of us deserving condemnation, but through God's plan of salvation, where His Son took our place, we live in that favor.
[5:33] And that grace. And so now we are to extend that to one another. And when we are wronged, to let go.
[5:49] To not personally avenge or pay back. Let it go. Especially in the church, between brothers and sisters, to learn, to let go.
[6:04] And the Lord will take care of it in His time. And our flesh screams different. Does it not? Our flesh would have us go like this and use it.
[6:22] And yet the Lord says, don't. Don't repay evil with evil. Let it go. God will take care of it.
[6:32] So for us, as we endure, and I think I can say this, the end. We may not, we're not guaranteed we're going to live till Jesus comes, but we're seeing the end coming together, as the Bible describes it.
[6:51] And we're going to see more and more injustice. And I declare, in the last few years, it has increased worldwide.
[7:04] Where governments are calling evil good, and good evil. They are. And we as Christians suffer under that.
[7:15] It's hard to see. And yet, Revelations has God's plan. I will repay. Wait.
[7:28] Wait for that. So we can pray. We can stand for justice where we have opportunity, as the Bible also commands.
[7:39] And yet, when we are wronged, we're to let it go. So that's kind of some background here. And I trust this will help us to endure, and to look past it, knowing their day is coming.
[7:55] So a few Sundays back, we looked at chapter 14 in Revelations, and we had a kind of a preview of the rest of the events that had to come before Jesus would return.
[8:11] He saw the vision of the 144,000 around the throne, and then he saw the three angels flying through the heavens, and the one preaching the gospel to all nations, and we saw God's grace even there.
[8:31] So this is in the second half of the tribulation period. The angel preaching the gospel, and then secondly, the second angel had a message, Babylon will be destroyed.
[8:46] And that's that harlot, that religious system against God. And we have one verse that references it in chapter 16.
[8:59] And so last time I spoke, I talked about, we skipped ahead and we covered chapter 17, Babylon's destruction.
[9:11] And then the third angel prophesied about Armageddon, the last judgments on the earth. And so chapter 16 leads up to that.
[9:24] that the last plagues or the bold judgments will usher in the return of Christ. And when those are started, they're going to go boom, boom, boom, and Jesus will come back.
[9:40] It's going to be the last plagues on men. And so there will be no more delay. So that's kind of what we're going to look at this morning.
[9:52] Before we do that, I want to briefly look at chapter 15. It's related. And we're just going to pick out one point in it. I'm going to read it.
[10:03] There's eight verses. And then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them the wrath of God is complete.
[10:18] So he says, I saw another sign in heaven. This is the third time John saw a sign in heaven. Does anyone remember the first two?
[10:35] They're both in chapter 14. The first sign in heaven he saw was the woman, which is Israel. Okay?
[10:47] And not chapter 14, chapter 12. A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
[10:58] And we discussed that. That was God bringing salvation through Israel and God's plan for Israel for the future. And then the second sign, verse 3, in chapter 12, and another sign appeared in heaven.
[11:14] Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads, ten horns, and seven diadoms on his heads. So we have the first sign is Israel.
[11:25] The second sign is the Antichrist under the power of Satan, human government. judgment. And then, in chapter 15, John sees a third sign and it's a sign of judgment.
[11:44] And it's a sign of the seven angels having the seven last plagues, the bold judgments, for the wrath of God is complete in them. So the third sign is that judgment is coming on the second sign, which is the Antichrist or the beast in his kingdom.
[12:07] All evil will be banished. So John sees these things. And I saw something like a sea of glass mingled with fire and those who have the victory over the beast, over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, standing on the sea of glass having harps of gold.
[12:28] So John sees the throne room in heaven, just as described in chapter 4 and 5. If we think back, where the scroll was given to the one seated in the throne.
[12:45] And so we have a throne room and John sees another picture of that. And then, in verse 3, they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are your works, Lord God Almighty.
[13:06] Just and true are your ways, O King of the saints. Who shall not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, for all nations shall come and worship before you, for your judgments have been manifested or made known.
[13:25] Now, who knows about the song of Moses? We might not know the words, but why did they sing the song of Moses?
[13:42] Does anybody know? Peter? Yeah. Okay, so the victory that God gave them coming out of Egypt, right?
[13:56] And so just think of the background. The song of Moses, if you want to, in your own time, read Exodus chapter 15, it's the song of Moses. It's a victory song.
[14:09] They have been in oppression under the Egyptians for several hundred years and in the last stretch of that, so deep depression that they were in slavery, in bondage, and under taskmasters that were harsh, forcing labor.
[14:30] And as God, as God brought about the ten plagues, and we all know about the ten plagues in Egypt, and then the last plague, the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn in men and in cattle and so on, every living thing.
[14:49] And then, of course, following the miraculous, the miraculous separation, parting of the Red Sea.
[15:01] And the children of Israel in fear walking through two walls of water heaped up on dry land.
[15:12] And then, as they get to the other side and they see the Lord troubling the pursuing army's chariots, their wheels are coming off, which likely hadn't happened before, but God caused it.
[15:29] And they're delayed in the midst of the Red Sea, and then God brings those huge walls of water over them. And it says, not one survived. And they saw the bodies of dead Egyptians washed up on the shore.
[15:45] And what did they do? They sang a victory song. They gave glory to God. All those hundreds of years of oppression repaid.
[15:58] God says, vengeance is mine. Now here, here is a victory scene in heaven.
[16:09] They're singing the song of Moses. They're giving God glory for repaying evil. And it hasn't happened yet, at least not in full.
[16:21] But they're anticipating as the seven angels with the seven last plagues are there around the throne and they're already singing this song in anticipation that justice is now here.
[16:37] It's going to happen. And it's going to usher in the return of Christ. Do we have the right to sing a justice song?
[16:53] Absolutely. As when the Lord keeps His promises and He pays evil, we rejoice in that. That is different than when I rejoice when a brother falls or someone that did me something wrong in the past and He has issues.
[17:18] We are not to rejoice in that. But in the end when the Lord will repay, we have the freedom to rejoice in our Lord knowing He is just and righteous.
[17:32] So that's the scene here. And it leads up to chapter 16. I'll read the last four verses. Verse 5 through 8. After these things I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened and out of the temple came the seven angels having pure bright linen, sorry, having the seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen and having their chests girded with golden bands.
[18:03] And then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.
[18:26] This is the very end of the seven years. And so maybe in an overview, and I was hoping to have something on the wall, the next time I speak I plan to have a timeline with the events of the seven years charted in it, and we'll try to put it up for you to see.
[18:50] But the seal judgments, if you remember, the first seal was peace, the white horse. The second was the red horse, and it represented war.
[19:04] and the third horse was black, famine, and the fourth horse was pale, and represented death. And so we have the seal judgments, an overarching view of the tribulation period.
[19:21] We have starting in with peace, and then war, and famine, and death. The fifth seal was the altar, or the souls that were slain under the altar, crying out, Lord, how long till you avenge?
[19:42] They're crying out, Lord, we were handled, treated unjustly, how long? And God says, a little season. There's more that will join you.
[19:56] And so that's the fifth seal. It's a glimpse of what will happen during the seven year period. There will be Christians that will come to faith during that time, they'll be martyred for their faith.
[20:09] And then the sixth seal is a picture of the end. And the sun turned into sackcloth, and the moon into blood, and the stars fell, and the sky receded, and there was a great earthquake, and there was hail.
[20:24] It's a picture of the end. That's the seal judgments overlooking the whole judgment program. And then we have the trumpet judgments, and those, to my understanding, happened during the great tribulation, or the last three and a half years.
[20:45] And they too stretch to the end. And now we have the bowl judgments that are a picture of the very end. So I'm going to do a comparison a bit later of the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments, but let's first walk through the bowl judgments briefly, and just look at God's program.
[21:13] So chapter 16, we'll go plague by plague, bowl by bowl. Verse 1, And then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.
[21:33] And so the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped his image.
[21:50] As he pours out that first bowl of judgment, it says a foul. What does foul mean? Rotted?
[22:04] It has that impact, right? Or that impression? Rotted, made for field? Stinking. Yeah.
[22:15] Stinking. And loathsome means it's gross. That's in the echo. And so it's loathsome as well.
[22:27] And you know, this might remind us of Job. As Satan asked to sift Job, and God permitted him with the boundary, you cannot take his life.
[22:43] But if we read Job, the sores that came upon his body, and his wife told him, curse God and die, well, I think this will be like that, only worse.
[23:00] Only worse. And who does it come upon? Who is this judgment on? it's on everyone that took the mark of the beast, that worships the Antichrist, ultimately Satan.
[23:19] Okay, so that's the first bowl. And then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died.
[23:33] and the sea meaning salt water oceans turning 100% blood. Every creature in the ocean dies, and it becomes blood as of a dead man.
[23:50] I don't know that I fully understand that. Maybe Bill could help us. If there's a difference between the blood of a dead man and a live one, but maybe there's a smell or attraction to that, but it's anyway, it's a very descriptive scene at least.
[24:16] Blood of a dead man, the whole oceans, which is the larger part of our planet, turns into blood. And then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood.
[24:32] So you have the oceans, all ocean life dies, huge impact on humanity as a food source, and then the second angel, all rivers and springs, and I'm assuming our freshwater wells here in Grand Prairie will all turn to blood.
[24:57] what are we going to drink? The church is going up, thank you.
[25:11] Yeah, but the people that will inhabit, right? What will they drink? And it's interesting, the verses that follow, God, does God have a sense of humor?
[25:23] I think it's somewhat there. In verse 5 and 6, I heard the angel of the water saying, You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have judged these things, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, for it is their past due.
[25:49] You guys were bloodthirsty, I'll give you blood to drink, God's response in repayment. How long would this earth survive if all water was blood?
[26:08] We are at the very end. And I believe these last judgments are going to go boom, boom, boom, boom. What's that? Yeah, but not just blood.
[26:22] Yeah, I think they have a mixture there yet. But yeah, there's Satan worshippers drinking blood, right? Absolutely. That practice exists. Yeah.
[26:33] You know, in the church age, in the bloodshed of believers of the church, it is religious groups that have shed more blood than anyone else.
[26:53] And under that bloodshed, under the papal or the pope system, there has been much, much bloodshed by the millions.
[27:10] And here, God says, you're blood thirsty, I will give you blood to drink. That's the third plague.
[27:22] Verse 7, And I heard another from the altar, saying, Even so, Lord God, Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. And then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire.
[27:39] And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory.
[27:52] And so, God strikes the sun here, and it becomes scorching hot, and men are scorched with that heat, and they do not repent but curse, blaspheme God.
[28:13] See, at this stage, if you aren't a believer, hidden away somewhere, you are worshiping the Antichrist.
[28:26] There is no middle ground. Under these severe conditions, the entire world that's left will be divided very firmly, a Christian, and many being martyred, or we're worshiping the image of the beast.
[28:44] And we took the number 666. And so, when these plagues are poured out, those that have taken the mark of the beast, can they repent? To my knowledge, no.
[28:59] They have pledged their allegiance to the devil. they have made their choice. And there will be no turning back.
[29:11] And hence, the Scripture says, they curse God, or blaspheme Him, even though these things are so clearly from God, that it should grab our attention.
[29:22] But they're past that. And they're hardened in their allegiance to Satan. Okay?
[29:32] Verse 11, they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds. So it speaks of the kingdom of darkness, gnawing their tongues because of pain.
[29:46] Oh, that's the fifth one. I'm jumping ahead of myself. We can go there. So we have the heat in verse 9, and then verse 10, the fifth bowl. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness, and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain.
[30:06] They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds. So after the heat, we have darkness, and how do we associate pain with darkness?
[30:23] isolation? Isolation?
[30:35] Is it a glimpse of hell? Perhaps? Separation? Yeah.
[30:45] So it says they gnawed their tongues in pain, and they blasphemed God because of their pain and their sores, which they had in the first plague, and did not repent of their deeds.
[31:03] So gnawing in pain, that means, I don't know if we can picture it, pain so intense that you're chewing on your tongue, gnawing on it, the pain won't go away, it won't let up.
[31:18] Maybe a very bad toothache is just a glimpse, maybe a very small glimpse. But, yeah, John has tried to use words to get us to understand or get a glimpse of what he's saying here.
[31:36] And then the last, or the second last plague in verse 12, then the sixth angel poured out his bowl, on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
[31:52] And so the biggest, basically, river in the world, or one of them, Euphrates, will dry up and allow armies from the east to come to Israel.
[32:07] And we'll remember in the trumpet judgments, in the sixth trumpet, there was 200 million horsemen gathered at the Euphrates.
[32:21] And they were prepared to kill a third of mankind. Here we have the Euphrates dry up, and then followed by, in verse 13, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
[32:41] the unholy trinity, Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet. And unclean evil spirits coming out of them.
[32:54] And verse 14, they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
[33:11] So the drying up of the river Euphrates physically prepares the way. And I think we can take this literal, but this huge river is going to dry up.
[33:22] In fact, that level of water has been going down in later years. And here, God provides or allows demons demons to go and convince the kings of the earth to come.
[33:43] Remember the story on fish hooks, drawing them in? God is using demons to allow or to bring about the armies of the world to gather against Israel.
[33:59] And they're going to cross the Euphrates. peace. And why? Because the Lord is going to make an end at the battle of Armageddon. And they're all going to come together.
[34:17] The Lord is at work. He is orchestrating everything behind the scenes. All things are in His hand and in His power.
[34:29] And as that happens, verse 15 and 16, Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
[34:44] And they gathered them together into the place called in Hebrew Armageddon. And so to the Jewish people especially, who many will be on the earth at this time, blessed, is he who watches and keeps his garments, who is putting his faith in Jesus Christ.
[35:12] When you see these things, blessed are you to be in the Lord. And then the armies are gathered together in the place called Armageddon.
[35:24] And this ushers in the return of Christ, which is the seventh plague. then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven from the throne saying, It is done.
[35:43] And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, and such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth.
[35:58] Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, the judgment on Babylon.
[36:17] Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found, and great hail from heaven fell upon men. such, or each hail stone about the weight of a talent.
[36:31] Men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, since that plague was exceedingly great. And with that, the Lord himself will come down from heaven.
[36:49] That's chapter 19, and Lord willing, we'll go there the next time I speak. week, but this last plague will usher in the Lord's return.
[37:02] All the armies are gathered in Israel, and the Lord will come down and fight against them. By the word of his mouth, by the sword of his mouth, he's going to destroy them.
[37:16] this is a huge plague. Noises, thunderings, lightnings, a great earthquake like never before.
[37:29] Every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. They're leveled. And then hail the weight of a talent.
[37:43] And when I look up a talent, it's between 100 and 110 pounds. Can you imagine ice coming down from heaven?
[38:00] That's two bags of feed from Keddie's. I'm a farmer. A bowling ball is 15 pounds.
[38:12] Okay? Seven bowling balls, weight wise. This roof would be nothing. Those ice chunks would go into the basement.
[38:29] This is a plague by God, like never before. And so it's going to bring about the end of human government, the end of evil.
[38:44] And so with that, I want to take a few moments and just compare the trumpet judgments and the bowl judgments.
[38:56] They both happen in the second half of the tribulation period, and they aren't the same judgments, and yet they resemble each other very much. And so in your bulletins, I hope mostly you have a sheet of paper there.
[39:14] If you want to take that out and just look at that. The first column down is just a summary of the seal judgments of the white horse and the red horse and so on.
[39:26] But I want to look at the second and the third column. one. And the first trumpet was that there was hail and fire mixed with blood that fell on the earth, and one-third of the trees burned, all grass burned.
[39:43] on the bold side, there's a foul and loathsome sore on men with the mark of the beast. Now both of these are judgments on the earth.
[39:58] One is on the physical earth, and the bold judgment on the men and women on the earth. So both to the earth. The second judgments, the second trumpet, a burning mountain, falling into the sea, one-third of the sea turns to blood, one-third of the sea life dies, and one-third of the ships are destroyed.
[40:25] The second trumpet. The second bowl, the sea turns to blood, all of it, as of a dead man, all sea creatures die. So you see, the first, they're both judgments to the earth, the second both to the sea.
[40:43] The third judgments, a star-like torch on one-third of the rivers and the springs, the fresh water. The water turns bitter, many die.
[40:55] In the bold side, the rivers and springs become blood, they're given blood to drink. All fresh water turns to blood. So it sounds like the trumpets introduce and the bold judgments are completion or fullness of it.
[41:15] The fourth one, one-third of the sun is struck, a third of the moon, a third of the stars are struck, they do not shine, one-third of the day and one-third of the night.
[41:26] daylight is cut down by one-third and so is the moonlight. On the bold side, the sun scorches men as God strikes the sun.
[41:42] And so the sun scorches men with fire and heat and they blaspheme God. So it's a deeper aspect of the trumpet judgment where the sun's rays will cause torment.
[42:01] Then the fifth one, we have a plague of demonic locusts tormenting men for five months, those that have the mark of the beast. That's in the trumpet judgments.
[42:13] And on the bold side, we have the kingdom of the beast is darkness. They gnaw their tongues because of their pain and their sores.
[42:25] You see the relationship? There's a upon the demonic side of things. There's the plague, the fifth plague.
[42:36] And then number six, on the trumpet side, four angels by the Euphrates are released. And the army of 200 million kill a third of mankind.
[42:50] On the bold side, the Euphrates dries up, preparing the way for the kings of the east. And then there's the three unclean spirits that entice them to that last battle of Armageddon.
[43:04] So we have a judgment on the Euphrates, or it happens at the Euphrates. And then the last, the seventh trumpet, there's noises, thunderings, lightnings, earthquake, great hail, and then the announcement, the kingdom of this world, the world have become the kingdoms of our Lord.
[43:29] In other words, the end has come. And on the bold side, there was noises, thunderings, lightnings, an earthquake, great hail, the islands and the mountains flee.
[43:44] And so we have very strong similarities, and yet from the text, it sounds like it's still separate judgments, just the bold judgments being a deeper aspect of it and bringing in the very end.
[44:03] And so I personally take the stance, both of them happen in the second half of the tribulation period, the last three and a half years, and the bold judgments at the very end of the last half.
[44:17] And so scripture refers to the second half as the great tribulation. And so that's where the trumpets and the bold judgments will happen.
[44:29] The seal judgments are a picture of the whole seven years, overarching. So Lord willing, I will next time have a timeline, we'll put it up there, displaying this and some more information as well.
[44:47] So that is a summary of the judgment program that is coming to this earth as God will bring it to completion.
[44:58] salvation. And we need to praise the Lord that he is faithful and just and will remove his children.
[45:11] He will take them home. You know, the tribulation saints, maybe they can identify with Paul who said, I'm like one born, how does it say, out of due time.
[45:35] It's like I rejected God. I rejected God and found the grace of God at the end. And I think the tribulation saints who have been rejecting, when they accept, many of them will face martyrdom.
[45:55] But the church God has promised to remove, to allow the axis of evil to reign. So again, as we close, we look at the world around today, and we think, can evil get worse?
[46:15] It can, and it will. Like you mentioned, Donald Trump was shot at yesterday, and they got his ear, but missed the head, and I firmly believe God's hand was in that to protect him.
[46:36] There's a lot of dirty politics like never before, worldwide, with technology interfering and manipulating elections like has never happened before.
[46:53] And so we're living in this, and yet we do not give up hope. We focus on the Lord our God who is in control. And knowing justice is coming.
[47:06] And so I look forward to singing that song of Moses in heaven as chapter 15 describes, because we will be in heaven when that song happens.
[47:22] And so we will be singing with it as we rejoice at God's payment program. So with that, let us keep strong in the Lord.
[47:34] Let's keep walking step by step, day by day, faithful to him who died for us. Let's pray. Amen. Father, we thank you that you have given us prophecy and the scriptures to give us a layout of what's coming.
[47:58] And Lord, it helps us to endure, to know that you will repay all evil.
[48:08] give us strength, Father, by your spirit to endure. And I believe as the church, Father, we're going to face more and more persecution.
[48:23] But Lord, in you we can endure. We thank you for that. May you again lead each life here, each soul, as we go through another week, Lord.
[48:35] May we walk victoriously in your name. We thank you. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.