"Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
2 So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.
4 Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; 6 for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” 7 And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. 9 Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.
10 Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, 11 and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. 13 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; 14 for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) 16 And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon."
Good Morning my beloved,
We welcome you to worship in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is my privilege to have you here with us today. We are especially grateful for those of you who have been sharing the ministry website with all of your family and friends. Your faithfulness and commitment to share God's Word with others continues to bring about tremendous results. People are responding to God's Word! This is all so amazing. We ask you to p ray that God will continue to give us boldness to speak the truth in ministry in the face of adversity in the coming days! Scripture teaches that over the course of God’s redemptive history four ecosystems will exist upon the earth. The first ecosystem was the original creation in the Garden of Eden where everything on the earth was perfect. That is until Adam sinned, and all of mankind was plunged deep into sin and man was cursed by God as well as the earth and everything was altered resulting in what we would call the second ecosystem. However, sin didn't stop there, the metastasizing corruption of sin continued. In fact, we know that it became so severe that God finally destroyed the whole entire world in the
flood, saving only the remaining animals and Noah and his family to
repopulate the earth.
That brings us to the third ecosystem in which we now live. As you can imagine, sin once again reared it's ugly head. Once again, because of sin, God is going to destroy this world system and he will do this through the seal and the trumpet and the bowl judgments, just before the Lord returns to establish His kingdom. God will return the earth back to the wonderful splendor in which it was first created and Christ will reign upon the earth for 1000 years. This is what we commonly call the millennium, meaning a thousand years. This will be the fourth ecosystem.
Peter tells us in II Peter 3, "But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells."
The modern culture has deceived most people, including many Christians into thinking that human beings ultimately control the planet. That it is we are really in control, not God. While it's true that we were commanded to subdue the planet and because we have failed to do so, it is filled with poverty and disease. Greedy politicians and politically motivated pseudo scientists tell us that we
must change our behaviors in order to preserve the planet. Today, we are constantly being told we need to go green.
I believe that this is such a distraction to the Church Rather than preaching the gospel to the lost, many churches have jumped on this environmentalist bandwagon. Believing that if we don’t take care of the planet all of the waters are going to be
polluted and all the trees and the animals and even human beings are
all going to die. There is an international environmental movement "committed to safeguarding the environment for future generations and a fair distribution of wealth globally." At least that's what we are being told. However, upon a closer study, you will find that Socialism and Communism are always the ultimate motivation behind everything they do.
Scripture teaches a much different truth, that all things are in the hands of our Creator, who sovereignly rules over His creation. Global warming is a front for a socialism agenda. In fact, 31,000 scientists worldwide who have signed a this petition to formally register their dissent to this politically motivated hoax, and reject the concept of anthropogenic global warming. Global warning is an evolutionists mindset. The concept that man’s actions can alter the temperature of the earth is one of the greatest hoaxes of our time. The idea than man can ultimately control and prevent the destruction of the earth is literally pride gone wild!
The Bible carries a very powerful message, one radically different than what than politicians are promoting. In fact, it is a blasphemous distortion of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Genesis 8 says "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease."
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for your Word, for Your grace and your love. Lord, we pray that those that we know and love as well as those we don’t who do not know You. Father, my heart is so heavy, burdened with lost, the spiritual deception taking place in Your church. I pray that You would cause them to see the depth of their sin and truly see the love of the Savior. Lord, I ask You to be merciful toward them if they will come to You in repentance and confess their sin. You are the only one who can deliver them from the wrath to come. In Jesus' name I ask and pray
Today's Message: Seven Bowls
Open with me your Bibles to Revelation chapter sixteen. Revelation chapter 16. I know in our study of this marvelous book you have endured a tremendous amount of judgment preaching.I thank you for having been faithful, chapter after chapter. And, even through all of the bad news, you're still here. Of all the passages I've preached on and so enjoy doing so, I must confess, this is not one of them.
In fact, as I was studying these verses for our message today, about the seven bowls of wrath, the last judgments, and thinking about those I know who are not saved, as well as those who claim Christ, living an ungodly life, my heart began to feel the burden of the souls as tears streamed down my face in sheer terror. These verses rip my heart in two. In that moment, I wished that I could just simply pass over this portion of God's Word and move on to something more joyful.
However, I am bound by my calling to preach the whole counsel of God and preach it as though those whom I dearly love souls depend upon it. Because they do. So, I will preach to awaken the lost of their spiritual condition and to the redeemed, reminding them of the necessity of sharing the gospel with the lost, to fulfill the Great Commission. And pray for our Lord to bless the results.
In order to understand love, we must understand hate. God cannot love righteousness unless He hates sin. He cannot reward goodness, unless He punishes evil. So, while the Bible is a book of love, encouragement and great hope, it is also a book of judgement, condemnation and damnation. For centuries, God has been pronouncing judgment on His people, those who reject Him. Many Christians today would us believe that the God of the Old Testament was a God of judgement. And, the New Testament God, is the God of grace, mercy and love. However, Jesus preached more about hell and damnation than anyone else. There is plenty of fierce and fiery judgement in the new Testament, most of which comes directly from the lips of Jesus Christ Himself.
The writer of Hebrews warned in chapter 10, that there will be no escape for those who reject the gospel when the judgment comes. " For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Now, as we come to chapter 16, which immediately precedes the return of Christ, sin, unrighteousness, blasphemy, rejection will finally be removed from the earth. Keep in mind, while Revelation does have a chronological flow, not everything is chronological. Chapters 17 and 18, go back over the Tribulation from different viewpoint. The world will finally see that the sovereign God is in control of His creation. I must warn you, these are very severe judgments and they are as good an indication as found anywhere in Scripture of how God feels about sin and rejection of His Son, Jesus Christ.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read to you the first sixteen verses, to set the text in our minds. May I remind you that this judgement occurs because man continues to think that it is ok to kill unborn infants, that it's ok to commit every perversion of sexual immorality, because the world believes that we all worship the same God regardless of His name. And, that God would never judge anyone or send anyone to hell, because, after all, He is a God of love.I want you to understand, that because the increasing madness of the world is going to continue, it defiantly and rebelliously marches toward a day of divine judgment. This all occurs because of sin.
"Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to 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 it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.
The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.
Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”
The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.
Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds.
The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared 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 spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon."
Verse 1, "Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God."
God has set a boundary to evil men and nations, and this is it!The God Who has always shown mercy and forgiveness, is now the God of judgement and wrath. This is the great voice of God himself Who is now preparing to take vengeance upon the world. I’m always kind of amazed about how people will struggle to attempt to explain these in some sort of natural way. You really can't do that, these are not natural. It's supernatural.
As we come to these last seven plagues, they are so heinous it exceeds our ability to comprehend them. They involve ulcerous sores on men called loathsome and malignant, it's interesting that both Hebrew and Greek refer to these sores as an inflamed boil, one that oozes infection and causes enormous pain. All the sea turned into blood, and every living thing in the sea died.All the rivers and waters turned into blood, the sun becoming scorching hot, and m en were scorched with fierce heat. The whole world becoming dark,
men gnawed their tongues because of pain. The Euphrates drying up and the pollution of the air and the accompanying terrors in nature, the thunder, the greatest earthquake in the history of the world, lightning and hail.
Verse 2, the first angel does what he is told to do. "So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image."
These bowls are flat open saucers, and when you turn them, everything jump dumps out. So when the judgements are poured out, they just hit all at once. The world is going to experience these oozing unbelievably painful sores are all over the body. Notice John says " who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image." These painful, cancer like sores will cover the bodies of the Christ rejecters. They have rejected all the warnings of the 144,00, the two witnesses, the flying eagle, Still, they chose to worship the Antichrist rather than Christ.
In verse 3, the precious mother earth worshipers will become enraged as the oceans is turned into a toxic, putrid cesspool of death and all of the marine life dies. This is like the plague that fell on Egypt in Exodus chapter 7. From time to time, the red tide kills millions of fish. It poisons those who eat contaminated shell fish, even the bait used by fisherman dies on the hooks. In 1949 one of these red tides hit the coast of Florida. Pretty much marine life was wiped out. Red tide is a high concentration of Karenia brevis, a microscopic marine algae that occurs naturally.
First the water turned yellow, but by midsummer it was thick and viscous with countless billions of dinoflagellates, tiny one celled organisms, 60 mile windrows of stinking fish fouled the beaches. This is a testimony to the wickedness and depravity of man. This will reveal not only the guilt of the wicked in shedding innocent blood, but also the spiritual decay that is indicative of religious hypocrisy.
In verse 4, we see the third bowl poured out. " Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood."
This will eliminate the water supply of the entire planet. This will be even more catastrophic given the earlier conditions brought upon the world by the two witnesses. This will not only be a time of unbelievable drought and now to compound that even further, you have this, all the fresh water is turned into blood. Throughout the history of mankind, Satan has blinded men to the truth of the gospel. He has deceived the world, convincing people that they are basically good, so they have rejected the doctrine of the atonement. There is no doubt that people across the world will be cursing God and blaspheming God and shaking their fist at Him in anger. M an’s pride is so powerful that even in the midst of judgment they will cry out, "We don't deserve this!"
In verses 5 through 7, the angel speaks to the defense of God. " And I heard the angel of the waters saying, “Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things; for they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments."
Beloved, God's judgement is right, it is just. And, as terrifying and deadly as it is, it is deserved. The unbelievable audacity of man to indict a righteous and holy, merciful God with the charge of unfairness, is reprehensible. It’s not as if a sinful and rebellious people didn’t have an opportunity to turn to God. Yet, they have mercilessly killed the believers and killed the preachers. And, they’ve done it through this whole period of time. They deserve it! They’re sinners who have gone on sinning willfully, after having received the truth. They should have expected they would receive the punishment.
Then, in verses 8 and 9 the judgement intensifies, "The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory."
Here, the Lord is giving these hell-bound sinners a taste of hell. Previously, t he sun has always been a source of light, warmth, energy for the world. Now, it become deadly. It's as if God is saying "You think you've seen global warming? This is global warming!" The intense heat of the sun, will melt the polar ice caps and cause the level of the toxic oceans to rise. Recently, I was reading a scientific study of the sun that indicated that the sun at its center is filled with helium and if it were to expand, it could incinerate the earth as it would cause an expanding of the sun’s hydrogen gas. Now, the Lord is going to ignite the earth with burning heat in an unbelievable way. It is almost as if the corruption is pursuing those that have gone further inland. This will certainly be something the world has never before experienced. It will absolutely terrifying! And still, they do not repent. This is utterly astonishing to me. Instead, they blaspheme God. Look at verses 10 and 11, "Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened; and they gnawed their tongues because of pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds." Because the kingdom of the Antichrist will be worldwide, this darkness will encompass the entire world. The entire human system called Babylon is now engulfed in darkness. This is what the prophet Isaiah spoke about in Chapter 13, "Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it." And, Joel 2 also looks at this day and says "A day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, nor will there be again after it to the years of many generations." In Mark 13, Jesus said "In those days the sun will be dark and the moon will not give its
light. The stars will be falling from heaven and the powers that are in
the heavens shall be shaken." The world is literally engulfed with evil and demonic deception. These Antichrist worshipers are aggressively at war with the Triune God. They have literally rejected every opportunity to repent. Verse 11 says "and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores; and they did not repent of their deeds." By the way, that is the last reference to their unwillingness to repent. Now, their fate is set. These first five plagues were sent by God to bring them to repentance. Yet, they refused. This is absolutely unthinkable to me, they’ve heard it and seen it all and remain rebellious. Their refusal to fear God and give him glory now seals them eternally to hell. This is a graphic picture of the most intense and excruciating agony and pain, and a pain that cannot be alleviated. Can you even begin to imagine? Men are covered plagued with oozing, painful ulcerous sores, all of the oceans, the salt water and the fresh water is nothing more than a toxic, rancid pool of death.The entire earth is scorched by intense heat that has produced massive flooding. Pipelines and railroads and industrial faculties will all collapse. Fires will break out and there will be no water to extinguish them. There will be no communication, because of the intense heat of the sun will destroy the satellites. There's no electricity because the power grids will be destroyed. And, the time for grace. mercy and forgiveness is past.
Still, the worst is yet to come! That brings us to verse 12, "The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east." The Euphrates River will be different than we know it today. Because of the incredible intense heat of the sun in the fourth bowl, the snow
filled peaks of Mount Ararat, which is the source of the Euphrates, have
all melted, producing massive flooding along the Euphrates basin,
preventing the only passageway for the kings of the east to join forces
with the antichrist to do battle with God and his people at Armageddon. Whatever access there is across that river now, it will be useless. God will go forth and defend his covenant people Israel and he will lay
another trap for the enemies of Israel by drying up the Euphrates
River. Because of this it’s going to be very difficult for them to have access to Palestine. The Great Euphrates plays a very important role in God’s land promised to the people of Israel. The land that God gave to Israel went from the sea, the Mediterranean,
all the way to the Euphrates River and would encompass what today is
Arab territory. The Euphrates was the eastern boundary. Notice the verse says "water was dried up, so that," God dries up the Euphrates River so these kings from the great empires,
India, China, Japan, whatever great empires will be at that time, can
come to Palestine. At first, they will look upon this as a good thing. But just as the parting of the Red Sea, it's a deadly trap. They are literally coming to be executed. The kings of the great empires, India, China, Japan or whoever the great empires will be in that time, can come to Palestine. They will be like sheep being led to the slaughter. They are coming for one final act of antisemitism to destroy to Israel. I'd like you to keep in mind, during this time that the military forces of the world will be limited to ground maneuvers only. Navigation by plane or the ocean is out of the question, which will eliminate air strikes and missile strikes. Because all the satellites are out, there's no communication. So, God provides the way by land. He dries up the Euphrates. Look at first Kings 22, "The Lord said, ‘Who will entice Ahab to go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ And one said this while another said that. Then a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him." Now, back to verses 13 and 14, "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 spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty." This sounds like something in a horror movie. John sees a vision of the unholy trinity of Satan, Antichrist, and the false prophet These three frog like demons emerge from the mouths of the unholy trinity, from each member. This is emblematic of speech. These aren’t real frogs, these are demons, seducing spirits, spreading lies and deception. This will be some scheme, some kind of deceptive lie that will come out of their mouths that
will irresistibly compel the forces of the countries of Asia to join in with the Antichrist. Bear in mind that the Temple Mount, this most disputed piece of real estate
in all of the earth. It is the place where Satan has currently staked out
his claim. This is a very effective deception which results in the world coming to the land of Israel to a war against God. By virtue of their signs and wonders and great power, convinced these
armies and these kings and generals all over the globe that there’s
enough power in their favor to take God down.
Now, this is interesting isn't it, according to Micah chapter 4, "And now many nations have been assembled against you who say, ‘Let her be polluted, and let our eyes gloat over Zion.’ "But they do not know the thoughts of the Lord, and they do not understand His purpose; For He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor. "Arise and thresh, daughter of Zion, for your horn I will make iron and your hoofs I will make bronze, that you may pulverize many peoples, that you may devote to the Lord their unjust gain and their wealth to the Lord of all the earth." Look at verse 15 "(“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”)" This is an interlude, a word from heaven. I believe this is a respite to give promise and hope to the saints. However, it could also be a gracious warning. This same kind of imagery of our Lord coming like a thief in the gospels. This is one of seven beatitudes in the book of Revelation. "Blessed is
the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes, so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame." I believe this is God's way of saying "Hang in there. It won't be long now, so be ready." Joel in chapters 2 and 3 talks about gathering all the nations together and then destroying them. In Daniel 11, he described the climax of these events. The Apostle Paul spoke about this in I Thessalonians 5, "For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night." I remember hearing a story sometime ago, about a man who was staying in a hotel when the earthquake hit. He was completely unclothed and in the panic ran into the lobby. To his immense shame, everyone noticed his nakedness. He was in such a panic that he failed to cover himself in whatever was available. So make sure you’re dressed, because you do not know the hour the Lord will come! That brings us to verse 16, and we will stop here until next time. "And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon." This is the place just about sixty miles north of Jerusalem, up the valley, the Jordan Valley is a mount called Mount Megiddo. At the foot of that mount to the west is the plain of Megiddo. And to northeast is what is known as the Plain of Esdraelon, this is a massive plain and it has been throughout the history of the land of Israel a battlefield. Napoleon called it the greatest battlefield he had ever seen. In the book of Judges, Barak fought the Canaanites there, Gideon fought there. Both Saul and Josiah’s deaths occurred there. This is a place of some astounding wars, and this is where all the forces of the Antichrist are going to gather, to do battle with the Lord. We know this will be the shortest war in history. We already know how it ends. It ends in a frightening bloodbath by the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we can certainly see the events which are unfolding, events I believe is in preparation for the Great Tribulation, financially, ecologically, politically, militarily, spiritually, morally and a host of other ways. Christ's return is imminent, it's drawing nearer every day. As Christians, I believe this motivate us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, so that we might be fully clothed with His life and glorious character. If you have not yet accepted Christ as both Lord and Savior, I strongly encourage you to do so today, while there's still time. This will be an unprecedented time to torment and judgement, unlike anything the world has ever seen before or will see again. Unless you repent of your sins and trust Christ as Savior, what we have just read and studied, and far worse will be your fate, not for a time, but for eternity. I beg you, do not let you heart become hardened to the point where God judicially seals you in your unbelief. If you have recently come to Christ, and received Him in your life, please write and let us know. We'd love to hear from you and include you in our prayers May God richly bless you. May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
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