is it on time okay thanks good morning well there were no yeah right we're gonna find out you're gonna say there are no college football games yesterday so you know not much new not much new no we're gonna stay here no we're not or are there any guests here this morning that you'd like to introduce no guess we just have the the peanut gallery back there that's okay no guess this morning okay good well not good but that just short that just you know we'll move on is what that means to begin this morning I think I'll read the first several verses of chapter 15 we'll go back and just kind of finish up where we left off last week at the end of chapter 14 but for our reading this morning I'll read from chapter 15 and hopefully we will get even through 15 and into if not finished with 16 at least at least quite a ways into 16 today so let's hear God's word in Revelation chapter 15 then I saw another portant in heaven great and wonderful seven angels with seven plagues which are the last for with them the wrath of God is ended and I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire and those who had conquered the beast and its image and a number of its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands and they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb saying great and wonderful are thy deeds oh Lord God the Almighty just and true are thy ways oh King of the ages who shall not fear and glorify thy name O Lord for thou alone art holy all nations shall come and worship thee for thy judgments have been revealed let's pray who indeed O Lord shall not fear and glorify thy name for you alone O Lord our holy for you will be worshipped and all nations shall come and worship you and your judgments have been revealed Lord we pray that we could imitate to some extent and from the heart the cry of praise on the part of these redeemed that we too would be overcome with awe at the greatness and the wonder of your deeds at the justice and the truth and faithfulness of your ways Lord we confess that we are often blinded by the glitter of this world so that our eyes hardly recognize your great and glorious deeds even in our own lives we tend to forget what you have done which has been marvelous Lord we pray that our hearts might be better able to comprehend and to contemplate the greatness of your wonderful works O Lord release us we pray from the lures of this world cause us to see more with your eyes and to value things the way you value them we thank you for this book again this morning and we confess once again that we only understand a little bit of it we pray that you would increase that understanding and as you increase the understanding increase increase we pray our worship of you may this book have its work in our lives by your spirit to the glory of Christ our Lord in his name we pray okay we read the beginning of chapter 15 last time we didn't quite finish with the end of chapter 14 if you'll recall we we made it pretty much through 14 we saw that in chapter 14 after the initial five verses which which we suggested is a picture of though it says the well it says the 144,000 on Mount Zion with the Lamb we suggested that that is a picture of the heavenly Mount Zion even now in this age it's it's an idealize it's a perfect picture of what's going on at least one aspect of what's going on in heaven with the saints and not in other words a future a picture of what will happen on the earth someday but what's going on in heaven then in the rest of chapter 14 we had a series of things John sees three angels that give three different proclamations he hears voices in heaven other voices in heaven and then he sees this this dual picture of a great harvest scene at the end of the chapter remember that we noticed that there were there actually two you know call it a dual harvest two aspects the first is apparently a harvest of grain that's the image when the one like a son of man I think is another picture of Christ swings his sickle on the earth and the earth is harvested we're not really told what happens to the harvest that he reaps I would connect it with other biblical images of harvest in which the the saints are said to be harvested at the end of the age you can think of a number of Jesus parables where he talks about the grain growing in the wheat and the tears and so forth we noticed that harvest is a fairly common biblical metaphor for judgment then the last scene of chapter 14 another harvest scene but this one's different how anybody remember it is grapes right it's not a apparently harvest of grain but of grapes and this this one there's a little bit more detail in this description and this I think has to be a picture of the judgment of the wicked there are a number of reasons for that one the main one is that we are told that the vintage of the earth in verse 19 was thrown into the great wine press of the wrath of God great wine press of the wrath of God well this looks like a picture then of the judgment of the wicked and the wine press was trodden outside the city the blood flowed from the wine press as high as the horses bridle for one thousand six hundred stadia okay and that's about where we left off last time the wine press of God's wrath is trodden outside the city it says and the blood now notice there this interchange he's only he's been talking about grapes grapes are thrown into the wine that but what flows blood flows okay well that tells you were we've got a metaphor here okay it's a metaphor now you know grapes grape juice wine and blood okay we're already familiar with that kind of metaphorical switch aren't we the most prominent in the churches of course the Lord's Supper the wine of the Lord's Supper standing for the blood of Christ but it's it's not infrequent elsewhere in scripture as well you you'll have once in a while in the prophets or in a place like Deuteronomy 32 14 the the the great juice itself is even called the blood of the great there's this obvious physical resemblance right between great juice of red grapes anyway and and blood and we find this this picked up on throughout scripture in a number of ways well here we told that the blood flows from the wine press and it's it's a it's a very horrifying scene to think of this much blood anybody having idea how long the distance is hundred and six or one thousand six hundred stadia very good Jim our expert on ancient measurements over there yeah it's around a hundred eighty four miles or so now some any ideas of why why this number why this distance Jim well some some people have pointed out that it's roughly the length of the land of Israel and the Palestine you know about two hundred miles or so that could be that could be although you wonder if if the original readers would have known that but you know this this is a very graphic image obviously how do we take this do we try to take this literally as we've noticed all the way through the book there are so many aspects of it that just seem to defy taking literally and I want you to know that even one of the best known literalist interpreters John Walward says quote it seems quite impossible that the blood will flow in depth as high as the horses' bridles and it is better to understand this simply as a liberal spattering of blood spattering a spattering of blood sprinkling spattering sprinkling not immersion sprinkling or pouring Jim well yeah I think you're on the right track that is that it it just suggests an overwhelming distance and an unreal surreal sort of distance to imagine and I would agree with Professor Walward here agree that this this is not Carol's jaw is dropping that it's it's very difficult to take take this literally now I would have to say that a little bit later on Professor Walward does say that there is really no serious problem here in taking the distance literally the distance we've just been talking about depicting possibly he says various phases of the battle taking place in great in the great tribulation in the climax of Christ's victory so his idea is that maybe throughout Palestine battles are taking place so that you could say that there was you know this hundred forty or hundred four mile distance of blood flowing well okay that that might be but that's that's just have a notice that's not very literal from what the image is here but I was quoting Walward but you can you can talk about the great tribulation if you want are we there yet yes because I would identify the great tribulation again as as one of the images that characterizes or depicts the whole time of the church from the first of the second coming and that that doesn't rule out that there would that there could be and I think there will be great intensification of that just before Christ comes and doesn't rule out the fact that at some times in history there will be lulls in persecution times of peace and other times there will be there will be times of intense persecution well chapter 13 yeah you were way that they we'll get to that again in chapter 17 but that was already introduced chapter 13 and even chapter 11 yeah so we'll have another opportunity to talk about that and the Antichrist the beast and the false prophet in fact the beast and the false prophet come up again in chapter 16 that I hope we might get to well now others have well you just keep in mind I think that this is a symbolic vision it's it's it's symbolism it's it's symbolic of something that is and must be very gruesome very horrible you you don't want to be there on that day you don't want to be part of the vintage of God's wrath but just exactly how it will look in history that's something that I'm I'm very unsure about and I think we should be very tentative for we make any kind of pronouncements on that we get the picture and the picture is of a very gruesome scene almost beyond beyond conception some people have have noted the number you know 1600 and said that's that's symbolic in itself that would be four squared times 10 squared four being a sort of a number that's associated with the earth many times you know the four corners of the earth the four winds often the earth of the universe is conceptualized in revelation as you know heaven earth the sea and the fountains of water sort of a fourfold description so four could more or less stand for the earth and ten is a complete number and ten squared so it's four squared times ten squared so some people have seen the significance there I'm not sure about that that may be part of what's going a part of why that particular number is used okay but at any rate it is it's a gruesome picture of the destruction of God's enemies right good yeah we pointed to that last week the Isaiah 63 2 and 3 in particular which is another a very graphic use of this kind of wine treading imagery and there's a question who is this that comes from Bosnia with his garments red with blood and the Lord says you know it is it is I I have I look for someone to save and no one was there so I use my own right arm to save and I tread it tread it down the wine the the vintage of the earth and so forth so it's it's used it's used in the old testament profits as well there's one other passage if you want to look at that Joel 313 which talks about again putting in the sickle and and reaping the earth go in and tread for the wine presses full the vats overflow for their wickedness is great just another time when that same image is used and again it's not literal it's an image yes yeah the cup of the cup that Jesus said that prayed would pass from him yeah I'm not sure if their word wrath is used there but it seems like it's a similar concept of the bitter will of God judgment will of God well good that's that's that's a that's a great parallel isn't it that you think and sometimes the scripture God's wrath is conceived of as as a cup cup of of his bitter judgment and so and so somebody will have to drink that cup and Jesus drank that cup for us but there will be others who will have to drink that cup you know for for whom he did not drink that cup going back to verse 10 and chapter 14 and this is talking about if anyone worships the beast in his image he also also also shall drink the wine of God's wrath poured on mixed into the cup of his anger and we noted then that even there's even an ironic parallel with a few verses before that remember when verse eight says fallen fallen is babble on the great she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion I think even the context there's there's this bitter poetic justice that those who have drunk the wine of babble on's fornication will drink the wine of God's wrath and then you can tie in also that Jesus drank the cup of his wrath for us yeah that's that's very neat John you want to kind of save questions about the if I could so save them up John okay good can dipped in blood yeah yeah that's that's good in fact there's maybe even a there's a tie in here in this passage we're not told who treads out the vat right but in chapter 19 verse 15 we read about Christ returning verse 13 he is he is clad in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he's called as the word of God and the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen white and pure followed him on white horses from his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty so yeah that's that's good can there's another instance of this imagery and here it's specifically Christ the returning Christ who treads out the wine press of God's wrath and it says his his raiment is stained with blood right Ed really did you just figure that up wow because there's a rough approximation wow I was that thought occurred that question occurred to me as I was preparing and I did not have the mathematical wear with all but that so how many people yeah four feet deep four feet wide and 200 miles long to 20 million people yeah so that well again I think that every drop of blood every drop of blood that's ringing him out pretty good as John says so and maybe more if if you don't again emphasizing I think that this is this it's not to be taken literally John yeah just in passing is somebody else you want to say about that yeah right Isaiah 63 passage in the the Joel three passage both probably important Old Testament backgrounds for this well okay I think we'll go on to chapter 15 but chapter 15 where we see the bowls the seven bowls we have we've been in a section that I've called an interlude for lack of a better term we've we've seen series of sevens we've seen seven seals broken on the book in chapter chapter six and then we've seen a kind of an interlude and then chapter chapter eight began a series another series of seven that was a seven trumpets seven trumpets and then we had another interlude at the end of the seven trumpets that started in chapter 12 and ends of chapter in chapter 14 we come to chapter 15 where there is one more series of sevens and again it has to do with with judgments every time one of the seven things happens John sees a particular judgment this is going to be the judgment of the bowls but just to remind ourselves again what we've seen at the end of chapter 14 appears to be another picture of the last judgment it's another picture of the return of Christ again depicted in very graphic metaphorical terms but it seems to be a picture of the second coming so now what's going to happen in chapter 15 is chapter 15 does it follow sequentially some of these things are after the second coming or not well no I don't think so I don't think that that's what's going on here I think we since we've come to the end we've come to the end of the age the end of chapter 14 we've seen this before happily we're going to go back in time it looks like to some point before the second coming and we're going to see once again a depiction of things that lead up to the second coming now what was that word that we had for this you guys are better than I thought recapitulation right nothing magical about that word but it it's just it's been used by interpreters to the note what what we're seeing here that that often the book of Revelation we come to the end and then we recapitulate that means go go back again and see essentially the same period some of the same events from a different standpoint okay so we're at the beginning of chapter 15 John says he sees another portant or sign in heaven great and wonderful just a sort of thematic note or literary note John had noted other portants or signs in heaven we use this actual the same word before but that was at the beginning of chapter 12 where we said was the beginning of this this interlude section the use of the term here sort of brings our mind back to chapter 12 where there the signs he saw were the woman in heaven clothes with the sun and the dragon that was ready to devour her child when she gave birth in other words this this sort of marks the section off chapters 12 to 4 to 15 as a section that has a certain coherence and unity now we're ready in a sense to move on to another section this particular portant or sign in heaven is the sign of seven angels with seven plagues which are the last for with them the wrath of God is ended now what we're going to see here is that even though he introduces the angels in verse one he's not actually going to describe what happens with them until verse well until chapter 16 so the rest of chapter 15 fairly short chapter is taken up with something else this is not that unusual for John to do that is to introduce something then to get off of that subject and come back to it some scholars will call this an interlocking procedure where something is tied in and it ties in another way after you skip you skip it for a while well that's what's going on here but merely from this description of the seven angels and the seven bulls
we're given a hint I think as to the nature when he says that with the with them the wrath of God is ended with them the wrath of God is ended now I think what that means is that we should be prepared to think that once again this series is going to bring us up to the last judgment if these are if these end the wrath of God bring to a completion or a consummation then it would seem that this has to bring us to the final expenditure that's the right word of God's wrath on the wicked in other words right from there it makes it hard to believe that these judgments would only bring us to a sort of well stage one judgment and then after that would follow another which would be the case with a pre-millennial view that would say these judgments bring us up to the time of the return of Christ then there will be a millennium and then after the millennium God will judge with his wrath again you know another another great show God's wrath to say that with these the wrath of God is ended would seem to mean that when these are fulfilled you have the final expression of God's wrath even though it's eternal you see my point there if that's lost on you then don't worry too much we'll talk a lot more about the millennium and coming weeks but just from from that point it seems as though this is an indication that when you get to the end of these bowls of wrath this is the last judgment there's not going to be another you know judgment after a thousand years but this is this is it
if yeah well I don't know how I don't know it's very literal but that's a fair question in that you you always have to ask what is symbolic here and what isn't that's a fair question and could last be used in a symbolic way such that and within the wrath of God is ended such that you could conceive of another great outpouring of God's wrath after that so I think it's okay to ask that I'm not sure how this would be symbolic in such a way that you could conceive of another great outpouring of God's wrath in fact the greatest which would be the last judgment after the millennium so Bob
well it may it may initiate that or that they they initiate the eternal expression of God's wrath
well not necessarily with the first one but I think with with the end of them by the time we get to the end of them yeah that that's that's what I would suggest how how we look at that by the end of the seven bowls we're looking at the final outpouring of God's wrath even though that outpouring as we've seen before last week is an eternal thing okay this is what John then how he summarizes what he's about to see verse one but then in verse two he says he sees something else he sees what appeared to be a sea of glass mingle with fire and those who had conquered the beast in its image and the number its name standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands and they sing the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb now this mention then of those who had conquered the beast now this is this is a very important image these have conquered the beast elsewhere we're told in a I think a different sense of the word conquered but that the the beast will conquer them the beast will conquer the two witnesses in chapter 11 but here we're told that these people have conquered him and I think this means that they have conquered through what how are they conquered what has what has it cost them their lives they've overcome him by chapter 12 verse 11 the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death and this why I think also going way back to the seven letters to the seven churches where at the end of each letter you have this this refrain right to him who conquers I will give such and such and I think even back then the word conquer refers to the saint's death how do you ultimately conquer there in the letters we're not told who the conquest is of that comes later in the book chapters 11 12 13 14 15 and I think it's it's conquering the beast conquering the dragon and this is how this is how ultimately we conquer with our blood with with our life's blood with our death and we've made the point at various times that even though even though martyrdom is the sort of quintessential picture of Christian death I believe that covers not only literal martyrs but everybody who lives and dies for Christ whether you die in martyrdom you die in your sleep or whatever it is remember it's it's it's the dragon's aim to get us to blaspheme God to get us to deny Christ and if you die in faithfulness you win he doesn't you conquer so when it says that they have conquered the beast and and again this goes back to our interpretation of the beast how do we look at the beast is the beast only going to be something or someone that's around during the last seven years of world history or can you say or is the beast something that came and went in the first century to different schools of thought or is the beast something that could be around is around the whole time between Christ's first and second coming may or may not be around in a particularly malevolent form but is still around and potentially always potentially malevolent okay well it's it's the last it's that approach that I've suggested that we take a lot of our friends of course take the first view that this only someone who is around the last seven years of history if that's the case then these that John sees in this vision are our only martyrs that were martyred during the last seven years of history so that's the object of what John is seeing he's just seeing the martyrs who are killed by the antichrist in that last phase so I just keep that in mind as that's possible that's an approach a lot of people take I think it's more consistent with the whole revelation to take it another way that he's seeing everyone who is conquered to be so that would be all Christians throughout Christian history and by implication even Old Testament saints but particularly during during the New Testament era otherwise I'm not sure why these would be singled out for this this kind of blessing and not not the rest but Andy yeah I would say that and I think we get a hint of that in chapter 17 where we have the many heads of the beast you know the beast is going to be shown as having seven heads and even an eighth and I would even it'd encourage us not to think that they're only seven I mean there may be seven in particular but not only seven just like they're not only seven churches in Asia Minor there were many more but I think that's maybe a hint that the beast is a multi-form entity
okay well with that in mind then he sees these who had conquered the beast standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hand the sea of glass does that ring any bells sea of glass before the throne right right back in chapter four in the first part of this second major vision where John has taken it to heaven and chapter four for six and before the throne there is as it were a sea of glass like crystal and when we were back in chapter four we'd come in on this a little bit we noticed that even in some Old Testament expressions of a prophet or Moses being in the presence of God there is some reference to something like this something like a sea or firmament of blue this is a Mount Sinai it's it's found in other plate in Ezekiel so what this shows us again I think it's a it's an indication that this is a scene in heaven this is a scene before the throne where again these are these are deceased Christians I think we've seen another indication a little bit later when the angels are given bowls and we're told who is it that gives them the bowls well verse seven thank you one of the four living creatures given their bowls again the four living creatures that takes us back to that initial part of the vision in chapter four four living creatures that surround the throne of God so I think still it just establishes that these this is a scene in heaven and we're told that they sing the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb now interpreters with the song of Moses go back to Exodus 15 which you might recall there was a song that is that Moses taught Israel the sing right after they had crossed the red sea so it was a song of God's redemption now it's it's not that it's not so that song is repeated here if you go back and compare them you'll find some themes that are similar but it's not that it's repeated here there's also another song that Moses taught Israel at the end of his life Deuteronomy chapter 32 just before Israel crossed into the promised land and there you'll see also some of the some of the same themes though it's not literal repetition the song of the Lamb well I don't know exactly what that has been in Revelation chapter 5 we had something that might qualify there in chapter 5 we had the 24 elders in the four living creatures falling down before the Lamb and singing and saying worthy art thou to take the scroll and open its seals for thou was slain and but did by thy blood ran some men for God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation has made them a kingdom of priests to our God and they shall reign on earth so there's another indication of praise to the Lamb for his redemption
I think we can relate that to this section in chapter 15 the content of the praise is interesting it almost is something that we might skip wonderful a great and wonderful are thy deeds with a praise and God for his deeds but in the context I think it's I think it's pretty interesting these are the redeemed now before we've we've heard of the four living creatures we've heard of the 24 elders we've heard of unnamed multitudes crying out in heaven but I don't know that we've had specifically a reference to the redeemed in heaven crying out saying something praising God well here is one and the praising sounds a lot like many of Israel's Psalms to God and when we get to verse 4 we have this rhetorical question who shall not fear and glorify thy name oh Lord well of course the answer should be well nobody right nobody will not that is everyone will fear and glorify God's name but when we go through chapter 16 and see the the judgments of the bulls we're going to see something well kind of striking I think in that we're going to see some people who don't do this who don't fear God and glorify his name so in the in the context there is a there's a point certain pointedness to it you would think that oh well of course the answer is everybody will but we're going to see that some will not and that in fact I think we want a point of that we'll see coming out of the bull judgments one of the things that's praised is God's ways and the martyrs are praising God for his ways yeah that were suffered you know for their testimony he has to wonder why why is God in this heaven what's going on here why are we going through this interesting that on the other side we're praising God for you know basically what he said good yeah that's that's an excellent point earlier we've we've heard I guess I have to revise why I said a moment ago because we heard the martyrs under the under the altar in chapter 6 and they were saying how long Lord faithful and true until you avenge our blood and hear their praising God for his deeds which would have to include you know his allowing the beast to conquer to to kill them even though they conquer it also I think we'll apply to his his just judgments of the wicked which we'll see later on
all right the rest of chapter 15 then is a scene in which John sees the temple in heaven opened once again all the way through revelation to this point I think the temple that's spoken of is the temple in heaven the temple is open and out of the temple come the seven angels with the seven plagues robed in pure bright linen and their breasts girded with golden girdles that really is that depicts the the clothing of priests in the Old Testament so these angels are are depicted as priestly ministers and one of the four living creatures gave 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 could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were ended another indication I think that this is obviously symbolic can you picture the wrath of God being put into bowls if you can you have a better imagination than me I think that is another indication this is symbolic it's got to be symbolic of something but it's it's a symbolic picture he can see the wrath of God being poured out of bowls now bowls you want to ask why bowls what's the significance of bowls well we saw with the trumpets that despite maybe what you might be your first conception trumpets in that context go back to to ancient Israel and the temple worship trumpets were used customarily they were blown by priests and they had to do usually with the temple service the same thing really with bowls these are vials or bowls that would have been used in the in the sacrificial system either to pour out blood the blood of a sacrificial victim on the altar or perhaps in a in the case of a drink offering a wine offering to pour out wine as as part of a sacrifice to God so these again are temple vessels emphasizing again the connectedness of these judgment to the actual temple worship in heaven again I think that's a very striking aspect of revelation not just that God will judge but this is connected with the heavenly temple and its administrations very striking thing to think about chapter 16 then John here's the loud voice from the temple telling the angels go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God as we as we look at these and the first couple at least are described very briefly not much time really given to them you do have the interpretive question are these to be considered what happens just before the end just before Christ returns or do they also like we suggested with the trumpets and the first of the seals do they have to do with judgements that take place throughout history are the pictures of that I think this is a bit more of an open question here than with the trumpets and the seals and one of the reasons for that you remember I suggested that they are talking about the whole Christian age and we should look at them as symbolic depictions of the way God judges throughout history but in the trumpets at least there was often this limitation you know a third of the sun was darkened a third of people on earth were killed so forth here there are no limitations like that so the suggestion could be that this is the end these are not just preparatory these are not just what's happening throughout history God judging a partial way but this finally brings the end to pass so there is some reason for thinking that these could be the final intensification of God's judgments on the earth right before the coming of Christ other interpreters I respect a lot would say no look at these as well in the same light as the trumpets they're ongoing they're throughout Christian history but I'm a little more willing to leave that kind of an open question with the first bowl now the first bowl is poured out on the earth foul and evil sores came upon them in who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image sores on the beast worshippers now if you if you compare the bowl judgments to the trumpet judgments you'll see a lot of parallels and that may strengthen the case we're seeing these as throughout history but I wouldn't rule out the other view as well I think the the first trumpet we had hail and fire and blood on the earth we see the same sort of pattern earth and then sea and then the the inland waters springs of waters founds and then the heavens or the sun the moon same pattern here with the bowls with a second angel pouring his bowl he pours it on to the sea and it becomes like the blood of a dead man and every living creature that died was in the sea well we talked about the 20 million or so that would have to die to fill a canal 184 miles long what about a sea full of blood well maybe it's just meaning sea like blood maybe it's not real blood but in any case it is a stark and horrifying vision everything in the sea dies with a third angel in verse four he pours his bowl onto the rivers and the fountains of water and they became they became blood well that it seems even again more serious than the 184 mile canal if that's what it is and he hears an angel of the angel of water say just art out in these digestments now who are art and was oh holy one for men have shed the blood of saints and prophets and now has given them blood to drink it is their due again we see a sort of poetic justice with the judgment of the wicked they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and God has given them blood to drink is their due and then not only do we hear from the angel of water but in verse seven John hears the altar cry now you could take this as a personification of the altar or what I think is more probable back in chapter six we had the souls of those who had been slain under the altar I think it makes more sense to think of them being the voice here at the altar but that voice cries ye Lord God the Almighty true and just are thy judgments and in other words the saints are also agreeing and praising God for the justice of his judgments I remember in college one of my best friends told me once I said Chuck I can never become a Christian now where did that come from can never become a Christian he said because of the book of revelation so what do you mean says well all the all the the blood and the fire and the judgment I just can't believe that a God that God would really do that and you know it from that sort of worldly perspective it's it's even worse than that because we have in revelation not only these terrifying judgments but the saints praising God for those judgments and testifying that they are faithful and true they're just I think this is this is really another point at which the completely reversing nature of revelation comes through that it is it is so different from our common view of the world that if we could align ourselves with the mind and will of God how differently we would look at things we'll touch upon this number of points and last week in particular the question was raised with regard to God's judgment even on our loved ones and and and what a difficult thing that is even to think about and yet here we have another indication that when that happens and when God's wrath is poured out on the inhabitants of the earth the saints will say yay and amen because his judgments are absolutely true infallible and faithful hard as it may be for us to to get our our minds there in this life but again you have to think if this is what is God's will it's not only just but the closer our wills are aligned to his the more freely I think we will be able to join in that praise comments well we have come to the end of the third bowl ready for the fourth bowl and I think we'll we'll probably finish that next week any any final questions Ed
good good question I had to bring up the specifics of Nebuchadnezzar who did undergo at least a kind of repentance and raised the possibility you know that he could be saved and maybe others could be saved who undergo this kind of judgment well yeah I would say so and in effect I think going back this maybe we'll give this more next time but going back to the the praises in the song in verse in chapter 15 who shall not fear glorify thy name for thy name thy that were holy nations should come to worship you for thy judgments have been revealed in a word that seems to be the for thy judgment have been revealed seems to be one of the causes for who shall not praise you who shall not fear your name in other words the judgments the righteous judgments of God should and sometimes do elicit repentance on those that receive it so I think that that is one of the functions of God's judgments there to bring us to repentance and that that's a very profound and necessary thing to realize about what we're going to see in the the next two bowls at the end of each presentation we're told particularly in verse 9 of chapter 16 they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues and they did not repent and give him glory instead of fearing his name they cursed it they blasphemed it and they did not give him glory again this these sort of have the function like like the Egypt plagues of hardening God hardening Pharaoh's heart hardening the people's heart I think there's a dual purpose though they could bring people to repentance but there are people that will only be hardened by them so that that's a that's a very good point to make that the the judgments of God should elicit repentance and when we see the judgments of God in history you know they should bring us to repent to think about our own sin and how our own sin merits the judgment of God
okay anything else all right let's pray we thank you O Lord and we do praise you along with your saints and we echo their praise that your judgments are true faithful and righteous we long for the day when we can join in that praise without any inhibitions of sin and we do pray that all of your works throughout the earth would bring forth repentance from the inhabitants of the earth repentance unto praise to the name of Jesus Christ our Savior now be with us we ask throughout the rest of this day in Christ's name Amen