And as we enter into this passage in the book of Revelation, which is all about wrath, I pray that you give us a certain sense of wrath, of your judgment, of what you feel about sin, but I also pray that you would give us a sense of your mercy and conviction that you are gracious and holy and long for people to embrace you. And so I pray even now for those here whose eyes are closed, to open the eyes of the blind in the ears of the death, I pray for myself that you be in my head and in my thinking, in my heart and in my understanding and in my mouth and in my speaking. Jesus name, we pray these things, amen, amen. You know, I was having lunch with someone this week and I was telling him a story about my dog, and I'm not going to tell you the story right now, but it just reminded me, when you're a parent, what's the last thing you say to your kids usually? I mean, it depends on the context. Let's say you're a parent of teenagers, if you're a parent of teenagers and they're taking the car out, what's the last thing you say every time they walk out the door? Be careful, every time, be careful, life and death, be careful. I've taught you everything, we've categorized you, we taught you how to read, you know algebra, you know everything else in the world, but when you walk out that door, I want you to remember this, be careful, life and death. On the other hand, when the parents leave, parents always have the last word, right, when the parents leave, let's say you're going away for the weekend, let's use my house, for example, do you know how you're going to go away for a couple days, our kids are old enough, what's the last thing we say to the kids? Don't forget to feed the dogs, right? Life and death, we've taught you everything that you need to know for, to get through in life, but at the end of the day, I don't want to come home and find at least one of the dogs dead, the other one not so much, but you get my point, when we consider the Bible, the Bible is full of commands, the Bible is full of principles, the Bible is full of things that teaches us, but it seems instructive that if we wanted to see what Jesus thought was the most important thing to him, that we'd look at what is the last thing he said before he left the room. What was the last thing that Jesus said, and he said it at least three times, right? And so when a parent says some three times, you know you're also, you better listen up. So when Jesus talks, what's the last thing that he says to us, in Matthew's gospel, it's this thing called the Great Commission, in other words, Matthew's gospel, the last thing, the very last thing Jesus tells his disciples is go. So when we read part of it to Jesus, go therefore make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit and they say, I'm with you always to the end of the age. So out of all the things Jesus taught, you know the Apostle John said that Jesus told them enough things that if they recorded it in books, there wouldn't be enough books in the world to contain all the things they taught. And so why at the end of his ministry here is the last thing that he said to the disciples, go into all the world. And ultimately he says it to the church, go. And ask yourself this, if it's really a command from Jesus, why doesn't the church take it more seriously? In other words, if you ask someone, if obeying the Ten Commandments is important, what do you think the average Christian would say to you? Sure. How about obeying the Great Commission, is that important? Well, I think everyone would say yes, but those are life to say differently. We have to take into account the last thing Jesus wanted to say, in fact, remember in the book of Acts, the same thing, chapter 1, verses 1 through 6, Jesus says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth. I love the passage in Acts because remember they said, you know, Lord is the kingdom coming now and He says no, but you'll go and you'll be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. And then Jesus ascends into the clouds and can you blame the disciples for watching? Remember angels show up and they're like, what are you guys doing? Get busy. You have a world to tell about Jesus. He's coming back in the same way. It's like, you'll see him again, trust me, now you just go. So those are at least two times. So the Jesus before he leaves in the Gospel of Matthew and then right before he ascends into heaven, the last thing he says, be my witnesses. And then what is the other one? The last one? It's the whole book of Revelation, every single word of the book of Revelation. It's the last book of the Bible, but it's also the last book we were given by Jesus and we've seen over and over and over again. What is the book of Revelation teaches us among other things? Not only that, we should be witnesses to the world, but also why we should be witnesses to the world. Remember, we've looked at a letter to seven churches, and each of the seven churches, two of them were trying to bear witness to the world around them, but struggling because of persecution. Five of them were on a continuum of either not even trying to not even caring. In the book of Revelation, we know at some level was given to them and to us to motivate them outward. In other words, a lot of people say, well you know, I don't like that, I'm getting tired here about being outwardly faced. You know, if you want to call it something else, that's fine with me. But it doesn't change what Jesus' last command was. And you have to ask yourself the question, how concerned are you? If you read the whole book of Revelation, it not only tells us that weird to be witnesses, but it tells us why over and over and over again. And what is the reason? Besides he commanded us and you said, well, man, it can be hard. Jesus is in me. You might even die, but why is it so important? And the reason it's so important is because of what we're going to look at today. The wrath of God, the wrath of God being born down on people who do not trust him, who do not know him, who do not embrace him, that's why it's so important. In other words, when you look around at your friends, your neighbors, your family, and you say of them, what if the wrath of God came right now, would they be ready? If your answer is no, why aren't you telling them? Why aren't you going after them? Why aren't we embracing them? A lot of times when people look at the Great Commission and Church at least, they think, well, that's great. What that means is we just need to have a good church for ourselves. And what we need to do then is send missionaries out. Anyone who wants to go will give you money and go out. That's not what the Bible teaches at all. And the book of Revelation should be motivating us over and over and over again. One of the biggest motivations in the book of Revelation is that there will come a time when there is no more time. There will come a day when there isn't another day, there will come a minute when there's not one more minute. Do you think about that ever? If you read the book of Revelation, you cannot help but think about it. You know, today is supposed to be public freedom Sunday. You know how I sort of, I disdain these sort of made up Christian holidays where people say, oh, this week is such and such, today is public freedom Sunday. What that means is pastors are just supposed to blast whatever they think about politics and let the government do whatever they want. And I'll be honest with you, I don't like preaching politics, I never do actually, but I would almost rather do that than have to talk about the wrath of God. But that's what we're going today. As we look at the passage before, I've got three points for you. Basically, we're going to look at the context of this passage, we're going to look at the content of this passage, and finally it's going to end with a caution. So what's the content of this passage or what's the context of the passage, what's the content of the passage, and what's the caution toward the end of the passage? And I'll be honest with you, I'm going to be talking fast. I could do a whole sermon on every single bowl of God's wrath, I'm doing them all. So you might want to download the sermon at some point and use amazing slowdown or something. So trust me. Let's look at the context first, verses 15-5 through 16-1. Let me read that. He says, after this, I looked in the sanctuary, the tent of witness, and heaven was open, and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels and the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests, and one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels, seven golden bowls full of God's wrath, full the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and His power and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. And then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth, the seven bowls of the wrath of God. So what about the context here? The immediate context. We looked at it some last week. The immediate context of this is the Exodus and the Old Testament, the book of Exodus and the events of the Exodus. It's almost a reliving of the book of Exodus. You remember what Exodus is, it's basically God intervening into Israel's bondage and oppression with His mighty deeds, delivering them from bondage, and then taking them all the way into the Promised Land. In the Gospel of Jesus, he does the exact same thing for us. He intervenes into our bondage and into our oppression. He calls it sin. With a mighty deed, His death on the cross and His resurrection and His promises that He will finish the job. And so that's part of the context here. So you're going to see an images of the tabernacle, the tenth of witness, and images of the priest. And even the bowls are a priestly sort of temple thing. You see in the book of Exodus, look at verse 5, it says, after this I looked at the sanctuary, the tenth of witness was open. What's the tenth of witness? Some of your translations might say the tabernacle of testimony. The tabernacle of testimony basically contained two things. It contained the testimony of God, or in other words, the ten commandments, and the ten commandments where God's revealed will for us, but it also contained the ark of the covenant with God's mercy seat in there. And what's interesting about this passage is formerly where Israel will go to find mercy. The tabernacle of testimony and the mercy seat of God now, the only thing that is emanating from that place is judgment. In other words, there's a time when there will be no more time. There's a time when you can seek mercy, and there's a time when it's too late for mercy. And by the time you get to the seven bowls of God's wrath, it's too late. It's just, it is. And so if you look at what is the other Exodus imagery in there, if you notice, it says in that sanctuary came seven angels with golden sashes around their chests and the bowls of God's wrath, the sashes are sort of priestly garments, and even the bowls, the bowls actually tie this back all the way to the seals, because I think it's a sixth seal. The saints are underneath the altar, and they're praying, and their prayers are going up like smoke to God, and they're saying, how long until you've indicated us, how long until there's justice on the earth for those who have killed us. And immediately it happens there, but if you remember, I told you it repeats itself over and over again, and these bowls are used about 30 times, you find them in the New Testament, or in the Old Testament, and they probably were what was used to catch the ashes. In other words, that's where the smoke would have been emanating, the priest would have taken the bowls and he would have poured them out after the sacrifices. So you see that, and then finally, you see the glory of God, the sanctuary is filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, no one can enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished, and then right after that, which is going pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. There's a connection between the glory of God and the wrath of God, and you see them right here. That's an image. It's almost directly out of 2 Chronicles, chapter 5. Remember Solomon, they bring the ark back to the temple and Solomon prays, and the glory of God so fills the temple that no one came to get in it. It's overwhelming. And then you have passages like Isaiah 6 where Isaiah finds himself in the middle of the glory of God, and what does he say, whoa to me, I am undone. In other words, he cannot bear the weight of the glory of God. You see, part of what God's wrath has to do with is just his character. In other words, he's not capricious. He's not up there. He's not just keeping score like Santa Claus because he doesn't have to. Remember the movie The Santa Claus II? He figured out when he looked at the list, everyone deserves coal. You and I are simple by nature and by choice. And just being in God's presence, even if he didn't have any feelings about it, would crush us. And yet when you consider what his wrath is, that sort of takes things up to a whole different level. When you talk about the wrath of God, what is God's wrath? God's wrath is basically his proactive punishment of everything that is against him, his proactive punishment of evil, his proactive unwillingness to let evil stand, his unwillingness to let any sin exist, and he's angry about it. He is angry about it because he created everything perfect and good and Hebrew that was called Shalom and the sin violated that. And he's not mad again because he is weak in character. He's mad because that's who he is. He's perfectly just and perfectly holy and he cannot help but punish sin. Now if it rubs you a little bit the wrong way, at least remember this, while he is perfectly holy and perfectly just, he is also given a way out. Now there are some people get upset and so I don't want a wrathful God. You know, you need a wrathful God. You need to believe that there's someone out there who ultimately is going to reap justice on those who offended someone who is ultimately going to punish evil. You just think it's not you. And I know I've told you before, I love Jim Keller's line where he says none of us are Attila the Hun or Hitler or Stalin, but it's not for lack of talent. So have we seen the wrath of God before in this book? We've seen the wrath of God before in the book of Revelation, but we've seen it sort of trickle out and where we saw it was in the seals and the trumpets and we'll see today in the bowls. Now as I'm telling you this, remember that fractions in the book of Revelation equal mercy. Fractions equal mercy. In other words, this vision is given to motivate the church to be outwardly faced. It's given to motivate people who hear that they should consider trusting Jesus. And so you get the seven seals and the seven trumpets and the seven bowls of God's wrath and all of them cover the same history. The time of Jesus, the time of Jesus ascends, to the time Jesus will come back and make all things right. And it's interesting because if you lay them outside by side, they cover the same thing in other words, seal number one, and trumpet one and bowl one have to do with the earth and so on. But what's interesting is with the seals, when the seals are unleashed, it's only a quarter of the earth, only a quarter of the sea, only a quarter of the heavens, only a quarter of people are affected by that. Does that get your attention, right? Well then when you think about the trumpets, same thing happens except this time it's a third, a third of the earth, a third of the sea, a third of rivers, a third of people are affected by this. You see, it has this sort of growing anticipation of what is ultimately going to happen. And then you get to the bowls of God's wrath and it's all, all the earth is consumed, all the rivers, all the seas, the Euphrates, all people who do not trust in Him are consumed by His wrath. In other words, by the time you get to the bowls of God's wrath, it is over, it's done with. And you see, when you look at the seals and the trumpets and the bowls of God's wrath, with the seals and the trumpets, what you see in some senses is an incomplete picture, or a picture that's a little bit out of focus, and with each iteration it becomes more and more clear. And by the time you get to the bowls of God's wrath, it's extremely clear. So the question, you have to ask yourself, does that motivate you? When you look around at the people who live around you and you say to yourself, if they do not trust Jesus, they, in fact, will bear the full brunt of the wrath of God, does that motivate you at all? Honestly, I didn't grow up in church, that's part of my problem with being a pastor. I didn't grow up in church, I didn't start going to church, I became a Christian when I was about 18 and then I went in the army, I was in the woods for four years. So I never really figured out why certain things are important and why other things are important. When the last thing Jesus told us was to go, in other words, why things are so, people get so uptight in the context of church, when there are so many people outside of the church that have no idea who Jesus is, ask yourself that, does that concern you? You see the context of the bowls is wrath, but then the actual content of the bowls is seeing the wrath poured out. Notice the content, and I'm not going to go through these one by one, I'm going to give you sort of bigger categories. So as you look at the first two bowls of God's wrath, let me read them to you verses two and three. So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth and the harmful and painful sores came upon people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped his image and the second angel poured out his bowl into the sea and it became like the blood of a corpse and every living thing that was in it died, everything died that was in the sea. The first two bowls of God's wrath basically have to do with idolatry, but it's even more than idolatry. If you remember as we looked at the book of Revelation, what the book of Revelation does is it draws a really thick line between those who follow Jesus and those who don't follow Jesus or followers of the Lamb and followers of the dragon, it says, or followers of the Lamb and earth dwellers is another thing. And what the bowls of wrath one and two basically are saying is that the people who are experiences chose the wrong side. They worship creation rather than the creator. They sought their own path rather than to see Jesus and they experienced the wrath of God. And as it's poured out, what's the third one? Third one is vindication. He says in verse four, the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and springs of water and they became blood and I heard the angel in charge of the water say, just and holy, you are just or you, a holy one who is and who was for you brought these judgments for they have shed the blood of the saints and the prophets and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve. And I've pointed out to you before, notice that what we sung this morning, we sing it with every, it's appropriate for us to sing who it was and is and is to come. By the time you get to the bowls of God's wrath, all it says is who was and who is because he has already come, it is over by this time. And what he says here is the saints, prayers all the way back in chapter six have been answered. The God has vindicated the saints that these people shed the blood of the saints and because of that, they will drink blood. And notice what it said, it is what they deserve. In other words, at the end of time, when people have to bear the wrath of God, no one will ever get what he or she doesn't deserve. In other words, all of us by nature and by choice deserve the wrath of God. We deserve the punishment for our sins. Now here's the good news of the gospel. There's another who bore that wrath so you and I don't have to. And the question is, will you trust him? The book of Revelation keeps asking us, are you going to do something with him or are you going to do something not or are you not going to do something with him? And what's interesting in the context of the church and outside the church, what makes the gospel so difficult for people who are Christians and makes it so difficult for people who are not Christians is that in the gospel, Jesus is constantly saying it's not about you anymore. If you're not a Christian, what Jesus says over and over, what are you, he says what are you going to do with me? It's not about you. It's about me. What are you going to do with me? And if you are a Christian, what makes the gospel difficult is Jesus says it's not about you either. What are you going to do with me? At the end of the day, people either get what they deserve or they don't get what they deserve because Jesus took what we deserve. As we move along here, verses 4 and 5, Moses 4 and 5 says, the fourth angel poured out his bowl in the sun and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by fierce heat and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plague. They did not repent and give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl and the throne of the beast and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. They nod their tongues and anguish and curse the God of heaven for the pain and source. They did not repent of their deeds. So what he is saying here is that by the end, you respond to God's call one way or the other. You trust Jesus or you don't. And notice what's happening here is that the more things that come upon them, the harder they get. Do you know anyone like that? I do. Why is that? For one thing, this should take us back to Pharaoh. Remember when Moses kept going to Pharaoh and said, let my people go and a plague would come and Pharaoh got harder and harder and harder and harder. In fact, it says that God hardened Pharaoh's hearts. Well, how does God harden someone's heart? The interesting thing is he doesn't have to do anything proactive. He just has to start removing his grace and let you be what you want to be and ask yourself if God let you be what you want to be. Would you be a harder person or a softer person? Would you be a meaner person or a kinder person? You see all of us, whether you're a Christian or not, you're still reliant on God's intervention and your life. So as we continue, what is verse 6, or the bowl number 6, and I'm going to tell you right up front, I'm going to disappoint a lot of people here. Verse 12, it says, the sixth angel poured out his bowl in the Great River Euphrates and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east and I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs where they were demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God Almighty. Verse 16, and they assembled them at the place in Hebrew, that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. So what's going on here first is this, that God is drawing the kings of the earth and ultimately they're kingdoms and ultimately the people who follow them, unbelieving people, unto himself to this event, not a place called Armageddon. There is no place called Armageddon for one. There is a place called Meghito which is about 60 miles north of Jerusalem but it's an event it's not a place for one and you know the battle of Armageddon that you hear about, it never fought. That's what I know would disappoint some of you guys. In other words, the kings of the earth are gathered there at the end of time and all people are gathered there for judgment and they think there's going to be a battle but in Revelation chapter 19 Jesus shows up and it's over. It's sort of like when you pay money for pay for view and the guy gets knocked out in the first five seconds. That's what chapter 19 of the book of Revelation is about. The kings of the earth gather, there's a sense in which if I had time to work it through the Old Testament they actually are being lured in by God. They think they're coming because they think they have a chance but Jesus shows up in chapter 19 boom. It's done. There is no battle of Armageddon. They think there will be but there's not Jesus wins that before it even begins. And then finally what's the last bowl? The last bowl is just a completion of all things. His seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying it is done and there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and great earthquakes such as there had never been since man was on the earth so great was that earthquake. Remember I've told you before when you see earthquakes and thunder and lightning in the book of Revelation, that's the end. The very end is a company by earthquakes and thunder and lightning but did you notice what God said from the throne this voice came it is done. There will come a day when there is no more time. There will come a day when God will wreak his vengeance and his wrath on all who had not trusted him. Now remember I told you last week the good news of the gospel is this, that this isn't the first time that God said it is finished. The first time he said it that we see it recorded is from the cross. When Jesus had borne the wrath that we deserve, he had borne the punishment that we deserve, the judgment that we deserve and at that point Jesus says it is finished and so again the line is very clear. Will you follow Jesus who has borne the wrath of God or will you not embarrass yourself? Which would you rather do? That leads us to a caution by the way which I think is amazing in the context of this warning. Even in the middle of what is said right up front that this is the end, it's the last word, it's all about God's wrath being borne out and it will end with God saying it is done and right in the middle of it is John seeing this vision, Jesus interrupts him. Jesus actually intervenes in the middle of his own vision of end time judgment and what does he say? He gives a warning and a beaditude verse 15, he says, behold I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. So what's the warning? The warning is the first thing, he says, behold I'm coming like a thief. How does a thief come? At least in ancient Near East, most of the time today, a thief, when a thief comes he is unannounced. You can't know when to expect a thief, you can only be prepared for a thief. And Jesus says, here's when I'm coming like a thief. Which means what? That means we are always to be ready. Are you ready? Do you really believe that? See the question I keep coming back to myself as I'm looking at the book of Revelation? Do you believe that at any moment now Jesus could come back like a thief unannounced and everyone who does not know him, parishes in their sin. And if that's true, how should that motivate us? He gives us a beattitude here. Beattitude, remember there are seven in the book of Revelation, beattitude means blessing. And he says what? He says, blessed is the one who stays awake keeping his garments on that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. So on one hand we're to stay awake and diligent waiting for the return of Jesus. On the other hand, there's this invitation even now to ask whether you got the right clothes on and keep them on. And throughout this book of Revelation, the clothes you need to be wearing are groves that have been washed in the blood of the lamb. From one hand Jesus is coming back, he just said it himself. On the other hand, he says, stay awake. It's all cautionary in some ways that reminded me, I couldn't help but think of one of the most famous stories out of Ranger school at all time. And unfortunately, I was in the middle of it. I went to Ranger school back in 1986 and I don't know, at least back then what they would do is you get two meals a day, I mean one meal a day and two hours a sleep roughly for 58 days. I lost about 25 pounds and how it works is every day someone will come out and then instructor will say, Ranger Allen, you're in charge today and they'll give you orders, you have to run a patrol and you have to pass half of your patrols. And so what everyone wants to do, the quicker you can get through your patrols knocked out, the sooner you can relax. So you go to city phase and you go to mountain phase and then Florida phase and the Eglon Air Force phase. And when you get there by the time we had gotten there, me and my Ranger buddy had gotten our patrols done and it was the last day of Ranger school which meant we could relax. We weren't being graded for anything. And I cooked up this scheme, I said all right craft, here's what we're going to do. The mission tonight is supposed to be an ambush, which means they're going to have someone who's going to have to go down the road on either side for a mile to alert people that they're coming. But they also are going to have someone else that's going to set off claymores and he said to what's your point. I said, so you and me, you and I, we volunteer to be those road guards, we go out there and we catch a few little bit of shut eye and we hear the claymores will wake up and we'll come running in as if nothing happened and no one will be the wiser for it. We did that and when we woke up hours and hours and hours later, there were two UH-60 helicopters hovering above us and about 150 guys around us in a percussing grenade which dropped in between us. You see, we didn't wake up when the claymore came and they searched all night for us. They thought we're dead, that happens and so the person in charge of the name is Captain Hidalgo. I'll never forget. He said, you two, you'll be standing in front of the board tomorrow. You see, at the end of a ranger school, guys who were on the edge, they get to go before the board and make the case for why they're good enough to actually pass and he said, you show up there at eight o'clock and you sit on that porch outside and you wait, we'll call you in when we're ready. So Kraft and I are thinking, okay, we passed a ranger school and then we ruined it at the very end and we went to the porch and guys went in that office and came out, there's a board that they met with. Some guys went in and they came out happy. Some guys went in and they came out really sad. Kraft and I were sitting there. Three o'clock. Four o'clock. Five o'clock. Kraft probably smoked a pack of cigarettes during that time. And finally, all of a sudden these board members just start walking out these other NCOs and officers and the last person that was Captain Hidalgo, you know, I came to attention. Sir, when are we supposed to go in front of the board and he said, oh, you're not going in front of the board. And I said, we failed and he said, no, you passed and I said, then why did you make a stand out here? I wanted you to remember how important it is to stay awake. Lives depend on you. Never forgot that. I think that's what Jesus is telling us and the seven bowls of God's wrath. Stay awake, church. Why? Lives depend on you. Lives depend on you. Let me pray for us. Father, I pray that you would wake us up. So many of us, including me, we get wrapped up in our sins and our idols and what we want and I pray that you would take us and enable us to be outwardly faced and I pray that this place would be a place where people who come to know Jesus, where your spirit is powerful and active and I just pray that you would wake us up to that and Christ, name we pray, Amen. Amen.