Revelation 16:1-21

Salvation is an offer with a time limit. Time will run out, and no other opportunity will be offered by God to be saved. God doesn’t take rejection of His love lightly.

Revelation chapter 16, tremendous chapter, the judgments of God being brought up on earth, we’re going to slow down a little bit uh beginning at verse 12.
And I hope we land for a while on verse 15. How many of you have a red letter Bible?
You look in revelation 16, look at verse 15. Is it in red? Good? Who’s speaking? It’s Jesus.
Ah, it’s good to hear from him right now.
And I tell you what, even though you and I have the wonderful uh protected privilege of reading this portion of scripture that is yet futuristic.
It’s uh it’s something that’s down the road.
Uh Frankly, it’s nothing that you and I as Christians will be experiencing here on earth.
It’s for a later generation of believers.
It is wonderful to see verse 15 written and read because of what he says.
It not only listen carefully, it not only of course applies to those of that time.
It’s not only going to be a great encouragement to them, a great comfort to them, a great truth to them, but it’s also a tremendous blessing to us for we are in effect living in a time.
That we ought to be watching and waiting a different context. Yes.
During the church age time, the period of the church that’s us now. Yes, those then the tribulation believers. Yes.
Comforting nonetheless to any generation, even since the day of the apostles, and we’ll study more about this this morning.
I’m gonna try to race through an introduction which really encompasses the 1st 11 verses en route to those verses.
Let me say this, that the coming of Jesus Christ I e example given is the revelation apocalypses of Christ.
Example, if you peek back to revelation 11, it is the revelation of Jesus Christ, the word apocalypses and means it is the unveiling.
If I had a great blanket or sheet over me and someone over here in the front row pulls the sheet, it would unveil apocalypses, the very structure or the very thing behind the veil.
Uh For example, we could kind of bring down the revelation of Jesus Christ into two realms, so to speak.
Uh Number one, uh the revelation of Jesus Christ is that Jesus Christ is revealed uh in the positive when I say positive, I mean, he was revealed to when he came, the nation of Israel, he came as the as the prophet of Israel, he came as the fulfillment of the prophets, the Messiah of Israel, the apocalypse revelation unveiling of Jesus Christ was Israel’s Messiah number two, that he came as one to be redeemer of the nation of the, or all nations, of all people, the world.
He came as the redeemer, the salvation of the world.
That’s in the positive, the unveiling of Jesus announces to us that he is the savior of the world.
I know that sounds exclusive. Too bad. It is.
He’s the only one of all human history to have any book written about him, of any religious figure.
Ever, never had a book written about them.
And uh to even top that off, it’s the Bible written about him that told us what he would say, what he would do, what he would accomplish, what would happen to him, uh how he would minister.
And it even told us that he would die and be raised from the dead.
And it told us about future events.
No other, listen, no other religious writing in the history of mankind has the audacity or the boldness to take on the Bible in such bold and awesome ways.
It is the Bible that speaks about Jesus Christ that’s in the positive and to all those who accept Christ for Jesus said, I am the way the truth and the life and no man comes to the father.
But through me, Jesus said that if he be lifted up in the cross, he’ll draw all men.
That is mankind to him. It’s Jesus who said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.
Isn’t that a great statement? Only God could have said such a thing crucified on the cross, Jesus Christ, all that in the positive but the, the negative side of the revelation of Jesus Christ, the apocalypse is the rejection of Christ.
This one who did so much for you and I to, to provide for you and I heaven, to provide for you.
And I hope to provide for you and I forgiveness.
It’s this Jesus that the Bible says if rejected, uh we insult the love of God, we, we push away the love of God and, and we basically say to God, I can do this on my own.
I don’t need you. And we’re shoving off the the reach of God to our hearts.
And so the Bible says for God’s soul of the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever would believe in would not perish but have everlasting life that is God’s gift and for mankind to push away that gift.
Listen, this is tremendous when we continually push away the gift of God salvation through Christ.
A very terrible thing happens. Remember when Moses kept rejecting God’s offer, when Moses and Aaron came to Pharaoh, the rejection over and over again by Pharaoh of Moses’s offer given to him by God.
No, no, no, no, no. The old saying has been put forth that if you stand in concrete long enough, you’re going to get stuck in it.
Pharaoh said no to God. No, no, I will not let your people go no way.
Will I bow no way, will I pledge allegiance to this God of the Hebrews?
He said that so long, so hard 10 times, God set pharaoh in that place.
The curse of the revelation of Jesus Christ is saying no to him so much that you wind up being one that is uh so to speak or given over to your doctrine of self assurance or self reliance or self righteousness.
And there comes a point in time as the book of Genesis tells us that God says, my spirit will not always strive with man.
There comes a time when I give up, I’m trying to reach those who at some point in time as the book of Proverbs says, he who is often rebuked will harden his heart and he will be taken away and that without remedy, keep that in mind as we go through this portion of scripture and we’ll race to the good news when Jesus makes his wonderful announcement to watch.
Revelation chapter 16, beginning in verse 21.
The title of the message is a time to be watching, a time to be watching or to be looking to be on guard.
Here we go looking at it. Now. Revelation 16 verse one.
Then John says, I heard a voice from the temple saying to the seven angels go and pour out the bows of the wrath of God on the earth.
Will you circle the word wrath right there, my friend, it might spare you a lot of grief.
The wrath of God is also mentioned in Old Testament writings as the indignation of God, the judgment of God.
It is the dark days of God’s fiery wrath upon earth. It has nothing to do with you.
It has nothing to do with God’s believers.
It doesn’t even have anything to do with those believers that are living at the time of this great judgment.
You say Jack, what time of judgment are we in?
Remember this, the wrath of God is going to be revealed in the tribulation period, a seven year period of time with escalating catastrophes.
And there are three sets of seven judgments of God. Do you remember what they were?
I know it’s been a long time since we’ve been together on a Sunday morning in the Book of Revelation.
But it’s um the little statement or the little uh hook for us to remember is S T P.
The first seven judgments were the sealed judgments that opened up.
In fact, the very beginning and Christens the tribulation period, the sealed judgments. How many of them are there?
Seven of them? T remember what T stands for trumpet, the trumpet judgments watch how this goes.
You gotta watch because I didn’t draw something for the screen and I can talk better with my hands.
Moving the seven seals are judgments. You come to the seventh seal. Imagine it dropping down into a category.
The Seventh Seal brings out seven trumpets. Those, those seven trumpet judgments are greater in intensity.
We come to the seventh trumpet, like the seventh Seal.
It falls down into another category and brings forth seven bowls or we call them P PST P uh pans.
Why? Pans? Because, uh, they’re not like a big cereal bowl when I have cereal at home.
It’s a, it’s a joke because I don’t use a cereal bowl.
I use a small bucket or a or uh a big big, big salad bowl.
Well, that think of a deep, deep bowl. That’s not the word that’s used here. It’s the opposite.
That’s why S T P for pan. Remember we talked about, did I embarrass myself and, and several of you?
But the last time together we talked about the chargers that are used to be put on or underneath.
I should say a plate on a really beautiful setting.
You’ve got the dinner plate and then underneath it, you’ve got this thing that you ladies call the charger.
Uh It is a biblical term though, remember when John, the Baptist was beheaded, they brought his head on a charger says the Bible.
And uh it’s a very large but thin uh plate pan, we could say uh bull or vial is revealed in your Bible.
And so these seven pans are bold judgments. They are the worst of the worst.
And the seventh pan or bowl culminates puts an end to the tribulation.
It’s over Christ returns at the conclusion of that judgment.
And we’re very much nearing that chronology in our study from here on out. So we’re close to the end.
Things are going to go quick now. But remember this is what it looks like.
The seven angels come out of the temple of God and they come as it were to the edge of heaven, they stand there and very strategically, each angel has a geographical location for their pan to be poured out upon.
For example, one angel will pour his pan out upon the seas.
One angel will pour his pan out upon the fresh water system.
One angel will pour his pan out upon the sun.
Uh and, and so on, very strategic judgments given by seven angels.
And um so as we look at this here, uh John says, I heard uh these things and these voices and outcomes, these seven angels and the wrath is, the wrath of God has nothing to do with hell.
It’s not the wrath of hell. This is the wrath of God’s judgment upon the earth.
And by the way, the Bible tells us old and new testament alike that God will deliver his people from his wrath upon the earth.
Garon case in point, Abraham and lot.
And that whole scenario we read this week in our Bible reading together beautiful.
Will you judge the city if there’s 25 righteous, if there’s 10 and Abraham is dealing with God.
No, I won’t judge it.
And what even lot in his back sliding state was called out before the wrath of God came.
He said, well, Jack, but many Christians have died in cataclysmic judgments of God. Wait a minute.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait, not so, not. So you mean many Christians have died in cataclysmic events?
Don’t think it’s the wrath of God. You and I live in a world that’s messed up.
We all agree on that. This world the Bible says is sold under sin, bad things happen.
Jesus said the Bible says, God, God’s reign and his son shines on the just and the unjust, I’m saddened to hear many Christians on the radio and TV, on the news this week was a big discussion on, on the evening broadcast of MS NBC.
Is this the wrath of God that’s happened with the tsunami and the great earthquake.
And I was sad because they had Christians representing you and I in the Bible saying yes, it’s absolutely the wrath of God.
I was, I was talking to the TV at that moment. It’s not true.
And then they had Muslim Clerics, they had the biggest, I don’t know what his name is.
They had the big, the big grand of the, I don’t know, I don’t know what his role is but he’s the big Muslim leader.
And he said yes, that’s right. Here were two representatives. One of Christianity, one of Islam.
And they were saying it’s the judgment of God. These people were swept away. That’s not true.
We live in a messed up world. Cataclysmic events take place.
It was not the judgment of God for several reasons. Number one, many Christian missionaries were swept away.
It was a cataclysmic natural event. Terrible.
By the way, Jesus said those events are going to get worse and we know that’s true.
Historically, it’s a tragic event, but it’s not the wrath of God, my friend God.
And here’s the main point to what I’m saying, God’s wrath never comes without first the people knowing why the wrath is coming.
That’s true from all the new Testament alike.
He said, well, Jack, I’m a Christian and I messed up and I was sliding and boy, he sure judged me.
He didn’t judge you, my friend. If he wanted to judge you, you would be sitting here right now.
He disciplined you because he loved you and you’re here now.
It’s as though in the scripture, Jesus says, uh that he goes after the uh out of the 100 sheep, the one that runs away, he goes after the one that’s walked away from the 99.
And uh you know, I told you before in John’s Gospel that when a shepherd did that, what Jesus didn’t say, uh But what everybody in the audience knew is that when a lamb wanders away, you know where I’m going with this.
When the lamb wanders away, the shepherd goes and gets the lamb.
And before he brings them home, the shepherd puts the lamb down there on the ground and takes two stones and puts it between, or I should say, puts the leg like a bridge, two stones like this right here.
Two stones and the leg of that lamb.
The, what we would say, our femur is stretched out across those two stones in the middle Hollow valley.
And he takes his, the shepherd’s rod, not the staff, the rod, he takes the rod and he just goes w breaks that bone just like that.
He takes a rebellious little lamb breaks its leg.
And then for about a month, he’s got to carry that little lamb on the back of his shoulders the whole time because he can’t walk and it’s totally vulnerable.
It, it, it smells the shepherd licks. His sweat gets a closer tune on.
His voice is with the shepherd so much after the discipline that that little lamb, uh not only limps for the rest of his life like Jacob limp, having wrestled with God, but that little lamb limps the rest of his life because he has grown close to the fact that this is his master, this master loves him.
And during that time of recovery and discipline, he learned things about the master’s heart.
He could never learned any other way.
And that’s why it’s so wonderful when James says, you and I who are believers?
You count it all joy when you fall into various trials, why God draws us closer.
We get to as it were lick the sweat from the back of his neck.
Sense his smell, uh be, be associated with him, feel his heartbeat. We’re closer to his voice.
It’s a wonderful truth. It’s a powerful thing.
And so we see that God disciplines his Children, judgment you and I have been spared from Jesus did all that on the cross for us.
But there’s a time coming and it’s called the Book of Revelation.
The great tribulation period when God will judge the world for its sin and his wrath.
And it’s a tremendous thing. It’s a horrible thing.
It’s something that the world has never seen certainly in the scale as this since the great flood of Noah.
So revelation 16, we go on, it says in verse two.
So the first angel went out and poured out his uh bull upon the earth and a foul and loathsome sword came upon the men, listen, came upon the man who had the mark of the beast.
Will believers take the mark of the beast at that time? No, we already studied that.
And those who worship his image, a believer is not gonna be able to do this antichrist image either verse three.
The second angel poured out his bow on the sea and it became blood as of a dead man and every living creature in the sea died.
Uh, two things about this one personal, one, biblical biblical first.
Uh, you know, very well the time when God judged before, when turning water into blood, this is gonna be a time that is apparently global.
Can you imagine such a thing? Can you imagine walking into your shower?
We’re coming to the fresh water part in a moment. It’s going to get bloody too.
Can you imagine going down to the beach and it turns blood and you know what’s worse you guys?
And if you doctors or nurses or uh emergency response people, it doesn’t say that it’s the blood of a living man.
Anybody know what color the blood of a living man is. It’s red for 13 years.
I worked with human blood in a laboratory developing technology around the human blood cell and all that stuff.
There’s a point in time when blood ceases and that red blood cell begins to lice or break open.
It’s, it’s terrible because the, there’s no more plasm anymore. It’s all, it’s all red.
When that happens, we got to shut down the study and we start to clean up, takes hours to clean up.
The smell is unbelievable. The color is more what we would say, ox blood or brown, the color of a scab.
It’s hideous and the sad thing is we would either build up a tolerance to it or we would often reserve.
We had a little can of Vicks vapor rub that we would put within our helmets or our hoods or our face mask, depending what study it was stink.
Oh God says that this judgment is gonna come and it’s gonna just devastate the saltwater system and it’s, and the water is gonna become blood.
You say Jack, it’s impossible. Of course, it’s impossible unless God’s doing the doing.
However, if you’re a health care person and you know a little bit about this, chemically, there’s not much of a difference between salt water and human blood.
Is there very little difference. I’m not talking color and I’m not talking viscosity. How thick or thin it is.
Chemically. The properties between salt water and the human blood is very unique.
It’s nothing for an angel who’s been given authority when he comes to the edge of heaven, so to speak and pours that bowl of his judgment on earth.
Don’t you think that angel is pretty bright about chemistry smarter than any human ever has been?
He’s gonna snap his finger. Pour out that bowl and yuck on the earth stink. Who?
And to make it worse, we live close enough to the ocean. Here. You ever smelled this?
Have you ever taken a good whiff of a dead sea creature? It’s worse than anything.
Let’s go eat. And the third angel poured out his bow on the rivers and springs of water.
This is the fresh water system and they became blood turning on your shower. Yuck.
And I heard the angel of the water saying you are righteous.
Oh Lord, the one who is, who was who is to be because you have judged these things.
The angel makes the announcement. People listen, we need to be encouraged by this.
We as circle it, void of any human influence and any human bias.
An angel looks and says right on God, you and I are saying that’s terrible.
That ought not to be because you and I are not very smart when it comes to angels and God’s judgment, the angel who is created and stands before God in perfection knows a lot.
And the angel says right on this was righteous judgment.
In other words, the sin that they’ve committed and scope of your judgment, God, you’re right on the money.
See, I am not qualified to make that ruling because I am so biased and skewed. I can’t judge right.
Pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on real life radio in a message called a time to be watching part one.
We’re glad you took the time to be with us today. You know, a time to be watching.
Part one is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Book of Revelation.
It’s a series on the final book of The New Testament and the unveiling of future events for us and for the world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life radio.
Hey, you guys, Pastor Jack here and I’m gonna encourage you to get your hands on the book.
Disciplines of a Godly man. It is awesome.
And the author a can’t use walks you through what it is to be a disciplined man.
Discipline at prayer, discipline at thoughts with your tongue.
Discipline in life, disciplines of a Godly man, get your copy, you’ll be blessed by it.
Disciplines of a Godly man. It’s available when you give a gift of any amount at our website Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. Yes.
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Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio. Wish for you.
Solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
Yeah.