Chapter 16: 8-16

“⁸Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. ⁹And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues; and they did not repent and give Him glory. ¹⁰Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. ¹¹They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and did not repent of their deeds.

“¹²Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared. ¹³And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. ¹⁴For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.

“¹⁵Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.’ ¹⁶And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, Armageddon.”

Last week we looked at the first of the three bowl plagues, and saw the wrath of God on the people who had rejected Him and chose to follow the Beast and his cohorts. Just recently we see that the pope has stated the Muslim and Catholics are brothers and sisters. One has to have the same father to be a brother or sister. I have brothers and sisters in the Lord; that is because we have the same Heavenly Father. But, since Islam rejects the Jehovah of the Bible, rejects that Jesus is God and the only means of salvation, rejects Israel, and rejects the Bible, they cannot have the same Father. And as such, they cannot then be my brothers and sisters.

If then, as the pope claims, they are brothers and sisters, who then is their father? If it is not Jehovah, then the only other option is Satan. There are only two options: the Father of Truth or the Father of Lies. There you have it then; the pope, the head of the Catholic church – God certainly is not the head of it – has told us that Islam and Catholicism share the same father. That father is not the God of the Bible. What makes this important is that, with this brewing unity between the world’s largest religions on earth, there is the potential to already have control over about 2.5-2.7 billion people on earth. Let that sink in.

We have seen recently that there are those that have voted to kill babies right up to the event of their birth, and to withhold care from those that survive the attempted abortion. Men and women voting to murder children. How coldhearted and how far from God do people have to be to murder babies? Further, how far from God is the nation who elects them to office?

There is a great genocide coming to the USA and to North America as a whole. Canada will not be spared, I fear. Those of us who believe the truth, love the truth, and teach the truth will be the ones sacrificed in the name of tolerance and “unity.” Christian churches need to prepare the people for the potential for suffering. I am not a prophet; I am simply a very good observer of history. The only way to make a lie come to life and stay alive is to kill those that tell the truth. So, ask yourself this: if truth became a crime, would you be arrested?

Scorched Humans, verses 8-9

We have a bright and sunny day here in Southern Ontario. We have had simply crazy weather over the past weeks. Powerful wind storms, lots of snowfall and ice accumulations have simply wreaked havoc on our roads and our power lines, and people simply want the snow to stop. We are teased to have sunshine as there is still about a whole month of winter to go. But the sun is lovely; it is a sign of things to come in the not-too-distant future.

There will be no such joy with the sun in this occasion. There will be no colorful shorts, dollar-store flip-flops and no poolside bar-b-ques. The sun will scorch men with fire. Extreme heat will descend from the sun and scorch the earth. Remember, these plagues are compounding plagues. The two previous ones affected the water supply – no oceans and no fresh water. Evaporation will be affecting the air quality and maybe change the way the ozone filters the sunlight, maybe even magnifying it. But not long after the water is deemed as useless, the sun will simply get hotter. The people and the livestock on the ground will grow more and more thirsty. We find this prophecy in Joel 1:15-20:

“Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as destruction from the Almighty. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? The seed shrivels under the clods, storehouses are in shambles; barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment. O Lord, to You I cry out; for fire has devoured the open pastures, and a flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry out to You, for the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the open pastures.”

Yes, the day of the Lord has shown up, and there is so much pain and suffering. Sad reality. In stark contrast to what is happening, the Lord offers this promise to the nation of Israel in Psalm 121:5-6:

“The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.”

Israel will have rebelled against the Anti-Christ once he had defiled the Temple in Jerusalem. They would have immediately begun to look for the Messiah—the real one. The One that they had rejected some 2,000 years ago will show up to save them. Unlike the Jews who will be looking for their Messiah, the rest of the people who are suffering will blaspheme God. The word blaspheme is defined in part as irreverence, cursing, profanity with reference to speaking to and about the Lord God.

I see this today in the words of many atheists. They swear against God, and they make fun of God’s people and the Holy Bible. They call into question the character of God and certainly show no respect for Him. These people are not true atheists. True atheists are few and far between. What these people truly are is hardhearted like Pharaoh was in Egypt.

In Exodus 5:2, Pharaoh asks a question: “Who is the Lord that I should obey Him?” Herein lies the rub; most atheists are just rebellious men and women who refuse to submit to God; and as such, it is easier in their minds to say He does not exist. They became hardened to God, and even in the midst of an obvious display of His unmatched power, they curse Him rather than be humbled and obedient.

Darkness in the Dark Kingdom, verses 10-11

Have you ever been to somewhere that is so dark it is almost as if you can feel it? Well, the Anti-Christ is about to feel that. God will cover the Prince of Darkness in darkness. The irony is almost funny. In Exodus 10:21-22, we see the plague of darkness that God sent to Egypt:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.”

This darkness will cause pain and suffering so much so that the people afflicted by it will feel pain and gnaw their tongues. It could be the loneliness that they are feeling. It could be the terrors of the night. Imagine what the drastic change will be from the scorching heart of the sun to tangible darkness. The temperature drop may be significant, and there may be pain associated with this. One commentator mentioned that the loneliness may offer to them a glimpse of what Hell will be like. There will be no partying in Hell no matter what the songsters of Satan have made it out to be.

Remember that these men who serve the Beast are still ailed by a putrid sore that is very, very painful. For some time, there has not been water to wash and clean the sore. Compounded by that, the sun was scorching them and now darkness. God is displaying His awesome power, and they know that it is God. Make no mistake; the Anti-Christ, the Beast and the inner circle of their power know exactly who is doing this. They are powerless to stop it and made to look like fools for defying the King of the Universe. But they will not repent; they will continue to blaspheme God. Satan knows his fate, and he simply wants to take as many humans as possible with him. That is his end game.

Frog Spirits to the Deception, verses 12-14

Egypt also had a plague of frogs. The Romans regarded the Euphrates as a barrier between them and the invading armies of the east. But with the Euphrates dried up, the armies of the east like China and India can now move west and invade. The dry riverbed of the Euphrates gives them about 1,800 miles of dry land to move west with. Then the ‘frog’ spirits go out to deceive the nations into fighting Israel—and really fighting God.

Imagine that God has protected Israel like He did during the days of Pharaoh? The hot sun has not scorched them, their livestock eat in lush green pastures fed by God, there is no darkness there in Israel, and now their enemies are jealous and angry. These ‘frog’ spirits go out to put on a show for the kings of the earth and convince them to join the Anti-Christ in war against Israel.

A long time ago, another king named Ahab had a similar situation. The Lord was done with him; he had exhausted the Lord’s kindness and patience along with his wife Jezebel. We find this account in 1 Kings 22: 19-23:

“And he said, hear thou therefore the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the LORD said, who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramothgilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the LORD, and said, I will persuade him. And the LORD said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the LORD hath spoken evil concerning thee.”

Ahab ended up going into battle, and he did not even wear his kingly robes; he was dressed as a normal soldier. An archer shot an arrow but did not aim it at Ahab, and that arrow hit Ahab, who died from the wounds. God is using these lying ‘frog’ spirits to set up the final war at Armageddon. Somehow these spirits will get the armies to join the Anti-Christ to invade the sacred land of Israel. God’s land. Please make note that it is God who is drawing them to the battle. He is the one in complete control, just like He was in control of the arrow that struck Ahab.

Now in verse 15, God tells the Jews as they see this brewing fight – this invading and marauding army of millions – that they (the Jews) are to be assured that He is coming; they will not be abandoned by their loving King to be razed by this ungodly brood of reprobates who dare challenge the Almighty God. He is coming, as far as the invading armies are concerned, like as a thief in the night. The Anti-Christ and his armies do not expect that Jesus will show up and fight for the Holy Land. But Jesus’ return will no longer be a surprise to the Jews; He has told them He is coming back. They are now looking for Him ever since the Anti-Christ defiled the new Temple.

It is to the rebellious masses that Jesus will appear to be a thief who steals victory from them, surprising them when His armies split the eastern sky over Israel; and they will realize that they have pushed God too far, and He is coming to engage them in an unwinnable war ‘face to face.’

In Matthew 24:15-28, Jesus specifically warned the Jews not to be looking for Christ in physical places, and don’t follow anyone who says He is in the room or out somewhere. He knows that, once the Temple is defiled, they will be actively looking for the Messiah to come back. He promises them that He will be back; and as such, His return will not be a surprise for them. It will be a surprise for their enemies.

The Right Garments, verse 15

One must have the right garments to be accepted by the Lord. No, this is not about pants, skirts and ties. It is about salvation. One must have the garment of Jesus’ righteousness covering our/your sins, and then God will accept you. If you try like Adam and Eve to make your own garments, you will be found naked and thus rejected by God. Whether Jew or Gentile, Jesus is the ONLY WAY. In Ephesians 4:20-24, we see these words:

“But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.”

Notice the use of the words “put off” the old man and be renewed; “put on” the new man. We cannot cover our sins with human effort and ingenuity; you must have Jesus. From Adam to the last man to walk the planet, the answer is Jesus, Jesus and Jesus. All else is nakedness and being rejected by God.

Are you clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ? If yes, then rejoice. If not, repent; Jesus is coming soon.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca

 

Chapter 16: 1-7

“Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, ‘Go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of God on the earth.’ So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became blood as of a dead man; and every living creature in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying:

“You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was and who is to be, because You have judged these things. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due.’ And I heard another from the altar saying, ‘Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.’”

I would like to address an issue that, as we approach the last days, I see popping up even in conservative Baptist churches. That is the idea of the insecurity of the believer. I do not know if churches are using this ‘fear tactic’ to try and keep people attending, but it is not right.

I had a young man ask me just a few days ago about whether it was possible to lose your salvation just because you have stopped going to church. This young man is saved; he has trusted Jesus as Savior and only Jesus. He believes that Jesus is the Christ, Acts 8:37. He believes that Jesus is the only way (John 14:6), and he believes that Jesus has bodily resurrected (Romans 10:9-10). He believes that Jesus is God (John 10:30) and that He was 100% Man as well as God. He knows that he is a sinner and that only Jesus could save him; and he has put his faith, his trust in Jesus (John 3:16).

According to the scriptures, a person who has put their trust in Jesus as Savior HAS eternal life. At the very point that a person believes and puts their trust in Jesus, they are saved; they have eternal life as a gift from God. Once this transaction has taken place, it is irrevocable even by God himself. In Numbers 23:19, we find these words:

“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?”

God cannot lie. He has promised eternal life to all who believe, at any point in history, on His Son. At the very moment of your belief, you are saved – and that is forever.

We should not lie to people to get them to serve and obey the Lord. And, if it is not, then it is a lie on your part, then you need to study the scriptures and understand that once a man is ‘born again’ he cannot ever be unborn again, just like a human baby cannot be unborn. Jesus himself used this analogy in John 3. Just read it; it is clear and well written for us there. You either are saved or you need to be saved because you never have been. To imply that a disobedient Christian was never saved at all is to imply that your disobedient children are not born at all. God did not call us to confusion. Stop it.

Sometimes talking about the wrath of God can be a bit of a downer. I am truly blessed. I have been saved since I was 14. I was raised in a Christian home with parents that love me and gave the best that they could. I was brought up in very doctrinally conservative churches that taught the Bible as it is and believed that the Bible was and is the Word of God. Currently, I serve in a small Baptist church with people that love me, love my family and have allowed me to serve them for almost 23 years as the pastor. My wife is truly a gift from the Lord, and my children are my blessings from Him. Are we perfect?

Far from it. I the furthest of us all. Yet I am loved and have people to love. If I were to count my blessings from my birth to now, the number of them would be more than I could count. So, yes, it is very hard to talk about the Lord’s wrath. I have never known it, I deserve it as a sinful man, but my Savior bore the wrath that was mine for me. I never have to fear the wrath of God. If you know Jesus as Savior, then you never have to fear the wrath of God either. But the rebellious people on earth have the wrath of God to fear, and we will explore the last seven judgments today and next week.

The Men who worshipped the Beast, verses 1-2

God sent a sore on the men (people) who worshipped the Beast and his Image. These sores are sent on the earth, verse 1. Now there have been some questions over the years as to what ‘the earth’ means. From John’s perspective he had not ever seen anything past the Middle East. As an associate with the Apostle Paul and as a citizen of areas that, at the time of writing, were still under the control of the Roman Empire, he would have known, at least secondhand, that there was land all the way out to the southern part of Europe and maybe a bit west of there.

He may not have known of what we call England today. He may not have known of Russia or China. He knew about parts of Africa but may not have known the vast expanse of the African continent. Some have been prompted to say that only the old Roman Empire would be under the control of the Anti-Christ and Beast. But John was just the penman; God was writing the book of the Revelation, and He knows that there is land and civilization beyond the Mediterranean Sea. God knew there would be a Russia, USA, and all the land between.

Anyone who takes the time to study the New World Order will see that it is deeply entrenched in the USA. It is funded and heralded by politicians who always have a good reason to take more and more of the freedoms that the founding fathers of the US fought for. God knows what He was talking about. He also knew that it would be our generation that these words were written to as well, and that we would know the earth meant the whole earth, not just the Roman Empire or just the parts that John knew.

This plague of the boils will fall on the men of the earth that have rejected the grace of God and turned to worship the Anti-Christ and his cohorts.

In a case of irony, these men/people who are marked by the Beast, are marked by God. As we discussed a few lessons back, the mark may be invisible or some other mark that requires detection. We see the relatively new phenomena of microchipping humans. Some companies require that you’re microchipped to use the printers, or enter certain areas or to clock in and out. These microchips are often hidden just under the skin, but these sores will be there for all to see. It will be very transparent to the world around who is on the Lord’s side and who is not.

The word loathsome is defined as abhorrent, detestable, repugnant and odious. This will not be pretty. A vast amount of the world’s population at the time will have these putrid boils. The world will be an ugly place. I am so glad that in Jesus I am not going to suffer the wrath of God. Remember that last week I said that God is as passionately against the unrepentant as He is on the side of the repentant.

The Dead Seas, verse 3

In Revelation 11:14 we find that two woes have past and a third one is coming; these seven bowl judgments are the third woe. This destruction of the seas is simply what we call an event of Biblical proportions. According to Google, 71% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, and the oceans comprise about 96% of all of the earth’s water. This catastrophe will be Ark-like in scope. Dead fish and sea mammals everywhere, the stench of blood and death. The question of how this will affect the air quality with the evaporation of ‘blood’ is a real one.

There is such a movement, and sadly it is creeping into the Lord’s churches as well, about the whole Green movement with regards to the earth. We are NOT overpopulating the earth; it was designed to sustain an infinite population had there been no sin. We are NOT running out of resources. We keep finding more oil, more natural gas, and more coal; and there are as yet untapped resources of energy. We find ways to be more efficient in most things. And, sadly, the very things that are supposed to make us more efficient, like electric cars, need the lithium from the earth, and it is one of the hardest things to mine. I guess this is the height of irony.

Man is not going to destroy God’s earth. To imply that we could is to imply that we are better and smarter than God. Ah, there it is, the idolatry of man thinking that they are bigger, better, smarter and more than God – Romans 1 all over again. The earth is the resource that we are supposed to use; it is there to feed us, awe us with its beauty, and provide the means of our living. We are made from dust and we return to dust. The earth is our servant and not we to serve it; we are called to serve the Living God, the creator of Heaven and Earth.

God will strike the seas; the vast majority of the earth’s water will be useless and will no longer be able to provide food. God’s glory and power will be on display. The anti-Christ will be unable to reverse or change even one iota of what God has done. He will be utterly powerless, showing the futility of choosing any god other than the God of Heaven. These folks made their choice, made their decision to defy God, and now they have to deal with the consequences.

I see folk online all the time making fun of God and making fun of His gracious redemption; they do not understand that they are playing a dangerous game with the Master of the Universe. Mere men, dust, shaking their fists in the face of God. What a gracious God we serve that He simply does not kill them with the most painful and hideous death that we can think of.

Well, in the Tribulation, something worse than death happens; you get to live with sores, boils, undrinkable water, and dead bodies everywhere. So, you want to see what the world will be like without God’s restraining power on evil? Then here you go; have it.

The Dead Fresh Water, verses 4-5

Just when you thought it could not get any worse, it does. Oh no! All the fresh water turns to blood as well – more stench, more death to the freshwater animals; man these people on earth can’t get a break! That is what happens when you decide to wage war with God. You lose, always. The time to the very end is running close as the disaster on the earth is certainly enough to wipe out all life. We know that there are persons alive and able to enter the Millennial kingdom, so there is not a total loss of life. I suspect a lot of them will wish they were dead.  But death will make the water shortage of earth look like a day at Disney compared to Hell.

Do you notice a theme that without God there is only death and death multiplied? Can you see that were it not by the loving grace of God that we live in each day, all of us would be dead? God allows us to live each day, and He protects and preserves us as we drive, sleep and live. Life is from God, and without Him there is only death. Those of us that have God as our Heavenly Father no longer need to fear death, but those that reject God have to fear even living, furthermore death.

Verse 7 tells us that this is just due to those that have killed the saints and the prophets. They got blood to drink. In Deuteronomy 32:35 we see these fateful words:

“Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.” They are repeated in the New Testament in Hebrews 10:30. God will repay the evil done to His people.

Lastly, in this lesson we finish with the fact that God is righteous. No matter what He does, no matter what it looks like, and no matter the death tolls here, God is righteous in ALL things.

There is such a cry from the world questioning God’s righteousness because evil is present in the world, but that does not change the fact that God is righteous and there is not one shadow of darkness in Him. Once we have accepted His absolute righteousness, then all He does is good – and we can settle our finite minds and simply trust Him by faith. God’s righteousness demands that sin be punished, and punished with prejudice. His righteousness demanded that Jesus be killed as soon as He became sin for me/us. Understand that God’s righteousness demanded His Son’s death once He became sin for us. Imagine what His righteousness demands for those who reject so gracious a gift?

We live in the age of grace, and we live in the age of the free offer of salvation. It was an expensive salvation to purchase, but it is offered freely to you and me. Today is the day to be saved.

Missionarybaptistchurch76@yahoo.ca