Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Isa.6:1-6 read
The bowl judgments come out of heaven to the earth in the last forty-two months of the tribulation period. It is believed they come in rapid succession near the end of the last three and one-half years.
The disasters they pour out will be both personal and worldwide.
John heard a great voice come out of the temple in heaven. This megales phones;
this thunderous voice said to the seven angels, Go your ways,
[ Pr.A.Imp. 2 pers.plural].
God now commands each of the seven angels to go to their appointed task.
And pour out [ Aor.A.Imp.]. Here is the order to spill out or pour out your bowl. The aorist tense would indicate that all the angels at certain point would pour out these judgments. There is no halting these judgments, nor mercy bestowed to relieve the suffering. Most of the people by this time have either received the Gospel, or they have received the mark of the beast. Those who have received the mark of the beast are on a rampage to kill as many saints as they can. As noted in Rev.9:18 one third of lost humanity has already been slain.
Bowl #1
v.2 This first bowl will bring loss of health in the form of evil and grievous sores to the body of all unbelievers. The Greek word for sores is helkos and means ulcers. These are open sores on the skin which weep with a loathsome excretion which smells horrible.
These sores are grievous as this misery torments the unsaved. Such sores as these were placed upon the unbelieving Egyptians in the sixth plague pronounced by Moses, Ex.9:8-11.
These folks will have received a warning as we noted in Rev.14:9-11 to not accept the mark of the Antichrist, but as today men and women still ignore God’s warnings, and due to their hardened and unrepentant hearts they will ignore God’s angelic spokesman.
Today God’s heralds, church pastors, when faithfully discharging their duties, warn those who will listen to them to believe God’s word and to obey God’s word, and yet so often this witness goes unheeded. Today for many pastors if they do not entertain and amuse their congregations they will go elsewhere or boycott the services until they feel like coming back. What a sad testimony, and yet this is prophesied, I Tim.4:1-2; II Tim.4:2-4.
Faithful believers who tell their friends and family members of God’s so great salvation in Jesus Christ are usually ignored. So often people think they have forever, and they go about their lives ignoring God and then suddenly one day their whole world, the world People die for some of the most bizarre reasons leaving this world behind forever. In the scenario we are seeing from God’s prophetic calendar the day will come when all believers in Jesus Christ will be Raptured out to heaven; snatched from off the face of the earth. God help those who are left behind for they will face what we are studying today.
Bowl # 2
v.3 The second angel pours his bowl of God’s judgment, [ eis] preposition meaning, into the sea, and the sea became blood, as one dead, and every living soul in the sea died.
The location of the simile, like, comes after the word blood in the Greek text denoting this to be real blood, not something like blood.
Not only will instant death visit those at sea as well as all sea life, but those in the sphere of the sea. Also to be included will be the sea shore and coastline. The word here for blood means coagulated blood, haima hos nekrou. It will destroy all food supplies in the sea. The sea refers to all salt water bodies which will include oceans.
The stench and disease along the coastline will be unbearable and deadly. The wind will carry the smell and disease for miles inland. As we all know the world’s largest populations are situated on the coastlines of continents. Carcasses of dead marine life as well as humans will wash ashore in a thick soup mixture. Not a pretty sight, and one that most people consider ludicrous, however history tells us of similar isolated incidences off...
“the coast of California and elsewhere, a phenomenon known as “red tide” occurs. These red tides kill millions of fish and poison those who eat contaminated shellfish. In 1949 one of these red tides hit the coast of Florida. First the water turned yellow, but by midsummer it was thick and sticky with countless billions of dinoflagellates, tiny one-celled organisms. Sixty-mile windrows of stinking fish fouled the beaches. Much marine life was wiped out, even bait used by fishermen died upon the hooks. Eventually the red tide subsided; only to appear again the following year...An unchecked population explosion of toxic dinoflagellates would kill all the fish in the sea. The phenomenon is well known, but scientists do not know what causes the proliferation of these tiny one celled organisms or what normally limits it. One theory is that it is caused when cobalt in an area reaches a certain density.... That may not fully explain what will happen when the second vial is outpoured, but it certainly illustrates it.” [Phillips Commentary on Rev.p.190,191]
Unbelievable things happen everyday, and it’s only by the grace of God that any of us are here today. True wisdom would tell us to look out for ourselves in light of the unexpected events in life, not to mention our inevitable death. God’s wisdom would have us turn to him for our security and nothing can top having security of eternal life in heaven, nothing.
I trust you have recognized your need for the Savior for he died on the cross for your sins. I trust you have received him as your Savior, and if not you will do so this day.
Rom.10:91-10 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is make unto salvation.”
For those who plan on deliberating on this issue, please remember our message today.
The Lord Jesus Christ is subject to catching away his church at any moment and convening with us in heaven, I Cor.15:50-58; I Thess.4:13-18. Those left behind will be faced with what we talked about today. To ignore God’s word is to jeopardize your eternal condition. As a Christian let us trust the validity of our Father’s word and be found faithful at our Savior’s return or our home going, which ever comes first.