Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
In our last message we talked about ignoring God’s warnings. His warnings are not threats. God never threatens people, he warns people. God knows the outcome and because he loves us he wants what is best for all of us. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, II Pet.3:9. To keep from perishing, however, mankind has to receive God’s Son as their Savior. This is not a threat, but instead it is the only offer God will make to all of mankind. God says that only Jesus Christ can take away sin, which he did on the cross. To tell someone that if they reject the Savior they will go to an eternal torment is not a threat, it is a warning of impending and eternal suffering. God makes no other offer than this one. He made that offer known to Adam and Eve after they had sinned in the Garden of Eden, Gen.3:15. That one day a virgin [Mary] would bring forth a child who in crushing the serpent’s [ Satan] head, that this child [ Jesus Christ] would bruise his heel. This bruise would be the cross. Our Savior was cursed for us as he paid for our sins. God makes no alternate offer of salvation and forgiveness of sins to any people in any land at any time. Jesus Christ is not “a way” of salvation; he is “the way” of salvation. There it is. We can neither add nor take away from the simplicity of God’s offer. And no unbeliever will escape the penalty of eternal damnation regardless of how sincere they are, or how many good deeds they do.
Plenty of folks with good intentions will be left behind when the Church is snatched to heaven [ Rapture]. This too is not a threat. This is what the word of God teaches.
Near the end of the seven year tribulation period God will begin his final campaign to rid the world of all unbelievers, just as he did in the days of Noah. In Christ’s Millennial kingdom mankind will be given one last period of human history to be all that God ever intended man to be. Though sin will still exist, it will not be as out of control as it is now, or even worse, how it will be during the tribulation period.
16:1-3 Summary- The seven angels are sent to pour out the bowls of God’s wrath upon those who have received the mark of the Antichrist.
These angels go out in rapid succession. There is no pause for mercy, that aspect of God so beloved of humanity has expired at this point. The first bowl brings skin ulcers which are painful and foul to those who received the mark of the Antichrist. The second bowl brings putrid coagulated blood to all salt water bodies, bringing with it the death of all sea life and lost mankind located in the sphere of the sea. This will bring disease and sickness and starvation to untold millions.
Bowl # 3
Rev.16:4 Today we resume with the third bowl of God’s wrath.
This bowl will be poured out on all fresh water supplies all over the world which also will include bottled water. The fresh water supply was turned into, [egeneto], it became, haima, blood. No simile is used here. The fresh waters were turned to blood in Ex.7:17-21, read. Even the water gathered in vessels of all types was turned to blood and so shall it be in the third bowl of God’s wrath. Only the saved that are still alive at this time will be protected from these judgments as these judgments are aimed solely at the lost. This was the same for the children of Israel as they were protected from the plagues God brought upon Israel.
The Greek word for rivers is potamou. We find our word for drinkable water today in this word as we call drinkable water, potable water. Next we have fountains. This Greek word, pegas, means springs or wells, and refers to fresh water in any contained place, including underground springs and wells, Jn.4:6, 14; Mk.5:29.
Thirst combined with loathsome sores and a putrid stench in the air along with the smell of dead animals from salt water and fresh water sources will make life a living nightmare.
v.5 And then in the midst of this outpouring of God’s wrath the third angel exclaims, “Thou art righteous, O Lord, because thou hast judged thus.”
v. 6
For they [those receiving the bowls of wrath] have shed [Aor.A.I] verb from ekcheo, to spill or pour out. They have spilled out the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.” That is, the unrighteous are worthy to suffer due to their killing of the saints.
The ungodly will reap what they have sown on God’s righteous children. And I remind all of us here today that the righteousness found in God’s children is not, has not, nor ever will be a byproduct of any actions or good deeds which we may have done. We are only called righteous because the impeccable integrity of God saw fit to call us such in Christ Jesus. God’s wrath is poised to vindicate his own righteousness, and only by his mercy has his long-suffering held back the tide of his indignation.
v.7 read..
Another angel speaks from the altar where the prayers of the martyrs came, and the prayers of those yet suffering at the hands of the wicked on earth. Calling out to our Lord, the God, the Almighty as this angel makes no doubt as to the source of these judgments. He is true and righteous in his judgments. The self-righteous crowd abhors the righteousness of God.
Liberals today scowl at the thought of a God they cannot manipulate. The closest they can come to manipulating God is to deny his Word, and mock his faithful servants. They have created a God that the Bible does not claim. They have softened sin and its offence against God calling sin everything from a disease, to just bad manners. Lost mankind dreams of a day when they will be rid of the God of the Bible, but that day will never come. The late John Lennon’s song, Imagine, will never happen.
God always gets the last word, and there will always be God and a heaven and a hell.
I have had misinformed Christians tell me that God’s justice is cruel and that it can only be symbolic. They say that God is only love, but this is a misrepresentation of the total essence of God. Just as love could not prevent our Lord from going to the cross, Jn.3:16, neither can love prevent God from judging the unsaved. Yes, the love of God motivates all that is wonderful in this world, but we live in a world filled with sin and sinners. This sin was judged on our Savior on the cross of Calvary and just as love could not bring Christ Jesus off the cross; neither can love alone save the sinner from the wrath of God. The only place the sinner can find a pardon from sin is at the cross by receiving Jesus Christ as his or her sin bearer. Those who go into the next life without Christ will face an eternity of torment for refusal to receive Christ as their Savior. As I have said several times before, Jesus Christ spoke more on Hell than he did on Heaven. Hell was created for Satan and his fallen angels, and they will be sent there some day, but so will everyone else who refuses to come to Jesus Christ for salvation.
The exception to this is children who have not reached the age of accountability, II Sam.12:13-23; Matt.18:14 , or the truly mentally handicapped . [subject for later discussion]
God is in all ways fair and just. We have been given much light in the form of the Gospel, and each one of us will give an accounting one day of what we did with that Light. Those in our text will see and experience what happens when that Light is refused.
Now, for us as believers, we will give an account of our faithfulness to the word of God. This accounting will take place in heaven at the Bema Seat judgment where our Christian life will be evaluated for reward. Will we have bought up opportunities to learn the word, or did we avoid learning? Did we seek a Sunday substitute? Was Sunday a day of worship and study and reflection upon the word and worth of God, or was it a day of entertainment and performance? Did we go to Church to be impressed with God or with ourselves or someone else?
Did we learn God’s viewpoint and exercise it in our private and public life? Did we learn through the communicated truth something that would mold us more into the image of Jesus Christ, Rom.8:29? Did we allow the pastor to speak even the hardest to swallow truth, and then thank him for it?
Beloved we are in a battle against the world, the flesh and the devil. We are in a spiritual battle and our minds must be so inculcated with God’s word that we instinctively follow divine protocol. We are engaged with opposing viewpoints and an ever increasingly base- nature cultural shift. We must stand out, even if we stand alone.
Let us tell as many as we can of God’s Son and his concern for them. The lessons we are learning in Revelation are relevant at all times, and so is our Christian testimony.