Revelation 15:5

 

In Revelation Chapters 14 and 15 we see the wrath of God and the judgment of God poured out upon the earth. In Bible prophecy we find ourselves near the end of the Great Tribulation. In the last part of Revelation Chapter 15 we are given a description that in reality explains to us the reason that the wrath of God must be poured out upon the earth. The Bible says in Revelation 15: 5-8,

 

"And after that I looked, and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony was opened; And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, and from his power; and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled."

 

Seven angels came out of the temple with seven vials full of the wrath of God. Two things mentioned in these verses help us understand why the wrath of God is to be poured out. Obviously, we are talking about the wrath of God against the unsaved: the wrath of God against those who refuse His salvation. Revelation 15:5 mentions the temple in heaven. We know about the temple described for us in the Old Testament. From this scripture we can see there is also a temple in heaven. This was the pattern which God gave for the construction of the earthly tabernacle and temple that were built on the earth. They were patterned after the one that exists in heaven. One of the most significant characteristics of the tabernacle and the temple was the existence of an inner chamber called the "Holy of Holies". It represented the presence of God. Only the high priest could enter this holy place, and he could only enter if sacrifices for sin were made. Should the priest enter with sin in his heart, he was immediately stuck dead.

 

God is holy. Man is sinful. When the seven angels came out of the temple, the Bible says:

 

"they were clothed in pure and white linen."

 

Unless you become clothed in the righteousness that only God can give, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ you are in a horrible condition. You are still in your sin. Man should not sin. Man should do the right thing: always. There is no excuse. It’s not okay to sin just because you are human. You should be honest and truthful and pure and good in everything that you say and do. God is obligated to forgive sinful man, based upon His word in I John 1: 9, the Word of God tells us:

 

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

 

 

 

God will be just and true whenever He decides that it’s time for judgment. God does not forgive us for nothing. He can only forgive us because there is a substitute who suffered in our place, who paid the required righteous demands of the law so that we would not have to pay it. It’s amazing and wonderful that God created and instituted the plan whereby sinful man could be forgiven and allowed to enter heaven even though they deserve eternal punishment and eternal separation from our maker. But once mankind has completely and finally rejected salvation through Jesus Christ, what is left for them is simply God’s wrath. The wrath of God is described here as seven vials that will be poured out upon the earth.

 

Revelation 16:1-2 says,

 

"And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image."

 

God is wonderfully merciful and patient. He sent His own Son to suffer the cruel death of the cross so that we might have the opportunity to be saved from our sins. God is so very patient that he gives people chance after chance and opportunity after opportunity to repent of their sins. God gives some nations hundreds of years to repent, until finally His justice can wait no longer. The judgment of Almighty God falls upon them. The cycle has repeated itself over and over again throughout the history of the human race. Man sins, God provides opportunities to repent and find salvation; but when man does not repent judgment must finally fall from a holy, just and righteous God. The last of these judgments will be the most awesome and severe of all.

 

The first of the seven vials is a grievous sore that falls upon all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. Perhaps this will be some kind of excruciatingly painful boil that will break out upon the skin of people. One of the great sorrows that can sometimes happen to people is the loss of good health. In this case millions and millions of people will suffer the same agonizing torment. And then something else happens.

 

Revelation 16:3 says,

 

"And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea."

 

Three fourths of the earth is covered by ocean. Large quantities of food are harvested from the ocean every year. This second vial of the wrath of God results in the oceans turning to blood so that all creatures in the oceans die.

 

Human life cannot be sustained without pure, clean water. It’s always been a great calamity in any community, or country if the water supply is damaged or ruined.

 

When the third vial of the wrath of God is poured out, the water supply of the entire world becomes polluted. Revelation 16: 4-7 says,

 

"And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters; and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, who are and was and shall be, because you have judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And I heard another angel out of the altar say, Even so Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments."

 

This is the main reason that you should not take vengeance on those who mistreat you.

 

In the book of Romans Paul writes to us:

 

"Vengeance is mine saith the Lord, I will repay."

 

No one gets away with anything because there is a God who judges the earth. Believers have been tortured and killed in every century. Unbelievers have resisted God, they have shed the blood of God’s faithful servants, they have tried to wash the name of Jesus from the face of the earth with the blood of those who claim that name and therefore, one day they will drink blood as a just payment for their evil deeds. They have desired blood, and therefore God will give them blood instead of water. And afterwards God will give them another vial full of His wrath.

 

Revelation 16: 8-9 says,

 

"And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, who has power over these plagues; and they repented not to give Him glory."

 

In order to support life there is a very delicate balance of nature. We hear so many ecologist preaching the message of the balance of nature in our day, and of the problems we are creating by mistreating our environment. Of the planets that we are aware of, none can support life because of the harsh conditions with the exception of planet Earth. When God created the Earth He created just the right balance of wind, rain, heat and cold that makes life possible. Too much sun and you will suffer from it. The day will come when God will use the sun to chastise the wicked people of the earth. Even though these judgments are deserved by the wicked people of the earth, God is still hoping that human beings will wake up and understand the reason for the judgments is their rebellion against God. Yet instead of repentance, Revelatio. 16: 9 tells us:

 

"that the people of the earth do not learn and that they blasphemed "the name of God."

 

Revelation 16: 10-11 says,

 

"And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds."

 

God is in control of the world. There is a great conflict, a great battle, a great war going on here between good and evil, but in the end God will manifest Himself as the winner. The time will come when God will decide to bring to light the truth and to put down all falsehood. Those who align themselves with the works of darkness do so to their own eternal damnation. We are told that the kingdom of the antichrist is "full of darkness," and the real reason that people come under the wrath of God is again given in Revelation 16:11 when it says:

 

that they "repented not of their deeds."

 

This is the second time in just a few verses that we are told that the people "repented not." My friend when God speaks to us more than once concerning a particular thing or topic or act it is the "law of multiple enunciation" and He is trying to get our attention.

 

To repent means to change your mind about the attitude that you have had in regards to your own sinful actions. It means to turn around degrees and move out swiftly in the opposite direction you were originally going. If you repent and ask God to forgive you, then you shall escape the judgment; but if not you shall surely fall under the wrath of God. Jesus said,

 

"Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish."

 

The Bible says in Revelation 16: 12-16,

 

"And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches, and that keeps his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon."

 

In the five vials that came before, there was some kind of pestilence that resulted in sufferings for the wicked people of the earth. This vial is a little different. It dries up the river Euphrates, but the significance of it is not so much the loss of water for the people of the Middle East who rely upon the river, but because the river is dried up, it provides an easy route for a large army to cross over and thus enter into Palestine.

 

This army is one of the armies of the antichrist. We know that the central focus of the geopolitical events of our day is the Middle East, Israel in particular. The same will be true during the time of the Great Tribulation There are many of the events of the Great Tribulation that will take place in the Holy Land, and the last of the great battles will take place there also.

 

This army comes to fight against the people of Israel and against the Lord. The final result of this battle is made very clear to us. We have already been told that the blood will flow up to the horses bridles through a valley and it will flow for a distance of two hundred miles. Roughly the distance from Dallas to Houston, Texas down Interstate 45. Now we are being told whose blood it is: that of the army of the east that comes from the other side of the River Euphrates. We are given another clue concerning this great battle when Revelation 16:15 says,

 

"Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches."

 

This is always the language that the Bible uses when it refers to the return of Christ. There will be a wicked army of millions on one side, and there will be Jesus the King of kings on the other. The victory over the wicked ones will be quick and complete, and all Israel will be saved. The army from the east will die there in the valley of Armageddon.

 

Notice in Revelation 16: 13 the unholy trinity mentioned: the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet. The dragon is the devil. The beast is the antichrist, and the false prophet is the spokesman for the antichrist in the final one-world government and one-world false religion that will oppose God and oppose the truth. What is mentioned about the devil, the antichrist, and the false prophet is their mouth. Of all the evil that they will do, the worst will be the things that they say. They will lie and deceive. Lies are the most damaging of all words. Jesus said that the devil was the father of all liars.

 

The lies of the devil are being propagated throughout the world today. Many lives have been destroyed because people accepted philosophies and ideas that were not true. The Word of God states in Proverbs 14: 12:

 

"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death!"

 

But in the end-time, the time of the Great Tribulation, lies will be believed by the masses of people in a way that has never before happened. One reason for that is found in Paul’s writings to the church at Thessalonica, his second letter in fact, the second chapter of that letter and the 11^th verse states:

 

 

 

"And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:"

 

Jesus spoke about false christs and false prophets that would come in the last days, and he said in Matthew 24:24,

 

"For there shall arise false christs and false prophets, and shall show signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect."

 

A key word in the above text is the word elect. This is not speaking of the church of Jesus Christ. The elect is speaking of the nation of Israel. The elect has always been God’s people the Jews. We often misapply the words of Jesus failing to comprehend that while Jesus yet ministered He was ministering under the law of the Old Testament. The New Testament was not in force until Jesus died on the cross.

 

It’s no wonder that the unsaved are so easily deceived even in our day and age, and it magnifies the importance of another statement made by Jesus,

 

"You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."

 

In Revelation 16: 17-21 the Bible says,

 

"The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!" Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. Every island fled away and the mountains could not be found. From the sky huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds each fell upon men. And they cursed God on account of the plague of hail, because the plague was so terrible."

 

In these verses we see the city of Babylon mentioned. Remember that this is the time of God’s judgment upon the earth. If God is going to thoroughly and completely judge the earth, then He must also judge what is here called the city of Babylon because the sins of this city are so great. Before we look at the destruction of the city of Babylon, we must look at some other things mentioned here in the last part of Revelation Chapter 16.

 

When the seventh vial is poured out, the suffering of humans on the earth will be increased due to a great earthquake. It will be the greatest earthquake that the world has ever known, and obviously the destruction will be tremendous. Then there will be large hail weighing one hundred pounds per stone. The response made by most of mankind when these sorrows befall them is given in Revelation 16: 21 that says,

 

"and men blasphemed God."

 

Obviously, God is giving mankind one last chance to turn to Him. One reason for the judgments that fall against the earth is to wake men up to the greatness of their sin that has brought righteous judgement from a holy God. Instead of a great spiritual awakening, instead of sorrow, remorse and repentance concerning their sins, we find that the people are responding with blasphemy towards God. To blaspheme means to speak against. We have already heard that the devil and the antichrist and the false prophet will sin with their mouths, and now we hear that most of mankind left on the earth at this time will sin because they will blaspheme God.

 

The words that you say to God and about Him can result in your destruction or they can result in your salvation. If you say the right words to the Lord Jesus Christ with the right attitude, then you can escape the wrath of God.

 

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome in chapter 10, verses 9 and 10 saying:

 

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

 

 

 

He also wrote in chapter 10, verse13,

 

"For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

 

After all you have heard today, isn’t it time to turn your heart and life over to Jesus right now. Scripture tells us that:

 

"Today is the day of salvation".

 

Remember the words from Genesis 3:6:

 

"The Spirit of God will not always strive with man."

 

There will come a time, if you continue to harden your heart, that you will not be drawn by the Holy Spirit. For those who reject so great a salvation, hell awaits. A loving, righteous and holy God will not send you there. You will choose to enter of your own free will by refusing the invitation of Jesus from Revelation 3: 20:

 

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

 

Won’t you invite Jesus into your heart today?