Prelude To God's Wrath Series

Dr. Bradford Reaves

Crossway Christian Fellowship

Hagerstown, MD

www.mycrossway.org

We come tonight to the Fifteenth Chapter of Revelation. In just a few weeks from now, it will be Thanksgiving and in just 7 weeks from now, it will be Christmas. Those wonderful days of celebration and festivities will be here and gone. There is more work in preparation in the anticipation of these days than there is the actual celebration they entail. There is something powerful about the eve of these holidays - be it the arrival of family, cooking some of the meals, traveling to go somewhere, or the candlelight service on Christmas eve. The eve of these holidays signals a significant shift in our homes and our culture.

Similarly, chapter 15 is in some respects the eve of the coming seven bowl judgments of God. As we will see tonight, for the world, the situation is bad, but for the redeemed, the situation is astounding and worthy of rejoicing. Now, you may be sitting here thinking, how can there be rejoicing over the pouring of God’s wrath on man that is a worldly vantage point? From the throne of heaven, it is victorious and perfect.

1 Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. 2 And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. 3 And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! 4 Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” 5 After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, 6 and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. 7 And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, 8 and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. (Revelation 15:1-8)

It is important to understand the character of God and one of the critical characteristics is His holy and perfect judgments. Hebrews 10:31 “31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Over centuries of time, God has warned that the day will come. There have been plenty of warnings and previews of this day. The Bible calls it, “The Day of the Lord.:

The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. (Joel 2:31)

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. (2 Peter 3:10)

Behold, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger, to make the land a desolation and to destroy its sinners from it. (Isaiah 13:9)

The purpose of this day is when He will pour out His final judgment over unbelieving, unrepentant, and sinful man. For those of us in heaven, it will be solemnly good. God’s judgment will be perfect and in its perfection, we will look upon it as just and good.

It’s important to understand that the judgment of God comes in various forms. For instance, we are as a nation under God’s judgment for our apostasy. We see that in the current state of our leadership and the condition of our land. This is a biblical pattern as seen with Egypt, Sodom & Gomorrah, and even Israel.

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse...And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. (Romans 1:20, 28)

There is also a personal judgment that will happen in the life of the believer. We are told we are to practice self-examination (1 Corinthians 11:28), that God will purify the Body of Christ (Matthew 16:15-17), and there are times when God will discipline the believer (Hebrews 12:5-6). This is a purifying judgment in the life of the believer or to beckon an unbeliever into the hand of God.