“The Tribulation”
Part VII
Opening: The political conventions are over and the speeches are done.
Revelation 15
Now we have come to the seven plagues brought by the seven angels to finish the wrath of God on the earth.
In the King James Bible the word last means finished, which is what Jesus spoke on the cross just before He died when He said, “It is finished.”
Jesus meant that the debt of mans sin against God was finished.
Now those who have rejected the work of Christ will realize that God’s patience is finished.
The “Sea of Glass” is a symbol of all the believers who came through the Tribulation.
The martyrs are singing the song of Moses.
The Jews have sung this song for thousands of years to commemorate their deliverance from Pharoah’s army at the Red Sea.
Their song also becomes the “Song of the Lamb”.
Jesus brought them deliverance and made them joint heirs in the Kingdom of God.
In verse five the Heavenly Tabernacle was opened and John was permitted to look into the Holy of Holies.
John refers to it as the tabernacle of testimony meaning its function was both a witness to man and a witness against him.
It was a witness to man in that its furniture and function told of the way man must approach God.
It witnesses against him because the necessity of the rituals was a constant reminder that man was unworthy to come into the presence of a holy God in his own merit.
Illustration: Becoming a member of a club.
Out of the temple came seven angels with the seven final judgments of God.
Do you remember when we I this series and told you that each level was going to be more severe than the previous one?
The seven trumpets were worse than the seven seals and now the seven bowls are going to be the worst.
The seven plagues needed to be fulfilled before any man could enter the temple.
Now the people who did not repent are about to be judged and God now closes His ears to their cries because it is too late.
Illustration: Same as Noah when he closed the door to the Ark.
In chapter 14 we saw the final harvest of the believers but now it was too late and the destiny of everyone on earth is about to be settled.
Revelation 16 Read verse 1-16
Bowl one was a plague of malignant painful sores poured out on all those people who accepted the mark.
This is similar to the plague of boils that God allowed Moses and Aaron to spread over Egypt in the 9th chapter of Exodus.
Now as horrible as this sounds it will be mild compared to where they spend eternity.
The 2nd bowl was poured into the sea and every living thing died. Remember in the 8th chapter how 1/3 of the sea died?
Even after this man would not repent so now God’s wrath kills everything in the water.
Bowl 3 turns the water into blood, once again similar to Moses turning the Nile into blood but here we are told all the water.
In verse 6 we are told why God inflicts this horrible judgment on the earth.
They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you gave them blood to drink and they deserve it.
Bowl number 4 delivers a global heat wave. Finally Al Gore will get his global warming.
There is no water to drink and now men will be scorched by the sun.
Bowl five produces darkness. Moses and the people experienced this in Egypt and Moses said it was so oppressive you could feel it.
The darkness will allow the 200 million soldiers to move into the area of the middle east.
Bowl number 5 is the Euphrates River drying up.
The 6th bowl judgment is an extension of the 6th trumpet judgment in which the 200 million soldiers begin to march.
In the 6th bowl they have gathered at the Euphrates River.
In 1970 Russia constructed a dam near the headwaters of the Euphrates River an China constructed a road from China thru the Himalayas to Pakistan.
India lodged a protest to the United Nations saying this was a threat to the peace of Asia.
In verse 13 & 14 we are told that these demons performed miracles probably in order to persuade the west to join in a fight with the kings of the east at the river.
This is where the Battle of Armageddon will be fought.
There will be Wars of Armageddon and then there will be Battle of Armageddon.
The wars will last for 3-1/2 years but the final battle Jesus will come and stop.
There will be six stages to the War of Armageddon. Found in the 11th chapter of Daniel.
Stage 1 is when the Arab-African Confederacy launches a massive attack against Israel.
This will be the King of the South Daniel talks about.
Stage 2 is a full scale invasion against Israel and the Middle East by Russia.
This will be the King of the North.
Stage 3 will be when Russia returns from Egypt to regroup their forces in Israel.
The 4th stage of the campaign will be when the entire Russian Army is annihilated in Israel by the European forces of the Antichrist.
The Lord describes in Ezekiel this annihilation.
Ezekiel 38:22 I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.
The 5th stage of the war is when the 200 million man army from the Orient reaches the Euphrates and prepares to attack the Antichrist, who will be in Israel at that time.
The 6th and final stage is the mobilization of all of the rest of the world’s armies to fight under the command of the Antichrist against the Kings of the East.
At this point all the armies move into the Middle East and spread out along the entire area of Israel and concentrating mainly in the valley of Armegeddon.
Read verses 17-21
Bowl number 7, which is the final bowl, causes an earthquake that will level every city in the world.
The term earthquake means a great shaking of the earth and this is going to be the grand daddy of the all.
Not only will the cities be affected but the land will be ripped apart, the coastlines and continents will be changed, and the mountains will be flattened.
100 pound hailstorms will be cast down on earth.
Illustration: Being hit by hail.
And the people will curse God because of all of this. Right up until the end.
Now just look at how it all ends. Cities wiped out, landscapes changed, dead bodies, debris everywhere.
Probably just the way everyone sometime has pictured what the end of the world would look like.
And with all this you would expect some people to ask God for forgiveness and mercy.
But instead they blasphemed God and cursed Him because of the plague that God delivers.
Though all this might sound like the end of life on earth, we’ll see in the next chapter that the personal return of Jesus to earth will halt man from destroying all life on the planet and will bring a new world.
