Randy, the painter, often thinned his paint to make it go further. So when the local Baptist Church decided to restore its biggest building. Randy put in a low bid and got the job.
He bought the paint, and, yes, thinned it to make it go further. Well, Randy was painting away, the job nearly completed, when suddenly there was a clap of thunder. The sky opened, and the rain poured down. It washed the thinned paint off the church.
Randy fell from the scaffold, landing among the puddles of paint that had run off the building. He was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty. Randy raised his voice to the heavens, crying, "Oh, God, forgive me; what should I do?"
And from above, a mighty voice roared: “Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!"
While we might chuckle at that really bad joke, the fact is that sin and repentance are no laughing matters. And perhaps the greatest benefit of the passage that we’ll look at this morning is that it reminds us of just how serious of a matter that sin is.
What is not surprising in our culture is the fact that unbelievers underestimate the seriousness of sin. So to an extent that I’ve certainly never seen before in my lifetime people openly flaunt behaviors that the Bible clearly identifies as sinful. They joke that they don’t mind going to hell because all of their buddies will be there, too, and they’ll have a great time partying together, not realizing that the fate that awaits them will be more horrible than they could ever imagine.
But what is really scary to me is that those of us who identify ourselves as Christians also have a tendency to underestimate the seriousness of sin. And much of that blame must go to the church itself and to those within the church that have peddled a “cheap grace” that minimizes the seriousness of our sin and the need for genuine repentance. So there are many so called Christians who just keep on sinning because they figure all they have to do is to ask God and He’ll forgive their sin, which He will, at least up to a point.
But I’m convinced that we will never truly be able to live the kind of life God want us to live until we begin to see our sin from His perspective and realize just how serious it is. And chapter 16 of Revelation very clearly presents the seriousness of our sin from God’s perspective. You’ll want to go ahead and open your Bibles to that chapter and follow along this morning. Since we’re going to cover the entire chapter, I’m going to break it down into several sections. Follow along as I begin reading in verse 1:
1 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.”
2 So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
3 The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.
4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. 5 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say,
“Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was,
for you brought these judgments.
6 For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
7 And I heard the altar saying,
“Yes, Lord God the Almighty,
true and just are your judgments!”
8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. 9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.
1. Sin is serious because its impact is far-reaching
You will note a pattern here that we’ve previously seen in the Book of Revelation as these first four bowls are poured out against God’s creation. We also saw that same pattern with the first four seals and the first four trumpets. These first four bowls impact the earth, the seas, the waters and the objects in the heavens. But, as we’ve discussed before, there is an increasing intensity to these judgments of God. While the seals and trumpets only impacted a portion of God’s creation, the bowls impact all of it.
So why would God pour out judgment on that which He has created, that which He called “good” at the moment of creation? After all, the creation itself, with the exception of man, doesn’t sin. The words of Paul in Romans chapter 8 help us to understand why God will judge His own creation:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.
Romans 8:19-22 (ESV)
Notice here that the creation is described as being “subjected to futility” and in “bondage to corruption”. It has constantly been groaning and looking forward t that day when it will be set free from that bondage. But how did the creation get into bondage in the first place? Because man is an integral part of God’s creation, when man sins, it not only impacts man, but it also affects the entire creation. So when God purges the earth of sin at the return of Jesus, He not only has to deal with humans who have sinned, but He also has to cleanse the rest of the physical creation which has been negatively impacted by that sin.
How many times have you heard someone excuse their sin by claiming that it’s not hurting anyone else? But both this passage and the rest of Scripture illustrate time after time that sin never occurs in a vacuum. It always impacts other people and it even impacts the very creation all around us. Sin is serious first of all because it is so far reaching.
Let’s continue reading in verse 10:
10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish 11 and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.
12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty…
[You’ll notice that in most of your translations verse 15 is in parentheses and I’ll come back to it in a few minutes]
16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.
2. Sin is serious because it plunges us into the dominion of darkness
Again, you’ll note that the pattern of the fifth and sixth bowls mirrors the fifth and sixth seal and trumpet. The fifth in each series deals not with the physical, but with the spiritual. The fifth seal pictured the martyrs under the altar praying and the fifth trumpet pictured a demonic host being released from the abyss.
The sixth in each series deals with the preparations for the return of Jesus and the completion of God’s judgment. The sixth seal pictured the chaos in the skies that Jesus spoke of in Matthew 24 that would occur immediately before His return. And the sixth trumpet also dealt with the Euphrates River and the great demonic army that was preparing for a final battle.
Both the fifth and sixth trumpets, in particular, give insight into the dominion of Satan and his agents and to their final demise.
For a period of time Satan and his agents have been granted a degree of dominion over this earth by God. That is why in Ephesians 2 Satan is called the “prince of the power of the air”. And whenever we sin, there is a sense in which subject ourselves to the authority of that dominion.
Remember that right after Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus began to reveal to His closest followers that He was going to be rejected and killed and rise from the grave three days later? When Peter tried to rebuke Jesus, Jesus responded with these words:
But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”
Mark 8:33 (ESV)
Obviously, Jesus was not implying that Peter had actually become Satan. But when he sinned by seeking the things of men rather than the things of God, he was yielding himself to that dominion of darkness in which Satan rules.
But that dominion is limited. Unlike the dominion of God, it will not last forever. But while it is in place, it operates by darkness and deception and when we sin, we open ourselves up to the effects of that process.
By the way, and we don’t have time to really explore this more, isn’t it interesting that God judges the dominion of darkness with complete darkness?
Sin is serious because it is so far-reaching and it is serious because it plunges us into the dominion of darkness.
Let’s continue reading in verse 17:
17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.
3. Sin is serious because it clouds our view of the future
We’ve spent quite a bit of time previously examining the very close parallels between the seventh seal, seventh trumpet and seventh bowl. Those similarities are significant enough to allow us to conclude that all three probably refer to the same event. But rather than look at all the details here, let’s step back for a moment and look at the larger picture.
Three times in this chapter we see man cursing God. That is certainly consistent with the response to the sixth seal when men prayed for the mountains to fall on them and kill them so that they will be spared the wrath of God. And we saw a similar response after the sixth trumpet, where those impacted by the trumpet judgments refuse to repent.
This is really hard for me to understand. It is clear that these people recognize that these events represent judgment from the hand of God and yet they still refuse to repent and turn to Him. Instead they choose to curse Him.
It seems that man’s judgment has been so clouded by sin that he now believes that he would be better off dead, because death would somehow be a release from the tremendous tribulation occurring on the earth at this time. And this isn’t the first place in the Bible where we’ve seen that mindset. Remember Mrs. Job?
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.”
Job 2:9 (ESV)
Mrs. Job had the idea that her husband would be better off dead than to go through the physical torment that he was experiencing. Both Mrs. Job and those who curse God here in Revelation 16 have been deceived into believing that there is nothing more to life than this physical life here on earth. And there is evidence that the more a person sins, the more he or she is likely to be deceived into believing that.
But the clear record of Scripture, which is going to be confirmed as we complete our journey through Revelation, is that there is an everlasting component to our lives. Every person will either experience eternal rest and eternal life in the presence of Jesus, or they will face everlasting torment separated from God. And that final destiny is determined completely and solely based on whether or not we commit our lives to Jesus.
Sin is serious because it is so far-reaching; it is serious because it plunges us into the dominion of darkness; and it is serious because it clouds our view of the future.
Remember we skipped verse 15 a few minutes ago. Let’s go back and read it now:
15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”)
4. Sin is serious because its impact is not limited to unbelievers
At first glance, it is not totally clear whether this verse is intended to be an admonition to believers or whether it is a further warning to unbelievers. But if we go back to the message to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, we find some very similar wording:
I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.
Revelation 3:18 (ESV)
That message, as you’ll remember, was clearly directed to Christ-followers and the fact that the wording here in chapter 16 is so similar leads me to believe that this is primarily an admonition to believers.
The picture here probably comes from the practices of the Temple police as recorded in the Mishnah. When the captain of the temple guards would make his rounds at night, if a member of the temple police was found asleep at his post, his clothes were taken off and burned and he was went away naked in disgrace.
Garments are used frequently in the Bible as a picture of spiritual preparedness:
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Galatians 3:27 (ESV)
The verb translated “put on” literally means to “put on a garment”.
But that is not the way you learned Christ! - assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Ephesians 4:20-24 (ESV)
Again in verse 24, the verb “put on” is the same verb that literally means to put on a garment. So the idea here is that as believers we need to make the proper spiritual preparations so that we won’t be impacted by sin.
Sin is serious because it is so far-reaching; it is serious because it plunges us into the dominion of darkness; it is serious because it clouds our view of the future; and it is serious because its impact is not limited to unbelievers. And because sin is so serious, it requires a serious response.
The seriousness of my sin requires a serious response – repentance
We tend to throw the word “repent” around so much that I often worry that we’ve lost sight of what is required for genuine repentance. So let’s take our remaining time this morning to see what we can learn about genuine repentance, and then, even more importantly, see how we can develop a lifestyle of repentance in our own lives.
Let’s begin with the word itself. Normally, I try not to burden you with too much Greek grammar and vocabulary, but this is one of those times where we must understand the underlying word in order to grasp the concept.
The Greek verb “repent” is “metanoeo”. It is a compound word:
“meta” = “after”, “with” or “around”
“noeo” = “to direct one’s mind to a subject”
When we put these words together, we get the following definition of the word:
“to think differently after being informed with the truth”
Metanoeo is much deeper than merely changing one’s mind. It is a complete reversal of one’s previous attitudes, beliefs and actions. Thus it is often pictured, quite accurately, as “making a u-turn”. But while that picture is accurate, as you can see, there is a lot more to repentance than merely making a u-turn. In Scripture we can identify five essential elements of genuine repentance:
• See my sin from God’s perspective
I begin the process of repentance by choosing to see my sin from God’s perspective rather than from my own perspective. To most of the world, as we have seen, sin is no big deal. But, as we have also seen, it is clearly no laughing matter.
The more we get to know God and to view things from His perspective, the more we understand the seriousness of our sin. The Book of Job is a great example of how this works. Job begins with the two chapter narrative of the events that occur in Job’s life. And then for the next 35 chapters we read the account of the conversation between Job and his so called “friends”. And there we find Job consistently defending himself and claiming that he is righteous. But beginning in chapter 38, Job has an encounter with God. And at the end of that encounter, Job speaks these words:
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
Job 42:5, 6 (ESV)
By all accounts, Job was a very moral and religious man. But once God revealed Himself to Job, Job understood his true nature and the seriousness of his sin. And as a result he despised himself and he repented. There is no doubt that Job “thought differently” after being informed with the truth” is there?
If there is one thing that we can learn from the book of Revelation, it is that God views sin very seriously and that one day He is going to bring severe judgment upon those who fail to understand just how serious sin is to Him.
• Grieve over my sin
But it’s not just enough to see sin from God’s perspective. There is evidence in the passage that we looked at this morning that there were some who probably recognized how serious their sin was. But they weren’t willing to go any further than that. In order for there to be genuine repentance, we must move on to the next step, which is to grieve over our sin:
Paul points out the importance of grieving over our sin:
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.
2 Corinthians 7:10 (ESV)
There are plenty of people who have worldly grief. They may be sorry that they got caught or sorry that they are suffering the consequences of their sin, but that is not godly grief. Godly grief occurs when are hearts are broken over our sin because we realize just how much our sin breaks God’s heart. We see that kind of godly grief demonstrated by the tax collector in Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector:
But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’
Luke 18:13 (ESV)
Genuine repentance requires that I first see my sin from God’s perspective, and that I then grieve over my sin. The third aspect of genuine repentance is that I must…
• Take appropriate action
Although repentance begins with a change of mind, it is always accompanied by appropriate action. We see this clearly in Paul’s address to King Agrippa:
Therefore, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance.
Acts 26:19, 20 (ESV)
Notice the connection between deeds and repentance. Genuine repentance always requires some kind of action. Once I understand my sin and grieve over it I must take the appropriate action to prevent falling back into that same sin over and over again and allowing it to become a lifestyle.
If I’m prone to gossip, then I need to avoid situations where gossip is likely to occur or being with people who tend to gossip. If I’m an alcoholic, I better avoid hanging out in bars or associating with people who drink all the time. If I’m addicted to pornography then I better not isolate myself behind closed doors with my computer. If I’m a glutton, then I probably should avoid the buffet line at Golden Corral.
Genuine repentance requires that I first see my sin from God’s perspective, that I then grieve over my sin, that I take appropriate action to avoid a lifestyle of sin. The fourth aspect of genuine repentance is that I…
• Make repentance a lifestyle
Although there is an aspect of repentance in which we make a onetime decision to turn from sin and commit our lives to Jesus, that should never be the whole extent of our repentance as Christ-followers. Unfortunately, this aspect of repentance is one that may Christ followers seem to ignore the most. We tend to think that we can just repent once and were good to go for the rest of our lives. But if we look carefully at the words of both John the Baptizer and Jesus, we see that this is just not the case.
In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 3:1, 2 (ESV)
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Matthew 4:17 (ESV)
The command that both John and Jesus gave to “repent” is a present tense command. In essence the command is to “keep on repenting”. In other words, repentance is to be a lifestyle for every Christ-follower.
Over this past week, Mary and I have been exposed to a form of repentance that will probably not become a lifestyle. There are a whole lot of people each year that at the first of the year repent about their lack of physical health. So a whole bunch of them joined the gym that we go to over the last couple of weeks and this week it was so crowded at times that we could hardly work out. But I am confident, based on previous experience, that will be short-lived and a month or two from now the crowds will be gone.
Let’s make sure that as Christ-followers, our repentance doesn’t follow that same pattern. Let’s make sure we continuously view our sin from God’s perspective and grieve over that sin. And then every day let’s make sure we take the appropriate action to remove the temptations in our lives that might draw us back into sin.
Finally, genuine repentance requires that I…
• Understand the consequences of not repenting
We saw that really clearly in the passage we looked at this morning. Those who choose not to repent are condemned, by their own choice, to an everlasting judgment in a horrible place separated from God. But frankly, they are without excuse, because God has very clearly warned in both the Old and New Testament of the consequences of not repenting:
If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
Psalm 7:12, 13 (ESV)
And then there are these words of Jesus, words that are so important that he repeated them word for word twice within just a couple of verses:
No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
Luke 13:3, 5 (ESV)
Sin is no laughing matter. It is a very serious matter to God and therefore we need to take it seriously, too. And the only way that we can do that is to develop a lifestyle of repentance. So right now, we’re going to take a few minutes as we sit here quietly to focus on repentance in each of our lives. I’m going to ask that everyone bow their heads and take a few moments to at least begin the process of repentance if you need to do that this morning.
Ask God to help you see your sin from His perspective and to grieve over that sin. Make a commitment before God to take the appropriate actions to avoid falling into a lifestyle of sin. Ask God to help you to develop a lifestyle of repentance.
