The sermon, 'Pictures of the Wrath of God' by Scott Brown, delves into the vivid depictions of God's wrath as portrayed in Revelation 15:5 through 16:11. It describes the seven angels with seven plagues pouring out God's wrath upon those marked by the beast, illustrating the seriousness of sin and God's hatred of it. The sermon emphasizes the necessity for the church to understand and unite in the doctrine of God's wrath, highlighting that mankind takes sin lightly. It discusses the ongoing need for reformation within the church, paralleling the historical context of past reformers. The sermon also underscores the symbolic nature of Revelation, where God's judgments serve as a reminder of why Jesus was sent to save sinners, diverting God's wrath from repentant believers. It explores the various forms of sin, including original sin, and the responsibility of parents to impart the gospel to their children. The sermon critiques humanity's insensitivity to sin and the ultimate judgment awaiting the unrepentant, presenting God's wrath as both a process and a looming deadline. The sermon concludes by contrasting God's treatment of the wicked with His mercy toward believers, urging the church to glory in the cross and the forgiveness offered through Jesus Christ.

Please open your Bibles to the inerrant, all-sufficient, sweeter than honey Word of God. Revelation 5 verse 15, and I'll be reading through chapter 16 verse 11. Through chapter 16 verse 11. Revelation 15 5. After these things I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened.

And out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen, and having their chests girded with golden bands. Then 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. The temple was filled with smoke and from the glory of God and from his power. And no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go pour out the bowls of wrath of the wrath of God on the earth.

So the first went and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it became blood as of a dead man, and every living creature in the sea died. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be, because you have judged these things. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink, for it is their just due.

And I heard another from the altar saying, even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and power was given to him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who has power over these plagues. And they did not repent and give him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness.

And they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and did not repent of their deeds. Would you pray with me? Father, you've laid before us a very heavy scene, many heavy scenes. And we pray, Lord, that you would unite this church in understanding your wrath and the effects of it.

Lord, we pray that you would give us a sense of our own sin and the wrath that was laid upon your son Jesus for us. Amen. Please be seated. Well, this is a pictorial theology of the wrath of God. Somehow, God would have this church united in the doctrine of God's wrath.

And so today we're examining this passage illustrating the theology of wrath poured out upon those who bear the marks of the world, the mark of the beast. This is doctrine, this is doctrine in pictures. These pictures are meant to give us illustration of God's wrath and these scenes demonstrate the seriousness of sin. They demonstrate God's hatred of sin. They demonstrate God's hatred of the sins of the world, the pagan world, the sins of me and my family, your sins, all of our sins together, it gives a picture of God's hatred towards sin.

This is something that we need to acquire ourselves is to begin to think like God thinks about the world and about sin and righteousness and judgment. You know, God is always reforming his church and he would have us reform our view of sin. We take sin lightly. I'm reminded of Alexander Vinay, who was a Swiss reformer and preacher in the mid-1800s, and he talked about the nature of Reformation. We need Reformation in this church.

We need to be reformed, truly be being reformed. He said this, the Reformation is still something to be accomplished, something for which Luther and Calvin only prepared and even ground for a wider door. They did not once and for all reform the Church, but they affirmed the principle laid down the terms for all future reform to continue the work of reformation do not consider it complete but return without delay to the large pure spring of all truth the Word of God So that's what we're doing today regarding the doctrine of the wrath of God. It's a doctrine that men hate. Not only does God hate sin, men hate God's wrath towards sin.

And we see his wrath depicted. Now remember, Revelation is a book of symbols. In the first three verses we learn several things about how to interpret this book and that it is symbolic. And we've seen so many pictures so far. We've seen pictures of his holiness, of his beauty, of his truth, of his love, of his power, of his omnipotence.

We've seen picture after picture of this doctrine and it's been just very gripping and we've seen his people in heaven particularly the martyrs and the happinesses of his people in pictures and these these these doctrines have been given to us in these images and So we have that before us here it's very important that we think like God thinks about sin and righteousness and judgment and what we find here are pictures of God's wrath on the wicked and Now I've thought this week that these verses bring to us a subject that's more important than any subject that you're thinking about right now. That I'm thinking about right now. This subject is far more important than vaccine tyranny. It's far more important than inflation, it's far more important than the supply chain constraints, it's far more important than the World Economic Forum and the economy and COVID and whatever else you might think about, it's more important than your house remodeling, it's more important than the problem you're having at work, it's more important than the problem you're having with your kids, and it is God's wrath towards sin. And these speak of the seriousness of sin, the sinfulness of sin and God's hatred of it.

But I think also we could never miss the fact that this is a reminder of why God sent his son to save sinners and why he diverted his wrath to his son away from the repentant sinner. So there's much to consider here. The world is insensitive to sin. All of us are far too insensitive to our own sin particularly, but not just our own sin. We're insensitive to the sin of the world and the departure of the world from God.

And we live life with sins of omission, things that we should have done. We live life with sins of commission, things that we should have done. There are unintentional sins, which is why the Old Testament law gives a way for forgiveness for unintentional sins. And there are sins of ignorance. There are so many sins of pride that emerge from us.

There are sins that just arise out of our personal history, the ways that we've been shaped. There are sins that we unconsciously commit because others have sinned against us. You know, When we're sinned against, we're tempted to sin. When somebody hits you, you want to hit them back. That's kind of how it works.

And then we have a greater problem than sins. We not only have sins that we can name, But the great and looming problem that we have is original sin, that we are all fallen in Adam, that we have all been tainted with sin. And all of us have passed our sin onto our children by having them and they bear the burden. This is why parents have such a great responsibility to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to them because because parents have passed on their death warrant. And so parents must give great energy to make their homes little pieces of heaven where God's truth is the only truth.

So there's much to deal with when we are dealing with a passage like this. And for our church, I pray that this would help us, disciple us, equip us, prepare us to be more sensitive to the dangers of our own sin. And not only our own sin, but the danger that the world is in and the danger that unbelievers are in when we're in their presence. In Jeremiah chapter 17 verse 1, I was reading it recently, describes just how deeply we are affected by sin. The prophet says, the sin of Judah is written with an iron pin with the point of a diamond and is engraved on the tablet of their heart.

That's how deeply affected we are with sin. And so in these verses, God is pronouncing judgment upon the wicked, and those who do not love the Lord, those who have the mark of the world, the mark of the beast. And the Lord is, he's actually announcing two things, a process of dealing with the hardened hearts of mankind. And he's also dealing with a deadline. So he's announcing a process and he's announcing a deadline to it all.

And there will be an end of all things. And the day is coming. The final day of judgment is coming. In the meantime, there are intermediary judgments that God rains down on the world to turn men's hearts to himself. And There's very graphic language to drink the wrath of the wine of God's fury.

This kind of language appears all over Revelation and other places. So we're in the midst of a very serious subject here. Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown commentators speak of this. The trumpet shook the world kingdoms in a longer process. The vials destroy with a swift and sudden overthrow of the kingdom of the beast in particular who has invested himself with the world kingdom.

So what we come to in this passage here is really an escalation of the trials that God is raining down on the world. We've read about them in the seal judgments and in the trumpet judgments. And these are more severe. There's an escalation that's very clear in the text. And so we've just come from chapter 15, the first part, where the seven plagues are announced.

But the first thing that we saw, there is this picture of the Saints singing on a sea of glass mingled with fire. And while all the tumults and turmoils in the world, the people of God, they're playing their harps and they're as happy as you can imagine. And this is a picture here. There's a division in God's dealing with the wicked and God's dealing with his own people. And now my understanding of this passage, and frankly, I recognize the difficulty of interpreting the symbols that are here.

But my understanding at the moment is that these first five bowls, they correspond to the seven seals and the seven trumpets. Remember, we've talked about Revelation as presenting cycles of history. In the, the seals are opened and it presents the kinds of things that happen in history and then you have the second coming. And then you have the trumpets, they're being blown and you have the kinds of things that are happening in history, and you have the second coming. And you have the very same thing here in the outpouring of the bulls of wrath.

Now, the reason that I'm just covering the first five of these bulls is I think that these are contemporaneous with the other judgments, but they may not be. I think it's really worthy of debate and conversation. But what we are considering here is the sinfulness of unrepentant mankind and we should always remember what kind of world we live in and we should all always remember what kind of people we are because both are implied here Because the greatest expression of wrath towards sinners is Christ suffering for sin. And This has everything to do with our gathering. We've gathered here today because we believe that Jesus Christ saved sinners.

We believe that Jesus Christ took the wrath that we deserved and poured it out on him and God poured it out on his son. And so it has much to do with why we are here and why Christ had to die and why we are even taking the Lord's Supper today. So Now, we often think of ourselves and we think of one another as good people. We obey the laws, we're honest in our dealings, we don't steal, we don't kill, We're trying to love our spouses and our children. And we're nice people in the way that nice people judge nice people.

And here though, we have a sense of God's wrath toward our sin and how serious it is to reject God. Now, One of the commentators, I think, spoke of this helpfully. While this should remind us of our own sin and God's grace toward us, at the same time, this is wrath poured out upon those who do not know the Lord. They do not love the Lord. That's who these verses are for.

Dennis Johnson said these plagues are, quote, on people who are at home in this sin-cursed world. People who are at home in this sin-cursed world and don't mind drinking of it. So what we find here is God treats people very differently compared... He treats his people very differently compared to those that he that do not love him And I'll just describe it in a summary way here before we get into the text. I'm trying to frame some of the issues here to help us think through the words that are before us.

But we need to distinguish between God's wrath and the wrath of the devil. First of all, God's wrath falls upon those who bear the marks of the world. Secondly, God's wrath does not fall upon God's people. Thirdly, the wrath of the beast does fall on God's people. The wrath that Christians experience is a wrath mediated through the governing control of God by the devil.

But God's wrath doesn't fall on God's people. The devil's wrath might and that's why you have martyrs. So we have to be realistic about that and, you know, God I think is trying to help us think rightly about the world that we live in. Well, let's get into the text now. As you can see, if you have an outline in front of you, I've divided this text into two sections.

The first is the seven plagues and the seven bulls are announced. And this covers from chapter 15 verse five through 16 verse one. So let's deal with that. Verse five, after these things I looked and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened and out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues Clothed in pure bright linen and having their chests girded with golden bands then 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 The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels was completed and so this is these this this wrath is coming out of the temple of God is coming out from the throne of God, out from the testimony of God. Notice the language here, the temple, this is the dwelling place of God, the tabernacle, this is the presence of God, the testimony, This is the witness of God by his word.

So this is these are coming coming from God out of God's throne and And and you find these angels they they're like they're like Christ they're they're actually clothed like Christ is described as being clothed in the first chapter and they these are angels they're seven angels and we've learned a lot about angels so far. They prosecute God's will. We've seen that so many times. They minister to the saints and it's it's very interesting. They're angels that that govern plagues.

There's other angels that govern water. There are other angels that govern fire. There are other angels that govern water. There are other angels that govern fire. There are other angels that govern the four winds of the earth in chapter seven, verse one.

And they're called hosts. They're called ministers. They're called armies in the Bible. We already read about a hundred million angels singing before the throne of God. It's astounding to consider the doctrine of angels.

And here we encounter it again. Jesus said that they see the face of their father and they behold your face as well. And angels are used to announce Christ's incarnation and judgment. And they actually execute calamity on the earth. So there you have it with angels and they're coming from the throne of God and they have these seven golden bowls and this language of pouring out bowls is very common to the Bible.

In Isaiah chapter 51 you find this same kind of picture with bowls, cups of trembling, being drained out, being poured out. And here in this passage the temple is filled with smoke. And in other words, if you look at the various passages of scripture where there's the smoke and the glory of God, everything stops. In Exodus chapter 40, the children of Israel could not move until the glory cloud moved. In first Kings 8, 10 through 11, the priests had to quit ministering because of the cloud.

In Saint Chronicles 5 13, the priests and the trumpeters and the singers who were praising God, they had to stop because of the cloud of God's glory. Everything stops as a result of God's glory. Isaiah experienced this cloud of glory and he said, woe is me for I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips." Everything stops when God's glory is poured out, and that's exactly what is happening here. The bulls of wrath are going to stop the world in its tracks. I think that's the idea here.

And God is glorifying himself. But all of this comes out of the throne of God. All of the calamity of the world, all of the natural disasters, All of the wars, they all come out of the throne of God for God's own glory. Nobody can understand how God and why God does all these things except that he is governing. He is the King of kings.

He is the Lord of lords. He is the ruler of the kings of the earth. And so all of this comes from God's throne. I mean one thing that you can always be comforted by, Whatever's coming at you in this world has come through the throne of God. Therefore do not fear.

So then in chapter 16 verse 1 we see that there's this loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, go out and pour the bowls of wrath, the wrath of God on the earth. So now this is a an announcement, a command from God to go pour these bowls of wrath out. You know there's much to say about the wrath of God. One thing it's important is that God is always patient. God is not a god of rage, he's not capricious, he doesn't fly off the handle.

God has been announcing this for generations in his word. He's been warning mankind, God has been slow in the pouring out of his wrath on the world. He's been very, very slow. In preparing for this message, I encountered a dozen places where God explicitly makes it very clear about his slowness to wrath and God has been slow so that other so that more would be saved that's why he's slow and he's also slow because he's waiting, he's waiting for the sinfulness of sin to build up to such a degree that he will finally wipe it out. So God, God is slow about these things here.

And what we find, just by way of summary, God uses every category of nature to punish rebels. God created the heavens and the earth. He owns it and he can do with it whatever he pleases. And here he takes the creation which he brought into being and he uses it to punish mankind. Mankind has been living on the bounty and the beauty of nature, and then finally God will turn nature against man.

All the blessings of the natural world that men have experienced and become wealthy on and satisfied themselves with. God will turn that nature around and punish them with it. You know, he causes his reign to fall on the evil and the good. And then he will cause his wrath to fall on the evil, but not the good. So these, you can see similarities in the trumpet judgments here.

Some of them there are almost, almost identical, but there's a difference. There's a difference in their scope. These are far more comprehensive. In the previous judgments, you'll have one third or one fourth here it seems to be far more comprehensive so there's an escalation in the intensity of this wrath so The language of pouring out occurs in various places. Psalm 79 verse 6 and verse 12 speaks of the people who will not pray.

Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you and on the kingdoms that do not call on your name and return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom. Isn't that interesting? An outpouring of wrath, seven bowls, with seven bowls, seven fold on their bosom. Their reproach, which they have reproached you, oh Lord. So, now let's just take a look at these bowls.

I don't pretend to understand everything about these bowls of wrath. I'll tell you what I think, but The Lord has couched his wrath in these pictures that are meant to affect us. They're meant to grip us. They're meant to strike us to the heart. We might not understand every single thing about them, but we can at least understand their general force.

We can at least do that. So the first bowl is poured out on the earth. You notice that There are two things to notice here. There is where the bowl or what the bowl is poured out upon and then the effect of it. Those are the two things that we find as a pattern in these judgments.

So, verse two. So the first went and poured out his bowl on the earth, that's important, and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image. So the first thing to notice is that it's poured out on the earth, the land. I take that to mean the literal earth or the place where people live. And the second thing we notice is it's not poured out on everyone.

It's only poured out on those who bear the mark of the beast. The others don't have that mark. So whatever's happening here, it's selective. God treats his people differently. And remember, we've discussed this matter of the mark of the beast because it's appeared more than once so far.

My understanding is that the mark of the beast is the mark of the world. If you embrace the philosophies of the world, if you love the world, if the inclination of your heart is toward the world and its worldliness, the philosophies, the cultures of the world, then you have the mark of the world, you have the mark of the beast, you love the world. We don't know exactly how that will be, you know, is it a computer chip? I kind of doubt it. I think The people who love the world are marked by the people they follow and the things that they do.

You don't need a computer chip to identify that. You just have to embrace a world view and that marks you and that means that you live in a certain way and people know and so you're marked. But this implies that there are those who have not been marked and those who have been, have the mark of the beast are now marked. They're marked by a sore, by an evil sore, and as God pours his wrath out on the wicked, Sores appear on them and they don't appear on the saints. They only appear on the unbelievers.

And of course this mirrors the sixth plague of Egypt. And you'll notice the correspondence to the warnings in Egypt, the judgmental warnings in Egypt and their fulfillment. God was warning the world in Egypt that he will protect his people and he will deliver them and now we're seeing it again what was prefigured in the judgment of Egypt is now being seen again you see this with the judgments that occur in the world. You see the same kind of thing with Noah and God judges his people in order to warn them. But in Exodus chapter 9 you can read about this.

Well I'll just read some of it. Then they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh and Moses scattered them toward heaven. They caused boils that break out in sores on man and beast. And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were on the magicians and all the Egyptians. But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh and he did not heed them, just as the Lord had spoken to Moses.

Moses speaks of this in Deuteronomy 28, this terrifying passage of what God does when you turn away from him. God describes what he does to those who hate him. Deuteronomy 28, 27, the Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt. In other words, he's talking about people in the future and he'll strike you in a very similar way with tumors with the scab and with the itch from which you cannot be healed the Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart and you shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in darkness you shall not prosper in your ways you shall only be oppressed and plundered continually and no one shall save you." You know perhaps the the bowl this bowl poured out on the earth has some effect on this food supply. I listen to Vodi Bakum say that, that perhaps these relate to the food supply and the effect, you know, the effect on people from the food supply, people have reactions to it.

It could have to do with the lifestyle diseases that people have, various kinds of lifestyle maladies and there's hundreds of drugs that you can take to try to deal with those until those drugs drive you to insensibility. And some of those drugs actually will produce sores if you take them. And so you have the second bowl poured out on the sea. So we move from the earth to the sea. Verse three, the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it became blood as of a dead man and every living creature in the sea died.

And of course this this is easily relatable to Exodus 7, 17, and 18. Remember the hermeneutical principle in Revelation. If you wanted to understand what something means, read your Bible, don't read your newspaper. In this case, go back to Exodus 7. Thus says the Lord, Exodus 7, 17, by this you shall know that I am the Lord.

God is proving that he is the Lord here. Behold, I will strike the waters which are in the river with the rod which is in my hand and they shall be turned to blood and the fish that are in the river shall die, the river shall stink and the Egyptians will loathe to drink." So this has to do with further collapse. This kind of thing creates an economic collapse. Imagine if all the seafaring business came to an end and all of the food came to an end. One commentator said the food supply will be harmed and people will run to the sea for food and then they will find none there.

And then the third bowl, we turn from salt water to fresh waters, the waters that are on the earth. Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water and they became blood. So now there's no longer any clean water. You know, it's very interesting that this whole matter of water becoming blood, it does remind of the plagues of Egypt. You remember in Egypt, all the plagues of Egypt corresponded to one of the Egyptian gods.

God was attacking their gods. And I would say that's probably similar here. In Egypt, they worship the Nile, so God attacked the Nile. They, their god Heket, the Egyptian goddess, had the head of a frog. You want frogs?

I'll give you frogs. The Egyptian god of the flies was keffurey symbolized by the head of a fly. You want to worship flies? I'll give you flies. Isis, the Egyptian goddess of medicine and peace.

You want medicine? I'll give you boils. So, I think it's likely that a very similar thing is here. You want blood? I'll give you blood.

You shed the blood of the prophets? I'll give you blood. You eat blood? I'll give you blood. And this is nothing less than the treasuring up of wrath.

The worship of false gods is the treasuring up of wrath. And what God is likely doing here is that he's giving mankind what he worships. And then notice that the angels respond to this. Look at verses 5 through 7, this is astounding. And I heard the angel of the waters saying, you are righteous, O Lord, the one who is and who was and who is to be because you have judged these things for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets and you have given them blood to drink That's the exact correlation.

You shed the bloods of prophets, you'll drink blood. For it is their just due. And then verse 7, and I heard another angel saying from the altar saying, even so Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. So the angels see the wisdom and the righteousness of God's actions against the wicked. And then the fourth bowl scorched by the Sun, verses 8 and 9.

Then the fourth angel poured out his bowl on the Sun and power was given to him to scorch men with fire and men were scorched with great heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has power over these plagues and they did not repent and give him glory. You want to worship the sun? I'll give you sun. Well, one thing that is clear is that global warming is a thing. And there is one person who's managing it, and it is God.

There is an existential threat. You know, there are many people that are proclaiming the end of the world today. But there is one who's going to bring it to an end. And it certainly is not mankind. You know, I don't know if you noticed in the news yesterday, there's this announcement of this solar flare headed for the earth.

And even tonight you might be able to see the northern lights because of it. And the National Weather Service issued a G3 strong geomagnetic storm watch for Saturday and Sunday, I'm quoting, ahead of the flare slamming into the earth. This geomagnetic storm could cause voltage irregularities and false alarms on some protection devices, Noah warns. It could cause high frequency radio blackouts and loss of radio contact on the sunlit side of the earth. Well, I'm not saying there's a direct correlation here at all, please, but let's be very clear.

God is in control of the sun, and he can make it as hot as he wants to make it, and he can make the earth as hot as he wants to make it. Deuteronomy 28 alludes to this, verse 22. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, and with inflammation, and burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, scorching, and with mildew, and they shall pursue you till you perish." But then look at their response. You would think that it would drive people to repentance, but no. And they blaspheme the name of God, who has power over these plagues, and they did not repent and give him glory." I think there's real insight here on the heart of man.

Man does not turn to God on the basis of evidence. Man turns to God because the Holy Spirit changes his heart. You can give the hardest sinner all the evidence in the world and he'll stay hard and might even harden him more. You don't win people with evidence. You win people by the Spirit of God.

You win people with the gospel. You win people with the knowledge of their sin and their status before God. You win people by telling them what God has said about them and about God's remedy for their sinfulness. But evidence doesn't always help that much and this really speaks of that. You know this last week I was downtown and I bumped into a guy.

He was having tremendous problems, personal problems. He was having a hard time even functioning in his business. And his breath smelled like alcohol. And he told me about his depression. He always struggled with depression and he's taken all kinds of medications, drugs, psychotropics to deal with it.

He told me how immobilized he's been over the last few months. And so I'd never shared the gospel with him before, so I did. And after about 20 or 30 minutes, he, at the end of the conversation, he said, he said, you know, Scott, I'm really happy with my life. I'm really happy with what I've done. I don't really need anything else.

And I said, okay. And I said, okay. And I mean, he was experiencing the wrath of God because of his sin, but he couldn't see beyond it. You know what's very interesting about this description here is that there still seems to be time to repent and they did not repent and give him glory. In other words they could have repented and given him glory.

There's time. God is patient. During this period of time there's still time. It is not over at this juncture in this declaration. Because there's still time to repent, just like there is today.

And then the fifth bowl, darkness. This is verses 10 and 11. And the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became full of darkness. And they gnawed their tongues because of the pain. Now this judgment corresponds to the ninth plague of Egypt.

And in some ways you could say, you want darkness? I'll give you darkness. You love the dark world? You like to do what you want to do in the dark, I'll give you dark. And if you love the darkness, you will get darkness.

You know, the darkness of Egypt was so dark it was hard to even fathom. Those who walk in the world they walk in darkness. You know 1st John, John speaks of this in great detail. You know, Jesus Christ is the light of the world. Christ shines like the sun.

In chapter 1 verse 16, his countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. In 10.1, the rainbow was on his head and his face was like the sun. In chapter 20 and verse 23, the city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it for the glory of God illuminated it. So here, the angel pours out this bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became full of darkness. So this darkness was just so devastating and there are two responses.

They nod their They nod their tongues. You know, people begin to hurt themselves when they are hurt. And this darkness from within, this blindness because of sin. And they nod their tongues. I mean Jesus said that the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is like that. Jesus said in Matthew 25 verse 30, for to everyone who has more will be given and he will have abundance but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." So Their first response was gnashing of their teeth, gnawing at their tongues, literally. You know, I was reading Jonathan Edwards about this passage. Here's how he describes this. They gnawed their tongues for pain.

They shall be enraged by the pain they suffer. Their rage shall be enkindled against the authors and instruments of their pain, but their rage being wholly in vain, an ineffectual rage, not being able to reach and spend itself on these that are the objects of it, It will be spent wholly upon themselves." In other words, their rage won't even reach the one that they're enraged at. It will devour themselves. That's what he's saying. He continues, they will suffer the effects of their own rage.

It will only serve to increase their torment. It will only serve to, sorry, they shall in their rage gnash their teeth, but those that are enraged with being out of their reach, they shall bite nothing but their own tongues. And so instead of revenging their pain, they shall increase it. They shall revenge on none but themselves. You know the wicked are gnawing at their tongues.

And those who love the Lord Jesus are singing, wishing they had a thousand tongues to sing their great Redeemer's praise. Well, that was their first response, is to gnaw their tongues. And their second response was to blaspheme God, verse 11. They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and did not repent of their deeds. So God is punishing the wicked.

And it really is important that we don't just think about the wicked here but that we think about what God did in not sparing his own son because every person in this in this room deserved this exact punishment if it not were Jesus Christ and his suffering on the cross and that all the wrath that you deserved was laid upon him. When we read this, it's wise if we say, this should have been me, this should have been me. But you're not gnawing your tongues. You're thankful for the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're thankful for his word.

You're thankful for his people. You love him. You can't get enough of him. Every day you want more of him. Every day you're not satisfied with how much you've sought him because you love him.

You're not gnashing. You're not gnawing your tongue. You're singing. Praise the Lord for his mercy. Now, by the way, this is not even hell yet.

This is not hell. This is life on earth for these people. And they're experiencing the wrath. Romans asks the unbelievers in the, or Paul asks the unbelievers in the Roman church just to see how patient God is. But then he says, do you think you can escape the wrath to come?

He says, do you think you will escape the judgment of God or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. But in accordance with the hardness of your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each one according to his deeds eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory honor and immortality, but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek but glory and honor and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek for there is no partiality with God. So this ends the first five bowls of wrath. You know there are men around today who think they can escape this. You know two of the richest men in the world think that they're going to escape God's wrath by building a colony on Mars.

Think again. You cannot escape God's wrath. Verse 15, we'll get to this next time we're in Revelation. Behold I'm coming as a thief Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame So we've just had a visual depiction of the wrath of God upon those who don't love him, who don't desire him. Many of those people sit in church every Sunday.

They're there, but there's no love there in their hearts toward God. And they really would just as soon have the world. And they can't wait to get out of here to go have some of it. There are many who reject the doctrine of the wrath of God, But when you reject the doctrine of the wrath of God, you must understand what you're doing. One theologian described it this way, a God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.

To reject the wrath of God is really to reject the cross of Christ. And to glory in the wrath of God is to glory in the cross and the power of a forgiving Savior who suffered for our sins. And that's why the Apostle Paul said that he was not ashamed of the gospel. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel. For it is the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes.

For the Jew first and also the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith just as it is written the just shall live by faith." So there are children of wrath and there are children of grace. And this passage speaks of both. You know, people are going out today to restaurants and lakes and they're going out to sports events, and they have no thought that God alone is holding things together and will pour out his wrath. They have no clue that the anarchy is being held back by God.

They have no clue that the consequences are being restrained out of his mercy to give them time to repent but there will be a day and that day is coming. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written in it. Let's pray. Lord, you have designed to lay upon this church a very heavy scene. And Lord, we pray that you would use these things to teach us your ways to grow our love for you to mature us in our understanding of the world and to unite this church in the doctrine of your wrath.

Amen.