Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20010708.htm

REVELATION: CALL TO HOLINESS IN VIEW OF PROPHECY
Part III: The Things Hereafter'
"L. God's Consoling VENGEANCE For His People's Worst Persecution"
(Revelation 15:1-16:21)

Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

We learned from Revelation 13 that God aids His people when they face ungodly persecution for standing for the truth. We also learned from Revelation 14 that God supplies encouraging hope of great reward when His people stand for the truth amidst persecution to the contrary. However, HOW do we handle the problem of the INJUSTICE of persecution in the FIRST place? Is there any part in God's plan for JUSTICE here? Consider the following issues relative to this concern:

(1) In the 1920s, the Christian Church in Kenya, the nation to which Ken and Deb Hall have just gone took the stand that women needed to be treated with honor and dignity just like men. However, tribal forces opposed this idea intensely, and one day took out their hatred on a elderly, deaf Africa Inland Mission lady named Hilda Stumpf. She was later found choked to death, her body badly mutilated by opposing tribal fanatics. (James & Marti Hefley, By Their Blood, p. 455-456)

Is there any JUSTICE for the WRONG that was done to deaf AIM missionary, Hilda Stumpf?

(2) In Nigeria, West Africa where I grew up, a few years ago, Islamic fundamentalists burned many Christian Churches to the ground, believing that this would end the Christian faith since these Christians would have no building for worship like the Muslims do.

However, the Sunday following these incidents, the believers simply met in the ashes of their churches to continue their services!

Is there any JUSTICE for the WRONGS that were done to all the hard work and money that went into the construction of these many CHURCH BUILDINGS in Nigeria?

(3) Right here in Connecticut, as typical of so many other similar cases, a Christian woman considers attending a Biblical church. Her family mocks her desire to do so, and amidst much verbal abuse and ridicule, she heads off to Church.

Then, when she returns, she gets more of the same.

Is there any JUSTICE for the WRONGS done to such believers for their desire to obey the Lord?



(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "I've learned God AIDS us when we are persecuted (Rev. 13) and REWARDS us for standing for the truth in persecution (Rev. 14), BUT what about the INJUSTICE of even BEING persecuted! How am I supposed to handle THAT distressing issue?!"
  1. In Revelation 15:1 and 15:5-8, Jesus revealed 7 final plagues of God's wrath will occur to fulfill God's absolutely perfect justice:
    1. The scene opens in Revelation 15:1 with the presentation of 7 angels who will deliver 7 final plagues to exhaust God's wrath.
    2. Then, amidst a display of God's power, these angels exit His temple to receive 7 bowls having the final expression of God's wrath, 15:5-8.
  2. Yet, SANDWICHED BETWEEN verse 1 and verses 5-8 is a scene of those who RESISTED yielding to antichrist though persecuted, and how they will stand in victorious praise to God, Rev. 15:2-4:
    1. John saw a sea of glass mixed with fire, a picture of the persecutions of the antichrist God's people will face in the Tribulation, Rev. 15:2a.
    2. On top of this sea stood all who by faith in God had resisted the antichrist, his image, mark and number of his name, 15:2b,c. This scene symbolizes all who resist yielding to antichrist at the price of persecution, and so had gained God's victory over this persecution!
    3. These people will sing the song of Moses and the Lamb, Jesus, and Moses' song in Exodus 15:1-19 commemorates Israel's victory over Pharaoh's hosts at God's Red Sea deliverance, Revelation 15:3-4.
  3. Hence, God's WRATH in these final BOWL judgments is God's VENGEANCE for the persecutions antichrist's kingdom has administered on TRIBULATION saints (described as follows):
    1. At God's order, the 1st angel will pour out his bowl on the earth to produce a wretched, painful sore on all who had accepted antichrist's mark and worshipped his image, 16:1-2. This body sore is God's vengeance upon those who received antichrist's mark on the body!
    2. At God's order, the 2nd angel will pour out his bowl on the earth to turn its seas into the blood of a dead man, an event killing every living thing in the sea, Rev. 16:1, 3. This very unhealthy, wretched state of the earth's seas will be God's vengeance on antichrist's kingdom for shedding the blood of Tribulation era believers, cf. Rev. 16:6-7.
    3. At God's order, the 3rd angel will pour out his bowl on the earth to turn the sources of drinking water into blood, Rev. 16:1, 4-5. This will be God's heightened vengeance on antichrist's kingdom for shedding the blood of Tribulation period believers, Revelation 16:6-7.
    4. At God's order, the 4th angel will pour out his bowl onto the sun to scorch men with heat, Rev. 16:1, 8-9a. This will reflect God's anger at the pressure antichrist had administered in calling people to heed him. Nevertheless, antichrist's people will not repent to God as he had unsuccessfully tried to get saints to heed him, Revelation 16:9b.
    5. At God's order, the 5th angel will pour out his bowl on the throne of antichrist to produce great darkness and pain for the pain the darkness of antichrist's deception had caused God's people, 16:10. Instead of repenting under such pressure as the Tribulation saints did not yield to antichrist's pressure, antichrist's people will only slander God, 16:11
    6. At God's order, the 6th angel will pour out his bowl on the Euphrates to dry it up in preparation for the march of armies from the Orient to Palestine for the battle of Armageddon, Revelation 16:1, 13. We know from Daniel 11:44 that this Oriental march will trouble the antichrist, so a deluding influence of demons will deceive unbelievers to follow antichrist into battle against these hordes in this coming war, Rev. 16:1, 14-16. This judgment is an added deception unto harm permitted by God to lead to further harm for all who willingly still heed the antichrist! (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12)
    7. At God's order, the 7th angel will pour our his bowl into the air, and God's call from heaven will announce His wrath is ending, 16:1, 17. This final judgment includes a worldwide earthquake, the destruction of Babylon the Great (cf. Genesis 11 and Rev. 17-18 to be described), the fall of all the world's city buildings, the removal of all islands in the sea and a worldwide hailstorm in which the hailstones weigh nearly 100 pounds apiece, cf. Ryrie St. Bib., KJV, ftn. to Rev. 16:21! (Rev. 16:18-21). This final judgment recalls God's pent-up wrath against the Babylon apostasy that created the sentiment of apostasy in history that opened the door for people to heed the antichrist!
Application: (1) To gain eternal life, believe on Jesus Christ as Savior from sin, John 3:16. (2) Stand for the truth regardless of the persecution, for (a) not only does God AID us IN it (Rev. 13), (b) not only does He REWARD us IN it (Rev. 14), (c) but God's RIGHTEOUSNESS demands He administer VENGEANCE in our behalf upon the foes who persecute us, Rev. 15-16, Rom. 12:19-21!

Lesson: Be assured God goes beyond just AIDING and REWARDING us if we face godless persecution: He WILL exhibit vengeance in our behalf! >

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

 God is just, so He will even the balances for His oppressed people in the end:

(1) Many students over the years have been ridiculed in classrooms for believing in the worldwide Noahic flood. Proponents of evolution have scoffed at the idea of a worldwide flood.

Well, in the June-August 2001 issue of the Creation Ex Nihilo magazine, p. 7, the editors cite the pro-evolutionary, scholarly March 30, 2001 Science magazine (p. 2587-2591) which refers to the "Noachian Epoch'" in Mars' ancient history. Secular scientists say there was a global flood on Mars [where they have not found a single drop of water], and assert this event came during the "Noachian Epoch'" of Mars! Yet, they deny such a global flood ever occurred on earth where two-thirds of the planet is covered in water and where there is much rock and fossil evidence to testify of it! (cf. Whitcomb & Morris, The Genesis Flood)

The CHRISTIAN student has been vindicated by such blatant BIAS by evolutionary scientists! God is just, so He will even the balances for His oppressed people in the end!

(2) The noted French philosopher, Voltaire, verbally attacked the Christian faith. Once he claimed "that in one hundred years from his time Christianity would be swept from existence and passed into history." (Sidney Collette, All About the Bible, p. 63 as cited in Josh McDowell, A Ready Defense, p. 30)

Well, Voltaire died in 1778, and "only fifty years after [Voltaire's] death the Geneva Bible Society used his press and his house to produce stacks of Bibles." (N. L. Geisler and W. E. Nix, A Gen. Intro. to the Bible, p. 123-124 as cited in McDowell, loc. cit.)

It has been over one hundred and twenty-two years since Voltaire's proposed prediction of the end of Christianity has come and gone, and today we are changing the name on our Church to Nepaug BIBLE Church due to the survival of the Christian Bible and faith!

God is just, so He will even the balances for His oppressed people in the end!