The Epistle of Jesus #13: God’s Wrath Outpoured - Rev 16  

The bowl judgements are directed at the Beast, his seat, and those who worship him. The judgements are severe, the worst till now. Some wonder why God world be so severe so merciless? The world looks at this passage of the judgment of God in the book of Revelation and the Exodus or in the prophecies from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the other OT books, they look and ask how can we believe in such a cruel, bloodthirsty God?

There are denominations that have bypassed all passages that warn of hell and judgment. Instead, they only speak of God’s love, forgiveness, mercy and grace. They fail to see that forgiveness, mercy and grace are only needed, only possible in fact, if judgment is part of who God is. There is no need of mercy if God does not punish sin.  

So they create a god in their own imagination, a god who has little power, little holiness and little sense. C S Lewis once said, “What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to like doing, ’What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven—a senile benevolence who, as they say, ’liked to see young people enjoying themselves’ and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be truly said at the end of each day, ’a good time was had by all’.

But throughout the Bible we see a much different God than what the world wants. Psalms 76:7-9 Thou, even thou, art to be feared: and who may stand in thy sight when once thou art angry?  Thou didst cause judgment to be heard from heaven; the earth feared, and was still,
When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth.

God is Holy. God is righteous and God will judge sin. Revelation is the book that reveals that judgment upon the earth and Revelation 16 is the final series of judgments that brings it all to a conclusion. After the bowl judgments we hear a great voice from heaven calling out. “It is done.”

We are going to read about horrific, terrible things this morning all which be according to the plan of God as John the apostle saw it about 2000 years ago. As you read,  I want you to remember that yes God in His holiness is a wrathful, vengeful God, but also in that holiness that hates sin is a love that offers mercy to the those caught in sin’s web. Holiness is the reason sin is judged but it is also the reason pardon is offered. We can see this throughout the Bible and especially in the book of Revelation. Judgment is coming but before judgment is unleashed God sends warning after warning. But man in his arrogance and complacency often ignore warnings of every kind.

Catastrophes often follow ignored warnings.

The Eruption Of Mount Vesuvius that buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum.

We have all heard about the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, AD 79, it killed a thousands of people and buried the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Yet most if not all of the citizens could have escaped if they had just heeded the warnings. In the past two other cities had already been wiped out by the volcano, but they did not heed history. Before the the day of the eruption, Pompeii experienced series of tremors and earthquakes, caused by an increase pressure of the lava below Mount Vesuvius.  
The mountain, which had been quiet and dormant, began to make groaning sounds, and the sea around the Bay of Naples became so hot that it boiled and produced bubbles. Animals, including rats, left the town in droves, while wells and streams, especially those close to the mountain, mysteriously dried up. The people of Pompeii ignored these obvious warnings and they died.

You might think, well that was ancient Rome, today we would be more aware, but we are not. Most of us can remember the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake and Tsunami. More than 230,000 people were killed, 500,000 were injured, and 1.7 million were left homeless on December 26, 2004, after 9.2-magnitude earthquake caused a tsunami that affected 14 countries in Asia and eastern and southern Africa. The deadliest natural disasters in recorded human history.

Seven years before the earthquake and tsunami, a top government official in Thailand warned that the country would soon be hit by a tsunami. His calls were ignored, and he was termed “crazy.” He was also banned from entering some parts of Thailand, where he was considered a threat to tourism.

The Pacific Ocean Tsunami Warning System also called the embassies and government officials of several Asian countries after the 9.2 underwater earthquake and warned them that they were at risk of a tsunami. Most countries ignored the warning, and even those that listened didn’t take any tangible action. Many countries still ignored the threat when it hit their outlying coasts and even refused to warn people living in the inlying coasts. In Indonesia, the sea receded several hundred meters after the earthquake, a clear warning of an incoming tsunami, but no one had told the people, and many ran into the retreated ocean to catch stranded fish, only to  look up as a wall of water moving as fast as a speeding train rose over them and it was too late.

There were warnings about the impending bombing Of Pearl Harbor, even sitting on the President’s desk, but they were ignored. There were many warnings from many sources about Iraq’s Invasion Of Kuwait, or the danger of the Challenger shuttle launching in cold weather and so many more. Warnings that were ignored and hundreds of thousands suffered.

The Warnings of Revelation: God Warns the World

We see it all over again, on a even more unbelievable scale, in the book of Revelation. The entire book is one, long, impossible to ignore warning, that Jesus is coming back and God will judge the sins of earth, especially exacting vengeance upon those who have persecuted His people.


A few Sundays ago we read in Revelation 14:6-12 And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters. … And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.

The boundary finally reached. What we see finally happening in Revelation 16 is that God has reached the limit, not of his mercy, but of his plan for mankind. What we see is a boundary that has finally been reached.

Job 38:8-11 Or who shut up the sea with doors,
when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
When I made the cloud the garment thereof,
and thick darkness a swaddlingband for it,
And brake up for it my decreed place,
and set bars and doors,
And said, Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further:
and here shall thy proud waves be stayed?

What God did, setting a boundary for the sea, He as done to all things in creation. He has also set a boundary to the rebellion, sinfulness and power of man. That boundary, that limit is reached in Revelation 16 and after this there are no more offers of mercy, no more pleas for repentance. Those are in the past and now only judgement and eternal punishment lie beyond.

The last seven plagues are the outpouring of God’s wrath directly upon the beast and his worshippers. God has taken His witnessess home with the harvest reaping of chapter 15 and now there is only the reaping of the grapes of wrath.

Last Preparations

Chapter 14 and 15 were the final preparations for the final act of God’s judgment against mankind upon the earth. He has brought home the 2 witnesses, the 144,000 and the majority of all the believers upon the earth. He has sent forth one last messenger, the angel of chapter 14, who would be heard all around the world, proclaiming the everlasting Gospel for the last time.

Now He has called forth his angels of wrath from within the Temple and they are sent to the earth and specifically to the kingdom of the Beast.