INTRODUCTION:

1.   As I mentioned in our study of the final verses of Revelation chapter 15, chapter 15 and chapter 16 are actually one integral unit.

2.   If you will recall, in chapter 15 we found that John recorded the preparations that will be made in heaven for the great and final outpouring of God’s wrath on the human race.

3.   Tonight, as we begin our journey through chapter 16, we will study the actual fulfillment of that great outpouring of wrath. “This chapter unveils the seven final and most severe judgments of the Great Tribulation. This period lasts three and one-half years and prepares the world for the coming of Christ in power to establish His kingdom. The vials that are poured out by these seven angels are literal plagues or catastrophes that will come on the earth.”[1]

4.   Again allow me to point out, on the diagram (“The Revelation of Jesus Christ”) the ushers are handing out to you, where we are, chronologically. If the Word of God is to be interpreted according to the normal rules of grammar and communication then this chart represents the basic prophetic events which have occurred and which will occur until the end of the 1000 year reign of Christ.

5.   Are there any questions before we begin?

(16.1)         And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.

1. In Revelation 15.8 we made mention of the fact that God was so intent on this great outpouring of wrath upon unsaved mankind that no man was able to enter into His Temple to approach Him.

2. I also mentioned that this future short period of time will be the only time, ever, that the child of God may not boldly approach his Father in heaven. So that truth in Revelation 15.8 makes it necessary for the voice out of the Temple to be God’s voice. No one else will be in the Temple at this crucial time.

3. Notice what God says to these seven angels: “Go your ways, and pour out the vials of THE WRATH OF GOD upon the earth.” (Emphasis added) “It will be noted that the temple vessels, used as a means of grace, are now to be used here as vessels of wrath.”[2]

4. Whose wrath is this? Right. It is God’s wrath. Let me ask you another question. Will any Christians experience the seven plagues that we begin to read about tonight? Why?

Romans 5.9: “Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

First Thessalonians 5.9: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(16.2)         And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

1. Who will receive this sore? Those with the mark of the beast. Those who will worship the beast. Those who are unsaved, since we know that only the saved people who will live on earth during this time will refuse to worship his image and receive his mark.

2. What happens to them is that they get a sore, possibly a boil, like when God punished Egypt for opposing Him. At any rate, the sore, whatever it is, will be a bad one, and extremely painful. The phrase “noisome and grievous sore” refers to a “bad and malignant sore.”[3]

3. Turn to Exodus 9.8-12, where we see how God did it once before:

⁸ And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

⁹ And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

¹⁰ And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.

¹¹ And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

¹² And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

4. It is as if God is making these fellows as diseased and infected physically as they are spiritually. They have stooped to base idolatry to commit spiritual adultery, so they are experiencing the beginning of God’s harsh retribution.

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