REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 2 MAY 2004: MORNING SERVICE

REFORMED CHURCH BELLVILLE: SUNDAY 2 MAY 2004: MORNING SERVICE

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. Beloved grace and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, through the mighty working of God the Holy Spirit.
Amen

Psalm of praise: 16:1+3
Confession of faith
Law
Psalm: 107:5+6
Prayer
Psalm: 2:1
Scripture: Revelation 15:1-16:2
Text: Revelation 16:2

"The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land and ugly and painful sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshipped his image."

The heading of this sermon is: The end; grace and judgement.
Before the Lord appears on the clouds to pronounce the last judgement the angels on His command first execute His wrath over the earth. There are seven angels and each of them has a bowl containing part of God's judgement. However, God's grace is so great that only those who worship the beast suffer the torment – the true believers are shielded by God from His wrath.

We consider this revelation of the Lord under the following headings.

1.   The history
2.   The judgment
3.   The salvation in Christ

1.   The history

Because the Lord is a God of grace it is first revealed to John in a vision what it shall be like when the present world is past. Chapter 15 v 2-4 looks into the future and shows the situation after the seven angels have emptied their bowls. The saved will then sing a song of praise to the Lord for the judgment He executed with the plagues He brought over the earth.

The purpose of this passage is to show the reader of this book two matters which the Lord wants to reveal.

Firstly, the Lord wants to reveal that the plagues are holy and just. This the faithful must know before He describes them.
Secondly, the Lord reveals to the faithful that the judgment contained in these bowls will hit only the unbelievers and will not destroy the true believers.

What is written in chapter 15 is intended to prepare us for the events described in chapter 16 and to understand them. John sees a vision in heaven:

Seven angels appear

The angels wear priestly garments (v6)
They were dressed in clean shining linen
And around their chests they wore golden sashes.

Each angel carried a golden bowl. The seven bowls signify two matters:

The bowls together contain God's complete wrath.
The figure seven is symbolic – it signifies Godly perfection.

When these bowls are emptied, the last judgment over the earth commences whereafter eternity with God in the hereafter commences. This is described in chapter 16 v 17.

When we hear these judgment we are terrified by the horror of them. Will the believers of the last days of our earth also feel such terror?

No, they will not experience the judgments as punishment for them.
They will see in it the revelation of God's omnipotence – the final purpose for which God allowed sin, so that He could destroy it finally at this stage in that in doing so He could reveal His Godly power and omnipotence, righteousness and grace.

The purpose of this song of praise is that the true believers may understand the signs of the times and be grateful that the end has come.

No matter how hard the last judgment may be – the faithful are grateful! (Does this not say something about the way in which we should deal with trials?)

In verses 3 and 4 we see a parallel with Exodus 15. It is the song the Israelites sang after the exodus from Egypt. Look at the similarities:

The contents of the song.

In both cases a song is sung.
In both cases it is sung by the Lord's elect (the saved).

In Moses' song Pharoah's power is broken.
In John's song the beast, his image and his sign and the number of his name are defeated.
As to the similar images.

Moses sings at the Red Sea.
Whereas John sees a sea of glass.

The point is strongly made that there is no power that can at that moment doubt the righteousness of God's deeds.

"for your righteous acts have been revealed." (Rev. 15 v 4)

The compass of Jesus' work of salvation is also revealed.

All see and accept it.
all nations will come and worship before You.

Firstly, the Lord reveals with it that He is God and Ruler of all peoples.

All people belong to Him and out of all of them those who worship Him come out.
Especially to John this was important because he and his co-apostles were sent by the Lord to bring to repentance people of all nations and to baptise and teach them.
Here he saw the fruit of their labour.

Verse 5 shows the first moments of the Kingdom itself.

After all the suffering the Lord opens the door of the temple.
The perfection starts.
All the promises of the covenant as made by the Lord throughout history are completely fulfilled.

2. The Judgment

That these angels who are to carry out this work are very important is shown by two indications:

The first is that their clothing corresponds to that worn by Jesus Christ as John saw Him on the seashore.
The description of their garments is to reveal their holiness.
The second is that unlike the other angels they were not on earth.
They come out of heaven where they have always been close to the Lord.

Verse 7 reveals how one of the four living creatures gave to each of the seven angels a golden bowl. Each bowl is filled with God's wrath.

The four living creatures represent the entire creation and all that lives in it (compare Rev. 4:6).
The significance of this is that the entire creation is to be touched and flooded by the wrath of the Lord.
It also signifies that all of creation recognises the necessity of God's punishment and in harmony with God's will submits itself to it.
That is why one of its representatives takes part in the last judgment.

After everything described in chapter 15 has happened the circumstances are ready so that the seven angels can each pour his bowl out on earth.

The temple is filled with smoke which signifies the fullness of God's wrath and holiness.

The time for grace and prayer is past.
Jesus no longer intercedes in prayer.
He prepares Himself to execute the final judgment.
John then hears a loud voice giving commands in the temple. It is God Himself who speaks.
The angels are commanded to pour out their bowls on the earth.
When the first angel poured out his bowl on the earth the wrath of God descended onto the whole earth.

The occurrences associated with the bowls which are poured out connect with the exodus, just like the song of Moses. In the final judgment the process of salvation is very similar to that of the exodus from Egypt.

It is not only the song sung by the saved multitude that is similar.
The bowls which are emptied are similar to the plagues that were brought over Egypt.
With these signs the Lord revealed in the history of the exodus how He would save His church from a sinful world when the last day comes.

The first angel poured out his bowl on the land.

It fell on people.
It caused severe illness.
The people broke out in painful and ugly sores.

This is not the first time that the people who rejected the Lord and rose up against Him were punished with sores.

The first bowl is similar to the sixth plague in Egypt.
Moses and Aaron each had to toss a handful of soot into the air.
The Lord then changed it into a fine dust that caused boils to erupt all over Egypt in men and animals.
The magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils that were on them (Exodus 9:11).

Later there was another heathen nation, the Philistines, who made war on Israel and conquered them.

They then removed the Ark to their country.
The Lord then struck them also with tumours (1 Samuel 5:6).

From history we learn that the Lord strikes unbelievers with evil sores to punish them. The sores that followed on the pouring out of the first bowl is in line with the Lord's normal revelation.

3. The Salvation in Christ

Together with the judgment and wrath of God His grace is also apparent.

Not all the people are subjected to it.
Only those who bore the mark of the beast and worshipped his image.

About these people something more is said.

In verse 9 it is written that they cursed the name of God and refused to repent and glorify Him.
This is the reason why they are struck by these plagues.

It is the same as in the Old Testament.

The sixth plague brought boils onto the Egyptians.
But these did not change Pharoah's heart, because his heart was hardened.
The one plague came after the other but they did not repent.
In this passage the Lord reveals that in the last judgment it will be the same.
But, and this is very important, it will not touch the true believers.
It only hits those who worship the beast and its image.

We then ask – why are the believers exonerated? Is the bowl not poured out over all the earth and all the people?

The answer is that Jesus bore the full punishment of all our sin before God.
Therefore God does not in His wrath again punish the sins of the true believers.

The Holy Spirit was also poured out onto the church. We see that the people onto whom these bowls are poured out one after the other do not repent.

The working of the Holy Spirit makes us different – we do not react like the unbelievers.

Through the working of the Holy Spirit the true believer comes to repentance when he is punished by the Lord for his disobedience.
The Holy Spirit breaks down the hardness in the true believer.
Furthermore, the true believer is guided by the Holy Spirit to be able to read the signs and to understand them.

John commences this passage by telling us that he sees a sign.

He then reveals the signs to us so that the true believer can in the last days profess his faith in the light of these signs until the Lord comes.
For us who are living near to the Second Coming the Holy Spirit does exactly what the Lord said He would do.
He guides us to the truth.
And this truth is God's revelation.

The Lord does not tell us what causes the evil tumours when the first bowl is poured out. He also does not tell us what they will look like.

But it is plain that these evil tumours will erupt in people who live a life that angers the Lord.
They will be caused by sin.

For you this strengthens the comfort.

The true believers can read the signs of the times.
They can say how far God's dispensation has progressed and what occurs each time.
The Lord's judgment effects a division among the people – on the one side the true believers and on the other side the unbelievers.

The true believers rejoice in what God does and the saved praise the Lord with songs of praise in these troubled times. They are joyful because the Lord is purifying and consecrating the world.

They confess that the Lord's judgments are true and just.
The most important of all is that God keeps the faithful in those days.
He disposes it so that His wrath strikes only the unbelievers – those who worship the beast.
The true believers are all kept in the merit of Jesus Christ and saved from the judgment and destruction.

Amen

Closing prayer
Closing Psalm: 97:1

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Amen

Dr MJ du Plessis, Reformed Church Bellville.
2 May 2004
Scripture NIV