Revelation 15:1-16.3

Revelation chapter 15. I’m going to read the entire chapter here and then comment on. We hope to look at chapter 15 and at least the first part of chapter 16. And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is filled up the wrath of God. and I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire. And them that had gotten the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark and over the number of his name stand on the sea of glass having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are thy ways, thou king of the saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. For all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. And after that I looked, and behold. the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened. The seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues, clothed in pure and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave under the seven angels seven golden vials, full of the wrath of God, who liveth forever and ever. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, from his power. No man was able to enter into the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. Thank God blessed to us His sacred and holy word this morning. Now the first four verses here, we have. the song of Moses and of the Lamb here in verses one to four. The vow judgments are said in verse one to be the seven last plagues because they hold the last of God’s wrath to be poured out upon the nation of Israel. There was an interesting passage in the book of Leviticus chapter 26 verse 21 where God says, and if you walk contrary unto me it will not hearken unto me, I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. In these plagues, the final blows leading to the overthrow of great Babylon, which is, we said Jerusalem, are revealed. In chapter 16 in verse 9, 19, excuse me, you’ll see that the city ends up being, very Babylon, ends up being judged by God. So this is the setting for it. We have sort of the chapter 15 of revelations, the prelude to the seven last plagues. In chapter 16, the plagues are poured out. Now the seven angels here are all lined up. They’re all prepared to pour out this final fury of God’s wrath. The crystal sea before God’s throne normally is transparent as glass, but here we’re told it’s mingled with fire in verse 2. Chapter 4, verse 6 says, and before the throne there was a sea of glass like under crystal. so why is it mingled with fire here perhaps reflecting the fact that our God is a consuming fire Hebrews 1229 and his anger is roused and his judgment is about to be poured out and then in verse 3 we have the song of moses and the song of the lamb that’s mentioned here Now the song of Moses is a song of victory. It celebrates the destruction of the enemies of God and the enemies of the people of God. In particular, you’ll recall, that it was sung after the destruction of the Egyptians in the Red Sea in Exodus chapter 15. The Lamb, you recall, is the angel of the Lord. Christ is the angel of the Lord in the Lord. the Old Testament and he was involved in this ancient deliverance also. And so we see the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. And it’s only appropriate that the song of Moses comes up here because you’ll recall that Jerusalem was also called Egypt. In chapter 11, and verse 8, it’s one of its titles. It is a bitter enemy of the people of God. It is the new house of bondage, if you would. As Paul declares in Galatians 426, he talks about the Jerusalem, which now is, is in bondage with her children, with her disciples, with her followers, if you would. Because it taught. that you were saved by keeping the law. And so they were putting people under works righteousness. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is a mother of us all, Paul says. The Christians belong to the heavenly Jerusalem. The earthly Jerusalem is in bondage. So we can see it’s the house of bondage. Those victorious over the beast sing the song of Moses along with the song of the Lamb. Now it’s called the Song of the Lamb because we already saw that they overcame the beast by the blood of the Lamb and by the gracious strength, which the Lamb has provided for them as the triumphant and exalted Christ who sits on his throne. It was called the King of the Saints. in this passage of scripture. These songs, that we combine them together, praise the power of God in judging the enemies of the people of God, destroying them. The deliverance which he gives and the righteous character which prompts that deliverance are part of the praise. Jesus Christ is the true king of the saints. It certainly isn’t Caesar, who the Jews said, we have no king but Caesar, but for the Christian, Jesus is the king. No earthly monarch can fulfill that title, King of the Saints. Our true king is our Lord and Savior, as verse three ends with that. By the way, certainly not the Pope. Now, no one is holy like the Lord, and we find that the Lord causes the nations to fear him because of the judgment which he pours out. They’re going to see the judgment that falls upon Israel. They’re going to feel the impact of that themselves in some to some extent as well. So Israel’s fall will result in a further expansion of the kingdom of God among the nations as verse 4 ends, for all nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments are made manifest. So we see that this will open the gospel to the Gentiles. We talked about that in chapter 14. And here we have it mentioned here in chapter 15, where we talked about the angel proclaiming the everlasting gospel and it going out and so forth first to the nation of Israel but also beyond its borders to others. And we looked at that passage in Matthew chapter 22, I believe it was. We saw the king having the wedding feast for his son. Those who were originally invited wouldn’t come. And so they brought the judgment. but then the servants are going out to the highways and byways and bringing in people, the Gentiles. That’s what we see here, I think, as well. Any questions about the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb here and why they would be connected? Okay. Next we see the angels having the seven last plagues in verses 5 to 8. Now the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven. That’s sort of a mouthful here. What is this all about? Well, inside the ark of God, what did they put in there? Remember what’s in the ark? Mark? The law? Okay. Here the reference is going to be to the Ten Command, the Law of God. There is a copy of the law of testimony. And so we have the idea that the Ten Command. commandments are God’s holy standard maintaining a place here in heaven itself. It’s because of the violation of God’s law that God’s wrath is going to be poured out upon Israel. The last plagues will fall upon Israel. The clothing here of the seven angels declares their purity and holiness. as verse 6 indicates to us. They have their clothing pure and white linen, having their breasts girded with golden girdles. Who else had a golden girdle? Christ in Chapter 1. So there’s a sense in which I think they are using the authority and power of Christ to carry out these judgments and so that reflect, I think that’s reflected a little bit here in their clothing. It signifies the unlimited exercise of power that they have to bring these judgments, according to Christ’s commandment. Now, the King James Version has the word vials. Some believe it would be better translated as bulls. I don’t think it makes a whole lot of difference. Maybe vows are a little more narrow than bowls, but I don’t think it makes a whole lot of difference. It’s not essential. As the seven angels come out of the heavenly temple, It’s filled with smoke, which is said to be the glory of God. Anybody remember when this happened before? Yes. Isaiah 6. Okay, we do have Isaiah 6th. I was thinking of Solomon when he dedicated the temple. When the Lord’s presence came, it filled the temple with smoke and so forth. But here we have the, you know, any time the Lord’s presence is there, we have the idea of this glory. cloud or some type of symbol of his presence here as a cloud. And that’s what we have here. Do you remember what happened at the time when in Solomon’s Day, when this cloud filled the heavenly temple, the priests could not minister because of the glory cloud, we’re told. In other words, it was overwhelmed. they just couldn’t go in and minister. They had to wait. No one was able to enter into the heavenly temple here until the angels pour out their last plagues. That seems to be the indication here. This was to show that no intercession would avail for the recipients of this divine rations. There are times when we find the people of God, you know, appealing to the Lord, to spare or to have mercy. But there’s going to be no hope for mercy now. And the idea is sort of like Abraham’s intercession for a lot. There’s, in the sparing Sodom, you know, spare it for lots’ sake, well, there comes a point when there’s no more intercession. And this is it. Until these last plagues are poured out, no, there’s not. going to be any more hope. You remember what God said of Israel old in 2nd Chronicles 3616? They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets until the wrath of God arose against his people till there was no remedy. And that’s the idea. I think there’s no remedy here. History repeats itself. Two lessons. briefly to you. Do you see how the righteous look upon God’s holiness and righteousness as such as deserves praise? And so they sing of His holiness and his righteousness and his judgment on the wicked. Too few, supposedly Christians on earth would do such a thing today. They would think it would be a horrible thing. But here, we find them praising the Lord for doing this. You know, the Psalms are full of such praise. It’s another reason why the church should sing the songs. The second point I would make is this. There comes a point of no remedy. When God permits no further intercession from his people, it’s time for his wrath to be poured out. We have to seek the Lord while he may be found. Because there is a point in which when the wrath of God begins to be poured out, it’s too late for you to intercede. If you ever read the book of Jeremiah and you get the chapter 7, you have that very interesting statement there, where God says to the prophet, pray no longer for these people. I will not hear your name. intercession, I won’t hear your prayers, so don’t lift them up before me. In chapter 7 and verse 16, there’s no remedy. There’s no way to spare them. The judgment is going to come. And I suggest that’s what we have here. Any questions or comments on this chapter or the last section of it? Yes. So you’ve explained that… I think sometimes we’re tantal. The tabernacle is separated is the Holy of Holies and the Holy Place that’s in a tent by itself within the temple or in the compound of the tabernacle. It’s the overall tabernacle. And so here would be the temple which houses that special place in which the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies. And inside the Holy of Holies, of course, is the Ark. Sort of like that. I don’t know if that explains it completely, but it’s also called a tabernacle as well. Moses goes before the Lord into the tent. And so I would call… Of course, this is all symbolic because we’re talking about a heavenly temple, a heavenly situation. We talked about this before in the past, and we looked at, you know, before the altar, and we talked about the… interceding and so forth before the ark and so forth in other chapters of Revelation. All this is, of course, symbolic of the work of Christ and heavenly things that are taking place, but it’s put in the language here of the people of Israel, so that they would have a grasp, I think, of it. At least the Christian ones would have a grasp of what the concept is. I don’t know if that fully explains it, but I think that’s what it is. Okay. Right, so let’s move on then the chapter 16 of the book of Revelation. And let me begin by reading the… Let me read the first three verses here. We’ll see how far we can go. 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. Again, I suggest you, upon the land. And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome and grievous soar upon men, which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial. upon the sea, and it became as the blood of a dead man, and every living soul died in the sea. We might get to the third vial, but let’s look at the first two at least. Now the vile judgments, clearly, if you compare them, have some correspondence to the trumpet judgments that we had mentioned earlier in this book. They’re more intense than the trumpet judgments. They also remind you of the plagues of Egypt, which is, I think, one of the reasons why they are called the seven last plagues that he pours out here is because it makes perfect sense, since Jerusalem was called Egypt, spiritually called Egypt in Revelation 118. The saints in heaven are singing the song of Moses, and anticipation here of the overthrow of Israel, who like, which like Egypt of old, is now an enemy of God’s people. This is not a coincidence that this seven last plagues are mentioned. I think it makes you think in terms of the exodus and what took place before. it with the plagues. Well, let’s look at the first vial. Versus one and two, we have a gravious sore that is poured out. The great voice out of the temple is that of God himself, as this is the temple in heaven. Just mentioned in chapter 15 in verse 8. The seven angels are sent forth to pour out God’s wrath on the earth or the land of Israel for the most part. This noisome and grievous sore falls on those who worship the beast. This reminds us of Exodus 9 and the plague of the boils that broke out upon the Egyptians. This sore was a malarious sore or ulcerous sore, it’s Helcos in the Greek, not merely a nuisance, I should say, but a foul and loathsome sore, a wound if you would. This is the same word that’s used with regard to Lazarus, who was covered with sores in Luke 16, the beggar. This is one of the judgments God promised if Israel became a apostate. Deuteronomy 28, 27. The Lord will smite thee with the botch, the boil, the sore, the ulcer, the botch of Egypt, and with emeralds and with the scab, emirods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst be healed. And then also, Deuteronomy 2835. The Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed from the soul of thy foot under the top of thy head. Now it’s interesting to note. To have such a grievous sore meant you would be banished from the company of God’s people, according to numbers 5, verses 1 and 2. So they would be separated. Certainly this was proof that God had utterly rejected the apostate Israel. They no longer can claim to be the people of God. There’s little historical information on the fulfillment of such a plague with regard to National Israel during John’s Day. I don’t have any references for you. However, given the horrible conditions, and certainly there wasn’t much sanitation or health concerns at that time and dead bodies laying everywhere and everything. It wouldn’t be hard to imagine various sores happening. But certainly this is a judgment of God. It wouldn’t be surprising that God would cause this to happen. Therefore, you can understand this plague, I think, in a literal manner without any problem. the God promised the sore or the boils of Egypt upon Israel if they were apostate and there’s good reason to believe that he fulfills that here in this passage. They abandoned him and he judges them. Any questions about this? Yes. Well, it seems like God’s word’s enough. It’s always enough, but in this case, we don’t need anything that supplement, like to give it some kind of life or idea behind, you know, to say there it is. You can see it happening. We know that what God has said, he’s going to bring the pass, and that’s how I accept it, too. You just accept it that way and say this is, he said it, he did it. Okay. Let’s go on then to the second vial, where he turns the sea to blood. This corresponds to the first Egyptian plague. Remember when Moses turned the Red Sea to blood and the water in Egypt ended up turning in the blood. It also corresponds to the second trumpet judgment, Revelation 8, verses 8 and 9. This time, the blood is not running in streams, but instead is like that of a dead man. It’s clotted,, collagulated, yes, and putrefying. The trumpet woe affected only a third part of the land. Here we have the whole sea, so that every living soul in it died. I take it when it says every living soul, that it particularly is concerned with human beings in this passage. This is a picture of what Josephus describes as the Jews who took to the sea to fight the Romans and to escape the land assault of the Romans. But it ended in a disaster, anyhow. During the Roman Jewish war, the inhabitants of the city called Taritia. I don’t know how if I’m pronouncing this right. T-A-R-I-C-H-E-E-A-E. Territi-I-T-R-R-I-T-R-R-E. Located on the Sea of Galley, made preparations for the Roman assault. When Vespucian, the Roman general, or Vespascian, the Roman general, came and defeated them in a land-backed. battle, they thought, well, we’ll retire to the sea and fight on or escape. Eventually, they had to flee to the Sea of Galilee, where they had prepared a great number of ships. It was sort of like a retreat, you know, how to retreat in case they lost the land battle. Vespasian’s troops hurdly built rafts, rafts, and pursued. them upon the Sea of Galilee. Josephus gives us a count in the Jewish War, Book 3, Chapter 10, paragraph 9. As for those that endeavored to come to actual flight, the Romans ran many of them through with long poles. Sometimes the Romans leaped upon their ships with swords and their hands and slew them. And when some of them met the vessels, the Romans caught them by the middle, and destroyed at once their ships and themselves who were taken in them. For such as were drowning in the sea, if they lifted their heads up above the water, they were killed either by darts or caught by the vessels. But if, in the desperate case, they were in, they attempted to swim to their enemies, the Romans cut off their heads or their hands, and indeed they were destroyed after various manners everywhere till the rest being put to flight were forced to get upon the land where the vessels encompassed them about on the sea. But as many of these were repulsed when they were getting ashore, they were killed by darts upon the lake and the Romans leaped out of their vessels and destroyed a great many more upon the land one might see the lake all bloody and full of dead bodies for not one of them escaped. This was the upshot of their sea flight. 6,500 Jews were slain in this battle. There’s another incident like this, which took place on the Mediterranean Sea, near the town of Joppa, the coast of Israel, on the coast of Israel, according to Josephus, book three, chapter nine, paragraphs two and three, which actually preceded this battle with the Sea of Galilee. The first part here, the first paragraph, deals with the Roman’s pursuit of the pirates of Joppa. He said, meanwhile, the Jews, who had been driven by sedition from their towns, and the refuge Jews, whose homes had been destroyed, joined to form a sizable force and proceeded to rebuild Joppa, recently devastated by Cestius, to serve as a base. Then, as they were cut off from the country, which they had overrun by the enemy, they decided to turn to the sea. Accordingly, they built a large pirate fleet and made raids on shipping along the coast of Syria and Phoenicia, and the route to Egypt. making navigation on those seas quite impossible. When Vespasian heard about this gang, he dispatched a body of infantry and cavalry to Joppa, which entered it at night as the town was unguarded. The inhabitants were forewarned of the coming attack, but in their fright made no attempt to keep the Romans out and sought refuge in their ships, where they spent the night out of range. And then we have the destruction by a sea storm and the capture and demolition of Joppa in paragraph 3 here. There is no natural harbor at Joppa, which ends in a rugged shore, straight for most of its length, but curving slightly crescent-wise-wise at both ends. These are formed by steep cliffs and reefs, running far out in the river. into the deep. Here the marks of Andromeda’s chains are still shown, proving the antiquity of this legend. The north wind, beating full on this shore, dashing waves high against the cliffs, makes the roadstead more dangerous to sailors than the watery deep. Here the men of Joppa were tossing. When towards, Towards dawn, they were struck by a violent gale, known to the sailors in those parts as the black northern. It dashed some of the ships to pieces against each other on the spot, others it drove upon the rocks. As the waves surged forward, many pushed their way out into deeper waters. So frightened were they of the rocks-strewn coast. But even in the open sea, the mountainous waves overwhelmed them. There was no place to escape to, and no safety if they stayed where they were. The fury of the wind repelled them from the sea, that of the Romans, from the town. There were agonizing shrieks as the vessels collided amid great noise as they broke up. Of the men on board, some perished, engulfed in the waves. Many were crushed by the wreckage. Some thought, it less awful to die by their own swords than wait for death in the sea. Most of them, however, were swept the shore by the waves, and their mangled bodies hurled against the cliffs. A wide area of sea was stained with blood, and the coast was covered with corpses, for the Romans, lining the shore, killed those who were cast up. The number of bodies washed up came to 4,200. The Romans captured the town without opposition and raised it to the ground. These people thought they were going to escape the Romans, but God intervened and made sure that they did not and brought judgment upon them. Any questions about this section? I think I’m going to stop at this point then, and we’ll pick up, Lord willing from there. We’ll pick up with the third plague. Any questions that will be able to stop. all then about today’s study.