{"id":18998,"date":"2019-08-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-25T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-049-divine-sarcasm\/"},"modified":"2019-08-25T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-08-25T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-049-divine-sarcasm","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-049-divine-sarcasm\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 049 – Divine Sarcasm"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18998","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 049 - Divine Sarcasm","sermon_date":"20190825","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7001,"sermon_slides":7002,"sermon_mp3":7004,"sermon_id":"825191248211248","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"16:1-9","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nDivine Sarcasm\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a08-11-19\n\nRevelation 16:1-9\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 49\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Book Revelation, chapter 16 and verse 1. The title of our message this morning is Divine Sarcasm.\u00a0 Of course little kids, their mother says don\u2019t be sarcastic, I guess they could say well God is sarcastic and we\u2019re going to see a little of that today here in Revelation 16.\u00a0 I want to thank Gabe Morris for filling in last week, I trust you enjoyed his ministry.\n\nWe are in a point of the Book of Revelation there in the second half of the tribulation period where what is beginning to happen is the last set of judgments is about to be poured out with the seven golden bowls of wrath.\u00a0 Chapter 15 you\u2019ll recall was preparation in heaven for the final series of judgments.\u00a0 We saw the heavenly scene, we saw tremendous worship taking place, all in preparation for this next and final set of judgments and now this morning we move into chapter 16 where the judgments actually transpire.\n\nHere is sort of our outline that we\u2019re going to be working through both this morning and probably next Sunday morning as we take a look at these golden bowls of wrath.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verses 1 and 2, the first judgment is poured out and notice what it says there in verse 1.\u00a0 \u201c\u00a0Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, \u201cGo and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.\u201d\u00a0 Immediately our attention is drawn to the temple in heaven.\n\n[1.] 1st<\/sup> Bowl (16:1-2) Boils.\u00a0 2nd<\/sup> Bowl (16:3) Sea becomes blood.\u00a0 3rd<\/sup> Bowl (16:4-7) Freshwater destroyed.\u00a0 4th<\/sup> \u00a0Bowl (16:8-9) Sun scorches man.\u00a0 5th<\/sup> Bowl, Euphrates dried (16:13-16.\u00a0 6th<\/sup> bowl (16:13-160 Euphrates dried.\u00a0 7th<\/sup> bowl, (16:17-21) Greatest earthquake.]\n\nAs we have studied there is a parallel going on between the temple in heaven (and there is one apparently) and the temple on the earth.\u00a0 What\u2019s in heaven has an earthly parallel and what\u2019s on earth has a heavenly parallel.\u00a0 And we are focused on that because that is the location, that\u2019s the venue\u00a0 that these seven bowls of wrath will ultimately come from; they come from God to the earth.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice it says here, \u201c\u00a0Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, \u201cGo and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 16:1]\u00a0 Seven angels, so as each angel pours out a bowl another judgment will come to the earth, sort of like at the beginning of the Book of Revelation the seven sealed scroll has, as each seal on the seal is broken another judgment comes to the earth, sort of like the trumpets that we read about in chapters 8-11; as an angel sounds a trumpet another judgment comes to the earth where at the last set where each angel will pour out the contents of their bowl bringing another judgment to the earth.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice this expression there \u201con the earth.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s very important because what is happening in the Book of Revelation is the earth is being reclaimed; Satan\u2019s grip over the earth is becoming progressively weaker until finally the judgments will be complete and the earth will be liberated from its bondage as the Kingdom of God breaks forth.\n\nRevelation 1:6 tells us that we are \u201ca kingdom of priests\u201d as the church.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:6, \u201cand has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father-to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 Revelation 5:10 says we will reign where\u2026\u00a0 \u201con the earth.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 5:10, \u201cYou have made them to be<\/em> a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.\u201d] We\u2019re not going to reign up in the clouds somewhere; we\u2019re not in some kind of never-never world.\u00a0 Jesus is coming back to reign on this earth; we as the church are coming back to reign with Him on the earth and so what is happening is the earth is being prepared for that future reign as Satan is being evicted through these various judgments.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice what it says here, that in them, the bowls, we have \u201cthe wrath of God.\u201d\u00a0 The fact of the matter is a lot of people will try to sell you on the idea that the wrath of God is just in the bowls but as we have carefully studied the wrath of God is in the seal judgments and also the trumpet judgments.\u00a0 And it is true that the judgments are getting more and more severe but all of it represents the wrath of God and that is one of many reasons why the church (that\u2019s us) cannot and will not be on the earth during any of these things.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0\u00a0 Because the church is promised an exemption from divine wrath.\u00a0 There\u2019s all the verses there that we\u2019ve gone through. [The promise (1 Thessalonians 1:10; Romans 5:9; 8:1, Revelation 3:10.\u00a0 Tribulation = divine wrath, (Revelation 6:16-17, 11:18, 15:1, 7; 16:1, 19.]\u00a0 There\u2019s all the verses there that we\u2019ve gone through.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have time to read them all today but you\u2019re familiar with many of those verses.\n\nWe\u2019re specifically told to wait for our Savior from heaven who rescues us from the wrath to come.\u00a0 And so how could the church be here for any of this if the whole time period represents the wrath of God.\u00a0 We believe in the fact that the next event on the prophetic calendar is the catching away of the church; the translation of the church in what is called the rapture.\u00a0 And so we are not looking for an antichrist; many people are out there doing that.\u00a0 We\u2019re not doing that, we\u2019re looking for Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 Who comes and removes us from the wrath which is to come.\n\nAnd so it\u2019s very interesting that as this judgment is poured out what begins to take place there in verse 2 is boils or some sort of skin malady begins to appear on the inhabitants of the earth.\u00a0 Look at verse 2, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>So the first angel<\/em> went and poured out his bowl on the earth; and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that immediately what happens is boils, skin problems appear on people.\u00a0 You say well God doesn\u2019t do that to people does He?\u00a0 Read the Book of Job sometime; God gave Satan permission to touch Job\u2019s very skin.\u00a0 It says in Job 2:7-8, \u201cThen Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job\u201d of course Job, as you probably know, is the oldest book of the Bible, \u201csmote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. [8] And he took a potsherd to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me how they, having just returned from southern California for the last couple of weeks how much our culture, in terms of emphasis, places on\u00a0 youth and beauty.\u00a0 You know, the beautiful people are always in the magazines, they\u2019re always the ones in the movies, Hollywood, they\u2019re the ones that everybody wants to emulate, everyone wants to be like, everyone wants to look up to.\u00a0 As you get older you\u2019re kind of discarded because the good looks that we once had (if we ever had them at all, a lot of times we\u2019re deceived into thinking we had them) really aren\u2019t there any more.\u00a0 And the whole culture is sort of aimed at physical appearance and\u00a0 youth and beauty.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting to me that that\u2019s the first thing the Lord takes away here, as now boils of a malignant and loathsome manner begin to appear on people.\u00a0 We shouldn\u2019t take our physical appearance to seriously since God is sovereign over that as well, isn\u2019t He?\u00a0 We should submit all things unto God.\n\nAnd it says here, the end of verse 2, \u201cwho had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.\u201d\u00a0 Now this is very interesting because it appears that this particular judgment only comes upon unbelievers; saved people at this particular point don\u2019t experience that judgment.\u00a0 Now this is not true through the whole Book of Revelation but through some of the judgments in the Book of Revelation there is an exemption for those who happen to be unbelievers at the time.\n\nYou\u2019ll see the same thing in the Book of Exodus, chapter 9 and verse 6, the various plagues in the Book of Exodus it says, \u201cSo the LORD did this thing on the next day, and all the livestock of Egypt died; but of the livestock of the sons of Israel, not one died.\u201d\u00a0 You see the same thing in the Book of Revelation, chapter 9 and verse 4, that particular trumpet judgment says, \u201cThey were told not to hurt the grass of the earth, nor any green thing, nor any tree, but only the men who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that being \u201cin Christ\u201d exempts you from a lot of things.\u00a0 If you\u2019re on the earth at the time (you won\u2019t be here but those that are believers are exempted from certain things simply by believing in Christ.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that when God came to destroy the wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah the destroying angel said to Lot, a believer, I cannot do anything until you are removed.\n\nAnd you know, I praise the Lord that I came to the Lord at a very early age, there are so many things that I have been exempted from and protected from simply by being in a relationship with Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The ultimate thing of course that I\u2019m protected from is hell itself.\u00a0 But even as we continue here on the earth there\u2019s so many things that we\u2019re shielded from, maybe not even recognizing, simply because the Lord is walking with us. Now this isn\u2019t true with all the judgments, as I\u2019ve said, but some of them are aimed only at the unbelievers.\u00a0 And so the first bowl\u00a0 is poured out and these loathsome boils, skin issues, begin to appear on people.\n\nNow we move into the second bowl judgment there in verse 3, and notice what it says there in verse 3, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like\u201d a very important word, \u201clike that<\/em> of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice it says there in verse three \u201cThe second angel,\u201d and you\u2019ll see that all the way through Revelation 16, first angel, second angel, third angel, fourth angel.\u00a0 It\u2019s very obvious that what is being given to us here is a chronology.\u00a0 Largely speaking what you\u2019ll find is the Book of Revelation will flow in chronological order, first seal, second seal, third seal, then you get to the trumpets, same pattern.\u00a0 You get to the bowl judgments, the same pattern.\n\nAs we\u2019ve tried to communicate there are about five times where the chronology stops, usually after \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0a sixth in a series, to explain a little more of what is happening in the series.\u00a0 These insertions are not chronological but they don\u2019t interrupt the chronological flow of the entire book.\u00a0 The book is meant \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0to be understood chronologically.\u00a0 There are five times the chronology stops, we\u2019re about to hit a little one, probably next week, in Revelation 16:13-16 and then we\u2019re going to hit our final one, number five, once Babylon is destroyed in Revelation 17 and 18 and we may never get out of that one until the rapture, [laughter] because there\u2019s a lot of misunderstanding about Babylon and so we\u2019re going to be going into depth on the whole subject of Babylon once we hit Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 But other than these brief interruptions the chronology continues.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like the days of creation in Genesis 1; God created the entire world in six days. But what you have in Genesis 2 is some information about day six.\u00a0 The whole chapter really is about day six.\u00a0 So chapter 2 of Genesis starts to interrupt the chronology and give you more information about what happens on one of those days, day six.\u00a0 But that isn\u2019t to subtract from the fact that the days are meant to be understood, Genesis 1, in a chronological manner.\n\nThat\u2019s sort of the same pattern that you find here in the Book of Revelation, but you\u2019ll notice here in the second bowl judgment that the ocean turns to blood.\u00a0 [Revelation 16:4, \u00a0\u201cThen the third angel<\/em> poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood.\u201d]\u00a0 And it\u2019s very interesting that he uses, John does, the word \u201clike,\u201d it was like that of a dead man, the blood or the red in the ocean was like that of a dead man.\u00a0 Now he uses \u201clike\u201d or \u201cas\u201d many times in the Book of Revelation; we call that a what?\u00a0 What kind of a figure of speech?\u00a0 That\u2019s a simile.\u00a0 Why does John use so many similes when he\u2019s given this vision that we call the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 It relates to his assignment.\u00a0 He thought his life was over, he was marooned, as we have studied, on the Island of Patmos at the end of the first century and then Jesus shows up on his island.\u00a0 Can\u00a0 you imagine that?\n\nSee, a lot of people think their life is over, God has used them, but as the saying goes, \u201cit ain\u2019t over till it\u2019s over!\u201d\u00a0 I mean, you really have no idea what God is going to do through your life and as long as you\u2019re alive God has you alive for a reason and He wants to use you for a purpose.\u00a0 John was the last living apostle; they actually tried to boil him to death and this guy wouldn\u2019t die.\u00a0 So they really didn\u2019t know what to do with him other than to maroon him out there on the Aegean Sea and on an island called Patmos, and they left him out there because that\u2019s the way Domitian, at the time, handled troublemakers.\u00a0 So you can imagine John being out there on this island thinking God had no more purpose for him.\n\nIn fact, his greatest purpose was right around the corner because Jesus appeared to him in His glorified state, scared John half to death (Revelation 1) and John is given his assignment.\u00a0 He\u2019s going to be shown a vision.\u00a0 And the Lord says to him, \u201cWrite in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 1:10, \u201cI was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, [11] saying, \u2018Write in a book what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.\u201d]\n\nThe problems is when John is trying to write down things it\u2019s describing realities that wouldn\u2019t happen for two thousand\u00a0 years or more.\u00a0 So how would he explain 21st<\/sup> century phenomenon or beyond?\u00a0 He would have no vocabulary for it.\u00a0 So he keeps saying it was \u201clike,\u201d it was \u201cas,\u201d and so John sees the ocean turning to red like that of a dead man.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice what it says there in verse 3, it says \u201cevery living thing in the sea died.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 16:3, \u201cThe second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that<\/em> of a dead man; and every living thing in the sea died.\u201d]\n\nYou might recall the trumpet judgments, Revelation 8:8-9, earlier in the sequence we read these words.\u00a0 \u201cThe second angel sounded, and something<\/em> like\u201d there\u2019s a simile again, \u201ca great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, [9] and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s an earlier trumpet judgment but now with this second bowl judgment every\u00adthing in the turns blood red, everything dies.\u00a0 And so it is quite obvious what God is doing here; as humanity is continuing on in its rebellion, despite the fact that they\u2019ve been given multiple opportunities to repent, what does the Lord do?\u00a0 He keeps turning up the temperature; He keeps turning up the thermostat.\n\nYou\u2019ll actually sense that same pattern in your own life as a child of God.\u00a0 When God puts us under discipline he is trying to get at some result in our lives, trying to get us to change in some way.\u00a0 And given the depravity of our hearts we oftentimes push God out, push away His perspective and ignore the\u00a0 convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit in our lives.\u00a0 And what does God do?\u00a0 God says you want to play that way I\u2019ll just turn up the temperature a little more.\u00a0 You see that same pattern in divine discipline.\u00a0 The same thing here is happening with divine judgment.\n\nIt\u2019s sort of like Pharaoh in the Book of Exodus where it says of Satan that God hardened Pharaoh\u2019s heart.\u00a0 [Exodus 9:12, \u201cAnd the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he did not listen to them, just as the LORD had spoken to Moses.\u201d]\u00a0 Most people camp on that part of it but they forget the six times earlier in the Book of Exodus where Pharaoh hardened his own heart against God.\u00a0 Pharaoh hardened his heart and he hardened his heart and he hardened his heart at least six times and then finally God turned up the thermostat and said okay, I\u2019ll give you what you want.\u00a0 And God got involved in the hardening process until God finally got the result He wanted from Pharaoh which was the release of His people from Egyptian bondage and captivity, a captivity that they had been in for four hundred years.\n\nGod, one way or the other, is going to get His way.\u00a0 The only question is are we going to take the path of least resistance or not?\u00a0 And often times humanity in its depravity does not take the path of least resistance and we think somehow we\u2019re fooling God when the reality of the situation is God, at the end of the day, is going to get His way.\u00a0 Why not just repent at the beginning?\u00a0 Why not just say to the Lord, Lord, not my will be done but Thy will be done!\u00a0 It\u2019d make life so much simpler wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 But at any rate, God is going to get His way.\n\nAnd this is where verse 3, being a preterist becomes very difficult.\u00a0 Preterism is the doctrine that the Book of Revelation already happened in the first century.\u00a0 The late R. C. Sproul believed that doctrine, the Book of Revelation already transpired.\u00a0 And you can see the linguistic gymnastics you have to pull to get that to work.\u00a0\u00a0 When exactly did the entire ocean turn to blood red in the past?\u00a0 The moment you begin to take these things literally, as we do here, is the moment you see that the Book of Revelation and its fulfillment of prophecy is not in our past; it\u2019s obviously yet future.\n\nAnd now we move into the third bowl judgment verse 3 God not only destroys the ocean but He destroys the earth\u2019s fresh water supply.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Revelation 16 and notice verse 4, \u201cThen the third angel\u201d <\/em>see the chronology, \u201cpoured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters; and they became blood. \u00a0First God destroys the salt water of the entire earth and now He is destroying the fresh water supply of the entire earth.\u00a0 Back in Revelation 8 he destroyed a third, now once again He\u2019s destroying all of it.\u00a0 And how easy it is for the human race to look up at God and say You\u2019re just not being fair, I mean, how dare\u00a0 You do this to our echo system and our solar system and our planet?\u00a0 Who do\u00a0 you think you are?\u00a0 God or something?\n\nAnd so what you have here, verse 5, is a testimony by an angel, untainted by a sin nature, that God has a right to do exactly what He\u2019s doing.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, verse 5 of Revelation 16.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I heard the angel of the waters\u201d now that would be the destroying angel because God uses angels.\u00a0 \u00a0He delegates tasks of destructions just like He did Sodom and Gomorrah, to angels. \u00a0This angel apparently had jurisdiction over the waters that had been just destroyed, and so now we get the angels commentary on this judgment.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I heard the angel of the waters saying, \u2018Righteous are You, who are and who were, O Holy One, because You judged these things;\u201d people question God all of the time but an angel who is untainted by a sin nature does not question God,\u00a0 he simply magnifies God\u2019s attributes of might, omnipotence, righteousness and holiness.\u00a0 God has a right to do what He is doing because He is bound by those attributes.\n\nWhenever you get yourself into a situation where you\u2019re reading something in the Bible and you\u2019re saying God is unfair you have to understand that God is perfectly fair.\u00a0 Everything God does is\u00a0 upright because He is bound by His perfect character.\u00a0 And people under the judgment of God will always say God is not fair because they\u2019re getting the raw end of the deal.\u00a0 They\u2019re getting the difficult end of the stick.\u00a0 But angels who are untainted by a sin nature fully recognize that God has an absolute right to do what he\u2019s doing, even tampering with in a progressive fashion the environ\u00adment of the earth itself.\n\nAnd I just find it very, very interesting that as our culture moves into more of an environmental mindset, and there\u2019s nothing wrong with being an environmentalist if you define it correctly.\u00a0\u00a0 We\u2019re not here to trash the planet, we\u2019re here to be good stewards of the earth for God.\u00a0 We\u2019re not here to be irresponsible but so much of environmentalism has drifted today into what\u2019s called pantheism where you worship the created thing or the creature rather than the God Himself.\n\nAnd it\u2019s very interesting to me how uptight people are about the environment as our culture drifts more and more into pantheism.\u00a0 And you can imagine the outrage of people, when God is tampering with the ocean, tampering with the earth\u2019s fresh water supply, even tampering with the health and the beauty of the human race, how defiant people would become towards God, recognizing that it\u2019s God who is controlling these various judgments calling into question the character of God.\u00a0 And thus God here introduces His own character witness through an angel, indicating that God is absolutely upright in everything that He is doing here in the Book of Revelation.\n\nNotice the angel\u2019s testimony continues on into verse 6, and this is where the divine sarcasm comes in.\u00a0 Verse 6, \u201cfor they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Look at this, look at what it says there at the end of verse 6, \u201cThey deserve it.\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s what the angel says.\u00a0 The inhabitants of the earth are getting exactly what they deserve because they are the ones who have spilled the blood of God\u2019s prophets and saints, so why is it so problematic that God would turn the ocean to blood red?\n\nYou\u2019ll notice, first of all, this word \u201csaints.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cThey have spilled the blood of the saints,\u201d it doesn\u2019t say they spilled the blood of the church.\u00a0 The Book of Revelation, as we have talked about, has three parts to it, Revelation 1:19, John is told to write the things that he has seen.\u00a0 [Revelation 1:19, \u201cWrite, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s chapter one, a division of the glorified Christ.\u00a0 Then he\u2019s told to write the things which are, that\u2019s Revelation 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches.\u00a0 And then he is told to write down the things which will take place after these things, that\u2019s the futuristic section of the Book of Revelation that we are studying.\u00a0 It begins with Revelation 4:1 and really goes to the very end of the book.\n\nAnd it is very interesting, and I\u2019ve noted this several times, how lopsided the word \u201cchurch\u201d is in the Book of Revelation, the Greek word ekklesia,<\/em> it occurs 19 times in Revelation 2 and 3.\u00a0 And then all of a sudden you get into the futuristic section of the\u00a0 book and the word \u201cchurch\u201d or ekklesia <\/em>virtually disappears from the book.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t even recur again until Revelation 22 where Jesus says, through John, preach these things in the churches.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t even call the church \u201cthe church.\u201d\n\nIt calls God\u2019s people things.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 I think there\u2019s a very simple explanation; the church has been taken out of the earth before these judgments hit the earth. \u00a0Jesus has made good on His promise given to the church at Philadelphia in Revelation 3:10, that they will be kept from<\/u> the hour of trial, which is coming on the whole earth.\u00a0 [Revelation 3:10, \u201cBecause you have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing, that hour<\/em> which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth.\u201d]\u00a0 There are built in in proofs every \u00adwhere in the Book of Revelation that the church, pre-tribulationalism will be removed from the earth before the tribulation period even starts; nineteen times the word \u201cchurch\u201d appears in chapters 1-3 but no more references to the church in chapters 4-22.\n\nAnd you say well it says \u201csaints,\u201d isn\u2019t the church the saints and saints the church?\u00a0 Not necessarily because those in Old Testament times, long before the church existed, were called saints.\u00a0 Psalm 50:5,\u00a0 Psalm 149:1.\u00a0 [Psalm 50:5, \u201cGather My godly ones to Me, those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.\u201d\u00a0 Psalm 149:1, Praise the Lord!\u00a0 Sing to the Lord a new song,\u00a0 and<\/em> His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.\u201d]\n\nAnd so I bring these various things to your attention because there\u2019s going to be a lot of people out there that will try to talk you out of this doctrine, pretribulationalism.\u00a0 And yet the more I study this the more convinced I am that pretribulationalism is a biblical true doctrine.\u00a0 And in fact, what God is doing here in Revelation 16:6 is He\u2019s answering prayer.\u00a0 [Revelation 16:6, \u201cfor they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. They deserve it.\u201d]\n\nDo you remember what the martyr said very early on in the Book of Revelation?\u00a0 Revelation 6:9-11.\u00a0 Do you remember what they said.\u00a0 \u201cWhen the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; [10]<\/strong> and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, \u201cHow long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth.\u00a0 \u00a0And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of<\/em> their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also.\u201d\n\nHere are all these martyrs at the beginning of the tribulation period in the presence of the Lord under the altar saying Lord, how long are You going to allow this to happen?\u00a0 I mean, we\u2019ve been killed and martyred unfairly.\u00a0 And God says wait a little while because one of these days the vengeance will be completed.\u00a0 And what you\u2019re seeing here in verse 6 is God is now answering their prayer request.\u00a0 They spilled the blood of My saints and prophets and I will turn around and turn their entire ocean and arguably their fresh water supply to blood as well.\u00a0 All the waters are now contaminated, ocean water, fresh water\u2026 why is that?\u00a0 Because the people on the earth deserve it.\n\nYou know, it\u2019s so tempting to think that because a\u00a0 prayer request is delayed that somehow it\u2019s denied.\u00a0 I mean, no doubt that that\u2019s what the martyrs under the altar in Revelation 6 were thinking, that God had forgotten about their predicament, and yet God had not forgotten.\u00a0 He answered in His providence, He answered in His timing, He answered in His own time table!\u00a0 And that\u2019s one of the things that you discover as you walk with God\u00a0 you discover that He doesn\u2019t do things on our time table.\u00a0 Have you noticed that?\u00a0 I mean, God, what\u2019s the matter with You,\u00a0 You should have done this by now and this by now and this by now.\u00a0 What does God tell us to do?\u00a0 Whatever the issue is He just says wait a little while.\n\nAnd yet what did Jesus say?\u00a0 When the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth?\u00a0 When He returns will He find people that are still trusting in God, even though God hasn\u2019t vindicated everything in their life during the time in which they thought it was appropriate.\u00a0 Are we becoming impatient with God and throwing up our hands and giving up on God, or will Jesus find faith on the earth when He comes, a group of people who are saying yes, the request has been delayed but it has not necessarily been denied because \u201cas the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 55:9]\u00a0\u00a0 Your timing is different and so in those times of delay we simply have to continue to trust Him, the perfect character and the timing of God.\n\nIt\u2019s very difficult and that\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this sermon Divine Sarcasm to miss the sarcasm in all of this as the earth dwellers had shed the blood of God\u2019s servant, God turns around and damages the earth\u2019s water supply by turning it to blood.\u00a0 Do you see the sarcasm in that?\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting as you go through the Bible God can be very sarcastic.\u00a0 I was reading this week about the prophet Elijah.\u00a0 Remember him?\u00a0 And how he was sort of taunting the prophets of Baal and how their god wouldn\u2019t answer a prayer request concerning the fire coming down from heaven and yet Elijah\u2019s God did answer that prayer request.\u00a0 And the more the fake god, the phony god, the false god didn\u2019t answer the prayer request the more Elijah, being directed by the Holy Spirit, taunted the prophets of Baal through sarcasm.\n\n1 Kings 18:27, this is a translation that comes out of what\u2019s called the CEV, [Contemporary English Version] \u00a0and notice what it says:\u00a0 \u201cAt noon, Elijah began making fun of them. \u201cPray louder!\u201d he said. \u201cBaal must be a god. Maybe he\u2019s day-dreaming\u201d catch this next line, \u201cor using the toilet\u201d talk about sarcasm, \u201cor traveling somewhere. Or maybe he\u2019s asleep, and you have to wake him up.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus became very sarcastic with the religious leaders of his day, Matthew 23:24, He says, \u201cYou blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!\u201d\u00a0 We know that God was very sarcastic in His dealings with the ten plagues.\u00a0 There were ten plagues in the Book of Exodus that come upon Egypt and it\u2019s sort of shocking to discover that each of those plagues were designed to mock a deity of the Egyptian polytheistic pantheon.\n\nThe water to blood was a mocking of two Egyptian deities.\u00a0\u00a0 The frogs mocked Egyptian deities, they worshiped frogs.\u00a0 God says you like frogs, I\u2019ll multiply them all over Egypt.\u00a0 The gnats, the plague involving the gnats mocked a deity, the flies, these disease on the cattle, the boils, the hail, they worshiped the sky, they worshiped the weather.\u00a0 God says fine, here\u2019s some weather for you.\u00a0 They worshiped\u00a0 the locusts, God multiplied them everywhere.\u00a0 They worshiped the sun, not the S-o-n, the s-u-n, sun.\u00a0 And God turned everything into darkness.\u00a0 They worshipped Pharaoh, the worshipped Pharaoh\u2019s firstborn, they worshipped the firstborn all over Egypt.\u00a0 So what did God do?\u00a0 He killed all of the firstborn all over Egypt.\u00a0 This is an attribute of God, a part of God that we really don\u2019t hear much about because our view of God is so limited.\u00a0 We view Him just as a God of love and grace and He is all of that but there\u2019s also this very sarcastic element.\u00a0 You see it in Romans 1 where it talks about humanity gave up on God, they turned God over.\u00a0 And God says in Romans 1 okay, you\u2019ve turned Me over, I just turned you over.\u00a0\u00a0 And He gave them over to all sorts of licentious wicked sexual practices.\n\n[Romans 1:21, \u201cFor even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures.\u00a0 [24] Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. [25] For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.\u00a0 [26] For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, [27] and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. [28] And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, [29] being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are<\/em> gossips, [30] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31] without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; [32] and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.\u201d]\n\nYou quit on Me, God says, I just quit on you.\u00a0\u00a0 You gave up on Me, I just gave up on you!\u00a0 Have you ever studied this, Genesis 12:3, God\u2019s dealings with Israel.\u00a0 \u201cI will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.\u201d \u00a0Have you ever thought about this part of it here, \u201cthe one who curses you I will curse\u201d?\u00a0 Have you ever asked yourself just this very simple question?\u00a0 In the Red Sea crossing why did God drown the pursuing Egyptians?\u00a0 He could have destroyed them any way He chose; He could have opened up the desert before they got to the Red Sea and killed the Egyptians that way.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find the answer in Exodus 1:22, which says, \u201cThen Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive.\u201d\u00a0 So the Egyptians took God\u2019s people and drowned them in the Nile.\u00a0 So what does God do?\u00a0 A literal outworking of Genesis 12:3, \u201c\u2026 the one who curses you I will curse,\u201d then I will drown the Egyptians.\u00a0 That\u2019s what you call divine sarcasm.\n\nOr what about the whole scenario where God, as the nation of Israel is coming out of Egyptian bondage in plague number ten, God kills the firstborn all over Egypt.\u00a0 Why did God kill the firstborn all over Egypt?\u00a0 Well no doubt, as we saw a moment ago, it was to mock one of the Egyptian deities but you see, the nation of Israel is called God\u2019s firstborn.\u00a0 Exodus 4:22 says this: \u201cThen you shall say to Pharaoh, \u2018Thus says the LORD, \u2018Israel is My son, My firstborn\u2019 son.\u201d\u00a0 My son, My firstborn\u2019 son.\u201d\u00a0 So for four hundred years the Egyptians abused God\u2019s firstborn son, the nation of Israel.\u00a0 And so God turns around in the final plague, in plague number ten and says you tamper with My firstborn, now I\u2019m tampering with your first born.\u00a0 A literal outworking is it not, of Genesis 12:3.\n\nThe sarcasm of God, even in judgment itself revealing His sovereignty and His authority.\u00a0 You know, Psalm 2 talks about how the nations are conspiring against God and trying to remove the yoke of God.\u00a0 \u00a0And Psalm 1, in that particular psalm, gives the reaction of God, it says God in the heavens laughs, He just laughs at this because to Him that\u2019s how silly it looks.\u00a0 \u00a0[Psalm 2:1-4, \u201cWhy are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?\u00a0 [2] The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, [3] \u201cLet us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!\u201d\u00a0 [4] He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord scoffs at them.\u201d]\u00a0 You want to be silly, I\u2019ll be silly God says, until the human race finally understands who exactly is the boss and who exactly is in charge.\n\nAnd then you move away from an angelic testimony and\u00a0 you look at verse 7 and now the altar gives a testimony, an inanimate object.\u00a0 Look at what it says in verse 7, \u201cAnd I heard the altar saying, \u201cYes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.\u201d\u00a0 Humanity won\u2019t submit to God.\u00a0 Humanity second guesses God so now we have an angel backing up the character of God that what God is doing now is right and now\u00a0 you have an altar in addition, testifying to the fact that what God is doing is right because He\u2019s righteous.\u00a0 He\u2019s righteous and His judgments are righteous and His judgments are true and He\u2019s the Almighty and He\u2019s operating within the limits of His character.\u00a0 And it\u2019s all designed to show the foolishness of man who seeks to second guess God.\n\nAnd now we move away from the third bowl judgment and we move into the fourth bowl judgment and people ask me do you believe in global warming?\u00a0\u00a0 Well, first of all of course I believe in global warming, I live in Texas.\u00a0 Secondly, I believe in global warming, look at what God does here with judgment number four where He unleashes the sun, not the s-o-n, that\u2019s coming later, the s-u-n, sun to scorch man and notice what He says there in Revelation 16 and notice what He says in verse 8.\u00a0 \u201cThe fourth angel,\u201d see the chronology, \u201cpoured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.\u201d\n\nNow you\u2019ll notice in verse 1 God poured out His judgments upon the earth because it\u2019s the earth that\u2019s being liberated in preparation for the kingdom. But you\u2019ll notice that God is not limited to judging the earth.\u00a0 God is not limited to controlling what\u2019s taking place on the earth.\u00a0 Now He\u2019s controlling something at the center of our solar system, the sun itself.\u00a0 And again man would say who\u2019s God to do this, but let\u2019s remind ourselves of something\u2014the earth came into existence through the creative decree of God on day three of the creation week.\u00a0 And if God created the earth how can we say God has no right to judge the earth?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t the Creator have the right to do what He wants?\u00a0 And the sun, the s-u-n, sun came into existence on day four of the creation week.\u00a0 So can\u2019t God tamper with the son as any way He sees fit?\n\nMan came into existence on day six of the creation week.\u00a0 So doesn\u2019t God have the right to put boils on man as He sees fit?\u00a0 I mean, the fact that you\u2019re the Creator of the heavens and the earth gives you that right.\u00a0 The altar testified that that is true.\u00a0 An angel testified that that is true.\u00a0 And understanding the creation week itself testifies that this is true.\u00a0 And it\u2019s sort of interesting to me that God has always protected man from the sun, s-u-n.\u00a0 Genesis 1:6-7 says this: \u201cThen God said, \u201cLet there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.\u201d [7] God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse\u201d watch this now, \u201cfrom the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so.\u201d\u00a0 So we have an expanse, that\u2019s easy to identify, that expanse is the sky, and then we have waters below the sky, that\u2019s easy to identify, that\u2019s the oceans.\n\nBut what in the world is this talking about here, waters \u201cabove expanse,\u201d waters above the sky.\u00a0 What is that talking about?\u00a0 Now here\u2019s my view on it, I don\u2019t know if this is worth starting a new church over necessarily, but at one point in time this earth, there was a water canopy that surrounded the entire earth and it had the effect of filtering the sun\u2019s harmful rays which allowed people to live very long life spans.\n\nGenesis 5:5 of the man Adam, it says he \u201clived nine hundred and thirty years.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 5:5, \u201cSo all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.\u201d]\u00a0 Do you know any nine hundred and thirty year old people?\u00a0 Genesis 5:27 of the man Methuselah, the oldest living man that we have record of, he lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years.\u00a0 [Genesis 5:27, \u201cSo all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.\u201d]\n\nAnd you say well, this is really strange.\u00a0 Well, I think the reason people lived so long in Genesis 5 is at that particular point in time this water canopy surrounded the earth and it filtered the sun\u2019s harmful rays post fall and allowed people to live abnormally long lifespans.\u00a0 And they have found in the fossil record animals and large skeletons and things of that nature that really don\u2019t have a parallel with animals of today.\u00a0 I think it largely relates to this canopy that once surrounded the earth.\n\nAnd when God brought the flood I think what happened is He simply released the water canopy, because you run into people today that say you don\u2019t believe in a global flood do you?\u00a0 There\u2019s not enough moisture in the clouds to flood the earth.\u00a0 Well you\u2019re assuming a lot; how do you know God used the clouds?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t it talk about waters from below and waters from above?\u00a0 And perhaps part of this flood was simply unleashing or releasing the canopy and then the harmful rays of the sun had greater access to human beings and that\u2019s why post flood, Genesis 11, you don\u2019t have nine hundred year old people anymore; a hundred seventy-five, two hundred and five,\u00a0 and what happens is the lifespan of people starts getting dramatically cut back to the point now Psalm 90:10 says if you reach seventy to eighty you\u2019re considered lucky.\u00a0 [Psalm 90:80, \u201cAs for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, Or if due to strength, eighty years, Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow; For soon it is gone and we fly away.\u201d]\n\nAnd yet what was normative prior to the flood were people living into their nine hundreds.\u00a0 You say well, why are\u00a0 you telling us all of this?\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting to me that God has always protected people from the effects of the sun.\u00a0 In fact, Genesis 8:22 says, \u201cWhile the earth remains seed time and harvest,\u201d look at this, \u201ccold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s part of the covenant that He made with Noah and He describes here four contrasts: seed time and harvest, contrast number one; summer and winter, contrast number three.\u00a0 Day and night, contrast number four.\u00a0 Then He mentions cold and heat.\n\nAre\u00a0 you telling me God that the earth is going to go through normal rhythms of cold and heat that have nothing to do with my SUV.\u00a0 And God says that\u2019s exactly what I\u2019m telling you, because I put into motion forces which protect humanity, in My grace, from the elements.\u00a0 And what is happening here in this particular bowl judgment, bowl judgment number four, is God removes the protection.\u00a0 The protection\u2019s gone.\u00a0 And the sun itself, verse 8, begins to scorch people, something it\u2019s never done before.\u00a0 2 Peter 3:10 reminds us of these words,\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBut the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, what is normal today may not necessarily be normal at the end of the age.\u00a0 And part of the judgment itself is the removal of the protection that God has always given from the sun.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that when you go back to trumpet judgment number four, Revelation 8:12, it says this: \u201cThe fourth angel sounded,\u201d watch this, \u201cand a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.\u201d\u00a0 In that particular trumpet judgment God darkened the sun. What\u2019s He doing here?\u00a0 He is intensifying the sun.\u00a0 You mean God can darken the sun or lower the sun and He can intensify the sun at the same time?\u00a0 That\u2019s who He is!\u00a0\u00a0 Because He is perfectly sovereign over creation He can use His creation any way He wants to use it.\n\nIn fact, I was sort of shocked to discover this, in the millennial kingdom, the thousand year kingdom, the sun, s-u-n sun not to be confused with Jesus, S-o-n, the sun is going to be seven times brighter than it is right now.\u00a0 Did you know that?\u00a0 Isaiah 30:26, of the millennial kingdom says, \u201cThe light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the Lord binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted.\u201d\u00a0 You say well, come on, you don\u2019t take that literally do\u00a0 you?\u00a0 I mean, the sun is really going to be seven times brighter than it is now?\u00a0 How\u2019s that going to work scientifically?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know,\u00a0 you figure that out!\u00a0 I don\u2019t God really cares about our scientific formulas.\u00a0 I think He\u2019s capable of doing anything He wants to do.\u00a0 That\u2019s my point.\n\nI believe the sun is going to be seven times brighter just like I believe people were living into their 900\u2019s prior to the flood.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have to understand everything from a scientific perspective to believe it.\u00a0 God said it, I believe it, that settles it!\u00a0 In fact, let\u2019s rewrite that, shall we?\u00a0 \u201cGod said it, that settles it.\u201d\u00a0 Whether my peanut brain believes it or not that\u2019s my problem.\u00a0 If God says it\u2019s going to happen, it\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 God is in bowl judgment number four totally sovereign over the son, s-o-n.\u00a0 In fact, look at this, Genesis 1:3, \u201cThen God said, \u2018Let there be light\u2019 and there was light.\u201d\u00a0 I believe that\u2019s on the opening day of creation, day one.\n\n\u00a0<\/strong>And yet it\u2019s not until day four that we read these words:\u00a0 [Genesis 1:14] \u201cThen God said, \u2018Let there be light in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years.\u00a0 [15] And let them be for ]<\/sup>lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth\u2019; and it was so. [16] \u00a0<\/sup>God made the two great lights, the greater \u00a0light to govern the day, and the lesser light to govern the night; He made<\/em> the stars also. [17] \u00a0<\/sup>God placed them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, [18] \u00a0<\/sup>and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good. [19] \u00a0<\/sup>There was evening and there was morning, a fourth day.\u201d\u00a0 This was the fourth day.\n\nWell, Mr. Wise Guy, people say, how did God say \u201cLet there be light\u201d in Genesis 1:3 on day one and yet the sun, s-u-n doesn\u2019t show up until day four?\u00a0 I mean, how\u2019s poor God going to light up everything without the sun?\u00a0 And the answer to that question should go to the fact that the question is built on the wrong premise; the premise is that God is somehow dependent on some secondary source.\u00a0 Do you think God needs the sun for light?\u00a0 Of course not, He Himself, 1 Timothy 6, I want to say this is around verse 15 or verse 16, is clothed with unapproachable light.\u00a0 [1 Timothy6:16, \u201c who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion!]\n\nGod doesn\u2019t need the sun, He Himself is light.\u00a0 In fact, when you get to the last two chapters of the Bible, following the millennial kingdom, following the Great White Throne Judgment and we move into the New Jerusalem and the eternal state, the whole eternity won\u2019t even need the sun.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because who is illuminating everything?\u00a0 Not the sun, s-u-n, but the son, s-o-n.\u00a0 You say well is that in the Bible?\u00a0 Jot these verses down: Revelation 21:23, \u201cAnd the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it for the glory of the LORD has illumined it and its lamp is the Lamb.\u201d\u00a0 I don\u2019t need a lamp when I\u2019ve got the Lamb.\n\nRevelation 22:5 of the eternal state, the New Jerusalem, John says this: \u201cAnd there will no longer be any<\/em> night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.\u201d\u00a0 Have you ever asked yourself this question---why did God say \u201cLet there be light\u201d on day one, and yet the sun doesn\u2019t come into existence until day four?\u00a0 I mean, I know God can do anything He wants but why did He do it that way?\u00a0 Why not just create the sun first?\u00a0 The answer to that question is God is smart enough to know throughout human history what people will do.\u00a0 People have a propensity to worship the creation rather than the Creator.\u00a0 There would be sun worshippers throughout history, just go to southern California, you\u2019ll see them there on the beach.\u00a0 Sun worshippers, not S-o-n, s-u-n worshippers.\n\nIn fact, Deuteronomy 4:19, God says this: \u201cAnd beware<\/em>\u201d Israel, \u201cnot to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, those which the Lord your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.\u201d\u00a0 God is smart enough to know what humanity ultimately would do, they would worship things rather than God.\u00a0 And as a perpetual reminder that light doesn\u2019t come from some secondary source God allows light to exist days one, two and three of creation before day four, the sun came into existence.\u00a0 If humanity ever got to the point where they are worshipping the sun rather than God, God would say go back and read the first chapter and you\u2019re going to see who is in control.\n\nAnd so what does man do when these rays of the sun begin to scorch him? Does he prostate himself before God and say okay God, I\u2019ve had enough, You\u2019re the boss, not me.\u00a0 Look at this reaction in people.\u00a0 Revelation 16:9, \u201cMen were scorched with fierce heat;\u201d look at this, \u201cand they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and did not repent so as to give Him glory.\u201d\n\nThe environment is not the problem; it\u2019s man\u2019s heart that\u2019s the problem!\u00a0 And these are people that we\u2019ve studied that have had multiple opportunities to get right with God.\u00a0 An angel was flying to and fro in Revelation 14 giving people the eternal gospel.\u00a0 The 144,000 had evangelized the entire earth.\u00a0 No doubt the two witnesses of Revelation 11 have played some kind of role in dispensing the message of grace to the entire human race.\u00a0 And yet man, by and large with some exceptions, goes back to his stubborn ways and recognizes that God is controlling these judgments and they begin to blaspheme God.\n\nWhat does that word \u201cblaspheme\u201d mean?\u00a0 It means in Greek to speak against someone in such a way as to harm or injure his reputation occurring in relation to persons as well as divine beings, to revile, to defame, to blaspheme, reviling, it\u2019s what in the legal system today we call slander.\u00a0 You speak a lie against someone with the intent of destroying that person\u2019s reputation, If you do it in writing it\u2019s called liable.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what the human race is doing to God.\u00a0 It\u2019s more than simply profanity, although no doubt that would be a part of it.\u00a0 But it is the recognition that God is controlling these judgments and they are in a vile sense, despite having had multiple opportunities to repent, slandering through blasphemy the very character of God.\n\nThis, of course, is not the first time this has happened.\u00a0 Back in Revelation 9:20-21 it says, they \u201cdid not repent of their murders, nor their sorceries, nor their immorality, nor of their thefts.\u201d\n\n[Revelation 9:20-21, \u201cThe rest of]<\/sup>mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk; [21] \u00a0<\/sup>and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.\u201d]\n\nAnd as this mindset continues you can see why God keeps turning up the temperature and turning up the thermostat.\u00a0 In fact, it says there at the end of verse 9, they did not glorify Him\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 16:9, \u00a0\u201c<\/sup>Men were scorched with fierce heat; and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues, and they did not repent so as to give Him glory.\u201d]\n\nThey did not give Him glory.\u00a0 In a message we did a few weeks ago entitled Three Essentials<\/em>, Three Essentials to a spiritual life from Revelation 14, I believe it\u2019s in verse 7 that one of the essentials of life, and if you\u2019re not doing this regularly you miss the point of being alive, is to glorify Him.\u00a0 What a tragedy it is to go through life not glorifying God and therefore living outside of your intended purpose!\n\nRomans 1:21-22 says, \u201cFor even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] \u00a0<\/sup>Professing to be wise, they became fools.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s sort of the thing that\u2019s being highlighted here is the foolishness of people, simply by their not submitting to the authority of God.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s interesting to me that the secular world portrays themselves as being so wise and knowledgeable.\u00a0 If someone calls themselves an atheist or writes a book defending atheism the culture will sort of look at the person as being such a free thinker when your Bible says the opposite.\u00a0 Your Bible says \u201cthe fool has said in his heart there is no God.\u201d\u00a0 [Psalm 14:1]\n\nIn fact, these people in verse 9 are not even atheists, they know God is there, they\u2019re just denying His right to do what only God can do.\u00a0 In fact, if I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly there is no such thing as an atheist.\u00a0 We know there are no atheists in foxholes, Amen!\u00a0 But what your Bible says is man takes the knowledge of God and suppresses it.\u00a0 And that masquerades as atheism but every single human being in the deep dark recesses of their heart knows God is there.\u00a0 And yet here in these judgments humanity has not responded.\n\nWe will leave the fifth bowl judgment for next time.\u00a0 Some of you are saying praise the Lord, it\u2019s over!\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 But you know, we\u2019re talking here about the response of man to God. Wouldn\u2019t it be a tragedy to leave a group like this today, a service like this today having heard this and never responded to God?\u00a0\u00a0 How do you respond to God?\u00a0 Well, you respond to the gospel.\u00a0 The gospel is called the gospel because it\u2019s good news.\u00a0 Jesus stepped out of eternity into time and bridged the gap between a holy God and sinful humanity, through His death, burial and resurrection and ascension He did everything possible to make us right with God.\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing more that can be done to bridge that gap and all He asks us to do is to respond.\u00a0 He asks for our volition, and how do you respond to God?\u00a0 You believe, which means to trust or to rely on, or to depend upon what He\u2019s done for you.\u00a0 That\u2019s it!\u00a0\u00a0 You don\u2019t walk an aisle to join a church, fill out a card, raise\u00a0 your hand, that\u2019s all man-made stuff.\u00a0 The church world tells you to do all that stuff.\u00a0 That\u2019s not what the Bible says.\u00a0 Jesus was asked in John 6:28-29, \u201cWhat must we do to do the works of God?\u201d\u00a0 And he said this is the work of God, to believe in the One He has sent.\u00a0 That\u2019s it!\u00a0 It\u2019s that simple!\u00a0 So if the Holy Spirit is convicting anybody, either here in the building or are listening via social media and we know the Spirit is likely doing that because we\u2019re told in the Upper Room Discourse that that\u2019s what the Spirit does in the present age, He is busy convicting the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.\u00a0 He can even take a man-made human based effort like I\u2019m trying to put forth today and use it for His glory.\n\nAnd if the Spirit of God is convicting anyone of their need to respond our exhortation to you here at Sugar Land Bible Church, this Sunday, the last Sunday, every Sunday, is to respond through faith the best you know how in the quietness of your own mind to the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Say yes to the Lord by receiving that free gift of salvation which can only be received by faith alone. If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service. Shall we pray.\n\nFather, we\u2019re grateful once again for passages of the Bible that are in some ways frightening but in other ways helpful in reminding us who You are and who we are.\u00a0 Help us to walk out this week a walk with You, submitting to\u00a0 Your will and Your authority to reign and rule in our lives.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t