Truth Matters - Weekend, 11

This is Rodney from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we explored manhood within Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds. Sit back, enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the weekend edition of Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis.

Heard daily on this station at 8 20 a.m. and 5 20 p.m. Truth Matters is a ministry of the Truth Project whose mission is to empower men and women in the Christian faith to teach biblical truth in the culture and marketplace of ideas using the Bible as a sacred trust of truth in sharing the message of Jesus. Learn more about the ministry of the Truth Project at www.projecttruthmatters.com. Coming up, the visions of John, the seven judgments, Armageddon and more. Let's join this week's extended edition of Truth Matters.

Hello, I'm Dr. Cheryl Davis. Truth matters as we continue to go through the book of Revelation. Let's get into the devastation of Armageddon, which is the last couple verses of chapter 14. Really in reading this describes the battle of Armageddon, the final destruction of the land. Verses 19, the angel from under the altar directs the harvest for the winepress of the wrath of God who treads the winepress of the wrath of God.

This is prophesied by the prophet Joel in chapter 3 verses 11 through 16. Assemble and come all you nations and gather together all around because you're mighty ones to go down there, O Lord. Let the nations be awakened and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come go down for the winepress is full.

The bats overflow for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and moon will grow dark.

The stars will diminish their brightness. The Lord will also roar from Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and earth will shake. The Lord will be a shelter for his people and the strength of the children of Israel. And this really goes in line with all of chapter 14 as we talked about how the Lord will rule from Zion and how the nations will be harvested by God just like clusters of grapes. But in verse 20 it talks about how blood from this bridal will spread out over 200 miles at a depth of four feet.

This holocaust will be like the world has never seen. So I bid you today in you know in listening to the visions of what will happen at the end of the tribulation and how the judgment of God may not be swift but it is definitely certain. This chapter has given us evidence for the Christian who is living today. It tells us that our works are going to follow us into heaven so I bid you to remain faithful to the call even though it may be tough even though it may be difficult. Fighting a war is not easy and a lot of us encounter spiritual warfare on a daily basis.

Probably the most prevalent battleground is even in our minds. So I just want to encourage you in these last days that we're living to remain faithful to God so that you do take your works into heaven with you. Also those that may be listening today that don't know the Lord as a personal savior that now is the time to be saved before the rapture as being saved in the tribulation will come at a tremendous cost. We'll begin in chapter 15 with the seven angels with the seven vials. We are still in the prelude prior to chapter 16. Chapter 15 is a very short introduction for chapter 16. It only has eight verses as chapter 16 is the final seven bold judgments. These are the last events before the coming of Christ in chapter 19 verse 11.

We are still in the prelude prior to chapter 16. Chapter 15 like I said is an introduction to the seven bold judgments that occur in chapter 16. We'll begin chapter 15 and read verses 1-8. After these things I looked and behold the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened and out of the temple came the seven angels having the seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen and having their chest girded with golden bands. Then one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever.

The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and no one was able to enter the temple till the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. So let's get into verse one and this is the sign in heaven. There is then I saw another sign in heaven as John describes this great and marvelous seven angels having the seven last plagues for in them the wrath of God is complete. Think about this why do we need seven more bold judgments? Why is God judging? Why is his wrath being poured out? It is because the earth has failed to respond to his gospel of grace. Really that is the source of his judgment for even history is that we have failed to respond to his gospel of grace. If you look in verse two we see the sea of glass it's those who have victory over the beast the victory over his image victory over his mark and the victory over the number of his name.

Who are these people? They are the saints who became Christians during the tribulation and who were unwilling to bow down to the antichrist. Their victory was their resistance to the temptation to worship the beast in order to live. They refused to take the mark of the beast. They were slain for faithfulness to Jesus and that landed them in heaven. There are three groups of people who play in God's symphony raptured saints who are in chapter 5 verse 8 the 144,000 which we saw in revelation chapter 14 verse 2 and now we see the martyred the song of moses and the song of the lamb really is their song in verses 3 through 4 and we see that and really when you think about moses i don't think about him for his songs but he was actually a songwriter so let's read chapter 32 and verses 39 through 43 now see that even i am he and there is no god besides me i kill and make alive i wound and i heal nor is there any who can deliver me from my hand for i raise my hand to heaven and say as i live forever if it were my glittering sword and my hand takes hold of judgment i will render vengeance to my enemies and repay those who hate me i will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh for the blood of the slain and the captives and from the heads of the leaders of the enemy rejoice so gentiles with his people i will avenge the blood of his servants and render vengeance to his adversaries and i will provide atonement for his land and his people the tribulation saints can see that god is about to let loose his final judgments upon his enemies on earth so they are singing the song of moses which is consistent with the need for justice and you got to understand that the martyred saints have a different redemption god is different for them than for the raptured saints or even for the 144 000 what god has done for us and our relationship with god really is who god means to us and if you look at the martyred saints they have been killed murdered for their faithfulness to jesus christ so because of this they cry out for justice and their song is different and if you read verses three through four great and marvelous are your works or god almighty just and true are your ways oh king of the saints who shall not fear you oh lord and glorify your name for you alone are holy for all nations shall come and worship before you for your judgments have been manifested this is the themes of the song in verses three through four the tribulation saints are saying that his works are great and marvelous his worship encompasses a review of god's works and what he has done for the worshippers when you look at his ways your ways are just and true he is righteous in his judgment he is being praised for preparing to exercise his kingship and they are praising him for they know that he's going to be faithful in executing his judgment given the fact that they were martyred you know they keep saying over that god is holy they are praising him for his worship but the worship of god will be universal all nations will come and worship god because of the manifestation of his judgments on the earth in verse five it talks about a sanctuary that is in heaven i looked and behold something new not seen before the holy of holies is where the mercy seat was the priest entered yearly to offer a blood sacrifice on the day of atonement the wrath of god will be satisfied for one year historically but here the angels are seen coming out of the holy of holies to execute god's judgment and i think this shows us that his judgment flows from his holiness and that is difficult to grasp to the world because most think that holiness is good and that judgment is bad but because of the lord's holiness he is responsible to judge he is required to judge because of his holiness and then at the end we see the seven vows and smoke in the temple these seven vows happen very quickly like rapid fire action we see the smoke in the temple in verse eight the temple is filled with smoke from the glory of god and his power smoke appears where the presence of god is made known and we've seen that a number of times in the bible in exodus 19 18 and isaiah 6 1 through 4 and leviticus 16 12 through 13 let's just read isaiah 6 1 through 4 if you want to go to the other points in your spare time in isaiah 6 1 through 4 i love this calling of isaiah in the year that king usaiah died i saw the lord sitting on the throne high and lifted up and his train of his robe filled the temple and above it stood seraphim each one had six wings with two he covered his face with two he covered his feet and with two he flew and one cried to another and said holy holy holy is the lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory and the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out and the house was filled with smoke so i said woe is me for i am undone i am a man of unclean lips and i dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the king the lord of hosts then one of the seraphim flew to me having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar and touched my mouth with it and said behold thou has touched my lips your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged i actually got a little carried away and read read beyond verses one through four but but i um really love this picture here that is created in the calling of isaiah when he's called to be a prophet and here we see where the house was filled with smoke and we see the presence of god and we see the voice of god even shake the post of the door and where isaiah was so again this is a very short chapter just to summarize we are in the prelude and we're finishing the prelude before chapter 16 of those final seven bowl judgments which are about to occur the last events prior to the second coming of christ that are characteristic of chapter 16 which are the final judgments before the coming of christ the book of revelation is organized around three sets of symbols the first one are the seals the second are the trumpets and the third are the bowls if you remember in revelations chapter four through five we covered the seal judgments when the world is ruined by man in chapter eight we covered the trumpet judgments when the world is ruined by satan and in chapter 16 we see the bowl judgments when the world is reclaimed by god so here in chapter 16 we're gonna see where the world is reclaimed by god so let's read verse one then i heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels go and pour out the bowls of the wrath of god on the earth in the bowl judgments god no longer works through intermediaries and previously he's worked through intermediaries like man in chapters four through five and satan in chapter eight but he takes control of the judgments himself the bowl of judgment are poured out by his direct command and here we see them come in rapid succession and some of them probably overlap each other so the first bowl that we're going to discuss are the loathsome sores in verse two so the first went out and poured out his bowl upon the earth and a foul and loathsome sore came upon the men who had the mark of the beast and those who worshipped his image the first bowl judgment is foul and loathsome sores which um by this description i would say is an abscess these sores afflict all who have taken the mark of the beast upon themselves and all who have worshipped the image but what we know is that a sore is an outward sign or evidence of some inward corruption in this case the sores are a manifestation of the inner spiritual poison present in the person's heart these sores come upon people as a direct consequence of their spiritual hardness of their heart that is the first bowl and look how rapidly they come there's no space in between there's no interlude in between verses two and three the next verse comes and the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea and it became blood as of a dead man and every living creature in the sea died so the second vial is called blood in the seas the emptying of the second bowl results in the oceans of the world turning to blood causing the death of every living creature in the sea this judgment is similar to the second seal and the second judgment if you remember the second seal release was a fiery red horse um in revelation chapter 6 3 through 4 and the second trumpet announced a burning mountain that was thrown into the sea turning a third of it into blood all of this is very similar to the plagues of egypt where moses turned the Nile to blood most of the fish died you've been listening to the weekend edition of truth matters with dr cheryl davis truth matters is a ministry of the truth project a north carolina based ministry dedicated to teaching biblical truth and sound theology to those inside and outside of the church if you'd like to listen to these messages on demand go to project truthmatters.com and click on the podcast link dr davis is also available to speak to your ministry group or church function she can be reached by email at cheryl davis at project truth matters.com or if you'd like to send a letter the address is project truth matters post office box 159 st paul's north carolina 28384 you can hear truth matters devotionals on weekdays at 8 20 a.m and 5 20 p.m until next time let's all work together to teach of biblical truth to assist equip edify and encourage one another and bring the gospel to the world because truth matters this is the truth network