Four Bowls - Revelation 16:1-9
Revelation 16:1-9 · Vern Peterman · Sep 27, 2009
Revelation (2009), No. 39
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926144147059

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, I'd like to go through a few slides that I think will be helpful and we'll kind of cover some of them some more as we get into the handout here. Here are the chapters that we've got ahead of us. We're going, I think after chapter 16, we're going to be moving into, and I think I have the outline in the top half of the first page there, moving into Matthew, 24 for just like one week. The end of chapter 23 and to Matthew 24 for one week as a sort of a relevant detour.

This is the one place where the Lord Himself tells the disciples, here's what's going to happen. And it fits with what we see here and Revelation. From there on, we'll be looking at chapter 17 and 18, which is Babylon doomed. And it's interesting that chapter 17 focuses on religious Babylon and 18 on economic Babylon. Chapter 19 is Christ's return with the saints and also angels. That, of course, includes us.

The millennium judgments and the end, the end of this present heavens and earth. The end of things here. From there we go to chapter 21 and 22 that deal with the new heavens and the new earth. And also some kind of final appeals to both the church and the world.

So anyway, that's kind of the big outlook from here to the end of the calendar year when we finish this up. And talking about finishing the end of the calendar year, which by the way, it may say three months. It won't be three months. You know how that is, right? It'll seem like about a month has passed and we'll be at the end of the year.

Next year, we're starting new electives. And one of the electives we're looking at having is Q&A, question and answer. Now what about this? What does this passage mean? Or this is a puzzling passage, or what about this question? Or I've heard people say this, is that true? You know, those kinds of things. So anyway, we haven't allotted a time for it, but who knows, it could go on for a whole year.

So just answering questions. Some of those questions will be questions initially that we will just come up with. These are some Q&A questions. But the rest of them will be a matter of asking those in the class. Here are some other questions. Which of those would you like? And do you have some questions on top of that? So anyway, Q&A will be one of those.

And then we're looking at doing a Bible book study on Galatians. Our pattern is to have at least one Bible book study. And so anyway, and then the third elective we're not quite decided on. One possibility we're looking at is world views and even the impacts on politics and economics.

And so anyway, possibilities. If you have any thoughts, feedback on that, feel free to let me or Roger or Mike know while we're in the process of figuring out which of those to do. Okay? All right? Yeah. And let us know. I mean, walk up to us, send us an email, phone call, carrier pigeon, any of those work. Okay? Okay. Let's take a look here at the handout.

So we've got this outlined here, including adding the end of chapter 23 and the end of chapter 24. One of the other things we're going to see as we step through the handout is that some of the judgments that are coming up in chapter 16 are very similar to, if not identical to, some of the plagues that were given to Egypt just before the exodus of the Jews. The green is the things, here's the Revelation passage in chapter 16. So as we go through chapter 16, those particular ones are ones, instead of being just upon Egypt, however, they're global, right?

But they're basically similar to or identical to. Remember what happened is the water was turned into blood for Egypt. They're including the Nile. And then boils, that's another one that's going to be like what happened with Egypt. Hail with fire is another one. And then three days of darkness. And so there's something very similar. There's also, for some of those, a similarity to earlier judgments. That is, earlier the locusts were one that was, it's from an earlier chapter, but the locusts were also similar to the Egyptian plague. Yeah? Are we supposed to have that as a handout? Which? This one was in a previous handout. Yeah, it was in a previous handout. And let me see. Ah, yes, page 3 of the handout on Revelation lesson 19, it's Revelation 6, 1 through 8 from May 20th. So anyway, it was included with those. The other thing is, we'll talk at these last seven judgments are called the bold judgments.

The King James has it as a vial. And the reason I think the King James has it, calls it a vial, is because of the similarity in the phiale. They probably carried it over sound-wise into the English. But here is an example of that kind of bowl. This particular one was used by the Romans and some Jews took it from the Romans and hid it in a cave when the rebellion went against them. This was discovered, you know, some 50 years ago.

And then you talk about the mark of the beast. Something similar that was present during the Roman Empire is the Roman imperial purchasers could not make their purchases without the seal from the Caesar. And so this is an idea where, okay, you can't buy or sell without the seal. Essentially, it's extending that to the whole earth. And then the other is the water turned to blood. This is kind of the idea is the water's getting red. Some pictures there with some of that same theme. So, okay, let's take a look at the bottom half of your handout, the first page there. Look at the bullets at the bottom.

These judgments, the four judgments that we're going to talk about today, the judgment of boils, the judgment of seas turned to blood, the judgment of fresh waters turned to blood, and the judgment of scorching heat. These all take place in the last half of the tribulation period. And some folks, seeing how severe they are, like to push them towards the very end.

It doesn't say that exactly, but they just imagine, boy, how can anybody survive all this? What's interesting is I can only think of one instance where we're giving some kind of a duration. for these judgments and that's the five months of the locusts and the rest of them don't have a duration. So this is one of those things where we'll find out or they'll find out when it happens, right? The next bullet there, survival of anything or anyone for any length of time through these seven bold judgments is admittedly difficult to imagine.

I mean, we've got people concerned about global warming at this point in time. I have my own particular opinions about it, but there definitely will be some global warming and it won't be man-caused. It'll be something that there'll be no question that, boy, is it hot. And then this last one, our Lord Jesus in Mark 13 20 says of the time, unless the Lord had shortened those days, no life would have been saved. So these are severe enough and of a character that if they continued on for a length of time, yeah, it would wipe everyone out. But instead what will happen is there will be survivors. There will be those who endure the time.

And, okay. Now, let's take a look at page two, top page two in the handout there. We talk about the plagues upon Egypt. Let me flip back to that slide. There we go. Each of the plagues upon Egypt was aimed at showing the powerlessness of one of the pagan Egyptian gods. What we've got here is, you see that second column?

That's the primary Egyptian god that is targeted. And that last one, the death of the firstborn, all the gods are targeted. Studies have been done where they go into a whole lot more detail in terms of all the gods that are involved. The Egyptians had 700 gods. Okay, 700. So it got very involved. So these are the primary Egyptian gods that you see listed there in the chart.

What the plagues of the Tribulation are going to show is the powerlessness of the Antichrist. Ever hear somebody say, somebody ought to do something? And quite frequently that ends up being an appeal to the government ought to do something, right? Or there ought to be a law. You know, that kind of thing.

But essentially what's going to happen here is the Antichrist is going to be shown to be powerless. It will appeal to the Antichrist, fix this, and he won't be able to do anything. It will show the Antichrist to be powerless, but people will still take the mark of the beast. So there's the similarity. As we'll be seeing in next week's passage, the plagues of darkness and of hail with fire are like those of Egypt as well, and we won't be covering that here, but we're going to be seeing this chart here bear itself out.

Alright, with verse 1 starting there, it says, Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. And one of the things we notice here, he says, then I heard. Why does he say that? Okay, it certainly came after their sequence. Yeah, that's one of the reasons. What would be another reason why he would say that?

Yeah. Eyewitness. Yes. This guy is testifying. John is spelling out he's an eyewitness. I saw, I heard, okay. This happened, this happened. He is definitely using words that speak of he's an eyewitness. This isn't just rumor. It isn't something he just cooked up. He's speaking as an eyewitness there. Okay. John writes what is translated great or loud. It's actually the same word in the Greek text here which John uses over 80 times in Revelation. Think of how overwhelming all this stuff is for him to hear and see. Amazing stuff for him to hear. So you keep seeing this Greek word mega. We use it now in our computer terminology. Although it seems everything is shifting to giga, right? But mega is the term there from the Greek.

At the end of chapter 15, John had finished the chapter and the scene in the heavenly temple. So, okay, here, this is where this is picking up. In other words, I heard a loud voice. Where? From the temple, because we'd seen things there, so he's still at that scene here. And then the first, we've got a series of words I want to take a look at.

The first of those words is this word bowl. That same word is going to be used again and again here in these verses. And that's, yeah, here's a picture of this bowl. The idea being that these angels would pour out these bowls upon the earth with the, bowls full of the wrath of God. But, one of the things, well, why bowls? Why are they pouring something out of these bowls?

And where did that come from? What's interesting is you don't have bowls full of the wrath of God in the Old Testament. Remember what we've been saying? Seventy percent of Revelation is out of the Old Testament, right? But there's a reason here. Let's look at the top of page three. The reference to pouring out God's wrath is an Old Testament pattern.

And here's a quote from Jeremiah 10.25, pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you. The nations, what's that code word for? What is that telling you? Nations is Gentiles, right? Yeah. The Greek, there is ethnos, where we get our word, you know, ethnic or ethnicity. So pour out your wrath on the Gentiles who do not know you.

Then the other passages there in Psalms, another in Jeremiah, and a number of them in Ezekiel, Hosea, and Zephaniah. So it is an Old Testament pattern to have this pouring out here. And so the bowls are simply the place from which the pouring out of the wrath of God takes place. Okay, then, verse 2, so the first angel 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 worshipped his image.

Ah, how many of you have had a boil before? Did you enjoy the experience? Not so much. What would you describe, if you can be so bold, what would you describe that was like to have the boil? hot compresses the usual treatment yep right okay yeah how old were you when that happened okay all right anybody else yeah you had one and it was a lot of fun Not so much. I'm trying to go with Dr. Haney, slit it with a razor. Slit it open with a razor in order to get it open? Yeah. Give you some antibiotics or something? Not so sure? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

The one thing we haven't touched on is that the bowls were used in the temple ceremonies and things of that sort. Yes, there was a washing and cleansing use for the bowls. So that's an important point. Basically, you have infection that kind of gets localized. And yeah, they're not fun. They kind of sap your energy. It's interesting. I never got boils until... See, when I was engaged in the first few years of marriage, I got boils and it was terrible. It makes it, depending on where you get it, it makes it hard to sleep. You know, you try to, if you turn over and touch it, you know, it just, yeah, it's difficult.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they can get massive. It's whatever the infection develops into. Yeah, they can get massive. Big, giant red areas. The red area may be as large as a foot across in really bad cases. Yeah. Yeah, basically for both animals and people, the thing is Lancet and antibiotics is the treatment.

I got a boil when I was camping at Yosemite just about a year after Nancy and I were married. So I had to go to the hospital at Yosemite National Park. It was kind of a real disruption to the camping trip. Yeah, now can you imagine a situation, because I have to ask how many of you have had boils. Imagine a situation where everybody's got boils. Now that brings up one other point. Does everybody on earth get these boils? No. What's that? The ones with the mark get the boils. Oh. Now here's an interesting thing. Why did they get the mark, right? They got the mark because life is a whole lot more convenient, they can eat and they can buy and sell, right? Life is a lot nicer if you get the mark.

Until, what? Until you get the boils, right? So then all of a sudden everybody who's got the mark, which will be most of the people, everybody who's got the mark is getting these nasty boils. The possibility has been suggested I would say it would probably remain in speculation, but it's possible that the boil comes up where you get the mark. Oh boy, oh nasty. And then, you know, it would be a matter of, well, you have to have the mark to buy and sell, but then when you have to go and show them the mark, Guess what else you got to show them if that's the case? Here's the mark and I also got to boil. That's okay, I do too, right? Yeah, and they're real difficult. Part of the problem, you get that many people, what do they do? They cut them open and they give you antibiotics. How do you give that many people the antibiotics?

Maybe you don't. So, I mean, this could be nasty. And we don't know, you know, it's not given a number how many people get and how long this goes on. But it's miserable stuff. I mean, it can keep you from sleeping. It's like, lay down? No, I don't want to do that. Maybe even sitting down might be difficult, depending on where you got them.

So, this could be pretty nasty. If you've got the mark on your forehead, you know, even like putting a hat on, you know, difficult. Now, this is a foul and horrible boil or sore abscess is kind of the way to look at it. Some have even suggested based on the Greek that these have a foul stench. So not only do they look and feel bad, but the possibility is also there that they really stink.

So that would be even nicer, right? Yeah. This same word occurs in the Greek Old Testament, where Job gets the boils. And so, Scripture talks about it before. Let's look at page 4 there. During the plagues of the Old Testament, something real interesting is the boils came upon the Egyptians and upon any Jews that didn't obey God.

And it says, and these would not be healed. So apparently there were real enduring, lasting awful, awful things. Perhaps that characteristic of these wretched unending infections is why we're still reading about them during the tribulation period in verse 11. So later on the boils are still showing up. Where earthlings are undergoing the fifth plague but are still cursing God for their sores. So it's like, I can't get rid of this thing. How do I stop this? I can't get rid of it.

And before we leave these wonderful boils, there's one more Greek word we could do well to examine. And the Greek word translated worshiped in verse 2 is the Greek word proskuneo. It literally means kiss the hand. This is how one would worship in those days. That's the word used for worship there in verse 2. who worshipped his image, who kissed the hand of the image. Verse 3, about one third of the way down on page 4.

The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like that of a dead man, and every living thing in the sea died. With this, the second plague, the sea is devastated. In the trumpet judgments, we saw one-third of the sea wrecked by judgment. Because remember that fraction, one-third kept showing up in the trumpet judgments. Here, it's not one-third. The sea becomes blood.

Has anybody ever seen a water catastrophe? which of course during our time has been local. Ever been around where there's been a water catastrophe, mass pollution, or big oil spill? Yeah. Well that tsunami, when that happened, that was over there because all the water got polluted and they couldn't drink anything.

That's why they brought in bottled water and they sprayed the water. Usually you end up with Yeah, that's something that most Americans, you know, will have some local outbreak where you get some boil water order. But that's minor by comparison. At least you can boil it and do something.

But imagine when you get these masses of die-offs where, you know, fish kills and even whales. You know, beached whales. Those have been locally problems like along the ocean, that kind of thing. But imagine just huge die-offs. You ever been around the San Francisco Bay? You've got this fairly significant bay with all these, you know, little places where the bay goes in. Imagine that just full of dead fish. I mean, you wouldn't want to live around there.

It just gets raunchy really bad. and really bad fast. Some years ago I was driving in Mendocino County in Northern California and I drove by this one spot and all of a sudden this horrible stench came up and later on I found what happened. A truck full of fish guts had turned over and dumped off the side of the road on a hot day. and very quickly it was really stinky. But can you imagine where large portions of waterfront cities, that kind of thing, just the stench is so bad you can't stand to be there. That's the awfulness that you're looking at here.

There's also this idea of, it says, blood like that of a dead one is ultimately It says blood like that of a dead man. Essentially the Greek is blood like that of a dead one. So you also have not just the animals dying off, but the water itself is just foul. It's like a bunch of coagulated blood. That word for dead is necros. We get our medical term necrotic, dead tissue. So that's the idea there.

What part of the world depends upon the water for its major food source? A lot of Asian countries, I mean, we've got various parts of the world where people eat fish, but a lot of the Asian countries, Japan being one of them, what comes out of the ocean is a major portion of their food source. Japan is not a large island. It's a series of islands, but it's not large. About 20% of the land is farmable. and the rest not. And so they get a lot of their food out of the ocean. Yes. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, Japan is just one where I give some statistics, but yeah, you're right.

All these places where there's coastal areas, a lot of island nations, yeah, I mean, all those places, the ocean is a big part of their food, which you're talking about as being next to the ocean is now suddenly a huge problem, a huge liability, and the place where you used to get your food is no place to get food anymore. Yeah. They have a nice meal which will be left.

And like I said, you can treat almost anything around here because it has the deepest deepwater port in the nation, in the world. And that's why we do it along with the containerized freight. Two weeks of containerized freight goes through Singapore. We wondered why we were being escorted to go further out. We got more police boats with 20mm cannons on them.

We knew nothing about pirates at that time. Oceanoin, the Cameron, the Japanese, and a lot of other foods in the world. I don't know when it came down to getting the first food. We just got laid back and let them have their food. But the thing that was interesting was that as you go further away, we can start And it dropped off. Can you imagine that whole scenario would change if the sea was just stinking, foul, bloody water, basically, and a bunch of dead sea life? What we had was one, the food was one earth. Yeah, oh yeah. Okay, well. It gets better. No, worse.

Verse 4, Then the third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of waters, and they became blood. So first you have large bodies of water and substantially salt water. Now this is fresh water. So the second plague destroyed life and the salt water bodies. This third plague ruins all fresh water, including, of course, drinking water. That's when it gets really tough. Beautiful natural settings like this one suddenly become less attractive, not to speak of being less survivable. So you have this, oh, here's this nice creek. Here's this nice river scene, right? And all of a sudden, yuck, okay?

You know, in the main service I'll make a point of it, there are actually 14 places, I count, in the Bible where it says there is no God. Now, some of those, if you look at the context, say a fool says in his heart there is no God, right? And so here you have this odd contradiction. And you know, we see it in our culture. You'll have people who don't believe in God, don't particularly pay any attention to the Lord, but something awful happens, and what do they say? Oh my God. Right? And so yeah, it's a strange contradiction.

I don't believe in God, I don't put any trust in Him, but boy, I'm sure mad at Him. If there is one, I'd just send ticked off at Him. in those societies look toward only the Pharaoh or the Caesar because they were the gods. You have an antichrist here and also a prophet and also this image that comes to life.

I mean, people are going to look toward that because that's something that's close and that's going to be their salvation. You think of it right now, where do people look to for help? It's that kind of situation. Where do people go to for help? And especially when you've got a situation where turning to the Lord is not something that's encouraged. As a matter of fact, it's probably going to cost you. Then people turn to all the things they usually turn to. And that's why we read accounts and hear drugs.

Boy, I'm thirsty. I think I'll shoot up. Boy, I'm thirsty. I think I'll, you know, take a tab of whatever the drug is, you know. This is extremely stressful, you know. I think I'll need a little bit of, you know, some alcohol to take it down, you know.

So people will turn to whatever they turn to. They'll look to the government, which will be essentially mainly the Antichrist. They'll look to the Antichrist for answers and he won't. He won't have any answers. I think the Antichrist is going to be teaching them and telling them that they cannot be forgiven. And so that makes him even angrier at God.

He's causing all this to happen and they're going to have some kind of excuse of why they did the things that they did. And if they can't be forgiven, that means they're going to have to go through all this. What's their option? Yeah. There will be those who say, you know, the Antichrist can't do anything and he didn't cause this. And they'll start looking at what's in this book and say, boy, it's described right here. And some of them will turn. But a great many will just get ticked off. Just get mad. Oh, I'm really mad. Man, this is stressful. I can't sleep. There's nothing to drink. There's nothing to eat. My skin hurts. I can't sleep. Oh, this is terrible. Give me a drink. Give me several of them. Give me some drugs.

You said up above on page 4 that the boil will turn up again in page 11. Yes. Well, if the water is all bad, any time I go on antibiotics and raise water, lots of water, you get the infection out with all the water you put. That infection is not going anywhere. Not only that, these sores are persistent. Pretty soon it's going to get really hot, right? And what do you want when it's hot? Water. What are you not going to be able to get when it's hot? Water.

So yeah, this becomes increasingly miserable and it becomes increasingly apparent that antichrist isn't going to fix this. But still, a great many do not turn to the Lord in spite of it. As John puts it, they did not repent. No, they just get mad and ticked off and that's where they're going to stay. We're going to fix it. I can't fix it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, people are supposed to fix all this stuff. And this is all way out of their control. No, no way you can fix it. Right.

So the statistical man follow up saying that we think we can do even combined. Mm hmm. Yeah, we have a son miles away. Mm hmm. That is maybe more powerful than all of the elements together. Mm hmm. And so. overpower what the sun produces. And now that we've proven that there are fewer sunspots for the last 10 years, we're going to 11th year, and that's the International Geophysical Year, we have a change in the weather here. And it's all because of the sun's activity. Things out of our control. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we can control things, weather included, right? Yeah. Not so much. Yeah, not so much.

Let's look here on page 5. Verses 5-7, And I heard the angel of the waters saying, Righteous are you who are and who were, O Holy One, because you judged these things. For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it. And I heard the altar saying, Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. The Greek there, as I point out, says, Righteous are you by character. God is fundamentally and infinitely righteous. And this use of the present tense here implies he is always righteous. That's who he is. That's his character.

And they certainly were not the same people that are present on the earth at this particular point in time. So how does that fit together? I mean, is he punishing the people? I think the thing is, if you look at it, certainly this pattern is long-standing. Jesus even gave a parable about how they killed all the ones up to the sun, right? But in this instance, it's not necessary to isolate it and say, those events back here are all that we're talking about, although certainly I think they are.

But are there saints during this tribulation period? Yes. There are saints during the tribulation period. Tribulation saints, right? And what is a prophet but someone who speaks for the Lord? Who speaks for the Lord during this period of time that they killed? The two witnesses, right?

Yes. Ultimately, if you look at it, this period of time, this tribulation period, this has been predicted for a long period of time. And so, yes, these particular people are the ones who are the recipients of this judgment. Remember, in the bigger picture though, something that I've said from the front and the main service a few times, and even recently, and that is, in the end, justice will always and infinitely and eternally win out. God is eternally a just God. And any judgment that someone receives, is ultimately just. And the three areas, remember we said that God's justice is borne out as one, on the cross. And secondly, in this life, that's what these people are seeing. And then thirdly, in eternity. So you've got all three of those areas where God's justice is carried out.

Physically, if you're in heaven, then you truly can't be judged. Even though your body or your flesh is going through some of this tribulation and stuff. Physically, if you're in heaven, you're different than the people who are first dwellers and physically are not there.

Let's walk through what this is like, what this means for believers. whether you're a church believer or somebody in the middle of the tribulation period, who is ultimately taking the penalty for your sin? Christ, right? Because that person has believed and trusted upon Christ for salvation. Therefore, Christ's death on the cross for sins is the effective taking of the punishment.

We may as believers have things where the Lord has to judge something in this life, and believers will get negative consequences come upon them for sins carried out even though they're believers. And you find examples of that in the New Testament. Ananias and Sapphira would be one example. But ultimately, When believers walk through heaven's gates, all judgment in the negative sense is done. Because when we walk through heaven's gates, judgment will be a matter of, how can I reward you? Not a matter of consequences from sin lived out. So believers have taken advantage of of the fact that God has paid the price for their sins through Christ's death on the cross.

Since the buzzer went off, we're running out of time here. Let me read verses 8 and 9. The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to him to scorch men with fire. 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." This isn't just talking about a warm day. And it isn't talking about, you know, boy, this is a heat wave. This is a severe heat wave that's global.

How many of you have been to a place like Death Valley or been to one of those spots? I've never been to Death Valley in the middle of summer. It's always fortunately been like in the fall or winter or something like that. But, I mean, in the shade you can have 130 degrees. I used to work with an engineer when I was in Carson City at the consulting office there. He had been in the military and he was stationed in the Sinai Peninsula. And he said it was regularly 130 in the shade.

Really, really hot, you know. Frying hot. Can you imagine that that's the way it is everywhere on the planet? Just really hot. Oh, by the way, water's tough to come by. on top of that. That's rough. That's rough. One of the interesting things is this word scorch. It means scorch so as to wither. Really, really hot. Not just a warm day, not just a heat wave. Really, really hot. Terrible hot. What's that? Yeah, no swimming pool unless you like to swim in rotten blood, you know. This is global warming at its worst.

We saw this phrase, did not repent, twice back in chapter 9. It shows up here again in chapter 16, also twice. Real interesting. Did not repent twice in each case. Isn't it amazing that people are building more and more beautiful luxury homes and so forth right on the ocean and so forth? Oh yeah. I mean, it's a new way to buy, however, it has changed considerably since I was three years old to buy. And yet, people are building these multi-million dollar structures. Yeah, out on the ocean.

Yeah, which will just be a place that you will want to get away from. In Dubai, the place that may be most appealing is at the top of the world's tallest building there, the Burj Dubai. And yeah, get away from the stench. Get away from the ocean as much as possible. Well, and with the heat, the ice is going to melt. The water levels are going to go up. Yeah. That blood is going to come down. Yeah.

People will wonder sometimes, this seems terrible. Why would God do such a thing? But a lot of it is people don't realize how awful sin is. And what they don't realize is this. God has paid the price. All this was unnecessary in a sense. God has paid the price through Christ to deal with all of this. But people's rejection of His mercy and rejection of His grace That's the awful thing. That's the awful thing. And that's why we read here earlier in this passage, Lord, you are just. You're right to do this thing. It's righteous that God does this. Not, this is mean and awful and nasty. This is less than they deserve.

Yes. personification of Satan himself. He is the tool right there at that point. Imagine how much influence that he will have over the people who live there. I mean, it's going to be amazingly evil that's going to be present on the face of the earth. Yes, very evil.

And what you see is this repeated pattern in chapter 9, chapter 16. Did not repent. Did not repent. And you get all this stuff happening. Antichrist can't fix it. Human beings didn't bring this stuff about. Wouldn't you think, boy, I wonder if there's a God? But instead, they do not repent. They do not repent. They just get mad at God and give me some more stuff to inject and more pills to drop and things to drink.

Yes? Yeah, can you? I think the answer is no. What you see is when they take the mark, that locks in their eternal destiny. They have come to a place, if they've taken the mark, where they not only do not repent, they cannot, and repenting does no good. Their eternal destiny is locked in when they take the mark.

It isn't like, oh man, I wish I didn't do this. Man, those boils hurt, you know? No, they basically have locked in their eternal destiny with that, which is a pretty frightening thought. But it's also a matter of they've locked in on their hearts. They're untouchable.

They just said, Lord, I don't want you. I want to take this, I want to take what goes along with it, and they're stuck with it. because that's where their wills are stuck. It's not like they would like to repent and can't. They don't want to. They do not repent. Well, we've run out of time. We've got people waiting at the back door.

Funny how this happens in this elective. Anyway, let's pray. Lord, as we look here, this is frightening stuff to look at, but also it makes us realize What a marvelous thing you did when you died on the cross and dealt with the sin and punishment for it. We thank you for your mercy and for your grace. We pray this in Jesus name.