Sermon Central
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Destined To Sing Revelation 15:1-5 Series
Contributed by Ken Henson on Oct 20, 2013 (message contributor)
Summary: Sin stifles our ability to flourish and grow and become all God has designed us to be. In some cases it destroys the lives He created for good and fulfillment and fruitfulness. But God has designed us to sing to His heavenly music.
"I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb:
“Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
This morning I would like to focus on that first verse
"I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed."
We’ve had the Seven Seals, the Seven Trumpets, and now we have the Seven Bowls. I believe the choice of Bowls is no accident-a bowl is a larger version of a vessel to hold liquid, like a cup on steroids. The cup of God’s wrath is a common scriptural image, and this, I believe, is the image we should see stirred up in our imaginations as we view the Bowls in the hands of the seven angels. With these vessels God pours out His wrath on the earth for the final time.
His wrath has been poured out before.
“Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.” Genesis 15:13-16
THE MEASURING CUP
In most kitchens there are various measuring cups and bowls. There is a measuring cup for small amounts and measuring cups for large amounts, and measuring cups for amounts in between-teaspoon size to gallon size and cup size. God has a measuring cup for the sins of each individual, and nation, and for this world. When that measure is full it is time for God’s judgment to be poured out.
"In the hand of the LORD is a cup full of foaming wine mixed with spices;
he pours it out, and all the wicked of the earth drink it down to its very dregs". Psalm 75:8
What is frightful about this teaching is it seems as though the cup of God’s wrath-the measure of human iniquity-reaches a tipping point, after which the wrath begins to overflow. Once the overflow of God’s wrath begins to trickle from the brim of human iniquity it starts s a chain of events which cannot be prevented. God’s wrath is poured out on the children of disobedience.
What is comforting about this is twofold:
1. The cup of God’s wrath has already been poured out on Jesus
Jesus said “if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. But if not, not my will but Thine be done”. Jesus received the cup of God’s wrath on Himself, and, therefore, that cup need not be drunk by us.
There is, therefore, another cup which we are invited to drink
"I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord." Psalm 116:13
Since Jesus took the cup of God’s wrath on Himself, God is able to offer to us the cup of salvation.
It’s a much better cup to receive.
2. God’s wrath has an end. Once the judgment is complete there will be no more need for punishment for all eternity. God’s justice will have been appeased, the debt paid, the account closed. God takes no pleasure in punishment. God said to Ezekiel "
Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’"
Once sin has been cleansed from the world and God can start over with a clean universe-heaven-there will be no need for any further judgment or wrath. God is love. Where there is no sin there will be no more wrath of God, and only His love will remain.
But this comfort does not extend to everyone. There is no covering for those who reject the free gift of Jesus substitutionary death on the cross.
