1. "We thought that if we got rid of God's judgment, we could now begin to live lives that were free of all judgment. We could do whatever we want and not feel guilty about it. We were wrong."

2. "With God no longer as judge, it's not that you have no judges, but that everybody's your judge. With God's judgment no longer the final moral horizon for your life, it's not that you'll never be condemned, but that you can be condemned at any time by anyone, for any reason."

3. "Your only options are rejoice in him now or regret your rebellion later. That's it. Rejoice now or regret later."

4. "God's holiness is like a million watt electric fence between him and every sinful human creature. The whole point of God having His people build a tabernacle under the old covenant was so that his people could dwell in his presence and be in intimate proximity with Him. But once they had built it, they couldn't."

5. "God always judges the right person for the right reason, in the right measure, and from utterly right motives. God's Judgment proceeds from pure holiness."

6. "Let the magnitude of God's judgment against sin lead you to recognize how great your sin really is. This is the problem that Christ came to solve. Christ's death on the cross shows us the magnitude of our sin and the magnitude of God's judgment."

7. "If you're tempted to judge God, if you're tempted to judge God's judgment, if you're tempted to set yourself up as a final moral authority holding God to account, what you're ultimately trusting in is your own powers of exhaustive, rational surveillance."

8. "All sin lies about God, about what a human being is, about creation, and about what's truly good. And sin does some of its most damaging work by corrupting our sense of what's true and false."

9. "If God will avenge every wrong, then you not only don't need to avenge yourself, but must not avenge yourself. It's God's job, not yours. You would only make a hash of it."

10. "God's judgment creates the freedom of self forgetfulness. God's judgment renders you impervious to judgment in the court of human opinion."

Observation Questions

1. In Revelation 15:2, what do you notice about the location and posture of those who had conquered the beast? What are they holding?

2. Look at Revelation 15:3-4. What specific attributes of God do the victorious saints celebrate in their song?

3. In Revelation 15:5-8, what happens when the temple is opened? What comes out, and what prevents anyone from entering?

4. Throughout Revelation 16, how do people respond to God's judgments? (Look specifically at verses 9, 11, and 21)

5. Read Revelation 16:5-7. What specific declarations do the angels make about God's judgments?

6. In Revelation 16:15, what warning and blessing does Jesus pronounce in the midst of the judgments?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why does John describe the sea of glass as being "mingled with fire" (Rev 15:2)? What might this symbolize about the relationship between judgment and salvation?

2. How does the imagery of the heavenly temple being filled with smoke (Rev 15:8) help us understand God's holiness? How does this connect with similar Old Testament passages?

3. What is the significance of the plagues affecting different aspects of creation (earth, sea, fresh water, sun)? What does this tell us about God's sovereignty?

4. Why do you think the text repeatedly emphasizes that people "did not repent" despite experiencing these judgments?

5. How does the image of Armageddon (Rev 16:16) help us understand the final conflict between good and evil?

Application Questions

1. When was the last time you struggled with wanting to take revenge rather than leaving judgment to God? How did you handle it?

2. In what specific ways has our culture's rejection of divine judgment affected your own thinking about right and wrong?

3. Think of a time when you felt judged unfairly by others. How does the reality of God's perfect judgment help you handle human judgment differently?

4. What current situation in your life requires you to trust God's justice rather than trying to vindicate yourself?

5. When you hear about terrible injustices in the world, how does the promise of God's final judgment affect your response?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Isaiah 6:1-7 - Shows how God's holiness affects even His most faithful servants and helps us understand the temple imagery in Revelation 15.

2. Romans 12:17-21 - Explains how God's promise to judge enables us to forgive others and resist taking revenge.

3. Psalm 98:1-9 - Celebrates God's righteousness and judgment as reasons for praise, paralleling the song in Revelation 15.

4. 2 Peter 3:3-13 - Addresses why God's final judgment seems delayed and how we should live in light of its certainty.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Modern Rejection of Divine Judgment and Its Consequences

II. The Central Question: Why Is God’s Judgment Good?

III. God’s Judgment Turns Defeat into Victory (Revelation 15:1–4)

IV. God’s Judgment Proceeds from Pure Holiness (Revelation 15:5–8)

V. God’s Judgment Perfectly Removes and Repays Evil (Revelation 16)

VI. Call to Trust in Christ and Embrace God’s Judgment

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Detailed Sermon Outline

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We thought that if we got rid of God's judgment, we could now begin to live lives that were free of all judgment. We could do whatever we want and not feel guilty about it. We were wrong. By we, I mean the modern West as a whole society, roughly Western Europe and North America in the past 250 years. In that time, the idea that God will hold all people accountable for everything that we do has steadily receded.

It has gradually disappeared. So much so that 140 years ago, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche could declare, God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed him. God's judgment is one of the reasons that people are most eager to get rid of him. The idea that God will hold all people accountable for all that they've ever done seems petty.

It seems means-spirited. It makes it seem as if God is just out to make sure nobody could ever have a good time. More seriously, the idea that God will judge each of us is also terrifying. It's unsettling at the very deepest level of our being. If you have the option to get rid of judgment.

Why wouldn't you?

But what has happened to our society as belief in God's judgment has drained away like a tide emptying out to sea? If most of us no longer believe in God's judgment, has that left us with less judgment to go around? I'd argue just the opposite. The receding tide of God's judgment hasn't left us with sparkling, guilt-free white sand beaches.

Instead, it was the prelude to a tsunami of guilt and judgment. The historian Bill MacLay has argued that in secular modern society, judgment and guilt have not only persisted, but they've expanded and multiplied. He points to our growing ability to control nature and therefore to be responsible for all kinds of harms in the world. He points to our growing knowledge of tragedies and injustices across the planet. MacLay points to our growing awareness of the global consequences of actions and inaction.

All of these factors add up to what MacLay calls the infinite extensibility of guilt. In the modern world, it seems that with every passing day, more and more people can judge you for more and more failures and infractions.

With God no longer as judge, it's not that you have no judges but that everybody's your judge. With God's judgment no longer the final moral horizon for your life, it's not that you'll never be condemned but that you can be condemned at any time by anyone for any reason. Getting rid of God's judgments has not made us less judgmental.

But more. Because what standard can you appeal to? How can you ever finally clear yourself? More importantly, if your burden of guilt can be infinitely extended, how can you ever get rid of it? If there's no final judge, who can grant you mercy?

This morning we return to our series in the book of Revelation. It's at the very end of the Bible and one of the key themes of the whole book is God's judgment. The answer to the main, excuse me, the question that our passage answers this morning is this: why is God's judgment good? That'll be the main question we consider this morning. Why is God's judgment good?

Judgment good. We'll be looking at Revelation chapters 15 and 16. The passage starts on page 1036 of the Pew Bibles. We've been out of Revelation for a little while now, so here's a recap. In chapter one, the apostle John is commissioned as a prophet by the risen Lord Jesus.

In chapters two and three, Jesus addresses seven churches throughout Asia Minor, modern Turkey, giving them words of rebuke and encouragement and promise. In chapters four and five, we get but a vision of God's reign in heaven, of how God always reigns and how Jesus began to reign. And then in chapter five, Jesus takes a scroll from God's hand that contains all of God's purposes for the rest of history. Then in chapter six and seven, Jesus opens a series of seals on this scroll, seven seals, and we see God's purposes unleashed on the earth. This is Revelation's first of three cycles of sevens.

So in chapters six and seven, the opening of the seals, God unleashes trials and suffering and judgments on the earth throughout the whole age between Christ's ascension and his return. He does this to test his people and judge those who don't believe. And the series concludes with God's final judgment of all people. Chapters eight through 11 are another series of seven, this time seven trumpets. These seven trumpets proclaim judgment on the world, again culminating in God's final judgment.

Both the seals and the trumpets are interrupted in their sequence by interludes.

God seals up his people for their own salvation. And in chapters 10 and 11, God commissions his people to bear prophetic witness around the world so that people repent and come to faith in Christ. Chapters 12 through 14 introduce the opponents of God's people who wage cosmic warfare against us. Satan himself, a monster who represents earthly authority opposed to God, and a false prophet who promotes the monsters rule. Chapter 14 also proclaims the final destinies of those who do and don't trust in Christ.

That brings us up to chapters 15 and 16. Here we have another cycle of seven, this time seven bowls that angels pour from heaven onto earth. Now, like the two previous cycles of sevens, these seven bowls show us something of God's purposes throughout history, but they especially focus on the very end of on God's final judgment. Now, the structure of these bowls is slightly different from what we've seen before. So just a quick overview of our passage before we jump into the details.

There's three main sections: chapter 15 verses 1 to 4, verses 5 to 8, and then the whole of chapter 16. In chapter 15 verses 1 to 4, this paragraph serves as both a conclusion to chapters 12 to 14 and the introduction to chapter 16. Of the bowls in chapter 16. Chapters 12 through 14 were about a cosmic conflict. These four verses show us the final outcome of that conflict.

Then verses 5 through 8 are another introduction to the bowl judgments. They show us the ultimate source of those judgments, namely, God's own holiness filling his heavenly throne room. And then in all of chapter 16, this sequence of seven judgments of bowls poured out unfolds. The structure here is a little different from from the previous series of sevens. The first five judgments are narrated rapidly and then the final two are longer.

And there's two interjections that interrupt the sequence. The first is by a pair of angels in verses 5 to 7. The second is by Jesus himself in verse 15. Back to our main question, which is the main theme of these two chapters: why is God's judgment Point one, it turns defeat into victory. God's judgment is good because it turns defeat into victory.

We see this in chapter 15, verses 1 to 4.

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing. Seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb saying, Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations.

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you for your righteous acts.

Have been revealed. Look again at verse 1. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing: seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. That John sees a sign in heaven reminds us that these visions are symbolic. They're not literal transcriptions of news reports from the future.

They're figurative depictions of God's purposes for history and especially for the end of history. And the accent here is on the end, the finish, the completion. The only other place in Scripture where seven plagues are mentioned is Leviticus chapter 26, which spells out the curses Israel will suffer if they break God's covenant. Seven plagues equals covenant curse.

But here, God isn't cursing Israel for breaking the Mosaic covenant. He's cursing unbelieving humanity as a whole for breaking the covenant he made at creation. Just as Mark preached to us from Genesis 9 last week, there are rights and duties that belong to us as human beings made in God's image. They apply to every single human being on the face of the earth. We've all received life from God, and we are all accountable to God.

So verse 1 points forward to that final accountability. But then verse 2 points back. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. The beast and its image and its number were all introduced in chapter 13 and how they oppose God's people. This is the structure of organized opposition to God and his people throughout the present age.

Anti-God forces persecute God's people, harass God's people, threaten the lives of God's people. In order to remain faithful to God and his word, we must be willing to endure hardship, poverty, slander, suffering, and ultimately even death. In chapter 13, many of God's people were martyred for their faith, just as many are around the world today.

Those who die for their faith would appear to be casualties in this cosmic conflict. But verse 2 tells us otherwise. Those who were killed actually conquered. This is a picture of all God's redeemed people, including those martyred as victors. Here in this heavenly vision, God's people stand a posture of victory and triumph.

They stand in God's presence being accepted by him and welcomed into his presence forever. They stand upon the shore of the glassy sea, which is now seen to be mingled with fire, fire symbolizing the judgment that God's people have escaped from and passed through. This picture previews the victory that one day all God's people will experience. No matter what we endure, no matter how much we suffer, those who persevere in Christ will win. We will all conquer the monster.

We will all triumph over the beast. Here in this picture, God's people are paralleled to Israel standing at the shore of the Red Sea after God brought them out of Egypt and conquered their enemies. At the exodus, God defeated his people's oppressors and brought them a temporal political deliverance in order that they would now serve him. Here in this new exodus, which culminates at Christ's return and final judgment, God brings his people a perfect, permanent, spiritual and physical deliverance so that we will worship him forever. Just as the saints start to do here.

As Kirsten read to us earlier, in Exodus 15, when God delivered his people through the Red Sea and drowned Pharaoh's army, they burst into song. So that's what the redeemed do here in verses three and four. They sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. It's patterned off the song of Moses in Exodus 15 and other Old Testament passages, but it's called the song of Moses and the Lamb because it's responding to the salvation that Jesus has accomplished. Look again at verses three and four.

And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the lamb saying, Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty, just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. This song stitches together verses from a number of Old Testament passages, parts of Deuteronomy 32, Jeremiah 10, Psalm 86.

But rather than analyze the sources, here's the main point. This song celebrates the glory and goodness of God in judging the earth and delivering his people. If you want to see these main themes celebrated in similar ways in scripture, you could look at Psalm 96 or Psalm 98. Those Psalms celebrate God's revelation of his righteousness in coming to earth and writing all wrongs. God's deeds are amazing because he's done what no one else can.

He has brought history to a just and right and fitting end. So what these redeemed saints are celebrating as having taken place is what all of us who trust in Christ look forward to on the last day. God's ways are true and just because he has judged everyone as they deserve. In other words, God's great and amazing deeds and his righteous acts refer principally to his work of final judgment. His subduing all opposition, his rewarding his people, his measuring out perfectly fitting measures of punishment for all evil.

These are the acts that after long centuries of being hidden are finally revealed. They're finally accomplished. And verse four shows us the right response to this God who has now plainly revealed himself in the sight of all. Fear, worship, glorifying God's name. When it says all nations will come and worship you, that's not a statement that every single person without exception will be saved.

Instead, it's saying that when God has finally fulfilled all his saving and judging purposes, that will include bringing a multitude from every tribe and tongue and nation to faith in Christ. In other words, this is a promise of successful worldwide evangelism. That promise should strengthen and sustain all of our efforts to share the gospel now, whether at home or at the farthest reaches of the earth. Verses 3 and 4 are Scripture's own inspired commentary on the end of the story that God is writing in all of history. This is the right response to the perfect ending that God has planned, that God has promised, and that God will one day perform.

On the last day, for all who trust in Christ, God's judgment will turn defeat into victory. God's judgment will turn sorrow into song. God's judgments will turn devastation into delight. God's judgment will turn silent suffering into loud celebration. Verse 4 asks a searching question.

Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. Do you see where that question puts the burden of proof? It's not on God to justify himself to you. It's not on God to justify that he's worthy of your worship.

The question puts a burden on you. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? The implication of the question is, if you won't, it's not because there's something wrong with God. If you won't, it's because there's something wrong with you. Who will not fear?

That's the right response. And glorify your name. Delight to praise God for who he is and what he's done. The right response to God is a mix of reverence, awe, terror, submission, humility, and joy. When you wrap all that up together, you get what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord.

It includes all those things. So here, the redeemed singers express the confident judgment that when God's judging and saving works are fully revealed, the right response to God will be obvious. It'll be plain. It'll be undeniable. When all God's works are done and seen by all, how we should have responded to God all along will be painfully obvious.

That presses a choice on you. How do you respond to God now? Do you fear him? Do you glorify him? Do you delight in him?

In Him. Your only options are rejoice in Him now or regret your rebellion later. That's it. Rejoice now or regret later. One of the biggest obstacles to faith in the God of the Bible is His hiddenness.

And I mean that in a couple of senses. We've already sung Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise. Scripture teaches us that God, in His divine essence, is invisible. He's not not visible to our sight. But God is also hidden in the sense that when you compare God's character and what he says about himself in his word, it looks like there's all kinds of breaks and contradictions between who God is and the way our lives are going.

His purposes seem hidden, his plans seem hidden, his goodness seems hidden, his love seems hidden.

We ask questions like, Where is God? How could he let that tragedy happen? Why would he let this evil enter my life? Where was God when? How would you fill in that blank?

God is hidden now, but he won't stay hidden. Verses three and four proclaim that one day he will reveal himself fully and perfectly and unmistakably. God's judgment is good because it turns defeat into victory. God does that by a work in which judgment and salvation are two sides of the same coin. God saves through judgment.

Judgment. God's judgment destroys the sources and causes of evil and delivers his people into his presence. The sea of glass on whose shore we stand is mingled with fire. God's judgment is good because it turns defeat into victory, but it's not just good because of what it does for us. God's judgment is also good because it's rooted in his own perfectly good character.

That's our second point. Point two, it proceeds from pure holiness. Why is judgment good? Because point two, it proceeds from pure holiness. That's the main point of chapter 15, verses five to eight.

Look with me first at verses five to seven.

After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened. And out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure bright linen with golden sashes around their chests. And 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. In these verses, John gets a glimpse of God's tabernacle or temple in heaven. It's called the sanctuary of the tent of witness to link it with the Old Testament wilderness tabernacle, which was called the same thing.

In that tabernacle, God kept a copy of the Ten Commandments as a reminder to his people that his law rules and judges them. And God's heavenly tabernacle is called the sanctuary of the tent of witness to remind us that God's law is the rule and judge of all people. God will soon not only bear witness to that law, but act as prosecution, jury, and judge of the whole guilty world. In this tabernacle are angels clothed in garments of priestly purity. These angel priests are given bowls to pour out, like what priests would use to pour out blood at the end of a sacrificial offering.

But here the bowls are filled not with blood, but wrath. The angels pour out not a sign of mercy, but the substance of judgment. Verses 5 to 7 show us that God's tabernacle in heaven is the command center of his rule over all things. This is the place from which he will pour out judgment through his appointed agents. And verse 8 shows us what what makes this room what it is?

Verse 8, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. This echoes a couple of other times in the Old Testament when God's dwelling place was filled with glory. For instance, the very end of Exodus, chapter 40, verses 34 and 35, when the people finished constructing the tabernacle and then the priests consecrated the tabernacle we read. Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Or in Isaiah chapter 6, when the prophet saw a vision of God in his heavenly temple, verse 1 says, the train of his robe filled the temple. And verse 4 says, the house was filled with smoke. What do all these visions and manifestations of God's glory have in common? They show us that God is utterly and inexpressibly holy. He's perfectly holy and His holiness keeps us from approaching Him.

His holiness is like a million watt electric fence between Him and every sinful human the whole point of God having his people build a tabernacle under the old covenant was so that his people could dwell in his presence and be in intimate proximity with him. But once they had built it, they couldn't. Even Moses couldn't go in. That was because of their sin. It was to teach them one more lesson about how their sin and his holiness cannot come into contact.

It's why when the prophet Isaiah saw this vision of God's glory, he 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. Of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. Verse 8 of our passage is saying that no one could enter heaven, not even these ministering priestly angels, until the wrath of God was finished. Why?

Because God's holiness will be satisfied.

Because God's holiness will have its full say with all of history. Because God's holiness will have its way with every human being. God's holiness will not be interrupted. God's holiness will not be thwarted or stayed. God's holiness will not be detoured.

It will not be delayed by a permitting application. It will not be stalled in committee. God's holiness will have its way. God's holiness is finally the most decisive force in the story of this whole universe. God's holiness will have the last word and until then, no one can interrupt.

In other words, verse 8 is graphically depicting for us the ultimate source of God's judgment. Where does it come from? Well, it comes from his command center in heaven. Okay, what's the primal force there? What's the engine that makes this whole plan move?

It's God's holiness. God's judgment is good because it proceeds from pure holiness. The fact that God's judgment proceeds from pure holiness helps us address one of the most common objections to the whole doctrine of divine judgment. And it's an understandable objection. Many people, when they object to divine judgment, they think of it as if it's like human anger but just bigger and badder.

Now, the problem with that is that when we humans express anger or wrath, there is almost always something wrong with it. We're almost always angry at the wrong time, or for the wrong reason, or in the wrong way. Human anger almost always proceeds, at least in part, from some personal defect. You have too high a view of yourself. You don't care enough about someone else's dignity and rights.

You lack self-control and lose your temper. I'm certainly guilty of that. You get frustrated with someone in authority over you and so you take it out on someone under your authority. You overreact and blow up at someone who's barely even done anything wrong. In all of these ways, God's judgment is utterly unlike human judgment.

God is not a heavenly tyrant inflicting arbitrary cruelty. And God is not a heavenly toddler having a tantrum. God always judges the right person for the right reason in the right measure and from utterly right motives. God's judgment proceeds from pure justice. Holiness.

But what does God's judgment accomplish? What are its effects? Point three, it perfectly removes and repays evil. Why is God's judgment good? Because point three, it perfectly removes and repays evil.

Evil. We see this in all of chapter 16. And yes, this point will be a bit longer than the first two. We're going to look first briefly at the first five plagues which get narrated quickly. So look with me at verses 1 to 11.

Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God. So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea. The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood. And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments.

For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve. And I heard the altar saying, Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments. The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues.

They did not repent and give him glory. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

The first four plagues strike the elements of the physical world, the supports of human life: earth, sea, freshwater sources, and the sun. These plagues turn creation against creatures. Specifically, they render creation inhospitable to humanity. I don't think we should see these plagues as having an exact one-to-one correspondence with some specific future event. Instead, we should see them as pictures of the ways God accomplishes his purposes for judgment on humans through creation.

Their intensity and the fact that these plagues affect all of creation seems to suggest that before the end, there will be an intensification of God's judgment on humanity through creation. But I don't think we can pinpoint exactly when or how these judgments will take place. The fifth plague is a little different in that it targets the throne of the beast, the authority of the earthly rulers who oppose God.

The point here is that God will not let evil or idolatry have the last word. God will not be mocked. God will cast down those who try to cast him down. And again, I think we can see elements of this throughout human history, but it only becomes perfectly fulfilled in the end. Hitler gets cast down, Stalin remains.

There's imperfect justice in this life. Then the sixth and the seventh bowls that we're going to see They match both the sixth and seventh seals and the sixth and seventh trumpets. In all three sequences, numbers six and seven take us to the very end. So it's one point in common here. The first five seem to refer throughout history, the last two bring us to the end of history.

Keep that in mind as I read verses 12 to 21.

The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the east.

I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits performing signs who go abroad to the kings of the whole world to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.

The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, 'It is done. And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth. So great was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found.

And great hailstones, about 100 pounds each, fell from heaven on people and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

The sixth bowl symbolically depicts the lead up to a final confrontation between God and anti-God forces, kingdoms of the world mustering their armies, bringing them in to try to wage war against God himself. Then what's up with the demonic frog spirits in verses 13 and 14? A strange image in a book full of strange images. I think they're a deliberately grotesque, revolting representation of forces of spiritual deceit. False teaching, false prophecy.

They perform signs, miracles, kind of magical works, which Scripture often acknowledges false prophets can do.

This is a warning about the seductive power of spiritual deceit. Like for instance, if maybe for 30 years you've held publicly to a stance that is faithful to Scripture and unpopular in the culture, then you decide after 30 years of teaching, writing, advocacy to change your mind and finally cave into the culture.

There's seductive forces of spiritual deceit at work in that decision. What's happened ultimately is not that you've somehow seen the light of day and there's better persuasive arguments. And of course, I trust somewhere in your own mind, that's the case. You've changed your mind, something has won you over. But scripture saying underneath that are disgusting, demons.

There are plausible reasons. There are persuasive sounding arguments. Lots of really smart people can change their mind in lots of really bad ways. What's underneath it is evil, grotesque, disgusting powers of spiritual deception.

The seventh bowl pictures the final judgment as a great all-encompassing earthquake. It's so powerful that it undoes creation. Islands, mountains, they're all gone. This earthquake undoes the created order itself. Verse 19 mentions Babylon, which is first named in chapter 14 and which is going to feature prominently in the coming chapters.

Babylon stands for Rome and it stands for every earthly empire that sets itself against God and his ways. Babylon may prosper for seasons, or centuries, but eventually every Babylon will drain the full cup of God's wrath. Notice that three times in this chapter, people don't respond how they should to these judgments. Verse 9, verse 11, people don't repent and give him glory. Verse 21, they curse God for the plague of the hail.

So notice the stark difference in perspective. In chapter 15, verses 3 and 4, the redeemed bless God for his judgment. In chapter 16, the condemned curse God for his judgment. Ultimately, there's no middle ground, no neutral territory. Either you recognize God as the righteous ruler of all, or you reject him with eternal consequences.

And as hard as it can be, being fallen creatures and being sympathetic with fellow fallen creatures, this is also a litmus test of the state of our own hearts. Can you bless God for his judgment? Or is it something embarrassing? Is it something that you really kind of wish were actually not in Scripture? Would you like God better if he judged less?

And what does that say about your own sense of justice? Looking at verses 5 to 7, this interlude with these two angels really gives us a key to the whole chapter. There's the angel in charge of the waters, there's also the altar speaking, but we should understand that to be an angel located at the altar. Verses 5 to 7 again: Just are youe, O Holy One, who is and who was, for your brought these judgments, for they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and youd have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve.

And I heard the altar saying, Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your or your judgments. These verses closely parallel the Song of Moses and the Lamb from chapter 15. And they give us the main point of this chapter. God's judgment is just, it's right, it's what is deserved. God's judgments are true in the sense that they fit, they correspond with the reality that they address.

They're objectively right. They fit the acts that have been done. Now, the book of Revelation has a cyclical each time one of the cycles concludes, there's some kind of hymn or poetry that comments on what came before and points ahead to what comes after. Back in chapter 11, verse 18, you know, if you're working with your own Bible here, you can put a little star there, you can underline it. Chapter 11, verse 18 introduces the next several chapters.

It's kind of a topic sentence, a heading for what we're looking at right now.

Now, the heavenly elders praise God and say, the nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth. This is exactly what we see playing out in chapter 16. The dead are judged, God's servants are rewarded, and the destroyers of the earth are destroyed. The punishment fits the crime. This is proportional justice.

However severe God's judgments seem, Scripture declares that they are perfectly just, perfectly fitting, perfectly right, perfectly true.

In these final judgments, God is perfectly removing and repaying evil. He's removing evil in the sense of eradicating it from the earth. No longer will the earth be filled with injustice, with hurt, with harm, with deceit. In the place of all of that in the new creation, there will be perfect justice. God's judgment erases evil from the face of the earth.

No more contamination of evil in God's good creation. God will scour evil clean off the surface of the earth. And God is also repaying evil. The punishment he pours out is exactly what sins deserve. No more and no less.

A right relationship with God starts with recognizing the magnitude of your crime against him. It starts with recognizing the rightness of his threatened judgment against you. The scope of this judgment is eternal hell. It is an eternity of conscious torment. Don't let your small sense of what's wrong with you lead you to judge God, thinking his judgment is too big for that.

Do it the other way around. Let the magnitude of God's judgment against sin lead you to recognize how great your sin really is. This is the problem that Christ came to solve. Christ's death on the cross shows us the magnitude of our sin and the magnitude of God's judgment. Only the death of the perfectly sinless, perfectly pure, perfectly righteous, perfectly just, perfectly true Messiah could satisfy God's wrath against our sins.

That's exactly what Christ accomplished. That same proportional justice, that same right response, that same fitting repayment is what Christ suffered in his death. And then he triumphed over death, rising from the grave to show that God's plan of salvation will incorporate victory over death, the removal of all evil, the perfect victory for everyone who trusts in him. If you're not a follower of Jesus, the only way to get right with God is trusting that Jesus bore the justice you deserve. It's trusting that this really is what you deserve from God, Jesus and only Jesus took it.

And the only way you can be reconciled to God is by trusting in him. So if you've not, I would urge you, turn from sin and trust in Christ today. It's this repayment aspect that people struggle with the most. Removing evil, that sounds good. Perfect righteousness, perfect justice, that sounds great.

Especially for people who are laboring for whatever measure of earthly justice there can be in this life. Doesn't perfect justice sound pretty We can get on board with removal as long as we get to share in the good thing that comes after that. It's the repayment part that makes our hearts and minds struggle. We're tempted to think God is being harsh, he's being severe, he's overdoing it. If evil is so bad and if some people are bent on just remaining in evil, well, why not just wipe them out into nonexistence?

Wouldn't obliterating people into nonexistence ultimately be more merciful? And therefore morally superior to punishing them forever and hell. As a kind of application of the whole passage, all two chapters taken together, I want to offer an extended answer to that question, an extended response to the charge that God's eternal judgment of sinners in hell is wrong, either because it's unjust or or because it's unmerciful. First, I'll give you three reasons not to reject God's judgment and then five goods that God's judgment accomplishes. By judgment, I mean to include and even focus on the biblical teaching that God will punish those who persist in sin forever in hell.

First, then, three reasons not to reject God's God's judgment. Number one, you lack the standing.

To criticize God's judgment is ultimately to say that you know how to run the universe better than God does. It's to set yourself up as a prosecuting attorney and to put God in the position of the accused. But who gave you that right? Who authorized you to be God's judge? God is the source of all things and therefore the sovereign ruler of all things.

Have you given life to yourself or to anything or anyone else? As the apostle Paul says in Romans 9, who are you, O man? To talk back to God. I remember listening to an interview a few years back with Tim Keller about apologetics and the host of the interview asked him whether his approach to the problem of evil had changed at all over the years. The problem of evil is basically another version of what we're thinking about right now.

And Keller answered that it wasn't as if any new arguments kind of appeared to him or new reasons somehow became more persuasive to him that kind of helped him on this issue but he said, The older I've gotten, the less confidence I put in my powers of exhaustive, rational surveillance. That phrase has stuck with me ever since. It's a wise and humble posture. It shows what's really at stake in this issue. If you're tempted to judge God, if you're tempted to judge God's judgment, if you're tempted to set yourself up as a final moral authority holding God to account, what you're ultimately trusting in is your own powers of exhaustive, rational surveillance.

To have the standing, to criticize God's judgment, you'd really need to be the creator. You would need to be omniscient. You would need to be omnipotent. You would actually need to be God. A second reason not to reject God's judgment.

Number two, you lack the character. Some people criticize God's judgment on grounds of mercy. Wouldn't it be more merciful not to judge? And yet, the Bible proclaims that God is rich in mercy. Ephesians 2:4, it's not like he's deficient in it.

It's not like if only he could have a little more mercy that would make up a proper setting. He's rich in mercy. God himself proclaims in Exodus 34 that he's merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. And yet, those same Scriptures, and that same God proclaims that he will not leave the guilty unpunished. If you appeal to mercy to judge God's judgment, you're claiming to be more merciful than God.

And I would warn you never to put yourself in a position where you are claiming to be more merciful than God. A third reason not to reject God's judgments. You undermine your standard. You undermine your standard. Others question God's judgment on the grounds of justice.

Isn't eternal punishment an excessive response to human sin? Isn't that a disproportionate penalty like an overly harsh sentencing for a petty crime? But there are two problems with criticizing God's judgment on the grounds of justice. The first is, where did you get your standard of justice? Is justice built into our biology?

Why should humans have rights? An increasingly difficult question for our modern secular world to answer. Why should justice be a be an ultimate fact of the universe. If you ultimately reject God because of your sense of justice, what gives your sense of justice its universal validity?

A second problem is even if you want to get, even if you want to keep God but get rid of judgment, your standard becomes unenforceable. Justice becomes if there is no final judgment, then evil can always get the last word. If there is no final judgment, then evil can always win. If you want to uphold justice, realize that hell is one ultimate way that justice is upheld and the cross is the other. If justice has no ultimate sanction, justice can't be an ultimate value.

On the other hand, then, more positively, I want to give you five goods that God's judgment accomplishes, five goods that God's judgment accomplishes. And these are all versions of the two points we've seen in our last point, that he removes and repays evil. What does that removing and repaying work accomplish? Number one, God's judgment is the ultimate act of truth telling. One of the harms of all sin and injustice is that every single act of wrongdoing is also a lie.

In one way or another, all sin lies about God, about what a human being is, about creation, and about what's truly good. And sin does some of its most damaging work by corrupting our sense of what's true and false. Those who manipulate and abuse others do so in part by distorting their sense of truth, by somehow persuading them to believe a lie. But God's judgment is the ultimate act of truth telling. As the Christian ethicist Oliver O'Donovan put it, God's judgment is a rational act of condemnation.

Neither irrational like impulsive revenge, nor inactive like reflexive disapproval. But an expressive act or communication. Divine punishment tells the truth about every human offense. It tells the truth that every human life is precious and should be protected. It tells the truth that God is worthy of worship and obedience.

It tells the truth that as beings made in His image, we all have the dignity of being responsible for our actions and are rightly held to account.

This is why again, the angels in verses 6 and 7 confess, Just are youe, it is what they deserve. True and just are your judgments. God's judgment does the good of exposing every lie forever. If God didn't judge, lies would win. Second, God's judgment vindicates those who have suffered unjustly.

Injustice feels different when you're committing it than when you're suffering it. The more you're in the wrong, the more leniency you want. But the more injustice you've suffered, the more you cry out for justice to be done to the perpetrators. Sometimes criticisms of God's judgment say more about our comfort and privilege than they do about the moral laws of the universe. A third good, God's judgment undercuts human vengeance.

We could also add as a bonus to that one, it enables forgiveness. God's judgment undercuts human vengeance and huge bonus, enables forgiveness. If God will avenge every wrong, then you not only don't need to avenge yourself but must not avenge yourself. It's God's job Not yours. You, I'm sorry, would only make a hash of it.

It's why Paul says in Romans 12:19, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. And so ultimately, it's God's promise to judge that lets you let go of that grudge, lets you drop that bitterness, lets you forgive someone from the heart, regardless of their stance toward you, regardless of whether they've cleaned up on their end, because God will ultimately clean up everything.

Divine vengeance undercuts human vengeance and enables forgiveness. Number four, God's judgment warns, deters, and repays all who abuse authority. God's judgment warns, deters, and repays all who abuse authority. In Ephesians 6:9, the apostle Paul warns those who are in authority over household servants saying, Masters, do the same to them and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their master and yours is in heaven and that there is no partiality with him. In other words, don't abuse any authority you have on earth because there is an ultimate authority over you and over all those under your authority.

Everyone who exercises the slightest earthly authority will answer to God for how they use it. God's judgment means that no human human authority is ultimate. When you consider the scale of some of the atrocities that earthly authorities have perpetrated, especially in the last century, what could possibly measure up to them except for an eternity of punishment? Tyrannical dictators who are responsible for the murder of millions of citizens, what do they deserve? The political philosopher Hannah Arendt was a deeply insightful person, not herself a Christian.

She reflected on this very issue saying, I am perfectly sure that the whole totalitarian catastrophe would not have happened if people had still believed in God or hell rather. That is if there were still any.

Ultimates. Point five, a fifth good God's judgment accomplishes. God's judgment frees us from the burden of self-justification. God's judgment frees us from the burden of self-justification. If God is judge, if God will settle all scores, if God will right all wrongs, that means you can be totally free from bondage to how other people judge you.

It means you can even quit judging yourself. It's exactly what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:3-4, But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.

Notice how Paul's total freedom of self-forgetfulness is founded not on the complete absence of judgment, but on the fact of God's judgment. God's judgment creates the freedom of self-forgetfulness. God's judgment renders you impervious to judgment in the court of human opinion. God's judgment is good because it turns defeat into victory. It proceeds from pure holiness and it perfectly removes and repays evil.

Is God's judgment good? It's not ultimately for you to say. But your stance toward God's judgment is of immense eternal significance. Even more significant is whether that judgment will fall on you. And the only safe place to be when God's judgment comes is in Christ.

Remember his own interjection in verse 15. Behold, I'm coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed. Jesus is coming back suddenly. Jesus is coming back without warning.

Jesus is coming back to redeem all those who have trusted him and to repay all those who reject him. The only way to be safe, the only way to be happy on that day is to be hidden in him now. Is to trust in him and persevere in faith in him. I pray you would do that. Let's pray together.

Father, we praise you for the justice of your judgment. We praise you for pouring out that full judgment on Christ. Father, we pray that we would confess and acknowledge the goodness of your judgment and that we would look forward appropriately To the day when your judgment will perfectly remove and repay evil. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.