In this episode of Hope for Today, we dive into the intensifying wrath of God as described in Revelation Chapter 16. As the final plagues unfold, humanity faces unimaginable trials, but through it all, God’s righteousness and justice are clear. Listen as David Hawking guides us through the scriptures, exploring each plague’s impact and the profound message behind them. It’s a sobering reminder that time is running out, and the choices we make today will echo through eternity.
Years ago, there was respect and value placed upon those who held to values. Right now, they’re seen as the enemy. They’re seen as people who get in the way. Can you imagine what it’s going to be like in the tribulation as thousands of believers are going to be killed? Maybe millions, because this is a multitude that no man can number.
SPEAKER 1 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Hope for Today. On today’s broadcast, the wrath hasn’t stopped. In fact, it’s intensifying. One by one, the final bowls of God’s anger are poured out. The seas turn to blood, the rivers die, and the sun scorches the earth with unbearable heat. And still, the world refuses to repent. They shake their fists at heaven and curse God. But even in His wrath, God is righteous, and He takes no pleasure in their pain. He takes no pleasure in their pain, but His holiness demands justice. And this is truly a point of no return. Judgment is falling, and time is running out. This edition of Hope for Today, Bible teacher David Hawking continues in Revelation chapter 16 with day three of the final plagues. Stay with us. It all starts in just a moment. Before we begin, a quick word about David’s book, Hope in Difficult Times. This is our featured book, and it’s a powerful scripture-filled guide that answers the questions so many are asking right now, such as where is God in all this, in all that’s going on around us? And does anyone really care about what’s happening to me? Hope in Difficult Times will help you stand firm and find hope, biblical hope that you can count on, even when the world seems to be falling apart. And Hope in Difficult Times, just $20. And you can order your copy at 1-800-75-BIBLE in the U.S. or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada, Bible by the numbers 24253. Or order on our website, davidhawking.org. And here’s David with today’s lesson from Revelation chapter 16, day three of the final plagues.
SPEAKER 03 :
Verse one, and I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, go your ways and pour out the vials or the bowls of the wrath of God upon the earth. And the first went and poured out his vial upon the earth and there fell a noisome and grievous sore. Some translations read foul and painful sore upon the men who had the mark of the beast and upon them who worshiped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea and it became like the blood of a dead man and every living soul died in the sea. And the third angel poured out his vial upon the rivers and fountains of waters, and they became blood. And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, who art and wast and shall be, because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink, for they are worthy. And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun. And power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God who hath power over these plagues. And they repented not to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat or throne of the beast, and his kingdom was full of darkness. And they gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and repented not of their deeds. The seven last plagues. Great voice from heaven, great judgments are falling upon the earth. It is obvious that these people know it’s coming from the Lord. That’s very interesting to me. There’s something about every one of them that is so awesome that the people know who’s bringing the judgment. And they’re going to all try to attack God himself and the Lamb of God. And it’s incredible to believe that this could happen. Now, God has been angry at different times throughout history, but this particular time is called the wrath of God. In each of these plagues, something major is being attacked. It’s like everything that we depend upon, God is going to smash to smithereens before the eyes of a world that’s turned their back on him. Plague number one is health. The Bible calls it, verse 2, a foul and painful sore. It’s God’s judgment. Plague 2 hits the food supply of the world. Every living soul died in the sea. Plague number 3, verse 4 to verse 7. Here, the angel says that God is righteous in turning the drinking water into blood because they, not past ancestors, but they have shed the blood of saints and prophets. And so when God hits the drinking water and you say, oh, how terrible, why would God do that? Well, it says they are worthy of that and much more. God simply gives them blood to drink because they have been shedding the blood of saints and prophets. That’s what it says. Just breaking this down, three things I’d point out to you in this little section. One is we have the reaction of the angel of the waters, and two things come out of him. Basically an explanation, thou art righteous, O Lord, who art and wast and shall be. It’s the righteousness of God. Don’t think that God isn’t doing right. And there’s also an explanation, because thou hast judged God. thus why are we praising the lord because he has brought this judgment he is righteous turning the drinking water into blood to remind that contemporary culture of unbelievers who received the mark and are following the beast and the dragon that he is a god of vengeance look at psalm 119 verse 7 just keep your eyes in the bible and look at what it says i will praise thee with uprightness of heart when i shall have learned thy what kind of judgments Righteous judgments. I praise the Lord when I see that everything he does is right. Look at Psalm 119 verse 144. The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting. Give me understanding and I shall live. Verse 164. Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments. Seven times a day, he says. In other words, seven representing just a completed act that my whole life understands something. God is doing what is right, and I’m going to praise him. I don’t worry about it. Whatever is happening, however affliction it brings, whatever trouble it brings to me, whatever suffering is involved, I know this. God is righteous. He always does what’s right. Turn to Isaiah chapter 26, verse 9. You know, I think… One of the greatest needs we have is to know God, to know his character and to understand it. I get messed up when I get my mind off of him and onto my circumstances. Isaiah 26, 9. With my soul have I desired thee in the night. Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. Isn’t that interesting? And so many of us see the unfair, unjust ways of secular man, and we wonder, God, why don’t you do something? Well, he is. Just be patient. Go to Revelation again, chapter 16. So in looking at plague three about the drinking water, the reaction of the angel to praise the Lord, thou art righteous is mentioned. And then the reason behind this praise in verse six, because they have in fact shed the blood of saints and prophets and they’re worthy of this. They deserve it. The third thing I would mention is the response of another angel in verse 7. Kind of interesting. I heard another angel, another out of the altar, say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. Why did God throw in another angel there? A lot of people wonder it because he’s like saying almost the same thing. And I would suggest this. The Bible teaches that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word is established. So God brings out another witness and says the same thing so that all of us who are reading this will never question again. God, you are righteous. I can count on you. All your judgments, they’re the right thing to do. And I can thank you and praise you for it. That’s why we can say with confidence in Romans 8.28, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. That’s kind of a concluding statement to a passage talking about suffering. He said the sufferings of the present time aren’t worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed. He talked about how we groan and travail in pain and even our bodies fall apart like all of creation groans as the curse is evident and things fall apart and pollution and corruption and decay. And we all are longing for redemption. When is the Lord going to set us all free? Well, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. There’s a powerful message here. to relax. The Lord’s in charge. He’s doing everything right. And you can count on it. Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments. Let’s come to plague four, verse eight and nine. Now God has hit health, food supply, and drinking water. Now he’s going to hit the weather patterns. It says scorch men with fire. One of the brothers here gave me an article out of Wall Street Journal about fire. I have never read anything like that in my life. Apparently, somebody is setting off fires, it’s happened in about five to six locations in the east already, that are like atomic nuclear explosions. That is, what was created was an immediate explosion that involved heat that’s so intense, it’s greater than anything they’ve ever experienced. And they don’t know how to handle it. They don’t know what to do about it. Everything that was described in there reminds you of hell. It was really an incredible argument and article. I read that and I thought of this passage. Scorch men with fire. When I was in high school, I had a couple of guys that I liked real well that played on our football team. And they were both exceptional athletes. They were brothers. And they had a fireplace at their home, one of those open fireplaces, and there was no screen in front of it, and the kids had lit the fire. And apparently, I don’t know whether it was a gas leak or what, but there was an explosion of that fire. And the older brother threw his arms around his younger brother. and protected him, and he was scorched beyond recognition. And he was a dear friend. I can tell you this, that God used that experience to really make him a mighty man of God. He looked terrible. His face, his body, all disfigured. It was a horrible-looking thing. Wonderful story, though, of how he protected his brother. But he could never again play ball or do what he had done all up until that time. But just the fire that came out of that fireplace and to see what it did to that young man. It made him gruesome and awful and twisted and just terrible. Lost most of his ear and both sides and just a terrible gnarled face. And it was scary looking at him and remembering what he was like. And that’s vivid in my mind. And then I read this passage that God is going to hit the sun. And it’s going to be so bad, it’s going to be scorching us with the heat. Now that word scorching is a very strong word. We’re not talking about just having a little heat wave here. We’re talking about really being seriously burned. The Bible calls it great heat in verse 9. So much so they’re blaspheming God. Let me give you just three things here to kind of put this together. The persons who are affected. It’s very interesting to me. It says scorched men with fire. In the Greek text it has the men. Not men in general, the men. And that takes us right back in the context grammatically to verse 2. In verse 2, the painful sore was on the men who had the mark of the beast and upon them who worship his image. So in verse 9, these ones who have these painful, malignant, awful sores, whatever they are, are now being scorched with great heat. The same men, we’re talking unbelievers here, who have taken the mark of the beast, care nothing about God, and now it is getting really bad. They’re the ones that blaspheme the name of God. They know it comes from the Lord. Not only looking at the persons who are affected here, but the power of the plague. It says in verse 8 that power was given unto him, this fourth angel, to scorch men with fire. He pours the bowl on the sun and power was given. It’s referring to the sun in the grammar, not the angel or to God. The point is the sun all of a sudden has greater power than man has ever experienced. It’s severe heat that causes severe burning. The third thing to look at is the purpose of the plague. And I think you have two things. One is to demonstrate, of course, the power and wrath of God. It says, verse 9, they blaspheme the name of God who hath power over these plagues. So one of the purposes behind it is to demonstrate the power and wrath of God to an unbelieving generation that’s been acting like he doesn’t exist. A second purpose is to prove that the problem with the world is not the environment. but the human heart. Can you believe it? It says, verse 9, they repented not to give him glory. They got sores all over their bodies. They don’t have any drinking water. Health has been affected. Weather patterns are now affected. Food supply has been affected. And now this terrible burning on their body and the heat is just unbearable. And they know who’s bringing it, but they won’t repent. Hey, the problem, folks, is in the heart. It’s not in the environment. What do we have in our society now? We have a colossal effort by all of society to prove that the reason you and I are so messed up is because of something outside of ourselves. Well, the reason you’re having problems is you were an abused child. Another one is, well, the reason why you’re messed up is you have a dysfunctional family. Is there anybody here who doesn’t have a dysfunctional family? I mean, do we have Ozzie and Harriet here? I mean, come on. What’s going on? It’s your environment. It’s your job. It’s your wife. It’s your husband. It’s those kids. I mean, how many excuses do we come up with? None of them are valid before a holy God. We are accountable and we are responsible. None of us have to live on the basis of what the past generation did. We don’t have to be like our parents. We don’t have to be like our friends. We can live for the Lord in a terrible environment. Many people have done so. There are people right here in this audience who’ve come out of terrible, messed up families and lives and are living for God. Praise the Lord. And there are some people who are raised in wonderful families. will become rebellious and hardened and walk away from the Lord. And there’s no outward visible reason. Hey, the problem is not in the environment. It’s not in your family. It’s in your own heart. They repented not to give him glory. Let’s take plague five real quick. We’re talking energy sources here. Verse 10 and 11. It says, The fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, the throne of the beast, and his kingdom… was full of darkness. Now he’s ruling the world, really. They gnawed their tongues for pain and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores. And here it is again, repented not of their deeds. It’s hard to believe. Go back to chapter 9. Look at verse 20 and 21. Do you remember this at the end of the sixth trumpet judgment? It says, “…the rest of the men who were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk.” Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, that’s the Greek word for drug, pharmaceuticals, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. Sounds like front page news to me. Call it the big four. Murder, drugs, sexual immorality, and theft. I don’t know where you are, but let me tell you something. Every knee is going to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every tongue is going to confess that he is Lord. And I pray that you know the Lord. What we’re seeing in our world makes us all believe we’re on the threshold of the great tribulation. And if we’re right on our view about the rapture of the church, it could be any time now. Boy, I sure hope we’re right. Don’t you? Don’t you? Let’s pray. Father, I thank you and I praise you for your wonderful word. And you are righteous, Lord, in all of your judgments. And we praise you. We love you. There are so many things in life we don’t understand. But you are the God who does everything well and right. Lord, I pray for those listening who are not sure that if they died now, they’d be in heaven. They have no confidence of their personal relationship with you. God, by the power of your Holy Spirit, Lord, Draw them to put their faith in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins, paid for them, rose again from the dead that we might live forever with him. God, bring them to salvation, we pray. May they repent of their sin and turn to the Lord before it’s too late. You’re a God of grace and mercy and love and forgiveness, but you will not always strive with man. There is a judgment coming. Lord, I pray that we would know what the Bible says about believers, that there is no judgment to them that are in Christ, no condemnation. We have been set free by the precious blood of Christ, and we stand in his righteousness alone. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER 02 :
Listen, folks, no one else can save you from sin, death, and hell except our Lord Yeshua. His Hebrew name is Yehoshua, and it means the Lord is salvation. There’s no salvation in any other name. You have to turn to the Lord. Romans 10 says whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER 01 :
Call 800-75-BIBLE, that’s in the US, or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada, and we’ll send them your way. And if you already know the Lord, but maybe you’ve strayed away from a close relationship with Him, or you just don’t feel that same joy that you had when you first came to Christ, I We have something for you, too. And again, this is free. It’s a booklet by Hope for Today friend Richard A. Bennett called Revival Now. And you can see it right from the homepage at DavidHawking.org. Click on the link. Nothing’s required. And you’ll have it within seconds. Again, Revival Now at DavidHawking.org. David’s coming back in just a bit to close our time in God’s Word for today, so stay right there. Just before that, we have David’s original sermon outlines and notes for each message in our current Revelation series. You know, these are great for following along through the series and then into the future when you want to review or share it with others. Discover and experience. Revelation in a deeper, more encouraging fashion with our Revelation radio series on MP3 and David’s message outlines and sermon notes. You know, Jim, the Revelation series sermon notes pack is just $10. That’s sermon notes for each message in the entire series, 48 messages altogether. And you can purchase or download at davidhawking.org or receive them by PDF CD when you call us. And then you can save and store all your learning in our current series with the Revelation radio series message pack. All 48 messages on MP3 format, download or MP3 CD, just $30. Or on DVD, a special price this month for the DVD set, $50. To get these resources or to order our featured book for the month, Hope in Difficult Times, we mentioned that at the beginning of the broadcast, call us at 800-75-BIBLE in the U.S., or 888-75-BIBLE in Canada. And again, Bible by the numbers is 24253. Or of course, you can order on our website, davidhawking.org. And a quick note here, if this ministry has been a blessing to you, would you consider a special gift to help us stay on the air and continue sharing God’s Word to you and around the world? Your donation of any amount makes an eternal difference. It helps Hope for Today continue teaching the Bible clearly and faithfully, training believers and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can send your tax-deductible gift to Hope for Today, Box 3927. Tustin, California, 92781. In Canada, write to Hope for Today, Box 15011, RPO Seven Oaks, Abbotsford, BC, V2S 8P1. Or give securely online at davidhawking.org. And here’s David to close us out.
SPEAKER 02 :
Thanks so much for listening today, and I hope you’re not really scared. First of all, if you know the Lord, you’re not going to be in the tribulation. God promises to remove us out of it. We’ll be in heaven while it’s going on on earth. And you talk about what’s going on. Armageddon. Whoo! It tells us, “…as a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so great. And Babylon came into remembrance before God. Every island fled away, the mountains were not found, and there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven.” a stone, the weight of a talent. And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof, and here it comes, was exceeding great. Oh, my friends, these seven last plagues are terrible indeed, and they’re going to hit planet Earth near the end of the tribulation period, which will last for seven years. and will be climaxed by the Battle of Armageddon in a gigantic earthquake that was never seen so dangerous as it will be at the end of the tribulation period. Wow. Folks, we’re here to tell you, flee the wrath of God and turn to the Lord before it’s too late. God bless you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Next time on Hope for Today, it’s our monthly question and answer broadcast. So be sure to invite a friend to listen along with you right here on Hope for Today.
