This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom. I am glad you're here for our study of Revelation
chapter 15. This week, day one, we're going to focus on verse one today.

And as we walk through this chapter, we're going to be reminded once again that
God is in control. That's the story of the book of Revelation. No matter what
happens, God is in control.

When the world seems to be falling apart, God is in control. When a beast rises
out of the sea, God is in control. When Satan mounts his attack, God is in
control.

And when life isn't fair, God is in control. We began to look at that last week
in chapter 14, when life isn't fair, and we continue that this week. And it is a
truth that we desperately need.

Life often just isn't fair. You want to see that it's not fair, pick up today's
newspaper. Whenever you're listening to this, pick up today's newspaper and read
the headlines, and you will see several that express the fact that life is not
fair.

We looked last week, began looking together at four realities that give us hope
when our world is falling apart. Four things that you and I can hang on to when
life isn't fair. We looked at the first three of them last week, and we begin to
look at the fourth of them this week.

Last week, remember, we looked at a lamb leading worship and reminded ourselves
that when life isn't fair, we need to remember that one day our sorrows will be
turned into songs. We looked secondly last week at some angels announcing the
truth, and we reminded ourselves that when life isn't fair, we have to remember
that one day we will rest from our labor. And we also looked last week at a
harvest that is coming, and we reminded ourselves that when life isn't fair, one
day we know that God will settle the books.

There is a fourth picture in Revelation chapter 14, 15, and 16 that reminds you
and I of what we can hold on to when life isn't fair. It is a picture that is
hard for us to look at, but it is the truth of how this world will end. The
fourth picture is the picture of some bowls of wrath that will be poured out.

Now, chapter 15 is a prelude to what's going to happen as those bowls are poured
out in chapter 16. And in chapter 15, the chapter begins with this picture,
before the bowls are even poured out. Here's what we see.

Chapter 15, verse 1. "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.

" So you can see here that we're coming to the end. In fact, in that verse you
saw the word "last" is used twice. This is the time when the great cry of the
oppressed of all ages is finally going to be answered.

"How long, O Lord? How long? How long is evil going to prevail?

How long is life going to be not fair? How long do we have to live in this
world? " God's going to change everything with this judgment.

He is looking forward, remember, to a new heaven and a new earth. As we walk
through chapter 15 and 16 and look at this last judgment, do not forget what
it's looking forward to, a new heaven and a new earth. Now in chapter 15 we're
told that these are the bowls of God's wrath.

And I know for many of us just hearing that phrase, that word "wrath," there's
something about it that makes us feel uncomfortable. What does this mean? What
does the idea of the wrath of God really mean?

Well, first of all, it's not an idea. It's a reality. It's not a philosophy.

It's a personal expression of a personal God. The wrath of God means that God
reacts personally to the truth of evil, to the truth of sin, to the reality of
evil and sin in this world. You and I, we want to understand God's love.

We don't want to spend any time thinking about His wrath. I want to just think
about the fact that God is love and that God wants to love His people. He's
poured out His love through Jesus Christ and He's going to pour out His love in
all eternity in heaven.

We're never going to really understand the passion and the depth of God's love
unless we understand His wrath. God's wrath is His personal reaction to the
hatefulness, the horror of sin. Think about this with me.

If someone were attacking one of your children and you were there and had to
rush in to protect them, they were attacking them in a way that would lead to
physical harm. You would see the passion of your love and your immediate
reaction of wrath in that moment. You would immediately react to save your child
and react against the person, that's wrath, against the person who was trying to
harm your child.

Here's the truth of sin. Sin rapes God's children. It steals from us.

The relationship with God that we were meant to live with, it steals from us.
The innocence before God that we were meant to have for all of eternity, it
steals from us, the hope of eternity. And without God's gift of Jesus Christ on
the cross, that's how the story would have ended.

God is love and that love causes Him to respond to sin in wrath. That's what the
wrath of God means. I read this week someone teaching that God's wrath really
balances His love.

But that's not a biblical way of thinking. That's really an Eastern way of
thinking, that you've got to balance love and hate. You've got to balance good
and evil.

That's not the truth of this at all. God is love and the same love that sent
Jesus to the cross will punish those who do evil because that is His expression
of love. Love is always angry at evil.

So God has wrath towards sin and I would say to you, it is His personal
response. Do not let anything cause you to depersonalize God's response to sin
because once you do, it depersonalizes it for you as well. Now I know there is a
problem with this.

I've experienced it in my own life. You may have experienced it. You and I, we
can choose to talk about God's love or we can choose to talk about God's
judgment.

I would rather talk about God's love. I would guess that most of you listening
to this right now, you'd rather talk about God's love. There are some that I've
met, maybe some you've met, they would rather talk about wrath.

But often as you hear them talk about God's wrath, they seem very angry. They
don't seem compassionate at all. They don't seem loving at all.

And you get this sense that they want to talk about God's wrath out of their own
hurt, out of their own anger. You know what we need? We need more people who
would rather talk about love, willing to talk about the wrath and judgment of
God, out of a compassionate heart, willing to tell the whole truth and nothing
but the truth.

That yes, God gave his life for us on a cross in Jesus Christ to save us, to
take out the wrath of God on that cross for us, for our sins. But unless I trust
that, I'm going to experience what we're going to see in Revelation chapter 16,
separation from God. When we talk about the wrath of God and his personal
response to sin, the question is not how could a loving God be angry at sin?

And the question is, how could a loving God not be angry at sin? Of course he's
angry at the sin that so hurts his children. Now, this is personal when we talk
about the wrath of God against sin.

It's personal to every one of us. Because the shocking, the humbling truth is,
we've all sinned. We've all fallen short of God's glory.

As we remember that, I have a question for you, a very important question. Is
wrath God's only response to sin? Of course not.

Of course not. In Christ, he has shown us mercy. And when you understand wrath
and you understand mercy, you begin to understand the full breadth of God's love
for you in Jesus Christ.

I love a prayer that the prophet Habakkuk prayed in Habakkuk 3. 2. He prayed,
"Lord, in your wrath, remember mercy.

" And that prayer is answered. The cross of Jesus Christ tells you that God
always does. Even here at the end, what we're going to look at these next few
weeks is we see the wrath of God poured out against sin upon this world.

God is always remembering mercy. The opportunity is always there for a person
who has not yet come to Christ to come to Christ. If only we would.

If only you would. If only they would. In your wrath, remember mercy.

Let's take a moment to pray together. Our Father, we thank you for your love.
We've barely been able to understand it.

We see it in the cross. We're going to see it here these next few weeks in the
judgment, but we barely understand your love. We know that.

Help us to see, help us to understand that everything that you do flows out of
who you are, a God of love, a God of holiness. And help us to understand that
this judgment, once and for all, do away with evil so that your people can live
with you in joy forever. And Lord, help those who do not yet understand this to
know that God, you're inviting them into this relationship of love.

Help my friend who doesn't yet know this to know that you're inviting them into
this relationship with love. We pray this, Jesus, in your name, amen. Join us
tomorrow.

We're going to look at a picture of some victorious worshipers.