Revelation 16:6 “For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.”
Their water supply is affected with blood.
They’re drinking blood, because they deserve it.
They share that same spirit who murdered all the saints and prophets throughout the 2000 years of church history and 4000 years of not just Old Testament Adam and Abel but the Jewish people as well.
Revelation 16:7 “And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are thy judgments.”
Another voice comes out of the altar. Remember up in heaven, there are a temple and an altar, there is not just one in Jerusalem. So we are talking about the one in heaven.
Lord God Almighty is His title. His judgments are true and righteous.
Why would it voice out from the altar? Remember Revelation 6 where the blood of the tribulation saints was held accountable and they were holding that over the altar. When God poured out His judgment, everything poured out from the altar when He was doing those trumpets of judgment.
Revelation 16:8 “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.”
The fourth angel pours out the vial on the sun and the sun starts to do something excessive. This angel had the power to scorch men with fire because he poured the vial on the sun.
Everyone’s saying let’s rescue the earth from global warming but God’s going to show you that it doesn’t matter how much you do, He’s going to make this even worse.
Revelation 16:9 “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.”
Man’s skin will get all scorched up. They didn’t just get sunburned, they got sun-scorched.
Instead of fearing God, they blasphemed Him, they got angry at God.
After a natural catastrophe, what does the world automatically do? They say, Why, God, did you allow this to happen? It’s always critiquing God, blaming God. That’s the mentality of people. When they get hit really hard, it’s not just critiquing, questioning or blaming God, it’s getting angry at God and blaspheme God’s own name.
God has power over all these plagues, He’s the one responsible for giving them the plagues.
They didn’t repent, they didn’t give Him glory.
In Revelation 11, after the post-tribulation rapture, there are people who are fearing God and giving Him glory. That’s why in Revelation 14, the angel gives them that opportunity to do so. This means that at Revelation 16, we truly are at the end of the timeline of tribulation. All options to repent and mercy were exhausted by that point now, truly His wrath is pouring out.
Revelation 16:10 “And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,”
What is the seat of the beast? It could refer to Jerusalem, the temple, because the Antichrist is taking the seat, proclaiming himself to be god.
Dr Ruckman mentioned it wasn’t the seat at the Jerusalem temple. The content of the book of Revelation showed that Satan’s seat was all the way in Smyrna, Rome. So God directly pours out his judgment on Rome. Why? Because this seat is full of blasphemy. That seat was always filled with wickedness, it was a seat of power that dominated the world and made it all bloody.
The Antichrist kingdom is going to be filled with darkness.
What also supports the context where the seat of the beast could be Rome is Revelation 16:19, where it talks about Babylon. That’s why we can see that there is a strong possibility it could be referring to the pope’s seat.
Now imagine this, you’re inflicted with leprosy and you’re using water to minister to those people at the hospital but then the oceans get infected with blood. Then people start scurrying and saving all the water, and then God puts blood in river as well.
So now this poor person is infected and hurting, dying of thirst, then God makes it worse by putting the vial in the sun. The person is really dying of thirst while the skin is being scorched to a tee, and with that scorched skin, that’s not making his sores any better, he’s in so much pain.
Not only that, he is scorched with so much sunlight and then God makes it dark. The Lord’s not giving them a break now, God could either shut off the sun and make it dark, or He could do it simultaneously. You might think that’s impossible but hell is known as a place of outer darkness yet has fire. Have you ever heard of black fire? God can make it really dark and also something that can really scorch you and hurt you.
After looking at all these, wouldn’t you like to get saved right now in Jesus Christ so that you don’t have to go through this time of tribulation.
They are dying in pain here and they’re not getting a break after everything.
It’s interesting that they’re gnawing pain in the darkness. The Bible says that hell is a place of outer darkness and also gnashing of teeth. There’s fire that can make it dark and it just causes pain and suffering. It is accurate to say that this is going to be hell on earth.
Revelation 16:11 “And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds.”
They’re blaspheming God because of the pain and the sores that they’re going through but yet they still would not repent.
What a sad tragic world, you would think they would learn their lesson.