The Coming of Christ and the Vials of God’s Wrath

And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials 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 upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image. And the second angel poured out his vial upon the sea; and it became as 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, which art, and wast, and shalt 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, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. scorched...: Or, burned 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, And blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. - Revelation 16:1-21

    'And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth' (Revelation 16:1)

    Throughout history there is a definite, constantly repeated order of events. From the Garden of Eden to the final day of judgment, this order of events in providence is evident. The Book of Revelation deals with it throughout the gospel age.

    By the preaching of the gospel

    As it is effectually applied to the hearts of men and women by the Holy Spirit, gospel churches are established in the world. These churches are candlesticks holding forth the light of the gospel in a world of spiritual darkness. As these churches hold forth the light, they are blessed with the constant presence of Christ in their midst. That is the message of Revelation chapters 1-3. The only purpose for the existence of these churches, the only mission they have in this world is to hold forth the light, to preach the gospel of Christ.

    As God’s people hold forth the light of the gospel

    They hold it before men and women who despise it, and are persecuted by the world. They are constantly subjected to trials and afflictions for the gospel’s sake. This is seen in chapters 4-7. The offense of the cross has not ceased. Any pastor, evangelist, or missionary, and any church which faithfully preaches the gospel of God’s free and sovereign grace in Christ will have to endure persecution from the world, because the religion of the world is man centered freewillism.

    As the result of persecution, God’s judgments fall upon our persecutors

    By these acts of providential judgment, God is both defending his people and warning his enemies of judgment to come. But acts of judgment, no matter how severe and plain they are, will never lead sinners to repentance. We see this in chapters 8-11. It is the goodness of God that leads men to repentance. Judgment only hardens the hearts of the unbelieving. No one will ever repent until Christ is revealed in his heart by the Holy Spirit. Nothing will melt the heart of stone but a saving knowledge of God’s goodness and grace in Christ, the sinner’s Substitute (Rom. 2:4; Zech. 12:10). To those who have eyes to see, this order of events is an evident fact: the gospel is preached, persecution arises, and judgment falls. But this conflict between the church and the world points to a deeper, far more important warfare between Christ and Satan, between ‘the seed of the woman’ and ‘the dragon.’ This warfare is portrayed in chapters 12-14. Whenever the wicked fail to repent, refuse to obey the gospel, and harden their hearts against God’s evident warnings of wrath to come, he pours out the vials of his wrath upon them. These vials of wrath are acts of judicial reprobation. They are God’s last plagues upon men, by which they are sealed unto the judgment of the great day, leaving them no more opportunity for repentance. ‘When the wicked, often warned by trumpets of judgment, continue to harden their hearts, death finally plunges them into the hands of an angry God. But even before they die they may have crossed the deadline, the line between God’s patience and his wrath’ (William Hendriksen).

    There is a line drawn by God, and known only to God, between mercy and wrath, between hope and reprobation; and any man who crosses that line by obstinate, willful unbelief cannot be saved, though he may yet live many years upon the earth. He is as surely the object of God’s eternal wrath as if he were already in hell. The Scripture repeatedly warns men and women to repent and turn to Christ in faith confessing their sins, lest they harden their hearts and cross the line into hopeless reprobation (Ex. 10:27; Prov. 1:23-33; Jer. 7:13-16; Hosea 4:17; Matt. 12:31-32; Rom. 1:24; 1 John 5:16; Isa. 63:8-10). This is the link between chapters 15 and 16 and the chapters preceding them, between the trumpets of judgment and the vials of wrath. The trumpets warn of wrath to come. The vials are wrath poured out upon men, even while they live. In chapters 8-11 men and women are warned of God’s wrath by the trumpets of judgment. In chapters 12-14 impenitent sinners so despise Christ and the gospel of his grace that they choose false religion over the truth of God and willingly wear the mark of the beast. In chapters 15-16 these same people have ‘the vials of the wrath of God’ poured out upon them, sealing them up in doom until the judgment of the great day. Once more, before the vials of wrath are poured out upon the wicked, we see the people of God standing before him secure upon the grounds of Christ’s atonement. They have gotten the victory over their enemies, and are singing the praises of God even as he pours out his wrath upon those who refuse to worship the Lamb. We saw in chapter 15 how that God’s saints are securely preserved from harm. These vials of wrath are not poured out against them, but against those who believe not the gospel.

    Revelation 16 shows us ‘the vials of the wrath of God’ (v. 1)

    These are the seven last plagues by which God smites those who despise the gospel of Christ. They are ‘golden vials full of the wrath of God’ (15:7): ‘golden’ because they are acts of righteousness, justice, and truth; ‘vials’ (rather than bowls) because the vial is an instrument of measurement. These golden vials are full of God’s wrath against men and women who have filled up the measure of wrath. By their willful rebellion and obstinate unbelief, they have earned and justly deserve God’s holy wrath. Seven angels pour out the seven last plagues of God’s burning wrath, which ultimately result in the final judgment of the great day. The point is this: Once God withdraws the influence of his Spirit by the gospel from men, they become hardened to the gospel and their damnation is both just and irreversible. These seven last plagues are not merely future, prophetic events. They are taking place right now. They took place in John’s day. And they shall continue to take place until the day of judgment.

    As we read of these plagues, we cannot avoid noticing a striking resemblance to some of the plagues in Egypt (Ex. 7-10), which foreshadowed all of God’s acts of judgment upon unbelieving impenitent men in the world (Deut. 28:20). God uses every element of his creation to punish those who oppose his Son and persecute his people. Those who refuse to be warned by the trumpets of judgment will be destroyed by the vials of wrath. And the same event may be to one a trumpet to warn and to another a vial of wrath to destroy. For example: The worms which ate Herod alive were a vial of wrath poured out upon him for his obstinate pride, by which he was plunged into hell. But those same worms were a trumpet to warn others of wrath to come (Acts 12:23). Those who refuse to obey God’s voice are cursed in all they do (Deut. 28:15-16). John says, ‘And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.’ This is God speaking in wrath against men who fully deserve his wrath.

    The first vial is incurable disease (v. 2)

    At times our Lord pours out upon men horrible, incurable diseases, by which he brings those who will not repent down into hell (Ex. 9:10; Deut. 28:27; Acts 12:23). Sickness and disease are not the works of satan, but the works of God. The Lord may use satan to inflict these things upon men, but it is the Lord’s work (Compare Job 2:7 and 2:10). Insofar as the unbeliever is concerned, every sickness is either a warning of or a prelude to eternal wrath. Every sickness is a warning from God of judgment to come. And fatal disease is one means by which God brings the wicked down into eternal ruin. Seldom, if ever, does a man find repentance on his deathbed. The dying thief was the exception, not the rule. And he was not on a deathbed, but on a cross! But for the believer the afflictions of the flesh are acts of God’s mercy, love, and grace (Rom. 8:28). Sickness, troubles, even fatal diseases are never vials of wrath for God’s elect. We often suffer the same things that the ungodly suffer, but not for the same reasons, and not in the same way. Our diseases are acts of divine chastisement (Heb. 12:5-12). Our sicknesses help to wean us from the world and prepare us for eternity. Our fatal diseases are blessings of God to bring us home to glory (2 Cor. 5:1-9).

    The second vial is poured out upon the sea (v. 3)

    Sometimes God uses oceans and rivers as instruments of wrath against men (Ex. 7:17-21; 15:1; Ps. 78:53). All maritime calamities, all hurricanes, tidal waves, floods, etc. Are warnings to the ungodly of judgment to come. By these disasters, the unbelieving are swept into hell. But believers are also drowned in the raging sea. Is this an act of judgment upon them? No. It is God’s great mercy, bringing his elect safely home to heaven.

    The third vial employs the rivers and fountains of water in the earth to execute judgment (vv. 5-7)

    The rivers of water and fountains of life are made, by the hand of God, to be rivers of blood and fountains of destruction (Ex. 7:24; 1 Kings 17:1; 18:5, 40). The angel who executes this act of wrath vindicates God’s justice and declares his righteousness in all that he does to his enemies (v. 5). God’s judgment upon the wicked is a matter of divine retribution, for which the blood of all the martyrs pleads (vv. 6-7; Rev. 6:9-10; 8:3-5). None will perish under the wrath of God but those who fully deserve his wrath. ‘The wages of sin is death.’ And God’s saints will praise him for his righteous dealings with the wicked as well as for his righteous dealings with them.

    The fourth vial pours out terrible, scorching heat upon the earth (vv. 8-9)

    God frequently uses the sun to punish ungodly men and nations (Deut. 28:22-24). But wicked men will never be brought to repentance by God’s acts of judgment. They only become harder and more brazen in their blasphemy. They may appear to change for a while. But judgment never changes the heart. Only grace can change the heart of a man. (Compare Num. 16:31-35 and 16:41).

    The fifth vial is expressly poured out upon false religion (vv. 10-11)

    The seat of the beast is the center of all that is opposed to God (Nah. 3:1; Hab. 3:12-14). When God, by some great act of judgment, shakes the kingdom of antichrist, even as they gnash their teeth and gnaw their tongues with pain, they are hardened in darkness, confusion and hatred for God. They blaspheme him and repent not.

    The sixth vial prepares for and gathers men to the battle of Armageddon (vv. 12-16)

    Armageddon is not a great nuclear holocaust. It is not a terrible would war. I do not deny that these things may come upon the earth. Indeed, they probably will. But Armageddon is a spiritual warfare, with consequences far more severe than any war between nations could ever be. It is the final conquest of Christ over satan at his glorious advent. We will deal more with this later. For now, in this context we see that Armageddon is the conquest of Christ over all evil. Armageddon is the place of God’s victory! (Judg. 5:19). The River Euphrates represents the wicked, unbelieving world (v. 12). When the great river dries up, when the economy and resources of the world are dried up by the hand of God, the way is prepared for the kings and people of the earth to move against the people of God in persecution. As it has been in the past, so shall it be in the future. In the last day, the kings of the earth will be moved by hell inspired religious leaders against Christ and his church (vv. 13-14). John sees proceeding out of the mouth of the dragon (satan), and the beast (pagan world government), and the false prophet (false religion) three unclean spirits. He compares these spirits to frogs to indicate the abominable, repulsive, loathsome character of world government and world religion in that last little season when Satan is loosed upon the earth. They represent all hell born philosophy and religion. Are these things not applicable to our day and our society? NOTE: There is particular reference made to charismatic influence. It is both demonic and universal! Then, just when all the forces of the world, political, philosophical and religious, are gathered against God, the Lord Jesus Christ will suddenly appear (v. 15).He comes as a thief in the night upon his enemies, suddenly, unexpectedly (Matt. 24:29; Judg. 5:4; Hab. 3:13; 2 Thess. 1:7-10). Because of this coming day of the Lord, let all who believe, watch over their souls and keep the garments of salvation, lest we be found naked and put to shame in the end (2 Peter 3:14). The Lord is here admonishing us to perseverance in the faith. The motive for this perseverance is the sure hope of Christ’s coming.

    The seventh vial is the final judgment of God upon the world at Christ’s second advent (vv. 17-21)

    These verses describe the terror of that great and terrible day of the Lord. It shall come to pass when God says, regarding his own eternal purpose in the world, ‘It is done!’ In that day, there will be a total destruction of the earth, all evil, all false religion and all who oppose our God. God’s judgment will be final and complete.