It Is Done: The Seventh Bowl and the Mother of All Earthquakes

Here we are, the seventh bowl, we're in Revelation chapter 16, verses 17 through 21.

Revelation 16:17–21

It says, Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air,

and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, It is done.

And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder,

and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth.

So this is the mother of all earthquakes. Okay, so great an earthquake was it,

and so mighty, the great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell.

Babylon the great was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine

of his fierce wrath, and every island fled away, and the mountains were not found.

And huge hailstones, about 100 pounds each, came down from heaven upon men, and men blasphemed God.

You thought it was said, and men repented, but no, men blasphemed God because

of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.

Well, the seventh bowl is the final outpouring of God's wrath on sinners in this present earth.

And after it, guess what's going to happen?

Jesus himself will come and set up his millennial kingdom. And at the end of

that thousand year period, there'll be one final act of rebellion,

which will be quickly crushed as well, right?

That's found, we'll get to this in Revelation 20 verses 7 through 10.

Revelation 20:7–10

But that particular judgment will not take place in the world as we know it.

For the earth is going to be changed dramatically before the kingdom arrives.

You think about it tonight, this final judgment of the present era will take

place during this time we've talked about when the mystery of God is finished.

And it's the last of the seven plagues, which are the last because,

remember we studied this, in them, the wrath of God is complete, is finished.

This is it, the final outpouring. We saw that in verse 1 of chapter 15.

So the seventh bowl is going to be the worst calamity in the world's history

and the most complete and devastating catastrophic event that the earth will ever have experienced.

And so its effects, actually it says here, carries all the way to the establishment

of the earthly kingdom of Christ, all of it.

Like that fourth angel, if you remember, the seventh angel here,

according to scripture, did not dump his bowl on the earth.

But poured it out where? Upon the air, the air.

And its first effects were on the earth's atmosphere, you know,

as if God were cleansing the former domain of Satan and his demon host,

you know, the prince of the power of the air, right?

And the earth, the sea, and the waters, the sun, and finally the air are the targets of judgment.

And as the angel here in this passage dumped his bowl, a loud voice,

it says, came out of the temple from the throne.

The voice is that of who?

God, the most high, right?

Possessor, by the way, of heaven and earth. And his solemn decoration is three words.

The first one is it. It is finished or it is done, right?

And that just announces the climax of the final capital D, day of the capital

L Lord, final day of the Lord.

And that will spread doom, by the way, over the entire globe, all of it.

And as we look in this passage, we have a lost little one there.

Yeah. As we look in this passage, the perfect tense verb that's here, it is done.

It really describes a completed action with ongoing results.

It's an action that's completed, but it has ongoing results.

It's similar to Jesus' final words from the cross, it is finished.

In John 19, God's judgment of Christ on Calvary provided salvation for who? For repentant sinners.

The judgment of the seventh bowl here brings doom to unrepentant sinners.

And so the pouring out of the seventh bowl here dramatically affected the atmosphere.

There were flashes of lightning.

Remember it says in the passage, flashes of lightning, sounds and peals of thunder.

Like the seventh seal that we saw back in chapter 8 and the seventh trumpet

in chapter 11, the seventh bowl here is introduced with the imagery of a violent thunderstorm.

But those earlier storms were just mere previews of the mighty storm of wrath

that now burst on the earth.

So through the seventh bowl, though the seventh bowl was dumped on the earth's

atmosphere, it'll also have, as we see, a devastating effect on the earth itself.

God will punctuate this final judgment against sinners with that earthquake.

That earthquake, just as he did. If you remember, I don't know,

sometimes we miss this when we look at the crucifixion story,

but if you remember, he did this, you know, his judgment of sin at Calvary on the cross.

Do you remember the earthquake there that took place in Matthew chapter 27?

Matthew 27 · chapter mention

This earthquake here, though, will be the most powerful one to ever strike the earth.

And so John actually described it here as a great earthquake,

such as had not been seen since man came to be upon the earth.

So great an earthquake was it and so mighty, he said.

Well, there are always, you know.

Will have always been and will continue to be local earthquakes.

We hear of them all the time, right?

This great earthquake it talks about here in the tribulation,

it's going to be unique in that God is going to shake the entire globe.

It's prophesied, by the way, in Haggai 2, verse 6, and Hebrews 12, verses 26 and 27.

Haggai 2:6 Hebrews 12:26

The shaking here will be

so severe that it's going to actually renovate

and reconfigure the earth in preparation

for what for the millennial kingdom restoring

it to something like its pre-flood condition that's referenced

in verse 20 right so this first effect of this this great and mighty earthquake

that comes was that the great city was split into three parts and the great

city can't be babylon as some people think because it's distinguished from Babylon the Great,

mentioned later in verse 19.

But a comparison, if we look back in chapter 11, verse 8, it identifies the

great city here as, anybody know?

Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the great city where also the Lord was crucified, right?

And that's the great city. That great city is distinct from the cities of the

nations here, offers further evidence here that Jerusalem is in view.

It's distinct, it's separate.

And the massive earthquake will actually split Jerusalem into three parts,

beginning a series here of geological or geophysical alterations to the city

and its surrounding region that will conclude when the Lord Jesus Christ actually returns.

Zechariah 14 verses 4 through 10 talks about, describes these changes in detail.

Zechariah 14:4–10

The Mount of Olives will split in two and a new valley running east and west

will be created, it says in Zechariah 14.

A spring of water will flow year round from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean and

dead seas. It talks about that in Zechariah 14 verse 8.

Zechariah 14:8

It's going to cause the desert to blossom like a rose. Y'all remember that prophecy

and talking about that in Isaiah chapter 35, verse 1?

Isaiah 35:1

Jerusalem is going to be elevated and the surrounding region flattened into a plain.

Zechariah tells us that in chapter 14, verse 10.

So the purpose of the earthquake as it relates to Jerusalem is not to judge

the city of Jerusalem, but to enhance it for God's people, right?

To enhance it. And Jerusalem was judged earlier, if you remember,

in the tribulation by an earthquake, which led to the salvation,

by the way, which very few times have we seen that we see evidence in Scripture

here, at least in the tribulation, that people responded the way they should have, right?

At least some did. But it resulted in the salvation of those who were not killed.

If we look back in chapter 11, verse 13, those people got the message and they

said, hey, we repent, we're evil, right? We repent.

And so there's no need for further judgment on that city.

The physical changes will prepare Jerusalem for that central role that's going

to play during the millennial kingdom when Christ will reign there as king.

And unlike Jerusalem, though, which was enhanced and will be enhanced,

I should say, by this earthquake, this mighty earthquake, the cities of the

nations, what happened to them, according to this verse?

They fell, maybe simultaneously, possibly, with the defeat of the Antichrist

by the Lamb, as we're going to see in chapter 17 soon.

But naturally, think about it, such a powerful earthquake will cause massive,

widespread destruction.

Specifically, signaled out here is Babylon the Great, which was remembered before

God to give her the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.

As the capital city, remember, of Antichrist empire, Babylon especially,

will be made to drink the cup of the wine of his fierce wrath.

And by the way, I know we hear Babylon, right? You can think of that even as

this world system too, right?

Because, you know, we could even say in a sense we're living in Babylon, so to speak, right?

This world's evil system, those things are exalted against God as well.

And so, but the capital city here, the Antichrist empire, Babylon especially,

will be made to drink of this cup of his wrath.

The downfall of Babylon mentioned here in this passage, it's going to be described

in length just very soon in our study in chapter 17 and 18.

We'll see that in length. But the final effect of the earthquake,

as we just saw, we just read, is to prepare the earth for the millennial rule of Jesus.

And to that end, again, the earth's topography will be drastically altered.

Every island fled away, it says. And the mountains, what does it say?

They were not found, right?

I mean, that's kind of like, wow, have y'all been to the mountains?

And I haven't even been to the mountain of mountains or anything like that.

We've been to some nice ones, but probably not the ultimate, right?

And we think about how majestic mountains are, just to start with.

You think, man, how could anything like that ever be, like, you know, not found, you know?

How can you not find the mountain? Well, the devastation is that great.

Islands, which are undersea mountains, right, will disappear,

it says, and the mountains on land will be flattened.

Tells us that in Isaiah 40.

Completing that process again that began during the sixth seal even in chapter

six, this gentle rolling topography of the world as originally created will actually be restored.

And no more will there be great inaccessible, inhabitable mountain ranges or deserts or ice caps.

The physical environment of the millennium will be in large,

you know, in large measure, a restoration of the pre-flood environment.

And that may leave Jerusalem as the highest point on earth, possibly,

making it a fitting throne for the great king who will rule there during the millennium.

And again, it talks about this in Jeremiah chapter 3.

Jeremiah 3 · chapter mention

Those who somehow, though, escape the devastation caused by the earthquake will

face another catastrophe, one that's unprecedented in the earth's history, right?

They'll be pelted here with what? What's going to come down?

Hell anybody ever been in a hell storm okay and

then some of us like you know we see hail falling outside and it's

like oh things are getting bad you know and little things

popping on the ground you know but can you imagine huge hailstones falling about

a hundred pounds each i mean think about it bye-bye car right i mean it's over

house roof you know just imagine the devastation And imagine if it hits somebody,

not going to make it probably, right?

So, I mean, it's about 100 pounds, as described here, that will be,

you know, hurtled down from heaven upon men on unrepentant sinners.

Don't forget this picture, though. I have to mention it every week.

Okay, I'm sorry, but I have to because it's so awesome, the grace of God.

All the time, all the way through the tribulation, God has been pleading with

men to repent. The gospel has been presented over and over again through various

means, as we've seen throughout the tribulation.

And yet there are still some who refuse. Then what do they do instead?

And we'll get to this even more in a minute.

They actually blaspheme God instead of bowing the knee and saying, Lord, I repent of my sin.

And so now the age of grace is over.

In this passage. It's over, okay? And this is the final outpouring of God's

wrath upon unrepentant men.

So unlike the seventh Egyptian plague back in Exodus and the first trumpet judgment

back in chapter 8, the force of these hailstones here, again, is unimaginable.

The Greek term here, translated about 100 pounds, described the most weight

a normal man could carry anywhere from 90 to 135 pounds.

The heaviest hailstones ever recorded weighed, anybody want to take a guess,

the heaviest hailstones ever recorded?

Good guess, good guess, two pounds. Quite a difference, right?

These gigantic chunks of ice will be 50 times heavier.

They'll add to the devastation that's caused by the earthquake,

and it will crush humanity.

Who, because of the earthquake's power here, have no adequate shelter.

You can imagine. Where can you go?

I mean, you can say, oh, well, I'll hide in the mountain. Really?

The mountains is going to be no more, right? And fixed in their impenitence,

the survivors of the hell storm, they didn't say, God, have mercy on us,

did they, Brother Ronnie? They didn't cry out for mercy.

They didn't say, Lord, please have mercy. Forgive us.

We were so wrong. But instead, they're all the more enraged,

and they blaspheme God because of the plague of the hell, because its plague was extremely severe.

Incredibly, tortured humanity defiantly remains hardened against God.

It's a truth that really should give us pause tonight to those who think that

signs and wonders, by the way, will convince people to believe the gospel.

Remember Jesus said, even though one rise from the dead, you're not going to believe.

After all, Jesus did rise from the dead, the most verifiable event in human history.

Still, people don't believe. So this just points us even to see,

you know, well, if they could see all these signs and wonders,

people would believe. No.

You tell me, look at all the signs and wonders they've seen.

They still won't believe.

Still won't believe. It doesn't matter because they have sold out to their sin.

They're blind in their sin. They're not going to see the truth. They refuse to see it.

You know, when we think about all of that, those who reject the wonder,

the glory, and the majesty of the Son of God, who spurn the gracious,

the free gift of salvation that's been given, they're not going to be convinced by any sign.

Luke 16, 31 tells us that. They're just not.

And it's too late for these hardened sinners that have sold their souls to Satan.

They're actually committed to antichrist blasphemous idolatrous anti-god system

here children of wrath they are as the bible describes it catapulting into hell

that's that's that's the destination that's it.

God's eschatological and eternal wrath is inevitable.

It's inevitable. Nobody can prevent or hinder it from coming.

Isaiah 43, 13 tells us that. It's coming. The day of the Lord's coming.

But there is a way to escape it because there is now no condemnation for those

who are in who? Christ Jesus.

Romans 8, 1 says, those who by faith trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, guess what?

They're going to also escape the eschatological wrath of God.

That just means the end times, right?

The end times wrath of God and his eternal wrath separated from all eternity in hell.

As it talks about in 1 Thessalonians 1, 10, they'll not face judgment because

their sins, get this church, were judged when?

When Jesus died in their place on the cross.

Jesus took it all. Remember, I've said this over and over. He drank the entire

cup of God's wrath on our behalf.

He took it all down to the dregs.

There is no punishment left for me. There is no punishment left for you if you're in Christ.

Jesus took it all. He paid it all. Wow.

I mean, y'all, Do you realize, talking about celebrating, you talk about worship

that should flow from our hearts and just abound joy.

How great a salvation. That just tells me, y'all, that's the greatest miracle

of all is a soul set free, a soul that's saved.

That is greater than raising somebody from the dead because literally,

apart from Christ, that scripture says we are dead in our trespasses and sins.

It's a spiritual resurrection to life in Christ.

Wow, the greatest miracle of all is a soul that's been changed by the power of the gospel.

Truly, trophies of grace. I mean, we look at this, they're not going to face

judgment, like I said, because their sins were judged when Jesus died in their place.

And in light of the inevitable judgment to come, the warning to all unrepentant

sinners is this. Hebrews 4, 7.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

You see, don't we see this in our culture today? It's not that the truth of

God's word and his salvation is not presented.

It's not that anybody who has ears to hear can't hear the biblical gospel.

But if you hear his voice, don't harden your heart to it.

Don't seek to say, hey, I want what I want. I want my way instead of God's way.

You know, I don't like what God said in his word here. So therefore,

I'm not going to bow the knee. I'm not going to submit.

I'm not going to say, Lord, forgive me a sinner.

And we just keep on in this world. We see it all the time. Hearts are hardened.

They harden their heart just like Pharaoh did.

But y'all, the dangerous thing is so evident here in scripture.

Just like Pharaoh, as we mentioned the other week, he hardened his heart,

he hardened his heart, he hardened his heart, and then God hardened his heart.

And when God hardens a heart, it can never be redeemed.

It's that, it's past redemption.

He hardens the heart. But you got to realize, God does, it's not his will that

any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

And, you know, if we insist and continue to blaspheme God, continue to shake

our fist in the face of God saying, no way, God, it's my way.

One day it will be your way and God will see to it. And your way will end up

in hell forever for all eternity.

It just reminds me, you know, the verse in Hebrew is a fearful thing to fall

into the hands of the living God.

This is real, folks. I mean, this is real. We're talking about the tribulation

here tonight, and it should really give us a sense of urgency, a sense of urgency.

And also realizing, y'all, there are probably, and we can continue to pray.

We know it's in God's will to pray for people to be saved.

But y'all, there are going to be people, Brother Ronnie, that are never going

to turn to Christ no matter what we do.

No matter what you share, no matter how much you cry, no matter how much you

let them know of the mercy and grace of God, they're going to keep spitting

in your face and ultimately in God's face till the day they die.

And it's so sad. It's so sad. And that's why this cry again tonight,

if you don't know the Lord tonight, I don't know everybody's situation tonight.

I believe probably most everybody here knows Christ.

But if you don't, then today you've heard his voice.

You've heard that he made a way for you, that he died in your place on the cross.

And you just turn to him and him alone for your salvation and say,

Lord, please forgive me a sinner.

Lord, I need your righteousness. I need your grace. Lord, forgive me. I surrender to you.

Lord, I believe you rose for me. You died and rose again for me.

You just do that and you call out to him. Like I said, it's more about the attitude

and posture of your heart than it is your words before God.

And he's promised he'll save you.

He'll restore the days that the locust has eaten, right? He'll restore those

things. He'll heal you spiritually.

He didn't come for those, y'all, who don't need a doctor, who don't need to be healed, did he?

He came for those who are sick. That's us. We're all sin sick apart from Christ. He came for us.

And I'm so thankful for that. I'm so thankful that, you know,

it's the hardest thing in the world that I think we can admit that we're sinners.

You know, to look ourselves in the mirror and say, I'm a sinner.

But I'm saved by God's grace. And now I can look and boldly proclaim I'm a saint, right?

I'm a saint, not because of things I have done, but because of what Christ has

done on my behalf, right?

Doesn't mean I live a perfect life down here on earth, but it does mean my direction

is towards and growth and holiness until one day when I see Christ face to face,

scripture says, I will be like him for I will see him as he is.

And so that's when we're glorified, by the way, that's our glorification, right?

And right now we're in that process of sanctification, becoming more and more

like Christ throughout this world and surrendering to him.

But y'all, today's the day of salvation.

That's just the easiest way I know to put it.

So never, don't walk out of here tonight. If you don't know the Lord,

don't walk out of here and harden your heart.

Because every time you harden your heart to the gospel.

You get a little bit more hard, right?

The next time it's hard and more, there'll come a point in time where God's

going to let you go to your own way, hands off.

Because by the way, scripture says, there is no one who seeks after God.

Nobody, y'all. No one ever has, no one ever will seek after God on their own.

It's only by the active influence of God that any of us have ever been saved.

You didn't just find Jesus, he found you. He found you because you were dead,

remember, in your trespasses and sins before Christ.

And I've said this time and again, what can a dead man do?

Zero, nothing. He needs a resurrection, right? And that's what Jesus gave every

one of us who put our faith and trust in him.

We're now made alive in Christ. And y'all, it is time, as we walk out of these

doors tonight, it is time to serve our King.

It is time to take up the armor of God and take that stand we've been talking

about on Sunday morning and serve our King and go into this dark world and proclaim

the good news, fulfill the great commission,

go back to the street, right?

Get out there, rub shoulders with people, let them know about the forgiveness,

the grace and mercy you found in Christ.

Any thoughts tonight on this particular seventh bowl or any of the bowl judgments.

This is the first time I've been through chapter 16 and actually heard about

these, as I've only ever had like scripture, a little bit here,

pulled out and a little bit here, pulled out and being able to get into the

nit gritty and just dig it into it. Like, oh, okay.

That's kind of what that might mean. Or here's a different take on like this

scripture that I've ever heard according to Revelation. I've been thoroughly enjoying.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. When we get together again,

a couple, three weeks, three weeks down the road, we'll be in Revelation 17,

and we'll be looking at the destruction of the final world religion,

okay, when we pick up there in verses 1 through 18.

But any other thoughts tonight on any of this? No.

Speaking of Babylon here, the great Babylon came into remembrance of the full

God, and you gave unto her the cup of wine of a fierceness of regret.

Is it true that some interpret that to be like the word Babylon,

meaning the kingdom of the Antichrist?

Yes, yes. And I hope you got that tonight in what I said. You may have missed that part.

Right. You're talking about a city. Right. Because I was telling,

I don't know if you remember me saying this earlier, that you can view that

Babylon is like this world system even.

Like we're living in Babylon. You can, you know, we've said that before.

It's like we are living in Babylon as well.

So, but yes, so the Antichrist empire here as well, because we do have some

commentators that when it talks about the great city here,

you know, like I said earlier, you know, thinking, well, automatically that's

Babylon, but it's, as I told y'all here, but with scripture and looking at it,

we say that's Jerusalem, right? That it's talking about in view there that splits.

Good stuff, y'all. Anybody else?

All right. We're going to continue to deep dive. I challenge you maybe over

these next couple of weeks and beyond, go ahead and read, if you hadn't already, Revelation 17.

Maybe go ahead, do that, at least chapter 17. And if you hadn't read Revelation

1 up through 17, do that even.

Because as we learned when we first started out on this journey,

that Revelation is one of the books in the Bible, the only one really that it's

promised that if you read it, you'll be blessed.

You'll get a blessing just by reading it. So why not? God's promised a blessing

if you'll just read the book. So I challenge you to do that.