ZNA-216

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BOWL #5 – DARKNESS Revelation 16:10-11

#9 Egypt Ex. 10:21-29 Gnawed Tongues

The Fifth Bowl of Judgment

Steadman #5

John now introduces us to the fifth angel and the fifth bowl of wrath.

16:10:11 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their tongues in agony and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores, buy they refused to repent of what they had done.

Not the first time … Also, (t)he scope of this bowl of judgment is limited, focused upon the kingdom of the beast — that is, the revived Roman Empire of Western Europe. This judgment encompasses a great area of the earth, causing a sudden and unexplainable darkness to fall.

This is not the first time such a phenomenon has occurred. In the middle of the day on May 19, 1780, the entire region of New England was covered by darkness –a day which has become fixed in New England history as The Dark Day. The mysterious blackout lasted for several hours.

In the early afternoon of March 19, 1886, a similar zone of darkness moved across central Wisconsin, causing the sky to turn from a bright cloud-dappled blue to midnight black in the space of about minute. This darkness blanketed several villages and towns to the west of Lake Winnebago and lasted about ten minutes. Similar unexplained occurrences of sudden darkness have occurred in Memphis, Tennessee (December 1904), Louisville, Kentucky (March 1911), and other places and times in the United States and around the world. All of these events have two things in common: (1) no one was ever able to explain these events in terms of a known phenomenon such as an eclipse, and (2) most of the people who experienced these events were filled with terror, believing the end of the world had come.

The events in the sky or beyond the sky which caused these midday nightfalls might have been the same as that which caused three hours of darkness during the crucifixion of Christ.

Outer darkness gospels – Is 9:2 Christ came as light. Tonight we are looking at three penetrating truths: 1. Closed hearts face judgment. • So check to see if you have opened the door to Christ. 2. Judgment that is most horrible is blackness of darkness in hell. • Jesus Christ stands in the way and only you can turn Him down or take Him in. 3. Jesus Christ is light and salvation. • Do you walk in light? Seek light?

1) Closed hearts are judgment. “Perhaps the most terrible condition of human life is when the almighty God is powerless to gain entry into the citadel of the human heart … for God has given men the terrible responsibility of being able to lock their hearts against Him.” Wm. Barclay. Rev. 16
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CLOSED HEARTS AWAIT JUDGMENT

Have people done that? Most terribly so. Let’s just note four tragic closed hearts. Four lives that locked their hearts against God, and the blackness of judgment they face.

I. Cain – acquisition – Gen. 4 – Salvation By God’s Way – self righteous – false faith A. wanted to be in God’s family without entering God’s way B. 2d generation Christians – by good works. Stay put? Mark where God put. So sin starts. II. Balaam – pilgrim or Lord – Num. 22-24 – Submission to God’s Word – spiritual reprobate – false obedience A. wanted to be God’s man without obedience to God’s word. B. Fruit of the spirit – His fruit in the soil of my life. III. Achan – trouble – Jose 16:7 – It’s lonely: Enoch, Abraham, Noah, Daniel – Separation into God from World-stopper of revival – false separation. A. Wanted to be home in the heart of God’s camp while having the world at the heart of his home. B. Busy procuring provisions for this physical frame – man only lives in this body! C. Therefore, lost life, family, home, people of God defeated. IV. Elisha’s Gehzai – diminisher or denier – II K 4-5 Service in God’s Work – Seeker of riches – false sacrifice. A. Wanted to be God’s servant without sacrifice to God’s work. B. 3 steps down: 1. 4:27 – pushed Shunamite woman lack perception. 2. 5:20 – ran after things – dedicated. 3. 5:22 – like to Naaham – truthfulness. So, closed hearts face judgment. Secondly, the most horrible judgment of all is associated with the blackness of darkness. Look up these verses with me: Ex. 10:21-29. Egypt and the plagues prefigures – parallels the final judgment of God. Joel 2:2, 10; Amos 5:18,20; Zeph. 1:15. Jesus Christ warned of the ultimate judgment that the plagues on Egypt (Ex.) and the Day of the Lord (Rev. 6-19) only foretaste listen to-Mt. 8:12; 13:42,50;22:15;24:29,50; 25:30. 2 Pet. 2:4; Jude 13.

What’s the hope? Well if: 1. Closed hearts face judgment – open yours. 2. Judgment in hell is blackest darkness. Avoid it. How — 3. By meeting, embracing Jesus Christ who is light and salvation.

John 1:5, 3:19; 8:12; 12:46. What does meeting, trusting, receiving, embracing Jesus Christ as light and salvation mean?

A TOTALLY NEW LIFE Hold on — Starts with: 1. (Daily) new choices Romans 13:12 The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. (KJV)

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• All Clear 1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (KJV)
• First Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (KJV) 2. New Salvation 2 Corinthians 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (KJV) 3. New Softness: Hard = Dark Ephesians 4:18 Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: (KJV) 4. New walk Ephesians 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (KJV) 5. New Attitude Ephesians 5:11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. (KJV) 6. New Battle Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (KJV) 7. New Hope Colossians 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: (KJV) 8. New Confidence 1 Thessalonians 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. (KJV) 9. New Identity First Thessalonians 5:5 5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. (KJV) • Hebrews 12:18 For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, (KJV) • First Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: (KJV) • Second Peter 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (KJV)
• Second Peter 2:4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; (KJV)
• Second Peter 2:17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever. (KJV)