REVELATION 16 THE SEVEN BOWL JUDGMENTS2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Revelation 16 The Seven Bowl Judgments

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2011. Well, this morning we're in Revelation chapter 16, and instead of reading the entire chapter and spending time looking at and studying the entire chapter, we're just going to focus in on one verse here, Revelation chapter 16, verse 15. It says this,

behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.

Here in Revelation chapter 16 verse 15, we have an announcement or a proclamation from Jesus Christ. And it's a warning, it's an announcement for us to pay attention to. And Jesus announces that He is coming again. He's coming, He says, as a thief and blessed is the one who is watching.

Now, where we're at in the book of Revelation is important. And so I want to go back once again and consider the outline that Jesus gave us in chapter 1, verse 19. Because there in chapter 1, verse 19, Jesus breaks up the book of Revelation into three parts. The first part is the things that are past. He tells John to write down the things which he had already seen.

And then the things dealing with the present, where he tells John to write down the things which are... We saw that in chapters 2 and 3 with the letters to the seven churches...

And then Jesus tells John to write down the things which will take place after these things. And that's chapters 4 through the end of the book of Revelation. The bulk of this book is focused on and dedicated to those things that are yet future, even as we study them today. These are things that are going to take place. And what are those things?

Well, we've been looking at them. It starts with what we saw in Revelation chapter 4 with the rapture of the church. That time when the church is to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and then to forever be with the Lord.

After the church is out of this world, out of the way, then the earth is going to go through seven years of tribulation. It will be difficulty and trouble upon the earth like has never occurred before. And we see that in Revelation chapter 6 all the way through chapter 19. It's where we are currently as we look at chapter 16 this morning.

After the tribulation though, there's going to be a second coming of Jesus Christ. He's going to return right in the middle of the battle of Armageddon. He's going to put an end to it and then he's going to set up his kingdom here upon the earth for 1,000 years. It's called the Millennial Kingdom where he rules and he reigns here on the earth for that 1,000 years.

During that time, there's peace, there's righteousness, the earth is renewed, and Satan is bound. But at the end of the thousand years, for a short time, Satan will be released to lead one final rebellion against God. That rebellion, of course, will fail, he will not succeed, and instead he'll bring upon himself the final judgment. It's the great white throne judgment that takes place in Revelation chapter 20.

There Satan and his demons are cast into the lake of fire. And it also tells us that whoever is not written in the book of life will be cast into the lake of fire at that time. Revelation 20.15 tells us that. It's the final judgment for those who have rejected Jesus Christ as Lord.

Well, then we finish up the book in chapters 21 and 22 with the new heavens, the new earth, the new Jerusalem that descends out of heaven, and then the rest of eternity that extends beyond that. And so there's a lot of exciting things happening. There's a lot of difficult things to imagine and discuss. And we'll see those next week as we do a full study of Revelation chapter 16, the final seven judgments upon the earth.

Up to this point, as we've been studying through the tribulation period, we've seen a lot. We saw the seven seals. You remember the tribulation started as Jesus took the scroll with seven seals from the Father's hand.

And as he opened each seal, there were judgments that were being poured out upon the earth. The seventh seal brought forth seven angels with seven trumpets. And as each angel sounded his trumpet, there was more judgments that were taking place upon the earth. And then the seventh trumpet sounded and there was seven more angels...

And they had bowls of wrath. They were given bowls of the wrath of God that they are going to pour out upon the earth. And that's what chapter 16 is all about. It's the record of these bowls being poured out upon the earth and the judgments that take place as they are poured out.

Now those things we will look at next week. We'll go through chapter 16, look at those seven bowls and consider what it means as each of those judgments is poured out. But as I was preparing, as I was going through this chapter, I was preparing to do the entire chapter today, but the Lord really zeroed me in, focused on and brought to my attention this one verse here, verse 15.

It's kind of in the middle of a train of thought. It doesn't seem to fit in the flow. There in chapter 16, verses 12 through 16, what we have is the record of the sixth bowl of judgment that's being poured out.

the Euphrates River being dried up, making way for the armies to come across, to head over to the battle of Armageddon that will take place. And it's the preparation for those things. And right in the middle of that, as he's explaining how these demonic spirits are leading these armies and drawing them to this final battle, as he's explaining that, Jesus pops in and says, Hey, I have a quick announcement, quick reminder. I'm coming back.

And I want you to be ready. You know, yesterday we celebrated the first coming of Jesus Christ. We celebrated the birth of Jesus, right? Now, of course, we know that it's not his actual birthday, but it's the day that we've set apart to celebrate and remember his birth.

There's a common question that we ask one another as we, you know, lead up to the Christmas day. And what question is that? It's, are you ready? You know, you might be at the store, you're in the grocery store, the cashier is ringing up your merchandise and you're getting ready to pay. They're making conversation and, you know, they say, hey, are you ready for Christmas? It's a common question.

You know, there's a lot to do and we all understand that. You know, there's the presents to purchase and the food to prepare, the family arrangements to be made, all these things to be figured out. And there's a lot of busyness and pressure that comes along with the Christmas season. And so we often ask one another, are you ready? Do you have everything prepared? Are you ready for Christmas to be here?

You ask this question as you're around with your neighbors or you get a phone call or you bump into someone at the store. Wherever you go, this is a common question that is asked. Are you ready to celebrate the birth of Jesus?

Well, as we look at chapter 16, verse 15 of Revelation today, I still want to ask you, are you ready? But not in regard to celebrating His first coming, but are you ready to celebrate the second coming of Jesus Christ? Are you ready for His return? Jesus promised that He would come back. He said He was going to go to the Father, but that He would return to receive His bride or the church unto Himself.

And we are challenged. We are called by God. Jesus warns us to be ready and to be prepared for his return. And as he spoke about these things, Jesus used some language that would be very familiar to the Jewish people that he was speaking with of the day. He

He used language that related to the practices for their weddings at that time. Now, the Jewish wedding practices of that time are different than what they practice today, and it's way different than what you and I practice today. But looking at some of those practices gives us some insight and understanding into the language that Jesus used when he talked about his return.

The first thing that would take place is there would be a price that would be paid in order for their...

for a wedding to take place. Usually it would be arranged by the parents of the man and the woman, the bride and the groom. The parents would get together and say, you know, hey, I think your daughter would make a great wife for my husband or vice versa. And so let's make a deal. Let's make an arrangement. And they would come to a price. They would come to a value that would be...

that would need to be paid by the groom in order to have the rights or the privilege to marry this couple or this family's daughter.

Now, this price would not be, you know, a low price or kind of just like a little bit of money. Even today, you know, in order to get engaged, you know, we traditionally buy a wedding ring, right, for the one that we're proposing to. And sometimes that can be, you know, quite a bit of money or a

big chunk of change, right? You save up your piggy bank for a long time in order to buy that big diamond ring. In those days, though, the price would be even heftier than that because this bride price would be the bride's security so that if the guy was a bum, if he...

you know, sent her away or wanted a divorce, if something were to take place in the marriage, this is what would support her for her life. This is what she would live on. This would be what she would be able to live off of. And so this was a substantial amount. It would be very costly, this price that would be set. And so there was a great price that had to be paid. Now once that price was paid, then the groom would say to the bride-to-be,

I'm going to prepare a place for you. And when it's finished, I'll come and I'll receive you unto myself. And you'll be my wife. And so the groom would go away and he would begin to build a place for them to live, either in addition onto their father's house or somewhere on their property. And he would build this place. He would build the chambers for them to be able to live, a place for them to stay.

Now what's interesting about this is usually it would take about a year, but there was no actual set time. Completely opposite from our wedding practices today, right? The first thing you do is you set the date. You

You can't really plan, you can't really prepare, you can't do anything until you've got the date set. And then once you get the date set, then you can make all the preparations. Well, their practices were not quite like that. They would do all of the preparation and based upon when the preparation was done, then they would know when the date would be. And the groom and the bride would not really be in control of that date either.

Today's brides and grooms would really hate those practices. It would really be up to the parent, the dad, the father of the groom. Now, again, the brides would not be really excited about this today, but the father of the groom would determine the set time. This is when the wedding will take place. And it would be a surprise to...

to both the groom and the bride. As the groom's making ready the chambers, the father is making the wedding arrangements, inviting the guests, getting the food together, all of those types of things. He's the one in charge. And he's the one who says, yeah, that room's not quite ready, son. You still need to work on this. You need to fix that. It's leaking over here. Take care of those things. And he would be in charge. And then when he looks, he sees it's ready, okay, now it's ready, son. Now go get your bride.

And so he would go then, there would be like a wedding procession as he would go from this place that he was preparing for her to go and to receive his bride from her father's house. And they would send forth a messenger ahead of them. And the messenger would go forward and shout and proclaim, you know, the bridegroom cometh or the bridegroom is coming.

And that proclamation would be all of the warning that the bride would get. That few minutes after he goes forth and he says, the bridegroom is coming, then everybody had to get ready. Everybody had to be ready already and then just make those final last minute preparations before the groom actually arrived. And then he would receive her, take her back, and then they would have the wedding feast and the celebration there at the place that was prepared.

Now, understanding this gives us a little bit of insight into what Jesus said in John chapter 14, when he said, in my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

What Jesus was saying, he was using language that they would understand in regards to their marriage practices, their wedding practices, to say, look, I'm going to prepare a place and I'm going to come back and it's going to be at a time where you don't know and so you need to be prepared. You need to be ready.

Some accounts even say that this would turn out to be kind of a game between the groom and the bride, that it would be kind of a joyful thing for the groom to catch the bride by surprise. And so many times it would happen in the middle of the night. And it would come and the bridegroom would send forth the messenger and the goal was to catch them off guard, to catch them by surprise.

And it begins to fit in and you begin to understand a little bit the parable that Jesus told about the wise and the foolish virgins of Matthew chapter 25. That necessity of always being ready because you don't know when Jesus is coming back is the emphasis of all of these things. It's the point that he wants to get across that we must be prepared. And so the question I ask you this morning is, are you ready?

for the return of Jesus? Are you prepared so that at a moment's notice, the sound of the trunk and the twinkle of an eye, you'll be prepared and ready to be caught up, to be with the Lord?

Well, there's three points I'd like to share with you this morning from Revelation 16, 15. The first point is what we find there in the first part of the verse, and that is that Jesus is coming as a thief. Look again at verse 15. It says, Jesus says, Jesus says,

Pay attention. I am coming as a thief.

Now, I hope you understand, when Jesus says that he's coming as a thief, he's not saying, I'm going to come and rob from you and steal from you and take away things that you consider valuable. That's not what Jesus is saying. He says, as a thief, to give us an understanding as to how he will come. And that is that it will be a surprise. You could think about it this way. Jesus is planning a big surprise party today.

The fact that there's a party isn't the surprise, but when the party is, that's the surprise. When he comes back, when he catches us up to be with him, we don't know. That's a surprise. He's planning it, he's preparing it, and he's going to come back and catch the world off guard. This word thief that he uses here is a word that means to steal in secret.

There's a different word entirely that's used to steal openly and often includes violently. But this word is the idea that you don't know that you've been robbed until you notice that something is missing. All of a sudden it's like, hey, where did it go? Hey, something's missing. You didn't know ahead of time. It was something that was done in secret.

And Jesus is explaining that's how his return will be. He's going to come back and it's going to be a surprise. You're not going to notice that it happened until it's already done. Paul also echoes this thought in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. You can check that out later. There in verse 2 he says, "...you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night."

He says, the world's going to be saying peace and safety, and then sudden destruction will come upon them, and they shall not escape. The world's going to be caught off guard. That's the point. They're going to be thinking, hey, peace. They're going to be looking for safety and security. They're looking for, you know, the one who will be able to provide those things to them. And Paul says, at that time, when they're not expecting it,

Jesus will come like a thief in the night. But he says in verse 4 of 1 Thessalonians 5, But you, brethren, are not in darkness so that this day should overtake you as a thief.

He says, you're not like the world. You're not living in darkness so that this day should catch you off guard or catch you by surprise. You're supposed to be prepared, he's saying. You need to be ready for his return. He's coming as a thief. It's going to be a surprise. But you and I must not be caught off guard because we don't walk in darkness. Maybe you could think about it this way. How surprised were you on September 11th, 2001?

Did it catch you off guard? I think as a nation, in general, we could say it caught us off guard. We were surprised. It was not something we expected. In fact, it was something that we couldn't hardly believe. It didn't even seem like it was really possible that the Twin Towers could be hit with such a terrorist attack. It seemed unreal. And it's become kind of a

a milestone for us. You know, we determine, we talk about things before 9-11 and after 9-11, right? We talk about airline security. You know, if you're ever telling, you know, old stories about this or that, and it happened on the airplane or whatever, and then it's often explained, well, that was before 9-11. That was before that happened. And since that happened,

Well, a lot has changed as far as security, as far as policies and procedures and politics. A lot has changed since then. We were caught off guard. And so now there's a great effort being made to try to be prepared and try to let everybody know where we're at so that we're not caught off guard. And at that time, the government established the Homeland Security Advisory System.

You may not know it by that name, but you're familiar with that color-coded threat level that is brought forth or that is shared, right? I have a little picture of it here for you. So there's these threat levels that have been established, and this is established by the government to be able to convey to the public and to other governing agencies, this is where we're at. This is the danger level for terrorist attacks.

And so of course the highest level is severe. There the red box at the top. And the severe is, you know, that there's an imminent attack. There's really a great threat. It's probably going to happen that a terrorist attack is going to occur. Then you have the orange box. Can't really tell the difference between orange and yellow on the screen there. Apologize for that. But the orange box is the high level.

where there's significant activity going on. There's a lot happening and there's a great probability that there will be a terrorist attack. Then you have the yellow, which is an elevated level, which again, there's a lot of activity. There's significant threats going on.

And then you have the guarded level, which is the blue box there. And that is, you know, you need to be on guard, but there's no, you know, known threats. There's no known things that are going on. And then finally, there's the low. And that's, you know, there's just a low risk. There's not much going on. There's not a good chance that terrorists will strike.

Currently, we're in the yellow. We're in elevated threat level, except for on airlines, it's an orange or a high threat level of terrorist attack. And that's where we are, and that's kind of where we've been since September 11th. It's been kind of a continual thing.

And so there's a threat level and this system was established to kind of communicate that to the rest of us, to get us to understand so that we're not caught off guard like we were on September 11th. And so what I did just kind of for fun was I put together a return of Jesus readiness system. And so what this is, is it gives us an idea of where we stand personally in

In regard to the return of Jesus Christ. And so, at the very top there, the red box, you have holding fast.

Holding fast is where you want to be. Holding fast, and by the way, I'm drawing these from the churches that we studied in Revelation chapter 2 and 3, the letters to the seven churches. The last four churches all speak of the return of Jesus Christ. And so these are drawn from those four churches. And so holding fast is in relation to the church of Philadelphia from Revelation chapter 3.

And the church of Philadelphia kept God's word. They did not deny his name. And so God promised that no one would take their crown and that they would be kept from the hour of trial that will come upon the earth. They were ready for his return. That's what Jesus was saying. You're prepared. You're keeping my word. You're walking with me. You're being faithful. And so I'm going to keep you from the tribulation that's going to take place. They were holding fast.

Well, then you have the next level, the orange box. It's lukewarm. We find that in Revelation chapter 3 in Jesus' letter to the church of Laodicea. And there we find that the church that's full of compromise. They're half in Christ and half in the world, which is really not possible, but that's what they're trying to live. And in doing so, they've become lukewarm. They're not fully sold out for God. They're not fully in rebellion against God, but they're just kind of half and half.

And Jesus said in Revelation chapter 3 verse 16, because you're lukewarm, you remember the verse, I'll vomit you out of my mouth. You're not hot, you're not cold, and it makes God sick. Well then the next level is the yellow box and it's not watching. There are those in regard to the return of Jesus Christ that are just not watching. We see that in Revelation chapter 3 in Jesus' letter to the church of Sardis.

There he tells them in verse 3, he says, I'm going to come upon you as a thief because you are not watching. You're not paying attention. And when I come, it's going to catch you off guard. You're not going to be prepared for my return. Well, then we have the blue box and that's those who are sinning or those who are living in or practicing sin. We see that with the church of Thyatira in Revelation chapter 2.

And there, the church of Thyatira is continuing to practice sin and the result is, Revelation 2.22, Jesus says, those who continue to practice sin are going to be cast into great tribulation. They're going to miss out on the rapture and they're going to be cast into that tribulation period that's going to come upon the earth because they're continuing to live in sin, they're practicing sin.

And then finally, the green box, you have those who are unsaved, perhaps like the scoffers in 2 Peter 3, who say, hey, people have been saying that Jesus is going to come back for, you know, like 2,000 years. It's not happened yet. It's not going to happen. And there's an unwillingness there for the unsaved to turn over their lives to the Lord and to follow Jesus Christ, to surrender to Him.

And so, looking at this return of Jesus readiness system, where do you find yourself? Where do you fit in looking at these four churches, those who are unsaved, and looking at this scale? Where do you stand? Where are you in all of this? I'd like you to notice that it's only those who are on high alert that have the promise of the rapture. It's only those who are holding fast,

who are walking faithfully with God, that have the promise of escape, have the promise of being caught up to be with the Lord. That's the church of Philadelphia in Revelation chapter 3. Check it out. Spend time again in Revelation chapter 2 and 3 and consider, where do you stand? Are you ready for His return? Are you holding fast or are you lukewarm? You know, sometimes you're in things of God and sometimes not so much. Hey, if that's your condition, you're not ready for His return.

You're not ready for Jesus to come back. He'll come back and He'll find you lukewarm and He'll spew you out of His mouth, He says. Or perhaps you're not watching. There are those who are not watching. They're just not paying attention. The church of Sardis was spiritually dead. They're just caught up in other things, not focused on the things of the Lord at all. And so they'll be caught off guard. Jesus says, I'll come upon you as a thief. Then there's those...

who are living in sin. Now they got saved. At one time they turned to the Lord. They walked with Him, but either they never fully left their sinful practices or they've gone back to those practices of the flesh, those practices of sin that, well, the Scripture says we're not to live in, we're not to practice. And the Scripture is very clear. Those who practice sin, that is a continual practice, we all sin, we all fall short.

But it's a willful, deliberate choice to continue in sin. Those who make that choice, they will not inherit the kingdom of God. You will not be ready. You are not ready for His return if you're continuing to practice sin, if you're continuing to live in sin, and you will be caught off guard because Jesus is coming again. Or maybe you've never turned your heart to the Lord. You've never been born again.

Maybe you're unsaved. And the same is true. You're not ready. You're not prepared. Jesus Christ is coming again. And so looking at this should cause us to wonder, should cause us some concern. Where am I? Where do I fit? Am I ready for the return of Jesus Christ? Because Jesus is coming as a thief to catch the world by surprise.

So what do we do? How do we prepare ourselves? How do we be ready for his return? Well, the next two points are in regard to that. How to be ready for Jesus' return as a thief. The second point we find, continuing on in verse 15, is that we are to watch for Jesus' return.

Again, verse 15 says, He says, You and I need to be watching for the return of Jesus.

He says, I'm coming as a thief, but blessed, happy is the one who watches. This word watch, it means to keep yourself from sleep, to be vigilant and to watch. It was used of a guard, one who would stand watch during the night. Now, a guard who falls asleep at his post is not a good guard. They were to watch. They were to stay awake. It's hard to do.

To refrain from sleep. You know, it's night time. It's natural sleeping time. There's not a lot going on. There's not much conversation. You're the only one there. It's easy to fall asleep. But they had to watch. They had to be vigilant. They had to keep themselves. They had to fight against that natural tendency to fall asleep.

It reminded me of one time, it was quite a while back with the youth group. We went out to Bakersfield and we did some events out there with Pastor Gil out there. And there was a few of us who were leading the group and we slept in this big, kind of like this sanctuary-sized building. And so there was, you know, youth just scattered all over the floor and they were sleeping and

We had lots of issues and difficulties that night because those of us who were the leaders, we kept falling asleep. And then while we were asleep, then the kids would mess around. And so then we'd wake up and there'd be, you know, shaving cream inside someone's shoe or, you know, there's some kind of fight that happened. And so then we would deal with the situation and then all of us, you know, we'd fall back asleep. We'd wake up again, there'd be another problem. You know, the kids were messing around while we're sleeping. And so then we'd wake up and there'd be, you know, shaving cream inside someone's shoe.

And so finally I got kind of fed up with it. And so I propped myself up against the wall, kind of sitting against the wall and I just pretended to be asleep. And I worked really hard to stay awake. It was hard to do. It was like two o'clock in the morning, after a long day of doing all the activities and stuff.

And so the idea was I'm going to catch the next person who's messing around and I'm going to make it memorable so that no one does it again. And so sure enough, I'm sitting there, the kids think I'm asleep and no one gets up and he's like crawling, he's making his way, he's going to go do something. And so I sneak up behind him and I flick him in the ear really hard. Now I'm not saying I would do this today, but I was young then and so I flicked him in the ear, made him cry, everybody remembered it and then nobody messed around after that. So it worked out.

I had to learn to scan watch though, that's the point. You guys laughed a lot more at that than I expected you to. Okay. Maybe you've had some ear flicking experiences yourself, huh?

So, I had to learn to stay awake, to keep myself awake, to stay alert, to stand watch in order to handle that situation. In the same way, you and I as believers, spiritually, we need to stay awake. Jesus says, blessed is he who watches. He's blessed because he's not sleeping. Now, are you sleeping today? Are you spiritually asleep? Or are you on high alert today?

in regard to the return of Jesus Christ. Now we've been studying through the book of Revelation and man, there's been some incredible things we've studied and some disasters and terrible judgments that will take place upon the earth. And there's some who are going through these things and week after week we're looking at these things and we have the reminder that Jesus is coming back but some are just hitting the snooze button. You're asleep but it's so comfortable and we have these warnings, we have these alarms going off.

As we look at the things that will take place upon the earth, Jesus gave them to us as warnings, as reminders to stay awake, to stay alert. The alarms are going off, but so many times people are hitting the snooze button. They're like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear, I hear, I hear, but just a little bit longer.

And then I'll take care of those things and then I'll get right, then I'll be prepared, then I'll get ready. I'll just a little bit longer. You know how it is, right? Just like physically, oh, it's so comfortable on these kind of mornings, right? Just to stay in bed and the blanket's so warm and oh, it's so much easier to just lay there, to turn over on the other side, to hit the snooze button and sleep just a little bit longer. Spiritually, it's the same. And some are hitting the snooze button. The alarms are going off.

But they're failing to wake up. Are you asleep? Are you awake or are you watching? Well, how do we watch? What does it mean for us to wake up and to be watching as we wait for His return? Would you turn with me please to Romans chapter 13? We'll come back to Revelation 16 in just a moment. But in Romans chapter 13, we have...

this insight from the Apostle Paul on how to watch, how to be alert, and what that means, what that looks like in our lives. And so we can use this. There's five things here I'll point out briefly about what it means to watch and to determine whether or not we're alert and watching and waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, Romans chapter 13 verse 11 says, and do this,

knowing the time that it is now high time to awake out of sleep, for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. Paul says, it's time to wake up. The alarm has been sounded. Be alert, because today we're one day closer.

To our salvation. We're one day closer to the return of Jesus Christ than yesterday. And then the day that we first believed. The further we go into history, the more on alert we need to be. Because we're closer and closer and closer to the return of Jesus. Now our tendency, the further we go into history, is to be more and more and more asleep.

But we need to reverse that and to be awake. And so how do we do that? Well, he says there at the beginning of verse 11, he says, and do this. Do what? Well, he's been talking, if you look back at verses 8 through 10, he's been talking about love and the importance of loving one another and the need for us to love our neighbor as ourself. Love is one of the ways, the first way that we see here, that we watch others.

and wait for the return of Jesus Christ. By loving one another with the love that God has for us, that agape, that unconditional love for other believers and for the lost. Are you watching? Do you have love for other believers? Are you demonstrating that love? Or is there this bitterness? Is there those that you just refuse? You cannot stand them. You refuse to communicate with them. You refuse to have anything to do with them.

Because of this or because of that and they've wronged you. But love covers a multitude of sins. Are you loving? Love is an evidence. It's an activity of those who are watching. Those who have woken up and realized, hey, there's not time to be mad at people and to be bitter because there's work that needs to be done. Those who are watching for the return of Jesus Christ are

are involved in loving one another just as God has loved us. Well, the next thing we see found in verse 12, it says, We need to cast off and put on. Cast off the works of darkness.

Those who are watching, those who are alert, those who are ready for the return of Jesus Christ are casting off, throwing it away, casting it away from yourself. Not setting aside so you can come back to it later, but throwing it away so it's out of your reach, the works of darkness. Taking steps to cut off from yourself those sinful practices. John tells us in 1 John 3, he says,

That whoever has the hope of being with Jesus or being caught up to be with Him, the return of Jesus Christ, whoever is hoping in that, purifies himself just as Jesus is pure. That's a natural result of that hope, of that watching, of that expectation. Those who are on high alert, those who are watching for His return, are casting off the things of darkness.

If you're living in or practicing or continuing in the things of darkness, the things that are of wickedness, the things that are not of God, you're not ready. You're not watching. You're not alert. You're falling asleep. And you need to wake up. It's high time. Salvation is nearer today than when we first believed. Well, number three, we find in verse 13, he says, "...let us walk properly as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy."

And so not only are we to cast off the works of darkness, but we're also to practice the things that are good, the things that are of God. We're to walk properly as in the day. Not as in darkness, but as in the day. We're to walk according to the ways of God.

Walk according to the things of God. That's spending time with God in His words, spending time with God in prayer, spending time with other believers in fellowship, serving the Lord, fulfilling the call and the role in the body of Christ that God has given to us.

We need to be walking properly and doing the will of God and doing those things that He set before us. And if you're not doing that, you are not watching. You're not ready for the return of Jesus Christ. And you need to wake up. You need to be alert. Number four, we find in verse 14, he says, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we're to love, we're to cast off the works of darkness, we're to walk properly, and we're to put on Jesus. That is to put on the nature and the character of Jesus. Put on the righteousness of Jesus.

to have His heart, to have His character, to have His attributes, the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians chapter 5, those types of things. We're to be like Christ. If you're not putting on the nature and the character of Jesus and living like He lived and loving like He loved and doing what He did, you are not watching, you're not ready, you're not alert and you need to wake up.

Because our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. And then finally, number five, he says, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. We must make no provision for the flesh. To make provision for the flesh is to leave an open door so that later on, if you want to, you can go back

to that sinful practice. Maybe I'll just dabble in it a little bit here and there. I'll just kind of leave the door open so I can come back to it if I need to or if I want to. You know, sometimes things are hard and so I might need a drink every now and then. And so I'll just keep the liquor cabinet, you know, just one beer in there or one, you know, alcoholic beverage in there. I'll just keep making provision for the flesh or I'll just keep, you know, a little bit of accountability, you know, so I don't have to really, you know,

give account to anybody if I go back into that pornographic thing or I'll just keep this open so that I can go back to that if I need to or if I want to. It's a way of escape for me. Paul says, make no provision for the flesh. Don't leave those doors open. Cut them off. Close them. Lock them. Throw away the key. If you are leaving those doors open for yourself, you're not watching.

If you're leaving those things so that, oh, well, you can go back and dabble in the flesh later on, you're not ready. You're not on high alert. You're not prepared for the return of Jesus Christ. You've fallen asleep. You're slumbering and you need to wake up. You know, spiritually speaking, there are many Christians who are asleep. And that's why Paul says it's high time to wake up. Spiritual slumber does not happen overnight.

And I mean that as kind of a pun. Sleeping, of course, it happens at night, right? But spiritual slumber doesn't happen overnight. It's not that you wake up tomorrow and just say, hey, I'm going to make some provision for the flesh today, or I'm going to engage in the works of darkness today. Spiritual slumber is not... Sometimes that happens, but generally it happens gradually and slowly, kind of like falling asleep.

You know, your eyes begin to get tired, your body's tired, things begin to slow down. It's kind of a gradual thing as you fall asleep. Spiritually speaking, that's how it happens. It's a little bit here, a little bit there. It's not usually a deliberate choice. For many, it happens like this.

There's this new video game out and man, it's awesome and you got to play it. So you go get it and you begin to play and pretty soon you find yourself a little bit more and a little bit more and it begins to eat into other things that really have a higher priority. But you know how it is. It's so much more easy and more comfortable to do the things that are fun than to do the things that you're responsible for.

And so you, you know, you got this video game, you got this event going on and oh man, that's, that's, that's a lot of fun. It's good times. And then you enroll your kids in soccer. And so now a couple nights a week, you know, you're going out, you're going to soccer practices, you got games on Saturday. And so now, you know, you're a little bit busier and things begin to a little bit more difficult. And then, you know, the new season of Survivor comes on and man, you got to keep up with that. So now Thursdays, you know, you're, you're watching Survivor and, and you got to,

Miss Church on Wednesdays because, you know, it's the season finale or whatever. You know, there's all these things and these different things kind of just kind of creep in. It's not like, hey, I want to throw God out of my life and fill it with all this other stuff. It's just, well, a little bit of this here takes that place and a little bit of this here and a little bit of that over there and pretty soon we find ourselves asleep.

And that's why we need these kinds of alarms. That's why we need the alarm to go off and for Paul to say, wake up, be alert. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. It's not time to be asleep and to be engaging in all of these other things. Not that any of those things in and of themselves are bad or wrong or sinful, but when it keeps us from fulfilling our walk with God.

Now, it doesn't mean, well, I still read my Bible. Yeah, but you know, it goes well beyond reading your Bible. It's connecting with our King of Kings and Lord of Lords and hearing from Him and fulfilling His will and doing what He's called us to do. And some have fallen asleep. Jesus told us in Luke chapter 21, He said all of these things, talking about the tribulation and those end times events, He says they will come up as a snare upon those who dwell on the face of the earth.

It's going to happen by surprise, suddenly. And he says in verse 36 of Luke 21, watch therefore. Familiar word, right? Jesus told us often to watch because his return was going to be a surprise. But he goes on to say, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.

He says, not only are you to watch, but you're to pray always. When is the last time that you prayed that you would be counted worthy to escape the judgments that are to come and that you'd be worthy to stand before the Son of Man? Jesus says that's a prayer that should always be on your heart. That should be your continual prayer. You're to watch. You're to be constantly aware that He is coming back and praying, Lord, take me with you. I don't want to be here.

Help me to live my life for you. Help me to be ready for your return. It's to be a prayer that is upon our hearts continually. And it is upon the hearts of those who are watching and who are ready for the return of Jesus Christ. So going back to Revelation chapter 16, there Jesus says, Blessed is he who watches. Blessed is the one who's ready, who's prepared, who's loving one another as Christ loved us.

who's casting off the works of darkness and walking properly and putting on the character of Jesus and making no provision for the flesh. That person is blessed because they will be ready when Jesus returns. Well, the final point here in Revelation 16, 15, we'll just touch on it pretty quickly, is that we are to keep our garments until Jesus returns. Keep your garments until Jesus returns.

There at the end of verse 15 it says, Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame. What's it talking about here, keeping your garments? Well again we go back to the history books and we consider some practices there on the Temple Mount that the Jews practiced. There was a necessity, a need for there to be a watch there.

That was kept throughout the night on the Temple Mount. And so the priests and the Levites, they each had specific roles and responsibilities. And there would be 21 places where there would be a guard posted from the Levites and the priests. And they would be posted there and their job was to keep watch throughout the night.

And throughout the night, the temple officer would go and he'd make his rounds and he would check on those posts and those who were posted there to keep guard throughout the night. Now, as he went his rounds and he came upon a post, if there was a person there who is supposed to be watching, but they were asleep,

Well, he would know because their responsibility was when the officer came, they had to stand up and they had to tell the officer, peace be to you. And so if they didn't stand up and say peace to you, it was very clear, it was very apparent, they weren't watching. This temple officer was able to walk up upon them and they were asleep. And so what this temple officer could do is he could or he would beat that person

Person who was supposed to be watching with the rod that he had, maybe come up behind him and flick him in the ear. That's where I learned it from. And not only that, but he would take his clothes and he would burn them. And so you know what would happen? Everybody would know, because he's the guy walking around without his garments, you fell asleep at your post. It would be something that would be an object of great shame. And so it would be an incentive for them to stay awake, to stay alert.

And that's what is being referred to or alluded to here. He says, Blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments lest he walk naked and they see his shame. Jesus says, look, you got to be ready. And you're blessed if you keep your garments. If I come back and you're not caught off guard, if you're not sleeping,

Now, what garments are we clothed with? I would ask you to consider Adam and Eve. You remember in Genesis chapter 2, it tells us that Adam and his wife were both naked and they were not ashamed. But then in chapter 3, they partake of the forbidden fruit. They disobey and rebel against God and their eyes are opened. And now they become ashamed of their nakedness. And so what do they do? They sew fig leaves together to try to cover their nakedness.

But it was not sufficient. It was not an acceptable covering. And so God, in Genesis 3.21, gives them clothing from animal skins. And He clothes them. He covers their nakedness in an appropriate way. And in a similar way, spiritually speaking, we are naked. Spiritually, we're bankrupt. We're naked. And we have much to be ashamed of because we are sinful naked.

It's the result of our sinful condition. Now we try to make our own coverings just like Adam and Eve tried. And we try to cover up our shame, cover up our sinfulness with good works and good deeds and religious practices and religious rituals. We try to cover up our shame with all of these good things that we think we're doing. But the problem is, is all of our good works and all of our good deeds are not really sufficient.

Isaiah 64.6 says that all of our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. You could think of a rag perhaps that you have in the garage, you know, stained by all of the oil changes or the transmission fluid or whatever is going on. Actually, the word literally means menstrual rags. And so if you want to think about that, you can. And that's what we try to clothe ourselves with and cover ourselves with in order to cover up our shame, cover up our sinfulness.

Our own attempts at covering are not good enough. They're not acceptable. We need God to clothe us. We need Him to take away our sin, to deal with our sin. Paul says in Philippians chapter 3 that his desire, his goal is to be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness, which is from the law, that is doing good things, but the righteousness that's through faith in Christ. The righteousness which is from God by faith.

You see, you and I are to be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And it comes by faith in the finished work of what He accomplished for us. We don't clothe ourselves in righteousness by doing good deeds. We clothe ourselves in righteousness by trusting in the finished and completed work of Jesus Christ upon the cross for us. And to keep our garments clean.

Until he returns, we must continue trusting in Jesus for our salvation. You see, there's a tendency. Like there's a tendency for us to fall asleep, there's a tendency for us as believers to fall into legalism and ritualism. And instead of trusting in the finished work of God, instead of walking in relationship with Jesus Christ, we do whatever it is we want to do, but we still try to cover up our sinfulness and

By doing religious practices. And we say, yeah, I'm okay because I came to church, I went to church, I go to church. Yeah, I'm fine, I read the Bible, I spend time in prayer. And we try to use those things to cover up our sinfulness, our condition. But the reality is that to be clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ comes not by doing good things or practicing rituals, it comes by faith in Jesus Christ and by walking in relationship with Him.

And so if we are not connected with Him, if there's not a real relationship with Him, we're not keeping our garments. It's there, it's available for anyone. Whoever believes in Him will receive everlasting life. But if we don't, if we're not walking in that relationship with Jesus, when He returns, we will be found having fig leaves and filthy rags trying to cover up our sinfulness. And neither of those are sufficient for salvation. So keep your garments.

Stay focused on your relationship with Jesus Christ. That needs to, that must be your focus and your priority. That you're trusting in Him and not your good works. That you're trusting in Him and not what you have done. But you're walking in relationship with Him because of what He has accomplished for us and providing forgiveness and the promise of eternal life there upon the cross. And so this morning as we conclude 2010, this is the last Sunday service of this year.

it's an appropriate time for us to consider as we head into this new year. Am I ready? Are you ready? Are you awake? Or have you fallen asleep this year? Maybe you started the year really well, but as things progress, things happen, slowly, gradually, you've fallen asleep. You found yourself practicing things that you should not be involved in.

You found yourself practicing things and consumed with things that in and of themselves are not sin, but they're keeping you from where you need to be and the things that you need to be doing. The author of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 12 tells us to run the race with endurance that was set before us. Casting off sin and the weights. The sin which so easily ensnares us, it comes up quickly. We got to guard against that.

But also those weights. Sometimes it's just things that slow us down, that hold us back. Guys, it's high time to awake. It's time to get ready. The alarm has been sounding. Don't hit the snooze button. Oh, it's so easy. I know. Comfortable. Just wrap yourself in a blanket. Oh, living in compromise. Lukewarmness. Oh, it's so much more comfortable. It's so much easier. But what did Jesus say? He says, look, if you want to follow me, you got to deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me.

If you want to be his disciple, if you want to walk with him, that's what it takes. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. That is, sacrifice your life and follow Jesus. It's those who do that that are ready, that are watching for his return. They're going to come up and lead us in a final song. And as they do, I would ask that you would consider, just set your heart before the Lord. Let it be a time of self-analysis. Let the Lord reveal to you

If you are ready, if you're watching, and if you're not, if you're not on high alert, it's time to wake up. It's time to make some changes because Jesus is coming back. That is for sure. That is guaranteed. And you know what? It might be today. So let's get ready. Let's prepare our hearts. After they lead us in this song, there's going to be some of us up here. We'd love to pray with you. If you need to get right with God or if you need prayer for anything else,

We'd love to pray with you and be a part of the work that's going on in your life. Let's worship the Lord together and allow Him to search our hearts and challenge us to be ready for His return. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.