Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Understanding God's Judgement | New Testament | Revelation 6

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

Are you uncomfortable with the idea of God's judgement? If God is good, does that mean even his wrath is good? What is God's anger like? In today's episode, Keith uses Revelation 6 to answer questions about all things God's judgment. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Join the TMBT community in reading the entire New Testament in one year. Get your FREE reading plan here. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter@TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Revelation 6

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. I want to spend the bulk of our time together talking about the wrath of God, which is a subject that most of us are uncomfortable talking about. But if you're reading along through the Book of Revelation, I want to make sure you understand a little bit about what's happening in this section of the book that begins in Revelation chapter 6.

So in the book of Revelation, we encounter three sets of seven, just. judgments. There's the seven seals, followed by the seven trumpets, and then the seven bulls. And I'm sure you've noticed that numbers are important in the book of Revelation. So seven is the number of perfection, implying that something was done by God's design. Seven is the ultimate expression of something. So seven times three, or three sets of seven judgments, equals triple perfection. God's judgment comes against evil. See, and God's judgment always has two goals. The first goal is that people will repent of their sin and turn to him. The second goal is that his judgment will bring justice to a broken world. Now, some people are really uncomfortable with the

judgment of God, and other people seem to be a little too enthusiastic about God judging their enemy. I think both attitudes are wrong. We should never be excited that God's judgment is coming on someone else, but neither should we be embarrassed of God's judgment. If God is good and i believe that he absolutely is then even his wrath his judgment is good part of our problem is that we think of god's judgment or god's wrath like we do our own our anger can be out of control and we're often angry because we don't get our way in other words our anger is a reflection of our own selfishness but god's anger is always proportional he's never out of control he doesn't overreact or lose his temper and his anger is always provoked by sin. We see in Revelation 6 that God's judgment,

God's wrath, comes in response to the prayers of the oppressed. Listen to this. When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony that they had maintained. So in other words, these are martyrs of the church. People who have been killed because they had remained faithful to Jesus. So these martyrs, it says, those who had been slain, they called out and a loud voice. How long, sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood? So do you hear that they're calling on God to bring justice to the world to avenge their blood? Verse 11. Then each of them, so each of the martyrs, was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer until the full number of

their fellow servants, their brothers and sisters, were killed just as they had been. So they are told to be patient, wait a little longer. There are more martyrs, more people who are going to testify to Jesus and be killed for it. So these martyrs, they had been oppressed because of their faith, and they pray and ask God, how long will it be until you come and judge the, wicked and repair what's wrong with this broken world. Sometimes it's those people who've lived an easier life who have the most problem with God's justice. Those who have been seriously wronged or oppressed or persecuted, they're often the ones who want God to come and make things right, come and avenge their suffering. And because the average American has an easier time navigating

life and more comfortable life than the average person living in the developing world, It's oftentimes Americans. It's oftentimes people in the West who have a bigger problem with God's justice. I've participated on mission trips to the developing world. And one thing I've seen is that people who have suffered, people who have really been wronged, people who have been oppressed, people have been hurt, often find hope in parts of the Bible that we're uncomfortable with. I remember talking with one woman who couldn't read, and I asked her if there was part of the Bible

she wanted me to read to her. She specifically asked that I read Psalm 109. Do you know what's in Psalm 109? Well, to be honest, neither had I. It's not exactly on my list of favorites or the Psalm's greatest hits. But I turned to Psalm 109 and then I started to read it. And it is a prayer that encourages God to bring justice on those who had hurt them. So here this woman who had been hurt was asking me to read. a psalm that called for God's vengeance to be poured out on people who disobeyed God, who took advantage of other people who exploited them for their own gain. I've never heard anyone that I know ask me to read Psalm 109. I've never heard anyone in my friend group say, this is one of my favorite Psalms.

In fact, if you read it, and I encourage you to, you almost feel a little uncomfortable. you're almost like, is this really true? Is this really what God says? Is this really in the Bible? And yet for this woman who had been taken advantage of and who had been exploited and who had suffered greatly in our life, that was something she took great comfort in that one day the God she trusted in would come and make things right. Maybe when you think of God's wrath, God's anger, God's judgment being poured out, maybe you say something like, hang on a second. I have a problem with hell. How can any sin that we ever commit deserve everlasting destruction?

I mean, if God is really good, can he punish people like that? Imagine this scenario. Suppose a middle school student punches another student in class. What happens? Well, the student who punched the kid would probably get detention. Now, suppose during detention that boy punches the teacher. What happens? Well, the student would probably get suspended from school.

Well, suppose on the way home that same boy punched a policeman on the nose. What happens? Well, if you punch a policeman, you're going to find yourself in jail. And then suppose some years later, the very same boy is in a crowd waiting to see the president in the United States. And as the president passes by, the boy lunges forward to punch the president. What happens? Well, he's probably going to be shot dead by the Secret Service. Now, did you notice that in every case the crime is precisely the same? The crime was punching someone in the face.

The severity of the crime is measured by the one against whom it is committed. In other words, punching another student is different than punching the teacher, which is different than punching a policeman, which is different than trying to punch the president. Depending on who you punched, you would get a different punishment. So what happens when you punch God in the face, when you sin against God? And the answer is everlasting judgment. It's not what you did, the punching in the nose. It's who you punched. In Revelation chapter 6, in the following chapters,

we're going to see God's judgment poured out against sin. Sin is evil. God hates sin. It destroys people's lives. So it is good. It is right for God to judge sin. When we see God's judgment against sin, that should wake us up.

It should cause us to turn from our sin and put our hope and faith in God.