Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #7 of Revelation, chapter 16, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 16:8-9:

And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

I will stop reading there. Last time we were looking at the Greek word for “scorched,” which is Strong’s ##2739 and it is found twice in this chapter, in verses 8 and 9, and it is only found two other two times in the parable of the sower, one account in Matthew and the other account in Mark. We saw that God is indicating that in the Day of Judgment there will be an intense “fire” or “heat” from the “sun,” who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And, of course, Christ is the Word of God, so the Word of God will bring an intense pressure upon those that have had the “seed” sown upon their hearts, whether they are professed believers or true believers that have heard the Gospel. They will be put through a severe test during this time of judgment upon the world. This is why our verses use this word “scorched” twice. If we read the parable in Matthew 13 or in Mark 4, we see the “seed” is sown and the seed that fell upon stony ground had no “depth of earth” and when the sun came up it was scorched; it withered away. It could not survive. The lack of a “root” points to the fact that there is no Spirit of Christ indwelling that person.

Revelation 16:9:

And men were scorched with great heat…

The Greek word for heat is Strong’s #2738 and it is a very closely related word to “scorched,” which was Strong’s #2739. The word “heat” is only found one other place and it also happens to be in the Book of Revelation, in chapter 7, which describes the great multitude that God saved during the little season of the Great Tribulation. It says in Revelation 7:9-10:

After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

Let’s go down to Revelation 7:13:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

Let us stop here for a second. We see that the great multitude is dressed in white, which indicates they have the righteousness of Christ. They have “come out of great tribulation,” which means the Great Tribulation is over. Yet, it says, “They are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.” The term “day and night” indicates a time reference, but there is no night in heaven, as it tells us later in the Book of Revelation. There is no “night” there, but when we read of “day and night,” it refers to the 24-hour periods of time that operate while the earth is in existence and the sun, moon and stars are performing their normal courses. So the great multitude is serving God before His throne after the Great Tribulation while the world is still in existence and has not yet been destroyed. The only time this could possibly be taking place is “in those days after that tribulation,” the Day of Judgment, which is the present period of time in which we are living that will last a very likely 1,600 days.

So, here, is the great multitude serving God day and night in His temple. Then it goes on to say in Revelation 7:16:

They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

This is the same word “heat” that we find in Revelation 16:9, where it said they were “scorched with a great heat.”

Here in Revelation 7:16, it says, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.” Now some might say, “Hold it, you are saying this applies to those still living upon the earth, but do we not still hunger and thirst?” Yes, we do hunger and thirst physically while we continue to live on this earth in the Day of Judgment, but remember what was said in the Gospel of Matthew, in Matthew 5:6:

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

We saw that the great multitude was clothed in “fine, white linen,” which is the righteousness of the saints, according to Revelation 19:8, so they are all righteous in God’s sight. They hungered and thirsted after righteousness because God gave them that desire when He saved them all and, therefore, God can say, “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.” It is no longer a need any longer for those chosen people because they have all received that “righteousness.”

Then it goes on to say at the end of the verse, in Revelation 7:16:

…Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.

We see in this chapter that it is Judgment Day and the vial is poured on the sun and men were scorched with fire and great heat – this is part of the judgment of God. The sun scorching them with great heat has to do with God’s judgment upon them. But in regard to the great multitude, it says, “Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.”

The word “light” in this verse is an unusual translation of the Greek word used here. The Greek word translated as “light on” is almost always translated as “fall” or “fell.” For instance, it is the word used in Revelation 9:1:

And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth…

The word “fall” is the same Greek word. The star is the Lord Jesus Christ that was coming in judgment. Revelation, chapter 9, was the transition from the judgment on the churches in the previous chapter to the judgment on all the world, so the star “falls” on the inhabitants of the earth. Yet, of the great multitude, it says, “Neither shall the sun light (fall) on them, nor any heat.” The Bible says the Lord God is a sun and a shield. The Lord Jesus Christ is identified with the “sun,” as the Light of the world, and He will not judge or punish the great multitude for sin, even though the Bible does tell us that we (the elect) must all be made manifest before the judgment seat of Christ to demonstrate that we were already judged in Christ before the foundation of the world. But, in reality, God is not judging us because we had already been judged in Him. It is only a demonstration or a “making manifest” of this fact, as God uses the image of us all “appearing” before the judgment seat of Christ. But the truth is that the sun (Eternal God) will not fall on them, nor any heat. This same great heat scorches the unsaved, the professed Christian or (we would have to add) the professed true believer. God’s testing program for this time involves those that came out of the churches and professed to know the true Gospel of the Bible and the doctrines of Christ. We are all being tested, but the fire has been put to them and the great heat coming from the “sun” is scorching them and they are withering away because they had no “root in themselves.”

Let us go back and continue to read Revelation 16:9:

And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.

We see a lot of important information in the rest of this verse. To begin with, these men that were scorched with great heat “blasphemed the name of God.” We see that the scorching and intense heat that is impacting these men is the cause of their blasphemy: “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues.” It is like someone that is out in the brilliant sun on a very hot day and they are feeling the effects of it, so they are angry with God; they are cursing God; they are “speaking evil” of God. That is what “blasphemy” means. We have looked at this before. The word “blasphemy” is Strong’s #987 and it is translated a few times as “evil speaking” or “evil spoken of.” For instance, it says in Romans 14:16:

Let not then your good be evil spoken of:

This translation of “evil spoken of,” is the same Greek word. In other words, it is saying, “Let not then your good be blasphemed.” The word “blasphemy” is one of those words that the modern secular word tends to mock. There is something about the sound of the word, perhaps due to its Old English nature, but it is a word they associate with “holy rollers” and they mock the idea of “blasphemy” as though it was not something worthy of serious consideration.

God has a great deal to say about this word “blasphemy,” and what it means is to “speak evil of” someone or something. So, a child of God’s “good” could be “evil spoken of” and this same point is brought up in I Peter 4:1-4:

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

What would that be saying? God is saying, “You were like them. All men are born the same – all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We were “children of wrath” even as others; there is no difference between us, except that God made a distinction between Jacob and Esau, for example, by determining to love Jacob and hate Esau. God makes that decision (and He made these decisions before the foundation of the world) and He chooses certain individuals to be His people, according to His good pleasure. There was nothing good in them; we were all dirty, rotten, filthy sinners and there is none that is above another or better than someone else. God would translate one of these dirty, rotten, filthy sinners out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son and impress upon that person, “Be ye holy, for I am holy,” as God began to show him the way he must walk and the things he must do to keep His commandments, it was like a Light shining in the darkness. This person could have been the best of friends with unsaved individuals and he could have gotten along wonderfully with the people of the world that were likeminded in sinful pursuits, but as soon as God changed him and the light began to shine into his life and he started doing the will of God and shining that light into his friends’ lives, they do not like it. They do not like it at all: “Something has changed our friend – something terrible. He has turned into a nut case and he thinks he is holier than thou. He thinks he is better than us.” There are just numerous ways in which they began to “speak evil of” him, always with the best of intentions, of course. They will get together with their other friends and they think it is strange that he does not party with them and “run with them to the same excess of riot.” Now he does not go out on New Year’s Eve, but he would rather read the Bible and talk about the Word of God. How unusual and strange this is and, so, they “speak evil” of the child of God.

God go on to say in 1Peter 4:14:

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

They speak evil of the believer and God looks at it as though they are speaking evil of Him. Why is this? It is because God is the one that did the work within that person. God is the one that changed him and God’s Spirit moves in him to will and to do of His good pleasure. So there are things this person is no longer doing – he is longer drinking, smoking, doing drugs, cursing and lying. And he begins to do things God’s way. When his friends think it is strange and they speak evil of him, they are also speaking evil of God.

So, this is part of what is in view in Revelation 16:9 in the time of Judgment Day, where it says, “And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues.”

Let me just give an example. There is a true and faithful man of God, Mr. Camping, and he diligently studied the Bible for many, many years. God gave him much truth and opened up a tremendous amount of information to him from the Bible. God opened up many of the end time Scriptures to him that had been sealed up previously and God gave him a “pulpit,” the ministry of Family Radio, to proclaim these things all over the earth. Yet, God kept in reserve a couple of bits of information in order to set a trap and lay a snare for the world and to set the scenario for the severe testing of all professed true believers. So, Mr. Camping was as faithful as possible, given the information he had until May 21, 2011 and for a short period after that date. And, yet, things did not turn out as declared because God brought to pass a spiritual judgment and not a physical judgment. God shut the door to heaven, which is an invisible door that man could not see and, therefore, man concluded that nothing happened when they did not see a physical earthquake. The reviling and the ridiculing and the mockery against Mr. Camping was just tremendous. It was an absolute outpouring of “blasphemy,” not so much against Mr. Camping, but against God. It was God who moved within Mr. Camping to declare these things. It was God who opened up the information concerning the Biblical timeline of history, the doctrine of the end of the church age and the doctrine of the Day of Judgment as May 21, 2011. When people despise, reject and mock these things, they are mocking the doctrine of God. This is why it says they “blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues.” This is done by God. It is according to His will and His design and He is the power behind it all.

Let us go to another verse in 1Timothy, where God will join together the idea of “blasphemy” with His name and His doctrine. It says in 1Timothy 6:1:

Let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honour, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.

It is both the “name of God and his doctrine” that should be not blasphemed. You have all kinds of people that understand they should not curse God. They, perhaps, even have a fear of doing that, but some people do not care and they curse God openly, but those that say they are Christian would never do that or mock God, at least directly. They would not mock the Person of God and shake their fists at Him and revile Him, but those same people do not have the same restraint when it comes to the doctrine of God and, yet, God sees no difference – if you mock the doctrine of God and mock the teaching of His Word, you have mocked the name of God. There is no difference in God’s sight. This is why it says, in 2John 1:9:

Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son.

The doctrine of Christ is extremely important because it is the Word of God. Doctrine and His Word are one and the same. We get the doctrine (the teaching) from the Word; we read the Word and we learn truth and that is doctrine. Christ is the Word. He is the Truth and He is the doctrine. But people often dare speak evil of doctrine. They dare to speak evil of the doctrine of annihilation. They dare to speak evil of the doctrine of the end of the church age. They dare to speak evil of May 21, 2011 as Judgment Day. They dare to speak evil of a spiritual judgment that God has brought to pass upon the world, in which He has stopped saving people. Their target, therefore, is the individual believer, the messenger of God. They speak evil of the believer and they speak evil of what they consider to be the believer’s doctrine. And, yet, the doctrine was derived by comparing Scripture with Scripture and we are quoting constantly from the Bible and these things fit together in harmony. If we are share this information, with nothing added and nothing taken away, who then is really being “evil spoken of?”