Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #18 of Revelation, chapter 16, and we are going to be reading Revelation 16:15-16:

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

We were discussing last time that the Lord Jesus comes “as a thief in the night,” and we saw that God has given us a Biblical example of exactly how it is that Christ comes as a thief in the night because Jesus warned the churches in Revelation 3:3:

Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

This was addressed to all the churches, as each of the seven addresses in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, are ultimately addressed to all churches. God was warning them, “Watch, or I will come and you will not know the hour,” which means He will come in judgment. And that is exactly what happened. Christ came at the appointed time for judgment when it was to begin at the house of God. We know from the Bible and its Biblical calendar of history that May 21, 1988 was the beginning of judgment upon the churches and congregations and it continued for an exact 23 years, until May 21, 2011. During that time, Christ was judging the churches and He stole their blessing; He came “as a thief” and he removed salvation from them and they were not aware of it. They did not realize what had happened.

From this we learned what it means for Christ to come “as a thief in the night.” It means He comes in judgment, truly, and it is an awful judgment, but it is a spiritual judgment that cannot be seen with the physical eyes. The people in the churches and congregations did not see or recognize the judgment, even when it was upon them. It was such terrible judgment and yet it was an invisible, spiritual judgment and they cannot perceive it. It takes spiritual eyes to see and understand and even to this very day the churches are populated with people all over the earth that do not have eyes to see the nature of the judgment upon them.

That is exactly how Christ came in the “day of the Lord.” In the Day of Judgment, He came as a thief in the night and 2Thessalonians, chapter 5 revealed to us that He came with an “unawares” or “unseen” destruction. In other words, an invisible spiritual judgment came upon the world, just as it came upon the churches and this agrees with Jeremiah, chapter 25, where God laid out his overall final judgment plan for the churches and for the world. He speaks of His judgment as a cup of wrath and He said He would first give the “cup” to the city called by His name; He will also not allow the nations to go unpunished, but He will surely punish them and He gives the cup of wrath to the nations. We can see from this that the judgment given to the churches was a “cup of wrath” and the judgment given to the world was the identical “cup of wrath.” There is no difference, so we would expect the nature and type of judgment that came upon the churches would be the same type of judgment upon the world. That is exactly what God did. He brought a spiritual judgment. He shut the door to heaven; He put out the light of the Gospel and dried up the Gospel water all over the earth. It was spiritual and, therefore, the world does not perceive it because they are in “darkness” and they have no spiritual sight. The churches do not perceive it because they, too, are in “darkness” and they have no spiritual sight. Only God’s elect have spiritual eyes and only they can discern both “time and judgment.” The wise will understand, but none of the wicked will understand. This is exactly the situation and the spiritual condition the world is in at this time, as we live on the earth in the Day of Judgment.

Bringing about a spiritual judgment allows God to accomplish other purposes, such as “testing” and “trying” His people, which He could not have done if there had been a physical earthquake on May 21, 2011, which was Judgment Day. If there had been a physical earthquake, even the people of the world could have recognized something like that and it would not have been a sufficient “test.” But, by bringing a spiritual judgment, God brought to pass what He had said He would bring to pass (judgment upon the unsaved people of the world) and, yet, He could continue to test the professed true believers that had proclaimed these things. He could severely try them in the same spiritual fire that is punishing the unsaved people of the world. He could apply the spiritual “flame” to those people outside the churches that had said they were His people to see if they are “gold, silver, precious stones” or “wood, hay, stubble.” It really demonstrates the wisdom of God to bring about Judgment Day in the way that He did.

Again, it says in our verse in Revelation 16:15:

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.

In this statement, God is indicating that the ones watching will keep their garments: “Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” The word “lest” is used because if one did not watch, the garment would not be kept and if the garment was not kept, he would be naked and they would see his shame. This indicates that “watching” relates to salvation. Of course, it does. Remember what we read in 1Thessalonians, chapter 5? In the passage speaking of Christ coming as a thief in the night, it says in 1Thessalonians 5:4-6:

But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Since we are children of light and children of the day (children of Christ), and we are not of darkness, we do not sleep as others do. “Watching” is a result of being a child of the day and a child of the light. It is because God has saved us that we will watch and the watch will be performed in the Word of God; we will keep our watch in the Bible, studying and searching the Scriptures and when God brings forth information in His Word, His people check it out to see if these things be so. This is the nature of His people. The people of God are made “watchmen” through the Spirit of God. God saves us and causes us to be watchmen and God brings forth all the wonderful information that had been sealed up throughout history in the Bible. At the time of the end, the Words are unsealed and God gives them to His people and opens their understanding to these things. Now they can understand and they can watch because they have light within; they are enlightened in their minds through the Spirit of God.

They are like the “five wise virgins” that had oil in their lamps. The oil represents the Holy Spirit and the lamp is the Bible and because they have oil, the Holy Spirit enlightens the Bible to them and they can see. The foolish virgins also have lamps – they have Bibles. But they have no oil in their vessels to light their lamps because they have no Holy Spirit. It always comes down to that: Why do the wise understand, but the wicked do not understand? It is because of the “oil,” the Holy Spirit that enlightens the minds of the people of God. The foolish or the wicked do not have the Holy Spirit, so that leaves them in darkness and leaves them in a spiritual sleep and, therefore, they do not watch; they cannot watch. Since they cannot watch, then Christ says, “I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments.” They are not equipped and qualified by the Spirit of God, so when they hear the church age is over, for example, it just does not make any sense to them. You can talk to them about Matthew 24 and how it says, “Let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains,” and they respond, “What does that have to do with anything?” Or, you tell them about the Book of Jeremiah and how God’s command to the Jews to go into captivity in Babylon relates to coming out of the churches, but it makes no sense to their natural minds. They cannot understand those things without the Spirit of God illuminating their understanding. But the people of God do understand. They know that Christ spoke in parables and Matthew 24 and its reference to fleeing Judea is using the figure of the historical parables in Jeremiah to teach spiritual truths that apply to the New Testament churches. God opens up and reveals the understanding of His Word and the methodology He used to write the Bible and the parabolic nature of the Scriptures to His people, but it is held back (in whole or in part) from those that are not the children of God, so they cannot “watch” and they cannot “keep their garments.”

It is like the man at the wedding feast. When the king came in to inspect the guests, there was a man that had not on a wedding garment. He did not have the proper attire, which is the “righteousness” of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the garment that is lacking for those that God has not saved, as we read in Isaiah 61:10:

I will greatly rejoice in JEHOVAH, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

The “garments of salvation” and the “robe of righteousness” are the idea of what is in view, which the one that is watching is able to keep because he or she is saved by the grace of God and that salvation leads them to “watch.” But, for those that are not saved, they are not led to watch and they fail to watch and they cannot keep their “garment” of the righteousness of Christ and that leaves them naked; they have no covering for sin and all their iniquities and transgressions are “naked and opened unto the eyes of God with whom they have to do.” To have spiritual nakedness and to have all your sins exposed before a holy and righteous God brings shame because the Law of God condemns our sin. It is the shame that the Lord Jesus Christ experienced when he was bearing the sins of His people. Remember when Christ was going to the cross, it said in Matthew 27:35:

And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.

There is a spiritual dimension to this. The Roman soldiers that were crucifying Christ received a piece of Christ’s garment by lot, this spiritually points to us. As we receive the covering of Christ’s garment through his death and crucifixion when He paid for sins from the foundation of the world, it is as though our sins are covered as we take His garment. Also, in taking Christ’s garment and parting it among them, they left Jesus “naked.” Jesus went to the cross “naked” and the Bible says, “cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.” More than that, God is speaking to each one of His elect, when He told us in Hebrews 12:1-2:

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The Lord Jesus Christ endured the cross although He despised the shame of it. He was made naked because the whole thing was a shame to Him. He had become “sin” for us from the point of the world’s foundation, with all the sins of the elect upon Him – an enormous multitude of sins. Can you imagine the degree of this and the weight of that burden of guilt and shame, as He was carrying our ugly filthiness? If He had been bearing just one person’s sins, it would have been like a mountain, but He was bearing the sins of all those that God would save. It could have been as many as 200 million people. And how many sins has each individual sinned? Each one of us can testify that it is an untold number of transgressions against the Law of God and, yet, all that enormous amount of iniquity of all the elect was laid upon Him and He became sin for us. God saw all that sin as Christ bore it and God smote Him and destroyed Him for our sakes because of our sins. It was a huge shame to the Lord Jesus Christ as He, in a sense, became naked with our iniquity before God and God saw it all: “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of God,” and God poured out the cup of His wrath and punished the Lord Jesus Christ unto death and He died, enduring the cross but despising the shame. This is what God is saying in Revelation 15:16: “lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.” It is a shameful thing to be a sinner and to have your sins upon yourself, especially in this Day of Judgment, because God is looking and seeing the sins of every unsaved individual – all these things are open to His sight and God is presently and actively punishing each one with His wrath, even though it is a spiritual wrath and they cannot perceive it. This is the terrible situation described in this verse.

I just want to go to one other verse back in Revelation 3:18:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

If we have that “white raiment,” which is the righteousness of Christ, and we are clothed with the covering that He has provided for our sin, then the shame of our “nakedness” does not appear to Him. God does not see our naked condition, but He sees the covering; He sees what Christ has done for us; He sees that pure holy garment of white, like the bride walking down the aisle in that beautiful white wedding dress. That is how God sees the “bride of Christ” and the purity of all His people. He does not see a spot or a blemish, but He sees perfection – perfect holiness and perfect spiritual cleanliness in all the saints of God.