I want you to turn in your Bibles to the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 6. I'll begin reading at verse 8. 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 the glory. And the fifth angel poured out
his vial upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom was full
of darkness, And they gnawed their tongues in pain, or for
pain, and blasphemed God of heaven, the God of heaven, because of
their pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. My title for this message will
be really easy for you to remember. I call it 2016. 2016. The other
morning I was watching the weather and they begin telling about weather events month by month. They recounted the year. All the various storms, floods,
tornadoes, hurricanes, snowstorms, fires. every month was characterized
by some kind of natural disaster and event. Then I happened to notice the
newspaper going out of a convenience store and it had the year in
review for Onslow County. and all the crimes, all the things
that have taken place. And I thought you could recap
every month in the past year, and it was done many times yesterday
and in recent days. Telling about all the events
over the world, all the crimes, all the deaths, all the terrible
diseases, all the terrorism, all the political upheavals,
all the wars, and much, much more. And we know, we know, if we know
anything about the Bible, if we know anything at all about
the Word of God, that all these things are sent by God. Nothing happens outside of His
will. He says in Isaiah, I form the
light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. He sends him. And the words of Jeremiah, they
came to my mind. When he said, the harvest is
past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. In spite of all that happens,
in spite of all the awful things that we have seen, they have
not driven us to the Lord. I thought about what God said
to Israel in Isaiah 1. Why should you be stricken anymore? You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole heart is faint. None of these things And these words from Revelation
came to my mind. They came to my mind as all these
events were being recounted, relived. We've been reminded
of them. And the fact is that fire in
the Bible is oftentimes, many, many times, used as a symbol
of divine judgment. As a matter of fact, the final
judgment. The destruction of this world
will be not by water, he says, as in the first time, but by
fire. The elements will melt with a
fervent heat. And so what's being said symbolically
here is that judgments or fire is poured out over nations and
peoples and individuals ever since the fall, right down to
the present hour, right down to such things as a man going
into a nightclub and shooting 40 people, killing 40 people
just yesterday. But there's one thing that I
notice more than anything else, and it is that God sending the
fire, the judgments, severe as they might be, did not cause
men to repent." Two times there it says, even
in light of these things, they repented not. But I know that though that is
the case, the Bible says that God commands all men to repent. Whenever people think of repentance
in our day, or they think of a cry for repentance, they think
of some wild-eyed fellow standing up, crying out, repent, the end
is at hand. But that's not God's repentance. He writes to us in Acts 17 and
he says, for as much then as we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or
silver or stone, graven by art at man's device. And at the times
of this ignorance, God winked at. But now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man
whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he raised him from the dead. In other words,
Christ came as a Savior, and He died as a Savior, but He's
raised up the Judge. He's given a witness to every
person that there will be a final judgment in this. He's raised up the Judge, and
He lives. Repentance is not what so many
think it is. Repentance has to do with a change
of mind and heart concerning God. When he speaks of repentance,
he says, repentance toward God. And it obviously has something
to do with giving Him all the glory. They repented not to give
God glory. All the glory. Because, you see, God is glorious. He gives all the glory in creation. It is he that hath made us, not
we ourselves. And he gets all the glory in
providence. He's ordered all things. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. But above all, He gets all the
glory in salvation. And it's amazing how many will
give Him the glory in creation and the glory in providence,
but not the glory in salvation. Every person that God saves will
have to be brought to the point that Jonah was brought when he
said, salvation is of the Lord. It's of the Lord in His origin. It's of the Lord in His carrying
it out. It's of the Lord's will. It's
of the Lord's glory. It's of the Lord's Son. It's
of the Lord's keeping and perpetuating. Salvation is of the Lord. And when lesser judgments come,
when nations are brought under judgments, these are but shadows
of warnings of the judgment to come, when all men will meet
God, when all judgment will take place. And these happenings,
these lesser judgments, Awful as they seem to us are really
and truly messages of mercy. They're warnings. They're warnings
of mercy. Our Lord said, don't worry about
the man that's able to destroy the body. You worry about the
one who's able to destroy the soul. And how men respond. How men
respond to these judgments. All these various kinds of judgment
shows their true hearts. Shows their real nature. Shows their real gods. Because as all these things happen
all around us, All these things that we cringe at and we talk
about and at the end of the year, we remember and recount. As all these things go on around
us, people blaspheme God. Now they either blaspheme Him
by saying things like this. There's no way there can be a
God if he lets all this go on. They deny the existence of God. We call them atheists. We call them unbelievers. They simply deny all that there
is about God. But denying something does not
mean that you make it untrue. That's what I want to tell this
generation. Just because you don't believe
the Bible doesn't mean it isn't true. You're setting yourself
up as God, determining, like Adam and Eve when they fell,
what is good or evil. That's not left up to you. And
just because you don't believe that there's air because you
can't see it, doesn't mean that there isn't air. Just because
you can't explain fire doesn't mean there's fire. All these
things are such foolish reasonings of men. But much more than that. many
more times than open denials, is a failure and unwillingness
to repent and give God the glory by embracing a God that is not
God. Praying to a God, as the scripture
says, that cannot save. praying to false gods, engaging
in false religion, clinging to religious trinkets, to a false
hope, and to the ability of men to save or do better, and not
to the living God. They attribute these just judgments
to Mother Nature, they attribute it to the evil of others, and
they in no way account that it is because of their sin, their
rejection of God, their embracing of Antichrist, they refuse to
believe God is this way. They say things like, our God
is not like this. But God, in no way, is contradictory
to these things. He says all the time, again and
again in the Holy Scriptures, that He sends these very things. But men, Do not deny, do not
believe it. And the great evidence of the
own evil of their own hearts and the great evidence of their
belief is, unbelief is this, they repented not. Turn back
and look over at Revelation 9. Revelation 9. And verse 20, and the rest of
the men, now this is a kind of panoramic view of history. that we find in Revelation here.
And the rest of the men, which were not killed by these plagues,
yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should
not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass,
and stone, and of wood, which neither can see, nor hear, nor
walk, Neither repented they of their murders, or of their sorceries,
nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts. They didn't
repent of the immorality. They didn't repent of their ungodly
actions. And neither did they do anything
except embrace idolatry even the more. even the more. Because judgment of itself only
shows us what men are by nature, and no matter how severe it is,
none will ever of themselves repent. That's a pathetic situation. Things that ought to drive us
to God. Things that ought to make us
flee to the only refuge there is. Only harden our hearts. Only make us more idolatrous. Only leave us in a worsened condition. So in that case, What shall we
do? What is to be done in the light
of man's condition? What in the light of this fact
that all these judgments come and men still repent not to give
God the glory? We'll turn over to 2 Timothy.
2 Timothy and chapter 2 and look
down at verse 23. Now Paul is giving instruction
here to Timothy as a young preacher and he says, But foolish and
unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes. Knowing all these foolish questions
that men have in a natural state, don't even involve yourself in
them. And the servant of the Lord,
now he may not be flashy, He certainly is not just like all
other so-called preachers and things like this, but the servant
of the Lord. Must not strive, but be gentle
unto all men, apt to teach, patient. What does he do? He doesn't create
a lot of fanfare. He doesn't rail against all that
is going on. He doesn't occupy his time in
current events and these judgments that have come. But the servant
of the Lord, he does not strive, but he's gentle unto all men,
apt to teach. He knows the condition of men. He knows that they will not repent
of themselves. He knows the nature that God
says that they have. He knows how anti-gospel they
are, but He doesn't strive with them. He doesn't debate with
them. He doesn't argue with them. He
simply Day after day does just exactly what Jesus said to do. And Jesus said, go and teach
all nations. Go and teach them to observe
whatsoever things I command you. Go baptizing them upon their
confession of faith in the name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Ghost. Quietly go preaching, teaching
this message of grace. Because grace is the only message
that gives God the glory. Grace is the only message wherein
the Bible is followed in that grace makes God the one who chooses,
who causes, who does, who initiates, and makes Christ the one who
came and died and thereby doing it all, finishing the work, And
grace makes the Holy Spirit the one who must come to the sinner
wherever he is and give him life. Give him repentance. Now look at the next thing. In
meekness. Oh, what's that? I like to think
of meekness as quiet strength. I like to Think of meekness as
being not loud, but strong. Not wishy-washy, not wavering. It says that Moses was the meekest
man of all the earth. But in meekness, instructing,
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure,
will give them repentance. You see, repentance is the gift
of God. If He doesn't give repentance,
you'll never have it. You'll be just like all the masses
of people who are going to meet the final judgment of God and
spend eternity without Him forever condemned. He has to give it. Repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth. Now, when people think of repentance,
they think of reform. Ah, he turned over a new leaf.
He got religion. He got this. He got that. He got the other. He did all
these things. Yeah, but he's still lost. Because repentance brings a person
to acknowledging the truth. The truth about God. The truth
about His Son, Jesus Christ. The truth about themselves. The truth about how God saves
sinners. The acknowledging of the truth. And repentance not only is the
gift of God, but it's like a Siamese twin. It has another part, and
that is faith. Repentance toward God and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a part of that salvation,
which is all of grace, and it is only because that Christ died
for us. You see, when Peter stood to
preach in Acts 5, he said, him hath God highly exalted with
his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Well, you know he couldn't be
talking about that nation of Israel there, that worldly nation. He's talking about the Israel
of God, the people of God. That God has raised up His Son,
and this is one of the things He's done. He's raised Him up
for to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness of sins. In Acts 11 it says, When they
heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God,
saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life? Did you notice that? They held
their peace, and they glorified God. That's what happens when God
gives repentance. We hold our peace. We shut our
mouths. We quit telling God what we think
and other people what we think. We listen to Him and we glorify
God. Do you ever wonder about that
statement? Glorify God. Does that mean in some way that
we make God better? No. When Christ glorified the
Father, did He make Him better? No. When we glorify something,
we simply acknowledge it to be what it is. And that's what we do when we
glorify God. We simply acknowledge God for
who He is, for what He's done. We preach the gospel that glorifies
God without striving, without blasting, without bashing men,
and He gives repentance to whom He will. He gives repentance
to His people. He gives repentance to His elect
ones wherever they are. And this is not merely being
sorry for sin. Many like Esau are sorry for
the consequences of sin. Repentance is toward God. You see, one day I found out
that God was not who I thought he was. That's right. One day I found out through this
book, through this word, though I had read it all my life with
blinded eyes, with a natural heart of carnal prejudice, but one day the Lord gave me
the gift of repentance. And I not only embraced the Lord
Jesus Christ, my whole view of God changed. I didn't speak in tongues. I
didn't have a hoopla of a time. I didn't experience anything
like that, but my view of God dramatically, drastically changed. It was like, I've often heard
said, it was like God gave me a new Bible. Because the things that I once
fought against about God, I now found the things that were necessary
if I were to be saved, if he was to be glorified and exalted, And I found out that it was not
of me, but of Him. Gave God all the glory. You see, it has to do with being
brought by grace to acknowledging the truth about God concerning
who we are in the light of who He is and of Christ as the only
way, the only Savior, the only righteousness, the only way to
approach God, the only way to be accepted by God. that he is the way, the truth,
and the life. And everything outside of him
is the wrong way, is a lie, and is death. Death. Many people go to religious places
They go to professions of religion in which they bargain with God,
but not to God as He's revealed in the gospel. Not to Christ
as Lord and King. They're not coming before God
and to Christ as sinners. Now when Peter preached, he referred
to repentance as this, repentance unto life. Now think about that. Repentance unto life. What is repentance unto life? Well, it is to be brought from
the way that leads to death. to the way that leads to life. It's to be brought from our way
to God's way, which is Christ the way. It is to be brought
from self-justification to the only way that God can be just
and justify a sinner, which is the way of the cross. is to be brought from trusting
in ourselves that we're righteous to resting in Christ's righteousness
imputed to us. It is repentance toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we have been brought to
repentance, And it basically is just like
the other gifts of God. We believe, but we're always
believing. We repent, but we're always having
to repent. Why? Because the flesh keeps
rising up to steal the glory from God. Because they're always being
faced with and put up with and offered false gods. We're always renouncing our own
works and trusting Christ alone. We're always being reminded that
it is God's free and sovereign grace to us. Even the goodness
of God leads us to repentance. Because God chose us in Christ
before the world began, because Christ came and died in our place
to put away sin, because the Holy Spirit has wrought this
in our hearts, we repent. And it's the most
awesome thing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world
worketh death. Now, what does that mean? Well,
when all these judgments come, and people weep over them, frown
over them, Just sorrow over them. If they're left without repentance
toward God, all that works is death. Does it make them alive? Does
it make things better? Only makes things worse. And if we know who God is, and how God is a just God, and
a holy God, and a righteous God, we might wonder why the world
was not destroyed entirely by fire, by judgments in 2016. So, what can we expect? What can we expect in 2017? More of the same. More of the same. It's been going
on since the fall. But even though that's the case, Peter said, even though men forget
that the world was destroyed by the flood, willingly they
forget that, and they do not want to think about it being
destroyed by fire as God has promised. Look at 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. But the heavens
and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store
reserved under fire against the day of judgment and perdition
of ungodly men. God said that he would send the
flood. He said he would destroy everything
that wasn't in the ark, and he did. By the same word, he has
promised judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. And then Peter
says, but. But, beloved, Be not ignorant
of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day." The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some count slackness. Now, He's promised. He's promised
judgment. on all the wicked. He's promised
judgment of the whole world, but He's also promised something
else. He's promised to save all His people. He's promised to save that people
He loved and chose and gave to Christ and Christ died for them. He's promised to save every one
of them, not everybody, but every one of them. But He's long-suffering, long-suffering. He lets the world go on. He makes
the judgments come, but He's long-suffering. Men repent not
to give Him the glory, but He's long-suffering. To us works. Who's that? Well, this letter
was written to the people of God. It's written to God's elect. You just turn back in the first
parts of it and find out who it's written to. But he says,
he's long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, of the
usward should perish, but that all should come to repentance. They're all, everyone, going
to come to repentance. And they are, even at this hour. They can't resist God. His grace
is as powerful to save as His justice is to judge. And here,
there, He's bringing them one by one into the sound of the
gospel, to where a man will not strive or lamb blast them and
do all other, just simply teach them the truth. And they're going
to believe. They're going to change their
way of thinking about God, because He's going to change them, because
He's not willing that any of them should perish, but that
you should all come to repentance." I don't know where he'd be. Maybe
in a service like this. Maybe when they're thinking at
home about what they've heard preached. But he'll bring them all to repentance. and faith in the true Christ, and they will glorify, they will glorify God. Our Father, we thank you this
morning for your word, for precious promises, We thank you for your son and
our Savior. We thank you for bringing us,
like you did Naaman, from wrong thinking. We pray that you'd teach us, that you'd cause us to know the
truth. because the truth is what you use to set us free. We pray and thank you for Christ,
our savior, our Lord. And you raised him up not to
be our judge, but you raised him up to be our king. We thank you in his name. Amen.