May I ask you please to turn
in your Bibles with me to the book of the Revelation, the last
book of the New Testament and to chapter 6 and to follow please
as I read beginning with verse 12, Revelation chapter 6 and
beginning with verse 12 and reading to the end of the chapter. Those
of you familiar With this section of the book of the Revelation,
we'll remember that John, in vision, saw what to him was a
sad sight. In heaven, there was a problem. There was a scroll, and no one
was worthy to open that scroll until the Lamb, the Lord Jesus,
the exalted Redeemer of sinners, is declared worthy to take this
book or this scroll and to open its seals. And it is evident
that that scroll and the seals represents the unfolding of the
purposes of God in human history. And here in verse 12 we have
a record of what happened in the opening of the sixth seal,
Revelation 6 and verse 12. And I saw when he opened the
sixth seal And there was a great earthquake, and the sun became
black as sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood. And the stars of the heaven fell
onto the earth as a fig tree casts her unripe figs when it
is shaken of a great wind. And the heaven was removed as
a scroll when it is rolled up and every mountain and island
were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and
the princes, and the chief captains, and the rich, and the strong,
and every bondman and freeman hid themselves in the caves and
in the rocks of the mountains. And they say to the mountains
and to the rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of
Him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For
the great day of their wrath is come, and who is able to stand? We come tonight to this third
and final evening of these general public meetings. God willing,
we will meet tomorrow on the Lord's Day for the worship of
our great God in the morning and for the combined services
of the associational churches in the evening. So in a very
real sense, the meetings of Thursday and Friday and tonight have formed
a unit of opportunity for public ministry of the Word of God. And in the two previous evenings
I have sought, by the help of God with an open Bible before
us, to take you to the very nerve centers of the gospel of the
grace of God in our Lord Jesus Christ. On Thursday night, we
took a guided tour through the picture gallery, the portrait
gallery, painted by our Lord Jesus, as we looked at Luke chapter
18, verses 9 to 14, and considered the contrasting portraits of
the publican and of the Pharisee. And then last night we considered
together those amazing claims of our Lord Jesus Christ from
John chapter 14 and verse 6 in which He said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No one comes unto the Father
but by Me. And what a joy it is for any
gospel preacher to sit upon such texts that magnify the grace
of God and the saving mercy of God in the gospel. But tonight
we turn to a very solemn, a very sobering subject. a subject which
any true servant of God would avoid if he could and still maintain
a good conscience. But no man of God can be true
to the Word of God and to the gospel of the grace of God if
he avoids that solemn, sobering subject, namely, the wrath of
God upon impenitent sinners. That truth must be proclaimed
in due proportion with other truths, and certainly in a right
spirit, even the spirit of brokenness and deep concern lest men come
under that wrath. But surely no proclamation of
the gospel is comprehensive and biblical if it does not include
this solemn, sobering note of the wrath of God, for the Scripture
tells us in the very familiar gospel words of John chapter
3, He that believeth on the Son has everlasting life, but he
that obeys not the Son, the wrath of God abides upon him. And in that very marvelous chapter
in which we have that rich statement of the love of God in verse 16,
for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that very chapter closes with these words, the wrath of God
abides upon Him. And therefore, no consideration
of the God of the Bible and the gospel of the grace of God is
complete if it does not direct our attention to this most solemn
subject. And tonight we are going to contemplate
that subject, particularly as it is expressed in the last verse
of the paragraph read in your hearing For the great day of
their wrath is or has come, and who is able to stand? And I want you to note with me
as I seek to open up and apply this text of the Word of God
four categories of truth as we consider the text together. First
of all, note with me that a unique day of God's wrath is surely
coming. A unique day of God's wrath is
surely coming. Here in our text we read, for
the great day of their wrath is come. According to the scriptures,
God's wrath has been displayed in times past in nothing less
than terrifying ways. We open our Bibles in Genesis
chapter 1. And it isn't long before we come
to chapter 6 and the description of the abounding wickedness that
reached the very heavens of our God and caused God to say, I
have had it. My spirit will not always strive
with man. We have the account of that flood
in which all but eight men and women were blotted out In a matter
of hours or days, when God poured rain out of heaven and broke
up the fountains of the deep, and all but Noah and his family
safe in the ark were utterly destroyed in one stroke, God's
wrath was manifested in the flood. God's wrath was manifested in
the most marked way again when on the cities of the plains,
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, where the homosexual perversity
became aggressive as it is in our own day, and God said, I
have had enough, and God rains down hell out of heaven upon
the cities of the plains and consumes them in fire and brimstone. in a veritable instant of time. We see again God's wrath manifested
throughout the Old Testament when He opens up the earth and
swallows up men who rebel against God's appointed leaders. We see
His wrath in sending His covenant people into captivity. Yes, according
to the Scriptures, God's wrath has been displayed in times past. in terrifying ways. Furthermore,
according to the scriptures, God's wrath is being presently
displayed in undeniable ways. God's wrath is being presently
displayed in undeniable ways. As Paul begins to expound his
gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, in Romans
1 verse 18 he says, For the wrath of God is being revealed from
heaven. Not the wrath of God shall be,
but the wrath of God is revealed from heaven right now against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hinder or hold down
or suppress the truth in unrighteousness. And he describes how the wrath
of God is manifested. It is manifested by God giving
men over to the very things that their evil hearts desire. And
they sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire and quicksand of
their own perversity. And the Word of God says this
is an act of imminent, present judgment from the Almighty. God's wrath is not only been
manifested in the past and recorded in scriptures, but it is being
presently manifested in the undeniable ways described in Romans chapter
1 verses 18 and following. However, notwithstanding these
revelations of the wrath of God, there is yet a climactic an awesome,
a final and utterly unique day of wrath that is yet to come. It is called here in our text
in Revelation 6 and in verse 17, it is called the great day
of their wrath. The great day of their wrath. It points to a specific and coming
and climactic and final manifestation of the pure and holy and righteous
wrath of the living God. It is to this day that Paul refers
in Romans chapter 2 and in verse 5 But after your hardness and
impenitent heart, you treasure up for yourself wrath in the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. You see, the apostle is said
in chapter 1, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven. Here he says, there is a day
of wrath yet to come. In that day there will be a revelation
of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every
man according to his works. In the passage in 1 Thessalonians
chapter 1, we find a similar reference where the apostle describing
the conversion of the Thessalonians and the grace shown to them in
Christ writes, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and in verse 10, to
wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead,
even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. There is a wrath that
is yet to come. And then in Ephesians 5 verses
5 and 6 there is a similar reference to the same day of God's coming
wrath. For this know of a surety that
no fornicator nor unclean person nor covetous man who is an idolater
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God Let no man
deceive you with empty words, for because of these things cometh
the wrath of God. The wrath of God is coming upon
such sons of disobedience. And therefore when we read in
our text as we have read tonight, for the great day of their wrath
has come, and who shall be able to stand, we are warranted to
assert that a unique day of God's wrath is surely coming. In fact, the language of our
text puts it in a tense as though it had already come. It is so
certain It is so infallibly certain that such a day is coming that
the Spirit of God can say, the great day of their wrath has
come. And who shall be able to stand? Mark it well, boys, girls, men,
and women, that as surely as this day, January 27th, 1996
dawned, has now come near to its conclusion. There is a day
marked out in the calendar of God, known only to God, but a
day of His final, His climactic, His irreversible day of wrath
shall come, mark it down. It is as sure as though it had
dawned this very day. A unique day of God's wrath is
coming. But then consider with me, in
the second place, something that takes all of this and makes it
intensely personal, and it is this. Each one of us by nature
is a legitimate candidate for that coming day of wrath. Each
one of us, by nature, is a legitimate candidate for that coming day
of wrath. While the Bible teaches that
there will be intensified measures of wrath for certain aggravated
sins, The Bible also teaches that each and every one of us,
by nature, is a legitimate candidate for the wrath of God. And where
is this taught? It's taught in many places, but
perhaps no text asserts this with greater clarity than Ephesians
chapter 2, verses 1 through 3. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1
through 3. And you, did he make alive, who
were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein you once walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the powers of the air, the spirit that now works in the
sons of disobedience, among whom we also all once lived in the
lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, now follow closely, and were by nature children of wrath,
even as the rest. And here the apostle describes
all of the Ephesians in spite of the great spectrum of diversity
in their background, as those who, without exception, were
by nature children of wrath. By nature they were liable to
and the just objects of the righteous wrath of Almighty God. He includes Himself, the upright,
morally impeccable Pharisee who could say, with respect to my
outward life touching the law, I was blameless. describing the
Ephesians, some of whom were idol worshippers and worshippers
of the occult and involved in all forms of pagan immorality
and utterly lawless lifestyles from the proud, separated, morally
upright, blameless Pharisee to the profligate who consults the
stars and consorts with temple prostitutes as part of his worship,
he said, in this we are all together children of wrath even as the
rest. Children of wrath means objects
of God's settled righteous indignation and the determination to execute
appropriate judgment upon such. Never think of God's wrath as
anything tinged with sinful irritation or with an unbridled passion
such as wrath so often involves in us. But it is His holy and
righteous indignation and determination to execute punishment, in the
language of the passage read by the pastor, to render holy
vengeance. I say it reverently, to get even
with sinners without any taint of sinful vindictiveness, without
any taint of carnal passion. The Scriptures say that each
one of us, by nature, is a legitimate candidate for that coming wrath. And if you ask the question,
but Mr. Martin, on what basis should
I be a candidate for the unleashed fury of Almighty God? I'm not a Hitler. I'm not a Mussolini? I'm not a Jezebel? I'm not one
of those who flaunts the law of God and the standards of decency? Oh yes, I'm far from perfect,
and I'm not all I ought to be, and not all that I see others
are. But surely, isn't it an overstatement? Isn't it a bit of overkill to
say that Almighty God has such a controversy with every one
of us by nature? that unless something happens,
He will vent His righteous indignation and execute appropriate punishment
upon all of us? Well, that's a fair question,
and the Bible gives a clear answer. Why are each of us, by nature,
candidates for this wrath? Basically for three reasons.
Because of our sin in our first father, Adam. because of our
sin in our first father Adam. Romans 5 verse 12 and following
says, Wherefore, as through one man sin entered into the world,
and death passed upon all men, for that all sinned. When did all sin? All sinned
in Adam's first transgression. and few doctrines are more offensive
to our crass, independent spirit than the biblical doctrine, my
friend, that your age and day of accountability came and went
in the Garden of Eden. This notion that children are
innocent little half-angels until some so-called day of accountability
or age of accountability is utterly without foundation in the Word
of God. that children come to a stage
of moral consciousness where they begin to personally know
the difference between right and wrong and feel the accusations
or approbations of conscience. Surely that is true, taught in
Scripture and confirmed in the experience of every one of us. But they are not innocent up
to such a time. The Scripture says, that the
entire human race fell in Adam. And Paul goes on to prove this
by showing that death reigns over all men, even infants. And wherever death reigns, it's
because sin reigns. And therefore, because of our
sin in Adam, we are by nature children of wrath. But we are
children of wrath because of our own individual violations
of the law of God. We read from Ephesians 5 that
because of these things comes the wrath of God upon the sons
of disobedience. and the things mentioned are
the specific violations of the law of God that men indulge in,
that men engage in. Each time the holy law of God
is violated in thought, in word, in desire, in intention, Every
moment we live failing to love God with all our heart, mind,
soul and strength, we are culpable before His law and we stand condemned. Every day that we do not choose
Him as our God, serve and love Him, with all of our faculties
and powers, if the first and great commandment is to love
God with all the heart, mind, soul, and strength, what's the
first and greatest sin we can commit? Failure to love God with
all the heart, mind, soul, and strength. That is manifested
by putting other things in the place of supreme affection before
the very God who said, you shall have no other God before me or
beside me. refusing to worship him as he
has directed, to honor his name, to sanctify his day, to respect
his canons of authority within human relationships as epitomized
in the fifth commandment, honor thy father and thy mother. Refusal
to recognize the sanctity of life and of the sexual relationship
and of property and of truth, and the sanctity of the heart
set upon God, so much so that Jesus said the look of lust is
adultery, the word of derision, the word that bespeaks the disposition
of despising another is of the very essence of murder. Our own
individual volitional transgressions of the law of God make us children
of wrath, We are children of wrath by nature because of our
sin in Adam, because of our own individual violations of the
law, and because of our wretched crowning sin of unbelief. John 3.36 says, as I quoted earlier,
the wrath of God, it doesn't say, shall come upon those who
believe not. It says the wrath of God present
tense is abiding upon those who obey not, who believe not the
Son. And surely as this ceiling is
presently hanging over all of our heads, It is not something
that shall be true tomorrow if God enables us to meet, and we
must wait till tomorrow to say this roof is abiding over us. It is true right now! And if
you do not believe with what the Scripture calls the faith
of God's elect, with a faith that is the result of God's supernatural
regenerating work in your heart, God's wrath hangs over your head
as you sit here. As surely as if I were to come
to the place where you sit and open my handkerchief and spread
it out and say, John, Mary, Sally, Susie, my handkerchief hangs
over your head. And all it would take to have
it rest upon your head is to remove my hand. So the wrath
of God hangs over your head. And all it would take to bring
it crashing down is for God to say, no more breath for you. He gives to all life and breath
and all things. And you draw your next breath
only because God gives. only because God gives it, each
of us by nature. is a legitimate candidate for
that coming wrath. And this is why this text in
Revelation chapter 6 is one that we must lay to heart and take
seriously because it affirms that a unique day of wrath is
coming and that each of us by nature is a legitimate candidate
for that coming wrath. But thirdly, Jesus Christ alone
can deliver us from the coming day of God's wrath. Though this
is not explicitly stated in this passage, letting Scripture be
its own infallible interpreter, it is clearly asserted in parallel
passages that Jesus Christ alone can deliver us from the coming
day of God's wrath. We go back to the first Thessalonians
one passage for a moment. First Thessalonians chapter one. And here the apostle speaking
of the Thessalonians says that he did not have to give a report
wherever he went concerning the success of the gospel at Thessalonica
because he said they themselves, verse 9, report concerning us
what manner of entering in we had unto you and how that you
turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God and
to wait for his Son from heaven whom he raised from the dead
Even Jesus, now notice how he describes Jesus. What is the
distinctive activity of Jesus that is highlighted in this passage? To wait for His Son, even Jesus,
who delivers us from the coming wrath, We read in Revelation
6, for their great day of wrath has come. Who shall be able to
stand? And the answer is those whom
Jesus has delivered from the coming day of wrath. They and they only, but all of
them shall be able to stand. It is Jesus Christ alone who
can deliver us from the coming day of wrath. And how does He
do this? Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
5 and verse 9 for the answer. For God appointed us not unto
wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation, deliverance, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us. How does Jesus Christ
deliver us from the coming day of wrath? According to 1 Thessalonians
5, 9, by bringing us into possession of His salvation. God appointed us not unto wrath,
but unto the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And the word salvation means
to be rescued, to be delivered from danger unto a state of safety
and of blessing. It never means merely deliverance
from, but deliverance unto. And it is Christ Himself who,
by His salvation, delivers us from the penalty of sin unto
a status of acceptance with God on the basis of His own perfect
life and His substitutionary death upon the cross. It is Jesus
who delivers from the wrath to come, how? By rescuing us from
the penalty of sin unto a status of acceptance with God as justified
and adopted sons and daughters, but furthermore He delivers us
from the power of sin, from the dominion and the tyranny of sin
unto a life of righteousness and a reign of grace and a commitment
to a life of holiness. Romans chapter 6, the whole chapter
is taken up with demonstrating that whenever a sinner is so
united to Christ as to be saved from the wrath of God unto the
favor and acceptance of God, he is also delivered from the
tyranny and the reign and the power of sin unto unto a life
of righteousness, unto a life of servitude to God and to righteousness
and to holiness. Jesus never delivers from the
coming wrath by merely delivering us from the penalty of sin unto
acceptance, but He always at the same time delivers from the
power and the tyranny and the reign of sin unto righteousness
and to a life of holiness. And thank God He will yet deliver
us from the very presence of sin unto a state of being confirmed
in perfect holiness conform to his image in the inward and the
outward man. Some will get it in two stages,
at death when their spirits will leave their bodies and in an
instant of time every last vestige of remaining sin will be purged
from their spirits and from the moment they breathe their last
and look upon the face of Christ they join the company described
in Hebrews as the spirits of just men made perfect and then
at the resurrection They will receive, according to Philippians
3, a body fashioned like unto the body of Christ's glory, a
body described in Romans chapter 8, a body described in 2 Corinthians
chapter 5, and they shall be forever delivered from the presence
of sin. Jesus Christ alone can deliver
us from the coming day of wrath, and the way that He does this
for everyone delivered from that day of wrath is by bringing them
to partake of His salvation. 1 Thessalonians 5, 9, He appointed
us not unto wrath, but unto the obtaining of salvation. It's either wrath or salvation. And what is that salvation? It
is deliverance from the penalty of sin unto acceptance before
God is justified and adopted from the power and the reign
and dominion of sin unto a present life bound over to righteousness
and holiness and the service of God. and thank God one day
from the very presence of sin in soul and in body. Now you see, if you deny, if
you deny that you deserve the wrath of God, then you will never
go to Christ to be delivered from it, will you? And if you
don't go to Christ to be delivered from the wrath of God, pray tell,
who's going to deliver you? Are you foolish enough to think
you can deliver yourself? Are you foolish enough to think
there is some other creature that can deliver you? You see,
our only safety is embracing the biblical witness against
us and saying, Oh God, it is true. In Adam I sinned. in my own personal life history. I have broken Your law. I have
provoked Your anger. I deserve Your wrath. And, O
God, my wretched, wicked unbelief in Your Son deserves Your frown
and Your disfavor and the outpouring of Your wrath upon me. But, O
God, I flee to Your Son, that in Him I might, in the language
of this text in Thessalonians, be delivered from the coming
wrath by His salvation. So we have seen that a unique
day of wrath is coming. Secondly, that each of us by
nature is a legitimate candidate for that coming day of wrath.
Thirdly, that Jesus Christ alone can deliver us From that coming
day of God's wrath now coming back to our text and its setting,
my fourth and final heading is this. When the day of wrath arrives,
only penitent, believing, converted people will be delivered from
its fury. When the day of wrath arrives,
Only penitent, believing, converted people will be delivered from its fury. Look at the graphic
language given by the Spirit of God for John to pass on to
the seven churches of Asia Minor. Look at the language We read
verse 14, and the heaven was removed as a scroll when it is
rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of
their places. And then seven categories of
people are described, and the kings of the earth, the great
ones, those who speak, and hundreds or thousands snap into line at
their voice. The earth movers and shakers
who make the decisions that affect the multitudes, the kings of
the earth, the great ones who sit in the places of authority
and power and influence, and the princes a notch below, and
the chief captains who order their armies and who direct their
troops and who affect the affairs of nations in their military
strategy, and the rich, the fat cats, the strong, those who have
amassed wealth and influence, the strong, and every bondman,
every slave, a man who is the property of another, wakes up
in the morning, he makes no plans for himself, his plans are made
by his master. Do this, do that, do the other. He has no plans of his own. He is a bondman. He is the property
of another and the free man, such as we are. Living in a so-called
free, democratic society, you want to get in your car and take
a drive and look at the mountains, go to the ocean, go to the mall. You are free men and women. No
one calls the shots for you. And here we have a description
of everything from the kings, to the princes, to the chief
captains, to the rich, to the strong, to slaves and free men. In other words, the full spectrum
of humanity. What do they do in that day?
It says they hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of
the mountains. Why in the world would kings
leave their ornate thrones gilded in gold and huddle in caves? Why would captains, accustomed
to the retinue of their underlings, be found like cowards, men who
marched into battle and looked death in the eye and never flinched? Why are they huddled together
in caves and in the rocks of the mountains? And why are the
strong huddled with them? And the bond and the free, why? Read on. And they say, look at
this, they say to the mountains and to the rocks, they're so
desperate, they pray to physical objects. They pray to mountains
and they pray to rocks. They say to the mountains and
to the rocks, fall on us, fall upon us, crush us into oblivion. What in God's name makes mighty
kings and princes and warriors and captains beg mountains to
be uprooted and crush them into oblivion? Look at the text. fall
on us and hide us from one thing, from the face of him who sits
on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. One of the strangest
phrases in all of the Bible. The wrath of the Lamb. We can understand in some little
measure that these who are impenitent, unbelieving, unconverted, and
now they must stand before God their maker and judge, and there
they must meet and bear the weight of the results of their sin in
Adam. all of their own individual sins,
their lies, their lechery, their selfishness, their murder, their
adultery, their fornication, their thievery, their blasphemy,
their perjury, their dishonesty, sins of the mind, sins of the
tongue, sins of the hand, sins of the feet, And they now see
the thrice holy God upon His throne, and they say, just hide
us, O mountains, crush us into oblivion that we need look no
longer upon the face of the one on the throne. It says in Revelation
20, when God sets His day of judgment, it says that heaven
and earth shall seek to flee from His face. That we can understand,
but this phrase, the wrath of the Lamb, it's a reference to
the Lord Jesus. And we know from such passages
as Isaiah 53, when He is revealed as the Lamb of God, we are told,
as a lamb before her shearers is done, so He opened not His
mouth. Children, listen. Young people,
teenagers, listen, listen, listen. Gird up the loins of your mind
and listen. When he came in that first coming,
he came as the Lamb of God to bear away the sins of the world. And all about him was lamb-like
in the presence of those who would be the instruments to put
him to death. As a lamb before her shears is
dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He is led as a sheep to the slaughter. And our Lord voluntarily gave
himself up to his enemies, gave himself up to the ropes with
which they bound him, to the mockery and the scorn with which
they rejected him, to the blows of their hands and the strokes
of rods with which they pummeled him. He gave up his back to the
lictor's lash with which they scourged him, gave himself up
to the Roman soldiers who impaled him upon a cross, and all was
docile, non-resistant, lamb-like submission to the worst that
men could mete out upon him, and to the unleashed fury of
his father against the sins of his people. But in the day of
his second coming, the Lamb will not come In that lamb-like, docile
picture and posture of His first coming, He will come In all of
the manifestation of His righteous and holy anger against His enemies,
it flashed out now and then in the gaze of His flesh. Mark tells
us, He, being grieved for their hardness of heart, looked round
about them with anger. They saw the anger flash from
His eyes. When he came into the temple
and saw that his father's place of prayer had been turned into
a very cave of brigands, a den of robbers, with the scourge
made by his own hands, he drove out the changers of money. He
drove out the beast. He overturned the tables. Get
these things hence. Make not my father's house a
den of thieves. And he stood as a sentinel And
no one dared challenge Him. Those were the, as it were, adumbrations,
the little foretastes of the day of the wrath of the Lamb. But when that day actually comes,
men would rather be crushed to powder by rocks and mountains
than face the wrath of the Son of God. When the day of wrath arrives,
only penitent, believing, converted people will be delivered from
its fury. Kings cannot be delivered by
all their amassed wealth and influence. And the princes and
the chief captains and the rich and the strong will not be delivered
by anything that they possess. And no one will be exempt because
he's been downtrodden and oppressed by his fellow man. Even slaves
who are the property of others will receive no pity if they are impenitent and unbelieving
and unconverted in that last day. Religion and form are not
enough. Jesus said to the religious of
his day, who has warned you, John the Baptist, to flee from
the coming wrath? Do not think to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. We belong to the covenant community. We have made a decision. We belong
to an evangelical church. So what? Bring forth fruits that
answer to a deep and real work of grace in the heart. Bring
forth fruits answering to repentance. Do not think to say within yourself,
my privileges, my religious standing, my deeds, it is not enough. The scripture says there is no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 1 9 says that
those who are to be delivered from the coming wrath are those
who have turned to God from their idols to serve the living and
the true God and to wait for His Son from heaven, even Jesus
who delivers us from the wrath to come. Who will be delivered
in the last day from that wrath? Not everyone that's raised a
hand, walked an aisle and prayed a prayer and begun to live a
reasonably decent life and go to an evangelical church and
throw a few bucks in the plate. No, no, my friend. Only those
who can be described in the language of 1 Thessalonians 1 9 will know
the blessing of 1 Thessalonians 1 10. If you have not turned
unto God from your idols, with a disposition to serve this God,
not to earn His favor, but out of gratitude for His favor and
mercy in Christ, if you have not turned unto God, not religion,
not mere form and ritual and ceremony, but turned unto God
from your idols, your idols, the things that have been your
gods, your face, your job, your pleasures, your children, your sexual partner, your business
ambitions, the thing that possesses you, regulates you, dominates
you, determines your value systems, that's your idol, you must turn
from your idols to God, through Christ. Your heart must be set
on the world to come. You turned unto God from your
idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for
His Son out of the heavens. You see, this idea that you can
receive the pardon and mercy of God and then it's optional
whether or not you'll serve God is a doctrine spawned in hell
and it'll take you right to the place where it was spawned if
you believe it and rest on it. If you've not turned to God with
a disposition to serve Him, not out of a legal fear, not out
of an oppressive sense, well, if I don't serve God, I'll go
to hell. You've seen the glory of God
in the face of Christ. You've beheld the beauty and
the loveliness of Christ in the Gospel. And you've turned to
this God who so loved has to give his only begotten Son, and
you've said with Paul, Lord, what will you have me to do?
In the language of the hymn writer, hear, Lord, I give myself away,
which is all that I can do. Is that true of you, my friend?
Could Paul say of you as he said of the Thessalonians, I don't
need to give a report. I go into a town and I say, hey
folks, have you heard what God did at Thessalonica? I want to
tell you. They say, Paul, you're too late. We've already heard.
Well, what did you hear? We heard that when you came to
Thessalonica, the gospel came not in word only, but in power
and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance. Oh, Paul says,
you heard that? Yes. And how did you know that
it came in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance?
Oh, Paul, we heard. Everybody fell off the chairs
with gales of holy laughter. The Holy Ghost was coming. Is
that what Paul wrote? No. No, he didn't say that. How do you know that the Holy
Spirit came and the Word came in power? How do you know this
report is accurate? People all raised a hand, prayed
the prayer, and walked an aisle. No, Paul says, they themselves
report of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how that
you turned unto God from your idols to serve the living and
the true God, and to wait for His Son out of the heavens. Even
Jesus, who was raised from the dead, who delivers us from the
wrath to come. I want to make it as plain as
I knew I would have to make it, attempt to make it. Did I have
a revelation? I was to stand before God in
half an hour. Hear me every man, woman, boy,
or girl. If your professed experience
of the salvation of God in Christ has not brought you to the place
where you have from the heart repudiated the worship of anything
or anyone, any ambition, any goal, if you have not turned
from your idols unto God with a disposition to serve Him in
love according to the revelation of His will in the Word, and
to seek to be prepared for a better world, and to become more and
more like Christ in preparation for that world, then my friend,
you have not been delivered by Christ from the coming wrath.
I don't know how to state it more bluntly and more biblically. And that day of coming wrath
is sure to dawn, and when it arrives, only penitent, believing,
converted people will be delivered from its fury But thank God every
penitent, believing, converted man, woman, boy or girl shall
be delivered from its fury. Bold shall I stand in thy great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay fully absolved from
these I am from sin and fear and death. and shame Jesus thy
blood and righteousness my beauty are my glorious dress midst flaming
worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head are
you tempted to go out and say I heard this stuff before another
preacher getting worked up doing his thing trying to get me upset
and rattle my cage My friend, oh my friend, in God's name,
don't blow me off so lightly. Because if you'll read on in
this very book of the Revelation in chapter 14, there are words
I've never dared preach on them, I've quoted them. I don't know
if my humanity could stand the weight of preaching them. For
it says the smoke of their torment should ascend up forever and
forever. and they have no rest day nor
night. God help you if you treat these
things lightly. The smoke issuing from their
torment shall ascend up forever and forever and they have no
rest day nor night. Jesus Meek, lowly, tender, Jesus
said, it is a place where their worm dies not, and the fire is
never quenched. If a maggot is to live, it must
have something to feed upon. Jesus uses gross imagery. He said, in hell, their worm
never dies. the gnawing of conscience and
of memory, bringing back nights like tonight, when a preacher
told you of a coming day of wrath, and he told you you deserved
it, and he told you Christ alone could deliver you from it, and
he told you how you had to go to Christ to be delivered, and
you spurned it and turned away. And you will remember, and there
will be the gnawing of that worm of remembrance. In the conscious
torment of separation from God, their worm dies not, because
it always has something to feed upon. And if fire is never to
be quenched, it's because fuel is continually there to be consumed. If you do not continue to put
the logs in the fireplace, eventually the embers die down and the fire
goes out. If the fire is never quenched,
it's because the fuel is ever supplied. There will be a frightening
support of Almighty God of the body and soul of everyone in
hell, that His fury and His wrath will be vented forever. It's a frightening thing to be
born a human being. It's a frightening thing to be
born a human being. That little dog that you know
has got some kind of life far beyond the flower, beyond even
a bird. But when that dog dies, that's
the end of him. There's no doggy heaven. There's
no doggy hell. But you, a human being, man or
woman, a few more breaths, a few more years, and human history
will be wound down at the coming of the Lord Jesus, and the sixth
seal will be opened, and the day of their wrath will have
come. Where will you be? With the kings? princes, strong ones, bond and
free, begging mountains and rocks to crush you into oblivion? Or will you be found bold in
that day, covered in the righteousness of Christ, transformed in your
nature by the grace and power of Christ through the Holy Spirit,
standing resplendent with the glory of conformity to the image
of Christ by the grace of God. Which will it be? I close with
the words of an old gospel song that back in my days when I used
to move in circles where evangelists had song leaders and soloists
There is much about those days that I'm ashamed of and would
never want to repeat, but there are some things that had elements
of truth that we do well to remember and I shall never forget. A song
that was sung at such meetings, and these are the words, I dreamed
that the great judgment morning had dawned and the trumpet had
blown. I dreamed that the nations had
gathered to judgment before the white throne. From that throne
came a bright shining angel and he stood on the land and the
sea and he swore with his hand raised to heaven that time was
no longer to be. And oh, what a weeping and wailing
when the lost were told of their fate. They cried for the rocks
and the mountains. They prayed, but their prayer
was too late. The moral man came to the judgment,
but his self-righteous rags would not do, for the men who had crucified
Jesus had passed off as moral men too. The man that had put
off salvation, not today, I'll get saved by and by. No time now to think of religion. Alas, he found time. No time now to think of religion. No time now to think of turning
from my idols unto God through Christ. No time now to think
of repentance and faith. No time now to think of religion. Alas, he had found time to die. And oh, what a weeping and a
wailing. And the lost were told of their
fate. They cried for the rocks and
the mountains. They prayed. But their prayer
was too late. For the great day of their wrath
has come. And who shall be able to stand? The great day of their wrath
has come. And who shall be able to stand? Only those who are in Christ. They shall stand. And they shall
in that day, according to the passage read in our hearing,
be the very theater within which God displays the glory of His
grace to the whole moral universe. Which will you be? theater to
display his glory, or shriveling, cringing in rocks and caves,
crying to be obliterated, rather than meet the wrath of the Lamb. Let us pray. Oh, our Father, we plead, we
beg of you in the name of your beloved Son. Will you not even
now come and seal your word with power that none who this very
moment are under your wrath in their sin and unbelief would
be able to rise up from their seats and saunter out of this
building and back into their cars and back to their homes
business as usual my father our father have mercy and arrest
men and women and boys and girls lest they destroy themselves
in their willful ignorance unbelief and love of sin We who by your
grace have been wakened up from wrath to flee, who have been
hidden in the Savior's side by the Spirit sanctified, how we
thank you, oh, how we thank you that we shall never know the
wrath of the Lamb. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that
you bore all of the wrath that we deserve. that we might wait
for your coming out of the heavens with joy and not with cringing
fear. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen.