It's good to see you this morning,
and again, we are thankful for another day. I'd like to read you a little
update concerning David Bird that Carl and I have received. Jim and Nancy, his parents, arrived. in Japan and it says, I wanted
to let everyone know that David went home from the hospital on
their Thursday, which actually it says 13 hours ahead of us. And so it would have been latter
part of last week. And he says, I was able to talk
with him last night. And he sounded really well. He seemed to be in good spirits.
Of course, it says we're very thankful that he's alive. And
it said he's going to have a long road to recovery, but he is doing
well. He's no longer being fed through
a tube in his nose that's been out for a little over a week.
And he's able to take soft food and liquids. And they've taken
the trach tube out of his neck and he's able to join Jim and
Nancy and his wife, a Japanese name, met him in the courtyard
of the hospital. And it said that he planned the
next day to, and of course this is a little over a week since
this has been written, but he was wanting to take Jim and Nancy
to show where the incident happened. It says that we're thankful and
it's a remarkable thing that it's occurred a little over three
weeks ago and already he's able to do these things. Truly the
Lord has continued to bless David and his family during this time. So every time you think about
David Byrd, that's brother Jim Byrd's son, he and his wife Nancy's
son, living in Japan. A very, very serious accident
that took place just over three weeks ago. Remember them every
time you think of them. Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Revelation, chapter 18, Revelation 18. Lord willing, I'd like to. consider
the last four verses of the 18th chapter. But before we do, let's
have a word of prayer. Our Father, we truly do thank
You that we have this time to be able to be together. And Lord,
the realization of the privilege of being able to be here so far
escapes our thoughts. that we ask your forgiveness
for it, for the honor that we have to be able to hear the Word
of God. We pray that you would bless
this Word to our heart and our understanding. We ask your forgiveness
where we've failed you. We pray that you would teach
us through your Word, and we ask these things for Christ's
sake. Amen. the Apostle John on the Isle
of Patmos, the Lord has revealed some things to him that we would
absolutely never know had the Lord not blessed this man and
us through what the Lord has been pleased to show. John, the Scripture sets forth that
God is going to judge. We know that. Now, for God's
people, here's the blessing. Almighty God has judged us in
Christ already. For all of the elect, for all
of the sheep, for all of the church, for all of the bride,
for all that God has everlastingly set His affection on, there's
no condemnation. There's no condemnation to them
that be in Christ Jesus. And as I've said before, how
long have we been in Christ? Always. Chosen in Him. before the foundation
of the world, holy and without blame before Him in love. He said, I have always loved
you. The Spirit of God revealed to
John, last week we looked at this in the 20th verse of the
18th chapter, and said this, Rejoice. Rejoice over her. Thou, heaven,
and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. Rejoice. If you are here this
morning and the Lord has called you out of darkness and revealed
to you your hope in the Lord Jesus Christ, rejoice in the
Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice. Some
of the apostles had come to the Lord and they were rejoicing
one day that the evil spirits were subject to them. And the
Lord told them, Rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto
you, but rejoice rather because your names are written in heaven.
That Almighty God had written your name in Christ in His eternal
decree and love, mercy and compassion. We've got all to rejoice in. Be glad. Be thankful. And these last four verses of
the 18th chapter of the book of Revelation, there's three
things that I want us to consider concerning the promise of God's
justice. And we're thankful. God is a
just God. He said, I'm a Savior, but He's
just. Men today want to center or focus
their attention on the love of God, and they do it in a sense
that they're trying to set forth that God is being a God of love,
that He's not going to be just. That somehow everything's going
to end up OK and it just doesn't matter as long as people are
sincere. That God is going to just kind
of overlook it and Almighty God is a just God and for that we're
thankful. Almighty God. Has set forth to
his people. He's fair. And that is the stability
of my hope. That God is fair. If He's put
away my guilt in Christ, and has imputed to me the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm secure. Because God is just. He will justly, if He's put away
my guilt in Christ, He will justly forgive me. for my faults. He'll justly do that. It's the
right thing. If He's put away my guilt in
a substitute, if He's paid all of my debt for every act, every
thought of rebellion against God, if it was all laid on Him,
He laid on Him the iniquity of us all, that is, all that He's
everlastingly loved. The Lord said, I lay down my
life for the sheep. So we qualify that by saying
this, when he said he laid on him the iniquity of us all, that
is, all of God's church. If he's paid the debt, if he
paid the debt, if he paid the guilt of all that I've ever done,
then God justly forgives me for every act, every thought of rebellion. He does it justly. It's the right
thing that He forgives me, Bob. For that, I'm thankful. He doesn't
forgive His people in a flippant, airy, unjust way. He forgives them for Christ's
sake. And I find great comfort in that. Three things concerning the justice
of Almighty God. Number one, it's sure. The justice of God is sure. Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ
went to Calvary, whenever He was made sin, when upon that tree He hung,
when He laid down His life, When He spread His hands and gave
His feet and His side and His head on that crown of thorns,
when He gave Himself, made sin, Almighty God forsook
Him. Why? He is of pure eyes. And to behold, iniquity forsook
Him. He forsook Him that He would
not forsake me. But justice was sure, absolutely
sure. The Scripture says in Revelation
18, 21, And a mighty angel took up a stone, like a great millstone,
and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that
great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more
at all. Here it is in Revelation 18,
talking about the surety that God is going to judge. It's not
the first time this was brought up. Turn over to Jeremiah 51. Jeremiah 51. God had spoken through
the prophet Jeremiah. And he was talking about this
city, Babylon, this city of rebellion, this city of false religion,
this city that has raised herself up and got herself, as far as
the world is concerned, in the forefront. In Jeremiah 51 and
in verse 52, The scripture says, Wherefore,
behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will do judgment
upon her graven images, and through all her land the wounded shall
groan. Though Babylon should mount up
to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength,
yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith the Lord. Now listen. Is of God. It's right. It's fair. When Almighty God. In the day
of judgment. Puts men in hell for their rebellion. Do you know what all the church
is going to say? Hallelujah. You're right. You're right. If God Almighty leaves a man
or leaves a woman to themselves to do what they want to do, when
God puts them in hell, He puts them in hell in justice. It is
right. The Lord said, ìI will send spoilers.î
Look at verse 56, ìBecause the spoiler is come upon her, even
upon Babylon, and her mighty men are taking every one of every
one of their bows is broken, for the Lord God is of recompenses,
so surely requite, and I will make drunk her princes, her wise
men, her captains, her rulers, and her mighty men, and they
shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the king
whose name is the Lord of hosts." Look at verse 60. So Jeremiah
wrote in a book, all the evil that should come upon Babylon,
even all these words that were written against Babylon. Verse
63, And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this
book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, cast it into the midst
of Euphrates. And thou shalt say, Thus shall
Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring
upon her. And they shall be weary thus
far, are the words of Jeremiah. Almighty God promised, this is
what's going to happen. Men are thinking that everything's
going to be fine. God said His justice is sure. Christ went to the cross, justice
was sure. What was happening at the cross?
God was being just. It's fair. I, uh, when I, when I grew up, I, uh, I could, I can tell you
for a fact, my dad's no longer with us, but, uh, there was one
thing that I could just about bank on. I can tell you this.
If he told me he was going to whip me for something, buddy,
write it down. Man, I'm telling you, he was
pretty straight on that. Concerning the Lord's promise,
Matthew 24, 35, he said, Heaven and earth shall pass away, but
my words shall not pass away. You know, do you know what men
by nature don't know right now? Is that God's going to be just.
God's going to be just. Listen to me. Leave this world
without a heart that loves Christ. Try to just get whatever you
can out of people. Try to get whatever you can out
of the church. Try to do whatever you can do. Do whatever you can. But listen to what I'm saying.
You leave this world without Christ. without a love for Christ,
a heart for Christ, and you're gone. You're gone. You're gone. It's sure. Justice is sure. Jeremiah
prophesied it, and John wrote down, it says in verse 21, a
mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast
it into the sea, saying, just like Jeremiah said, Thus with
violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down and shall
be found no more." Listen, all rebellion is going to be put
down by God. That's a fact. Number two, the first point was
God's justice is sure. Number two, the silence of God's
justice and judgment. The silence of it. Now this is
very This is an amazing passage of
Scripture. It's found in the 22nd and 23rd
verse of Revelation 18. And it says, The voice of harpers,
musicians, of pipers, trumpeters shall be heard no more at all
in thee, and no craftsman of whatsoever craft he be shall
be found any more in thee, and the sound of the millstone shall
be heard no more at no more at all in thee, and the light of
the candle shall no more at all in thee, shall shine no more
in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and the bride shall
be heard no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the great
men of the earth, for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." Today, men by nature, we're actually lulled to sleep by the
sounds of activity and presumption. Now this is what I'm talking
about. We get up on, pick any day, I don't care what day it
is, any day, and the activity of that day is just, it has a
sound about it of, you know, quietness, everything's okay.
A man gets up and goes to work on Monday morning, Tuesday, Thursday,
Friday. He goes, Saturday he's got, you
know, got some stuff I've got to do. I've got to mow the grass. I've got to do this. Sunday,
you know, Sunday I only have a certain amount of days, you
know, to do what I need to do. And I need my leisure. And I've
got, you know, I've got things. I've got my investments. I may
do church today. I don't know. Maybe I'll go to,
maybe, you know, it's Easter or, you know, we'll go and we'll
have the sounds of church. You know, we'll have the, you
know, but the day has a sound about it, whether it's craftsmen
or whether it's pipers or whether it's music or whether every day
has a sound. And this is normal. This is a
normal day. I mean, it's just, It's just
work. You hear people, Gary, you go to work and you get there
and you get whatever you've got to do and you go mark whatever. I mean, it's just stuff. I mean, every day has got the
sound of the day. Sounds right to me. I mean, this
is the way it's been. And it's going to be like this.
This is the way it's going to be. I've got my job. I'm going
to retire it, you know, whatever, 65 years old, I'm going to. So security, I've been put a
little bit back for investments. Everything sounds right. Everything
sounds good to me. Proverbs 27, one says, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, thou knowest not what a day may bring. Isaiah 56, 12, Come, ye say they,
I will fetch wine, and we'll fill ourselves with strong drink,
and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant. It's going to be fine. Everything's fine. We're OK. It sounds, the voice of harpers
and, you know, Musicians, pipers, craftsmen. Sounds like work to
me. Sounds like progress to me. Everything's going on. We're
having a little glitch right now in the stock market. And the whole world economy is
kind of teetering right now. But we've done this before. Don't worry about it. This ain't
no big deal. Oh, we're getting ready to, you
know, we'll have, you know, change. Change is coming. Don't worry
about it. Everything's fine. You know,
we got some great buying opportunities coming up in the market. It's
going to be great. You don't know that. You don't
know that. Sounds like activity to me. This
is America. We're in good shape. Preparing for many years of leisure,
enjoyment. Luke 12, 19 says, I will say
to my soul, soul, thou hast much good laid up for many years.
Take thine ease. Eat, drink, and be merry. These sounds that John is describing
here, these are the sounds of false security. Sounds like work,
sounds like leisure, sounds like religion, sounds like it just
sounds right. Just, you know, today sounds
like last Sunday. Tomorrow is going to sound like
last Monday. But there's something that's
stated in here that is very revealing about the silence of God's judgment
is found in the 23rd verse when the Lord says that in the day
of judgment these sounds are not going to be heard anymore.
They have been heard today. We hear them today. Sound like,
I mean, you know, you'll get done and after this we're going
to go, what are we going to do? I don't know, we'll go get something
to eat, we'll do something this afternoon. It's going to just sound like
a Sunday afternoon. It's going to be fine. Why? Because in the morning we're
going back to work, we'll watch a ball game this afternoon. That's
what Sundays sound like this time of year. But listen to the silence of
the judgment of God. Verse 23, middle of the part,
the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride. shall be heard
no more at all in thee." If you want to know what the
sound or the silence of the judgment of God is when you don't hear
the gospel anymore. The sound of coming judgment. The sound of sure judgment. is being heard today. There's
coming a day in the day of God's final judgment, the great white
throne judgment. I can tell you for a fact it'll
be over. There'll be no more gospel preached. You won't hear
it anymore. But here's the silence of coming judgment. The scarcity
of the hearing of the gospel today. Not the scarcity of religion. There's so much religion today.
It's booming. Religion is booming. When I tell
you that religion is a big business and it's doing, as far as they're
concerned, great, but finding a place where you can hear the
gospel of free grace, it's so scarce. It is getting
to me. Now, this is just me. You whatever
you think it's getting to a point, Jeff, to where you find one or
two places in a state. That's a bunch. I can show you
a lot of states that I know of that there is no gospel. Very
few places, very, very few places where you can hear the honor
of Almighty God And electing sovereign saving grace, not not
not free will religion. That's anywhere. We just get
out here. We'd be there in just a minute.
But I'm talking about true gospel preaching where God is honored. It's few. Amos 811, behold, the
days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in
the land. Not a famine of bread, nor thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord." I've had preachers ask me, different
ones ask me, said, have you noticed that there's not a lot of young,
upcoming preachers? I said, yeah, I've noticed it.
Most of the preachers that I know, they're getting older. And there
doesn't seem to be a lot of them coming up. Not really. The days
in which the Lord sends no more preachers, no more sounds of
free grace, no more herald of comfort. Write it down. You're seeing impending judgment.
People speak of God's judgment and they dwell on the economy
and all the other temporal stuff. Let me tell you something. That's
not the evidence of God's judgment. I mean, I'm telling you, this
world is going to go out in full swing. Believe me, people will
be making money and that's not it. The evidence or the lack
of the hearing of the gospel, there's the evidence. Look around. I'm telling you the truth. where
you find a scarcity of the hearing of the gospel of free grace,
you write it down. Judgment is coming. Thirdly and lastly, the reason
for God's judgment. Verse 24, ìIn her was found the
blood of the prophets, saints of all that were slain upon the
earth.î God sends judgment. I started
this message by saying God sends judgment because the Lord is
fair. When men are either openly hateful
or resentful or rebellious, or when they're silently opposed
to the gospel of free grace, and it's manifested toward God's
preachers, firstly. God's people, but especially
God's preachers. I can tell you this, it's an
evidence of a man's hatefulness toward God when God's preachers
are resented. I think Brother Scott knows something
about this, but men that openly oppose the preacher, the prophets
that God sends. Whenever there is a resentment,
and it says here, and in her was found the blood of the prophets
and the saints and all that were slain upon the earth, a man may
leave this world and die of what we would call natural causes,
but the resentment and the rebellion against whom he preached is hatred
toward him, yes, but it's hatred toward God. When Paul the Apostle,
or Saul of Tarsus at the time, was on the road to Damascus and
the Lord knocked him off his high horse, what were the words
of the Lord to him? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? Well, was it actually the Lord
that Paul was actually persecuting? Yes. How is that in his people? You hate and resent and resist
the people of God. It's resistance toward God Himself.
And the blood, you know, well, I never killed Him. In your heart
you did. You hated Him. You resisted Him. And your resistance was toward
Almighty God. The Lord said, when you've done
to the least of one of these, my brethren, you've done it to
me. Open rebellion. is a way in which we resist God
Almighty. But on the other hand, to not
embrace the God that is preached by faithful preachers, to not
embrace it, is to hate God. Men will be held accountable
not only for what they did in the day of judgment, but for
what they didn't do. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
Katy, West Virginia, I've told you this before, is a blessed
place. I'm sure I'm prejudiced. No doubt
about that. But I'm going to tell you something.
This place still amazes me that it's still here. Because I've
said before, very few places that I know of or have ever read
of where there was ever a long pastorate is what Brother Henry
Mahan wrote to Brother Scott in a letter that Brother Scott
allowed me to read. Brother Henry said this. He said,
very few places that I know of or ever read of that the Lord
ever allowed after a long pastorate, 50 plus years, that God ever
allowed that congregation to stay there. Most of the time,
He removed it. Metropolitan Tabernacle, if I'm
not wrong, after five years, I think it was four, but after
five years it was gone. That's where Charles Spurgeon
was. Most places are not there anymore. But God has allowed
this place to be here, at least for one more Sunday, and for
that I'm thankful. But whether or not He'll allow
it to be here, I can tell you this, the reason for God's judgment
is fair. Whenever God's preachers are
resisted, God's people are resisted, it's a resisting to God Almighty. And men will leave this world
in absolute justice. David said in Psalm 122.1, and
there's some here today that understand what he said. He said,
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go to the house of
the Lord. There's some that Almighty God
has given a heart to be glad to be here, not to abuse the
church, not to use it, but to just be glad that they could
be here to hear the Word of God. May God Almighty be pleased to
bless this Word to His glory and to our good. We'll take about
a five minute break and we'll be right back.