difficult for me to deal with. The subject that I think is very
hard to preach about is judgment. I love to preach the gospel of
God's saving grace and we do that even in preaching judgment. And it's delightful to set forth
the good news of the forgiveness of sins and salvation in the
Lord Jesus to poor sinners like us. It's delightful to set forth
that message. And I'm glad to say to each of
you today that there is a blessed Savior who entered into this
world to save unworthy sinners by His substitutionary death
on the cross. And all who flee to Him, all
who come to Him out of their neediness, out of
their emptiness, Even coming in their sinfulness,
all who come to him, he said, he will receive. And he will
in no wise cast out. That's an easy subject to handle,
isn't it? But a more difficult subject
to handle is judgment. And yet, if we're going to be
honest before God and truthful, setting forth His Word, we've
also got to set forth judgment that is to come. I'd be a very
poor minister and very unfaithful to my calling if I did not stand
to warn those who love not the Lord Jesus of the end that they
face without Christ. You have no idea of the terrors
of a holy God. You just don't know who you're
dealing with. He is just and He is righteous. And He must, He must punish sin. There is coming a day, and you
know this to be true, a day of judgment. In respect to the judge,
all of the word of God with one voice assures us the Lord Jesus
will be the judge of the quick and the dead. This, among the
other characters of our Lord Jesus, is one which he has the
privilege to exercise according to His will because He has been
given this right as the Son of Man. We read in the book of John
chapter 5 that the Father has committed all judgment to the
Son, that is, the Son of Man. No judgment would ever be committed
to Jesus Christ, our Savior, as the Son of God. He has that
right, being God Himself. But as the Son of Man, He has
merited the right to judge by virtue of finishing the work
of redemption that the Father gave Him to do upon the cross
of Calvary. He is the Son of Man. And that which endears the Savior,
one of the many things that endears the Savior to the hearts of His
people, is that He carries on the work
of being our mediator right on through to the very
end of the age. He represents us before the Father. We're never without a high priest. We always have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he carries on
his work with great tenderness and with great love and with
great mercy. But that is not his only attribute,
being kind and tender to his people. For the scripture says
he will be the judge of the quick, the quick and the dead. I think of that passage in Isaiah,
Behold the goodness of God, excuse me in Romans, Behold the goodness
of God and the severity of God. We love to speak about the goodness
of our Lord Jesus Christ and He is good to us. He is a friend
who is taken closer than a brother. He is the one who gave His life's
blood that we would live forever. But He is also the righteous
judge. Our brother read to us from the
Psalms. He's coming in judgment. Judgment according to righteousness. He is our Savior, and He's coming
as the judge. The Scripture says in Acts 17,
He will come to judge the world in righteousness and to minister
true judgment to the people. And whether you choose to think
about it, may God enable you to think about this, or whether
you choose not to think about it, we're all going to the judgment. I don't care who you are, all
of mankind will appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Now, he's gonna minister, our
Lord Jesus is going to minister true judgment unto his people. And at the judgment, I can't
tell you all the particulars about the judgment, but I do
know this about the judgment of the Lord Jesus. When he comes
again, it will not be to put His people on trial. We've already been tried at the
cross. You see, our righteousness has
already been established. And so at the judgment, when
the Lord Jesus comes back and He gathers all men unto Himself,
and here they are, and the dead, the righteous and the unrighteous,
those who believe and those who don't believe. It will not be
for a determination as to whether these righteous ones are going
to be accepted by God, because we've always been accepted by
God. That's what it says there in
Ephesians chapter one, accepted in the beloved due to God's covenant
of grace. due to the fact that God has
chosen us in Christ Jesus and He predestinated us under the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself to the praise
of the glory of His grace wherein He has made us accepted. He has
graced us to be graced in Christ Jesus and we read that's before
the foundation of the world. So it's not going to be to put
us on trial. Well then, what will the judgment
be as far as the people of God is concerned? A public declaration. These are my people. These are mine in that day. These
are my jewels. These are my children. And the Lord Jesus will present
us to the Father in that day without spot and without blemish. Father, behold, I and the children
thou hast given to me. What will the judgment be for
the people of God? A declaration that we are accepted
in the Beloved. public declaration before the
angels, before the demons, before all of the ungodly, before heaven,
earth and hell. These are mine. These are my
redeemed ones. I have loved them. with an everlasting
love. They have been given, the Savior
will say to me in covenant grace, and I have redeemed them, and
they are forgiven of all of their sins due to my bloody sacrifice,
and they're robed in my righteousness that I established for them.
And that day He will receive all the glory. You see, all true believers,
we are in a justified state right now. And though in that day we will
be glorified, we won't be any more justified than we are now. Righteous in Christ Jesus. We've already found pardon in
the blood of the Son of God. We have already, the Scripture
says, passed from death unto life. There is therefore now
no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. There's no possibility
of condemnation. So this is not the judgment for
the people of God, will not be the issue of putting us on trial. As a judge would put a condemned
one on trial to weigh whether he is to be found someone who
is accused as to whether he'll be found innocent or guilty.
That has already been established. And this is our good hope. We
have a good hope through grace. That's the reason we can look
forward to the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, when He comes to be glorified in the saints, and to be admired
in all of them that believe. That's what it says in 1 Thessalonians
1, verses 8, 9, and 10. This is a sweet, consoling, and
reviving thought to the people of God. The King will say to
us, to all of his people, to all
who believe the Lord Jesus Christ, he's gonna say, come ye blessed
of my Father from the foundation of the world, enter into the
kingdom prepared for you. And we will be with him forever.
But there's gonna be another group of people there. Will you be in that number? I
don't know. It's everybody who won't believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'll go further. It's everybody
who dies in their sins. It's everybody who dies unforgiven. It's everybody who dies without
a Savior. It's everybody who dies in their
own self-righteous rags, in their filthiness. You see, the Scripture
says, he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. You can listen to these preachers
or whoever that says, hey, there's a second chance. After you die,
you'll have another chance. That's wrong. That's wrong. Death. Death. It doesn't end
at all. But as you die, as death finds
you, it is for certain eternity's gonna keep you. As you die, as death finds you,
eternity's gonna keep you. That's for certain. To those who die in unbelief,
who die in their sins, the Lord Jesus will say, and this is He's
the brother of His people, right? He's the elder brother of His
people, full of kindness and compassion and mercy and love. But He is to those who will not
believe Him, to those who die in rebellion, He will be to them
the very strictest of judges. There will be no leniency. There will be no mercy. And so He will say to those on
His left hand at the judgment, Depart from Me, you cursed! You're cursed! You see, some
are blessed, right? Some are blessed. Ephesians chapter
one, we just sang the song a while ago that's taken from Ephesians
one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. The Son of God, He's
the source, He's the fount, He's the reservoir of every blessing. But those who die without Him,
He will be the reservoir of every curse. Every curse. Depart from me, He will say.
Even to those who've been religious and done many things in His name. I was telling the Bible class
this morning, Nancy and I passed by a large church in the Ashland,
General Ashland community, and they're always doing a lot of
works, a lot of things, and they feed the poor and they have They
have clothes that they give away, and a big old food pantry, and
I don't find any fault with all of those things. They've got
everything except one thing. The gospel. The only thing that
God has left His church to do is really preach the gospel.
They do everything else, and they do it all in the name of
the Lord. in the name of the Lord. And
to those people, oh what a shock it's going to be in the day of
judgment. To people who have committed
themselves and dedicated to doing good, and I'm not against doing
good for your neighbors, but that isn't the gospel. The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. The gospel is the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the full grace of God to
undeserving sinners through the Lord Jesus. That's the gospel. The gospel isn't something you've
got to do. The gospel is sinner. It's already
done. The work is finished. And here
are these people doing all of these things. We're doing all
of these things in Jesus' name. And in the judgment, he will say
to them, depart from me. I never knew you. You're just
workers of iniquity. That's all you are. Oh my, workers
of iniquity? And the judge who is righteous,
the judge who must do right, he must cast them away. Judgment. We're talking about the seven
vials of wrath. We're talking about the judgment
of God here in Revelation chapter 16. These are vials, golden vials
of wrath, golden vials of judgment. The first few are being poured
out upon men and women throughout the age, the last ones at the
very end. You can always be certain of
this, God is just in all of His ways. The Lord told Abraham, In fact, the Lord said to Himself,
shall I hide what I'm going to do from Abraham, my friend? God's going to destroy Sodom
and Gomorrah and the cities of the plains for their vileness. Ezekiel says, for their pride. The Lord pulled Abraham aside
and He said, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And to get
down to the end of that conversation the Lord had with Abraham, Abraham
said this, surely the God of the earth will do right. He will do right. I spoke with someone last week
about a loved one who had died. wasn't sure whether they died
in Christ or out of Christ. And I said, well, we can rejoice
in this, like Abraham said, surely the God of the earth will do
what's right. He'll always do right. Got to
leave it with that. You know, I say I hope so-and-so
died in Christ Jesus. I hope they knew the grace of
God. I hope God had been merciful to them. But I know this, when
everybody breathes their last breath, the God of heaven, earth,
and hell will do what's right by them. And He's going to get
glory. And we'll leave it at that. John sees these angels pouring
out their vials. In verse 8, he gets to the fourth
angel. The fourth angel poured out his
vial upon the sun. Power was given to the sun to
scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with great
heat. They blasphemed the name of God which hath power over
these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory. When you
read here of the Son, how can you not think of Christ Jesus,
the Son of Righteousness? You see, just like there's one,
we have, we have one Son in the sky, S-U-N. And no matter where
you live on the earth, it's one Son. One Son for everybody. It doesn't matter who you are.
Doesn't matter what your nationality is. Doesn't matter your background,
your education or anything like that. It's one sun who provides
really that sunshine we need it for life. There couldn't be
a continuation of life without the sun. There couldn't be a
continuation of light without the Son. There couldn't be a
continuation of warmth without the Son. Nothing would grow without
the Son. We're absolutely dependent, all
of us are fully dependent upon one, one Son. And the Bible speaks
of Christ in the book of Malachi as being the Son of Righteousness.
And He's the one we all need. And He's the only one we need.
And it doesn't matter where you are, where you live, and throughout
the world. What nationality, whatever kind
of achievement you've made, none of those things matter, only
this. You need to know Christ Jesus,
who is the origin of life. You can't live without Him. In
Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He said, I
am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. He's life. He can give you life. He must give you life. And He's
light. He said, I am the light of the
world. And if we had any sense at all,
we'd say, oh Lord, shine your beams of mercy and grace into
my darkened heart right now. He's the son of righteousness. But God can make him to be not the
son that blesses, but the son that scorches. There's something you see in
all of this about People who hear of Christ Jesus, but they
just persist in their unbelief. It's like the water turned to
blood. There's the water. That's what
we need is water. And then what the Lord is going
to do is this. Those who won't have the water,
it'll be blood to you. Blood to you. That's the third
plague. The second and the third plague.
You see, it's like this. The Lord's gonna get blood from
one or the other. A suitable substitute or a vile
sinner, he's gonna get blood. and hear the Lord Jesus who's
the son of righteousness. But he can, he can in his judgment,
in judicial, in a judicial fashion, all of a sudden scorch men even
while they're on the earth. That is he can sear the conscience
as with a hot iron. People who have heard the gospel
over and over again. You remember what he says there
in the book of Matthew? He talks about people of Capernaum
and so forth. He said, if the Gentiles had
heard what you've heard, they'd have repented a long time ago.
But you've heard! And with all of this knowledge
that's being poured into your ears, but there's an absence
of faith, with all of that comes a tremendous amount of responsibility. And when the sun of righteousness
has shined on us and shined on people around us, and yet you're
happy in the darkness, you're content in the darkness, and
you say, this is not for me, I don't want this. There may
be for you a day coming when all of a sudden the sun of righteousness
will scorch you. And then you're dead while you're
alive. I don't know much about Bible deadlines, but I do believe
men can cross them. Men can cross them. And even then when he pours out
the judgment, they continue to blaspheme his name. Blaspheme
the name of the one who's got the power over the plagues. The
only one who can keep it away, who can take him away. and they
don't repent to give him glory. Look at verse 10. Verse 10. The fifth angel poured
out his vial upon the seat of the beast. What is the beast? Well, the beast stands for pagan
world governments. Okay? Pagan world governments
and his kingdom was full of darkness. They gnawed their tongues for
pain. They blasphemed the name of God of heaven because of their
pains and their sores. They repented not of their deeds. This is judgment upon the seat
of the beast. What is the seat of the beast?
It is the very center, it is the very hub of all that's opposed
to the Lord. And this is what the Lord is
going to do. Now I think we're moving right
toward the end. He's going to shake the governments
of this world. Look at verse 12. Here's an interesting
verse. The sixth angel poured out his
vial upon the great river Euphrates. And the water thereof was dried
up that the way of the kings, watch it, in order that the way
of the kings of the east might be prepared. This river to me,
and we know almost all of this is symbolic. This river to me
seems to represent those things that feed and nourish and meet
the needs of the city of Babylon. In the Bible, Babylon is a picture
of false religion. And this river, it is not only
the source of the supplying of the needs of Babylon, but it's
also that which divides. It's a divider. And the Lord,
toward the end of time, He's going to dry up the river. In
other words, He's going to dry up those things that separate
men, so that men, the kingdoms of the world, will be brought
together with false religion. This is the Lord doing this.
Don't ever lose sight of this, these vials of wrath. You know
who's pouring them out? This is not the devil pouring
them out. This is the Lord Jesus pouring
them out. Judgment belongs to Him. And
He's pouring out this violent toward the end of time. People
lots of times ask me, do you think we're in the last days?
We've been in the last days since the Lord Jesus left. Maybe we're in the last days
of the last days though. I don't know. But what this pictures is a great
ecumenical gathering of religions. And here's what's in view. The
Lord is preparing them for Armageddon. It's the Lord who's doing this.
He's drying up that which separates, that which is a barrier like
the Euphrates River. He's drying that up. which the
Euphrates River was a source of supplying the needs of Babylon. So he dries that up in order
that nations will have to come together to get along, to work
together, and religion working with them as well. It's the Lord
doing this because he's gathering them together for a great day
of battle. It's the Lord who's doing this.
Now we'll speak more about Armageddon next Lord's Day. But for now,
remember this. Armageddon is a spiritual warfare. It is a spiritual warfare or
battle. It's been going on ever since
Satan led one third of the angels in rebellion against the Lord.
It will be finished, it will culminate with Satan's all-out
attack upon the Lord Jesus Christ and his people, and then will
come the end of Satan and the end of his attacks against the
Lord's people. But leading up to that, that
which will happen just before the end, before Satan launches
a full attack, he is going to be given the ability to deceive
multitudes with devilish spirits which he releases in the world.
Three devilish spirits. Here they are, verse 13. I saw
three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the
dragon. There's one. The dragon is Satan. Another one comes out of the
mouth of the beast, that's the pagan world governments. And
the other one out of the mouth of the false prophet, that's
false religion. For they are the spirits of devils,
working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and
of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great
day of God Almighty. In other words, this is all according
to God's purpose. to draw all of these enemies
together. How many enemies does God have? Multitudes. Satan, the third
of the angels, all non-believers. The Lord is gathering them all
together. And this is what is a blessing
to the people of God to remember. All of these things are happening.
according to God's sovereign will. He's the one who's directing
these things. Because these are His vials of
wrath. And these false prophets, they
come out of the mouths of these evil ones, the dragon, the beast,
and the false prophet. They're called frogs. I can hear
them croaking already. Oh yeah. A lot of croaking going
on amongst false prophets, these unclean, filthy spirits. I tell
you, they're unclean and their message is also unclean. It's
a filthy message. And if you believe that message,
you'll be filthy. The only message that will wash
you is the message of redeeming grace. The only message that
will wash you and make you to be fully cleansed of all sin
before God is the substitutionary atoning death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Any other message, oh, it'll
be religious, but you'll still be filthy. You'll still be unclean. These false prophets who come
out of the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet
are like nothing but frogs. Why? Well, I'll give you several
reasons. Number one, frogs are creatures
of the night. They love darkness. They live,
they feed, they croak, they make themselves known in the kingdom
of darkness. They share the darkness with
other creatures. of darkness. Satan's kingdom
is a kingdom of darkness. Thank God, the Lord's people,
we've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of God's dear Son, the kingdom of light. But you
see, men love darkness because their deeds are evil. Darkness,
you see, is error. Darkness is ignorance. Darkness
is in opposition to the light. These false prophets have as
their goal to keep men from the light. That is their goal always. This is what the Prince of Darkness
wants. He doesn't care if you're religious.
He doesn't care if you carry a Bible. He just wants you to
stay out of the light. Don't come to the light. The
Lord Jesus is the light. You want to be religious? Fine.
You want to count beads? Fine. You want to be baptized
for your salvation? Fine. All of those things are
fine to the dragon, to Satan. That's okay. Now if you're wild,
if you're wicked, that's of him as well, but more so false religion. He loves that. He just wants
to keep you from the light. Oh may God pierce our darkness
with the light. You see, the goal of these creatures
of darkness is to lead you into everlasting darkness. I'll tell you something else.
Frogs often camouflage themselves so they're actually not visible
as frogs. In other words, they blend into
their surroundings. False prophets. They don't reveal
their real identity. Scripture says in 2 Corinthians
11, they transform themselves into angels of light, but don't
be deceived by them. They wear a disguise. They wear
a disguise. They're wolves dressed in sheep's
clothing. That's why the Savior said, beware
of them. He wouldn't have said, beware
of false prophets if you didn't need to be aware of them. Beware
of these frogs. They don't announce themselves
to be frogs, devouring lions. They don't announce
themselves to be enemies of your soul. But they're deadly. In fact, it brings me to the
third thing. Frogs pretend to be harmless. But I'll tell you
what, they're ready to shoot out their long, sticky tongues
upon the unsuspecting. It's a deadly, deadly poison
they have in their mouths. It's what they say. There's the
deadliness. But he's such a nice man. He
got poison in his mouth and he spews it out. But he's so loving,
he's such a kind preacher. He's at the hospital, he's doing
this, he's doing that. Venom, venom is in his mouth,
deadly. I read about a frog in Peru and
Ecuador. It has enough toxin just on its
skin to kill five adult human beings. And I'll tell you, these frogs,
these three unclean frogs, they may appear to be harmless. False
religion, you hear me, false religion is deadly poison. It'll
kill you. It'll kill you forever. It's a deadly message. I'll tell
you something else about frogs. They're loud. We were sitting on the back porch
last evening, raining, and Nancy said, listen to all
the frogs. Man, it's like we lived in a swamp area or something. They're just croaking away. They
seem to be everywhere. There's something about the sound
of frogs. They just pierce through the
night. It's as though they demand to
be heard. And you can't ignore them. That's
the way it is with false prophets. They're everywhere. They demand
to be heard. I'll tell you something else
about frogs. They have their origin in the filth of mud. It
lives in the mud and it's quite comfortable in the mud. These
false prophets, they love the mud and the filth of error and
heresy, and they're only happy when they can pull people into
the mud with them. And on Mondays they brag about,
I got more people. Yeah, you pulled them into the
mud with you. It's like the Lord said about
the Pharisees. They're the blind leading the
blind. They're all going to fall in
the ditch. Another thing about frogs, they
endure all seasons of the year. They find a way to survive. They can exist in very hot climates,
of course, and they can exist in very cold climates. You see,
they adapt. They find a way to survive and
continue. And boy, that's false religion.
It finds a way to thrive and continue. In fact, false prophets, they
continually reinvent themselves. Always coming up with something
new, something different, something more exciting. Some frogs are quite colorful. They appear to be beautiful.
But underneath that layer of beauty, there's still frogs. And I'll tell you this, frogs
can swell up in size. Distend the cheek as though full
of pride. And it's the Lord who is ultimately,
He's the one who's pouring out this golden vial of wrath. He's
pouring out the frogs. I'm telling you, this generation
is under the judgment of God. Because folks wouldn't have the
truth. They wouldn't believe the truth.
And so the Lord just sends... Read 2 Thessalonians 2. You won't believe the Gospel?
You won't have Christ only? You won't believe the message
of grace? God says, I'll send you something you will believe.
I'll send you a lie. You'll believe it? Then I'm going
to damn you for it. Is that what it says? That's
exactly what it says in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. Who do you think?
You're not playing games here. We're talking about dealing with
God. And you kind of snub your nose at the gospel of grace of
the Lord Jesus Christ and God in His mercy brings you in here
to listen to the truth about Jesus Christ and His blood and
His righteousness and you go out and say, that's not the message
for me. Oh boy, judgments, judgment awaits
you, unless God's pleased to show you mercy. You see, frogs, that's one of
the judgments God sent upon Egypt. And you know what it says? They
stank up the land. They stank up the land. And you
may think I'm overly critical and you're welcome to your opinion
if you want to, if you believe that. But I'll tell you what
false religious preachers are doing. They're stinking up the
land. That's what they're doing. I pray that God will be merciful
to them because I was one up for a while. He is merciful to
me. But they stink up the land. They
set forth a message that is contrary to this book of Jesus Christ
and Him only. Him crucified. Judgment. Oh, flee to the Savior. Oh, run
to Christ Jesus as fast as you can in your heart. May He draw
you to Himself. Let's sing,