Bootstrap
Jim Byrd

Changing Water to Blood

Revelation 16:1-7
Jim Byrd April, 15 2018 Video & Audio
0 Comments
Jim Byrd
Jim Byrd April, 15 2018
What does the Bible say about the wrath of God?

The Bible teaches that God's wrath is a just response to sin, measured according to what individuals deserve.

The Scriptures affirm that God's wrath is not arbitrary but is measured and just, reflecting His holy nature. In Revelation 16, we see that the wrath of God is poured out in vials that are filled in proportion to the sins of mankind. This reflects God's righteousness; He only dispenses judgment that corresponds to the sin committed, ensuring that His justice is upheld. It is a grave matter to reject the Gospel, as such rejection leads to the pouring out of God's wrath, which is deserved by those who refuse to believe in Christ. The truth of God's wrath serves to affirm the seriousness of sin and the necessity of grace found in Jesus Christ.

Revelation 16:1-7

How do we know salvation is by grace alone?

Scripture clearly states that salvation is a work of God, devoid of human merit, emphasizing grace as the sole means of redemption.

From Genesis to Revelation, the Bible consistently teaches that salvation is entirely the work of God. Verses like Ephesians 2:8-9 declare, 'For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.' This doctrine underscores that salvation is not based on human effort but solely on God's mercy and the completed work of Christ on the cross. Throughout the sermon, it is reiterated that all aspects of salvation, including faith and repentance, are gifts from God, demonstrating that grace is the foundation of our redemption and relationship with Him.

Ephesians 2:8-9

Why is understanding the nature of sin important for Christians?

Understanding sin's nature is crucial as it helps believers appreciate the depth of God's grace and their need for salvation.

The nature of sin is fundamental to the Christian faith. As outlined in the sermon, sin is described as rebellion against God, an affront to His holiness. Knowledge of sin leads to an understanding of the consequences: separation from God and the necessity for redemption. Recognizing that we are all sinners—born in opposition to God—clarifies our inherent need for His grace. By acknowledging our sinful condition, we more fully grasp the immense grace that God offers through Christ's sacrificial death. This recognition fosters humility, gratitude, and a deeper love for the Savior, as we understand that mercy bestowed upon us is entirely unmerited.

Psalm 51:4, James 2:10

What does it mean to come to Christ for salvation?

Coming to Christ means acknowledging Him as the sole source of salvation and relying on His grace, not personal works.

To come to Christ for salvation involves recognizing our total inability to save ourselves and our desperate need for His grace. It’s about coming to Him with a heart full of need, understanding that all we bring is our sinfulness. As preached in the sermon, this coming is not about physical actions like walking an aisle, but rather an inward act of faith wherein a person acknowledges Christ as their only hope. It highlights the necessity of yielding to Christ, accepting His sacrifice for sin, and trusting entirely in His finished work for salvation. This act of faith leads to the transformative experience of being made new in Him, finding joy in the assurance of salvation.

John 6:37, Matthew 11:28

What does it mean that salvation is from the Lord?

It emphasizes that all aspects of salvation are orchestrated by God, showcasing His authority and mercy.

The phrase 'salvation is of the Lord' reflects the biblical truth that only God can save. This concept, supported by Scripture throughout both the Old and New Testaments, signifies that every aspect of our salvation—His calling, our faith, our repentance—stems from Divine initiative and power. In line with Reformed theology, it insists that human efforts are powerless in the realm of salvation, underscoring God's sovereignty in the process. This truth leads us to a deep reliance on God and a recognition of His mercy, urging believers to worship Him for His grace and the finished work of Christ. Ultimately, it highlights that only through Him can we experience true salvation and redemption.

Psalm 3:8, Jonah 2:9

Sermon Transcript

Auto-generated transcript • May contain errors

100%
Revelation chapter number 16.
Thank you for the excellent song. Most all of us know that. And
we could have been a backup group for y'all. Such a blessing. Such a blessing. Thank you so much. Revelation
chapter 16. I had asked Ron to read from
John the second chapter, our Lord's very first miracle in
Cana of Galilee. And there he performed his first
miracle and he changed water into wine. As I'm going to indicate a little
deeper into the message, water in the Scriptures lots of times
is figurative language for the Word of God, for the Scriptures. It's a wonderful thing when God
the Spirit takes the Word of the Gospel and He makes it to
be wine to us, which makes the heart merry. You see this golden
elixir of the gospel. It does make us joyful. We think
about forgiveness of sins. We think about acceptance with
God. It's all due to the grace of
God given to us in Christ Jesus even before he made the world. The Savior came to live and to
die as the sacrifice for sins. He put away the guilt, the iniquity
of all of his people. And the Spirit of God takes the
water of the Word, and He miraculously makes it to be wine for the soul. And we drink of that wine. The Scripture says, be not drunk
with wine wherein is excess. That's talking about literal
wine. But literal wine is used in the scriptures to typify the
gospel. And it's a joyful sound. We have heard the joyful sound,
Jesus saves, Jesus saves. And so we're thankful when God
takes the water of the word. And he miraculously, as it were,
he changes it, actually changes us. And he makes us to then drink
of it as being the wine of the gospel. But the scripture that we're
going to look at today, in this portion of the Word of God, we
find the Savior, the Lord Jesus. We find that He can do something
else with water. change it to blood. And that's our subject today,
the Lord Jesus changing water to blood. We have before us in
Revelation 15 and 16 these seven golden vials of the wrath of
God. These are measured vials. That is, the wrath of God, whenever
God pours out His wrath, it is always in exact proportion to
that which men deserve. God will never give to any man
or woman, any sinful being, He will never give them more than
they deserve, nor less than they deserve. The vials of His wrath
are filled, but it would appear as we look through the Word of
God, that these vows are not merely off in the distant future
somewhere, but they're being constantly poured out upon rebels. Rebels. Rebels who weren't interested
in the Gospel. Rebels who wouldn't believe the
message of good news of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
this is how God can be just and justify the ungodly, and they
just wouldn't believe this salvation, all of grace, and all in Christ
Jesus. It wasn't to them a message of
good news. It wasn't wine for their souls. Instead, they drank. They drank
of the Scripture says, the wine of the fornication of the harlot,
that is Babylon, they drank another gospel. And they become woozy
on this gospel. We'll get into that in a couple
or three weeks. But the Lord says that Babylon
is guilty. They dispense this elixir that
is delightful to the natural man. Because it presents a gospel
that isn't a gospel at all. It seems to be a gospel to people,
but this is what it involves. You've got to do something. It's
a message where salvation is conditioned upon you. And listen,
if you think that salvation of your soul is conditioned on that
which you must do, that which you must feel, that which you
must think, that some deed you must perform, then you're altogether
wrong. You're drinking of the wine of
the fornication of a harlot. Because you see, salvation is
not by your doings, it's not by my doings, it's by God's doings. The Scripture says salvation
is of the Lord. And being of the Lord, it is
His from beginning to end. And everywhere in between. I
was speaking with someone recently about the subject of sanctification. I was talking about the necessity
of being sanctified. I said, well, I agree with that.
You've got to be sanctified. They said, well, you know, then
they began to talk about how they're doing things to become
more holy. I said, wait, let me ask you
this. Have you got to be sanctified
to go to heaven? I think that's a perfectly legitimate
question. Do you have to be sanctified
to go to heaven? And they said, yes. I said, well
then, it isn't something you do. That's not your work. You see, even sanctification,
that is of God. The scripture says in the book
of I Corinthians, Corinthians chapter 1, speaking of Christ
Jesus, who of God was made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. You see, all of
salvation is of God and of God only. You say, but a man must
repent? We'll get into that subject tonight.
But even that's a gift of God. It's the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. You say, but a man's got to believe.
I wouldn't argue with you on that. Why, that's to fly right
in the face of the Scriptures if you argued that a man must
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But here's the issue, here's
the question. Do you have the ability to believe
in and of yourself, or is it a gift of God? You see, this
is what, this message, this is where we differ. This is where
we differ with most, as far as I know, and I haven't been in
all the churches around here, so I don't know what they all
preach, but I have a pretty good idea without having to go to
them. But this is where we differ. You see, the scriptures say every
facet of this great salvation of the rotten, dead, dead dog
sinner, every facet of salvation is of God and of God only. David
said, the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord. And this is what
Jonah said, salvation is of the Lord. And yet, there are many
people, that's just too much grace for them. And somebody
left a church that I pastored several years ago. They say,
you preach grace too much, you preach Christ crucified too much. Well, I think that's an impossibility. I don't think you can preach
the grace of God too much. I know you can't preach Christ
Jesus too much and Him crucified. But this is what the natural
man wants. He wants something to do. Give
me something to do. Surely I've got to walk the aisle. Fairly recently, someone said,
how many people made a decision in your church yesterday? I was
talking to them on a Monday. And I said, well, I guess everybody
decided to come, then everybody decided to go. So everybody made
a decision. How many people came down to
the front and made a decision for Jesus? We don't do that.
We don't do that. And if you think, as you go back
in your memory, if you think that you walked an aisle and
gave your heart to Jesus one day and that was salvation, you're
wrong. Brother Scott Richardson used
to say this. We quote him a lot. He said,
come to Christ Jesus and don't move a muscle. Don't move a muscle? It isn't coming to Him with the
legs, it's coming to Him with the heart, with the soul, with
the mind, as a needy center. I need everything, He's got everything. He's got everything. But there
are multitudes who are very much opposed to this message. And to these people, of these
people rather, it says in the second verse, they have the mark
of the beast, They have the mind, the mind has been deceived by
the beast. And they worship his image, that
is the image that he has concocted, the image that he has fashioned.
They worship the God, the God that man has, he's taken, as
it were, he's taken a pocket knife out. He's whittled himself
a God that he can get along with. That's what the natural man does.
And the judgment of God is absolutely going to fall on anybody and
everybody that doesn't believe in salvation by grace through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is serious business here. Now, let me make three statements.
Here's the first one. The one whose wrath is being
poured out is the great I Am. Look at verse 5. I heard the
angels of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord. You know,
there's seven angels and now one of them is the second angel,
The third angel, rather, and the angel of the waters said,
Thou art righteous, O Lord, and here he is, he's the great I
Am, which art, and was, and shall be, because Thou hast judged
us. The one whose wrath is being
poured out is the great I Am, that is, the Son of God. He,
John identified him in the gospel of John seven times as being
the I am. He said, I am the bread of life.
I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good
shepherd. I am the resurrection and the
life. I am the way, the truth and the life. I am the true vine. And all of those look back to
the book of Genesis where Moses was confronted by the angel of
the Lord that is Christ Jesus at the burning bush. And the
Lord identified himself to Moses. I am. I am. That's my name. You tell Israel,
I am that I am had sent you. I am immediately identifies Jesus
of Nazareth as being God over all, blessed forever. So this
is the one whose wrath is being poured out. I know that when the natural
world, even most of the religious world, when they think of Jesus,
they think of Jesus as being all love and no hatred. All grace, no wrath. But listen, every attribute of
deity belongs to Jesus Christ. Every attribute. And He must
be just. And He will be just in dealing
with sin. He's the great I Am. Secondly,
Christ is the judge at whose word these vials are poured out. The Father, according to John
chapter 5, the Father has given to the Lord Jesus all authority
to execute judgment for this reason, because He is the Son
of Man. Read that passage carefully when
you have an opportunity in John chapter 5. The Father hath given
Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man. Because He is the Son of Man.
If it had said He's the Son of God, He wouldn't have to be given
any authority. He has all authority as the Son
of God, but as the Son of Man, all authority had to be given
to Him and was given to Him by virtue of His successful work
of redemption upon the cross of Calvary. Our Lord Jesus is
the judge at whose word these vials of wrath are poured out. God's given him authority to
execute judgment. God will judge the world by that
man whom you crucify, Jesus Christ. Third thing is the wrath that
God pours out, God the Son, the wrath that He pours out will
be measured and dispensed in a just way. The angel said, Thou art righteous,
O Lord. When wrath is poured out, it
is for certain. It is well deserved. The Lord
of glory pours out wrath upon the wicked, upon those who despised
his gospel, upon those who worshipped and served a false god. He's
righteous when he judges. In fact, He's righteous in everything
that He does. He's righteous when He pours
out grace. You say, but grace is undeserved. I know that. I know that. But
grace is poured out in a manner consistent with God's justice
and God's law. Because the Lord Jesus has done
something about the sins of His people that separated us from
God. Be assured of this, those whose
minds are set in opposition to that salvation which is of the
Lord, there will be wrath poured out upon them and it will be
a just and righteous judgment. I speak to all of you gathered
before me this morning and I speak to those of you who are watching
by way of the internet. Let me tell you, God is a just
and holy God. And God will not by any means
clear the guilty. His love is in Christ Jesus. His grace is in Christ Jesus. His forgiveness is in Christ
Jesus. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. Do not rebel against His gospel. Do not reject this passage of
salvation by grace found only in the Lord Jesus and His substitutionary
work. My friends, we're all sinful
people. That's without question. David
said in Psalm 51, he said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. The awful virus of sin lies in
its opposition to God. This is all of us. We're born
in opposition to God. What is sin? Now God's just when He judges
sin. Well, what is sin? Well, the
scripture says sin is the transgression of God's law. What is sin? Sin is saying, in
essence, I renounce the God that made me. That's what sin says. It's a very serious thing. I
disallow God's right to govern me. I am the master of my own destiny
and my own fate. I'm going to be the Lord of my
life. You see, here's what sin is.
It's rebellion against the majesty of heaven. It is to treat the
Almighty with contempt. It is not a light thing. It is a very serious matter. It's an affront to God. It's
opposition to God. The natural man thinks of sin
in this way. It's with reference to injuries
done to others. But it's more than that, David
said, against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil
in thy sight. Now had he wronged when he committed
adultery and then murder? Did he wrong Israel as the king? Well, certainly he wronged Israel
because he had a responsibility as being the king of Israel to
set a good example before them. He set a very poor example. So,
yes, he sinned against Israel. He sinned against Bathsheba.
He took her, he had the authority, he had the power to take her.
He sinned against Uriah, Bathsheba's husband. But ultimately, he says, against
thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And he says that thou mightest
be just when thou judgest. David could present no argument
as to why God shouldn't judge him. And you know, there was
a judgment that took place as a result of that whole ordeal,
wasn't there? There was a judgment that took
place. Well, in a sense, certainly it fell upon David's household,
but that little baby had to die. Right? Bathsheba conceived, she
bore a son, and the baby died. The baby died. God is just when
He judges. Oh, Bathsheba was so thrilled,
I'm going to have a child. Okay, it was through an adulterous
relationship, but I'm going to have a baby. David, he's the
king of Israel, and of course he thought he had covered it
up. He said, oh, I'm going to have another child. But then the Lord said through
Nathan, Nathan said, God's forgiven you, but the baby's going to
die. God's just when He judges. And
by the way, there's a picture of the gospel. Someone who wasn't
at all guilty of anything that happened in that whole situation,
he died that David might live. And that's a picture of the gospel
of the grace of God in Christ Jesus, the Lord Jesus who was
innocent of any offenses against God. He died and we live. But David in essence was saying,
Lord, whatever you do is right. Whatever you do is right. This angel is saying here in
verse 5, Thou art righteous, O Lord. Thou art righteous. Now in the first vial, God sends
a noisome and grievous sower. We talked about that last week.
You know, here's our condition. We're wounds and bruises and
putrefying sowers. We're just sinners. That's all
we are. leaves men in their sores. He leaves men to themselves. And oh, my friend, I would say
to you, speak to the Lord and say, oh God, don't leave me to
my thoughts. Don't leave me to my ways. Don't
leave me to my inclinations. Don't leave me as you found me. Do something for me. Save me
by your grace. Oh God, I bow at your throne
of mercy. And I'll tell you, that's where
mercy is to be found at the throne of God. It's in the sovereign
grace of God. Oh, that God would show us our
need of falling prostrate before the King of Kings and suing for
mercy through Him and through His shed blood. God, don't leave me. Don't leave
me. Don't leave me to my own ideas. God is right though if He does
leave us. Right? Would you agree with that?
He's right if He leaves us to our own thoughts and ways. He's
right to do that. You see, God doesn't owe you
anything. Death. Because the wages of sin
is death. He doesn't owe you anything but
the wages you've been earning. You know, I think today most
of humanity has, and I suppose we've always had a sense of,
well, we'll call it entitlement. We see this in the social world.
We also see it in the religious world and we think God owes us
mercy. God owes us prosperity. God owes us good health. And
something bad happens and men say, why did you have to do this? As though I don't deserve this.
You deserve that and much, much worse. I wonder how God ever got in
debt to man anyway. I thought we were in debt to
God. Not the other way around. How is it that God owes us anything
good? How is it that God owes us any
mercy or any grace? Is His salvation deserved? Does salvation, does it come
to us as an act of sovereign mercy or on account of the fact
that we deserve it? I tell you, we came into the
world speaking lies. We're sinners by birth, sinners
by choice, sinners by practice. It seems to me then that if God
just leaves us to ourselves, He's being just and righteous.
What argument could you produce? There is no argument. If God
leaves you alone, you'll just get what you deserve. And if He pours out a vial of
wrath on you, and when He begins to pour out a vial of wrath,
we've said this, it's bottomless. There is no bottom to the vial
of God's wrath. When He begins to pour it out,
It will be poured out forever and it will be justly poured
out. The second and third vials have to do with water and blood. Look at verse 3. The second angel
poured out his vial upon the sea and it became as the blood
of a dead man. And every living soul died in
the sea, and the third angel poured out his vial upon the
rivers and the fountains of waters, and they became blood." Now this
may literally come to pass, but I suspect this again is figurative
language. We read of blood lots of times
in the Bible. We read of water. Lots of times
in the Bible. What does blood suggest to us? Two things. Life. Death. Right? Because the life
of the flesh is where? It's in the blood. So the script
says, Leviticus 17 11, the life of the flesh is in the blood. There's life. The Lord Jesus died having shed
his blood for us. There's death. There's death. Blood speaks of both life and
death. Water, on the other hand, is
an emblem of the Word of God. Ephesians chapter 5. Husbands,
love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself
for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing
of water by the Word. The water picture is the Word
of God. Our Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples there in the
Gospel of John chapter 13. He said, now you're all clean. You men are clean. Through the
Word that I have spoken. Through the Word that I have
spoken. And you see, many people have the Word of God said before
them over and over again. But don't drink. And you know
the reason men don't drink the water of life? No thirst. Right? No thirst. You know who
drinks water? A thirsty man. Thirsty man. And you see, the water of life,
the water of the gospel is pure, it's undiluted, it's refreshing,
it's life-giving, the gospel of grace. It's the good news
of redemption and reconciliation and salvation and forgiveness
of sins. Oh, how refreshing, how uplifting,
how revitalizing, how reviving, how wonderful this gospel is! And yet multitudes They had the
water of life set before them. The Savior said on the last day
of the feast, if any man thirsts, if any man thirsts, thirsts for
acceptance with God, thirsts for the forgiveness of all sins,
thirsts for righteousness, thirsts for salvation, if any man thirsts,
let him come unto Me, let him come unto Me. and drank. And drank. And the water of life
has been set before us over and over and over again. And yet, people refuse to drink. They refuse to believe the gospel.
Look at Jeremiah the second chapter. Look at Jeremiah the second chapter. I think I will have a drink of
the water, thank you. Look at Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 13. Jeremiah chapter 2,
verse 13. I'll give you a second to find
it because I want you to mark this if you haven't before. The second chapter of Jeremiah,
verse 13, God says, For My people have committed two evils. Number
one, They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. Number
two, here's what they've done. They have heaped themselves out
cisterns. Cisterns, broken cisterns that
can hold no water. You see, the Lord Jesus is the fountain
He's the fountain of living waters, the ever-flowing source of water,
the ever-flowing source of life, of grace and truth. John said,
of His fullness have we received grace for grace. We sometimes
sing that great old hymn, glory to His name, come to this fountain
so rich and so sweet. And we sing, cast thy poor soul
at the Savior's feet. And then we sing, plunge in today
and be made complete. Glory to His name. But the Lord says, they've forsaken
me the fountain of living waters. Where is this water of life to
be found? But in that one who is the fountain
He's the source from which all of the water of salvation flows. You see, it flows from the very
throne of God. It flows from Christ Himself. He is the fountain. He is the
fountain. But the Lord says, you have forsaken
Me. I'm the only one who can do you
any good. I'm the only one who can save
you. I'm the only one who can forgive you. I'm the only one
who can make you righteous. And yet, you've forsaken. That leaves you helpless and
hopeless. You forsake the fountain of life.
And then what they did, they formed cisterns. They dug cisterns for themselves. They can't hold
any water. A cistern doesn't produce any
water and it can't hold any water. Because it's a broken cistern.
That's salvation by works. That's what that is. See, here
are the two ways right here. Here's the fountain of living
waters, Christ Jesus and Him crucified. Come unto me and drink. And here's salvation by works.
We'll just make a cistern. I can do it myself. It's a broken cistern. It isn't
even a fountain. It's just a cistern. Go to Exodus chapter 7 with me. Look at Exodus chapter 7 just
real quick. The Lord sent Moses and Aaron
the Pharaoh. He said, Thus saith the Lord,
let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness. And you know, before God ever
sent the ten flags, before He ever sent those, He sent words. Merciful words, really. Merciful
words. But, Pharaoh wouldn't receive
the word of the Lord. When Moses and Aaron said, the
Lord said, let my people go, Pharaoh said, well, I'll tell
you what I'll do. They'll still be making bricks, but I'm going
to take away the straw. And they better keep up the same
volume, too. Well then, the Lord sent Moses
and Aaron to Pharaoh again. You see, judgment didn't immediately
fall. Listen to me, judgment always
comes with warning. God first warns. He first warns. Let my people go. No, he wouldn't
hear the word of the Lord. So then the Lord sent Moses and
Aaron to Pharaoh again, and God said, Aaron, throw down your
staff. Aaron's rod that budded. Christ
Jesus, that's who that is. Aaron's rod that budded. Christ
Jesus, Aaron, throw down your staff. It became a serpent right
there in front of Pharaoh. But did that convince the king
of Egypt to cease his rebellion? Of course not. He said, you think
that's something? I got magicians that can do the
same thing. And magicians came in and they
turned their rods into serpents as well. But then Aaron's rod,
Aaron's serpent, ate up the other ones. That's Christ Jesus. He conquered Satan, you see.
He conquered the evil one by substitutionary death upon the
cross of Calvary. But you know, Pharaoh still didn't
hearken to the words of the servants of the Lord. So the Lord said
to Moses, you tell Aaron to take his rod in the morning and go
down to the river Nile. That's where Pharaoh is going
to be. See, everybody goes where they
go by divine appointment. He's going to the river Nile.
most likely to worship his gods, because Egypt thought, the Egyptians
thought, Pharaoh thought that their gods came forth out of
the River Nile. The River Nile. The longest river
in the world, 4,132 miles. And this was reverence, the River
Nile was reverence by them. He's going down beside the river,
probably to meditate, to worship first thing in the morning. By
the way, that very same river is where the Pharaoh before this
one, that's where his daughter went down and fetched a little
baby out of the bulrushes. Moses. Here it is 80 years later. 80 years later. And so the Lord said, Moses,
you and Aaron go down there and meet. He's going to be down there
at the river. Down there at the river. So look at verse 15. Well, verse 14, Exodus 7. Exodus 7, 14. The Lord said to
Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened. He refuseth to let the people
go. Verse 15. Get thee unto Pharaoh
in the morning. Lo, he goeth out unto the water. Thou shalt stand by the river's
brink against he come, or until he comes. You'll meet him there.
And the rod which was turned to a serpent, thou shalt take
in thine hand, and thou shalt say unto him, The Lord God of
the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go,
that they may serve me in the wilderness. Underline this next
statement. You know, whenever the Word of
God uses a behold, it means be amazed, be shocked. This is shocking. And behold, hitherto thou wouldst
not hear. You wouldn't hear Him. You wouldn't hear God speak.
He who made the heavens and the earth, you won't hear what God
says? And I speak to all of you this
morning, to myself and all of you who are on the internet,
will you not hear what your Creator has to say? This is His Word.
He's got something to say. He's got lots to say about Himself. God's not who you think He is.
God is who He says He is. And He's got lots to say about
us. Oh Lord, give us ears to hear what He says about us dead
dog sinners. And He's got lots to say about
His Son. In fact, this book is all about
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Will you hear what the Lord says? You won't unless He gives you
ears to hear. That's just a fact. Behold, be amazed, be astounded. You wouldn't hear. Verse 17,
thus said the Lord, in this thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon
the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood. Turned to blood. And that's what
happened. And seven days is like that.
Seven days is like that. It's a dangerous thing not to
hear what the Lord has to say. Look over at Deuteronomy. I'll
give you another reference here. Deuteronomy chapter 28. Oh God, give us the ability to hear
what You've got to say. Because I promise you, if we
don't hear His words of mercy, of grace, of salvation in Christ
Jesus, we will hear His words of judgment. You're going to
hear one message or the other, that's for certain. I've already
said, there are two things, two attributes of God that will not
take no for an answer and they're always effectual. The grace of
God and the wrath of God. And if you're one of the Lord's,
He'll track you down. In fact, that's one of the reasons
we keep on preaching the gospel. We're on the trail of God's lost
sheep. I don't know who they are, but He does. And His grace
is going to be effectually drawing them to the Savior. But the wrath of God, it won't
take no for an answer either. Tell you what, when God comes
calling upon you in His judgment, And He's got a vial of wrath
that's just been filled up on account of your sins? You can go ahead and say, well,
don't take me now, I'm not ready to go. I'm not going to have
any influence upon God. He'll take you when He wants
to. Look here in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 28, 14. Thou shalt not go aside from
any of the words which I command thee this day, to the right hand
or to the left, to go after other gods, to serve them. You better
keep straight with the word of God. Don't go this way and don't
go that way. But it shall come to pass, if
thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to
observe, to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command
thee this day, then all these curses, they gonna come upon
thee. Watch it, and overtake thee. They'll overtake you. You can't
outrun divine justice. Just like you can't outrun sovereign
effectual grace, you can't outrun divine justice either. It'll
overtake you. The best thing you can do is
just stop in your tracks and turn around instead of running
from the Lord and run to the Lord and cozy up to Him and hug
up to Him and say, Lord, show me mercy for Christ's sake. Oh, He said, it will overtake.
Cursed you'll be in the city. Cursed you'll be in the field.
Cursed you'll be in your basket and your store. Everything about
you is cursed. That's what He says. Everything. You know, when I think about Moses here turning the water
into blood, I think about that and then I think about that passage
of Scripture Ron read to us when the Lord Jesus turned water to
wine. You see, Moses represents the
law. And all the law can do is kill. That's what the law does. The
soul that sinned shall die. It's only the Lord Jesus who
changes water to wine. But I'll tell you this, I'll
tell you His prerogative. He can change the water to wine
or He can change the water to blood. And you can argue until the proverbial
cows come home about that. But it's so whether you acknowledge
that or not. He can change the water to wine. Make your soul rejoice in Him. Rejoice in His salvation. Rejoice
in the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always! Not
rejoicing your circumstances, not rejoicing your prosperity,
not rejoicing your good health, but rejoicing the Lord who is
your righteousness. Rejoicing the Lord always, Paul
said. And again, I say rejoice. Or, he can change the water to
blood. See, here's what it boils down
to. Grace and wrath are in His hands. It belongs to the Sovereign
King. And He'll do with you according
to His will. And He'll do with me too. Oh
God, show me mercy for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake. Ah, blood. Blood.
Jim Byrd
About Jim Byrd
Jim Byrd serves as a teacher and pastor of 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland Kentucky, USA.

Comments

0 / 2000 characters
Comments are moderated before appearing.

Be the first to comment!

Joshua

Joshua

Shall we play a game? Ask me about articles, sermons, or theology from our library. I can also help you navigate the site.