Let's open our Bibles to Revelation
chapter 16. That was an unusual chord. Revelation chapter 16. You know,
I was sitting there looking the congregation over
and just giving thanks unto God for all of you and thinking of
how blessed I am to be here among you to be able to preach the
gospel to you And I was thinking about where
we were about 25 years ago, preaching to two families. I preached to
two families. And I was thankful to have them. One of the families was my family,
and another family. And the Lord blessed us with
good services. And I was thankful, and then
God moved us to Michigan. And He gave us a very good hearing
there. And then God, according to His
eternal purpose, brought us down here. And I'm just, I know we've
been here long enough to wear out our welcome. But I hope we
haven't. It is so good to be numbered
among the people of God here in this place. And I just want
you to know I love you. And I don't tell you that enough,
but I do, and I'm thankful for you. And I do assure you of this,
that I do pray for you, ask God to bless you, each of you, and
bless the ministry that God has for us as we labor together in
the Gospel. Now, I want to speak to you tonight
on a noisome, grievous, noisome, grievous sower. And that is right out of Revelation
16, 2. Here's the first angel, Revelation
16, 2. Here's the first angel receives
his command, and he went and he poured out his vial, the Bible
says a golden vial of wrath. This first angel, he went and
poured out his vial upon the earth, and there fell a noisome,
that word means destructive, bad, destructive and bad, a noisome
and grievous, that means very hurtful, very painful, noisome
and grievous sower upon men, the men, not all men, but upon
men who had the mark of the beast and upon them which worshipped
his image. That is the image that the beast
has fashioned. People worship that image, that
image of the God that he is created. And God therefore sent upon these
people a noisome and grievous sower. Back up in the chapter before
this, chapter 15, we see pictures of the gospel. Chapter 15, verses
5 and 6. Let me read this to you. And
after that I looked, and behold, behold, 15 verse 5, the temple
of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened, and seven
angels came out of the temple. I believe these can be seven
preachers having the seven legs, clothed with pure and white linen. And you know these have got to
be People have been saved by the grace of God because they're
robed in white linen. That's the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's what the Scripture says.
And they have their breasts girded with golden girdles. Here they come out. Here come
these preachers out of the temple of God. They come out of the
church. Now, what is it that preachers
do? Well, they preach. Not just anything,
they preached the Word of God. That's what Paul told Timothy
over in 2 Timothy chapter 4. He said to Timothy, preach the
word. Be instant in season and out
of season. In other words, always be ready
to take a stand. Take a stand when the gospel
is being received. When it's in season, take a stand
when the gospel isn't being received. When it's out of season. In other
words, no matter what the reception or rejection. No matter whether
people believe you or don't believe you. You just keep standing faithful
to the Word of God. You just tell the truth. That's
all a preacher's responsible to do. That's the beginning and
the ending of the responsibility of a preacher. I can't save people.
I can't do you any everlasting good within you. All I can do
is be honest with you, just tell you the truth. And that's what
you want a preacher to do. You don't want a preacher to
hide the truth. You don't want him to disguise
the truth. You want him to be open and honest
to you and just take the Word of God and break it open to you
just as it is. And that's what the Apostle Paul
said to Timothy. He said to that young man, just
preach the Word. Let's preach the Word. Now, as
we keep that in mind, by what means will God bring ultimate
judgment upon all of false religion? That is, and stay with me, I'll
try to do a little bit of teaching here tonight, what will be the
method What will be the instrument God will use in order to judge
man at last? You know what He's going to use?
The Word of God. The Word that we preach. The
Word people have read or had an opportunity to read, but they
didn't read. The word that people have heard,
or the word that people had opportunities to hear, but they didn't hear.
They wouldn't hear. They refused to hear. This will
be the instrument God uses in judgment. Now let me make good
on that. Look at John chapter 5. I'll
give you two or three references here. John chapter 5. Go back to John chapter 5. We started the service off reading
from John 5. Let me give you a few more verses,
then we'll go over to another chapter in John. John 5, look
at 45, 46, and 47. This is what our Lord Jesus said. Do not think that I will accuse
you to the Father. There is one that accuseth you,
even Moses, in whom ye trust." What's he talking about? The
writings of Moses. That's what he's talking about.
He's talking about the Word of God. For this is what he goes on to
say in verse 46, For had you believed Moses, you would have
believed me, for he wrote of me. But you believe not his writings. What were his writings but the
Word of God? That's what he wrote. He wrote
the first five books of the Bible. He wrote Psalm 90 and other portions
of Scripture in Psalm, perhaps. There are even some people who
believe he wrote Job. Not sure about that, but we know
without a doubt he wrote the first five books of the Bible.
Then he says, but if you don't believe his writings, I'll show
you believe my words. Now go over to John chapter 12.
Look at John chapter 12. Verse 48. Actually in verse 47. Chapter 12 and verse 47. And if any man hear my words
and believe not, I judge him not. For I came not to judge
the world, but to save the world. That's a parallel passage to
John 3, 17. Look at verse 48. He that rejecteth me and receiveth
not my words, he hath one that judgeth him the word. The Word that I have spoken,
that Word will judge him in the last day. What's going to be
the means of judgment? What's going to be the instrument
of judgment? The Word of God. The Word of
God. Now go to Romans. Look at Romans,
the second chapter. Romans, the second chapter. First of all, look at verse number
12. Romans chapter 2 and verse 12. For as many as sin without law
shall also perish without law. And as many as have sinned in
the law, they shall be judged by the law. That is the Word
of God. The Word of God. And one other
reference here, verse 16. in the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel." Understand
this, God has written a standard upon the conscience of all men. I know all men haven't read the
Word of God. All men have not been preached
to by a person, a preacher who believes the Scriptures, who
understands the Gospel. I know that. But God has written
on the conscience of every man His law. That is the law of right and
wrong. God has written that on every
man's conscience. And that law will judge you if
you don't hear it. And then there's the law of His
own Word. The Word of God. And then there's
the Gospel. The Gospel. You notice there
again in verse number 16, In the day when God shall judge
the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel. I don't think people are aware
of this. A good many people are not. Probably you are. It's a wonderful privilege to
hear the Word of God, to hear the Gospel of God's glory, to
hear the Gospel of substitution, the Gospel of redemption, the
Gospel of reconciliation by the bloody death of the Lord Jesus.
And every time you hear the Gospel, if you don't believe the Gospel,
that word that you hear adds to your accountability. It adds
to your responsibility. You're not without excuse. You're
not without excuse. I tell you tonight, salvation's
in Christ Jesus. I preached to you about the grace
of God, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you that
salvation is all in Christ. Salvation is not by works. It's
not your labors. It's not the labors of your hands. It's not your tears. It's not
your faith. It's not your repentance. Salvation
is in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is a message you've heard
over and over and over again. And those who don't believe this
message, this is what they're going to discover at the judgment. The message you refuse to believe
is the message that's going to judge you. That's what he's saying
here. Judgment is by the Word of God. Now, while judgment is by the
Word of God, we know that's the means of judgment. Here's the
standard of judgment is righteousness. Isn't that right? That's the
standard of judgment. Belshazzar, he had a big party
and he decided, he told me, he said, you know those vessels
that my father took out of the temple in Jerusalem? Bring all
them vessels in here, we're going to drink wine out of them. And
they were having a big, big party in Babylon. And then a hand wrote
on the wall. There wasn't even an arm connected
to it, no body. Just a hand, and it wrote on
the wall, Mene, Mene, Tikel, Lufarsen. What in the world does
that mean? He called in all his wise people,
his soothsayers, and all those magicians and so forth. He said,
what does that mean? Nobody understood. And then the
queen said to him, I tell you, there is a fellow here, he showed
something to your daddy, Nebuchadnezzar. And I believe he can help you
out with this, he's named Daniel. There's some discussion as to
whether Nebuchadnezzar was his father or his grandfather, but
don't get hung up on that. And so he called for Daniel,
Belshazzar did. He said, you know what this means? He said, yeah. And he said, here's
what it means, and I'll give it to you in a gist. You've been
weighed in the balances and found wanting. And this night your
kingdom is going to be taken from you. And it was. Weighed in the balances. I'll
tell you something. He's not the only one that's
going to be weighed in the balances. Everybody will be. Everybody's going to be weighing
on the balances. And on the one hand is the immaculate,
glorious, perfect righteousness of God, Christ Jesus. And then you're going to be on
the other side of the scales of justice. And you better hope
you balance out. And the only way you can balance
out with the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus is for Him
to be your righteousness. See? That's the way it is. So,
the means of judgment is the Word of God. The instrument of
judgment is the Word of God. The standard of judgment is righteousness. Now go back to Revelation with
me. You notice these preachers that
I spoke about here in chapter 15, they come out of the temple,
they come out of the church. As we get deeper into the next
chapter, chapter 16, and especially into chapters 17 and 18, we'll
see the destruction of Babylon. Babylon is all a false religion. And even today, That which God uses in going
into Babylon and bringing His people out, you know what He
uses? The instrument of the Word of
God. Preaching. That's what He uses. Because
people who are wrapped up in false religion, maybe they get
on the internet and they start listening to the preacher of
the gospel, or they just happen to come in, we use the word happen,
purposes them to enter into the doors of somewhere where the
gospel is being proclaimed. The gospel of the grace of God
in Christ Jesus. And then they're brought out
of Babylon. Brought out of false religion.
That which God uses is gospel preaching. That's the reason
we always preach the gospel. We preach the Gospel number one
because it glorifies God. We preach the Gospel number two
because He told us to. We preach the Gospel number three
because that's how God saves sinners. We preach the Gospel
number four because it does the people of God good. And we preach
the Gospel for this reason also. It leaves everybody without excuse. You can say what you will. But
you're without excuse if you don't believe this Gospel. You
can't say, well, I never heard it. I was never exposed to the
truth. That's not true. You have been
exposed to the truth, many of you, over and over and over again. And the danger, the danger of
not believing the gospel is that you may become gospel hardened. And that's the most dangerous
thing. What does the Gospel do to you? Does it move you? We
don't want to get too caught up in emotionalism and things
like that, but I'll tell you this, the Gospel of the Lord
Jesus, the message of the redeeming work of the Son of God, It blesses
me. Doesn't it bless you? It speaks
to me. It's a sweet message. It's a
joyful message. It's the only message that encourages
my heart. And it's a wonderful thing, a
wonderful privilege to sit and listen to the Gospel, no matter
who's preaching it. But God help us if we don't believe
it. Because it's either doing us good, or it's stacking up against us.
Line upon line. Precept upon precept. And it
will meet us at the judgment. Yes sir, it will meet us at the
judgment. Back in chapter 15 in verse 1,
John said, I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous,
seven angels having the seven last plagues. Let me emphasize
that. These are the last plagues. These
are the last judgments of God upon the wicked and the unbelieving. The last plagues. The last judgments
in this world by which the eternal ruin is forever sealed. That is the eternal ruin of these
people. They're called the last plagues
because these are God's final dealings with the wicked and
with the impotent while they're in this world. The golden, pure,
just judgments of God. The vials are filled and filled
and filled till at last they're filled to the brim. You see, there's nothing more glorious
than the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel of His matchless grace.
Certainly the heavens declare the glory of God, divine providence,
that magnifies the wonders of God's wisdom and power, but nowhere
is the glory of God more fully revealed than in the glorious
Gospel of His grace. Now God won't share His glory
with anybody. Not the glory of creation, not
the glory of providence, and not the glory of salvation. And when you don't believe the
gospel, you're just trifling with it.
That's a dangerous thing. It's a dangerous thing to trifle
with the things of God. You'd be better off to trifle
if you want to with the government, with the law, with the police,
with dignitaries or whatever, but don't trifle with God. Don't
play games with God. You can't possibly win. You can't
possibly win. You see, when sinners harden
their hearts against Christ, when they don't believe the gospel
of His grace, God responds by hardening their hearts to the
gospel. And finally, he'll just sear your conscience with a hot
iron. The Bible says, he that being
often reproved, hardeneth his neck, suddenly he'll be destroyed
in that without remedy. I tried to instill within you
this morning the answer to this question, when will the vial
of God's wrath be poured out? And the answer is, when it's
filled. And no one believer realizes, and I suspect that most of you
tonight would acknowledge or say, yes, I'm a believer. I believe the gospel. But I doubt
very much that everyone in here tonight is a true believer. I can't read the hearts of people.
Don't know. It's none of my business. But
in a congregation this size and every how many people would be
watching us on the internet, I feel certain that I'm speaking
to unbelievers. For you who don't believe, you
don't know, you can have no idea of how fast the vial is being
filled against you. But the level is going up. I know that's right. And the
more you hear the gospel, and the more you just turn a deaf
ear at no interest, the greater is your danger. It's being filled due to your
own iniquities that are building up against you. And once a person
has filled up the measure of the wrath of God by willfully
rejecting and despising the gospel of His grace, he has passed all
hope. The door is shut. The doom is
certain. I was thinking today, I came
over to work on this message to finish it up, This afternoon,
I was singing about those people who despise the message of Noah. And I said they despise his message
because if you don't believe the message, then you despise
the message. Noah preached 120 years. You know, back then, people lived
a long, long time. People in that vicinity, they
listened to Noah preach. He told him about judgment that
was coming. The Scripture says he's a preacher
of righteousness. That's what the Word of God said.
All of God's preachers are preachers of righteousness. Even the early
ones. What God demands, what we can't
produce, and that the righteousness of God is found in Christ Jesus.
Everything we need is in Christ Jesus. And I'm fully persuaded
Noah had an understanding of the Gospel. And he would have told people,
the wrath of God is going to be poured out, judgment is coming,
I'm building this ark. And there's no place of safety
in this entire world for the judgment that's coming except
in this ark. And I'm also fully persuaded,
Noah said, this is a picture of one who will come into this
world. The only Savior of sinners. And
He's the only refuge for perishing sinners. Now folks, come into
the ark. Help me build the ark and come
into the ark when God says to come into the ark. But they didn't
have any interest in coming in. And then one day the Lord said,
the ark's all finished. God said to Noah, come thou into
the ark. And we read, they went in. They
went in, male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded Him. And the Lord, you know what the
word said? The Lord shut Him in. That's what He did. The Lord shut Him in. And when
the Lord shut Him in, that meant everybody else was shut out. That's right. Noah and his family,
they weren't coming out and nobody else was going in. And you know what those people
did? They just continued to do what they'd always been doing.
Because not a drop of rain fell for a week. Seven days. Well, go ahead. You go ahead
and have your religion, Noah, and all your people in the ark,
all eight of you, And they just went back doing whatever they
was doing before. And they had no idea the vial
of God's wrath was filled. They were dead while they lived. That's right, they were dead
while they lived. You see, in this Scripture here,
it's the last plagues. The last plagues. The final judgment. There have been trumpet judgments
that we've all received these warnings that God has sent us
through our lifetimes. But when it comes to these seven
vials of judgment, vials of wrath, This is the final. There's a
finality about them. A finality, the last plague. As far as those people who were
outside the ark, the golden vial of wrath for them was filled
and being filled, then God began to pour out his vengeance. And
here's the thing about a golden vial of wrath. Once God begins
to, once He begins to pour it out, it's without a bottom. You'll just be poured out forever.
There's only been one who emptied the vial of God's wrath. That's
the Son of God. And the scripture says that He
drank the cup of God's indignation down to its last bitter dregs. Peter, when our Lord was being
arrested, Peter took his sword out and cut off the ear of the
high priest's servant. Our Lord Jesus reattached that
ear, the ear of Malchus. He said to Peter, that cup which
my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? That golden vial
of wrath that all of my people would have experienced the pouring
out of it upon them throughout the endless ages of eternity,
shall not be poured out on me. And it was. And it was emptied. But for folks like you and me,
The vial of God's wrath has no bottom. It has no bottom. Who is it that will feel the
awfulness of the judgment of God? Well, certainly not those
in whose stead Christ Jesus died. Here are the ones who will feel
the awfulness of God's wrath. Again in chapter 16 and verse
2, it's those who had the mark of the beast in their forehead. What does that mean? Something
literally across their forehead? No, they have a mind filled with
false religion. Their mind is set against the
things of God. They don't mind the things of
God. They mind the things of the flesh. And they worship the image of
the beast. What is the image of the beast?
It's the image of God erected by, created by, fashioned by
the beast. It's a God who loves everybody
and hates nobody. It's the God who's all grace
and no justice. It's the God who allows anybody
to enter into His kingdom and to enter in any way they want
to come in. That's the image of the beast.
That's the image of God that He has fashioned and people who
believe that God are going to find out the judgment of the
Lord will be poured out upon them. Notice again here in chapter
16 about this first vial, and we
won't have time to go any further than this. This first vial is poured out
upon the earth. You'll notice also as we get
into it more next Lord's Day, the second vial and the third
vial is poured out upon the sea. The fourth vial is poured out
against the sun. I take it these first three vials
are being poured out upon people on this earth. Even now. Even now. Keep this in mind. And I want
you to listen carefully. There are in reality only two
systems of religion in this world. The religion of Christ Jesus.
and the religion of Antichrist. That's all there is. Just two
religions. There are two systems of doctrine
in the world. The doctrine of free grace, the
doctrine of free will. There are only two schools of
thought about salvation in the world. Salvation by grace alone,
received through God-given faith alone, in Christ alone, or salvation
by the will, the works, and the worth of man. And everybody fits
into one of those two categories. It's not as complicated as people
think. You see, every church, every
religious organization in this city, in this state, in this
country, in this world, falls into one of two of those categories.
In the Bible there's only two churches, the true church and
the false church. The false church is the church
of Antichrist, it's the church of Babylon, the great whore. And there's the church of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Babylon represents all free will,
works, religion of every name and nation. He's put everything,
Catholicism, It's in Babylon. Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Islam, Most Baptist, Methodist, you
name it. It falls in there. Babylon is
the religion of works. It's the religion of man. See,
if you believe salvation by man's choice, man's free will, your
religion is the religion of Babylon. If you believe in salvation by
man's efforts, by man's tears, by man's works, your religion
is the religion of Babylon. If you believe in salvation conditioned
upon, determined by, or dependent upon man in any way to any degree,
your religion is the religion of Babylon. You see, in this world, Antichrist
is always at war against the true Christ, and Babylon is always
at war against the true Jerusalem, the city of God. Now let me get to this really
quick. This first vial is the judgment of God upon men with
sowers. That's what it says. What are
these? Sowers. Well, it may be disease. And I tell you, God takes a lot
of people away from this world with disease. Cancer, heart disease,
many other diseases. Diseases that are beyond the
cure of men. I tell you this, no question
about the fact that God can use any means He wants to to remove
men and women from this world. He's got a multitude of ways
by which to do that. He can take you out of this world
and take you right to judgment and put you away just like that.
But I think this needs to be looked at in a spiritual light. In the Word of God, what is the
word sores used to describe? By the way, if you look up the
word sower, it can be translated as wound or stripe, even leprosy. That's a very compound word because
it has another meaning, to drag or to draw. I don't want to get
in too technical tonight. It was kind of interesting to
me as I studied this. It's actually the word sower.
It's actually other places. Most places in the New Testament
is translated draw or drew or dragged. Like as in John 6.44,
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me
drawing. I'll raise him up the last day. Peter, when he drew out his sword,
That's the same word. Same word here translated as
sword. He drew out his sword. John chapter
21, when the disciples, they threw their nets over. Remember
the Lord came and said, did you catch anything? He said, no.
He said, throw it on the other side of the boat. They threw
a net on the other side of the boat. It's so many fish, they
couldn't hardly drag it into the boat. Same word, drag. Acts
chapter 16, when Paul had cast that demon out of that woman
and the men who were making use of that woman as a fortune teller
and that sort of thing, one who prophesied the future of people,
they saw that their gains were lost. They took the apostle Paul
and Silas and drew them into the marketplace. Dragged them,
in other words. That's part of the meaning of
the word sower. Which, this is what I gather
from this, God will use this to drag people off to judgment. Now God's going to take people
to judgment, they may go kicking and screaming all the way, but
He's going to drag people to judgment. Now you go into the
judgment whether you want to or not, whether you like it or
not. Say, I don't believe there's going to be a judgment. Well,
He'll drag you there, but you'll go. That's part of the word,
sower. Sower. Look at Isaiah chapter 1. Isaiah chapter 1. So whatever these sowers are,
It's a means whereby God draws or drags a rebellious sinner
to his death and everlasting destruction. All who refuse to
believe this glorious gospel, they're going to be dragged away
to meet God. And what about these sowers?
Isaiah 1, here, verse 2, and give ear o'er it, for the
Lord hath spoken, I've nourished and brought up children, they've
rebelled against me. The ox knows his owner, the ass
his master's crib, but Israel doth not know, my people doth
not consider. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord,
they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they're
gone away backwards. Why should you be stricken anymore? You know, this is God asking
this. In other words, He's essentially
asking, what is the use in me sending these corrected measures
to you? They have no positive effect
upon you. What's the use? Why should you
be stricken anymore? You'll just revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. The whole
heart faint. From the sole of the foot Even
under the head there is no soundness, there's no wholeness in it, but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. And they have been closed, neither
bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Here, the word sores
is another word for sinfulness. spiritual decay and rottenness. I'll tell you what I think this
verse 5 is. I think it also includes literal
disease, but I think there's a spiritual application to it.
It's when God just leaves you in your sin, leaves you in your
sores, Hey, you have no interest in my gospel? You have no interest
in my grace? You have no interest in my dear
son, the Lord Jesus? I'll leave you to wallow in your
sin. And that vial of wrath just keeps
on filling up. It's when God leaves men to themselves. That's what it is. This leaves
you in your error. Leaves you in your unbelief.
That's what He did to the Pharisees. The Lord Jesus was teaching in
Matthew chapter 15, teaching about the origin of sin that
comes forth from the heart. He offended the Pharisees and
the disciples came to Him and said, Lord, you've upset these
religious teachers. And here's what he said. Leave
them alone. Leave them to their sores. Yeah, leave them to their sores.
Leave them to their own unrighteousness. They will bring destruction upon
themselves. Just leave them alone. Leave
them alone. He had already said back in chapter
12, we'll be getting to it pretty soon in the Sunday School lesson,
He had already warned them about the unpardonable sin. The sin that can't be pardoned.
That is, attributing to Satan, to Beelzebub, the prince of demons. Attributing to Beelzebub the
works of the Holy Spirit. And what He's telling them in
Matthew chapter 12 is, You men are on the verge of everlasting
destruction right now. Because you attribute what I
do to the devil and not to the Holy Spirit by whose power this
man does these works. He said, you're on the verge.
You're right on the verge of committing the unpardonable sin
right now. And then three chapters over,
he gets to chapter 15 and he just tells the disciples, listen,
leave him alone. I tell you what I take away from
that, the vial is full. God's had enough. He's done with
them. He's done with them. Leave them
alone. Don't preach to them. Don't cast
your pearls before these swine. pample them in the dust, what
they've been doing all along. They killed the fathers, they
killed the prophets. They're going to kill you, man.
Leave them alone. Leave them to their sores. Leave
them to their rottenness. Leave them to the death. They
deserve to die. They aren't worthy of your message.
They're not worthy of your attention. And the day would come when all
their sowers would be gathered up as in a net, and the Lord
would drag them off to hell, and He did. Leave them alone. You know what the Lord said in
Hosea? He said, Ephraim has joined the idols. Leave them alone. That's judgment while you live,
my friends. Lord, don't leave me to my sores. Don't leave me as you found me.
I'm a sinner by nature, choice, birth, practice. Don't leave
me this way. If you leave me this way, I'll die in my sores and you'll
drag me off to everlasting perdition. I want the grace of God. That's
what I want. I want God to show me mercy.
Don't give me what I've been earning all these years. Yeah,
you've been earning rewards, haven't you preacher? I don't
want any rewards for what I've done. You want the Lord to reward
you for what you've done? You want your wages? I want my
just wages. Well, that's death. I don't want
that, Bill. I don't want just wages. It's
what I want. I want the reward of the obedience
of Jesus Christ. That's everlasting life. That's
what I want. I want His righteousness. Well,
I hope you got a little something out of that. Let's sing the last