I thought Mike of your mother,
as Susanna was singing that, she's just gone over home. She's just gone home. And that's
what happens to the people of God when we leave this world.
We go home to see the Lord Jesus and be with Him forever and ever. Oh, glorious everlasting day. Let's go to Revelation again
this morning. Revelation chapter 16. We do
welcome those of you who are here this
morning, and certainly we welcome those who are watching on the
internet. And I hope that you will get
a Bible and follow with us as we look into the Word of God
this morning. Revelation, and we're looking
this morning, chapter 16, verse 1. And I heard a great voice
out of the temple. What is the temple? That's the
church of the Lord Jesus. Where are you going to find the
Lord Jesus? Well, you find Him in His Word. You find Him in
Heaven's glory. You find Him at the right hand
of the Father. And you will find Him wherever
His gospel is being set forth. And you will find Him with His
people. He has a great voice. It's the voice that wakes the
dead. It's the voice that must come
to us and say as he did to his disciples, follow me. It's the voice that spoke to
Lazarus and said, Lazarus, come forth. And he did. A great voice. I tell you, it's
going to take a great voice to reach us, won't it? It'll take
the voice of God Himself. If the voice, the only voice
you ever hear is my voice or the voice of some other man who
stands behind the pulpit, you won't be any better off forever. You've got to hear a great voice.
You've got to hear the voice of that one who said in Genesis
chapter 1, let there be light. And there was light. And He's
got to speak within our souls. Let there be light. We're born
in spiritual darkness, error, wickedness. Let there be light. Let truth flood the soul. And I'll tell you, when He says,
let there be light, that's when the lights come on. When He says,
live, that's when we live. The Lord said in Ezekiel chapter
16, you are like the infant that was deserted, cast out in your
pollution, in your filth, and in your sinfulness. And the Lord
said, when I passed by, it was a time of love. And I said to
you in that day when I found you, I said, live. I said, live. And you lived. And that's what's
necessary. Oh, may the Great Physician,
may the very Christ of God speak with a great voice out of the
temple this morning, out of the temple of His church, because
He's in our presence this morning. May He speak and may you hear
His voice. I tell you, the hearing ear and
the eyes that see, the Lord makes them both. And we're not going
to hear His voice unless He gives us ears to hear. He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear. Let him hear. And he that has eyes to see,
behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. So
John says, and I heard a great voice out of the temple. This great voice said to the
seven angels, go your ways and pour out the
vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. Chapter 15 introduced us to these
seven golden vials of judgment. The next chapter, this chapter,
sets before us these seven vials and the awful things that are
going to happen to those who are dead set against the gospel
of God's free and saving grace through Christ Jesus. Here we
have the awful judgments of the Lord executed on those who rebel
against the salvation of sinners that solely by the doing of the
Lord Jesus Christ. As we think of the gospel, good
news is what the word literally means, glad tidings. It's the good news of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus for poor sinners. As we think of this
message, and as we rejoice in the wonderful person and successful
work of redemption and reconciliation of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
know there is no message that's quite so sweet or quite so delightful
to our souls than this good news of redemption fully accomplished
by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It does my poor soul good to
be reminded that salvation is of God. Salvation of the Lord. That's what Jonah said. He was
in a real dilemma. Due to his own rebellion, he wound up in the belly of a
great fish. God sent a storm upon that ship
that he was on. He was a disobedient prophet. He didn't lose his salvation. But he was disobedient to the
call of God. God said, you go preach the gospel
to the people in Nineveh. And he said, no. I'm going another
direction. I don't want to preach to them
wretched Gentiles. And so he hitched a ride on some
kind of freighter or some kind of ship. And God wasn't pleased
with him, with his actions. God sent a storm. The men on board tried everything
to lighten the ship. They were throwing stuff overboard.
They were in deep danger, great peril. They knew they were going to
die. And Jonah finally fessed up and said, I'm the reason for
the storm. And here's what you need to do.
If you're all going to live, you're going to have to throw
me overboard. They said, no, no, no, we're not going to do
that. What else can we throw over to lighten the load? But
the storm of God's vengeance was stirring. The waves were
breaking over the bow of the ship. Jonah said, I'll tell you,
I only hope you've got to get rid of me. And they did. One man, one man
cast overboard. Everybody else was safe because
as soon as he hit the water, the storm was over. That's a
picture of the gospel. That's right. How are we going
to be saved? How are we going to be spared?
Oh, the wrath of God brewing like an awful storm. Oh, the
dark clouds of God's justice. The lightning of His anger against
our sinfulness. And one man steps forth. Take
me, these will live." And that one man is the God-man, Christ
Jesus. And He's cast into the ocean
of God's wrath. No more storm for those on board
the ship of grace. Good news, I'll tell you. This
is good news for poor sinners. If you're on board a ship, a
boat out in the ocean, out in the water, and a storm comes
up, perilous times, but nothing to be compared to the perilous
situation of a lost sinner. And then you find out about a
crucified Savior, about a Redeemer who saves, who forgives, who
makes ungodly people righteous through his own obedience unto
death. And God the Spirit makes that
to be good news to you. It's the sweetest message that
there ever was. To hear of a salvation fully
dependent upon the faithfulness of our substitute. As Jonah said, Throw me over and you'll all
be safe." The Lord Jesus said to Divine Justice, take me. It's
like He said there in the garden when they came to arrest Him. He said, if you seek me, let
these go their way. You can't have me and these. You want me? These go free. That's the message of the gospel.
The justice of God took the Savior, took the Redeemer, took our substitute. All the wrath of God fell on
Him. None of it's going to fall on
us. That's good news for sinners.
A salvation fully conditioned upon the faithfulness of the
Son of God. Why, that causes our hearts to
overflow with joy and thanksgiving. And then we hear that this One
who lived and died for us, arose for us and ascended for us. And He ever lives for us to make
intercession to the Father. And we hear that anytime we want
to come to the Father, we come by Jesus Christ, we come through
His bloody merits, and the Father receives us. This is wonderful
news to us. It's a salvation all of grace. All of grace. It was established
in grace, in the covenant of grace. When God, for His own
reasons to fulfill His own purpose, loved us in Christ Jesus, and
He set us apart. He elected us unto salvation. We're chosen unto salvation before
the foundation of the world. 2 Thessalonians 2. Who did that? God did that. Why did God do
that? Because He's gracious. He's gracious. And He gave us and all of the
responsibility for our salvation, He gave it over to Christ Jesus,
the Son of God. Who Himself entered into this
world and then gave His life that we would live forever. This
is redeeming grace. We see electing grace first,
now we see redeeming grace. There was nothing in us that
was attractive. Nothing within us that would
merit such mercy. Why, if we merited it, it wouldn't
be mercy, would it? The wages of sin is death. But
we didn't get the wages of our sin. We will never get the wages
of our sin, but our Lord Jesus did. He paid the wages. Because
He died in the stead of all of His people. That's redeeming grace. And then
the Spirit of God, He comes to us in effectual love and compassion. And He takes the Word of God,
and we're listening, and maybe we have some kind of casual interest, All of a sudden, mysteriously,
miraculously, we get interested in this message of salvation
by grace. We weren't interested before.
Oh, maybe we had, you know, we came to church, but it was to
either look good or we did it to make somebody happy. Somebody
in the family asked us to come. Well, sure, I'll go to church
with you and, you know, you just kind of You pass the time and
you kind of try to look at your watch in a nonchalant way, where
it's not so obvious. And say, well, boy I hope we
get out before the restaurants get full and that sort of thing.
And that's kind of the way you think. And then all of a sudden,
you could throw the watch away. All of a sudden you start listening. And you have an interest in the
things of God. And I might ask you, I'll raise
a question to you like Paul raised a question to the people in the
city of Corinth, in the church of Corinth. He said, who maketh
thee to differ from another? Why is it that you're interested
now and you have an ear for the gospel, you have a desire to
hear this message, all of grace? Why is it that you have this
interest while others don't? It's the Lord. It's the Lord. You didn't know it. You didn't
know it. All you knew was, I wasn't interested
and all of a sudden I became interested. That's the way the
Lord works. And He who chose you in grace,
and graciously redeem you, He wooed you, He drew you unto Himself. Marvelous thing about the gospel.
The Lord doesn't force us to believe against our wills. He
makes us willing to come to Him. He makes us want this salvation.
He doesn't pick us up and throw us in the Kingdom of God. Well,
I know you don't want to be saved, but I'm going to save you anyway,
and I'm throwing you into the Kingdom of God whether you want
to go in or not. That's not the way it is. That's
not effectual grace. Effectual grace is wonderful
and powerful. It's omnipotent. And it makes
you willing to be saved God's way by grace through the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then you give Him all of
the glory. It's a wonderful, sweet message. And yet, the natural man is offended
by this gospel. And that's evidence of our depravity. People are set against it. And those who are opposed to
the gospel, let it be known, they, and if you're one of them,
you will not come to a good end. I'm telling you the truth. You will experience the just
vengeance of God. just as certain as it is that
salvation is by grace, that grace sought us out, grace found us,
grace laid hold on us, and grace brought us to Christ Jesus, even
so, those who die in their sinfulness, the judgment of God will seek
you out, it will find you, It will bring you to God who will
cast you into hell. You see, both the grace of God
and the judgment of God will not take no for an answer. The grace of God won't. When
grace comes after you, oh, you may be unwilling to begin with,
but He'll make you willing in the day of His power. And those who persist in rebellion
and in unbelief, the wrath of God, the judgment of God is going
to seek you out. It's going to find you. And when you say, no, I don't
want to go to the judgment, it won't take no for an answer.
It will snatch you away from this world and put you out of
God's sight. That's what these seven golden
vials are about. The seven golden vials of the
wrath of God. You cannot help but be struck
with the omnipotence of the vengeance of God against his enemies. Oh, I say to you, Don't remain
an enemy against God. I know the natural mind is enmity
against God, actively hostile. Oh may God give you grace to
lay down your weapons because you're involved in a war you
can't possibly win. I think of Pharaoh because as
you study, as we read about these seven golden vials of wrath,
you have to think about the plagues that God sent upon Pharaoh and
the Egyptians. The mighty Pharaoh. Moses said, the Lord said, let
my people go that they may go out in the wilderness and serve
me. You know what that arrogant monarch said? He said, who is
the Lord that I should fear? And God sent upon him overwhelming
plagues. So the Lord, in this awful portion
of Revelation, deals with the ungodly. You'll find out who God is. Oh, the monarch, the pharaoh
of Egypt, the most, at that time, most powerful man in the world.
Who is the Lord? It's what he said in his pride,
in his stupidity. and in his arrogance. And he
found out, at least to some degree, who the Lord is. He's the God
of life and death. He's the God of judgment. There's
so much here that parallels the judgment's plagues that God sent
upon the Egyptians. The last of these vials is going
to be the everlasting destruction of the wicked. Death. Death. Everlasting death. A death that
never ends. Which puts me in mind of the
last of the plagues that God sent upon the households of Egypt. Lots of things stand out about
that plague. about that vial of judgment that
God poured out. But one of the things that really
stands out to me is this. God got death at every house. Either the death of the firstborn or the death of a lamp without
spot and without blemish. A suitable substitute died or
the firstborn of the family died. It didn't matter whether it was
the firstborn in the household of Pharaoh or the firstborn of
the captives in the dungeons. The blood of the lamb was shed.
That's what God said. Take the lamb. male of the first
year without spot, without blemish, inspected four days, kill that
lamb, catch the blood in a basin, take a bunch of hyssop, go outside
and dip that hyssop in the blood and mark over top of the door,
mark the side posts. If I had lived back then, and
we talked about this a little bit in Sunday school this morning,
But if I'd lived back then, when I dipped that hyssop in blood,
I'd put it on liberally, wouldn't you? Yeah, I wouldn't. Not just a little, well, here,
surely this is enough. Oh, no. I tell you, I'd put the
blood on there. Because here's what that blood
said. A substitute died in the stead
of the one inside this household. That's what that blood said.
Because the Lord had already said, when I see the blood, I
will pass over you. That blood pictured effectual
redemption and substitution. All for whom Christ died must
go free. They must live because the justice
of God has been satisfied in the death of the Son of God. It could not be that a Jewish
father would kill a lamb, catch the blood in a basin, and make
application of the blood outside the door, and then go back in
and start eating the roasted lamb and the unleavened bread,
and then when the Lord came through, then His firstborn child die. Anyway, that could not be! That
couldn't be. And it couldn't be that the Son
of God, the darling of God, His only begotten Son, it couldn't
be that He would lay down His life, that He would die at the
hands of offended justice for His people, and then some of
those in whose stead He died, they die too. That's an impossibility. That's why we say we believe
in particular redemption. He died for his people. He died
for his family. But as Pharaoh and the Egyptians
got over that to some degree, and then pursued the Israelites,
There are a lot of people who, they hear of the sacrifice of
the Son of God, and they get stirred up a little bit, but
then they get over it. And let me tell you something,
when the Gospel comes to you by the sovereign omnipotence
of God Himself, you don't get over that. You don't get over
that. You can get over religion. You
can get over walking an aisle and making some kind of decision.
You can get over signing a card that says, yes, I believe Jesus
died, was buried and rose again the third day. You can get over
those things, but you can't get over if God gives you a new heart
to believe Christ Jesus. And I'll tell you this. Those
who believe in salvation accomplished some other way, they put themselves
in alignment with the judgment of God. If you foolishly think that you can
be accepted by God some other way, than the way of grace and
the way of Christ crucified, you're facing God head on. Oh, my friend, you will not come
to a good end. When I look at these and read
of these seven vials, I don't think we should limit pouring
out of these vile judgments. I don't think we should limit
them all to the exact time of the second coming of our Lord
Jesus. I think at least the first three, even the fourth. These are vials of judgment that
are being poured out throughout this age, and for that matter,
ever since God made the world He populated it, and men fell. I ask this question, I raise
this question to you, when will a vial of judgment, when will
it be poured out? When will a vial of judgment
be poured out? The answer is, when it is filled. That's when a vile judgment is
poured out. It'll be poured out when it's
filled. I want you to look with me in Genesis, if you would.
Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. Genesis chapter 15. Look at verse 13. Genesis chapter 15 and verse
13, the Lord said to Abram, later his name is Abraham of course,
know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in the land
that is not theirs and shall serve them. They shall afflict
them for a hundred years. Now, when would that be? It would
be in Egypt, right? And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge." And he did. He judged them there at Passover,
some of them, and he judged them at the Red Sea when he washed
their army away. And afterwards shall they come
out with great substance, that is Israel. And thou shalt go
to thy fathers in peace, thou shalt be buried in a good old
age. But in the fourth generation,
and back then a generation was about a hundred years. But in
the fourth generation they shall come hither again. They shall
come back to the land of Canaan in the fourth generation. That
is after that four hundred years. For the iniquity, watch it, of
the Amorites is not yet full. For the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full. It would appear to me that God
keeps records. And the vials of His wrath are
being filled. Like with the Amorites, He says, it's not filled yet. But it would be filled in the time When Israel would
go into the land of Canaan and he would wipe out the Amorites.
He would wipe them out. Keep two things in mind. Number one, the sins and the
iniquities of all of the people of God will never be remembered
against them. For this reason, Christ has died
for our sins. God has no memory of our sins
as far as justice is concerned. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 11
through 18 says that, as well as Hebrews 8 and 8 through 12.
There's no record of the transgressions, the iniquities, the sins of all
of God's people, of those who are the Lord's, because the blood
of the Lord Jesus has washed them all away. Listen to this
verse in Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse 20. Then shall the
sins and the iniquities of the children of Israel, that is the
people of Judah, God's true Israel, shall be sought for, they shall
not be found." There is no record of our sins before God. The record
before God pertaining to each of us is a record of perfect
righteousness. freely imputed to us, charged,
reckoned to our account. There's the obedience unto death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Lord, our righteousness,
that which is on record before God. You know, God keeps accurate
records. And that record that God has
of all of His people, when He opens up the books, as it were,
and of course God doesn't need books to remind Him, as you and
I do, this is kind of put things... in a perspective, in a way that
we can kind of grasp what he's speaking about. When God opens
up the books of His people, when He looks at the books concerning
the life, the obedience, the righteousness, the character,
everything required for a man to be accepted before God, He
sees the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're
accepted in the Beloved. We've always been accepted in
the Beloved. But there's another book. It's a record of the transgressions,
the sins of every believer. So first of all, keep in mind,
the record of God's people is clear. It's wonderful. We have
a wonderful record. Do you know why God would say
to a man like, here's the Apostle Paul, You know why the Lord said
to him, well done thou good and faithful servant? Because the
righteousness of the Son of God was put to his account. That's
right. And when we get to heaven, you
say, well, I've never done anything like Paul. I haven't established
any churches. All the things that he suffered
for the cause of Christ, listen, those didn't merit him anything
with God. Salvation is all of grace. Our
position in heaven is solely dependent upon the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you get to heaven and
when I get to heaven, the Lord is going to say, well done, thou
good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of my Lord. Because the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ is reckoned to our account. God receives
us, welcomes us, accepts us for Christ's sake. But if an unbeliever, every sin
marked down, and the vial gets full, it keeps
getting full. You see if the sins of an unbeliever,
It says in Amos 8 verse 7, God says, Surely I will not forget
any of their works. God won't forget. He won't forget
any sin. Sinful thoughts, words, deeds,
the fact of your utter sinfulness, your pollution. He won't forget. Here's the thing about the sins
and iniquities of God's people. The Lord says, and this is a
new covenant promise, a new covenant promise. Their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more. That's what He said in
it. No more. But here's what He says to those
who die in unbelief. I'll never forget. I'll never
forget. Look at Matthew chapter 23. Matthew chapter 23. When will
the vials of judgment be poured out? When they're filled. When they're filled. Matthew
chapter 23. Matthew 23. 32. Verse 31 says, Matthew 23, 31, Wherefore ye
be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them
which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure,
the vessel, or the vial of your fathers. Fill, fulfill, accomplish,
finish up then the measure, the vessel, the vial of your fathers. He said, you keep on going. The
vessel is filling up. Now hear me, it seems to me that
God has set a limit to the bounds and to the limits to which men
should go before the vial of his judgment is filled and the
vessel of his wrath will then be poured out. If we get anything out of this,
surely it is this, all men are within the reach of divine judgment. You're not beyond the reach of
divine judgment. There are two attributes of God. Two attributes of God that are
certain to find the one that they go after. The sovereign
grace of God and the just vengeance of God. When grace comes after you, grace
will find you. Like it says in Acts 13.48, and
as many as were ordained to eternal life, Believe. You know why? Grace came after them. That's
why that grace... Oh, grace, come after me! Lord,
come after me! Come after these! Come after
these that are watching! Oh, grace, come after us! Be
effectual! Be powerful! Be omnipotent! Oh, grace, reign through righteousness
and eternal life. And the second thing is the judgment of God, the judgment
of God, the justice of God, the vengeance of God is sure to seek
and find all who are rebels against the Lord. Tell you what, there's nowhere
to hide except to hide in Christ Jesus. I was thinking about a situation in Egypt. Maybe an Israelite dad told an
Egyptian friend, he said, listen, you better kill a lamb. Because
God said he's coming through and you better put that blood
out there. Put it outside your door, over the lintel and on
the side post. That Egyptian father said, I'm
going to hide my boy. I got an old barn. Nobody knows
about it. Back deep in the woods. That's
where I'm going to put my boy. Or maybe, I tell you, I know
a cave. I used to play there when I was
a kid myself. I'm going to take my boy there and hide him. Hide
him. You can't hide from the justice
of God. God will find your boy wherever
you try to hide him. And I tell you, you can't hide
from the justice of God either. Except behind a blood-marked
door. Hide behind the blood! Hide behind
the blood! There's safety there! But there's
no safety anywhere else. One or the other is going to
find you. The grace of God or the vengeance of God. Do you
agree? One or the other is going to
find you. Lord, be gracious to this poor sinner and find me,
seek me and find me and restore me.