into these vials of judgment. But today,
I just want to use verse 1 as a beginning place. Revelation
chapter 16, verse 1, John says, and I heard
a great voice out of the temple. What is the temple? That's coming
from the people of God. There's a voice out of the midst
of God's people. The scripture says, you are the
temple of God. And the voice that John hears
comes out of the, from the midst of the people of God. You will remember, I'm sure,
back in the first chapter In fact, this is kind of the theme
of the first vision, chapters 1, 2, and 3. John saw the Lord
Jesus, that one, as he said, one like unto the Son of Man. And he said he was in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. John said he's like the Son of
Man. He's not saying he wasn't the
son of man, but he said he certainly, he looked like he did when he
was here, and yet he was different because he's been glorified.
And there's a majesty of God. The majesty of God was upon him
when John saw him. And his is the voice that comes
out from the temple out from the redeemed church. Of all the people present with
us this morning, I'm most thankful he's here. He's the one, his is the voice
that raises the dead. His is the voice that speaks
words of consolation to his dear, troubled, and burdened people. His is the voice that bids the
needy. He says, come unto me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's the voice that comes from
the midst of the temple. comes from the midst of the people
of God. Where can Christ be found? Well, He's found in His Word.
He's found in Heaven. He's found wherever the gospel
of His free grace is being preached. And He's always found in the
midst of His people. And I say to you who are believers
in the Lord Jesus, you who are the objects of His love and the
objects of His mercy, you who have been led of the Spirit to
run to Him for the refuge of your soul, and you have no other
hope, no other confidence for your everlasting salvation except
in Jesus Christ and Him crucified, I say to you, He is with you
always, even unto the end of the earth. So right here at the very beginning
of Revelation chapter 16, there is a voice that comes forth from
the very midst of the temple, the temple of the people of God. But on this occasion, it isn't
a voice that speaks words of mercy. It is in a voice that
speaks words of consolation and cheer to His people. It's a word that comes forth. He speaks a word to the seven
angels. It is time to pour out your vials
of wrath. He says to these seven angels,
go your ways. He's the sovereign of the angels.
One of the things that we know from Hebrews chapter 1, God has
made Him to be head over the angels. And God said to all of
the angels, because He's better than the angels, God said to
all of the angels to honor His Son and worship His Son. And He says to these seven angels,
go your ways. Go your ways and pour out the
vials of the wrath of God upon the earth. And when he speaks,
they act. And as we shall see, they go
forth to empty their vials of wrath upon the ungodly. You know, it's delightful to
dwell upon the everlasting mercies of God and the grace of God to
us in Christ Jesus. I love to think about the love
of God. His everlasting love for His
covenant people. The Lord said to His prophet
Jeremiah, I've loved thee with an everlasting love. Why, don't
you know that helped Jeremiah? That blessed him. Jeremiah, he
was charged with the task of preaching to a bunch of people
and the Lord said, I'm going to tell you right off. They're
not going to pay any attention to what you have to say. They're
not going to listen to you. Oh, you'll be to them as a nice
voice. They'll say, boy, he's a good
preacher, isn't he? But the Lord said, they're not going to believe.
They're not going to believe what you say. The Lord said to Jeremiah in
the midst of his afflictions, he is known as the weeping prophet,
not the rejoicing prophet, not the prophet that saw great spiritual
victories as he sent forth the Word of God in multitudes believing
the Gospel. No, that wasn't his mission. His was a mission to set forth
the Gospel of God's grace, to preach of that One who was going
to come into the world, even the Son of God, because all the
prophets wrote of Him and spoke of Him. His mission was to speak
of the That seed of the woman who would come and make things
right between men and God, who would save His people from their
sins. Jeremiah had a heavy, heavy task. He had a heavy responsibility. And people wouldn't believe his
message. And the Lord says to him in chapter 31, These people are not believing
what you preach. But I want you to know something.
I have loved you always. And therefore, in loving kindness,
I've drawn you. It may be that I'm speaking to
one of God's children, maybe several of God's children who
Like brother Jeremiah, you're going through deep, dark waters. And while you're certainly not
a prophet, you have this in common with him. You're one who weeps. You're one who weeps. Because in this world, God's
people shed a lot of tears. But let the Word of God be your
comfort as you hear your Heavenly Father say to you, I have loved
you. Now, He's loved all of His people,
You know, it's one thing to think about the love of God that is
for all of His children. And that's wonderful. But do
you know what's more wonderful than that? When He narrows it
down and He says, I've loved you with an everlasting... I've loved you. I've loved you. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. Therefore, in loving kindness,
I've drawn you. And you know, That makes everything
alright. It makes the dark days, the troubled
days more bearable. And we love to dwell on the subject
of the love of God and the grace of God. I think about that scripture
in 2 Timothy chapter 1. It says grace was given us in
Christ Jesus before the world began. You know, God has always been
gracious to His children. There was an election of grace. That's what it's called in Romans
chapter 11, an election of grace. Even now, there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. And in that election of grace,
in our Bible classes this morning, one of the references at least
we looked at was in Luke chapter 10, where the seven disciples
came back rejoicing that they had great power over the demons. And our Lord Jesus, He says to
them, in this, rejoice not. I'll give you something to rejoice
about. Rejoice that your names are written down in heaven. Rejoice
at your love with an everlasting love. Rejoice in God's sovereign
grace to you. Rejoice in God's election of
you unto everlasting salvation. And we love to think about the
everlasting grace of God. We love to think about grace
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. We delight to
meditate upon the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. We have redemption, redemption
through His blood. Even, even the forgiveness of
sins. You can't have redemption without
the forgiveness of sins. You can't have the shedding of
the blood of the Lord Jesus without there being the result of the
shedding of that blood. What is the result of redemption? What is the result of the death
of our Lord Jesus Christ? All of the sins of all of His
people are forgiven forever. Forever. And righteousness was
brought in by His death. And our sins have been washed
away. We stand accepted in the Beloved
before God. It's wonderful. It is delightful. meditate upon these things. Having said that, we also need
to think about this. The same Bible that speaks about
the mercies of God also speaks about the absolute, absolute
certainty of judgment. brother read to us from 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5 and in the third verse he says to those who talking
about peace, everything's fine. He talked about sudden destruction. Sudden destruction. You see that's what the these
vials, the pouring out of the wrath of God is sudden destruction. Sudden destruction. God has been
warning us through the years, through the sounding of trumpet
warnings. Disease has warned us. Sickness has warned us. The deaths of others, they've
warned us. We've had some very close calls
with death. That has warned us. The Word
of God is all the time warning us. You come into the place of
worship and we warn you, flee from the wrath to come. Now thank
God, as you read, the people of God are not appointed unto
wrath. We're not destined unto wrath,
but understand this, the God of salvation is also the God
of judgment and justice, and He must always be just in His
dealings with men and with angels and with everybody. Therefore, He won't clear the
guilty. You see, even in the salvation
of His people, He does indeed deal with us in
mercy. But the reason He can deal with
us in mercy and deal with us in grace and deal with us in
a very compassionate way is because His justice toward us, toward
our sinfulness, has already been satisfied in the substitutionary
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God died for our sins. The Scripture says, the Bible
says, according to the Scriptures. The Lord Jesus is the propitiation
for our sins. That means He's the satisfaction
of divine justice. Justice has been appeased. Even in our salvation, in the
mercy of God to us, that mercy doesn't ever come to anybody
at the expense of divine justice. How can God be a just God and
a Savior? He cannot remove His justice. He will not ignore His justice. He's got to be a Savior in a
just way. And he dealt with all the sins
of his people in a just way in the person of the Lord Jesus,
our Savior, our substitute, that one who was the sin offering
for his people. So even in the salvation of sinners,
God doesn't overlook sin. He deals with it because he must
be just. Now, our text has to do with
these pouring out of the seven vials. It has to do with judgment. It has to do with God's wrath,
His wrath. I know God has been warning us.
He's warned all of us, but the difference between trumpet warnings,
trumpet judgments, and vile judgments, and I'll just say this again
so that you'll remember this, trumpet judgments warn. Like I'm warning you this morning,
I'm like a trumpet. And I'm blasting out, I'm letting
you know there's judgment to come. You must face God. There's a death you must die
and a judgment you must face. And in eternity you must spend
somewhere. You've got to face God. And everybody
knows, everybody knows there is death coming and everybody
knows there's a judgment to face, though our understanding of judgment
on account of our depravity, it's all messed up. We don't
understand the standard of judgment, we just think, well if I do enough
good things, I'll get in. There's a song by Well, I won't
tell him the song, the one who sings it, but he talks about,
he said, the song goes like this, daddies don't just love their
children every now and then. And then he said, then he says, I
had a dream. He said, I dreamed I went to
the pearly gates. He said, I thought to myself,
if they know half the things I've done wrong, they're not
going to let me in. And then he hears a voice saying,
Daddy doesn't just love you every now and then. It's a love without
end. Amen. You see, this is the thinking
of the natural man. I've got to do more good things
than bad things. Otherwise, I'll never get in.
Well, listen, it is not a matter of doing more good things. You've
got to be good. You've got to be righteous. And
you can't have any blemish on your record whatsoever. There
can't be any mark against you. The man of the world understands,
well, I know there's a judgment out there. I don't know what
it's going to be like, but I'm going to do the best I can. I
sure hope I get by. That's a natural man's understanding
of judgment. But deep down inside, he knows,
I got to face something after death. Unless he just totally
shuts off his conscience. And indeed, there are a lot of
consciences seared with a hot iron. But we know God has written
it on the conscience, death to die, judgment to face. Though we don't understand that
the standard for judgment is righteousness. But we're warned, we're warned
over and over and over again, God has sounded out trumpet warnings
for all of us. Disasters warn us. Difficulties
warn us. We're warned in the scriptures.
But when men turn deaf ears to the trumpet blasts warning of
coming judgment, all of a sudden, Destruction comes upon them.
And that's it. I don't know much about Bible deadlines. I've
heard Brother Mayan preach about deadlines. And I do believe it. Proverbs 1, the Lord says, I've
called, you refused. And then it's like suddenly,
You cross a deadline, then the Lord says, day's going to come,
you're going to call on me and I'm not going to hear you. I
don't understand about deadlines. But I do know this, you can go
so far in your rebellions, I'm speaking now to unbelievers.
Oh, you're in church? That's good. Got a Bible? That's
good. But you don't believe Christ Jesus? You haven't closed with
the Savior? You haven't fled to Him for righteousness? You've heard all of these warnings
over and over and over again. There will come a day when all
of a sudden, destruction will come upon you. No more trumpet
warnings. The vial is going to be poured
out. Can I give you an illustration of that? Turn to 2 Chronicles
36. Very last chapter, 2 Chronicles 36. 2 Chronicles 36. This is a little less than,
oh, 600 years before the Lord Jesus came into the world. 580 BC, something like that. 2 Chronicles 36. By this time in history, of course,
the northern kingdom of Israel had been dissolved. All that's left is the southern
kingdom. The last king of the southern kingdom was a man whose
name was Zedekiah. Zedekiah. You know what his name
means? And he was a wicked man. It's
always interesting to look up the meanings of these men. His
name means righteousness is of Jehovah. And he knew nothing
of that. He knew nothing of that. He is the third son of King Josiah,
who was a good king if you've studied Old Testament history,
and I'm sure you have. Third son of Josiah. His younger brother began to
rule when he was just a very young man. In fact, he was eight
years old. Jehoachim. 100 days was all when he was eight
years old. But even as an eight-year-old
boy, I don't know, we got any eight-year-old boys in here?
Anybody, any boys? How old are you? Not eight? Somewhere close. I don't have an age. Eight? Okay, we got an eight-year-old
over here. Can you imagine taking the throne
of Jerusalem, being king over Judah, sitting on the throne
in Jerusalem, eight years old? But he was a wicked young man.
And God had Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Babylonians, take him
away in captivity. He grew up, grew older, and died.
Well, his older brother, took over the kingdom. King Zedekiah. He was 21 years old when he began
to reign. Look at the scripture. Let me
just read a few verses here. 2 Chronicles 36, 11. Zedekiah,
last king of Judah now. For you people who kind of refresh
your memory on history, you know the kingdom was divided after
the reign of Solomon. Northern Kingdom, Southern Kingdom,
you remember that? Northern Kingdom, Israel. Southern
Kingdom, Judah. Okay, he is the king in the Southern
Kingdom. And he's the last one. He's the
last one. Northern Kingdom had no godly
kings. The Northern Kingdom had no godly
kings. Every king they had was wicked.
Every king they had was ungodly. Southern kingdom had a few. This
man is not one of them. Verse 11, Zedekiah was 1 in 20
years old when he began to reign. He reigned 11 years in Jerusalem.
And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his
God. He humbled not himself before
Jeremiah the prophet, speaking from the mouth of the Lord."
You know who his preacher was? Jeremiah. That's who his pastor
was. His pastor was Jeremiah. The
weeping prophet, the man I spoke about a little bit ago. The man
to whom the Lord says, you go out there and preach, but know
this, they're not going to believe you. He's the preacher. Look at verse
13 of Zedekiah. Now this is what it says of Zedekiah.
He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made
him swear by God, but he stiffened his neck, he hardened his heart
from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. In other words, at
this time, just to give you a little bit of background, Judah paid
tribute to King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians. They've
been doing that several years. King Zedekiah, he said, I'm not
going to do it anymore. Instead, he went to the Egyptians
for help. But he didn't go to God. His biggest mistake was he refused
to worship God as Josiah had done, as Hezekiah had done, as
a few others of the kings of Judah had done. He refused to
worship God by means of a sacrifice. He didn't look to Christ Jesus
who was coming. He had no interest in that Messiah
whom God had promised to send into this world. He rebelled. He rebelled against God and then
he rebelled against Nebuchadnezzar. He just hardened his heart against
Nebuchadnezzar and he turned away from the Lord God of Israel. But you know, as so often happens
when a man has authority, when he has power, when he jumps fence,
a lot of people go with him. Look at verse 14. Moreover, all
the chief of the priests, They had many, many priests who
served in the priesthood of Israel. Moreover, all of the chief of
the priests and the people, they transgressed very much after
the abominations of the heathen. They polluted the house of the
Lord which He had hallowed in Jerusalem. They brought idols
in. They erected statues there. They
burned incense to idols. They offered sacrifices to idols. And the Lord God of their fathers
sent to them By His messengers rising up be times and sending
because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling
place. The Lord often, He sent them
messengers warning them and directing them to go back to the worship
of Abraham. I'm the God of Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob and these messengers of God reminded all the priests of the true gospel. But these messengers of God,
look at verse 16. They mocked the messengers of
God. They despised God's words. They despised God's words. How
many trumpet warnings had they heard? Many. Here's many. Here's Jeremiah. And many messengers. They're all preaching the Gospel
of Grace. They're all setting forth Christ
Jesus. And they're all warning of the
certainty of judgment if men don't worship God. But they mock the messengers
of God. They despised His words. They
misused His prophets. Until the wrath of the Lord arose
against his people, till there was no remedy. That means, that's it. It's all
over now. No remedy. No remedy. The Lord sent Jeremiah. He sent
all these preachers to them, preaching, preaching, preaching,
warning, giving forth the good news of the gospel and the bad
news of the wrath to come, if you don't believe. And they mocked
the messengers. They're just fanatics, these
preachers are. It don't matter, it don't matter
what kind of God you worship. We're all going to heaven anyway.
We're just going different roads. That's what they said. And they
despised God's words. So I'm not like that. The Savior
said, if you're not for Me, you're against Me. Is that what He said?
That's exactly what He said. If you're not on My side, you're
on the other side. Whose side are you on? And they did this and they did
this until the wrath of God arose. And when I read that, I can just
see a vial of wrath filling up fast, can't you? Till the wrath
of the Lord arose. It's going up, it's going up,
it's going up till it reaches the top and then God says, no
remedy. That's it. You can call it what
you want to. It's what I call it. They crossed
a deadline. They crossed a deadline. And then God said, I've had it
with you. I've had it with you. Therefore,
verse 17, He brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, Nebuchadnezzar,
who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their
sanctuary, and had no compassion upon the young man, or maiden,
old man, or him that stooped for age. He gave them all into
His hand." Who did this? God did this. He gave them all
over to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. And all the vessels of the house
of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the
Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princess, all
these Nebuchadnezzar brought to Babylon, they burnt the house
of God, break down the wall of Jerusalem, burn all the palaces
thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
And as for Zedekiah, you can read about him, They took him
into captivity, put his eyes out. You can read this in history. And he died. And I tell you, those words,
I suspect, were still ringing in his ears. No remedy. No remedy. I set before you this morning
the remedy. The remedy is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. Turn to Proverbs 29. He's the remedy. He's the remedy
that these preachers set before these people. No remedy. Ah, the remedy for sin is the
blood of the Lord Jesus. We've all got disease of sin.
Listen, folks, we're all diseased. We're dead in trespasses and
sin. But there's a remedy. There's
a remedy found in the Son of God. And I bid you come to Him. I urge you to flee to Him, flee
to Christ Jesus. Oh, may God give you the desire
to come to Him. May God give you the willingness.
Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power. Oh, Lord,
make people willing to come to Christ Jesus. But if you don't come, Verse 1 of Proverbs 29, and I'll
close with this. He that being often reproved,
what does that mean? Often corrected, often rebuked,
often instructed. How many times have you been
instructed in the gospel? He that being often reproved,
who hardens his neck, won't bend, I'm not going to bend, shall suddenly be destroyed. That's that sudden destruction
of 1 Thessalonians 5.3. Shall suddenly be destroyed. And those next few words. Without remedy. There's no remedy
then. There's no remedy. Oh, may God make us wise. May He wake us up from our sleep
of death. That's what's gotta happen, isn't
it? Make us aware of who God is and of our awful dilemma.
and may He draw us with effectual grace to His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. May we hear the sweet words of
the Gospel. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, Christ said, I
am no wise cast out. Oh God, help me to hear Your
words of mercy, Your words of grace, because if I don't, I'm
sure enough going to hear words of wrath, May God show mercy.