Let's go in our Bibles this morning
back to the book of Revelation just to at least begin there. Revelation chapter 8. Revelation chapter 8. I'd like
to read the first couple of verses to you. Revelation chapter 8, and when
the Lamb of God had opened the seventh seal, and He is the one
who is opening this book that is sealed with seven seals. He is the Lamb who is worthy
to open the book, and He is bringing to pass all of God's purpose. When He had opened the seventh
seal, there was The scripture says silence in heaven about the space of half an hour
before there had been great rejoicing. John had noted that back in chapter
7. He saw this great multitude and
they're delighted and joyful in the Savior. They all join
their voices together singing salvation to our God, our God
who sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb of God. And then
all of the angels, they join in worship. And they have a message
and just, I can't even imagine how majestic that was with all
of the angels of God, thousands and thousands and thousands of
them. They lift their voices and they're
exalting our God. And all of heaven and earth breaks
forth with this great words of worship. And then John says, everything
got quiet. This is another vision God gave
him. Remember, there's seven visions
in the book of the Revelation. The first vision, chapters 1,
2, and 3, the Savior in the presence of his people. Chapters 4, 5,
and 6, and 7, the Lamb of God who's bringing to pass the will
of the Father. In chapters 8 through 11, we
get into this next vision, the third vision. This is a vision
of the seven trumpets. Seven trumpet judgments they're
called. And just before these judgments
are revealed to John, John said every voice got quiet. Let me tell you something. When
it comes to thinking about and speaking about the judgment of
God, you better shut your mouth and open your ears and listen.
This is something serious. There's nothing more solemn than
this, meeting God at the judgment. In the second verse of chapter
8, he says, I saw the seven angels which stood before God. They
were given unto them seven Seven trumpets. These are the seven trumpet judgments. The first six, they're sounded
forth throughout this age. And they're all sounding forth a
noise of warning that there's a seventh one coming. And that's
the final judgment. And I asked God this morning
that we'd be absolutely quiet. Close our mouths, as it were.
Be silent before God, because he's going to judge this world
in righteousness. I desire to give God the glory
in every message. It certainly is what I want to
do. It's what I endeavor to do. I know we make a pitiful attempt
to do that, but that's always the goal. And I want to be faithful in
delivering the Word of God to you. And as I was working on this
message this week and kind of finishing up even early this
morning, some final thoughts on it. I have a four-fold burden this
morning and I'd like to set this before you. Number one, I want
to warn you about false prophets. Our lesson last week from Matthew
chapter 7 was on that subject and I dealt with it even a bit
more in my class this morning, the Savior said, beware of false
prophets. John says you better try the
spirits, whether they are of God. Nothing in all the world is more
dangerous or more deadly than the words
of a false preacher. He's the most dangerous fellow
in the world. He may come smiling. He may even
come carrying a Bible. Most of the time false prophets,
they're not outwardly wicked men. They're some of the nicest
men in the world. Our Lord Jesus said they're wolves
and they've come to devour. And I think it's my, I know it's
my responsibility to give you a strong word of caution. I echo
the words of our Savior in Matthew chapter 7, beware of false prophets. You better be careful who you
listen to. Some of you listen to preachers on the radio, maybe
preachers on the internet. You better take the scriptures
and make sure that they're telling you the truth. You just, you
cannot believe every man who comes to you saying, hey, I'm
a preacher. You gotta take what he says and
lay it alongside of the word of God. Does his message exalt
God? God and his attributes? Does
his message debase all of us as guilty rebels against God
who can't do anything to please God? Does his message exalt the
grace of God through Jesus Christ? Is His message Jesus Christ and
Him crucified only? Or does He say things like this,
well, Jesus loves you and He's done lots of wonderful things
for you and all you've got to do is let Him save you. That's a false prophet. Any man
that makes salvation conditioned on you You don't listen to him. I'm telling you, he's the biggest
enemy you've got in this world. I know it's a lot of vile people
in this world, but the vilest of the vile is a man who holds
the Bible in his hand and then lies against God. That's a fellow
you better beware of. You better take notice. You've
got to be like the Bereans who search the Scriptures daily.
You know who was preaching them? The Apostle Paul. He said, well, man, I don't need
to check up on what he says. He's an apostle. He says they
search the scriptures daily to make sure he's telling them the
truth. And you owe it to yourself. Take the scriptures, make sure
I'm telling you the truth. Am I exalting God? Am I laying
us all low before the Lord? Am I lifting up Jesus Christ
and him crucified for sinners as the only hope of salvation?
Am I preaching the message of grace? My responsibility is to give
you a really strong word of caution. Beware of false prophets. I'll tell you what the Apostle
Paul says in 2 Corinthians. He said they masquerade as angels
of light. They wear a disguise. They wear a disguise. You can't
see them for what they really are. If you could see them for
what they really are, you'd see they're wolves. That's what the Lord called them
in Matthew 7. The apostle Paul said in Philippians
chapter 3, he said they're dogs. Like wild dogs. Dogs that want
to rip. Dogs that want to destroy. Like
a wild pack of dogs. And I'm just being honest with
you. Being honest with you. Be aware of them. The second thing, I have a four-fold
burden this morning. The second thing is to declare
to you the gospel. I want you to know the truth
as it is in the Lord Jesus. He said, He shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free. It'll make you free. It'll make
you free. That's what He says. The person
and work of Jesus Christ. If I'm to be a faithful witness
to you this morning, a faithful voice for God, a faithful ambassador
standing in Christ's stead, speaking to you, I've got to speak to
you about the gospel of His redeeming grace. A gospel that's not conditioned
upon anything that you do. It's a gospel that's done. It's
a message that's done. Years ago, somebody came up with
that, you know, what would Jesus do? WWJD, that was the thing. I say, I'm more interested in
what Jesus did. What did he do? He's done something. He saved his people from their
sins. He gave his life's blood, his
life's blood, his own self he laid down as an offering to God
for a specific reason. to save His people from their
sins. He reconciled us to God. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. God
was in the Lord Jesus reconciling the world of His elect. A world
of ungodly people whom the Lord loved in everlasting grace. He reconciled us to God by His
death. He makes us aware of that. by
the work of the spirit within us when we hear the gospel. And
God takes that word and puts it in the heart. What has Jesus done? He satisfied
God. That's what he did. He satisfied
God. In his life he showed he is fit to be the sacrifice. He
is absolutely qualified. And in his death, In his death,
he satisfied God's every demand. He didn't make an effort to do
something. He did something. He put away all of the sins of
those in whose stead he died. He brought in for us everlasting
righteousness. God is satisfied. I preach this
gospel to you. It's a gospel of it is finished. The Lord Jesus finished it all.
Thirdly, this is a burden on my heart. I call each of you
to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I call you to that. I call you to repentance. Repentance
toward God. We're a sinful people. You know,
the Lord brings us to be sorry about our sinfulness. I'm sorry
for what I am. I'm no good and you're no good
either. Lord, I'm sorry you made man
upright. That's what the Scripture says.
God made man perfect. Upright before Him. A worshipper
of God. A fellowshipper with God. But
look what we've done. We've fallen in Adam. I'm sorry
about that. I hate my sins. This is repentance. Repentance
toward God. Lord, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I've
been worshipping the wrong God by nature. I'm an idolater by
nature, and you are too. Everybody is. You see, every
man is naturally religious, but naturally religiously wrong. We worship the wrong gods. We worship gods. Oh, it probably isn't a god stone
or a stump. worship of God that we think
wants to do some things, but He can't do them. A God who He's trying to help
you, but you just won't listen to Him. You worshiping the wrong
God. There needs to be repentance
of that. There's got to be. There's got
to be repentance. There's got to be repentance
of your works. I told folks in my Sunday school
class I was going to refer back to that passage in Matthew 7
again we talked about this morning. Here are those people standing
before the Lord pleading their merits when they said, Lord,
Lord, haven't we done this in your name? Haven't we done that
in your name? Haven't we done something else
in your name? When you stand before God, what will you plead? your merits even now before God. What is your plea? Lord, receive
me. Lord, forgive me. Lord, accept
me because look at all the things I've done. You're a fool if you
do that. If that's your attitude, you're
absolutely foolish. God's gonna have to make you
wise into salvation. Oh, we repent. I call you to
repentance. Repentance of dead works. All your works that you've done,
your religious efforts in the flesh, They amount to nothing
before God. Well, surely this counts for
something. Don't tell me it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter with
God. You may have helped somebody.
You may have been beneficial to others in your community or
your friends or your family. And they said, Ma, I don't know
what we would do without you. You're such a caring person.
And in that sense, It's good, but before God, since it wasn't
done for God's glory, and it wasn't washed in the blood of
the Lord Jesus, our Savior said, it's all works of iniquity. That's
all it is. I call you to repentance. I tell
you, the Savior said, except you repent, you're going to perish. That's what He said. You say,
well, I just don't think that's necessary. We'll just go on out
into eternity with that kind of attitude and see what happens
to you. And I call you to faith in Christ
Jesus. Believe Him. You've got to do
business with Christ Jesus. He's the only mediator between
you and God. He's the man Christ Jesus. And he receives all who come
unto God by him. That's what he said, by him.
You come to God by Jesus Christ as he set forth in the scriptures,
the Lord of glory, not a poor, pitiful, weak, sissy Jesus, effeminate
looking Jesus who needs you, but you come to the Lord of glory,
Christ the Savior, the sovereign. You come to him in submission,
Believe in Him, look into Him, to all of His merits, to His
righteousness, to His blood. You come to God through Him,
God will receive you. I don't care who you are. I'm
talking to somebody here this morning and say, is there any
hope for me? As long as you're breathing,
there's hope. I point you to Christ Jesus. With all of the
intensity of my soul, All of my heart, in absolute sincerity,
I bid you close with Jesus Christ. Come to Jesus Christ. I beseech
you in Christ's name. I just read that. I beseech you
in Christ's name. And you know what that means?
I urge you. I urge you. Oh, I plead with you. Come to
the Savior. Come to the Savior. I'll tell you what the apostle
said to a jailer. He said, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. Even you. Even an old Philippian jailer,
probably cussed with every breath. An old rough guy. He heard the
gospel. Oh, he heard the gospel through
the night as Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises to God. I bet you that old jailer said,
how can them men sing when I've locked them up in the dungeon
and they got chains on? They're down there with the rats
and with the filth and where men go to the bathroom all over
the place and the bones of those who died, yet they're down there
praising God. I don't know anything about that
God, but he said, I want to know him. What must I do to be saved,
to be delivered from my sinfulness? Believe on the Lord, the Sovereign, Jesus, the Savior, Christ, the
Sent One, sent the sinners. And here's my fourth burden this
morning. I want to warn all of you who
are in unbelief of judgment to come. Judgment is coming. Judgment is coming. John at the
end of chapter 6 has gotten a glimpse of the final judgment. He saw all sorts of men from
the mighty to the feeble, from the rich to the poor, from those
who are the sovereigns, the kings of provinces and kingdoms to
their servants. He sees them stand before God, the Lamb of God to whom all judgment's
been given. The Savior said that in John
5.22. He said, the Father judges no man. All judgment has been committed
to the Son. They saw the Lamb of God, the
very Lamb who is loosening this book. The Lamb of God who came
into this world and lived and died for sinners and rose again.
The Lamb of God who was slaughtered. The Lamb who took that book out
of the hand of Him who sat upon the very throne of glory. This
Lamb is opening up the seals. He's bringing to pass all of
the purpose of God. And John said, I saw all these
people standing before Him. They're not praying to Him. They're
not begging Him for anything. They're begging the rocks in
the mountains to hide them from the Lamb of God. The Apostle Paul said, God now
commands all men everywhere to repent because there's a reason. I had a man tell me one time, he
said, well, judgment is no reason to turn to the Lord. The thought
of judgment is no reason to turn to turn to the Lord. And I said,
well, you need to read Acts chapter 17. God now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent because for this reason He's appointed
a day in which He's going to judge the world in righteousness
by that man, by that man whom He raised from the grave. You go into the judgment, and
here's the standard for acceptance in the judgment. You've got to
be equal with Christ Jesus. You've got to measure up to Him. Back in the book of Daniel, remember
when Belshazzar had a feast, he invited, what was it, a thousand
of his lords? We're going to have a big celebration,
a big dance, a big wine tasting, and all kinds of tomfoolery that
they got into. And he said, you know, I'd like
for all my wives and princes and all my concubines, I'd like
for y'all, let's all raise a toast together, but we don't have enough
vessels here. Go over and get them gold and
silver vessels that my father took out of the temple in Jerusalem.
They went and got them. Everybody poured their wine in
there. And let's raise a toast to our
gods. That's what he said. To our gods
of gold and silver and wood and iron. Read the scriptures. These are our gods. We raise
a toast to you. And then there came another silence. Because he began to see the hand
of a man, a man's hand, writing on the wall. Scripture says his knees smoked
together. It scared him to death. He called in all of his soothsayers
and said, what in the world does that mean? Meenie, meenie, tickle, ooh,
farson. What does that mean? I don't
know that language. He called them all in. They said,
don't know what that means. And here comes the queen. Come up to him and said, I think
I know somebody who can help you. Your father, Metafella. who interpreted dreams for him. He's over all the magi, over all the soothsayers. His
name is Daniel. Daniel came and said, I can tell
you what that means. You've been weighed in the balance
and found wanting. And this night, your kingdom's
going to be taken from you. Weighed in the balance. You know, back in those days,
you know what a balance was? Sort of like our, maybe the kids
today might call it a teeter-totter. Back in our day, we called it
a seesaw. You remember getting on the seesaw?
Back in them days, I know I'm, right now, You can tell I'm very
physically fit and much bigger than I used to be. But back in
those days, I was a scrawny little kid. I was real thin. I'd get
on the teeter-totter. I'd get on the seesaw. And just
about anybody who got opposite me would shoot me right up in
the air. It's like a balance, see? It
goes like this. The Lord said, you've been weighed.
in the balance and found wanting. What does that mean? Well on
one side of the balance is the Lord Jesus and his beautiful
perfect righteousness. And there he is on that side
of the seesaw if I could put it that way. On that side of
the teeter-totter on that side of the scales of justice. And then he's going to put you
on the other side. You're not even going to move
the scales. You won't move the scales. And
this is what the Lord says to Belshazzar through Daniel. You've
been weighed in the balance. It was like this. The Lord Jesus
and His righteousness, and then Belshazzar, didn't even affect
it at all. In fact, that scripture you read,
all the nations of the earth don't affect the balance. Look with me, there's a reference,
let me see if I can find it, over in the book of Psalms, Psalm
62, is it? Let's see if I can find that.
Psalm 62. Where is that reference David
says? I jotted that reference down
somewhere. I hope I can find it. Psalm 62 verse 9. No, that's
not it either. Maybe I won't be able to find
it. Yeah, it is. Psalm 62 verse 9. Look at this. Psalm 62 verse 9, he says, Surely
men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a
lie, deceitful, to be laid in the balance, all of them together,
laid on the balance, altogether lighter than vanity. You know what vanity is? Nothing. That's what vanity is. Vanity
of vanities, the preacher said in the book of Ecclesiastes.
Vanity of vanities. All is vanity, said the preacher.
All is nothingness. And this is what the Lord says. Men of low degree. Men of low
degree. He says they're vanity. They're
vanity. All of us have studied the story
of Cain and Abel, and we know Abel brought the proper sacrifice
to God. He brought it by faith. But if
you'll delve into the meaning of Abel's name, go back to the
original and study it. You know what Abel's name, the
original word means? Vanity. Nothingness. You see, Adam has given his posterity,
all of his sons and daughters, all of us together, are nothing. That's all of us. We're a bunch
of ables in that sense. There's nothing to all of us.
And you take men of low degree, the nobodies of the world, and
then add to them, add to them, The great men in history. You know, we all read back and
God has used some unusual men, used them in unusual ways in
history, in forming the history of the world. The great men,
the influential, the wise men, the philosophers, the inventors. I mean, all through the age,
ever since God made Adam, There have been great men, great women
that God has used, but He says they're just alive, they're just
deceitful. And He said, now let's take them
all together. Let's take all the people of
the world, the nobodies and those who are somebody. Let's take
them all together, let's put them on that teeter-totter again.
And here's our Lord Jesus right here. And he takes, there's a
balance in the middle or a foundation in the middle of a seesaw or
a teeter-totter. Here's the Lord Jesus, and it
goes down like that. You can see it in your mind,
can't you? And now, to this other side, men of low degree, men
of high degree. All of us ables, all of us who are by nature nothing,
there's nothing to any of us. That's the reason I don't get
intimidated by so-called great people in the world. They're
nobodies. They're nobodies. I have respect
for officers. I don't mean that, but I'm not
intimidated by people. People say, well, boy, if I could
just meet this actor or this actress. What for? What for? What's the use of that? Oh, if
I could just get this autograph. If I could just see so-and-so.
Oh, I'd love to go. What's the reason? They're nobody. They're nobody. And I'll tell
you this while I'm on that subject. You had some men preach from
this pulpit who are far more important than all of those folks
put together. We don't even think about that.
Say, man, I saw that guy in a movie. Hey, was that that star? Was
that that actor? I think I just saw somebody.
And you've looked at men who've stood
in this pulpit and been honest with your soul before God, and
some of you go out and say, well, just another service. You've
heard one of God's servants. Everybody don't have that privilege.
Everybody don't have that honor. We take these things too lightly.
I'm telling you. I'm telling you the truth. We
take them too lightly. We get caught up and the Lord's people,
we're like other people. We get wrapped up in the things
of this world and we forget all that other stuff is just stuff. It's just junk. It's nothing.
It's all going to burn with fervent heat. But this gospel, this Savior,
That's worth hearing and worth believing. And this judgment,
I've got to make an appearance there. And that big name actor or actress
or singer or whoever that you're just so caught up with, they're
going to have to make an appearance too. And this is what I'm interested
in. When I'm put on that seesaw,
when I'm put on that scale, I don't want to be lighter than
vanity. I want to be equal to Christ Jesus and the only way
to be equal with Christ Jesus and His righteousness is to be
in Christ Jesus. I'm telling you the truth. Just no other way. Daniel said to Belshazzar, he
said, you're weighed in the balance and you're found wanting. You
lack. You're lacking. And you're going to hell tonight.
That's what he said. You're going to perish tonight. And he did. He did. You see, man at his best state
is altogether vanity. Don't tell me the good things
you've done in the flesh. Tell me who your savior is. Tell me how God saved you by
His grace. There's a judgment coming, and
God's going to put you on the scales of justice. And you can shrug this off. Those
of you who are watching on the internet, you can say, like that
fellow said to the Apostle Paul, when I have a more convenient
season, I'll call for you, I'll listen to you, I'll get one of
them CDs and listen to you when I have a more convenient season,
but preacher, I got a life to live. You sure do. And you got a death to die. And
you got a judgment to face. And you got an eternity to spend
somewhere, somewhere. I know this, those that are unjust,
who live and die unjustified before God, they're going to
be unjust still. Tell you the Lord, here's what
these trumpet judgments are about, and I'll try to get into them
a little bit more fully next Lord's Day. The first six trumpet
judgments are like warnings that God gives. You know, a trumpet,
you hear somebody sound a note on a trumpet, that gets your
attention. I used to, you know, when I was at camp, I played
a trumpet and I played taps at night and reverie in the morning,
wake everybody up. I tell you, that shrill sound
of a trumpet, it'll sure get your attention. These six trumpet
judgments that God sends, he sends them throughout this age.
And if you listen to them, it could, that judgment of, like
when you were sick, like a trumpet judgment. You're going to die
one of these days, you're not going to get over that sickness.
Yeah, that accident that happened, or that storm that came through,
any number, as we'll go into these things, these are all trumpet
judgments, and they all are saying this, get ready! because there's a seventh trumpet
gonna sound. And I tell you what, when the
last trumpet sounds, that's it. That's it. The scripture says
the last trumpet shall sound. The voice of the archangel's
gonna be heard. Christ Jesus is coming again.
God, give me ears to hear these trumpet warnings. I hear them
every day. Somebody dies. You see, let me
give you this illustration real quick. It's like back in Egypt. You know, the Lord, He sent ten
awful plagues. But before He sent the last one,
He sent nine. And you know what? Every one
of them was like a trumpet judgment. You better let my people go.
You better let my people go. And the Lord sent this judgment,
and that judgment, and that judgment, and that judgment. All of them
were like trumpet judgments. Every one of them sounded a note.
You know who wasn't listening? Pharaoh wasn't listening. The
Egyptians weren't listening. And then God said, well, you've
had warning See, he never sends judgment. A final judgment is
never sent without giving warning. It's coming now. You better listen. But here's how rebellious we
are. This is how depraved we are. That note can be sounded
clear as it could be. We won't even hear it. Because you see, the hearing
ear and the seeing eye, God's got to give it. O Pharaoh, he
remained arrogant, steadfast, and rebellious. I will not let
Israel go. Well, here comes the last trumpet
then. Here comes the last plague, the
death of the firstborn. And Pharaoh and all the Egyptians
threw their tears of sadness and sorrow and grief when their
firstborn had died. All of them said, all of you
Israelites, get out of town and here, here's our silver and gold,
take that too, just leave from here. Well, don't say you wasn't warned.
See, that's what I, isn't that what you take away from that?
Don't say you weren't warned. All those other things, from
one to nine. I'm not going to hear what the...
Who is the Lord, he said. And he found out. He's the God to whom the issues
of life and death belong. And the only ones who were spared were inside a house where the
door was marked with blood. And I'm telling you, There ain't
but one place of safety. That's in the house of grace,
marked by blood. The blood of the Passover lamb.
Well, that's my burden, I delivered it. I sure pray that God give
you ears to hear what his word has to say. Last Lord's Day, Ron read to
us from Amos chapter 4. The Lord said, I sent you cleanness
of teeth. You didn't return to me. He said,
I sent famine. You didn't return to me. I closed
up the windows of heaven. It didn't rain. You didn't return
to me. I sent war, and your soldiers
died. Your young men died. You didn't
return to me. God said, OK. Now prepare to
meet God, not God of mercy, God of wrath. You wouldn't listen
to me. Are you listening? Silence in heaven. When it comes
to the subject of judgment, you better be silent. Better be solemn. Better be serious about the things
of God.