Thank you. Open the Scriptures
with me to the book of Revelation. Again this evening, Revelation. And I'm going to begin in chapter
6, toward the end of chapter 6. And then we will get into
the first few verses of chapter 7. Here's my subject, holding
back the wind. The Lord gives a great word here. He gives a great command to his
angels that they are to hold back the wind. In the last few verses of the
sixth chapter of Revelation, John sees the sixth seal opened
by the Lamb of God He is the one who is executing all of the
purposes of God, all of the decrees of God. He's worthy to do that
because He's redeemed His people. He's finished the work that God
gave Him to do. He saved us by His blood and
by His righteousness. And therefore, He is worthy to
take the book out of the hand of God and then open all of the
seals and execute God's perfect and His unfailing will. In the last few verses of chapter
6, John is given a sight of the judgment of God against unbelievers. The scripture says it is appointed
unto men wants to die. But after this, the judgment. You have a death that you must
face. You must experience it. Those
in the Lord Jesus need not be fearful of the day of death.
We can even look forth to the day when the Lord calls us home
to glory because we're resting in the Lord Jesus who satisfied
divine justice for us. He's already removed all of our
transgressions and he has paid in full our debt of sin. But
those who are in unbelief And if you're one of those that don't
rest in the Lord Jesus, you're laboring, you're working, striving,
but you're not believing the Son of God. You don't rest in
the Son of God. He's not all of your hope of
salvation. You don't look to His blood alone
for the remission of your sins. And you don't look to the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus alone for all of your acceptance with God.
You're in great danger, my friend. You face great peril. For you live at God's word and
you'll die at God's word. When God says for you to die,
you'll die. And if you die without a mediator,
if you die without a great high priest, if you die with all of
your sins unforgiven, if you die without the Son of God, He
said, where I am, ye cannot come. What an awful day for unbelievers
when they die. I was thinking about this passage
of scripture. I do believe it is a reference
to the last judgment, to the final judgment. But there is
also a sense in which this scene in the end of chapter six, it
takes place every single day, thousands of times a day, as
men and women leave this world in their sinful state. in their rags of self-righteousness
that are so obnoxious to God. Men and women who won't bow to
the authority of the scriptures, who are arrogant, and in their
own ignorance, they dare to defy God. And rather than bow to God's
way of salvation by Christ alone, by grace alone, revealed by the
Spirit alone, received by faith alone, rather than bow to God's
way of salvation, they remain defiant against God. And they leave this world, and
then they face the Lord. As it is appointed unto men wants
to die, but that's not the end. For there is the judgment, and
then they face God at the judgment. God says that all souls are mine. You read in the book of Ecclesiastes,
the 12th chapter, when we die, the soul is separated from the
body. The body goes to the grave to
await a resurrection, but the soul goes to God who gave it. And then God's going to do something
with the soul. Those to whom he's been gracious,
those who are the objects of his everlasting love, those to
whom he gave his son in covenant mercy, those whose sins have
been remitted, those who wear the garments of our Lord's righteousness,
the Father will say, welcome home. Enter in to the kingdom of God
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. But for those that
die in unbelief and face God, God is going to send an earthquake
to those and everything that they rested in during their days
of carnality in this world is going to be shaken loose from
them. And suddenly awful fear will seize their hearts. And
God is going to cast them into outer darkness to await the final
judgment. When their bodies will be raised
and their souls will join back with their bodies and they shall
stand before that one who is worthy to be the judge, the Lord
Jesus Christ. And then they'll be cast into
hell forever. So I say there is a sense in
which this scene is carried out thousands of times every single
day. Men and women die and meet God
and have no savior. Can you imagine that? Have no
mediator, have no great high priest, have nobody to speak
for you, have no intercessor. You just meet God and God's a
consuming fire. You have nobody to stand between
you and a holy and righteous God. You have no blessed, merciful,
great high priest to stand there and say, he's here on the merits
that I performed. He's here because of my blood.
Welcome. Welcome him, Father. No. To die
without Jesus Christ and enter into everlasting darkness. So
first of all, this scene is carried out thousands of times every
day. And I would not be a faithful preacher
to your soul unless I admonished you with all of my being. I persuade you, be reconciled
to God. Oh, to you in this auditorium,
to you who are watching by way of the internet, to you who are
listening to this message later by CD or watching by DVD, I admonish
you to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe Him in your
heart, and oh, that God would be gracious to you and give you
the gift of faith, that God would enable you to lay hope of eternal
life, which is only to be found in the Lord Jesus. But I do believe that this passage
speaks more fully to the final judgment when these people stand
before God And verse 16 of chapter 6 says, and they said to the
mountains and the rocks, John is a witness now. John is watching. John is listening. This is an
unusual situation. John has been caught up to heaven.
He's already seen the throne of God. He's seen the Lamb of
God, the Lamb of God who was slaughtered. He has seen the
Lamb take the book out of the hand of Him that sat upon the
throne. He has now seen the Lamb of God
fulfill all of God's decrees. And now he gets a look, a glimpse
of the judgment that awaits. He sees all of these people and
they are having a prayer meeting as it were. But instead of praying
to God, they're praying to the mountains and the rocks. And
here's what they're saying, fall on us. In other words, we want
to die. We want to be annihilated. That's the meaning here. We don't
want to face the Lamb of God. We dare not face Him. He's the
Lamb of Judgment. There's His wrath. We don't want
to face the Lamb of God. So they look to the rocks and
the mountains. Fall on us, they pray. They seek
to be hidden. Not hidden in the Son of God,
but hidden from the Son of God. What a strange prayer. Strange
prayer. They cry for death to end their
existence, but there will never be an end to their existence.
They're at the judgment. Hold your place here and look
at Matthew chapter 7. Matthew chapter 7. Our Lord Jesus,
He takes us to this final judgment toward the end of His great sermon
on the mount. Matthew chapter 7 verse 21, Matthew
chapter 7 verse 21, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord,
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth
the will of my Father which is in heaven. And you read John
6, this is the will of the Father which is in heaven, that everyone
which seeth the Son, sees His glory, sees His beauty, sees
Him as the only Savior. That's who has eternal life.
Verse 22, many will say to me in that day, what day? That day
of judgment that we've been reading about back over here in Revelation
6. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? We preached in your name, and
in thy name we've cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works. I've done so many good works.
And then will I profess unto them? That's their profession.
But then He's going to make a profession. And He has the last word. I never
knew you. I never loved you. I was never
affectionate toward you. Depart from me. Get out of my
sight. You that work iniquity, everything
you've done is just iniquity. Imagine that. Everything they've
ever done is iniquity. They went to church. They carried
a Bible. They read a Bible. They offered
some kind of prayers. They tried to do good deeds during
their life. And the Lord says, it's all works
of iniquity. That's all it was, just works
of iniquity. Here they thought there's earning
brownie points with God. They're going to have great rewards
in heaven. He said, I don't know you. I
don't know you. Everything you've been doing
is just works of iniquity. That's all it is. There are no
good works in all of your deeds. Depart from me. I never knew. And finding that their works
will do them no good, now over here in Revelation chapter 6,
they call on the rocks and the mountains to hide them from Him.
You mean my works don't They don't do any good. They don't
save me. No. All those things I did for my
church, all the things I did for my religion, all the things
I did for my denomination, no, they count for nothing. The Lord
Jesus is all. He's all in all in God's salvation. He has all the preeminence. Well,
I didn't know that and I didn't believe that. Well, that's why
everything you did is the works of iniquity. Get out of my sight,
He says. And then instead of speaking
to the Lamb of God, they call on the rocks and the mountains.
Follow us. We can't look at Him anymore.
The face of the Son of God. The face of the Lamb of God.
Think of this. Look back in Revelation chapter
6. They're standing, looking face to face with the Lamb of
God. And they say, we don't want to
see His face. Verse 16, they said to the mountains
and the rocks, fall on us, hide us from the face of Him that
sitteth on the throne. And from the wrath of the Lamb,
the wrath of the Lamb, I thought He was meek and mild. Nice little
Jesus. He's the Lamb of God. He's the
one to whom all judgment has been given. You read in John
chapter 5, that's what the Father said. All judgment's been given
to My Son. He that honoreth the Father honoreth
the Son. He that honoreth not the Son
of God honoreth not the Father. All judgment is turned over to
Him. Here they are. Crying to the
rocks and the mountains. What a strange prayer meeting.
They don't cry out for mercy. They cry out to the rocks and
the mountains. Fall on us. We want to be covered. They're
not interested in being covered by the blood. They're not interested
in being covered by the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Cover
us. Hide us. Rocks and mountains. But rocks and mountains won't
hide you from me. That's no hiding place. Rather than beg the Lamb of God
to help them, they say, we don't want to deal with the Lamb of
God. Imagine that! I don't want to deal with the
Lamb of God. You don't want to deal with Him
in judgment, I can tell you that. This is the one to whom He said,
all power has been given to me in heaven and in earth. You'll
bow to Him, you'll worship Him, you'll submit to Him, or He'll
put you in hell. He's the Lamb of God. Rather
than pray for life, they pray for death. Rather than pray to be hidden
by the Lamb, they pray to be hidden from the Lamb. Don't want
to have anything to do with the Lamb. Listen, I want to have everything
to do with the Lamb, don't you? That's due to the grace of God
given us. Look to the Lamb of God. If you
from sin are longing to be free, look to the Lamb of God. And
these people say, we'd rather look anywhere else except to
the Lamb of God. Verse 17, they said, and here's
the reason. For the great day of His wrath
has come. Who shall be able to stand? The
great day of His wrath. Who shall be able to stand? That's
not a new issue. Go back to 1 Samuel chapter 6. Let me show you a couple of passages. 1 Samuel chapter 6. The ark of the covenant had been
taken. by the Philistines. They put
it in the temple that they had built for their god, Dagon. They
set it by Dagon. They got up the next morning
and Dagon was knocked over on his face and they set their god
back up. When they arose early the next
morning, And Dagon was again on the ground and both of his
hands were cut off at the threshold. Only the stump was left. And
they said, we better get rid of this. And they did. Went over on an ox cart to a
town called Beth Shemesh. Look at verse 19, chapter 6. Kind of a lot more information
in here, but I want to give you this. Chapter 6, 1 Samuel 6,
19. He smoked the men of Bethshemesh. Because they had looked in the
ark of the Lord. Even he smoked of the people
50,000, three score and ten men. 50,070 men died. And the people
lamented because the Lord had smitten
many of the people with great slaughter. And the men of Beth
Shemesh said, who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? Yeah, that's the question. Who's
able to stand before him? This one who is absolutely holy. And to whom shall he go up? From us. I'll give you another
reference, Psalm 15. Psalm 15 verse 1. Psalm 15 verse 1. Here's a question and answer
session as it were. If I were given a title to this
psalm, that's what I'd give it, question and answer or the perfect
man. It starts off this way, Lord,
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Or who shall dwell
in thy holy hill? Who indeed? Who can stand before
this holy God? Who can stay in his presence? Well, the answer is given, he
that walketh uprightly. and worketh righteousness, and
speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbiteth not with his
tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up a reproach
against his neighbor, in whose eyes a vile person is condemned,
but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to
his own hurt, and changeth not." Who's going to stand before this
God? the perfect man can stand. And
it's only the perfect man who can stand before this God. You say, but I'm not perfect.
You're exactly right. So you better find the perfect
man you can stand in. You better find somebody to represent
you. Somebody that is perfect. Somebody
that is as holy as God is. Somebody who can stand before
God eye to eye as it were and be presentable. Nobody can do
that but the Son of God. And the only way you can be presentable
to God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in Him you can stand. In Him you can look to the day
of judgment and even have boldness. Even be bold. Because you have
the confidence? that the Scriptures bear witness
that those who have the Son of God have life. And we have His
righteousness. We stand in Him. We don't stand
in our filthy rags. We don't stand before Him in
our sinfulness. We stand before God in the Lord
Jesus. He's all of our hope. Who of
God has been made to us? Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption that according as it is written, He that glorieth. Let Him glory in the Lord. We
glory in Christ Jesus. And I'll tell you, it's going
to be a bunch of people, a multitude which no man can number. In this
day, in this day of judgment, we're going to stand in the presence
of God and abide there forever. It's because we're abiding in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We've been wed to Him. We've
been united to Him by everlasting grace. God gave us to Him. He's our all in all. He's our
bridegroom and we're the bride. And God has joined us together.
And whatsoever God has joined together, let not man put asunder. We're forever more united to
Him. In Him we can stand. Oh, how I pray that God will
get your heart's attention. And how do you stand before God
right now? What kind of shape you in? Well, I'll tell you what, I love
that fourth stanza of the solid rock, When he shall come with
trumpet sound, O may I then in him be found, Dressed in his
righteousness alone, Thoughtless to stand before God's throne.
Thoughtless. I thought you was just a sinful
man. I am. I'm just a failure. I'm six. That's a number of man. That's the day we were created,
six. I'm a failure. You're a failure.
We're all failures. But our Lord Jesus is a perfect
seven. He's absolutely the perfect one. And I'll tell you, dressed in
His righteousness, we stand faultless before the throne of God even
now. Even now. Now back, look at Revelation
7 now. Now this leads us right up to
this, verse 7. After these things, John has
got a glimpse of this judgment. After these things, I saw four
angels standing on the four corners of the earth, north, south, east
and west. They are holding the four winds
of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth. nor on
the sea, nor on any tree. And I saw another angel ascending
from the east." Who is this? This is the angel of the covenant.
This is the messenger of the covenant. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And before He appears, these
angels of the Lord, they're ready, they're armed. They're armed
with instruments of destruction. You see, this old world is on
a collision course with the wrath of God, isn't it? Absolutely. This world is on a collision
course with God's judgment. The wind of God's wrath will
soon be turned loose. The violent wind of His vengeance
will uproot everything from its foundation. Turn over to Isaiah
32. Isaiah chapter 32. Oh, there's
a wind that's going to come. Even now we seem to see the storm
clouds circling. Wednesday night, after the service
went out, looked outside and you saw those black storm clouds. It really hit over Ironton. Boy,
it got bad over there, a tornado. I'll tell you what, the black
storm clouds of God's judgment seem to be gathering. It's a
storm of brewing. Look at Isaiah 32, one, behold
a king, literally the king shall reign in righteousness. And he
shall reign in righteousness and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man, literally that man.
That man who is the king, that man shall be as a hiding place
from the wind, from the wrath of God. That man, when the wind
blows, the winds of God's judgment, when it blows, is there anywhere
where we can be safe? Is there anywhere to hide from
the winds of God's judgment? Oh yes, in the man, Christ Jesus. In the man. He's a hiding place
from the wind, and a covert, a shelter from the tempest. As
rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock,
a massive rock, the rock of ages, in a weary land. Go back to Matthew 7, let me
show you this. Look at Matthew chapter 7. We
were just there a little bit ago. Let me read a little bit
further. Matthew chapter 7, look at verse 24. Matthew 7 and verse
24. Therefore, whosoever heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man which built his house upon a rock. The rain descended,
the floods came, and watch it, the winds blew. and beat upon
that house. And it fell not. You know why
not? Built on the rock. It will withstand the judgment.
Let me tell you something. Judgment has already fallen on
this rock. The judgment of God's wrath fell
on Him when He died in our stead on Mount Calvary. When our Lord
Jesus bearing the of all of His people in His own body on the
tree, when all of our iniquities were made to meet upon Him, when
God laid those iniquities upon the Son of God, the wrath of
God beat upon that rock, upon the rock. But He didn't destroy
the rock. The rock bore the full force
of the storm. And when the storm had spent
all of its energy on the rock, the storm of God's wrath said,
well, that's full punishment for the payment for all of the
sins of all the people in whose stead you died. And then the storm clouds that
had gathered and blocked the sun, the storm clouds faded away
and the sun began to shine again. And there's the rock still. There's
the rock! And the rock said, it's finished. And he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost. If you built on the rock, judgment
won't get you. It's just like Noah and his wife
and sons and daughters-in-law, they were safe in the ark. That
ark bore the judgment of God. The rain fell on the ark and
not a drop got inside. Those inside were safe and sound. And all those in Christ Jesus,
all those in whose stead He died, were ever more safe in the rock,
Christ Jesus, in the ark! Because the judgment of God fell
on Him. You build it on the rock, Watch it now, verse 26, and everyone
that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not. You don't run to the rock. You
haven't fled to the Lamb of God. You're still hanging on to your
works, hanging on to your membership, whatever. You're likened unto
a foolish man which built his house upon the sand. The rain
descended, the floods came, the winds blew. Oh, you may endure
some of the floods of this life, and the rain that beats upon
you, you might even make it through those, but when the winds of
God's justice blow, your house gonna come crashing down. And the last statement of verse
27, great was the fall of it. Great was the fall of it. Where's your hope? I hope that
all of your hope is in Christ Jesus. Go back to our text now,
Revelation 7. So here are the angels. And they're ready to unleash God only knows the judgment that's
going to be poured out. They're ready to go about releasing
the violent winds of the fierceness of God's anger. The angels are
ready. These four angels are pictured.
They're ready to go about their work of destroying and hurting
and renovating the earth. But they're in a holding pattern.
They're ready! They're ready! But the word is, not yet. Wait. Wait. What are they waiting on? Verse
2. I saw this other angel, another angel, this is the Son of God,
the messenger of the covenant, the one whom the other angels
serve. I saw Him ascending from the
east. This is the Lord of glory. He
is the one who arose from the east. He is Judah. He rose as
the day star. As the sun rises in the east,
so the Lord Jesus Christ arose. He came into this world of darkness. He being the very sun of righteousness,
the light of the world. He came into our spiritual darkness
and He has illuminated us. He comes from the east and He's
got the seal of the living God to preserve, to authenticate,
to keep safe somebody. He cried with a loud voice to
the four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the
sea. And He says, hurt not the earth, neither the seed, nor
the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their
foreheads." This seal indicates ownership,
it indicates authority, it indicates preservation. He is the living
God. He is the Lamb of God. And as
such, He has the seal of the living God. And here is His cry,
this One who has all power in heaven and in earth. He gives
this command to the four angels, you cannot unleash the winds
of God's judgment yet! Not until we've sealed the servants
of our God, verse 3, in their foreheads. That is, judgment
can't fall until all of God's elect are gathered safely into
the fold of salvation, until they learn the gospel. Until
God burns it into their minds. into their understanding, into
their hearts. Don't hurt the earth! The Lord
Jesus says to these angels who see the ungodliness, and the
worldliness, and the lustfulness, and the very Sodom and Gomorrah
of this world, the angels see all of the false religion, and
it's as though they're already saying, now? Should we pour out
judgment now? And He says, no, wait! Wait,
because some of my elect don't know the gospel yet. Some of
the lost sheep haven't been found yet. They've got to be found. They've got to be brought into
the fold of salvation. The sheep must be brought in. I'll give you an illustration.
It's like Lot and Sodom. Go over to Genesis chapter 19.
Genesis chapter 19. Poor old Lot, he made a foolish
decision. But you know the Scripture says
he was a just man. He's a righteous man before God. He justified by God. Genesis
chapter 19, the angels come after him. Look at verses 12 and 13. Genesis 19, 12 and 13, the man
said unto Lot, Hast thou any here besides son-in-law, sons,
daughters, whatsoever thou hast in this city? Bring them out
of this place, for we'll destroy this place. The judgment of God
is going to fall, they are saying, because the cry of them is waxing
great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us
to destroy it. Hear these angels, we've been
sent to destroy this place. Look at verse 22. Haste thou,
escape thither. This is what this one angel says,
who no doubt is the pre-incarnate Christ. Christ in pre-incarnate
form, haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do anything till
thou become thither." I can't do anything. The judgment of
God is hanging over this place, but it can't fall as long as
you're here. And I'm telling you, the only
thing that's keeping the judgment of God from destroying this whole
shooting match is the fact that God's people are still here.
And some of them may be not even yet born. Some of them may be
your great-grandchildren, your great-great-grandchildren who
are the elect of God. They've been redeemed by the
Lord Jesus Christ. They hadn't even appeared on
the face of this earth yet. But God's not going to destroy
this world until all of His elect are brought into the fold of
salvation. Not going to do it. Turn to 1 Peter 3. I'll give
you another illustration. 1 Peter chapter 3. Look at verses 18, 19 and 20.
1 Peter 3.18, For Christ also hath once suffered for sins. 1 Peter 3.18, For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins,
the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, that
is, in order to bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit, By which also he went and preached
unto the spirits in prison, which sometime, that is, in time past,
were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in
the days of Noah while the ark was preparing, wherein few, that
is, eight souls were saved by water." Notice, when once the
longsuffering of God waited. What was God waiting for? It
had already been said there in Genesis chapter 6 that the Lord
looked down from heaven and every imagination of men's hearts were
only evil continually. What's he waiting for? Noah to
get in that ark. That's what he's waiting for.
And then the judgment came. That's when the judgment came.
I'll give you one other illustration, and for the sake of time, we
won't even look at it, but it's in the book of Exodus. The children
of Israel, God sent a strong wind, blew the water, opened
up a dry path through the Red Sea. And the children of Israel going
across it. And back on this shore, here
comes Pharaoh and his chariots and his armies, and they're coming
in right after. You see them coming? Yeah, they're
coming. Oh, it's a bunch of them in it. Yeah, it's a bunch of
them. Lord, you going to bring the waters back together? Not
yet. Lord, what are you waiting for?
For all of Israel to get through. And then when all of Israel got
through safely to the other side, God said, Moses, now you take
that rod and put it out over the sea. And he did. And then the wind blew. The winds of God's judgment.
What were they waiting for? All of Israel to enter into safety. What's God waiting for? What's
he waiting for? Let me give you one other reference
and then if I can find it. Isaiah chapter 30 and then we'll
go home. And I'll pick up with this next Lord's Day morning. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 18. Precious verse. What's God waiting
for? He's waiting for His people.
Waiting for His people to be brought unto the sound of the
gospel. Isaiah chapter 30 verse 18. Therefore will the Lord wait. Why does He wait? Why doesn't
God send judgment? You know yourself, this world
is ripe for God's judgment. Isn't that right Bill? Isn't
that right Alan? It's ripe for God's judgment. And I'm not just
talking about immorality and the perversion. I'm talking about
false religion. I'm talking about false gospels.
This world is ripe for God's judgment. And yet God waits. Why does He wait? Watch this
next phrase. That He may be gracious unto
you. Therefore will He be exalted. that He may have mercy upon you. For the Lord is a God of judgment. Blessed are all they that wait
for Him." God waits. He tells the angels. The Son of God tells the angels.
Not now. Not yet. Hold that wind back. It may be that some of your children
or grandchildren or great-grandchildren, the gospel be passed down by
word of mouth, by you, by this preacher and other preachers
who are to come, the Lord willing. They've got to hear the gospel.
And those who are marked out, those to whom the Lamb of God
was entrusted, those souls to whom the Lamb of God was entrusted
to Him from before the foundation of the world, they've got to
hear the same gospel we hear. Right, Joe? Got to hear the same
gospel. And the same Spirit's got to do a work in their hearts
just like He's done a work in our hearts. That Christ Jesus
be glorified and magnified and believed on in their hearts.
So God waits. that he may be gracious." That's
encouraging. Why doesn't the end come? It
will come, but it's not going to come until every last name
of those, names of those who are written down in the Lamb's
Book of Life are brought by faith to the Lamb. And that's when the Lord will
say, Let the wind of judgment blow, but not till then. Hold back the wind. Well, let's sing a closing song.