I'm going to read these first,
this chapter 15, there's eight verses in it. And I saw another sign in heaven,
great and marvelous, seven angels having the seven last plagues
For in them is filled up the wrath of God. And I saw as it
were a sea of glass mingled with fire and them that had gotten
the victory over the beast and over his image and over his mark
and over the number of his name stand on the sea of glass having
the harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses,
the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, great and
marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are
thy ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord,
and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy, for all
nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy judgments
are made manifest. And after that I looked, and
behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was
opened. And the seven angels came out
of the temple, having the seven last plagues, clothed in pure
and white linen, and having their breasts girded with golden girdles. And one of the four beasts gave
unto the seven angels seven golden vials full of the wrath of God,
who liveth forever and ever. And the temple was filled with
smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no man was
able to enter into this temple till the seven plagues of the
seven angels were fulfilled. Now chapter 16 deals with those
seven plagues, those seven angels with the seven plagues. You know, it's one thing that
we know, the Lord's people know, about the history of this world.
You could say it's His story. It's His story. The history of
this world, we say it's His story. It's God's story. The unfolding
of God's eternal purpose. And it's going to unfold and
unfold until it's finally over and done with. We're in glory
and all the rest of them will be punished forever. That's why
there's a definite and reoccurring order of events in this world.
You know why things happen over and over and over again? That
there's no new thing under the sun. Now when he means that,
he means that there's no new thing under the sun that man
can come up with to make himself acceptable to God. And here's
the thing, God is the same. God never changes. And man is
the same, he never changes. So that's why people do the same
things, the same things happen over and over. God's working
out his eternal purpose. His purpose is being carried
out. And man is going on in his self-will, self-righteous, self-glorious,
self-loving self. He goes right on with it. And
now I want to give us a quick review, if I can, of his story,
his story. as it's revealed here in the
revelation of Christ. And I hope I don't take too long,
but anyway, we understand clearly in the first three chapters,
through the preaching of the word, applied by the Holy Ghost,
by the Holy Spirit into the hearts of God's elect, God establishes
His church on this world. And this happens over and over
and over. A church will come into existence,
he'll raise up a group of people, he'll raise up a work, that work
will die out and he'll raise up one somewhere else. And he
just keeps doing that. He's been doing that some, you
know, there was a church, the scriptures tells us that there
was a church even in the wilderness. So God always, he establishes
his church and he does it by the preaching of the gospel and
the word of God. And all of God's church, their
church and their preachers, they're light bearers. We hold up the
light of God. We're holding up the only light
this world will ever see, the only world that's ever know anything
about. And that's, you know, in the midst of this old dark
world, we're the only light they are. And they're blessed continually
with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how he
talked about how that he was with those seven churches and
he had something good to say about all of them except the
last one, Laodicea. He had nothing good to say about
it. And then here's the second thing that we found out, that
God's people are persecuted in this world again and again and
again. They go through many trials,
many afflictions. In fact, it says, you know, that
we come through great tribulation. And people think, you know, that
the tribulation's yet to happen. Paul said in Acts 14, 22, it's
through much tribulation that we enter into the kingdom of
God. And let me give you some of the things that the trial
does. It's the fact that we have to labor to have some humility. The fact that we have to humble
ourselves, the fact that we have to pray, God take the world out
of us as Houston did, take the world out of us for just a little
while, the cares of this world, for just a little while. Just
long enough for us to be here for, hear a message for 40 minutes
or 45 minutes. And I'll tell you what, and that's,
we have great trials and great afflictions while we're in this
world. And then a third thing that we've seen, and those are
in chapters four through seven, again and again, the judgments
of God are brought upon this world. They're brought on this
world over and over and over, and it does not cause one man
to come to repentance. God's judgments never brought
anybody to repentance. Never has, and we'll deal with
that later. I mean, when God puts his pressure on a man, most
men, I'm telling you, you ever seen anybody brought to Christ
through a tornado? You ever seen anybody brought to Christ through
a hurricane? No. How many people are getting
saved out in California when they got a drought out there
and all the water's drying up? How many people have brought
to Christ when all these people are dying all over the world?
How many people have brought to Christ when they get out their
guns and start shooting everybody? That's what I'm talking about.
All the judgments of God. And man just, he just bits his
teeth and bears it. That's what he does. And then
there's the warfare between the church and the world. And this
really, what it does is points to a deeper warfare between Christ
and Satan himself. That's where the real warfare's
at. We're caught in the middle. It's just like Job. Job did not
know that God and Satan had a conversation. But Job was the one who did the
suffering. Job was the one who was tried.
And it didn't happen to nobody else, it happened to him. And
so you see when we have this warfare going on between God
and Satan, between Christ and Satan, because of the seed of
the woman and the dragon stands ready to devour that seed of
the woman, and she's carried out into the wilderness. And
I tell you, there's a great warfare going on in this world, but I
already know who's won. I know who's already won. And
I tell you what, we're in this war, we're at war not against
flesh and blood, we really ain't. If you could war against flesh
and blood, we could do something about it. But we're at war against
principalities, that things that we can't even see. Spiritual
wickedness in high places. The power of the prince of this
world. That's who we're fighting. And
then God and the Satan is fighting over, you know man, head to head.
And Christ is gonna, he's gonna win. There's no doubt about that,
he's won. But until he's finally put in
that bottomless pit, we won't deal with him. And then whatever
happens in history, when you go down through history, and
you hear the trumpets of God, the trumpets of judgment, and
the plagues, They fail to produce repentance and conversion. They
do. You know, in Egypt, God sent
10 plagues on Egypt. 10 plagues. And I tell you, not one of them
plagues made Pharaoh said, I'm gonna let your people go. All
it did was made him meaner and rougher and more hateful and
more contrary. That's what the judgments of
God do. And I tell you what, God allows impenitence and hardness
of heart, and I tell you what, He'll let it go unpunished until
the final judgment, until the final last day. And here's the
thing, all you gotta do is, like I said, look in history. Look
at Herod. Herod stood up one day and gave
a big oration, and they said, oh, it's the voice of a God,
it's the voice of a God. God smote him, he died in just
a day or two. Judas traveled with the Lord
Jesus and all the eleven apostles, and I tell you what, nobody knew
what he was until he sold the Lord Jesus Christ for thirty
pieces of silver. And then what about Demas? Having
loved this present evil world, he walked off from the gospel.
He walked away from Christ. He walked away from fellowship
with the greatest man that's ever lived on the earth. All in those. And what about
Pharaoh? Let my people go. Who said to? The Lord said, let my people
go. Well, who in the world is the Lord? Who is the Lord? I know a whole family, a whole
family. I told somebody about them the
other day. From the mother to every son except one. When you
mention Christ to them and the gospel to them, they grit their
teeth and start stepping their foot. God, he said, I don't want to
hear about it. One man's going to go have heart surgery and
have four bypasses. tried to talk to him about his
soul, and he said, oh, just shook his head. And that's one family. One family. And I tell you what,
you have the answer to all of these things, where it says this
whole world lies in wickedness. Oh my, when men fail to repent,
When God manifests His warnings in His trumpets, He warns men,
He brings judgment, judgments on this world in so many places,
all over this world. And ain't nobody being brought
to God, nobody's being brought to Christ. You know, they get old men, you
know, they show these little kids starving to death and flies
around their eyes and all that stuff, trying to get you to send
money. They don't say send a preacher over here so these folks can
hear the gospel. They're shooting one another
in Chicago just 25 to 30 every weekend. They don't say send
a preacher up here and get on the streets and start preaching
to these infidels. They got droughts going out there
and the water is drying up everywhere and they say send us a preacher
and tell us about the judgments of God. And when God was fixing to destroy
this world in the flood, he had a preacher, and that preacher
was a preacher of righteousness, and he preached 120 years. And how many people got saved?
How many people heard the gospel? How many people paid attention
to God's warning? That's what I'm telling you about.
God'll blow that trumpet. The judgment's coming, judgment's
coming. Well, it's going to come on them
folks. It ain't going to come on me. And then when that water started
raising up there, you know, and them mothers trying to hold them
babies up. And the water just kept coming
and coming and coming. You never heard one of them.
You don't want to find any place where they said, God save us.
Please let us in that ark. In Sodom and Gomorrah, he sent
down there, he sent angels down there to tell their people, now
listen, this is what God's gonna do in Sodom and Gomorrah. You
know what they said? They thought as if somebody was
joking, somebody was joshing, somebody was, as the tales had
been told. You know how many got out of
that place? Three people. People ain't paying no attention
to the judgment of God. You go to every funeral you go
to. How many people get converted
when they watch somebody laying in the casket? Cold and lifeless. Oh, we're
all going that way. Yes, we are. But there's a big
difference in somebody that's a believer that's laying there,
because all there is is a body. They done gone to be with Christ,
and if there's a body there without Christ, he's already in hell.
Just that quick. That's the way life is. That's
the way it is. Well, that's what I'm telling
you. We see God's story over and over
and over in this world. God stays the same. He ain't
gonna change. Man's gonna stay the same. He ain't gonna change
unless God changes him. And then there's coming the final,
the most complete judgment, but it won't be complete till absolutely
until the judgment day. And these flags here that we're
gonna talk about, these last, these seven angels with these
seven last flags, they're the last. When these happen, there's
no more opportunity for repentance. God warns, men continues to harden
their hearts. And oh my, death flag comes under
them from the hands of an angry God. And I tell you, before they
die, they've crossed the line between God's patience in God's
wrath, God's long-suffering, and God's mercy. There's always
a time. Is there deadlines in the scriptures? I believe there are. I believe
there are. You remember, you remember when
our Lord Jesus Christ went into Samaria. And you know what, they ask him,
when that man come there with all them legion of angels, and
he cast them into them hogs, and they ran down there and died,
you know what they come and said, Lord, they told the Lord, depart
from our coast, get out of our town, we don't want you here.
And he went away and never went back. And one of these days, he's gonna
come into this world one last time. And that's what the will says,
keep on going, keep on going. Don't come to our town. Don't
come to our services. We don't want you, pal. We don't
want your authority. We don't want your sovereignty.
We don't want your blood. We be not sinners. And that's
what the history of this world's taught us over and over and over
again. Oh, that's when God told Pharaoh,
Pharaoh, every time he said, I'll let him go, it says God
hardened his heart. shall send them a strong delusion
that they should believe a lie and be damned." Huh? Oh my. Well, and down through
history, we see God's final wrath has been revealed itself again
and again. It strikes one and then another.
Look over here in Revelations 9 with me, in verse 21. And all I'll tell you, God's
wrath for man has been revealed over and over again. It strikes
one, then another. Look what it says here about
these people. Neither repented they of their
murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor
of their thefts. Huh? Look back over here. In Revelations, we're in 15,
but look here in chapter 16, and look in verse 9. Look what
happens in one of these plagues. And men were scorched with great
heat. God sent such heat down on them,
and they blasphemed the name of God, which has power over
these plagues. And they repented not to give
Him the glory. That's where man's at without
the mercy of God. All right, let's go now through
this 15th chapter. It's amazing to me, absolutely,
utterly amazing to me, that my grandson had that wreck. It's
a miracle he got out of it alive, much less with just a broken
neck. Now he's back at work, working, I told him time and
time and time and time again, God spared you, God had mercy
on you, God saved you. Judgment, God sent judgment.
Never bothered him a bit. Sad, ain't it? Scary. Scary. But look here in verse one. I
saw another sign in heaven. This is John now. Great and marvelous,
seven angels having the seven last plagues, for in them is
filled up the wrath of God. And I saw, as it were, a sea
of glass mingled with fire, and them that had gotten the victory
over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and
over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having
the harps of God. Oh, this is his last great vision,
this is the last one. The one that he had before that,
he said, I saw a great wonder in heaven when he saw that woman,
that seated woman in the dragon standing. But he's talking here
about great and marvelous things. Seven angels, they all of them
had, every one of them had a plague. And he's gonna tell us about
these seven angels and their bowls, it says it's golden vials,
but it's bowls of wrath. Every one of them is full of
wrath when he pours it out. And he shows us that the beginning,
though, of the church, he shows us God's people, God's elect,
victorious before that last day finally comes. Show us what we're
gonna have, what we're already victorious, we're already triumphing
Christ, and that's what he's showing us there. And he said,
I saw this sea. This sea was glass mingled with
fire. Great sea, as it was, mingled
with fire. And this is God's transparent,
glorious righteousness. Revealed, revealed in his judgments
upon the wicked. And I tell you what, in our judgments,
he said there in verse four, he said, our judgments are made
manifest. He saw this glorious sea. There
he was, a sea of glass. Fire was in it, just shining.
And oh, he saw what them that had gotten the victory. He says
they got the victory over the beast, over his image, over his
mark, and over the number of his name. Remember there was
two beasts. He had the number 666. Said,
we are victorious over all of them. All of them. That beast never done anything
to us. Couldn't harm us in any way.
Because of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, he sees them
standing on this sea of glass. He said, I saw them standing.
Look what it says there, and over his mark and over the image,
and then he said, and his name, and these people are standing,
God's people are standing on this sea of glass. Standing on
it. Look what it says now. Standing on this sea of glass,
and they have the harps of God. Even the harps are not ours,
they belong to God. He gives them to us. And then
it talks about this sea of glass. You know, it's like Israel going
through the Red Sea. When Israel, God took Israel
through the Red Sea, what was judgment, was the righteous judgment
upon Pharaoh was righteous salvation for his elect. When he brings
judgment upon some, he's saving others. With the same judgment,
he brings judgment, but then he's not on his people because
he's saving his people. And then having the hearts of
God, even their hearts belong to God. And then listen to this. And they sang the song of Moses,
the servant of God. You know where you find that
out? Exodus 15. Exodus 15. You wanna read that song of Moses?
Oh, then not only do they sing the song of Moses, the servant
of God, but the song of the Lamb. And this is what the psalm really
amounts to. You can go over and look at it.
Great and marvelous are thy works. He said, great and marvelous
are your works. You brought us through the Red
Sea, and you killed our enemies, drowned them in that sea. You
saved us with a great hand, and you stored them with the same
hand. And that's what he's talking about. And then we sang the Song
of the Lamb. What's that Song of the Lamb?
The Song of the Lamb is that the Lamb saved us. The Lamb redeemed
us. The Lamb shed his blood for us.
That new song, I posted a message a couple weeks ago on that new
song that we sang. Well, that song is the Song of
the Lamb. That Lamb did it all. Great and marvelous are your
works. Lord, your work, Lord Jesus, great is it, great and
marvelous is it. You read that 46th Psalm tonight? God is our help. God is our refuge
and a very present help. How does it mean present help?
That means he's there all the time. Huh? Oh, the mountains will go, but
God will stand. Rivers will stop, God will stand. And that's what he's talking
about. We're singing that song of Christ and His great lurk,
His great marvelous grace, His blessed power, His precious blood. It's unto Him that we owe everything. And I tell you, we sang the song
of the Lamb. And there's nothing like that
song of the Lamb. Nothing like it. I tell you,
we sang, when we sang, Every song we sing has something
to do with us either glorifying Christ or in our need of Christ.
We sing that song, I need thee, O Lord, I need thee, O Lord,
every hour I need thee. His daddy used to say it, not
every hour, every moment. I need thee, O Lord, every moment.
I need thee, I need thee. That's what Ed used to say. He
said, I don't know how many times he told me that. He said, just
every moment's not enough. Every hour's not enough. And
I tell you, we sang that song. Oh, how I love Jesus. Why? Because
he first loved me. Jesus paid it all, all the hymn
I owe. Sin left the crimson stain. He
watched it, he watched it, white as snow. As a fountain filled
with blood, drawn from Emmanuel, God's veins, and sinners, sinners,
sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all, all, all their
guilty stains. Oh, what a song we got to sing.
You know, when we get to glory, the only thing we're gonna do
His praise is His name forever. We can't say, we can't praise
Him enough down here, but we get up there, we won't have no
problem. Oh, we won't have no problem. And oh, listen to what
else they say about Him. Oh, great and marvelous are works,
and we say, Lord God Almighty. Oh, you're God, you're the Lord,
you're almighty, you're sovereign, you got all the power and all
the rights. And listen to this, and just are true are thy ways. Everything you do is right. He
don't do it because it's right, it's right because he does it.
And it says, and oh, listen to this, he's the king of the saints. He's our king sitting on his
throne. And then look what he says, and this, we understand
this. Who shall not fear thee? Who
shall not stand in awe of thee? Who shall not reverence thee?
Who shall not stand before thee and stand there and let not understand
that you've got all, you've got my life, you've got my breath,
you've got my being in your hand. Who shall not fear thee, Lord?
And who shall not glorify thy name? To God be the glory. Huh? Who shall not glorify thy
name? And this is why, because you're
holy. Lord, you're holy. And you're the only one that's
holy. And I tell you what, he says
in one of these days, everybody's gonna come before you and worship
before you. Every knee's gonna bow. Every
tongue's gonna confess. And you know what they're gonna
say? Your judgments, your judgments are made manifest. We saw them. And thank God we saw the judgments
of God with our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. I've dealt with
these six, seven things of what our Lord said on that cross.
And I tell you what, every single one of them was talking about
what Christ suffered for sinners. If God put all of his judgment
on his son, then it would be unjust for him to come back and
judge us. Ain't that right? Why would he
punish the same man twice for the same sin? And I tell you
what, as Christ bore my judgment, I'm not gonna bear it. And oh
my, and just as Israel prevailed by God's hand, and you know what
got them out of Israel? You know what got Israel out
of Egypt? The blood of a lamb. God said everybody put on the
lamb and take that blood put it on this side post and put
it over that little and he said I'm gonna come through Egypt
tonight and everybody that's got a firstborn I'm gonna start
slaying them and the thing is all the firstborn
of Egypt and just like us before we were ever born we were all
ready died in that lamb. And I tell you what, when they
saw the blood of that lamb, it wasn't until that lamb was shed
till they did come out of Egypt. And we don't come out of this
world, we don't come away from our sin, we don't come away from
the judgment of God until God sees the blood. And then he'll
pass over us. Is that not right? We prevail
over the beast the same way the lamb gives us the victory. Let
me show you something over here in Revelation 7. I hope I'm not
taking too long. Look here in verse 13 and 14.
Oh, it's the lamb that gives us the
victory. And one of the elders answers,
saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And where'd they come from? Where'd
they come from? How'd they get here? Where'd
they come from? And I said, and the others asked, John, yes.
And I said unto him, sir, thou knowest. And he said, these are
they which came out of great tribulation and have washed their
robes and made them white. in the blood of the lamb. Oh my. We sang upon God's righteous
judgment and all someday about before him. Then look here quickly
in verse five through eight. Let me go over this thing. And
after that, I looked and behold, the temple of the tabernacle
of the testimony in heaven was open. Just like the tabernacle
in the wilderness, that's called the place where God dwelt. That's
where the testimony of God was kept, the Ten Commandments, that's
where it was kept. And in this tabernacle of the
testimony in heaven, it was opened. Heaven is open for everybody
to see. And out of that temple, out of
that tabernacle of the testimony, the testimony of God, the testimony
of Christ, the testimony of the blood, and the seven angels,
they come up out of that temple, they came out of there, that
place was opened up, seven angels come out of it. And every one
of them had seven flags, and listen to how they was clothed
out. Clothed in pure and white linen. You mean they're gonna
come and render some plagues on this earth and they're clean,
pure, and white linen? Oh, listen, God, God, everything
He's right, everything about Him is right and clean and pure
and holy. And they're clothed in heaven.
And then they've got this belt around there, right around here.
They got a belt right around there. And they got a golden
girdle around, a golden belt around there, gold. Everything,
everything we've got, you know, in the tabernacle, things were
made out of gold. And in the temple, everything
was made out of gold. Every cup they drink out of,
everything is made out of gold, except that brass altar. And then look at what
they had, these golden girls. Now the four beasts, one of the
four beasts, remember those four beasts that are around there? Well, one of them, they're called
cherubims. There's always around God when you find them, the cherubims.
And one of those four beasts gave unto the seven angels, he
said, here's your bowl, here's your golden vial, everything
gotta be gold, that golden altar, golden vials. And he gave them
a golden vial, and listen to this, every one of these vials,
was full of the wrath of God, plumb full of it. And what God? The God who liveth forever and
ever and ever. And oh my, God's temple, God's
tabernacle is open and it contains the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark where all them prayers was
kept under that altar, the prayers of the saints, remember? And
oh my, this temple's open, the wrath of God's about to be revealed.
Dazzling white. Dazzling white. And they're full
of the wrath of God. From the ever-living God. Now
listen to what it says now. And the temple was filled with
smoke from the glory of God and from His power. You know how
many times that happened in the Old Testament? It happened in
Isaiah 6, and that was the time when they had all the Israel
gathered in all their tents, and the tabernacle was sitting
out there, and I'll tell you, you know, and they come down
there, and God come down in this great, great cloud, at the Shekinah
Glory, and He came down in that cloud, and everybody stood way
off, The only person who could come close was Moses. Everybody
else stood afar off, and they saw that glory of God, and the
scripture said every one of them bowed their heads and began to
worship. And when we see the glory of
God, and we see it in His blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, ain't
nothing we can do but bow our hearts in worship, because we
see God's glory in Christ. And I tell you what, this temple
was filled. Smoke descended on the mountain,
on the tabernacle. God's holy anger, full and thorough. And then look what it says here
now. And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of
God and from His power. Now I want you to pay attention
to this. No man was able to enter into the temple. I mean, listen. Nobody's going back into that
temple till these seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled. No man can enter in. No intercession
is possible anymore. God's in anger now. God's wrath
and plagues are coming now. No more tender mercies. No more
grace. No more being able to go in there
anymore. God's fixing to wind this thing
up. And when these plagues begin
to fall, God said, that's it. That's it, ain't nobody else
coming in here until that's done. Oh, ain't you glad you know Him
as God? Huh? Ain't you grateful to know that
God has already done everything that He requires for us to have
done? I'm so thankful for that. When I read about the wrath of
God and the judgment of God and the things He's done down through
history, I am so thankful. that I don't have to face those
things. I don't have to face them. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we bear our hearts before you
in the blessed name of Christ our Lord. Lord, we've faced you
tonight, faced your holiness and your judgments and your wrath,
and how that no one's brought to faith, no one's brought to
Christ. Lord, it's the goodness of God
that leads men to repentance. It's the mercy of God and seeing
a view of the cross of our Lord Jesus that saves men. So, oh
Lord, we pray that you would please have mercy upon our families.
Lord, don't let these judgments and plagues fall on them. God,
save them from the wrath to come. Save them from your anger. Save
them from your just punishments. Oh Lord, for Christ's sake, go
and deal with them. Go deal with them in mercy, not
in anger. Go deal with them in kindness
and pity, not in anger. Go deal with them in grace, not
in anger. Oh Lord, I know that whatever
you do is gonna be right with all my loved ones. The Lord, for Christ's sake,
I'd ask you, in wrath remember mercy. Please don't leave them to themselves. Open their hearts, open their
understandings. Be pitiful, be gracious, be merciful. Be the God of all grace. and
save them, if you will, for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Jesus Christ is made to me all
I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness, and power. Holiness forevermore. My redemption full and sure. He is all I need. And He is. And He is. See you
Wednesday, God willing.