If you will turn in your Bibles
to Revelation chapter 16, I'm going to be dealing with the
same subject that I dealt with last week, seven vials or seven
bowls of God's wrath. So this is part two. We're going
to begin in verse eight. We've covered the first three
vials of God's wrath. And now we're going to begin
with the fourth that shows something that is amazing. something that
is really kind of shocking. And that's this, that God's judgment
will not bring repentance. Imagine that. The reason I had
Mark read Malachi is because that shows the impending coming
of God's judgment upon the wicked. But it also shows this. that
the true people of God, sinners saved by grace, are safe from
the wrath of God. And that's what this passage
really in Revelation 16 shows. It showed it in chapter 15 too.
That's the vision that he has. But let's just begin at verse
8. It says the fourth angel, the fourth messenger of God,
verse 8, poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given
unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched, they were
burned. The Bible says that our God is
a consuming fire in Revelation chapter 12. They were scorched
with great heat. But look at this. But they blasphemed,
they cursed, belittled the name of God. Which hath power over
these plagues? These vials of wrath are kind
of parallel to some of the plagues that God brought down upon Egypt.
And you might notice that the plagues of Egypt did not bring
the Egyptians to repentance. Didn't bring Pharaoh to repentance.
He had a little change of mind, but it wasn't God-given repentance,
didn't last. But it says here that they still
blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues,
and they repented not to give him glory. Now I'm gonna talk
a little bit this morning about repentance, but I want you to
hold that thought. But here's the wrath of God poured
out upon all those who are found before God without Christ. Those who live and die in their
sins. Christ said, if you don't believe
that He is the God of salvation, I am, He said, you'll die in
your sins. And those who refuse to believe
in Him, those who refuse to repent, refuse to believe, refuse to
bow, refuse to submit to God's righteousness, as Paul wrote
in Romans chapter 10, go through their lives in unbelief, live
in unbelief, and die in unbelief, the wrath of God will come down
upon them like scorching heat. Is this literal? Well, 2 Peter
3 tells us that this world is going to be burned up with a
fervent heat. I don't know exactly how that's
going to happen, but I know that it is. I don't know when it's
going to happen, but I know that it is. But there's one thing
that we can rejoice in, and that is God's people, sinners saved
by grace, washed in the blood of Christ, clothed in His righteousness,
we're protected from this wrath. We're hidden in the rock, the
rock Christ Jesus. Isn't that glorious? We're in
Christ. Oh, to be in Christ. What does
that mean? It means everything. to God's
people. As Mark read in Malachi 4.2,
here the son is used to scorch the wicked who will not repent,
but that same son, as it pertains to God's people in Christ, Christ
is the son of righteousness who comes to us with healing in his
wings. Now that's glorious. These vials
of judgment, as we saw before this, we saw seven trumpets of
judgment announcing the judgments of God, warning the people, flee
to Christ. That's what it's about. Don't
flee to religion, don't flee to ceremonies and rites and human
human means and cures because they don't work. Flee to Christ.
Look to Christ. Find out who Christ is in this
book. Don't just assume that the man
standing behind the pulpit here is telling you the truth. Search
it out. Look for it in the Word. Who
is Jesus Christ? Flee to Him because He is the
Son. He is the Son, S-O-N of God.
And he's the son, the S-U-N, of righteousness. But here this
same son of righteousness who saves sinners by his grace is
the son that will scorch unbelievers with fire and with great heat
of God's judgment. As I said, for our God is a consuming
fire. One old preacher said the same
sun that melts wax hardens clay. And it says here they blaspheme
the name of God. Can you imagine people being
under judgment? And understanding somewhat that
it's God who's bringing this judgment, but they blaspheme
the name of God despite the intensity of their wrath. And they repented
not to give Him glory. Now that shows us the depths
of sin and depravity right there. Because man left to himself will
not repent, though he be scorched with great fire and heat. It's
kind of hard to believe, isn't it? It really is for us to believe. That's what the Word of God says.
They will not repent. They'll blaspheme God. They won't
even be silent. And this shows how depraved and
how deceived that we by nature are. One preacher said this,
he said, so deep are the effects of sin upon the human heart,
so thoroughly have the beast and the false prophet deceived
the world's inhabitants that they curse their creator even
while his judgment is being poured out upon them. Brethren, if you believe in Christ,
If you have the faith of God's people to trust Christ, to cling
to Christ, if you've been brought by God to repentance of your
dead works and your idolatry, you are a miracle of God's power
and grace in Christ. And you have nothing to boast
in over those who blaspheme God. Because listen, there but for
the grace of God, that's me. And that's you. But what we learn
here is that God's judgment will not bring repentance. We'll look
at that more in just a moment. But look at verse 10 now. Here's
the fifth angel. The fifth vial of God's wrath
poured out his vial upon the seed of the beast. That's the
beast who follows the great dragon. I believe this is the beast of
false nations, false governments, which is accompanied with false
religion. And his kingdom was full of darkness, and they gnawed
their tongues for pain. You remember the plague of darkness
that was brought over Egypt, when Moses brought, trying to
get Pharaoh to let the people go, utter darkness. What a metaphor for false religion,
false ideas. That's what it is, is darkness.
Satan's kingdom is a kingdom of darkness. Christ's kingdom
is a kingdom of light. The Bible says that when we're
saved, we're translated from the kingdom of darkness into
the kingdom of God's dear Son. All who live and die in unbelief
live in the darkness and deception of false religion and false philosophies. And in the end, they'll be cast
into outer darkness. But my friend, Christ is the
light of His people. His kingdom is a kingdom of light.
Look over at Revelation 21. We'll skip ahead here just a
little bit. Revelation 21 and look at verse
22 because here it's describing God's people and they're inhabiting
God's nation. Verse 22, I saw no temple therein. For the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb are the temple of it." In other words, there's no physical
temple like people are looking for today. It's not a building
made with the hands of men. It says here, the Lord God Almighty
and the Lamb of God, that's the temple that we dwell in. God's
glory. Verse 23, and the city had no
need of the sun, the physical sun. Neither of the moon to shine
in, for the glory of God did lighten it. And the lamb is the
light thereof. Oh my soul, what a joy it is
to know that we exist and we live in the light of God's truth,
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We've been taken out of that kingdom of darkness. brought
into the kingdom of God's dear Son. We're people of light and
shine forth as lights in a dark world. We tell the truth. We
preach the gospel of God's grace. That's what our light is. Matthew
5, 16 says, let your light so shine before men. What's that
light? That's the truth that we believe.
That's the gospel. That's the doctrine of Christ.
telling sinners that they may see your good works because it's
only in the light of the gospel that the works of men can be
called good as they're accepted with God through Christ. And
they'll glorify God, which is in heaven. Those who believe
it, those who are given the gift of faith, but those who refuse
this light, they hate it because it exposes their deeds as being
evil. We've read that so many times
in John 3, 19. The world hates the light because
it exposes their efforts their so-called righteousness in their
view as being evil deeds. The throne of Satan, symbolic
of the kingdom of darkness, here in this fifth vial will be totally
shrouded in darkness. Oh my, so what a way to exist. But look at verse 11. It says, and blasphemed, listen,
verse 10 says, they gnawed their tongues for pain, gritting their
teeth for the pain, but they blasphemed the God of heaven
because of their pains, because of their sores, and repented
not of their deeds. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
shocking? Yet despite the agony that comes
upon the inhabitants of there, those who worship the beast and
his image are so devoted to their evil master that they continue
to curse God and refuse to repent. God's judgments will not bring
repentance. His wrath. What that means, they don't yet
judge themselves as deserving of this wrath at this time. I
believe they will eventually, acknowledge that they deserve
it, because the Bible says every knee will bow and every tongue
will confess that Jesus is Lord. But what does this show us? It
shows us the necessity of repentance. When our Lord emerged on the
scene in his public ministry, one of his first messages to
the people goes like this, this is from Mark chapter 1 verse
14, it says, now after that John, John the Baptist was put in prison,
Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of
God and here's what he said, the time is fulfilled, that means
the Messiah has come, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye
and believe the gospel. Now, you know I hear preachers
arguing which comes first, faith or repentance? That's a silly
argument. Because I can tell you which
comes first. And I agree with this. One preacher said, well,
it's like a piece of paper. You've got both sides. You can't
have a piece of paper without two sides. You can't have salvation,
conversion, in the sense of Holy Spirit conversion, without faith
and repentance. But the Bible tells us that without
faith, everything is sin. You know, people can come to
what they call repentance which is not really biblical gospel
repentance, they can come to that without faith. A lot of people mistake reformation
with repentance. In other words, well, I'm living
a certain lifestyle, and I have such bad habits, and I'm going
to quit those bad habits. Well, you should! There's no
argument there, but that's not biblical gospel repentance. Now understand that. I had a
fellow standing right down here after another man preached the
gospel at this church, and he told me he knew he was saved
when he threw down those cigarettes. And I told him, well, I'm sorry,
but that's not salvation. You can stop doing this, stop
doing that, and maybe you ought to stop doing this and that,
whatever this and that is. There's no doubt about that.
If you're a bank robber, stop robbing banks. If you're a drug pusher, stop
pushing drugs. All of that. But that's not biblical repentance.
That's reformation. And it may be a reformation you
need just to get along in society. But when Christ said, repent
ye and believe the gospel, what I believe he's telling us is
that the way we come to repentance, and repentance and faith both
are the gift of God now. They're not natural to us. How
do you know that? Look at these two vials of wrath
that we just saw. Here's the wrath of God pouring
down upon men and women. And they blaspheme God and they
don't repent. If anything, if repentance and
faith were a product of any goodness or any choice that we make, you
can be sure it'd be happening here. But it's not. Let me read you, while I'm reading
this to you, turn over to, let me see if I got, Luke chapter
13. You turn there, and I'll get
there in just a moment. Luke 13. I wanna show you a passage
here. But let me give you this first.
In the book of Luke chapter five, I'll just read this to you, you
go to Luke 13. When the Pharisees, challenged
the Lord because he ate with sinners, he ate and consorted
with publicans and sinners. Here's what he said in Luke 5
31. Jesus answering said unto them, they that are whole need
not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came to call sinners
to repentance. Do you get that? And I think about this one. Let
me read you this one. This is 2 Peter 3 9. And this
is a verse that a lot of people take out of context and try to
make it say something that it doesn't. Where it says in 2 Peter
3, 9, where it talks about people who, because the Lord has not
yet come back again in the second coming, well, they doubt God's
word. And he says in verse 9 of 2 Peter
3, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness. He's coming back. at his time,
but he's long-suffering to usward." Who's the usward? That's his
children, his people, his elect, his sheep. Not willing that any
should perish, his people, but that all should what? Come to
repentance. How are they gonna come to repentance? They'll come to repentance through
faith in Jesus Christ. How are they gonna come to faith
in Jesus Christ? It's the gift of God, just like repentance.
Look at Luke 13, verse one, when the Lord was preaching to the
multitudes. He says, there were present at that season some that
told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with
their sacrifices. This is a historical event where
Pontius Pilate sent Roman soldiers in to kill people who were coming
to the temple to worship. And Jesus answering said to them,
suppose you that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans,
somebody gets killed in a disaster like that, or you suppose that
they got killed because they were greater sinners than everybody
else because they suffered such thing?
Verse three, I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall
likewise what? Perish. You think they were greater sinners?
You weren't in that number that got killed, you survived. Was
it because you're better than them? No. Look on verse four. Are those
18 upon whom the tower of Siloam fell? Now that's a natural disaster,
all right. And slew them, think you that
they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? He said,
I tell you nay, but except you repent, you shall likewise perish. Is there any doubt that repentance
is required? No. Well, what is repentance? Well, literally, the word for
repentance in the Old Testament, it meant a change of direction.
A complete change of direction. It'd be like you're walking north
and you turn around 180 degrees and you go south. Not veering
off a little bit here or veering off a little bit there. I mean
an opposite walk. In the New Testament, the word
for repentance means a change of mind. A complete change of
mind. A complete way of looking at
things. A complete way of judging things. Now it's not just, and a lot
of preachers will try to put that down, they say, well you're
just saying it's an intellectual thing. No, the intellect is involved. Because God teaches his people
knowledge. He gives us knowledge. But it
reaches to the very soul and being of a sinner, saved by grace. Reaches to the heart. It's a
change of our minds, our affections, our will, our conscience, all
of it. And it's a change of mind and heart concerning God, who
God is. People today do not realize that
having different views of God, now think about this. One denomination over here, they're
me, and they're saying this about God. They're saying that God
loves everybody, and Christ died for everybody, and the rest is
up to you. Then one group's over here, and
they're saying, no, no. God chose the people from the
foundation of the world, gave them to Christ. They're the people
of His love. And He sent Christ to redeem
them and to secure their salvation. Now, are those two the same gods?
No. How do you know the difference?
Read the Bible. What does the Bible say about
God? What people don't understand is if you don't have right views
of God from His Word, you're worshipping an idol. If you think God will save you
and receive you and accept you based on anything other than
the shed blood, The imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do
you know you're worshiping a false God? Because that's not the God
of this book. So repentance brings about a
change of mind concerning who God is. Repentance brings about a change
of mind about ourselves. Know yourself. That's why I put
that article in the bulletin about free will. People don't
realize that when you say salvation is up to you and you make the
difference, what are you saying about God? What are you saying
about Christ? What are you saying about yourself? You're saying
something the Bible doesn't say. My friend, I know this, salvation's
of the Lord. And it's not of me. And if he
left me to my own will, I would have perished long ago. Repentance is a change of mind
and heart about who Jesus Christ is. And how he saves sinners
by his grace. Who he is. God manifest in the
flesh. What he accomplished on Calvary.
The complete salvation of all for whom he died. All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out. This is the will of him that
sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing,
but raise him up again at the last day. No man will come to
me except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I'll raise
him up at the last day. And this is the will of the Father. All who come to Christ, they're
taught, they learn, and they hear, because they're born again
by the Spirit, and given ears to hear and eyes to see, and
salvation is by grace, through faith. That's not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man boast. How do sinners come to repentance?
Not by miracles. You can stand on the shore of
the Red Sea and see it part. Walk across on dry land. That
won't bring you to repentance. It won't bring you to faith or
repentance. You can stand at Lazarus' tomb and see him come
out of the tomb. And that won't bring you to faith
and repentance. You can look out on the river and see Christ
walking on the river. it won't bring you to repentance.
Miracles won't do it. Human reasoning and human will
won't do it. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know, then they're
spiritually discerned. There's none righteous, no, not
one. None good, no, not one. None that seeketh after God. And God's judgments won't do
it. He can destroy this earth with
fire. And sinners left to themselves
apart from the grace and power of God in Christ will still blaspheme
His name and not repent. What does the Bible tell us?
In Romans chapter 2 it tells us the goodness of God leads
to repentance. Well, where am I going to find
the goodness of God? In Christ revealed in the Gospel.
Look at Philippians 3. Here's how the Apostle Paul was
brought to repentance. And let me tell you something.
If you've been brought to repentance, the same for you and me. Look
at Philippians chapter 3. Verse 7. Philippians 3. This is one of
the best examples. of how God brings a sinner to
faith in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry. Verse
seven, but what things were gain to me? Now what kind of gain
was Saul of Tarsus looking for? Gain with God. God's approval,
God's acceptance, God's blessing. But those things that were gain
to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but done that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of, or the faithfulness of Christ,
the righteousness which is of God by faith. We receive by faith. That is, receive into our knowledge
and our conscience. That's it. God granted the Gentiles repentance,
it said in the book of Acts. How did he do it? By bringing
them to faith in Christ. By showing them the revelation
of his glory in Christ Jesus. That God is a holy and just God
who will by no means clear the guilty who hates the workers
of iniquity and cannot show mercy and grace and love apart from
his justice being satisfied. He must be a just God as well
as a Savior. He must be a righteous judge
as well as a heavenly loving Savior. How can that be? Only upon one ground, the blood,
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Everything
else that's aimed toward achieving or maintaining salvation is dumb,
Paul said. That's repentance. That's faith
in Christ and repentance. Now go back to Revelation 16.
Now what we're leading up here in this chapter is the final
battle. You all have heard of Armageddon,
haven't you? Well, I'm gonna deal with Armageddon next week
if the Lord lets me live. Let's look at the sixth angel,
verse 12. He poured out his vow upon the great river Euphrates.
You know the Euphrates is an actual river in the Mideast.
But it was kind of known as a lifeline to places like Assyria and Babylon,
enemies of the people of God. Here it's symbolic as a lifeline
to enemies of the people of God. It was kind of like a dividing
line, too. When they crossed the river of
Euphrates, they were in hostile territory. Remember when they
were held captive in Babylon? And you remember how God restored
Israel back to their home? He dried up the river Euphrates. And it says, and the water thereof
was dried up, and the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared. The kings of the east, This is all symbolic now, leading
up to the end of the final battle. A lot of commentators say the
kings of the east refer to evil kings. I don't believe it does.
In the Bible, what comes out of the east? The son of righteousness. The people of God. The people
of Judah were brought out of Babylon from the east And they
were delivered by what he calls a bird from the east, that was
Cyrus, and it was a sign of deliverance. And what he says here is that
the Euphrates River, which feeds false religion and false governments,
is gonna be dried up and the people of God, who are kings
and priests unto him, they're gonna be delivered when this
river's dried up. And what are they gonna be prepared
for? The final day, the final battle. Look at verse 13, I saw
three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the
dragon. Remember the frogs that came upon Egypt? These are like
poisonous frogs. That unholy trinity, you see. Preparation for final judgment.
The dragon, the beast, the false prophet, that's the three frogs.
speaking deadly doctrine, false gospels of salvation by the works
and the wills of men rather than solely by the works and the will
of God in Christ. And look what he says here. He
says in verse 13, that out of the mouth of the dragon and out
of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false
prophet, you see that? These frogs are false preachers,
preaching that false message. And verse 14 says, they are the
spirits of devil's working miracles, which go forth under the kings
of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to do the
battle of that great day of God almighty. Think about it, working to bring
together all false governments, all false religions of the world
in union against Christ and His church. Remember when in Acts
chapter four, I believe it is, talks about the kings of the
earth, the Jews and the Gentiles all banded together against Christ? That's what this is about. All
these false religions and false governments who literally hate
each other will come together, united against Christ and His
church. all leading to the final battle.
Look at verse 15. Christ says, Behold, I come as
a thief. We don't know when he's coming,
but he'll overtake his enemies like a thief. Not his people
now, because we expect him to come. Now we don't know when,
but we're looking for him. Blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments. Be on guard. And what is our
garments? Garments of salvation. The garment
of His righteousness imputed. You know, that's the first doctrine
that false preachers go after to try to discredit. Oh, that
old mercantile righteousness, they'll say. Like a post-it note
outside of you, all kinds of junk. My friend, that's the ground
of our salvation. The garments of salvation, His
mercy, His grace, all of that. lest he walk naked and they see
his shame. Without Christ's righteousness
imputed, that's what we are, naked and in shame, and don't
even know it. We're like, you remember the
emperor and the new clothes? That's what we are, like walking
down the street, thinking we're clothed with beautiful garments,
but we're not. In verse 16 it says, and he gathered
them together into a place called, in the Hebrew tongue, Armageddon. Well, I've run out of time. I'm
going to deal with that seventh vial of judgment in Armageddon
next week, Lord willing. But the message of this is believe
and repent. Flee to Christ. He's our only
hope and we have no other. Let's turn to hymn number 233
and sing as a closing hymn, Depth of Mercy. Can there be mercy
still reserved for me? Let's stand and sing.