I was writing a bulletin article
to appear in one of our bulletins in either next week or the week
after about, you know, we always talk about certainties. And I can't remember who it was.
It may have been Benjamin Franklin who made the statement that the
only sure thing in life is death and taxes. Well, you know, that's
not true. And I thought about that for
a believer. what is really certain in our lives. And we think about
our nation, we think about our world, we think about what's
going to happen Tuesday and when we wake up Wednesday, who's going
to be in the White House, all of that. And we're certainly
wise to be concerned about it. I mean, there's, you know, and
to use, we're not fatalists. We know God's in control. We
know that he's sovereign. He's determined what's going
to happen. I believe that. That's what the
Bible teaches. I don't think God just knows what's going to
happen. He determined it. That's what the Bible teaches
from Genesis to Revelation. There's no telescope of time
nonsense in the Bible. It's just not there. That's a
concoction of man trying to bring God down on his level. That doesn't make us fatalist
because God's given us a mind. He's given us commands. I always
quote Deuteronomy 29, 29. The secret things belong to God.
The revealed things belong to us. We live in our world and
we're not God. So God has determined these things. But in writing this article,
I thought about that, what is really certain? And I've told
people there's three things, but I'll actually say four. And
it will go like this. Number one, we know that in this
world, no matter how good we think things are or how bad we
think things are, it's not gonna stay the same. This world is
a changing world. All flesh is grass, the scripture
says. The flower fades away. Things
come and things go. Nothing's going to stay the same.
We may think, well, we're living in a really prosperous time and
all. It's not going to stay the same.
That's a certainty. And secondly, the next certain
thing is this. And I'm not just, I don't want
to just be negative this morning, but here's the way, it's not
going to get any better. This world, even though there
might have been some times, again, of prosperity, but they were
always short times. Think about our lives, you know,
in the scheme of this country, for example. We're over 200 years
old. That's nothing in the scheme
of eternity, is it? Just a drop of the bucket. But
things are going to get worse. Read 2 Peter 3. This world is
headed towards destruction. They used to sing that song back
in the 60s, don't you believe we're on the eve of destruction? And I know that guy didn't know
what he was talking about, but listen, somebody asked me one
time, said, do you really believe in global warming? Well, of course
I do, read 2 Peter 3, this world's gonna burn up with a fervent
heat, that's global warming, isn't it? This world is under a curse. And so it's not gonna get better,
it's gonna get worse. Now how to get worse as far as
governments and that kind of thing, I don't know. But I know
it's going to get worse. And the third thing I know is
right here. The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. God is in control. God has not come down off the
throne. Whatever happens Tuesday, when
we wake up on Wednesday, it's not because God relinquished
his control of things. He's in control. But here's the
fourth cert. And that's what's relevant to this lesson more
than anything else. And that's this, if I'm in Christ,
if I'm washed in the blood of the Savior and clothed in His
righteousness imputed, I'm gonna be okay. It's gonna be fine with
me. I can think about others and
all of that and I know what you're saying. I'm not saying that we
ought to just, like I said, this doesn't make us fatalistic. But
here, this is talking about the end of days, here, Revelation
19. And what this is, this is the second coming of Christ,
leading up to it and including that second coming, where Christ,
in his global, universal authority and power, as the sovereign creator,
the sovereign redeemer, brings his wrath, and in Revelation,
it's called the wrath of the lamb. That's always been an interesting
phrase to me because when I think of the lamb, what do I think
of? I think of salvation. That's what the lamb means to
a believer. A sinner saved by grace. When you hear the lamb,
like Abel's lamb, the Passover lamb. God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. But where there's no blood, what
does he say? Death. And that's what you're
seeing here that's being brought down upon this symbolic character
here called the Great Whore. Now that's just not language
we like to hear. But that's exactly what the Word
of God says. Look at verse 1. After these
things, talking about the fall of the great whore, the fall
of Babylon, I heard a great voice of much people in heaven. That's
the saints whose spirits are in glory with the Lord. And here's
what they said. They said, hallelujah, praise
the Lord. That's what that means. Hallelujah,
hallelujah, it means praise the Lord. And here's what they're
praising God for, salvation and glory and honor and power under
the Lord our God. These are the saints in heaven
acknowledging that the only reason that they are in heaven is the
sovereign mercy and grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation. That word salvation. You know, whenever you see the
word salvation, who do you think of? Christ is our salvation. We're not our own salvation.
I didn't save myself. I would not have even chosen
salvation had he not made me willing in the day of his power,
the scripture says. And certainly, He speaks of glory. Where is the glory of God? The
glory of God is in the face of Jesus Christ. That's His person
and His work. Who is Jesus Christ? He is God
in human flesh. God-man. Why did He have to be
both God and man? Because that's who it takes to
save a sinner like me. You see, I stand before God honorably. See that word honor? In other
words, My salvation in no way dishonored God. Well, how's that
possible? Because God must be just when
he saves. He must be right. He's got to
be a righteous judge. And shall not the judge of all
the earth do right? Yes. He must punish sin. It's not like false preachers
are saying today. God does not feel sorry for us. He doesn't just look over sin.
He doesn't just say, oh, I know you made some mistakes, you poor,
weak human being. No. God looks at sin as rebellion. God looks at sin as a declaration
of war against him. And he must punish sin. The soul
that sinneth must surely die. Now, people who say they don't
believe that, I always tell them, I say, well, don't quote Romans
3.23 ever again then. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And then go to Romans 6.23, but
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. The wages of sin, that's what
we earn. Wage. But Eternal life, we don't
earn that. It's a gift. And it's a gift
of God's free grace. And it is truly amazing grace.
Because we don't deserve it, and we haven't earned it. And
that goes down to everything that God gives us that is good.
Even in this physical life. You go out and you work hard.
And you earn a paycheck, for example. or you earn respect
from other people. Well, in God's sight, that's
a free gift. That is. But salvation now? Boy, there's not a greater free
gift than that. God justifies the ungodly. Even when we were yet enemies
in our minds by wicked works, yet hath he reconciled us. God
is both a just God and a savior when he saves his people. He's
both a righteous judge as well as a loving father. How can he
be both? It's through the blood and the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ as the substitute and
surety of his people. And then power. 1 Corinthians
1 says that Christ crucified is both the power of God and
the wisdom of God. And so what's happening here
in heaven, they're not up there talking about what they did for
the Lord. They're not up there bragging about what God enabled
them to do. They're up there bragging about
what God has done for them in Christ, by grace, by mercy. That's
what preaching the gospel is, is bragging on Christ, not bragging
on me or bragging on you. I'll never forget years ago when
I was preaching here, There was a lady who was coming ever so
often, and at the end of the service, as she was going out
the door, she looked at me and she said, you don't ever have
anything good to say about anybody. I said, well, I said, if you
listen to the message, I said I had a whole lot of good things
to say about Christ, and he's my salvation. See, I'm not here
to pump you up, puff you up. I'm not really here to make me
or you feel good about ourselves. I'm here to preach Christ. And
that's what this is. Look at verse two. And look at
the foundation of their praise, their worship. For true and righteous
are his judgments. This is about God as a judge.
Well, how can I, a sinner, rejoice and worship and take confidence
in God's judgments which are true and righteous? Well, there's
only one way that I can rejoice in His judgments, and that's
as I see His judgment against me falling upon the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross as my substitute. When Christ went to the cross,
he went there for the sins of God's chosen people, imputed,
charged, accounted, reckoned to him. And that's what it means
when I say as a believer, he died for my sins. It doesn't
mean that God just used that as a token that he feels sorry
for me or even that he loves me. It is the love of God that
sent Christ to the cross, don't get me wrong. And it was his
love for his sheep that caused him to do it, John 13 one. He
loved his own to the end. That word in there means to the
finishing of the work that he came to do for them. But you see what it means is
that when Christ died, he died for his people. He said he laid
down his life for the sheep, didn't he? John 10. That means
their sins were charged to him and he suffered unto death for
their sins, bruised for our iniquities, Isaiah 53. He suffered the just
for the unjust and he literally, in his death for their sins,
satisfied the justice of God. Now you've heard the word propitiation. used four or five times in different
forms in the New Testament. That's what that means. That
means Christ finished the work, paid for the sins. It doesn't
mean that Christ made me savable if I would cooperate. It doesn't
mean Christ put me in a position where I could be saved if I would
receive him. It means this, it means He satisfied
justice, He paid the debt, He established righteousness that
was imputed to all of His people and they will receive Him as
a result, as the fruit. How do I know if Christ is my
Savior? Well, do you believe in Him?
Do you rest in Him? In His judgments. You see, mercy, the mercy seat
is a place of judgment through a substitute. And love
provided in Christ for his people what his justice demanded. We can't do that. And what's
the result? Daniel chapter 9 says it. He
made an end of sin, he finished the transgression, he brought
in everlasting righteousness. So look at it, verse 2, for true
and righteous are his judgments. Now, listen to what he says.
for he hath judged the great whore." Now what is the great
whore? That's Babylon. That's the false church. That's Satan's tares. Mainly
that which claims to be Christian but denies the doctrine of Christ. That's the harlot. It's kinda
like love disguised but is not love at all. It's a false love. It's a false religion. It's sinners
trying to save themselves by their works or their will. And
he says, he's judged the great whore, which did corrupt the
earth with her fornication. The fornication that he's talking
about is idolatry. That's what that is. Spiritual
fornication. That's idolatry. That's worshiping
a God that cannot save. Idolatry, let me put it to you
this way. Here's the book of God, right
here. If you want to know anything about God, you've got to go to
this book. Now, God has revealed some things about himself in
the creation, and he's revealed something of himself naturally
in the conscience. But if you want to know God in
his glory, especially his saving glory, you've got to go to this
book. And this is how God reveals himself and what he says about
himself. Now if I as a preacher or a teacher stand up before
you and say anything about God that's not in this book, or if
I attribute, if I fail to attribute attributes that God has taken
unto himself as revealed in this book, or if I attribute attributes
that are not given to God, What am I doing? Preaching a false
god. What does God say about himself?
That's why I say, you know, I heard a preacher say on TV one time,
he said many Christians are operating under a fallacy. And he said
that fallacy is that God is in control. Well, the book of God
says throughout, I could show him a multitude of scripture,
God is in control. This preacher who claims to be
Christian said that God is not in control. What's he doing?
He's preaching a false God. You say, well, you're being too
hard. I'm just telling you what the book of God says. The Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. He's in control. He's on the
throne. The Bible says in Ephesians 1.11, he worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will. Isaiah 46, he said, I purposed
it, I'll do it. I'll bring it to pass. And the
same goes for the matter of salvation. Babylon, the great whore, preaches
salvation in a way that dishonors God and elevates man. It brings
God down and brings man up. It gives man room to glory in
himself. either in his works, his decision,
his actions, but the true gospel will not do that. Let me show
you that. Look, he says, let's go on. For
true and righteous are his judgments for he had judged the great whore
which did corrupt the earth with her idolatry, her fornication,
and hath avenged. See, vengeance belongs to God,
not to us. He avenged the blood of his servants
at her hand. There's two matters that God
has against the great whore. Number one is her idolatry, her
false gospels, her lies. And number two, her treatment
of the true children of God. Remember Christ told his disciples
in John chapter 15, verse 18, he said, marvel not if the world
hates you. He said, if you were of the world,
they'd love you. And here's what it's basically saying. You know,
you stand up for a group of people, unbelievers, lost people, and
tell them what they want to hear, they'll love you. But tell them
what they need to hear. John chapter three, verse 19,
this is the condemnation, that light is coming to the world
and men love darkness and hate the light. Whatever your religion is, for
example, whatever you have hope in, whatever your refuge or your
ground of salvation, here's what the gospel says. If it's anything
other than Christ and His righteousness imputed, it's a false hope, a
false ground, and a false refuge. Now, how do you respond to that?
Say, well, men hate the light. You're telling me, think about
it, you're telling me that my works don't count for anything.
That's exactly what I'm telling you. Now, the good works of a
believer, which are the fruit and effect of God's power and
grace, they do matter. They just don't count. You say,
what do you mean by that? Well, when I stand before God,
what is my account? My account is not what I've done
working hard for God. My account is Christ crucified,
what he did for me. That's my account. His righteousness. I'm washed in his blood, clean
from all my sins in his blood. He redeemed me. He reconciled
me unto God. And I have his righteousness,
which he worked out by his obedience unto death, imputed, charged,
accounted, reckoned to me." That's my account. That's the account
book of Bill Parker. If I stood before God and said,
Lord, I've preached in your name. I did many wonderful works. If
that's my account, Then I'm gonna hear him say just like he said
to those false preachers in Matthew 7, depart from me you that work
iniquity. I never knew you. I never loved
you. That's what that means. I never
chose you. I never had an intimate relationship,
covenant relationship with you. Somebody asked me one time, they'll
say, how in the world could preaching in his name Remember they said
they preached in his name, Matthew 7, 21 through 23. Remember how
they said, we preached in your name, we did many wonderful works,
we even cast out demons. How could that be iniquity? Do
you understand what iniquity really is? It means you don't
measure up. It doesn't mean it's immoral
in the sight of men or irreligious. Somebody said, well, the reason
he said that to them is they were not sincere enough. Well,
let me ask you this. How sincere do you have to be
to qualify yourself to get into heaven? And if you say, well,
I've got to be real sincere, here's what I want you to do.
Go through this book and find me what the measure and standard
of sincerity is. You're not going to find it.
So you say you're going to enter heaven because you're more sincere
than those that he spoke to in Matthew 7? How do you know you're
more sincere than them? And how do you know how much
sincerity it takes? What is the standard of judgment?
Acts 17 31. God is going to judge the world
in sincerity? No. God's gonna judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath appointed or ordained,
and that he hath given assurance unto all men, and that he hath
raised him from the dead. I'll tell you how sincere you
have to be to qualify to get into heaven. You've gotta be
as sincere as Jesus Christ. Now can you measure up to that?
And the answer's no, if you're honest. Not me. I hope that I
am sincere and I pray and I believe God has made me sincere, but
I can't get into heaven based upon my sincerity. The only way
I'm going to get into heaven is based on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, look on. He says in verse
three again, they said, hallelujah, praise the Lord. And her smoke
rose up forever and ever. That's the wrath of God. That's
eternal damnation. That's what that means. Verse
four, he says, the four and 20 elders and the four beasts or
the four living animals, living creatures, fell down and worshiped
God that sat on the throne saying amen, hallelujah. The four and 20 elders and the
four living creatures represent the witness of the church, the
collected body of the church. Reason it's four and twenty elders,
it's twelve and twelve. Twelve, for example, the twelve
patriarchs in the Old Testament and the twelve apostles in the
New Testament. And you put it together with
the four living creatures, those are the ones who went north,
south, east, west, spreading the gospel all over the world.
So what it's doing is the collective body of Christ, the church, witnessing
to the world that God's in control, that God is judging the world,
and amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord for
that. Verse five, and a voice came out of the throne saying,
praise our God, all ye his servants, bondservants of Christ, and ye
that fear him, ye who regard God, respect. This thing is about
God's reverence and respect, not about us. This thing is about
God's reputation. This thing is about God's glory
and honor. Let he that glorieth glory in this, that he knoweth
me, God says. No flesh is going to glory in
God's presence. Fear Him means to worship Him.
And he says both small and great. Now when he says both small and
great, he's not saying that there are levels of greatness and smallness
in heaven. What he's showing here is that
it doesn't matter who you are, what you have, what your state
or position here on earth, if you're in heaven, praising God,
it's by grace. And you're not higher than anybody
else or lower than anybody else. I always think about John chapter
3 and John chapter 4 when you compare the two chapters. John
chapter 3 shows a very religious man named Nicodemus. high in
false religion. And what did Christ tell him?
You must be born again. You know really what he's saying
to Nicodemus is you're lost in your sins and you cannot be saved
by your best efforts to keep the law. You need grace. And
then you turn to John chapter 4 and there's a wicked adulterous
Samaritan woman, a scum of the earth in the eyes of the Jews.
And you know what he says? You've got to be saved by grace,
the water of life. That's what he mentions there.
In other words, Nicodemus in all of his religiosity was no
closer to attaining righteousness and attaining salvation than
that adulterous woman at the well. If Nicodemus was going
to be saved, it's on the same ground that the woman at the
well is going to be saved. That's based on the righteousness
of God's grace in Christ. I've often said this, one of
the messages that I heard that when I was an unbeliever, when
I was an unbeliever, I heard a man preach this, he's preaching
the truth, and he talked about the thief on the cross. He made
this statement. He said, when the thief on the
cross entered paradise, he was just as saved, just as righteous,
just as blessed as the Apostle Paul. because it was all of grace.
Paul was no higher in glory than the thief on the cross. Of course,
Paul wasn't in glory at that time, but his point was this. You're not gonna earn your way
into heaven, and you're not gonna earn your station in heaven.
If you're saved, it's by grace based on the righteousness of
another. Well, look at verse six. He says, and I heard, as
it were, the voice of a great multitude. This is the redeemed
of the Lord. And as the voice of many waters,
you remember back in Revelation 1, Christ, his voice was the
voice of many waters. And what he's talking about here
is the gospel that goes out to all of his chosen people. He
said, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, that's authority
and power. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. And it brings him to say, Alleluia,
praise the Lord, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. I'll
tell you what, there's the authority, the power, the goodness, and
the grace of God in Christ in the salvation of his people. Okay.