Now the reason I wanted us to
look at John, the last two verses, listen to it, it says in verse
35 of John 3. It says, the Father loveth the
Son. Now that's a statement that shows us that all love from God
comes in Christ and through Christ. Outside of Christ there is no
love from God. And the only reason that people
get angry at that is because they think they deserve God's
love. And we don't deserve God's love. In fact, if you want to
get technical, and we do, we don't deserve any of the blessings
that we enjoy. They are all blessings of mercy
and grace in Christ. And that includes the things
of salvation and the things of this life, too, that we enjoy.
That's the case. The Father loveth the Son. And
then it says, hath given all things into his hand. All of
salvation is conditioned on Christ. That's a statement of his suretyship
right there. Christ is the surety of the everlasting
covenant of grace. All things. You know, in 2 Corinthians
5 it talks about all things are of God. Well, that's true, but
all things have been given over into the hand of Christ. It's all based on his blood,
his righteousness, his work. So he says in verse 36, he that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Now, faith in Christ is
an evidence that everlasting life, spiritual life, has been
given through the Son. You know, by nature, what are
we? We're spiritually dead in trespasses and sins. So when
we come to believe, we know we're not the source of that faith.
We're not the power of that faith. It doesn't come out of our goodness
or even our decision. Somebody said, well, I made a
decision for Christ. Well, if it was a real decision
for the true Christ, that's not the cause of your salvation or
your life. That's the effect. That's the
result. So he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
Now here's where I'm gonna transition over to Revelation 16 now. He says, and he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life. Unbelief is evidence that there
is no spiritual life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Now who's that talking about?
Well you gotta understand what the wrath of God is. to understand
who that's talking about. Now, here's who it's talking
about. It's talking about the non-elect. It's talking about
those who live and die in unbelief. That's what it's talking about.
How do I know that? What is the wrath of God? Now, turn over
to Revelation 16. Now, Armageddon. We talked about
Armageddon. That Hebrew word, which is a
compound word, har-megadon. which I believe that's the proper
way to pronounce it in the Hebrew. Well, it wouldn't be the Hebrew,
but I'm transliterating it, all right? Which means mount of gathering,
all right? And we've talked about how it's
a spiritual battle, not a physical battle, not fought with tanks
and guns and knives and all of that, but it's fought in the
power of Christ at his second coming, This is what's going
to happen and this Armageddon is a symbolic way of showing
the final end of all things where all evil, all sin, all things
that oppose Christ will be finally obliterated and defeated from
this earth. And that's when Christ comes
the second time. This is the second coming of
Christ. And this is when he comes to make this world anew. We have
a new heavens and a new earth. There's a reference in your lesson
here to 2 Peter 3. He describes it. And what Armageddon
is, it is the final act of God's wrath upon an unbelieving world. God's wrath. Now what is God's
wrath? God's wrath is not just some
state of being. God's wrath is not just some
esoteric idea out there that when I feel bad or something
bad happens to me, God's being mean to me or something like
that. God's wrath is not God out of control. God's wrath is
not God throwing a temper tantrum. God's wrath is not bad things
happening to good people. That's not what it is. And it's
not good things happening to bad people. People have so many
ideas about it. Let me tell you what God's wrath
is. God's wrath is God's justice in His act of punishing sin. That's what it is. And that's
why we say that God's elect have never really been under His wrath.
Now, we're by nature children of wrath even as others, which
means this, that those whom the wrath of God abides on, we're
by nature no different. We're sinners. But the difference
between us is what he said there in John chapter 3 and verse 35,
that everything's being given to the Son. The Father loveth
the Son. We're in Christ. And Christ,
as the surety and substitute of His people, when He went to
the cross and was actually punished for our sins, He took upon Himself
the full measure of the wrath of God which we deserved and
earned. Somebody said, well, when did
Christ come under the wrath of God? Well, I'm not going to get
to some kind of a split-second argument with you, but I can
tell you this much. It's when He began to suffer the punishment
do under the sins of his people. That's when he was under the
wrath of God. When did he come out from under the wrath of God?
When he said it's finished. When he satisfied the justice
of God for the sins of his people. He paid our debt. And that's
what God's wrath is. So God's wrath is the actual
punishment that God justly enacts because of the sins of people
who are found without Christ. That's what it is. So, for example,
if there's a believer, a child of God, a sinner saved by grace,
and let's say that something really unpleasant happens to
you in this life. Is that the wrath of God abiding
on you? Well, we have scripture that
tells us no. In fact, I'll tell you what God
calls it. He calls it the loving chastisement of your heavenly
Father. Now, it's hard to see it that
way, I know. I'm not saying that I'm superhuman, that I always
go through those things happy, happy, happy. I don't. I've told
you before, I never go through a trial coming out on the other
side feeling good about me. But I do come out looking to
Christ even more. And that's the thing. They're
called chastisements, not wrath for God's people. Because God
loves his people in Christ. And I'll tell you another thing,
too. The wrath of God is another way of expressing the hatred
of God. People don't look at the hatred
of God right. God's hatred, the reason people misunderstand God's
hatred is they look at it like they do their own. You see, if
I hate anybody, that's a sin. Because God commands me to love
my neighbor as myself. And my neighbor includes my worst
enemy. And for me to hate that person is sin. And I, you know,
these people go around religion and say, well, I don't hate anybody.
They're just lying to themselves. Christ settled the issue. He
said even to get angry. You know, somebody told me one
time, said, well, if it's just an involuntary response, it's
not anger, it's not hatred, and you have to really sit around
calculating. You know, that's just the sinful reasonings of man trying
to justify himself. So the thing about it, but now
God's hatred is his justice against the sin. of people who are found
without Christ. Now with that in mind, look at
this. We've already talked about the sixth vial judgment. That
was the preparation for this final spiritual battle. Christ
and all his enemies. The place called in the Hebrew
tongue, Armageddon. Now we come to the seventh vial
judgment. It says in verse 17, and the
seventh angel, or the messenger, poured out his vow into the air. The word air there is a word
that describes the lower regions. All right? That's what it's about. This word, as I put it here,
it's something that all, it's like the unbelieving world. That's
what it describes. The lower regions. As opposed
to the people of God who are citizens of the heavenly. And
a lot of times when you go through Revelation and you see these
words, don't think of geography or science. You know, when it
says, in the air, don't look up there, you know, where it
says, our citizenship is in heaven, it's up there. Our citizenship
in heaven just simply means that we're members in Christ of the
family of God. We're children of God. So here
they are in the lower regions. This is the unbelieving world.
And air is a good symbol of that because let me tell you something
about air. You can't get away from it. You gotta have it. It's
all around you. You can't avoid it. You can't
say, well, I'm gonna go in the house and get out of the air.
There's air in the house too. See? So it's something you cannot
flee from. And that's the point that's being
made here. What's happening here in this seventh vial judgment
is something that no one who is found in that day without
Christ, without being washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness, can get away from. There's no place to go. And so
here's God's wrath poured out upon all who oppose Christ. Every sinner to whom sin or iniquity
is imputed will be part of this wrath. And it says here in verse
17, and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven from
the throne, saying, it is done. This is it. Nothing after this
now, except for the eternal bliss and glory of God's people with
Christ. And this is it. There will be no more opposition.
There will be no more unbelief. You remember Christ on the cross
said it's finished? John 19.30. Well, that was the
finishing of the wrath of God towards His people because He
took the full measure. He suffered everything that God
has against us. Christ stood in our place, that's
our surety. And he suffered, he bled, he
died, he was buried, he arose again, he paid the debt in full.
The debt of God's justice in this wrath here will never be
paid. It'll never be paid. You see, it takes a special person
to pay that debt. It takes one who is himself God
and man to pay that debt. It takes one whom God appointed. You see, we don't choose the
Savior. We don't choose the mediator. We don't choose the surety. God
already did that before the foundation of the world, didn't he? The
Father loveth the Son, and that he put all things into his hand. That's what that means. You see,
Christ is not, you know, it's true that when God the Holy Spirit
gives us spiritual life, we do choose Christ. But God had already
chosen him. In fact, in, I think it's Isaiah
42, Christ is called mine elect, God's elect. God has an elect
people, but they're all chosen in Christ, who is the first of
God's elect. He's the preeminent one. He's
the one who has the preeminence in all things. And so it takes
one who is both God and man and one person. It takes one whom
God appointed. It takes one who is willing to
do what needs to be done. Christ was willing. You remember
when He said, no man takes my life from me, I give it. He was
willing. John 13.1, He loved His own until
the end. That means He loved His people
so much that he was determined to finish the work. So he was
willing, and then it takes one who is what? Anybody know? Willing
and what? Able. No sinner upon whom wrath
is being poured here in Armageddon is able to satisfy the justice
of God. But our surety, our substitute,
our mediator, our sacrifice, not only was he willing, he's
able to save to the uttermost. You see that? So don't you thank
God every day that this wrath that's being poured out here
will not be poured out on we who are in Christ. I tell you
what. People throw that term, the wrath
of God, around too much, don't they? Just willy-nilly. But it
means something. When Christ suffered, that's
what he suffered for us, the wrath of God. Now he said, and
now here it's finished, it's done, this is the end. Look at
verse 18. He says, and there were voices
and thunders and lightnings. See, this is all symbolic of
the pronouncement and the judgment of God that everybody will hear
it, everybody that you can't get away from. Just like the
air, you can't get out of the air. Well, you can't get away
from this. This is something that is so
profound and so worldwide that nobody will get away from it.
And when I saw that word voice, voices, What that's referring
to is the redeemed of the Lord shouting in praise of God for
His justice. God is a just God. And you can't
get away from that. But I also thought about John
the Baptist. You remember John the Baptist identified himself
as a voice crying in the wilderness. But that was the voice of salvation.
The Messiah is coming. Christ is coming, John the Baptist
said. These are not the voices of salvation. These are the voices
of judgment and wrath. And though it is a sad time as
we view it from this side of all this happening, because we
know that but for the grace of God, we'd be right there with
them, isn't that right? You all know that the only difference
between we who are in Christ and those who are suffering this
wrath is the sovereign grace and mercy of God, don't you?
That's it. It wasn't because I walked an
aisle or jumped into the baptismal pool or did anything. It was
all by His grace and His mercy. But here's these voices. I've
got referenced in your lesson 2 Peter 3.10, which says this,
but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.
in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise."
That's what we're having described here. A great noise. The elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein
shall be burned up. What's God doing here? He's exercising
His justice. Somebody says, well that's not
fair. Oh yeah, justice is always fair. If it's not fair, let me
tell you what it is. It's injustice. God's going to
do what's right. He's not going to make a mistake,
and he's not going to do what's wrong. But what is he doing here?
He's exercising justice. But here's the thing. He's also
creating this world anew. Peter said that. If you go over
and read 2 Peter 3, the whole chapter, he's making a new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwelleth what? Righteousness. Now, that has a lot of connotations
to it. That word righteousness. Because that word means justice. It can mean justice. But we know
in light of the gospel, and in light of what we are, that righteousness
means a population of righteous people who stand so by virtue
of Christ, the Lord our righteousness. And even in heaven, what will
our song be? Worthy is the Lamb. But look at that. He said, look
there in verse 18, He said it was a great earthquake, this
earth's going to be destroyed. And he says, such as was not
since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and so
great. Nothing like this has ever happened
before. What's going on here? This is the end. It's done. Verse 19, he says, and the great
city was divided into three parts. The great city is Babylon. Remember
Babylon, the great whore, the great harlot, which represents
all opposition to Christ, especially in false religion. Salvation
condition on sinners, on the wills and the works of men, that's
what Babylon represents. Idolatry. And it says, and the
cities of the nations fell. Cities, understand in this day
and time when the original Bible was being written, a city to
most people represented different things, but one of the things
a city represented was refuge. Now, many times cities represented
evil, too. Men congregating together. But
it meant refuge. You remember one of the most
beautiful types of Christ in the book of Numbers is the cities
of refuge. Remember when somebody, as we
say, accidentally killed someone? That person's family had the
right under the law of Moses to exact vengeance on that. Vengeance
belongs to God, but God gave them that right. And the only
way they could escape was to flee to one of those cities of
refuge. And that was a picture of Christ.
Sinners fleeing to Christ. But there'd be no refuge. Even
the cities of the nations, will fall. It's the wilderness of
wrath, that's what it's talking about. And the reason it says
the city of Babylon was divided into three parts is because,
think about it, now Babylon worked in cahoots with the great dragon
and the beast that came out of the sea and the beast that came
out and the unholy trinity Working in union, in alliance against
Christ, who is the fullness of the Godhead, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. So that union will be broken
up. And because it was a union of
three, they'll be divided into three parts, and each one will
be brought to their knees to see that it was all a big lie. Their way of salvation. Whatever
form it took, if it took the form of environmentalism, if
it took the form of government and socialism or whatever, if
it took the form of religion, gone. Split up. A house divided against itself,
what? Cannot stand. So he says in verse
19, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God. God remembers
Babylon. We sing a song up in Ashland
called The Lord Remembers Me. The Lord Remembers Me. It's a
beautiful song. But this is talking about something different. You
know in the Bible often it says about God's people in Christ
that He will remember our sins no more. What does that mean?
It means He will not charge us with sin. He will not hold it
against us. He will not impute sin to us.
We have Christ's righteousness. But now this remembrance here,
this is God holding their sins against them. It's kind of like
somebody who's been accused of a crime that he committed, and
he's denying he committed it, and he appears in court, and
the prosecuting attorney produces an eyewitness who looks at him
and says, I remember you. I saw you do that. And that's
what's going to happen here. The Lord will remember them not
in salvation, but in wrath. And it says, and what's he going
to remember them for? To give unto her the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Remember when Christ was
in the garden suffering in his humanity? And he said, if it
be possible to take this cup from me. And that was his suffering
in his humanity. That was the cup of the wrath
that he was about to face. Well, here, they're going to
have to drink that cup. You see, without Christ, wrath. Verse 20, every island fled away
and the mountains were not found. Islands and mountains. You know,
you remember how when it talks about the sea representing the
nations and the world, how the sea was an emblem of trouble,
fear, and death, Could you imagine being out on the sea and you
become shipwrecked? What are you going to be looking
for? An island, a land, a landmass that you can get out of that
ocean on, get away from the trouble, not drown, not get eaten by sharks.
You want some land. Well, that's what the emblem
is here. Could you imagine, think about
Noah's, the flood in Noah's day. When that water started rising,
what were they looking for? High places. I need to get up
above this. Mountains. You could be sitting
on top, on the summit of the Himalayan mountains. What's the
mountain? I can't think of it. What is it? Everest. Yeah, I'm trying to think of
Mount Everest. You could be sitting on top of the summit of Mount
Everest. But if the water rises that high, You're gone. And that's what this is about.
It'll be gone. There's no fleeing from this wrath. And then look
at verse 21. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven. Every stone was the weight of
a talent. Now, most commentators say that's
about 70 pounds. Can you imagine a 70-pound weight
falling on you? Somebody says, well, I can lift
70 pounds. Not falling from heaven you can't.
And that's what it is, and he's, what he's talking about, you
go back to, I've got referenced here, the plague, you remember
the hail fell on Egypt? In Exodus chapter nine, you can
read about that. But it says, now here's that
hail fall, and that was death. But in Exodus 9, 26, it's got
this, listen to this. Only in the land of Goshen, where
the children of Israel were, Was there no hell? That's the
people of God. That name Goshen means drawing
near. Those who have drawn near to God in Christ, that's the
emblem, that's the symbol. That hell won't hurt them. They're
shielded from his wrath. And then it says, look here,
this is the tragic, tragedy of the depravity of man. Men blasphemed
God because of the plague of the hell, for the plague thereof
was exceeding great." Instead of turning to God, in Christ. It doesn't mean that people won't
beg to get away from it. They may even beg for mercy. But not God's way. Not in Christ. And I've got these things here
that shows the natural self-righteousness and hardness of the natural man's
heart. You know, you realize That if we've been brought to
repentance, to turn from ourselves to Christ, that is a miracle
of the power and grace and goodness of God. People are not going
to do that of their own wills, of their own power. It's the
goodness of God that leads you to repentance. And I don't care
what they go through. Somebody said about somebody
who gets a dreaded disease. You know, I've seen this happen
so many times where a person whom somebody considered irreligious
or immoral, and they get some dreaded disease, and I've heard
people say, I bet they'll start going to church now. Well, they
may start going to church, but that's not going to turn them
to Christ. Not that disease itself, and not even just going to church.
It's the power of God. in the gospel that turns sinners
to Christ. And that's what's happening.
And then lastly, the day of grace, the day of mercy, the day of
salvation at this time is over. It's gone. The last one of God's
elect has been brought into the kingdom. All right. That's it.