Revelation chapter 16. Titled
our lesson this morning. Behold, I come. Now in this vision
that we've been looking at, John has seen the Lord pouring out
plagues. Those plagues are wounds or stripes. He lays on people for their unbelief
when they hear the gospel preached. Refusing to repent. Refusing
to believe on Christ, when we hear him preached, brings God's
wrath upon men. That's the lesson we got from
this vision we saw last week, how no matter what happened,
physical things, different things that would happen to them, men
refused to repent and believe on the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The only way we'll ever repent is if the Lord gives us
grace and mercy to do so. That's what we saw in the first
five vials that were poured out last week. This week we're just
going to look at one vial being poured out and the plague that
comes with it. It's poured out here in verse 12 of Revelation
16. And the sixth angel poured out
his vial upon the great river Euphrates and the water thereof
was dried up that the way of the kings of the East might be
prepared. Now this sixth vial represents God opening up the
way for men of the earth to persecute believers. The drying up of the
river Euphrates represents drying up the things of this world that
would block or stop men from attacking those who believe God.
Countries at that time who were surrounded by a river or something
felt safe. It's very difficult to cross
the river. So when the river's dried up, it's easy for them
to cross over and to attack. And that's what the kings of
the East represent. They represent the powers of this world that
attack God's people. In the Old Testament, the ones
who commonly attacked Israel were the kings of the east. So
what this vial represent is that God has prepared the way. He's
opened up the way, made it easy for his enemies to attack his
people. And I tell you how they do it. They do it through religion. Verse 13. And I saw three unclean
spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out
of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false
prophet. For they're the spirits of devils, working miracles which
go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world
to gather them to the battle of the great day of God Almighty. Now these unclean spirits, John
says, they're like frogs. They're squat and gross and slimy. They eat bugs. The word actually
means that those that come out of the swamp, something just
comes out of the swamps. Here John says what they're coming
out of is out of the mouth of Satan. They're coming out of
the mouth of false prophets. They are the message of false
prophets. You know, we need not coddle those who are in false
religion. Their message comes from the
mouth of Satan himself. That's what these frogs represent.
And these false prophets go out into the world to deceive people.
And I'll tell you how they do it. They do it cloaked in religion. They work miracles. They have
all these signs and wonders. They can't just preach the Scriptures
alone. They can't just declare the Scriptures
alone, what God says alone in the Scriptures. They've got to
do something else. They use these miracles to perform
to try to attract men to themselves. Now, I have no doubt a lot of
their miracles are like a magician, you know, slight of hand, pulling
a rabbit out of his hat. Sometimes they might actually
perform miracles. I don't know, but if they do,
They do it by another spirit, not by the Holy Spirit, it's
by another spirit. Their message comes from the
mouth of Satan. And just remember this about miracles. You know,
you see these things, you know, on television and everything.
Wow. Well, remember this about miracles.
Miracles are for unbelievers. Tongues, Paul said, are for unbelievers. And all the miracles that a false
prophet does, they only accomplish one thing. cement people in their
unbelief. Remember Moses and Aaron went
to Pharaoh and said, let my people go. And they worked miracles,
didn't they? Wonders that should have made
Pharaoh say, oh, I'm going to let these people go. These are
the people of God. Aaron threw down his rod and
it became a serpent. The magicians of Israel did too.
They threw down their rods and their rods became a serpent.
Now, Aaron's rod swallowed them up, but they did do that miracle. Moses used his rod and turned
all the waters of Egypt to blood. The magicians did the same thing.
They worked that miracle. They did these miracles in the
sight of Pharaoh. And you know the purpose that it accomplished?
To harden Pharaoh's heart in unbelief. So remember that about
miracles. All a believer needs to hear
in order to believe is the word of God. This is everything that
we believe. This is all a believer needs.
We don't need signs and wonders. We just need to hear what God
says. And by God's grace, we believe it. So when someone's
working miracles, doing something to impress you other than preaching
the word of God alone, run away from them as fast as you can,
because their miracles, their methods that used to attract
people and get results and do all these things. All they do
is lead people away from Christ. pardon them and their unbelief.
And it's so sad. But that's how they attack the
church. They're not just attacking the world in general with this.
The church is being attacked with this message is false message
that comes directly from the mouth of Satan. Now, let me remind
us again and again and again, because this is so ingrained
in our natural mind. These events that we're reading
about are not the events that just take place right before
Christ returns. This is a vision of the Church's
history, the history of man on earth all throughout time. And
this will always be the experience of believers. So don't be surprised
when it happens to you. God's people will always suffer
persecution from false religion. You're just going to have to
live in the middle of a bunch of frogs that come up out of
the swamp, that come up out from the mouth of Satan. God has made
the way open for them to go out into the world. And primarily
what they're doing, their leading ministry, yes, but they're attacking
the church of God with their false doctrine. And what's more,
on top of these plagues being poured out on people who refuse
to believe the gospel, they refuse to repent and trust on Christ.
Now, when that happens, we can agree, those who believe God,
we can agree, that's what their unbelief deserves. There's no
argument here about that. but we still hate to see it happen.
Seeing that happen out in the world is grievous to the heart
of a believer. It's grievous to see this false
religion, these frogs going out and having such a grip on the
world in which we live. We hate to see anybody blinded
by false religion. We hate to see them being so
blind that they cannot see Christ. We hate to see them being so
deaf that they cannot hear. We hate to see them being dead
in their sin refusing to repent and making it so that they cannot
have life. You'd hate to see someone in
false religion. They've rejected the gospel,
they've rejected Christ alone, they refuse to repent, and yet
they wonder why they can never find any refreshment for their
soul. You know, worse religion never brings you any refreshment,
does it? It always tells you do more.
It never says stop and rest, does it? It always says do more.
Well, it's no wonder they find no refreshment for their soul.
But we still hate to see it happen to them, don't we? And we especially
hate to see that happen to our loved ones, the people that we
know and love. We hate to see that happen to
them. This is something that the church has always suffered.
Now, you might be wondering, Frank, you said that these plagues,
these stripes are being poured out upon people in their unbelief.
Sounds to me like this plague is being poured out on the church,
doesn't it? Sounds like this plague is being poured out on
the church. God has enabled this to happen so that his people
will suffer persecution from false religion. You're attacked by it, and if
you're not led away by it, you're heartbroken to see your friends
suffer the effects of believing this message of the devil. Looks
like this plague is being poured out on those who believe, doesn't
it? They're the ones who are suffering in this. Well, that's
not really the case. Now, they're not the ones really
suffering for this vial being poured out. But they are suffering. And God's people need some and
they need some encouragement to endure this life surrounded
by problems. And our text gives us some comfort
and some encouragement. Here's our first word of comfort.
God will surely destroy all those who hate and persecute his people.
Yes, God's poured out this plague to make it easy for those people
of the world to come and attack his people. But look where our
God has gathered. What is the purpose of him doing
this? It's to gather them in one place so that this is their
end. At the end of verse 14, he's
brought them out of the whole world to gather them to the battle
of the great day of God Almighty. The Lord has gathered these rebels
into one place for the day that they will do battle with God
Almighty. Now, how do you reckon that battle
is going to turn out? they're going to be utterly destroyed.
See, that's why God dried up the river Euphrates. So it's
easy for them to all come together in one place and be destroyed
in utter destruction at one time. Now, I won't get too far ahead
of myself. That's what we'll look at that battle more next
week. But this is the reason that God
has poured out this plague. It's not so that his people suffer.
It's to gather those people in false religion together so he
can destroy them. God is going to pour out his
fury upon them, and they will be utterly destroyed. Now look
back at Matthew chapter 18. Now, God's the one who opened
up the way for these people to attack his people. Yes, that's
true. God opened up the way for them
to do it. But woe to them that do it. Woe to them when they
meet God for doing it. Matthew 18 verse 3. The Lord said unto them, Verily
I say unto you, except you be converted and become as little
children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever
therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same
as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, and whoso shall receive
one such little child in my name receiveth me. These little children,
those ones who believe on Christ, they're precious to the Savior,
aren't they? They're precious to God. Verse six. But whoso shall offend one of
these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him
that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were
drowned in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of
offenses, for it must be, needs be, that offenses come. But woe
to that man by whom the offense cometh. Look over verse 10. Take
heed that you despise not one of these little ones. For I say
unto you that in heaven there are angels. Do always behold
the face of my father, which is in heaven. So you beware of
offending these little ones. Now the world's going to do it,
but woe to them when they do. Now someone says, explain to
me, explain to me why God allows that to happen. Why God does
that that way? I don't know. I can't tell you.
Other than to say this, and this is what we're going to look at
in a few minutes of the message this morning. It's the goodness and
severity of God. It's the goodness to his people
and his severity to those who refuse to believe on his son.
These enemies who persecute God's people, God allowed them to do
it, but God's going to judge them and destroy them for doing
it. Now, that is some encouragement
in it. There's some encouragement there
to know that those who are persecuting us for the gospel sake, those
who would attack this message that we preach, and while we're
under attack, there's some comfort to know their end is coming,
that God's going to deal with them and destroy them one day.
But our second word of comfort is far more comforting, far more
assuring to His people. Our second word of comfort is
a sure promise from our Savior. He's coming back. Verse 15 in
our text. Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watches and
keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
Now here's our word of comfort. The Lord is coming back. And
He's coming back soon. A whole lot sooner than we expect.
He's coming like a thief. Now when does a thief come? A
thief comes when nobody's watching. When nobody expects him to come.
The Lord's gonna come back when nobody expects, expect Him to
come. Sooner than we expect. Now the
Lord's coming. We know that, don't we? Everybody
here knows that. The Lord's coming back. But we
would be surprised if the Lord came back before I finish this
sentence. If the Lord came back before
I finish this lesson, even though we know He's coming back, we'd
be taken aback. We'd be surprised, wouldn't we?
We all know the Lord's coming back. We just really don't expect
it in the next few minutes. But He could, because He is coming. He is in the process of coming
back. Every event that the Lord's working
together in providence is all working together to come to that
point where He's coming back. He's been coming back from the
moment He ascended back to glory. He's coming. And when He comes,
He's going to be here in an instant. Now the Lord is returning. Now that is a promise of judgment
and wrath to His enemy. That ought to make them shake
with fear. The Lord's coming. He's coming in absolute power. But what a sweet promise of grace
to His people. What a comfort to the hearts
of His people. The Lord's coming back. Look
over Revelation 22. The very last words of the Bible
are these words of comfort to God's people, encouragement.
Revelation 22, verse 20. He which testifieth these things
saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
be with you all. Amen. The very last words of
the Bible are this. The Lord's coming back. And that
encourages his people to continue in the faith, to continue in
the grace of God. We're encouraged because of these
final words from the Savior. I come quickly. It's not going
to be long now. I come quickly. You're not going
to have to endure these frogs very much longer. Behold, I come
quickly. That thrills the heart of a child
of God to know He's coming quickly. That'll fill our heart with joy
and it'll fill our heart with devotion to serve our God. He's
coming quickly. He's not going to leave us here
forever. He's coming. And He's got to return again.
Because God's purpose of grace and redemption for his people
is not going to be complete until he comes again to receive all
those people to himself, all those people he redeemed with
his death. His purpose of redemption for those people is not going
to be complete until he has them all in his actual possession,
until they all see him face to face and be with him where he
is, that they may behold the glory which God gave him before
the foundation of the world. God's purpose of redemption will
not be complete till that happens. Christ came to this earth on
a mission to do his father's business, to redeem all the people
that the father gave him in divine election. And he died to redeem
them. Now he's got to actually have
them in possession. They've got to actually be made
body and soul just like him. He must have what he purchased.
You think about this. Think about the price that he
paid to redeem him. He's not going to forget him.
After he paid such a great price, he's not going to forget him.
He's not going to leave them. You know, if I bought something
at the store and it cost me 99 cents and I went off and, you
know, left it there at the checkout and got home and a couple of
days later realized, where is that thing? It's not a big deal. I just paid 99 cents for it.
But if I paid thousands and thousands of dollars for it, I'd go back
and get it, wouldn't you? Christ bought His church with
His own precious blood. No higher price could have been
paid for His people. He's coming back to get them.
He's not going to leave them here among these frogs that come
up out of the swamps and come out of Satan's mouth. He's coming
back to get every last one of them so they're with Him where
He is. Just as surely as Satan must
bruise, Christ healed at Calvary. Christ must finally, completely,
utterly crush Satan's head in judgment. Just as surely as Christ
must wear that crown of thorns bearing the curse of the sin
of His people, He must, He will wear that crown of glory before
all men. Just as surely as Christ is reviled
by men, men who refuse to believe Him, men who refuse to repent
and look to Him because they hate Him, just as surely as He
must endure that, He will appear in glory. and be bowed to and
be adored and worshiped by all of creation. The purpose of God's
elect and redemption is the final, complete glorification of His
people. And Christ is coming back to ensure that they have
it. When He comes again, He's coming quickly. He could come
just right now. And the moment He comes, all
those who have died in Christ are going to be resurrected.
glorified bodies, their bodies have returned to the dust from
which they've been formed, but they're going to be changed.
They're going to be resurrected in glorified, perfect flesh. And
those who remain in this sinful flesh are going to be changed.
In the twinkling of an eye, they're going to be changed to glorified
bodies and taken to be with the Lord forever. So shall we ever
be with the Lord in perfect bodies, in ever beholding His face. The Lord is coming again. What a blessed and sure promise
to his people, what comfort that that gives the hearts of his
people. And this is not just something
to comfort the hearts of his people at the very last day,
the very moment before he returns. This has been the believer's
hope and comfort throughout all of history. They tell me the
book of Job is the oldest, it was the first book actually written
down in the Bible. Job is the oldest of the believers
that have been recorded in what they said. What was Job's hope
and confidence? Though my skin worms destroy
this body, yet in my flesh I'm going to see the Lord, but not
another. He's coming back. He's going
to stand on this earth and I'm going to see him. I'm going to
know him. I'm going to be like him. That was Job's hope and
confidence. That was his confidence, his
reason to keep going. The Lord's coming back. All right,
our third word of comfort is a sure blessing. Verse 15, he
says, Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and
keepeth his garments. Now that word watcheth, it means
to stay awake and be vigilant. That's a whole lot more than
just standing up, looking up at clouds, you know, looking
up at the sky, waiting for the Lord to return. It's being vigilant. It's being, while we're being
watchful, it's to be vigilant to do the work that the master
has given us to do. Look at a couple of scriptures.
First Luke chapter 12. Here our Lord tells us how how
is it that we're supposed to wait for him? It's not sit around
and wait doing nothing. It's why we're waiting to be
about his business, the work that he's given us to do. Luke
12, verse 36. And you yourselves, like unto
men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the
wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto
him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when he cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto
you, that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to
meet and will come forth and serve them. If he should come
in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them,
find them so, find them watching, blessed are those servants. And
this know that if the good man of the house had known what hour
the thief would come, he would have watched and not suffered
his house to be broken through. Be therefore ready also for the
son of man coming at an hour when you think not. At the very
moment we think the Lord is not coming, that's when he's going
to come. So be watchful, be vigilant until that time. Do what the
Lord has given to us to do today. You know, while we're waiting
for the Lord's return, just we're not doing nothing. We're staying
busy doing what he's given us to do. And what is it that he's
given us to do? He's given to us to preach the
gospel. to feed his sheep, to call out
his sheep. That's what he's given us to
do. Look at first Thessalonians chapter five. First Thessalonians five verse
one. But of the times and seasons,
brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves
know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief
in the night. For when they shall say, Peace
and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail
upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape. But ye,
brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake
you as a thief. You're not in darkness, you're watching. You're
all children of the light and children of the day. We're not
of the night or of darkness. Therefore, let's not sleep as
do others, but let's watch and be sober. For they that sleep,
sleep in the night, and they that be drunken are drunken in
the night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting
on the breastplate of faith and love, and for in Helmut, the
hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us
to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ. who
died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live
together with him. See, this is what Paul is telling
us. Be vigilant. Be watchful. Be busy in what
God's given us to do. Be busy in worship. Be taken
up with these things. Be taken up with the worship
of the Lord. Be taken up with the preaching of the gospel.
Be taken up... Everybody doesn't preach. But
everybody can be taken up to support it, to help doing whatever
we can do so that the gospel can be preached, so it can go
forth to feed God's sheep, to call out God's sheep. We can
all be busy helping God's little children. You can be busy looking
out for God's children just to give them a cup of cold water
in the name of the Lord. That's what we're to be doing.
Look out for one another, wash one another's feet, be busy about
these things. The Lord says, That's the blessed
person. The blessed person is the person
who's serving the Lord while he waits for the Lord's return.
And this watchful, there's a second thing about this too, a blessed
person. A person is blessed who watches over himself, who watches
over his doctrine. who watches over his behavior,
who watches for anything that might come and interfere, any
of these frogs that might come and interfere and lead him away
from Christ, cause him to look away from Christ for just a moment. The person that watches for those
things is the blessed person. And then the Lord says the blessed
person has kept his garments spotless. Now, how is it that
we're going to keep our garments spotless? We know the only way
a believer is spotless is in the spotless robe of Christ our
Savior. He's the only one who can make
us spotless and he's got to keep us spotless. But at the same
time, this is also true. We are responsible. Each one
of us is responsible to seek God's grace that would keep us
from falling into the corruption of this world. We're to seek
to be unlike this world. Seek to be unlike the frogs.
I mean, nobody wants to be a frog, you know, right? Nobody wants
to kiss the frog. And every frog hopes somebody will kiss him
and turn him into a handsome prince. Nobody wants to be a
frog. Seek to be unlike the frogs. Don't spend too much time being
like this world. We go out in the world and you're
working in it, you're in it all the time. Don't let it influence
you. So that you spend too much time
seeking earthly riches. but spend your time seeking the
riches of God's grace. Don't be proud and arrogant. That is the way of this world. It's the way of the flesh. But seek humility. Seek grace. Don't use your tongue like the
world uses it to spread gossip and to hurt people and to tear
people down. Use your tongue to spread the gospel, to spread
kindness, to build people up. Use your tongue to give a kind
word of encouragement. Don't use your hands to build
up walls and keep people out and hurt people and grab as much
as you can get. Use your hand to reach out to
help somebody. Pull them up, pull them close
to you. Reach your hand out in generosity to give to them. Don't
be like this world. And especially, don't fall into
the way of this world's religion. The way of this world's religion
is self. I hate to tell somebody to listen
to these false prophets, but you don't have to listen to them
long to figure out almost all of it's self-help, self-sufficiency. Don't fall into that. Seek the
way of faith. Seek the way of dependence in
God. Seek perseverance in faith. Seek to be like those brothers
and sisters in Hebrews chapter 11. These all died in the faith. Wouldn't that be wonderful at
our funeral, somebody would stand up and say, They died looking
to Christ, believing Christ. And if we're looking to Christ,
it'll keep us from error of doctrine and error of practice. You can
read this for yourself in James 1 and in Jude 10. We're about
out of time. You read this for yourself this
afternoon. Those spots that they talk about are the spots of the
religious world. Keep yourself unspotted from
being like this religious world to seek the way of self and seek
Christ. Now, at the end of verse 15,
our text closes with a solemn warning. Lest he walk naked and
they see a shame. Here's the word of warning. Seek
Christ and his righteousness. While you're watching, this is
what you're to seek. Seek to win Christ and be found
in him. Be watchful now, be watchful
that anything would keep you from following Christ. Watch
that anything keeps you from trusting in something about yourself,
something that you do. Because when the Lord returns,
this is all that's going to matter. Christ. Are we in Him? That's all that's going to matter.
Do we believe Him? And anyone who's in Christ is
going to be accepted. Anyone who's in Christ will have
nothing to be ashamed of. But anyone outside of Christ
is going to be found guilty. They're going to be found ashamed.
They're going to be found naked of any covering of their sin. They're going to be cast out.
Just like the rich man who arranged that big wedding feast and nobody
would come. He sent out his servants out
on the highways and byways to find those and compel them to
come in. They came in, he dressed them
all in those wedding garments Walking through the reception,
he sees somebody there without a wedding garment. He said, what
are you doing here without a garment on? He was ashamed, wasn't he? Cast out into outer darkness.
That's what's going to happen to everyone who's not in Christ,
who's not covered in Him. And really, brothers, nothing
else matters, does it? Nothing else but Christ matters.
Knowing Him, winning Him, and being found in Him. God give
us the grace to see it. God bless you.