I almost always come to the pulpit
full of excitement and joy at the prospect of what I'm about
to preach. Sometimes I come with a very,
very heavy heart at the prospect of what I'm about to preach,
as I do tonight. judgment comes. That's my subject. When judgment comes. There is a day appointed by God
when God Almighty will avenge Himself of His adversaries. He will avenge His Son of His
adversaries. and he will avenge his people
of their adversaries. And he will send immortal souls,
body and soul, forever into a place described in this book as hell. Lake of fire, outer darkness,
bottomless pits, a prison. I don't have any idea what hell
is. I don't have any idea. But if
you're without Christ, you're just a breath from hell. Would to God he would seize my
heart and mind and every thought with that reality every time
I look my own family, friends, and neighbors in the face. Every
time I speak to men, either personally and privately or publicly from
the pulpit. If you're without Christ, you're
just a breath from hell. The second death. Everlasting separation from God. torment, misery, cruelty. Torment, misery, cruelty that
only God can inflict and fully deserved. Blackness and darkness, isolation,
multitudes, untold multitudes, but everybody alone, and everybody
around despising everybody else around, memory keen, conscience
keen, judgment forever. Where the worm dies not and the
fire is not quenched, hell. there's coming a day of reckoning,
of judgment, and all men will be forever cast into the bottomless
pit or brought into everlasting glory. Yes, there's a day coming
when God Almighty will punish the wicked. I'm fully aware that
multitudes attempting to alleviate themselves of great weight, multitudes
attempting to make the word of God more palatable and acceptable
to rebels than it is, multitudes attempting to compromise God,
his truth, and his glory in order to placate men and their opinions,
or trying to convince folks that when the wicked die, they die
like a dog and they're buried and that's the end of it. there's
no such place as hell, if there's no everlasting punishment, no
everlasting damnation, then Jesus Christ died for nothing, because God's justice doesn't
really demand satisfaction. God's righteousness doesn't really
insist upon being heeded to. God's holiness doesn't really
have to be honored. God will, after all, just forget
every offense. No, no, no. Sin must be punished
and will be. There's a day coming when God
will judge the world in his utter wrath and great fury. No man can describe the astonishment
and the terror which will seize the hearts of many women in that
day or the horror of God's wrath forever. I will not attempt to
do so. I can hardly think of it without
trembling. God Almighty will punish sin. And in that day when he does,
he will show no mercy, no leniency. He will show himself an adversary
without tenderness, a foe without compassion, an enemy without
mercy. So the prophet says, how ye for
the day of the Lord is at hand. It shall come as a destruction
from the Almighty. Behold, the day of the Lord cometh
cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger to lay the land desolate
and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. Now let's
turn to Isaiah chapter 13 and let's see what God says. Before
we look at our text, Isaiah chapter 13, I want to, at the outset
of my message, make five very plain statements. First, I've
already stated, and it must be stated again, the Holy Lord God
must and shall punish sin. He must and shall punish sin
to the utter extremity of his wrath. He says, the soul that
sinneth, it shall die. Second, you and I, being sinners
of Adam's fallen race, by nature, fully deserve the everlasting
wrath of God. You and I, by nature, Our men
who came forth from the womb speaking lies, with our fists
shaking in God's face. And we walked all the days of
our lives, in our youth, through our adulthood, unless God arrested
you by his grace, you would continue to do so, with our fists shoved
in God's face. Making every effort to do away
with God. Making every effort to cast off
the yoke of his authority, making every effort to sin against every
law he's given. And third, bless God the Lord
Jesus Christ. God's darling son is a refuge
for sinners from the wrath of God. There is but one refuge, but
bless God there's one. And that refuge is the crucified
Lamb of God, God's own Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, who alone has
and could satisfy the wrath and justice of God. Hell is forever
because the infinite wrath of the infinite God can never be
satisfied by the suffering of finite creatures. But he who
is himself the infinite God assumed our nature and bear our sin in
his body and by his death, by all that he suffered from God
for sin, fully satisfied wrath and justice in the Almighty.
and forth, if you trust Him. Oh, if you trust the Son of God,
if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you will never know the
wrath of God. You will never know the fury
of God's wrath, His anger, His justice. You will never know
the punishment of sin. When Jesus Christ is revealed
in the heart, this is what the sinner is made to understand. Judgment for me is over. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. But, and this is the fifth thing,
if you refuse to trust the Son of God, If you refuse to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, if you go on with your fist in God's
face and keep striking at God, get out of my way, get out of
my way, leave me alone, you will suffer the vengeance of God's
wrath forever in hell. Isaiah chapters one through 12,
the prophet gives prophecies that were related only to Israel,
Judah, and Jerusalem. But beginning in chapter 13,
he takes up another theme. Here the prophet looks ahead
to the nations and kingdoms of the earth. He begins to describe
the doom of the nations of the world who have forgotten God. Though they do not own him as
such, The king of saints is the king of all. It is he who raises
up nations, he who rules nations, and he who disposes of nations,
exactly as he will. And he does this according to
his own purpose of grace for his elect. He set the bounds
of every man's habitation according to the number of the children
of Israel. That is according to the multitude
of his elect. The nations of the world, the
bounds of the various nations and races, he God sent because
of his purpose of grace toward his own. The threatenings we
find here in Isaiah 13 and in the next several chapters against
Babylon and the nations of the world are intended by God, they're
designed by God to comfort those who fear him. You see, God's
saints in this world are often oppressed, persecuted and afflicted
by the ungodly. But we need never be terrified
by the wicked. In the last day, God's saints
will rule over their oppressors, we're told in chapter 14, verse
2. They shall take them captives whose captives they were, and
they shall rule over their oppressors. Without question, Isaiah 13 and
14 were addressed to Babylon and her king, that physical kingdom,
that physical city, that physical king. It was a prophecy of the
destruction of that godless city. But throughout the scriptures,
throughout the scriptures, Babylon represents the great whore. All
false religion, It represents all who are opposed to God, His
gospel, and seek to attain everlasting life for themselves by their
goodness, their obedience, and their works. Babylon refers to
all false religions. you can see in Isaiah 47, Revelation
17, Revelation 18, all of them speak of Babylon the great whore
represented by this kingdom and this city. Babylon represents
all free will works religion throughout history and throughout
the world. All religion set up by men in
opposition to God, all religion set up by men in opposition to
Christ. The sons and daughters of Babylon
are those who hope to escape the wrath of God by their own
goodness, by their own works. And Babylon and her children
shall be destroyed without mercy in the day of judgment. There
is a day appointed when God will judge the world by that man who
is the God-man, our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Now let's look
at these few verses in Isaiah 13 down through chapter 14, verse
1, and let me show you four things very clearly. In the last day, God will use
his enemies to execute his wrath upon his enemies. God will use
his enemies to execute his wrath upon his enemies. Isaiah 13 one,
the burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amos did see.
Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain. Exalt the voice
unto them. Shake the hand that they may
go into the gates of nobles. I have commanded my sanctified
ones. I have also called my mighty
ones for mine anger, even them that rejoice in my highness. Now God's not here talking about
believers, righteous men, saved men. He's talking about the ungodly,
the reprobate. But they are sanctified by him
as instruments of judgment. They are his mighty ones he uses
to execute his wrath. They are those men, those creatures
of God, who rejoice in his highness. That is, they are men who are
ruled, governed, and execute the will of God. Verse four,
the noise of a multitude in the mountains, like as of a great
people, a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered
together. The Lord of hosts mustereth the
host of the battle. They come from a far country,
from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons of his
indignation to destroy the whole land. As the Medes and Persians,
though they knew not God, were instruments God used to bring
Babylon to desolation. In the last day, he will use
Satan and the demons of hell and wicked men and women to torment
one another forever in the execution of his wrath. Here God describes
those he uses as instruments of wrath as weapons of his indignation. He tells us that they're effectual.
They're his servants sanctified for this purpose. They're his
mighty ones and they're for his honor. Them that rejoice in his
righteousness or his highness. They serve the interest of his
honor. They execute his anger, his wrath
and justice. We have examples of them. Darius
and Cyrus had no regard for God. They didn't know God. but they
gladly served his purpose to destroy Babylon. And though reprobate
men and angels hate God, they will gladly inflict his torments
upon one another forever in hell. What a place of hatred hell must
be. What a place of torment. when mothers hate their children
and children hate their fathers and gnash their teeth against
them. Can't stand the thought of them,
despise them and wish them only to suffer more. Whatever the
torments of your soul are in hell, they will be an army mustered
by God Almighty and weapons of destruction in His hand. Pastor,
are you telling us that God will forever torment the damned? Let me try to be honest. I really wish I could tell you
otherwise. And that wish I recognize arises
from my sinful heart. For if I viewed things as I ought
to view them, I would be completely in agreement with God's vengeance
now as I shall be in that day. Look at verses six through 18.
Here's the second thing. The day of God's wrath will be
a day of destruction without mercy. I mean without mercy. How can I make you hear me? Spirit
of God, give this people ears to hear. It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God. Our God is a consuming
fire. Every man's heart will melt with
fear in the day of God's wrath, verse six. Howl ye. What a word to use for men and
women. Howl like dogs snared in a trap. Howl like wild beasts ensnared
and captured. For the day of the Lord is at
hand. It shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore
shall all hands be faint. Men shake their fist in God's
face and suddenly, they don't dare lift their hands. And every man's heart shall melt,
melt with fear, melt with dread, like wax in a blast furnace.
and they shall be afraid. Pains and sorrows shall take
hold of them. They shall be in pain as a woman
that travaileth. They shall be amazed one at another. Amazed one at another. Mother looks on her lost daughter
and she's amazed at her. The father looks on his lost
son and they're amazed at one another. Their faces shall be
as flames, tormenting flames one to another. Behold, the day
of the Lord cometh, cruel, cruel, both with wrath and fierce anger,
to lay the land desolate, and he shall destroy the sinners
thereof out of it. The day of God's wrath will be
a day without comfort, without hope, and without light. Look
at verse 10. For the stars of heaven and the
constellations thereof shall not give their light. The sun
shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not
cause her light to shine. Obviously the prophet's using
figurative language, but it's language that could not be fully
applied just to the destruction of Babylon physically. This is
talking about judgment. Verse 11, the day of God's wrath
will be the execution of his justice. And I will punish the
world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity. And I will cause the arrogance
of the proud to cease, and I will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible. God will punish all the evil
deeds of wickedness, all iniquity, those failed efforts at righteousness
that men perform. And he will destroy every man's
pride, his imaginary superiority, his imaginary goodness, his imaginary
nobility. And the day of God's wrath, All
who are judged of him will see, acknowledge, and value the Lord
Jesus Christ, the God-man, the sinner's substitute. Both those
who are damned and those who are saved in that day will know
the value of the Son of God. Look at verse 12, I will make
a man more precious than fine gold, even a man than the golden
wedge of Ophir. Oh, how precious the Son of God
is, who redeemed us from our sins, who swallowed up the wrath
of God. Oh, how precious he who by his
blood has made us clean, by his righteousness has made us righteous,
by his obedience has justified us, by his mercy has granted
us forgiveness, pardon, and free eternal life. But in that day,
the wicked cast into hell will look upon Christ like that rich
man cast into hell looked upon just a little water. Oh, just
send Lazarus that he may give me just a taste of water. Forever and ever, the ungodly
will see that Jesus Christ, God's Son, the sinner's substitute.
More precious than a wedge of gold that they've despised. In that great, terrible day,
that eternal night of blackness and darkness in hell, in that
place of everlasting torment, Jesus Christ will be forever
seen and valued by the damned. His blood, his righteousness,
his gospel, his intercession, his grace, his power. And in
the day of God's wrath, there will be a day of universal destruction. Verse 13. Therefore will I shake
the heavens and the earth shall be removed out of her place in
the wrath of the Lord of hosts in the day of his fierce anger.
And it, that is all the inhabitants of the earth, all Babylon, all
the kings of the earth who did business with Babylon, of whom
she did make merchandise, it shall be chased as a roe, as
a sheep that no man taketh up, They shall every man turn to
his own people and flee everyone to his own land, but there will
be no mercy. Verse 16, their children also
shall be dashed to pieces. Before their eyes, their houses
shall be spoiled and their wives ravished. Behold, I will stir
up the meads against them, which shall not regard silver. And
as for gold, they shall not delight in it. Their bows also shall
dash the young men to pieces, and they shall have no pity on
the fruit of the womb. Their eye shall not spare children. And they came to destroy Babylon,
that great city, that great, great kingdom. The enemies of
Babylon spared no one. and so it shall be in the execution
of God's justice. Justice is blind. Justice is blind. We have a picture
of a blindfold over the lady justice, but in no court in the
land, in this land or any other is justice truly blind. Extenuating
circumstances are always considered, not God's justice. It won't matter
who you are, where you came from, what your background was, what
kind of daddy you had, what kind of mama you had. Everything will
be judged strictly in accordance with justice. Justice. Justice is merciless. Justice cannot be merciful. Justice is infinite. Justice is insatiable. Justice is cruel. Cruel. We are forbidden in our
land to execute men with what's considered cruel and unusual
punishments. Justice is cruel. A man rapes
a child, we lock him up for a little while. A man murders folks, we'll
give him a shot and make him go to sleep forever. That's not
cruel. That's easy. That's treating
them with great kindness. Justice is cruel. Justice demands
exaction for exaction. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
life for life. And thus it shall be in hell.
Justice is everlasting. Number three. The day of God's
wrath will be a day of destruction without remedy forever. Verse
19, And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees'
excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Now listen to what he says. He's
talking now about the physical city. It applies certainly to
the Babylon false religion, the great whore of the earth. It
shall never be inhabited. Neither shall it be dwelt in
from generation to generation. Neither shall the Arabian pitch
his tent there. Neither shall the shepherds make
their fold there. In preparing this message, I
did a little research. it is suspected, nobody really
knows for sure, was probably about 50, 55 miles south of Baghdad. Do you know what it is to this
day? It's a pile of rubbish. That's all, that's all. When God wipes things away, they're
wiped away. What did this great, this great,
great, excellent Babylon become? Verse 21, wild beasts of the
desert shall lie there, and their houses shall be full of doleful,
frightening creatures, and owls, not just a hoot owl, birds of
prey shall dwell there, and satyrs, I had spent a little time on
that, lots of speculation about it, but the word has the idea
of Harry. Satyrs were imaginary monsters,
the kind of monsters you have as a child when you have horrible
nightmares. Satyrs, huge, hairy, ugly monsters
that terrify. They shall dance there. And wild
beasts of the island shall cry in their desolate houses, and
dragons in their pleasant palaces. And her time is near to come,
her days shall not be prolonged. Judgment's coming suddenly. When
it comes, it will be thorough. And when it comes, it will be
terrifying. It'll last forever. Next time you think about saying
to somebody cause you get mad at him, why don't you just go
to hell, pause and think about what you're saying. Number four. Now get this, oh God help you
to get this. The day of God's wrath will be
a day of mercy, grace, and deliverance for his elect. Look at verse
one of chapter 14. Four. That's a connecting word, isn't
it? I said all this to tell you something. The Lord will have
mercy on Jacob, and he will yet choose Israel sent them in their
own land and the strangers converts the Gentiles brought to life
and faith in Christ made to be part of the Israel of God shall
be joined with them and they shall cleave to the house of
Jacob. Turn over to Revelation chapter
18 with me. Revelation 18. Let's see this
describes it for us here in the book of Revelation. Babylon is fallen. The great
whore is destroyed. Now watch what God says, Revelation
18, 20, Rejoice over her, thou hither, and ye holy apostles
and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her. There'll be no mercy,
no thought of injustice, no thought of leniency, no thought of goodness,
no thought of grace among any that are redeemed toward the
damned. For then we shall truly see eye
to eye with God. And the mighty angel took up
a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea saying,
thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown
down and shall be found no more at all. and the voice of harpers
and musicians and of pipers and trumpets. All those folks who
make merry in playing religion and poking fun at God shall be
heard no more at all in thee. And no craftsman of whatsoever
craft he be shall be found any more in thee. And the sound of
a millstone shall be heard no more in thee, and the light of
a candle shall shine no more at all in thee. All light, all
joy, all prosperity, all strength, all sense, gone forever. And the voice of the bridegroom
and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee, for thy
merchants were the great men of the earth, for by thy sorceries
nations deceived. And in her was found the blood
of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the
earth." Chapter 19, verse 1. And after these things, when
the judgment's over, when God's elect are brought
home to glory, when death and hell are cast
into the lake of fire. After these things, I heard a
great voice of much people in heaven saying, hallelujah, praise
Jehovah, salvation and glory and honor and power unto the
Lord our God. For true and righteous are his
judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication. and
hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And again,
they said, hallelujah. And the smoke rose up forever
and ever. And the four and 20 elders and
the four beasts fell down and worshiped God that sat on the
throne saying, amen, hallelujah. And a voice came out of the throne
saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear
him, both small and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters,
and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia, for the Lord
God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him. For the marriage of the Lamb
is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. How will it be for you when judgment
comes? I'll tell you how it will be
for me. I'll tell you how it will be
for you who know God. It will be a time of thanksgiving
and joy and praise. And we will then cherish our
Redeemer more than a man can cherish a wedge of gold. For He is our refuge from the
wrath of God, our mercy seat. our ark of salvation, our city
of refuge. And I say to you who are still
out of hell, he is the way to God, the open
way. Come flee to Christ and escape
the wrath of God. Come, flee to Christ, and escape
the wrath of God. Amen.