Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Revelation chapter 16. Revelation chapter 16. I'm going
to say some things before we get into the message from the
Garden. I'm talking about the Garden
of Eden. To the end of time, there is a continuing series
of events that just like the seasons, they come and go continually. Just like a wheel turning and
you put a mark on that thing and you watch that mark go all
the way around and come right back around again and again and
again. And these events that take place,
they're a continuing series And they're just repeated over and
over and over. And this order of events is gospel
light. Gospel light. It's been shining
since the garden. God gave us light there and he
gave us light through that Through the sons of Adam, He
gave us light. Through Noah, He gave us light.
Through Abraham, and on down through the scriptures, there's
a continuing series. It begins with gospel light.
It continues on to a willful rejection of that light in this
world. They see that light. They hear
those words, and men reject them. That next series of events is
persecution. They hear these things and despise
these things, and men who will stand for these things are going
to be persecuted in this world. They're going to be persecuted
for what they believe. You know, I was thinking as I
made my notes out about Cain and Abel, and God rejected Cain's
sacrifice. He didn't listen. He was told
what to bring. He was told how to worship God,
but in his mind there was a better way. There was a way that seems
right unto man, and it seemed right to Cain to do something
a little different. And so he did, and God rejected
it. And he was angry over it. He was angry over it. What happened
next was Abel went out to console his brother, to reason with his
brother, to talk to his brother about what God had said and why
God refused to sacrifice. Cain rose up and killed him,
took a rock and bashed his brains in for what he was saying. So
gospel light comes, willful rejection of that light comes. Then comes
persecution. Persecution. And then comes God's
judgment on all those who receive not his gospel. As the gospel age is the last
time and the time of the clearest revelation of Christ, so the
rejection of it is greater, the persecution of it is more severe,
and the judgment of God becomes more and more fierce toward those
who reject it. And here in our text, in Revelation
16, this is what he's talking about. And he's talking primarily
about the gospel age. He's talking about the age in
which we live, the age after the coming of Christ. And in
Revelation 16.1, the angels are told, and these are ministers
of God that he's talking about, these angels are told to go their
way. to go where God has sent them. And our study in the previous
chapters identifies these angels and who they are and what they're
sent to do. And now this strong voice, this
mighty voice out of the temple, that's the voice of Christ, our
sovereign Lord. He tells these angels, go your
way. Go your way. I've given you vows
of wrath. I've given you the plagues, the
last plagues. And he said, go your way. Go
do what I told you to do. Go execute the ministry that
I've given you. Go on out into the world. Gospel
preaching is here set forth as the cause of God's judgment upon
men. Men who will not receive it.
who will not receive it. Now, people come in here all
the time. We have visitors come in, they
sit here, sometimes they come back and sometimes they don't.
But they sit here and they listen as though this is one school
of thought, and here's another school of thought, and here's
another school of thought, and nothing's gonna happen, and I've
got all the time in the world to sit down and consider these
things. Oh, I beg your pardon. These angels had with them vows
of wrath as they went forth to minister to this world. They
carried also vows of wrath and God purposed and give to them
a plague. And that plague is against those
who will not receive that gospel. Gospel preaching brings light
in into darkness. When our Lord began His ministry,
He left His hometown of Nazareth and He went to Capernaum. And
it lie, the Bible said, between the borders of Zebulon and Nephilim. Now listen how He describes it.
He went there that Isaiah's prophecy might be fulfilled that was written
of Him. And concerning the hearing of
his elect in those places, and this is what it said. It said,
the people which sat in darkness. Where did they sit? In darkness. You know, when I start to talk
to men about the gospel, they start to tell me, I know, I know,
I know, I know. I hear it over and over and over.
I know, I know. And the things that they tell me, you can't
possibly know because there's no such thing. And it's usually, I know, but... They sat in darkness, and they
saw great light, and to them which sat in the region of the
shadow of death. That's this world. The region
of the shadow of death. This world is condemned by one
man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death
passed upon all men. We're in the region of the shadow
of death. He even says to the believer,
he said, don't lay up treasures down here, for you are dead. I wonder how many of us know
that. We're dead, Walter, we're dead. That's what, go out and
bury yourself, you're dead. You're dead. But your life is
hid with Christ in God. That's our life. So that's where
the treasure is. That's where we look. Don't look
on things down here. Look up there. There's where
the treasure is. There's where the hope is. There's where the
joy is and the glory and the peace and everything that God
has blessed us with before the foundation of the world. It's
all up there. When you look here, all you find
is sorrow and death. And he just keeps telling us
that, and we need to be reminded every day, don't we? You're dead. But you have a life, and that
life is hid with Christ in God. Gospel brings light into a dark
world. When God sends one of his elect, the scripture says that salvation,
when he sends light to one of his elect and calls him, the
scripture said, he calls him out of darkness. into his marvelous
light. And the thing about darkness
and light, there's an unmistakable difference in there. I've gotten
up in the middle of the night and maybe be too cold and so
I didn't turn the overhead fan on and there's no light, there's
no nothing. I get up out of that chair and
I don't know If I'm going the right direction or not, I might
walk right into the dresser in my room. It's dark, you can't
see it. But I tell you, even a speck
of light brings light into that whole room. There's an unmistakable
difference between light and darkness. Unmistakable difference. Darkness has nothing in common
with light. Our Lord said He divided the
day from the night. And how did He do that? With
light. That light divides the darkness. It divides it. There's a division. There's an abrupt difference
when it comes to light and darkness. And so it is that light is manifested
And darkness reacts to it. Our Lord said this. He said,
here's the condemnation. Light has come into the world,
and men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil.
Why is their deeds evil? Because they have an evil nature,
a fallen nature. Now, there's no greater offense
to men than gospel preaching, and there's no greater offense
to God than to reject the light of his gospel. I'm telling you,
everybody in here knows the story behind Sodom and Gomorrah, and
that God burned it to cinders. He saved a few. Saved a few. But he basically burnt those
great cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. that he turned them into senders.
And he told the people that he preached to who wouldn't have
his gospel, here's what he told them. He said, in the day of
judgment, it's gonna be easier on those in Sodom and Gomorrah
than it's gonna be on you. Now there's no greater offense
to God. We hear something about I'm trying to find the right
word. Men with men and women with women. Okay, and we hear
about that or see that in our community and we're shocked by
it. One of our relatives might have embraced that sort of lifestyle
and were shocked by it. But men rejecting gospel, we
don't seem to be shocked about that. But the judgment that accompanies
that is much greater than this. Neither one of them is right,
but I'm saying his judgment. His judgment. And so when Christ gave the Great
Commission, he said, he that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved. He didn't stop there. There's
no period there. He that believeth not, now listen,
shall be damned. One of the clearest revelations
of this truth is stated by the author of Revelation, the revelation
of Jesus Christ that we're studying, John, in the third chapter of
his Gospel in verse 36. He said, He that believeth on
the Son hath everlasting life. and he that believeth not the
Son, now listen, shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him. Now I've taken some time to lay
a foundation here because I want you to understand that when preachers
go forth to preach, it's good news. And those who see it and
believe it and rejoice in it, they say, oh, how beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of priests, bring
glad tidings to sinners. What a wonderful act of God's
grace it is for a man to step into your life. My wife and I
were talking about that. Look what the Lord has done for
us. I was running headlong into hell. I was buried in religion and
just running headlong into hell. No difference between me and
any reprobate. Rejoicing in religion and singing
the songs and getting the beat and waving my arms and playing
my guitar and singing and going church to church. Boy, I was
just, if anybody will make it, Lord, surely I will. That's one
of the songs we sang. God sent me a preacher, and that
man told me the truth. He told me the truth. I'll tell you how I feel about
it. What an act of grace. What an act of mercy is it for
God to tell you the truth. And these preachers, these angels
that God sent, they come out of the temple. They come out
to deliver good news, but they bring with them vials of wrath. Where'd they get it? God gave
it to them. They're not out there pulling them out because they
want to pull them out, but God gave it to them. And that's how,
I tell you, everywhere the gospel is stated, the consequences are
stated too. Those who preach the gospel to
men and women, they preach to men and women who despise it. Their whole lives are accompanied
by trials and afflictions for Christ's sake and His gospel.
And because of their rejection of His gospel, His ambassadors
and their persecution of His people, God's judgment falls
on them. He sent out the 70 and He said,
now you go preach. You come to a city and they won't
have it? They won't listen to you? Don't
stay there? Don't stay there. Oh, but shouldn't
I just stay there and beg and beg and plead and beg? No. No. You don't stay there. If
those people won't have it, you shake the dust off your feet
as a testimony against it. God's judgment. You can write
Ichabod on that place. The glory has departed. It's
over. It's over. Do you think about that when
you come in to worship? Do you think about the consequences
of those who reject this gospel? I tell you, it'll turn your heart
inside out if you do. You want your own children, your
own grandchildren? Your mother and your father and
your friends, people you grew up with, went to school with. In the Old Testament, it talks
about men pulling the shoulder. You ever tried to console somebody
that was angry at you and you went over there and started to
put your arm around and they pulled their shoulder from you? People that you've known all
your life. I'm trying to have this, maybe
not do this in a conventional way, but I want you to understand
what these pictures are picturing here. These men are bringing
the good news of God. They're bringing grace and mercy
to chosen sinners, and men are hearing what they say, and then rejecting it altogether,
as if it were nothing. To all those who have eyes to
see this order of events is an undeniable fact. We see it every
day. Every day. The gospel is preached,
persecution arises, judgment falls. Now hear what I'm saying. Whenever
the wicked fail to repent, and refuse to obey and harden their
hearts against God's evident warnings of wrath to come. These
vials of wrath are poured out upon them. And these vials of
wrath, what are these vials of wrath? They're acts of divine
reprobation. That's what they are. The plague
of unbelief is given a free course You read 2 Thessalonians chapter
2, those who would not receive the love of the truth, God gave
them over to strong delusion. He gave unbelief a free course. He didn't continue with this.
I can't tell you how merciful God is to sinners to allow them. I don't know how many times God
allowed me to hear his gospel. before he opened my eyes to see
it and to hear it. But I tell you, you better not
count on God allowing you to hear and hear and hear and hear
and hear. What you better do is with whatever
ability you have, believe. Believe. Oh, my faith's not like his. It don't have to be. It don't
have to be but the grain of a mustard seed if it's faith. These vows of wrath are acts
of divine reprobation and this plague of unbelief is given a
free course and by it these men are sealed to the judgment of
God in that great day. Every act of mercy is gone. Gone. Read Proverbs chapter one sometimes.
You want the hair to stand up on the back of your neck. God
said I called and you refused. I counseled you and you wouldn't
have any of my counsel. I'm gonna tell you something.
Every place I find the counsel of God in the scripture is talking
about redemption. Talk about his redemptive counsel.
Talk about his saving counsel. Talk about his counsels before
the foundation of the world. Those things which were sealed
in the book that none were worthy to unloose but Christ. And he
said, you wouldn't have it. I reasoned with you and you wouldn't
have it. I called and you refused. Now he said, I'll laugh at your
calamity. It's coming. He's coming. I'll mock when fear grips your
heart. I'll mock. God gives a man that unbelief
freak horse, and that man, I don't care what you say to him. I don't
care what you say. My own brother, my oldest brother,
I went up to witness to him one day, and that man, he cursed,
and he said, I don't ever want to hear that blankety-blank message
again. I said, you won't from me. You've heard it your last time
from me. God gives it free. These are
plagues. I don't know how to really get
that point across and if I don't get anything else said today,
I want you to understand what these vows are. They're vows
of God's wrath. It has to do with divine reprobation. It has to do with this man given.
God gives him over to strong delusion and believe a lie and
be damned for it. preaching of the Gospels, the
declaration of the testimony of God concerning His Son, and
the warning about the consequences that follow those who reject
it. Well, how do we recognize when
a man or a woman has these vials of wrath poured out on them?
How do these things take place? Well, these vials of wrath manifest
a withdrawing of the Spirit of God from a man. I'm going to tell you something,
you're dead in trespasses and sins and apart from the Spirit
of God quickening you and giving you that revelation of Christ,
you're going to continue right on in your deadness until judgment.
It requires a divine intervention and that intervention is done
by the Spirit of the living God. My words ain't going to birth
anybody But if the Holy Spirit accompanies his word, which are
in my word, it's going to bring life into your soul. But when
these vials of wrath are poured out, there's a withdrawing of
the Spirit. Now, I'll see if I can illustrate
that to you. There was a time when Paul the Apostle, he talked
to Governor Felix. You remember the story in the
book of Acts. And he's reasoning with him. His wife is a Jewess,
so she understood these things, and he did too, because his wife
had told him these things. And Paul was reasoning with him
of righteousness and temperance and the judgment to come. He's
doing the same thing I'm doing with you this morning. He's telling
him, preaching the gospel to us. And Felix trembled while Paul
preached to him. The Spirit of God worked in him
and he trembled. And when he got done, he said,
well, I hear you again one of these days. And his trembling
quit. And I never read again where
Felix ever had any kind, not any kind, of intervention of
the mercy of God in his life, ever. These vials of wrath, it's the
Spirit being withdrawn from a man. Can't you tell in a person when
the Spirit of God quits working in him? He just, nothing. His conscience, the Scripture
said, seared like with a hot iron. Has no feelings. Talk and
plead and illustrate and cry and do whatever you want to.
Doesn't affect him. Doesn't affect him. And I'm gonna tell you something
else about these vials of wrath. These vials of wrath are poured
out upon men and women while they still abide in this world.
They're still living here. Still living here. And there's a direct correlation
between the trumpets of judgment, which we studied in the previous
chapters, which are warnings, and these vials of wrath that
are actually being poured out. Now, we go through these plagues. We find a striking resemblance
to the plagues which fell upon the Egyptians back in Exodus
chapter 7 through chapter 10. And these things foreshadowed
their final death in the sea. Now, I don't have time this morning,
so I'm not even going to start. on these different plagues, but
I want you to consider what I told you about these vials. This is
when God's gospel is preached. And men hear it. And you tell
them, well, turn over there to 2 Corinthians 5, and I'm going
to show you something here. And turn over here to Ephesians
1. I'm going to show you over here. And turn over to 1 Peter
1. And you're doing all these things. And you're showing them
all these things. And he's sitting there going, well, I don't care
what that says. That just can't be right. That just don't seem
right to me. That in itself is a sign and
an evidence of God's judgment on your soul. He's letting you
continue on in your own belief. And I'm going to tell you something.
The more you hear it and reject it, the easier it is to do. That's
God's judgment. at that raft being poured out
on you, until finally one day God just reprobates a man's soul
to where he don't even get to hear it anymore. He'll just say,
well, wouldn't you rather be out on the lake? Wouldn't you
rather be over here somewhere than down there with those people?
Wouldn't you rather have this than that? Away they go, never
see them again. God have mercy on our souls,
not let that happen to us. Thank you.