Revelation chapter 15. It's a
short chapter we'll read the entire chapter. I saw in heaven
another great and marvelous sign. Seven angels with the seven last
plagues last because with them God's wrath is completed. And
I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and
standing beside the sea Those who had been victorious over
the beast and his image and over the number of his name, they
held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses, the
servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Great and marvelous
are your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are your ways,
King of the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and bring glory to your name for you alone are holy. All nations
will come and worship before you for your righteous acts have
been revealed. After this I looked and in heaven
the temple, that is the tabernacle of the testimony, was opened.
Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues.
They were dressed in clean shining linen and wore golden sashes
around their chests. Then one of the four living creatures
gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the
wrath of God who lives forever and ever. And the temple was
filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power and
no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the
seven angels were completed. Now according to William Hendrickson
who wrote an excellent commentary on the Book of Revelation. The
Book of Revelation is comprised of seven visions which John received,
and each vision describes what goes on from our Lord's first
appearance on the earth 2,000 years ago all the way until He
shall come again. And I believe that Chapter 15
of the Book of Revelation begins the fifth of these seven visions. Now there are four things which
happen throughout the gospel age and they happen in a continuing
cycle. Again and again the Holy Spirit
comes in power. He comes in that power that belongs
only to Him. The ability to take the gospel
and give life to sinners. He does this and sinners are
saved by the grace of God. They are enlightened on the inner
man. And since they have light in them, they become lights in
the world. The church is called the light
of the world. And as the church goes out, she
preaches the gospel. I think it would be legitimate
to say any religious organization that does not preach the gospel
is not the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever else it
may be, it's not that. For the church, by its very nature,
is a witnessing organization. That's why it is illustrated
in a previous chapter here, I believe it was chapter 11, it's illustrated
under the figure of two witnesses. So time and again, the Holy Spirit
has come in regenerating, truly reviving power, giving light
to many, and they become lights in this world. And then again
and again, as the church goes out, she is persecuted. They
that would live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It's just the way it is in this
world. Some days, or in some generations, it's been rather
light persecution. In some, it's been really severe
persecution. But friendship with God precludes,
or excludes, should I say, excludes friendship with the world. You
cannot love God and the world, neither can you be loved by God
and loved by the world. It just doesn't happen. So we
have cycles of persecution going on and on. And then again and
again, God sends warning judgments. Trumpet judgments, if you will.
A trumpet is an instrument of warning. And God sends warnings
to this world by way of judgment. And time and time again, men
fail to repent at the warning judgments of trumpets. Here's a lesson that would do
us well if we would learn it. Judgment, wrath, God's harsh
providences do not ever, to my knowledge, do not ever by themselves
bring about true repentance. In fact, You look over here in
chapter 16 and we're talking the bold judgments and we'll
see what that means in a minute. But as these judgments are poured
out it says in verse 11 of chapter 16 that men cursed God the God
of heaven because of their pains and their sores but they refused
to repent of what they had done. A week or so ago God, as it were,
fired a shot across the bow of this community. And I think across
the bow is a good way to describe it, because nobody got seriously
hurt. Some stuff was destroyed, but stuff is easily replaceable.
And I'm sure that some people got scared by that. And some
people were made to think about some bad things they had done,
and that some people determined to mend their ways. But I can tell you this of a
certainty. Such sentiments will fade away and men will go back
to exactly what they were doing before. Unless an awakening to our sins
and an awakening to our rebellion against God, unless that drives
us to Christ to put away our sins, no true repentance has
been worked. Men will not repent, and the
worse that judgment gets, the more they'll curse God. In this cycle of judgment which
God brings again and again it points to a deeper and more fundamental
final judgment. Now this chapter begins a vision
which teaches us what God does when man will not listen to his
warnings. When God sends difficult Providence
says his difficult times to a person or to a nation or to a church
or to anything. He sends these difficult times
to warn them of the results of their conduct and they will not
listen. What happens? Well, then God
brings about a final and irrecoverable judgment. I saw in heaven another
great and marvelous sign, seven angels with the seven last flags,
last because with them God's wrath is completed. Now here
we're going to see three things in this chapter. First of all,
final judgment prepared. Secondly, final judgment observed. And then thirdly, final judgment
begun. Now here we see the preparation
of it. seven angels with the seven last plagues. And they're
called the last plagues because with these, the wrath of God
is completed. Now we're not to understand these
judgments as actual separate events from the trumpet judgments
we heard about before. Do you remember in chapters before
we, there were seven trumpet judgments. Well, he's not saying
that these are different judgments from those judgments. These are
things that are going on all the time. Whether a judgment
be a trumpet judgment or a bowl judgment determines or is determined
by what God is doing with the judgment. In fact, a single judgment,
a single act of judgment by God may be trumpet to some and bowls
of wrath to others. The point is this. In these judgments,
God's wrath is completed, or we might put it this way, God's
wrath is brought to its goal. God's wrath achieves its purpose
with these. Now what is the purpose of the
wrath of God? It's twofold. The destruction
of his enemies and the salvation of his people. Now, I typed in
the title to today's message, you know, and I thought, judgment,
I just, I hate to say I'm preaching a message about judgment. But
remember, judgment's not a bad thing. God's judgments are righteous.
They bring about good things. And when God's wrath achieves
its purpose, we will discover that its purpose was this, all
of his enemies are destroyed. And remember, his enemies are
also the enemies of the church. Therefore, when God destroys
his enemies, he saves his church. And so these seven last plagues,
final plagues we might call them, they bring about final destruction
of those who rebel against God. Now, we spoke of trumpet judgments
earlier, and now we're bold judgments where wrath is poured out, God
time and time again warns people. Whether it be by, as we experienced
a little over a week ago, it was just a shot across the bow.
It was very mild. But it was a warning nonetheless.
It tells us what God is capable of doing. It warns us. It should
alert us and remind us that our lives are at every moment in
the hand of God. God could just as easily have
that tornado go right through the middle of town and rip up
houses where there were people hiding and throw them hither
and yon and kill many. In fact, other tornadoes I've
been reading in the news have killed people. It could happen
that way. He sends these warnings. But when trumpets are ignored,
bowls follow. And the perfection, the completion,
the goal of God's wrath is poured out upon men. Now until the end
of all things, only God knows whether any of his acts should
be called trumpet judgments or bowl judgments or to whom they
are trumpets and to whom they are bowls. or even that his actions
are works of grace. In fact, let me give you an example
here with that conflict going on over
in Iraq. Now, there can be no question
that Saddam Hussein and the government over which he ruled was an enemy
of God and an enemy of the people of God. Now, there can be debate
about whether or not the United States ever should have gotten
involved, but we're not talking about political matters here.
We're talking about the workings of God. And God, in His providence,
brought together a military force and sent it into that country.
Now, for Mr. Hussein and many of his henchmen,
it was bowls of wrath because it brought about the completion
of God's wrath against those rebels. Within two or three years,
Mr. Hussein was at the end of a rope
and he went to meet God. There are some for whom it is
a warning, though I doubt they'll believe it. I doubt they'll hear
it and take it to heart, but for some it was a trumpet. God
saying, I will do all my pleasure and not all the blustering of
a self-aggrandizing man can stop me. And of the thousands who have
been killed in this conflict, I am certain there are some who
belong to the Lord. And it was neither trumpet nor
bow to them. It was a call home. So you see that whether it be
a trumpet of warning, a bowl of wrath, or a blessed call to
home is determined by God and known only to Him. Only at the
end of all things will we know of a certainty. What was the
purpose in any of God's actions? But we can be certain of this.
Whatever we see going on, whatever is happening in this world, God
is warning, God is judging, and God is calling. And it is for
us, as we watch these things, to make good use of whatever
it is that God is saying. Does some event remind us of
the power of God? Of the sovereign rule of God
over all things? Then let us bow before Him as
the Sovereign of all and own Him as that, rather than stiffen
our necks against Him and rebel. Whether He warns us by providence
or by preaching, then let us submit to those warnings. You know, one of the things that
scares me most of all when I preach, you know, when people, when the
folks in the area, you know, they don't come and visit. That's
bothersome. I wish people would, I wish they'd come hear what
we have to say, but I am more troubled when I see people come
and sit and listen and not act on what they hear. Even in preaching,
God sends forth warnings. In fact, down here at the bottom
in the chapter here, in verse 7, it says, Then one of the four
living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls
filled with the wrath of God. Now these four living creatures,
that's from way early in the book, and we saw that those are
preachers. They say preachers are giving
wrath to the angels to pour out. Yes. Do you understand when I
preach the gospel, when any faithful witness, any faithful preacher
preaches the gospel, he's not only showing you the way of salvation,
he is laying out judgment and wrath upon everyone who does
not take that way. The preaching of the gospel fills
these bowls with wrath. For the gospel calls upon us
to bow before the Lord Jesus Christ and own him as Lord. And
he who will not own him as Lord is a rebel and will eventually
experience within himself the fulfillment of the wrath of God. If you hear me preach Christ,
If you hear me set him forth as ruler of heaven and earth,
if you hear me set him forth as the Lamb of God that takes
away the sin of the world for the sake of your soul, bow to
him and plead his blood in your behalf, lest the trumpet warning
turns into a bowl of wrath. And now we see judgment observed,
verses two through four. And I saw what looked like a
sea of glass mixed with fire and standing beside the sea,
those who had been victorious over the beast and his image
and over the number of his name. They held hearts given them by
God and they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God and
the song of the Lamb. John now is using some imagery
from They find it in Exodus chapter 14, but you're familiar with
the story. Israel was in Egypt and Israel
was being persecuted by Egypt. And so God brought judgment upon
Egypt and salvation to his people. And there were plagues poured
out upon Egypt. And finally, a plague so severe
that Pharaoh did let them go. and they leave the land of Egypt
and head out across the wilderness. But Pharaoh is still unrepentant
and he changes his mind and he sends his army out after those
Jews. And those Jews come up to the
Red Sea and they cannot cross. So the Red Sea is in front of
them and Pharaoh's army is behind them and they cry out. And their
cry wasn't very good, it wasn't full of very much faith, but
the Lord heard nonetheless. And Moses said, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord. And God sent a mighty wind, and
with that wind he made a channel through the sea. And the Israelites
walked through the Red Sea on dry ground. And when all the
Israelites had gotten through, Egypt's army tried to come through
too. And God stopped His wind and
the water came in and drowned all of Israel's enemies. And Israel stood there on the
banks of that sea and saw the water enclosed over them. God brought judgment, final The
wrath against that nation, Egypt, found its fulfillment in the
waters of the Red Sea, and it covered them up. And God, in
judging that rebellious nation, saved His people, Israel. And those Israelites stood there
on the edge of that Red Sea and saw it happen. And when they
saw it happen, they sang. They sang the song of Moses. They sang the song of the glory
of God. You find that in Exodus chapter
14 and 15. Now John brings back that historical
event in this imagery and he said, I saw what looked like
a sea of glass mixed with fire. What does he mean by that? Molten
glass. Have you ever been to one of those places where they
show you how they blow glass, you know, and so you see them,
they got that furnace there and I mean it is hot. I don't know
how hot things have to be to melt glass, but awfully hot.
And that glass is in that furnace and it just glows orange and
red. And they'll stick that pipe in
there and they twist it around and they get that big glob of
glass out of there and they pull it out. And I've watched it and
there you've got this fiery red molten glass. And it'll have
fire coming off of it. I don't know that it's the glass
itself burning. I don't even know a glass would
burn. But there's impurities and stuff and it burns out of
there. So you've got this glass as it were mixed with fire. And
John says, I saw a sea that was like molten glass. That, my friends,
is the wrath of God. That is the unmixed, unmitigated,
wrath of God. You know, it's one thing to be
covered up with a sea full of water. Can you imagine being
overflowed with a sea of molten glass? And it says, standing
beside the sea, those who had been victorious
over the beast and his image and over the number of his name.
Now how do you think they got to the side of the sea? All by
the By the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, a way was made for them
through the molten glass, the sea of molten glass. Just like
the Israelites walked through that token of judgment in their
day, the waters of the Red Sea, they passed through on dry land.
And that's a picture of Christ who went ahead of us and made
a channel, a path through judgment. And we passed through behind
Him. But once on the other side, we stand there, the Church of
God stands and watches as God's judgment encloses, enfolds, and
destroys all of their enemies. Who are these people? They are
those who have passed through the fire and the glass in Jesus
Christ. They have been victorious over
the beast and over his image. and over the number of His name.
These are those who were not deceived, who were not overwhelmed. God's grace stood in them and
made them stand firm in the gospel of Christ. Though the world came
against them in power, they would not relent, they would not let
go of Christ. Though deceptive religion surrounded
them and seduced them, for all of the troublesome doubts it
may have brought in their mind, yet they clung to Christ. And they would not take the number
of His name. Remember that name is the name
of man. They would not trust in man. They would not trust man's wisdom. They would not trust man's will.
They would not trust man's gospel. They would not trust man's righteousness. No 666 upon them, imperfection
upon imperfection, but rather a glorious, as it were, 777 of
the perfect wisdom, power, and righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now you and I, who are yet in
this world, we still struggle with this beast, though in our
country we don't struggle too much. Our laws protect us for
the most part, though that could change quickly. But we do struggle
against his image, the false religion that springs up. We
see it all around us, and it looks nice. We might wish we
had some of that. It seems like they're having
fun. Boy, we'd like to have some of that. It seems like they're being successful
and really being shakers and movers in the world. We might
want some of that. But as much as we might be tempted
to it, we're victorious because Christ in us will not let us
follow after that prostitute. It says of them, they stood by
that sea. Look over at Psalm 91.8. A couple of three months ago
in preaching from a passage in Revelation, I made the remark
to you that there is nothing in the book of Revelation which
cannot be found in other portions of the Scripture. It teaches
us nothing new, it just teaches us the same old things in a new
way. And here you're going to find
way back in the Psalms a perfect description of what is meant
by these who are victorious over the beast and over his image
and the number of his name. what it means for them to stand
there beside this sea of molten glass. Verse five, you will not fear
the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor
the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague
that destroys at midday. This is Psalm 91, starting here
in verse seven now, a thousand, now look here, a thousand may
fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will
not come near you. You will only observe with your
eyes and see the punishment of the wicked." Oh, can you get a hold of this
in your heart, or more importantly, does this get a hold of your
heart? I see my sin. I know it inside and out. Don't you about your own sin?
And don't you understand and don't you feel within your own
heart that it deserves the molten glass wrath of Almighty God? And does it not fill your heart,
if not your eyes, with tears of gratitude to hear from the
Lord Himself that you will observe, or you
will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the
wicked? That as much as you may deserve
all that wrath, you will never experience it. Time after time, we see God's
final wrath fall upon the ungodly. He sweeps them away in death,
and they go to face God in their sins, and the molten glass destroys
them forever. And we just stand on the bank
and see it. knowing that it will never come
upon us. We shall observe, we shall see
the punishment of the wicked, but it will never come upon us.
What did they do as they observed all this? What does the church
do as God destroys his and her enemies? They held harps given
to them by God. Harps that sing, that give forth
sweet music. And they sang the song of Moses,
the servant of God. They sang the song, the new song,
given to all who know God. given to all who have been sealed
in their foreheads and upon their hands with the seal of God, given
to everyone who is victorious over the beast. They sing that
song which they and they alone can learn, the song of victory,
the song of triumph, the song of glory. They sing the song
of Moses, the servant of God, who in that day was leading,
was standing as the leader over God's people and had led them
to salvation. And it says, the song of the
Lamb. And we go from the illustration or the type in Moses to the reality
in Christ. Oh, those Israelites of old could
only sing the song of Moses, and that's as far as their song
could go. The song of Moses' victory. But you know something?
Moses brought a victory over Egypt, but in days to come, Israel
fell victim to other enemies. Moses died, and thus with him
died all his protection. But you and I, we sing a song
like Moses sang, but it's no longer just the song of Moses
who died. It's the song of the Lamb who
died and ever lives again. We sing the song of Him who by
Himself was victorious over all God's enemies. And we are victorious
in Him. And we sing with Him. Great and
marvelous are Your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are
Your ways, King of the ages. Now, we have been taught over
the years Due to a skewed idea of what the Christian religion
is, we have been taught that we should always weep at the
death of the wicked. That's not so. I know we have
sympathy for those who die under God's wrath, but I want you to
notice here, the Church is not talking in those ways. When God
brings judgment upon those who rebel against Him, the cry of
the Church is, Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.
And everything you do is just and true. You are the king of
the ages. Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and bring glory to your name? You can imagine how that must
have looked to those Israelites as they stood there by the Red
Sea and they saw their enemies march in after them. And they
thought, uh-oh, it looked like it was good. It was bad for a
while, but the Lord opened up the sea and we came through.
But, oh no, look, here come our enemies. They're coming across
the same way. And then they watched the sea cover it up, cover up
his enemies, or their enemies. Now, if they had any spiritual
sense at all, you know what would have come into their mind? Oh, Lord God, You are a God to
be feared. The same water that has destroyed
our enemies should have destroyed us, but you made a way for us.
And yet we see your wrath displayed. And we are filled with both faith
and fear in your sight. It's an odd combination of emotions
that we must have before God. Faith and confidence in His mercy. and yet a good measure of fear
and trembling at His judgments. My friends, when we look upon
Christ and we see Him stretched out there on that cross, bearing
in reality the bowls of final wrath in our behalf, it should work two things in
us. First of all, it ought to strike a fear in our hearts.
at how just and holy and righteous is the God we worship. He will
by no means clear the guilty. He will under no circumstances
allow sin to go unpunished. How can we be so free with our
sin? How can we be so flippant about
it and uncaring about it when we see what God does about sin? It's revealed there at the cross.
And yet at the same time as we're struck with the fear of the Lord
there at the cross of Calvary, we're struck with the comfort
that comes from the knowledge that if my sins were upon Christ
when He died, they shall never be upon me. And if the judgment
of God's wrath, if the completion, the goal of His wrath against
me was achieved in Christ, it'll never be turned towards me. And
so with fear and trembling, We believe. I don't know of any
other way to express it, but that's what this song is. Who
will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? Of this I am sure the gospel
never works a careless attitude in the hearts of those who have
been saved by it. They may get careless, but the
gospel never produced it. What did our brother read to
us this morning from Titus chapter 2? For the grace of God that
brings salvation has appeared unto all kinds of men, high,
low, educated, uneducated, civilized, barbaric, all kinds of people.
That glorious mercy of God in Christ has appeared to all men,
teaching us that we must say no, we must deny all ungodliness
and live our lives soberly in this world. Now an understanding
of the grace of God that brings salvation, any kind of understanding
of that that makes you think it doesn't matter how you live
is a misunderstanding of the grace of God. God's grace works both faith
and fear. It says, For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship
before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. Now,
this song of Moses and of the Lamb is not saying that everyone
is going to worship God through repentance and faith. He just
means that by God's judgments and by His grace, He will bring
everyone to the foot of Christ and they will bow before Him
and call Him Lord. Everyone here this morning will
someday, one way or another, by grace or by judgment. But
one way or another you are going to bow before Christ and you
are going to confess that He is Lord of all to the glory of
the Father. Some will do so because the grace
of God has worked in their hearts to make them glad that Jesus
is Lord. And as the scriptures say, if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus to be Lord, and believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. If the preaching of the gospel
moves you to do that, you will be spared from these judgments. But if you will not bow to the
gospel, or if you will not bow to Christ through the gospel,
and through the warnings of his providence, And someday he will
pour out bowls full of wrath upon you. And you will be dragged
into the presence of Christ. And you will have no option but
to bow before him and worship him. And yet it will bring no
salvation to you. And now judgment begun. Verse
5, After this I looked, and in heaven the temple, that is the
tabernacle of the testimony, was opened. Out of the temple
came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They were dressed
in clean shining linen and wore golden sashes around their chests. Now as I was studying on this
I was reminded of that scripture on which I wrote an article in
the bulletin. Don't fret when evil men prosper in their way.
Evil men prospered in their way in the days of John and many
of the saints were killed because of the testimony of Christ. And
it says from underneath the altar They cried out, How long, O Lord,
before you bring vengeance against our persecutors? Paul says, Don't try to pay back
evil for evil. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.
I'll repay. And here is the fulfillment of
that. The martyrs of the Lord have cried out for vengeance
for all these generations. And now their prayers in the
tabernacle of testimony find fulfillment when out of that
tabernacle of the testimony come seven angels with seven plagues. They were dressed in clean shining
linen and wore golden sashes around their chest. What does
that signify? That the wrath they bring is
pure and clean and righteous and just. That God is not just in a fit
of rage. You know, you and I might do
that. Somebody makes us angry and we'll get in a fit of rage
and we'll react in a way that's not really righteous nor just.
And that's why Paul tells us, don't pay back. I tell you, people
make me angry. They do things that are just
so far out of line, at least in my estimation. And I can think
some horrible, wicked thoughts against them, my friends. And
if I were to bring them to pass, who knows what unrighteousness
and wickedness would be found in my judgments. Because maybe
I was wrong about what they did. And maybe I did not understand
what would be a proper reaction. Oh, to learn the meekness to
learn the meekness of those who, like our Lord Jesus Christ, did
not answer back evil for evil, but committed Himself entirely
to God and left His case with God, and left it to God to avenge
His cause. And God did, and God still is. Out of the temple came these
angels, and in their clean and shiny linen, And they had the
golden sashes around their chest indicating that power and authority
had been given to them by God himself to carry this out. Then
one of the four living creatures came to the seven angels, or
gave to the seven angels, seven golden bowls filled with the
wrath of God. These are those preachers of
the gospel who having been heard and ignored, their message brings
forth wrath. and are filled with the wrath
of God who lives forever and ever. Friends, those who may
turn their wrath against us are here but for a moment and their
wrath cannot outlast them. What did our Lord say? Fear not
him who can kill the body and then do no more. Fear him who
can kill the body and then cast the soul into hell. Why? He lives forever and ever, and
his judgments are irreversible. You know, wicked men, they'll
go to court, and if they don't get free in this court, they'll
go up to another court, and they just keep going up until they
find some judge that'll let them go. But there is a judge. from whom there is no appeal. He lives forever and ever. And
then it says this, verse 8, And the temple was filled with smoke
from the glory of God and from his power. And here is one of the most,
the next phrase is one of the most sobering statements to be
found in scripture. As these judgments are prepared
and begun, it says this, and no one could enter the temple
until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed. Now what's that mean? What was
that temple? It was the place where one could
go with the blood of a sacrifice and find a remedy for sin. It's where an intercessor could
go in and make intercession for sinners and deliver them from
the wrath of God. But when these seven bowls are
poured out, those upon whom they are poured out are not permitted
to come into the presence of God and plead the blood of Christ
in their behalf. There is a scripture, I did not
find it, I'm not sure just where it is, but I remember it. He who is often reproved, yet
hardens his neck, shall suddenly be cut off, and that without
remedy. And that's what this scripture
says. There are those walking the earth today and this is a
sad thought, but they have been warned. They have been warned in preaching,
and they have been warned in providence time and again. They've been told about a God,
but they would not. They've been told to lay their
case before Christ, but they would not. And the time has come
when they have been cut off. And the bowls of wrath for them
are full. And there is no entry for them
into the tabernacle, into the place of mercy. There is no Christ for them anymore.
Now someone said, well that was all determined before the world
began in election and And I understand all that. But we don't live in
the eternity where God made all His decrees. We live in the world.
And God sends out His preachers and the door to the temple is
open. The door to Christ or the door to God through Christ is
open. But there comes a time when a man is no longer allowed
to go in. Such people as this, many of them I think are perfectly
convinced that everything's good between them and God. Some of
them don't care about God at all. Here's the truth of it,
we don't have any idea who they are. We don't have any idea whether
the bowls of wrath are full for this person or for that person. But it is full for some. And in time, for all those who
reject Christ, these bowls will be filled and the way to God
will be shut up. And for us, it is not to look
at this scripture and try to figure out whether this or that
person has sinned and rebelled to the point that there are no
more trumpet judgments of warning left, only bowls full of wrath.
Rather, we are to take this to our own hearts and say, let me
listen to what God says and enter into the most holy place with
the blood of Jesus Christ while it is yet open. Let me obey what
the apostle says in Hebrews. Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as they did in the day of provocation
and God cut them off. Have you heard the thunders of
his judgment? And have you heard the sweet sound of his gospel?
My friends, don't let it fall on deaf ears. Don't let the trumpets
give way to bowls full of wrath. Rather walk through the open
sea and stand on the other side so that you too may be only an
observer of God's wrath upon the wicked and not a participant.