me to the book of Revelation, chapter six, the seventh chapter
of the book of the Revelation. I was sitting in my study a while
ago and thinking over what I've prepared to say tonight,
and the words to this old hymn came to me and I jotted them
down. Suffer a sinner whose heart overflows, loving his Savior to tell what he knows. Once more to tell, once more to tell, would I embrace,
I'm only a sinner saved by grace. I'm not up here tonight to impress
anybody. Not up here tonight to compete
with anybody. I'm not up here tonight trying
to establish myself in the ministry. If God wants me in the ministry,
all the devils in hell can't keep me out. I said in my study, and I opened
this book, and I asked God to allow me to understand it because
I love Christ. If I wasn't going to preach,
I'd still sit in my study and study His Word and ask Him to
reveal Himself to me. And I can see Him on every page. I study the Word of God because
it's my inheritance. You know what this is? This is
reading the will. This is reading the will. It's not His will that any should
perish, talking about His love, but that all should come to repentance.
That's my inheritance. And I study the Word of God because
it's the will of God for me to do it. And I'm here tonight standing
before this congregation under the sovereign providence of God.
I try to remind myself of that every time I stand up here. And
whatever I am to you otherwise, settle this in your minds tonight. Think about this tonight. Tonight,
by the providence of God, I am his ambassador before you. The scripture said, God was in
Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their
trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us, Paul said,
the word of reconciliation. He said, I pray you in Christ's
spirit, be ye reconciled to God. Now turn with me here to Revelations
chapter 7. This is something when I was
down on the farm doing that job down in western Kentucky, I had
a lot of time in the evenings, and I'm reading through the book
of Revelations, and I came across this chapter. And I jotted down
some notes, and I hope the Lord will bless you with it like he
did me. And I tried to get all this chapter
into a single message, but I just couldn't do it. I'm just not
a Henry Mahan or a Don Porker. I just could not get it. And
since I had the opportunity to speak Tuesday, I'm breaking this
message up into two parts. But what caught my eye first
in this chapter was verse 15. Verse 15 of Revelations chapter
7. He's talked about the 12 tribes
and the 144,000. He's talked about the ascending
angel holding back the wrath of God. He's talked about the
great multitude that no man can number standing before the throne,
standing before the Lamb, dressed in white robes, dressed in white
linen, crying salvation unto our God and unto the Lamb. And he said, verse 15, therefore,
for these reasons and because of these things, therefore are
they, those who come up out of great tribulation, those he brought
from a condemned upon which the wrath of God was
being poured out. Therefore, are they before the
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple,
and he that sat upon the throne shall dwell among them." Now,
the first part of this message I gave this title, Holding Back. the wrath of God. And I just
want to deal with the first three verses of this chapter tonight.
And I want to say a few things to you before we get into this
study. First, let me be reminded, as often as I pick up this book,
and as often as I sit down in my study to read, and as often as I get up here to
preach, let me be reminded of this. Every time I come here
to listen to our pastor or to listen to one of these other
two men preach to me or one of the visiting preachers, let me
be reminded that everything we do or say or understand in this
world as believers is of a spiritual nature. It's of a spiritual nature. And
we're going to be looking at some of these things tonight
if the Lord's be willing to teach us some things. And I want to
read to you several verses here out of Romans chapter 8. And
I want to talk to you a little bit from Romans 7 before we get
into this message. I want to tell you what I'm talking
about. Everything we do, everything we see, everything we encounter
in this world, it's of a spiritual nature. In Romans chapter 7,
Paul shows us the impossibility of reforming that old man. Now we're talking about the greatest
apostle who ever walked on the earth, the apostle Paul. He wrote, he's responsible for
writing under the inspiration of God's Holy Spirit half of
the New Testament. Half. And this man said that
that old man haunted him to the grave. Wouldn't go away. I wanted to do good. I saw the
good. I desired the good. But he said
I couldn't do it. And he said I saw the evil. And
I didn't want to do that. And that's exactly what it is.
That's exactly what I did. What evil men said and did to
our Lord when he walked on this earth is exactly what our fleshly
nature does to us as we walk by faith through this world.
Just read. Just read. It draws doubt on
everything you think. It charges ignorance against
everything you know. It corrupts every good thought
and motive we have. and constantly attempts to take
away any and all assurance that we might acquire. That old man
puts a question mark on everything you do. You ain't no preacher. Now come on. We're talking about God who created
the world, Merle. God who spoke everything you
see into existence. We're talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ who was promised from the time of the garden,
preached on by all the prophets, pictured by the law, and then
manifested in a manger, walked among us. All these things. Did all these miracles. Calmed
the seas. Raised the dead. All these things.
And you're telling me that God called you? Yep. Yep. No way you can believe that
in the natural realm. No way. You know all through
the book of 1 John. I haven't seen this. This is
something I've just seen recently. But when he's talking about loving
your brother, you know what he's talking about? You're loving
him not because you see something in him to love. That's not what
he's talking about. I work with a lot of people who
don't have a clue who God is that I like. And I like them
because they have good qualities. They're smart, and they work
hard, and they do things. And I respect that. But that's
not what he's talking about in 1 John. There he's talking about
loving Him because He's the Son of God. And the only way you
can love Him as the Son of God is if you know God's love on
you as His Son. Now that's what he's talking
about. The love of God. Everything that we encounter
in this world that's of any value is of a spiritual nature. everything
you see with these eyes and ears with these ears. That's not it. That's not it. And he gets down
to the end of chapter 7. And the greatest apostle who
ever lived on this earth cried, O wretched man that I am. Can I say that? Can you say that? You came apart from the Spirit
of God. It takes a spiritual nature to
say that. Did you know that? A spiritual
nature. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this dead? And that's what it is. It's a
corpse. It's condemned by God in the garden. It's demonstrated
throughout all of His days. Death passed upon all men. judged
before the world on a Roman cross. And that ought to end all controversy
on the matter. It's a body of death. It's a
house where death lives. That's what he's saying. And
our only hope is that the Lord of glory come in and spoil the
strong man's house. You can't do it. You can't do
it. And when he does, and when this
happens, here's what takes place. He said, so then, Romans 7.25,
with the mind, with the mind of Christ, the enlightened mind,
the spiritual mind, are you with me? I serve the rule of God,
but with the flesh, the rule of sin. Romans 8, 1. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit, who serve the rule of God, whose
tenor of life and bent of will is to be like Christ. No condemnation
in them. who love the mind and spirit
of Christ. Four, the rule of the spirit of life in Christ
Jesus hath made me free from the rule of sin and death. For
what the law, the law of commandments, the rule of righteousness, what
the law could not do, why couldn't the law do it? Because the flesh
was weak. The flesh was weak, couldn't
do it. God sending his own son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh, showed to the world its corruption and evil. God made
him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. And having made him to be sin,
and all that comes under the heading of sin, sins of righteousness, all kinds
of sins, sins of ignorance, idolatry, all kinds of sins,
sins of any and all kinds, but especially the sins of our righteousness. And he raised him up like Moses
did the serpent on the pope. And he said, The serpent is what was killing
the people, wasn't it? The serpent was the wrath of
God poured out on the people. And he took it and he put it
on the Pope. And our Lord said, as the serpent
was put on the Pope, so the Son has to take the same place. And
for the same reason. The same reason. God put the curse on the tree. He was made a curse for us. God fashioned the reason for
our death on the tree, and everybody that looks lives. And that's
exactly what Paul's talking about over here in Romans 8.3. The awful plague and the reason
for it is held up on the tree, and all those that look live.
And here's why he did it. Verse 4, Romans chapter 8, that
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For they that
are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they
that are after the spirit, the things of the spirit. For to
be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Why? Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God, it's not subject to the law of God, neither
indeed can be. So then, they that are in the
flesh, they that walk in it, those who have affection for
it, those whose rule is entirely by it, they that are in the flesh
cannot please God. And I don't care how good they
act. I don't care how religious they
seem. I don't care how good they appear. You cannot please God. Let me ever be reminded that
everything about the believer in this world is of a spirit
Our Lord confronted Pilate, and he said, if my kingdom was of
this world, we'd fight. I'd call my servants, and we'd
have it out right here. But he said, it ain't of this
world. It ain't of this world. And listen
to this. In the light of what I said,
listen to Colossians 1.12. Paul said, giving thanks unto
the Father, which hath made us meet, to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in life, who hath delivered us from
the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son. And then secondly, let me ever
be mindful that everything I know, everything I've come to know,
is by the revelation of Christ in me. In me. The book we're about to look
into is not the book of revelations. It is THE revelation. THE revelation. Titled by the
Holy Spirit of God. And though its contents covers
all time and all events and all people, and its visions are many,
there's only one revelation. Only one revelation. And the
revelation is not abstract things about Christ. You see, that's
why we sit down and read and we scratch our heads and say,
well, I don't understand what they're talking about. You know
why? Because you're reading some old theologian who was writing
a book, and he come to a verse of scripture, and he had to deal
with it, so he wrote that something down. That's exactly why. I've
written articles and books, and I know what I'm talking about.
You come to this thing, well, I just got to deal with it. No,
that's not how to read this book. You sit down and read this book,
and interpret this book by the revelation of Christ in you,
and this book will come alive. You read this book of revelations,
and you read that passage, and then you go back and you say,
here's my experience. Here's my experience. What's
this saying to me? Oh, my. Oh, now. That means something. Now I see
some things. It's the revelation of Christ
in you. And what's written upon the pages
of this precious book is known and identified by experience
in the hearts of all God's elect. They eat his words. Ain't that
what he said? This is the children's bread. They eat it. It's their sustenance. It's his spirit. You ever read
that scripture? His spirit bears witness. That's
what he's talking about. with our spirit that we're the
children of God? That's what he's talking about. That's exactly
what he's talking about. All right, let's take a look
at the first part of this revelation of Christ in the heart. In verses
1 through 3 of Revelation chapter 7, we're told that John saw four
angels in his vision. He looked out there and he saw
four angels. And they were standing upon the
four corners of the earth, north, south, east, and west. And they were holding the four
winds of God in their hands. And the next thing he saw was
a strong angel ascending up out of the east, having the seal
of the living God. And this angel commanded the
four angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and to stay
their hands and withhold the wrath until he had sealed the
servants of God. Now there's two things that I
believe are the experience of every believer, which John points
out here in this vision. And the first is this, this world
is under the wrath of God. and it's being executed right
before our eyes. Right now, this very night. The wrath. You know, I, for years
and years, I grew up in religion and had this concept of the wrath
of God being in that last day when the trump sounded and the
angel come down and put one foot on the sea and one on the land
and said, that's it. We're going to wind her up. And
he called everybody to the judgment. And then the judgment took place
and then God poured out His wrath. Now that's what I thought the
wrath of God was. What a surprise. What a surprise. I thought everything we saw,
that's what I was told, everything we saw came to pass in this world
was the work of the devil. Hurricanes and tornadoes and
all these natural earthquakes, all these natural disasters.
personal troubles like cancer, car wrecks, untimely deaths,
all these things. But the first thing the believer
sees is the wrath of God in the hands
of those whom he has given to deliver it. That's where they
see it. I'm telling you, we've been so
deceived by religious ignorant that were totally blind to the
things of God. I mean, they just take place
and we don't even see them. Don't even see them. Paul said,
if our gospel be hid, it's hid to the lost. Why is it hid to
them? Larry, I stand before lost people
all the time and preach. I try to use words that even
a child can understand. I try to use illustrations that
anybody in this place could receive. Why is it lost? Because the God
of this world have blinded their minds. That's why. It don't fit
what they think they know. Religion has so filled the minds
of men with nonsense that nothing we say makes any sense. You ever
read through the four gospels? I want you to do this. Next time
you're reading through Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. I want you
to read through there, and when our Lord has encounters with
people, I want you to count how many times that they just totally
did not understand what he was talking about. Why? Because it didn't fit their
concept of the Messiah, and it didn't fit their concept of God,
and it didn't fit their concept of religion. Nicodemus came to
him. I'm talking about a, you're talking
about a seminary trained. We're talking about a master
of Israel, our Lord called it, trained to the highest level.
He could probably quote the book of Isaiah. And our Lord, he came
to our Lord, and the first thing our Lord told him, he said, Nicodemus,
you got to be born again. And he said, huh? You mean when a man's old, he's
got to crawl back in his mother's womb? Didn't make any sense to
him, did you? His next encounter was with the
woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. And she came, and he was
just sitting there on the side of that well. And he said, can
I have a drink? And she said, how come you're asking me for
a drink? I'm a Samaritan. Jews don't have any dealings
with Samaritans. He said, if you knew the gift
of God and who it was that's sitting here on the side of this
well, He said, you'd ask of me, I give you living water. And she started looking for a
bucket and a rope. She said, I don't see anything.
How you going to draw water? The well's deep. Deeper than
she thought it was. Oh, yeah. And then he encountered
the Pharisees. And he told them, I'm the bread
that came down from heaven. Oh, man. Do what? You're the
bread. Our fathers ate manna. God gave them that bread, but
he said, I'm the bread of God that come down from heaven. And
except you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, you had no
life in you. And his disciples said, this
is a hard saying. Who can hear? And they walked
away and did not walk with him anymore. I'm telling you, this thing is
of a spiritual nature. It's of a spiritual nature. God
has to give you eyes to see these things, but you're out here preaching
and talking to men. If God don't give them eyes,
they ain't got a clue what you're talking about. Why was everything he said so
difficult to understand? Because the wrath of God abideth
on them. That's what we're talking about,
the wrath of God. Turn with me to John chapter
3. It didn't matter what he said. They always went the other way.
Larry was talking about that rich young ruler that came to
him this morning. He had the potential. That's the kind of people false
religion looks for. He's a rich man. He's a wise
man. He's a ruler. He's a good man. He's a good moral man. Had a
lot to contribute. Lord sent him packing. And he turned to his disciples
and he said, it'd be easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle. than for a rich man to enter
in. And I said, who can be saved? You see what I'm saying? Go the
other way, no matter what you say. Over here in John chapter
3, our Lord said, God sent not His
Son into the world to condemn the world. That's not what His
coming was all about. But that the world through Him,
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not, now listen, is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation. Here's the Here's the judgment. Light come into the world, and
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are
evil. Look down here at verse 31. He
that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth
is earthly. He speaks of the earth. He that
cometh from heaven is above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testifieth. And no man receiveth his testimony. He that has received his testimony
has set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God has
sent speaketh the words of God, for God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, giveth
all things into his hand. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life. but the wrath of God abideth
on him." What's he talking about? He's talking about the wrath
of God lives in his house. That's what he's talking about. Lives in his house. Down in the
bondage under the iron furnace rule of Egypt, God sent his messenger
Moses to God's elect And amidst the plagues and the wrath of
God raining down on Egypt into a darkness, he said, that could
even be felt, God sent his servant with the message of God's Lamb. God's Lamb. His appointed Lamb. The Lamb of God's description. He didn't just say go out and
find a lamb. Uh-uh. You get a lamb without
blemish. It was a specific lamb. And here's
what he told them to do. Eat the lamb. Eat the lamb and
take its blood and strike it on the doorpost of your house.
And when the wrath of God falls on this place, and it's going
to fall, when I see the blood, I passed
over your house. I won't move in your house. I'll
pass it by." But what about that man who didn't put the blood
out there? The wrath of God moved into his house. That's what Paul's
talking about. That's what he's talking about.
When the gospel is preached, in a spiritual sense, the believer
strikes the blood on the post and eats the lamp. And God passes
him by with his wrath. But to that man who hears and
says, well, you know, someday, get a little older, and the kids
get up and gone, and I'm not so busy, I'm going to go down
and join the church. The wrath of God lives in your
house right now. Right now. Listen to this, Romans chapter
1, verse 16. What is this wrath? What's he
talking about? You know why this world acts
the way they act? Because they don't see any wrath. That's what
it says. That's what it says. They saw the flood back in the
days of the flood, but now some times went by and all things
are as they were from that day. I just don't think the wrath.
I don't see the wrath. I don't see the wrath. Romans 1.16, Paul said to that
church at Rome, he said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ. For it's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone who believeth to the Jew first, also to the
Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Now listen, for the wrath of
God. is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. The truth of God seen in creation,
His eternal power and Godhead, the truth of God in the conscience. He said they know me because
I showed it to them. I put it in their minds and they
know me. Yeah, you got a conscience. And
it exposes your immorality and your ungodliness. And some have
heard the truth of the gospel, exposing them for what they are
by nature and choice and deed. And what do these people do?
Verse 21. When the new God ever had was,
whether it was the light of creation, the light of conscience, or the
gospel preached, when the new God When they heard from God,
they glorified him not as God, and they wasn't thankful. They
wasn't thankful for the revelation. But they become vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. And professing
themselves to be wise, they become fools, and they change the glory
of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible
man, and birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things, and
God gave them up. He gave them up to uncleanness. And they changed, verse 25, the
truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature
more than the Creator, who is blessed forever, and for this
cause God gave them up to vile affection. And even, verse 28,
as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over to a reprobate mind to do what their evil hearts
wanted to do. And then over in chapter 2 and
verse 3, he said, Thankest thou this, O man, that judgest them?
Oh, we want to. We want to climb up on our high
horse and look down on Sodom and Gomorrah You know that's
what our Lord said to Tyre and Sidon. He pulled that example
out of those homosexuals and stuff down there, and he said
it's going to be a lot better on them than it's going to be
on you. Because if they heard what you heard, they would have
repented. I'm talking about the wrath of
God. The wrath of God. And he said, you think this old
man that judges them would do such things and do us the same,
that you're going to escape the judgment of God, or despisest
thou the riches of his goodness and the forbearance and longsuffering
of God, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance? You despise those things? Listen. But after thy hardness and impotent
heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." What is this
wrath? It's false religion. It's God
giving you up. This mystery of iniquity he wrote
to the Thessalonians. is the four winds of God. I mean,
he talks about that mystery of iniquity over there in 2 Thessalonians
chapter 2. And I'm telling you this, those
four winds of God, God's wrath, it's every wind of doctrine. That's what he's talking about.
And it blows those impotent men, it just blows them with every
wind of doctrine and all deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that
perish. Because, here's the reason, 2
Thessalonians 2.10, because you receive not the love of the truth
that you might be saved. And for this cause God shall
send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie and
that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but
have pleasure in unrighteousness. When God comes and gives light
to the sinner, The sinner becomes aware. He begins to see things. When God turns on the light,
you know, you come in here and turn on the light, you see things
as they are. They're not always the way you
remember them. But you turn that light on, man,
there it is. There it is. He sees himself
swallowed up in the ignorance of this world with no ability
to understand And he sees himself and his future totally decided
by the Word of God. I'm telling you, if Christ don't
come up and speak on your behalf, the wrath of God will pour out
on you. He'll just let you go on believing
whatever you want to believe. He'll just make you happy with
it. He'll make you happy with it. Turn with me over here to John
chapter 5, and I'll wind this thing up. Here's a beautiful picture of
what I'm talking about. In John chapter 5, our Lord goes
up to Jerusalem. He's fulfilling all righteousness
on our account. And He goes up there to the Feast
of the Jews. And when He gets up there, You
know what Jerusalem is. It's the capital of religion.
I mean, it's the most religious place that ever was. Still is.
They call it the Holy Land now. They're walking around all these
times. It was just like that back in
this day. You know it was. And our Lord came up there and
there was a sheep market. What a fitting place for the
capital of religion. A place where these hirels could
come in and buy. They could come in and buy under
pretense, the sheep of Gotham. And next door to that sheep market
was a pool. And they called it Bethesda.
That means pool of. Pool of what? Pool of the sheep
market. That's where it got its name. That's what the pool served.
And you know, the story goes like this. An angel would come
down from heaven. And I'm going to interject this
because I really believe this is what they were talking about.
And he'd stir the waters. And this place was just covered.
It had five porches. The historical writers that I
read on this said it was more like decks that went out. And
it was just covered with people, impotent folk, blind folk, people
who needed healing, people who were hurting. And they took them
out there, and the first one in the water, when the angel
troubled the water, the first one in the water would be made
whole. What a crock. What a crock. And I can tell
by your expression how in the world Can you be sure enough
that this wasn't a pull of God to say such a thing? I'll tell
you how I know. Number one, God didn't give life
to the angels to give. This life, he said, is in my
son. He that hath the son hath life,
and he that hath not the son of God hath not life. The second
reason, this thing is not in the water. This is not the means. Dipping
in the water is not the means God has ordained to give life. It's through the preaching of
the gospel and faith. The just shall live by faith. And then I know this third. Life ain't by chance. And it's not by advantage. This
fellow lay there paralyzed. And you'll see here in a minute,
he didn't have anybody put him in the water. And he said, every
time I want to go, he said, somebody goes in before me. And our Lord
waded out on that deck through all the blind, impotent victims
of religion. He wound his way through the
multitude until he come to this man and he looked at this man
laying there. The victim of religion, hell,
hanging on, hanging on. He'd been paralyzed for 38 years,
hanging on to some revelation, some dream, some religionist
concocted. And you know he preached it all
over Jerusalem because the place was full of people. And our Lord
said to that man, he said, would you be made whole? Oh, he said, I'd love to. I ain't
got anybody to put me in the water. I ain't got anybody to
put me in the water. Oh, my. Paralyzed in his nature. Here's
his hope. Somehow, someway, someday, Someone
could put him in water. That pretty much sums up the
hope of religion, don't it? There he was. And the Lord of
glory waited out there and told that man, he said, rise. Rise. You know what happens when the
Lord saves a man? He raised in the newness of life. That's what happens. That's what
he's telling you. Rise. And he said, take up your
bed. I don't really know what that
bed stands for, but it was the place where he lay. I know that.
The old filthy bed. He said, pick it up and carry
it with you, because now you can walk. And he sent him on
his way. Send him on his way. Would you be made whole again?
I want that more than I want anything in this world. I want that to happen. It's my
prayer tonight, that very thing happen. Oh, that the resurrected Christ,
who sits on the throne of glory, Be pleased tonight to push back
the wrath of God. Push back that vision of false
religion and confusion and all them things that captivate your
heart and give you life. Amen. Tuesday evening, the Lord
willing, I'll give you the second part of this message, and I titled
it, The Multitude and the Lamb.