True and Righteous Judgment

Transcript

GR 2039
04/22/2018
True and Righteous Judgment
Revelation 16:1-7
Gil Rugh

We're going to the book of Revelation in your Bibles and we come to the 16th chapter. And as we have talked about, the book of Revelation is a book about judgment, it's about sin, it's about God's wrath and those are not popular subjects for today. Often the church has developed the idea that we adjust our message to make it more pleasing, more appealing, more inviting to people. You probably experienced, if you have been at Indian Hills very long and brought somebody with you who perhaps was not a believer and in your mind you are saying Lord, I pray that you will have Gil just give the right message. And then you hold your breath and I get up and say, we're going to talk about hell this morning. You say what a morning to bring my friend, he will never come back. And there is an element of truth to that. There are things we don't want to hear—sin, judgment, God's wrath. We want to talk about God's love, God's mercy, God's grace but we don't understand the truth of God's character if it is not put in proper context. And we are warned in the Bible that there will come a time when people would not want to hear truth, God's people wouldn't want to hear it.

Back up a little bit in your Bibles to 2 Timothy 4. At the end of 2 Timothy 3 he had told us “all Scripture is inspired by God,” it is God-breathed, “and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Then he gives a solemn charge to Timothy, in light of the fact God has given His Word to us, you better be careful. “I am charging you in the presence of God with God as our witness, preach the Word. Be ready in season, out of season. That involves rebuke, reproof, exhort with great patience and instruction.” Then note this, “for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,” healthy teaching, “but wanting to have their ears tickled they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires, will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.”

This is a danger and, over time, even God's people want to soften what is taught in the Word. They don't want to hear the seriousness of the Word. When he says “the time will come,” verse 3, “when they will not endure healthy teaching,” the unbeliever has never wanted to hear it, put up with it.

But we need to be on a steady diet of the Word of God so that we are used to taking it in and we recognize when we are not being taught the Word of God and that is not acceptable. One of the weakening things that happens is less and less serious teaching of the Word resulting in people having less and less appetite. It's like the immaturity in our children. We don't put them in a college classroom when they are second graders, but they have to become acclimated to serious study. That's the way it is with the Word of God, we must become accustomed to seriously studying it. But the time will come when people won't put up with it. But they will still want to go to church and they will still want to hear teaching, but they will want to hear what they want to hear.

So we have popularized teaching with teachers that are well-known in the world for their stating they only teach a positive message. There is enough trouble, enough trial, I don't want to add to people's burdens like teaching about sin and negative things. And I like that, I like to come and be motivated and pumped up. But we need to come to hear what God has to say.

This is not new. Come back to the book of Jeremiah because this does relate to what we are doing in Revelation. Come to the book of Jeremiah, we'll start with chapter 5. We're just going to look at a few passages. As a reminder, most of you are aware that every time a prophet appears in Israel it is a sign, an indication that Israel has gotten off track spiritually. They have spiritually declined, they have wandered from the Lord. So God sends a prophet to point out sin, call them back to faithfulness to God. That's why Jesus asked the rhetorical question, “which of the prophets did they not persecute?” Because we have a way of getting antagonized when we are being told something we don't want to hear.

This is what Jeremiah had to face, we call him the weeping prophet. Just note, look in Jeremiah 5:12, picking out just verses for time. “They have lied about the Lord and said, not he, misfortune will not come on us. We will not see sword or famine.” You see, no bad things. “The prophets are as wind, the word is not in them. Thus it will be done to them.” In other words they couldn't trust their prophets anymore because false prophets had come in among the nation and they are just windbags, they are not saying anything that is true from God.

Come down to the end of Jeremiah 5, note this and note the similarity of what we just read in 2 Timothy 4. “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule on their own authority. And My people love it so.” What a statement! God's people, Israel, have so wandered away from Him, they love it when people don't tell them the truth, when the prophets lie to them, when the priests no longer teach truth.

Jeremiah 6, look at verse 10, “To whom shall I speak and give warning that they may hear? Behold their ears are closed, they cannot listen. Behold the Word of the Lord has become a reproach to them, they have no delight in it.” Jeremiah has a message of wrath from God and nobody wants to hear it. Down in verse 13, “From the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely.” Greedy for gain.

I read about one of these present day preachers who gets mass crowds by telling people all the potential they have in them. And now another venture has come up and he and his wife were investing $10 million of their own money into that venture. Every one of them is greedy for gain. “From the prophet to the priest everyone deals falsely. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially saying, peace, peace. But there is no peace.” And verse 15, they weren't ashamed of what they are doing, they had even lost the ability to blush over this. Verse 16, I love the way it is put, “Thus says the Lord, stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths.” Go back to the old book, the truth. You ought to be a people looking for God's truth, Jeremiah is telling Israel. “Where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls.” But they said we will not walk in it.

Come over to Jeremiah 8:4, “You shall say to them, ‘thus says the Lord, do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not repent? Why then has this people, Jerusalem, turned away in continual apostasy? They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return.’” Verse 9, “Behold they have rejected the Word of the Lord and what kind of wisdom do they have?” So He is going to bring judgment on them because the middle of verse 10, “Everyone is greedy for gain, from the prophet to the priest. Everyone practices deceit, they heal the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially saying, peace, peace. But there is no peace.” And then verse 12 again repeats what is almost a refrain, “Certainly they were not ashamed, they did not know how to blush.”

And it goes on. I just want to say it's not new, even among God's people Israel. And you know Jeremiah is prophesying in the days of the Babylonian captivity. You know what has happened 150 years or so earlier? The northern ten tribes were brought under the judgment of God and carried away by the Assyrians. And somehow it didn't make any impression on the southern kingdom of Israel. Jeremiah now tried to call them back to God but the wandering continues, and so the southern kingdom will be judged.

Come back to the book of Revelation. God's judgment comes, it came upon Israel, and it comes upon the church. Remember the book of Revelation was written to the churches, individual, local churches. And they are in a variety of conditions, those seven churches in chapters 2-3. And five of the seven had some serious problems, and one or two of them have become, for all intents and purposes, primarily a meeting of unbelieving people who didn't know they were lost. So the message of judgment is coming on an unbelieving world, and we're going to see when we get to chapter 17, that concludes an unbelieving church. It has just become part of the Babylonian religious system.

What God is doing is pouring His wrath out on an unbelieving world. It comes in its fullness in chapter 16 as we come to the climax in that seven-year period, the last part of the 70th week of Daniel. Two things will be emphasized in Revelation 16, the absolute righteousness of God in judgment. Look at the end of verse 5, “righteous are you who are and who were, O Holy One, because you judge these things.” It is a testimony of His holiness, His righteousness that He brings judgment. Look down at the end of verse 7, “Yes, oh Lord God the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments.”

And then also will be emphasized in this chapter the complete corruption of man who persists in his rebellion against God. Look in verse 9, picking out parts of the verse, “They blasphemed the name of God, they did not repent so as to give Him glory.” Verse 11, “They blasphemed the God of heaven.” Down in verse 21, “Men blasphemed God because of the plague.” God is bringing judgment on them. These are days of mercy and grace and opportunities for salvation, yet men continue to reject the grace of God, the kindness of God, the display of God's love and inviting them to salvation through faith in His Son. And now when God pours out His wrath and judgment on an unbelieving world, their response will be the same—no. Theme song of the world, “I did it my way.”

These are called plagues. Revelation 15:1, “I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues which are the last.” And we noted there, this calling them plagues would remind the Jews, because remember primarily what is going on is directed toward the nation Israel. God has returned to His focus on the nation Israel to complete His prophesied plan for them. And as the Jews read this they would be reminded of the plagues. That takes them back to the beginning of their existence as a nation. And where were they? They were enslaved in Egypt and it came time for God to rescue them. So what did He do? Sent Moses and Aaron and He brought plagues on the nation of Egypt and He delivered His people. We see the same pattern now in the book of Revelation, God is bringing plagues on an unbelieving world so that He might deliver His people. When they came out of Egypt on their way to the land God promised them, they will come out of this seven years to meet the Savior who will take them into the kingdom, centered in the land that God has promised them.

Three major things were happening in Egypt and they are happening here in the book of Revelation. God was displaying His power. We don't have time, I have a list of verses but we are not going to have time to go back and walk through those verses. They begin in chapter 5. Maybe sometime this week read through maybe chapter 14 and the plagues that came on Egypt and what God did. God was displaying His power, He reminds that “I will display My power in these judgments.” He was destroying His enemies and the people of Egypt said, Egypt is destroyed. Then we will see the armies of Egypt overwhelmed in the sea as they tried to pursue the Jews. God is destroying His enemies. And thirdly He is delivering His people. So He is displaying His power, He is destroying His enemies, He is delivering His people. And that is going on in the book of Revelation now.

So we come to these judgments, they are to destroy His enemies. There has never been anything like what is unfolded in Revelation 16. And it has the purpose of God displaying His power, destroying His enemies so that He might deliver His people. We don't want to lose sight of that. We are going to Revelation 19-22, the kingdom on this earth that God has promised to the nation Israel. But they are a stubborn people, so God is bringing them to the point where they will bow before Him.

So in that sense and you think of it what the Jews will see as they study this book in these very days in which they will be living. The plagues go back to Egypt, which are a preview of what God will do to the passing of all those years. He brought out His people to be a nation that belonged to Him in the land He would give them, but because of sin they have been put under judgment. But the book of Revelation now is bringing us to the completion of what God promised.

Let's pick up with Revelation 16:1, “Then I heard a loud voice from the temple, saying to the seven angels, go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” Jump back up to Revelation 15:1, “Then I saw another sign in heaven great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last because in them the wrath of God is finished.” This will complete the pouring out of God's wrath to bring about the fulfillment of what would be accomplished in the 70 weeks of Daniel.

Remember back in Daniel 9, “seventy sevens are determined upon your people,” 70 seven-year periods, 490 years. Four hundred sixty-three of them have been fulfilled, now we are in the last seven and we are in the last part of the last seven. We are told in Revelation 16:1, “I heard a loud voice from the temple.” That word loud, mega, we get the English word, we just carry it over into English. It's the word mega. It is something that is great. Loud gives the idea but it is the word great. And interestingly this chapter is going to use this word great 11 times because here we have the final pouring out of God's wrath on an unbelieving world and the greatest judgments that ever come, you would expect they would be great. So that word translated loud is the word great, it's a mega voice.

Down in verse 9, for example, “men were scorched with fierce heat.” That's the word mega, great heat. And it goes down 11 times through there, we will pick them up as we move through. So one commentator said this is the great chapter of the Bible because it is the chapter that uses the word great more than any other chapter in all the Bible. The finality of the wrath of God.

And it is announced with a great voice from the temple. Remember within the temple there in heaven is the very presence of God manifested and He gives the announcement to the angels, the instructions. “Go pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” You are aware of the picture, it's like a bowl and it is filled. When the bowl is turned over, the contents are all dumped out, and in each of these golden bowls there is the wrath of God. And awesome judgment that will be inflicted on the whole earth, a scope that is beyond anything that has been seen.

These bowls are poured out in quick succession. The first in verse 2, the second in verse 3, the third in verse 4, the fourth in verse 8. They come quickly, but that doesn't mean they are just dumped out. The purpose of this is to bring suffering, death upon the world. So they may be spread out over much of the last seven years, they may be squeezed further on in this last part of that seven years. The exact timing of some of these, we can't say finally. We know what is going to happen, we have the series of judgments but exactly how, we are going to have issues to deal with. There is going to be a question, how can the world survive at all under the impact of these judgments. And the point is not to indicate how even numbers of people will survive. Jesus did say the judgments would be so bad that if He didn't cut them off at the end of this seven-year period, no one would survive. And we'll see this as we look at each individual judgment.

So let's look at verse 2. “The first angel went, poured out his bowl on the earth and it became a loathsome and malignant sore on the people who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image.” Now note here, remember in Egypt, Israel was spared, the Jews were spared from judgment. So here the direction now evidently is not poured out on those who haven't taken the mark of the beast or his image. It is particularly focused on the unbelievers. It is interesting, we are always drawn to fill in the gaps so one person in his commentary on this was suggesting, maybe the mark of the beast is some kind of tattoo that has something in it that when it is mixed with this judgment brings these sores. That was cute and interesting, but I don't know that it goes anywhere. What we do know, this is going to be inflicted on the worshipers of the beast, those who have not trusted Christ and are not going to trust Him. There is a selectiveness in the judgment, but it is a terrible sore that will inflict the unbelievers on the world.

Come back to Exodus 7, we're going to pick up a couple things here, not often, maybe not any after this, I will just tell you. But an example in Exodus 9, these judgments don't follow the same order even when they are similar. So in verse 8, Moses and Aaron are instructed to gather some soot from the kiln and then Moses is going to throw this ash dust up in the air and supernaturally God is going to spread that dust throughout Egypt. And he is to do this in the sight of Pharaoh so Pharaoh doesn't have any reason to not understand where this problem comes from. Verse 9, “It will become fine dust over the land of Egypt, it will become boils breaking out with sores on man and beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” So it happens in verse 10, “even the magicians,” who were imitating what was being done by Moses “could not stand before Moses because of the boils. For the boils were on the magicians as well as all the Egyptians.” But Pharaoh's heart is hardened and he wouldn't listen.

Come back to the book of Job, Job 2. This is the example of the boils, the malignant sore. We saw it in Egypt, Job experienced the same thing in Job 2. Satan is given permission to afflict Job with great suffering so he is not allowed to kill him. So verse 7, “Satan went out from the presence of the Lord, smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.” It is so bad his own wife says to him, you ought to “curse God and die.” It has so disfigured Job, look in verse 11. Job has three friends who heard about the troubles of Job and so they are going to come and supposedly sympathize with him and comfort him. But verse 12, “When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept.” This can't be Job, look at him. He is covered with boils, these malignant sores that won't heal. I had a grandmother who had on her ankles open, large sores and her ankles were constantly wrapped. And I guess in those days, I was just a kid, but I remember one time she unwrapped them and showed me. And it was just an open sore, but they covered it. Now I read this, I think of that. And think of that all over your body, from the top of our head down to the sole of your feet. Verse 13, it takes seven days and seven nights, they don't even talk. No one is speaking a word to him “for they saw his pain was very great.”

Now we just get an idea when we come back to Revelation 16 and God afflicting this kind of boils and sores on the people of the earth. What a miserable existence this is going to be. And how do you get to the doctor? I mean you have these covering the world, you have an epidemic here. What do you do? And they are not healable, they are malignant sores that we don't have a remedy for. We don't have just “get this and put it on a few days and it will go away.” So that is the first, God inflicting this.

Verse 3, “The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea. It became blood like that of a dead man and every living thing in the sea died.” That's like the plague where the Nile was turned into blood, only this is on the sea. And this is what is similar to the trumpet. Come back to Revelation 8, and the second trumpet sounds in verse 8. So when a trumpet was blown by an angel, remember a judgment came out. Verse 8, “A second angel sounded, something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea. And one-third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life died. And a third of the ships were destroyed.” So there a third of the oceans became blood, the death that occurred in the oceans with that.

Now when you come back to Revelation 16, this bowl judgment is poured out on the sea but we now have moved to a much greater impact. It's not a third of the oceans, and he poured his bowl into the sea and it became like blood, the blood of a dead man, and everything in the sea died. So we have a judgment of magnitude here. And it's like the blood of a dead man. One commentator said that it means coagulated and rotting. It's like you have seen programs, crime programs and they will show the blood of somebody that has been killed. It puddles and then it coagulates. And here we have the sea turning to blood and every living thing in the sea died. Someone noted the stench, the pollution. We know what it is like when you get a whale that washes up on shore and dies. What's it going to be like?

You have people afflicted with these loathsome sores that won't heal all over their bodies that is so painful, now you have the sea and the creatures in the sea dying and the stench being blown over the land. And we have just gotten to the second plague in verse 4, then the third angel turns the fresh waters to blood. Verse 4, “The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water and they became blood.” Now you have that blood of the seas and it is just thickening, and now the fresh water springs. It's like turning the Nile to blood in Egypt under that judgment there. This is similar to the previous judgment under the trumpets.

Come back to Revelation 8, it is similar but it is different. In chapter 8 where we left off, verse 10, “The third angel sounded his trumpet, a great star fell from heaven burning like a torch, fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of the water. The name of the star is called Wormwood, a third of the waters became wormwood. Men died from the waters because they were made bitter.” You see what has happened through these judgments, they have progressively gotten more serious, more devastating. As bad as the seals were, they are not as bad as the trumpets; as bad as the trumpets were, they are not as bad as the bowls. You see there is grace and mercy. God just didn't step in and bring an end to it, but this progressive building of the judgments, you would think men and women would be falling on their knees, calling out to God for forgiveness and mercy. But they are planting their feet, they are not repenting.

So under the third trumpet you had a third of the fresh waters destroyed. Now back in Revelation 16 you have the fresh water destroyed. Now you are aware, it turns to blood. How are people going to survive? How is God going to protect Israel? Remember, and we will see it further, but God has provided a haven of protection for Israel across the Jordan. I don't know, how are they getting their fresh water? Well, when Israel wandered in the wilderness, where did God bring water from when they needed it? Out of a rock. Some of you have traveled to Israel and been to the rock city of Petra. Maybe out of one of those rocks will come fresh water to protect and preserve that portion of Israel that God is preserving for Himself. I don't have an answer. Most of our blood, a large percentage of it, a portion of it, is water. I don't know, could you survive drinking blood instead of water? I can't solve the problem, it's going to be a miserable earth because with all this coming on the water, do you know what we are building to? Great, mega heat. What do you want when it gets that hot? I just want a nice, cold glass of water. Well, here, I don't have any water but I have plenty of blood. That's what we have here, the waters become blood.

Come back to Psalm 78. You know the judgments in Egypt are often referred to again later in Israel's history as a reminder of what God did in displaying His power, in destroying His enemies and Israel's enemies, and in delivering His people. And Psalm 78 is one of those. Come down to verse 43, it's talking about they didn't remember what God did in Egypt. That's what happens to God's people, not only Israel but to us. We forget. God does great things in saving us, when we walk with Him, we see His hand, but somewhere along the line we begin to drift and then we forget. And thus our service for God wanes and becomes reduced. It says in verse 42, “They did not remember His power, the day when He redeemed them from the adversary, when He performed His signs in Egypt and His marvels in the field of Zoan and turned their rivers to blood, and their streams they could not drink.” He goes on. You see those devastating judgments, we might think in the tribulation when God is working in a special way with Israel and they see these judgments, their minds may be drawn back to Egypt and what God did in power there at the beginning of their existence as a nation. Because you remember when Israel went down into Egypt they were just a large family, but when they come out of Egypt they were a nation of a couple million people.

Come back to Revelation 16. You know you talk this way about God's wrath and you think when you see such suffering, would God who is a God of love and mercy and kindness and grace and patience bring such terrible suffering and delight to see millions and billions of people in agony that is unbearable? Do you know what the response of heaven is? This is very fitting, this is what a God who is holy and righteous should do. So verse 5, there is an interesting statement here at the beginning of verse 5. “And I heard the angel of the waters saying,” and this would be referring to the angel in verse 4 who poured out his bowl on the springs of water. And just an aside, we get little glimpses in the Bible into the realm of angels, and how much can we fill in with that. But here he is called the angel of the waters. Does that mean he just had this one assignment to pour out his bowl on the fresh water, or was that the role that he had as an angel?

Back up to Revelation 14:18 where we read, “Then another angel, the one who has power over fire came out from the altar,” and I wonder, are different angels assigned different realms of responsibility, like we see in the book of Daniel where you had a fallen angel who was over the realm of Persia. You have conflict there in the angelic world. We don't know. In the book of Job there are four angels who hold back the four winds so they don't blow from the north, they don't blow from the south, they don't blow from the east, they don't blow from the west. The winds are held back. You have angels over the wind, an angel assigned to the fresh water, an angel assigned to . . ., and an angel assigned . . . We don't know, we know the angels are active in their service, God created them to serve, carry out duties. In the book of Revelation much of the judgments are administered by angels. So just as interesting side note, you can get a book from Sound Words or the library on the doctrine of angels and learn more.

“I heard the angel of the waters saying,” and here is what the angel who serves in the presence of God, remember he came out from the throne of God in heaven, “righteous are You who are and who were , O Holy One, because You judge these things.” You are righteous and your righteousness is demonstrated in judging this.

One person wrote, all caricatures of God which ignore His intense hatred of sin reveal more about man than about God. Men don't want to hear about God's judgment, God's wrath, that He is angry, that sinners are His enemies. We don't like to think about God like that, it makes me uncomfortable. It is supposed to make us uncomfortable. Do you want to know you are the enemy of God? No, I don't want to be the enemy of God. Then you had better respond in faith to what He said you must do—believe in the Savior He provided so you can become His child.

Remember, all of us, Ephesians, we were once enemies of God. It's a terrible situation. He is righteous because He judges these things. People don't want to believe in a hell and what is the outcome. Even people that are as open in sin as they are, still hold some sins to be worthy of judgment. Even in the practicing of their sins, they believe there are certain sins that people ought to be seriously punished for. There is that sense built in, we are created in the image of God, it is marred by sin, corrupted by sin, but it hasn't gone away. So here God is righteous, He's the God. “Righteous You are who are and who were.” We've seen this expression used of God earlier in Revelation. Refers to His eternality, He is the One who has been in the past, He is the One who is today. And of course as God He will have no end. A reminder of who He is. He is the Holy One, and he uses the word here that is only used three times in the New Testament.

There is a word for holy. It is related to what we think of as the word saint, the word sanctified, the word holy. But this word is a different word, hosios, it signifies religiously righteous, holy as opposed to what is unrighteous. So it is used like here in the context of verse 5, “righteous are you, O Holy One.” It's a righteousness and holiness. Using this word connects Him that way. It was used in Revelation 15:4, “Who will not fear, oh Lord, and glorify your name? For You alone are holy.” Then the end of the verse, “For your righteous acts have been revealed.” See, used in that context and then it is used one time in Hebrews 7:26 of Christ. He is the God who is righteous, He is the God who is opposed to all that is unrighteous, He is holy so He must judge sin. That is what is being portrayed here. “Righteous are You, You who are and who were, O Holy One, because you judge these things.”

And note how fitting the judgment is, “For they poured out the blood of saints and prophets.” They martyred believers down through history. Remember back in chapter 6 we saw the martyrs in heaven asking God, how long, O God, will it be until you avenge us in this unbelieving world? Now time has come and through the tribulation many who became believers have died for their faith. What have they done? “They poured out the blood of saints and prophets, you have given them blood to drink.” They deserve it, or as you have in your margin, they are worthy. This is very fitting that they are paid back, if you will.

People don't like to think of a God who is vengeful, but remember why you and I can't mete out our own vengeance, because God said “vengeance is Mine and I will repay, says the Lord.” They create this soft, comfortable, grandfatherly God but it is a god of our own making. And then we proceed to make worship the god that we made. Exactly what Romans 1 says we do. And because we don't necessarily put a statue up that we bow down to, we think we are not guilty of the same thing. It's idolatry because we created that god. And we don't have a true understanding and appreciation of God's holiness, God's righteousness when we remove all concept of the seriousness, the awfulness of sin, of unrighteousness and all that is contrary the character of God.

Come back to Romans 1, I just mentioned it, we see the same expression. What happens in Romans 1, the wrath of God is being revealed. We see that wrath displayed today. If you go back, if you haven't read it recently, read Romans 1, but we are building toward a greater display of God's wrath. Men choose to blind themselves to the wrath of God as it is being displayed today. And the very things that are a manifestation of His wrath, being consumed and enslaved in their sin, they take it as an expression of their freedom, of being their own person. But you come down to verse 32, “And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but they give hearty approval to those who practice them.”

Turn on the television, watch what people are approving, laws that are being passed to approve the things that God says are an abomination to Him. We pride ourselves in being open. You'll note what it says here, the middle of verse 32, “those who practice such things are worthy,” and that's the same word we have, axios, translated back in Revelation 16, they deserve death. In the margin of your Bible it probably says worthy. They are worthy, this is what they deserve. A holy God has to do this, a righteous God will do this. They not only practice it, they “give hearty approval to those who practice it.” And they think because they get one another's approval, this is all right. And then they become angry with anyone who shows their sin. I saw an article in one of the news sections. The title of it was something to the effect, How Long Will I be Allowed to Be a Christian in my country. More and more animosity openly displayed. Why? Because we talk about sin, people don't want to hear about sin. I understand, unless you are redeemed by God's grace, they are worthy.

Come back to Revelation 16:7, wrap this up. “I heard the altar saying,” and this is coming out from the altar. But it is not God speaking, but remember the door has been closed to anyone coming in, but under the altar we saw back in Revelation 6, the martyrs asking God, ”how long, O Lord, will you avenge.” Now we hear coming out from the altar their prayer is being answered. I talked last Sunday night with a question, the imprecatory psalms, the psalms where the psalmist calls down God's judgment on his enemies because the psalmist is God's servant and those opposing him are opposing God. Remember “Jesus said, ‘if they hate you they will hate Me’” That's what is reflected here.

“Yes, O Lord, the Almighty.” This word Almighty, and that's just a literal translation of what the word means. It's the word all and the word powerful. God is the omnipotent, all-powerful, almighty God. This word, pantokrator, is used ten times in the Bible, nine times of it is in the book of Revelation. Because here we have fully displayed and manifest Almighty God venting His wrath on an unbelieving world in spite of the fact He sent His Son to this earth to bear our wrath so we might have redemption and be delivered from wrath. “Yes, O Lord, the Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.” There is an eternal hell, that's fitting. Those going to hell deserve to go to hell, it's where they belong, they are worthy. That sounds self-righteous. No, because we deserve the same thing.

Come back to Romans and we will wrap up with these verses in Romans 3. I encourage you to have Romans 3:21-31 fixed in your minds, you ought to come here often. We are talking about verse 21, “The righteousness of God has been manifested.” Now remember in the book of Revelation the righteousness of God is being manifested in judging an unbelieving world and the unbelievers in the world. Here the righteousness of God has been manifested, verse 22, “even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe. For there is no distinction,” now note this, “for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” We say we all deserve hell, we all deserve the wrath of God. But in an amazing demonstration of love God made provision for us to be delivered from wrath and be the recipients of His righteousness, God's righteousness. “We are,” verse 24, “justified,” which comes from the same basic family words as the word translated righteous. We are declared righteous “as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,” now note this, “whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood,” His death, “through faith.” Do you know what the word propitiation means? It means to turn away wrath from someone. Jesus Christ turned God's wrath away from us by stepping in, going to the cross and paying our penalty, which is death, so that God could declare those who believe in Him. He died and it is applied to us, verse 25, “through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness.” You see God just can't declare sinners absolved, that would not be righteous. Sin must be punished. You understand, angels sinned and He never provided a Savior, He never provided a way for them to become righteous. Once they sin they will all go to hell, every angel who rebels. There is no Savior.

Come down, what is God doing? Verse 26, “For the demonstration of His righteousness at the present time so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ.” There is the answer to the dilemma, how can God who is just, who is righteous declare an unrighteous sinner righteous? We see that, we have a court, someone commits a horrible crime and kills and does terrible things and he stands before the judge and the judge says, I feel loving and merciful. You are free. We would have an outcry, that's not just, that's not justice, that's not right. But people think God is going to do that. Then furthermore they think, I'll go get baptized. Well, now you got all wet, that won't save you. The penalty for sin is death. I'll take communion. Won't do it, the penalty for sin is death. You'll note, and he couldn't be any clearer, and this runs all the way through Romans 4 and I have had you go through and mark faith and belief in this whole section. There is only one way, God has to be just and yet He is going to be the justifier, not of everyone. The end of verse 26, “but of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

You can sit here and hear this message for your whole life and die and go to hell because hearing the message about the provision of Christ will not save you. God only justifies those who place their faith in Jesus Christ and thus their account is credited with the death of Christ, having turned the wrath of God away from them. And God views in Christ our penalty is paid.

So the book of Revelation reminds us, God hasn't forgotten, God is patient, giving people time to believe, Peter said. But this judgment is coming and the tribulation and that period of time, it's not going to be easier to believe, so to speak, it's going to be harder. God is going to send a strong delusion as part of His judgment throughout the world so that more people believe the lie. You think it is hard evangelism today, in that day it will be harder. By God's grace some will be saved. But this is the day of God's mercy. You reject His mercy today, you have no assurance there will be another day of mercy like this.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your grace. Thank You for a salvation so great, so powerful that only You the all-powerful God could provide it for us in the person of Your own Son, Himself eternal God who became also man so that He could be the One who propitiated, turned away the wrath of a holy and righteous God by bearing our penalty so that we, by believing in Him, might be absolved of all guilt, all unrighteousness, might be declared righteous, provided with Your righteousness and become Your children for time and eternity. I pray this truth will grip each heart today. In Christ's name, amen.