You will be opening your Bibles to the revelation of Jesus Christ in chapter 15. We will pick up where we left off last Thursday morning. Revelation 15. If you're visiting with us this morning or if you're new around here, once again, my instruction and my admonition to you is this. I'm going to do my best to make this a standalone sermon where this will make some sense to you. But understand that everything that we are seeing this morning has been built upon from Revelation 1 verse 1. A little over a year ago, we've been into this book now. And so I'm going to do my best to try to tie as many pieces together as possible, but I understand with what we are simply dealing with this morning that there will likely be some questions that are unanswered. If you have those, I would be more than happy to spend some time with you during the meal afterwards and answer as many of those questions as i can uh... be my pleasure to do that revelation fifteen and beginning in verse one before we get into the text this morning just wanted to carry over on that idea of that song that we just saying Now I don't know if it could rightly be said that Are You Washed in the Blood is a worship song. Because the truth of the matter is it's not a worship song, it's a song of admonition. It's a question being posed to those that are hearing the words that are sang. This is part of the Great Commission going out, Are You Washed in the Blood? And you may be wondering, maybe you're new to Christianity, maybe you've never even been to a Christian church before. And maybe you're asking the question, what in the world do I need to be washed in blood for? When I get blood on my clothes, I want to clean those things. When I get blood on my hand, I want to wash it off. Why in the world do I want to be washed in the blood of anything? Well, the answer to that is found in the overall storyline of the Bible. The nation of Israel, God's chosen people, the people that He was in covenant with, because of their idolatry, were in captivity in the land of Egypt for 400 years. They had chased after other gods, they had disregarded God's commandments towards them and His admonition through the prophet, through God's spokesperson during that time. And so they found themselves in captivity in Egypt under cruel taskmasters. They had a terrible existence there in Egypt. But God, through a series of miracles shown before the Pharaoh and all of the people of Egypt, began to soften the heart, although Pharaoh continued to harden his heart. And God's desire is that Pharaoh would let his people go. And Pharaoh said, no, I will not let your people go. And so God brought many plagues upon the Egyptian people, but still Pharaoh would not budge. But then the last plague to hit was something that was brought about by the death angel, God's agent of destruction. And the instructions that God gave to his people were very clear. They were encamped inside of the land of Egypt there, and this was God's instructions. You are to slaughter. a lamb, a young lamb, a perfect lamb without spot or blemish. And you are to paint the blood of that lamb on the doorpost and the window of your household. And tonight, When this angel of destruction comes upon the land, seeing that blood of the sacrifice, that angel will pass over you. But if you do not have that blood painting on the doorway of your household, then that angel is going to visit your household and there is going to be bloodshed. Either you shed the blood in the household of the sacrificial lamb or there will be bloodshed inside of your household. Those were the only two options. And that night God's judgment did come upon the nation of Egypt. And as the Israelites who had painted that blood and covered themselves with the blood of that lamb inside of their homes, they were safe all throughout the night. But all throughout the night, undoubtedly, they were able to hear the wailing cries and the screams of the Egyptians as that angel of destruction did visit. the Egyptian households. Now what made the difference on that night? Was it that the Israelites were more holy and more upright? Was it because the Israelites did not have any idols and the Egyptians did? No, not at all. The only thing that made the difference on that night when God's judgment came upon the land was if that blood was applied to your household or not. If the blood was applied, you were safe. If the blood was applied, even if you were inside of the house and you heard the screams of those around you and you began to doubt whether or not that blood was going to deliver you or not, didn't matter. If the blood was applied, you were saved from the judgment when you came from God. Keep that in mind this morning as we work through this text. But if you're here this morning and you are wondering why you need to be washed in the blood of the Lamb, that comes from another story in the Old Testament as well. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest, one day out of the year, would enter in to the Holy of Holies, the dwelling place of God on earth. Inside of the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant. And the high priest was only able to enter in to the holy of holies, bearing the blood of sacrifice on his hands. His goal was to enter in, bearing the blood of sacrifice and to sprinkle and pour that blood out on top of the mercy seat. Inside of the Ark of the Covenant where the mercy seat sat on top of, the thing that's important for you to remember that was inside right now was the broken law of God. God's law that mankind had broken, And that was symbolizing the fact that there was a physical broken tablet inside of the Ark of the Covenant. When God will look down from heaven into the presence of Himself in the Holy of Holies, what He saw was the broken law of God. The principle in the Bible is the wages of sin or death. When you break the law of God, you open yourself up to the judgment of God, and God will be just and holy in judging you at that very moment. When the Holy God looked down from heaven, what He saw was the broken law of God. But on the Day of Atonement, on top of that Ark of the Covenant, on top of the Mercy Seat, will be sprinkled the blood of sacrifice. And the incredible picture of the Old Testament is that God in His holiness, when He would look down from His dwelling place in heaven into the presence where He was, right there, just and holy, to bring judgment upon the entirety of the land, instead of looking through that blood and seeing the broken law of God inside, His eyes would fixate on the blood of the sacrifice and go no further. And so the sins of the people being atoned for by the high priest would be looked over for another year. And God would not exercise judgment. There's coming a day when God once again will send his agents of destruction to this earth to bring justice upon those that do not have the blood applied. The most important question you can ask of yourself this morning is, are you washed in the blood of Jesus Christ or not? Revelation 15, beginning in verse one. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire, and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands, and they sang the song of Moses. the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was open. And out of the sanctuary came seven angels with the seven plagues clothed in pure, bright linen with golden sashes around their chest. And one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. And the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. So reads the words of the living God. Father, we come to you this morning, and Lord, we confess our dependence upon you. Father, John chapter 15, you remind us that apart from you, we can do nothing. And so God, I have no delusion about what I'm able to accomplish in my own strength and power this morning. God, I am a sinful man. I'm a sinful man that you, by the grace of the Lord, that grace that belongs to you, your grace, you have lavished over me and covered my sinfulness. But God, I don't have the ability to do what you have called me to do. You have called me to proclaim the goodness of the gospel. And through the proclaiming of the goodness of the gospel, two things happen. And there are two things that I cannot do. Father, through the proclamation of the gospel, we know what you are doing through that. You are strengthening the saints into perseverance. You are ministering to their weakness. You are encouraging them to continue on in their faith. You are rebuking them of sin every single time the gospel is proclaimed. Father, those are the works of the Holy Spirit, which means unless He moves, we can do nothing. The other thing we know that you do through the preaching of the gospel is you, by an act of your sovereign grace and will, you call dead men unto spiritual life through the preaching of the gospel. You draw them to yourself. Father, once again, that's work that you do through the Holy Spirit. I can't do that. And so God, for that reason, I confess my inability. But Father, we do trust that you are able to do it. And we do trust that you even delight to use human beings as tools and instruments in your hand. God, that's my desire this morning. My desire is that you would simply use me as a tool and an instrument of obedience in your mighty hand. That the name of Christ might be great here this morning because of what you do. And Father, we close this prayer time now trusting that we have been helped. And we close this morning trusting that you are the God that is able to do far more than we could ever even dream to ask. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Friends, time after time after time, in seeking to illustrate the ultimate storyline of the Bible, And the ultimate story of the Bible is that mankind has sinned and rebelled against God. Therefore, the prophet Isaiah says, it's not a deficiency in God. It's not that his hand can't reach us. It's not that his ears have a problem. But our sin has separated us from God. And the storyline of the Bible after Adam and Eve are kicked out of the garden is what God is doing through his grace to mend and redeem that relationship that was broken because of sin. But in telling that story to us, the Bible repeatedly takes us back to the little stories in the Old Testament. And it shows us how those little stories help as building blocks to tell us and illustrate the one big story. And one of the stories that the Bible continually takes us back to in the Old Testament as well as in the New, pointing us backwards towards, is the reality of God's deliverance. A story that we know of as the Exodus. In fact, friends, the very word that we very often use to describe salvation, that word that we love and we use it in songs and we love to talk about it, that word redemption, that very word is language that is taken from the book of Exodus. It is transliterated from the Hebrew straight into the Greek, straight into the English. And so God's people were redeemed out of slavery in Egypt. He bought them back. He purchased them at the price of a blood sacrifice. And so we ask, well, how is it that God redeemed and purchased his people? He did this by way of the Passover lamb slaughtered as a substitute. That lamb gave its very life that the family inside of that household was able to be free. And so in telling the ultimate story of redemption through Jesus, How is it that the New Testament writers very often speak of salvation? They tell us that God redeemed his people out of bondage. You say, but Brandon, I wasn't in bondage to slavery. No, you were in bondage to your sin. You belong to your sin. You belong to the cruel taskmaster of sin and God bought you out of that. How did he do it? through the sacrifice of his son, a Passover lamb without spot or blemish. It's imagery that is borrowed from the Exodus story. And the fact of the matter is, friends, the Exodus pattern itself is recapitulated in the life and times of Jesus Christ. Now, we don't have time to go into how all of that works out this morning in detail, but I do want to give you just enough to whet your appetite that you could spend some time reading through the Gospels and see what you come up with. For example, God says to Pharaoh about the nation of Israel, Israel is my beloved son. In them, I am well pleased. Well, God later uses that very same phrase to speak of his son, Jesus Christ. At his baptism, we hear that voice from heaven. This is my beloved son. In him, I am well pleased. And with full divine authority, listen to him. As the nation of Israel went down into Egypt and was later brought back up again to continue in the purposes of God, the Gospel of Matthew tells us that Jesus and his family, they descended. It's very interesting the language Matthew uses. He says they went down into Egypt and then they came back up again. Matthew applies to Jesus what God said concerning Israel. Out of Egypt I have called my son. That's Exodus language. What about this? Jesus' 40 days of testing in the wilderness is almost an exact parallel to the testing and the trials brought about to Israel during the 40 years of testing in the wilderness in condensed form. Read that story this afternoon, you'll see what I mean. Moreover, both periods of testing, Israel's testing in the wilderness, Jesus' testing by the devil in the wilderness as well, they come as a sequel right after an experience of baptism. Friends, in so many ways the exodus event is recapitulated in the life of Jesus himself which is why then we're not surprised to discover that at his crucifixion or rather his crucifixion in general is very often referred to on occasion as his exodus. Luke chapter 9 for example. Beloved, the ancient story real and powerful all by itself of God delivering the nation of Israel. It is a story that draws our attention to the ultimate story. And friends, we have seen this in the Revelation time and time and time again. For instance, what have we seen about the judgments? The judgments that were associated with the sounding of the seven trumpets back in chapter 9. What were they? Well, it says that they're plagues. Seven of them. Plagues that even go so far as to imitate the plagues that were going on in Egypt whenever God set His people free. What is the great city that seeks to kill the witnesses of God in chapter 11? Egypt. Who is the enemy that seeks to destroy the people of God in chapter 12? The great red dragon. In the Old Testament referred to as Leviathan. Leviathan in the prophets very often used to speak of Pharaoh. What was the place where the woman fled for protective shelter when the dragon and the beast began to attack? She fled into the wilderness. Now, is all that just coincidence? I mean, did we close our Bibles at that point and say, well, that's really cool. It's cool how just it so happened that the writers of the New Testament used that language from the Old Testament. Just happenstance? Not hardly, friends. It's all Exodus language. It is intentionally used to show how it is that the bigger story is supported by the smaller stories in the Bible. And it's here in chapter 15 that now we find the most comprehensive use of Exodus language in the entirety of this book. in these eight short verses which I intend to deal with in their entirety this morning we see the plagues in verse 1, verse 6 and verse 8 we see a red sea with God's people delivered standing on the side of it in verse 2 they have instruments of worship in their hand in verse 2 just like Miriam and all of the women of Israel did in the Exodus account and finally then in verse 5 through 8 John is reminded of the giving of the law at Mount Sinai and he sees the tent of testimony in the smoke of God's frightening presence descending upon that place of meeting. Beloved, it's all Exodus language, that little story that helps to illustrate and to build our understanding of the big story of the Bible. Now you may say in response to all of that, that's pretty cool but so what? Why does it make any difference to me? Who cares? Well, as to the question of who cares, I want to point you towards this. The original readers of this letter, and remember, whatever the revelation of Jesus Christ is at the end of the day, one thing we know for certain, it is a letter written to individual people living in Asia Minor during the first century. It is addressed to them. The readers of this original letter would have cared very much about all of those different things. You see, as people that were well acquainted with their Old Testaments, they would have immediately recognized this language for exactly what it is. And as people living under intense persecution at the hands of the Romans and the world at large, it would have immediately provided them with renewed assurance. You know, one of the reasons that we here in the Western world, living in the time in which we live, in relative comfort have such a problem seeing the promises of God for what they really are is because our ease of life but these were people living in the first century they were living under intense persecution when God brought this promise to them they clung on to it as though it was their only lifeline because in truth it was for them And it is for us. It should encourage us today. It should shake us out of our apathy. It should shake us out of this idea that what we see in the physical things is the reality. Beloved, I want you to understand something. Although we do live in America, we live in this particular time period, we live in the South, we live just, you know, South of the Bible Belt, whatever it happens to be. Christian, you are in the midst of a spiritual battle. Every single day, the forces of darkness attack, God protects, but you are in the midst of a spiritual battle. Therefore, these promises of God should become very precious to you. Why? Because like no other part of the Old Testament, the Exodus story reminds us of the incredible lengths that God is willing to go to, to secure a relationship with someone that he loves. You read through that story of the Passover. You read through that story of Moses being sent to Egypt. You read through the story of the crossing of the Red Sea and everything. The one thing that should be on the front of your mind, it is incredible what lengths God is willing to go to to secure a relationship with the people that He loves. That ought to free you up this morning and give you some joy. That because God has set his affection upon you, there is nothing that he will not do. What is our greatest reminder of that? He sacrificed his only son for you. There is nothing that he will not do for you to secure that covenantal relationship with his people. What is the promise of Exodus? I will be your God and you will be my people. Friends, this is the declaration of God to enter into a covenantal relationship with human beings that are completely undeserving. And you see, the revelation of Jesus Christ establishes the basis for that eternal relationship. It grants to us the assurance that it is really going to happen. And the revelation of Jesus Christ shows us the consummation of what that relationship, in part, will be like. I mean, this is though John is wanting to remind us from this book of Revelation, you can trust the Word of God. God is going to hold true to His promises. All of the promises are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. If you've got Christ Jesus, all of the promises are yours this morning. Now you've got to take those promises in context or you wind up all over the theological map. But they're yours. And so John here envisions our eternal future. If you're a Christian this morning, you are getting to see your future through these apocalyptic visions that John had in terms as seen from our scriptural past. And so here's the incredible thing. You know, as I look around the room, and I know all of you guys that have made professions of faith and shown good evidence of repentance and faith in Christ, I look around and I get so excited. I'm excited for myself, I'm excited for you, because John is getting to see here what our future is going to be like, and the picture that he wants you to focus on to see what your future is going to be like is to look at the past of the nation of Israel. Look, you understand that from the very beginning of God making a covenantal promise with Abraham, everything was leading up to this point. The reason we have those stories in the Old Testament was to bring us to this point. The reason we have the crossing of the Red Sea in the Old Testament was to bring us to this point in the Gospel's storyline. God and His sovereignty weaving everything together for His glory and the good of those that love Him. Even all of the experiences that our forefathers went through in the land of Egypt. God did that for you. He did that for you that you would be with him forever. And that now that's what this is here in this prophetic vision of the last days. John sees that God's true Israel has experienced the final exodus. But friends, if you know the Exodus pattern, if we were to go back into the children's classroom and I was to ask them to tell me about the Exodus, they would even get this. And by the way, this is a complete commercial, but as someone that has small children, that's a part of the children's ministry, how thankful are you parents to know that our teachers in the back are teaching sound theology? That we don't have to sit in here and shake and worry about what our kids are being taught in the back room. That's a blessing. Not every church has that luxury. back to the regularly scheduled program here. The deliverance of God's people only takes place after something happens. There's something that has to happen first. We see that from the Exodus story. The deliverance of God's people, it only comes about after the destruction of God's enemy, which then is what this chapter is all about. And so this morning, I'd just like to ask three questions of this chapter and to answer those three questions. Number one, what is the way that the final exodus comes about? What's the means of it? Number two, who is the source of the final exodus? And number three, what is the response to the final exodus? So let's begin at the beginning. What is the means of the exodus? How does it come about? Well, if I was to ask you that question before you even arrived here this morning, You could probably take a pretty good guess at that business, even if you just know the Exodus story. If I asked you, and you didn't know we were talking about our salvation, if I was to ask you, how does the Exodus come about? You could probably come up with a pretty good explanation of that. Now, if you recall, we've seen this type of pattern already. The previous sevenfold judgment that we saw in chapter 8 and in chapter 9, we saw those judgments that came about with the sounding of seven trumpets. Now the Old Testament is our rubric for understanding the Revelation because it is a prophetic book. So if we want to see the way God works in prophetic books, we have to go to the Old Testament. And so we begin to think and to look through the Old Testament and find out, well what are we being pointed back towards when it comes to seven trumpets? Well what does that remind us of in the Old Testament? the falling of the walls of idolatrous Jericho, and the entrance of God's people into the promised land through the destruction of his enemies. And so how was that event accomplished? Through the sounding of seven trumpets, God destroying the enemy, and God's people walking into the promise of freedom. Well, now here in our text, it's the same type of idea. John's last series of sevenfold judgments, they drew our attention to seven trumpet blasts, But now it's no longer trumpet blast that is in view, it's seven plagues. So where do we see seven plagues in the Old Testament? Reminding us of what? The fall of idolatrous Egypt. It's the liberation of God's people out of bondage through the destruction of their enemies. How did God do it? What did He do to free His people? Seven devastating plagues. Now watch verse one. Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing. Now, if you've got your ears tuned to the language of the revelation, those of you that have been through this whole book, Maybe your eye kind of fixates on that word sign. Then I saw another sign, a great and amazing sign. Some translations will even say a great and amazing portent. That's a word that we have seen before in the Revelation. In fact, we've seen it a few times. And that is a term that John uses in a very specific way in the Revelation. This word sign or portent, it does not just speak of something that is supernatural, such as a miracle. You know, whenever Jesus says this generation seeks for signs and wonders, what were they looking for? They were looking for miracles. That's not exactly the same way John is using it here. He is speaking of something that could be supernatural, but he's pointing to something that is far beyond the sign itself. Remember when we were working through that, we gave the example, if we all decided this morning to leave and to head down to St. Augustine Beach, right? And so we're all driving in the caravan, and let's say Tim and Aaron are leading it, and as soon as they get to the outskirts there, where the sign is, it says, Welcome to St. Augustine Beach. Tim pulls over and they set up their picnic right there. Like, what are you doing? We haven't actually reached the beach yet. Yeah, but the sign's right here. The sign says we are at St. Augustine Beach. But I can't even see the sign yet. I can't even see the beach yet. Yeah, but the sign's right here. The purpose of that sign is to point to something far beyond itself. That's the purpose of these signs as well. This is the third mention of this word sign in this context in the Revelation. Maybe you can remember the other two. If you don't, I'll point you back to there. Back in chapter 12. It hasn't been that long ago since we've been in chapter 12. In chapter 12, verse 1, it says, And a great sign appeared in heaven. What is this sign? A woman clothed with sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. So John is saying this woman is a sign. It's not a woman at all. It's a sign. And the design of this sign is to point far beyond the sign itself. In this case, we discover that it's pointing towards the messianic community, the people of God. Verse 3 in that chapter, And another sign appeared in heaven, behold, a great red dragon. Well, what is this great red dragon? John says, well, it's a sign. This dragon, verse 9 tells us, signifies Satan, Lucifer, the deceiver of the whole world himself, that ancient serpent that seeks to destroy God's people through deception, false teaching, and acts of persecution. Okay, now here back in chapter 15, John sees another sign that completes this trio of signs in the Revelation. Only you'll notice there is one thing that makes this sign different. A pair of adjectives modify this sign. John is saying, that this sign is great and this sign is amazing now those words great and amazing in the English text we use them and I suppose they mean exactly what we think that they mean but primarily this word amazing in the Greek text it is as strong as he could possibly say it is such a rich and a word that is pregnant with meaning it means of something that causes incredible wonder it means of something that if you see this you will be awestruck it is something that is remarkable What's interesting in the Bible is this. When you begin to do the textual work of chasing this word down around the Bible, what you'll find is this word awesome that we have here is only ever used to describe God, who he is, and what he does. So what is this sign that is so great and so amazing? John tells us. Seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last. They are the last in John's series of sevenfold judgments. Now, we've seen the seven seal judgments already, and we've seen the seven trumpet judgments. We heard about the seven thunder judgments, although they were rescinded. And now we come to the final set of seven judgments, seven plagues. But friends, just so we're clear this morning, I wanna remind you of something that we've spent quite a bit of time on before. These three sets of judgment, the seals and the trumpets and the bowls, the plague judgments, they're not brought to us as chronological events. I know whenever we turn on TBN on Saturday morning and John Hagee's up preaching and he's got the timeline behind him with all of the Apache helicopters and things. I know that timeline really seems as though it is helpful, but it is very harmful. Because John is not setting out a chronological list of these seven plagues, following these seven plagues, following these seven plagues. It's not chronological events in the Revelation. They're not set to each other in a linear timeline. It's not 21 judgments, these seven and then these seven and then these seven, leading to the end. No, each of these sets of judgments, I would remind you, they culminate, they all end with the final judgment. And so are there three final judgments or is there just one final judgment? Well, the Bible is clear. It's appointed once for man to die and then the judgment comes. One final judgment. And so all of these series of seven judgments, they lead us to the same place, although they may start at different places and fill in the timeline between the sounding of the first trumpet and the splitting of the first seal and the pouring of the first bowl all the way to the final judgment. We get more of the picture as this story unfolds. And so, maybe to help us understand that a bit more clearly, I'll do my best to illustrate that from the immediate context. Let me draw your attention to the objects of these particular judgments. And to get that, you have to flip over to verse 16, verse 2. Verse 15 is linked to, or chapter 15 is linked to chapter 16. Imagine that. John tells us that these plagues are poured out upon the people who have identified themselves with the beast. But we know about the beast already. Who is the beast? The beast is the agent of the dragon that seeks to destroy the church. And so, when is the time period that the beast seeks to destroy the church? When is he active upon the earth? We learned about that back in chapter 12, the time period after the dragon fails to destroy the child, Jesus Christ. The time period after the death of Jesus Christ, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his ascension into heaven, his enthronement, at that point the devil, the dragon knows that his time is short, therefore he rages against the woman, the church, he uses the beast from the sea, the beast from the land to accomplish that very thing. the beast attacks the church in the time between the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ for the entirety of that time period and this attack is expressed in many different forms for us and it was expressed in really concrete terms for them in the first century for these people reading this letter in the original form it was expressed by Rome itself Rome was oppressing the church, Rome was the beast working against the church to destroy the church It's the same period of time of the seal judgments. It's the same period of time of the trumpet judgments. Same period of time as the seal judgments. And here now it's the same period of time as these bowls of plagues being poured out. You say, but Brandon, I got a problem with that because John says right here that this is the last. Yes, John does say that. But last in what sense? Last, not by virtue of the order chronologically that they occur, but last by virtue in the order that John witnesses them in this vision. This is the last thing that he sees. He explains what he means in the very next line. He says, for with them the wrath of God is finished. Altogether fulfilled, it's done. Think of it like this. For those of you who are artistic this morning, you'll probably appreciate this more than the others. John here in the Revelation is painting a landscape for us. A landscape. His theme in this painting is the wrath of God being poured out upon his enemies. And so first, John dips his brush into one color and he paints the judgments associated with the seals. The splitting of the first and the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth and the sixth seal. John paints all of that on this landscape using one color. In fact, if you were like me as a young child and enjoyed the painting by number portraits, okay, John fills in one third of the numbers here. Now the painting is incomplete at the end of that, but those images, even in one color and only a third of the numbers being filled in, those images all by themselves were terrifying. But the painting is not done. Then John dips his brush into another color and he paints the judgments associated with the trumpet judgments. Although he is not finished yet, It is still more complete of a picture than it was at the beginning. So God's wrath is seen as incredibly terrifying. And so another third of the paint by number numbers have been filled in. But the landscape of the portrait of God's wrath is still not complete. It's only seen in its fullness. It's only seen in what it is meant to be seen as when in addition to the first two colors and the first two thirds of the numbers being filled in, John adds to that the color of the seven plagues. and fills in the rest of the numbers for us. In our text this morning, John now says, I'm done. I'm finished. The picture of the landscape of the wrath of God being poured out against his enemies is now lacking nothing. It is completely filled in. This is all that you're going to have. And so friends, if you must think about these judgments in a progression, Think of them not in terms of progression in the timeline, but progression in intensity. The seal judgments affect how many? One-fourth of the inhabitants of the earth. Remember that? The seal judgments affect one-fourth. The trumpet judgments affect one-third. I'll have to consult with my math teacher here, but I think one-third is bigger than one-fourth. And so the judgment is growing in scope. The thunder judgments were rescinded, but we saw, we assumed that it affects one-half. One-half is bigger than one-quarter or one-third. God's judgment is growing. Here now the seven plagues, there's no more fractions. There's no more portions. We come to the end of chapter 16 and we discover that all of the followers of the beast are made the object of God's judicial wrath and justice. In fact, at the end of chapter 16, the revelation becomes nothing more than a race to the end of the book. Because the remaining chapters after the next chapter really only serve to unfold the effects of the seven plagues. And so with this one swipe of the brush here, John adds more color to the portrait of the painting of the wrath of God being poured out upon the inhabitants of the earth. Remember, the inhabitants of the earth. those that have bought into the world system, those that refuse to bow their knee to Jesus Christ. This is the judgment of God upon those that reject the Son of God. I mean, it's as though John is saying from this letter, friends, saying to people who are not Christians, if you are not a Christian this morning, John is saying to you clearly and loudly, do not reject the God of the Bible for one more day. Because every single time you refuse the gospel, every single time you rebel against God and disobedience to Him, apart from Christ, the noose that is already around your neck becomes progressively tighter and tighter and tighter. The ever-present reality of God's divine judgment upon your life becomes even more intense every single day that you live. Do not reject the gospel for one more day. Bow your knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Trust in Him as your Savior. You know, what did we discover last week? It's what we learned at the end of John chapter 3. God's wrath abides on the unbeliever right now. It's not something that we're waiting for. We're waiting for the culmination of it, or we're waiting for the consummation of it, but it's already here. Judgment has already begun and how does John define all of this at the very outset in the very first verse? He says this is a great and amazing sign Great and amazing how so? Well, what did the first sign signify the first in that trio? God's people the woman God's people. What are the second sign signify the great red dragon and the one that seeks to destroy God's people. So what is the relationship between the first and the second sign? What's the relationship between the woman and the dragon? Well, the second seeks to destroy the first. Satan attacks the church. Here now is the third sign. Think about this. The woman is God's people. She has fled to the wilderness. running to the wilderness, trying to get away, to flee to the wilderness. The dragon pursuing the woman into the wilderness. It's a replay of the Exodus. The outpouring of the plagues of God's wrath upon his enemies. God's people fleeing to the wilderness to spend time with him. Pharaoh and his armies following close behind. To what end? to the end that they will be eternally destroyed, God's enemies, and God's people will be eternally set free in the land of promise forever because they know the son of promise. It's how the final exodus comes about. That's why this sign is so great. That's why this sign is so amazing. It brings about the destruction of God's enemies and the final and eternal salvation of God's people. Here's the second question. Number two, who is the source of the final exodus? It's brought about by the plagues. But who is the source of the plagues? Where do they come from? Well, before we answer that, I want to point out something to you. That's very important. And it has to do with the layout, the structure of chapter 15 as a whole. Look at how verse one ends. It says, for with them the wrath of God is finished. The wrath of God is completely expressed, nothing else is needed. Look at the end of verse 8. And no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues and the seven angels were finished, completed, nothing left. It's the exact same idea that we have in verse 1. The angel using plagues to bring about the wrath of God. Verse 1, the plagues being brought about in their completion. Verse 8, the plagues being brought about in their completion. Now, is that just a coincidence? No, not at all. It becomes a lot more evident in the Greek text, but this is a literary device that John loves. something called an inclusio. This is a technique, a literary device that helps us to identify what the primary point in a passage is. And here, the primary point in this section is the completed expression of the wrath of God on his enemies. This chapter is about God's wrath upon his enemies being done. But here's what's very interesting. In verse 1, John makes this general announcement that God's wrath is going to be completed. But then he doesn't develop that until you get to verse five through eight. And so he announces judgment, then he changes the subject. Because squeezed between those two sections of this chapter is a vision of God's people in heaven. And so you maybe say, what in the world does that have to do with God's judgment? John says, God's judgment is going to be completed and poured out upon the enemies of the gospel. And by the way, this is what God's people are doing in heaven. They're responding to something that from their point in time has already taken place. John shows us that these are people in heaven that are worshiping God because His wrath has been poured out. You say, well, Brandon, why does he shift gears in the middle of his argument here? I mean, can't John stay focused on the subject at hand? Oh, my friends, he is focused on the subject at hand. He announces his theme, the completed expression of the wrath of God poured out upon his enemies. And then he turns his attention to the people of God in eternity. Why? Why does John do that? That's such a strange way to write something. Two reasons. He does this to assure us that we will be exempt from the wrath of God, that although the wrath of God may burn all around you, if you have the seal of God, if you believe in Jesus Christ, it will not touch you, but also to show us that in heaven, hold on to your seats here, friends, in heaven, Christian, you will be praising God because He has poured out His wrath on the unbelieving world. Look at verse 5. after this I looked and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was open and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with seven plagues clothed in pure bright linen with golden sashes around their chest now here are those angels from verse one the seven angels from verse one and now they're seen to be wearing robes of brilliant white linen and a golden sash around their chest Well, we've seen this before in the Revelation. Their clothing reflects their purity. It reflects that these are the holy angels unfallen. It reflects their dignity and their office. It reflects their status and who they are in creation. And it's also a way of identifying their clear association with the resurrected Christ himself, because Jesus in chapter 1 is seen to be wearing the exact same garment. Verse 7, And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven bowls full of the wrath of God. We've come across these four living creatures a few times already. And we've already learned from this book that the four living creatures are the elite of the angelic realm. Out of all of the millions of angels that God may have created, the four living creatures from the biblical context are the closest to the glory in the throne room of God. God is on his throne. The four living creatures are the closest in proximity to him. We see that in chapter four. You can look that up later if you have more questions about that. And as we come across these four living creatures in the revelation, we see that they do two things. The four living creatures seem to have two jobs in heaven. They lead others in worship of the Lamb and of God. and they administer judgment upon the unbelieving world. In fact, the last time we came across these four living creatures, you remember what they were doing? They were calling forth the cavalry of the horsemen of the apocalypse. They were sending those horsemen upon the earth to bring judgment upon the unrepentant on the world. Well, in keeping with their ministry of judgment, the text shows us that one of the living creatures now is seen to be giving a bull to each of the seven angels. Now, give you a minute detail here that may not seem like it's important, but it actually is. This word bowl in the Greek text, this is not something like we would load up with popcorn while we're watching a movie, okay? This is not a deep bowl that's easy to carry things with. For instance, whenever, on those nights whenever we're watching a movie at the house and we make a decision to, we're going to eat our food inside on the couch or something like that. Or maybe we're having dessert and we decide to do that in the living room. I make sure, whatever it is I give to my children, it's not going on a saucer, it's not going on a plate. This thing is going to go into a bowl that I have to reach my arm down in, right? Because it's going to be difficult for them to spill that. This Greek word here, bowl, is our word for saucer. Now, can you imagine trying to carry liquid in a saucer-type device? Right? The idea is this is a precarious situation. Whatever is inside of this saucer, it could spill out at any time. I mean, nothing's holding this stuff in. The slightest little tip, and something is going to pour out. Well here John sees these bowls and they are filled to the brim with the fullness of the wrath of God. Their saucers are filled to the brim with the fullness of the wrath of God to be poured out upon the unbelieving world. But before we move into that, back up for just one moment. What is the significance in John's vision here of what he calls in verse 5 the sanctuary of the tent of witness? That's a clumsy sentence. I mean, the sanctuary of the tent of witness. In fact, the Greek text, here's how it reads literally. After this, I looked into the temple that is the tent of witness. He defines the sanctuary as the tent of witness. What is this? Well, to answer that question, you have to keep in mind the Exodus pattern. After the crossing of the Red Sea, God set his people free out of an act of his grace and sacrifice. The Israelites, the first thing they do, they come to the foot of a mountain, Mount Sinai. We're in front of that mountain that was smoking and rumbling and shaking. The people of God received the covenant document, the tablets of the law. the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, otherwise known in the Old Testament as the Tables of Testimony. Now, there's a play on words going on here. What John is defining as the open temple is intrinsically connected to the tablets of the law. The sanctuary, the testimony, God's law is inside of this place. It is the dwelling place of the law of God. Now that's interesting for many reasons, but most importantly this morning, this is not the first time that John has seen the open temple in heaven. This is not the first time that John has been able to peer into the temple in heaven. Back in chapter 11, at the sounding of that trumpet, John sees the temple open. And what is it that John sees inside of the temple? He sees the Ark of the Covenant inside. That Ark where the Ten Commandments are held. But in chapter 11, John did not see the Ten Commandments. He saw the ark with the mercy seat. The ark where that blood would be sprinkled to atone for the violation of breaking those Ten Commandments. This time, however, it's different. John once again sees the temple in heaven, and it is open, but there is no ark. There is no mercy seat. This time it is defined purely on the basis of God's inflexible testimony of His law. Which means what? Bad news for sinners. Real bad. You don't want God with His law in His hand. You don't want the justice of the law of God. You don't want the law of God to be the primary thing that is inside the temple of the presence of God. This means that what is coming from this place will contain no mercy, no opportunity for atonement, no sacrifice, only just justice because of the broken law of God. And whose justice is in view here? Well, what does the text say? My friends, this wrath is coming from God. What is it that John says about this open temple that he sees? Verse eight, and the sanctuary was filled with the smoke from the glory of God and from his power. That's Exodus language. When God descended upon Mount Sinai, the entire mountain was covered with smoke. So much so that the people of God could not even get near to that mountain. When God's presence descended upon the tabernacle in the wilderness, the whole entire place was covered in smoke, so much so that Moses himself would not even dare to get near to it. When God's presence descended upon the temple in Jerusalem, it was covered in smoke so much so that the priest would not be able to do their duties that day. They could not even get close. So what is this smoke? It's a symbol of the terrifying presence of the glory and the power of God. So why does John mention it here? My friend, so that you might not miss the fact that all of the judgment that has come and all of the judgment that is yet to come from this book finds its source in God's own immediate presence. It comes from him. And by the way, when such a God, a God that is all-powerful, a God that is all-encompassing, a God that is the creator of the universe, a God that is in the heavens and does whatever He wills, when such a God desires to bring judgment upon the world, nothing and no one can ever keep Him from executing it. Verse 8, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. What does that mean that no one enters into the sanctuary? No prayers for mercy from the priest. No intercession before the throne of God. Only the law. Only wrath from God. Verse 7 tells us very matter-of-factly that the bowls were filled with God's wrath. The God, John adds, the God, the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. My friend, if you are here this morning and you are yet to surrender your life to Christ, if you have never become a part of His grace covenant, if you have never entered into a relationship with Him, if you are not a Christian this morning, this ought to frighten you more than anything else. This is the wrath of a God whose very existence has no beginning and has no end. That means for you this morning, if you are outside of Christ, you can refuse the gospel for the entirety of your life, but when you die, my friends, whether your life ends in some blaze of glory or it ends in a meaningless whimper, it makes no difference. God will be there to meet you because He's always there. And He will always be there with His wrath eternally for those that refuse His Son, Jesus Christ. My friends, can you imagine the insanity? Can you imagine the foolishness? Can you imagine the incredible nature of a person who would willingly enter into the judgment of God? Who would ever willingly enter in and rebel against this God? But my friends, that was the case for each of us here this morning. Before God showed us his way of salvation through his son, Before the Spirit of God quickened you and opened your eyes to the gospel, this was you. But for the grace of God alone, this was my destiny and yours, my brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ has made all of the difference for us. It's not because I'm a better person. It's not because I follow the law. It's not because I was smart and chose Jesus. No, Jesus Christ has made all of the difference for me because of what he has done. And He still makes all of the difference today for anyone but their trust in Him. He is the Savior, He is the Deliverer, He is the Messiah, He is the Friend of sinners, but He will one day become the Judge. This, my friends, you see, this is what salvation is. I mean, maybe you've asked yourself over the past months or even year, why all these scenes of judgment? Why is it judgment at every turn in the revelation? Why is all of this in the Bible? Because, my dear friends, until you see this, you will never understand what salvation really is. This is what salvation is. It is deliverance from the entanglement of sin. It is deliverance from the death of your soul. It is deliverance from the judgment of God that you deserve. It is deliverance from the wrath of God to come. So if you want to be delivered from your sin this morning, if you want this greater exodus of entering into the promise of Christ, you must follow the greater Moses. Trust in Jesus alone. He is the deliverer. Do you want him? By an act of God this morning, maybe for the first time, do you want him? If so, tell him so, because if you really want him, oh, that's a clear indication that his work of delivering you has already begun. What happens to such people? I mean, if eternal wrath is not the destiny of God's people, if the crushing of God's wrath is not our destiny, what is? Number three, in closing, what is the response of the final exodus? What is the response of those that have been delivered? The answer is worship. It's always worship. In the very presence of God himself, Can you imagine that? What do we have from the Bible as a promise? In His presence is the fullness of joy. Can you imagine? You imagine the greatest experiences a Christian you have ever had where God felt close to you, you felt the Spirit's power upon you, you had freedom to worship. Amplify that by infinity. That's what we get to enjoy. Verse two, and I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire. Now we've seen the sea of glass before, haven't we? Back in chapter four, where John describes for us the very throne room of God. And what is it that extends out from the throne room of God? A sea of glass. We sang it in the very first song this morning. That's Old Testament language that illustrates God's transcendence, But it also speaks of the fact that God is separate from us. That sea of glass serves as the demarcation point between holy God and sinful man. Now, in our text, this sea of glass is now seen to be mixed with fire. A sea of glass mixed with fire. And so, logically speaking, you may ask, well, how can water and fire both exist together? You have to remember this is an apocalyptic book. which uses symbols to point us to deeper theological truths than the reality of what we read. This is a sea of fire. One might even say truly a red sea. But why mixed with fire? Well, with only one exception in the entirety of the book, over 20 plus times, the revelation uses this word fire, always in connection to the judgment of God. Fire is always a metaphor of divine judgment. We saw that very thing last week, which makes me really nervous when I'm in a worship service and people are praying, God, would you let your fire fall? I open my eyes. I don't know that's a good idea. I've read the Bible. That doesn't seem like a good thing. Here the sea of glass that extends from the very throne room of God is mixed with fire. It is a red sea signifying the judgment of God. But notice, notice the sea of the judgment of God. There are those that have successfully passed through this red sea. And who is it that has successfully passed through this Red Sea? Who are they? The text says, and also those who had conquered the beast and his image and the number of its name. That's language from the Revelation that speaks about the Christian, the conqueror, the faithful, the one that has endured until the end. These are the overcomers and they're all here. God didn't lose one in the sea. Notice what the text says in verse two, standing beside the sea of glass. standing on God's side of the sea of glass. It's the Exodus all over again. But here are these people standing victoriously on the other side of the Red Sea. Remember that scene from Exodus 15? It's gruesome. There God's people stand and washing up on the shore all of the dead bodies of the Egyptians, but they had not lost one person. But here, standing on the side of the Red Sea, God's side are his people. Notice verse two with harps, the harps of God in their hand. We've met these people with the harps in their hands. In chapter 14, who is it said that has the harps in their hands singing praises unto God? The 144,000. Who are the 144,000? The full complement of the people of God, the church. They are the ones that have been sealed by God, and so they have been protected through the wrath of God, and here they are. My Christian friend, here you are. You're right here. All of the people of God are here, having crossed over this Red Sea. And our enemies have been drowned before us in the judgment of God. And what are we singing? Verse three. And they sang the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. Now, we're not to think of this as two separate and different songs. That little word and here, it's a interesting and. It's an explanatory and, for those of you that enjoy the finer things of the Greek text, maybe you're studying Greek yourself, this is an epicegetical conjunction and. And so the idea is this. We sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, that is, the song of the lamb. It's one song. You say, but Brandon, the lamb had not yet come to the world at the time of Moses. How can it be the same song? Because all along, from the very beginning, those little stories in the Bible only serve to tell the big story. It's because the first exodus was intended to prefigure the final exodus. And both the first and the last exodus are comprised of the very same two components, the deliverance of God's people by blood and power, and the destruction of God's enemies in judgment. It's the same song, my friends, because it exalts the very same events. The first foreshadows the coming of the second. And now listen to what they sing. Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God Almighty. Now that speaks of sovereign authority there. It's sovereign authority that is unmatched. His authority is unchallenged. Why? Because it's unchallengeable. No one can say to God, what have you done? So in this poetic structure here, the second line explains the first. Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. What does that mean? Next line. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. And so here we are, friends. We are worshiping. We are acknowledging God's unmatched kingship. We are worshiping him for his great and amazing deeds and his just and his true ways. But what are his great and amazing deeds and what ways are just and true that he has accomplished? Well, remember the Exodus pattern here. On the other side of the Red Sea, the people of God, rescued from judgment, their enemies destroyed. What was the first line of the song that they sang? Moses says, I will sing unto the Lord, the horse and the rider he has cast into the sea. Fast forward to our context. What has already been defined as great and amazing in this chapter? Verse 1, the sign of God's final judgment upon His enemies. I saw another sign, great and amazing. What is that sign that is great and amazing? The pouring out of the justice of God upon His enemies. And what is it that is said to be just and true of God? Well, you have to look at chapter 16, verse 5. It says, And I heard the angel in charge of the water say, Just are you, O holy one, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments, verse 7. And I heard the altar saying, Yes, Lord God, the Almighty, true and just are your judgments. You may not realize this, friends, but in the revelation of Jesus Christ, all of the singing to God in worship can be seen in three categories. What do the people in heaven sing about? Worship for creation, worship for salvation, worship for damnation. That's what people sing about in heaven. Creation, salvation, destruction. Here we are on the side of the seat of glass, Near to the throne of God, glorified human beings, we have become altogether perfect and righteous, singing praises to God for the exercise of His judgment upon all of those that would oppose Him. Now, let's get real for a second. How would you like it if next Sunday morning we modeled the revelation in this way and we sang about the eternal judgment of God? And so let's say that we wrote a song concerning what we saw last week. Just and true are your ways, you throw the unbelievers into the winepress of your wrath and you yourself trot it out until their blood squirts out. I don't know that we would grow to be the largest church in town. Great and amazing are your ways, just and true, you crush the unbeliever under your foot. They are nothing but a footstool for you for all of eternity. That doesn't sit well with us, does it? In heaven, where we will be made holy as He is holy? You see, the reason we don't say those things is not because we are more merciful than God, it's because we're not as holy as God. in heaven where we will be made holy as he is holy, we will respond to the exodus of God's judgment in worship. And something is going to happen to us between now and then to make us feel that way. We call it glorification. My friends, our thoughts concerning the way that we worship God ought to be informed by what we see taking place in heaven. That fact we cannot escape. What do we pray? Lord, your will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. Well, my friends, let me tell you something. God's will is perfectly done in heaven and God's will is being perfectly executed in worship right here. And God's perfect will includes us praising him for his worship or for his judgment. Verse 4, Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? In response to that, who would not fear God and glorify his name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you. Why? Why will all of the nations come and worship? Because for your righteous acts, speaking of judgments, have been revealed. You know, friends, even though We are the ones singing this song. Think about you. Think about what you would be thankful for at this moment. I'm going to be thankful that God has taken my sin away, that I could worship him the way that he deserves to be worshipped for the very first time. That I could actually, for the first time, love the Lord my God with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength, because up to that point, I won't be able to because I am a sinful man. I want to be thankful for all of that. But take note that in eternity, the content of their worship has nothing to do with them at all. It's all directed towards God. In this worship in heaven, friends, we don't even manage to mention ourselves once. It's amazing how often we do mention ourselves in modern worship. More to the point, it's worship comprised of lyrics that are exclusively devoted to the celebration of the manifestation of God's judgment. It is a righteous response to God's exodus and deliverance of his people and crushing of the enemies. Why are we singing? Why are we rejoicing? Why are we exalting? You say, well, Brandon, we're doing those things because of what God has done. Yeah, but let me let me ask those same questions in a different way. Brenda, I want you to think about you right now, okay? You know you better than anyone else does. I know we like to say, well, my wife knows me better. No, she doesn't. You know you better, because you know the things that take place in the secret corridors of your heart. You know all of the wicked thoughts that you have had. You know all of the wicked, sinful things that you have even done and acted upon. Think about you for a moment right now. And let me ask you those questions again. Why are we singing? Why are we rejoicing? Why are we exalting? Why are we not weeping? Why are we not consumed with the fire? Why are we not suffering under the wrath of God? Why are we not judged? Why are we not condemned? Why are we not in the fires of judgment? Because through the means of the Passover lamb, God has provided a way of deliverance, and that's the only reason. Oh, bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood, sealed by pardon, how, with his blood, hallelujah, what a Savior. This, beloved, this was always the one ultimate story. This is the one great story that all of the smaller stories of the Bible help to tell and point us towards. if it is deliverance from judgment that you want this morning you must place the lens on the lentil and the doorpost of your heart this morning the very blood of Jesus Christ God has provided a way of salvation God has provided a sacrificial lamb run to him this morning crawl to him this morning do whatever you must do to get to him because salvation is found in him alone my friends The good news for the believer this morning. In keeping with this text, the good news for you from this text. Is that God's judgment is coming. The bad news for you outside of Christ this morning. God's judgment is coming. The lamb makes all the difference in the world. And he will make all of the difference in your eternity. run to him, embrace him, forsake your sins, drop everything that you may have him. Jesus says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. You say, well, where do I follow him? What did we read in the last chapter? Those that are delivered, they follow the lamb wherever he goes. Father, we come to you this morning