All right, well, today we are in the 18th sermon on the book of Revelation. And if you've been here up till now, then you know that we have been Looking at different angles, the way we are interpreting Revelation is that there are these series of groupings, if you will, and there's a prologue, and then there's seven sections that involve seven things. There's seven letters, seven seals, seven trumpets, seven visions. Actually, there's five sections with seven in them. And now we're in the final one of those. We're in the seven bowls of God's judgment. And the way we're understanding those is that they're not kind of chronological events, right? First the seven letters, and then the seven seals, and then the seven trumpets. But we're seeing that these are different ways of seeing church history. Different angles, like watching a football game and the instant replays, right? The letters to the churches, that's kind of what's going on on the ground. And the seven seals, that's kind of what's going on in the huddle. And the seven trumpets, that's what, you know, that's the game plan. And we went, we said in the last section, we went up into the press box view, the highest possible view to see that behind all the things that are going on in this world that we live in, there is a there's a struggle between God and his enemies as being played out in our lives. And this morning we're taking yet another angle, but this time the angle is the view from the losers. Frankly. Right, this time we're not watching Peyton Manning, Eli Manning jumping up and throwing the touchdown pass. This time we're seeing the camera focus in on Tom Brady with a towel over his head crying. And the question for us today is. What is God going to do? with people who no matter how long he gives, no matter how much grace he sends out, no matter how many warnings he sends, what is he going to do with people who will never repent? Because God's got a task. His purpose, we know, is to take this world that he says in Genesis 6 is so broken that he is grieved to his heart and he wishes he had never made it. And he's going to take this world and make it into a paradise. Where there is worship of Jesus and there is peace and there is grace and there is joy and there is no more fear and there are no more tears, there is no crying, there is no darkness, there is no chaos. He's turning this dark, chaotic world into a world of grace. And in order to do that, he's got to do something with the people. who will never repent. If you brought a Bible, open it up to Revelation chapter 15. And I'm gonna read for you, beginning with verse two. We're really studying 15 and 16. I'm only gonna read about five or six verses here from chapter 15. 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 sing 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 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 in the sanctuary, the tent of witness in heaven was open and out of the sanctuary came to seven angels with the seven plagues. Clothed in pure and bright linen with golden sashes around their chest, and one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls. And that were 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. A reading of God's holy word may add his blessing to it. One of my favorite Western movies, cowboy movies, is Lonesome Dove. And in it, it is a story, if you've never seen it, you need to. Your children may not be ready for it, but you need to. It's a good Western if you like the genre. And in Lonesome Dove is the story of these two Texas Rangers. but they're retired, right? There's no need for Texas Rangers anymore. And in movie western folklore, I don't care whether it's true or not, Texas Rangers were sent out to kind of establish justice in the territory of Texas. And they were deputized to be sheriff, to be judge, to be jury, and to be executioner. They could do anything that needed to be done. If they saw lawlessness, it was their job to catch the criminal, to try him and execute him. And so these two rangers, who never really retire, once you're a ranger, you're always a ranger, I guess, kind of like being a Marine. So they're pushing their cattle up, up toward the Wyoming territory that Texas has gotten too civilized for them. And along the way, they run across this band of horse thieves and murderers. And as they come up on them, they're going to go and catch them and do their Texas Ranger thing. And while they're on the trail, they find out that a good friend of theirs, an old friend, is riding with them. And so if you haven't seen it, all this tension is building up. What's going to happen? And they catch the thieves and they tie them up. And there's Jake, their buddy. And Jake starts talking to him. I'm so glad to see y'all. I'm not one of these guys. I was just riding with him to get across the territory. And Tommy Lee Jones shouts, get their boots off. And they go around, start tying up their hands, and Jake says, well, you don't have to tie me up, you know me. You know who I am, you know I'm not a thief. And as they're tying his hands up, his oldest friend, Gus, looks at him and says, you know the law, Jake. If you ride without laws, you die without laws. I'm sorry you crossed that line. And Jake, you start saying, I never saw the line. I never saw the line. And they put him on his horse and they put the noose around his neck and they're all crying and they're all sober and they're sad. And his final words are, well, guys. I'd rather be hung by my friends and by a bunch of strangers. And they hang him. And if it was the first time you watch it, you're thinking, OK, now they're going to take the noose off his neck now, now. And they never do. And when they're hanging their body and after while he's hanging there, they're saying good words about him and they're saying words of respect and didn't he die great and wasn't he a good person? And at that moment, I think you get a glimpse of what God's judgment looks like. It is not joyful. It is not God who created a bunch of people just so he can have the fun of killing them. It is not something he's jumping up and down about. It is a situation where God is faced with having two desires. On one hand, he has a desire to show mercy to the wicked. On the other hand, he has the desire to redeem this earth so that his people can live without sorrow, can live without pain, can live without fear. And he knows that his people cannot live without fear and share a world with the wicked. And so the decision he has to make. Is if he wants to redeem this world, he has to do it. Through the refining fire of his justice. And that's what I want you to see today, God will redeem this world through the refining fire of his justice. The first thing I want you to see is that judgment is necessary. Judgment is not real popular. I wouldn't preach on if I didn't have to. I have to because it's in the Bible. And there's this kind of sentiment out there today that's very strong. It's as strong as it's ever been. It says, you know, we don't really believe in a God of justice. God's not going to do that. God's just going to have mercy on everybody. I know what God's really like. This view of God's justice, that's old. That's, you know, that's kind of cruel and archaic. And nobody believes that primitive stuff anymore. Now we're advanced. Now we know that God's just going to be merciful. And the first thing I want you to see, and if you believe that, I want you to understand, I get you. I feel that. There's a desire for that, isn't there? It sounds good. It's like, you know, it's like a dime store doll. It looks good from a distance. But I want you to understand there's no substance there. That theology is like cotton candy. It isn't real. It dissolves with any examination whatsoever. The first thing I want you to see is that mercy without justice is apathy. We can't live without justice. If God doesn't notice the suffering of the innocent, if God just allows children, teenage girls, to be picked up at the border and to be told, we're gonna let you live in America where you're gonna have all your dreams fulfilled and get stuck in the back of vans. And those same girls are sold then into brothels and made into slaves for their whole lives. If God's just gonna allow that to happen and never punish the wicked, what good is he? If God never judges anything, and He's the standard of right and wrong, then it's wrong for you to judge anything. I mean, just think about that for a second. Let's take it to its conclusion. If God's the standard of how I should act, and if the way He acts is He never punishes anything, then it is impossible to answer the question why when your kids ask you why they should pick up their room. Why? Because it's dirty. Why? Because it's the right thing to do. Why should I do that? Well, because I'm your parent and you should obey me. Well, why should I obey you? If there's no right and wrong, all you can do is say, do it or I will hurt you. It's violence. It's just control, it's manipulation, it's not righteousness. If there's no, if God's never gonna judge the wicked, then it would not be true that the Almighty would be true and just. You can never expect your husband or wife to be faithful. Why should they? If you're not pleasing to them anymore, if you're not what they hope for anymore, if something else would make them feel better for the time being, why shouldn't they go do something that would make them feel better? Because there's never going to be justice. There's no such thing. God's just going to forgive everybody. Just forgiving everything is apathy. There's a great saying by Desmond Tutu. He says, if you're neutral in situations of injustice, then you've chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant is standing on a mouse's tail and you decide to be neutral. The mouse isn't going to like that very much. If the world can't function without justice, if God never judges the wicked, then the evil are going to prosper forever. Then this world will be a land where the evil prosper for eternity. The wicked would always reign. And the oppressed would never have an option but to choose violence. In case you haven't noticed, we're in a Western suburb. So it's kind of hard for us to understand even the concept of a world of violence. And you may think, well, this sounds really good here. Who are you to say that we can't choose peace? Sure, we can choose peace. Anybody can choose peace. That's it on bumper stickers every day, right? But what about in a land of violence? There's a theologian named Miroslav Volf. And he is a Bosnian Christian writer and teacher. And he says, if you want to stand up in a Western suburb and say that God's never going to punish wickedness and yet that and think that somehow is going to produce a world where there's peace and grace, that's fine. You can think that there. He says this, if you've ever been where I've been. Where you're preaching to a room filled with people who've had their sisters and daughters raped. who've had their homes burned and leveled, who've had their fathers murdered. If you've ever stood where I've stood, then you know that the only way you can tell people to choose a path of nonviolence and peace is to tell them that there is a God who will execute justice. There is a judge and you're not him. You're not him. If God's never going to execute justice, there would be no. Reason to do anything other than take out your own wrath. And to be your own jury. Finally, without justice, God cannot exist. If God won't judge the wicked, what is he? What is it? We're reducing God to this. Invalid old man, kind of staring out a window, looking at the news going, I wish people wouldn't do that. That's just wrong. Why can't these people live right? But he's never going to do anything. All he can do is kind of shake his cane inside the window and go, don't do that. And people look at him and go, why not? What are you going to do? Is that the God you want to worship? Is that the God that you want to fall down before and trust to bring grace and peace and to keep you safe for all eternity? God has to judge with wickedness or there is no hope for redemption. And he tells us that he is going to he is going to redeem this world through the refining fire of his justice. We need judgment. The question is, what will it look like when it gets here? Now, so what will it look like? What's it going to look like? We don't like the idea of wrath because our concept of wrath is terrible, and I understand why. Our picture of wrath is basically a father coming home drunk one night, angry, and he's had enough, and he starts abusing his children. That's kind of our picture in our mind of God executing wrath. And I want you to know that the Bible is very clear that that is not it. There's not a single place in the Bible where you see God taking joy in the destruction of the wicked. As a matter of fact, he says in Ezekiel 33, say to them, as I live, declares the Lord God, as I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked. but that the wicked would turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why will you die, O house of Israel?" That's the true picture of justice. He doesn't want to do it. When he looks at a human, he sees the image of his son. He has no desire to bring justice. He has no desire to execute wrath upon that. And he's begging us, please turn, change, be different, receive my grace. It's dispassionate and it's slow. It's so slow that the justice of God has caused Christians throughout the centuries to almost lose hope. The Apostle Peter, when he's writing to the Christians who are being persecuted in his day, had to say, I know it's taking forever, but I promise God will judge the wicked. One of the first things we see in Revelation is the prayer of the martyrs and where they praying out sovereign and Lord, holy and true. How long before you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth? He's waiting, he's waiting too long, according to the martyrs. How long is it going to take? When will you get us justice? And he keeps saying just a little while longer. Just a little while longer. One of the great pictures in the Old Testament is when Moses is in the cleft of the rock and God walks by him and shows him his glory. And he says his name when he's walking by and he says, the Lord, Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger. And if you if Hebrew is your hobby, then that's a fun passage to translate, because slow to anger means having a long nose. As a literal translation is a picture of him just going, A little longer. And he sees things inside his wrath, but he just his nose is long. And he takes deep breaths and he waits because he wants every one of his children to come home. His wrath is dispassionate and it's slow, but when it comes, it is thorough and it is relentless. As we've gone through the book of Revelation again and again, we've seen this number seven and it's changed. When the seven seals were opened, they all affected one fourth of the earth. When the seven trumpets were blown, we said those were God's ways of waking up the lost, and they all struck one third of the earth. But when the bowls are poured out, there is no fraction. He hits everything. He hits the water. He hits the rivers. He hits the sun. He hits the earth. He hits every human. No one will be missed. It is complete and it is thorough. A friend of mine about two months ago. Was diagnosed with microscopic cancer cells in her lymph nodes. They're just microscopic. And so the doctor said, hey, you know what? That's so small, let's not worry about it. Come back in four or five years, if they're grown, we'll do something. No. The doctor said, you have microscopic cancer cells in your lymph nodes, so this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna cut them out. And then we're gonna infuse every cell in your body with medicine strong enough to kill it if it comes back. We're going to so thoroughly purge you that there is no possible way that cancer can survive. That's what you have to do with cancer because it's going to grow. And that's what God has to do with sin. He can't allow even the smallest bit of rebellion to be in his kingdom and expect it to be a place of peace. He's tried that once he wiped out every human on the earth except six. Except six. And after it was over, immediately after doing it, he said it didn't work. Because every thought of a man's heart is only evil all the time. Everyone must go. His judgment is absolutely thorough. Everyone must stand under it. He will not miss a thing. Because he's sterile. He is sterilizing the field. And what I mean by sterile is this is not a warning. This is not an effort to convert the lost. It is an effort to cleanse the field of every germ. And it is sterile, not because God is so angry or he's so just unreasonable and you can't talk any sense into him. It is sterile because the world will not repent. And again, this is one of the reasons why we have such problems in our minds with thinking of God's judgment, because we think of all these nice, sweet people who, given half a chance, would repent. And I want you to know the Bible is clear. Not a single righteous person, not a single righteous person, will be destroyed in the judgment. Not one. God's going to judge righteously and wholly. So why is this judgment so thorough? Well, let me read to you a few verses to explain it. Verse 9 says, They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues, and they did not repent. Verses 10 and 11 says, God, the fifth angel poured out his bowl and people gnawed their tongues and anguished and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores and they did not repent. In verse 16, we're told that the sixth bowl is poured out and it says they assembled at a place in Hebrew that is called Armageddon. They're so angry at this point that they're willing to go to war and try to kill God. That's what they're gonna do there. And finally, in verse 21, he says, the great hailstones, about 100 pounds each, fell from heaven and they cursed God for the plague of the hail because it was so severe. Why is the judgment sterile? Because there is nothing in their hearts that makes the unbeliever, that makes the wicked want to repent. So what does that mean for you? That means sometimes when terrible things happen. One question is, why is God doing this? Is it a judgment of God upon me or is it his way of awakening me and bringing me to repentance? And the answer is, well, what did it do to you? What happens to you when something terrible happens? It's different perspectives of the same events, right? So when Hurricane Katrina blows in and destroys hundreds of thousands of lives. What is that? Is that a trumpet or is it a bowl of judgment? Well, how did you respond? Did you respond by cursing God and hardening your heart and being angrier than ever asking him, how dare you to do this to me? Or did you respond by reaching out and begging the Lord for mercy? Did you go to the church for grace? The church flooded into the area and tried to started trying to restore people's lives. Did you respond to that with grace? If you respond with grace and hope and repentance, then it's a trumpet waking you up and bringing you to life. And if you respond by biting your tongue and cursing and growing bitter and hatred and and developing hatred in your heart toward the Lord, then it's a bowl of God's wrath. Pointing you toward the end. How do you respond? The judgment of God is ultimately God giving people what they want. You understand that? The judgment of God is God giving people what they want. For those who live their whole life hating God, wanting deeply within their hearts to be as far away from him as they can possibly get, he says, OK. You can get as far away from me as you possibly can get. No grace, no mercy, no order, no justice, no hope, just chaos, darkness. You can get as far away from me as you want. And for those who have a desire in their heart to be away from their sin and closer to him than God's judgment says, OK, I'll give you what you want. I'll remove all your sin, all your wickedness and bring you into my home. God's great God chose his grace to us in judgment. He's a saving God. And through his judgment, it's not just because he wants to kill people for fun. He's redeeming this world and he's giving his people a safe place where they can live without fear. God's grace is in judgment because he sends warnings. I had a Old Testament professor used to say that the perfect picture of God's grace is a bumper sticker that says warning driver of this truck, choose tobacco. He's gracious. He's about to spit tobacco juice out of his window and he's letting you know, don't get too close. He didn't have to put that bumper sticker on his back of his truck. He wants you to know it's coming. If God wasn't gracious, he wouldn't send us prophecies and prophets and a whole book of the Bible telling us what's going to happen. That's not the way you do it when you're just mean. OK, the Navy SEALs didn't send Osama bin Laden to save the date card. They didn't say, we're going to do this. We promise here we come. God is showing his grace by giving you the forewarning, there's still time for you. There is still time. But if he exists, that time will run out. God is warning us over and over again with his word, with your conscience. Every time your conscience pricks, every time you think to yourself, I know I shouldn't have done that. You're right. Don't do it. Turn to him and ask for grace. Every time the consequences of your sin causes you to to. Wake up with a hangover. Ruin another relationship. Wake up with less money in the bank than you ought to have because you've been wasting it every time there's a consequence to your sin, that's God's grace saying, don't do that. Turn. Will you harden your heart or will you listen? God's judgment is gracious because he warns us and God's judgment is gracious because he gives us Christ. God's judgment is gracious because he picked one spot. And he poured his judgment out there. And he said, if you're under my son, if you're under his umbrella. And you can be safe. My fire has already burned there, it's safe there. The picture is of a judge who looks upon... The picture is of a judge who looks upon a criminal in front of him and loves him. And he says, he looks at the law and he says, this criminal is guilty. This person is guilty. And punish them. And he slams down his gavel and says, he has to be punished. And then the judge comes down from his bench. And he gets eye to eye with the criminal. And he puts his arms around the criminal and he says, make the punishment fall on my back. That's what Jesus is doing. You see, there's no judge that comes down from the bench and looks eye to eye with the criminal, but he did. He came down from heaven to look us in the eye and to say, I will take this for you. Let me take it. And if you receive the judgment there and you'll be safe in the judgment to come. But I want you to know something, this is important. If you let Christ embrace you, if you come to him in faith and you become one with him, your sins still have to be punished and they will be. See, the Bible is very clear, it says he who sins must die. And if you refuse to come to Christ, you're gonna die in your sin and be punished for them and die with them. If you come to Christ, what happens to you is that sinful man, that person that you were, dies that moment. And from that moment on, you are a new person, a new creation. The new has come and the old is gone. And that's why you're that's that's how God allows you to move into his kingdom. That's why it's going to be safe to let you live in his eternal place of safety and grace. Because you're new. You're different. Your sins have been punished, the sinful man is dead. And that explains why some people look at someone who's wronged them. This was a problem with me for years. I was one of my greatest fears was that my dad would repent of his sin and I'd have to forgive him and like him again. And someone finally explained to me, no, you'll never have to like that person who hurt you. You'll never have to like him. If he comes to Christ, that person is going to die. A new person will be there. It will be a new creation. You'll actually find him humble. He's not going to come to you and demand reconciliation. He's not going to come to you and make demands upon you. He's going to come to you in humility and grace. And you're going to want to embrace him. And that explains why some of you come here today and you hate yourself. And you don't want God to forgive you, because you don't think you've been punished enough. You don't think you've done enough. You don't think you're good enough. You don't think that your sin has been paid for enough. And I want you to know, when you come to Christ, you will die. That person that you hate will die. And you'll be a new person. And that person may not feel like you think he's gonna feel, and we'll explain that to you more later. But it's important for you to understand that the wickedness, that wicked person that you've been walking around with can die today. And you can find a new life. Because God's not going to let that wickedness into his kingdom. The option is there for you. He wants, Jesus so desperately wants you to come. Please pray with me. Father, I pray that we would all leave this place alive, alive in newness, alive in hope. Father, everyone in this room needs to confess and repent of the things they did last night, not 10 years ago. Father, we are sorry. We're not what we ought to be. And we ask that you would judge our sin in Christ and remove it far from us. and make us new. Father, some of us are doing that for the first time right now. And some of us are doing it for the 10,000th time right now. And we all do it with honest, joyful hope, knowing that you will receive us all. In Christ's name that we pray. Amen.