A Pause in the Mercy of God, Part 2

When it comes to the true praise of God, what's the focus?

Is true worship about us or about God? Nobody's saying, did you notice what I did, Lord, for you? Did you notice how I stood true for you?

No, no, no. Righteous and true are your ways. Listen, this coral outburst is focused upon and flooded with the exaltation of God.

One author wrote generations ago, in the perfect presence of God, self is wholly forgotten. In Revelation 15, we read of a choir that breaks out in song. They're not singing about how great they are and how marvelous their accomplishments are.

Their song isn't a reminder of all that they've suffered or faced in life. No, they sing of the glory of God. The focus is on God and God alone. But immediately following this song, seven angels carrying seven bowls of God's wrath for his enemies are sent out.

What a scene. This short chapter from Revelation is rich in theology, and we're going to study it next. This is Wisdom for the Heart and here's Stephen Davey with a lesson he's calling, A Pause in the Mercy of God. Sometime ago, I had to go to the courthouse downtown Raleigh and see somebody regarding my excessive haste. My passion for ministry.

My single mile, never mind, you know. I knew one of the judges, federal judges, normally held court downtown. And so I came downtown and after I had given my investment to the great state of North Carolina, which I love, I stopped by his courtroom.

I had told him I was coming by and he said, Dave, when you do come by and say hello. I stepped inside the door of his court and was filled with people, people standing seated. He was up there behind the bench, on the bench behind the desk, and he was in his black robe, the bale of standing there, armed to the teeth in court. Some kind of federal trial was was going on. Court was in session. So I thought, I'm not going to I'm not going to interrupt him. And so I went to step back outside the courtroom and he spotted me. He said, come here. I did one of those me, you know, I've already seen one judge today.

I don't want to see two. He said, no, no, no. So I walked down the aisle every stops. Lawyers turn out to look at me. I'm walking on the I walk through the swinging gate right here to my right.

Seated are four men shackled together wearing orange jumpsuits. They look up at me and I look down at them and how you doing just didn't seem fitting. And so I I just kept walking, got up to his bench and he leaned over. He said, Hey, Pastor. And he shook my hand and he said, courts in recess, hopped up to come with me, went back to his chambers, talked a while, prayed about something.

He was he was heavy on his mind. We left. He got back on the bench and I left the courtroom. You know, I I didn't stick around, but I can just about guarantee you he never shook the hand of those four men.

I doubt he invited them back to his chambers. To those men, he was a judge. To me, he was a judge, but he was also my friend.

So those who are standing there, yes, he is an awesome, holy judge and reflection of his glory, shimmering the width of a sea. But he embraces them. They are his friends. Although you have a picture of of judgment swirling red like fire around the bench of these superior judge of the universe, these saints are filled with joy and they're singing because of their invitation by means of faith in the Son of God. Now, John describes these believers one more point about verse four.

Before we move on, he describes them rather interestingly to me. He says of these, they are those who had been victorious over the beast. That's the Antichrist. They're martyrs, but he refers to them here as these are they who had been victorious over the beast.

This is where God turns everything upside down. They are the winners. Every time the Antichrist guillotine blade fell, God says, in effect, I've got the victory in that one.

And the Antichrist at the same time is saying, that's another victory for me. In the world's eyes, these believers were considered losers, the ultimate loser. They were captured in prison. They weren't with it. They were out of step with the world. And because of it, they were reviled. They wouldn't worship the true God who had already shown his miraculous splendor.

Who wouldn't? But because they confess Jesus Christ as Lord alone, the Antichrist comes against them and, listen, at the moment of their execution, would there be any other moment like that one that would indicate these people are powerless, helpless, insignificant, stripped of everything, even life itself. And yet the moment after the blade falls, they're announced as victors over the beast. God turns defeat upside down. You see the perspective of heaven here. The Antichrist is under the delusion that he is demonstrating absolute power. He's ridding himself of his enemies. Frankly, all he's doing in reality is running a shuttle service to heaven.

Right? The Antichrist thinks he's worthy of worship. But from the perspective of heaven, one author wrote it this way, the Antichrist is nothing more than an elevator boy.

I love that. He's delivering saints as it were up to glory. Down on earth, the Antichrist seems to be winning. In the presence of God, these who died are announced.

Oh, we have another victorious one who's just arrived. Join the choir. Now, the lyrics will follow the titles to these two hymns. Let's look first at the titles, verse three. And they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the lamb. More than likely, the song of Moses tracks back to Exodus chapter 15, verses one to 19. This is where the children of Israel celebrated their exodus from slavery. This is where they celebrated and sang of their great deliverance away from Pharaoh.

This was the song of their exodus. It was stamped upon the memory of every Jew. In fact, it would be sung at every Sabbath evening service in the synagogue.

And to this day, Orthodox Jewish services include one of two prayers. Two prayers, actually, one of the two prayers references the song of Moses. Now, we've already been introduced to the song of the lamb earlier in Revelation, but in chapter 15 here, you'll discover just a few nuances are added and a stanza or two to this great scene of praise as people sing of their redemption from the slavery of sin having been brought now into the promised land. The song of Moses was sung at the Red Sea.

The song of the lamb now is being sung at the Crystal Sea. The song of Moses was triumph over Egypt. The song of the lamb here is triumph over Satan. The song of Moses sang of how God brought his people out. The song of the lamb sings of how God brings his people in. Song of Moses is one of the first hymns in scripture.

The song of the lamb will be one of the last. The wonderful British expositor John Phillips wrote that the lyrics of these great hymns begin with effectively, how great thou art. Notice verse three, great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God the almighty. How great thou art, but not only how great thou art, how good thou art. Notice next, righteous and true are your ways, king of the nations. Not only how great thou art and how good thou art, but how glorious thou art. Verse four, who will not fear of Lord and glorify your name?

Listen to them sing, not one word of their suffering, because now it is seen with a perspective of glory, not one word of complaint. Nobody's running across that sea of glass and getting up to the throne saying, why did you let that happen in 1973? Or why did you allow this difficulty in my life in 1984?

Or why did I lose my job in 2005? Significant things to us now that we ask God for wisdom about. But when you get there, you see this sea of glass and the throne of sovereign God. And we're there, by the way, this company of martyrs is singing and we're listening and enjoying it.

All of a sudden, everything will change, won't it? Even they who died horrific deaths following torture and ridicule and abandonment and suffering greatly, all they can sing about is him. Notice every pronoun has to do with God. Great and marvelous are your works. Nobody's saying, did you notice what I did, Lord, for you? No. Did you notice how I stood true for you?

No, no, no. Righteous and true are your ways. Who will not fear and glorify your name? Listen, this coral outburst is focused upon and flooded with the exaltation of God. One author wrote generations ago, in the perfect presence of God, self is wholly forgotten. Heaven is a place where we finally forget about ourselves and remember only God. Won't that be wonderful? Now, just why does this choir of redeemed tribulation saints sing?

We're given three with a Greek language called Hati clauses, three because clauses. Look, verse four, because you alone are holy, because all the nations will come and worship before you, because your righteous acts have been revealed. People from every tongue, tribe and nation will have believed in Christ alone. They will have survived the rampage of the antichrist. They will live to see Christ come and they will enter the millennial kingdom to worship and serve King Jesus. And we'll talk about what that implies about nations and cultures and worship in the millennial kingdom.

Fascinating. But the Bible records Isaiah to Michael for Zachariah 14 all refer to the nations who will come to worship the reigning sovereign Lord. Now, what John sees next is further amazing. Look at verse five. And after these things, I looked in the temple of the tabernacle of testimony in heaven was open. Now, the word temple is the word Naos, a reference to the Holy of Holies. In there was the place of the Ark of the Covenant, which housed inside of that the golden box, those two tablets of law written by the finger of God upon stone. The earthly tabernacle was merely a representation of the heavenly tabernacle. So you have in this vision this heavenly tabernacle and were taken immediately to the Naos, the Holy of Holies.

And it's open. And verse six says, look there and seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, clean and bright and girded around their chests with golden sashes. Now they look just like Christ was described back in Revelation Chapter one.

Why? Because they represent him in this act of judgment. You remember Jesus Christ is, as we said in our last session, he's either your great redeemer or the grim reaper, right? And he's now going to bring judgment and he uses the hosts of heaven to do his bidding. He's ready to unleash final judgment. Judgment has been given to him by the father. John five twenty two. And you notice here in this text, these angels are dressed in linen robes.

That's the dress of the high priest. Thus the angels present the image. They are at this point the representatives of God. They happen to have a message from God and it's not very good, but they're going to deliver it. So they're emerging. The text indicates some kind of ceremony will be there.

We'll be watching this. Seven angels march, perhaps in single file out of the Holy of Holies, representing the very place where the law of God has been kept. So to speak, they're given a mission.

Then why? Because mankind has done nothing but violate the law of God. We've been told already in Exodus Chapter thirty four that God will never allow the guilty to go unpunished. You either have the guilt of your sin punished in Christ or you will bear the punishment yourself.

But guilt must be punished. So God, if he does not judge sinners, is unjust. If God sweeps sin under the carpet of some distant galaxy, he is an unholy, unjust judge. He is, in fact, what we would call a crooked judge who is inconsistent and winking at sin. The prophet Habakkuk asked in Chapter one, Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? And David answered in Psalm nineteen, The judgments of the Lord are true.

They are righteous altogether. So these angels have been given the authority of Christ to receive their saucers, their bowls of divine retribution. And with some ceremony that would be amazing to behold, every one of us who believe in faith by faith in Christ will be here watching this scene unfold. These seven angels file out and they come up to the four creatures before the throne of God. Look at verse seven.

Did one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever? And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power. And no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. In other words, nobody can go in there and ask for mercy.

This is effectively for this period of time, the end of mercy. No one can sprinkle anything for any kind or act of atonement. And so it's pictured by the smoke of the glory of God, filling the temple, and nobody is let in until these plagues are delivered in this final expression during the tribulation of the wrath of God be absolutely horrifying. The apostle Paul has already taught us that the wrath of God is being stockpiled. You could translate it stored up, literally stockpiling sin upon sin. Romans two. God could judge every sin of every person immediately, couldn't he? Paul has already written in Romans two for God, however, is forbearing.

The word forbearance means to hold back, to delay. One of the gifts of grace toward unbelieving mankind is that they're allowed to take another breath. And even though they mock him and deny him and defy him, he allows them to enjoy the sky and the rain.

Why? He's holding back. God allows him to live and offers him throughout his entire life, pardon which he persists in refusing and one day will give an account for having resisted and refused the truth of God that he knew. But there will come a time then when grace is withdrawn, so to speak. This is the end of mercy.

And mankind as these bowls are poured out, as we'll see later, will do nothing more than curse God with even greater hatred. Robert Ingersoll was a lawyer, a brilliant orator and an agnostic who lived in the mid eighteen hundreds. Went online and did a little reading of him. I'd heard of him, had referenced this many years ago, as a matter of fact.

I found it interesting and I didn't know a number of things about him. His father had been a Presbyterian pastor for for years. And at one point, his father served as an associate of Charles Finney, the evangelist, even preaching for Finney when Charles Finney was in Europe. He was an Armenian evangelist, created more trouble than help. But Robert grew up in that environment and Robert would grow up then to defy any accountability to God.

In fact, A.B. Simpson, the founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, called Robert Ingersoll this daring blasphemer. At the height of his fame, he would deliver speeches. In fact, he delivered the Republican National Party's opening speech. They would buy a dollar ticket to come hear him speak.

And a dollar in the mid eighteen hundreds was an enormous amount of money. To hear him and he would hold them spellbound for two, three hours. Often when he spoke, he would speak against the existence of a personal God and he would stand on the stage before thousands of people. And he had this custom.

Often he did this. He would take out his pocket watch and he would say, if there is indeed a God, I challenge him to strike me dead within 30 seconds. And then he would open his pocket watch and he'd stand there and he'd count it down. And people, of course, especially then would gasp.

You don't say anything like that. You don't challenge God to prove his existence. People would faint and he would count it down.

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. You see, there is no God. He would say. Now, if I were God. I would wait till he got to three to. He disappeared. His watch would just hit the stage and roll around and then you'd hear a voice booming from heaven. Anybody else?

That's what I would do. I don't have near the forbearance of God. But God does. This is a picture of our world, ladies and gentlemen.

Today Bob Ingersoll's walk the streets by the millions. They teach in classrooms. They live in your neighborhood.

They work at your job. We will live our lives the way we want. Evidently, he doesn't seem to bother. There must be no God. And where is God?

He is seated upon in this picture a throne, upon a sea of glass, taking notes. And we will see him open the books that have been recorded of every thought and deed and sinful act. And mankind will be judged accordingly.

And this is another warning for us today. God will eventually summon his angels and say now, now, no holding back, no more delay. Those who've rejected the gospel of God will be judged by the law of God. And with the law of God, there is no mercy. Look at verse eight again. The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God, from his power. And no one was able to enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished. No one can stay his hand. In other words, once the time of judgment has come, the time for intercession is passed. One author put it this way. Christ is no longer knocking on any door. He's entering to act in sovereign judgment.

The world would perhaps say, oh, right, you're into that. That's scary stuff again. Sounds like the war of the world to me.

It does. And it will be. Because as these are poured out, they will encompass the Battle of Armageddon, which we'll get to.

And the world at war is just around the corner. This is no hoax. This is not some religious drama with special effects to scare people into the church.

This is the truth. God does not cry wolf. But in his patience, he warns. And by his grace, he invites. How long would you invite someone to come to your home before stopping a week, a month, a year? Noah warned and invited people for one hundred and twenty years. And Christ has invited every generation to join his church for two thousand years.

I wonder how long has he been inviting you? I would say after a chapter like this, it's time he took his warning seriously and accepted his invitation personally. Whoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be what? What a great word. Saved. Saved from many things. Certainly safe from this coming wrath of God. It's not fun to think about or teach about the wrath of God, but God's wrath is a serious and terrible thing for those who will experience it. But as Stephen pointed out today, God's wrath is not some scare tactic.

It's real. And because it's real, the only loving thing to do is to warn those who are about to face it. And so, friend, if there are people in your life who don't know Christ, I hope you'll take the time to show them the reality of their condition and invite them to respond to the gospel. And for those of us who are believers, our response is one of praise and gratitude for what we've been spared.

God's wrath. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. And today's lesson concludes our current series entitled A Preview of Things to Come. I hope it helped you. We have a resource on our website and on our smartphone app that can help you share the good news of the gospel with others. If you go to wisdomonline.org or look at the landing page of the Wisdom International app, there's a resource there called God's Wisdom for Your Heart. It provides a concise and thorough presentation of the gospel message.

You can call up your phone and open that app and take someone through that presentation. Again, you'll find God's Wisdom for Your Heart on our website or on our app. And as I mentioned, this was the last lesson in a series called A Preview of Things to Come. If you'd like this series in your collection of biblical resources, we have it available as a set of CDs that you can own. And you can also download the series as a collection of MP3 files. When you do that, you'll also receive the written manuscripts of each lesson. Of course, you can always listen online or on the app. And all of those are available at wisdomonline.org. So visit there or call us at 866-48-Bible. And of course, join us tomorrow for more Wisdom for the Heart. See you next time.