The Finality of God's Fury, Part 1

Revelation chapter 15 is where we are this evening. You're in for a wonderful treat tonight as we understand more about God and His person. Specifically, as we look at the shortest chapter in the book of Revelation, the finality of God's fury.

We'll spend two weeks here at least understand this chapter because it leads us into the bold judgments. Understand that Hebrews 10:3 says, It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The worst thing that's going to happen to the world. Is not what you or I could do to the world, but what God is going to do to the world. Over in Isaiah 13, verse number 9, it says, Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, cruel with fury and burning anger. Jeremiah 7. 20 says, Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out in this place on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not.

Be quenched. The prophet Amos said in chapter 4, verse number 12: Prepare to meet your God. Job said in Job 21:3, For the wicked is reserved for the day of calamity. They will be led forth at the day of fury. I don't know if you know this or not, but the wrath of God is being revealed on a daily basis. Romans 1 tells us that. Verse number 18. It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in Unrighteousness. The Bible says that the wrath of God is being uncovered, is being made manifest.

Is being revealed, literally, continually being re on a daily basis to those who are unrighteous and to those who are ungodly. As we come to Revelation chapter 15, we come to the fin of God's fury. I want to read to you just the first verse because that's all we're going to get through this evening.

And it says, And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues. Which are the last, because in them the wr of God is finished. Chapter fifteen and chapter sixteen are the last Of the seven plagues, the bowls of judgment that are about to be poured out. Turn back with me, if you would, to Revelation chapter 11. Revelation chapter 11, verse number 14, it says, The second woe is past.

Behold, the third woe is coming quickly. Remember back in chapter 8, verse number 13, John says, I looked and I heard an angel flying in mid saying, with a loud voice, Woe, whoa, woe to those who dwell on the earth. Because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are about to sound. There are three more trumpets that are about to sound in Revelation chapter 8. In chapter 9, the fifth trumpet is the first of the last three woes.

When you come to verse number 13, you have the sixth trumpet, and that is a second of the last three woes.

When you come to Revelation chapter 11, verse number 14, it says, The second woe is past. Behold, the third woe is about to come.

It's coming quickly. And it comes in Revelation chapter 15 as it prepares for the blowing of that seventh trumpet. To understand that the fury of God, the final fury of God, will be finished with the seventh trumpet, which is the third woe.

Which the angel said, if you think what has happened with the previous trumpets is bad, you wait till the final three woes come, which are the final three trumpets. For in the seventh trumpet, You contain the seven bowls of judgment that will be poured upon the earth. We studied chapter 14 the last few weeks. Chapter 14 comes In anticipation of the bowls. Chapter 15 is the preparation of the bowls. And chapter 16 is the execution of the bull judgments up the earth. Over in Ezekiel chapter 18, the Lord said in verse number 4, Behold, all souls are mine.

The soul of the Father as well as the soul of the Son is mine. The soul who sins will die. That's pretty clear. He says in verse number 20. The person who sins will die. He says it again, just to make sure if you miss it the first time, you get the second time.

The Son will not bear the punishment for the Father's iniquity, nor will the Father bear the punishment for the Son's iniquity. The righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself. Verse number 21. But if the wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, and observes all my statutes and practices justice and righteousness, he shall surely live. He shall not die. All his transgressions which he has committed will not be remembered against him because of his righteousness which he has practiced.

He will live. Then the Lord says in verse 23, Do I have pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Lord God. Rather than that he should turn from his ways and live. But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that a wicked man does, will he live? All his righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered for his treachery which he has committed and his sin which he has committed. For them he will die. Yet you say the way of the Lord is not right.

Hear now, O house of Israel, is my way not right? Is it not your way? That is not right. When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits iniquity, and dies because of it. For his iniquity which he has committed, he will die. Again, when a wicked man turns away from his wickedness, which he has committed and practices justice and righteousness, he will save his life. Because he considered and turned away from all his transgressions, which he had committed. He shall surely live. He shall not die.

But the house of Israel says, The way of the Lord is not right. Are my ways not right, O house of Israel? Is it not your ways that are not right? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct, declares the Lord God. Repent, and turn away from all your transgressions, so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel?

For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord God. There, rep. And live. Now, that's pretty much a commentary on our day. God says, if you turn from your sin and follow me and practice righteousness, you will live.

If you don't, you're going to die. And we say, wait a minute, God. That's not right. That's not what we want you to do. We want to be able to sin and not die. And God says, the day you eat of the fruit, Genesis 3, you will die.

That's the consequence of your sin. The wrath of God will be seen when you decide that my way is not the right way and your way is the right way. And Adam and Eve, of course, thought their way was better than God's way. And ever since that, since then, man has always said, well, Lord, that's just not the right thing. We should be able to live. We should be able to do what we want to do, how we want to do it, where we want to do it, when we want to do it. And you should look down upon us and say, that's okay.

You can live that way. I'm not going to kill you. But the Bible says, I'm right, God says. I'm right. You're telling me I'm not right. You're telling me, the perfect, holy God of the universe, that my ways aren't right? He says, I'm telling you, what is wrong about this? If you do righteousness, if you repent from your sins, You will live. If you don't, you will die. That's as clear as clear can be. Yet man still tries to justify himself and say, Well, that's just not right, God. And God has made it very clear from the very beginning: He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked.

He doesn't want man to die. But if man persists in his wickedness, God's wrath will be kindled against him, and he will die in his sins. It's the consequence of a man's rebellion again God. Remember Romans 11? I know some of you are probably saying, where is this in the notes? We're not in the notes yet. We're getting there. But I want you to get this before we get into Revelation 15. Remember Romans 11, verse number 22? It says, Behold then the kindness and the sever of God. To those who fell, severity, but to you, God's Kindness.

The word severity means to be cut off. Paul points to God's goodness and points to God's cutting off. The cutting off is a description of the wrath of God. When his patience against sin expires, God cuts people off from his goodness. Remember Romans 2. 4? Romans 2. 4 says, let me read it to you, these words.

Knowing that the kind of God leads you to repentance. Paul says in Romans 11, Beh the kindness and severity of God. He says in Romans 2:4, with that kindness there is no repentance. If God cuts off his kindness, there's no opportunity for you to repent. If you get to the point, as Hebrews 10 says, where you continually will reject the plan of God. Having seen what God has said, seen into the full light, and continued to reject that, there no longer remains a sacrifice for your sin. And God cuts you off.

From his kindness. He no longer makes available to you his love, his patience, his support. The balance of those two points is crucial. Paul says, stand amazed at the kindness and the severity of God. Without his kindness, there's no repentance. If he cuts you off, there's no longer any kindness because he abandons you from love, patience, truth, and righteousness. The prophet Nah says something similar, Nah 1, verse number 3. He says, The Lord is slow to anger and great in power. And the Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.

Then it says in verse number 7, The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who take refuge. In Him, God is good because God is good. He doesn't look the other way when evil comes. He has to deal with evil. He will not let the guilty go un. It's like a policeman. When a policeman sees a crime, he has to act because that's what policemen do. Or a fireman. When he sees a fire, he doesn't stand back and marvel at the glow of the fire. He does what he can to put out the fire.

Because that's what firemen do. God's goodness. Is not only seen in his positive acts, it's seen in his negative acts by punishing those who are guilty, those who do evil. God is always in perfect control of his wrath. Nah 1:2 says, The Lord is furious. Furious. That's an interesting word. It means that the Lord is master of his anger. It speaks of controlled fury. It's not a transient emotion, it is a fixed disposition. The Lord is in a st of furiousness. Now we don't like to see God that way, but that's the way God is.

In fact, turn to me to Psalm 9 for a second. Psalm 9. And I want to share something with you that Might cause you to want to stone and burn me, but God's not going to let you do that. At least not tonight. Psalm 7, verse 11. Says God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation how long? Every day. There's never a day God does not have fury, does not have wrath, and does not have ind. His wrath is constant, his wrath is unwavering. It is a burning fury against all those who rebel against him.

Turn to me to Psalm 5, verse number 5. It says this, The boastful should not stand before thine eyes. Thou dost h all who do iniquity. You heard the phrase, God loves the sinner and hates the sin. That is an unbiblical phrase. Because it's not true. God not only hates the sin, he hates the sinner. You with me so far? This is very important. It's going to change your perception of God. It's going to change your perception on how God sees you and how God deals with you. It says that God hates all who do iniquity.

We go around and say, you know, God loves the sinner and hates the sinner. You, well, wait a minute, Pastor, the Bible says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, and now you're telling me that God hates the sinner.

Yes, ex. It's important to understand that. You say, well, wait a minute. How can God hate the sinner? Yet love the sinner. That's a great question. Because you see, once you answer that question, it'll revolutionize your life. When is God's love demonstrated at the cross? Romans 5:8, God demonstrated his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, he died for us. God hates a sinner. Yet, God loves the world. God hates the sinner, He hates the wicked, hates all those who do violence, not just their sin, He hates the one who did the sin.

Y God demonstrated His love that while we were sinners, He died for us. Here 's the point. God Is so great that He shows us the essence of love. You don't love somebody because they make you feel good. That's not love. You don't love somebody because they do good things for you. Oh, I love that person. Oh, I love you so much. You are just so beautiful. Meaning that once you turn ugly, when you're older, I don't love you anymore. Oh, I just love you because you are just so good to me. God can never say that, can He?

Because we're not good to Him. We rebel against him. We're wicked toward him. We were born serving our father, the devil. Enslaved to him to do his will. Yet God loved us, and he demonstrated that love by dying on the cross for us. You need to grasp that. Why? Because God said in Matthew 5, you've heard that it was said. Love your neighbor. But I say to you, love your enemy. Love your enemy. Why? Because it's no big deal to love your neighbor. Love those who love you. Love those who are kind to you.

Tax gatherers do that, and the heathen do that. If you love someone who loves you, listen very carefully. That's not love. That's what he says. What does he say? He says, You love those who are your enemies. That's love, because love is a volitional act. Demonstrated to one who is your enemy. That's love. God would not be able to love the world. If the world was not his enemy, understand that rem in the garden when they came to get him? Christ performed the greatest of all his miracles. It was the last miracle.

It was the least of all the miracles. Yet it was the largest of all the miracles because it was the loveliest of all miracles. When Peter took the sword and cut off Malchus' ear, and Christ picked up the ear and touched him and healed him. It was the greatest miracle he performed while on earth. You know why? Because he lived to the end that which he preached: love your enemies. It was the time in which he was at the greatest distress. He had just prayed, Father, if it be your will, take this cup from me.

Nevertheless, not your will, not my will, but yours be done. The great way that we demonstrate love to somebody else, you listen, when you are at wit's end. When you are at the worst state physically, mentally, and emotionally is the greatest opportunity for you to demonstrate love to someone else because Jesus modeled that for you. See, we think we can love somebody when we're healthy, when we're rich, when everything's going well. Now I can really love somebody. No, you can't. You could do some things for them, but that's not really, really biblical love.

Biblical love is when you are at rock bottom. And you got nothing else to give, you reach up and you demonstrate compassion and love to somebody else. That is love. And that, my friend, is our God. That's what he did. He demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were sinners, he died for us. Now let me add this to that.

Not only was the greatest demonstration of God's love shown in that miracle before the cross, the greatest demonstration of God's wrath. Was never shown to you. Did you know that? The greatest demonstration of God's wrath Is not shown in the book of Revelation. The greatest demonstration of God's wrath was shown. On his son, you got to get that. You got to understand that one. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, we just think that there was just this little miscommunication between God the Father and God the Son, that the earth just got a little dark there for three hours and that just represents sin.

No, that's not what happened. Let me help you understand what happened at the cross. God punished his own son as if he had committed every, listen, every wicked deed done by every sinner. Who would ever believe? That's how God cheated his son. And he didn't. He did it so he could forgive and treat those redeemed ones as if they had lived Christ's perfect life of righteousness. What happened on the cross was the greatest demonstration of the wrath of God, and he demonstrated that not on an unbelieving man.

He demonstrated that on his very own son. So the next time someone says, I don't believe in a God of wrath, I don't believe teaching all that stuff about God's fury and God's anger. Remember that God, the Father, demonstrated the greatness of his wrath by pouring it out on his own Son as he bore your sin. In his body on the tree. Remember what it says: sure he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. He had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. Did you get that? It pleased God to grieve. His Son. It pleased God the Father to pour out His wrath on His Son for those three hours. It pleased Him. Try to reconcile that in your theology books. Try to grasp that one. And then you begin to understand more. About who God is.

It says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. That's why the book of Revelation becomes the greatest book in the Bible to study because it reveals to us the Son and all of his glory. And if we want to know what it means to live as God wants us to live, you've got to know inside and out the book of Revelation. Let's pray.