He Said That He Would and He Did
Notes
Transcript
Read Revelation 15:1 - 16:21
Pray
Have you ever been confidently apprehensive about how God’s working in your life?
You know things are going to be ok, but the car does look like it’s heading for a cliff and the brakes really aren’t working and you just don’t see how it’s going to stop in time.
You want to know a secret?
With very few exceptions, I wonder about people who say they are never confidently apprehensive about God, you know what I mean?
Yes, I know God will see us through.
If God brought you to it, He’ll see you through it, right?
But what if it, is a big ole’ it?
And impossible it?
I need a kidney it?
I have a kidney it?
Or bigger than that?
Get in your way back machine to your VBS days when you learned about Moses and the Hebrew childnre crossing the Red Sea, do you remember the story?
God has unleashed 10 plagues on Egypt, ending with the Passover, and Pharoah tells them to get out.
So they do - the Hebrew Children plunder everything they can carry and off they go headed east.
And they end up at the Red Sea.
Now, there is a little detail about this story I somehow missed that makes it even more frightening - the scariest part happens at night.
Here’s the deal.
All 1.2 million or so of them get to the Red Sea and there’s no where to go.
Too far to swim.
No way to go around.
No boats.
Behind them in the distance is a dust cloud - Pharoah has 800 of his finest chariots and warriors in hot pursuit and he isn’t coming to play.
But do you remember that God led them in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.
The cloud moved from in front of them, to behind them.
Exodus 14:19-20.
Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them, coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
So think with me here - 1.2 million people trapped by the Red Sea, in the dark no less - the only thing standing between us and death by some of the best warriors on the planet is a fiery cloud.
The people were a bit less than confidently apprehensive - they completely forgot about the plagues and just knew they were going to die.
It’s dark - not everyone can see Moses lift his hands - but everyone could hear the wind.
And those standing in the front saw the waters parting and when they stepped into the gap, instead of mud, they found dry land.
Get the picture - walls of water, dark of night, howling wind, dry sea bed - tell me that’s not frightening.
They start to cross over to the other side.
I don’t know how long their sojourn lasted, but it ended during the morning watch, which is the last watch before daylight.
All of the Hebrew children are on the other shore.
The pillar of fire and the cloud moved so Pharoah and his army could pursue the Hebrew children.
But, instead of dry land, the pillar of fire and the cloud turned the sea bed into mud and the chariots mired up in it.
It’s still dark - all of Pharoah’s chariots are making slow progress.
Moses stretches his hands over the sea.
The wind calmed.
Everything got still and silent.
And when the sun came up, “the sea returned to its normal course.”
The waves gently lapped up on the shore.
Dead Egyptians floated on the surface.
All of the Hebrew children stood by the glassy water and saw that God had delivered them.
They made up a song and sang it on the spot.
And when they all quit singing, the women took tambourines and they sang and danced some more.
While they were waiting for the sea to part, I think Moses was confidently apprehensive.
I mean God did say to him, “Why do you cry to me?”
Moses was talking game to his people but he was crying out to God.
But God delivered Moses anyway.
Revelation 15 is Exodus 14 and 15 on steroids.
God made for Himself a people - a great nation - by delivering them to the promised land so the Savior could be born.
Now look at the scene in Revelation 15.
There is a sea of glass - mingled with fire.
Who is standing on the other side of the sea?
Everyone who conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name - God’s final great nation.
And -we- are singing.
We are going to look quickly at three things.
First, we need to remember that God delivers even when we aren’t sure He will deliver.
Second, what does it mean for us to glorify the Lord?
And finally, what should Christians expect to happen to everyone who believes that humanity has all of the answer.
With very few exceptions, and I know only of a couple, I believe even the deepest, most faithful Christians have times of confident apprehension when it comes to the way the Lord works.
Read the Psalm 22:1
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
Yes, Jesus said that on the cross, but David - remember, King David, David and Goliath David, he said it first.
Doesn’t that sound like confident apprehension?
Confident in that he is praying to the Lord expecting an answer.
Apprehensive in that “Why are you so far from saving me?”
“This thing is off the rails, God, or haven’t you noticed - if you haven’t, let me share that with you.”
The people standing on the other side of the sea of glass, mingled with fire were no different from David.
Or Moses.
Or you and me.
How can we know that?
Because Revelation fifteen is an allusion to Exodus 14 and 15.
Because in verse 3, they sing “the song of Moses,” the guy the Lord said, “why do you cry to me?”
They sang a song of deliverance like Moses and the Israelites sang.
And what does it say?
Those who conquered - who did not give up - who did not submit to the beast, his image or his mark.
To those who remained faithful even when they were confidently apprehensive.
They saw God work.
Revelation 15:3-4
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 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.”
Do you hear what they sang?
“You did it.”
“We were scared.
“It was hard.
“We knew you would but we wondered.
“You said you would do it - and you did.”
“Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name?”
Listen to me, there is an upside to our confident apprehension.
When God delivers - and He will deliver because we are His - our faith is increased and if we are human, we’ll sing and dance.
What does the old hymn say, “We’ll sing and shout the victory.”
What causes our apprehension is this: We think we have to do something good so God will do something good for us.
That’s not even possible - we are all tainted, every part of us, with sin.
We can’t good our way into anything.
Our job is not to do - our job is to be.
Be His - know who’s your daddy.
Rest in the fact that we know the Lord delivers His children.
Embrace your confident apprehension - you’re ok - you’re not standing by the sea of fiery glass yet.
But you will be.
Because God delivered Moses and the Hebrew children to make for himself a nation so a Savior could be born.
And God used that Savior to make for Himself a new nation that would one day stand by that sea of fiery glass.
And if follow Jesus, that’s you.
Let me encourage you to do something - when you face something that makes you confidently apprehensive, and God delivers, which He will do, promise me you’ll sing and dance and laugh your head off because God is Good and He’s Good all of the time to His children.
Or to use a church word - glorify God, won’t you?
What does that even mean, to glorify God? How do you do that?
There are three quick things: first, you sing, dance and laugh - you tell people out loud what God has done for you.
Praise Him out loud.
We see what He did, we repeat the story to folks over and over.
We let people see our astonishment and our bewilderment that God acted like He did.
We knew He would but we wondered if He would but He did.
With all I know about me, God delivered me anyway and it’s almost unbelievable - but it’s not - and I’ve got to tell somebody.
Second, glorifying God means we live our lives on God’s trajectory.
We dedicate ourselves to follow Him as best we can.
2 Thessalonians 1:11-12
To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We resolve to do good, we do what we do for Him because we believe in Him - He empowers us - people see it and God is glorified.
People see and are astonished and bewildered and know whatever it was can only be explained by a good God doing good things for His people.
Third, we do good, our faith is increased and people are drawn to Jesus.
We don’t do good to do good, we do good because we are good.
It’s in us - it’s who we are - we are His and we have no choice but to act like Him.
Real quick - those of you who have children - and those of you who don’t listen, because your turn is coming - those of you who have children, have you ever heard your mom or dad come out of your mouth?
I promise, Dad did and said things I said I’d never do or say - but one day they came out of my mouth as naturally as spitting on a baseball field.
Why? I said I would NEVER....
But I did - because I am my father’s child.
Well, we are our Father’s child and because we are, we do - we can’t stop ourselves.
And people see us act like Jesus and they like what they see when we do.
Jesus said in Matthew 5:16
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Don’t do to be, be to do and the Father will get the glory.
Finally, I really don’t want to deal with chapter 16 because chapter 15 is so upbeat and we need some upbeat.
But we need to very quickly look at the seven bowls of God’s wrath so we can understand point number three: What should a Christian expect for those who are adamant that humanity has all of the answers and that God isn’t one of them.
Let me say this real quickly about that - if you’ve been with us in the Revelation study since chapter 1, you’ll remember that we said the seven seals of the scroll were a 60,000 foot view of history from John’s day until Jesus’ return.
Then the seven trumpets were the 30,000 foot view of how God is working through history during the same period of time.
The seven bowls are us watching live television.
This is what the wrath of God looks like up close and personal and it’s not pretty.
This happens to living people - God’s wrath - His anger at sin - being poured out on them undiluted.
Remember, these things happen all through history - God’s not waiting for some day out there - this is going on now and will only get worse.
Seven bowls of God’s wrath.
First bowl, for receiving the mark of the beast, they are now marked with painful sores - God takes their health away and allows them to suffer.
Bowls two and three turn all of the water on the earth to blood.
Water represents life - without water you die.
Revelation 16:6
For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets,
and you have given them blood to drink.
It is what they deserve!”
I wonder given the number of murders in the United States, do you suppose - could it be God’s wrath being poured out right now?
Bowl four is fierce heat - fire represents God’s judgement.
People burn with hatred, passion, envy, jealousy, anger - and instead of realizing that they are suffering like they are because they have denied God, “They did not repent and give Him glory.”
Bowl five is darkness and they “gnawed their tongues in anguish.”
Darkness - they can’t see.
What they thought they knew they didn’t.
What they thought they could depend on they couldn’t.
This year - think people - masks don’t work, yes they do.
It’s racist to say China virus - it probably came from Europe - my bad, it came from China, it is the China virus.
UV light is a joke - uv light kills covid.
We thought we could depend on science and politicians didn’t we?
Oh, let’s get even more current - Hurricane / Tropical Storm Elsa.
The weather folks hyped it like it was going to be a horrible storm and end life as we know it.
Didn’t a local store close to “keep us safe?”
Darkness - you can’t see - you don’t where you are going - you don’t know what to depend on.
However, instead of repenting and following the truth, “People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.”
Bowl six makes a path for the final battle between Jesus and Satan.
The unholy trinity - Satan, the Antichrist and the False Prophet - have frogs come out of their mouths.
Sounds nasty right - it’s unclean animals - demons sent to deceive.
Unholy words - that’s what comes out of their mouths - deception - that is repeated around the world.
That mesmerizes people and captivates governments and unifies unholy people to do war on the Lord.
It is Armageddon - maybe not a physical place - but a spiritual place - a place where powers and principalities will make war on the most holy Son of God.
And lose.
Bowl seven is poured out into the air.
God’s voice shouts, “It is done.”
“Enough.”
“No more.”
Revelation 16:18
And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.
Earthquakes represent a change in government - a change like the earth has never seen since Adam was on the earth.
The entire earth shakes as the new government takes charge.
But you knew it was coming.
We read it every Christmas.
Isaiah 9:6-7
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
He said He would - and He did.
And our lost friends and family, will be lost to the abyss forever - Revelation 20:15
And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
But let's not end their today, ok?
Let’s end with us.
Standing on the other side of the sea of fiery glass.
Singing a song of deliverance, and dancing, and laughing.
This time not confidently apprehensive.
This time we are confident.
Jesus is coming soon.
He said that He would - and He did.
He always will.
Let us pray.