The Righteous Judgment of God

 Temple Baptist Church - 9-6-2026

Psalm 50

 

Introduction:

A. Psalm 50 is the first of the Psalms of Asaph. His name is associated with 12 psalms: 50 and 73-83. Asaph was appointed by King David to lead the worship in the Tabernacle. He was the worship leader, a musician, a psalm writer, and a prophet!

 

B. Psalm 50 is a prophetic Psalm about the end of time when Christ will come back to the world to judge it in righteousness and truth. A time when He will make all things right. I look forward to that day.

 

C. As I look around me, there is little outside of God’s beautiful nature that appeals to me. I no longer fit in this present, evil world! There was a time when good was good and evil was evil. Today, evil has become good and good is evil. The aspects of a godless society, not a godly one. The wicked may get away with their sin in this life, but God warns that “it shall not be well with the wicked!”

 

Ecclesiastes 8:11-13 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. (12) Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: (13) But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

 

D. I could spend the evening right there but that is not my message. Psalm 50 is prophetic of a far better time to come. My heart cries “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” This world is not my home; I’m just passing through on my way to heaven!

 

E. Asaph was a prophetic worshiper. Asaph's name is associated with twelve Psalms: Psalms 50 and 73–83.

 

1 Chronicles 25:1 Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was:

 

F. The psalm sets forth a courtroom scene as all will gather, all will rise, and the Judge will enter the courtroom.

 

Verses 1-6.

 

1. Verse 1. The Court Called. Who is this Judge?

 

a. The Mighty God! אֱלֹהִים 'ĕlôhı̂ym el-o-heem' “In the beginning God (Elohim), the great Three In One. Though the Bible is specific on Jehovah God, Christ Jesus, the Word created all things (John chapter one), the Trinity was there together! The same when Christ Jesus comes to this earth in judgment, the Trinity will be there on the Throne in Unity.

 

b. The LORD. Jehovah God, the Eternal-Self Existing One. Christ, the Righteous Judge. The Creator, Owner, Sustainer of the earth and universe.

 

2. Verses 2-4. The Place of Judgment Set. Where His judgment is to be! “Out of Zion.” Luke 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:

 

a. It was at Zion that the Throne was established.

 

b. I was at Zion where the Lamb of God was slain and rejected.

 

c. It is at Zion where the righteous Branch, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, shall sit one day. Ruling and reigning for 1000 years.

 

Jeremiah 23:5-6 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. (6) In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called,.

 

3. Verses 5-7. The Parties Summoned. Who will be called? “Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.” “Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee: I am God, even thy God.”

 

a. His people, Israel, who made a covenant with Him by sacrifice! Though God ordered the sacrifices of Atonement, they were never mean to save. They were to point Israel to coming of Messiah, the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

 

b. The saved or our day find our redemption in the Person and work of Christ Jesus called the Gospel. The “covenant with me by His sacrifice!” The Lord speaks and testifies in righteousness as to His Purpose and Redemption.

 

4. Verses 8-15. The Issue Foretold. The LORD reproves Israel for their religious offerings that He did not order.

 

a. God ordered Atonement and not salvation through their outward religion. Atonement was never meant to be a way of getting right with God. Salvation has and always will be faith in propitiation: the innocent Lamb of God dying in our place. Religion does not replace Relationship. Atonement was remembrance of God’s promise of “God will provide Himself” as the sacrificial Lamb. The Old Testament saint looked forward to the Messiah, Christ Jesus, while the New Testament looks back in remembrance of God, Christ Jesus, died for the sin of the world.

 

b. God differentiates between the outworkings of religion contrasted by the inwardness of salvation. He did this same thing in chapter one of Isaiah’s Prophecy.

 

Isaiah 1:11-16 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. (12) When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? (13) Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. (14) Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. (15) And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. (16) Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;

 

c. It was not their outward offerings that pleased God, it was their inward anticipation of the Seed of the Woman, God Himself our offering for sin and eternal redemption found in Genesis chapter twenty two.

 

Isaiah 1:16-18 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; (17) Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. (18) Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

 

c. The problem was not their bringing of sacrifices, it was their reliance upon them instead of God. God owns it all! God needs nothing! God wants us! He does not want our religion, He wants us! He does not want our outward worship; He wants us to have an inward relationship through Christ Jesus!

 

d. You can't give God what He already owns! Everything belongs to God. Our money belongs to God. Our possessions belong to God. Our abilities belong to God. Our time belongs to God. Our life belongs to God.

 

e. So why does God ask us to give? Because giving isn't about supplying God's needs, it reveals what is in our hearts.

 

5. Verses 16-22. God Rebukes The Wicked.

 

a. They knew what God said! They knew God's commandments, but they rejected them. Verse 17 says: “Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest my words behind thee.”

 

b. They were willful in their ignorance of God’s instruction.

 

c. They were willful in their rejection of God’s authority.

 

d. They desired God's promises without obedience to God's ways.

 

e. God does not accept those who merely know the Bible. He wants those who believe the Bible and adhere to it.

 

f. Their mistake of thinking that God’s silence was condonement!

 

6. Verse 23. The Key to Restoration.

 

a. Worship God in spirit and truth! “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me”

 

b. Walk uprightly before God. “and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.”

The Seven Vials of God’s Wrath

Temple Baptist Church - 8-15-2021

Revelation 16:1-9

 

A.  We are now through with the Parenthetical Chapters that are prophetic of what will transpire in the last 3 ½ years of Jacob’s Trouble.  Now we see how the second half begins and ends.  It will begin and end with the pouring out of the seven vials of God’s wrath.

 

B.  When I think of wrath, which is anger put into motion, I think of a “boiling point.”  Water, at standard barometric pressure, boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit.  When water boils, it begins to roll as the hottest water rises to the top while the cooler water falls to the bottom of a pan.  The more that you heat the water, the faster that it boils.  Eventually, the water will tend to “boil over” as the heat expands.  We have learned to place a wooden spoon on top of a pan of liquid that is being heated to keep it from boiling over. 

 

C.  In chapter 16, we find God’s wrath as it “boils over” and is poured out on the earth and its inhabitants.  Once again, I am so thankful that I will not be on earth when this takes place.  The first 4 of these vials are like the first four trumpet judgments: the first upon the earth, the second upon the sea, the third upon waters, and the fourth upon the sun.  Most of these plagues line up with those placed upon Egypt in the Book of Exodus but, here in Revelation, they are not lifted.  In Egypt, a plague came then was, for the most part, lifted before the next one came.  Here, they are

 

D.  Verse 1.  The order is given.  The seven angels are now told to “go your ways” which means that each of the seven vials will be both different and differently poured out.  “Pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.”  The first four vials of God’s wrath are progressive and building because they are not removed.

 

E.  Verse 2.  The First Vial falls upon the earth but is directed upon those who have taken the “mark of the beast” and “which worshipped his image.”  A “noisome grievous sore” fell upon them, probably in the form of an ulcer.  Noisome – injurious or harmful.  Grievous – extremely painful.  This reminds me of the “sores” that Satan inflicted upon Job.

 

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines:

 

1. Noisome—Noxious to health; hurtful; mischievous; unwholesome; destructive; pestilence, injurious, offensive to the smell or other senses; disgusting.

 

2. Grievous— Afflictive; painful; hard to be borne, causing grief or sorrow, distressing, atrocious, hurtful, destructive.

 

F.  The direction of this vial shows the seriousness of both accepting the mark of the beast along with worshipping the image.  These are the people who have completely “bought in” to the wickedness, anti-God political order of Antichrist.

 

G.  Verse 3.  The Second Vial is now poured out upon the sea.  The sea becomes as the “blood of a dead man.”  Coagulated, putrid, stinking blood.  This vial directly affects the ecology of the earth as our seas (oceans and seas) are vital to the welfare of the earth.  The seas are important for different reasons. 

 

Seas are important to our water cycle.  Polluted waters flow to the sea where the brine (salt water) is vital to water purification, taking the pollutants to the bottom while the cleaner water rises to the top for evaporation and return inland in the form of rain. 

 

We also get much in the way of minerals out of the oceans which will be lost. 

 

Then, “every soul” in the water dies, affecting our food supply.  All forms of sea life will be gone.

 

H.  Verse 4-7.  The Third Vial is poured out upon all sources of fresh drinking water.  Not only will our rain be affected but all drinking water become blood as they did in the plagues placed upon Egypt because of Pharoah’s rejection of God. 

 

Exodus 5:2  And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go.

 

Mankind can go for a long time without food but not very long without water.  This means that they will have to drink the blood.

 

This is declared to be a righteous judgment from a righteous LORD.  These people are declared worthy because they have shed the blood of both saints and prophets.  In the Tribulation Period, martyrdom is a continual “cleansing” of the earth of the presence of anyone who names the name of Christ.

 

Martyrdom began in Genesis, chapter 4, continues to this day, and will continue until God ultimately intervenes.

 

J.  In verse 7, we once again hear the voice of a martyred saint under the altar as they did in Revelation, chapter 6.

 

Revelation 6:9-10  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  (10)  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

 

K.  Verse 8-9.  The Fourth Vial.  The sun, our source of light, warmth, comfort, along with health benefits—us used to scorch men.  Scorch – to burn the skin so as to turn its color and bring about great pain.  All of us have had a bad sunburn and remember the excruciating pain along with the dying and peeling of the epidermis. 

 

L.  I have always found verse 9 interesting in a morbid way.  As men are scorched with the sun, they continue to blaspheme the name of God and be non-repentant in their hearts.  Hardship does not always cause men to turn to God.  Most of the time, it causes men to blame God for their circumstance when their own sin and rebellion brought upon them. 

 

l.  God will not always be longsuffering, full of grace and mercy.  Proverbs 29:1  He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.