OPEN: O, Sinner Man, Where You Gonna Run To? (sung by Leon Bibb - https://youtu.be/uTuy101LcPs)
How many of you have ever heard this song?
What you just heard was an old Negro Spiritual and I heard it way back when I was a teenager.
It has been so popular over the years that it’s been sung by dozens of groups (I found pages of versions on YouTube).
It has been sung by groups such as:
* Peter, Paul & Mary
* Three Dog Night
* And a whole raft of Folk Singers and Concert Choirs
When I first heard the song I remember being struck by the haunting power of the question:
“Sinner Man, Where You Gonna Run To?”
He runs to the rock, to the sea, to the Lord and ultimately to Satan… because he has come face to face with the wrath of God and he’s so frightened he’s looking for ANY way to avoid the God’s anger. But there’s nowhere to run and nowhere to hide because he had rejected God for so long that there was no longer any hope.
Do you know where the writer of that spiritual got his idea?
That’s right – right here in Revelation 6.
“Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” Revelation 6:15-17
That’s pretty scary stuff!
These sinners are RUNNING from God.
They’re RUNNING from the wrath of the Lamb.
(PAUSE)
Bu as I was preparing for this message it occurred to me that there was something here that just doesn’t seem quite right.
John 3:16 tells us that “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”
And Jesus said He had come to “seek and to save that which was lost”
And Jesus spent His time among the tax collectors, and the prostitutes and the sinners.
To illustrate that idea, Jesus once told the parable of the Prodigal Son. The son apparently hated his father and couldn’t wait for him to die. He demanded that his father give him his inheritance before he died – which the father did – and the boy took the money and went off to a far country and spent it like he had it. Until he eventually didn’t have it anymore. His friends ran off and famine hit the land. Ultimately he became so poor that he began to look at the food the pigs were eating and wondered if he could eat it too.
Then he came to himself and realized his father’s servants ate better than this, and he made up his mind that he’d back to his father and say: “I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.” Luke 15:19
When the Son returned to his father do you remember what did the Father do?
That’s right – He ran to him to His son and embraced him.
Over and over again - throughout the New Testament - we hear this message repeated and it all seems to be summed up in what we read in 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
But here we have sinners running from the Wrath of the Lamb.
They’re running from the wrath of the very one who died for them.
What’s going on here?
The answer is found in Revelation 6:9-10
“When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. They cried out with a loud voice,
‘O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’
Now there’s a couple things at play here.
1st – the scene here (and in the following chapters) show God’s vengeance on mankind.
As Hebrews 10:30 tells us… we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.”
The major focus in Revelation 6 is God’s judgment on those who’ve persecuted and slain HIS people.
Jesus told us that was going to happen. He said
“Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!” Luke 6:22
AND “You will be hated by all for my name’s sake.” Luke 21:17
John wrote “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.” 1 John 3:13
And Peter told the Christians of his day: “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. 1 Peter 4:12
Did it happen??
Yes! Within the first 3 years of the EARLY church’s existence...
* The Apostle James was executed.
* Peter was thrown into prison.
* Philip was stoned to death.
* And a man named Saul had Christians arrested, jailed, beaten and even killed.
And THAT was just the beginning.
Down thru the ages Christians have been mistreated, tortured and killed for their faith.
• Just this year on September 11th, a church Elder with a church in the Philippines was murdered by Muslims (https://www.persecution.com/)
• A group that monitors these things tells us that all across the globe on average – every month this year there have been…
o 322 believers murdered
o 314 church buildings and properties destroyed
o 722 forms of violence have been committed against believers
According to the US Department of State, Christians in more than 60 countries face persecution from their governments or from surrounding neighbors simply because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
(https://www.opendoorsusa.org/christian-persecution/?keyword=christian%20persecution&p&g&60394617355&1t3&c&650404711&34353529153&gclid=CjwKEAjw34i_BRDH9fbylbDJw1gSJAAvIFqUc5HeoUD9EBdG59yq3KDqNcAt5CWcv-pICn-0TsLaWhoCO-fw_wcB)
And this is not a new situation for believers.
Christians have been suffering and dying for their faith for centuries.
And Revelation is telling us that God knew this would happen… and it made him angry.
And He was so angry that if He said: “Vengeance is Mine”
You REALLY don’t want to be on the receiving end of that kind of anger.
Paul wrote: “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you” 2 Thessalonians 1:6
And we have the same promise God gave Abraham back in Genesis:
“I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.” Genesis 12:2
Down thru my ministry I have seen that come to pass.
I’ve gotten to the point that I pity anyone who tries to hurt me.
I literally feel sorry for them because I know the truth of Revelation 6.
You don’t mess with God’s people.
As Hebrews 10:31 tells us “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
So the 1st thing I see in Revelation 6 is this:
God will bring judgment on those who hurt His people
But there’s something else here that I think is really easy to miss.
God’s judgment is not just about vengeance… it’s ALSO about reaching out to the lost.
In that song I played for you at the beginning of the service there’s this verse:
Run to the Lord. “Lord won’t you hide me”
Run to the Lord. “Lord won’t you hide me”
Run to the Lord. “Lord won’t you hide me”
“And the Lord said ‘sinner man – you shoulda been prayin’”
You know what that verse is saying?
It’s saying: it’s too late Sinner man… you shoulda been a prayin!
But you didn’t, so don’t bother me.
You have messed up big time and now there is no hope
I have a real problem with that.
Isaiah 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
As long as the wicked are willing to repent… God will forgive.
That’s the message throughout Scripture.
Hebrews 9:27 tells us “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment”
But these guys (in Revelation 6) aren’t dead yet!
Until they die they still have the opportunity to repent.
And besides, Revelation 6 does not say that the “Sinners” were appealing to God.
These folks weren’t running TO Jesus… they were running AWAY from Him.
Revelation 6:15-16 says they “hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb”
These folks aren’t appealing to God to hide them… they were calling on the rocks and Mountains to fall on them and protect them.
(PAUSE)
Did you know that God punishes people to get their attention?
Did you know that there are times in Scripture where God disciplined entire nations in order to get them to repent?
You see it repeatedly in the Old Testament prophets. Israel or Judah would neglect God - worship other gods, sacrifice their children to idols, engage in all kinds of evil things and God would punish them to get them to repent.
In Psalm 32:4 David spoke of how God dealt with him after he had sinned with Bathsheba. He wrote: “day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.”
It was a repeated theme throughout the Old Testament.
God would slap folks down in order to wake them UP!
And God hasn’t changed.
He’s still working on sinners NOW as He did back then.
One of my favorite verses in Scripture is where Jesus says:
“It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will CONVICT the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment” John 16:7-9
What’s it mean to “convict”?
It means that someone has been convicted of their guilt.
It means to make a person FEEL their guilt.
And that’s the Spirit’s job – to convict people of their sin, convince them of the need of righteousness and remind them that there will be a coming judgment.
Now, how is the Spirit going to do that?
Well, by making them very uncomfortable.
ILLUS: I’ve seen this at work.
Years ago, at the first church I served, there was a woman who came to church with her children. The kids came to youth group too. But their father Frank was not a nice man. He beat his kids, and constantly berated and belittled his wife.
For some reason Frank liked me and once in a while I’d go to their home to see what I could do to talk to him. But Frank was always trying to justify his behavior and tried to make himself look “righteous” in how he mocked and ridiculed his wife.
At one point I’d had enough of his foolishness and told him exactly what I thought. And then told him I was going to pray for him… I was going to pray that God would make his life miserable for the 7 days.
At the end of 5 days, Frank called me and begged me to stop praying that prayer.
The Spirit was doing His thing and was trying to bring Frank to repentance.
There’s an interesting passage from Proverbs 24:17-18
“Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.”
Now why on earth would God be displeased if I rejoiced in the downfall of an enemy?
AND why would He turn His anger away from my enemy if I do that?
I mean, didn’t God say He would trouble those who trouble me?
And that He’d curse those who curse me?
Well yeah!!
So why would God get upset?
We’re just cheering Him on from the sidelines here.
I’d do as much for any football team I root for.
And these are my enemies after all.
They deserve to be punished!
And God PROMISED!!!!
Well, here’s the deal:
If I rejoice when my enemy falls I prove I’ve missed something.
You see, Jesus came to die for sinners.
Now - are my enemies … sinners?
Yeah! I’m pretty sure that’s part of the reason they’re my enemies.
But Proverbs 24 is hinting at the fact that your enemy is being punished for a reason.
And that reason is NOT to make you happy.
You know what the reason is?
The reason is this: God is punishing your enemy so that you can show them grace.
That’s why Scripture repeatedly tells us things like this:
“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” Proverbs 25:21
You see God punishes your enemies so that you can come into their lives and show them God’s love and lead them to repentance.
If you go rejoicing over their falling down, you can’t do that.
It’s a little hard to tell people that God loves them when you’re laughing behind their back.
The only way we win sinners is by showing that we CARE for them.
You and I need to be constantly reminded that we were not saved so we could be pampered.
We were saved because we were going to hell.
We were saved because we didn’t stand a chance without the mercy of God.
It’s not that God doesn’t you to have a better life than you’d have if you didn’t become a Christian; it’s just that God has saved us to become something more than just self-centered and self-serving individuals. God saved you and I - and then enlisted us to be His missionaries to a lost world. God is at war with Satan, and His objective to win back from Satan the souls the devil has taken captive to do his will.
CLOSE: I want to close by telling you of the story of a man who hated the church.
He lived in a country on the other side of the Atlantic.
He was responsible for the imprisonment, torture and death of many Christians and it was his life’s goal to destroy the church.
He once said “I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison”
If anyone deserved to go to hell… this man did.
If anyone deserved God to destroy them… this man deserved it.
Then one day Jesus paid this man a visit.
We’re told that as he was traveling along the road when suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him,
“Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
And he said, “Who are you, Lord?”
And Jesus said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
You remember the story don’t you?
Saul (we know him as Paul) was blinded by Jesus and had to be led by the hand to a house in Damascus where he fasted and prayed for 3 days.
Jesus had knocked Saul DOWN in order to wake him UP.
Then Jesus went to a man named Ananias.
Ananias isn’t mentioned anywhere else in Scripture.
This is the only time we meet him.
Jesus goes to Ananias and he says:
“I want you to go to a certain house in town and talk to Saul of Tarsus.”
And do you remember what Ananias said?
“Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” Acts 9:13-14
Now I have it on good authority that that’s NOT what the original Greek actually says.
The original Greek actually says: (Pause) “You have got to be kidding me!”
Well, ok. That’s not what the original Greek says.
But that’s what I’d have said.
Why doesn’t Ananias want to go to talk to Saul?
Because Saul is the enemy
Ananias LIVES in Damascus and he’s know that Saul was on his way to arrest him and his family and his friends, and to put them in chains, take them to prison and perhaps even kill them.
If Jesus had told Ananias that He’d knocked Saul down and blinded him I can picture Ananias saying “ALRIGHT!!!”
But as much as Ananias may have hated Saul, he loved God so much that he was willing to obey. So, Ananias went to Saul, and placed his hands on Saul’s eyes so he could see again. He told Saul all that God wanted to do in his life. And then he baptized him into Christ.
You know THIS is the only reason you know Ananias’ name.
Ananias had never been important enough to get his name in the Bible until this incident. But from that day on, he was known as the man who baptized the man who wrote half of your New Testament. He was the man who baptized the man who planted churches all across Asia. He’s the man who baptized the man who embodied everything we think about when we think about the ultimate example of Christianity is all about.
Now, here’s the deal – you may not think that you’re that important.
But if you are willing to go to your enemy when they are struggling, and share with them the love of God and hope of His forgiveness… then you have the chance to change the world. Because the enemy you win to Christ may be the enemy who shakes the very gates of hell.
We serve a God who has gone to war against Satan.
We have been enlisted to storm the very gates of Hell.
And we will succeed if we trust God to do what He has promised.
INVITATION
