00:00
00:00
00:01
Transcript
1/0
We're going to read from Revelation
15, and we have turned the corner in this book. We've gotten to
the very point in chapters 12 through 14. Now we're heading
Backwards, so chapter 14 dealt with the definitive ending of
Israel, which is a big part of what this book was about, and
we're gonna be looking at the definitive ending of the seventh
head of Rome in the future. But each of these sections has
a glorious introduction, so we're gonna spend about three Sundays
on what we're gonna read today, Revelation 15, one through eight.
And I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels
having the seven last plagues. In them the fury of God is completed. And I saw, as it were, a sea
of glass mingled with fire, and those who prevailed over the
beast and over his image and over the number of his name standing
on the glassy sea having harps of God. They sing the song of
Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,
great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways,
O King of the nations. Who could not fear you, O Lord,
and glorify your name? Because you alone are holy, because
all the nations will come and do obeisance before you, because
your righteous judgments have been manifested. After these
things I looked, and the sanctuary, the tabernacle, the testimony
in heaven was opened, and out from the sanctuary came the seven
angels, the ones having the seven plagues, They were clothed in
pure, bright linen, and were girded around the chest with
golden belts. When one of the four living beings
gave the seven angels seven golden bowls filled with the fury of
God, the one who lives forever and ever, the sanctuary was filled
with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no
one was able to go into the sanctuary until the seven angels' plagues
were complete. Amen. Father, we thank you for
your word, and as we dig into it, It is our desire that our
hearts would be drawn to you the closer. So we pray for your
presence as we continue to worship in Jesus' name, amen. Well, over
the past 15 chapters, we have been seeing both the good and
the bad sides of life. And I would like to compare what
we have been looking at to sand. Sand on the beach is wonderful. until you get it into your shoes
and your hair and under your fingernails and your kids track
it into every nook and cranny of your car and your house. And
then it can be a little bit irritating. After a day on the beach you're
vacuuming and you still find sand and you got sand in your
bathtub and you never seem to be able to shake all of the bits
of sand out of your shoes that you've been walking on the beach
in. And sand does not make a very good foundation. It's not stable,
it's shifting. It is not give very good support.
Don't get me wrong. I love to dig my toes into the
sand on the beach. I love to make sandcastles. Yes,
even as an adult, that's my favorite thing to do at the beach. You
can swim. I don't care for the swimming. I like making sandcastles.
I find that a lot of fun, but those don't last very long. Within
24 hours they are wiped out by the waves. And I think that is
a perfect description of what many times happens here on Earth. Things that we do here on Earth
can very easily just evaporate. I think sand is a good metaphor
of the mixture of pleasure and irritation that we experience
on Earth and the sandcastles of the way in which the things
that we do on Earth, we many times wonder, are they just going
to disappear, be washed away with the waves of time? But the
things that we do on earth can last if they are done in the
Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 2 we have a sea of glass
mingled with fire. When you heat sand up it becomes
very durable, very beautiful, very long-lasting glass. I watched a video sometime back
where it showed the process of making glass from the scooping
out of all of the sand, melting it down, and then turning it
into something very usable and very beautiful. Back in 1945,
the Trinity bomb, it was a kind of plutonium
nuclear bomb, was experimented with in New Mexico and the area
that exploded in was all sandy and after the explosion the immediate
area was just a pool of glass. It was pretty remarkable. So glass is sand that is transformed
by heat and the heat part is not very fun. But our master
craftsman, Jesus Christ, is making all things new in His creation. And this is just one of many
images in this book of the glory of this newness that is invading
earth. Eventually all of the earth will
conform to the image of heaven. So let's dig into the text. Verse
1 says, And I saw another sign in heaven. Sprinkled throughout
this book are these visions that are so encouraging in the midst
of troubling times, very troubling times. And when you get discouraged,
I think it's good for you to take your eyes off of your discouraging
events for at least a moment of an upward glance at God, His
promises, thinking a bit about heaven or the victory of his
kingdom or the sufficiency of his grace for the problems that
you were facing. I don't know how many times that
my spirits have been lifted by looking at the Scriptures. The
Scriptures I liken to glasses. It helps you to see straight,
to not stumble when you're walking through the difficulties of life. And when John looked at this
inspired vision from God, he said that the sign in heaven
was great and marvelous. Now he already knew about the
greatness of the opposition down here on earth, but the provision
that God had was great and marvelous. Anytime there is something that's
great and marvelous, it's going to lift your spirits, okay? It's
going to be good. And I have frequently had to
rebuke myself When I have found myself getting discouraged and
tell myself, Phil, cut it out. You are not going to kill your
faith with discouragement. Look at the promises of God.
Look at the good things he's done in your past, but look at
the promises of God. And as I've done that, I have
found the discouragement evaporating. Now, I can relate to people who
get discouraged easily. It's very easy to get discouraged,
but I still want to admonish you to cut it out. Get rid of
your discouragement. And I have to admonish myself
to cut it out. Now, you may not think of discouragement
as a sin, but I do. I take it very, very seriously.
Let me give you William Ward's reasons for why discouragement
must be cast behind our backs immediately with an upward glance
at God. Do not nurse discouragement. That's what we tend to like to
do. We like to kind of harbor it for a while. Let me read what
he had to say. Discouragement is dissatisfaction
with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust of the
future. It is ingratitude for the blessings
of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, and
insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow. It is unawareness
of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellow man,
and unbelief in the promises of old. It is impatience with
time, immaturity of thought, and impoliteness to God." Wow. After I read that analysis of
discouragement, I have never been able to look at discouragement
the same way. I used to think I had a right
to be discouraged. Things are bad after all, right?
I have a right to be discouraged. But I've come to realize that
discouragement is an enemy that must be destroyed by faith immediately. So before I give some of this
passage's antidotes to discouragement, let me read his analysis once
more. This is by William, He said, "...discouragement is
dissatisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and
distrust of the future. It is ingratitude for the blessings
of yesterday, indifference to the opportunities of today, and
insecurity regarding strength for tomorrow." It is unawareness
of the presence of beauty, unconcern for the needs of our fellow man,
and unbelief in the promises of old. It is impatience with
time, immaturity of thought, and impoliteness to God. So when you get discouraged,
I would encourage you to remember seven things from this passage,
and actually there's a whole lot more things you can remind
yourself from the scripture, but I'm gonna go through these
seven as an exercise to show you how I deal with discouragement
in my own life. First, remember that the visible
world is not the only world that is out there. John looks at this
inspired vision and he sees what? He sees seven angels. This is not the first time that
angels have appeared in this book. There are some 70 times
that angels are mentioned in the book of Revelation. From
previous chapters you get the impression that the angels that
are mentioned are leaders of huge armies. So there's this
whole world of angels who work for us and who fight against
Satan's kingdom. And the reason that this bit
of theology is important is I think we generally tend to get discouraged,
not by thinking about the invisible world, we tend to get discouraged
by looking at the world around us. And we look around us, it's
what's happening in America, and it ain't very pretty. It's
very easy to become overwhelmed with the circumstances, just
like the servant of Elisha became overwhelmed with the circumstances
they found themselves in. You remember that story, right?
Elisha and his servant are in a village, and they are surrounded
by the enemy who have come to capture them, and the servant
is really stressed out about it. And so Elisha says to him,
do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who
are with them. 2 Kings 6 verse 16, and the servant
looks at Elisha with incredulity, like Elisha's crazy or something,
because all he has done is he's evaluated life based on what
his five senses are taking in. In contrast, Elisha, by faith,
knows that there are angels who are around, who are sent by God
as ministers for us. They're on our side. They are
far more numerous than the ones that are out there. So his servant
was discouraged because he didn't know that, but as soon as his
eyes were opened to see the myriads of angels and the fiery chariots
and the fiery angelic horses that were around him, he's given
faith. His discouragement evaporates.
Why? There's been no change in his environment. The angels were
there before and after. What changed was his realization
that the angels were there, that they were fighting on his behalf. And you might think, well, that's
fine for him. I wouldn't be discouraged either if I had a vision like
that, right? I don't have visions like that.
But see, that's the whole point of Scripture. Scripture is the
collection of the visions of prophets that are given to us
to give us faith and to remove our discouragement. It's just
the visions that are recorded in an objective way. In fact,
in 2 Peter chapter 1, Peter tells us, that the Scriptures are far
better at accomplishing that in our lives than any vision
ever would be. Read it for yourself sometime.
It's 2 Peter 1, 16 through 21. He tells us that Peter, James,
and John, they were on the Mount of Transfiguration, and they
were seeing this incredible vision of Jesus being transfixed. And there's Moses and Elijah,
and they hear this voice from heaven speaking to them. And
then he goes on in the next verses and says, but he downplays that. He says, but we have a more sure
word of prophecy. Okay. He's saying, don't envy
me for my vision. You got something far better
than any visions out there. You've got the recorded objective
testimony of the scriptures. So I find it incredibly encouraging
when I look to the Bible and the Bible that cannot lie tells
us that we have angels who are ministering spirits sent deliberately
to minister to every one of you, to the heirs of salvation. That's
Hebrews 1 verse 14. I find it incredibly encouraging
to realize that the good angels outnumber the bad angels two
to one. And actually it might be more than that because there's
a lot of angels that are already bound in the pit. I find it incredibly
encouraging that God has sent an angel for every one of our
covenant children. In other words, the more you
study the doctrine of angels, the more basis you have for realizing
we've got nothing to be discouraged about. We really are in the majority,
not in the minority. With the eyes of faith, we realize
that. Second, when you are tempted
to get discouraged, remember that the enemy's days are numbered. Revelations already told us about
the seven trumpet judgments against the church's persecutors, and
that's in history, by the way. But this chapter and chapter
16 are going to introduce us to seven more angels, quote,
having the seven last plagues. These are going to be the last
plagues upon that generation. And the word last indicates that
there is an end to God's patience in any given generation, in any
given society. Humanism was not destined by
God to thrive forever, at least not in the time of the New Covenant.
In the New Covenant, God does not allow the humanists to dominate.
Israel's days of persecution were numbered. Rome's days of
persecution were numbered. God does not allow evil to triumph
indefinitely when the church exercises faith. We're going
to be seeing in a moment that without faith you do not have
any remedy whatsoever for despondency and discouragement. Third, when
you are tempted to get discouraged at the evil around you, Just
remember that God's fury shows that God is far more upset with
the evil that is in society than you ever have been. You may be
upset with how things have gone. God's far more upset than you
have been. One of the temptations to discouragement, at least if
you're anything like me, is the temptation to think that God
does not care. Have you ever been tempted to
think God does not care about the circumstances in your life?
I mean, I have. Now, I know intellectually God
does care. I know that my emotions are a
lie. But I feel like it just didn't
feel like God cares about what is happening in my life. Well,
this verse here tells us God cares a lot. Verse one, goes
on to say, in them the fury of God is completed. He is reminding
the Apostle John that God was far more furious about the evil
in the world than John had ever been. And to me, that is so encouraging
because it means my prayers are not designed to motivate God.
God's already infinitely motivated to deal with evil. He hates evil,
right? What he is doing when he is patiently
waiting, he's stirring up the church to align its desires,
its motivations, together with God's motivation. Until the church
does so, we continue to suffer. Psalm 73 is very instructive
on this account. The author Asaph knew that God
was good to those who are pure of heart. That's verse one. But
he goes on to say in the next verses that he had almost stumbled
because he said, the wicked have it so good. And the righteous
have it so bad. And he said he was tempted to
be discouraged at how life did not seem fair. In verses 13 through
14, he was tempted to give up because it just didn't seem like
it was worth fighting for. And in the next three verses,
he said, here's his confession. If I had said, I will speak thus,
as he had just been talking, behold, I would have been untrue
to the generation of your children. When I thought how to understand
this, it was too painful for me, until I went into the sanctuary
of God. Then I understood their end."
And he goes on to describe how in the worship service, as he's
hearing the Word of God being proclaimed, He comes to the realization,
no, God is on the throne and it's the wicked who have things
bad in this life and in eternity. And it's the righteous who have
things good in this life and in eternity. And Asaph gives
repeated examples of how God judges men in time and in eternity
in response to the prayers of God's people. So the bottom line
is that God cares. He is motivated. God is furious
over abortion in America as one example. It's not because he
is unmotivated that abortion is not dealt with. If the church
would wake up and put their faith in him, God, I believe, would
be willing to send his angels to advance Christ's kingdom in
America. We cannot pit God's sovereignty
over against human responsibility. We cannot pit God's motivation
and his care against the church's need to care. Next, when you're
discouraged, remind yourself that God is on His throne. Verse
2 says, And I saw, as it were, a sea of glass mingled with fire. Now he does not describe that
sea of glass in detail because he's already spent two whole
chapters on that sea of glass. It's chapters 4 and 5, and it's
describing his throne room. Anybody who's read Revelation
already knows, OK, the sea of glass they're standing on is
God's throne room. And it's exactly the same sea
of glass that Moses saw in Exodus chapter 24. And in Exodus 24,
he's so encouraged because he knows without any shadow of a
doubt that God is totally on his throne. That's why in verse
3 of our chapter here, they're going to be singing the song
of Moses. Okay, it's connecting this passage with Exodus chapter
24. They too are convinced God is
on His throne. And I want to devote a whole
sermon to that song of Moses next week. But what an encouraging
thing it is to know your eschatology. to know that Jesus is right now
on His throne with a rod of iron ruling over the nations. It's
not that He does not care. He's not ignoring what is going
on. But as Revelation chapter 2 insists,
He wants the church to have faith in His kingship, to sit with
Christ in the heavenlies, and to be overcomers. And when we
are overcomers, chapter two says, we have the right to wield that
rod of iron that Christ has in his hands against the nations.
To me, it's just, it's staggering the kind of privilege that God
has given to his saints. And the whole point of going
through the book of Revelation is to increase your faith in
Christ's present kingship. A victorious eschatology is the
only thing that will restore to the church in America a victorious
faith. And without a victorious faith,
the church is not going to gain any victory. So cast off your
discouragement and remind yourself, hey, Christ is on his throne. Value the post-millennial eschatology
of this church. I think it is a remedy for discouragement. Next, remind yourself that even
martyrs, even martyrs are more than overcomers. Even martyrdom
should not discourage us. They were conquerors in life,
they were conquerors in death. Verse two goes on. And those
who prevailed, and the word prevailed literally means were victorious. So those who were victorious
over the beast and over his image and over the number of his name.
Now many people believe that this at least, if it's not exclusively
martyrs in heaven, at least includes them. I think it's both. How
could martyrs in heaven be victorious when the beast has successfully
killed them? Well it's because 1 Corinthians
15 says that with the resurrection of Jesus, with his ascension
to the right hand of the Father, God the Father guarantees that
your labors in the Lord are not in vain. Everything we do in
life, if it is done in faith, Everything we do in life accomplishes
the advancement of heaven to earth. And even our death is
used by God to advance Christ's kingdom. And I love the way that
Romans 8 ends. Let me read verses 31 through
39 of Romans 8, because I think it expands on this point and
gives us reason after reason why we should not be discouraged.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who
can be against us? He who did not spare his own
son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against
God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who
is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore
is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also
makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress,
or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, for your sake we are killed all day long. We
are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things
we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
When you're being opposed, remind yourself you are more than conquerors
through Christ. In 2 Corinthians 2 verse 14,
Paul said, now thanks be to God, get this, who always leads us
in triumph in Christ. You're thinking, now wait a second.
Paul went through all kinds of persecutions and almost gets
drowned and he gets stoned. No, he says, now thanks be to
God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses
the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. So you can remind
yourself that even if you die as a martyr, God guarantees that
your death will not be in vain. Satan is the one who really ought
to be discouraged because bit by bit we are conquering his
kingdom. Amen? Next, remind yourself you've
got a glorious destiny. Speaking of these martyrs in
heaven, it says, they were standing on the glassy sea, or on the
sea of glass. Not just in front of it. Your
picture, I couldn't find a better picture. They got them standing
in front of the glassy sea. No, no, no, no. They're standing
right on the sea of glass, right? Right on it. The sand of their
life has been transformed into glass. Beautiful glass. Glass
that will last for eternity. Glass that will bring forth glory.
to God for all of eternity. And the fact that they are standing
on the glass means that they have joined Christ in God's throne
room. As other portions of Revelation
remind us, they are ruling with Christ as victors. In fact, there
are many commentators who point out that this has to include
not just the martyrs, but it has to include saints on earth
who are overcomers. Not all saints are overcomers,
by the way. But it has to include them because it says here that
the people who are standing on that glassy sea are all overcomers. All overcomers. Well, earlier
in Revelation, it describes people on earth who were overcomers.
But either way, it means two things. First of all, it means
that no matter how discouraging life might be here on earth,
when we think about heaven, it is worth it. It is worth it.
Meditating on our heavenly heritage sometimes lifts our spirits,
gives us renewed energy to keep on keeping on. But certainly
being convinced that you are seated with Christ in the heavenlies,
that you're already ruling with Him can enable you to pray with
authority, pray with faith. Now I'll have to admit There's
probably more of my prayers that are not prayed with that authority,
not prayed with that kind of a faith than the ones that are,
but I've had that sense of being with Christ in the heavenlies
enough times it makes me long to have that more, to really
be praying with the authority that I have, with my position
in Christ and with the faith that I have there. And when you
have that perspective, it transforms what you're doing on earth. When
you get to the place where you can see yourself with Christ
in the throne room, it is a remedy for discouragement. Lastly, remind
yourself that the sorrows of earth will be replaced with the
joys of heaven. Okay, symbolized by the sea of
glass purified by fire, but it's also symbolized by the last phrase
of verse two where it says they're having harps of God. Now harps
were symbols of worship and praise and adoration and joy. And the
next verses will give fuller expression to the incredible
joy that they have. But no matter how sad the events
of earth make me feel, and sometimes they do make me feel, I have
to admit, I get discouraged. As many times as I know I should
not, I get discouraged, I get sad. What I do is I try to buoy
my spirits with a reminder that God has stored up for his saints.
Pleasure is forevermore in his presence. Pleasure is forevermore. What Paul said is the miseries
we go through on earth are nothing, absolutely nothing to be compared
with the infinite glories that we're gonna be having in heaven.
And by the way, we get down payments of that joy down here on earth
because it says in his presence is fullness of joy. Well, there's
many scriptures indicate we can experience his presence right
here on earth, which means we can have his fullness of joy
right here on earth as well. Now of course God does allow
outward circumstances to be such that without faith and without
a proper focus we can lose our joy. You've probably lost your
joy just as many times as I've lost my joy down here below and
most of us need to fight for joy as John Piper words it. And
these seven steps have helped me numerous times to re-find
my joy in the Lord. And of course, there's many other
ways in which we force ourselves. We don't feel like worshiping,
but we start worshiping and it kindles that joy once again.
Or we start getting into the scripture, start getting into
thanksgiving to God. So there's many different ways
in addition to these seven in which you can rekindle that joy.
The Spiritual Disciplines book that Gary Rodney and I handed
out, what was it, a year or two ago? One year ago, this year,
you're supposed to have read it already. It can fan the embers that are
almost going out in your life. It can re-fan those. And this
has happened to me so many times I wonder, why is it a struggle
to do it? You'd think you'd instantly do it. but we do have to fight
for joy. So brothers and sisters, if the
sand in your life brings more pain than pleasure, ask Christ
to turn the sand into beautiful glass. Ask Christ to help you
to respond to the refining fires in faith, And in a way that brings
glory to him with a realization, thank you, Lord, for these trials,
because I know you're going to bring glass out of my life. Ask
him to invade your life with his heavenly kingdom. As you
pray, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Amen. Father, we thank you for
the promises that you have given to us. And these are all promises
right here that take faith to be able to embrace. Father, may
each one here have the God-given faith to be able to put off discouragement,
to live by faith, and to have a victorious faith that takes
on this world. You have said, Father, this is
the heritage of everyone who was born of you. You said in
the last chapter, Father, of 1 John, that everyone who was
born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that
overcomes the world, even our faith. So, Father, help us to
live by faith and not by our sight, which so often makes us
discouraged. We pray this in the strong name
of Jesus. Amen.
Remedies for Discouragement
Series Revelation
This sermon analyzes why discouragement is a sin and gives seven Biblical remedies for discouragement.
| Sermon ID | 124188335 |
| Duration | 30:34 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 15:1-2 |
| Language | English |
Documents
Add a Comment
Comments
No Comments
© Copyright
2025 SermonAudio.