As we have been looking at the darkness of demonic bondage that Revelation has been describing, that so pictures our land, you can see why a song like this is so important and why the Lord's prayer, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, is so important for us to pray in faith. Anyway, the text from the majority text is on page 21, Revelation 9, 13 through 21. So the sixth angel trumpeted, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar that is before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. So the four angels were released. They had been prepared for the hour and the day and month and year so that they might kill a third of mankind. And the number of the mounted troops was a hundred million. I heard their number. And in the vision, I saw the horses like this. Those who rode them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like lion's heads. Out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came out of their mouths. For the capability of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes having heads. And with them, they do harm. Yet the rest of the people, those who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands so as to stop worshiping the demons, even the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk. They did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their fornication, or their thefts. Father God, we come to you in the name of Jesus Christ asking that you would not only give your illumination and the opening up of your text to us, but Father, that you would help the church of Jesus Christ as a whole to understand your word and to have the prudence to follow after your word, to be granted true faith and true repentance that would make a difference, help the church to once again be the kind of salt and light in society that would enable it to make a difference. We pray, Father, for your mercies in our midst. We ask now that you would be glorified as we continue to worship in response to your word. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Well, it's been three weeks since I have preached on the Book of Revelation, so I want to do a little bit of a review of where we have been so far. We have been seeing that there is a perfect sequence of the seven seals going into the seven trumpets, starting in the spring of AD 30, all the way up through to the fall of AD 66, which is where chapter 8 ends. And we saw how every detail of these seals and trumpets was perfectly fulfilled, including weird things like mountains rising by many meters and some islands disappearing and every part of the Mediterranean being shaken. And recent meteorological evidence has demonstrated conclusively that these kinds of things happened. Well, the fourth trumpet was the last passage of chapter 8, and it describes the spectacular signs in the sky. what happened to the sun and the moon and to the stars at the very time that Sestius's legions were defeated and decimated at the hands of the Israeli soldiers. The historians of that day said that the soldiers were terrified by the signs that had happened. But we also saw that when Sestius's armies fled, it gave a tiny window of opportunity for Christians to escape from Jerusalem, and it was the only time that they would have been able to escape. If they had stayed in the city, they would have perished along with the rest of that city. And the historian Eusebius and some other early historians indicated how every Christian, except for the two prophets in chapter 10, did indeed escape and stayed under the protection of Pella for the duration of the war. So Sestius was defeated at the end of chapter 8 and immediately Sestius sent a messenger to Nero and Nero commissioned Titus and Vespasian to send numerous legions down to punish Israel. Connecting that passage with a parallel in the second half of the book. We saw that at the same time the dragon who was controlling Nero Issued his orders to the demonic princes to go and to accompany these legions and so chapter 9 the fifth trumpet starts on deus 24 of 80 66 and continued until they dar 25 and of AD 67, exactly five months, 150 days. And that fifth trumpet describes the demons that were symbolized by Titus's armies so perfectly. All of their armor and their standards and their banners and their horses were decorated in a way to symbolize the demons, the gods is what they called them, but the demons that they worshiped. And we saw that the demons described in the first half of the chapter brought torment for five months. They didn't kill. They only brought torment. In fact, it's the only time during that entire war that there was a five-month period of no killing, but only torment. So that's the fifth trumpet. The sixth trumpet, which is verses 13 through 21, perfectly describes the symbols of the gods of Vespasian's legions who came down from the Euphrates. And we saw last time that these armies literally had the images of lions, lion's heads, as the head armor for their horses. They had breastplates and armor of red and hyacinth blue and sulfur yellow, just like verse 17 describes. And we looked at the symbols on those legions' shields that showed fire and smoke and brimstone. They had griffins with tails of serpents. So we saw that The symbols were very literally present, could be seen all throughout the Roman armies. And last time, I gave numerous photos to document those symbols. In fact, so perfectly do those symbols match what went on in the Roman armies that there are a number of commentaries that have been saying that only the Roman armies are being described here. That's a big mistake. That's a big mistake. We saw that these are demons that the Roman armies worshipped. So what John is doing is he's giving us a behind-the-scenes glimpse as to the spiritual realities that are driving those human armies. Now certainly the human armies put on symbols on their men and their horses to try to imitate what they thought that the demons looked like. But they did that because they actually worshipped those demons, as verse 20 explicitly says. They worshipped demons. And we spent a great deal of time on those demons in the last three sermons. These millions of demons were actually far more scary than the ferocious Roman armies who worshipped them. So let me summarize the two sections of chapter 9. The gross-looking armies in verses 1-12 are the demonic hordes that were associated with Titus' armies. His army had, by the way, Apollyon as its patron god, remember that. And we saw from the book of Acts that Apollyon, or the Roman name is Apollo, had been bound in the pit in the abyss less than 16 years earlier, and now Apollyon and all of his hordes have been released once again. So we applied that to modern demonology and said it is perfectly appropriate as the Lord leads and guides to bind demons into the abyss. What about the creatures in the second half of the chapter? Well, we saw that the gross-looking armies in verses 13 through 21 are not human at all. They are clearly demonic hordes, but they were associated with Vespasian's armies, the four legions that were stationed up there at the Euphrates River. So the first half of the chapter describes the demons associated with Titus' armies. The second half of the chapter describes the demons associated with Vespasian's armies. And verse 16 says that there were 100 million demons at the Euphrates. Now, if you've got New King James, it says 200 million, but we saw last week that 100% of the ecclesiastical text, F35, And two-thirds of all Greek manuscripts say that it was 100 million. We've been preaching from the majority text that God has preserved every word and every letter of the New Testament from. And I think we're called to live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. So I think it's important to understand where the majority text is from. But either way, 200 million, 100 million, that's a lot of demons. It's a pretty scary thought that those four legions up there at the Euphrates are being hounded, are being harassed by 100 million demons. Very, very scary thought. So just imagine a massive army of 100 million demons that are either marching or they are flying the 500 miles from the Euphrates down to Israel. Anybody who had eyes to see would immediately recognize, oh boy, Israel is in deep trouble. If this was pictured, they would realize Israel's going to be facing some really tough stuff. But we saw last time it wasn't just Israel that was in trouble. We saw that these 100 million demons were giving such a bloodlust desire in the hearts of these Roman soldiers that the legions were used to destroy one third of the entire Roman empire. The whole empire was under judgment. The whole empire was in deep trouble. See, with the death of Nero, Rome fell apart. There was civil war. There was legions fighting against legions. Barbarians were revolting. It was a time of absolute decimation. So verse 15 says, So the four angels were released. They had been prepared for the hour and the day and the month and the year so that they might kill a third of mankind. And that's repeated again in verse 18. So there are three years between the spring of AD 67 and the spring of, I mean the, yes, the spring of AD 70 when the seventh trumpet sounds and that ushers in the last six months of the first half of that seven-year war. So you just understand the sequence there. Those three years are years of absolute terror being unleashed, not just upon Israel, but upon the entire Roman Empire. And last time, I added up the estimates of the numbers of Christians and Jews and Romans and barbarians that were killed, and it hovered right around the one-third mark. So the statistics are horrifying. Well, last time we didn't get to quite finish the chapter. So this is going to be an odd sermon. We're going to have kind of a potpourri of lessons that I just don't want you to miss from this chapter. And let me pick up something from verse 14 that somebody had a question on. In verse 14, God tells the sixth angel, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates." Now, we already dealt with the binding to some extent, but somebody was wondering, well, how did God bind those angels? And the answer is, I have no idea. I don't know. Maybe God put some kind of a electric fence collar around their necks, some spiritual collar that kept them from going outside of certain boundaries. Maybe there were good angels who surrounded the area and kept them from coming out. Maybe God has some kind of a spiritual barrier. But the point is that these demons had free access to Rome anywhere in that Euphrates region, but they could not leave that territory until God released them. We've spoken in the past about territorial spirits. Well, sometimes demons are territorial simply because God restricts their movements. So that's all I'm going to say on that. But however it was bound, these were bound, the sixth angel somehow has the power to remove that restriction. So again, this introduces the idea of spiritual warfare. There are good angels who are fighting against bad angels, and somehow those spiritual battles intersect with the flesh and blood battles that happen here on planet Earth in history. We saw last time that both the Jews and the Romans during this period were turned into humans that were either insane, which is the way the Roman historians described them, or they were demon-possessed, and we say they were demon-possessed. It perfectly describes the behavior that went on during that period of time. Now there's another little detail that I didn't comment on in verse 17, and that is that at least some of the demons are said to ride on horses. It says, and in the vision I saw the horses like this. Those who rode them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like lion's heads. Out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. So you have something like horses and something like riders of horses. And this is a theme that you find all throughout the Old and the New Testament. Just as Revelation speaks about Good living creatures is the way the New King James translates it. There are also, and they worship God, there are bad living creatures that worship and serve Satan. But I find it interesting that the Bible speaks of horses and horse riders in the spiritual realm. Now some people say, yeah, yeah, yeah, Revelation's full of symbols, there really aren't horses, it's just symbolizing something else that's going on. But remember the 30 plus rules of interpretation that the apostle laid down in chapter one, and one of those indicates we're dealing with real history here and that both the symbols and what was symbolized occurs in real history. You cannot dismiss it, you cannot spiritualize those things away. And as I've mentioned a number of times, one of the easiest ways to remember this is the rock that Moses smote in the wilderness. There was a real Moses who had a real rod and he really smote a rock in a real wilderness and real water gushed out of that rock, but it symbolized a real Jesus who was really smitten by God and judged by God and because of his death, the Holy Spirit could be poured out upon the church. But both the symbol and what is symbolized occurred in history. Okay, well if that's the case, then the inescapable conclusion is that there are good angels and there are good horses in the heavenly realm. There are evil angels with evil horses as well. Now just in case you have a hard time believing this, I'm going to give you a number of scriptures to demonstrate this. 2 Kings 2 verse 11 speaks of a chariot of fire drawn by horses of fire catching Elijah up into the sky. Well, there's no way you can spiritualize that away because it's a historical passage describing with historical language a historical event. Four chapters later, Elisha prayed that his servant's eyes would be opened to see the spiritual battles that were going on, and God does so. And immediately, as soon as his servant's eyes are opened, it says, he saw the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. 2 Kings 6, verse 17. So he's not just dealing with angels. He was dealing with spiritual beings that functioned like horses and looked like horses. Psalm 68 verse 17 speaks of hundreds of thousands of chariots in God's heavenly armies, which implies When there is multiple horses drawing a chariot, it implies that there are multiplied hundreds of thousands of horses in God's armies. Zechariah 6 speaks of heavenly chariots in verse 1 being pulled by horses in verses 2-4, and the horses are called spirits. in verse 5, and these spirit horses have intelligence in verses 6 through 8. And they too seem to be involved with angels in the battles that happen in flesh and blood right here on planet earth. We saw that the four horsemen of the Apocalypse were demonic princes who were riding on horses. Some of these things are so weird, so wonderful that it's hard to imagine how these things take place. I think Spielberg would just have a heyday with Book of Revelation. If he could get converted and do a movie on this, it would be amazing. But my point in bringing all of this up is not simply to point once again to spiritual warfare, which is a very, very, very important topic. But it's also to point out that there is a vast and wonderful world out there of the unseen. It's just inhabited with all kinds of creatures. The Greek word zoon, which is the word for animals in the Greek, the Greek word zoon is used 17 times in the book of Revelation to refer to various strange and wonderful creatures that are neither human nor angelic. It's the word that we get, Zoan, is what we get zoo from and zoology from. Now the New King James translates it as living creatures, but it's literally animals. And so there are spirit animals, that's the word, Zoan, spirit animals in the heavens. And yet though these animals look like lions, oxen, horses, and eagles, they have intelligence and they can talk. Huh. So maybe the Narnia trilogies, no, not so far off after all. Animals, you know, freaky animals that don't look like anything we'd have down here below and talking and fighting and engaging in all kinds of, well, yep, I think we need to take that kind of thing seriously. And these creatures serve redeemed man. We have a very truncated cosmology if all we think about is what is visible and then angels. Now there is a vast world of the unseen that goes way beyond that. Now apparently one third of the angels fell with Satan and chapter 12 is going to be talking about that. But they also dragged a lot of the other creatures with them. And this passage shows spiritual horses that are no longer serving God or man. Instead, they are fighting against God and against mankind. And whether they morphed into these weird shapes, and we saw before, angels can shapeshift. They can change their shape. So whether they morphed into these shapes or whether this was a part of God's curse upon them, like God changed some plants to have thorns, right? And there were thistles and some bad plants. So either way, these creatures used their God-given powers to kill rather than to give life. Verses 17 through 18 describes some kind of fire coming out of their mouths now We shouldn't be surprised by that because even good angels are associated with fire for example Hebrews 1 verse 7 says who makes his angel spirits his ministers a flame of fire But the fall Into sin turned good powers upside down and made them destructive verses 17 through 18 And in the vision, I saw the horses like this. Those who rode them had breastplates of fiery red, hyacinth blue, and sulfur yellow. The heads of the horses were like lion's heads. Out of their mouths came fire, smoke, and brimstone. By these three plagues, a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone that came out of their mouths." Now, I dealt with those verses at length in the last sermon, but take a look again at verse 19. Verse 19 shows the strange power in the tails of these horses. For the capability of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, because their tails are like snakes, having heads, and with them they do harm. Now keep in mind, these are creatures that were made for good and not for evil, and yet the fall has turned everything upside down because of that evil. Evil has affected every aspect of creation. And you might question that. You say, well, what about the good angels? I say, yeah, even the good angels are affected and animals and everything else is affected by the fall, why? Because for the first time, good angels grieve over sin. They're sad over sin, they hate sin, they're fighting against people, whereas before that, there was no fighting. They even are involved by God in killing people. So every aspect of creation is impacted by our sin. And I believe this is why Colossians 1.20, which many liberals use to try to say everybody's going to be saved, including Satan, is not saying that at all. I believe Colossians 1.20 says that Christ's redemption is destined to eventually reconcile all things in heaven and on earth. The good angels and the creatures, they don't need to be saved. But they do need to be reconciled to man as man over time increasingly becomes redeemed. They no longer have to fight against man. So let me read that scripture. It's Colossians 1, 19 through 20. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross. I want you to notice it doesn't say all things are gonna be saved, okay, but all things will be reconciled, and I'll point out that the phrase all things does not mean all without exception, or you'd have demons and Satan being reconciled, what the scripture denies, but all without distinction, all without distinction. In other words, every kind of thing is going to be reconciled. Well, the implications of that are profound. The fall of Adam not only negatively impacted Earth, it negatively impacted heaven. We saw before, this is why heaven had to be cleansed and demons cast out of heaven, right? The whole universe is out of sorts and the whole universe must enter into redemption and the last chapters of this book will show that. So when Christ brings peace, there are unfallen spiritual creatures who will also enjoy that peace. Now one question that came up is, if there are spiritual animals, Will there be physical animals in heaven as well? If there are spirit horses, are there going to be flesh and blood kind of horses in the new heavens and the new earth? Now, to anticipate a sermon near the end of the book, I'm just gonna say, I don't see why not. One reflects the other. Now, I'm not saying that there's spiritual animals that reflect every kind of species of human animals. I doubt very, very much that that is the case. But here's the point. If all things are redeemed, I'm not redeemed, if all things are reconciled as a result of Christ's redemption, even if you define it as all without distinction, that means that there has to be a reclamation of all of the species on earth or all things are not reconciled to Christ. And I think Randy Alcorn's book, if you want to dig into this in a lot more depth, does a wonderful job. It's his book on heaven. He digs into this in a great deal and shows how even the physical world must be restored. Christianity is not Gnosticism that tries to escape from the physical. Christianity believed that Christ's redemption heals and restores even the physical. God made us for a physical world. I know this is a rabbit trail, but I might as well go ahead and deal with it. Isaiah chapter 11, I want you to turn there. This is a passage that begins at the first coming of Jesus, and it shows how his kingdom will progressively bring more and more changes to planet Earth as Christ's redemption reconciles all things that are at odds. Okay, Isaiah 11, beginning at verse one. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, that's Jesus, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And you'll recognize that the whole of verse two is quoted in the New Testament as a reference to Jesus' anointing with the Holy Spirit at the time of his baptism. It goes on. His delight is in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge by the sight of his eyes, nor decide by the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his loins, and faithfulness the belt of his waist." Now commentators point out that Ephesians 6 applies those verses to our spiritual warfare as we advance the cause of Christ. And these commentators point out when we are putting on the armor of Christ, what we're really doing is we're putting on Christ. He is living His life through us. But what's the end result of our spiritual warfare? The topsy-turviness introduced by the fall begins to gradually be undone. So take a look at the impact on animals in verses six and following. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze. Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play by the cobra's hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse who shall stand as a banner to the people. for the Gentiles shall seek him and his resting place shall be glorious. It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people who were left from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathos and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea. He will set up a banner for the nations and will assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Fabulous prophecy of future restoration of Israel where Jew and Gentile will be in the church. together and show forth God's glory. Now, why do I bother to bring this up in Chapter 9? Well, mainly because somebody asked me about it, and they were really curious, how does this all reconcile? But I think it's important to realize that the spiritual warfare of these early chapters of Revelation are absolutely essential if we're ever going to see the fulfillment of these prophecies in the future. Just as Isaiah 11 begins with warfare and opposition at the beginning and ends with a converted world, Revelation begins with opposition and warfare at the beginning, it ends with a converted world. And by the end of the book, not only physical animals, but heavenly animals will enjoy the fruits of Christ's kingdom and shalom. Not only humans, but angels too will enjoy the shalom that comes from the gospel. So it's in this sense and this sense alone that Christ reconciles all things to himself. It's not talking about universal redemption like some heretics. have claimed, but it's a kicking out of the world of all that offends and a restoring of planet Earth to everything that was lost plus much more. Every category of life ruined in Adam will be reconciled in Christ, okay? Long rabbit tail, I know. And what I wanna point out now in the last two verses of this book is that God is so patient, so patient, and until humans repent and again embrace God's law, they will not enjoy the good fruits that this book points to. So the last two verses of Revelation 9 highlight this purpose for God's judgments. It says, yet the rest of the people, those who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as to stop worshiping the demons, even the idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which can neither see, nor hear, nor walk, and they did not repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or their fornication, or their thefts. Six things I want you to notice in those two verses. First of all, notice God's patience with even the pagans who have not yet converted. He says, yet the rest of the people, those who were not killed by these plagues, he didn't kill everybody. even though they all deserved to be killed. We've been seeing that God has gradually been heating up his judgments right from the beginning of chapter six, verse one. So he brings judgment and seal number one. They don't repent, so he increases his judgments and seal number two. Now there are some people who are being converted during this whole time, But the nation as a whole is not repenting, so he adds judgment in seal number three. He keeps heating those up. Now, he could have destroyed mankind right back there at the beginning of chapter six, but he did not do so. He is patient, and he gives opportunities to repent. That is the key point. We speak of these as redemptive judgments. They are judgments designed to bring repentance to some. That doesn't bring repentance to all, but it does bring repentance to some. And as we go through this book, we're going to be seeing that literally millions of people came to Christ as a result of the disasters brought upon Rome. There was a reason why God spared some. It was for the sake of the elect. Why is this important for us to understand now? Well, it's because it's very easy for Christians to miss the goal of repentance that is at the heart of all of his judgments. And so when we see enemies in America who are just destroying America, and there's a lot of them in Washington, D.C. and in our capital and all over the place, it's very easy for us to react with disgust and despise them and just want to write them off. Well, that's not an attitude that's going to win them to Christ. extreme that we can easily have is to withdraw from culture and just ignore those people and to only be concerned with self-preservation. Now, I'll hasten to say that seeking to protect yourself in the middle of these judgments is not a bad goal. That's exactly what Christ told them to do, to flee from Jerusalem and to go to Appella. So self-preservation can be an okay goal so long as it does not conflict with any other commandments. And so we saw that they did indeed escape from Jerusalem. They survived for three and a half years in Pella. We do need to prepare for disaster. But if you read the history of that period and beyond, they didn't stay in a little holy ghetto. No. As disasters hit Rome, they were there to pick up the pieces and to show the love of Christ. They explained to the Romans how these were God's judgments designed to lead them to repentance. And because they engaged with society, because they were loving on these pagans, they were loving on those who were undeserving, millions came to Christ over the next 300 years. So there's an expectation of repentance in the midst of judgments. Henry Chadwick's history of the first three centuries says that the kindness and the mercy and the mercy ministries that Christians showed to pagans who were going through earthquakes and wars and all kinds of desolations, Christians ministering there was the single greatest reason for the growth of the church and it grew like wildfire. Second thing I want you to notice is that word plagues. Commentators point out that this word occurs 15 times in the Greek. But more importantly, the way that the chapters are structured, it makes it clear that he's comparing the plagues that came upon Egypt with the plagues that were coming upon Israel and upon Rome. They were miraculous plagues. And we saw how the Jewish and Roman historians described things like the water being turned into blood in the first century, not just in Israel, but in Rome as well. And I'm going to deal with the plagues later. I'm not going to dig into that much right now. But the point I'm bringing up here is that miraculous judgments are not a thing of the past any more than miracles are a thing of the past. Too many Christians are skeptics when it comes to America being judged. They act like God has hands off of history. They act like deists. They don't vote for God's approval. The only reason they're voting is to try to minimize the trouble that's coming as if trouble comes independently of God. No, God's the one who brings those troubles. And if God is bringing troubles and judgments upon America, such as inflation and statism and war and different things like that, then we need to be going to the Lord and repenting as a church, and we need to be asking our nation to repent. Elections will not save America. Nothing but repentance will save America for further judgments. Third thing to notice is how God applies both tables of the law to the Gentile nations. It's clear that the Romans were in focus here, not Israel, because it was the Romans who worshipped, it says here, idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. Now David Chilton's attempts to apply that exclusively to Israel is absolute nonsense. It will not work. Jews did not worship idols of gold, silver, and things that cannot walk. This is a clear reference to literal idols. He's talking about Gentiles here. He is not talking about Jews. So both tables of the law were applied to pagans in this chapter, and that is an incredibly significant statement. See, there are currently three forms of antinomianism in the American church today. First form of antinomianism says the Old Testament law doesn't apply to anybody, anywhere, anyhow, at any time. It just doesn't apply. And yet we've been seeing that the Apostle John's been applying the Old Testament law over and over again. In fact, chapter five, though, that scroll that forms the basis for the covenant lawsuits, just like all the Old Testament covenant lawsuits were made out of the law of God. That's the Old Testament canon. He's applying it to the nations. And certainly here, we see this verse listing the first, second, sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments. The second form of antinomianism says that the law continues to apply, but it only applies to Israel, okay? And a lot of preterists only apply the judgments of this book to Israel, but it's very clear here he's applying them to the Gentiles, calling them to repent. The third form of antinomianism says that only the second table of the law applies to Gentiles. Some of you have been reading books by Reformed people that have been talking about that. So in American politics, they refuse to apply the first table of the law, first four commandments, to the civil magistrate. They say it doesn't apply. And even when they're discussing the second table of the law, when it applies to civil magistrates, they secularize it. It's secular descriptions of murder and theft and things of that nature. But I say here, God is holding the Roman empire accountable for idolatry, worship, and sorcery. God is killing them for these things. He is bringing a covenant lawsuit against these pagan nations for those things. That's the first table. He's clearly applying both tables of the law. The fourth thing to notice in these verses is God's definition of repentance. It's not simply, I'm sorry. Repentance requires an about-face, a turning around of our mind, our will, and our emotions. Just as there is a false faith that people have called easy-believism, there is a false repentance that you could call I'm-sorryism. or I feel really bad because I've been caught and so I apologize, but there is no action, there is no fruit. As you're evaluating politicians who claim to have repented and become converted and they're now pro-life, you need to evaluate based on this definition. How does verse 20 know that these people did not repent? It's by their fruits. It's the same way that we know whether people have genuinely repented or not. Have they brought forth the fruits of repentance, which is what John the Baptist spoke of. Nothing had changed with regard to, it says here, the works of their hands. They did not stop their sin. They did not stop worshiping the demons. Proverbs 10 verse 12 says, he who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. So there's a definition of repentance, confessing and forsaking sin. When there is no goal for forsaking sin, you've got a counterfeit repentance. It's not genuine. And judgment can only be averted by repentance. The fifth thing I want you to notice is the connection of the demonic to idolatry. Verse 20 says that by worshiping idols, they were automatically worshiping demons. He says, so as to stop worshiping the demons, even the idols of gold, silver, et cetera. Hosea chapter 4 verse 12 says that the Israelites of his day had been led astray into adultery, into hurlatory by a demonic spirit. And then he explains why this demonic spirit was at work in their lives. It's because they had been worshiping idols. by worshiping idols that had given demons a stronghold in their lives that they could not shake free from. Idolatry is not simply an inconsequential thing. It always involves people and demonism. That's why when people come to Christ, they must destroy their idols. This is why Christians who have idols, anything occult, anything that could give Satan a foothold in their lives needs to be destroyed. Now, the last thing I want you to notice is the irrationality of their idolatry. When God kept increasing the judgments over a 40-year period, that's from chapter six through chapter nine, it was absolutely irrational for them to continue in their rebellion, but they did. Even when it is self-destructive, people hold on to sin. It's just irrational. It doesn't make any sense. Likewise, to make idols that cannot see, hear, or walk is irrational. It's the height of stupidity. In fact, many commentaries point out that that verse there is an allusion to Psalm 115. 5 through 8, which says this. They have mouths, but they do not speak. Eyes they have, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not hear. Noses they have, but they do not smell. They have hands, but they do not handle. Feet they have, but they do not walk, nor do they mutter through their throat. And then here comes the amazing punchline. Those who make them will become like them. Everyone who trusts in them. Wow. you become just like what you idolize. It's just an amazing statement there. In Herbert Schlossberg's book, Idols for Destruction, he says, when a civilization turns idolatrous, its people are profoundly changed by that experience. In a kind of reverse sanctification, The idolater is transformed into the likeness of the object of his worship. Israel went after worthlessness and became worthless, says Jeremiah 2, verse 5. Hosea words it that Israel's idolaters, quote, became as detestable as that which they loved, Hosea 9, verse 10. So those who refuse to repent become more and more like the irrational demons that move them. Now, I'm not going to repeat the descriptions that I gave last time of the irrationality that just seemed to, overnight, overtake the Roman soldiers and the Israelites. But what I will say here is the hint that he's giving us here. When you see people engaged in irrational things, you wonder, why are people acting that way? The demonic may, at least in part, explain why that is the case. Now it has been kind of an odd sermon of finishing up the bits and pieces of the chapter, but let me end with four concluding exhortations. First, do not doubt. that God judges nations today, just as he did back then. Some people act as if modern nations are exempt from judgment because they think the law only applied to Israel. Well, we've been seeing in this book that God equally applies the law to Israel and to Rome. So we need to ask this question, are we any better than Rome was? Are we any better than Israel was back in the first century? And I would say, no, I doubt it very much. And if God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, we can expect further increases of judgment upon our nation. The scripture helps us to anticipate that this is coming by looking at the symptoms that are within a nation. And having looked at the symptoms within America, I can guarantee you we are headed to increased judgment. We've been under judgment for a good long time. but we're heading to a massive increase of judgment. I think it's inescapable apart from repentance. Winning an election will not save us. We must be on our knees. Second, don't fear God's judgments. I've quit praying, God bless America. A lot of people pray that because they're just scared to death of losing their economic status. I don't think it's a biblical prayer to pray, God bless America. Would you really pray, you know, if you saw a couple that was engaged in idolatry and adultery and all kinds, Lord, please bless these people, you know, bless them financially, bless, no. It's an unbiblical prayer to pray, God, bless America. I pray, Lord, bring America to repentance. I do not want humanism and statism to be blessed, period. I don't want humanism to continue to be prospered. We want the Tower of Babel to fall. So don't fear God's judgments. He knows what he's doing. Third, be prepared to step into the gap when humanism does fall. Now that might mean getting out of debt. It might mean becoming more mobile, for churches to be prepared to go underground overnight, for families to have some reserves in their houses. If you are only in survival mode during an economic collapse, and by that I mean you're scrambling to get food onto your plate and scrambling to pay your mortgage and stuff like that, You're not going to be prepared or have the energies to minister or to take advantage of humanism's collapse. You're going to be a part of the mess yourself. But if you're prepared to survive an economic collapse so that you don't need to be taken care of, then you'll be in the perfect position to minister to hurting pagans all around you. You see, God preserved, we saw before, God preserved the 144,000 Jews, but not so that they could selfishly live for themselves. He preserved them so that they would be in a position to take the world for Christ, and they did so. There'll be many hurting people as a result of judgments coming upon America. But if they have experienced the bitter fruits of humanism, Islam, and the other isms, they're probably going to get to a place where they're disgusted by those things. They're disgusted by our government. And I think we're getting close. I think people are beginning to be absolutely disgusted with all of the parties, all of the politics that go on there. So if they begin to hate that, and they see the beauty of a biblical alternative then maybe Romans 11 might kick in and they might start becoming jealous of the good fruits of the gospel. That's what we should be longing for. This is, I think, one of the reasons why the church has absolutely exploded in the country of Iran. They have been suffering under the bondage of Islam, and Muslims are growing to hate Islam. Well, there wouldn't be any alternative other than humanism if they didn't see Christians living out their faith, but they are. They're seeing lovely Christians who have supernatural power within their lives to love the unlovable, to bless their enemies, to help those who are persecuted. They're seeing such a stark contrast between Islam And Christianity, it's no wonder, you know, that they are coming in droves into Christianity. I think it's a beautiful thing. So here is the point. Pella was a kind of survivalist preparation that enabled the 144,000 to step into the gap. And I think we need to be prepared to do that. Don't be a part of the problem once the economic collapse happens. Fourth, do as John did and bring the whole counsel of God, the whole law of God, both tables of the law to bear. upon our culture laws. Here's a point, you know, he talks about these different, you know, the theft. Libertarians would be all over that one. They'd say, oh yeah, yeah, we're against theft, we're against murder, we're against anything that harms other people. But let me tell you, you cannot even define those crimes as crimes, you cannot define them without the first table of the law. It is impossible. It is so common now for even Reformed people to say, we only apply the second table of the law to civics, but you cannot even define murder as being a civil crime if you don't have the first table of the law. Why do I say that? Well, everybody believes murder is wrong, but they define it differently. Some people say abortion is murder. We do, the Bible does. And other people say, no, no, no, no, abortion's not murder at all. Some people say self-defense is murder. And we say, no, no, the Bible says it is not murder. Some people say all war is murder, and other people say it's not. We say certain kinds of war are murder, and other kinds of war are not. I mean, I had a Hare Krishna come up to me one time, and he said, eating meat is murder. You cannot define even the most basic criminal law of murder if you do not commit yourself to the God of the first commandment. And so I think it's absolutely ridiculous. I won't name names. You guys all know who I'm talking about. It's ridiculous to say we only apply the second table of the law. You cannot define any of these things. Can you really say that what the government right now is doing is theft, as this particular person I'm thinking about says? Everything the government's doing right now in taxation is theft. I agree with them. But can you say that? If you do not commit the nation to loyalty to the God of the first commandment, it is impossible to define it that way. So we've got to take the whole law of God as a package deal, the package deal. And as we seek to live it out by the power of the gospel, may God bring a harvest of righteousness to our nation. Amen. Father, so many things that yet need to be done. We feel ourselves in the infancy of the kingdom, and yet You have called us to grow up into You in all things, to apply Your Word to all things, and to apply Your Gospel to all things. And we long to see a world in which the knowledge of you is so full it's as if we're flooded, as if it's like the water is covering the ocean beds. But we don't even see this knowledge in the church of Jesus Christ, and it grieves us, Father. And so we pray that you would increase at least the knowledge of the church of Jesus Christ and help her to be consistent in applying law and gospel to culture. Help her to understand that you are alive. You are at work. Your judgments do not tarry. That you have been at work judging this nation, even through the statism that we're groaning under, is a part of your judgments. And I pray that the church would wake up to once again embrace the beauty of your law and to say with David, oh, how love I thy law. It is my meditation all of the day. Please, Lord, grant to the church of Jesus Christ a love for your law and an ability and a wisdom to be able to apply it in their family, in their business, in everything that they do so that the beauty of the fruits that come from your law and from your gospel would make the Gentiles jealous. There's not much to be jealous about in the church of Jesus Christ, but Father, I pray that you would change that. As you love your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, I pray that you would cause his bride to be something that would not bring grief to him, that you would stir up the bride to be clothed in the righteous garments of Jesus Christ, to become a bride without spot or wrinkle. Please do a mighty thing in the church of Jesus Christ in bringing revival and reformation, and through that, turn this nation upside down. And we pray it in the strong name of Jesus.