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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.
Sixth Trumpet, Part 2
Series Revelation
| Sermon ID | 1241883370 |
| Duration | 54:17 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 9:13-21 |
| Language | English |
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