back to indexWed Bible Study - Revelation Lesson 23
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All right, let's pray that we'll get into it. 00:00:07.000 |
Gracious Father, we thank you for this evening and the privilege that we have to gather together 00:00:15.680 |
and help us not to take for granted the freedom that we have, the access that we have to your 00:00:20.560 |
word, the church, the fellowship that we have. 00:00:24.960 |
We know, Father God, that these are not things that all our brothers and sisters around the 00:00:31.760 |
So help us, Lord God, to be good stewards of all that you've given. 00:00:35.160 |
Help us to be students of your word, to learn, to love, and to cherish it, Lord God, to have 00:00:50.760 |
All right, so chapter 19, we're only a chapter away from the millennium. 00:00:57.280 |
We talked about that from the very beginning, that everything that we've been talking about 00:01:01.520 |
up to this point is kind of leading, obviously, to the end. 00:01:05.400 |
Today's study is about the marriage of the lamb. 00:01:07.560 |
Well, a portion of it is marriage of the lamb, but everything that God has been doing from 00:01:12.600 |
the beginning is leading up to this point, that at the very end, it is a consummation 00:01:16.640 |
of what Christ has done on the cross by bringing the church to himself. 00:01:22.700 |
And so when we think about the second coming, he's not just coming to condemn, he's not 00:01:28.080 |
just coming to bring us to heaven, but ultimately it's a marriage ceremony. 00:01:32.120 |
So I know we have a lot of weddings at our church, and we have two coming up this weekend. 00:01:38.520 |
And you know, like those of you who've gone through that or been a part of a wedding, 00:01:43.200 |
you know the craziness that works up to the wedding ceremony, right? 00:01:48.480 |
Especially the last week and the last few days before you get to the wedding ceremony, 00:01:53.260 |
you know, the great day, you know the chaos, but at the same time, the payoff on the wedding 00:02:02.820 |
The craziness starts and then it increases and then it gets utterly chaotic, and we've 00:02:07.500 |
seen that in chapter 16, 17, and 18, and then chapter 19, we're kind of almost there. 00:02:12.180 |
We're not quite there yet, but we're almost there. 00:02:14.660 |
And then chapter 20, God takes us into the millennium, and then eventually 20, 21, and 00:02:20.500 |
22 is going to describe the eternal state, which was all what everything that Christ 00:02:28.380 |
So today, Revelation chapter 19 is going to be divided into two parts. 00:02:33.780 |
The first part is the praise, the three hallelujahs, right? 00:02:38.260 |
The kingdom of heaven is breaking out into praise, and then the second part is the three 00:02:44.320 |
And so that's how it's going to be organized tonight. 00:02:50.900 |
First part of it, if you remember, again, connecting this to chapter 18, chapter 18 00:02:57.020 |
was the downfall of Babylon and the judgment, the intense judgment that came upon the world 00:03:05.700 |
At the end of chapter 18, if you remember, the Antichrist, thank you. 00:03:12.460 |
Yeah, the Antichrist and the prophet and the kings, sorry, sorry, the Babylon is thrown 00:03:24.640 |
And so chapter 19 is in response to God's judgment, right? 00:03:29.320 |
And so God's judgment causes people to break out into worship. 00:03:34.760 |
So worship is a response in Revelation of God, not just Revelation of God's mercy and 00:03:39.040 |
grace, God's justice is also reason for worship. 00:03:41.240 |
So the whole chapter 19 or a big chunk of chapter 19 basically is a response to the 00:03:48.200 |
So again, we typically think that when we break out into praise or worship, we're always 00:03:52.840 |
praising God about his goodness and about his mercy and his righteousness. 00:03:57.880 |
But if you look at the Psalms, a lot of the Psalms is very similar to chapter 19. 00:04:03.200 |
A lot of the Psalms is praising God for his wrath against the enemies, for his justice 00:04:11.040 |
So whenever God himself is revealed, so again, the thing that we need to be cautious about 00:04:17.680 |
is again, when we just kind of pigeonhole and think like the only time that we worship 00:04:27.560 |
But that's not how the Bible describes worship. 00:04:29.820 |
Worship is any time God's glory is manifested, whether it is in wrath or it is in mercy. 00:04:38.960 |
His wrath is what initiates this intense worship. 00:04:45.440 |
So the first hallelujah we see in verse one and two, it says, "After this, I heard what 00:04:51.760 |
seemed to be the loud voice of the great multitude in heaven crying out, 'Hallelujah, salvation 00:04:59.320 |
For his judgments are true and just, for he has judged a great prostitute who corrupted 00:05:03.840 |
the earth with her immorality and has avenged on her blood of his servants. 00:05:09.920 |
So verses one and two is the first hallelujah we see, right? 00:05:18.960 |
You probably have been singing that all, maybe if you grew up in the church all your life, 00:05:33.360 |
So the first step of the end times is judgment. 00:05:37.240 |
So when Christ comes, the scripture says the very first thing he's going to do, he's going 00:05:47.680 |
He comes and he judges the world, and as a result of this judging, his people break out 00:06:00.480 |
So we're going off of, he says, "Salvation and glory and power belongs to our God," right? 00:06:07.680 |
And that's the foundation behind the breaking out of worship. 00:06:10.840 |
So salvation, right, initiated through judgment, God's glory revealed in his wrath, and his 00:06:27.400 |
And then he brings it to a close by saying God's judgments are just and true, or true 00:06:38.120 |
Ultimately, God's judgment alone are true and just. 00:06:45.560 |
He's not saying that of all the many other things that are true and just, God's character 00:06:54.520 |
You and I do not have the ability to determine right and wrong. 00:06:58.000 |
So ultimately, they look at the judgment of God, and they're not looking at the judgment 00:07:05.520 |
They immediately understand that this is just, this is righteous, because only God has the 00:07:11.040 |
ability to be able to make that determination, right? 00:07:14.440 |
And again, we're going to be talking about that later. 00:07:16.880 |
That's one of the discussion questions that we're going to ask is, "Is hell just?" 00:07:22.880 |
And that's a common discussion that we have even sometimes among the Christians, "Is God 00:07:29.360 |
Because we're trying to determine based upon what we know, based upon what we think is 00:07:39.920 |
So this is a praise and worship that's breaking out in context of God's intense judgment upon 00:07:47.040 |
And the first thing that they recognize, he's true and just. 00:07:49.920 |
So you and I do not have the ability to be able to judge what is right and what is wrong 00:08:00.800 |
We don't have the ability to be able to judge what is right and wrong, even among us, because 00:08:10.920 |
We don't know what caused them to get there, right? 00:08:18.400 |
How many times have you seen something and thought that that's right or wrong, and then 00:08:24.440 |
later on, having found more knowledge, found out that you were absolutely wrong about the 00:08:33.280 |
For sake of time, I don't want to get into it, but you and I don't have the ability to 00:08:41.400 |
Like ultimately, right, because we will always -- we're not omniscient. 00:08:51.400 |
If I did this, all we know is how it affects me. 00:08:55.000 |
But sometimes this may be happening because God has an all bigger plan of something down 00:09:00.680 |
Just, again, a perfect example of that is Job. 00:09:03.680 |
Job, all he sees is the suffering that's coming upon him. 00:09:06.920 |
He doesn't know the big picture of what God is doing, right? 00:09:10.120 |
And sometimes God may be doing something to affect what's going on 10 years later, maybe 00:09:18.440 |
And so we are not able to judge like perfectly because we lack knowledge. 00:09:23.560 |
Secondly, we lack the ability to be unbiased, even if we had the full knowledge. 00:09:29.480 |
What we consider right or wrong is always based upon my point of view, right? 00:09:41.320 |
So I determine what is right and wrong based upon how it affects me. 00:09:46.720 |
So because we lack these two things, because of our own personal sins and because of lack 00:09:50.660 |
of power to know everything, every judgment we make is always going to be flawed to a 00:09:58.000 |
Because we do not know everything and because of our own sins. 00:10:04.520 |
And so just and true, this worship that's breaking out here is referring to what? 00:10:14.800 |
He's not saying his cross, he's not saying about mercy, he's talking about the judgment 00:10:19.480 |
that's coming upon the world is just and true because only God is able to be omniscient 00:10:25.280 |
and omnipotent and completely without bias, right? 00:10:33.920 |
And so even in his wrath, he's completely just and true. 00:10:40.200 |
The second hallelujah we see in verse three to five. 00:10:44.800 |
Once more they cried out, "Hallelujah, the smoke from her goes up forever and ever." 00:10:49.040 |
And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated 00:10:56.640 |
And from the throne came a voice saying, "Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear 00:11:07.400 |
The smoke clearly is in reference to the judgment of Babylon that we saw in chapter 18, 9 and 00:11:14.240 |
At Babylon, the great city was thrown into the lake of fire for eternity. 00:11:19.880 |
And so again, this praise that's breaking out, again, praising God for what he has done, 00:11:29.280 |
And then this very common scene that we've seen in Revelations already, the 24 elders 00:11:34.920 |
again respond with four living creatures in worship. 00:11:40.240 |
So in my mind, one of the clear things that Revelation, one of the clear principles that 00:11:47.240 |
we've seen up to this point, that if I was to illustrate it, I would have two, you know, 00:11:55.000 |
The top portion of it would be heaven and the bottom portion of it will be earth. 00:11:59.040 |
And the earth is burning, hail, plagues, and people suffering and dying, a third of the 00:12:05.000 |
earth being wiped out, right, and blood, famine. 00:12:08.880 |
And that would be the description of the earth that we've seen. 00:12:12.000 |
And then the top portion of it would be heaven. 00:12:14.280 |
And in heaven, the scene is again consistent, is a place where there's consistent worship. 00:12:19.600 |
God is on the throne, the 24 elders with the four creatures surrounding, holy, holy, holy, 00:12:26.480 |
And that's the consistent scene that we have seen all throughout the book of Revelation, 00:12:30.400 |
that in the midst of the judgment of God, that God is perfectly in control, right. 00:12:37.680 |
And so we see that again in all these verses. 00:12:41.800 |
And then not only the elders, but the voice from heaven calls out for the rest of creation, 00:12:53.440 |
So praise for God's judgment is to be repeated on earth as it is in heaven. 00:12:58.200 |
So as I try to picture heaven in this one particular scene of heaven and earth, Jesus' 00:13:05.440 |
prayer and told his disciple, this is how you ought to praise it, is that pray that 00:13:10.080 |
his will be done on earth as it is in heaven, right. 00:13:15.120 |
So the work of the church is to bring down what is happening in heaven on earth. 00:13:20.680 |
God is looking for people who will worship him in spirit and in truth. 00:13:23.400 |
So what's happening in heaven, it is what he is seeking down here, right. 00:13:28.620 |
And so that's the proclamation, that's the command of the voice that comes. 00:13:33.600 |
That scene that you have seen up in heaven, what the elders and the creatures are doing, 00:13:37.520 |
that this is a call to the rest of the world to do as well. 00:13:41.080 |
And so you probably, again, heard the phrase from John Piper, "Let the nations be God." 00:13:48.920 |
Evangelism exists because worship does not, right. 00:13:53.520 |
If God's ultimate purpose of salvation is to restore worship, if that's what we lost 00:13:59.000 |
at creation because of the fall, God's primary purpose of evangelism is to restore that worship, 00:14:07.000 |
So what we see in heaven will be repeated on earth. 00:14:10.440 |
And that's what we're going to see in the millennia. 00:14:13.040 |
When Satan is bound, you're going to have a thousand years where Christ himself is going 00:14:21.880 |
The third hallelujah, we see in verse 6 through 9, "Then I heard what seemed to be the voice 00:14:28.400 |
of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals 00:14:37.580 |
Let us rejoice and exalt and give him the glory. 00:14:40.300 |
For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. 00:14:44.120 |
It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. 00:14:48.360 |
For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. 00:14:50.760 |
And the angel said to me, 'Write this, blessed are those who are invited to the marriage 00:14:56.880 |
And he said to me, 'These are the true words of God.'" 00:15:01.140 |
You can see in the third hallelujah that the praise, at least in the language, it intensifies, 00:15:07.700 |
It's almost kind of like the music is getting louder and louder, right? 00:15:11.300 |
The call to worship is growing, it's intensifying. 00:15:16.220 |
Again, this is where it says, "Like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty 00:15:22.980 |
Again, the third hallelujah is a call to worship, again, more intensified. 00:15:33.260 |
And the praise is specific to the marriage lamb, marriage of the Lamb. 00:15:42.100 |
And again, as I mentioned, marriage of the Lamb is a picture that we've been given all 00:15:49.060 |
throughout the New Testament about salvation. 00:15:51.900 |
So again, we mentioned this many times before, but the purpose of salvation is not to simply 00:16:00.820 |
That's obviously a huge byproduct of saving us, but the purpose of salvation ultimately 00:16:06.740 |
described is to bring us in a marriage relationship with Christ, right? 00:16:15.540 |
So God didn't save us, simply have a legal relationship with him, right? 00:16:21.860 |
That's why salvation ultimately, glorification is described as a marriage, right? 00:16:27.820 |
So every time we have a marriage ceremony, we try to remind the congregation and the 00:16:32.460 |
people that everything that we're doing in a marriage ceremony is to reflect the marriage 00:16:38.020 |
supper that's going to happen at the end times. 00:16:40.820 |
And that's what Christian marriage ultimately is. 00:16:43.260 |
Everything that we do in a Christian wedding is kind of a playing, right? 00:16:48.060 |
So playing what we will ultimately see up in heaven, right? 00:16:57.020 |
The image depicts the Lord's relationship with his church, and again, we see that over 00:17:03.460 |
I feel divine jealousy for you for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure 00:17:12.140 |
That's why Jonathan Edwards in his book, Religious Affection, he said one of the greatest evidence 00:17:17.820 |
of salvation is genuine affection for God, right? 00:17:23.660 |
He said that's the top evidence of salvation. 00:17:27.940 |
Not if you attend church, not are you, you know, versed in theology and how many verses 00:17:32.220 |
you memorize and how, you know, how often you evangelize, all of these things can be 00:17:37.900 |
All of these things can be done in order to please other people, right? 00:17:42.620 |
But he says the greatest evidence of genuine salvation is affection for Christ, right? 00:17:50.940 |
Paul says his purpose of evangelism and salvation was to betroth them to Christ, to have an 00:17:57.660 |
intimate relationship, to restore what was broken, right? 00:18:00.860 |
Ephesians 5.25, again, this is a famous verse that you guys all know, right? 00:18:04.900 |
Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. 00:18:09.060 |
So this is a relationship between Christ and us, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed 00:18:14.020 |
her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself 00:18:19.740 |
Not simply to release her from sin's bondage, but to release her for what purpose? 00:18:30.700 |
It's only partially, partial understanding of salvation where we think of salvation as 00:18:35.260 |
just our penalty for our sins have been paid for, right? 00:18:41.900 |
Because of that sin, we couldn't be married to Christ. 00:18:45.820 |
Only way that we could be married to Christ is by paying of that blood. 00:18:49.380 |
But the purpose of it is to bring us to him, right? 00:19:00.420 |
If you remember, before all the judgments happened, right, what was the first scene? 00:19:09.700 |
Before the seal judgment happened, what was the first scene that we saw in chapter five? 00:19:16.580 |
They're all crying because the scrolls were sealed and no one could open it, right? 00:19:24.140 |
And then they say, "Don't worry, the Lion of Judah is coming." 00:19:33.060 |
So the beginning of the judgment started with the Lamb of God. 00:19:37.460 |
And then at the end of the judgment, it brings us to the Lamb of God, right? 00:19:43.180 |
So it's kind of like the bookend, the bookend of the judgments. 00:19:45.580 |
It begins, he opens the judgments, and then he closes the judgment, okay? 00:19:59.580 |
In John, in verse 10, he's hearing all these fantastic things, and he sees the heavens 00:20:10.020 |
And then John's response in verse 10, "And then I fell down at my feet to worship him, 00:20:16.220 |
I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to this testimony of Jesus. 00:20:22.060 |
Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.'" 00:20:27.140 |
Now he's doing this in response of seeing heavens just opened up and praising and worshiping 00:20:33.580 |
God because of his mighty deeds, because of his judgment, and they see his glory. 00:20:38.940 |
And so John basically is overwhelmed by this scene and sees the messenger, the angel, and 00:20:45.500 |
he naturally is on his knees to worship, right? 00:20:51.840 |
Worship is a reaction when you are confronted by something much greater than you, right? 00:20:59.720 |
Worship is not something that you tell yourself and say, "You know what? 00:21:05.640 |
God has created us to be creatures of worship. 00:21:08.560 |
So whenever something that you are attracted to, right, something magnificent that's beyond 00:21:15.160 |
you, we usually, typically, our natural reaction is to worship. 00:21:20.720 |
John is in the presence of this messenger who's giving him this fantastic message, 00:21:25.400 |
and his natural reaction is to bow down and worship, and he gets rebuked for it, right? 00:21:31.120 |
Clearly, because this would be a breaking of the top two, top commandment. 00:21:38.080 |
And so immediately, right, the angel is not flattered by what he is doing, but it's almost 00:21:56.200 |
Because at the core of Satan's rebellion is this, right? 00:22:02.000 |
At the core of Satan's rebellion is he wanted to be in the place of this angel and have 00:22:10.880 |
And so this angel stands there and sees John worshiping, and he's not flattered by this. 00:22:19.900 |
In fact, you can fill that out, "Worship the messenger rather than the creator," okay? 00:22:30.640 |
Even though it's only one verse and it kind of says it in passing, this is a very dangerous 00:22:38.160 |
I mean, if you understand the larger redemptive history that this is what triggered all the 00:22:47.680 |
In John's perspective, he may have just done it in natural instinct. 00:22:53.180 |
He didn't think like, "Oh, should I worship this angel?" 00:22:55.460 |
He just immediately in reaction, because so much fantastic information and vision was 00:23:02.180 |
coming through this angel, his natural reaction was to worship, right? 00:23:08.980 |
Now the danger behind it is that it is so subtle. 00:23:13.520 |
Because we are creatures of worship, we naturally bow down and honor and adore things that are 00:23:32.240 |
When you are exposed to something that you automatically think like, "Wow, this is awesome," 00:23:37.080 |
whether it's sports, right, or whether it could be another human being, whatever it 00:23:44.160 |
may be, when something in your heart is naturally attracted to that and is bigger and greater 00:23:50.800 |
than you, our natural response is worship, right? 00:23:59.780 |
John himself explains later on in chapter 22, that very scene that we just saw in verse 00:24:03.920 |
10, he said, "I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. 00:24:07.600 |
And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed 00:24:14.720 |
I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers in the prophets and with those who keep the 00:24:23.160 |
In Colossians 2, 18 and 19, Paul himself warns, "Let no one disqualify you, insisting on cynicism 00:24:29.440 |
and worship and angels," going on in details about visions popped up without reason by 00:24:35.080 |
So again, Paul, even when he was writing the New Testament, says there was already a temptation 00:24:46.240 |
Instead of holding fast to the head, and who is the head? 00:24:54.000 |
Instead of fixing their gaze and worshiping Christ, it was the messengers that they were 00:25:00.920 |
Where do you see that temptation in the New Testament? 00:25:10.400 |
Maybe not in the form of angels, but possibly worshiping the messenger rather than Christ 00:25:24.840 |
Where all kinds of chaos and division was coming into church because they were saying, 00:25:29.200 |
"I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Peter," and so they were loyal to the messengers 00:25:37.560 |
And so that was causing all kinds of divisions in the church. 00:25:40.680 |
And on the surface, it may seem like a godly division, right? 00:25:45.520 |
Peter was the leader among apostles, so of course we should follow him. 00:25:49.880 |
Paul was anointed to the Gentiles and all these ministries were happening through Paul 00:25:53.880 |
and so much fruit was coming through apostle Paul, of course we should follow him. 00:25:57.840 |
Apollos was the articulate orator and he was the great speaker and he was probably bearing 00:26:05.280 |
Maybe people were being attracted to his preaching, so of course we would follow him, right? 00:26:10.680 |
It seemed like for godly purposes, but in the end, it was destroying the church. 00:26:17.520 |
Instead of holding fast to head, they were worshiping angels. 00:26:21.120 |
So this is the danger of the Catholic church. 00:26:25.920 |
The Catholic church subtly takes the power and the glory away from God himself and then 00:26:31.600 |
you have to go through these mediators, right? 00:26:34.760 |
They pray through these saints to get to Christ. 00:26:38.640 |
And so the danger in that is you start elevating everything other than Christ himself, even 00:26:43.200 |
though with the intention of getting to Christ, right? 00:26:46.920 |
Everything that we uphold in place where Christ needs to be eventually ends up becoming 00:26:55.640 |
If there's anything that I learned as a pastor in the last how many years that I've been 00:27:00.080 |
a pastor, is that God will not share his glory. 00:27:08.560 |
And if there's any lesson that I need to, like greatest thing that I need to make sure 00:27:12.880 |
that I don't do is that I touch his glory, right? 00:27:19.240 |
Whether it's the preaching or whether it's fellowship, whatever I do, if at any time 00:27:24.760 |
I begin to think to myself, I did this, that is because of me, because of my gifting, I'm 00:27:33.240 |
in the most dangerous place because my job as a servant is to point to Christ. 00:27:40.160 |
So if you fall in love with me, that feels good, right? 00:27:49.720 |
You can have a church filled with people who are magnifying the preacher rather than Christ. 00:27:55.080 |
So the ultimate goal of preaching is to have you fall in love with Christ, not with the 00:28:02.920 |
And I meet people all the time where you talk about theology and they're always quoting 00:28:07.960 |
They quote MacArthur, they quote John Piper, they quote Tim Keller, they quote books that 00:28:14.120 |
they read, and they're always quoting people, right? 00:28:18.360 |
And we can talk about, you know, they're excited about this form of Bible study and that form 00:28:22.560 |
of Bible study and this form of church and that form of church, but it's not affection 00:28:30.120 |
You can talk about things of Christ without talking about Christ, and that's the danger. 00:28:33.800 |
So even though this is kind of one verse in passing, if you think about the larger picture, 00:28:38.840 |
this at the core is the rebellion of mankind, giving glory to creation rather than the creator. 00:28:45.360 |
And so the angel immediately recognizes that and he corrects him or rebukes him. 00:29:00.360 |
And then after that break, he sees three specific vision. 00:29:03.840 |
The first vision is the one sitting on the white horse. 00:29:07.760 |
It's pretty clear that this vision is the vision of Christ of Revelations 1, 12 through 00:29:19.200 |
He's faithful to his promises and proven true by his fulfillment, right? 00:29:24.960 |
He's faithful because everything that he has promised, he fulfills. 00:29:34.920 |
I'm not going to read that, but just for your reference, the description that we see of 00:29:40.840 |
the one sitting on the white horse is the almost exact same description that we saw 00:29:45.280 |
when Christ was introduced in Revelation chapter 1. 00:29:59.160 |
He says he will wage war in righteousness, verse 11. 00:30:04.440 |
So Jesus came the first time as a humble servant to save, right? 00:30:08.840 |
And here's the mistake that sometimes the church can make because we have this lasting 00:30:14.440 |
image of Christ on his knees, washing the feet of the disciples, being crucified, cooking 00:30:19.880 |
a meal for his disciples before he ascends into heaven because that's what we see in 00:30:27.920 |
Jesus is not in his glorified state when he ascends into heaven. 00:30:33.500 |
But the picture that we see of Christ in heaven is not that humble servant. 00:30:38.520 |
It's the picture that we saw in Revelation chapter 1. 00:30:44.680 |
Even in Philippians chapter 2, remember he says he's humble, right? 00:30:49.760 |
He humbled himself even to the point of death on the cross. 00:30:52.800 |
And as a result of that, right, he will be exalted. 00:30:56.000 |
Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. 00:31:01.600 |
And so his reward for his humility, God exalts him. 00:31:09.680 |
And so when we talk about one of the foundational books that we read is lordship salvation, 00:31:16.480 |
right, is that a lot of people have this mentality that when you get saved, now you have Christ 00:31:24.920 |
for the rest of your life serving you, right? 00:31:32.600 |
And then you pray, and then God answers your prayer. 00:31:35.720 |
And so not that any of that is wrong, but fundamentally, fundamentally you have a wrong 00:31:47.720 |
So he comes the second time, not as a humble servant, but as a conquering king, a warrior. 00:31:54.520 |
He will come as a king of kings and the Lord of lords. 00:31:57.580 |
So if people had this image of the servant Christ who's going to come and wash our feet, 00:32:02.840 |
not that he won't, but that is not the image that we are seeing, we are shown in the scripture. 00:32:08.220 |
He's going to come as a conquering king, right, in his full glory. 00:32:24.140 |
And he's the word of God because in Revelation chapter, Hebrews chapter 1, 3, he's revealed 00:32:30.520 |
So Jesus himself said, if you want to know, it is not what you put into a man, but what 00:32:41.200 |
So the words are the revelation of that person. 00:32:45.000 |
So the scripture describes Christ as his word. 00:32:48.860 |
In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and word was God. 00:32:56.840 |
The reason why he's God's word is because the words are the revelation of who God is. 00:33:03.160 |
Christ is a physical revelation of who God is, right? 00:33:07.320 |
John 1, 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, 00:33:13.960 |
glorious of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. 00:33:18.240 |
So God revealed himself through visions and through prophets, but in the last days, how 00:33:27.840 |
Where before he sent messengers saying, this is who God is. 00:33:31.600 |
Had prophets saying that this is what God told me to tell you. 00:33:34.840 |
Where in the New Testament, Jesus himself is the word, right? 00:33:45.280 |
Before we got, basically you're playing, you know, it's not tag. 00:33:53.240 |
When one person says something, the other person says something? 00:33:59.200 |
So basically in the Old Testament, that's how we knew God. 00:34:06.200 |
He spoke through his spokespeople, but in the New Testament, God himself comes as the 00:34:12.960 |
So what we see in Christ is the clearest revelation of God himself, and that's why he's called 00:34:19.360 |
First John 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with 00:34:24.520 |
our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our heads concerning the word of life. 00:34:31.280 |
God's word himself comes, and we are able to not only hear him, but see him, right? 00:34:38.160 |
Again the verse that I quoted, Hebrews 1, 3, he is the radiance of the glory of God, 00:34:45.920 |
Remember the disciples asked, just show us the father. 00:34:50.280 |
If you have seen me, you have seen him, right? 00:34:54.200 |
He's the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprints of his nature, and he opposed 00:35:00.240 |
After making purification for his sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty 00:35:08.840 |
And then he says, he's going to come, treading on winepress of the fury of the wrath of God, 00:35:31.080 |
Basically you see the crushing of the wine, right? 00:35:35.400 |
Which, again, let me read, Isaiah 63, 1 to 3. 00:35:40.760 |
Who is this who comes from Edom in crimson garments from Bozrah? 00:35:44.880 |
He who is splendid in his apparel, marching the greatness of his strength. 00:35:48.120 |
It is I speaking in righteousness, mighty to save. 00:35:51.680 |
Why is your apparel red and your garments like his who treads on in the winepress? 00:35:56.680 |
I have trodden the winepress alone and from the peoples no one was with me. 00:36:00.280 |
I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath. 00:36:03.840 |
Their lifeblood splattered on my garments and stained all my apparel. 00:36:08.760 |
So again, the final vision that we see is Christ riding on the white horse, right? 00:36:19.760 |
And at that, his judgment is going to be like crushing of wine. 00:36:27.640 |
And so you see the picture of the grapes just bursting. 00:36:40.080 |
Okay, the vision of the angel standing in the sun calling for birds to devour the flesh 00:36:47.000 |
This is a vision that points to utter destruction and rebellion. 00:36:56.320 |
So when you see the corpse lying on the ground and the birds coming, basically there's so 00:37:01.520 |
much destruction, so much death that they don't have time to bury their dead. 00:37:05.880 |
Their line is kind of like if you ever see a war movie and you see bodies laying down, 00:37:10.440 |
you know, there's so much death that the birds just come and attack. 00:37:14.160 |
And that's the scene that is described at the end, right? 00:37:20.840 |
"And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the air and for the 00:37:24.680 |
beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away." 00:37:26.880 |
So all of this is prophesied in the Old Testament. 00:37:35.240 |
And then the final vision of the beast and the earthly king. 00:37:37.840 |
The beast, we've already studied, that is the Antichrist, and he rules the greatest 00:37:42.560 |
kingdom and Christ is going to come and crush him. 00:37:47.000 |
Kings of the earth, we saw that the ten kings that represent the ten horns that follows 00:37:51.720 |
the Antichrist, and they will also be crushed. 00:38:00.800 |
It is the first place that is mentioned, first place that's mentioned in Revelation, and 00:38:07.640 |
the beast and the kings will be thrown in it. 00:38:12.320 |
And this description of this Lake of Fire we see in Isaiah 66.24, "They shall go out 00:38:17.520 |
and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me, for their worms 00:38:21.240 |
shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be abhorrents to all flesh." 00:38:27.320 |
Again in Matthew 25.41, "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you 00:38:31.520 |
cursed into the eternal fire, prepare for the devil and his angels.'" 00:38:35.200 |
All who rebelled against God and followed these demonic forces, they shall all be cursed. 00:38:40.400 |
Mark 9.48, "Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." 00:38:57.160 |
It's not the final end because there's a thousand year reign of Christ and after that there's 00:39:01.160 |
going to be the final judgment, the great white throne judgment before we enter into 00:39:08.760 |
But this is the judgment that takes place and then you'll see in chapter 20 where Antichrist 00:39:17.680 |
and the kingdoms and Babylon, all of them has been destroyed. 00:39:22.920 |
So the only rebellion that's left is Satan himself and Satan is bound and you'll see 00:39:30.200 |
He's bound for a thousand years and after the thousand years he will be let go for a 00:39:35.640 |
period to purify, so to deceive and then at the very end of that he's going to throw Satan 00:39:43.040 |
into hell for eternity and then those who rebelled even in the thousand years will also 00:39:48.760 |
So there's going to be a second purification before they enter into eternity. 00:40:03.080 |
Again when you see the scene in heaven, ultimately God's purpose of everything that he's doing 00:40:12.320 |
So our very first vision in the church is to have God-centered worship and not man-centered. 00:40:18.040 |
So God's ultimate goal in your life is to restore what was lost at the fall, God's image 00:40:26.460 |
So there's nothing, we could say biblically there's nothing more important in your life 00:40:31.440 |
than worship and there's no greater worship that you give to God than your corporate worship 00:40:37.080 |
where the whole body of Christ comes together. 00:40:39.500 |
So Sunday worship should be taken very seriously because that's the ultimate purpose of salvation 00:40:49.220 |
So what we do on Sunday is a reflection of what we do in eternity. 00:40:55.020 |
So yes private worship is important but what we will do in heaven is ultimately is a reflection 00:41:01.320 |
So therefore again I want to highly encourage you guys. 00:41:05.780 |
I know that we are blessed to be able to travel and to do various things but I think it is 00:41:13.040 |
unwise and unbiblical to see Sunday worship as an option. 00:41:19.480 |
And I know some of you guys work on Sunday and so you might have to go to worship at 00:41:23.920 |
night time or you might have to find some other options but corporate worship is not 00:41:29.240 |
something that you can just kind of have when you can and not when you don't want to. 00:41:33.040 |
So we highly encourage you even if you are traveling to do your best to find corporate 00:41:38.920 |
Now having said that just attending worship doesn't make it good worship. 00:41:46.400 |
Basically showing up on Sunday doesn't mean you came to worship. 00:41:49.680 |
Worship is something that happens in spirit and in truth. 00:41:52.640 |
So the first question is what helps and hinders your Sunday worship? 00:41:58.840 |
You may say well maybe the air conditioning, parking, or the preaching or the singing, 00:42:14.040 |
What are some of the things that you are engaged in that helps you to worship God on Sunday? 00:42:18.320 |
What are some things that you are engaged in that doesn't help you? 00:42:21.720 |
I know some people, especially you collegians, there's no collegians here. 00:42:28.160 |
I know some of the collegians, they are in a habit of sleeping at 4 or 5 in the morning 00:42:32.960 |
and then they wake up at 10 o'clock to come and worship and then they are just out of 00:42:37.520 |
it and I know who they are because I see it from up here. 00:42:43.280 |
So if you are in a habit of like yeah you know all we have to do tomorrow is Sunday 00:42:47.320 |
worship so therefore I don't have to be 100%. 00:42:53.560 |
If Sunday worship is the most important thing that you are doing throughout the week, shouldn't 00:43:03.040 |
So I'm not saying that you can't do this on Saturday, you shouldn't stay out late, 00:43:06.440 |
I'm not saying that you can't do that, that's a judgment you need to make. 00:43:09.640 |
But if you are regularly in a habit of coming into worship, just dragging yourself in, tell 00:43:18.240 |
Tell me that doesn't affect your affection for God and your fellowship and building up 00:43:25.360 |
Because at the core of what we do is worship. 00:43:27.480 |
So your private prayer life, fellowship, building, evangelism, all of that, the foundation of 00:43:34.800 |
So if you have a biblical worship as your foundation it will affect your Bible reading, 00:43:40.280 |
it will affect your fellowship, it will affect your marriage, it will affect everything else. 00:43:47.600 |
Second, in what way has Jesus proven to be faithful and true in your life personally? 00:43:52.640 |
And I'm not talking about world affairs, I'm not talking about someone else's life, but 00:43:57.440 |
you personally, how has God proven to be faithful and true in your life? 00:44:02.160 |
Thirdly, some argue, and this is a question I brought up before, some argue that literal 00:44:08.800 |
hell is unfair when compared to the brevity of our lives. 00:44:12.260 |
So the typical argument, this is, you know, like sometimes Christians, even Christians 00:44:16.780 |
will argue, you know, our sins are committed during a limited period of our life, 70 years, 00:44:23.540 |
80 years, no matter how long we live, but punishment is eternal. 00:44:30.820 |
And so a lot of debate happens because of that question. 00:44:35.860 |
But clearly, don't twist what the Word of God says. 00:44:43.220 |
The Word of God clearly says that it's going to be quenching the gnashing of teeth. 00:44:55.460 |
When we did hermeneutics, I went through this before, but when we discuss about things that 00:45:00.860 |
are difficult to understand, you have to separate between exegesis and philosophy. 00:45:10.980 |
So the order in which it has authority is one is exegesis. 00:45:17.740 |
But sometimes when we have a hard time understanding what it says, we start to twist what it says. 00:45:25.580 |
And then all of a sudden, because you have a hard time putting God's sovereignty and 00:45:30.300 |
man's free will together, so therefore this must not be, and then you start reinterpreting 00:45:39.820 |
Don't change what it says because it's hard for you to understand. 00:45:46.380 |
Historical theology is what is the theology that's been passed down to us, right? 00:45:51.580 |
Meaning generation to generation, the church fathers, the denominations, what is the consistent 00:45:56.740 |
doctrine of hell, again, hell as an example, that has been passed down to us, that's been 00:46:05.500 |
Exegeted, preached on throughout the generation. 00:46:10.460 |
That's not the final authority, but it has to have some authority in our life because 00:46:19.140 |
And then compare that to historical theology, right? 00:46:26.260 |
Systematic theology is basically a compilation of exegesis, right? 00:46:31.300 |
For the purpose of my argument, let's skip that for now. 00:46:34.860 |
So exegesis, systematic theology, historical theology, and then it's philosophical theology. 00:46:41.780 |
Philosophical theology, here's a theology that clearly is stated in scripture, systematically 00:46:46.780 |
it's talked about and taught and all throughout scripture, it's consistent teaching. 00:46:51.420 |
Historically, this is the theology that we've been given from generation to generation, 00:46:58.140 |
So philosophical theology is how do we understand this? 00:47:05.540 |
So you can't go from your authority cannot be, your final authority cannot be do I understand 00:47:15.540 |
You can't reject theology based upon does it make sense to you? 00:47:25.420 |
Because the authority of God's word does not depend upon you understanding or not understanding 00:47:31.660 |
The authority of the Bible comes to us does God, did God say it or not say it, right? 00:47:38.020 |
If God told Jeremiah to lie on his side for 360 days, Jeremiah doesn't say why should 00:47:50.580 |
God calls Isaiah to go preach to people who are not going to listen. 00:47:54.300 |
He doesn't say well that doesn't make any sense, why would you do that? 00:48:07.620 |
So what I'm asking you to argue or to talk about is philosophical, right? 00:48:14.060 |
This is a philosophical argument of how do we understand this? 00:48:18.900 |
What is already written, clearly written in scripture, systematically has been proven, 00:48:23.180 |
historically has been given to us, how do we reconcile this, right? 00:48:30.220 |
Okay, so I want to set that as a base so that your argument doesn't go all over the place 00:48:34.140 |
and then the end result is, ah we don't believe in him, right? 00:48:37.980 |
I want to make sure that that's not where this discussion goes because the Bible does 00:48:43.260 |
clearly teach that and historically that's the doctrine we've been given, okay? 00:48:46.980 |
All right, let me pray for us and then I'll release you to your small groups. 00:48:59.220 |
Gracious Father, we ask Lord God that you bless the time of our discussion. 00:49:04.140 |
Help us to be open, be honest, even with our lack of faith, some things that are hard to 00:49:10.620 |
believe, help us Lord God to be honest so that our faith may be genuine. 00:49:16.380 |
Help us not to live by fear of man but to fear you. 00:49:21.860 |
We ask Lord God that you bless the time of discussion, help us to clearly understand 00:49:27.260 |
that we may sharpen one another and so we entrust this time to you Lord, in Jesus' name