Well we come back to Revelation
and to begin with chapter nine, remember what the book of Revelation
is. It's important to have this clearly
in mind. Revelation is God showing his
people how he is now, how he will, before the end, complete
the implementation of his glorious kingdom. of eternal bliss and
righteousness. That is what it is. That's what
it's showing us. Remember the prayer that Jesus
taught his disciples to pray. how God is holy, and then, thy
kingdom come. That's it. Do you know, the vast
majority of so-called Christian religion, do you know what it's
trying to do? It's trying to make this world of Satan, this
kingdom of Satan, it's trying to make that better. It's trying
to solve all its problems so that we'll all have a nice good
time in peace, etc. It isn't going to happen. In
the purposes of God, thy kingdom come. And the only way thy kingdom,
His kingdom can come, is if it's a kingdom of righteousness and
holiness. Now what does a kingdom have
to make it a kingdom? It has a king, yes. But what
else does it have? It has citizens. How are people
made citizens of the kingdom of heaven? Yes, there are the
holy angels who have never fallen. But how is he going to have people
in that kingdom? How is he going to have sinful
people when his word says, nothing that defileth can enter it. Nothing.
He cannot have that which defiles in his kingdom. Answer, he must
make them just with him. And so Job's question, how should
a man be just with God? It's the only, the most important
question you will ever address. How should a man, how can I be
just with God so that I can be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven? Thy kingdom come, so that I can
be a citizen of that kingdom. Answer, there's only one way,
and that's through the blood of the Son of God. the infinite
Son of God, the God-man, the soul that sins, it shall die.
He came, united with his people from all eternity, and in him,
his people united with him, they were crucified at the cross of
Calvary. I am crucified with Christ, said Paul. Nevertheless
I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me." This is how God makes
citizens for his kingdom. This is how he's implementing
it. And this world is not going to go on for billions of years.
This world is coming to an end. I'm not saying when, but this
world. It's ripe. It's ripe for judgment. It's
ripe for the end. We've seen already the seven-sealed
book. and six of the seals were opened
and they were horses, four horses, a gospel horse, the white horse,
a red horse, the horse of war, the black horse of socio-economic
strife, the pale sickly green horse of death that comes and
disrupts this kingdom of Satan. And then the fifth seal was unlocked
and it showed us the inevitable the certain conflict that there
always is between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan,
and the martyrs, the blood of the martyrs crying out. In all
ages, I mean I know not in this country, though we, for his sake,
we are killed all the day long, but literally in parts of the
world, God's believing people are being killed. for their faith.
They're being killed to shut up, to shut them up. It's always
been the case. Conflict. That was the fifth
seal. And then the sixth seal was the
portents of cataclysm in creation. And then the seventh seal was
opened and the seventh seal issued in seven trumpets. Seven angels
with seven trumpets. And they blow. And it's not as
if they're happening in sequence. In a sense, they're all happening
right from when Christ first came, even back to the fall.
In a sense, these are all happening. How God is frustrating the kingdom
of Satan. How he's always sending forth
the... He sent forth the gospel as soon as Adam and Eve fell
in the garden. He sent forth the white horse
of the gospel. In a sense, these are always happening. But the
message is, the impression that we get, is that they're getting
more and more earnest as we get closer to the end they're getting
more and more vigorous they're coming more and more on top of
one another and we saw as these seven trumpets start to blow
the first four are all about and this is this is a very very
sweeping generalization but I think I can sustain this the first
four trumpets are all about harm to the earth as an environment
capable of sustaining healthy life." You go away and read it,
and see if I'm not right. They're trumpets that blow signaling
harm to this earth as an environment capable of sustaining healthy
life. What is it? It's God frustrating
the kingdom of Satan. The purpose of religion is to
not mend the kingdom of Satan. Yes, we do acts of kindness wherever
we see it. Yes, we relieve suffering wherever
we see it. Yes, we don't stand by, but we
resist that which is evil, that's threatening our society. if there
was another war that threatened the sovereignty of our country
and I was young enough, I know it's easy for me to say now that
I'm not young enough, but I would join up and I would go and fight
for that freedom, yes, but at the same time it's not the purpose
of the Kingdom of God to mend this fallen world of Satan. And
then at the end of chapter 8 there was an angel flew through heaven,
and that angel said, right, four trumpets have sounded, of the
seven, there are three to come, and they're worse than what's
gone before. There's woes coming. There are three woes coming. Three woes. So the fifth trumpet
sounds, and we hear the first woe. And that was a spiritual
plague. Remember, this is symbolical
language. We're not talking literally. We're talking symbolism. Right
in the first verse of Revelation, it says that these things were
signified to John. They're in symbol. They're in
picture language. Because they're speaking out
of time, in eternity. they're speaking of eternal truth
so that trumpet sounds and there's a spiritual plague of alluring
demonic locusts with scorpion's tails well it's like lord of
the rings isn't it it's like it's like these great big cinematic
epics that we've seen in the last few years with all now the
computer-generated graphics. It's like pictures of that that
it conjures up. I tell you, this is where the authors of those
things got the ideas from, you know? This is where it all comes
from. But nevertheless, this is symbolism of spiritual reality. What is it? It's Satan's legions
of demonism sent into this world to set the spirit of the age,
because what they do, they don't kill men, they don't touch those
that have got the seal of God's grace in their foreheads those
that are God's children they're not damaged spiritually by these
things but they hurt men that do not have that seal on their
foreheads they hurt them by setting the spirit of this age is it
happening? you bet it's happening in my
lifetime in the last thirty or forty years I've seen this advance
more than I ever thought I never envisaged it at the time, but
now looking back I can see how since about the mid-1970s the
fifth trumpet has sounded and come in great galloping earnestness,
and it's everywhere. The spirit of the age in which
we live is this plague of demons. Then the sixth trumpet sounds,
and we now have the second woe, so that's where we got to where
we had to stop last week. The sixth trumpet, the second
woe, is further undermining of Satan's kingdom in this world.
And it's in chapter 9, verse 13, down to the end of that chapter.
This world is ripe for judgment. Look at verses 20 and 21. the
rest of men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented
not of the works of their hands that they should not worship
devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and
of wood that's what everybody does these days you say people
are not religious these days oh they're religious in their
worship of materialism of godless materialism these idols that
can neither see nor hear nor walk and offending the first
table of the law which is all about the relationship of man
with God you know God gave Moses the law on two tables of stone
the first table of the law is about the relationship of man
with God The second table of the law is all about the relationship
of man with man. Having offended the first table,
the natural consequence is that the second table is offended.
Look at verse 21. Neither repented they of their
murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor
of their thefts. Is that a description of the
day in which we live? You say, oh it's always been like this,
you know, apparently it was more dangerous to walk the streets
in Victorian England than it is today and so on and so on.
Yeah, people will say, people will make out all of these sorts
of things. You know and I know. that the divisiveness of sinful
man to commit theft has never been bettered than what it is
today it is at an all-time high you just listen to the money
program on the radio and the subject more often than not is
the latest devious nasty cheating means to deceive people to defraud
people of their money, thefts this is the world in which we're
living this is this is what it has come to and I tell you the
internet is a wonderful blessing for the spreading of the gospel
of grace but it's also, like motor cars were, like guns are,
it's also the means by which the sinful mind has more opportunity
and it's through internet fraud that these thefts are happening.
This world is ripe for judgment. It's as it was in the days of
Noah before the flood, as it was in the days of Sodom and
Gomorrah when Lot had to be taken out of that place. God had to
take his people out of that place before he could reign his judgment
upon it. No, there's no repentance for their sins. There's a general
societal violation of God's law. There is no fear of God before
their eyes is what Romans 1 says. This world is trying to reach
a false concept of heaven, a utopian tower of Babel without Christ's
atonement. That's the thing. Everybody wants
a nice society but what they don't want is they don't want
it to have to be through the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he
has done, and through his shed blood. They don't want that.
And you know that there's only one thing that fits a sinner
for heaven. Only one thing. Only one thing. You know, Prince Charles, our
next in line to the throne, hear this, there's only one thing,
not faith, not your faith, not anybody's faith, only one thing,
and it's the blood of Christ. And that blood of Christ, in
this world, in the religious world, that blood of Christ is
despised. It's trodden underfoot. It's
regarded as a vile common thing. They treat the blood of Christ,
to use Jewish language, they treat it as swine's blood. They
treat it with utter and complete contempt. And a voice cries out. Look at verse 13 of chapter 9.
The sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice. Now here's a voice.
Where does it come from? The four horns of the golden
altar, which is before God. Think of Old Testament worship.
Think of the altars in the tabernacle and in the temple. There was
the altar of burnt offering outside in the courtyard where they killed
the animals and they shed the blood and they burnt them on
the altar. As a picture as a picture of
the sin-atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what it always was. It was the gospel in picture.
It was the Old Testament worship. Inside the Holy of Holies was
the altar of incense. They had four horns. What had
to happen? When the blood was shed, the
blood was put on the horns of the altar. This is speaking about
the blood. The horns are speaking about
the blood of the sacrifice. The blood of the acceptable sacrifice. And that blood cries out. Blood
cries out. Blood cries out. When Cain slew
Abel, the blood of Abel cried out to God for vengeance. When
John saw the martyrs under the altar in his vision of heaven,
in the fifth seal being opened, what was it? It was the blood
that cried out from the earth. The blood of the martyrs cried
out from the, the blood of Christ cries out from this symbolic
altar that he sees in his vision. This blood cries out, what does
it speak? We're told in Hebrews that it speaks better things
than the blood of Abel. The blood of Christ speaks better
things. The blood of Abel screamed out for vengeance, for justice. The blood of Christ says two
things. The blood of Christ says to those who are redeemed by
it, peace. Peace. Salvation. That's what
it says. It's a savour of life to some.
The sweet scent of life to some. And it cries out to others a
savour of death. It's a savour of death to those
who are perishing. And that's what it cries out
here. It cries out for vengeance on this world which has trodden
underfoot the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So this sixth trumpet
sounds and initiates the second woe. It initiates God's end-time
judgment. Just like in the flood. Just
like in Sodom. Right for judgment. And the signs
were there, and it was coming. Look at the signs. Look at the
end. It's coming. It's coming. We
don't know when, but there's been rapid movement in the lifetime
of us all. I told you that things have never
been like this before. The population of the earth has
more than doubled in my lifetime. You think of the technological
advance, and yet the descent into the sin that God hates has
never been on such a scale as it is in the days in which we
live. And what does verse 14 do? when
that voice speaks. It says to the sixth angel which
had the trumpet, Loose the four angels which are bound in the
great river Euphrates. Set them loose. Four angels.
Four. Four. Biblical numerics. Revelation
numeric. Four speaks of creation. Of this physical world. Four
always speaks of creation. The four corners of the world.
It's not that we imagine the world is a square with one corner
over there and one. But it's symbolic language. It's
speaking of this creation in which we live. Loose the four
angels, worldwide. And he says, remove the border
of Euphrates, effectively, it comes again in Revelation 16
when the sixth vial, seventh trumpet blows and seven vials
of wrath are let loose, and the sixth of them is the drying up
of the river of Euphrates. The river of Euphrates, what's
this all about? in Genesis 15 and verse 18, when
God is promising to Abraham all the land that he will give him
as the picture in this physical
world of the Kingdom of God as it was in the Old Testament,
right? It was limited to Israel, it was limited to the physical
descent of Abraham. And when he's picturing the land
he says all of this is yours from the great sea, the Mediterranean
Sea, to the great river, the river Euphrates. That was the
limit of it. That was regarded as the limit
of it. The idea is These angels bound in the river being loosed,
it's the removal of the border. Remove the border between the
outward kingdom of God and the kingdoms of darkness. The kingdoms
that have never had knowledge of God. The kingdoms that are
called in scripture Gog and Magog. You read about them in the book
of Ezekiel. What am I talking about? Now let me Let me say something first of
all. The people of God in eternity that John saw, you know when
he's 144,000 and then he sees a multitude that no man can number,
where were they from? every tribe and tongue and kindred
without exception. They were from Jews and Gentiles. They were from the lands of Gog
and Magog. They were Chinese. They were Indians. They were
Japanese. They were Russians. They were
British. They were from every tribe and
tongue and kindred. but as far as this picture of
judgment is concerned the lands of such as China and India and
the Islamic societies and the power of the great wealth that
they have in the Arab kingdoms it's picturing that which is
godless and outside of the physical kingdom of God and what this
is saying is let loose a huge army of horsemen, look in verse
sixteen the number of the army of the horsemen, now you have
to admit that even with biblical symbolism, this is a big number,
I mean it's 200 million if we take it literally, 200,000, and
you know when the other numbers have been relatively small numbers
but picturing huge numbers, this is picturing a huge, a vast tidal
wave, tsunami of people, of horsemen, these horsemen coming It's speaking
of the removal of international borders. It's speaking of bringing
with them fire and smoke and brimstone. As this border between
what you might call the world that was civilised by the Gospel
of Grace and the world which wasn't, as those barriers are
taken down, don't forget what I said, in the Kingdom of God
there's people from everywhere. But in terms of societies that
are based on the gospel of Christ, even now, as bad as our society
is, its rule of law is still based on the gospel of Christ.
Whereas in China, the fundamental difference, the people in China,
the ordinary individual, does not have the benefit of the rule
of law. I'm not making outrageous statements, it's a statement
of fact. That is what we see. This is the revelation, we see
it now like we've never seen it before, a kind of an overrunning,
an overwhelming, of the world with these things. And the fire,
the smoke and the brimstone, I'll be very brief. War, desolation
that follows war, brimstone is sulphur. It's sulphur. It speaks
of pestilence. It speaks of... You're talking
extreme things, you know, this is just off the wall, this is
crazy. No, no. Look how much the world
fears diseases. Look how the world fears antibiotic
resistant germs that are everywhere. Pestilence. It is not beyond
the realms of credibility. You see, the red horse of the
second seal killed only a quarter of men, symbolically. This comes,
they kill a third. A third is bigger than a quarter.
It's getting worse. God will frustrate Satan. He
will punish sin. He is in control of all these
things. The utopia to which the politicians
of our day aspire will never be realized. Instead, God's Word
promises only this, the scorpion sting of satanic delusion, which
we saw last week, and dreadful human conflict. And that's what
we see. You know, oh, it's not like it
was in the Second World War, where Germany was lined up against
Britain, and then others joined in, and Japan, and America, and
so on. No, but we're at war, there's war going on. You know,
it's kind of more insidious than it ever was. It's ingrained in
society, it's all around us, all around us. God is frustrating
this world. Dreadful human conflict, but
still no repentance of their murders, and their sorceries,
and their fornication, and their thefts. 50 years ago, I would
have thought this is fanciful nonsense, as I've already said,
as credible as the Lord of the Rings is in fictional terms. But today we see it happening. Who will you believe? So let's
move into chapter 10. Let's move into chapter 10. This
dreadful situation, isn't it? But it's all in God's hands.
And it's not happening with him going, oh dear, I can do nothing
about it. You know, as the bishops of the
Church of England say, oh, God is incapable of doing anything
about it. God's completely in control of it. God has loosed
these seals. God has caused these angels to
blow these trumpets. Why? Because he's frustrating
the purposes of Satan. Now look at verse one of chapter
10. Child of God, if you believe,
look at this. Fear not, little flock. I saw
another mighty angel come down from heaven. clothed with a cloud,
and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the
sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." Who is this mighty
angel? Who can it possibly be other
than the Lord Jesus Christ? It's the Son of God. Who else
has got the rainbow of grace around him? He's a God of grace. He's got the rainbow, which is
the symbol of the covenant of grace, around him. His face is
shining as the sun. Remember the transfiguration?
Remember the other visions that John has had, clearly of Christ?
This is Christ, his feet as pillars of fire. Daniel's vision of the
Lord Jesus Christ is entirely in accordance with this. This
is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God manifested. No man
has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the
bosom of the Father. He has manifested Him. He has
made Him. Here He comes. In this world
where God is loosing, blowing trumpets of terrible judgments,
on this world which tramples underfoot the blood of the Son
of God, He comes down. And look where He stands. Verse
2. he had in his hand a little book and he set his right foot
upon the sea and his left foot upon the earth this son of God
this Lord Jesus Christ this our great God-man Jehovah Jehovah
Jesus in the midst of all of what is happening and could cause
us to be terrified, he is standing on the whole of this world in
which we live. The sea and the land. He's on
it all. He's in control of it all. He
is the mighty angel that's standing there. And he's got this little
book in his hand. Do you remember he had a seven-sealed
book in his hand at the start of chapter five? The seven-sealed
book which was the plan of God for the coming of his kingdom
and the loosing of the seals is the implementing of the plan
of his coming well now he's got a little book is this little
book the same book? I don't think so I don't think
so but I think it's part of it I think it's an extract of it.
What is it? This is an extract of the seven
seal book. That which can be revealed to
God's people of how the end, how the kingdom will come. Because
that's what it's going to tell us in the chapters that remain
up to chapter 20. He's telling us the details of
what is going to happen for him to bring the end about and to
bring his kingdom to come. maybe this little book is God's
word it's certainly the bits of revelation that we're yet
to see and it comes with a loud voice, look verse three, he cries
with a loud voice as when a lion roars, the lion, the king of
the animals, the king the one that's all power, he cries with
a loud voice and when he cries seven thunders utter their voices
and when the seven thunders had uttered their voices I was about
to write and I heard a voice saying don't write, don't write
Write them not, the things that you've heard the thunders roar,
don't write them yet. This was a very explicit, clear
declaration of the bringing of God's kingdom. But he's told
not to write it. You see, he was about to write
it. Why was he about to write it? Because he heard it and he
understood it. There was no confusion in his mind. He wasn't mystified. He wasn't like, what does all
this mean? I don't know. He was about to write it down
because it was so clear to him. But he's told, don't write it.
Why not? Because these things are so important,
you can't just passively declare these things as a disinterested
bystander. Do you know the difference between
disinterested and uninterested? I might be called by a friend
to go to the reading of a will of which my friend is a beneficiary.
He says, I want you to come along with me, just listen out for
anything. And he's going to inherit a lot of money from something,
his parents' house or something like that, or somebody's fortune.
Now, I might be absolutely fascinated by what's going on, I might be
utterly intrigued by what's going on, but I sit there as a disinterested
party, because it has no benefit to me. I'm disinterested. I might be interested, but I'm
disinterested. What I'm not is uninterested.
When I was trying to explain astronomy, I remember back in
1974 or thereabouts, trying to explain astronomy outside in
the school playground at Monks Walk one day, to a load of 14-year-olds. And that was an example of a
group of kids that were uninterested. They couldn't care less. All
they were interested in was what their hair was like, what their
nails and their makeup were like, which boyfriend they were going
out with. No disrespect, girls, but I tell you, it was a group
of girls. They couldn't care less why the sun rose in the
morning. They couldn't care less why the
moon looked like that at sundown. They were uninterested. What
he's saying here is, you cannot be disinterested by this. Lots of people are interested
in the book of Revelation, there's all sorts of bizarre stuff that's
been written about it, loads of books have been written about
it, Da Vinci Code type of nonsense, all sorts have been written about
it. Because people are interested, they're intrigued, they want
to delve into it. But you can't look at it like that. You can
only look at it if it becomes a part of you. Are you intrigued
by Revelation? Yes. I'm sure you'd be very dull
of spirit if you weren't in some way. You know, how it's been
mimicked in literature, in Lord of the Rings and things like
that? Are you just interested in it? Or are you heeding its
message? Because its message is about
the end of all things, about judgment, about the coming of
the kingdom of God. Okay, so what can he tell us?
Look at verses five and six. He can't tell us in a disinterested
way what these trumpet voices said at that stage. He can't
just say, oh, by the way, that's what all this means. Oh, there's
an interesting thing. On you go with your life. No,
he can't do that. But here's something he can tell us, verses
5 and 6. The angel, Christ, which I saw stand upon the sea and
upon the earth, lifted up his hand to heaven. lifted up his
hand. It's a symbol of swearing, of
declaring an oath, of promising the absolute unchangeable certainty
of something. He swear by him that liveth forever.
You know in Hebrews, where is it, in Hebrews 6, 13, we read
there Christ swearing by God in heaven because he could swear
by nobody higher. He couldn't swear, he couldn't
promise, he couldn't guarantee, he couldn't underwrite his promise.
by anyone higher than God in heaven. That's what this is.
These things are coming to pass. It speaks of the certainty of
them. He sware by him who liveth for
ever and ever, who created the heavens and the things that are
therein, and the earth and the things that are therein, and
the sea and the things that are therein, that there should be
time no longer. This is what he's telling us.
The end is coming. This created universe, this Earth,
this height, length, breadth, time, this four dimensions in
which we live, this space-time existence that we have, it's
coming to an end. People hear me, it's coming to
an end, is the message of this book that John saw in heaven,
outside of time. The end is coming. When? It might
not come in the lifetime of any of us. All I can say is the signs
are getting so clear. and things are running so rapidly,
I would live like Christ encouraged those in the parable, the wise
and the foolish virgins, live like them, live like the wise,
be ready, be alert, be alert, be alert, it's coming, the end
is coming, and it's in complete agreement, look, verse 7, in
the days of the voice of the seventh angel when he shall begin
to sound, this is the unfolding of the end, the mystery of God
should be finished. The coming of the kingdom, the
mystery of how it's going to come, should be finished as he
has declared to his servants the prophets. He's told us all
about it already in the scriptures, by his prophets. This is in complete
accordance with what the prophets have already said, that there
should be time no longer, that these things are coming to an
end. It's in complete agreement with all that has been revealed
by God's servants the prophets in the word of God so the details
of the end of all things the bringing in of the unrivaled
kingdom of God the defeat of the kingdom of Satan will be
opened up when the seventh trumpet sounds, when that seventh trumpet
sounds and that's going to sound later on in chapter eleven we're
going to see it but first of all something must happen to
John look in verse eight he's told to go and get that little
book from the hand of Christ who's holding that little book.
Go and get that little book. I heard from heaven the voice
speak to me again and say, go and get that little book which
is in the hand of the angel which stands upon the sea and upon
the earth. And I went to the angel and said to him, give me
the little book. And he said to me, take it and
eat it up. Take it and eat it up. You've
understood what the trumpet said, but don't write that down. Too
easy. You can't just say this is what
it means. You have got to eat it. It has got to become a part
of you. Go and get this little book.
Go and get the message of this little book. Eat it. Make it
part of you. Why? Because he's a prophet,
is John. He must preach it. He must minister
it. Look at verse 11. Thou must prophesy
again. You've got to preach this, therefore
you cannot just tell people what it means from an interested bystander
point of view. You've got to eat it. It's got
to become part of you. Eat it and make it a part of
you. So that you must preach it. You must preach it. You know,
it's inside you, it's become a part of you, you must preach
it. As it was in the days of Noah. The days of Noah, he was
building the ark. Do you know how long he was building
the ark? 120 years. apparently he was building the Ark. And
do you know what he was all the time? As well as being a master
boat builder, him and his sons, building a boat that the whole
of society all around him was ridiculing him for, just as much
as society all around ridicules us who believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ, that same Ark of God, in truth. As society ridicules
us for believing in him, they ridiculed Noah. But all the time
that he was building that boat, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. That's what he says he was. A
preacher of righteousness. He preached the kingdom of God.
He preached the truth of God. He preached the righteousness
of God. He preached, flee from the wrath which is to come. He
preached, flee to Christ. Flee to the ark. Come in here.
If you're in here, when God sends judgment, you will be safe. For
his judgment will fall on the ark, and not on you that are
hiding in the ark. And that is such a picture of
Christ. So it is today. That was what Noah did. He had
that message in his very being, that message of righteousness.
John had to have that message in his very being, and so do
we, so do all who preach it. There are many who are sent forth
to preach in our day by theological seminaries who have no qualification
to preach because God hasn't sent them. a bunch of professors
and religious academics in a theological, I don't care what its statement
of faith says, that does not equip a man to preach. But eating
this little book equips a man to preach. And how is it when
you eat this little book? If it is indeed the word of God,
if you're a believer, you read this word, and what does it taste
like? Sweet. The message is sweet. It's a message of grace. It's
sweet. And you love that message of
grace that saves from sin and confirms to you that you're in
the eternity of God and it goes down into your being and becomes
part of you and then you clash with society around you and it's
bitter. because it clashes, it gives
you bitterness, it gives you stomach cramps. Can I give you
one example? I'm not trying to draw attention to us, I'm just
using it because it's an example that happened to us this week.
You know that we love choral singing, we love singing in the
choir, and we love singing in the Hertford choir that we've
joined. We loved singing Handel's Messiah and we've loved doing
the preparations even though we're not singing in the Christmas
concert. Just the mental exercise of singing the four-part, even
sometimes many more parts than that, harmonies. We just love
it. It's absolutely... What's planned for next spring
term is to sing Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. Now I love Elgar's
music. And I didn't really know this
piece, and I started to get to know the music and to think,
oh wow, yeah I can tell that's my old girl, that's some good
stuff in there. And then the other day I got the words, and
it's the words of Cardinal John Henry Newman, and it's the Roman
Catholic doctrine of purgatory. the Catholic doctrine of death.
It's the Catholic doctrine of the prayers of Mary to get you
out of purgatory, and all of that sort of thing. And I thought,
well we both did, we just thought there's absolutely no way. Because
that of the gospel that was sweet in our mouth when we tasted it,
when it went down into our being and it clashed with those words,
it was bitter. Just couldn't do it. Just cannot do it. And
there are things you cannot do. You cannot, cannot do. And I
was talking to Peter yesterday about a message that he'd heard,
and I think I'd heard the same one, about this very thing, the
bitterness when you actually start to clash with the world
around you, and see that you are different. There are things
to enjoy, but you are different. So let's apply this. And then
I'll close. How do you relate to this world? How do you relate to this world?
Momentous things are going on all the time. We can see only
those who bury their heads in the sand refuse to see how the
message of this book is true. We are heading for the end of
time. It is getting closer. It really
is. We're heading for the end of
time. Unbeliever, this world is your only hope. and you take
comfort from it but I tell you it is no hope at all for to be
without Christ in this world is to be without hope in this
world. Believer you are, we are in this world at God's behest. God has put us here. We'll see
that when we come to chapter 12. God has put us here in this
wilderness world. He's given us a place and a message
to feed us there. He's put us there. He said, Jesus
prayed, take them not out of the world. I pray not that you'll
take them out, but you will keep them from evil. We're in the
world, but we're not of the world. Believer, think on these things.
Use it wisely, this world in which we live. Enjoy the good. Really, enjoy it. Enjoy the good. Avoid the bad. Avoid it. Live
responsibly. Live soberly. Live honestly. Live truthfully. Are these not
good gospel principles? In it be guided by the gospel
principles of God's word, but always remember whose you are,
whom you serve, whose side you're on, where your final destiny
is in heaven your spiritual riches that are laid up there in Christ
and be prepared as we all must be prepared to stand for Christ
whatever might arise because he's in control he's the mighty
angel whatever these trumpets are going to let loose and there's
some terrible things to come we're going to see worse than
we've seen so far but don't be worried He is standing one foot
on the earth, one foot on the sea, controlling all things.
It's all in His hands. Evil may touch us, but it can't
stop us reaching heaven. It might indeed. Believers have
been through wars in the last century. Some have been killed
by it. but they haven't been damaged
spiritually, they've been taken straight to glory. So determined
to stand fast. Do you remember what Joshua,
as they were coming into the promised land, they were on the
verge of the promised land and they're coming into the promised
land to take possession of it. And Joshua said to them, choose
you this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my house, we
will serve the Lord. Amen.