All right, we're going to see
if we can make some headway. Go with me back to 2 Thessalonians 2. And
I want to kind of start back at the description that Paul
gave concerning the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 8. And just touch
on some points there as I was contemplating them last week
with you guys. In verse 8, it speaks to the
wicked one being revealed whom the Lord shall consume with the
spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of
his coming. And we spent some time last week
talking about that phraseology, the spirit of his mouth. And if you guys recall, There
was a synonym for the term spirit of his mouth that we saw when
we looked at the Old Testament passages and we looked at a few
passages in the book of Revelation and that word that synonym was
the word sword you guys remember that the word sword in verse
8 you could translate verse 8 this way and when and then shall that
wicked one be revealed whom the Lord shall consume and with the
sword of his mouth, the sword of his mouth. And the reason
why I said that is because we understood that particularly
in the New Testament, the word of God is called the sword of
the Lord in Hebrews chapter four and in Ephesians chapter six,
it's called the sword of the Lord. And so what proceeds out
of Christ's mouth in Revelation 19, under that imagery and metaphor
is not a literal sword. but rather an aspect of his divine
truth that was designed and designated to execute vengeance and judgment
on his adversaries. So I want us to look at that
because there's a nuance there that I didn't have time to get
into last week. I want to get into the nuance this week. Go
with me back to Revelation chapter 19. Keep your hand here, go to
Revelation 19, and let's look at the language again. In the
book of Revelation, there are what is called four major appearings
of the Lord Jesus Christ under several headings and themes,
four major appearings. The first major appearing of
Jesus is in Revelation chapter one. We're gonna go back there
here in a moment, and we're gonna see the connection between that
first appearing, which is called an inaugural appearing of Jesus,
where John sees Jesus as the high priest of the church in
Revelation chapter 1. That's the first appearing of
Jesus. That's what we call the inaugural appearing. When John
turns and sees the voice that speaks with him, what he sees
is Jesus Christ, the high priest, standing in the midst of the
seven candlesticks. You guys remember that. And that
picture image was designed to teach us that the book of Revelation
is not for the world, but for the church. The candlestick on
the menorah represents the church. The imagery is that of Christ
in the midst of the church. Now that doesn't make any real
significance to you if you are not part of the church. But if
you are part of the church and you understand that the book
of Revelation is given by Jesus Christ to the church, then your
heart is comforted by this revelation of Christ being in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks as the high priest of the church,
especially when down here on earth what you are experiencing
is persecution. And so the first vision is that
of Christ in the midst of his church. The second vision is
Christ on his throne. That's Revelation 4 and 5, 3
through 5, where Christ is on his throne as the Lamb of God,
as the glory of God, as the central figure. the central figure of
God's worship, of the people of God's worship of Christ. He's viewed as that one seated
rather on the throne of God. And the language there is to
depict for us that even though again down here there is all
kinds of trouble going on, there's someone on the throne that's
running this universe. And that one that's on the throne
is the Lamb of God. That's Revelation 5, by the way.
And we saw, as it were, a lamb who had been slain seated on
the throne. And he was the one who went to
him who was of the Ancient of Days and took the scroll out
of his hand and opened the scroll. And now we understand that the
unfolding of human history, as you and I know it, is the direct
product of Christ's rule from his throne. And so the seals
began to be opened in Revelation chapter four and five. And those
seven seals are the unfolding of human history as you and I
are experiencing it. And then after the seven seals
become these vile judgments, which begin to culminate with
horrific evils and apostasy and language that's hard to even
describe from Revelation chapter 16 through Revelation 19. And
then the third vision that we see is of the Lord Jesus Christ
coming. I'm sorry. The second vision
that we third vision that we see is in Revelation chapter
six, where Jesus is actually part of what we're called the
four horses of the apocalypse. You remember in the sixth chapter
of Revelation where we had a white horse and a red horse and a speckled
and bay horse and a black horse? And that language has been used
to make all sorts of movies as well. That's all fine and good,
but the white horse with the bow in his hand, conquering and
going forth to conquer in Revelation chapter six, depicts the Lord
Jesus Christ working through the church Bringing salvation
to his people in every nation kindred tribe and tongue in spite
of the wars in spite of the famine in spite of the death In spite
of the war in spite of the famine in spite of the death What the
white horse in revelation 6 is doing is conquering and going
forth to conquer in spite of persecution and tribulation and
all of the crazy stuff that goes on in our world, what Revelation
6 is describing is the unalterable purpose of God in the salvation
of sinners through the gospel. That's the white horse of Revelation
chapter 6. Revelation chapter 6 we get into
chapter 7 and from chapter 7 all the way to chapters 14 and 15
We have these horrific judgments of which the beast emerges in
Revelation 12 and 13 14 in the mark of the beast of which we
spoke about and all of this fearful language about tribulation and
in the 15th 16th chapters we have again a really difficult
set of imageries of vile judgments opening up on the world and and
a scenario of a nation, a world of nations gathering together
to come against the Lord and his hoes. And from chapter 17
through 19, we see Babylon, the whole kingdom, destroyed. The
seductive Babylon, the political Babylon, Revelation 17 and 18.
And in chapter 19, this great crescendo of a shout, hallelujah,
for the Lord omnipotent reigneth, and the bride hath made herself
ready for the wedding feast of the Lamb. And there's great joy
that takes place. And immediately after that, that's
Revelation chapter 19, Verses 8 7 through 9 immediately after
that we read the language over in verse 11. Look at it Revelation
19 11 and I saw heaven open and behold here it is again what
a white horse and He that sat upon him was called faithful
and true and in righteousness. He doth what judge and make war
so this here is the sort of last appearance of Christ Before the
culmination of the world in what is called judgment day because
the revelation chapter 20 and 21 goes into the judgment of
the world and the new heavens in the new earth but prior to
that Christ intervenes as we have this white horse here and
the horse in the scriptures virtually always refers to authority power
and it's in the context of war and The white horse in the scripture
virtually always refers to authority and power, dominion, and it almost
is always in the context of war. The horse is prepared for the
day of battle. That's the language of scripture.
See, because our Bible is acronistic or chronologically confined,
we're not dealing with tanks, we're not dealing with F1 fighters
or F14s, what have you, we're dealing with horses. And the
horses in the days of Israel in the Middle East were that
war horse that was used to fight battle. This white horse depicts
Christ not only as a warrior, but a righteous warrior. because
the white in the book of revelation symbolizes his righteousness
and his triumph wherever the symbol white in the book of revelation
is noted it's always underscoring the fact that christ has accomplished
eternal redemption and as the great judge and savior of the
world he must acquire the victory by the way everyone that's with
christ in the book of revelation wears white which means that
if you are identified with Christ, you already are a victor with
Christ in this battle that he's waging. No believer in the book
of Revelation is viewed as getting ready to wear white. They possess
the white. They are with him in white. They also come on horses. They are part of the triumph
and victory of Christ. This is why John could say in
1 John chapter 5, the whole chapter, What is it that overcomes this
world? Is it not even this even our faith? He that believeth
on the son of god hath overcome the world. So the exhortation
to the people of god is this When you read the book of revelation,
it's about jesus. Just like the whole of the bible
is about jesus If you're going to get a proper and a cogent
interpretation of the book of revelation, the central figure
is christ Now the comfort is this as he is triumphant so we
are triumphant as he is victorious so we are depicted as victorious
now watch the language he sat upon he sat upon a white horse
his name is called faithful and true in righteousness doth he
judge and make war his eyes were as a flame of fire head were
on his head were many what crowns that means victories this is
the Greek term diadem there are two terms in the book of Revelation
for crowns one of the terms is the Term for an authority and
that's what we have here. The word diadema is the Greek
term for having absolute authority regal and political and Absolute
monarchial control like a king who wears a crown there are other
places in the book of Revelation where the term crown is used
and it's called a Stephanus crown and This is why we know that
in Revelation chapter 6 where it talks about him who sat on
a white horse Also wore a crown and a bow, but that crown is
not a diadem crown It's a Stephanus crown and that was a wreath That
was given to those who ran the race are engaged in the Olympic
Games and won their events It was a wreath of victory And so
what it describes is that Christ was the one who ran this gospel
race, and he was the one who accomplished our victory, and
he's the one that wears the wreath. Here, however, is speaking to
his authority as sovereign Lord over the universe. The picture
that you are getting in Revelation 19 is Christ's return, his return
as sovereign Lord over the world. Again, look at verse 12 his eyes
were as a flame of fire on his head many crowns and he had a
name written that no man knew But he himself and he was clothed
with a vest vesture dipped in blood and his name is called
the Word of God as one of those Hebrew Redundancies because we
know that Christ is the Word don't we? We know that he is
the Word made flesh and dwelling among us But this double idiom
is designed for you and I to recognize that not only is the
Christ is Christ the Word of God personified But he's the
Word of God in its fulfillment in other words what God has decreed
and purposed before the world began and prophesied concerning
the unfolding of history all has fulfillment in the person
of Christ. This is why throughout the book
of Revelation and particularly in the opening chapters he is
called the Alpha and the Omega. That means he's the first Word
of God and he's the what? Last Word of God. When human
history comes to a complete close, the whole human race will have
to face him who is the Word of God. God will have the last word
and that last word is Christ But he's also the first word
for by him all things were made They are upheld by him and for
his glory were they created So he's the beginning and he's the
end and he's the unfolding of history and aren't you glad you're
not his enemy? And we read in verse 13, he was
clothed with a vesture dipped in blood. And his name is called
the word of God. This year is his redemptive identification. That vesture dipped in blood
means he triumphed at Calvary over our enemies. But Calvary
also points to judgment day. I'm getting ready to do a series
with most of us here at Graze on the doctrine of hell. We're
getting ready to open up the Lazarus rich man account and
deal with the teaching inherent in that text about the certainty
of hell, the justice of hell, the necessity of hell, and why
we who are believers must believe in hell. And here is one fundamental
premise upon which hell must be held as a truism by every
Christian. If we were to suggest that there
is no hell, then we make Calvary a mockery. If we suggest or assert
that God is too good to send people to hell, then we admit
by that sort of emotional capitulation that we have no understanding
of what happened on Calvary's tree 2,000 years ago. For on
Calvary's tree, one man experienced, as it were, hell. for innumerable
men and women who otherwise would have to experience that hell
for themselves. You can't tell Jesus that there was no hell
and nor can you tell a true believer that there's not hell for it
is hell that God delivered us from who trust in him. And so
we must believe in the doctrine of hell or else the atonement
had absolutely no purpose. It was an absurdity. And as some
of the atheists and agnostics would say, it was a cruel and
abusive act on the part of the father towards the son, if there's
no hell. However, him who endured the
wrath of God, dipping his vesture in the blood of God's justice,
And the sword of his wrath in the behalf of his people is the
one also who's going to execute judgment on the last day, by
which men and women who did not believe him will be cast into
the very hell from which he calls on sinners today to escape. And
so we read here in verses 14 and following a few things. And
the armies which are in heaven followed him. Who are those armies?
They are the believers. And the armies which are in heaven
followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white
and clean. Now here it is. And out of his
mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should, what? Smite
the nations. This is an interesting term,
the sword here. There are two terms for sword
in the scriptures. One is Ramphaya. It's a Ramphaya
sword. And that's what we have in our
text, Ramphaya. And the other one is called a
Makari sword. One, and this is the easiest
way to know the distinction, the Ramphire sword is a long
sword that was really used for execution in death penalties. The Makari sword is a short sword
that was often identified with hand-to-hand battle between soldiers
and the adversary. The idea of the Makkari sword
is seen in Ephesians 6, where it says, and we have a two-edged
sword taking up the sword of the spirit, which is the word
of God, along with the shield of faith, helmet of salvation,
and the rest of the apparatus for our battle, which means that
you and I, we don't actually wield the Ramphaya sword. We only wield the Makkari sword. The Makkari sword is the sword,
that aspect of the work of the spirit by which you and I fight
against the temptations of the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eye, and the pride of life, as our Lord used that very sword
in Matthew chapter four, when the devil came to tempt him.
Remember how he executed and used that sword? It is what? Written. That's the battle that
we fight. The authority with which we wage
war against the dark principalities of this world is not the Ramphael
sword, but it's the Macari sword. The Ramphael sword is a long
sword that was used to actually behead people, to kill captives
by a nation, by a king, by a monarch, when they were under what is
called the death penalty sentence. This is the sword that's coming
out of Christ's mouth right now because he is Lord of Lords and
he is King of Kings and his sword is going to subdue every other
sword and that's what's proceeding out of his mouth. But now before
I go on let's put our feet on the ground. We're dealing with
symbolism, aren't we? We're not dealing with a literal
pictorial of Christ having a physical sword with which he will subdue
the nations. We're dealing with symbolism
because a picture serves as a what? Thousand words. The best way
to economically inform someone about something that carries
a lot of content is to paint a picture. And that's what the
scriptures do. So what Jesus is describing here
is his authority as sovereign Lord over all the nations of
the world. By the way, before we're done
here, you're going to be reminded that not only does Jesus have
a rump eye sword, but the devil has one too. The beast has one.
See, the kingdoms of this world use swords. Remember what Paul
said in Romans chapter 13. He says be subject to the higher
powers For there is no authority but of God Every power or authority
that be national powers civil powers judicial powers, whatever
authorities they be in any country God has ordained those powers
and if you are an evildoer you need to be afraid because The
government does not bear the sword there it is in vain. That used to be long, long ago
that governments were quick to execute what we call corporal
punishment or death penalty judgments upon heinous crimes. because
we are falling so far away from recognizing the treasure of humanity. It's being created in the image
of God and the necessity of exercising a righteous judgment when heinous
crimes are being committed. We are now abrogating the responsibility
of doing what the law said, life for life. If a man shed men's
blood, by men shall his what? Blood be shed. That goes all
the way back to the Genesis account. That was the authority that God
had placed, not in the hands of, you know, rambunctious individuals,
like this fella on the East Coast or the Midwest who thought it
was his right to, you know, be on the neighborhood watch and
kill this young man. There's a lot of people who think
they have that authority. You don't have that authority
That authority is given to civil and judicial authorities whose
job it is to protect the citizenry And then they have to execute
the sword according to what is called due process. It's called
justice You don't get to just go out and do the you know, Jesse
James and and you know Good guy bad guy thing go to shooting
up each other. That's not justice. That's just out and out evil
And yet the sword is a concept in the Bible that God endorses
because of the nature of mankind. We are by nature heinous criminal
sinners. And without justice meeting a
severe punishment on us, we will just act like mad animals. Those
forms of restraint that we talked about a few weeks ago are critical
to civility in a society. I think about it now as our country
is unraveling. And I think one of the reasons
why our country is unraveling is because we act, we actually
do not have a justice system that respects God's law and therefore
executes judgment speedily. Our judicial system is corrupt.
It is, uh, it's wicked. As Solomon said, I saw an evil
under the sun in the place where justice should be, there's wickedness. That's called the court system.
He says, but I also saw another one. This is the juxtaposition
of justice over against righteousness. In the place of righteousness,
I see iniquity. That's the church. And so in
the judicial system where laws should be enforced for the good
of the public and the citizenry, we don't see that. We see that
the wealthy can get off pretty easily, don't we? And that poor
people who can't have good and proper representation can be
thrown under the bus. This is absolutely true. But
we kind of have this sort of dual parallelism for in the judicial
system, they don't have any sense of consciousness so long as the
church does not bear the prophetic and priestly role of reminding
government that it's under the authority of God. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? No conscience. And so the judges
exercise wicked judgments. They legislate laws that are
contrary to sound moral, ethical absolutes that are universal
in nature. And we find ourselves, you know,
at a real setback as to where can we find justice in the world.
And it tempts us all to want to take justice into our own
hands. The believer must never do that.
The believer must know that while justice may not be taking place
now, there is a day when justice will take place. That's what
we're reading here. I just want to read a few more
verses. I want to back up to some verses in the book of Revelation. Then we'll go back and we'll
make our way out of the coming of the Lord in his justice. Out
of his mouth, verse 15, goeth a sharp sword that with it he
should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod
of iron. He treads the wide press of the fierceness of wrath of
the wrath of God Almighty. And he had on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
There it is. You see that. That's just the way that it is. Look down at verse 20 and 21.
We talked last week about the depiction of him coming and slaughtering
the evil and wicked nations that did not submit to the gospel
terms. And the depiction is that of
the book of Ezekiel and Jeremiah and the Old Testament Deuteronomy
of how a king comes in with his army and so massacres the nations
that are before him that the flesh is left in the open field
for the birds and the carrions and and vultures to destroy and
eat. And we read over in verse 19.
And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies
gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse. Watch this. And against what?
His army. So see, we don't get away. If
they make war against him, they make war against us. And the
beast was taken with him the false prophet that wrought miracles
before him. with which he deceived them that
it received the mark of the beast and them that worshiped his image.
These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. So Christ utterly and totally
brings into subjugation these evil and wicked kingdoms. That's
the prophetic word that's coming to the church in first century
Rome, when in the view of the church saints, Hell is breaking
loose and every Roman monarch that rises up is seeking to be
deified and Extermination of the Christian appears to be imminent
and yet the book of Revelation is telling us that Christ will
come and he will subdue all his foes not just some all verse
21 and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat
upon the horse and Which sword proceeded out of his what? And
all the fowls were filled with their flesh. Now do me one favor,
go back to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1. I just want you to see that the
same Lord that's being spoken about here in Revelation chapter
19 is also being spoken about in Revelation chapter 1 verse
16. Revelation chapter 1 verse 16.
And it starts in verse 12, I turn to see the voice of him that
spake with me and being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks,
that's the church, universal. And in the midst of the seven
candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, that's Jesus Christ,
the God man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, gird about
the paps with a golden girdle. Now he's identified as our high
priest. His head and his hair were white
like wool that ties him back to the ancient of days in Daniel
chapter 7 verse 9 Which means he is equal with the father In
eternality and in authority For you will see a distinction between
the ancient of days and the one who comes to the ancient of days
But the one who comes to the ancient of days possesses the
same identifying marks as the ancient of days himself in other
words christ just as ancient of days as the Spirit and as
the Father. And that's what the language
is describing. When you have seen the Son, you have seen the
Father. His head and his hair were like
white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a
flame of fire. That's the theme running through
the book, right? His feet like on the fine brass, as if they
burned in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many waters."
Again, this is language running all the way through the prophets,
particularly the book of Ezekiel, verse 16. And he had in his right
hand, what? Seven stars. And out of his mouth
went a what? Sharp two-edged sword. Now, here's
the depiction, and this is important, because this high priest bears
a sword. And he's bearing this sword in
the midst of the church. The seven candlesticks are the
churches. And the message there is this. Just as Christ will come on the
last day to actually bear judgment with his sword on the world,
throughout human history, we call this redemptive history,
this is the age of grace, Christ has actively been working with
that same sword the church you remember what Peter said in first
Peter chapter 4 he says judgment must first begin where at the
house of God so when John turns and sees Christ as this great
mediatorial high priest with a sword coming out of his mouth
what he sees is Christ actively engaged in dealing with every
offense and and every form of apostasy that's going on in the
church. Now, you know I'm correct when
you read Revelations chapter two and three, which are fully
devoted to the absolute accountability of every leader and every body
of leaders in every church. As Jesus said, I know your works. I know your words unto the angel
of the church of Ephesus. Pergamos, and Smyrna, and Thyatira,
and Sardis, and Philadelphia, and finally Laodicea. He said,
unto the angel of that church, thus saith the Lord. And several
times he manifested himself in different forms, of which one
time he manifested himself with this phraseology, I am he who
hath the sharp two-edged sword. With the exception of two churches,
he said to all the churches you need to be repenting quickly
and changing your ways Which means saints throughout human
history up to this point the churches have been under the
judgment of christ The churches have been under the judgment
of christ It may not appear like christ is present in his church,
but he is He is present in his church by his spirit He is present
in his church by his word and he is present in his church by
his true believing people. I'm going to be having a leadership
class tomorrow with a bunch of men and I'm going to remind our
men of that one fact that the supernatural characteristic of
the local church where it is an authentic gospel church is
just this. It is the habitation of God through
the spirit. the supernatural nature of the
local church, where it is a true gospel church, where the gospel
is established, where it's preached, where the word of God is established
and it is the rule, where there are real, legitimate, authentic,
born-again men and women in a gospel church, Christ is present. He
is present providentially working in the lives of the people of
God to edify, to build up, to correct, to illuminate, to strengthen,
to qualify them for service. But he's also there to chastise
and correct and to sever the righteous from the wicked and
to remove ungodliness from his church. And it's important for
you to know that Christ in this depiction is saying to the church
He is right now far more concerned with the purity of the church
than the behavior of the world See the first inaugural vision
is about Christ the high priest Maintaining the church. He's
in the midst of the candlesticks. It's for this reason that right
now 2,000 years after Christ ascended to glory you are saying
It's for this reason, 2000 years after Christ ascended into glory,
you are saved. It would be very possible that
if Christ had chosen to let his church disappear from the earth
500 years ago, we would be just a group of pagan, ignorant, dark,
unregenerate beast who never knew God. Are you guys hearing
what I'm saying? It is for this reason that he
maintained the church of the living God up to this hour as
a faithful high priest who said, I would never leave her nor forsake
her, but he would not tolerate evil in subordination or apostasy
in his church. So he trims his candlesticks. He snuffs out lights as he warned
Ephesus. He said to the church at Thyatira,
he says, I have a sharp two-edged sword and I will come in and
I will kill the false prophetess Jezebel and her children with
the sword. And this is Christ speaking to
his church. You haven't heard preaching like that in your church
in this generation, have you? Because we are in bad shape today.
It used to be that men who were very serious about eternity preached
like this. And it used to be that men and
women who had an eye for eternity could absorb this kind of revelation
because they were serious about glory. It used to be that they
had such a view, a high view of the exalted Christ that it
was not hard for them to conceive that he wore a vesture dipped
in blood as their atonement and yet out of his mouth proceeded
a sword ready to execute judgment against everything that didn't
obey him. That wasn't hard for people to believe. Today it's
hard to believe that he's holy and loving at the same time that
he's just and righteous at the same time that he punishes sin
And at the same time he shows mercy that's hard for people
to believe today. They want a God of all love And then you might
have a handful of nuts who want a God of all wrath. I want both
I want love and wrath mixed together Do you understand what I'm saying? And that's the picture that we
have here. And so what's described is a high priest with a sword
and sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth look over at
chapter 2 verse 2 verse 12, I believe it is and It says the same thing. Yes and to the angel of the church
in Pergamos, right? These things said he would have
the sharp sword with two edges Do you see that now? Why does
he introduce himself to the church at Pergamos this way? I? Well,
because the church at Pergamos in first century Rome was dealing
with a political climate that had Caesar saying to the whole
world, bow down and worship me, or I'll kill you with the sword.
You know what Jesus was saying to the church? I've got a way
bigger sword than Caesar. His sword will kill the body.
My sword will kill both body and soul in hell. See, this is
what we're going to get into as we unpack the doctrine of
hell. When you think about Christ's sword versus Caesar's sword,
Caesar's sword is easy. You see what I'm getting at?
When you think about death eternally at the hand of an eternal fire
called God, God is a consuming fire, or death at the hand of
a peon mortal like yourself, this is non-negotiable. Fear
not him that can kill the body, but fear him who can kill both
body and soul in hell. And so I wanted to share that
with you so you can understand that the language that's being
spoken about, go back to our text now so I can move away from
this depiction in 2 Thessalonians 2. The language that's being
spoken about here is not unique language that does not have its
foundation in the Old Testament, nor does it have its anticipation,
does it not have its anticipation in the New Testament. It does.
When our Savior comes, he's going to use the same means that he's
always used to subdue every foe and that's his word. Now I want
us to look at the next bit of language in verse 9 and following
and I think it's worth marking. The wicked one will be revealed
when God removes his hand of restraint and during that unveiling,
we don't know when this is, it will be a very dark period of
time. It will be dark enough in my
assumption, in my perspective on this, that we will know that
we have entered into an unusually spiritually dark period of time.
It will be so dark, so heinously dark, that we will be warning
the Lord to come back. And what will be essential to
our soul's edification is that we know that he said, look up
during these kinds of times because your redemption draws nigh. And
it will be critical that the people of God have such an understanding
of the word of God with regards to Christ's faithfulness to keep
us and rescue us during these times that you don't become fearful
and unbelieving and get swallowed up by this wicked world. See,
because the darkness that will emerge out of the bottomless
pit when God removes that restraint will be the kind of darkness
that will be saying to us, bow down and receive the mark, symbolically
speaking, or you will die. The only option for true believers
is to not bow down and let whatever come, come. Because we know this,
as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said, if God wants to, he can
deliver me. And if he don't, I'm not bowing down to you. Do
you understand if you kill me, I'm going to glory. See, that's the kernel inside
of faith, isn't it? It's called the hope of glory.
How do you beat a man or a woman whose faith is rooted in the
hope of glory? How do you beat them when you're
threatening to kill them only ushers them into their inheritance?
But see, as you and I think this through, you know that right
now the consideration is around whether or not we have that faith
and how authentic and rooted is it. So when that time come
we can be confident that God will keep us isn't that isn't
that what we're concerned about? Because daily we're tried aren't
we daily we are tried and if we are struggling now It's going
to be a real struggle then but the promise in verse 8 is when
the wicked one shall be revealed Then the lord shall consume him
with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy him by the
brightness of his what? Coming that's the parousia. So
there is a there's a need for you to know that in the revelation
of the man of sin there's also going to be the coming of the
man of righteousness you guys got that in the revelation of
the man of sin man, there will be also the coming or unfolding
of the man of righteousness. Christ will show up when the
man of sin is just about to wreak his ultimate havoc. But before
we deal with that, I want you to mark verses 9 and following
because this is the language that Paul wants us to contemplate. What does it mean for the man
of sin, the son of perdition, to manifest himself or to be
revealed or for the mystery of iniquity to no longer be restrained
so that it breaks out in unfettered manifestation around the world
and thus ushers in this Antichrist or Antichrist system. Verses
9 and following describes what we must deal with and address
and confront as people of God. Here's how this goes. The man
of sin, this wicked one, can only come forth, listen to me
saints, when the restrainer is removed. Remember, binding Satan
allows the gospel to spread and sinners to be saved. Loosing
Satan means the gospel stops and paganism abounds. once paganism
has permeated the whole world through this this sort of leavening
process of politics and education and propaganda as it's spreading
now as it's spreading now once it has so fully envelop our political
leaders so that they once again take on a sort of Babylonian
tower sort of metaphor where they become one in their objective
to control the world and contain the masses of people and they
have been able to hijack to a large degree religion and bring religion
into that equation and Once they have been able to successfully
minimize any real impact of the gospel in the world, then you
will have a right period of time where the Antichrist system will
come to the surface and basically say, let's do away with anything
that remotely reminds us of biblical truth or of Christianity. On
that day, it will be a worldwide sort of referendum or moratorium
on the gospel. The gospel will be stopped. If
you preach the gospel or share the gospel or profess to be a
Christian, well, at that point, you're going to be identified
and targeted. You guys understand what I'm
saying. That's the essence of what the scriptures are saying.
Now, throughout history, this has been confined to small quarters
around the world, even to today. One of the things that's remarkable
to me, and I don't know if you know this, but there's still
lots of persecution on Christians all around the world today. Lots
of persecution. And the media virtually never
talks about it. Virtually never talks about it.
Because you see, it's part of the ultimate objective of this
evil system to snuff out the light. when it gains enough authority,
more majority, it will ultimately come forth according to a prophetic
expectation and wage war. Here's how it works. This is
what I want us to see. The Lord will destroy him whose coming,
verse nine, is after the working of Satan. Do you see that? So
the man of sin has something behind him. And what that is
behind him is the energy of Satan. That's what the word working
there means. So whatever this man of sin,
this son of perdition is, I'm not so persuaded that he's a
monarch or the Pope or, you know, some false messiah that a lot
of our religious people are suggesting is. I'm not so persuaded that
that's what you should be looking for, but rather a system, a wholesale
influence that's able to speak authoritatively to the whole
of the world and put people in dire fear and dire straits economically
and politically and domestically and judicially. To me that takes
a whole lot more influence than just one sort of popular individual
who will pop up. He might be loved by the whole
world. but that does not mean that he possesses the authority
to simply say and decree and have whole groups of people slaughtered
like the United Nations could if they were to come together
and develop legislation and charters and agendas for the snuffing
out of Christian and biblical worldviews. You guys understand
what I'm saying? So a man can be a system man can be a whole
institution a man can be a whole conglomerate acting as one that's
the language of scripture and they all acted as one man and
So be very careful about the idea of one man. However, the
energy behind him will be the working of whom Satan so, you
know what that means, right if the working of Satan is is behind
this enemy and he emerges, we can be sure that Satan has been
once again what? Loosed. Loosed to work enormous
powers of influence. So there's the individual, I
want you to sort of identify this, characterize this. One
is the individual, the system Or the institution that will
be operating under the power of Satan But here's how he's
going to operate if you look at verse 9 and 10 who's working
is after Satan with all power Do you see that? Signs, do you
see that in line wonders? So here's his forte power Signs
and line Wonders So this is his calling card. It's important
for us to note this. He's going to have a certain
kind of power, authority. And that authority is going to
manifest itself in signs and lying wonders. You guys see that? So okay, immediately, immediately,
we are now moving more from a political realm into a religio realm. Because signs and wonders are
characteristic of false prophets Are you following me so far?
So notice what it says Even he whose coming is after the energy
are working of Satan with all power That's dunamis signs simeons
and wonders this is the language both of Matthew's chapter 24
and Deuteronomy 13 and Revelation 13. Remember when we looked at
Beast 1 and we called Beast 1 politics in Revelation 13? And then we
saw Beast 2 in Revelation 13 11 and we called it what? Religion? religion basically demanded that
the whole world pay homage to the political structure. Remember
that? So that there is a similarity
between the agenda of the political structures of the world and the
agenda of apostate religion. So get that in your head. When
we are at a time where the religions of the world and right now we
haven't come together this is why I don't I don't think we
are you know a decade or two uh within this framework because
as I watch closely and I I just came from a political event today
where Condoleezza Rice actually spoke to us Uh, and I plan on
actually showing the video to my ladies as one of our last
classes because she was speaking on faith in conflict and it was
an eloquent, deep, deep, profoundly rich insight into what it means
to trust God in the midst of a world that's filled with terrorism.
It's going to be a real good message for our ladies. But as
I was listening to her speak, what I was reminded of is the
fact that things are coming together in terms of how the Bible paints
the picture of a sort of one world government and a one world
church. This is that unified work of
Revelation chapter 17, when all of the kings will give their
power unto the beast and the beast, beast will make war with
the saints, but we're not there yet. We're not there yet. There
are still too many major powers that are at odds with one another.
Are you guys following me so far? But what is remarkable to
me, and I want you to get this because this is where I am almost
a lone ranger in the media world of biblical propagation. And
what I mean by that is very few men point out the actual nature
and condition The churches as a whole when it comes to the
apostasy that the Bible says is constantly occurring in the
church That there not only is a woeful lack of information
in the religious world as a whole around Apostasy its signs its
fruits its culmination and consequences. Not only is there a woeful lacking
of that information out there but there is a spirit of that
dominates Christianity in such a way that it's right now politically
incorrect to even mark out and call out things that are clearly
aberrant to biblical truth. Are you hearing me, ladies and
gentlemen? Okay, so I'm in this conference right now with 700,
800 people. This is this morning, early morning
now. All kinds of so-called religious folk, right? And there are all
kinds of organizations speaking and in need of this and need
of that. It's amazing how tore up our
world is. It's amazing. And what I mean
by tore up is we've got problems everywhere. It looks like I'm
going to be preaching about five or six weeks just on Lazarus
himself, because he's such a metaphor for the problems of our world.
But we've got problems everywhere in our world. and there are institutions
rising up all the time trying to address this problem and that
problem and the other problem. Addressing slavery. addressing
prostitution and slavery, addressing drugs, addressing famine, addressing
starvation. The myriad of things that are
going on around the world will cause your head to spin and you
can become extremely disenchanted when you think about the enormous,
enormous effort that would be required to try to even make
a dent in some of this stuff. And it becomes a temptation for
the church to get off point. and get involved so extensively
in these matters that it fails to do what it's called to do,
of which I've talked to us about so many times. What doth it profit
if a man gained the whole world and loses soul? What does it
profit if you feel good about running around with a whole bunch
of Christ-hating, Gospel-hating, Bible-hating, religious folk
who call themselves Christians where ultimately what they are
saying is don't evangelize, don't share the gospel, don't exalt
a sovereign Christ, don't expose false doctrine, don't expose
heresy, don't challenge that idea, don't challenge that notion
because that's going to thwart or hinder our objective for unity
to get these social issues done. Do you see the tension there?
Do you understand the tension there? And I have to sit in some
of these atmospheres and be extremely cordial and politically correct
and exercise the greatest discretion. And rightly so, really rightly
so. I'm going to talk to our men
about this, where to pick your battles. It's critical to know
where to pick your battles. Every battle is not yours. And
besides, When we understand the nature of evangelism, how that
evangelism demands that we go on the inside of these broken
cisterns and situations to bring the gospel, then you got to get
on the inside. You can't stay on the outside.
You can't get anything done on the outside. And so there is
an ethic, there is a wisdom, there's a discretion, there are
tensions, there are paradoxes with which the wise Christian
men and women must walk. in order to be effective with
the gospel on the inside. Am I making some sense? You got
to be careful about that. And yet at the same time, what
you have to watch out for is what one of the lead speakers
did this morning. As I'm sitting in a number of
groups, we have politicians, mayor San Jose, all kinds of
politicians there. So I better stop because I don't
want to name names and have your heads all jacked up. But you
know, politicians will, if they can, you know, if they can get
some money out of you, they'll pray too, you know. They'll pray. But as I'm sitting there, and
I'll tell you, I was extremely pleased with Condoleezza's message.
This is why I'm going to share it with our ladies. There are
godly men and women who are gifted to be able to negotiate those
extremely difficult currents called politics, but they won't
ever be the ones in the limelight. Are you hearing me? They won't
ever be the ones that are so exalted that the whole world
loves. Because to do Christianity in
that environment requires you maintaining an absolutely anonymous
and humble position. You cannot do the gospel in a
gaudy, forward, sort of assertive and progressive, not a progressive,
but aggressive way. You can't do it. you they you'll
get cut off like I don't know what so the the humility that's
required and the wisdom that's required and the prudence that's
required to do the gospel in those environments is a gift
to some of which most can't do because should they they'll compromise
so here's this individual I'm not going to name his name but
everybody knows him in politics he's up there talking and opening
up and he's you know talking about how important prayer is.
Cause this is all about prayer, right? And so he's, you know,
he gives some anecdotes and some stories and then he goes to pray
and you know, his prayers about 30, 45 seconds. Cause you know,
there's a group of speakers that are going to speak, but I'm waiting. Okay, here we go. Ah, you're
getting ready to end. Let me hear it now. Right? Thank you God. and he gets down,
goes on about his business. Okay, so you know what's going
on, right? This is a politically correct way and approach to not
offend people who don't believe on Jesus, right? Are you guys
hearing me? Now this is normal all through
politics. Are you hearing me? Now watch
this. You don't offend anybody when you pray like that, but
God. Oh, you too ashamed to mention
my name? Why'd you even pray? See what
I'm getting at? But that's the climate that goes
on in your NAACP and all these different groups because they
are afraid to deal with the absolutes of biblical statements that are
exclusive in nature. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. No one comes unto the father but by me. That is absolutely
politically incorrect, but it's the opportunity of Matthew chapter
10 when Jesus says, if you do not confess me before men, I
will not confess you before my father, which is in heaven. So
in these kinds of environments, which I frequent once or twice
a year, as little as I possibly can, because I just, I just cringe
at the spirit of compromise that dominates these environments.
I just cringe at it. because the Muslim would not
have a problem using the term Allah. Are you hearing me? And so I'm saying, you know,
you say you're a Christian, just call it and let folks be upset
for five seconds and then have breakfast. You know, just call
it what it is. You know, I respect people who
believe what they believe, even if they're wrong, you know, But
when you are trying to shape an atmosphere of unanimity without
offense, then necessarily you have to give way to compromise. And what I'm saying is, as this
is becoming palpable everywhere, I mean everywhere, the ecumenical
spirit is becoming palpable everywhere, People are Compromising the truth
of the gospel now notice how the language puts it here. This
is an interesting concept We're gonna talk two more minutes.
I'll open the floor for questions and we'll shut it down for tonight
He says and he will come with all deceivableness. I'm sorry.
He will come with powers and signs and lying wonders now I'm
not prepared tonight to get into this list fully I We can, however,
take Deuteronomy 13. We can take Matthew 24, Mark
13, Luke 17. We can take Matthew 23. We can
take Revelation chapter 13, where it talks about the religious
calling card of signs and wonders being a certain component in
the swaying of people's minds to believe that they are indeed
experiencing God. Let me say that one more time
just in case you don't sit under this teaching much. If you are
not an individual who is in pursuit of Christ based on the truth
of the Word of God, then you are going to be susceptible to
empiricism, feelings and emotions, and atmospheric persuasion. Meaning the larger consensus
of groups crying or hooping and hollering or shouting or doing
whatever the large consensus of the group does and you're
gonna call that God Whether they are running around through the
room as it were so-called being filled with some spirit or whether
they're shaking and falling down going through some manifestation
whether some man or some group of men and women are going around
laying hands on people asserting to be saving people and healing
people of which there is no way for you to verify such lies of
signs and wonders are prominent all around the world such lies
of signs and wonders are prominent all around the world and they
are designed for one thing to disengage your cognitive thought
process as to what the truth is behind this movement. To cause
you to not ask the question, is this biblical? Is this exalting Christ? Is this consistent with the gospel? All it's designed to do is distract
you away from the objective truth of scripture when it comes to
what God says are the marks of true religion. The other thing
is, as I'm actually sharing with you these things on a reasonable,
rational, propositional level, I know I have the advantage with
most of you because most of you are reasonable, rational, and
propositional most of the time. Not all the time, but most of
the time. But in Masses of people I'm talking
tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people For me
to even talk like this would be to speak over their heads
Because the delusion that I'm getting ready to talk about now
the delusion is so strong so powerful so powerful that the
realm of reason and cognitive thought and logical arguments
and deductive and inductive reasoning around propositional truth called
scripture is something that's offensive to them. They don't
want to have to think things through and reason things through
and ask the question whether or not this squares with the
word of God. They just want to feel something. I'm telling the
truth. I'm telling the truth. And so
here's what's going on in our text that I want you to see that's
critical to that, of which this is where you and I have to be
two things. We have to be careful and we have to be thankful. Almost
done. Careful and thankful is the way
that this is designed to lead us. The text says, the enemy will
come with his institution, with his system, And it will come
with the calling card of authority, signs and lime wonders, authority,
power, influences, signs and lime wonders. Whether those signs
and lime wonders are the typical things that accompany religion
or whether these are signs and wonders, I'm just going to toss
it out. I'll deal with it later. What I see also in our world,
ladies and gentlemen, that constitutes signs and wonders is the massive
capacity for technology to influence the thinking of the whole culture
around the world at the same time, daily, incrementally deconstructing
the brain and removing it away from moral objective truth. Are
you hearing me? that the internet and that television
and that videos and that music and the whole world system has
the capacity to speak as one powerful voice. This is sort
of your neo-Babylonian thing. Remember what Nebuchadnezzar
says, at the sound of the harp and the sackbut and all the instruments
of music, then let us all bow down and worship this golden
image. I'm saying that that's happening now. in a spiritual
dimension for the whole world as they are hypnotized by the
unanimous workings of the wicked one through the movie industry,
music industry, education, and every form of propaganda you
and I can imagine. This is why our children and
our relatives and our friends are slaves now of a whole ideology
Which you say how in the world does a person get taken in like
that? Well, it's because they feed
on that diet Continually and what you eat you become you can't
help it The mind is constantly renewed by truth or error The mind is constantly renewed
shape informed, controlled, influenced, led by either truth or error. By either truth or error. We're
getting ready to look at that now. And here's how this works. Notice
what the text says. He'll come with power, signs, lying wonders,
and with all deceivableness. Do you see that? Now, I want
you to mark that because I want you to take a much more exegetical
approach to some of the terms that are being used here for
yourself, because my soul has been nurturing these things for
decades. OK, he's coming with all deceivableness,
which means he's not going to come with a pitchfork and horns. He's coming with all deceivableness
and the deceivableness will be those things that he knows works
with the human race, have worked, do work, and will work. He knows
them because he was there in the beginning when he was able
to topple our parents through the whole shifting of the focus
from the tree of life to the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil, giving a false image and a false promise as to what
that tree could produce. And we can already see in our
text that the same thing by which he was able to allure Eve is
what he allures people with today. The same thing is going to be
in our text, but I'm simply saying to you now watch this watch how
this works Got a few more minutes. He says And it will be done with
all deceivableness Deceivableness he will deceive He will deceive,
and of course that's the phraseology in Revelation 13, right? Satan,
the devil, that old serpent called the devil, the dragon, who deceiveth
the whole world, right? He will deceive with unrighteousness. Do you see that? I want you to
see this. See that term unrighteousness?
That's what he's going to deceive people with, unrighteousness. Well, that doesn't sound like
a good component for deception. Think it through for a moment
with me. Unrighteousness is law less. Yes. That's the name of
the man of sin. He's called the son of perdition. The Anthropos of nomos, the man
of lawlessness. Park it right there for me. I
want you to think it through. How is the masters of the world,
how are the masters of the world going to be deceived by the enemy
in a magnanimous way altogether at the same time? The proposition
will be that righteousness is a myth, that the idea of truth
and right and moral and ethical laws given by our creator is
a myth. that throwing off the yoke and
framework and parameters of the law of God will free you to do
whatever you want to do. I want you to mark this now.
I want you to mark it now. See, the objective of the enemy
is to get you to believe that freedom comes outside of obedience
to the gospel. that freedom comes from not recognizing
God's moral law. That freedom comes from you not
being constrained to those principles that God instilled in our first
parents and have run down through the generation to us right now,
which constitutes the distinctions between human beings and animals,
between men and women, between the sanctity of marriage and
fornication, every form of pornea that dominates our culture and
every other unrighteous deed one could even imagine that they
are suggesting and asserting and seeking to implement it's
all right to do these things because you are not under law
are you hearing me you're free to do it now here's the power
behind an unrighteousness and lawless system the power behind
it is sin in what? Nature. Sin in our nature. Are you guys hearing me? Sin
in our nature gravitates towards that proposition. Sin in our
nature makes it a battle not to actually receive that proposition
or consider it or be tempted or enticed by it. Sinning on
nature makes it hard not to be tempted by the propositions of
this world system. Just a couple, two or three weeks
ago, four weeks ago, a little bit longer, there was a controversy
going on about the Burger King ad. How many of you guys know
what I'm talking about? The Burger King ad. Oh, good. Most of you
guys are hermits. You guys live in a cave. God
bless you. That's good. The Burger King
ad went something like this. There's this big old fat hamburger.
I told you the image of the woman is what God has warned us about
from the beginning. And the guy's sitting in his
car with his girlfriend at the outside theater. You know how
we used to go to the outside theater long ago? Drive-in, there
you go. Long ago. I was a kid. I used to be jumping back and
forth in the seats of the, anyhow. I never took my girlfriend to
the drive-in theater. Those were over with by then.
But anyhow, the drive-in theater is sitting there and over in
another car, a woman is actually engaging in a pornographic liaison
with a hamburger. And it's so graphic and so grievous
that there was an outcry against Burger King for it. Now y'all
know what I'm talking about? I'm sorry, Carl's Jr. See, that's
how much I know about it. Carl's Jr. Burger King, anyhow. Here's the point. Here's the
point. The powers behind the media industry know that they
are going to get some criticism by the still remaining dregs
of society called conscious. But the vast majority of the
people that they're going to bring into bondage to pornea
by just those few weeks of that clip showing is far more worth
it for them. This is not about them making
money. This is about them making slaves to pornea. Are you hearing me? There was
no real money made on that project. The only thing that these kinds
of commercials, whenever you see them, are designed to do
is to sow into your conscience imagery that's designed to challenge
the process of conformity to Christ that you are supposed
to go through as you sit under biblical truth. They know that
the vast majority of men and women are not grounded in biblical
truth and thus cannot really handle those things without being
severely wounded. And so they do it over and over
and over and over and over again in every medium, every form of
entertainment, every facet of life you can imagine. Imagine
there she is, the enticer, having nothing to do with the product.
Only designed to get at the consumer because that's the problem. If
we are consumers in total, we are slaves of this system, right? If we are consumers in total
and not really driven by biblical principles and operating out
of a higher plane, we are slaves in total. We are waiting to be
fed from our master this present world system and have our brains
reformed in the image of the beast so that we give ourselves
over to unbridled lust. And I'm saying that that's the
thing that's shaping our culture. Now, when you have that barrage
constantly washing over and flooding the life of humanity, over time,
it becomes part of this morbid, addictive behavior pattern that
we see taking place in our children and in our young adults. It's
hit us for the last four generations, at least three. It's destroyed
Europe. It's destroying America. It's
destroying America and it's working its way now into our very poor
countries all around the world. They're getting hit with the
same thing and they're becoming addicted to this morbid transformation,
this devolving into this kind of beastly culture of which it
will be reinforced by an ideology that says you don't have to believe
in the old paradigm of biblical truth anymore. You can just enjoy
a life of and here's the word a life of pleasure That's the point Now follow me
because i'm almost done here. We'll come back next week Here
it is now watch this. I'm going to read three verses
And i'm going to just make one observation. I'll open the floor
for questions before we close He will come with signs and lying
wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness. He will come
with lying signs and wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness. Now watch this, in them that,
what? Perish. So okay, now watch this.
On the one hand, we have the institution with its agenda.
On the other hand, we have the medium by which the institution
now propagates its agenda. You guys got that? We have the
head and we have the body. I'm going to explain this next
week. You've got to have an intelligentsia. You've got to have a Grand Central
Station. You've got to have a place where people actually deliberate
and conspire to actually propagate these things. Is that not true?
And then you've got to have a medium of dispersion. The text tells
us the medium of dispersion are those people who are perishing. which means true believers are
not in this category. True believers do not become
a vehicle or means of conveying or publishing this kind of unrighteousness. Follow me now. with all deceivableness
of unrighteousness in them that perish. Now here is the next
clause of which we must consider next week. Because they received
not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Do you see
it? So now follow this. Here it goes. Now I want you
to see this. And we'll build it next week. The intelligentsia
is the power behind the medium. The medium are unregenerate men
and women. God says, however, they are people
who had an opportunity to hear the truth but rejected it. You guys got that? So what's
taking place right now in terms of them becoming available for
being the vehicle by which these perversions are purveyed and
disseminated is the fact that they heard truth and that truth
left them because it had no place in them the vacuum was filled
up by a mass deception of which the next verse suggests are you
hearing me listen to it again with all deceivableness of unrighteousness
in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth
that they might be saved and for this cause see and for this
cause God shall send them strong delusion and that they should
believe the lie. You see it? And for this cause,
because when the truth came, it found no place in them to
take residence and thus control their life. They didn't see the
truth as something for which to love in order that they might
be saved. And that vacuum, therefore, is
filled up with a delusion that God himself sins. Now, if God
sends it, it's over with. It's a wrap. If God sends it, it's over with,
it's a wrap. Only thing that you and I have to do is for us
to look at the process and see how did the process unfold for
this person, this people group, this mass society. Did this group
of people have an opportunity to hear the gospel? Let's take
America. The answer is yes. For 300 years,
America has had the word of God and the gospel preached to it.
And over time, like the children of Israel, though the nation
was washed of that demon, that demon went out through dry ground
looking for a place to stay. And finally it decided to come
back home. And when it came, it brought
seven demons worse than itself. The latter end is worse than
the beginning. And that's what happens when a society starts
to incrementally diminish and set aside biblical truth. The
nation that forgets God will be turned into what hell that's
where we are That's where we are So here's here's you know,
and we the only element in this equation That is worth our interest
The only element in this equation that's worth our interest of
which I can spend an hour talking to you about because I'm concerned
about it in the impotent lives of Christians is revival the
only element worth contemplating in a scenario like this where
God exercises a judicial punishment on masses of people after he
has given them a probation period of hearing the truth and after
he has saved large numbers of people and after he has given
witness to people who have influence and power and authority and then
the whole of the culture starts to leaven like our culture is
leavening The only thought of significance, the only virtuous
contemplation in light of this, other than throwing our hands
up and saying, let's move to another country and start a new
country, is revival. Are you hearing me? And revival
is a legitimate contemplation if you care about the souls of
men and women. If you don't care about the souls
of men and women, you will not ask God to revive. If as we contemplate
biblical truth and the impact of prophetic realities, and we
don't contemplate them in the real-time scenario of our own
kids, then we won't have the passion to cry out as Ezekiel
chapter 9 said. Now before you go through and
slay, mark the foreheads of every one of those who cry and sigh,
who sigh and cry. who sigh and cry, who sigh and
cry for the abominations that are done. Are you hearing me?
Now watch this. I've contemplated this for 30
years now. For me, this is extremely personal
because for 30 years I have understood some of the framework of eschatology
and have seen the gradual demise of our country, even in light
of the white horse of the gospel going forth successfully saving
men and women, I still see the red horse of the sword. I still
see the speckled and gray horse of famine. I still see the black
horse of death riding hard in our own country and in our own
Bay Area. And I see it culminating and
growing and becoming even more significant and less of the prevalence
and power of the gospel. I see false religion emerging
everywhere. I see sham Christianity. I see
light thinkers. I see carnal Christians. I don't
see people who think deeply and profoundly and care about these
matters. I see people that are basically
giving over to pleasure. That's what I see. That's what
I see. I was sitting at the table with
a bunch of preachers. That's a whole nother story. Just sitting at the table and
I'm just thinking to myself, context is important. But if
we were in another context outside of this context in which we were
in, not one of those persons would want to sit with me at
the table. Do you understand what I'm saying?
Because we all know each other. And we know what we preach. And
what we say to people. You see. And that's where we
are. We can work together on big projects. Just leave my killing the souls
of men alone, will you? So next week, we'll come back
and we'll go back and we'll we'll go back into verse man. That thing is loud. Is that yours? That's mine. I'm dealing with a brother in
our church. who is dying. He's actually not in our church.
He's just a good friend of some of ours. He had an aneurysm and
they found him face down on the carpet. a couple of days ago
and he's died real young. So, I'm waiting
on that call now. Tomorrow is not promised to any
of us. Not not promised anything. I'll open the floor for a few
questions if you have any. Pick that microphone up, Rick,
Ricky, and put it to your mouth. I want to ask you a two-fold
question. Uh the first question I want
to ask you is do you think for revival. Yes. Yes. If the saints pray, God will
respond. And the second question I want
to ask is, I was talking to a pastor friend of mine, and we were discussing
about different people ages of Bible, and he pertained to the
fact that someone age 40 is still considered a youth. I was wondering,
is that true? That's true. So some of y'all be happy if
you're 40 years old, you're a child. I'm past that now. So I'm old. I'm legitimately an OG. 40 years old is still considered
very young. And some of my veteran brothers
and sisters know that, don't you? We wish we was 40. All right,
next question. Right here to Mother Banks. In the third chapter of Revelation,
Jesus said, behold, I stand at the door and knock and he's talking
to the church of Leo to see that. And we see him there on the outside
of the church. He said, is that after this apostasy? When is it that he said, behold,
I stand at the door and knock. And if any man hear my voice
and if any man, so this is an individual thing. So would you
explain that to us? It's individual. Any man is always
individual, but it's always inclusive as well. Yeah. Laodicea is the
seventh church in the seven churches of Revelation. This is not an
order of events. This is not to be understood
chronologically. Forget that. Any of the churches
can be typical of any local church at any time the Laodicean Church
However is the church that is so self-sufficient and so wealthy
in its own resources that Christ has never been Needed in that
church so that when he comes with his gospel the way he depicts
himself to them as being on the outside of Now that's absolutely
oxymoronic when it comes to the Christian Church, for the Christian
Church is the body of Christ. Christ cannot be on the outside
of the Christian Church, but he can be on the outside of a
dead church. that pretends to know God, but
in works deny him living the lap of luxury and self-sufficiency
and fooling everybody that they're rich, wealthy, that they have
everything they need, when in fact, as he said, you're blind,
you're wretched, you're dead, you're naked, you need me. And that's true for all of our
churches, we need him. If he were to ever give us the
picture that he's on the outside, We need to be born again. That's what he's saying. You're
dead. You need new life. The Christian
church is the fellowship of the saints who fellowship with Christ. Christ has a right at the table
that he prepared for us to come and sit at. And you know that
by the preaching and teaching of his word. Laodicea never,
Laodicea was not a church that preached the gospel. They preached
prosperity. They preached prominence. They
preached self-help. They preached a liberal gospel.
They preached success. They preached finances. They
didn't preach Christ. You guys hear what I'm saying?
All right, we've got a few more minutes. So we need to pass that
mic. Yeah, grab that mic. AJ back there. Get your hand
up, AJ. There you go. In Matthew 6 24, I know we talked
about this a little bit. It says that no man can serve
two masters He hates one, you know and loves the other and
he holds the one and despise the other and I just wanted to
know if you could like speak to what it what it means to Serve
mammon. Yeah, it's really simple And
that's what we are in the parable of the steward and this is where
we're going with Lazarus in the rich man Lazarus in the rich
man is the parable that we're going to be deconstructing and
actually explaining why hell is a just judgment for men and
women who find themselves there because in the Totality of one's
life where God gives you resources and blessings and testimony and
witness one chooses to pursue the pleasures of this life and
which is the God of this world versus the true and the living
God even though one may put on the facade like this rich man
put on the facade that he was a true believer inherent in the
parable teaches us that he knew about Abraham he knew about the
book he knew about theology and he wanted now theology to go
to his family after he was dead right that's that's a religious
person who pretends that he's right with God and perishes in
his unrighteousness. So when Jesus says you can't
hold to the two, what he's saying is ultimately the one that you
truly love is going to always win out. Like Judas Iscariot,
he walked out and immediately was night because he loved the
wages of unrighteousness. He didn't love the gospel. He
ran with the 11 for a minute, but he didn't love the gospel.
He didn't receive what we call the love of the truth that you
might be saved The love of the truth not just the truth the
love of the truth that you might be saved See when the love of
the truth is planted in your heart. It's true that you Treasure
and you care about That you might be saved It's not just information. I want to be saved It's not just,
listen, I want to be saved. Did you get that? I want to be
saved. Listen, God has revealed darkness
to me, and I want to be saved. One more. Right behind you. Pastor, on Revelations 3, 18,
it says, I counsel you to buy gold from me. gold refining the
fire, that you may be rich, speaking to the church of Laodicea. And
I was wondering, you know, with the price of gold being high
and stuff now and the times, does that have anything to do
with this passage here, in your opinion? In Revelation chapter
3, the depiction there is one of a humble savior who exhausts
himself in seeking to reach the conceited rich person, our people,
our congregation, to let them know their carnal resources will
fail them one day. And they need resources that
are true and tried and will not fail. It really is a depiction
of the condescending nature of Christ. In my message I preached
on that, I called him the heavenly vendor. He is there selling them
on eternal riches. This is what he says. Buy gold
of me. Buy salve for me. Buy garments
for me. Buy this for me. And you'll never
have to ever worry about it again. Now that's condescending on the
part of God, isn't it? That's condescending on the part of
God. But we're learning that in the parable here, that he speaks
to Lazarus's and he speaks to rich men and he speaks to vagabonds
and he speaks to whores and he speaks to Pharisees. He speaks
to conceited people. He reaches out with the overtures
of his wisdom and his grace. And it's true to let men and
women have a clear exposition of the gospel before they rejected
and perish under the wrath of God. God lets us know, doesn't
he? He lets us know. All right, let's stand for prayer.
Father, thank you for this time. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for my brothers and sisters who've come out. Take every one
of them home tonight, Lord, safely and delay our heads upon our
pillows. Let our sleep be sweet. Lord, you are our salvation.
Our salvation is secure in you. Everything that Christ did is
accomplished. It is finished. Lord, may it
be a reality in our life and may we live to your honor and
your praise in these dark days. Grant mercy to our children,
Lord, and to our children's children, and to our children's children's
children. As long as you may cause this earth to turn, Lord,
be gracious to us, our nation, this world, Lord, just constantly
show your hand of mercy to us. We need you. We can't do it without
you. Without your grace, we will perish,
and we readily admit that. And we thank you for your word,
for your son, for your spirit, for the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ, Lord. We thank you and we praise you
in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you