ResponsiveReiding

The Assurance of Faith: A Recommendation

June 22nd, 2018

In the present climate of privilege in our culture, it is hard to convince people of their fallen condition and true need of a savior. Founded on a gospel of self-esteem, we have a cutlural construct that intentionally breeds a sense of each person truly deserving the best of everything. A desert which leaves countless numbers angry, frustrated and at a loss when they do not receive their perceived just due from life and everyone they encounter in it.

But there is also an opposite comdition that sometimes plagues those who have seen their sinfulness, need and lost condition. These are those who have fled to Jesus Christ for forgivness of their sins, and seek to live and walk as His – but who nonetheless are plagued with soul-ravaging doubt as to their newly minted Christian state. They have heard, believed and acted upon the good news of the Gospel of Christ’s substitutionary death. But they are also gripped by great fears that due to the remnants of indwelling sin, they are not truly saved after all. They lack the assurance of faith.

If this is you or someone you know, let me heartily recommend this slight but exceedingly rich little book by Loius Berkhof (1873-1957) – The Assurance of Faith.

Gently, tenderly and compassionately, in less than 70 pages total, this grand theologian walks the reader through a breif history of this vital question. He then goes on to a short but very sound Biblical discussion of what true assurance looks like, where it can be found, and how it can be cultivated.

Even if this isn’t an area you struggle with personally (not at the moment anyway) I believe you will find this very sweet book a refreshing and encouraging read.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. One day, it WILL come in handy.
Antichrist – Revelation 13:1-10

June 18th, 2018

Revelation Part 25

Chapter 13:1-10

Catching a glimpse of Antichrist

Ch. 12 gave us quite a bit of insight regarding the nature of true spiritual warfare. James Hamilton in his commentary summarizes what we looked at last time: “By his death, resurrection, and ascension Christ defanged the dragon with seven heads and ten horns. Satan no longer has any standing in Heaven to accuse believers. He knows his time is short, and he is making war on the woman and her seed. Hamilton Jr., James M.. Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (p. 258). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Exactly HOW Satan wages this war is what 13 focuses upon. And what emerges in this chapter is a picture of 2 “beasts”. 12 ends with Satan standing on the shore of the sea. And as we have seen all along, the sea is usually a symbol of what is mysterious, dangerous, unstable and unknown – the unredeemed world. Now, Satan calls the first beast from this sea. In vs. 11, he’ll call out another beast – but from the earth. And we’ll have to wait until next time to see how the 2 figure together. What we have at this point is Satan and the 1^st beast.

This Beast, given all that is said about him here and then in more detail in ch. 17 is most often identified as “The antichrist.” In fact the chapter ends with the very familiar idea that this Beast gives a mark to all who are his, and that the number of the Beast is – 666. Something we’ll have to wait to address.

Antichrist. The very word conjures up all kinds of mental images. Most often, a charismatic world leader with near supernatural powers, poised to lop off the heads of anyone who doesn’t worship him. Reigning over a one-world government using a one-world religion. Scary to say the least.

But it might surprise many today that not all in the church have held quite that same vision historically. From the 2^nd century on, there have been 2 main ways of understanding the idea of antichrist. Both are orthodox. Both views have their pluses and their minuses.

First view: Antichrist as a literal historical person who will try to pass himself off as Christ, with the goal of replacing him and wreaking havoc on the world. Irenaeus (130-202) would be a prime example. He along with many others – solid, excellent men throughout history have argued some future, specific person will emerge as THE antichrist. F. F. Bruce, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Robert Mounce, George Eldon Ladd, John Walvoord, John MacArthur – etc. It is perhaps the most dominant view in American Evangelicalism today. It has a political, one-world government emphasis.

Second view: Antichrist isn’t so much a person as it is a pervasive heresy which deludes the world and keeps them from the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. This view was held by Polycarp (69-155), a personal disciple of John and Tertullian (160-220) to name a few. The idea here is of antichrist being a false teaching with perhaps a primary false teacher rather than a political figure. So the emphasis here is neither political nor personal. It’s why many of the Reformers identified antichrist with the Papacy. Not a specific Pope as much as the office and the system deceiving many in the guise of Christ and true Christianity. This is the direction I am going to take and the one I believe has the most Biblical support. Though as I said, both views have both their pluses and their minuses.

Whichever view one may take, we have the words of John in 1 John 2:18 reminding us: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” Other passages like this must be used in forming an opinion.

Interestingly, 1^st and 2^nd John are indispensable here since those are the only 2 books where the word antichrist is ever used in the Bible. So how John uses it must bear on how we understand the concept here.

Whoever or whatever antichrist is – from John’s words we know that while a final manifestation of antichrist is coming, in some sense it has already been here, and is here even now. Something more than a simple future person must inform our thoughts. That said, let’s look at the passage itself.

It divides itself up into 4 sections. The 4^th section specifically aimed at Christians, encouraging us and calling us to courage and faithfulness.

I. Revelation 13:1–2 “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.”

The 1^st thing we have to ask ourselves is – do we see anything like this anywhere else in Scripture? And if so – is there help in explaining what we see here? And thankfully the answer is a resounding YES! Not only do we get far more detail about The Beast in Ch. 17, we especially have the 7^th ch. of the Book of Daniel to really help unpack it.

Daniel 7:2–8 “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings…And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear…After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this…behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.”

The first thing you want to notice here is that the Beast in Rev. 13 – shares the key characteristics of the 4 beasts in Dan. 7. It is in some way a composite if you will. Leopard, Bear, Lion and 10 horns. But next, we need to see how Dan. 7 explains that vision.

Note then that The Beast in Revelation it is a composite of – kingdoms, not of individuals. We know this from the explanation given in Daniel itself. This would seem to indicate The Beast of Rev. 13 is not a man either but something else – a sort of kingdom unto itself. Let’s go further in Daniel.

Daniel 7:17–25 “These four great beasts are four kings…“Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest… and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions. As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them…“Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”

Dan. 8 goes on to explain that the Lion represents the Babylonian world empire. The Bear = the Medo-Persian empire. The Leopard = the Grecian empire, which then breaks into 4 after Alexander the Great’s death, and then into 10 (the 10 horns) which gives rise to the one horn that persecutes the Jews terribly for -1260 days – Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Which then gives way in some way to Rome. Contemporaneous with Rome, Christ’s kingdom will come on the scene.

In other words, no more global world powers are prophesied to come after these. Not in terms of political or military might. Yet we see this Beast here in Revelation and it is identified somehow with what Daniel saw.

So what might all of this mean? One thing is for certain, that the historical rise and fall of these world empires, prefigure in some way a final world empire – one that bears the traits of all that came before – and to which they were pointing. But not necessarily a political empire or government.

This prefiguring is a common way the Bible speaks. Historical events of the past are often meant to foreshadow things yet to come. Example 1: The Flood, followed by the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are both pointed to as prefiguring the final destruction of the earth in judgment. Both serve as specific examples of God’s coming judgment. Example 2: The Jews entering Canaan is meant to prefigure both something of our rest now in Christ, and the final rest of heaven yet to come.

Second, remember John’s words that we looked at earlier – antichrist is to come, but there already ARE antichrists? The idea is that there have always been world systems that have been contrary to God’s rule and His people. This is nothing new. But behind them, inspiring them as it were – is Satan’s influence. We see this in John’s vision here.

Let me try to illustrate this in contemporary terms. Behind the murderous and godless rise of Marxist Stalinism and its opposition to all things Christian – was the influence of the Devil. He was behind the rise of Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot – and inciting the murder of the 94 million killed in the 20^th century under movements dedicated to stamping out Christianity as central to their core values. Each one of these was an antichrist.

So in some sense antichrist has been here in the past in Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Communist Russia, China, Cambodia and Germany etc.

And, for 215 million Christians today, antichrist is here now the way I John notes. Antichrist is here in some Islamic countries & present-day China and North Korea. Did you know for instance that for the 17^th year in a row N. Korea has been ranked as the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian? 27% of the population live in prison work camps. Simply owning a Bible is a capital offense. For N. Korean Christians today, they are staring at the very face of antichrist. And, antichrist, the final antichrist, is yet to come.

What I am, arguing is that antichrist is not so much a person, as it is a global mindset, a universal worldview that denies God, the very idea of God, and marginalizes and persecutes everyone not in sync with it. A sort of dominant global group-think. All of which aligns perfectly with the demonic deception we saw portrayed in locusts from the bottomless pit and what came out of their mouths, and the flood that came out of the mouth of the dragon in Ch. 12.

Its key features are easily identifiable. If you do not buy into a completely naturalistic view of humankind as a cosmic and evolutionary accident; and of no moral responsibility beyond ourselves; of the highest good being material wellbeing, self-government, ever shifting cultural morality and self-defined “spirituality” – you’re out! So that while many are on the lookout for an antichrist person, they are at the same time actually imbibing the very spirit of antichrist in the world’s values versus God’s. It will have its various spokesmen, it’s false prophets – (we’ll see that later), but ultimately, its savagery becomes evident in how it blinds people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and sees them lost in Hell and under judgment for the very sin they deny even exists. This is far more subtle and pernicious, for you have far more control over people if they simply all believe your version of reality.

In fact the 4 places where John uses the term antichrist spell it out for us quite plainly I think.

1 John 2:18: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

1 John 2:22–23: “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”

1 John 4:1–3: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

2 John 7: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

If I understand these correctly, when taken together, antichrist is: The fundamental denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, and the entire worldview which springs from that revelation.

Let me summarize these: Every religion and every cult that denies the Biblical revelation of the incarnate Son of God dying a substitutionary death for sinners on Calvary – is antichrist. But the great antichrist of the last day is a secular denial of God & Christ, that gains global acceptance and will demand a totally naturalistic worldview. No God of creation, and no humankind as the special creation of God in His image. This, IS antichrist. A wholly secular worldview.

II. 3-4 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

The idea this pictures an individual receiving some sort of physical head wound seems unlikely given what we’ve just seen. Based on this verse some in the early church speculated Nero might be the antichrist, since after he died rumor had it he would rise from the dead and re-take the Roman empire. I remember similar wild speculations that JFK would recover from his head wound, and under the guise of being a great social reformer, then gather a one-world government. In fact, in Ch. 17 we read: 17:8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.”

All those speculations aside, given the historical antichrists and the present day antichrists and the antichrist to come, it seems best to see this as understanding that time after time after time, antichrist rises up as an ideology, usually attached to a nation and a leader, and then it is brought down – as all of the previous empires were. And then it rises up again somewhere else with new leadership. It is a never-ending repeat. The Beast, was, and is not, and is to come. Antichrist thought systems emerge, die and remerge.

But what of the world? It never stops giving its allegiance to the Beast. It worships the Beast and what it stands for. Godlessness raises its head over and over and people love it so. In what way do they worship the Dragon and the Beast? 2 Cor. 4:3–4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And to hear the present-day atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris – all belief in God must go! For it frees mankind to live out his most base desires without guilt or shame or fear of judgment.

III. 5-6 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”

So the Beast will be allowed to have its day. And it does what it does by one primary means: Uttering haughty and blasphemous words: By what it teaches and promulgates as truth. It will deny the truth of God, of the Gospel, of sin and judgment and righteousness. It will mock and make fun of everything sacred and holy and good. And it will have its 42 months, its 1260 days, its 3-1/2 years. Its period of trampling God’s people down.

IV. 7-10 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”

Conquering the world in its deception and the church in its persecution, there will come a day when it will seem like the Church and the Gospel will seem to be all but snuffed out. For those in N. Korea, that day is now. But just as Jesus was crucified and buried and even His disciples thought it was all over – the new dawn is just about to break.

No wonder vs. 10 ends by saying this calls for “the endurance and the faith of the saints.”

Well then, what provision has been made for Believers so that we will endure? John is given 3 things.

1. vss. 5–7 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months…7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,

Our God and King is as much Lord over Satan and The Beast as He is over all else.

Without God’s permission – even The Beast can do nothing.

We can trust our Heavenly Father who reigns over all.

2. vs. 8 All who dwell on earth will worship The Beast EXCEPT, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Believers have been promised that we will NOT be deceived – because our salvation was decreed before God even made the world.

We can trust our God.

3. vs. 10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.

Believers have their trials appointed by God and so are not at the mercy of The Beast – even when it may look like it.

He knows our individual strengths and weaknesses. He knows our constitutions. He is as much Lord over our sufferings as He is our blessings. We can trust Him.

The very confidence of Jesus when He stood before Pilate is ours. Pilate said don’t you know I have the authority to release you or crucify you? And Jesus calmly answered: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.

As He trusted the Father, so do we. For in our faith in Him, we overcome The World, The Beast, and even Satan himself.
Spiritual Warfare – Revelation Ch. 12

June 11th, 2018
Revelation Part 24

Chapter 12

Romans 3:21-26

Spiritual Warfare: What’s it all about?

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

Last time in our study, we saw how ch. 11 gave us what we called “The Tale of Two Cities”: The City of God, and the City of Man or This World.

The City of God being a way of speaking about God’s people as a citizenry which is under the authority and rulership of Jesus. A society established according to His values. It is in fact our being under His rulership that makes us citizens of His City.

In contrast to that stands the the City of This World – a citizenry of those opposed to Christ’s rule. Not necessarily consciously opposed to His rulership, as much as committed to self-rulership and the values we create or adopt for ourselves. All of those outside of Christ.

2 cities in perpetual conflict. So we saw that this conflict is a spiritual one as referenced in 2 Cor. 10:3–5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

So we see that our battle isn’t political, economic or even moral though it has implications in all of those areas.

Chaps. 12 & 13 go on to develop that pattern in a very interesting and helpful way by focusing on revealing to us the nature, the work and the motives of our great enemy – Satan. Exposing him as the one behind the City of This World – he is its chief influencer.

So much is this true, 1 John 5:19b can assert: “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

And so Col. 2:8 warns: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

This is the conflict in a nutshell.

So ch. 12 will make abundantly clear what the nature of Satan’s involvement in this conflict is, and how God keeps His church through the conflict, and gives her ultimate victory.

Thus the chapter opens with 2 “signs” – or amazing spectacles to catch our attention.

And in these 2 “signs” or spectacles given here – we are chiefly meant to see 2 things:

The savagery of Satan’s involvement in this present world system. His thoughts, reasoning and purposes.

What provisions are made for Believers in this battle. That victory is ours. And that it is ours in a very precise, practical and rational way.

That’s where we are going this morning.

Next time, God willing, we’ll go on to Ch. 13 where the text will explain more of the complexities and realities of the battle. Especially Satan’s tactics. What we can expect in our day, right up until Jesus’ return. In this way chapter 12 acts like a lead in to 13.

I am going to approach this chapter a bit differently for what I hope is clarity’s sake. I want to be less technical than we’ve been recently, and will not tease out as much detail. I want to get to how this passage helps me personally, and thus I trust helps you as well.
1. First sign: The Woman / Rev. 12:1–2 “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. “
Let’s put the facts together. 12 Key facts.

Some of these need some unpacking and then the others become self-explanatory.

1 – CLOTHED WITH THE SUN. This is most likely picking up on ideas given to us in Matthew 17:2 and again in Rev. 1:13–16 “and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

One immediately thinks of 2 Cor. 4:6 “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

And coupled with 2 Cor. 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

i.e. The brightness of Christ’s glory in some way clothing this woman – whoever or whatever she is.

THE MOON UNDER HER FEET. Someone or something being under the feet of another is a common Biblical picture of one having authority. I’ll let you all look up references to that idea.

A CROWN OF 12 STARS. This has echoes of Joseph’s dream in Gen. 37:9–10 Where Joseph “dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”

The 11 stars there being Joseph’s brothers or the 12 patriarchs when taken all together.

This picture will come up again later in the book in Ch. 21 where the New Jerusalem which is also called the Bride of Christ comes down out of Heaven and has 12 gates which bear the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 foundations which bear the names of the 12 apostles. Old Testament satins and NT saints comprising 1 city.

(2) PREGNANT AND IN THE THROES OF BIRTH PAINS

(5) GAVE BIRTH TO A MALE CHILD WHO WAS TO RULE THE NATIONS WITH A ROD OF IRON / Here we start to get more concrete help. “Ruling with a rod of iron” is a phrase used in at least 3 places to refer to the Messiah: Ps. 2:9; Rev. 2:27; Rev. 19:15

(5) HER CHILD WAS CAUGHT UP TO HEAVEN / This would seem to be a clear reference to the ascension of Jesus. Eph. 4:9–10 “(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

(6) FLED TO THE WILDERNESS WHERE GOD HAD PREPARED A PLACE FOR HER AND NOURISHED HER FOR 1260 DAYS / Where have we seen this before? 1260 days / 42 months / 3.5 years? The period of time we saw in Ch. 11 when the Church is both persecuted and protected. A period of tribulation extending from Jesus’ ascension to His return. That thought is being enlarged on here.

(13) PURSUED BY THE DRAGON / Now we get insight into this persecution that is “dragon fueled”. This will get unpacked as we go.

(14) ENABLED TO ESCAPE TO THE WILDERNESS

(15) SERPENT TRIES TO OVERWHELM AND DESTROY HER

(16) EARTH HELPS HER IN SOME WAY

(17) OFFSPRING ARE THOSE WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND HOLD TO THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS / So she both gives birth to the Messiah, AND, to those who believe and hold to the Gospel.

Who is she then: “Paul gives us the clue to the meaning of the heavenly woman when he speaks of the Jerusalem which is above, who is the mother of the people of God on earth (Gal. 4:26). She was the mother of the true Israel in the Old Testament, and of the people of the Messiah in the New Testament. The woman is the ideal church in heaven; her children are the actual historical people of God on earth.” George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), 167.

A picture given to us in Gal. 4:26 “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”

Beale (Revelation (NIGTC)): “Vv 2–6 reveal that this woman is a picture of the faithful community, which existed both before and after the coming of Christ.”

2. Second sign: / The Dragon: Revelation 12:3–4 “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.”

This is unambiguously Satan: Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.” I won’t go into the symbolism of the horns and diadems here for brevity’s sake.

So what is the scene?

Satan was waiting for the birth of the promised Messiah, with an aim to devour – eat – destroy Him. It is a grotesque picture. Remember Herod trying to kill all the children 2 and under after the Wise Men came? Or the storm on the sea when He was asleep in the boat in Luke 8? And again in John 10 – the time when a crowd tried to stone Him? All thwarted. And just when Satan thought he had won in the crucifixion, that turns out to be the source of Satan’s actual defeat. Jesus was resurrected. Caught up to Heaven.

And what was the result of that?

Rev. 12:7–9 “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Satan and his angels (the 3^rd of the stars of heaven in vs. 4) are cast out NOT by Jesus – but by a peer – Michael, another angel.

Cast down to earth and no longer an accuser of God’s people to God, because Christ has died and atoned for sin, justifying God as the judge of sin even though He had waited so long in not judging sin, it began to look as though He was unjust. So Rom. 3:21–26 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

What did his accusing look like before? Job. But since Christ has paid for our sin and we are justified by His grace, Satan no longer has such an outlet.

Robbed of that, angered by his expulsion and the reality that his time is short – that final judgment is coming upon him soon – what does he do? 12:17 “Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

He pursues the Church. Furiously!

How? We’ll see this in more detail next time – but the essential is in vs. 15 – opening his mouth to overwhelm us. A picture we’ve seen several times before. Like Jesus with the sharp 2-edged sword coming out of His mouth; the fire, smoke and sulfur out of the mouths of the demonic hoard in Ch. 9 and the plagues of the 2 Witnesses in Ch. 11. – the Devil does his work THROUGH HIS LIES!

Now I don’t know about you, but when I hear the term spiritual warfare, it conjures up all sorts of mystical and maybe even spooky ideas.

Chasing demons around with Bible equivalents of light sabers; wielding scripture verses like magic spells; using Christian symbols like good luck charms and that sort of thing.

The reality of spiritual warfare however is nowhere near as curious as those things. But because of its subtlety, is far more insidious and dangerous.

500 years before Sun Tzu penned the famous Chinese war manual “The Art of War” which said: “Know your enemy” – King David penned Psalm 144:1–2 “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.”

By God’s grace, Christians are well armed for the true spiritual warfare we find ourselves in the middle of.

But what this portion drives home is the fact that all Christians need to understand that we ARE in a battle. And to have that battle mentality. We have not entered Heaven yet, not gone into our eternal rest, even though it has dawned some. And if we imagine that life now is to be free of conflict and struggle, and disregard the reality of a real enemy who hates us, we will not be able to make sense of the hardness of life which sometimes caves in on us.

This devil opposes Believers, because he opposes God. There is no more painful way to strike at someone, than to attack those he loves most. So, as I’ve said already, the devil rages the way he now does because he has been deposed from Heaven, and because he knows his time is short.

BUT! God continues to protect and provide for His people even during this appointed period of opposition.

Christian, we are in a sort of wilderness now, but God has also provided nourishment in this wilderness just as He did for Israel when she fled from Egypt.

We have His Word vs the Devil’s lies. His Spirit vs the spirit of the Age and the culture. His People vs the World.

The devil creates a false reality to keep the lost bound in their sin, and the Believer paralyzed – all by false notions of God, sin, our guilt, the need of the Cross and eternal life and judgment.

He lies to humankind that we aren’t fallen, in rebellion against God and do not need a Redeemer.

That sin will satisfy and fill our souls.

That politics, science, education and material wealth will cure all of mankind’s ills.

That the Gospel – if there is one – is one of human effort.

That there is no final judgment.

That Christ isn’t who the Bible says He is and neither are we.

That if God loved us as Believers, life would be smooth, and we would not face disease, poverty, trials, loneliness, sorrow, loss, disabilities, disappointments, or unfixable circumstances.

And how is the Saint’s victory won? Rev. 12:11 “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

FIRST: The victory of the saints in this battle is won by: The truth of the Gospel! The fact Christ has redeemed us with His blood, (we know our guilt has been fully discharged before God) and so justified by faith we have peace with God and the absolute guarantee of all His promises yet to come. And that it was all done by Him! And given as a free gift. That salvation has already been accomplished in the finished work of Christ. We aren’t trying to somehow finish that salvation, but learning how to live more and more in the fullness of what has already been done by Him.

SECOND: When we refuse to abandon the Gospel and following Christ, regardless the cost.

This is how we win the war.

We know our enemy’s real motivations – hatred of God and all those who are His; his anger over being thrown down from Heaven and bound to earth; and his fury over an impending final judgment that is about to take place.

And we live by the knowledge of our being the recipients of God’s eternal, unchangeable, unfathomable love and mercy and grace in sending Jesus to die for our sins – rescuing us from our sin and shame.

And by living as unto Him according to His truth as it is in Christ, no matter what the cost.

These are the things we cling to, to anchor our souls in the darkest, scariest, most confusing places. And by means of them, crush the enemy under our feet as Jesus said we would.
Quite possibly the best sermon on Sanctification ever preached.

June 5th, 2018
This sermon was preached by Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843) in 1835. A minister in the Church of Scotland, he was powerfully used by God in his short season. Andrew Bonar once wrote about McCheyne: “He cared for no question unless his Master cared for it; and his main anxiety was to know the mind of Christ.” J.D. Douglas, “Mccheyne, R.M.,” ed. J.D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort, Who’s Who in Christian History (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992), 440.

Aware that McCheyne wrote and preached to an audience whose English is quite removed from our own today, I’ve done my best to modify the text to make it more readable to contemporary eyes and ears. Others will have to judge whether I’ve done that without doing any violence to McCheyne’s thoughts. I have labored to make his words plainer, while retaining as much of the music of his style as I could. I obviously failed in some places. I will be happy to provide you with a PDF of the original should you write to me for it.

As short a summary as I am able to offer for what you are about to read is this: That in the battle for sanctification in the Believer’s life, the means God has provided for us is not His Law, but His Spirit. And His Spirit expressly opening to our hearts and minds, the unfathomable riches of the love for Christ for His redeemed. Dwell there, and sin will lose its grip. Or to quote McCheyne himself: “Love begets love.” And, “no man was ever frightened into love, and, therefore, no man was ever frightened into holiness.”

I commend this short but powerful and much needed to sermon to you all.

In Christ’s love: Reid

THE LOVE OF CHRIST

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;” —2 Cor. 5:14. (ESV)

Of all the features of St. Paul’s character, untiring activity was the most striking. From his early history, where we see his energy in attacking the early Church, to when he was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and so harmful, it is quite obvious this was the prominent characteristic of his natural mind. But when it pleased the Lord Jesus Christ to make known in Paul His long-suffering, and to make him a pattern to those who would believe on Jesus afterward, it is beautiful and very instructive to see how the natural features of this daringly bad man became not only sanctified, but invigorated and enlarged. It is so true that those who are in Christ are a new creation: “Old things pass away, and all things become new”, and as a result Christians can be “Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”

This was an accurate picture of the life of the converted Paul. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, and the fearful situation of all who were yet in their sins, Paul made it the business of his life to persuade men; working hard that if by any means, he might drive the truth home to their consciences. “For (he says) whether we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or whether we are sober, it is for you.”—Verse 13. Whether the world thinks we are wise or crazy, the cause of God and of human souls is the cause that engages all the energies of our being.

Who, then, isn’t curious to find out the secret spring of all these supernatural labors? Who wouldn’t want to hear from Paul’s own lips what the mighty principle that impelled him was. What drove him and kept him through so many toils and dangers? What magic spell had taken possession of this mighty mind, or what unseen planetary influence, drew him on through all discouragements, with unceasing power? How is it he was indifferent to both the world’s dread laugh, and the fear of man, which brings a trap; disregarding the sneer of the skeptical Athenian, the frown of the luxurious Corinthian, and the rage of the narrow-minded Jew? What does the apostle say about this himself? We have his own explanation of the mystery in the words of this text: “The love of Christ controls us.”

That this verse is referring to Christ’s love to man, and not our love to the Savior is quite obvious from the explanation which follows, where his dying for all is pointed to as the revelation of his love. It was the observing of that strange compassion of the Savior, moving him to die for his enemies, to bear the complete weight of God’s wrath for all our sins, to taste death for every man. It was this view which gave him the impulse in every labor, which made all suffering light to him, and every commandment a joy instead of grievous. He ran with patience the race that was set before him. Why? Because, looking unto Jesus, he lived as a man crucified to the world, and the world crucified to him. How? By looking to the cross of Christ. Just as the sun exerts a constant gravitational pull on the planets which circle round it, so did the Sun of Righteousness, which had indeed arisen on Paul with a brightness above that of noon-day. Seeing the love of Christ for what it was exerted on Paul’s mind a continual and an almighty energy, constraining him to live no longer for himself, but for the Jesus who died for him and rose again. And notice that it was no temporary, or intermittent energy that exerted such power over his heart and life. Rather, it was a constant and continued attraction. For Paul doesn’t say that the love of Christ controlled him in the past; or that it will constrain him sometime in the future; or that it does so only in special times of excitement, in seasons of prayer, or peculiar devotion. Instead he simply said, that the love of Christ controlled him. It is the ever-present, ever-abiding, ever-moving power, which forms the main-spring of all his working. Take that away, and his energies are gone, and Paul is as weak as other men.

Is there anyone here with me today whose heart isn’t longing to possess just such a master-principle? Aren’t there any number of you who have arrived at that most interesting of all the stages of conversion in which you are panting after a power to make you new? Yes, you have entered in at the straight gate of believing. You have seen that there is no peace to the unjustified; and therefore you have put on Christ for your righteousness; and you already feel something of the joy and peace of believing. You can look back on your past life, spent without God and Christ and the Holy Spirit in the world; and you can see yourself a condemned outcast. You can say of yourself: “Even if I washed my hands in snow water, yet even my own clothes would still know my hidden uncleanness.” But you can look back at all of your shame and self-reproach and yet without dismay or despair. Why? Because your eye has been lifted believingly on him who was made sin for us. And you are persuaded that, as it pleased God to count all your iniquities to the Savior, so he is willing, and has always been willing, to count all the Savior’s righteousness to you. Without despair, did I say? No! So much more – with joy and singing. For if, indeed, you believe with all your heart, then you have come to the blessedness of the person to whom God imputes righteousness without works; which David describes, saying: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not count sin.” (Ps. 32:1-2) This is the peace of the justified man.

But is this peace a state of perfect blessedness? Is there nothing left to be desired? I am speaking to those of you, who already know what it is to be justified by believing. Let me ask you – what is it that still hangs like a cloud, that represses the free exulting of the spirit? Why do we sometimes hesitate to fully join in the song of thanksgiving; “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgives all your iniquities!” If we really have received absolutely full payment for all our sins, why should it ever be the case that we cry out with the Psalmist: “Why are you cast down, O my soul: and why are you disquieted within me?” Ah! my friends there is not a man among you, who has really believed, who has not felt the disquieting thought I am speaking about.

There may be some of you who have felt it so painfully, that like a thick dark cloud it has kept the sweet light of the Gospel peace from shining in the reconciled countenance upon the soul. The thought is this: “I am a justified man; but, woe! I am not a sanctified man. I can look at my past life without despair; but how can I look forward to what is to come?”

There is not a more picturesque moral landscape in the universe than such a soul presents. Forgiven all trespasses that are past, you look inward with a clearness and an impartiality you never knew before, and there you still see long fostered affections for sin, which, like ancient rivers, have worn a deep channel into the heart. And you experience periodic returns of passion, sometimes irresistible and overwhelming, like the tides of the ocean. You are shocked at how there are still perversities of temper and of habit, crooked and unyielding, like the gnarled branches of a stunted oak. Ah! what a scene is here, what anticipations of the future! Will it always be this way? What forebodings of a powerless struggle against the tyranny of lust! against the old ways of acting, and of speaking, and of thinking! Were it not that the hope of the glory of God is one of the most basic promised rights of the justified man, who would be surprised if this view of terror were to drive a man back, like the dog to his vomit, or the sow that was washed to wallow again in the mire?

Now it is the Christian in this precise situation I want to address. The who is crying out morning and night, “How shall I be made new? what good does the forgiveness of my past sins do me, if I’m not delivered from the love of sin?” It is to that person that I would now, with all earnestness and affection, point out the example of Paul, and the secret power which was at work in him: “The love of Christ” (says Paul) “controls us.”

So it is Paul can say, we too, are men of like passions with yourselves; that same sight which you view with dismay within you, was in exactly the same way revealed to us in all its discouraging power. Ever and always, the same hideous view of our own hearts is opened up to us. But we have an encouragement which never fails. The love of the bleeding Savior controls us. The Spirit is given to all that believe; and that almighty Holy Spirit has one argument that moves us continually—THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

My aim right now, brethren, is to show how this argument, in the hand of the Spirit, moves the believer to live unto God. To show you how so simple a truth as the love of Christ to man, continually presented to the mind by the Holy Ghost, will enable any man to live a life of Gospel holiness. And if there be one person here today whose great question is: “How will I be saved from sin and how will I walk as a child of God should?” You are the one above of all others, whose ear and heart I am anxious to engage.
1. The love of Christ to man controls the believer to live a holy life, because that truth takes away all his dread and hatred of God.
Before Adam sinned, God was everything to him; and everything was good and desirable to him, but only in so far as it had to do with God. Every vein of his body, so fearfully and wonderfully made, every leaf that rustled in the trees of Paradise, every new sun that dawned, rejoicing like a strong man to run his race – refreshed him with godly thoughts and admiring praise for his God. And it was only for that reason that he could delight to look on them. The flowers that appeared on the earth, the singing of the birds, and the voice of the turtle heard throughout the happy land, the fig tree putting out her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes giving a good smell; all these combined to bring in to him at every pore a rich and varied tribute of pleasantness. And why? Because every blessing of nature was one more token of how much God loved him and desired to bless him. The same way you may have seen a child on earth devoted to its earthly parent; pleased with everything when he is present, and valuing every gift just as it shows more of the tenderness of that parent’s heart. So was it with the genuine child of God. In God he lived, and moved, and had his being. Even if the sun had stopped shining, it could not have been as devastating to his life as hiding the face of God from him and taking away the light of his soul. But still Adam fell. And the fine gold became dim, the system of his thoughts and likings was reversed. Instead of enjoying God in everything, and everything in God, everything now seemed hateful and disagreeable to him, because it reminded him of God. A holy God who must judge sin.

When man sinned, then he feared God, and hated the God he feared. So he fled to all sin in trying to run from Him whom he hated. So just as you may have seen a child who has grievously transgressed against a loving parent, doing all it can to hide that parent from its view; hurrying from his presence, and plunging into other thoughts and occupations, just to rid itself of the thought of his justly offended father—in the very same way when fallen Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, that voice which, before he sinned, was heavenly music in his ears—then did Adam and his wife hide themselves from the presence of the Lord, among the trees of the garden. In the very same way every natural man runs from the voice and presence of the Lord. Not to try and hide among the trees of Paradise, but to bury himself in cares, and business and pleasures and revellings. Any retreat is better, than facing God; any activity is more tolerable, as long as God is put out of the mimd.

Now I am quite sure that many of you may hear this charge against the natural man with incredulous indifference, if not with indignation. You do not feel that you hate God, or dread his presence; and, therefore, you say it cannot be true. But, brethren, when God says your heart, is “desperately wicked,” in fact, unsearchably wicked, who can know it? when God claims for himself the privilege of knowing and trying the heart; is it not presumptuous – such ignorant beings as we are, to say that that is not true, with respect to our hearts, which God affirms to be true, merely because we are not conscious of it? God says that “the carnal mind is at war against God,” that the very grain and substance of an unconverted mind is hatred against God, absolute, implacable hatred against him in whom we live, and move, and have our being. It is quite true that we do not feel this hatred within us; but that is only a sign of the depth of our sin and of our danger. We have choked up the avenues of self-examination so much, there are so many turnings and windings, before we can arrive at the true motives of our actions; that our dread and hatred of God, which first moved man to sin, and which are still the grand impelling forces whereby Satan goads on the children of disobedience; these are wholly concealed from our view. And you cannot persuade a natural man that they are really there. But the Bible testifies, that out of these two deadly roots—dread of God and hatred of God—grows up the thick forest of sins with which the earth is blackened and overspread. And if there be one among you, brethren, who has been awakened by God to know what is in his heart, I call that man this day to witness, that his bitter cry, in the view of all his sins, has ever been: “Against you, you only have I sinned.”

If, then, dread of God, and hatred of God, is the cause of all our sins, how else can we be cured of loving sin, but by taking away the cause? How do you most completely kill the worst weeds? Is it not by striking at their roots? In the love of Christ to man, then—in that strange, unspeakable gift of God, when he laid down his life for his enemies, when he died as the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; do not you see an object which, if really believed by the sinner, takes away all his dread and all his hatred of God? The root of sin itself is destroyed.

In His bearing the full penalty for all our sins, we see the curse carried away, we see God reconciled to us. Why should we fear any more? Not fearing, why should we hate God any more? Not hating God, then what attractiveness is left in sin any more? Putting on the righteousness of Christ, we are again restored to where Adam was, with God as our friend. Sin can’t buy us anything anymore; and, when we see that, we don’t care to sin anymore.

In the sixth chapter of Romans, Paul seems to write of the believer sinning, as if it is just plain absurd. “How shall we, that are dead to sin;” that is, we who now being one with Christ are considered as having also died with Him; “how shall we live any longer therein?” And again he says very boldly: “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” It is impossible in the nature of things—“for you are not under the law, but under grace;” you are no longer under the curse of a broken law, dreading and hating God; you are under grace; under a system of peace and friendship with God.

Now someone might be ready to object that if what I’ve just said is true, if it takes nothing more than being brought into peace with God to bring us into living a holy life, how is it that believers still sin? My answer is, it is indeed too true that believers do sin; but it is just as true that unbelief is the cause of their sinning. If you and I were to live with our eye so closely on Christ bearing the full weight and penalty for all our sins, freely offering to all the full weight of His righteousness in exchange for all our sins; and if this constant view of the love of Christ was maintained within us, if we looked with a straightforward eye; the peace of God which passes all understanding; the peace that rests on nothing in us, but upon the completeness that is in Christ, then, brethren, I do say, that, frail and helpless as we are, we should never sin; we should not have the slightest object in sinning.

But, ah! my friends, this is not the way with us. How often in the day is the love of Christ quite out of our view! How often is it obscured to us! Sometimes even hid from us by God himself, to teach us what we are deep down. How often are we left without a concrete sense of the completeness of his offering, the perfectness of his righteousness, and without the will or the confidence to claim all that we have in him! Is it any surprise then that where there is so much unbelief – dread and hatred of God should creep in again, and sin should often display its poisonous head? The matter is very plain, brethren, if only we had spiritual eyes to see it.

If we live a life of faith on the Son of God, then we shall assuredly live a life of holiness. I do not say we ought to like that as though we are required to do so; but I say, we WILL, as a matter of necessary consequence. It is the natural result of seeing Christ’s love for us for what it truly is. To the same degree we fail to live a life of faith, that is just how far we will still live a life of unholiness. It is through faith that God purifies the heart; and there is no other way.

Is there one of you, then, brethren, desirous of being made new, of being delivered from the slavery of sinful habits and affections? We can point you to no other remedy but the love of Christ. Behold, think about, examine, meditate on how he loved you! See afresh what he bore for you. Put your finger, as it were, into the prints of the nails, and thrust your hand into his side; and stop being faithless, but believing. Under a sense of your sin, flee to the Savior of sinners. As the timid dove flies to hide itself in the crevices of the rock, so you, flee to hide yourself in the wounds of your Savior; and when you have found him, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; when you sit under his shadow, with great delight; you will find that he has slain all the division between you and God; that he has accomplished all your warfare. God is now for you. Planted together with Christ in the likeness of his death, you will also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Dead unto sin, you will be alive unto God.
1. The love of Christ to man controls the believer to live a holy life; because that truth not only takes away our fear and hatred, but stirs up our love to Him.
When we are brought to see the reconciled face of God in peace, that is a great privilege. But how can we look upon that face, reconciling and reconciled, and not love him who has loved us so much to accomplish that reconciliation! Love begets love. We can hardly keep from esteeming those on earth who really love us, however worthless they may be. But, ah! my friends, when we are convinced that God loves us, and convinced of how willing He was to give up of his Son for us all, how can we help but love him, in whom are all excellences—everything suited to call forth love out of us?

I have already shown you that the Gospel is a restorative scheme; it brings us back to the same state of friendship with God which Adam enjoyed, and thus takes away the desire of sin. But now I wish to show you, that the Gospel does far more than restore us to the state from which we fell. If rightly and consistently embraced by us, it brings us into a state far better than Adam’s. It constrains us by giving us a far more powerful motive. Adam didn’t have our advantage of having this strong love of God to man shed abroad in his heart. Therefore he didn’t have this constraining power to make him live to God. But our eyes have seen this great sight. Before us Christ hath been clearly and plainly set forth as crucified in our place. We really believe his love has brought us into peace, through pardon; and because we are pardoned and at peace with God, the Holy Ghost is given to us. Why was the Spirit given to us? Why, just to shed abroad this truth over our hearts, to show us more and more of this love of God to us, that we may be drawn to love him who hath so loved us, and to live to him who died for us and rose again.

It is truly admirable to see how the Bible way of making us holy is suited to our nature. Had God proposed to frighten us into a holy life, how powerless that would be! Men have always had the idea, that if one came back from the dead to tell us of the reality of the doleful regions where the lost dwell in endless misery – the spirits of the damned – that that would constrain us to live a holy life. But, doesn’t this just show how ignorant we are of our mysterious nature? Suppose God should this very hour unveil before our eyes the secrets of Hell where hope never comes; more, suppose, if it were possible, that you were actually made to feel for a season the real pains of the lake of living agony, and the worm that never dies; and then that you were brought back again to the earth, and placed in your old situation, among your old friends and companions; do you really think that there would be any chance of your walking with God as a child? I don’t doubt you would be frightened out of your positive sins; the cup of godless pleasure would drop from your hand; you would shudder to swear and curse, you would tremble at lying, because you had seen and felt something of the torment which awaits the drunkard, the swearer, and the liar, in the world beyond the grave. But do you really think that you would live to God, any more than you did; that you would serve him better than before? It is quite true you might be driven to be more charitable; maybe even give all your goods to feed the poor, and your body to be burned. You might live strictly and soberly, fearful of breaking one of the commandments all the rest of your days: but this would not be living to God; you would not love him one whit more. Ah! brethren, you are sadly blinded to your curiously formed hearts, if you do not know that love cannot be forced; no man was ever frightened into love, and, therefore, no man was ever frightened into holiness.

But thrice blessed be God, he has invented a way more powerful than hell and all its terrors; an argument far more powerful than even a sight of the torments of Hell. He hath devised a way of drawing us to holiness. By showing us the love of his Son, THIS is how he calls forth our love. He knew our frame, he remembered that we were dust, he knew all the peculiarities of our treacherous hearts; and, therefore, he suited his way of sanctifying, to the creature to be sanctified. And thus, the Spirit does not make use of terror to sanctify us, but of love: “The love of Christ constrains us.” He draws us by “the cords of love, by the bands of a man.”

What parent does not know that the true way to gain the obedience of a child, is to gain the affections of the child? Do you think God, who gave us this wisdom, doesn’t know that Himself? Do you think he would set about obtaining the obedience of his children, without first of all gaining their affections? To gain our affections, brethren, which by nature search over the face of the world to be satisfied, God has sent his son into the world to bear the curse of our sins. “Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be made rich.”

And oh! if there is but one of you who will consent this day, under a sense of undoneness, to flee for refuge to the Savior, to find in him the forgiveness of all sins that are past, I know well, that from this day forth you will be like that poor woman which was a sinner, which stood at Christ’s feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head; and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Forgiven much, you will love much; loving much, you will live to the service of Him whom you love.

This is the grand master-principle of which we spoke; this is the secret spring of all the holiness of the saints.

The life of holiness is not what the world falsely represents it to be, a life of preciseness and painfullness, in which a man crosses every affection of his nature. There is no such thing as self-denial in the “works-salvation” sense of that word in the religion of the Bible. The system of restrictions and self-crossings is the very system which Satan hath set up as a counterfeit of God’s way of sanctifying. This is how Satan frightens away thousands from Gospel peace and Gospel holiness. He makes it seem as if in order to be a sanctified man one would have to cross every desire of his being and do everything that is disagreeable and uncomfortable to him. My friends, our text distinctly shows you that it is not so. We are constrained to holiness by the love of Christ. The love of him who loved us is the only cord by which we are bound to the service of God. The scourge of our affections is the only scourge that drives us to duty. Sweet bands and gentle scourges! Who would not be under their power?

And, finally, brethren, if Christ’s love to us is the tool which the Holy Ghost makes use of, at the very first, to draw us to the service of Christ, it is by means of the same tool that he draws us to persevere even unto the end. So that if you are visited with seasons of coldness and indifference, if you begin to be weary, or lag behind in the service of God, behold! here is the remedy: Look again to the bleeding Savior. That Sun of Righteousness is the grand attractive center, around which all his saints move swiftly, and in smooth harmonious concert,“not without song.”

As long as the believing eye is fixed upon his love, the path of the believer is easy and unimpeded; for that love always constrains. Vary from simply believing in Christ and His love, and the path becomes impracticable and the life of holiness a weariness.

Whosoever, then, would live a life of persevering holiness, let him keep his eye fixed on the Savior. As long as Peter looked only to the Savior, he walked upon the sea in safety, to go to Jesus; but when he looked around, and saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried, “Lord, save me!” It be the same with you. As long as you look believingly to the Savior, who loved you. and gave himself for you, that’s how long you may tread the waters of life’s troubled sea, and keep the soles of your feet dry. But venture to look around upon the winds and waves that threaten you on every hand, and, like Peter, you will begin to sink, and cry, “Lord, save me!”

How justly, then, may we address to you the Savior’s rebuke to Peter: “O you of little faith, what caused you to doubt?” Look again to the love of the Savior, and behold that love which constrains you to live no more to yourself, but to him that died for you and rose again.

College Church, August 30, 1835

Adapted from : Robert Murray McCheyne, The Works of the Late Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, vol. 2 (New York: Robert Carter, 1847), 179–187.
A Gem from Robert Murray McCheyne

May 29th, 2018

“Nothing that is imperfect can make us perfect in the sight of God. Hence the admirable direction of an old divine: ‘Labor after sanctification to the utmost; but do not make a Christ of it; if so, it must come down, one way or another. Christ’s obedience and sufferings, not thy sanctification, must be thy justification.’ “
THE Tale of Two Cities: Revelation 11

May 28th, 2018
Revelation Part 23

Chapter 11

2 Corinthians 10:1-6

THE Tale of 2 Cities

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

As I mentioned last time – there is little question Revelation 11is one of the most – if not THE most – debated chapter in the entire book.

And you are all to be commended for sticking with me through the first part of this chapter last week, because there was a LOT there to try and unpack in interpreting the symbols.

Fortunately, the rest of the chapter is NOT as symbol laden and will end up very clear. But there is still one more symbol we need to deal with this morning. And if we can get this, it will make the whole rest of the book much more understandable. In fact, much of the point of the book of Revelation rests on it. So please bear with me just a bit longer in doing some hard work – I promise you it will pay off.

Before we even get into the immediate text – let’s stop at the “You Are Here” sign to get our bearings and then forge on ahead.

You will recall that there are a series of 7’s that we are right in the middle of.

There were the 7 churches in 2-3.

The 7 seals on the scroll Jesus opened in Chs. 5-8 – Which scroll contains the complete plan of God in bringing final judgment upon sin and final reward for those in Christ by saving faith. The opening of those seals gave us an overview of the plan.

That was followed by introducing 7 trumpets. A series of announcements or proclamations that expanded on some aspects of what we saw when the seals were opened – and are meant to serve as a period of warning or a cosmic heads up that the end is really coming. The blowing of the trumpets goes from Ch. 8-11.

The period of time in which these warnings are declared will ultimately come to an end, and then there will be 7 bowls of wrath. Another word picture to say simply that judgment won’t just be talked or warned about any more, but actually carried out.

Well at this point in our study, we are in the midst of the 6^th trumpet or warning which was begun in 9:13.

And as we’ve seen, this group of warnings have been dire indeed.

The Church. So far in ch. 11 we’ve seen that God marks out His people to keep and protect them spiritually, indicating the Believer cannot lose his or her salvation even though there will be times of severe persecution for some in the Church. Times when many who profess saving faith in Jesus will lose their lives in martyrdom.

A symbolic 42 months.

The 2 Witnesses. In fact, there will come a point in history when for all intents and purposes, it will appear as if the ministry of the Church in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the call to lives lived according to God’s standards and not those of the world or the culture – will be snuffed out. But that will only be for a short time – for then the Church will rise again supernaturally.

The more you think about those pictures, the clearer they become.

But there is one more detail we need to tease out to get the full picture. And I want to be sure you know WHY I think we are to interpret this symbol a certain way – and that we don’t just assign meaning to these symbols without Biblical or textual warrant.

Let’s look at the text: Revelation 11:3–8 “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.”

What about this city referred to in vs. 8, and why does it matter?

It matters because how you interpret this symbol, has a lot to do with how you look at the entire remainder of the book.

And on the surface, it is very common to take the phrase “where their Lord was crucified” – to simply mean Jerusalem as the defining idea. And therefore to say Jerusalem is also “the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt.”

If that interpretation is correct, then what we’ve looked at so far has to be completely revised and the entire chapter looked at as a scene which must unfold on the literal streets of geographical Jerusalem. And if that’s so, the 2 prophets are 2 human personages. There is a literal rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. These 2 prophets literally shoot fire out of their mouths to consume their enemies, and literally bring all sorts of plagues on the earth. Now without question – it is POSSIBLE for all of that to happen as literal. But the question is – is that what the passage is actually teaching?

I think we established Biblically why we should not take the previous portions as literal last week. If you weren’t with us for that, I would encourage you to go on line and listen to it. But what about this part – what about the city?

Once again, we have to look more closely at the text itself, and other portions of Scripture to put it all together.

We have to ask ourselves: What are the clues both in the immediate text, and the rest of the Bible? There are 4 I think are most helpful.
1. Mixed metaphors. As we’ve seen already in this book, sometimes the metaphors or pictures are mixed, so as to give fuller explanation. You remember that Jesus is depicted BOTH as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah AND the Lamb slain for our sin, in the space of only 2 verses in Ch. 5. Then again how in Ch. 7 the 144,000 and the great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, tribe, peoples and languages, standing before the throne, were one and the same. And last week in vs. 4 how the 2 prophets are referred to both as the 2 olive trees and the 2 lampstands which stand before the Lord.
So here, we have to take note that the “great city” where Jesus was crucified is also called Sodom, and Egypt. 4 descriptors that have to be taken together to arrive at a clear understanding.

2. The use of the term “the Great City”. The 2^nd clue grows out of the mixed metaphors. In the 7 other uses of this term in Revelation, each time it unambiguously refers to Rome. This is decisive in my view.

3. Calling the City “Sodom.” We have no Biblical precedent for Jerusalem ever being called Sodom. The closest we come is Isa. 11 – but there the reference is the people of Israel in their sin, not Jerusalem. So equating Sodom with Jerusalem has no Biblical basis. It is obviously symbolic of something.

4. Calling the city “Egypt”. Egypt obviously isn’t a city. But throughout the OT it IS used as a type for “The World.” You have God’s people, the Israelites, and you have the world outside of Israel. And Egypt gets used as the quintessential way of expressing that idea. Morals, values, worship, all apart from God’s revelation and influence.

So, what do we do with all of this? How do we put it together and what does it mean?

If we take all 4 designations together I think the clearest option is this: For the first readers, Rome would be the obvious choice.

But not Rome merely as a geographical place – but Rome as a picture of the world – just like Egypt. Rome as a “symbol of all of civilization against God.” (Carson) And when it is all said and done, the combined actions of an apostate Israel in league with the World empire of the day crucified Jesus in geographical Jerusalem; but in the larger sense, in the kingdom or city of this world, versus the kingdom or city of God.

For a people who had only known the experience of living in the great City States of the ancient world – this makes perfect sense. Babel was a city/state. And it represented mankind as a group, rebelling against God. Babylon was a great city/state. Sparta was a great city/state. Tyre and Sidon in the Bible were city/states. And Rome was, according to the book of Daniel to be the last great city/state. So when you spoke of Rome, you spoke not just of the city, but of the empire as a whole. And from that picture God now reveals that He views – and want US to view – the whole of existence as the bifurcation between The City of Man or Humankind and the City of God.

In fact, it was this chapter that formed the impetus behind St. Augustine’s famous book: The City of God.

For what will appear later is that in opposition to this “Great City” – the City of God, God united with all of His redeemed will come down out of Heaven and be permanently joined with earth.

Rome as both the city, and the empire under which these first readers were oppressed. And it was a City and an Empire which was antithetical to everything Christians believed and taught and lived by.

So yes, geographically, Jesus died in Jerusalem, but under the authority of Rome, which was morally as bankrupt as Sodom and as antithetical to God’s people as Egypt – wanting to enslave God’s people to serve the state rather than Him, for its own enrichment and denying the God of the Bible at every turn. All of these are being mixed together into one picture:

The World (the City of Humankind) vs.

The City of God – God with His redeemed people.

Why was this important for the 1^st readers and why is it important for us? And let me tell you – this is as current and relevant to the Church in America today as it was to them in the Roman empire.

The “Great City” being Rome, it would be the natural instinct of the Jews to see the Roman empire as their chief problem – especially since the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. by Titus.

It would also be the natural instinct of the Christians to see the Roman empire as their chief problem, especially given current persecutions and even the present exile of John to Patmos. And in the coming days when persecutions WILL increase for them, as they did historically – Christians looked at the Roman government and would be tempted to say: That is our great enemy, that is the great evil – ROME! And given some other references further on in the book – that view would seem to be justified. Especially when Rome is further linked in the book to Babylon the Great, The Great Whore, etc.

The natural tendency would be to see the Roman empire as their chief problem rather than this present fallen World under the sway of Satan. The very same way so many Christians today think the Government is our real problem, when in fact it is the World system which ours – and every other government – bows to. The world’s values and morality and mentality – apart from Christ.

Again, Egypt is consistently used as a metaphor for the world in the Bible – or humanity in opposition to God’s rule. Sodom is used similarly. And Jerusalem, having rejected Jesus as Messiah and crucifying Him WITH Rome – the symbolism becomes that Jesus came into the World, this present world system, and both its secular and its religious branches rejected and murdered Him.

He was crucified in this world. This world as a system built upon human governance and autonomy as opposed to submission to God’s rule in Christ. And so it is that the World will rejoice when the Church seems to be snuffed out. Some from Peoples and Tribes and Languages and Nations. A picture once again of the World.

All of this boils down to one crucial point.

Because we do not see that it is worldliness as opposed to Christ’s rule that is our real problem, we will think we can solve our societal problems by simply fixing government.

And when this happens, The Gospel is soon eclipsed by political and social activism. And Biblical, Spirit empowered holiness is eclipsed by moralism. And we will completely miss what it is that is really going on around us.

We will forget: 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Christian, our battle isn’t political.

It isn’t economic.

It isn’t even moral.

Our battle is spiritual.

And our only weapons are the proclamation of and lived committed to – Gospel truth!

We don’t need to secure more voter registrations, as good as that may be in itself – for it is of NO power in THIS battle. For this, we need Biblical truth that can destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God! Only in this way can we take thoughts captive to Christ. Preach and live the Gospel. In other words: We must BE the TWO WITNESSES.

And so this chapter ends with a renewed vision of THE end. How will all of the moral, criminal, military, economic and social crises of this earth be met? Only in the return of Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ – reigning for ever and ever.

So this chapter ends with its own application – where we want to end today – turning our eyes toward the promise of the fulfillment of all Christ reveals in this book. The 7^th trumpet is the final announcement of all of this.

How are we to apply what we’ve seen here? Revelation 11:17–19
1. THANKSGIVING: Despite all the trials and tribulations and dire things to come. 15-17
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.”

Because all of it leads to His reign. And there can be no greater blessing than to live in perfect union with the One who died for us, and whose Kingdom is the manifestation of love, grace, beauty, holiness, unity and wonder. And the utter absence of all pain, woe, discomfort, sorrow, despair, injustice, abuse, hatred, violence, sickness, disease and death.
1. JUSTICE: Final and absolute justice. 18
“18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

I watched a documentary recently on a bizarre crime that took place in Erie PA in 2003. A man there robbed a bank – claiming to be forced to do so while wearing a collar bomb around his neck. The man later died and the man who actually fabricated the bomb died of cancer years later having never been charged. Some say he got away with his crime. It is true he eluded human justice – but one of the core themes of the Revelation is that while men MAY elude human justice, NO ONE can avoid God’s ultimate justice. As Romans 3:23 reminds us: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – which places us in need of reconciliation to God – which the Bible shows us can only be had through faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus for our sins on the Cross. Apart from the grace to be had there – each will have to stand before the unwaveringly holy God and will receive full, true, eternal and absolute justice for our sins. It is why we preach the Gospel! We do not want anyone to have to face that end. We want all to have the benefit of the grace that each of us have already found in the Gospel.

And not just justice for all who seemed to have escaped it in this life – reward of unimaginable glory for those who have put their hope in Christ Jesus, His substitutionary death on Cavalry – and the promise of eternal life with Him.
1. FAITHFULNESS: 19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
God will exert all of His omnipotence to remain faithful to His covenant promises to all who are His. And we are to live filled with the confidence that His faithfulness cannot fail and will deliver all He has promised – no matter what it takes.

Romans 8:31–32 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
1 + 42 + 2 = Victory! Revelation Part 22

May 21st, 2018
Revelation Part 22

Chapter 11:1-14

1 + 42 + 2 = Victory!

John Newton once began a sermon with this short poem – I take it as my own prayer today as we enter this very difficult passage:

1 Now, Lord, inspire the preacher’s heart,

And teach his tongue to speak;

Food to the hungry soul impart,

And cordials to the weak.

2 Furnish us all with light and pow’rs

To walk in wisdom’s ways;

So shall the benefit be ours,

And thou shalt have the praise.

There is little question, that this chapter in particular is one of the most – if not THE most – debated chapter in the entire book of Revelation.

If you are coming at this book with a grid already in mind, ANY grid, you will look for some foundational concept of that grid in this chapter.

As we’ve seen so far, untangling what is symbolic and what is quite literal in this book is sometimes hard to unpack. That remains true here. Just which aspects of this portion fall into which of those categories is especially challenging.

Nevertheless, by time we are done this morning, I hope once more to tease out the main points which can be useful for suffering Christians in all ages, no matter which end-times scheme one might hold.

As we’ll see, there are 3 things which stand out in the passage that deserve our special attention and which then translate into the practical applications we’ll end up considering:

I. Measuring The Temple (1 & 2)

II. Forty two months (2 & 3)

III. Two Witnesses (3-13)

Fortunately, all 3 of these have clear precedents in Scripture.

Measuring – whether it be a people or in this case the Temple – is something already encountered in a number of OT references.

The significance of 42 months would have had an immediate connection for the first Jewish readers, that we need to dig out of Daniel and the historical records of the inter-testamental period.

And the 2 Witnesses could have several connections: 1. In Jewish law, two witnesses were always required for major judgments. 2. More likely though, in the 7 letters to the Churches in chs. 2-3, only two had no issue of compromise: 2:7-13 Smyrna – The Satanically persecuted church. 3:7-13 Philadelphia – The un-influential but ENDURING church. This I believe gives us a direct textual tie in helping us understand what’s being said there. Thus, these witnesses represent the uncompromising church. This will get teased out as we see the ministry of the witnesses.

So it is, my understanding of this portion parallels that of Don Carson when he writes about it this way: “the temple is the church, the two witnesses are that part of the church that must suffer martyrdom as they bear witness, and the great city represents this fallen world order, civilizations that finally are utterly alien to God and his will and are climaxed in destruction all the way to the very end when the witnesses, in fact, are justified before them.” D. A. Carson, “Revelation—Part 15,” in D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2016), Re 11.

Let’s look at them individually then.

I. Measuring The Temple (1-2): “Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.”

Measuring some-ones, or some-thing in this way is not new in Scripture. In the other places where we see this same idea it is always with one of two purposes in mind: Measuring for protection (like sealing the saints in the ch. 9) or for judgment. The way we might use the phrase – taking the measure of a man – or the measure of a situation. So, we get this understanding from the prior use of this figure of speech in some OT passages.

Before we look at those though we need to ask ourselves just what temple this is that is being referred to here. And there are 3 main schools of thought on that.

1. Some think that this temple must be the temple which was standing in Jerusalem during Jesus’ lifetime – Herod’s temple. And from that, they argue this book must have been written before that temple was destroyed as it was in 70 C.E. When we began our study we took time to establish why this book was almost certainly written in the mid to late 90’s C.E., which would rule out that interpretation right out of the gate.

2. Perhaps the most common view in American Evangelicalism is that this is a reconstructed temple – one they are looking to see rebuilt in Jerusalem sometime in the future. Perhaps even in our lifetime. Hence many keep an eagle eye on events in the middle east and on Jerusalem especially for indications that such a rebuilding might be right around the corner, and a sign of Jesus’ soon return. We need to keep in mind that for that to happen, the Temple would need to be rebuilt on the site of what is currently occupied by the Mosque of Omar – for Sunni Muslims, the 3^rd most holy site in Islam.

3. This is not referring to a literal physical temple at all, but instead is a picture of the Church – a picture reiterated later in Revelation as the Church and the New Jerusalem seem to be intertwined. I.e. a “spiritual” temple.

The 3^rd one in my view has the most Biblical support, since in the NT era, we are introduced to the Church now being considered the temple of God. Let me give you 3 references: 1 Cor. 3:16–17 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

Eph. 2:19–22 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

1 Peter 2:4–5 “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

These would seem to indicate that the Tabernacle Moses erected in the wilderness and the later Temple – were meant to be types and shadows of the final reality of God dwelling with and IN His people in a more complete sense in the Church AS God’s redeemed people. The idea is not going back to some physical edifice, as it is the edifices being ways of understanding the union of God with those redeemed by the blood of Christ. We’ll see this later in the book in a much more complete picture.

That said, let’s go back to Biblical examples of this sort of measuring.

2 Kings 21 – God says He will stretch out a measuring line over Jerusalem to take stock of what it’s punishment for idolatry should be.

Lamentations reiterates that idea, as does Amos 7. Then in Hab. 3 measuring is used in judging the whole earth.

But in Ezek. 40-48 and Zech. 1-2, the image is God measuring His Temple, His people and Jerusalem so as to pour out blessing on them.

Which image seems to fit most rightly here, as the text notes that John is instructed to take the measure of the Temple – and, that in part, some of that Temple – or as the 1^st century readers would have thought of it, the Temple complex with the Temple proper and its courtyards – will be trampled under foot for a period of time. In other wards – some of God’s people will suffer great persecution, even martyrdom, and others not. Which has been the case throughout the ages and will remain so until Jesus returns. This is where the 42 months comes in.

II. Forty two months (2-3): “but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

If I were to simply say to you “9/11”, virtually everyone here born before say 1995 would immediately picture the twin towers of the World Trade Center being brought down by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. Most of you would even remember where you were or what you were doing the moment you heard of the attack.

Some events that happen historically become so ingrained in a culture, that a simple reference like “9/11” needs no explanation – but refer to such a massive shared experience, that they conjure up all sorts of memories, feelings, etc.

“The Depression” was like that to my Mom, or say “Viet Nam” to so many. “Watergate” or one meeting their “Waterloo” are similar.

And there is little question that 42 months, or 1,260 days (based on a 360 day Jewish year), or time, times and ½ a time – 3.5 years – would immediately bring to mind an event or era that was so woven into the fabric of the Jewish identity as to instantly evoke a common picture or understanding.

The connection here is with the book of Daniel and what happened in fulfilling some of the prophecies given to him back during the Babylonian captivity.

In Daniel 8, Daniel receives a vision that shows him how the Medo-Persian empire – which was at that moment the most important world power – was to be conquered by Greece. And that when the Grecian empire dissolved, it would break into 4 separate segments – 2 of which are expanded upon in the following chapters: The Ptolemaic and the Seleucid empires. The Ptolemies centered in Egypt – the kings of the South as they are called there – south of Israel; and the Seleucids – the kings of the North headquartered to the north of Israel in what we would call Syria today – with Israel being the monkey in the middle between them. Each fighting the other for control of Israel’s territory.

The worst of all the Seleucid kings was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a rabid anti-Jew. When he gained control over Israel, he outlawed virtually anything having to do with Jewish worship. In trying to eradicate the Jewish religion altogether, he made most infractions capital offences: Owing a part of the Jewish Bible, practicing any of its rights or even just observing the Sabbath.

Around 167 B.C.E., a Seleucid emissary was passing through a village where an old priest by the name of Mattaniah refused to pay homage to him. In fact, he killed the guy. The priest had several sons, one whose name was Judas and who was nick-named in the Semitic, Judas Maccabaeus – or Judas the Hammer – who took this moment to start a bloody rebellion against the Seleucids which eventually won back Jewish control over their territory for the first time in nearly 200 hundred years. It was both a time of severe persecution, savage battle and then finally amazing victory. And it lasted – 1260 days or 42 months or 3-1/2 years.

So it is as Don Carson writes on this point this idea of 42 months: “came to be identified with a period of extreme suffering that would only last for a period of time and then it stopped… it’s an acute period of time, and then you cut it off.” D. A. Carson, “Revelation—Part 15,” in D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2016), Re 11.

So if we follow this train of thought, what we have is the Church, marked out by God and protected inwardly or spiritually, but also suffering severe persecution outwardly and being trampled down by the World for a period of time which will eventually give way to victory. And during which time 2 witnesses will be prophesying on the earth. Which then leads us to ask, who or what are these 2 witnesses, and what do they do?

III. Two Witnesses (3-13): Who or what are these witnesses? The text gives us our best clue. Revelation 11:4 “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”

Again, a wide variety of opinions are available here. If we see these as 2 literal personages, then the ones most often suggested are Elijah and Moses, or Elijah and Enoch – from the OT.

Elijah because he is prophesied to come in some way before Christ does, and also that he did not die but went to heaven in a fiery chariot per 2 Kings 2. Though that seems to be fulfilled in John the Baptizer. (Matt. 11:14)

Moses because he is the foremost of the OT prophets and performed some of the miracles we seem to see mirrored in this passage. And also, that though the Bible says he died, God took him and buried him but no one saw him die or ever located his grave.

Or Enoch, because as Genesis 5 says, he prophesied and then evidently went to heaven without dying.

How do we decide? I think the clue is in the text itself. “These two are the 2 olive trees,” is an obvious allusion to Zech. 4 where after the Babylonian exile, Joshua a high priest and Zerubbabel the Jewish governor are pictured as the 2 sources keeping the lamp of God’s presence burning in the rebuilding of that temple.

But the designation of these 2 as being the “two lampstands” takes us right back to chs. 2-3 where in the 7 letters to the Churches – or the 7 lamp-stands as they are called there – only two churches had no issue of compromise: 2:7-13 Smyrna – The Satanically persecuted church. 3:7-13 Philadelphia – The un-influential but ENDURING church.

In other words, the 2 Witnesses – I believe are the Church still preaching the Gospel of justification by faith in Christ’s finished work on Calvary alone – and living lives changed by the Spirit: The uncompromised preaching of the Word, and uncompromised lives lived in the power of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the culture of the World.

In truth, nothing more vexes and invites the world’s wrath than the exclusive claims of the Gospel of salvation by the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross ALONE, and lives lived by the power of the Spirit while rejecting the values of this world in living unto Christ instead of fame, money and pleasure. These are the two most stinging rebukes to this present world system and inflict the most discomfort on all who reject them. Hence, they invite the most virulent wrath of the World.

That fire pours from the Witness’s mouths is figurative, just like the sword in Jesus’ mouth in 1:16, or the fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of the mouths of the demonic hoards in ch. 9. And it is nothing less than the Church having the authority to announce what is sin as God declares it, and the certain coming of final judgment upon that sin. Those who reject the warning will suffer death apart from Christ as a result. It is akin to 2 Cor. 2:15-16 “For we (the Church and the Gospel we preach)are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”

In shutting up the heavens – We see that the Church cannot bless sin but is duty bound to announce God’s opposition to it. No rain: Speaks to the fact that we cannot pronounce blessing on anything God’s Word calls sin. We cannot approve the fallen World’s morality. We take seriously God’s Word when it says “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” Isa. 5:20

(7-10) How the world will rejoice when it imagines the Church of Jesus Christ is no more. But that delusion will not last long. Every time some dictator or Gospel resistant power has thought it has persecuted the Church out of existence, it has risen again and again against all odds – supernaturally. And it will be so up to the very end.

What then are we to take away from all of this?
1. PERSECUTION & PERSEVERANCE. Since the coming of Jesus, some parts of the Church have suffered persecution and trampling by its enemies – but God has taken the measure of His people – and the Church will persevere, survive and thrive. Now as we grow closer to Jesus’ return, this will no doubt take on a global reality under the rise of the antiChrist. But it has in some capacity been happening throughout Church history in various parts of the world. One thinks immediately of China or other oppressive governments, and even regionally – like some of the new legislative restrictions in California. And of course, this dynamic also applies personally. Believer, God has taken your measure. You might well suffer severely in the breakdown of your body and opposition in life of all kinds which the Enemy will attempt to capitalize on to threaten your spiritual life as well. But He will keep you! He has taken your measure. As Paul noted in 2 Cor. 4:7-18. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
2. GOSPEL & HOLINESS. The call to the church in every age and under all circumstances is the 2-fold call to remain uncompromising on Biblical truth – especially the Gospel of grace in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the Cross, and uncompromising on lives lived seeking out the holiness of God rather than capitulating to the World’s or the Culture’s morality and standards. Sin is what He calls sin, and righteousness is only what He calls righteousness. Those don’t change with time, trends, culture or personal opinion.
3. SUPERNATURAL VICTORY. Even in those times and places when it seems the World has extinguished the light of the Gospel God has always raised it up again. And this will be true no matter how dark the coming days may be.
I recently watched a documentary on the wild account of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the brand of mysticism he brought to Antelope Oregon in the 1980’s. Buying 65,000 acres in Oregon they sought to establish an entire city there based on the furthest thing from Biblical Christianity you can get. After raids and deportations and arrests for attempted murder and a host of other crimes, the compound was abandoned. Only to be purchased a few years later by a wealthy benefactor who then donated the property to Young Life. And in the place where they once sought to extinguish Christ – lives are being brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus every day.

And that is how the history of this present world system will end. Though the Church will undergo persecutions and attempts to put out the light of the Gospel in every quarter, Christ will keep His Bride. There will always be those who in the face of all persecution continue to preach the Gospel and live for Jesus rather than for themselves and this present world even unto death. And one day, when it seems as though the Church has been extinguished altogether, it will rise by the power of the Spirit and the entire world system will give way to Jesus’ rule reign for ever and ever. It is only our 42 months.

In the words once again at the end of this marvelous book: Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.
Revelation Part 21 – There’s Good News AND there’s Bad News

May 1st, 2018
Revelation Part 21

Revelation Ch. 10

Matthew 3:1-12

There’s Good news and there’s Bad news

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

By all accounts, chapters 8 & 9 in the Revelation have been pretty harrowing.

Ch. 8 begins with the opening of the 7^th seal of the scroll introduced in Ch. 5 – which scroll contains the whole program of God’s redemptive plan right up to the very end of this present existence as we know it. Both God’s final judgment on all sin – human and angelic, and the fulfillment of all of God’s promised blessings on those who are reconciled to Him in Christ by means of faith in Jesus’ atoning, substitutionary death on The Cross.

As each seal was opened, we saw more and more of what has to unfold in bringing things to this end.

Now as we enter into Ch. 10, we encounter something in the structure of the book that we’ve seen once before – a pattern that is helpful in unpacking this rather puzzling chapter.

You’ll recall that Ch. 6 contained the opening of 6 of the 7 seals. Then, Ch. 7 introduces some sort of break before the 7^th seal is opened in Ch. 8.

This break in the action of opening the seals is a sort of breather for the reader. It brings a much needed shift of perspective.

The 6 seals reveal that there is going to be a lot of disruption on earth and suffering of all kinds as God brings His plan to completion.

Then Ch. 7 takes us into the heavenlies again to witness God marking out His saints so that while these judgments are being poured out – Believers are brought safely through. It lets us breathe a giant sigh of relief.

Now, this pattern repeats. At the opening of the 7^th seal in 8, the 7 trumpets begin to sound. Ch.s 8 & 9 present an extended period and series of announced warnings about the coming judgments. One after another they expand on the nature of those coming judgments, including the introduction of how demonic deception on a massive scale afflicts mankind.

They are bleak, frightful and disturbing chapters. Huge numbers of humanity being tormented and dying, along with natural disasters ramping up and all this demonic affliction – and just as we’ve hit our limit for taking in the horror of it all – just before the 7^th trumpet finally sounds – we get another much needed break.

Another chance to catch our breath. To reflect on what we’ve seen, and recollect our thoughts some.

Ch. 10 like 7 shifts the scene somewhat to give comfort and instruction to God’s people so that we are not overwhelmed by the content of the previous 2 chapters. And thus it proves to be very instructive, useful and clarifying. It restores some very much needed perspective.

Sweetly and wonderfully as God speaks to us here, we’re taken to what could be – in terms of the message alone – a stand alone chapter, but one filling a most important role at a critical time in the Revelation. In fact, the 7^th and last trumpet won’t be blown until the middle of Ch. 11. So we want to capitalize on the break God gives, and see what He’s prepared. We want to soak in some of the good news that accompanies the bad news we’ve been steeped in.

And this all comes to us by way of a vision of another mighty angel that God sends. Now watch the interesting series that unfold here.

Revelation 10:1–11 (ESV)
1. 1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.
Once again, God sends an angel, a mighty angel it says here, to represent some things, and to declare some things.

Notice the first 4 features John wants us to see:
1. He is wrapped in a cloud.
2. He has a rainbow over his head.
3. His face was like the sun.
4. His legs were like pillars of fire.
This is quite a sight! And just what it all means seems to be wrapped up in a series of couplets. I’ll come back to that later.
1. Next John notes: 2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,
4 more features:
1. A little scroll open in his hand – contrasted to the sealed scroll that was in God’s hand.
2. This is in the angel’s hand, not God’s.
3. He has his right foot on the sea.
4. He has his left foot on the land.
III. 3-4 and called out with a loud voice, like a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
1. He called out with a loud voice. But we don’t know what he said.
2. His voice was like a lion as opposed to the many waters of God’s voice in ch. 1.
3. Upon his crying, 7 thunders sounded.
4. We don’t know what they said – in fact, contrary to how John was told to write down what God said in the beginning of the book, he is forbidden to write down what is said here.
5. 5-7 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
6. The angel lifted hand and swore to God. He does not speak as God.
7. He swore there should be no more delay.
8. He says that in the days of the 7^th trumpet, the mystery of God would be fulfilled.
9. He links this announcement to other prophecies as their fulfillment.
10. 8-11 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. And I was told, “You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
11. God instructs John to take the scroll.
12. God tells John to eat the scroll and that it will be sweet and bitter.
13. John eats the scroll and it is sweet and bitter.
14. John is told his ministry isn’t over.
Well now – just what are supposed to do with all of this?

The key to that question I believe is found in the pattern which is repeated so many times.

Just as this chapter follows the pattern we saw above, so too this chapter trades on its own repeated image: An image of both blessing and cursing at the same time.

This is a similar duality to the promise of Jesus’ ministry who John the Baptizer said that when He was come would both bless and judge in His blowing, separating the chaff from the grain.

Matthew 3:1–12 In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord; make his paths straight.’ ” Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The picture there is clear. Jesus is the one who will one day come to separate the wheat from the chaff – the true Believers from those who are merely religionists.

And when He sends the Spirit to blow at Pentecost, He will begin the process of removing that which has no weight and substance from that which does – and bind it up the chaff and burn it.

i.e. He will bless the Believers with the moving of the Spirit, which will also serve as part of the judgment of unbelievers. The two occur simultaneously through the singular action of the Spirit.

So in Rev. 10 – There is great judgment being poured out on sin and sinners, but there is also blessing and faithfulness to be seen for those who are righteous in Christ Jesus!

Let’s go back to the text to see that demonstrated in just 6 of instances in the vision shown to John.
1. Revelation 10:1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.
The angel is sent from heaven, and he is wrapped in a cloud.

This motif of clouds and judgment is a common one throughout the OT.

Isaiah 19:1 An oracle concerning Egypt. Behold, the LORD is riding on a swift cloud and comes to Egypt; and the idols of Egypt will tremble at his presence, and the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.

Ezekiel 30:3 For the day is near, the day of the LORD is near; it will be a day of clouds, a time of doom for the nations.

Joel 2:1–2 Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations.

But what happens after the rain and the clouds begin to dissipate?

RAINBOWS! Rainbows appear at the same time as rainclouds. At the very time of God’s judgment, there also appears the sign of His loving and unbreakable covenant with His people.

Blessing and cursing at one and the same time. Judgment and blessing are bound up together.
1. Then we see something of this same parallelism again: Revelation 10:1 Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with a rainbow over his head, and his face was like the sun, and his legs like pillars of fire.
There is light and revelation in the angel’s face, even as there is the fire of judgment in his legs.
1. Then too: Revelation 10:2 He had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land,
The angel steps on the mysterious sea as well as on solid land. There is both revelation and mystery. Not all is fully revealed. But God is God over the unstable and the mysterious even as He is God over the solid and the concrete.

A wonderful representation of why we can trust Him in those dark days of judgment.
1. Revelation 10:4 And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”
The angel cries out and it is loud and like the roar of a lion. But when the 7 thunders roar, their message is not to be written down.

And so we are given a graphic representation of how God speaks, but not everything is equally revealed and accessible to us yet.

It is a warning not to over-interpret prophecy, and to trust God even though we don’t know all the details.
1. Revelation 10:5–7 And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven and swore by him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, but that in the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, just as he announced to his servants the prophets.
There is a sworn-to time set for fulfilling the mystery, but it is not all at once, but rather, an era. “IN THE DAYS” of the 7^th trumpet. It is not an event, but an era. How long or how short we are not told. But we’re given hope in the picture of a sworn promise and the insight of a period in which this will all come to pass.
1. Revelation 10:8–10 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, “Take and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.
The little scroll is sweet to the taste, but makes the stomach bitter.

God’s Word is both sweet to us in it’s Gospel blessing, but also teaches us the bitterness of sin and judgment. These must be taken together.

This duality is not contradictory, but to be held in tension until the end. And it keeps us from being overwhelmed in the hard times, and overconfident in the good times.

“Behold the kindness and the severity of the Lord” Paul says in Rom. 11:22.

This is a view of God the world cannot comprehend. God must be either ALL loving in many people’s minds, or He appears harsh and cruel and to be hated or disregarded by others.

But of course, He is holy, and loving and good, AND just, and faithful and cannot ignore sin.

So it is the same God who judges sin, also provides His Son as the ransom for our souls in His death on Calvary – and demands the Gospel of His grace be freely preached to His enemies, and those under His just wrath.

It is central concept to the Gospel itself.

Romans 1:16–18 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

The Gospel isn’t good news in any sense, unless we know that there is bad news which makes the Gospel the good news that it is in contrast.

The bad news is, humanity is under God’s curse – and has been ever since our race rebelled together in Adam against God’s absolute rights over us as made in His image. A curse that will end in final, eternal judgment.

Out of the very many places where this Gospel duality shows itself in wondrous clarity – let me show you just 2 in closing:

The bad news is: Isaiah 53:6a All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way;

Isa. 53:6b and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

John 3:36a – The good news is: Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;

John 3:36b The bad news is: whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

And so we call everyone in the sound of our voice today – to acknowledge the bad news of their sin and condemnation, that they might also know in all reality – the really good news: Jesus died for sinners, and forgives all who come to Him in faith.
Decision Making and the Will of God

April 18th, 2018
DECISION MAKING AND THE WILL OF GOD

Deut. 29:29

Acts 15:1-28

Audio for this sermon can be found here

As we all feel keenly right now, ECF is in a season of critical decision making.

How do we decide on a new associate pastor? What kind of processes do we need to implement and how do we make up our minds?

These are big, necessary and important questions. What I would like to do this morning is spend some time on the root topic of Christian decision making in its basics for each one of us; and then try to apply some of those things to our current circumstances.

I am truly hoping this will relieve anxiety for some who have struggled in this area in their Christian walk, as well giving us some solid direction as we move ahead in our corporate decisions.

I will tell you that at one time in my own life, I knew what it was to suffer from a high degree of decision paralysis brought on by a number of factors some of you may identify with as well.
1. I seriously wanted to make Godly, Christ honoring decisions, and feared somehow missing what some call “God’s perfect will”. The idea that God has one best choice for you in everything in life – from THE person God has chosen for you to marry to THE absolute profession you should undertake to whether or not you should read a certain passage of Scripture that day – or in our case, how do we know THE guy God has for ECF?
As we press ahead today, I think you’ll find that being caught in that web is not only frustrating and paralyzing, it is also almost wholly unnecessary.

2. I also feared making mistakes. Not just the idea of missing God’s perfect choice. Hidden in that thought is the idea that if I pick what God really wants, that will mean things will go smoothly, successfully and I’ll have perfect peace about it. When none of that is guaranteed in God’s Word.

Remember, all of the Apostles were perfectly in God’s will and suffered rejection, persecution and apart from John – all suffered martyrdom. Things did NOT go well. As a matter of fact, Paul’s detractors traded on that very idea – if he was really God’s man, would he really suffer as much as he did? YES!

Mistakes can and will be made. All under the watchful eye of our sovereign and loving God. And not every mistake is somehow sin or even displeasing to Him. But if I look for signs and omens and stuff like that, I can soothe my conscience that I did what God showed me, and if it blows up – best case, I can blame Him! Worst case? I begin to doubt Him for not bringing about what I thought or felt sure He told me. Then what do I do?

3. It all seems so spiritual. And don’t’ we all want to think of ourselves as spiritual? Why use common sense when you can get a tingle or a chill and think your being really “led”? But it is a trap. Chills and tingles can be the result of all sorts of things. EXAMPLE: WJ

Well then – what SHOULD we be doing? Fortunately, God’s Word is replete with counsel, so we don’t need to walk in the dark.

PATTERN leading to PROCESS

PRAYER

PRINCIPLES

PRUDENCE

PLANS

PROVIDENCE

PRAYER

PROCESS

I. PRAYER: As with all things in life, our habit of bringing our needs, concerns, decisions and circumstances before God is vitaPhilip. 4:6 reminds us: “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”

Making the need for a decision made known to God in prayer is just part and parcel of the Believer’s everyday life. We lay out matters before Him, asking for His wisdom, for clarity in reasoning and trusting Him in it. We’ll come back to this before we are done. But one thing is sure, this is where the Christian begins – on all matters except where I already know the will of God as clearly expressed in His Word.

In truth, there are some things we never need to pray about. I never need to ask God if I should cheat on my wife, beat my kids, steal, blaspheme His name, get drunk, slander anyone or murder my neighbor.

Nor do I need to pray about the ridiculous. I do not need to ask Him if I should grab onto a high voltage wire, drink bleach, spend more than I earn, try to create a new primary color, live without oxygen, break my own leg just to see what it feels like or convert to Ba’haism.

Both of these make a mockery of prayer. But in making true decisions, prayer must be our starting and ending point.

II.PRINCIPLES:

We are to be occupied with what God HAS revealed, not what He has NOT.

Deut. 29:29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

Christian decision making is NOT an exercise in trying to discern the things God has kept from us – but being occupied with what He HAS revealed.

So many Believers are paralyzed from making decisions at all, because – in an honest desire to serve God well – think they need to detect some supernatural leading above and beyond the Scriptures.

Christians are remarkably free to make all kinds of decisions, even very difficult ones, if we will ask a few clarifying questions. Questions we’ll get to before we’re done. But for now, we need to realize that our first concern is making sure we know what God HAS said, and keeping in line with that – rather than trying to figure out if God is sending out coded or secret messages of some sort that we have to be spiritual enough to detect and then act on.

Am I preoccupied over something which is not a matter of plain revelation in His Word?
1. The Holy Spirit illumines FIRST and foremost through His WORD.
Am I acting according to Biblical teaching and principles?

Have I taken the time to find out what those are?

Leave IMPULSES to things that are INDIFFERENT. That is the subject for another sermon another time. The Holy Spirit DOES at times prompt us in certain things – but that is not how we make our basic decisions.

As we read in Acts and 1 Cor., all “direct” influence of the Spirit is subordinate to His Word.

Leviticus 19:26 “You shall not eat any flesh with the blood in it. You shall not interpret omens or tell fortunes.”

Isaiah 8:19 “And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?”

FLEECES (a major topic for another sermon) – for Gideon is not commended for using the “fleece” method, it was in fact a sign of his own unbelief, cowardice and God’s patience with him – not an endorsement) OMENS, SIGNS, and CHILLS are not our guide.

So too, coincidences are not necessarily divine communication. Just because you suddenly run into an old flame on Facebook does not indicate it is God’s will for you to run off with him or her. EXAMPLE: HP – Church choice. JV – John Piper pic.
1. TEST EVERYTHING: The principle here is exceedingly simple – Isaiah 8:20 “To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.”
2. Do not automatically assume a sense of PEACE means all is well, or that a sense of AGITATION means all is ill.
Jesus agonized in the Garden. He was NOT at peace.

And on the flip side, the angelic appearances in the Bible all had to be accompanied by “fear not”. Agitation was not an indication all was ill.

III. PRUDENCE: The Holy Spirit leads 3rdly through WISDOM. Foolishness the Bible tells us is sin.

Am I using the spiritual gift of gray matter? It is in my estimation the most under utilized gift God gives His people.

In the portion we had read in Acts 15, the apostles were confronted with a huge issue: Do gentile believers have to follow the Mosaic law in order to be saved? The debate threatened to split the entire Church. So what did they do?

Acts 15:6–7 “The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said…”

They rehearsed Peter’s history in how the Gospel had spread.

They rehearsed what they already believed about the Gospel: Acts 15:11 “But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

They listened to how God had worked through Paul and Barnabas with the gentiles.

James then summarized their discussion and suggested a solution. (13-21)

Acts 15:22–23 “Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They sent Judas called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers, with the following letter:”

What did NOT happen is that with Peter, Paul, James and other apostles there, no one stood up and said: “I’ve got a revelation” or “a word from the Lord.”

They debated, talked and reasoned their way through which ended in them writing to the Church at Antioch: Acts 15:28 “For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements:”

They took their process as the very leading of the Holy Spirit!

Do I take to heart the experience of those who have gone before me?

The Holy Spirit has provided leading in the COUNSEL and EXPERIENCE of others.

Have I talked with others of mature Christian walk & experience?

PLANS: I won’t belabor this point. In what we’ve seen so far, we have example after example that these men and women of God made their plans in accordance with what they knew from God’s Word and using their best wisdom – they acted on their plans and committing them to the Lord, were willing to have those plans interrupted or changed as God intervened providentially.

PROVIDENCE: The Holy Spirit directs through PROVIDENCE.

Providence, the outward circumstances of our lives as arranged by God also play a role.

We see this carried out in a very graphic was in Paul’s ministry.

Acts 16:6–10 “And they went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia. And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So, passing by Mysia, they went down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing there, urging him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” And when Paul had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go on into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”

PRAYER: We come then full circle back to prayer – and keeping with the Word, taking advantage of our best wisdom, making our plans – and then committing them into His hands, knowing that He cares for us and knows our desire to serve Him well – We trust Him with our decisions.

VII. PROCESS: This then brings us to the practical process. How do we do this? And I have some suggestions which grow out of what we have just studied.

QUESTIONS – Asking ourselves the right questions. This may be as shocking to you for its simplicity as it is for its freedom.

Ask:

Will my choice prevent or hinder me from doing anything God expressly commands me to do in His Word?

Will my choice cause me to do anything God expressly forbids me from doing in His Word?

Have I weighed to pros and cons, and am thus using my best wisdom and counsel?

Father, if this is not the best choice, please intervene providentially.

What would that look like in our present case?

Hiring an associate will not prevent us from doing anything commanded in God’s Word. In fact, it will facilitate it.

Hiring an associate will not violate any prohibition in God’s Word.

Our collective wisdom sees the need.

We make our plans and commit it to Him.

Praying about it!

Making sure our candidates are those who meet the Biblical qualifications. Committee, Elders, Congregation.

Examining them as best we can within our providential constraints.

Discussing it all among ourselves so as to make the best use of our collective wisdom. And here is where we need everyone’s candid input. You won’t hurt anyone’s feelings. We need to know what our various and many eyes saw, ears heard and hearts and minds thought. Especially email us so thoughts, observations, opinions and ideas aren’t lost, but all factored in.

Does this candidate best fill the specific needs of this congregation at this juncture in our history?

Making our choice – putting our plans into motion.

Committing all of this into the hands of our Father – trusting Him in it.

In the case of Matt Gibert, we followed the process and God in the end answered and interrupted. Not necessarily because he was a bad choice, but for His own reasons. We can trust Him.

And we can follow the same process now. We are not required to hire either of the ones before us at present. But all things considered, we may well hire either one – or continue looking. All in prayer, and all looking to our loving, faithful Father to see us through.

We don’t have to discern THE guy. We do as Scriptures calls us to, and we will get a guy – in God’s good grace. Who is best for us in this place at this time under these circumstances. We can trust the Father.
Easter Sunday Sermon – Our Certain Hope

April 2nd, 2018
Empty tomb with three crosses on a hill side.

Easter 2018

Acts 26:6-8

Acts 26:6-8 “And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?”

We are all aware that some words we use every day, may have completely different meanings in other languages.

The word “gift” in English is the German word for poison.

Trombone in French means Paperclip.

And I’m told that “In Hebrew our English word pronounced ‘me’ means who, our word pronounced ‘who’ means he, and our word pronounced ‘he’ means she and ‘dog’ means fish.

Not only is this true with other languages, English words which have been around for a long time can change their meanings too.

When I was young, if something was hot, it only meant that it had a high temperature.

Then hot become cool. And cool become hot. And Michael Jackson taught us that bad was good. Green’s Dictionary of slang says “good” can refer to alcohol, phencyclidine, heroin or marijuana.

Not only that, but over time the word NICE in English originally meant silly or simple – it was NOT a compliment.

And the word SILLY originally meant that which was blessed or worthy instead of foolish.

NAUGHTY originally simply meant you had naught, or nothing. You were poor. It can be confusing can’t it?

And among many Biblical words which have changed their meaning over time, 2 especially have suffered a most sad and even destructive metamorphosis: FAITH, and the word I wish to key in on in this text today – HOPE.

FAITH has suffered in recent years, because it gets used in ways the Bible never uses it.

Faith is not, as is commonly thought by many: Believing in something without proof. Biblical faith is always based upon proof.

FAITH in the Bible is never simply generic belief or religion. It is instead believing the revelation of the character of God as it is revealed in 3 places: creation, His Word, and in His actions.

When the Apostle Paul was making his case on trial in the passage I just read, he could point to the fact that Jesus actually came as the Promised Messiah; that in His coming He fulfilled all the prophecies about Him in God’s Word; and that He then substantiated all of this in His own resurrection. They were substantial claims. Paul’s faith had a foundation. Ours ought to have the very same if it is truly – faith.

You see, we believe the Bible because it tells us the truth. The truth about God, about life, about humankind’s origin among other things. It accurately describes the brokenness of the human race, and the way of redemption from our separation from God and the devastation our sin has brought upon us.

It gives us accurate pictures of it all and sound reasons behind why things are the way they are.

It records all kinds of facts we can verify: Personages, places, events which can and have been verified over and over.

Biblical FAITH is based on God’s character, and what He has revealed.

Biblical HOPE, too is far different than the way we use the word hope today.

We use hope mostly in terms of wishful thinking. We hope something will resolve itself, or something will change for the better. We want something to happen and hope it will – with or without a substantive reason to believe it really will.

But in the Bible, the word HOPE is never used as mere wishfulness – like: I hope the Bills will win the next Superbowl – but always has the element REASONABLE expectation. So when it comes to things like salvation and the resurrection: HOPE is the faith based expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promised blessings to His people.

Let me repeat that. Hope is the REASONED expectation of the fulfillment of God’s promised blessings to His people. It is not imagined or baseless. It is a warranted expectation of good, rooted in the good promises God has made in His Word, to those who love Him.

So in our text here. Paul was arguing that he was on trial for the HOPE that Israel had always taught was to be looked forward to. Which hope in short, is the resurrection of the dead.

A HOPE that was both fully justified by God’s promises, and fully verified in Jesus’ own resurrection from the dead.

Let me go back to the text I began with. Acts 26:6-8 “And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day. And for this hope I am accused by Jews, O king! Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?”

Many of the powerful religious leaders in Jesus’ day were jealous of Him. If He was who He said He was, He had both a claim to the office of King over Israel, and as Messiah the very authority of God AS God. And as God, He kept uncovering their sin and corruption. And that was something they neither wanted to admit, nor to give an account for.

It would threaten their power base fatally. The solution? Simple, have Him killed.

What they did not know, what no one understood yet, was that He had all along planned to come and die.

I want us to see just 3 things that are of vital importance in this text – all related to the HOPE that brings us all here today – the hope of resurrection from the dead.
1. Note that Paul’s hope is connected to God’s promise to His people.
As far back as the book of Job, the oldest book in the Bible, the hope of the resurrection was articulated. And in all sorts of places this hope is reiterated over and over – which should lead us all to conclude as Paul Himself did that “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” 1 Cor. 15:9

This is the true hope of everyone who is in Christ – that there is far more than this life, there is a life to come, in eternity, WITH the God and Christ who redeemed us from our sins.

Not a fabricated hope, but one firmly established in God’s Word.
1. Note 2^nd that the reality of the resurrection was so central, that God designed it to form the basis of Israel’s worship of God. Paul says it this way: “And now I stand here on trial because of my hope in the promise made by God to our fathers, to which our twelve tribes hope to attain, as they earnestly worship night and day.” And here we have to take very careful note.
For the Jewish way of worship, as established by God was all focused on man NOT being able to earn his way to God in righteousness. This, for 2 reasons:

First, the Law that God gave was an impossible standard that showed us our sinfulness and our inability to overcome sin and earn eternal life.

Secondly, every sacrifice and offering displayed God’s way of saving us: God Himself providing a perfect sacrifice, sufficient to atone for all our sin. Him, making the way for us to be declared holy by imputing our sin to a substitute, so that we could be treated as though we hadn’t sinned.

So the Bible teaches in Romans 4:22–25 when speaking of how Abraham was counted righteous: “That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.” But the words “it was counted to him” were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

Christ’s righteousness put on the account of those who believe, so that when we are raised to stand before God in judgment – we have a glad and certain hope of not only of no condemnation – but of an eternal reward! This is the Gospel!
1. Note 3^rd that if we really believe that God is who He reveals Himself to be in His Creation, in the Bible, and in His self-disclosure in the incarnation – then this hope makes perfect, rational sense. It isn’t pie in the sky; an imagined or conjured up hope. It is a substantive and life-shaping hope. So Paul asks: “Why is it thought incredible by any of you that God raises the dead?”
If He is the God of the Bible – this makes perfect sense.

Why not resurrection from the dead even as Jesus said it would be? John 5:25–29 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.”

If God is who the Bible says He is – Why not forgiveness of sins?

Why not the power to create a new heavens and earth?

Why not a hope that transcends even the grave itself?

Jesus’ own resurrection is the substantive, certain HOPE of everyone who has come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It is not the mere wishfulness

It is the promise that Jesus made, that all who are united to Him in faith, in putting their trust in His atoning sacrifice for their sins on the cross – as dying in our place; taking the punishment we deserved for our rebellion against God’s rightful and absolute claim over our lives – would be raised just like Him when He returns, to gain the eternal rewards He purchased for us.

This is the hope offered to each one of you today in the Gospel.

The Bible says that before one believes the Gospel of Jesus dying in their place for their sins – we are truly hope-less. Ephesians 2:12 “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

But then 1 Thess. 4:13 tells us what it is like for those who believe: “But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”

This is why we celebrate this day like no other – Because HE IS RISEN!

How this infuses the words of Jesus at the Last Supper with much fuller meaning.

For when He broke the bread and gave the cup on the night when He was betrayed, He said: 1 Corinthians 11:24b–26 “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”

Do this – and proclaim my death – until the day of resurrection.

How much more fitting then that we come to this table today.

Come gather with me, brothers dear

I’ve longed to sit and dine

To eat my final Passover

With you I own as mine

My time, at last, is now at hand

And though I’ve told you so

I know you do not comprehend

The means by which I’ll go

The truth, so hard for you to hear

Is, one of you this night

Betrays me to my enemies

And then will take your flight

Each one, not knowing what this meant

Asked, Lord, could it be me?

The hand that dipped the dish with mine

He said, that one is he

Then Judas pressing further asked

Rabbi, am I the one?

And Jesus said, “it’s as you say”

The treason had begun

Tis then that Jesus took the bread

And broke it as He blessed

Take eat, this is my flesh

For you – He this confessed

And then He took the cup to Him

And giving thanks He said

This is My blood I give for you

For sin’s remission shed

Now do these in rememb’ring me

When I am gone from here

For I’ll have nothing more until

The Kingdom does appear

Then going out they sang a hymn

And to the Garden came

Where Christ in prayer so agonized

In unimagined pain

He prayed the cup might pass from Him

Three times, He cried it still

But more, He prayed – not as I wish

My Father, as you will

He prayed till angels strengthened Him

And heavenly succor came

Then prayed His own the Father keep

In God’s own holy name

Until at last the traitor came

With those who take by might

Betraying Jesus with his kiss

They bound Him in the night

And to the High Priest’s mocking courts

They dragged and beat and spit

Brought forth their lying witnesses

Whose stories did not fit

Then off to Pilate’s judgment hall

They dragged Him in disgrace

And pled to have Him crucified

The Lord and King of grace

Then sent to Herod’s gawking gaze

He stood, but gave no speech

Thus Herod sent Him back again

For Pilate to impeach

The spineless Pilate caving in

And care-less, gave the word

To let the brutal torturers

Perform what Christ endured

More mocking still and agonies

He suffered at their hands

Their wicked taunts to prophesy

And jump to their commands

No mercy pleas escaped His lips

Not one condemning cry

He suffered as deserving all

In willingness to die

Not one defense He offered up

As Calvary’s path He trod

No murmuring, no loud complaint

Just yielding to His God

Then on the cross, His seven words

Forgive them, they don’t know

And to thief, today with Me

To paradise we’ll go

To Mary said: Behold your Son

John, make her your mother

Then: Father, you’ve forsaken me

More grief than any other

I thirst: He cried, in agony

It’s finished, then, He said

Gave up His spirit to His God

In death, then hung His head

But why no claims of innocence?

No word to change His fate

No syllable of self-defense

To set the record straight

Because, He took our guilt Himself

He bore it as His own

Though perfect in His righteousness

No sin had ever known

He willingly stood in my place

And took what I was due

And if by faith you trust His work

His blood redeems you too