Participants: Ivor Myers (Host), James Rafferty (Host), Yvonne Lewis, Jason Bradley
Series Code: SISS
Program Code: SISS000067A
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00:31 So we are now in Revelation chapter 18
00:33 and again, I just want to emphasize here 00:36 Revelation chapters 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 basically... and 20... 00:41 basically... the judgments of God 00:42 and interspersed in between all of this 00:46 is the reason why the judgments of God are coming. 00:49 God reminds us why He's judging Babylon... 00:52 why He's bringing this all to an end 00:54 and it's really good news. 00:56 That last part of Revelation seems like, oh man! 01:00 and all these judgments and plagues 01:02 and all these terrible things are happening 01:04 but interspersed in here, you're going to find 01:06 some "Alleluia Amen's... Praise the Lords... " 01:08 and I'm not talking about us, I'm talking about heaven, 01:11 I'm talking about the people who are watching this 01:13 the angels... and they're just going, 01:14 "Yes, finally it's coming to an end" 01:16 and we're going to see this in Revelation 18, 01:18 we're going to see God's character vindicated 01:20 when He brings an end to sin and suffering and pain and evil. 01:24 His character is going to be vindicated in that 01:26 because even now people say, 01:27 "Why doesn't God do something about this?" 01:29 Well, He's about to... 01:30 and when God does something about it 01:32 it's at end of story... it's over. 01:34 I mean, the dragon is going off the table, 01:36 the beast is going off the table, 01:37 everyone's... everything is going off the table... 01:39 and God takes... He's cleaning up... 01:40 and that's really good news. 01:42 So, let's have a word of prayer, 01:44 Jason, would you like to pray for us? 01:45 Sure, "Dear Heavenly Father, we've covered so much material, 01:49 we ask that you would send the Holy Spirit 01:52 to bring back to our remembrance what we've studied in the past 01:55 what we've learned and help us to retain 01:58 the new information that we will be taking in 02:00 in this Program, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. " 02:02 "Amen. " 02:04 So I'd like us to divide Revelation 18 into two parts 02:08 the first part here is going to be verses... 02:10 Yvonne, could you read for us Revelation 18 verses 1 through 4 02:17 Sure, "After these things I saw another angel 02:20 coming down from heaven having great authority: 02:23 and the earth was illuminated with his glory. 02:26 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, 02:29 Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, 02:31 and has become a dwelling place of demons, 02:34 a prison for every foul spirit, 02:36 and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. 02:39 For all the nations have drunk of the wine 02:42 of the wrath of her fornication, 02:43 the kinds of the earth have committed fornication with her 02:46 and the merchants of the earth have become rich 02:49 through the abundance of her luxury 02:50 and I heard another voice from heaven saying, 02:53 Come out of her my people, lest you share in her sins, 02:57 and lest you receive of her plagues. " 02:59 All right, so this first section... first four verses 03:04 are reminding us that God has done everything He can 03:08 to reach out to Babylon, 03:10 He has lightened the entire earth with His glory, 03:13 now remember, in previous chapters we've learned 03:16 that the whole world is going to wonder after the beast 03:18 but that's not in a vacuum, 03:20 God hasn't just stood back and said, 03:22 "Okay, go ahead, do that. " 03:23 No, He is lightening the whole earth with His glory... 03:27 there's a battle taking place here, 03:29 there's a conflict between good and evil 03:31 and remember what we read in John 1:9 03:33 that Jesus Christ is the light 03:35 that lights every man that comes into the world 03:38 and in John 3:17, 18, 19, 20, 21... 03:41 that this is the condemnation 03:43 that men love darkness rather than light. 03:45 Light's come into the world 03:47 but men love darkness rather than light 03:48 and so God honors... 03:50 the wrath of God honors our choice, 03:53 He gives us up to that which we persistently refuse to let go of 03:56 but He doesn't do it without a struggle... 03:58 He doesn't do it without a fight. 04:00 So, Revelation 18 is a reminder, this verse... 04:02 "the lightening of the earth with the glory of God" 04:05 doesn't fit in the context of the close of probation, 04:08 it's not after the close of probation that God does this... 04:10 it's before the close of probation that God does this 04:12 it's during the three angels' messages... 04:13 this is in fact... we could call this, "the loud cry" 04:17 the three angels' messages are just... 04:19 exploding into the whole world 04:22 and then in verse 4, another really powerful point, 04:26 it says there that God calls His people out of Babylon 04:31 Babylon has become the habitation of devils... 04:33 the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 04:36 Not everyone knows that, God actually has good people, 04:39 faithful people... honest people... 04:41 in the confusion of what Babylon is 04:43 and all the sins and iniquities that are in Babylon... 04:46 these honest people don't really perceive or understand it 04:49 and so God calls them out, 04:51 His people are everywhere in all of this confusion... 04:53 in all of this evil and sin but they're honest people 04:57 so just because we identify Babylon as this false system... 05:00 this false religious system and... 05:01 supported by this... this other power 05:03 and the devil working through it, 05:05 that's because the system itself is misrepresenting God 05:09 and counterfeiting the truth of the Bible 05:12 but it doesn't mean that people in the System are bad people, 05:15 there are multitudes of people 05:18 within this System that are good people, 05:20 so God says, "They're my people" 05:22 so God is dealing here with institutions 05:26 not individuals 05:27 and those individuals God loves... 05:29 of course He loves all individuals 05:30 and He seeks to call them out. 05:33 Hmmm... hmmm... hmmm... hmmm. 05:34 So is this... this happens... is this kind of a... 05:37 kind of a re-cap before the plagues fall 05:42 because it says, 05:44 "Come out of her and receive not of her plagues" 05:48 so the plagues haven't fallen yet 05:49 so this is not a chronological thing... this is more... 05:55 so it's not in order, right, it's just... 05:58 Right, Revelation 18:1 to 4 does not belong 06:02 after the plagues are poured out, 06:04 it actually goes back to before the plagues are poured out 06:06 but what God is doing... the reason why He puts it in here 06:09 is because God is reminding us... 06:10 see, we've just gone through some tremendous plagues, 06:12 really bad plagues and then we see the judgment on the whore, 06:15 and God is reminding us, 06:16 "Hey, by-the-way, I just want to remind you 06:18 I lightened the earth with my glory before all this happened 06:21 and I called all my people out of Babylon 06:23 before all this happened. " 06:24 See, He's bringing us back to that... so that we can get 06:27 focused and understand what He has done in trying to reach us. 06:31 Moses in the Old Testament one time asked to see God. 06:38 Right. 06:40 He wanted to see His glory. Hmmm... hmmm... 06:41 And the Lord said, "Okay, I'm going to show you my glory... " 06:44 and you know what He does? 06:45 He hides him in the cleft of the rock 06:48 and then He passes by Him and proclaims His name. 06:52 Hmmm... Hmmm... 06:53 That is His glory... Hmmm... hmmm... 06:56 The Lord... yeah, the name of the Lord 06:58 I think it's Exodus 32, 07:02 Exodus 32, let's just go there real quick, 07:04 Exodus 32 07:11 and let's see... 07:16 verse... 07:18 we're going to find it... 07:23 It's going past here as far as... 07:27 Actually it might be Exodus 33 or 34. 07:31 It's 34... 33 and 34... yup... 33... 07:37 Exodus 33 what? 33:18... 07:42 so let's go... can you read that for me? 07:45 Sure, 33 verse 18, 07:48 "And he said, I beseech thee, shew me thy glory. " 07:51 Okay, so he's asking Him to show him His glory... 07:54 read on... 07:56 "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, 08:01 and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; 08:03 and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, 08:06 and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. " 08:09 All right, then over in Exodus 34 verse 5. 08:11 "And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, 08:15 and proclaimed the name of the LORD." 08:17 Verse 6 and verse 7. 08:20 "And the LORD passed by before him, 08:23 and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, 08:25 merciful and gracious, longsuffering, 08:27 and abundant in goodness and truth. 08:29 Keeping mercy for thousands, 08:31 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, 08:35 and that will by no means clear the guilty; 08:38 visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, 08:40 and upon the children's children, 08:42 unto the third and to the fourth generation. " 08:44 So He proclaims His name as His glory. 08:47 We understand that the name is symbolic of character, 08:52 okay, the final message to go into the world 08:55 is a revelation of the true character of God, 08:58 okay, the reason why that's so important is because 09:02 Satan has been doing all that he can 09:06 to distort the character of God 09:09 and it is this distortion of the character of God 09:12 that has turned people away from Him, right, 09:15 so, at the end of time... 09:16 that final message to go into all the world is, 09:19 "this is who God really is" 09:22 and that can only be seen through His people. 09:26 So when we talked about previous studies 09:30 that we have to have the character of Christ... 09:32 the faith of Jesus. 09:33 We have to represent His character 09:36 because it's through us that the world will see 09:40 who the Father really is... who Christ really is... 09:44 so, this is the message so that's why... 09:46 there are people in Babylon who may not understand the doctrine 09:50 they're like... "Huh, man, this doctrine doesn't make sense 09:55 but, I'm here anyway and it's all that I know" 09:58 but God calls them His people, why? 10:00 because they're living up to the character of Christ, 10:04 they are reflecting the character of Christ which... 10:09 it's a very sobering point that you can know truth 10:13 and not have the character of God... 10:16 Hmmm... Right... 10:17 Or you cannot know truth 10:19 and yet have the character of God 10:22 and God says, "Those are my people... " 10:25 they may not understand... 10:26 be able to put all these things together 10:28 but you know what... they reflect my character 10:31 longsuffering... merciful... gracious... all these things 10:36 so this is what God is doing at the end of time, 10:39 He's bringing truth and mercy together 10:40 right, He's bringing truth and character together 10:43 because He's bringing them together into one final movement 10:47 those that keep the commandments of God 10:49 and have the faith of Jesus... 10:51 that's the glory that lightens the world. 10:53 I really like this verse because this verse is so balanced 10:57 you've got gracious, longsuffering 10:59 abundant in goodness and mercy 11:00 keeping mercy for thousands, 11:02 forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, 11:05 but will by no means clear the guilty: 11:07 visiting the iniquity of the fathers 11:09 upon the children, and the children's children, 11:10 unto the third and fourth generation... 11:12 in other words, 11:13 what we see in Revelation 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 11:17 is described here as God's character, 11:20 it's part of God's character and that's why 11:22 when this revelation takes place, 11:25 angels in heaven and voices from heaven say, 11:28 "alleluia, praise God" 11:29 what you see taking place in this verse is... 11:32 this word, "forgiving" actually the word is "Nasa" 11:36 and it's used in several places in the Bible 11:40 but one of the most important, significant places 11:43 it's used is in Isaiah 53, 11:44 "All we like sheep have gone astray; 11:47 we've turned every one to our own way; 11:49 and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all... " 11:51 and then it says in verse 4, "Surely he hath borne our griefs 11:55 and carried our sorrows... " 11:57 and that word, "borne" is "nasa" 12:00 here it's translated "forgiven" 12:02 and all through the Bible it's translated, "forgive" 12:05 "to forgive... to bear... to forgive... " 12:07 He's forgiven our... well, whose sins has He forgiven? 12:10 all of us... "All we like... " 12:11 so when you go back to Revelation chapter 18 12:14 just look at this verse... this is really, really powerful, 12:16 this is the next verse now in Revelation 18 12:19 that we haven't read yet, it's verse 5... 12:21 Jason, can you read that for us, verse 5? 12:23 Sure, "For her sins have reached unto heaven, 12:25 and God hath remembered her iniquities. " 12:27 He's done what to her iniquities? 12:29 "Remembered... " He's what? 12:30 "Remembered... " 12:32 He's remembered them, why does He say He's remembered? 12:33 Because up until this point, He's forgotten them. 12:35 Hmmm... 12:37 Because Calvary paid the price for the sins of Babylon, 12:39 Calvary paid the price for the sins of all the world. 12:42 Jesus bore them... 12:44 and He bore them so that we would have time 12:47 to see His love for us and accept what He did 12:50 but those who don't accept that, 12:52 guess what? God remembers them... 12:54 He remembers their sins, He doesn't want to remember them 12:56 see, but we're putting them in His face... 12:58 we're forcing Him to remember them. 13:00 In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 it says 13:02 that when God reconciled the world to himself, 13:05 He did it by not counting their sins against them. 13:07 Hmmm... 13:08 That's how He did it and then He says, 13:11 and He wants us to become ambassadors 13:13 of that reconciliation 13:14 but what has Babylon become? It has become a pariah... 13:17 it has become a merchant of sins... 13:20 it is... it is... it is a System 13:22 that is augmenting the sins of the world, 13:26 rather than becoming an ambassador 13:28 and not holding men's sins against it 13:30 it has been merchandizing sin, merchandising sin, 13:33 I mean, when you read the list here 13:35 and it's an incredible list but when you read the list here, 13:37 I mean, one of the verses that really gets me 13:40 it's from small to great but it talks in verse 13 about... 13:45 that this System has been merchandizing 13:49 the merchandise of cinnamon and odours and ointments 13:52 and frankincense, and wine, and oil and fine flour 13:55 and wheat... it seems pretty innocent... 13:56 and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, 13:58 and slaves, and souls of men. 14:00 Hmmm... 14:02 I mean, if you are in any way indignant 14:04 about human trafficking 14:05 and the fact that there are more slaves in the world today 14:08 than have ever been in history 14:09 and most of these slaves are under the age of 18, 14:13 children, sex slaves and being indentured servants, 14:17 we're talking probably about millions... we don't even know 14:21 and even in America... the I 5... 14:25 human trafficking on the I 5... from Canada down to Mexico, 14:28 it's just horrendous and I live right off the I 5... 14:31 so this is happening right in our backyard. 14:34 Is God upset about this? 14:36 Is He indignant about this? 14:37 See, people will ask that question, 14:39 "Why doesn't God do something about it?" 14:41 Let me tell you... the reason why 14:42 God doesn't do something about it now 14:44 is because, He gave His Son to die for our sins 14:47 and He wants everyone to be reconciled... 14:49 He wants everyone to be saved 14:50 because when God does do something about it, 14:52 look out... look out... Revelation 15, 14:55 look out... Revelation 16, 14:56 look out... Revelation 17, look out... Revelation 18, 14:58 when God does something about it, look out... 15:00 so, right now, we need to tell people 15:03 God is longsuffering but we need to make sure 15:05 we don't exclude the fact that He visits the iniquities 15:10 of the fathers upon the children... in other words... 15:13 God is not going to pass by sin and transgression, 15:17 He's not going to pass by evil and pain and suffering, 15:19 He's going to do something about it. 15:21 I think that's a really important part 15:22 of the character of God. 15:24 I'm glad you clarified that because I was going to ask 15:26 "visiting the iniquities of the children" 15:29 so, it doesn't mean that the children are held responsible 15:33 for the sins of the fathers, does it? 15:34 No... 15:36 What is that? 15:37 What that means is... is that... 15:38 those sins are visited... 15:40 are passed on to the next generation... 15:41 passed on to the next generation 15:42 and God is going to visit those sins... 15:44 He's going to visit all the sins 15:46 all the way down through the generations that are passed on 15:47 in other words... every single human being gets the opportunity 15:52 to do differently than he was taught... 15:54 or than he was raised to do. 15:55 I am doing differently than I was raised, 15:59 I was raised in an environment of alcoholism 16:02 so my grandmother, my mom, my dad, my aunt 16:06 my grandfather owned a pub in Ireland 16:09 so that all comes down to me 16:11 and as a young man, I was an alcoholic. 16:13 I was drinking so much 16:15 that I was having blackouts at the age of 19 16:17 and that's where you drink 16:18 and you can't remember what you did the night before 16:21 but when Jesus Christ became my personal Savior, 16:23 I rejected that inheritance, 16:25 I rejected it, I turned away from it. 16:27 so the iniquity of my previous generations 16:30 I rejected it, it wasn't passed on to me, 16:32 and it was passed on to me but I said, "No" 16:35 so there's no "iniquity" to visit... 16:37 if you see what I'm saying. 16:38 Oh... got you. 16:39 God is saying, basically, 16:41 "If you would have continued with alcoholism 16:42 and if you continued doing the things you did 16:43 under the influence of alcohol... 16:45 you would have reaped the consequence of that, 16:46 I'm not going to ignore the consequence of that... 16:48 I've given you opportunity, I'm drawing you to myself, 16:50 I'm your Savior, I love you, 16:52 I died for your sins... accept that, 16:53 if not, there's a consequence, 'the wages of sin is death' 16:56 and I'm going to visit that consequence on every generation" 16:59 is basically what He's saying. 17:01 Hmmm... hmmm... thank you. 17:02 If you go back to chapter 18 verse 5, 17:06 and just... let's read what it 17:12 "For her sins have reached unto heaven, 17:14 and God hath remembered her iniquities. " 17:16 Okay, so it says, "Come out of Babylon" why? 17:19 "Because her sins have... " what? 17:21 "reached unto heaven. " 17:22 So, again, when we study the Bible, 17:25 you always want to just kind of have in your mind... 17:28 that's why it's good to know, you know, really like 17:32 know the stories of the Bible, 17:33 because you always want to be... going through your mind 17:36 there's something that is... 17:37 that this connects with and guess what? 17:39 There's a story in the Old Testament 17:41 of a guy named Nebuchadnezzar who was a king of...? 17:44 Babylon... 17:46 Babylon... and in... I believe it's Daniel chapter 4 17:51 he has a dream and in that dream, 17:54 there's this great big tree 17:55 and the tree, the Bible says, reaches unto heaven, 17:59 all right, that dream... 18:02 that tree was a symbol of Nebuchadnezzar's pride. 18:06 What does the Bible say about pride? 18:09 "Pride goes before destruction 18:13 and a haughty spirit before a fall. " 18:16 You see, so, Nebuchadnezzar's pride, 18:19 right, reached unto heaven 18:22 and as a result, God says, "Okay, it's time... " okay... 18:25 Nebuchadnezzar was a king of Babylon 18:27 so the question we want to ask is, 18:29 "Well, at the end of time, who is the king...?" 18:33 there we go back again right? 18:35 "Who is the king of Babylon?" 18:38 Right, it's that three-fold union 18:40 but notice how in chapters 3 and 4 it says, 18:45 "Babylon has become the habitation of devils... " 18:48 Like, "we live here now... " 18:50 like, at some point, they weren't living there, 18:53 but now, yeah, "we've made this our home, 18:55 this is our kingdom that we have built. " 18:58 Now, you look at the list of sins, 19:00 and all those sins really point back to pride 19:03 because what did Satan want to do in heaven? 19:06 Right, he wanted to exalt himself 19:09 right, above the throne of God, above the stars of God... 19:12 and it's interesting because in the book of Job, 19:14 chapter 41, it speaks of Leviathan, 19:18 the very last verse... it says, 19:21 "He's the king... James: Of pride... 19:23 Ivor: And the king of the children... " in fact... 19:26 James: Oh yeah, that's right, let's read it. 19:27 Ivor: Yeah, Isaiah 41 verse 34. 19:30 James: No... Job... 19:31 Ivor: Job... I'm sorry, I'm sorry, Job 41:34... 19:35 Right before Psalms... 19:37 Pause... 19:39 You said chapter 34? 19:42 No, chapter 41 verse 34. 19:45 Yeah, you're right Ivor. 19:47 Yeah... speaking of Leviathan, right, 19:50 which is a symbol of Satan, 19:52 notice what it says in verse 34, who wants to read that? 19:54 "He beholdeth all high things: 19:57 he is a king over all the children of pride. " 20:00 Hmmm... hmmm... Hmmm... 20:01 All the children of pride, 20:03 those who are lost in the end of time... 20:04 pride, pride, pride, 20:06 pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit, before a fall. 20:10 so you see this spirit of pride elevating 20:13 so when the sins of Babylon reaches heaven, 20:17 it is because a few things are happening, 20:20 Satan has manifested himself, you have this exaltation... 20:24 same thing he was trying to do in heaven, 20:27 he is now the king over the children of pride 20:29 you see all these lists of sin, right, 20:32 which basically points us back to pride. 20:35 Hmmm... hmmm... 20:36 As you read further down... and James, this goes back to 20:41 when you talk about children... 20:43 these children that are going into slavery, right, 20:46 in the last part of Revelation 18, 20:49 Revelation 18 and verse... I believe it's around 18 or so, 20:55 so let's look, Revelation 18 verse... 21:01 Is it the one where you say... it says, "Rejoice over her" 21:07 "The angel takes up a stone... " 21:09 Oh... 21:11 So, it's 21... it's 21... 21:18 There we go... it says, "And a mighty angel 21:20 took up a stone like a great millstone, and... " did what? 21:23 "Threw it into the sea... " 21:24 "Cast it into the sea, and said, 21:26 Thus with violence shall that 21:27 great city Babylon be thrown down, 21:30 and shall be found no more at all. " 21:32 Hmmm... hmmm... 21:34 Okay, let's go over it, 21:35 why does an angel take up a millstone 21:38 and throw it into the sea? 21:40 Let's go to Matthew chapter 18. 21:41 Oh... oh... 21:43 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 21:49 Matthew 18 verse 2, oh, verse 1... 21:54 "And at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, 21:57 Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" 22:00 And remember, what were they struggling with? 22:02 "Who's going to be the greatest?" 22:03 Pride... pride... pride... and Jesus said... 22:06 "Jesus called and said... and called a little child unto Him 22:10 and set him in the midst of them and he said, 22:13 Verily I say unto you, Except you be converted, 22:16 and become as... " what? 22:17 "little children, 22:18 you shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. " 22:21 You got to humble yourself, you got to humble yourself, 22:24 right, so... "whosever therefore shall humble himself 22:26 as this little child, the same is... " who? 22:29 "the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 22:32 And whosoever shall receive 22:34 one such little child in my name receiveth me. 22:37 But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones 22:41 which believe in me... " 22:43 Hmmm... right... 22:47 what does it say, again? 22:50 pause... 22:57 "it were better for him that a... " what? 23:01 "millstone... were hanged about his neck 23:03 and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. " 23:07 That's it right there... Matthew 18 and Revelation 18... 23:11 easy to connect those two... 23:13 it's pride... and here's the deal... 23:15 we think about... when Jesus says, 23:17 "whoever doesn't humble himself 23:18 won't enter the kingdom of heaven" 23:20 He's not talking about going through some gates 23:23 and entering into a physical place, 23:24 He's talking about experience. 23:25 "You're not going to experience 23:27 heaven unless you humble yourself 23:29 because heaven is about humility... 23:31 heaven is about selfless other-centered love, 23:33 that is what I'm about... 23:35 the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, 23:36 the kingdom of God is within you 23:37 it's within you... " 23:39 So in order to get to heaven there, 23:41 we have to have heaven here first. 23:43 Yeah... 23:44 It's humility... God can't put proud people in heaven 23:48 because we'll have the whole rebellion... all over again. 23:51 So, yeah, this is really powerful, 23:54 in fact, I want us to just move into this... 23:56 this basic... again... theme that we're looking at, 24:00 look at... Yvonne, would you read for us verse 20? 24:03 "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and the holy apostles and prophets; 24:08 for God has avenged you on her. " 24:10 Now, I want you to read 19... chapter 19:1 through 6. 24:15 "After these things I heard a loud voice 24:18 of a great multitude in heaven saying, alleluia; 24:21 Salvation, and glory, and honour and power, 24:24 belong to the Lord our God: 24:25 For true and righteous are his judgments: 24:28 because he has judged the great harlot, 24:31 who corrupted the earth with her fornication, 24:33 and he has avenged on her 24:35 the blood of his servants shed by her. 24:37 Again they said, alleluia. 24:40 Her smoke rises up for ever and ever. 24:43 And the twenty four elders and the four living creatures 24:46 fell down and worshipped God who sat on the throne, 24:48 saying, Amen: alleluia. 24:51 Then a voice came from the throne saying, 24:53 Praise our God, all you his servants, 24:56 and those who fear Him, both small and great. 24:58 And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude 25:02 as the sound of many waters 25:04 and as the sound of mighty thundering's, 25:06 saying, alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. " 25:10 And then verse 7... sorry. 25:11 "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give him the glory: 25:16 for the marriage of the Lamb is come, 25:19 and his wife has made herself ready. " 25:21 All this praise... all this praise 25:24 in the middle of judgments. 25:25 I just want to remind us, 25:27 this is praise for the character of God 25:29 and the character of God that's being praised here... 25:32 is His justice. Hmmm... hmmm... 25:33 God is a God of justice 25:35 and that's what's being praised here. 25:36 Yes, finally, Babylon is ended, all the sin... all the suffering 25:40 all this pain, all this evil... it's coming to an end 25:42 and so when people say, 25:44 "You know, I can't believe in a God 25:45 that would allow all this pain" I want to say to them, 25:47 "Well, let's read Revelation chapters 15 through 19." 25:49 Hmmm... hmmm... Hmmm... 25:50 "Let's read those chapters... 25:52 let's read Exodus chapter 33 and understand 25:55 and 34... and understand 25:57 what the character of God is. " 25:58 "Well, I can't accept the Old Testament. " 26:01 "Well, the Old Testament is a manifestation of 26:03 the character of God just like the New Testament is. " 26:05 Sometimes I tell people, 26:07 "New Testament... the grace, the mercy, the forgiveness... 26:10 the Old Testament... justice, righteousness... 26:12 put them together 26:13 if you want to understand the character of God. " 26:15 Because, God could have started with the grace and mercy 26:17 and Satan would have said, 26:18 "God is just too merciful... too gracious... " 26:20 so then the justice comes... 26:22 He started with the justice and then the mercy came 26:23 but they both come together, 26:25 you can't exclude one from the other. 26:27 That's right, and yet, in the Old Testament 26:30 you do find the mercy and justice and grace. 26:32 Yes... yes... You know... 26:34 And in the New Testament, you find the justice... 26:35 You find the justice, right, it's amazing, 26:37 you look at some of these things and... 26:38 God... with the nations and... "Oh, He destroyed the nations. " 26:41 Do you know how much... God said, 26:42 "Listen, I'm just going to first send beasts... 26:44 if they don't move from the beasts... I'm going to... " 26:47 it's like, He gave them option after option after option. 26:50 Those destroyed were like the most persistent, resistant... 26:54 "I'm not getting on the ark... I don't care what... " 26:56 Right... 26:57 Right, God has always provided a way of escape, 27:00 when He sends judgment, He's like, 27:01 "Hey, I'm sending judgment 27:02 but there is a way of escape, you choose. " 27:05 And He's still merciful even through... throughout that 27:07 because you think about people like He said, 27:10 "If they don't have heaven... 27:11 if they're not living their lives according to the Word, 27:14 when they go to... why would they want to be in heaven 27:17 where we're going to be worshipping God... 27:20 we're going to be learning about things... 27:23 God's Word and all that stuff 27:26 like, if you don't like that now, 27:28 you don't want to spend eternity doing that, 27:30 so He's merciful... 27:32 Even in His justice... that's a really good point. 27:35 So what we're seeing here in this big picture 27:38 is we're seeing the character of God 27:41 justice and mercy... 27:43 and by-the-way, that centers in the cross, 27:44 on the cross, you see grace and you see justice... 27:46 justice is there 27:48 because Jesus suffers for the sins of the world 27:50 in justice as well as in mercy 27:52 and we're seeing the rejoicing 27:55 that sin is finally brought to an end 27:57 and we need to rejoice over that fact. 27:59 We need to rejoice... |
Revised 2017-05-15