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"Revelation" Tagged Sermons (Page 2)

BABYLON – The Symbol of Rebellion

The 7th and final bowl judgment is first mentioned here as a summary, the final judgment upon this earth before Jesus returns to set up His kingdom right here, head quartered in Jerusalem.
Before we get into the details of this text, I need to unpack for you a few details that pertain to this particular subject called “Babylon”
1. There are two distinct Babylon’s mentioned in Revelation. The first one is called “Mystery Babylon” and the description is found in the 17th chapter of Revelation. It deals with a spiritual entity. A counterfeit of the true spiritual worship.
2. The Second one is revealed in the next chapter, which is the 18th chapter of Revelation, and this one represents a Commercial Babylon, a counterfeit to the true riches found in Christ Jesus alone.
Notice the name written on the forehead of a WOMEN:
“Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.” It’s a mystery. It’s a hidden truth. The Bible is full of examples how God at the proper time reveals mysteries to His people. We call it progressive revelation. To the prophet Daniel, who by the way was living in Babylon when God sent His people into captivity because of rebellion against His law, God revealed many mysteries. Yet, God did not unpack every mystery to Daniel.
In other words, these words, these prophecies will be unsealed at some specific time, the time of the end, which always refers to the time when the Lord will judge the nations and set up His kingdom on this earth. Daniel did understand many things, but not all things. The Apostle John did understand many things, but the Lord did not unseal everything.
In other words, John saw everything, but he could not understand everything. Then an angel said to him: why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the women and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. John must have gotten excited to hear those words. The angel will explain everything to me. But not so; The angel simply says: I WILL TELL YOU THE MYSTERY OF THE WOMEN AND OF THE BEAST AND OF THE SEVEN HEADS AND TEN HORNS. Again, the angel goes on to tell the mystery, but as you can see, the mystery deepens with every word the angel says. We will unpack those words next week. For now, let’s go all the way back in the Bible, where the word Babylon is mentioned and see if we can connect the dots.
How did it all start? In heaven it started with Lucifer aka Satan. The conspirator is Satan himself. Why is Satan doing this? What’s his purpose? What is his goal?
There is an earthly conspiracy underway. The goal is to enthrone the Antichrist, the “child of the devil” as God of the earth. The spiritual conspiracy is that Satan wishes to enthrone himself above God in heaven. Satan wants to be the supreme ruler in the heavenlies, while the imitator of Christ wants to be enthroned on the earth as the supreme ruler. This conspiracy is called “THE PLAN” by those who are following the new age movement. The secret societies refer to it as ‘THE MYSTERY’. And the Bible calls it: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
Did you notice the phrase: AND THE BEGINNING OF HIS KINGDOM was Babel. A kingdom has a king, the first king on this earth was Nimrod.
The name Nimrod means: “rebellious, revolt, indignation or disgraceful”.
The word Babel or Babylon means: “confusion”.
In other words Nimrod (rebellion against God) is the founder of Babylon (confusion).
I want you to know that today, when we hear Babylon or the name of Nimrod, most people think that this man was of little intelligence, probably clumsy, and a red-neck at best. The only thing this man had going for him and his people is that he knew how to hunt game.
But that’s not the true picture. Nimrod was a mighty leader, the founder of the first great empire of post-flood civilization – the kingdom of Babylon.
In order to understand what is revealed in this 10th chapter of Genesis, we need to back up a little bit. The flood of Noah devastated the world Noah once lived in. After the waters receded, and Noah and his family left the Ark, God commanded the survivors to “Be fruitful and multiply, and FILL THE EARTH.” (Genesis 9:1) God repeated the same command in verse 7.How the reacted to this command is eye-opening. Nearly 200 years after the flood, the descendants of Noah began to multiply in great numbers. Noah’s close descendants became the patriarchs of a great number of families, who, eventually, had developed into nations. This disbursement would set the stage for the eventual Babylonian Empire, and the Babylonian Religion.
Noah’s grandson Cush was one of these early patriarchs; the one who became the leader of many. He decided not to follow God’s commandment to “fill the earth”, but instead, he wanted to bring all of the people together. It was Cush who started to unite everyone into one huge nation. With that, he started the unification movement and the center of it all was THE TOWER OF BABEL. We do not find much information about Cush or Nimrod or the Tower of Babel in the Bible. Genesis 10:8 simply states how it all began. However we can learn many details from other ancient texts that Cush and Nimrod would become legendary throughout the secular/religious world.

BEHOLD, I Am Coming!

Today, we will cover plagues 2-6. The danger we face when we study those plagues is the fact that most people are more interested in the details describing these events then they are about the great announcements that JESUS IS ABOUT TO ARRIVE ON THE SCENE. Always keep this important truth in front of your spiritual eyes when studying the Word of God.
Richard Wurmbrand titled chapter 8 of his book ‘PROCLAIM THE TRUTH’.
“Some years ago while in Norway, I dreamed I heard a voice that said, “You will not always have a God.” For a long time the dream troubled me, until finally I grasped its meaning. Meister Eckhardt had a similar intuition: “The man united with God has no God.” The verb “to have” does not exist in Hebrew, the language of the Bible. Even in modern Hebrew no one can say “I have money”, “I have a car”, I have a house”; neither can one say “I have a god.”
We are never intended to have a God. We were meant to realize our high calling by being one with God. Jesus says, “You are gods” (John 10:34}. We are meant to be overcomers, to whom Jesus gave this promise: “To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne” (Revelation 3:21).
Only God sits on God’s throne. This is also my final destination. Then evidently I will no longer have God. I will be WITH God.
Everything less than becoming godlike is unworthy of a child of God. It is a shame for a prince to be only a good shoemaker.
Realize your calling and you will not ask such questions as to why rivers overflow, volcanoes erupt, children are in hospitals, and tyrants reign. You will sit on the heavenly throne from which universes are created and ruled. You will be above these things.” Richard Wurmbrand in “The Oracles of God”.
In other words, when we study the bowl judgments today, we must look at these events from a heavenly throne room view, not from an earthly view point. Why is that so important? Because looking at these events from an earthly, worldly viewpoint, we will react just like everyone else reacts on this earth, with fear, uncertainty, preparing for the worst, paralyzed by what we hear, or denying what the text says by spiritualizing its meaning. While others simply try to ignore the prophecies God spoke long ago, believing that such ignorance would protect them from the judgment of God.
BEHOLD, I AM COMING, Jesus announced long ago. He is coming to this earth, and so are all the saints with him. Remember, we are WITH GOD and God is WITH US.
HIS PROPHESIES WILL BE FULFILLED TO THE FINEST DETAILS
HIS PREPARATIONS WILL BE DONE ACCORDING TO THIS WORD
HIS POWER WILL BRING EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE UNDER HIS AUTHORITY.
The question is: Are you willingly under His authority?

The Final Judgments

The judgments of God on this entire earth are wrapped up in 7 seals, followed by 7 trumpets and finally followed by 7 bowls. If you carefully read those passages you can find out that the 7th seal contains the 7 trumpets and the 7th trumpet contains the 7 bowls. This simply means that there is a very specific sequence to these judgments. First the seals; then the trumpets and finally the bowls. The seals are being broken by THE LAMB. The seven seals are opened by the Lord Himself, the 7 trumpets are blown by angelic beings, and the seven bowls are being poured upon the earth by seven angelic beings as well. In other words, the Lord uses His angelic beings to execute judgments upon this earth. We will find out later why this is so important.
Four very important purposes that will be fulfilled during the final judgments upon this earth.
1. The Kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. (Revelation 11:15; John 16:7-11)
2. The nations and its rulers will find out who truly OWNS THE NATIONS AND TO WHOM THIS EARTH REALLY BELONGS. (Revelation 11:18a; Psalm 2)
3. All the dead people will be judged. That is all the spiritually dead people, those who have rejected the offer of salvation. (Revelation 11:18b; Daniel 7:9-10)
4. All the Servants, Prophets and Saints and those who fear God’s name will receive their promised rewards. (Revelation 11:18c; Revelation 22:12)
God’s judgments will always reveal the human heart; FULL OF REBELLION AGAINST THE CREATOR HIMSELF. This all started in the Garden of Eden long ago when our parents believed the lie that they could through knowledge of good and evil become God themselves. That was Satan’s promise to them. The human being has been in rebellion against God ever since. God’s very own and special creation claimed Godhood. When God Himself eventually brings that rebellion to judgment, every human being will find out that rebellion has its price.
These bowl judgments will crush man’s rebellion and remove the rebellious from this earth. The final completion of this purpose will be accomplished when Jesus Christ returns with His armies to this earth.
Who is the recipient of this first bowl judgment? All those who had received the mark of the beast and who worshiped his image. We can find out from another text found in this book that a very small fraction of the world population will actually resist the beast and will refuse to take his mark.
Good news, the only ones who do not have to worry about this judgment are the ones who found refuge in the lord Jesus Christ. They have refused to take the mark of the beast and have refused to worship him.
Jesus has taken the judgments for their rebellion against God upon himself, came to this earth, lived on this earth a perfect, sinless life, was falsely accused, rejected, condemned and eventually crucified in our place. And the proof of his work on our behalf came 3 days after his crucifixion. 3 days after his burial, he rose again, because death could not hold him, there was no legal claim against him and those who trust in him. Hallelujah.

Preparing Christ’s Second Coming – Part Two

Some people believe that Jesus’ Christ will come back to this earth without any precondition. Others believe that there is no second coming of Christ. They spiritualize the second coming of Christ by teaching that when you are being baptized by their church, the second coming of Jesus has just materialized. And there are those who believe and teach that God is done with physical Israel, and that the church has replaced physical Israel. Therefore, they say, the modern state of Israel is an invention of Zionist zealots and that they have no right to claim any connection to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
When the disciples asked Jesus the question:
“Lord, will You at this time RESTORE THE KINGDOM TO ISRAEL?” Acts 1:6b Jesus did not answer: You have no clue. Israel’s kingdom is done. It will never be restored. I will start a new work not many days from now and that work is called Ecclesia, aka as the church, and it is this church that will inherit all the blessings I have promised to Israel. THE FATHER AND I ARE DONE WITH ISRAEL. Just forget it.
Listen to what Jesus really said:
“It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.” (verse 7)
In other words, all the promises found in the O.T. regarding the restoration of the kingdom to Israel will happen at a time which the Father has ordained. How and when it will happen is determined by the Heavenly Father alone.
That Jesus will come back again to this very earth, this very place they were standing on when this conversation took place.
There should be no question about the fact that this same Jesus, the resurrected Son of God, will COME BACK TO THIS VERY EARTH IN LIKE MANNER. HE WILL JUST APPEAR THE SAME WAY HE DISAPPEARED. People will watch Him coming back. He will not come back as a ghost, he will not be a political leader, he will not be a military leader, he will not be an economic leader, He will not be a religious leader. HE WILL COME BACK AS THE SON OF GOD AND WILL ESTABLISH HIS KINGDOM ON THIS EARTH IN VISIBLE FORM.
The entire book of Revelation is dealing with Christ’s return to this earth.
The book itself makes no sense whatsoever if we loose sight of this important fact. That’s the reason why the book is called THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. While John saw Jesus in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, this aged apostle also saw what God the Father has ordained to happen to this earth and His creation, BEFORE HIS SON WILL RETURN TO THIS EARTH TO SET UP HIS KINGDOM.
Before Israel will receive the cleansing of her sin, they must first look ON HIM, the very one they have rejected at His first coming, and they must plead for His return. Israel will have to be brought to a place of desperation, where and all the nations of this earth will go against them during the final years before Christ’s return. They will not prepare themselves to welcome their Messiah UNTIL THE PRECONDITION HAS BEEN MET. And that will not happen until Israel as a nation will go through Jacob’s trouble, where God Almighty will have to pour His wrath upon this entire world.

Preparing Christ’s Second Coming – Part One

We know that the book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, is primarily the revelation of Jesus Christ, the son of God. Throughout the entire bible from Genesis to Revelation, the main theme is always the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah and the Redeemer of mankind.
The Apostle Paul declares that Jesus Christ has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. And he goes on to say that by Him, Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah to the Jews, the king of the Jews, the Savior of the world, is the one who created everything that is in heaven and that is on the earth. All things were created through Him and for Him. And the book of Revelation is giving us the details HOW GOD HIMSELF IS PREPARING CHRIST’S SECOND COMING TO THIS EARTH. There is a condition that must be met before Jesus Christ will return to this earth to establish His VISIBLE KINGDOM.
According to Matthew, Jesus began His ministry in chapter 4. You can read this Gospel from chapter four until chapter twelve to find out that Jesus went around Israel proclaiming that He is the promised Messiah. The purpose of all His miracles recorded in those chapters was to authenticated His Messiahship and His message, the Gospel of the kingdom. In other words, all the miracles Jesus did were signs to the nation of Israel to challenge them to make a decision about Him. Everything changed regarding the purpose of His miracles and His message in Matthew, chapter 12, beginning with verse 22.
The people were not willing to come to a decision by themselves. They were looking for the answer from their religious leaders, the Pharisees. When they accept Him, when they authenticate Him, then we will accept Him as well.
Then, in verses 30-37 Jesus pronounced a judgment on the Jewish generation of that day. Why? Because that generation had committed the unpardonable sin: THE BLASPHEMY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. Listen, the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit was not an individual sin but a NATIONAL SIN. It was committed by that generation of Israel in Jesus’ day.
In other words, the content of the unpardonable sin was the national rejection of the Messiahship of Jesus while He was physically present, on the grounds that He was demon possessed. THIS SIN WAS UNPARDONABLE, AND JUDGMENT WAS SET. THE REALIZATION OF THIS JUDGMENT CAME IN THE YEAR 70 A.D. The Roman army destroyed Jerusalem, burned down the temple, slaughtered over one million Jews, and dispersed the rest world-wide.
It is interesting that from this point on in the Gospel of Matthew, special emphasis is placed on THIS GENERATION. Why? Because it was this generation that was guilty of blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Judgment was unavoidable, because there would be no forgiveness for this sin.
Listen, the book of Hebrews was written to a group of Jewish Christians who, because of persecution, were contemplating a return to Judaism. The book warned them that they must completely separate themselves from Judaism. If they failed to do so, they would be caught up in the judgment of 70 A.D. and suffer physical death. Only of they separated themselves from Judaism completely would they have the opportunity of escaping the judgment upon that generation. Of course, from Hebrews it is not known what the results were. But it is known from JOSEPHUS AND EUSEBIUS quoting HEGESIPPIUS, a Jewish Christian historian of the second century. These men recorded how the Hebrew Christians, in obedience to the book of Hebrews, separated themselves from Judaism. So when the revolt against Rome began in the year 66 A.D., the entire Jewish Christian community left the country and waited the war out in the town of PELLA, and the east bank of the Jordan River. Although 1,100,000 Jews died in this Jewish revolt against Rome, not one Hebrew Christian was killed. Because they did obey the book of Hebrews, they escaped with their lives, and they were freed of the judgment upon that generation.

Let My People GO

Last year we have studied the book of Revelation all the way up to the 16th chapter. So I will not repeat what I have shared with you then. However, to fully understand the 16th chapter before us, we need to read it in context of the previous chapter.
The question must be asked: WHY DOES GOD HIMSELF LET ALL THIS TROUBLE COME UPON THIS WORLD? What’s the purpose of all this? The Answer: Let My People Go. In other words, God’s judgment will always fall on those who tried to destroy everything God has created, especially His crown creation: THE HUMAN BEING made in God’s image.
He will come unexpectedly! The vast majority of people will still be eating and drinking, focusing on their everyday lives, unaware of the dangerous times they’re living in. Just as the people in Noah’s day, they will be ignoring the warning messages and rejecting God’s righteous ways Noah, the prophet of God, was very likely mocked and ridiculed for preaching “righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5). The Bible reveals that in the end time, prior to Christ’s return, people will also ignore warnings to repent. As Peter notes, “Scoffers will come in the last days, … saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming?’” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
Noah preached for 120 years while he built the arch. Eventually only 8 people made it into the arch. THOSE WHO WERE IN THE ARCH WERE SAVED FROM THE WRATH OF GOD. This was not Noah’s idea. It was God’s master plan to destroy wickedness on this earth and to start over again. “I will destroy them with the earth”.
Egypt was the Empire that ruled the known world at this time. Egypt called the shots in this world. Without understanding what God did with Egypt, you will not understand the bowl judgments, the last 7 judgments that will come upon this whole earth, known as the wrath or judgments of God.
Like Egypt enslaved God’s covenant people, so has every world empire enslaved God’s people. The last Empire on God’s calendar was and is the Roman Empire. While today, this empire is fractured, it will COME BACK TO FULL POWER under ONE MIGHTY RULER, THE ANTICHRIST. By the time the bowl judgments will come upon this earth this REVIVED ROMAN EMPIRE WILL BE IN FULL CONTROL OF ALL HUMANITY.
And Pharaoh said, “WHO IS THE LORD, THAT I SHOULD OBEY HIS VOICE TO LET ISRAEL GO? I DO NOT KNOW THE LORD, NOR WILL I LET ISRAEL GO.” Wrong thing to say to God Almighty who made the heavens and the earth and who is the owner of His own creation. But the rulers of this world have not learned anything yet. The final ruler of this world, before Jesus Christ will set up His kingdom here, will act exactly the same way. Look at the plagues God brought upon this nation Egypt. Four of the seven judgments of Revelation are copies of the plagues Egypt had to endure. They were literal plagues in Egypt and they will be literal judgments when God will pour his wrath upon this world.
LET MY PEOPLE GO. The final judgment upon this earth is carried out by God to set His people free, to set his entire creation free.
The first time he did use WATER.
The next time he will use FIRE.

The Day of The Lord

Last week during my sermon I mentioned briefly that God Almighty is in the remodeling business and that the earth will not be entirely burned up as is commonly taught in churches here in America. I am familiar with many of these teachings and yet, the more I study the Bible in its contextual format as well as studying the meaning of the original language, I have found way too many verses in the Bible that challenge such teachings.
The context of 2 Peter chapter 2 deals with the fact that the Word of God is always trustworthy, if we understand and apply the truth that SCRIPTURE MUST BE INTERPRETED WITH SCRIPTURE.
The Day of the Lord, the time when Jesus Christ will come back to this earth, which will be A TIME OF RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS. I don’t think Peter is contradicting himself, period. Acts 3:20-21 and 2 Peter 3:10 must be interpreted in the same context.
Listen, it was no accident that Jesus was a carpenter. Carpenters make things and fix things. The Carpenter from Nazareth MADE THE UNIVERSE, and He is going TO FIX IT. God is the ultimate salvage artist. And what He restores will be far better than the ORIGINAL.

The Most Important Question

WHY DOES GOD ALMIGHTY, THE ONE WHO WANTS THAT NO HUMAN BEING PERISHES BUT THAT ALL COME TO REPENTANCE, pour His wrath upon this earth.
While this question is not the most important one we can ask, it is none the less a crucial one. Isn’t God loving, caring, forgiving, merciful and gracious? Yes, He certainly is; but he also is pure, holy, righteous, and just.
This most important question: WHO DO YOU SAY THAT I AM? Will put every human being on the spot. Now and especially during the tribulation period when the world ruler together with the world religious leader will demand that we proclaim that they are the savior of the world, those who say that they are FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST must deny to worship anyone else and PROCLAIM WITHOUT HESITATION LIKE THE APOSTLE PETER DID:
YOU ARE THE CHRIST, THE SON OF THE LIVING GOD.

The Seven Divine Proclamations

This chapter is a the chain-link that connects the events of the middle of the tribulation, the details we found in Revelation 10-13, and the events of the second half of the tribulation period, the details we will find in chapter 15-16.
The main theme was the COUNTERFEIT TRINITY that is coming unto the world stage with the purpose to usurp God’s authority and to persecute and kill those who refuse to bow down to this NEW WORLD RELIGION. It will be the born-again believers, the true followers of Jesus Christ that will refuse to worship the image of the beast and the antichrist.
Revelation 14:9-12 deals with the people who take the mark of the beast. None of those who do so have a second chance to receive salvation from the Lord. God already gave them the chances they needed. They had the 144,000 Jewish evangelist preaching the gospel during the first half of the Tribulation period and then the angel proclaimed it the everlasting Gospel one more time. This was the last chance.
IN OTHER WORDS, THE OPPORTUNITY OF SALVATION WILL BE AVAILABLE TO ALL AS LONG AS THEY ARE WITHOUT THE MARK OF THE BEAST. Once the mark is taken, signifying the acceptance of the Antichrist AS THE ONE TRUE GOD, they reached the point of no return.

A Glimpse of Hope

There are times when troubles just seem to pile up. It is during those times that we need some relief. We need to know that everything will turn out all right. In other words, no matter how spiritual, how mature, how long we have been saved, we need ASSURANCE that a brighter day is coming.
When we hear what is going on in our world right now, we can easily be overwhelmed by all the bad news that which are relentlessly coming our way every day. It is during those days that IT IS VERY EASY TO LOSE THE SIGHT OF THE PROMISES OF VICTORY GOD HAS GIVEN US AND ASSURED US IN HIS BOOK, THE BIBLE.
Throughout the book of Revelation, John heard many voices, voices from individual angels, voices from the four living creatures, the voices from the 24 elders before the throne of God, the voices of the innumerable angelic beings, the voices of the 7 angels who hold the seven trumpets. Now finally, here in chapter 14, John hears the voice of Jesus once again. A glimpse of hope.