FBC Morning Light – December 7, 2022

Well, a good Wednesday morning to you. Hope your week is going well thus far. You're halfway through the work week, just about, anyway.

And I trust the Lord is blessing you in your labors for Him. Well, today we're,

I want to point out a few things from the book of Revelation, chapter 9. And, you know, on the one hand,

I kind of hesitant to do so, because after all, this is the Christmas season and, you know, everything's supposed to be warm and fuzzy and feel good and all that kind of thing.

But when you come to Revelation 9, there's not much warm and fuzzy in this chapter.

In fact, in verses 5 and 6, one of the things we see is that a very serious expression of divine wrath is that God allows the sting of death to afflict people.

You know, the pain and the anguish and so on that go along with the suffering of death.

He allows people to experience this without the relief that comes from death.

You see, we read this in verses 5 and 6. In verse 6, it says, In those days men will seek death and will not find it.

They will desire to die and death will flee from them. Yeah, I suppose from on this side of the experience of death, it's far worse not to experience the relief of it than to keep going through the anguish and the agony and the pain that would lead to it.

Nevertheless, this chapter goes on later on in talking about pestilence that is sent out upon the earth, and a third of mankind is plagued by this and dies.

Verse 18, for example, says, By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which came out of the mouth of these creatures.

Again, this is a very figurative, symbolic language, but the point is, think about this.

You know, we've gone through that COVID pandemic with a tremendous loss of life caused by this disease, but nowhere near a third of mankind.

Imagine the devastation of the planet. Imagine how people would respond with one out of three people being taken in some kind of pestilence.

Now, where this all is leading in Revelation 9 is to this sad reality that what is so often the case that even in the face of widespread devastation, such as COVID outbreak, for example, that that doesn't correlate to a widespread experience of repentance and turning to the

Lord. So look at verses 20 and 21. It says, But the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues, they did not repent of the works of their hands, that they should not worship demons and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk, and they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

You get the significance of that? I mean, think about the devastation that has been inflicted upon the planet is recorded in this prophecy, and yet people refuse to repent.

I would suggest that's not unusual. In fact, that's pretty much the norm, that even though God sends affliction,

God sends devastation, people still carry on in their idolatry, their various forms of idolatry.

You know, maybe we're more sophisticated with our idolatry in this day and age than a couple thousand years ago in pagan lands, but nevertheless, persisting in idolatry and persisting in sin.

It speaks in verse 21 of their murders, their sorceries, their sexual immoralities, their thefts.

You know, it seems with too many people, it doesn't matter what they suffer, they will not, they will not turn to the

Lord, and they will persist in their iniquity. This is a great judgment.

The only remedy for such a thing, for such an outcome, is God graciously granting revival, and he has done so in various times in the history of the church.

In our nation, we've had a couple of experiences of great awakenings, but it's been a long time since such has been the case, and we are ripe for another one.

We need another great awakening. Apart from that, though, apart from God graciously intervening and men turning in mass in repentance to Christ and trusting in him, if God doesn't grant that grace, then what typically happens, we can expect to happen yet again.

Devastation will come, and it will be painful, it will be agonizing, and yet even in the face of it, people will not, they will not turn to him.

Pray that that isn't the case. Pray that God, by his grace, would send yet another awakening to our land, that sinners would be converted, and saints would trust in him.

Let's pray. Our Father and our God, we are grateful today that we can trust in you, we can plead with you for mercy and for grace, for an outpouring of your

Spirit to bring yet another awakening. And yet, Father, we also trust you to do what is right, what is best, and if you see fit to send forth some great pain and anguish and devastation that would that would be just, we would honor and glorify you even in that.

We trust you, our Father. Bless these thoughts, we pray to our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.