Letters to the Churches Part 9

Let's pray and then we will get into our Bible study today. From Psalm 119 we pray let my cry come to you. Oh Lord. Give me understanding according to your word. Let my plea come before you deliver me according to your word.

My lips will pour forth praise for you teach me your statutes. My tongue will sing of your word for all your commandments are right. Let your hand be ready to help me for I have chosen your precepts. I long for your salvation.

Oh Lord in your law is my delight. Let my soul live and praise you and let your rules help me. I have gone astray like a lost sheep seek your servant for I do not forget your commandments in Jesus name.

We pray. Amen. Okay, as Is our custom we always open it up for questions? Which basically means that whatever prepared Bible study that I have there's a risk. We won't get to it and that's okay. We've had some amazing Bible studies on the fly, which I think is a lot of fun.

So it's with that in mind that I'm now going to check the chat window. I'm looking to see if Bruce Burns is here whether or not we're gonna be derailed really severely. Good morning is the sound on yet?

I think it is y 'all can hear me because I think Stephen Elliot. Yeah, then there's Luis and Bill good to see you guys. No sound yet. Yeah, they said okay good. All right. Thank you. All right. So, all right any questions about the sermon?

Judah’s Idolatry and the Pattern of Divine Judgment

Yeah preached on Isaiah 64 that interesting prayer of judgment. Which when you had to consider it here, it has some very amazing gospel themes in it. But all that being said we've been working our way through the book of Revelation and there's something I want to show you from the Old Testament before we Start getting into the trumpets if you would and in the book of Jeremiah chapter 15.

Jeremiah.

15 15 I'm having a speech impediment today. Apparently it just came on suddenly. Jeremiah 15 Yahweh said to me though Moses and Samuel stood before me yet My heart would not turn toward this people send them out of my sight and let them go.

God's a More than a little bit annoyed with Judah at this point and Jeremiah is the prophet that God sends immediately before Judah is sacked by Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian army and Then sent into exile and we cannot under Underplay the amount of devastation that they that God inflicted on them nine in ten People living in Judah at that time died in Nebuchadnezzar's campaign only one-tenth of them survived so when you think of like Daniel Shadrach Meshach and Abednego when you think of Esther and Mordecai these people lost Countless numbers of relatives in the campaign of Nebuchadnezzar and why is God angry with Judah.

Well Judah here in the Old Testament is a type and shadow if you would of the great apostasy before the return of Christ and. And so you see that Judah has gone deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into flat-out rank idolatry and it the idolatry of Judah at this time is so perverse that If you really want to get an idea of just how far off the rails they've gone that in Solomon's temple.

They had erected little grottos inside of the temple and erected pagan Sanctuaries inside of Solomon's temple also as part of the temple complex itself. They had set up temple prostitution both of homosexual and heterosexual stripe.

I mean I years ago I kind of quipped, you know, how did that Church Council meeting go? You know, I have a great idea here at the temple. I think we should set up a brothel. You know, what do you guys think?

You know it in and in the people that they're around the table at the Church Council meeting said yeah I think that's a great idea. Let's set up a brothel. I mean just that's just how wicked things have gone and You'll note that one of the themes you see it in Isaiah.

You see it in Jeremiah is That God has continued to send prophet after prophet after prophet calling them to repent and now things have gotten to the point where God is just done he's He's at this point his anger and his wrath are kindled and he's done with him.

We're he's absolutely done and he makes this horrifying statement though Moses and Samuel were to stand before me yet. My heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight and let them go and when they ask you where shall we go?

You shall say to them thus says Yahweh. Those who are for pestilence to pestilence to those who are for the sword to the sword. For those who are for famine to famine for those who are captivity to captivity.

Now you're gonna see a similar statement coming up in the book of Revelation and it's stated about Christians you have to pay attention to this when God speaks in these ways because God has determined particular things and Then you'll note verse 3.

I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers declares Yahweh the sword to kill. The dogs to tear the birds of the air and the beast of the earth to devour and destroy and I will make them a horror to all of the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah the king Of Judah did in Jerusalem and here's the part I really want us to focus in on.

I will appoint for them four kinds of destroyers. Now if you remember when we looked in the the opening of the seals in the book of Revelation. There was there were four particular seals that I kept emphasizing were if you would.

Kind of the status quo. God has sent these things on the earth war pestilence famine. Things of this nature and in as we get to the trumpets and blowing of the trumpets of God. You're going to note the same pattern is going to be Repeated there's four types of destroyers that God has appointed during the period from Christ's ascension Until his return and glory on the last day and these are things that Continue to plague planet earth.

So the first four that we saw in the seals That's an incomplete number because there's like four more and so think of these in in kind of the Jeremiah 15 -3 way of thinking I'm gonna point over them four kinds of destroyers.

That's that'll help you kind of frame this because you can see that God follows a very consistent pattern here. In fact, you cannot understand the book of Revelation unless you have a very firm grasp of How the Old Testament works and how the types and shadows work and really know your Old Testament.

The Trumpets in Revelation 8 and the Four Destroyers

So we're back here. I'm gonna back up into the context in Revelation 8 when the Lamb opened the seventh seal there was silence in heaven for about a half of an hour and this is the big pause between The first vision of the seals and then the vision of the trumpets.

Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God. Seven trumpets were given to them and another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer. He was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne.

Couple weeks ago when we when I read this out I made a big to-do about the fact that our prayers are twice here already in the book of Revelation. Mentioned they're gathered up in bowls. They come before God.

Don't let that detail slip by you prayer is vital.

Its.

Major important. It is not a small thing. It is a big thing. So the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the Saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. Then the angel took the censer filled it with fire from the altar threw it on the earth and there were peals of thunder rumblings flashes of lightning and.

Earthquakes.

Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them the first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire. Mixed with blood and these were thrown upon the earth and a third of the earth was burned up a third of the trees were Burned up and all green grass was burned up.

Now a simple way to understand what this is referring to is What happened in the summer in on the west coast? Fire. All right, or as Chaka would say a kiata Sorry land of the lost original one reference here with the Sleaze Axe never never mind.

Yeah tough crowd today tough crowd. Anyway, so. So the when Barb and I in the early part of the fall this year traveled to to Prescott, Arizona. We went straight down to Texas and then traveled to New York.

Shot across Texas through New Mexico on into Arizona. One of the things that was really discouraging for me as a photographer was just The sheer amount of smoke and haze and it's this ugly putrid orangish.

Look that stuff and and it was coming in from California. But there were there were forest fires in California in Colorado, you know all up and down the west coast. It was just horrible. In fact, if you remember I remember reading a story that the smoke from the fires from the west coast.

They they tracked it. It traveled all the way across the Atlantic and they were having haze in France In in the evenings as a result of the smoke that had traveled all the way from California across the globe.

So the idea here is is that in the in-between time from Christ's ascension until his return? You're going to see natural disasters and fires and things like this being a part of what's going on. So when you see a major forest fire.

When you hear that California is once again burned down because of the Santa Ana winds and arsonists. Think of it as if you would one of the fulfillments of what's being talked about here. That's that's the idea second angel blew his trumpet something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea and The third of the sea became blood and so this is a this is really talking about the Disasters that you see happening on the oceans the third of the living creatures in the sea died a third of the ships were destroyed so you'll note that as as we experience well extinctions of Whales and sea creatures and things like this and then think of all of the all of the major shipping Catastrophes that we have the Titanic would fit into this category.

It's part of this ongoing this one of the destroyers that God has established in the in-between time to to if you would remind us that That sinful humanity needs to repent that they are under the wrath of God that these and you'll note that these things come with.

Like unexpected they just come out of nowhere and yet having been on planet Earth for 52 years now I can say that they happen with enough frequency. That that we note we should note these things we should pay attention to that.

This is one of these destroyers if you if you would third angel blew his trumpet. Great star from health fell from heaven blazing like a torch. It fell on a third of the rivers on the springs of water.

The name of the star is Wormwood. Third of the waters became Wormwood and many people died from water because it had been made bitter. I I think I think a good way to think about this is just. Well, let me ask you this you guys.

Would any of you eat any of the catfish caught because they're caught in the Red River in the north. Would any of you eat that catfish? Only for people from Missouri, right? Yeah, so you'll note then this this idea of it becoming bitter.

This is this is a polluting of fresh water sources and it's a major problem and you'll note. This is something that we have to be vigilant vigilant vigilant. And what is that vigilant? We have to be vigilant against you know as we conserve and Steward the things that God has given us fresh water being one of them.

And so you think of all of the polluted waters and and things of this this is again. This is a description of what life is like here on planet Earth when I was a kid growing up when I would go to camp I Would go to camps up in the Sierra Nevadas or the near the Oregon border and back in those days.

You could actually drink from freshwater springs and it was not an issue at today. You can't the places where I was would camp and hike and things as a kid. You can't drink from those those those those streams anymore.

You're gonna get Giardia or some kind of sickness in your stomach and that that's that's not a fun thing to have to deal with. So but you know again, this is fascinating how all of these things that become polluted and then talking about the things on the oceans.

Back when Barb and I graduated from high school. One of the things that our parents did is that they gave us a a wonderful Graduation present and was a whole group of us from our school. We went on a cruise down in the In the in the Caribbean and it was a lot of fun.

One of the places we went to was st Martin, of course, you know, we the package that we got we got the cheapest rooms ever. I mean we did we had no porthole. We had no concept of night and day. It was just nuts.

Anyway, so we were in st. Martin. One of the things I loved to do was to go snorkeling. I didn't scuba dive so I went so I went on a pack at one on one of those tours and they took us to this beautiful reef and I went snorkeling in this reef and it just stood out to me because of the coral columns they were like 30 40 feet high and Swimming between them and just the the fish and everything like that was just an amazing Adventure and then years a year years ago, maybe you know 15 years later Barb and I went on a cruise and we were on the same island and I asked if I could you know if there was a if there was any way to go back to that coral reef for the purpose of Going snorkeling and they said no that reef is closed because it died the whole reef died.

It's like what?

The whole reef it was one of the most spectacular things I've ever experienced or done and. And now there's no there's nothing there anymore except for these dead coral. It's just weird when you think about it.

So again that we're interpreting this in light of Jeremiah 15 I will point over them four kinds of destroyers. Alright, so this is this is a picture of that. This is what God's doing following that same that same Concept here.

So we've got four angels for destroyers. These are things that are present on planet Earth now. They have been you know from time immemorial during the time of Christ's Ascension until his return and now things are going to take a Very interesting turn one that's going to require us to spend a little bit of time doing some cross-reference work.

Verse 13.

Oh.

Wait, that fourth angel blew his trumpet. Third of the Sun was struck third of the moon and third of the stars. So the third of their light might be darkened now. This is an event that we haven't yet to see here.

All right.

Third of the night might be kept from shining. Likewise a third of the third of the night. So you'll note that when popular Evangelical books that deal with the end of the world, you know in the past few years There's been the the four blood moons book by by Hagee.

It's all garbage. It's nonsense. Okay. This is not describing Celestial phenomena that we can predict and has been happening since the creation, you know, for instance we can predict lunar eclipses. We can predict Solar eclipses.

This is not what this is talking about and a blood moon is just a lunar eclipse. And so this is not what this is talking about. Well, this is you know, and this is one of those themes that you you can see Christ talking about it.

You can see here see the the Apostle John talking about this very clearly that in the days coming before the return of Christ There are going to be celestial events that will cause Huge dread on planet Earth.

So this fourth destroyer here. We have yet to see it and All I can say is stay tuned buckle up, you know it when this shows up.

I.

Assure you things are gonna get nuts. Now the next part. So then I looked at an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew overhead.

Whoa, whoa.

Whoa to those who dwell on the earth at the blast of the other trumpets. And the three angels are about to blow. And here comes the fun part.

Okay.

Tough to Interpret but when you kind of see how this works You you can't unsee it and that's a nice part. So the fifth angel blew his trumpet and I saw a star Fallen from heaven to earth and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit.

He opened the shaft of the bodies bottomless pit and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace and The Sun and the air were darkened with smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth and they were given power like the power of scorpions on the earth.

They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree. But only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months.

But not to kill them and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will Seek death and not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

Now the appearance of the locusts were like horses prepared for battle on their heads. Were what looked like crowns of gold? Their faces were like human faces their hair like women's hair their teeth like lion's teeth.

They had breast plates like the breastplates of iron and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots. With horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions. Their power to hurt for five months is in their tails.

And they have as a king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon and in Greek is called Apollyon. Now let's talk about what's going on here because this is a wild picture if you would and The key to unraveling this picture is in the last part.

They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. Well, let me just ask you if you were to take a guess. Who do you think the angel of the bottomless pit is? Satan that's right. Yeah, but you have to say it like Dana Carvey.

Could it be Satan? All right. Yes, it's Satan. Absolutely Satan. So what is this a picture of and here's where we got to remember one of the major things about the book of Revelation. These are word pictures.

All right, these are paintings with words and and one of the things you'll note that.

And with some.

Classically good paintings always have certain symbols in them or things like that that are put paint put into the painting. And so, you know when you study that, you know, the works of Da Vinci and Michelangelo and others.

Or, you know, you know you you can see that there's obvious imagery symbology that's put into these Paintings. You have to think of it this way. This is a painting with words and you kind of have to crack it open.

So the first crack and cracking it open then is identifying who their king is. Their king is who. It's Satan. That's who he is. That's what we're talking about here. Now, let me give you another text that I think is going to be really helpful in this regard and One that we've looked at a couple of times along the way as we've been looking at the book of Revelation.

But one worth considering again now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and are being gathered together to him. We ask you brothers not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed either by a spirit or a spoken word.

Or a letter seeming to be from us to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. So you'll know even in the Apostle Paul's day there were people who were forging letters and saying this was a letter from Paul and using his name for the purpose of passing on false doctrine and Teaching that horrible doctrine called you've been left behind.

Okay.

So the original left behind series was a False letter that the Apostle Paul didn't write but somebody put his name on it. All right. So let no one deceive you in any way. That day will not come unless The rebellion comes first.

I keep pointing it out and I'm going to continue to point it out. The word for rebellion is.

Apostasy.

So if you've ever heard or read in church history Conversations or articles or theological treatises related to what is called the great Apostasy that is what this is referring to. So the idea is is that there's a little mini apostasies along the way within Christian within Christian history.

But the apostasies like birth pangs grow in Intensity and scope and magnitude the closer we get to the return of Christ. So the the days immediately before the return of Christ are not days of Fidelity to the Word of God.

They are days of rebellion against the Word of God and rebellion against Christ.

Full-blown.

Rejecting of the authority of Scripture within the church. And so you get if you get a flavor for what this is like in all of the different aberrant groups that are out there from the liberal forms of Christianity that deny Miracles deny that Christ rose from the dead.

Basically turn the Bible into Aesop's fables for to the wingnut wacker doodlism of the NAR where they have modern-day Apostles decreeing and declaring and commanding and all this kind of stuff. And I you know, I I would just again point to somebody as bizarrely and obviously Demonized as Kenneth Copeland.

I mean that guy continues to put his foot in his mouth. So back in March, he he declared kovat 19 to be over he commanded and controlled Kovat 19.

Yeah, I blow the wind of God on you anyone.

You know a lot of good that did right? Just two weeks ago. There was a video making the rounds where using that same formula there were people in his church and Kenneth Copeland had people putting their hands on their head if they if they're experiencing male pattern baldness and he was commanding their hair to grow and I'm basically saying do you not understand that this false doctrine comes with a huge price?

First Kenneth Copeland expects you to buy him a new private jet to be taught these things and secondly, you're gonna end up in hell. All right, but the idea here is is there's a growing rebellion growing apostasy and it's not outside the churches within the visible confines of the church.

But that day will not come unless the rebellion comes first and then the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction. This is the one who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called God or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of God and this is not referring to a rebuilt Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem the temple of God and Pauline theology is the church so what we are expecting then here is if you would the the ultimate not the penultimate but the ultimate expression of the man of lawlessness as a man who comes up as a churchman and He is a miracle worker.

He can perform signs and wonders even calling down fire from heaven Exalting himself and claiming to be God and Doing so within the context of the Christian Church and a large number vast number of countless multitudes within the visible Christendom go yeah, that guy's my God and the thing is the scripture warned us ahead of time and Paul says do you not remember that when I was still with you?

I told you these things and then here's the part and you now know What is restraining him so that he may be revealed in his time? And this is the part that's really vague. So when you read the commentaries on this portion Everybody notes that Paul is referring to the fact that there is some type of a restraint put on the devil and He will not be unrestrained until Sometime in the days immediately before the return of Christ and When the restraints come off the best way to describe what is going to happen is all hell is going to break loose and That's the picture that we get in our text here in Revelation chapter 9.

And so when you go back Interpreted then through Thessalonians second Thessalonians to the fifth angel blew his trumpet. I saw a star fallen from heaven. Oh how you have fallen from heaven day star, you know son of the dawn, right?

This is this is a picture of what this is. So we got the devil himself. He's this fallen star and What does he what does he do? He has the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. This is a picture of when the devil all the restraints are lifted.

He's given the key to the bottomless pit. And what does he do? He opens the door and what comes out the demons and they're given the ability to torment people for a Short amount of time and you'll note they're described as locusts.

What do locusts do locusts eat up all the green leafy stuff. All right. So we're basically going to come to a time When the world and I would even say the church is so overrun By the demonic that they're going to basically eat up all the green leafy bits of sound doctrine that there is out there and Their teachings are going to torment people.

This is a psychological torment rather than having the peace that comes from the gospel You get the torment the uncertainty the lunacy the mad ravings and being driven by the demonic Stuff that comes along when it's replaced with with doctrines of demons.

So the idea here is is that as we get closer to the return of Christ? There is a season where well, like I said all Hell breaks loose. And so what we're looking at here then is a picture of that the restraints coming off the devil the demon hordes that have been bound in the bottomless pit coming out and Wreaking havoc on humanity and the church and It's just a frightening picture.

That's what we're looking at here The removing of the restraints and the devil Basically having free reign to do what he wants to do For a season, but the food supply on planet Earth is not allowed to be touched.

All right. So the first woe has passed behold two woes are still to come now. Let me quick check questions before make sure I don't go too far.

Okay.

Diane says I've heard that the word Chernobyl translates to Wormwood. Is that true? I have no idea. I don't a Sprechen see Russian so. Yet, I don't know. That's not the way to say it is it. Never mind, okay.

Okay.

Leviticus 26 God says seven times punishment for a disobeying his covenant. Uh-huh, and if ye will not yet for this this all hearkened to me I will punish you seven times more for your sins. Yeah, look that Elizabeth great point.

So in Leviticus 26, you kind of see the same pattern. So here we got seven seals. Seven trumpets these are judgments if you would and so God punishing humanity for continuing to persist in their sin and rebellion against God and of course throw in the Leviticus the Jeremiah text from 15 for Tormentors I've sent there's patterns here that repeat and that's what we're seeing here.

And then you're going to notice also. There when we go back now into the Old Testament. Into the book of Exodus during the the the ten plagues that God sent on Egypt one of the plagues was what? Locusts, so you start to see kind of themes that are related now as we're moving forward.

You're gonna begin to pick up pieces that say you go. This sounds a lot like What we saw in the ten plagues and and there's a reason why you should do that. So Elizabeth I'm gonna I see your Leviticus 26 and I'm gonna add to it the book of Exodus in the 10 plagues.

But again, these are the repeating patterns of God's judgment and you can see this. All right verse 13. The sixth angel blew his trumpet. I heard a voice from the four corners of the golden altar before God saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet.

Released the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. So the four angels who had been prepared for the hour the day the month and the year. They were released to kill a third of mankind.

Okay, the number of the mounted troops was twice ten. Thousand times ten thousand. I don't do math, but that lot sounds like a big number. Yeah, it's a huge number. I heard their number and this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them.

They were breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire and of sulfur and the heads of the horses were like lion's heads the fire. And the smoke and the sulfur came out of their mouths. By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed by the fire the smoke and the sulfur coming from their mouths.

For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails. For their tails are like serpents with heads and by means of them they wound. So this is if you would a picture of like humanity falling by Warfare and armies and things like this.

It's just again. This is horrible Nasty picture so the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues. Listen to these words did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and which Cannot see or hear a walk nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.

Yes, Marilyn well.

Yeah.

Yeah.

III don't know. That's a good question. Could it be COVID? I think COVID is pictured. It's part of the it's part of what's described here in the pestilences and things like this. So we're taking a kind of a holistic approach.

All right all of these calamities that we see happening here on planet Earth in our lifetime and in In the 52 years that I've been alive. There seems to be a ratcheting up of these calamities. You know, I'm you know, I am so looking forward to the end of the global pandemic.

But I I just wonder if the politicians are gonna allow it to end, you know. Just I just wonder sometimes, you know, I think back to the fellow who asked his doctor, you know, doc. When do you think the the pandemics gonna be over?

He said I'm a doctor not a politician. I have no idea. Yeah, so.

It's like yeah.

Okay, so that that's we we have that we we did some fact-checking. Snope checked it out. Okay, so Chernobyl according in Ukrainian languages translates to Wyrmwood.

And.

Chernobyl technically fits into this kind of idea of a whole region being embittered and you know made this Completely polluted by radiation. This is part of the ongoing plagues. Now. Here's the thing one of the things I am marveling at and it's in the context of what we just read of.

You know the rest of mankind who were killed by these plagues did not repent of their works or their hands or give up worshiping.

Demons.

Have you seen a great movement on planet Earth to repent of sins and Humble ourselves and call on God to relieve us of the pandemic of kovat. Not at all. Okay, and in the charismatic in our churches Every single one of their prophets have fallen on their faces.

Multiple times this year have they repented of their sorceries of their false deities? Doctrines and not at all. It's it's just staggering to me, you know that somebody who yeah, I'll give you an example.

We there's a lady by the name of Cindy Jacobs and Cindy Jacobs was one of the early So-called apostles on the scene when kovat started. Really, you know. It looked like we were gonna be going into you know lockdowns and things like this.

She held a church service and She in her prophetic office declared Covid to be illegal and commanded it to go. How'd that work out?

Okay.

She also prophesied that Donald Trump would win re-election. How'd that work out?

It didn't.

Right, and so these people Constantly are falling on their faces. 2021 has proven that they do not hear the voice of God yet. They all still are prophesying and Offering up words and and you know as we get closer to the end of 2020 You can see that they're already Starting to create anticipation for the end of the year when they're going to be releasing their prophetic words for the year 2021 and.

It's like.

Who is.

So boneheaded to think they're hearing the voice of God. After every voice of every prophecy they gave in the course of a year turned out to be false. Well this time I'm really gonna hear God's voice.

Okay.

So you'll note that you know kovat kind of fits in this pattern where There's people who've legitimately died. It's affected the entire globe and People have been shown to be Blasphemers of God and have they repented?

No.