Participants: Pr. Jac Colon
Series Code: RN
Program Code: RN000003
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01:04 Oh! Lord once again, we gather into this place expecting to
01:12 hear your word expecting to hear your voice speaking to our 01:21 soul. Lord we want to find answers to some of the deepest 01:27 most painful questions that men and women can ever ask. Please 01:30 give us those answers this evening. As we look at the 01:37 dragon and the woman of Revelation chapter 12, 01:41 we ask in Jesus name, amen. 01:50 Last August 14th, it was just 3 weeks 02:08 before our 27th wedding anniversary, 6 days before 02:12 Dina's birthday, 5 days before my birthday, 4 days 02:18 before we would be leaving on a vacation, we've been looking 02:22 forward to for a long time. I had 2 frequent flyer tickets to 02:28 the Caribbean Cozumel, Mexico and my father in law owns it. 02:33 Time share and they weren't using it last year so they let 02:38 us have it and we have a whole week in luxury motel in Cozumel 02:42 Mexico. A dream vacation, we're both avid scuba divers 02:46 and we were just going to dive and dive and have a great 02:50 time. We were sitting in the doctor's office 02:55 just for a routine visit I was sitting in the doctor's 02:56 before we rushed out and went to pick up our dive equipment 03:05 from the dive shop and the doctor came in, shook his head 03:14 said, I'm sorry, I was wrong, Dina has cancer, I couldn't 03:31 believe it. I sat there stunned Vacation, dream vacation, it 03:45 didn't even matter anymore; it's gone, but even worse. We 03:54 were getting regular leave in three weeks for Bozeman, 04:03 Montana for our next revelation now meeting. We've been doing 04:04 Revelation Now together for 27 years almost 28. 04:09 I asked the doctor, what about it? She can't go! No way! 04:27 The next day we took off for the mountains, 04:30 went to Mount Rainier, that's Dina's favorite place. 04:34 She loves that mountain. We just needed to get away, 04:38 we needed to able to think, to talk, to decide 04:44 what are we going to do? 04:45 One of the things I needed to process was the question, why? 04:57 We've given almost 28 years of our lives to God and to His work 05:03 living on road, living out of suitcases, 7 months out of the 05:05 year in an RV or motel or a jungle hut, this is what we get? 05:13 Why? We follow the instructions in the ask the pastor friends 05:27 and couple of church leaders to come over to 05:30 our house and pray and anoint her with oil just like the Bible 05:33 say we did. Couple of days later we went back to the 05:41 doctor and was even worse. It spread to her bones, so wide 05:47 spread they couldn't do chemo, radiation, wouldn't work. 05:56 Why? Unfortunately, they did find a new drug that worked 06:06 some of time and just a couple of months ago after her first 06:10 round to treatment we found that it was working and 06:12 hopefully they plan contain the cancer and it won't spread and 06:17 fortunately she have a lot of symptoms, no pain, no hair loss 06:22 and we thank God that and thankfully she's here, me now. 06:29 And we want to do a lot more Revelation Now meetings for 06:37 God, but why? Can you imagine how young Cassie Bernall's 06:45 parents must have felt? April 20, 1999 when they kissed their 06:51 teenage daughter goodbye, send her an off for a day at high 06:57 school she had a little What Would Jesus Do bracelet on that 07:02 she always wore. She even had her Bible with her 07:04 She always took it to school, looking for an opportunity 07:08 to share her faith. 07:09 So, she left to go to school, Columbine High School and lived 07:15 in Colorado. Two teenage boys confronted her in library. Do 07:19 you believe in Jesus? Yes, Jesus is my Lord and savior and 07:23 they blew their brains out. Why? Oh, why? If God is a God 07:31 love why didn't he stopped it? could have? Couldn't he? 07:38 He could have. 07:43 What kind of a world are we living in today? 07:46 Bombs, terrorism, anthrax, gas, Middle East fighting all the 07:57 time and they sign a treaty, before the inks dry 08:00 they are fighting again. 08:01 What kind of a world that we're living in parents strap a pack 08:05 of explosives on the back of a 08:07 four year old kid sending him to a building them and 08:09 everyone else Why? The Bible tells us, why? In Revelation 08:21 chapter 12:17 and the dragon was angry at the woman and 08:29 then, he went off to make war against the remnant of her 08:33 offspring those who obey God's Commandments and have the 08:37 testimony of Jesus. The for the heartache, the reason for the 08:39 testimony of Jesus. The violence, the reason for the 08:43 terrorism. The reason is because there is a battle 08:48 between the dragon and the woman raging in this world 08:52 today and notice the dragon is angry with those who obey God's 09:00 Commandments. That's you, if you're determined to be faithful 09:04 to God and as long as 09:07 the battle between the dragon and the woman rages, there will 09:11 be heartache and suffering in this whole world then, why 09:14 doesn't God stop it? He could, couldn't he? He can. Why 09:20 doesn't he? That's what we want to find out tonight. Revelation 09:27 12:1 read through it with me the first six verses. How great 09:29 and wonderful sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothe with the 09:34 sun, pictured in your mind. A woman clothed with the sun, the 09:39 moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She 09:42 was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give 09:46 birth and then, another sign appeared in heaven an enormous 09:51 red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on 09:54 his head so, here's this beautiful woman clothed with a 09:58 son and a red dragon appears in front of the woman. The Bible 10:03 says his tails swept the third of the stars out of the sky and 10:06 flung them down to the earth. The dragon stood in front of 10:09 the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour 10:12 her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, 10:15 a male child who will rule all the nations 10:20 with an iron scepter. 10:24 And the child was snatched up to God and to His thrown. Three 10:32 characters in this Prophecy, the dragon, the woman, and the 10:39 child. And we're going to identify them. I want to start 10:45 with the easiest one first. The easiest is the dragon. Who is 10:54 the dragon? Remember the book of Revelation we learn on the 10:57 first night is the symbolic book and the secret 10:59 understanding revelation is to learn how to interpret the 11:02 symbols but the only way you can safely interpret the symbol 11:05 and be sure that you're getting the interpretation that God 11:08 intended you to get is to let the Bible interpret itself, 11:12 remember? And how do you do it, by comparing Scripture with 11:16 scripture. Now I could tell you that the dragon is a symbol for 11:20 the devil and you could say yeah that sounds good to me or 11:24 you could say I don't believe that, it doesn't matter. 11:27 You don't don't have to believe what I say. 11:28 But let's compare a Scripture with the Scripture. 11:32 Let the Bible tell us what the dragon symbolizes. Just go down 11:34 to verse 9, it's right there same chapter, Revelation 12:9, 11:38 the Great Dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent 11:43 called the devil or Satan. And now you have to believe that 11:47 the dragon symbolizes the devil because that's what the Bible 11:48 says. You see when you let the Bible interpret the symbols. 11:54 It's simple and clear and sure, certain. Now that was an 11:59 easy one. Let's go to ones to a little more difficult. Who is 12:06 the son that the woman gave birth to? The reason that's a 12:11 little more difficult is because I believe that the son is Jesus. 12:14 Again it's doesn't matter to you what I believe. 12:16 That's not what we're here for tonight. 12:18 There are others who say no, it cannot be Jesus 12:21 because it says that he rules the nations with an iron rod 12:25 and Jesus is a God of love and He would never rule with an 12:30 iron rod. Well then, who is the son? Is it Jesus or is it not? 12:37 Compare Scripture with Scripture or hold your place in 12:39 Revelation chapter 12 and just turn a few pages back towards 12:44 the back to the 19th chapter of Revelation 19:11, comparing 12:47 Scripture with Scripture. 12:49 Let the Bible interpret itself. Who is the son? 12:52 Revelation 19:11, 12:54 I saw a heaven standing open and there before me was a 12:59 white horse whose rider is called faithful and true. So 13:03 picture this, a rider riding through the sky on a white horse 13:05 what's his name, faithful and true. And noticed in verse 17, 13:10 in verse 16 it says that on his robe then on his thigh, he has 13:15 this named written King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Who is 13:20 that? That's Jesus. It cannot be anyone else. The rider on 13:22 the white horse has to be Jesus Christ, amen? Now watch 13:25 this? Verse 15, out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with 13:34 which to strike down the nations and he will rule them 13:41 with an iron scepter. Jesus does rule with an iron scepter. 13:49 So when we compare a Scripture with Scripture, we can let the 13:52 Bible interpret self. In fact, remember the other principle is 13:56 that book of Revelation quotes the Old Testament or alludes to 14:01 the Old Testament over how many times, over 600 times? And 14:06 here is one of those places where it says that he will rule 14:11 with an iron scepter and iron rod. 14:13 He's quoting the Old Testament and actually quoting Psalms 2. 14:16 I'm not going to read it tonight. 14:17 It's in printed copy. You can go home and study it. 14:20 Psalm chapter 2 where it is a Messianic Psalm, 14:24 a Psalm that sings about the Messiah when he would come 14:29 in the future and in Psalm chapter 2, 14:32 it says that when he comes, he will smash the nations 14:36 like an iron rod smashing a piece of pottery. We saw that 14:42 on the first night, remember? Symbolized by the stone that 14:46 comes and smashes the image symbolizing the nations of the 14:49 earth. And so again we have perfect harmony in the 14:56 scripture when we let the Bible interpret itself. There's 14:58 another identifying marks about this child. It is a son. Jesus 15:01 was a son, male child. And the Bible says that dragon tried 15:06 to devour that baby the moment it was born. Well you know 15:09 that story. The Bible tells us in the Gospel in Matthew that 15:13 when Jesus was born and King Herod of the Roman Empire 15:17 discovered that the Messiah was born, he issued a decree, all 15:20 baby boys under the age of two would be put to death. And so 15:23 there, he's trying to devour that child the moment he's 15:27 going the third identifying mark, he was snatched up to God 15:29 and to His Throne. Jesus was in fact caught up to God to his 15:34 Throne where he rules and reigns today, amen? No doubt 15:39 about it. When you compare a Scripture with Scripture then 15:42 we find the interpretation is true, it is sure. You can 15:46 believe that without any doubt, the dragon is the devil, the 15:51 son is Jesus Christ. Well that shouldn't surprise us because 15:55 remember, we learn the first principle to understanding 15:59 Revelation is that the Book of Revelation is the Revelation of 16:05 Jesus Christ. And he has to be the center of every one of 16:08 the prophecies. There he is in this one. Now let's go to the 16:11 third one. This one is the most complex. The most difficult to 16:17 understand and that is the woman. 16:19 Who is symbolized by the woman? 16:28 Let me just give you a clue. Right here in the very 16:35 chapter that we just reading, who is symbolized by the woman? 16:40 Watch this, verse 9, now get your minds to work, remember 16:45 compare a Scripture with Scripture, Book of Revelation 16:47 quotes the Old Testament over 600 times. Put it all together, 16:50 who is the woman? Verse 9 the great dragon was hurled down 16:59 that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan. Now tell me, 17:07 where in the Bible do you find the story about a woman and an 17:17 ancient serpent called the devil? Of course all the way 17:23 back to the beginning. In Genesis the second chapter, in 17:30 Genesis 2, the Bible tells us first of all that God created 17:31 this world. He created the man Adam and the woman Eve. 17:35 And he put them in the garden of Eden. And he told them, 17:39 plainly he told Adam you can eat the fruit from any of the 17:42 trees in this garden. You have your pick. You can have them 17:46 all. Eat all that you want but there's one tree right in the 17:50 middle of the garden, don't eat from that one. If you do, 17:54 you're going to die. Now the devil knew that. And so there 18:02 was Eve. In the third chapter verse two, standing under the 18:10 tree, looking up that big shiny apple or whatever it was. And 18:17 guess who appears? The serpent, the devil. Now we ought to ask 18:23 ourselves first of all what was she doing under the tree? 18:26 You see when God says to avoid something we should stay as far 18:33 away as we can. Don't play on the devil's turf. If she never 18:38 gone under tree, she wouldn't have eaten the fruit but there 18:43 she was under the tree and the old devil appears. 18:46 He knows how to get us in our weak moments 18:48 and the old devil is there and in verse two the devil says 18:52 did God tell you must not eat the fruit from the tree 18:55 in the middle of the garden or you'll die? 18:57 And the woman said yeah God said we shouldn't eat the 19:03 fruit and we'll die. And so those serpents said in verse 19:07 four, the serpent said you will not die. You wont die? God 19:20 knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be open and you 19:26 will be like God knowing good from evil. Eat it. You won't 19:31 die. Now she had to make a decision. She should have never 19:36 had to make and here's the decision, who was telling the 19:41 truth, God or the serpent? Go ahead and eat it. You won't die 19:49 God's lying. He's holding back from you because he knows that 19:58 if you eat that fruit then you will know good from evil 20:03 yourself. You will be like God. Your eyes will be opened. You 20:06 won't need God to tell you what is right and what is wrong. You 20:13 can decide for yourself, go and eat it. Now, watch this. I 20:15 want you to get what I'm talking about, what the Bible 20:19 is talking about here because this is deep and profound but 20:28 crucial for us to understand. You want to know about the 20:34 world today. Watch this. Verse 6, when the woman saw that the 20:41 fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes 20:48 and desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate 20:52 it. Now how did she decide that it was okay to eat the fruit 20:57 from that tree. She saw it, it was pleasing to the eye, it 21:06 seemed desirable to her. In other words, before that time 21:14 the way that she could tell if it was right or wrong to eat 21:19 the fruit was to simply believe what God said. In other words, 21:25 God's word was to standard to determine what is right from 21:31 what is wrong. But at that moment, we see a huge paradigm 21:39 shift instead of relying on God's word to decide what is 21:44 right and what is wrong. She relied on what she saw. She 21:49 relied on what she desired. She relied on what seemed right 21:59 to her. And the problem is, there what seems right is not 22:08 always the same as what is right. And if you can 22:10 understand what we're talking about right now, you can 22:13 begin to understand what's happening around us in the 22:19 world today. We have reached the place where among the 22:23 intelligencia and the thinking people. There is no longer a 22:26 right or wrong. But that which is best for that particular 22:33 moment or situation. Now, who is the woman In Genesis 3:15? 22:46 Adam and Eve had just both sinned, plunged the world 22:49 into the depths of sin and despair and then we see in 22:52 verse 15, God, I love this. Actually, 22:55 even before that in verse 9, God comes down. He had been 22:59 used to speaking with them, visiting with them one on one 23:01 Wouldn't you love to have been there? Meeting God 23:04 everyday in the cool of the evening? He comes down to 23:06 have this little appointment with them and they got scared 23:08 and they run and what does God do? He goes after them, He 23:11 says, Where are you? We run from Him, He runs after us. 23:16 Praise God. That's a good God that we have. Amen. Where are 23:23 you? He finds them. And then He is the first prophecy and first 23:27 promise in the Bible. In chapter 3:15, God said to the 23:32 serpent, I'll put enmity between you and the woman and 23:37 between your offspring and hers and he will crash your head and 23:39 you will strike his heel. That's the first prophecy in 23:43 the Bible. What was that all mean? He is speaking to the 23:46 serpent and He says to the woman, I'll put enmity between 23:51 you and the serpent and between your offspring and serpent and 23:54 her is speaking to serpent. I may have put enmity between you 23:56 and the woman and between your offspring and hers. Now, what 23:58 is he really is saying here, is he saying that it's going to 24:00 be a fight with all these little babies snakes running 24:02 around on the ground. No! 24:06 We know that, serpent was the devil, and the offspring 24:11 of the serpent? Those who choose to follow the devil 24:17 and seeing there be conflict between those who choose to 24:22 follow the devil and the offspring of the woman. Now, 24:23 who was the offspring of the woman? I'm going to show you 24:25 tomorrow, we'll finish this for I'm going to show you 24:27 without a doubt tomorrow the offspring of the woman is Jesus 24:32 Christ because the offspring of the woman gets a bruise on the 24:38 heel from the serpent. And Jesus received the bruise on the heel 24:43 when he died on the cross. But it was only bruise on the heel 24:48 because three days later, He was raised up again. Amen. 24:53 Ascended to heaven and the prophecy says, one day, He is 24:59 going to come back and crush the head of the serpent. Now 25:06 listen to me, all of the rest of the Bible from Genesis 3:15 25:16 to Revelation 22, all of the rest of the Bible is unpacking 25:26 and explaining this one prophecy about how is the seed 25:33 of the woman going to one day deliver the death blow to crush 25:39 the head of the serpent. All the rest of the Bible and 25:43 that's why when we get to Revelation 12:17, we see the 25:47 dragon at war with the remnant of the seed of the woman the 25:48 very last to God's people on this earth. Those who obeyed 25:50 Commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus 25:52 It's the final phase; revelation takes us to final 25:55 phase, the very end of this conflict between the dragon and 25:59 the woman. All the rest of the Bible unpacks that one prophecy 26:06 and do you want to know how the seed of the woman is going to 26:08 ultimately crush the head of the serpent? Do you want to 26:11 know how? He gives us a clue and a remarkable clue, right here 26:16 in the Same passage verse 21, remember when God saw Adam and 26:22 Eve they sensed they were naked and they ran and they got 26:24 some leaves to cover themselves because they were ashamed. 26:29 Verse 21, the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and 26:34 his wife and clothed them, where did he get that skin. You see, 26:41 for the first time on this beautiful planet, for the first 26:49 time in God's infinite universe innocent blood have to be shed 26:57 to cover a sinful human being. Does it sound familiar? How 27:05 will the seed of the woman deliver the death blow to the 27:10 head of the serpent? We'll see more about that tomorrow. Let's 27:15 go on tonight back to Revelation chapter 12 and 27:20 answer the question Where? Where does this battle begin? 27:24 Revelation 12:7, we find a surprise, there was war in 27:29 heaven. Imagine, man thinking that they can bring about peace 27:33 on earth when war actually began in heaven. There was war 27:37 in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the 27:38 dragon, the dragon and his angels fought back but he was 27:40 not strong enough. Praise God and they lost their place in 27:44 heaven and where did they go? Verse 9 says, The great dragon 27:49 was hurled down that ancient serpent called the devil and 27:52 Satan who lives the whole world astray. He was hurled to the 27:55 earth and his angels with him. His tails swept third of the 27:57 stars out of the sky and flung them down to the earth. Those 28:00 are the demon angels. Those are the bad angels that we talked 28:03 about last night. Remember, I said for every good angel there 28:07 is, for every bad angel that took good angels his tail only 28:09 got the third of the stars. Two thirds were left faithful to 28:13 God. That's why you don't need to be scared of the demons, the 28:16 bad angels. But now they were on the earth, the only way we 28:20 can really understand the book of Revelation is to understand 28:23 the real nature of this battle between the good angels and the 28:27 bad angels. What are they fighting over? What is the 28:34 issue there? Again, the secret is to compare scripture with 28:38 scripture. Let the Bible interpret itself over 600 times 28:41 of book of Revelation alludes to the Old Testament. Here's 28:45 another one, the dragon hurled down to the earth. Where do we 28:50 find that in the old testament? Isaiah chapter 14, the prophet 28:52 Isaiah says in verse 12, how you have fallen from heaven, 28:54 Lucifer, son of the dawn. Sound familiar? You've been 29:00 cast down to the earth, you who wants laid low the nation. You 29:04 said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise 29:08 my throne above the stars of God. I will sit enthroned on 29:12 the mount of the assembly, utmost heights of the sacred 29:15 mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds. I will 29:19 make myself like the most high. Somebody says the only thing 29:23 wrong with Lucifer was he had problems. It's true. 29:27 God made a beautiful angel, perfect in every way. 29:30 But he stood in front of the mirror too long one morning 29:34 combing his hair and he began to see how beautiful he 29:39 was and he started taking credit for all that beauty and all that 29:43 wisdom to himself and he rebelled about God. Look, he 29:49 wanted to put his throne above God's throne. Now, the throne is 29:55 the seed of government, isn't it? Throne is always the seed of 30:01 government. God rules the universe from throne. Now here 30:05 is Lucifer who was an angel he wanted to sit on God's throne. 30:09 He wanted to rule the universe. He wanted to be ruler of the 30:13 seat of the government. The throne is the seat of the 30:15 government and the heart of every government, is his law. 30:18 So in effect this Lucifer, this angel 30:20 rebelled against God but he rebelled against God's law. He 30:24 rebelled against God's rules. 30:26 He said, look God is too restrictive. 30:28 God is no fun. God won't let you do anything. Has he ever 30:33 asked you your opinion about anything around you. No he just 30:36 tells us what to do and we have to do it. 30:38 You put me on the throne. 30:39 I'll show you how to have a good time. You see, he was rebelling 30:44 against the law of God. 30:50 He said God laws are arbitrary. 30:51 He is just trying to control us. 30:52 He didn't recognize that God's laws are laws of love. 30:56 He didn't know that to see Gods law is to know love and to know 31:01 love is to see the death and the beauty of God's law. His laws 31:06 teach us how to love God, how to love one another, I don't know 31:10 if you ever thought about it that way before or not. 31:12 God has lots of different of kinds of laws. 31:14 He has physical laws, laws that keep the universe in order. 31:20 What would it be like if there were no physical laws, 31:22 stars and planets that be crushing into one 31:24 another all the time. 31:25 The law of gravity is a law of love. 31:30 You know we can take it for granted and we may not think 31:33 of it if it's a law of love but it is. 31:34 Imagine sitting here in this auditorium tonight without 31:37 gravity. Now some of you saying, oh yeah 31:40 that will be fun, would be like the space man floating around. 31:43 Well, they had problems too. Did you know the first spaceman 31:47 in space? Didn't know what to do with their whiskers when they 31:49 shaved them off because they've floating all around the capsule. 31:53 The gravity is the law, love. Now you could say well I don't 31:56 care. I don't like gravity. I don't want gravity. 31:59 I want to be free from gravity. 32:01 I want to just be able to kick my legs and wave 32:03 my arms and float around and you can choose to be free from 32:06 gravity. I will climb up to the top of the space needle in 32:10 Seattle and I'll jump off and kick my legs and wave my, 32:12 oh that will be so much fun, I'm free for gravity and you 32:15 will be free from gravity all the way down to the bottom 32:20 and then you free from everything. 32:22 You see we can choose to ignore God's laws of love 32:25 but you cannot avoid the consequences on the other end. 32:30 The other physical laws, I don't know if you ever thought 32:33 about this way but the Bible is the best book 32:35 on health is ever written. 32:37 The Bible says, your body is the temple of the holy 32:39 spirit, don't put anything into your body that destroys or 32:41 defiles it and I think that means that as Christians, we 32:47 should uphold and take care of the body that the God gave us, 32:50 shouldn't we? We should be health conscious. We shouldn't 32:53 be putting things into our bodies that can be destroying. 32:56 We are going to watch what we eat, we are to watch we drink, 32:59 we are to make sure that we get plenty of exercises and drink 33:01 a lot of water and leave a good healthy balanced life, 33:04 take care of the body. 33:06 Physical laws, laws of love because God has good things in 33:09 store for you. 33:14 He doesn't want you lying on a hospital bed with tubes 33:16 coming in out in your chest gasping for every breath of air. 33:18 And then, there are other kinds of laws, maybe you never 33:25 thought about this way but the Ten Commandments 33:28 are laws of love. 33:31 The last six of the Ten Commandments teach us how 33:34 to love one another, honor your father and mother. Wouldn't you 33:37 like to live in a place where everybody always honored their 33:42 father and mother? Thou shall not kill, oh I'd like to live in 33:44 a place where nobody was ever killed. 33:46 Though shall not commit adultery. 33:47 Some people think that it will be fun to live in a place 33:51 where it is okay to commit adultery and almost to be 33:55 getting to be that way here but it's not. 33:57 You know, I've been in countries where people are free 33:58 to do whatever they to do and it degrades, 34:00 it degrades humanity to the point that you become almost 34:03 like animals because God's laws are laws of love. They teach us 34:08 how to love one another. 34:10 Does a man really love his neighbor if he says, 34:13 oh alleluia praise the Lord, my brother I love you 34:16 while he's stealing his wallet from his pocket. Is that love? 34:20 Does he really love his neighbor if he is having an affair with 34:24 his neighbor's wife? Is that love? 34:26 Of course not. God's laws teach us how to love one another. 34:32 The first four of the commandments teach us 34:40 how to love God. Can we really claim to love God if 34:45 where having other Gods? Can we claim to love him if we're 34:49 taking his name in vain all the time? 34:55 I know people that don't even claim to be Christians 34:57 that feel like it's wrong to take God's name in vain. 35:01 Can we claim to love God if we're worshiping idols? 35:05 Nobody worships idols anymore today, that was back in 35:10 the olden days when they carved them out of wood and stone in 35:12 gold and bow down and worship or maybe we don't have idols 35:15 like that but we have different kinds of idols today. 35:20 Some of our idols have four wheels on them. 35:23 Some of our idols are one- eyed idols 35:27 sitting in the living rooms. Some people don't want 35:31 to study their Bibles or go to Revelation Now because they'd 35:34 rather worship their one-eyed idol. 35:36 I'm not saying that televisions are bad and you need to 35:41 go home and smash the television sets, 35:43 no because you can Revelation Now tapes to put 35:47 on your television set and that's okay. 35:49 What I am saying is that anything that comes 35:53 in between you and God becomes an idol. 35:58 Then, there's another kind of idol, a sophisticated kind of 36:07 idolatry. 36:10 A God that exist only in our own minds, a God of our 36:16 own creation, a God who approves of the things that we 36:20 approve of and condemns the things that we don't like. 36:25 We've already looked at it, we call it today, we call it doing 36:38 your own thing finding your self, situation ethics, 36:43 existentialism even have big words for it, 36:46 it simply means that in any particular situation, the 36:50 right thing to do is what seems like the loving thing to you 36:55 at that time. The Bible calls it sin. 37:07 All like sheep have gone astray each to his own way. 37:17 It's dangerous for us to try to choose what is right and what is 37:23 wrong because what seems right s not always the same as 37:26 what is right. 37:27 I always remember the time when I was on a trip to Chicago 37:32 for a special meeting and happened to sit next to a lady 37:37 from New York city on the airplane 37:41 and I always like to pray when I'm going somewhere 37:43 and God, sit me next to somebody that I can witness too and so 37:48 don't sit next to me on the airplane if you don't want to 37:49 talk about the Lord. 37:50 I'm sitting there next to the lady and I started talking 37:53 a little bit, she's from New York. I can tell instantly 37:57 that she was an educated person. I found out that 38:00 she had a PhD and sociology and she was in charge in one huge 38:03 program over all New York city for helping underprivileged 38:07 children. Her husband was an archaeologist, PhD in 38:12 archeology and these are really, really special people. 38:15 So we had nice little visit and I kept asking her what she did 38:19 and her husband did and finally she got the clue and she said, 38:23 well what you do? 38:24 I thought you've never ask, I said I'm an evangelist. 38:30 She says, oh, my husband and I are atheist and so I'm licking 38:40 my lips now and God give me the right thing to say. So finally I 38:47 said, you know can I ask you a question? She said, sure. Said I 38:54 can tell that you really love those children that you 38:57 work with, am I right? 38:58 Oh yeah, I love them so much, that's my whole life 39:01 next to my husband. So tell me this, suppose you have a little 39:05 group of kids and you're working with these children 39:07 and one of them comes in the morning with two $5 bills in his 39:11 pocket. Another little boy comes in no money, hungry, starving to 39:14 death, haven't eat in three days, he goes to his friend 39:20 and he says, you have two $5 bills, I'm hungry, 39:23 I haven't eat in three and my family is poor, 39:25 can I have one to buy some food for my family? 39:27 And the little boy says, no it's my money not yours. 39:30 So while they're taking their rest, a little fellow 39:33 slips over there and he steals one of those $5 bills out of his 39:36 friend's pocket. 39:37 I said, tell me would that be okay with you? 39:38 She said, of course not. I said, why not? 39:43 Because that's stealing. I know but I mean would it be 39:46 right for him to take it if he is just getting the money 39:50 to feed his family if he is hungry? 39:53 And she said, no it wouldn't be right. I said, why? 39:55 Because it's stealing, stealing is wrong. 39:57 I said, but why is it wrong? 40:00 You know, I'm not sure I can answer that question. 40:08 Could I ask you another question? 40:15 I guess. 40:19 I can tell, you really love your husband? 40:23 Oh, yes I do I love my husband, so tell me? 40:26 Supposed he had a secretary that's married to an alcoholic 40:29 abusive man that beats up on her every night and just really 40:32 an awful person and finally she comes in and says, 40:35 you know I've had it, I am ready to just end it, 40:37 I can't go on living like this anymore, I want to just die, 40:40 I think I'm gong to take my life and you have such a wonderful 40:43 husband. If my husband like that, I know that I would have a 40:46 happy life. Tell me, If I could just spend one night a week with 40:50 the husband, I think I could get through the rest of the week. 40:53 Can I have one night with your husband? Just one, what 40:57 would you say? You say no! Why not, because he is my husband, 41:01 I know but wouldn't it be right if you could just help 41:04 her to survive by letting her have your husband, 41:06 she said no that would be wrong. 41:08 Why? Because that's adultery, 41:09 yes I know but what's wrong with it? 41:15 What would make it wrong? And his PhD in sociology said, 41:26 you know you're asking me questions that I can't answer 41:30 and there are no answers unless you have God's word to tell you 41:34 what is right and what is wrong. 41:36 See the problem is today that several years ago 41:42 it was just symbolic that happened long before that 41:44 but they ripped those Ten Commandments of the classroom 41:47 walls and now they realize that it was a mistake. 41:52 They want to nail them back on it's too late, 41:58 the damage has been done. We need God to tell us 42:00 what is right from what is wrong. 42:01 You can't do what seems right, 42:03 because the Bible says in Proverbs 14:12. 42:05 There is a way that seems right to a man, but in end 42:07 it leads to death. 42:11 Listen to me in the end some people are going to be lost 42:14 doing what's seems right to them. 42:15 You can't do what seems right, folks, you need to do what is 42:20 right. 42:21 So battle rages, the dragon is there, he is saying 42:25 look God's restrictive. He doesn't want you to have any 42:29 fun, do it my way and the Bible says God withholds no good thing 42:31 from those who walk uprightly. 42:32 You will always be better off ordering your life in harmony 42:35 with God's word but the battle rages. 42:38 Who do you believe? Who do you trust? 42:39 Who's telling the truth? 42:46 Have you ever wondered that tree that's problem. Why did God put 42:52 that tree there in the Garden of Eden. If He wouldn't have put 42:56 that tree there we wouldn't be in this mess that we are in 42:58 today. 42:59 Do you ever wonder that? Why did they put the tree there? Why 43:01 did they make us, so we could sin? 43:03 He could have made us so that we had no choice 43:05 in the matter that we could only serve Him, always be 43:08 obedient to Him and sin would never come in. 43:10 Why did He put the tree there? I'll tell you why, because He is 43:12 God of love. I want you to follow me. Love involves more 43:16 than one person, did you know that? Can't love alone, 43:21 try it sometimes. 43:22 A beautiful moonlit night, row out in the middle of the 43:26 lake get romantic all by yourself. Can't love alone. 43:29 Love involves more than one person 43:34 and that's why God created the man and the woman 43:39 and He said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 43:43 Because He wanted beings who would love Him 43:47 and the Bible even says He made them 43:50 in His own image and I'm not going to go into all the 43:55 theological debate about what image of God really but I think 43:59 we're safe to just assume that if it says God made me in His 44:02 own image it means that he made us in such a way that He could 44:06 could love Him in return. See that's something special about 44:08 having someone in your own image, it makes you love 44:10 smile them all the more and God made us in His image so that He 44:15 could love us and that we could love Him in return. 44:22 There is another thing about love that we need to understand 44:24 and that is that love involves a choice. 44:29 He could have made us like robots. 44:34 We could all be robots, we'd wake up with an alarm going off 44:39 and we jump out bed and say hallelujah praise the Lord, 44:42 smile at everybody, isn't it a wonderful day, brush your teeth, 44:44 get dressed go to work, singing hymns all day long, hallelujah 44:47 praise the Lord, don't you love Jesus my friend and 44:49 everybody said, yes! 44:50 Yes! I love Jesus too because we can't do anything else, 44:53 is that love? 44:55 I mean that is like back to old cavemen days if man wants a 45:01 wife goes in his neighbors cave, grabs his daughter out by the 45:03 hair, throws into his cave and now he's got a wife but he 45:06 doesn't have love, why not? 45:08 Because love involves a choice. I remember when our 45:15 younger son, about two or three years old and as I mentioned we 45:22 were on the road all the time, we lived in an RV with two boys 45:27 and my wife and I, it was kind of crowded in there. 45:29 If ever I wanted to have place where I could study 45:31 I needed to be out of there, so we bought an old mayflower 45:36 moving van, to put all of our equipment in and then I built 45:39 an office in there with all my books and everything so I 45:41 could go in there and I could study all by self undisturbed 45:43 and one day I was sitting and studying and then I'm really 45:47 intense on what's going on and I heard that, big door creaking I 45:53 turn around to see what's going it was open about that wide and 45:57 there was my little boy sticking that big round face with the big 46:01 round brown eyes glistening the looking up and saying hi dad I 46:03 love you and turn around and run away. I want to tell you to 46:08 burst into tears right now just telling you the story, why? 46:16 Because he didn't have to say that. He didn't have to love me, 46:22 lot of children don't love their parents, the fact that he didn't 46:27 have to love me makes his love all most precious to me, that's 46:34 why God made us we the choice so that we could 46:37 choose to love Him, because it's only when we choose 46:41 to love God that love is really love. Then if God gave us 46:49 the choice to love him. How can He just destroy 46:55 IN hell everybody who refuses to love Him. How can he 47:00 just let go of all the wicked who reject him and still be a 47:03 God of love, how can He just let them all go? 47:05 It's because of love. 47:11 Think about it. If God ever hope to peace and harmony in this 47:14 Universe again, He is going to have to remove sin. He is going 47:20 to take it out of way, because sin brings pain and since He 47:26 gave us the choice to sin or love Him and He's going to have 47:31 to let those who sin and choose to sin. 47:33 He's going to have to let them go if He ever hopes to have 47:37 peace and harmony in the earth and in the universe again. 47:41 It isn't going to be a fun day for God. 47:42 The Bible says it is strange act but think about it. 47:46 Imagine that you had family with 10 children 47:50 in it and you loved everyone as much as you could possibly 47:56 love, but one of those children started doing some bad things 48:00 and started beating up on the other kids, cutting off 48:06 their finger, cutting their hands, cutting off their hand, 48:09 cutting off the foot and then he starts killing the rest of his 48:15 brothers and sisters one and then another and then another. 48:18 How long are you going to let this go on finally you are going 48:21 to have to say wait a minute. 48:22 You see God is looking at His children and this 48:27 old world suffering day after day doing battle with disease, 48:31 calamity, disaster, cancer and all of these other things and 48:36 finally God is going to say that's enough, it's enough! It's 48:40 over! And He's going bring it to act stranger act but it's an act 48:49 of love we can't understand it, but we can know that we can 48:55 trust Him. Well, then why didn't he just zap Lucifer the moment 48:59 he rebelled in heaven when he was that perfect angel that 49:01 rebelled against Him. 49:02 Wouldn't it be better, if he would just got rid of him 49:03 right then. It's because of love. Imagine we're on the big 49:07 meeting, a big rally, and all the angels, we're all together 49:12 with the angels and He's got a big as football stadium in 49:15 heaven all filled with the angels and has Lucifer on the 49:18 stage and he is saying God isn't fair, God's rules are too 49:20 restrictive put me on the throne, 49:22 you'll see how to have fun about round this place 49:24 and about that time God walks in and zap there goes Lucifer. 49:28 Now how do you feel about God? 49:32 Whoa, better watch what we do around here. 49:36 Who's next? See we start obeying God out of fear instead of love, 49:43 trust and so God head to let Lucifer to go. He had to let him 49:50 go He had to give him space. He had to give him time. He had to 49:54 give him room to show what sin is really like and once he has 49:58 demonstrated once and for all. how hideous, how ugly, 50:00 how mean, how cruel sin is then God can clean this thing up 50:06 and everyone will know that He did the right thing, that He's a 50:10 God of love. Now listen to me, that's the reason we have to 50:16 suffer. God knows that He's got to give Lucifer a little room to 50:23 operate, to demonstrate what sin is like. If every time Lucifer 50:29 wanted to attack me God put a hedge around me 50:31 and says no Lucifer, you can't touch. If every time He wants 50:34 one of you He puts a hedge around He saying, no Lucifer 50:37 you can't go there and Lucifer hey, you're not even keeping 50:39 your end of the bargain. 50:40 You're not giving me a chance to show what it's like if 50:43 I had control. And so God's walking a final line that only 50:47 God can walk. He has to let us suffer a little bit, but yet 50:54 He answers our prayers and He responds to us just enough so 50:56 that we can know that He's there because the more He intervenes 51:00 and the more He blocks Lucifer and the more He answers your 51:04 prayers and gives you good things the longer it's going to 51:08 take to demonstrate what sin is really like. Can you understand 51:13 Sometimes we just have to step back and watch our children 51:18 learn the hard way Sometimes they do suffer. I'll never 51:21 forget my boy he was riding his bike and he got on to the 51:24 edge of the trailer sliced his hand and I'm sitting there 51:27 with him in the doctor's office and the doctor gets his big 51:30 needle and he's takes it and he's about to stick it in my 51:33 boy's hand and he's sitting on my lap, he looks up with me 51:36 with big, round eyes and, dad you're not going to let him 51:39 do this to me are you? 51:40 And I had to let him do it. That's why we suffer. Oh, 51:50 God could have done some other things He could have just 51:54 left us here on planet earth. You made your bed now 51:58 sleep in it. 52:00 I'm glad you didn't do that because you knew 52:02 somewhere along the line, there would be some of us who would 52:05 choose to serve Him and love Him if we could. But how can 52:07 He save us? We've sinned and He said if you sin 52:12 you'll die. How can He save us and still be telling the 52:14 truth when He said, if you sin, you'll die. 52:15 How can he save us and still be telling the truth when He said, 52:17 if you sin you will die. God did the one thing 52:19 the old devil never dreamed he would ever do. The Bible says, 52:24 God loves the world so much That He gave His only begotten 52:29 Son that's whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have 52:35 everlasting life. The devil never dreamed he would 52:38 ever do that but He did and all we need to do is reach out and 52:42 take the hand of Jesus. Accept Him as your Lord and your 52:47 savior and you can have life. No I could never do that. I am just 52:54 too proud a person to accept Jesus Christ as my 52:57 savior. Don't be too proud. You know years ago in a community 53:05 not far from here at College Place, Washington. Before 53:10 modern firefighting equipment, a family, a house caught on fire, 53:15 was burning in the middle of the night and the family trying to 53:19 put the flames out and neighbors gathered around with their 53:22 little buckets of water and their gunny sacks and their 53:26 brooms trying to beat back the flames but finally they realized 53:29 that it was too late. They were not going to be able to do it 53:33 So they all got out of the house and was standing out in the yard 53:37 and there's the family watching everything that they had just 53:41 going up in flames and suddenly the mother realized that 53:44 she left her little baby asleep in the crib so she ran to the 53:50 house but they grabbed her and said you can't go it's too late 53:56 True love doesn't know when is too late and her oldest son 54:01 broke out of the crowd ran across the lawn up into the 54:05 house down the flaming hallway into the baby's room wrapped the 54:09 baby in a blanket held it close to his chest ran down that 54:13 flaming hallway tumbled across the lawn a human torch. 54:17 They unwrapped the blanket and the baby was unharmed 54:22 but he was so badly burned that the doctors said 54:26 he would never survive but he did 54:28 survive. And years later you would see a strange sight in 54:35 College Place, Washington A man whose face was so 54:40 badly disfigured and scarred that he was beyond human 54:45 recognition, he had no hair; no eyebrows; no eyelids, his eyes 54:50 peering through two holes where his eyelids had been. His hands 54:56 are solid mass of gnarled scar tissue. But that man would be 55:01 walking down the street with a, beautiful young lady hanging on 55:07 to his arm and she looked at him as though he 55:11 were the most handsome man in the world. She wasn't ashamed 55:15 of the scars on the hands of her brother who saved her life. And 55:22 don't you be ashamed of scars on the hands of Jesus Christ 55:30 that saved yours. Reach out and take the hand of Christ. Pray 55:39 with me. Lord we've answered some deep questions, questions 55:54 that had bothered the hearts of each person 55:56 here and Lord we know there are still a lot more questions. 56:03 We'll never get all of our answers until You come to take 56:08 us home to be with You on the other side but you've 56:12 answered enough, you've demonstrated enough. You've 56:16 shown us, Lord that we can trust You and we can love You and 56:20 that You can save us and so tonight while every head is 56:26 bowed and every eye closed in prayer if the desire of your 56:31 heart is to walk hand-in-hand with Jesus to take those 56:34 precious nails scarred hands in yours, accept Jesus as your 56:38 savior to walk with Him, to live with Him maybe you already are 56:42 Christian but you want to walk with Him day by day that's a 56:46 desire of you heart just raise your hand with me tonight. Raise 56:49 your hand say, yes Lord I want to love You, I want to learn to 56:52 love you even more and more everyday. Thank you for Jesus. 56:55 Thank you, Jesus. Amen. |
Revised 2014-12-17