Sermon Tone Analysis

*“Dinner Parties”*

*Revelation 19*

 

Intro – I don’t if you’ve seen this bumper sticker before.

But I find it quite interesting and telling.

It says “coexist” and it contains the religious symbols representing Islam with the crescent and star, pentagram for Wicca, the relativity formula for science, the star of David for Judaism, the Karma wheel dotting the “i” for Buddhism; the Tao symbol for Taoism, and lastly the cross for Christianity.

As a friend of mine recently asked regarding the bumper sticker, “Does ‘coexist’ now mean ‘agree’??” That must be the implication of the message.

Isn’t it true that all these religions represented currently coexist?

Certainly!

But is there a possibility that there will be peace among these different religions?

Probably not!

I’m probably not telling you anything new when I say that objective or absolute truth is unpopular in our times.

People today will talk of personal and subjective truth.

I believe this is largely because we don’t want to think that we are accountable to anybody.

We want to live life for ourselves.

And ultimately this allows us to cater to our sinful desires.

We think that life is about us.

We begin to look at truth as relative.

And so many may think that all religions are equally valid and true.

And who are we to judge?

This is the mantra of the day.

These themes will be addressed in our text this morning.

We will talk about the Judge and truth, judgment, revelation, and salvation.

You see, what we have in this passage are two dinner parties.

Sounds fun, doesn’t it??

Well, as we will see, that all depends on which one of the two you participate in.

Please turn in your Bibles to Revelation chapter 19.

If you’re unfamiliar with finding your way around the Bible, you will find the Book of Revelation at the back.

Just turn back a few pages from the end and you will find chapter 19.

If you are using our supplied Bibles from the back, you will find our text on page ???   

We are in the latter sections of the Book of Revelation where history is coming to a close.

We are seeing glimpses of what the end holds.

We have seen indictments against the churches of the first century and then shot forward to see glimpses into the throne room of heaven.

We have seen great calamity and judgment through the seal, trumpet, and bowl judgments.

We have witnessed believers in Jesus Christ being murdered because of their faith.

We have seen the prostitute who deceives the nations into her seductions.

And then a call for God’s people to separate from her.

And now God’s people are told to rejoice because judgment is pronounced on Babylon.

Babylon was the great harlot who was responsible for the murder of God’s prophets and saints.

And you are forced to wonder, where is God?

Why does he allow this wicked world system to harm those who are His children?

When you realize that this is all part of the plan that originated from the beginning, there is no cause for alarm.

In fact the angelic host in heaven seems to know what is to come and they also realize that the time is short for evil.

Let’s read the first 5 verses of chapter 19 as we begin.

*READ.

*The angels burst forth in praise for they know that the return of the Lord Jesus is imminent.

Chronologically speaking, this section serves as a bridge from the Tribulation to the establishment of the millennial kingdom on earth that we will discuss next week.

In these first 5 verses we see the *First Retribution.*

God himself has judged this wicked prostitute.

She is responsible for corrupting the world with immorality and self-indulgence.

She has deceived the nations to pursue the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh.

She has seduced them to believe that they are gods and are to live for things of this world.

Accountable to no one.

And for this, there is judgment.

We learn quite a bit about God in this passage.

You will notice that those closest to Him cannot help but to repeatedly exclaim, “Hallelujah (in verse 1), Hallelujah (in verse 3), Hallelujah (in verse 4), and Praise our God (in verse 5)!”

These expressions mean the same thing – Praise be to God!  The angelic host praises God because they know his character and his deeds.

We see that salvation comes only from him.

The multitude in heaven recognizes God as glorious and powerful.

And they go on to say why this is so.

God’s judgments are true and just.

We will talk a bit more about truth and justice when we talk about the rider on the white horse in a little bit.

We no longer have to question why God allows evil in the world or why things appear chaotic.

We see that God has always been in control and he will judge with truth and justice.

And he has done so here.

God knows the crimes of the great prostitute.

Nothing has escaped his notice and nothing has happened that he didn’t foresee or allow.

He has indicted her according to her corruption of the earth in immorality and has murdered his people.

There will be hell to pay – literally.

Verse 3 indicates this.

Our text reads that “Once more they cried out, ‘Hallelujah!

The smoke from her *goes up forever and ever.*”

This is a clear indication of an eternity in hell.

Revelation 14:8-11 also reads, “8 Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” 9 And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.

11 And the smoke of their torment goes up *forever and ever*, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

It will be those who are deceived by the prostitute that bear the mark of the beast that will be consigned to the lake of fire for all eternity.

The doctrine of hell has come under scrutiny.

There are some who consider themselves evangelical who have convinced themselves that there is no such thing as eternal, conscious torment in hell.

They would assert that upon death, those who do not profess the name of Christ simply cease to exist.

This is call annihilationism.

The wicked are destroyed - but do not face the eternal lake of fire.

The way I see it, this investigation originates with human sensitivity.

It is extremely difficult for our minds to grasp such a concept.

And because it is so difficult we seek to explain it away.

But we also have to understand that merely because a teaching doesn’t sit well with us does not give us the liberty to alter it.

We need to continually seek out Scripture like Matthew 3.12, “12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

And Luke 3.17 which says basically the same thing.

And Mark 9:43, “43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.

It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.”

And verse 48, “48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’

And Hebrews 6.2 speaks of eternal judgment.

In our passage here is the Greek rendering of “into the ages of the ages” which always refers to eternity.

The identical expression also identifies the entire scope of eternity future.

In our text, the smoke going up is in the present tense which indicates an ongoing activity and not annihilation.

We will talk more about why the doctrine of hell is necessary when we talk about the judgment of the nations.

All the while the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fall down in worship to God who is seated on the throne.

They agree with the judgment by saying “Amen” or “so be it” and praise be to God for He is worthy.

Let’s jump down to verse 11 for the moment and look at the *Second Retribution.

*Let’s read verses 11-21.

“I saw heaven opened”.

Can you imagine??