Latest / Admonition Podcast / Revelation 14 (Lesson 2) - Aaron Cozort - June 14, 2026
Transcript
- 0:01Good morning.
- 0:09Take your Bibles if you will and open them to the book of Revelation.
- 0:21We are in Revelation chapter 14.
- 0:34And we'll be getting into the remainder of this chapter.
- 0:38I don't know if we're gonna get finished with it today, but we're going to uh make some good progress.
- 0:43But let's begin with a word of prayer.
- 0:47Gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for this day that you've blessed us with, grateful for the opportunity that we have to come before you, to praise
- 0:58your name, to glorify you, to be able to open the words of Scripture and to understand the insights and the wisdom that you have placed there for us.
- 1:08But more than insights and wisdom and just knowledge, to be able to learn to fear you, to be able to learn to worship.
- 1:17You in holiness, to draw closer to you in holiness and heart and mind, that we might walk in right paths, that we might be able to withstand the difficulties that this world throws
- 1:31at us and the fiery darts of Satan.
- 1:34Lord, we pray that you will be with us as we strive to armor ourselves in righteousness and holiness, in the attributes that you would have us to walk in each day.
- 1:46Pray that you will forgive us.
- 1:47Forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
- 1:50All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name.
- 1:52Amen.
- 1:56As we have done before, we'll continue to do and and have a brief review of where we're at in the book of Revelation.
- 2:04Chapter 1 opens, and John hears a voice as he is in the Spirit on the Lord's Day.
- 2:10That meaning he is worshiping on the Lord's Day, and he hears a voice behind him, and he turns and sees one who is described as a glorified representation of Christ.
- 2:23Christ is there, but he's not, he's not, he doesn't look like
- 2:26He looked when he was walking the earth.
- 2:28He looks as a or he appears in a glorified state.
- 2:32In his right hand, he holds five seven stars, and before him are seven golden lampstands, and the seven stars represent the seven churches, and the lampstands represent the
- 2:44messengers of the seven churches.
- 2:45And he tells John to write to the seven churches of Asia Minor.
- 2:50And so John is going to write to these seven churches, and he is going to declare to them what.
- 2:56what Christ is declaring to him.
- 2:59But the passage in chapter one opens and tells us that the things which John is about to receive are shortly to come to pass.
- 3:12And the things which he is being told about and the message that is being sent and signified or shown in signs is at hand.
- 3:25Every interpretation that we come away with, everything that we understand must be defined in view of the way the text tells us to interpret the book.
- 3:35And the text tells us to interpret the book as if the things which John was writing were at hand.
- 3:44That means something important to us.
- 3:47It means that they weren't currently going through it.
- 3:52That as John is writing this, and this is going to be reinforced in chapter 13, chapter 14, as John is writing this, they're not currently in the persecution.
- 4:02Now, there's points at which some of them are being persecuted, and some of them are having localized persecution.
- 4:09But the persecution that John's writing to them about is hasn't started yet.
- 4:17They've gone through some persecution.
- 4:19They're not going through persecution right now, but it's about to take off with a fury.
- 4:27It's at hand.
- 4:29But then consider.
- 4:31Chapter 4 opens and John is.
- 4:33Going to see in the vision and open door.
- 4:35He goes through the open door and he goes into the throne room of God.
- 4:39He sees the glory of the one who sits on the throne, the power of the one who sits on the throne, the surroundings of the one who sits on the throne.
- 4:48He sees the four beasts represented or carried forward and represented from Ezekiel's uh prophecies.
- 4:56You see the Sea of Glass.
- 4:58We're going to loop back to that in just a little while.
- 5:01You see the 24 elders.
- 5:03That are before the throne, and they're taking their crowns, which are crowns of victory, and every time the four beasts offer praise to God, the twenty-four elders throw their
- 5:13crowns before the throne, and they offer praise to God.
- 5:16Then chapter chapter five opens, and there is a scroll in the right hand of the one who sits on the throne.
- 5:22And John desires to read to know what's on the scroll, because it's written on the front side, and on the back it's completely filled with a revelation from God, but it's got
- 5:32seven seals on it.
- 5:33Yeah.
- 5:33And no one is found in heaven or on earth or under the earth.
- 5:36No one alive or dead in heaven or on earth is found who can open the scroll.
- 5:41No one's worthy.
- 5:42And John begins to weep, but he's told not to weep.
- 5:45For they found the one who's worthy, and it's the lion or the tribe of Judah.
- 5:49It is the Lamb who was slain, who is alive forevermore.
- 5:55And the beasts begin to worship the Lamb, and the twenty-four elders begin to worship the Lamb, and they declare him to be worthy.
- 6:03And chapter six opens and he begins opening the scroll.
- 6:07So he takes the scroll from the one who's sitting on the right hand of the throne or sitting on the throne, and he begins to open the scroll.
- 6:13And John finds out what's in the scroll.
- 6:16And you have in chapter six a forecast of what's coming.
- 6:21First picture is the first seal is open, a white go white horse goes forth and he's conquering.
- 6:26And it's a picture of Christ.
- 6:28Every time you see a white horse singled out.
- 6:32In the book of Revelation, it's Christ.
- 6:35Okay?
- 6:35The one who's riding on the white horse, the one who's going to be victorious, the one who's winning, it's Christ.
- 6:44So it looks like the church is doing great.
- 6:46If you were to think about the church as a as a body, as a colony of, let's just use example of colony of ants.
- 6:58When when Acts chapter 2 happens, you got a few ants, you got a small anthill.
- 7:04But then Acts chapter 3, that anthill's growing.
- 7:07Four, five, six, seven, that anthill's growing.
- 7:11Then persecution starts.
- 7:12And have you ever seen what happens to an anthill when you kick it?
- 7:16It just disappears, goes away forever, right?
- 7:19No, it just gets bigger.
- 7:22And that's what happened: the Jews kicked the anthill.
- 7:26And Saul of Tarsus kicked the anthill, and Christians went everywhere preaching the word.
- 7:31And the church grew and grew and grew and grew.
- 7:35The church went forth and was conquering.
- 7:38And so Satan said, I gotta do something about this.
- 7:41So it came in the form of persecution and persecution and persecution.
- 7:46Trying to defeat the church.
- 7:48And so you have in the fifth seal the souls under the altar crying out, How long, O Lord, are you going to allow?
- 7:56this to continue.
- 7:58They're killing us.
- 8:02The sixth seal is open there in chapter six, and the Lord tells those Christians who are dying for the testimony of Christ here's a white robe, rest for a little while.
- 8:12Trust me, I've got this.
- 8:16And the forecast of what's coming, the fall of a nation, is given.
- 8:20It's given in Old Testament language.
- 8:22It's given in the language of the fall of Edom, the language of the fall of Babylon, the language of the fall of Jerusalem back in the Old Testament.
- 8:32So then chapter 7 opens, and as the persecution that's been forecast is about to begin, one of the angels comes up and says, hold on, hold on, don't start yet.
- 8:42We've got to mark all the people of God.
- 8:45We've got to make sure none of God's people get touched in this.
- 8:48And so the angel goes forth and marks all the people of God with God's name, so that they're not touched by the judgment that's about to come.
- 8:59Then you find the seven trumpets.
- 9:01The seven trumpets begin to sound.
- 9:03All of this, by the way, we're over here in chapter 14.
- 9:09We are still in the seventh seal.
- 9:13Remember, the scroll that was in the right hand of the one who's sitting on the throne in chapter six was filled inside and out.
- 9:24Well, you didn't cover all of the inside and out in chapter six.
- 9:28You got the first six seal.
- 9:30uh seals.
- 9:31But everything that has happened since chapter six has been in the seventh seal.
- 9:38So the seventh seal is open.
- 9:40And you begin to find seven trumpets.
- 9:43And so seven trumpets of partial judgment begin to sound and you have all this description that looks like the Old Testament plagues on Egypt.
- 9:53And it looks like Old Testament judgment coming on a nation.
- 9:58And it continues
- 9:59Throughout chapter 7, chapter 8.
- 10:03Chapter 9 opens, and there's an angel, a mighty angel, we're told, a high representative of God, and he's got one foot on the land and one foot on the sea.
- 10:12He is one who has authority and rule.
- 10:17And he comes forth with a little book.
- 10:20And God tells, or uh John is told, rather, to take the little book and to consume it.
- 10:27So he takes a little book and it's sweet as honey in his mouth and it's bitter in his belly.
- 10:31And again a picture from Ezekiel about Ezekiel's prophecy that indicated God's people were going to be brought through the fall of Jerusalem, but Jerusalem was going to fall.
- 10:44They were gonna suffer through their salvation.
- 10:49And that's what John is told to tell the Christians.
- 10:51They're going to suffer through their salvation, but they're going to be saved from their persecutors.
- 10:58So then we have a picture of the witnesses, chapter uh chapter twelve, I think, chapter eleven.
- 11:06Got my numbers all mixed up this morning.
- 11:08Uh so the the witnesses, we see the witnesses.
- 11:11There's two witnesses first represented by two olive trees with two golden lampstands, and the lamps never go out because the olive trees dump their oil into the lamps and the lamps
- 11:21never go out.
- 11:22And it's a picture from Zechariah of God's representatives, God's priest and God's governor in the form of Zerubbabel and Jeshua, and they're God's representatives.
- 11:33And as long as God's representatives are speaking God's word.
- 11:37God wins.
- 11:41And it doesn't matter what they look like before.
- 11:44You go back into that Zechariah prophecy, and you find that as that prophecy is being given, you have Jeshua, who's the high priest, and he's covered in the vision.
- 11:55He's covered in the sins and the iniquity of the people, and God cleans him up.
- 12:02He makes him holy.
- 12:04He makes him.
- 12:06One who's worthy to be in the role of the high priest.
- 12:11And we're told back in Zechariah, in the form of Jeshua and the high priest: listen, your holiness doesn't come from your perfection, it comes from God and his forgiveness.
- 12:26And so we see the two witnesses.
- 12:28begin to go forth and they begin to speak and they as long as they're speaking the word of God, they can't be touched.
- 12:33But once the prophecy is finished, once God's word is done being spoken, the world comes over them and kills them.
- 12:41And they leave them dead in the street for three and a half days.
- 12:44And they rejoice.
- 12:45They throw a party because God's people aren't annoying them with God's word anymore.
- 12:53Have you ever known somebody that you would tell them what the Bible says, and every single time you mention what the Bible says, they'd get angry and upset and frustrated and
- 13:04just want to be done with the conversation?
- 13:07That's the world.
- 13:09That's the way the world treats the word of God.
- 13:11Oh, Most of the time they just ignore that it exists, but whenever they're confronted with it, they hate its very existence.
- 13:19They don't want it to be spoken.
- 13:21they want to give,
- 13:22they want to act like they love it, they just don't want to hear it.
- 13:28So the world kills the witnesses of God.
- 13:31Three and a half days they lie in the street, don't even bother to bury them, and then God resurrects them back to life, and the point is you might die in this life, but Matthew
- 13:41chapter ten, what did Jesus say?
- 13:43Do not fear the one who can kill this body.
- 13:46Rather fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
- 13:49So the witnesses are resurrected, break taken up into heaven, and judgment commences.
- 13:55All these pictures are to remind the Christians what mu what John tells them in the very beginning: persecution is at hand.
- 14:07But Christ is reigning.
- 14:09So then chapter 12 opens in another picture.
- 14:13This time we have the dragon who we're going to see throughout the book clearly identified because in chapter 12 we're told that the dragon is Satan, the devil.
- 14:23But it's Satan, the devil, in representative form of Rome.
- 14:29Rome is his tool.
- 14:30He's got the heads and the crowns of a nation on his seven heads.
- 14:37It's not a literal dragon.
- 14:38It's not a physic, it's not a physical dragon.
- 14:41It's a representative dragon.
- 14:44And the dragon comes forth and he tries to consume the child of the woman.
- 14:48The woman who has twelve stars on her head and what did we say the twelve stars were that were in Jesus' hand in chapter one?
- 14:57Sorry, the seven stars in chapter one.
- 15:00The stars that are in the right hand of Jesus in chapter one are the seven churches.
- 15:05So the woman has twelve stars on her head.
- 15:07Stars all through the book are representative of the churches.
- 15:13We're told that.
- 15:14We don't have to guess that.
- 15:16We're told that.
- 15:17This woman is representative of God's people.
- 15:21And God's people bring forth the Messiah.
- 15:23And that Satan wants to kill the Messiah as soon as he shows up.
- 15:27But he fails.
- 15:29And he fails.
- 15:30And eventually the Messiah is taken up into heaven and he goes after him in heaven and he fails.
- 15:35And he comes back down to earth to persecute his people and he fails.
- 15:39Devil is a three time loser.
- 15:42So when he can't be victorious against the woman, and he can't be victorious against her children, and he can't be victorious against the Messiah, then he's going to just begin
- 15:53persecuting.
- 15:55And so up comes Messiah.
- 15:57The sea beast out of the location where the angel once had his foot.
- 16:03The sea beast comes up, and the land beast comes up, and they begin persecuting, and they're again representative of Old Testament pictures from Daniel.
- 16:15They represent the four kingdoms that Nebuchadnezzar saw in Daniel chapter 2, that Daniel saw in Daniel chapter 7.
- 16:24They're Old Testament pictures of
- 16:26God's uh enemies in the form of nations.
- 16:32And the dragon starts giving them power.
- 16:34Starts giving them authority.
- 16:36Not perfect authority, not perfect power, because Satan doesn't have perfect authority.
- 16:43He doesn't have perfect power.
- 16:45He has his own authority and his own power, and he loses every single time.
- 16:52But he gives that to Rome.
- 16:54Rome begins persecuting.
- 16:55So we cut to chapter fourteen.
- 16:59Chapter 14, then I looked and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000, having his father's name written on their foreheads.
- 17:08These are the ones who had been sealed with the name of God in chapter 7.
- 17:14These are the ones who represent God's people.
- 17:19Now, they're standing on Mount Zion.
- 17:23They're standing with the lamb.
- 17:27And I heard a voice from heaven, like the voice of many waters, like the voice of a loud thunder, and I heard the sounds of harpist playing their harps, and they sang, as it were,
- 17:36a new song before the throne.
- 17:39Now wait a minute.
- 17:40Are they on the are they on Mount Zion or are they before the throne?
- 17:43Which one is it?
- 17:47In the vision, you can be in two places at once.
- 17:50John sees them on Mount Zion.
- 17:53Where is Mount Zion in the vision?
- 17:56Before the throne.
- 17:58It's not in Jerusalem, it's not an earthly city.
- 18:02The place of God's name, the kingdom of God, the reign of Christ is not on a physical.
- 18:15location in an earthly city.
- 18:18How do I know?
- 18:22Because Jesus told us so.
- 18:28Jesus said, My kingdom is what?
- 18:31Not of this world.
- 18:36If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight?
- 18:45The Lamb is standing on his throne.
- 18:48He's standing on Mount Zion.
- 18:50He's standing on the place of power.
- 18:52And where is it?
- 18:53It's before the throne.
- 18:59They sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one could learn the song except the hundred and forty four thousand who
- 19:08were redeemed from the earth.
- 19:11These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.
- 19:16These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever he goes, these were redeemed from among men, being first fruits to God and to the Lamb.
- 19:26And in their mouth was found no deceit, and they are without fault before the throne of God.
- 19:32You've got the hundred and forty-four thousand representative of God's faithful disciples.
- 19:42They look like the Messiah.
- 19:46They act like the Messiah.
- 19:50They behave like the Messiah.
- 19:54They are holy like the Messiah.
- 19:59They represent God's people.
- 20:05And they're singing a song of redemption.
- 20:10They're singing a song like Moses and Israel saying.
- 20:13Matter of fact, we're gonna be told in chapter 15, they're singing the song of Moses and the Lamb.
- 20:24You get down to verse six.
- 20:26Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of the heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.
- 20:39Крайст і станд.
- 20:44Ready for battle.
- 20:47And Christ's people are standing, not slaughtered, not killed, not bloodied and bruised, but singing.
- 21:02REJOICING!
- 21:05So an angel goes forth from heaven and starts preaching the gospel.
- 21:10And he preaches to every tongue, tribe, people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come, and worship him who made heaven
- 21:21and earth, the sea, and springs of water.
- 21:26Now if the book is to be taken in a physical, literal interpretation.
- 21:36Then preceding the final day of judgment, preceding the final war with Satan.
- 21:49We're gonna all look up and see an angel preaching the gospel.
- 21:56Does that conflict with any particular passage of scripture and plainly stated statement by Jesus Christ about his return?
- 22:07What passage does that conflict with?
- 22:16Turn to Matthew chapter twenty four.
- 22:26Matthew chapter twenty four.
- 22:31Beginning in verse 32, now learn this parable from the fig tree.
- 22:35When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that the summer is near.
- 22:41So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near at the doors.
- 22:47He has been telling those of his disciples about his statement.
- 22:52That not one stone of the temple would be left upon another, that the city of Jerusalem was going to fall.
- 22:58By the way, he uses a whole bunch of that old testament language of the fall of a nation.
- 23:04And he says it's going to happen.
- 23:06And he says, When you see the signs, you know it is near.
- 23:15He says, Assuredly I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
- 23:22by the way, he says it's at hand.
- 23:25He says, This generation is not going to see death before this happens.
- 23:34Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.
- 23:38But he also in Matthew chapter twenty-four speaks concerning something else.
- 23:44That is his final return.
- 23:49And he says, But of that day an hour, no one knows.
- 23:56Not even the angels of heaven, but my father only.
- 23:59But as the days of Noah were, so will it so will the coming of the Son of Man be, for as in the days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in
- 24:09marriage until the day that Noah entered the ark and did not know until the flood came and took.
- 24:17give them all away, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.
- 24:25Jesus said of the day of my return and my second coming, there are no signs.
- 24:32There won't be any warnings.
- 24:34There's not going to be an angel flying through heaven preaching the gospel.
- 24:40This is a visionary device to tell us that the nation of Rome will have been warned.
- 24:52They will have had the gospel preached to them.
- 24:55They will have been told of the coming judgment.
- 24:58They will have been warned of what was going to happen because they were persecuting God's people.
- 25:02And they're going to do it anyway.
- 25:06He says, and another angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
- 25:17fornication.
- 25:19Then a third angel followed them, saying, with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also
- 25:29drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation.
- 25:34He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
- 25:39And you say, see, this is these individuals being sent straight to hell.
- 25:44These people are being put into everlasting punishment.
- 25:48This is the final judgment.
- 25:50No, it's not.
- 25:55Терно Ізая Твоє ОН.
- 26:02In Isaiah twenty one and Isaiah thirty four.
- 26:08We learn something about the fall of Babylon and the fall of Edom.
- 26:16Chapter twenty-one, we find Isaiah opening, the burden against the wilderness of the sea as the whirlwinds in the south pass through, so it comes from the desert from a terrible
- 26:29land.
- 26:30A distressing vision is declared to me, the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and the plunder
- 26:36Plunderer, plunders, go up, O Elam, besiege, O media, all its sighs I have made to cease.
- 26:45Therefore my loins are filled with pain.
- 26:48Pangs have taken hold of me like the pangs of a woman in labor.
- 26:52I was distressed when I heard it.
- 26:54I was dismayed when I saw it.
- 26:56My heart wavered.
- 26:57Fearfulness frightened me.
- 26:59The night for which I longed, he turned into fear for me.
- 27:02Prepare the table, set a watchman in the tower, eat and drink, arise you princes, anoint the shield, for thus has the Lord said to me, Go set a watchman, let him declare what he
- 27:17sees.
- 27:18What does a watchman do?
- 27:20If we think about it in the physical battlement terms of the ancient world.
- 27:30All right.
- 27:30He stands on the wall.
- 27:34And his job is if he sees the enemy coming in the distance.
- 27:42He speaks.
- 27:45If he sees destruction headed towards the city, he announces it so they can be ready.
- 27:54And God tells Isaiah, goes out a watchman.
- 27:58Notice what he's going to say.
- 28:00Let him declare what he sees.
- 28:04And he saw a chariot and a pair of horsemen, a chariot of donkeys, and a chariot of camels.
- 28:10And he listened earnestly with great care.
- 28:12Then he cried, A lion, my lord.
- 28:15I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime.
- 28:18I have sat at my post every night, and look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen.
- 28:25Then he answered and said, Wait a minute, what's the message?
- 28:32What is what does the watchman hear as he sits and watches?
- 28:40Babylon is fallen.
- 28:44Is fallen.
- 28:47Wait a minute.
- 28:52What year is it that Isaiah writes?
- 28:54Not the exact year, but what century?
- 29:01In the 800 BCs.
- 29:03You want to know what Babylon was in the 800 BCs?
- 29:07Nothing.
- 29:08Nothing.
- 29:10It was little village.
- 29:11It was a little city.
- 29:13It had no great power.
- 29:15It was no world power.
- 29:18The Assyrians were coming.
- 29:21And the Assyrians were going to grow large.
- 29:23And the Assyrians were going to come to power.
- 29:25And the Assyrians were going to be in power for almost a hundred years before Babylon achieves power.
- 29:34And Isaiah.
- 29:35Before Babylon ever rises up as any significant power at all.
- 29:43declares Babylon's fallen.
- 29:49You see, because Isaiah's prophecy is couched in this.
- 29:56Isaiah is going to speak to a nation that has given itself over to idols.
- 30:02And Isaiah's challenge all the way through the book.
- 30:05If you remember when we studied the book of Isaiah, was this God is going to challenge Israel through Isaiah to say, get one of your gods to speak.
- 30:17Find one of your idols to open its mouth and say anything.
- 30:26But beyond just saying anything, find one of your idols that will tell you what's going to happen in the future.
- 30:37Because here's what I'm going to do.
- 30:39I'm going to tell you the end from the beginning.
- 30:45He who has an ear, let him hear.
- 30:49Now Jesus is going to use that phrase over and over and over again in his teaching, and it comes from Isaiah.
- 30:59And Isaiah's point with that phrase is God speaks.
- 31:05And God tells you what's gonna happen before it ever happens.
- 31:11And when he does, you know who the real God is.
- 31:17So let's pause for a moment and think about what we just read in chapter 13.
- 31:21We chapter twelve, here's the dragon.
- 31:24Chapter 13, here comes the sea beast, and he's given the authority and the power of the dragon, and he begins to persecute.
- 31:30And then we see the land beast and he comes forth and he begins to to sorry, I think I've got him in the wrong order, but the point is he comes forth and he begins to say,
- 31:39Everybody's got to worship the other beast.
- 31:42Everybody's got to bow down and worship his name.
- 31:45Everybody's got to receive his mark, or we'll kill you.
- 31:51And God's challenge from Isaiah is, why don't you get him to tell you what's coming?
- 31:57Why don't you get him to tell you how it's going to turn out?
- 32:01Go ahead.
- 32:03Get Caesar to tell you how it's going to turn out.
- 32:07Get Satan to tell you how it's going to turn out.
- 32:11Get your idols to tell you how it's going to turn out.
- 32:15Bow down and worship them and ask them, how is it going to turn out?
- 32:22And by the way, I've done this before.
- 32:26I did it in Isaiah's day, and I'm going do it again.
- 32:29I'm going to tell you Babylon has fallen.
- 32:32It's fallen.
- 32:34I'm going to tell you before it ever happens.
- 32:37I'm going to tell you the nation that you think is going to defeat you is going to be defeated.
- 32:45Chapter 21 of Isaiah, he says.
- 32:49Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all the carved images of her gods he has broken to the ground.
- 33:03Why does Rome get described as Babylon?
- 33:11Because the Old Testament picture is crystal clear.
- 33:19When Egypt fell, was there a prophecy long before Egypt fell about the fall of Egypt?
- 33:29No.
- 33:32There was a prophecy when Moses was told to go and tell it Pharaoh to let my people go.
- 33:39But it didn't happen a hundred years before Egypt fell.
- 33:44With Babylon and the captivity of Babylon, God says, Not only am I going to protect my people, not only am I going to deliver them through this, not only are those who live by
- 33:54faith going to be justified by that faith and going to be brought through this.
- 33:59But I'm going to tell you 150 years before Babylon ever starts persecuting my people that I'm going to destroy them.
- 34:09And then he names the king with which he's going to do it.
- 34:13There's no better Old Testament picture of God destroying a nation that persecutes its people than Babylon.
- 34:25And so he's not only going to use Babylon as a picture, he's going to quote the Old Testament prophet that declared the fall of Babylon.
- 34:35And declared it in correlation with his statement that says, those gods that they tell you to worship?
- 34:43Those gods that they think are going to save them?
- 34:46Those gods that they think
- 34:48delivered Israel and Judah and nation after nation after nation into their hands.
- 34:54Those gods are nothing.
- 34:56I did that.
- 34:58I gave it to them, and I'm gonna take it away.
- 35:03So chapter thirty four of Isaiah
- 35:10In Isaiah chapter 34, we find, beginning in verse 8, for it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
- 35:19Its streams shall be turned into pitch, its dust into brimstone, its land shall become burning pitch.
- 35:28Now, when you pause for a moment and wonder, who is this about?
- 35:35Whose land is going to get turned into burning pitch?
- 35:38Whose land is going to get turned into its dust into brimstone?
- 35:42Whose land is going to become a lake of fire?
- 35:49Go back to chapter fi chapter thirty four, verse five.
- 35:53My sword shall be bathed in heaven, indeed it shall come down on who?
- 36:02Edom.
- 36:06When Isaiah prophesies about a lake of fire, the dust turning into pitch and the ground lighting on fire, he's using a Sodom and Gomorrah picture.
- 36:24He's saying, I'm going to destroy this nation so thoroughly that their land is going to become like Sodom and Gomorrah.
- 36:34It's going to become a lake of fire.
- 36:37It's going to become a place of brimstone.
- 36:40It's going to receive utter desolation.
- 36:45Notice what he says.
- 36:46He says, For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
- 36:52Its stream shall be turned into pitch, its dust into brimstone, its land shall become a burning pitch.
- 36:57It shall not be quenched, night or day, its smoke shall ascend forever.
- 37:03From generation to generation it shall lie waste, no one shall pass through it forever and ever.
- 37:14Question.
- 37:17Can you go visit the once formerly land of Edom today?
- 37:24Yes, you can.
- 37:26Can you go stand on the mountain, Mount Seir, where Edom used to have its capital?
- 37:31Yes, you can.
- 37:33Are you going to be standing in a lake of fire when you do it?
- 37:38No.
- 37:40It's prophetic imagery from Sodom.
- 37:44And by the way, Isaiah doesn't leave that to our guests.
- 37:49He tells us so in the next verse.
- 37:52Watch it.
- 37:54A verse ago, Isaiah said, The land is going to be a burning lake of fire with smoke that rises up from generation to generation forever.
- 38:07Verse 11.
- 38:08But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it.
- 38:13Have you noticed that pelicans and porcupines don't live in lakes of fire?
- 38:19I didn't know if you knew that or not.
- 38:21There's a few people in the Bib uh in the realm of Bible interpretation that apparently don't know that.
- 38:30By the way, pelicans and porcupines also don't exist in hell.
- 38:36They didn't do anything wrong.
- 38:37They're not getting sent there.
- 38:40The picture from Isaiah's prophecy is visionary language of Sodom and Gomorrah.
- 38:49God says, I'm going to take Edom and I'm going to so utterly destroy them and wipe them out and take them out of their land and remove them that the wild animals are going to get
- 38:58their land.
- 39:03You come over to Revelation.
- 39:07In Revelation chapter 14, verse 8, and another angel followed, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen that great city, because she was she made all nations drink of the wine of the
- 39:19wrath of her fornication.
- 39:22She has enticed and indoctrinated and surreptitiously caused all of them to drink of her sin, and now they're going to share in her wrath and her judgment.
- 39:39And he says, another angel comes forth and says, If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink
- 39:52of the wine of the wrath of God.
- 39:56Which is poured out full strength into the cup of his indignation, he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the
- 40:06Lamb.
- 40:07How do we know this isn't hell?
- 40:11Because Jesus made a plainly stated declaration that hell is a place separated from the presence of God, didn't he?
- 40:30Matthew chapter twenty five?
- 40:33Matthew chapter ten, didn't Jesus declare that hell would be a place of separation from God?
- 40:40Not in the very presence of the Lamb and his angels.
- 40:47This place, whatever it is.
- 40:51This picture, whatever it is, is a picture of something that happens in the very presence of the Lamb and his angels.
- 41:02And that's diametrically opposed to the picture of hell that Jesus plainly teaches in the book of Matthew.
- 41:10So this isn't hell.
- 41:13This is a picture of fire and brimstone that isn't.
- 41:16A picture of hell.
- 41:19It's a picture of complete judgment by God from Sodom and Gomorrah.
- 41:30Go read Genesis.
- 41:32Go read what the text says occurred in Sodom and Gomorrah and the seven cities of the plain.
- 41:39And go understand what the text says.
- 41:45This is a Sodom and Gomorrah picture.
- 41:48This is an Isaiah picture.
- 41:50This is God saying, I'm going to make this nation desolate.
- 41:58That's all we've got time for.
- 41:59We'll pick up here uh next week.