Australian
Bible Church
May 11, 2008,
A CONTINUATION OF THE
ORIGINAL THRUST AND BASE
OF THE PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH OF AUSTRALIA
ON BIBLICAL LINES …
Shafts of Light and Perils in This Present Age
The Fateful
City, The Witnesses,
The Rapture and the Resurrection
Kingdom Transformation and the Rewards of Faith
Revelation 11
The Mouth of God
CONTINUED
Having not
finished this presentation on May 4,
we complete the depiction now, while moving on to John 17 where the ENDURING
PRINCIPLES OF THE LORD are seen,
before, during and after these things.
This then becomes prelude to a new series on John 17.
(VI) TRANSFORMATION OF THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD 11:14-17
We recall that great cry (Revelation 11:12), COME UP HERE. This related to the great deliverance of the assorted people of God - a sort of spiritual Dunkirk at which those surrounding by advancing armies and hemmed in, as you see so clearly in the persecutions shown for this time, in Revelation 13 – are commanded to come to the Lord, leaving this earth. This brings the end of the Church testimony on earth, till Christ comes back with His saints (as in I Thessalonians 3:13). In Revelation, you have various shafts which move from certain episodes, suddenly to view the end, as if one lifted one’s eyes from some point in a battle, to see – if space were as time – the end of the matter. You see this very clearly in Revelation 6. Ch. 11:16ff. looks there too, to the onrush of the kingdom and the 24 elders glory in it. NOW He has taken His great power and reigned, collecting the elect.
It is later in Revelation 19, that we see the ‘wedding’ of the ‘bride of Christ’ (as in Ephesians 5, the Church in a figure), for which they come. They have 'come up' and it is now in heaven, before they with Him, sally forth in spiritual judgment. These, His people are led in the command of the Word of God, One with a sword – that very word – proceeding from His mouth (Hebrews 4:12). The frauds and false shepherds, prophets, rulers and persecutors (Jeremiah 23, Ezekiel 34, II Peter 2), all are judged and the millenium of peace, in which the power of God and His righteousness rule, is made manifest, and proceeds in power (Revelation 20:3-6, as in Psalm 72, Isaiah 11). In this setting of numerical symbol, as in Revelation so freely, the exact length of this period of vindication and exhibition of the righteousness of God, when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea (Isaiah 11, Habakkuk 2:14) is not known (II Peter 3:8). It will be long enough for the point in view to be … made.
With all this in place and about to happen, starting as in the CALL of Revelation 11:11-12, we have the glorious exuberance expressed in Revelation 11:17-18. They give thanks since God has taken His great power and acted, ruling, overruling and bringing in the finale at last!
“The
kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ,
and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Now, it is cried, is the time of the judgment of the dead, as of other matters (Revelation 11:18). ONCE the resurrection of the people of the Lord has occurred, the devious disciples of that devilish dynamic, the Satan, are gathered to make war on the Lord and He proceeds as in Revelation 19:19, to meet them. His light devastates their darkness, as judgment comes like a cloud to invest that darkness, fiery and brilliantly bright alike, exposing it for its shame and contemptibility (as in Daniel 12:1-2).
(VII) THE REWARD OF CHRIST’S SERVANTS 11:18
Indeed in Revelation 11:18 we see also that it is the time of the reward of “your servants the prophets and the saints, and those who fear your name, small and great”. In fact. looming before the unfolding history, is the day when He, to apply the wording, will “destroy the earth" rather than merely "destroy those who destroy the earth” for indeed (11:9,11,18, 19:9ff.), with the resurrection accomplished and the millenium past (20:1-5), time was brooding when the Judge coming, a new vacancy would appear.
That as John sees it done ?
"The earth and the heaven fled away" (20:11).
Thus destroyed, destroyer and site alike, they go.
The reason for the clearance of this world, what sin obscured, itself is clear in II Peter: for this site will go, both heaven and earth. The ground, then, for the removal of this stricken ground ? "There was no place found for them." (cf. 21:1). Basic reason for that appears in II Peter 3:10-11: "both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." The site is insalubrious, its morals as Sodom increasingly, the scars in its tissues are stricken deep, its follies parade.
What then ? The sores and sorrows past, the unlovely moral, spiritual and aggressive litter of lovelessness past, the evil thumped, then the very ground is dumped. This world goes.
That will be a sad loss and a great gain simultaneously, since its pollutions and inequities provide a cry to heaven, as do its inhumanity, its pathological barbarity, its heedless cruelties and vast pretences and pretensions (II Peter 3).
How sad that so much beauty and wonder of creative magnificence should go … and yet, it has been cursed and this aspect is now coming to the fore (Romans 8:18ff.). After all, if you own a beautiful picture of some magnificent artist, and he has plenty more to provide, do you weep too much when one is lost, when many more are to come ? Thus there is to be a new heaven and a new earth (Rev. 20-21). But in the meantime, we live on this one, and so let us be worthy of our Christian calling to be saints (cf. Romans 1:1ff., I Cor. 1:1ff., II Cor. 1:1ff., Eph. 1), and act like it.
Does this mean perfection : far from it (as in Philippians 3), but IT DOES MEAN the uttermost surrender to the word and will of God, as our rule and guide; and since Christ is resurrected, it means KNOWING GOD, as one knows a friend. After all, THIS IS eternal life, that you should know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent (John 17:1-3). As to the rewards of His servants, the chief of these is precisely that accorded, in principle to Abraham of whom it was said by the Lord Himself: “I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward” … What better reward than Himself!
“Whom have I in heaven but You,” asked the Psalmist (73), declaring this: “and there is none on earth whom I desire on earth beside You!” It is only then, when the heart is so placed, that more may be found, added from His people. It is when such is the solitary place of majesty given to the Lord in one’s heart (as in the testing of Abraham - Genesis 22), that this can be.
It is He, God who so loved that He sent from eternity His only begotten Son as a sacrifice for sin and the paragon of life; it is God who so came that He might redeem, as that very Son; and it is the Spirit of God who inhabits the hearts of His people, and brings the power and peace of God to their hearts. Sender, Sent and Spirit, He is one God, magnificent in majesty. As in Isaiah 48:16, He is all three, ONE in being, THREE in persons who displays His grand splendour in this effulgence.
And now, commencing a new series, we look from the denouement at the end, to the ways towards it, which do not change.
THE ENDURING PRINCIPLES OF THE LORD
OVERARCHING TIME - John 17
It seems good this morning, to open in this very terminal truth time, an account of what applies at ALL times, and having noted above that eternal life which is knowing God and Jesus Christ, the resurrected Prince of Peace, whom He sent, to move to the commencement of our look at John 17. We shall find
I CHRIST'S PREPARATION
FINISHED
AND HIS SAVING ACTION ACCOMPLISHED
John 17:1-5.
Just as we have been seeing how it will end, now we consider how it proceeds, and what He did so that our procedure is not problematic, but assured through His finished work and its donation to us.
First, for whom has He effectively acted ? Is it not for His own! How many were lost from those called to be with Him ? for many are called, but few are chosen. He lost but one, that man a devil as noted in John 6:70, known from early times, and shown often enough in his stealing from the bag (John 12:3). Here incidentally, you see at once one of the principles of the kingdom of heaven. It is not all about thrift and avoiding expenditure, making one's pile.
The occasion of Judas' exposure came when Mary of Bethany, near the time of Christ's death on the Cross, duly foreseen, poured out a large amount of precious perfume on Him. For this she was criticised by Judas. TO THE POOR, he declared, this priceless gift should have been given, presumably so that sold, its proceeds could give them sustenance. NOT SO! said Christ. The poor are always with you, and "she has done this for the day of My burial." In other words, socialism lacks heart and principle, is diffuse, has people as it topic, instead of site for its application, and even Christian socialism has all sorts of people in a Christian setting, ruling the roost in their needs. It does not have God ruling the souls and the minds and the affairs, but people as the interpreter, many unconverted.
Socialism has man managing, and his opinion rule; Christianity has God managing, and people - those served from, through, in and with Him, at His will and command. It has a centre, a pivot, an active Lord who brooks no dilution and has no aggregate control over Him, His authority or His will in this present world, the Church is sent on mission, by His commission, and however much it must be purged and delivered from devilish doctrines such as Peter predicted would flourish near the end of the Age (II Peter 2), it is totally dedicated to God.
There are values which come from the very nature of God, things without price which MUST NEVER be surrendered. Thus the will of God, which for Christ incarnate, is not an economic resultant or a social consequence, is a divine directive, putting spiritual things above carnal, and truth above fiction, the feet of His people always shod with the Gospel of grace and peace.
Of those who were believers, not deceivers (for HOW could Judas believe in Him whom he betrayed, or kiss Him in order to show them whom to arrest at night, while believing!), NONE was lost.
II CHRIST' S PEOPLE DEFINED John 17:3, 6
WHO were these ? Christ defines them. They were those whom Christ Himself, given authority to bestow eternal life on those given to Him (John 17:2), had so granted. In other words (verse 3), they had come to KNOW God and Jesus Christ whom He had sent from eternity to time. Now that His work on earth was at its end, Christ sought that glory once more which He had forsaken for His task of salvation, that He might return after the horror of the Cross and the triumph of the resurrection, to His place.
For His people whom He had saved, He had this identification. He had manifested, shown, made known the name of God to them, His character, power and glory. They were those known by God from before time (Ephesians 1:4), to be saved, and they had been given to Him, the Christ. These are they who REALISE that all that the Father has given Christ is indeed divine, the will and word of God (v. 7). They, for all their slowness at times or error, have kept the word of God, not thrown it out, not devalued it, but embraced it.
More than this, the WORDS of God they have been given, even those commanded from the Father for Christ to utter (as in John 12:48-50), and they HAVE RECEIVED them. This has been no automatic action, but one from the heart BECAUSE they have become absolutely convinced that Christ Jesus has come FROM God, and have BELIEVED that the Father sent Him. Whatever this world does, these are His people.
Small wonder then that 24 elders as in Revelation 11, were so ecstatic, enthralled when the shaft of light showed to them that now the end of the action was coming like an express train, and the day of waiting was coming to its sunset. Remember their words ?
“The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms
of our Lord and of His Christ,
and He shall reign forever and ever!”
Why be concerned at the kingdoms of this world ? Some seem to dwell in them and their economic developments, their engineering works, their share prices, their take-overs of companies or countries, their wars, their interests, their enslavements and grossness; but while we not are taken OUT of this world but left IN it, the world is never to be in our hearts. We are to use it to His glory, NOT to be used by it.
To be saved by Christ to His service and side is worth more than anything and all that this world, His fallen creation, can offer.
Consider then that day when all those kingdoms, aborted in their own pollutions, become in the millenial glory following Christ's return, as in Psalm 2 and Isaiah 11, Revelation 11 and 20, the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. NOW "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the mountains cover the sea." THESE are HIS people and then THIS is no more a world of test but of fulfilment, and the battles Christ fought and won, not yielding to temptation, become foundational to the world of His glory.
Before this world goes, and after He has shown His glory, His righteousness in THIS world, there is another rebellion as in Revelation 20; but that done, the world has finished its course. It is dismissed, dispensed with, its task complete. Gone then is this platform for faith and this site of judicious testing, not only of people, but of principles and ideas, which die before His life, just as He died to give us life. His righteousness and His salvation remain (Isaiah 51:6).
Let us then live this live in terms of the knowledge of Him and the delight in His principles, immovable, abounding in the work of the LORD by FAITH!