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 Sermon > Lecture Messages |
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Title |
Revelation Lectures(96) - Revelation Lectures (96) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Revelation 22:6-10 |
Date |
2009-05-08 |
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Scripture
Revelation 22:6-10
[11] "Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy; and let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy."
[12] "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is very close to the end of the Lecture on Revelation.
The phrase that stands out throughout this more-than-100 lecture series which you should clearly remember is the "end time of the world."
Human beings will not "be fruitful and multiply" forever. Nor will the civilizations of this world last forever.
The history of human beings, which began in the providence of God, surely has its end, and the end is drawing very near.
God wants the warnings about this end time to be preached to the whole world.
It is so that people can clearly understand the will of God and prepare themselves to welcome the Lord.
No matter how desperately evangelists warn people of the end time, however, not all of them who hear will comprehend it.
Daniel 12:10 says, "Many will be purged, purified and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; and none of the wicked will understand, but those who have insight will understand."
Those who pursue goodness can understand the will of God when they listen to the word being preached and they will depart from sin to purify their hearts.
Such people are those who have wisdom / sagacity.
On the other hand, those who cling to evil don't understand even when they hear the word of God.
They continue as usual, committing acts of evil and steadily becoming more and more evil.
As the black gets blacker, and the white, gets whiter; the gap between the flesh and the spirit becomes wider and wider.
Tonight's scripture, Revelation 22:11, explains the polarization between the evil and the righteous at the end time of the world.
Revelation 22:11 says, "Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy."
Even if the believers preach the will of God, those who won't listen will continue in the wrong and remain in the filth.
God even gave His one and only begotten Son to save sinners.
However, it is up to the freewill given each of us whether we receive the salvation or not.
God will not make those who will not believe and will not obey become righteous by force.
Rather, He makes His people keep preaching the Gospel, and gives the grace of salvation to those who repent.
However, no matter how many times people hear the Gospel, unless they accept it, God cannot save them.
God has no other choice but to let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, be filthy.
What does it mean by "doing wrong"?
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God."
Further, these wrong doings may develop into filthy things.
"Filthy things" refer the things that cause a person to abandon decency in pursuit of an immoral and prodigal life style.
For example, regarding immorality, there are immoralities that outrage humanity. These are things we don't even want to discuss.
It is to commit things that are so unclean and shocking that virtually all people will look down on them.
Such things belong to filthy things within the scope of immoralities.
As for another example A [lesser] example would be when jealousy goes extreme. It becomes a 'filthy thing'.
The heart of jealousy that conceives acts of evil toward others from the jealousy is itself already a 'wrong doing'.
Some people become so jealous that they will try to destroy others by any means necessary.
You may find such people in history. Women in the royal court became jealous of others and practiced sorcery.
They shot arrows into others portraits, or stuck dolls of others' images with needles. They tried to destroy others even by depending on the evil spirits.
Such acts of dispelling curses also belong to 'filthy things'.
There is a point when wrongful thoughts and deeds go beyond a limit, and become filthy things that should not be tolerated by any conscience (of decency).
Dear brothers and sisters.
As the world comes close to its end, the unrighteousness and lawlessness become more rampant, and they spread to others more quickly.
Things that people used to be so ashamed not decades ago, but just a few years ago, are things that people are not ashamed of today and even openly flaunted today.
When people come across with such filthy actions once or twice, what they see and hear becomes planted in their hearts and minds
Then, their conscience becomes desensitized and the evil things are no longer shocking. In fact they themselves can become stained by them and follow them.
When they keep company with friends who are bad, it is only a matter of time before children raised in goodness become evil as well.
When they see the bad friends hit, speak bad words, and steal, at first they are shocked and it scares them.
However, as time goes by, it becomes commonplace to them, even though they are conscience-stricken at first, they will imitate the actions of bad friends and do evil things as well.
After they repeat it a couple of times, then even the pangs of conscience disappear.
They soon easily use foul language, hit others, and boldly steal what belongs to others.
It is the same with grown-ups.
If they repeatedly watch and listen to the unrighteousness and lawlessness in the world, which is full of sin and evil, they gradually fall deeper and deeper into sin.
Nowhere in the world can a clean place be found.
In this world there are people who desperately seek God out of the goodness in their consciences.
Revelation 18:4 says, "I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues."
Even in this sinful world today God meets those who seek Him.
God helps them stay in the Light, and keep themselves so that they can enter into heaven.
The latter part of Revelation 22:11 is the explanation about such people who believe in God and cast off sin.
It says, "Let the one who is righteous, still practice righteousness; and the one who is holy, still keep himself holy."
"The righteous" refer to those who believe the word of God, obey the word, and practice the word.
"The holy" refer to those who not only practice the word but also completely change.
They are those who separate themselves from the world, accomplish the word, and have achieved what belongs to the truth.
Such righteous and holy people are different in depth.
It is like, among those who accomplished, the people of whole spirit are different from the people of spirit.
When people exceed the level of obeying the word, which is the level of righteousness, and accomplish everything that belongs to all the aspects of the truth, they can be called 'holy.'
To the extent you understand every word of God while practicing the word, you resemble the heart and characters of the Lord by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
As you resemble the heart and characters of the Lord, the words you speak and the actions you take become elegant and dignified.
You will be equipped with the knowledge of goodness and the discipline of the Lord, and thus no one can ever find you speaking or acting with impropriety
And you can receive the wisdom of Heaven, and act according to a given situation no matter whom you meet and what situation you are in.
1 Peter 1:15-16 says, "But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.""
God desires you to be righteous, and furthermore, to become holy.
In this sinful world, however, you cannot live in holiness by your will alone.
You cannot live set apart from the world just because you hate sin and evil.
Even if you didn't want to, you've become dull to sin and evil because you can see and hear evil with ease.
Moreover and unfortunately, there are not many churches that point out sin.
Even if a church points out sin, it's not that all of the congregation departs from sin.
They become conscience-stricken when they hear the word, but they don't make up their mind to turn back.
They won't depart from God out of fear of Hell, but they don't cast off sin either. They stay somewhere in the middle between the church and the world.
When feeling troubled in hearts after their sins are pointed out to them, some people move to another church which doesn't point out their sins.
Due to this fact, churches are busy reading the faces of the congregation, and they will not point out sins.
Of course, no matter how many times pointed out, those who don't keep themselves, but get stained with the world, remain wrong and filthy.
Even in this reality, you should meditate on the word of God if you want to keep yourself righteous and holy.
And you should also pray without ceasing.
Just as 1 Timothy 4:5 says, "For it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer," you should receive the strength of the Holy Spirit in the word of God and prayers.
Then, when you come to the crossroad of good and evil, you can discern by the Word, and choose the goodness thanks to the prayers.
If you compromise with the unrighteousness of evil at this moment of choice, those who received the Holy Spirit can feel the mourning of the Holy Spirit.
Since they feel troubled in their hearts, they can look back to see what the problem was, and then repent.
If you attend church, and if you don't feel troubled in your heart after choosing and following the way of unrighteousness, then your belief must surely be faulty.
Instead of keeping yourself righteous and holy, you are seriously stained with unrighteous and filthy things.
Even those who once tried to stay away from unrighteousness; if they give in once and twice, the enemy devil and Satan will never lose the opportunity.
Those who used to attend all kinds of services come to attend only Sunday and Friday Services. They often attend Sunday Morning Service only.
They begin to miss prayer meetings once then twice, and then they eventually cease praying.
Since they don't have fullness, they miss their cell- or group-meetings. Even if they are pressured to attend, they make troubles for others and harbor ill-feelings.
Then, they do fewer things that belong to the spirit, and instead they begin to take in the worldly things.
They take back up what they seemed to have cast off when they had fullness.
As they fall into the world like this, if they catch a serious diseases or encounter trials, it will be rather fortunate.
In many cases, however, when they fall into this situation, they don't have strength to turn back. Since they don't have confidence before God, they rather look for the worldly methods.
They may even depart from God completely.
Among you who are listening to this message, I hope there will be none who becomes set apart from the way of life like this.
I urge you to change to become more righteous and holy every day, and to preserve your whole spirit, soul, and body without blame.
Dear brothers and sisters.
There is one more thing you should remember from tonight's scripture.
"Let the one who does wrong, still do wrong; and the one who is filthy, still be filthy." It doesn't mean that you should leave them alone because they will eventually go the way of death.
A church should constantly preach the truth.
Those of you who have received life and have known the truth should preach the gospel both in season and out of season.
Even if they don't listen to you no matter what you do, you should never give up.
Live forever or die forever; for them, it is the matter of eternal life.
You should pray for the souls till the end by faith, and you should preach the gospel again when you have a chance.
Now, feel the heart of Noah who built the ark.
Matthew 24:38-39 says, "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be."
The period when Noah made the ark was not short.
Since the ark had to hold every living thing of all flesh in the earth, just how huge was the ark?
During the long years when Noah built this huge ark, whenever he had spare time, he warned people of the judgment of God that would take place soon.
Even though those days of peace seemed like they would last, Noah knew that the judgment was immediately before them.
But, no one believed what he said.
Matter of fact, they regarded him to be quite strange.
Can you imagine how much Noah's heart must have been burning as the ark was being completed?
In order to make just one man listen to him, enter the ark, and receive salvation, how strongly did he earnestly admonish whomever he met?
However, no matter how loudly he cried, people didn't listen to his words.
When the time came, the flood started, and Noah couldn't cry out any more.
He had no other choice but to close the door of the ark.
You should become a Noah of today, and preach.
Since you believed and entered the ark of salvation beforehand, you should diligently make an effort to lead all the people of the world into this ark of salvation.
Even though there was not a single one who listened to Noah and repented, there are still today many souls who can receive salvation.
Even if they don't accept the Gospel right now, many of them will change when you pray for them and pay attention to them with love.
During this week, how many times did you preach the gospel to others?
How many hours have you prayed each day for the lost souls and for the souls you want to preach the gospel to?
How desperately do you pray from your innermost heart for the world mission and national evangelization?
I hope that you can feel the burning heart of the Lord who desires to save just one more soul before the gate of salvation is shut.
Just like the last boat whistle that blows right before a ship sets sail, your voice should be heard in every corner of the world.
Now, Revelation 22:12 says, "Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done."
In Heaven, each person receives rewards according to what they have done, and the rewards are different from each other.
Some people are not aware of this, and say something totally wrong.
They say, "Where in Heaven are ranks? Everyone is equally God's child, and it is fair to receive the same treatment."
They may say that it is greedy to seek to receive rewards. They may even say it is not right to have such a heart.
But, the will of God is never like that.
As you can find in the Bible, there are surely the great and small.
And there are big rewards and small rewards.
And God wants you to become the greater in Heaven, and to receive the greater rewards.
Let me tell you an example.
Say, parents make a promise to their children.
"If you receive a grade of B at midterm, I will buy you a play station. If you get an A, then I will buy you a new PC. If you get A+, let's go on a trip to Europe for summer vacation."
They are making a graded promise.
However, what the parents truly wish is for their children to get A+.
Since they wish all their loving children to study well, they make a promise. They want all their children to receive promised rewards.
If the children understand this heart of the parents, they become grateful to their parents and try hard to get better grades.
Not because they want to get rewards, but because they understand the love of their parents, they want to give them something back for their love.
Now, there are different kinds of children.
They say, "We don't study to get something from you. I will study just as much as I want to. I don't care if I don't receive such rewards." They don't pay much attention to their parents promise.
Since they seem to have no greed for anything, and they don't demand something from their parents, they appear sensible and wise.
In fact, however, they don't understand the heart of their parents. They don't even accept their love.
How heavily are the parents burdened when they see such children?
It is the same with the heart of God the Father.
Since God loves us so much, He made a promise of abundant rewards.
He taught all of us how to receive such rewards, and He wishes all of us to receive great rewards.
He desires us to look forward to the promise and walk the road to Heaven with joy.
If someone insists that the glory and ranks are equal for all the people in Heaven, and the rewards are the same as well, without knowing such a heart of God, he is the one who makes God sad.
He makes even others misunderstand the will of God so that they don't receive good rewards.
And thus, even if he is saved and received salvation, he cannot become but the least in Heaven.
Hebrews 11:6 says, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him."
Please bear in mind the promise of God who repays each one according to what he has done.
By doing so, I urge you to receive abundant rewards that God has prepared and to become pleasure to God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
1 Corinthians 9:25 says, "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable [one]."
It is not an easy job to accomplish sanctification with hope for an invisible heaven.
However, if you believe in a Heaven and hope for Heaven, and also truly understand the love of God, sanctification is not so difficult.
Once Apostle Paul saw Heaven, he was not afraid of any afflictions of the world.
He didn't see New Jerusalem, but Paradise. But that alone made him full of hope for heaven that helped him overcome the world.
Better off than living in a royal court as a son of a princess, Moses chose to receive trials along with the people of God.
It's because he was certain how huge reward God would give to him.
This reward is not perishable but eternal. It is more glorious than any other rewards in the world.
You know well the story of a rich man and Lazarus the beggar.
If you compare their lives only in this earth, the life of the rich man is surely look blessed.
However, the result is completely the opposite.
It is hundred times better to live as a beggar in the earth and go to Heaven than to live rich in the earth and to go to Hell.
Besides, the gospel of sanctification you hear is the word that is so powerful to change even the miserable life of a beggar.
It makes you not only enjoy the glory of Heaven, but also make you prosper in all aspects just as you spirit and soul prosper and give glory to God to the fullest in the earth.
The Bible says, "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for star differs from star in glory (1 Cor 15:41)."
Those who completely believe the word and obey will receive all the promised rewards, but those who obey less, will receive less.
I hope that, since you are given your life just once, you will wise enough to invest all you have in the glory of the sun.
May you confess, "I truly did the right thing. I really chose the blessed way" at the last moment of your life, and give praises of thanks to God forever and ever, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
[Amen] |
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