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 Sermon > Lecture Messages |
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Title |
Revelation Lectures(49) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Revelation8:6-13 |
Date |
2007-12-28 |
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Revelation 8:4-12
[4] And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand.
[5] Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
[6] And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.
[7] The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
[8] The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,
[9] and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.
[10] The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters.
[11] The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.
[12] The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
I'm back from my 3rd mission trip to Israel.
I now have finished the 3 visits to Israel that God commanded this year.
I give thanks all the brothers and sisters who supported me with sincere prayers and offerings.
The prayers and offerings that you made for the kingdom of God will surely bear its fruit.
The kingdom of God will be expanded and you will receive blessings in spirit and body.
Since God is spirit, however, what you offer to God can be brought before God only when it's spiritual.
For example, when you pray before God, God doesn't just listen to the voice of your prayer.
God also receives the incense of your heart.
Of course, the prayer that contains the beautiful incense of heart is graceful and inspirational when heard.
However, when you give prayers before God, it is the angels that take the incense of your heart that is contained in the prayers before God.
The same applies to praises.
Also when you give offerings to God, what matters is your heart and sincerity of the offerings.
That's why the bible put more emphasis on with what kind of heart a man is giving offerings than how much he offers.
2 Corinthians 9:7 says, "Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."
In sum, whatever you sow and do in this earth will be brought before God as the incense of heart.
On the Last Judgment Day, all the incense that you offered up to God while being cultivated on this earth will be settled.
And the rewards will be different according to the settlement.
That's why God tells you to offer spiritual faithfulness.
When you go to the heavenly kingdom there are no rewards for the deeds that are done only to be noted by others.
In addition, all the prayers and confession you have made before God will be recorded and kept.
And the answers you received and the glory you gave to God will also be recorded.
All of these will be the evidences on the Last Judgment Day.
Therefore, not only the deeds you have don on this earth but also the words you've spoken and the thoughts you've had will never vanish.
They will be either standards for the rewards you will receive, or evidences for the punishment.
I hope that you will give prayers, words, and deeds that can become only the beautiful incense before God.
I pray in the name of the Lord that all the incense that piled up will be given back to you as beautiful rewards in heaven.
Dear brothers and sisters.
The verse of tonight's scripture says, "Then the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake."
The censer in this verse is used for a different purpose from the censer that is used to put the prayers of saints.
It is the censer that an angel puts in disasters.
The actual 7 Year Great Tribulation finally begins at this point, and it all takes place under the permission of God.
Of course it doesn't mean that God gives an order for disasters one by one, nor does it mean that He himself has a hand in them.
However, those angels who bring down the disasters of the 7 Year Great Tribulation; they work only under the permission of God.
And also, Lucifer and all the evil spirits that control the world during the 7 Year Great Tribulation are actually under the supervision of God.
Therefore, when tonight's scripture says, "the angel took the censer and filled it with the fire of the altar, and threw it to the earth," it means the angel brings down the disasters under the permission of God.
'The fire' means 'the judgment.' When the fire was thrown to the earth, there were 'thunders and lightning and an earthquake.'
Now, let's take a close look at the disasters that come to this earth when the angels sound the trumpets.
The verse 7 says, "The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up."
Eventually there is the appearance of nuclear weapons in warfare.
There are many nuclear weapons; atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, neutron bombs, and so on.
When a nuclear weapon explodes, a mushroom cloud appears.
At the explosion, moisture and nuclear materials ascend in the atmosphere. When they meet with cold air, they become hail that falls back down to the ground.
The dust polluted by nuclear materials is carried away by wind, and covers the whole area.
Apostle John saw this explosion in his vision 2,000 years ago, and he described what he saw as 'there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth.'
When you see bullets, artillery rounds, or missiles in the darkness, they look red.
When they fall down from the sky like a shower, they look like hail mixed with blood.
As I may explain in the next lecture, today's scripture is talking about the situation that the World Powers are entangled with each other and finally use nuclear weapons.
When one nation attacks with a nuclear weapon, the other nation counter-attacks with a nuclear weapon response.
Due to this nuclear war, 'a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up.'
Dear brothers and sisters.
Imagine this situation.
Last year alone, many places of the world suffered from great disasters due to terrible fires.
If you take a look at the pictures that are taken from satellites, you can see how terrible they were.
Due to these fires, there have been countless victims, and the economic loss was also great.
Compared to the disasters of the 7 Year Great Tribulation written in tonight's scripture, however, what you saw is nothing.
'A third of the whole earth was burned up.' It's a terrible disaster beyond your imagination.
And the fire is not just normal fire. It is a conflagration due to nuclear explosions. Therefore, the misery of the situation is beyond description.
Not only pain caused by fires, but also the radioactive contamination will kill countless people and other living creatures.
The sky will be so dark that not even a ray of light can be seen. Not even a drop of water can be found. A situation that you will never able to imagine will take place.
A third of the earth will be ruined.
But this is the situation which will take place as only the first trumpet is sounded.
Then the second, third, and fourth trumpets, and so on as the trumpets are sounded one by one.
But it doesn't mean that the second trumpet will be sounded only after the first trumpet is sounded, and third one after the second.
In other words, the incidents of tonight's scripture are not recorded successively.
When the first trumpet is sounded, nuclear weapons are used, and because of this, a third of the earth is devastated. The sea is not an exception.
The verses 8 & 9 say, "The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed."
Here, 'something like a great mountain burning with fire' refers to a flying missile or a rocket.
It has a sharp mouth that looks like a peak of a mountain, and flames come from the rear.
Apostle John described it as a great mountain burning with fire.
These missiles and rockets will explode when they hit a target, but they can be also intercepted in the middle.
They may collide with other missiles or rockets fired by opposing sides.
Such strategy and technology has long since been developed.
Before an enemy's missile hits a target, you can fire a missile and intercept the enemy's missile in the middle.
And in many cases, you intercept the missile over a sea.
However, if the enemy's missile or a rocket carries nuclear materials or biochemical weapons in it, when it explodes over a sea, whatever it carries will also fall down to the sea.
In this case, the sea will also face great loss.
In addition, such things as oil tankers or large ships in the sea become targets of the enemy.
Not long ago, an oil tanker collided with another ship, and vast amount of oil was spilled into the sea.
Due to this accident, there have been terrible losses on the west coast areas of Korea.
Likewise, when oil tankers or large ships are hit, they will sink under the sea and it will pollute the sea.
The scripture says, "a third of the ships were destroyed." How much oil and other various pollutants will be spilled from them?
Because of this, the sea will have a color of blood.
And a third of living creatures in the sea will die; this is unimaginable disaster.
Next, the third trumpet is sounded.
The verses 10 & 11 say, The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters. The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter."
When warfare goes to extremes, people won't be able to measure what's going to happen.
Since they think, 'If we lose this war, everything is over,' when the situation goes unfavorable against them, they will take the final step.
One of those steps is use of biochemical weapons.
Some of them are so fatal that they are strictly prohibited by international treaties. But the people will use such deadly weapons as well.
When Apostle John saw such a biochemical weapon fly in the sky, he described it as a great star burning like a torch.
That's because the flame from the missile in the rear may look like a torch when it hits a target,
Likewise, missiles that carry biochemical weapons will fall on rivers and springs of waters.
Here, 'the springs of waters' refer to reservoirs, lakes, or dams where water is stored.
In this situation, people cannot drink water any more.
But the extreme thirst will drive some people to drink even the polluted water - even though they know the water is polluted - and they will eventually die in great pain.
To human beings, water is life.
If one third of waters of the earth are polluted like this, how many people do you think will die?
As such miserable conditions are taking place on the surface of the earth, an angel sounds the fourth trumpet.
The verse 12 says, "The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way."
Just as one third of everything in the land, the sea, and the waters are destroyed, the wars in this time around are terrible.
How many bombs such as nuclear bombs and biochemical bombs do you think will be exploded?
The entire atmosphere is polluted. And due to the pollutants, it will become like a think fog covering the world.
Many places won't be able to see a ray of the sun even during the day. Even if they can, it's so little.
It's even more difficult to see the moon or stars at night.
And this situation doesn't just last for a couple of days.
It may become a month or two, or in some extreme places, it may last more than a year.
To avoid such endless disasters, the survivors will leave for a place to try to continue to exist.
And the places where people have left will become a land of death where no living thing can be found.
That's because the places will be devastated that not only a man or an animal, but also a grass or a tree can survive there.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Can you truly imagine the situations that I just explained to you?
There are many movies that deal with the last day of the world.
Some of you will remember the scenes of those movies and try to imagine what I explained to you.
However, the 7 Year Great Tribulation is not a movie, but a reality.
It's not like a movie that you can watch enjoying a bucket of popcorn in your hand.
The fact is that, once you fall into such a situation, the possibility is close to zero for you to survive like a hero of the movie you remember.
Of course, there will be some people who will survive even in that situation.
But they are terrified and in great fear not knowing when they will die.
They will live lives that seem as through they are no alive even though they are alive.
In addition, there will be persecutions and torments to make believers deny the Lord.
Then, they will rather beg to die, saying 'Just kill me.'
What I'm telling you is not a fiction that I made up. It's not a situation that will take place in the not so distant future.
But it's your choice whether you believe it or not.
I sincerely hope that none of you who are listening to this message will fall into this situation and regret later.
I urge you to make a decision at this moment right now.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will never have anything to do with the 7 Year Great tribulation.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
Just as you have heard, when the actual 7 Year Great Tribulation begins, unimaginable calamities will be upon this earth over and over.
The earth, the sea, and the waters will die, and grasses, trees, animals, and even people will also die; one third of this world will be destroyed.
But this is not the end.
The fifth, sixth, and the seventh trumpets will be sounded continuously.
While such a terrible tragedy takes place in this world, what is happening up in the heavens?
Those children of God who are caught up into the air are having a wedding banquet with the Lord.
They are tasting the ultimate happiness that cannot be compared with anything of the world.
A minute or even a second seems too long to the people in the earth.
But to the people who are participating in the wedding banquet, even the 7 years seem to be a passing moment.
But, only the noises of bomb explosions, fighters, tanks, and the screams, wailing and mourning of people are heard on the earth.
But there are praises and laughing out in joy and happiness coming from the wedding banquet that is held every day.
On the earth it's hard to find some thing to eat or clean water to drink.
But at the wedding banquet, there is the best of foods and exotic drinks the like of which cannot be found anywhere else.
The stinking smell of gunpowder, the foul smell of fires, and various other stenches sting the nostrils on the earth.
But in the wedding banquet, wherever you go, beautiful sceneries fascinate your eyes, and sweet and fresh breezes will tickle your nose.
In this earth, you believe nobody; even your family or a friend. You must be on alert all the time.
But in the wedding banquet, you will share love with the Lord, the shepherd, the forefathers of faith, and many other brothers and sisters in faith.
In addition to these, the 7 Year Great Tribulation of this earth and the 7 Year Wedding banquet have so many differences.
Actually, any attempt at comparison in itself has no meaning.
Which one of these incomparable situations you will choose is completely up to you.
Dear brothers and sisters.
Now, we are standing in a very important moment of welcoming a new year.
It must not be just another year that comes after this year. I hope that you will welcome the next year as a very precious one.
When the New Year is around, people are busy making new decisions or plans for the New Year.
Now, while preparing for the New Year, what kind of resolution and plans do you have?
I hope that you will first set up a spiritual goal in your faith.
When you diligently run for the goal, other fleshly things will also be accomplished.
That is the true and spiritual blessing.
Through this Lecture on Revelation, I hope that you are spiritually awake all the more, and pass the gates toward the better heaven.
And I also hope that you will conclude the last few days of this year.
I sincerely hope that you will welcome the New Year that is full of joy, hope, and happiness.
May the peace that the Father God gives to you, and limitless grace that the Holy Spirit pours on you be upon all of you, in the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
Amen |
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