Materialism – Pleasing Myself Not God

WOLFL-2024-18

Transcript

Okay, here’s the Roman Catholic Church, here’s the plenary, you know that word plenary? In a conference there are plenary sessions, that means everybody’s there. So, this is a plenary indulgence. What’s an indulgence? They believe in the treasury of merits and that if you’re a saint, all of your extra goodness that you had to get to Heaven, goes into a bank, treasury of merit. And when you go to confessions or when you go to any of those things, you get a little boost from that bank from the extra righteousness of the saints, which is amazing.

By the way, that’s just one of seven reasons why I’m not a Roman Catholic. And this is what I tell the people next to me on the airplane. I always say, oh there’s several reasons that I’m Catholic and not Roman Catholic. Number one, because of the mass, what is the mass? They take a piece of bread, flour and water and salt, unleavened. A priest will take it, and he goes like this, hoc est enim corpus meum. Now he says a lot more. He’s singing, he chants it and everything. Hoc est enim corpus meum. Hoc- this. Corpus- body. Est- is. Meum- my. This is my body. That’s the Vulgate for what Jesus said. This is my body which is broken for you. What the Catholics have been taught is, more Latin, ex opere operato, which means out of the operation comes the operation, which you know what that means? If you just take that and lift it and say those words, it turns into the body of Jesus Christ. Do you know what Mass is? You’re actually getting the body of Jesus that a priest, by quoting four Latin words, changed from flour, water, and salt, to the body of Jesus. That’s what the Mass is. They call it a bloodless sacrifice. That Jesus was crucified again, right then, when he does that.

Have you ever heard the English term, Hocus Pocus? You ever heard that? Like in Disney movies, where they go, Hocus Pocus, what does that mean? They’re doing a little hocus pocus. Where does that come from? For centuries in Europe, every child had to go to Catholic Church, and they stood there, and they saw a guy in a robe go hoc est enim corpus meum, and he changed something they knew into something supernatural. That’s the term Hocus Pocus. They just didn’t say all the words.

That’s what Romanism is. It’s this whole system that was devised around Mary as the, you know what she’s called by the Pope you just saw? The co-mediatrix. What is mediatrix? It’s a female mediator. A female mediator. Remember Semiramis? Remember the, Queen of Heaven and all that. They’ve got to have, to go with everything, you’ve got to have a female co-mediatrix. So, Jesus needs Mary. Then you have tradition. All the tradition, which is all the candles and beads and prayers and schedule. Lent. Lent is not in the Bible; it’s a tradition they got. Sacraments, purgatory. Purgatory is from Maccabees. Where it says we’ll offer prayers for the dead and then just paganism.

So, let’s instead of talking about the error, let’s talk about the truth. What does Jesus say in Matthew 7? Remember longest sermon, first sermon, how to get in the kingdom. How to please God. Sermon on the Mount. His second sermon, just about as long, is about the future which we’re looking at.

Jesus said in Matthew 7, there’s a wide road, which we would call religion. There’s the narrow road, which He called salvation. If you’re on the wide road, you’re born, headed toward death. If you’re on the narrow road, you’re headed to life. If you’re on the wide road, you’ve got a lot of company. If you’re on the narrow road, Jesus said, few find it. Many are going the wrong way. Remember the canoe thing I told you? You get turned around and they’re all saying, you’re going the wrong way. On the wide road you trust in your human achievement. That’s all religions. You’re knocking on doors or doing the five pillars of Islam or following the sacramental thing. True believers rest.

Now look at the difference. Human achievement is what I do. Divine accomplishment is what Jesus, once and for all, accomplished. Really different. Totally different. My salvation is by my works, and I hope I can out balance my bad stuff. And Romanism says, but if you don’t there’s a place you can go and to purgatory and you still can make it. Isn’t that a great deal? So, you can live like you want and die and then go that place and burn off the stuff and still make it to Heaven. You have the best of both worlds. See what Satan, his lie, that is now the largest form of Christianity in the world. The other side is salvation is by grace. It’s a gift we don’t deserve, and we can’t pay for. And it’s only received, not by trying harder, but by faith. That you reach out by faith.

The wide road, religion, is the heart of all religions. That’s why the Pope can find commonality with everybody. There is no religious group on Earth that has not found a way to the Pope at Assisi. There’s all religions have that human merit thing, earning your own way. But salvation, neither is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which you must be saved, right? Ephesians, I mean, Acts 4:12. What is that? That’s divine revelation. Salvation is only coming from extra terrestrially from outside this world from God in this message. We call His Word, the Bible. I was born on the broad way, that old way. I have to be born a second time to be on the new way. I do nothing to go to Hell. Just follow your instincts. But I have to call on the name of the Lord to get onto the narrow way. On the broad way I have to pay in full for my sins. On the narrow way, my sins were already paid in full by Christ. And that’s why I was telling someone on the break, they have a friend who’s not sure if they’re saved, they think they lost their salvation. I said, if I lose my mug, see my mug? Did you know if I lose it, do you know what that means? Something very clear. I had it at one time. You can’t lose something you didn’t have. If you find someone that has lost their salvation, you have a great beginning with them. You find out what they had, and then you find what’s defective in their understanding of what they had. Usually, it’s in one of two areas. Either they don’t understand justification, Christ becoming sin for us, or they don’t understand sanctification, the whole process of me through grace, denying ungodliness. So, the broad way, you do nothing, you go with the flow, you end up thrown in the lake of fire. The narrow way you listen to God’s Word, you believe, you call out, you reach out to the One that’s an arm’s length away. You have a change of mind, and by faith you get forever forgiven and secure.

Did you know people are really looking for this? I was on my way, marking my Bible to speak at a conference. I got on an airplane, a Delta flight. There were six people on the airplane. Two of them were up flying it. Two of them were in the back running all the food and drink cart, and two passengers. For a while, there were only five of us on the plane, me and them. I was the only person. And it was because they were flying it out of Tulsa, where they repair planes, going to Cincinnati, where they take repaired planes. And so, I was so excited, I had all my stuff spread out on my, ready for us to take off. And just before they closed the door, [a man] came, and guess where they seated him? On the other side of the aisle from me, in the exit row. So, I slightly turned in my chair, because I didn’t want to talk to him.

Soon as we were off, I got all the, I put all the trays down, put my Bibles and my pens, and my notebook, and I was studying away. And as soon as we took off, he reached up and went, [errr], with that little button they push. And the stewardess, both of them came and said, can we help you? He said, yes, could I have one of those little three dollar, the alcohol they sell? They’re like syrup bottles that Cracker Barrel, they’re about that big. Downed that thing. I’m working away and studying. [errr] He hit the button again. I want another bottle. Down went another one. After two of those bottles, he got really happy in his seat. And he’s sitting in the middle of the other side and I’m over there studying the Bible, and he says, hey, what are you doing over there? We’re the only ones on the plane. I didn’t turn. I said, I’m studying the Bible. Went right back. He’s over there. He goes; I have a question for you if you study the Bible. So, I put my finger where I was in the Bible and I turned and looked at him and gave him the look like, don’t bother me, leave me alone, you’re drinking too much, I wish I wasn’t sitting across from you. All, I didn’t say any of that, but I felt it.

He said, my Hispanic housekeeper, every time I see her. So, you know what I learned? He’s wealthy, he has a housekeeper that’s always in the house, keeping the house, cooking, watching the kids, so I was telling a lot about his socio-economic status. He says, my Hispanic housekeeper only says one thing to me. Every time she sees me, she says this. And he looked right at me. He said, you, she says to him, you go Hell. I said, what? Now it’s interesting. I looked at him, I said, what? I said, he said, my Hispanic housekeeper says the same thing to me every time she sees me. You go, he said, she doesn’t speak English. He said, that’s all she knows. You go Hell. And I went, that was an easy question. I had my hand on my Bible, and I looked at him, I said, it’s because you are. And I turned right around in my chair and went right back to studying the Bible to get ready for my conference for about 30 seconds, and then I felt it, the Holy Spirit hit me with a baseball bat.

And what I thought is, I’m sitting here, and they seated him next to me, across the aisle. I’m on an airplane where there’s nobody else. I’m on an airplane with a guy that’s scared to die. He’s drinking alcohol as fast as he can because he’s afraid to fly airplanes. He’s afraid he’s going to crash. I’m next to someone that just opened up the deepest, darkest fear of their life, a Hispanic housekeeper that he trusts with his children, his wife, and his everything, who points at him and says, you go Hell. See, she was trying, she was an evangelical Hispanic housekeeper. She tried to lead the people she worked for to Christ. But she didn’t speak English. You don’t have to speak English to witness people. Just say, you go Hell, and they get it. And he said, so I said, wow. I turned after I got hit by the Holy Spirit, and I just undid my seatbelt and came over and sat on the arm of his row and I went through the Roman’s road with him and of course I always pack in my wallet my Gospel tract and I pulled out my Bible. God’s simple plan of salvation and I circled all the verses in it that I just read him. And I got like this…

And by then they got on the microphone said, now put your seats in the most upright and uncomfortable position for landing and put away all your stuff. And so, I said I’ve got to get back to my seat So, I said I’ll just write my name on here, and I said, and this is the Gospel, and I handed him the tract and we [Dr. Barnett makes a sound for a landing plane] down and he was going big game hunting. He’s a wealthy doctor, head of the largest anesthesiological group in the city of one million, where he lived. And he was going off to spend some of his thousands and thousands of dollars a year on big game hunting. And I was going to speak at a conference, and I gave him the tract, and he said, hey, thanks man, and he ran that way, and I ran that way at the Covington Airport in Cincinnati. And I wrote his name in my journal like I always do and started praying for him. His name was Paul. And I’ve prayed for him for a long time.

But I didn’t think any more about it for six months. And I was back at the church where I pastored, with my notes, walking between the two services, checking what I’d made mistakes in the first service, trying to correct them, and someone was here. So, I moved over like this, and kept walking, and they moved over, so I moved back over and never looked up. I kept looking at my notes, and finally he came, and his big smiling face was right there. I said, you’re the guy from the airplane six months ago, he says I am. He said you’re really hard to find. He said you only gave me your name; you didn’t give me an address or anything. He said I’ve been looking for you for six months He said you introduced me to God at 38,000 feet. He said where did you go after the plane? I said I went on my flight. He said you know where, I went around the corner to the first bank of those seats that are screwed to the floor, and he said I got on my knees in the airport, Covington Airport, opened your little tract, read every word of it, at the end, it says, why don’t you just call in the name of the Lord? And he says right there by the bank of seats, I called in the name of the Lord. He said, so does that mean you’re my dad? Spiritual father? I said, it sure does. And he actually came back to one of our baptismal services and stood next to me, and gave that same testimony to the whole church, and said, your pastor, finally, paid attention to me, and let me meet God at 38,000 feet.

Roman Catholics down deep have about 98 percent true doctrine. They just don’t understand salvation. They think they have to earn their way, and that’s Satan’s lie. And you have to show them they shouldn’t go their own way; they should go God’s way.

This though is one of the hardest lessons to give. So, those of you that are uncomfortable about convicting things, you can go back to shopping or whatever you do when you’re uncomfortable. But chapter 18 in the book of Revelation is about the lie of Satan that is ensnaring most Christians. They’re not in the religion thing. Most of them know that’s wrong. They want to be saved by Christ’s death. But they’ve succumbed to the other lie of Satan. Which is pleasing myself, not God.

Now, I was a youth pastor. We used to have a little chant that we taught our youth group. We’d always go, only two choices on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self. And they would all march to the dining hall, these kids. Only two choices on the shelf, pleasing God or pleasing self. I’m not sure whether it ever settled into them, but they were chanting Revelation 18’s message.

Now, where we are is right here. The red block there is the Tribulation of God’s wrath. And just before Jesus returns, that’s the white arrow in chapter 19, which is the next chapter. From Heaven, He points out to John, Satan’s two most dangerous viruses.

Now, this lesson is hard because we’re bridging three parts of Revelation. We’re going to see at the end of this hour, if I ever finish, in chapter 19, the church in Heaven, we’re going to see the ending of the Tribulation. That’s chapter 18. And then we’re going to see the Second Coming of Christ. That’s the second half of chapter 19. And all that I have to do in 40, 32 minutes.

So, here we go. Here’s the overview. Lost humanity wants comfort, entertainment, and possessions more than God. That’s really what humanity is like. God calls that the idolatry of covetousness.

Do you remember what the 10th command is of the Ten Commandments? Don’t covet your neighbor’s house, or his wife, your neighbor’s wife, or his ox, or his donkey, or his, and it goes right down the list. Don’t covet. What does that mean? That you want to have what he has that you don’t have. You know what I just described to you? Advertising! I just smiled. When I was a little boy, every advertisement was about toothpaste. And everybody wanted to have that orthodontic, perfect toothed, white smile. And so, it was just toothpaste ads after toothpaste ads. And of course, all the smilers were either perfectly healthy, muscular boys, or perfectly, tan, blonde girls. And they had this perfect white teeth smile. You know what it was? All of us would go home and go like that in the mirror and we’d go, boy, my teeth are not that color. I want that toothpaste.

See, it’s the idea that you want something you don’t have. And it becomes so strong, God calls it, the idolatry of covetousness. How does it become idolatry? Because it pushes God out of the way. I want a job so I can earn enough money to get that car. I want a job to earn enough money to get those shoes or those clothes or that house. I have a house, but I want a bigger house. I want a house closer to the water. I want to house up the mountain. I want a house, whatever. So, what does God do in chapter 18? He destroys all their possessions and shuts down every pleasure in one moment. It actually says that. In one moment, they’re all gone.

Now look at them side by side. Chapter 17 is Babylon, the great harlot. It’s about religion. It’s this woman riding the beast with seven heads and ten horns. That’s religion paired with Satan. She’s the mother of all harlots and abomination. Religion has killed more Christians than anything else. Communism is a religion. Materialism is a religion. Evolutionism is a religion. And all of them are from Satan. And this woman is drunk. Religion is drunk with the blood of the saints. Now we change gears. Babylon is now not talking about religion. In chapter 18, Babylon is talking about materialism. And now it’s about the kings and the merchants and what they trade in. And the whole chapter is about stuff. And pleasures and everything else.

So, what we have is Satan’s two deadliest offers. In chapter 17 he offers religion, in chapter 18 he offers materialism, and Jesus commented on this in Mark 8. What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, has all the possessions and all the pleasures and all the everything, and loses his soul? And what can you give in exchange for your soul? That’s what religion’s about. Can you do enough to buy your soul back?

What was the blessing to the early church? They were living in a time of great disparity between socio-economic classes. Most of them were poor. Everybody they saw in power was rich and powerful. And so, what they saw here is, instead of spending their life wishing that they could have what all the rich and famous have, they had Jesus. They had endless life. They had forgiveness, and they could live in this dark world with Jesus as all they needed.

And by the way, where they lived, that map, that was the most materialistic, ostentatious part of the Roman Empire. I told you; they have more gigantic temples there than anywhere else in the Roman world. And they were living in the middle of it.

And so, what John, who’s writing Revelation, had already written was a letter to the same area. 1 John chapter 2. And John says, don’t love the world, this whole system of Satan. The things that are in the world, don’t love those either. Because they’re all going to burn up. And so basically this chapter is, are you living for what will never burn up? What are you putting in your cart? Your little Walmart cart that you’re going to dump out in front of Jesus Christ? All of your life you lived with all the sins removed? It’s just what you did that wasn’t sinful. How much of what we did with our time is not going to burn up? That’s what this whole chapter is about.

So, let’s walk through starting in verse 1, after these things I saw another angel coming from Heaven with great authority. Now look at these angels. The Earth was illumined. See, angels exceed anything we can understand. This angel, which is probably one of those that stands in the presence of God, what happened to Moses after just a little time on the mountain? He started glowing. This angel is always facing God, and he glows because look he’s so powerful that it’s just a giant, it’s just like a giant torch coming down and he cries with a loud voice saying Babylon the greatest fallen is fallen has become the dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, a cage for every unclean and hated bird.

Now look at verse 3. All the nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her fornication. What did the Lord say through James in chapter 4? Whoever loves the world becomes God’s enemy and he says, you adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Did you catch what James, the brother of Jesus, the first pastor of the church in Jerusalem, the first New Testament book, what James says to Christians? If you love the world, you’re an adulterer and adulteress from God’s perspective. Look at this verse. Her fornications, the kings of the Earth have committed fornication with her, and with the merchants of the Earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. What it’s saying is, spiritually, to love the world more than God is, in his sight, like sexual immorality. Only it’s the immorality of idolatry. That’s why Paul said, I wrote at the bottom in little letters, Colossians 3:5, therefore put to death your members, which are on the Earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and look at this, covetousness, which is idolatry.

Remember I told you that this is the top shelf of life, that’s where God is, like my pen is like God? Do you know what we do? We keep a lot of stuff on the top shelf. They’re not more important than God, they’re just the same. That’s idolatry. Because what it does is it pushes God out of being the sole, most important. That’s what God is. And things crowd Him out.

By the way, someone said you want to send me a note. You can send me a note on Facebook. That’s my name. You’ll know it’s my page because Bonnie’s face is on my Facebook page. And that’s our YouTube channel. Some of the rest of you asked me about justification and other stuff. I have a video on every one of them.

But Satan’s two deadliest agents are this. Religion, making my own way to God. Materialism, wanting stuff rather than serving God. It’s so simple. And God says don’t love the world, don’t want stuff more than me.

But look what Jesus says. Look at verse 4. And I heard another voice from Heaven saying, come out of her my people. You say, isn’t this just before the Second Coming? Weren’t one-hundred-pound hailstones just dropping? Why is the voice telling somebody to come out of Babylon? What’s interesting is, despite all of Satan’s power, despite all of the Antichrist’s power, people are still getting saved. There are unmarked people, somehow, still living on Earth, number one. That’s first thing. How do we know that? Because the people that survived the Tribulation, that don’t get incinerated at Armageddon, that are believers, are separated, Jesus said. Remember the sheep and the goats judgment Jesus talks about? That’s chapter 25 of Matthew. He separates the sheep from the goats. The goats are killed, and they go to wait final judgment in Matthew 25. He says, depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting punishment. The sheep, he says, inherit my kingdom. Those are the people that begin the population we’re going to see tomorrow, the Millennium. They’re actually people who survived the Tribulation, and they get to go live in that beautiful paradise world. But Jesus, for the people reading Revelation in the second century, for us, living in the 21st century, to the people alive at the end of the Tribulation, look what He says, come out of this, my people, you’re so tempted to live for stuff, to live for pleasure, to live for success and money. Now look, here’s the verse, James wrote, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever then wants to be the friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God.

Satan always wants to tempt us to love the three things that God hates. Look at what John said: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, comes not from the Father, but from Satan, the God of this world. And the world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. Now there’s the key. Born again Christians do the will of God. That’s what Jesus said. He said the judgment to people to say we were Christians and He said you’re not Christians He said because you never did the will of My Father in Heaven. Is that a Gospel presentation you use? Do you know what salvation is? Do you know what you’re offering people? Do your own thing or do God’s thing? Salvation is when you turn from how you were born, going your own way. And you turn by faith. Repentance is a change of mind. You hear a voice, and you say, oh, I believe that. And you turn toward the voice. That change of mind leads to a completely new change of behavior.

What is the lust of the flesh? The cravings of our body, chasing pleasure. And there are all kinds of pleasures. Some people are chasing eating. Some people are chasing, ecstatic experiences, or chasing sexual experiences. Then there’s the lust of the eyes. Most of us, the lust of the flesh, that’s all bad stuff. It’s so clear it’s bad. But the lust of the eyes, this equals the temptation of our eyes chasing stuff. It’s the better phone, it’s the better car, it’s the better clothes, it’s the better house, it’s the better tan, it’s the better teeth. We just chase what we think looks better. And the pride of life is boasting about what we have, which social media has become, everyone’s practiced in curating their image online.

The question comes from verse 3. If everybody is drunk with this, we need to ask ourself, am I a worldly person? That’s a legitimate question from what this verse says. Yes, sir. [Student asks a question: What’s like the difference between jealousy, envy, and covetness?] What’s the difference between jealousy, envy, and covetousness? Jealousy is me not liking that you have something. I’m jealous. And there’s a good side of that because God is jealous. So, there’s a perfect form. Envy is a cousin of that. It’s just envious that you’re, it’s so easy for you and you’re so smart. You’re, you are so athletic. What’s the third one? Covet Covetousness. The Bible defines in Colossians 3:5, is when my desire for things becomes an idol. What is an idol? It’s something that I put on equality with God.

What does God say He deserves? Matthew 6:33, seek first the kingdom of God. What did the people in Ephesus not do? They no longer loved Him like they used to. So, God says I want the most attention, the most desire, the highest, most important, place in your life. we get saved, boom! He’s there, and we start adding. And so, covetousness is idolatry where something takes God’s place.

Now in the Old Testament, idolatry is idolatry, and they set up idols but why did they set up idols? The gods all promised them something. What did Baal promise? Remember, Baal is Tammuz, only for the Phoenicians. And the Jews were always struggling with Baal. What did Baal promise? Baal gave two things. He was the god of thunder and rain, so he’d help your crops, your sheep, your herd. He’d rain, and they would have water and grass. He’s also the god of fertility, and so he gave them sexual desires. In fact, all the Baal worship was going to a grove of trees where there were sacred women and men where you could have any kind of sexual thing you wanted for free to honor Baal. Do you see why the Jews were always running over to the worship of Baal? It was free, literal pornography, not visual, literal. Free. In that grove. And that’s what Baal offered. And so that idol offered them prosperity with their business and sexual desire. Covetousness, though, in the 10th commandment, and so probably back to where you were, the 10th commandment is… covetousness is where you have something better than me, and I don’t like it that you have it, and I don’t have it. So, I want it so badly. In fact, there’s a form of covetousness that I don’t even want you to have it. And we’re starting to see this with the whole equality movement, financial equality.

Do you know where our culture is going? What they’re saying, you know why they’re not punishing people in major cities, prosecuting them? They won’t prosecute you for less than a thousand-dollar infraction in San Francisco. That means you go in, you break the window, you steal $995 worth of stuff, and the police stand there and say, as long as it’s under a thousand, there’s nothing we’ll do. Why are they doing that? Because they believe there are rich people and poor people, and we want the poor people to take as much as they want until they have equality with the rich. That’s just a form of covetousness. It’s a form of jealousy. And it’s enshrined in our culture. But the difference between envy and jealousy and covetousness, they’re all interrelated. But if you want to do a word study, it’s even more fascinating than that. But thanks for asking.

So, the question is, what is a worldly person? Number one, a worldly person’s identity is found in this world, not in Heaven. What did Paul say to the Christians? Your citizenship is in Heaven. You should be looking for Christ from Heaven. Secondly, a worldly person, they use amusement, entertainment, and pleasure seeking to escape real life. You ever met people like that? They never get around to doing what they’re supposed to do. They’re just, their life is falling apart, their house is falling apart, their everything is falling apart, and they’re always amused. They’re the basement gamers that the roof is leaking, and they never do anything. They put a bucket there and let it leak. They’re worldly, they escape the responsibilities of real life.

Beyond that, a worldly person will use their work, now you’ll see this in church, their career, and even daily life, as a way out of spiritual responsibilities. They say, I can’t go to that Bible study, I’ve got to work. Let me ask you why you’re working. Are you working for food and raiment and being content? Or are you working to have a brand-new car and a much nicer house? Did you know what the American dream is? That we should all have financial security and financial success, and we should all have the best house. We should all have the best car. We should all have the best education. And we should do anything for our children to go to an Ivy League school and have everything.

Do you know what worldliness is? Allowing the pursuit of the American dream to push out our spiritual responsibilities. I have a responsibility to the God of Heaven to share His word in this world. I have a responsibility to the God in Heaven to read His Word. I have a responsibility to pray without ceasing to Him. I have a responsibility to share His Word, and disciple my family, and nurture my wife, and to serve Him all of my days. And I work a job to earn money to keep doing that. That’s a Christian.

A worldly person says, I can’t get involved in church. I can’t help in the nursery. I can’t help in youth group. I can’t start a small group. I’ve got to work. I’ve got, I’m going to, and it just, they endlessly, when John Wesley was interviewed in 18th century England, he said that he earned 10 British pounds a year. That was his salary, 10. And he said he lived No, he earned a hundred, that’s right, he earned a hundred pounds a year, and he lived on sixty or eighty of them, and gave away twenty. So, he lived on less than he earned, and gave away, to poor people in the church, twenty percent. He wasn’t a, he wasn’t legalistic, he didn’t give ten, he gave twenty. Later in his life, after he wrote thousands of hymns, and became globally known, someone interviewed him, and they said, how much do you earn now? And he says, oh, I earn a thousand pounds a year. Ten times more than they used to. He said, I still live on 60 to 80 pounds a year. And he said, I give away the rest.

You know what we would say about that? You’re crazy. You should be stocking it away, so that you can live on a golf course in Florida and have a boat with a dock right up to your house. Did you know there’s nothing wrong with golf courses, Florida, docks, or boats? But if it’s a way out of spiritual responsibility. What he said is, If I have more money, I’ll have more houses, I’ll have more stuff. And he said, I won’t be able to do my responsibilities to God. That’s why everyone’s heard of him. Because he gave up what he couldn’t keep. Remember what Jim Elliot said? To gain what he’ll never lose. Is that where you guys are? Because boy, what you’re deciding at 18 and 19 is going to stay with you.

Number four, a worldly person’s schedule is tied to their social life, their party life, their personal calendar, their recreations, not to God. They don’t, first of all, figure out how, I remember when Bonnie and I went to school, I took twenty credit hours a semester. We both worked full time, but you know what we did? Just like you guys, we went to church. Not just on Sunday morning, we went on Sunday night, we went on visitation during the week. Why? Because we had responsibilities to God. And I might get an A-, or a B+, but the goal of my life was not to wear a ribbon and be a valedictorian. It was to please God. You go, but my parents want me to get academic honors. Great. You’re smart. You should get them. Does it push God out? Do you think that after college you’re going to start serving Him? After your career you’re going to serve Him? A worldly person’s life is tied to their finances, their wealth, their possessions- Not to God and His Word. You ask people what their goals are, most of them are tied to financial things. Oh, they want to be independent, they want to be, they want to have enough money, and they want to have, and it’s all financial. You ask them, where does God fit in all this financial goals?

In fact, that reminds me these are the top billionaires. Can you see them there? Bezos, Musk, they’re always going back and forth, Gates, Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg has gone past Gates now, Larry Ellison, from Oracle, and Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, and Larry Page from Google, and Sergey Brin from Google, and Balmer from Microsoft, and Waltons, look at all the Waltons there. We’re fascinated with these people. And yet, God says, the rich and famous always tempt us. He said, don’t desire to be rich, it’ll pierce you through, He said in 1 Timothy with many sorrows.

So, Revelation 18 is all about the deadliness of idolatry. What is idolatry? Making a good thing the ultimate thing.

Now we change to chapter 19. Remember I said we’re switching between gears here. This is Christ’s return that marks the end of human history. This is how the world thinks it’s going to happen. This is not how it’s going to happen. But I always use the graphic because that’s how the world thinks it’s going to happen, and it gets their attention.

How it is going to happen is this: lost humanity has rejected their Creator and Redeemer. So, Christ the King returns as judge. And for 1,000 years Jesus keeps His promises. He shows what He can do in renewing the Earth. But nearly all of humanity rebels against Him. You understand that?

Do you know what the Millennium is? Jesus is on Earth for 1,000 years. He’s actually ruling with a rod of iron. You don’t come to the meeting, no rain. You rebel against Me, kill you. That’s the Millennium. The Earth is like Kauai, the garden island, out in the middle, three, six thousand miles from our coast. The whole Earth is like that. The whole Earth is like living in a tropical paradise. Rod of iron. You know what they all do at the end? All, but the saints who camp around the temple of God in Jerusalem, everyone else rebels. And it says the whole world marches, and God consumes them. That’s tomorrow.

When the world passes away, John describes in Revelation 19:1-6, here’s what he says. In verse 7, Jesus has got us all ready. This is coming up to His, all the hallelujahs are what I just went over, but we can’t read all of them. You can read it. Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory for the marriage the Lamb has come. His wife has made herself ready. At this point, what are we seeing? We’re seeing the church plus all the Old Testament saints. You say, wait a minute, how do you know that? Because what did Jesus say in Mark, or Matthew chapter 8? He told the Apostles when they went out witnessing, that people were going to come to Christ beyond Israel from the east and west and north and south and when they get to Heaven they’re going to sit down at a banquet. Did you catch what Jesus said? Where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, Jesus said, are already seated. So, by the time we get to this banquet, his wife are all of the saints, and it probably lasts all the way through the Millennium. God doesn’t worry about time.

But what are we wearing to the banquet? That’s verse 8. To her, that’s his wife, the bride that He has now married, it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. What is that? The fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. What did Paul say we were saved for in Ephesians 2:10? You were created for good works. That’s what salvation does. The way you know you’re saved is not because you do good works, but you do good works because you are saved. It’s the byproduct of God living in me. When God lives in me, look what comes out. Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, kindness, meekness, temperance, faith. Basically, our progressive sanctification. Forever, everyone is going to see how much of our earthly life God sanctified. And you know what it says in 1 Corinthians 3? Some people are going to really be sad because they did not cooperate, and Paul said they suffer loss. They lose all the rewards. They’re still in Heaven though, but they suffer loss.

Now look at verse 11. Jesus sees the ultimate triumphal entry by Jesus. Now John had seen this. Every Roman had seen this. The emperor, whenever he came, he always came at the head of his army and all of his booty and trophies and prisoners were behind. He rode in front in a chariot with white horses, and he was wearing the whole regalia. That idea is exactly the picture that John has. “I saw Heaven open, behold a white horse, just like in the triumphal arrival of the emperor. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True”, instead of being the Roman emperor, it’s the Faithful and True One. In righteousness, He judges and makes wars. His eyes are like a flame of fire. On His head were many crowns, crown Him with many crowns. He’s the king of kings. On His, He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood. You go, what is that? Oh, now we go back to Isaiah. Remember I said there are 404 verses in Revelation and 800 allusions? That comes from Isaiah 63. It says that Jesus comes to Armageddon after passing through Basra, where He slays the armies there, and it says His robe is splattered with blood. That sounds really gross. It’s a picture of Jesus being the wrathful king of kings. His robe dipped in blood. Now I know a lot, we would rather say it’s because He redeemed us, but the context and the prophetic implications is that He’s marked with the blood of His enemies that He talked about He would do. And His name is called the Word of God.

Basically, we can say this: Here comes the Judge. Remember I told you last week that the whole Bible can be outlined in three parts? The Creator, the Redeemer, and the Judge. The Creator is Genesis 1 and 2 The Redeemer is from the fall of mankind in chapter 3 all the way through Revelation 5 when we’re around the throne, and from 6 on- the Judge. But He doesn’t show up till here, and verse 12 or verse 17 says, I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice to all the birds in the midst of Heaven. Where’s this event taking place? The Armageddon place.

What’s Megiddo? Megiddo is the best birdwatching spot in the world today. 60% of all migratory birds fly over the Valley of Megiddo every year. Did you know that? Read National Geographic. They all camp there. With their big cameras, because 60% of all European, Asian, and African birds that migrate fly over Megiddo. That means all of the migratory carrion, the ones that eat dead bodies, are already flying over. What does the angel say to all the birds that are already migrating and flying over in the midst of Heaven? Come and gather together for the supper of our great God. Armageddon is the destruction of hard-hearted humanity that have gathered in rebellion against God the Son.

Now, by the way this is not to be confused with the other event. The Rapture is the transformation of saints, with saints taken to Heaven. There’s no judgment on Earth. Jesus said through His apostles that it could happen at any moment. It’s not in the Old Testament. There are no signs for it. It only involves believers, and it comes before the wrath. That’s what Revelation 4, we saw, and 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 and all that. Here’s the Second Coming. There’s no transformation of anybody. The saints are already saints and they’re already coming with Him clothed in their white robes. The Earth is being judged. It’s exactly following predicted events. It’s exactly predicted, this event, with the melting and everything and the splitting of the mountains in the Old Testament. And every human being on Earth is touched by the Second Coming. And it ends the wrath of God on planet Earth.

That is so clear that Martin Luther, our friend, the reformer, who lived from 1483 to 1546. This is his most famous quote. I have but two dates on my calendar. Today and the day Jesus returns. And I live today completely focused on the day He’s going to return. That’s why he got so much done.

1 Corinthians 3 reminds me of the fire that is when I used to be your age, I would go to Burger King and they used to let you see them make the hamburgers, and there’d be one end where the people would throw the burgers on the little moving cooking surface, and there would be fire, they called them, flame cooked, and you’d watch that, and at the other end of Burger King, you could, everybody standing at the counter watched this, would be people wearing gloves, and they had buns in their hands, and they would just catch the patties as they came off the fire. And I used to go to Burger King all the time as I was memorizing these verses. Now think about the words. Everyone’s work will become clear for the day we’ll declare it because it will be revealed by fire. We dump into this side of the conveyor belt our whole life and it goes like a Burger King patty across the fire. If anyone’s work which he has built on endures, the Lord is at the other end and receiving that. Whatever lasts from our life that makes it through the fire is what is our reward. Some people suffer loss. Nothing makes it all the way across. It gets burned up, but they still get to go to Heaven.

So, what’s the lesson for us? What’s the only thing you can take with you to Heaven? There’s only one thing you can take. You can’t take your phone. You can’t take your music. You can’t take your money. You can take people to Heaven with you. That’s the purpose we’re here. And that’s the lesson of chapter 18.