Why the Book of Revelation is Not a Code to be Cracked

I've struggled with a certain sin for a long time, and I've prayed countless times that it wouldn't have a hold on me.

Does God sometimes leave us to struggle in our own sin? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of Core Christianity. And we'd love to hear from you. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

You can also post your question on our Facebook or Instagram account, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, we have a good news story to share with you. A pair of customers at a New Jersey diner surprised their favorite server with an unusual tip. A car. A couple named Lisa and Jason are regulars at the Empire Diner in Brooklawn, New Jersey. Last Sunday, they gave their 2006 Nissan Altima to their favorite server, Lisa Mollet, as a tip for their meal. The couple said they bought the Altima years ago, but they hadn't used it much lately after they both got new cars. They remembered that the waitress had told them about her recent car troubles, and they wanted to do something nice for her as she recently returned to work after being laid off for three months due to COVID-19.

The waitress, who has been serving the couple for about two years now, broke down into tears when she learned about the gift. That is awesome. I love that. I did a little bit of table waiting myself, Bill. I don't know if you ever have, but I never received a tip like that.

Oh, man. So where were you working? Can I ask what restaurant it was at?

Yeah. Well, I was working at a tiny little restaurant that's not even open anymore. It was called the Bread Basket, where I lived at the time. It was actually one of the first jobs I ever had. I started busing tables, and then I started waiting tables, and the rest is history, man. No idea you were doing that. From waiter to pastor. Yeah, that's right.

I mean, just the smooth transition. Well, let's get to our first question of the day. Jamar posted this on our Facebook page. He says, I grew up in a church that would go into a lot of details about the book of Revelation, trying to discern if we were living in the last days and what it meant. But in all those years, I never understood the point or the big picture of what the book is about.

What is the main thing I should get from reading this book? Well, I want to get to your question, Jamar. But the first thing I want to say is, if anybody wonders, are we living in the last days? The answer is yes. But it actually has been the case since the day of Pentecost. I mean, the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, he quotes from Joel's prophecy. And we are right now living in the end times, and we have been ever since Pentecost.

You know, it's really wild. I heard someone tell me the other day that a pastor that they know of, a fairly well known pastor, said, I can say definitively, we are now living in the end times. And he was saying this because of all the stuff that we've had going on with the pandemic and California, we've got these fires going on. And so he just sort of said, you know, like, now we're living in the end times, like as if we hadn't been for the last 2000 years. But the fact of the matter is, biblically speaking, I mean, we're waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So we're in the end times. And the people who were the first recipients of the book of Revelation were living in the end times, too. I'm just going to read the beginning of Revelation, chapter one, verses one through three. The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant, John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy. And blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it for the time is near. Now, you need to understand that the book of Revelation was written to comfort believers who were facing persecution. This is why I get frustrated personally when people, they read the book of Revelation, like this puzzle that they need to unlock. And they're, you know, these locusts over here are probably a reference to helicopters.

And this thing over there is a reference to that. We're not reading the book of Revelation the way it's intended to be read. It's this apocalyptic visionary prophecy that is communicating for us world history and comforting believers as they experience persecution. So it was really meant, Jamar, to comfort the persecuted church.

I think that's where we have to start. And when you recognize that, I think it helps you approach the book with a little bit of confidence because so many of us, I think, don't read the book of Revelation because we just think, I can't understand that there are all these weird beasts that are described. It just seems like this great mystery. Well, read it knowing that it was written to persecuted Christians to comfort them and to encourage them to persevere in the faith no matter what it is that they were going to come up against. And so I think that's the key in terms of our approach to the book of Revelation. It's tracing world history, the suffering of the church, and how Christians overcome or conquer. And John says it very clearly.

It's by faith in Jesus Christ. And ultimately, it's pointing us forward to that future hope that we have that despite the fact that there are these terrible world rulers who at times it seems like are crushing the church, we know that God sees everything and that God one day is going to judge and that God one day is going to bring about the new creation fully and finally. I love that scene at the very end of the book of Revelation.

This is where we're headed. Revelation chapter 21 verses one through five. Then I saw, John said, a new heaven and a new earth. The first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Boy, what a hope we have as Christians. Yes, in this present evil age, we suffer, the church suffers, and it seems like we're being trampled upon at times. Certainly you think about the brothers and sisters throughout the world who are suffering true persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ, many of them being killed, martyred.

And yet we know, we know the end of the story. We know God's perspective, the fact that God sees everything and he gives us that picture in the book of Revelation to comfort us and to remind us of the hope that we have. So Jamar, read the book of Revelation, receive the comfort that's there for you as a follower of Christ in those words, in the words of that prophecy that John received from Jesus himself and be encouraged by it. I love that last passage from Revelation. It's just so beautiful as we look forward to that day, one day when our bodies are glorified and we are with Christ for eternity.

Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And one of the ways you can ask your question is by going to our website at corechristianity.com slash radio.

Just click on the little microphone icon on the side of the page and record your question right there. And that's what John did. Hey, Adriel, I was wondering if you could explain to me the role which good works play in a Christian's life as it relates to the final judgment.

Thank you. Hey, John, thanks for that question. Short and to the point, I would say, you know, a good way to think about it is they're the road that we walk upon as Christians in the Christian life. And there are necessary evidence of our having been justified, justified by faith in Jesus Christ. Apart from works, apart from anything we did or would do, they're not the basis for our justification before God's judgment seat.

And so I think that's a really important thing. There are some traditions, Christian traditions that teach that we're justified by our works. So we're initially justified by our baptism, and then we're becoming more and more justified as we cooperate with God's grace so that at the end, when we're standing before God's judgment seat, we merit the justification that we've received on the basis of the works that we've done and cooperating with God. And that's not what I think the Apostle Paul or the New Testament teaches. We're justified solely on the basis of what Christ has done for us. And the reason, just beginning with this, the reason we have to make that point so clearly is because if we were justified by our works, by the good things that we do, if that was what was giving me hope before God's judgment seat, I wouldn't ever have any hope because even our best works, even our best works are still stained. And just think about your life as a follower of Jesus. You know, you do something good, something that's charitable, and I don't know about you, but I know for me, you know, the thought pops in my head sometimes. Oh, I wonder if anybody was seeing that.

Who saw that kind of a thing? Just think, oh gosh, you're wrestling continually with the flesh, with those sinful inclinations that we have. And so our works can never be the basis for our justification because they're not perfect. They fall short of what God's law requires. And so we can only be justified even when it comes to the final, you know, tribunal, we're standing before God. There's one justification which we experience now on the basis of our faith in Jesus Christ. And that's again confirmed at the last day when we stand before God's judgment seat. And so what role do our works play?

As I said, they're a necessary evidence of our having been justified. We might even refer to them as a sort of means to an end. You think about what the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. They're the path upon which we're walking to the Lord in the Christian life.

Or 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 13. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the first fruits to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. Again, that sanctification through the Spirit and belief in the truth. Well, that's the road upon which we're walking as Christians is we're following Jesus. It's not my good works that are the basis of my justification.

They're the evidence of the fact that I have been justified. Good works are like a means to an end. They don't and cannot justify us, but they are the fruit of genuine faith. John said, you know, I'm preaching through 1 John right now that we know we have been born again because we love the brothers. We don't love in order to be born again or in order to be justified.

We love because God first loved us. And so I think that getting that order is so important, John, because there are a lot of Christians today who they are thinking of the final judgment in the sense that I got to do enough good things so that God accepts me. Functionally, they're believing that their justification, their entrance into heaven is dependent upon the perfection of their works or their good works outweighing their bad works. But that's not what the Bible says. That's not what brings us into the presence of God.

It's the blood of Jesus Christ. It's justification by faith alone and in Christ alone. And so hopefully that clears things up a little bit for you. Good works are a necessary evidence and they're the road upon which we're walking as Christians, leading to the final day where we're receiving that final vindication outcome of our having been justified by faith, the resurrection of the body, the life of the world to come. God bless.

Great explanation. Thank you, Adriel. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and we know it can be difficult to begin reading the Bible for the first time, and many Bible reading plans can be somewhat complex and daunting. So we have a resource that will help your Bible study become more meaningful. Yeah, Bill, I mean, for the reasons you just mentioned, at Core Christianity, we wanted to create a Bible reading plan that would do two things.

One, it would help someone new to the Bible cultivate a joy for reading the Bible, and two, it would help someone who may have lost that joy to find it again. The Core Christianity Bible reading plan is a free resource when you sign up for our weekly newsletter, and it will take you about 10 minutes per day to complete and last for the entire year. Through this Bible reading plan, you will be introduced to the big narrative, the grand themes of the Bible. It's a plan that won't take you through the entire Bible in a year, but it will help you develop a sustainable habit of reading the Bible for one whole year. This plan is designed to help you develop a habit of reading without requiring a large time commitment. Our prayer is that this new habit will carry on through the years to come so that over time you'll grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. If you'd like to download the Core Christianity Bible reading plan, just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash reading plan. That's corechristianity.com forward slash reading plan.

Adriel, here's a question that Branton posted on our Instagram account. Does God sometimes leave us to struggle in our own sin? I've struggled with a certain sin for a long time, and I've prayed countless times that God would leave me from temptation and that the sin wouldn't have the hold on me that it has. And yet I still feel the same. I feel almost as though God is purposely having me struggle through it.

Can you give me any advice? Well, let's first pray for Branton. And let me just say this as I pray for you. You know, Paul told the Thessalonians that God's will was our sanctification. And Branton, we know in 1 John that when we pray anything according to the will of God, that He hears us and will answer our prayers. Now, He doesn't always do it in our timing, but I want you to know that as I'm praying for you and as you pray for yourself and you say, God, sanctify me. That is a prayer that God will answer because it's a prayer that is in accordance with His will.

So let's pray right now. Father, we want to be sanctified. We want to grow in our love for you and for your son, Jesus. We want to grow in holiness, but we know, Lord, that constant battle that we face, the battle with the flesh, that even still having walked with you for years even, Lord, that there are struggles that we face, ungodly desires that we have, and so we pray, Lord, sanctify us by the grace of your Holy Spirit.

Work in us, renewing us, and renew Branton. Sanctify him. Grant him victory, Lord, not in his own strength, but in the strength that you give by the power of your Holy Spirit. Would you give him the confidence, Lord, to know that you are with him and for him in this fight and that you will hear our prayers as they are in line with your will? Sanctify us, sanctify our brother, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. As I said there in my prayer, I mean, this is really the struggle that Christians face, and so don't let anyone ever tell you that because you're in this battle that you must not really be a believer or something like that. I mean, Paul said it very clearly in Galatians 5, the flesh lusts against the Spirit.

There's this battle. There are times where we have these ungodly desires and inclinations that are contrary to the desires of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And so we're called to bring ourselves into submission to God and his will, but it is a fight. Sometimes you just sort of wish, I mean, I wish there was a button that I could press that would just put an end to this struggle, these feelings, these desires, but the Lord doesn't give us that button. He calls us to rely upon him, to depend upon the strength that he supplies, and he says that his strength is perfected in our weakness. I want you to think about that, Branton. In this area of weakness for you, to say, Lord, may your strength be perfected here.

Lord, I need your strength. I think a really important thing for you to understand, Branton, is your new identity in Jesus Christ, despite the fact that there's this struggle. You are in Jesus by faith, a new creation. You need to view yourself in that way, and it's from that place of having a firm grip on your identity, who you are in Jesus Christ, forgiven, justified. But I think we're given the ability to put to death the sinful deeds of our body, the beginning of Romans chapter six for you, because I think it's so encouraging for us when we're in the situation that you're talking about.

Paul said, what shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound by no means? How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self, your old self, Branton, our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now, if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. Death no longer has dominion over him for the death that he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Branton, consider yourself dead to sin. I know that that's kind of counterintuitive, like, I still struggle with sin every day.

It feels very alive in my life. No, your old self was crucified with Jesus. And I can say this, I know that that's what God wants for us. He wants us to depend upon him, to rely upon the strength that he supplies, never to put our confidence and our trust in ourselves or in our own strength. But in his Holy Spirit, may the Lord continue to guide you, brother, and grant you victory and strength as you depend upon him and as you rest in your identity as a follower of Jesus Christ, justified by faith in him.

God bless you, Branton. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And if you have a question for Adriel, here's the phone number to call. 833-843-2673.

That's 833-NACORE. We heard from Rudy with this question. I understand that we're not saved by the law, we're saved by trusting in Jesus Christ. So if you find yourself breaking, let's say, five of the Ten Commandments easily, would that be maybe like telling you you need to focus a little more harder on trusting in Christ or repenting? Thank you again. And I really appreciate your show, God.

It's been very helpful and insightful for me. Other than that, take care and God bless. Okay, Rudy, thank you for your question, brother. Rudy, you realize that we recognize, man, I don't perfectly keep God's law. And James says if we break one of the commandments, we've just broken the whole thing.

We're transgressors of the law. Now, I just read from Romans chapter 6. Well, one chapter later in Romans chapter 7, as Paul describes that real battle that we experience with the flesh, he says, kind of desperately in Romans 7 verse 21, I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God and my inner being. But I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Now, at that point, Paul doesn't say, I will try harder. I'm going to purpose never to do that again.

I mean, this is what we typically do. We sort of resolve, God, I promise I'm never going to do that again. And then an hour later, a day later, a week later, a year later, we find ourselves saying, wretched man that I am.

How could I? I can't believe this. I can't believe I'm still wrestling with this. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Verse 25 of Romans 7. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. And then he opens up in chapter 8, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. We're simultaneously, at the same time, we're just, justified and yet sinful. And so we feel this tension in us, in our bodies, wretched man that I am. But we have the hope that there is no condemnation, Rudy, because of the fact that we are in Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for Jesus. And so when we find ourselves struggling as we will, we turn to him. We say, God, I can't justify myself and I don't have the strength to perfectly obey your law. You do in me what only you can do by the grace of your Holy Spirit to sanctify me.

And that's going to be a continual fight. And there are things that we ought to do. You've got to be in the Word. You've got to make sure you're in a good church. People around you who can encourage you in your faith, even people you could confess struggles to in the church. But our hope ultimately isn't in ourselves. It's in Jesus. Wretched man that I am. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this podcast. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.