Where Is All This Going? #1

Welcome to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Thanks for joining us as we continue teaching God's people God's Word. Don begins a new message today, so without further delay, let's join him right now in the Truth Pulpit. By way of introduction for those of you that have not been with us, we recently began an exposition of the book of Revelation, and I invite you to turn there with me. I want to read the opening three verses of Revelation, not because it's my text for this morning, but that it gives a framework to consider the things that we have from the Lord today. In Revelation chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, we read this, The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to 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. The promise of blessing in the opening words of Revelation for those who read it, who hear it, who heed it, might at first seem a rather obscure and empty promise in light of the way interpretation of Revelation has gone in the subsequent 2,000 years.

Anyone who knows anything about the current state of the study of biblical end times realizes that bewildering questions meet you at almost every turn. You meet different philosophies of interpretation that seem directly contradictory, that are sometimes obscure, and all of that. You meet different systems of eschatology. In interpretation, you have some that want to be literal. You have some that just treat it in such a symbolic fashion, some that try to mix the two.

With eschatology, you have those that are amillennial, premillennial, postmillennial, and others who try to avoid all of those issues altogether. As you read the text itself, especially beginning in chapter 6 and beyond, you encounter unusual signs and symbols as you read. You see a description of the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 1 that is so different than the way that we're used to speaking and talking.

Other challenges await any serious study of this book. I honestly truly sympathize with pastors like John Calvin, who avoid it altogether and choose not to address the book of Revelation. And for my own part, I don't say that from any position of pride at all, because I freely acknowledge that I was not looking to do an exposition of Revelation at all in the course of my ministry. A few years ago, I started a study with the simple desire to do one single message on Revelation, to do an overview message, to preach that, and then to move on to other things.

I just wanted to do an overview, to kind of tap the base and then move on. And now I can only smile as I realize that what I started as one message now is probably going to approach 50 or more in the months ahead, because I quickly realized that I could not do justice to the word or to the flock of God if I dealt with it in that manner. Even if you were just to look at chapters 2 and 3, there is so much for the church that you couldn't treat that in a single message and leave it there. With all that said, in light of the complexity of things that face us, I originally had several messages planned to cover introductory matters before we'd even get to Revelation chapter 1, verse 1, and talk about systems and philosophies and symbols and all of that. And as it got closer to the time to begin in my judgment as a pastor and as a biblical expositor, I decided that that was not a good approach at all, even if it's the way that many books begin their study.

For the people of God, it's who gather on Sundays for worship. To start there and to dwell on that for weeks, it's too dry. It's too technical.

It's not helpful. You would lose interest before we even got to chapter 1, verse 1. Now with that said, I hope to address those kinds of issues as we proceed naturally through the text to address the many questions about millennial views or things about the rapture or how the Old Testament affects the interpretation of Revelation. But here at the start, here at the beginning in what is the third or fourth message, I think there is a more edifying way, a more helpful way to begin an extended exposition of Revelation.

And let me start it by saying this. The title of today's message is a question. And the question is where is all this going? Where is all this going? I want to step back and ask a really fundamental question. If you're having a personal conversation with someone, maybe that you don't know too well and they're telling you things, it helps you if you have an idea of, I have an idea of where they're going.

I can follow the thought based on what I think their intended outcome is. Well, it's similar in Scripture, certainly true for the book of Revelation. Where is all of this going? Where are all of these 22 chapters going? Where is all of the symbolism going?

Where are the bowls and the trumpets and the things of judgment and the calls to repentance? Where is it all going? And beloved, I want to tell you that that question, as I'm asking it, it progresses in meaning. And I want you to stay with me.

Indeed, I insist that you stay with me because this is just so very fundamental. You could ask the question, where is this all going in the sense of what is the goal of the book of Revelation? What is Revelation trying to accomplish? What does it tell us?

You could ask the question more broadly than that. You could ask, what is the message of the Bible? In the 66 books of the Bible, where is the Bible going with what it has to say? What is the message of the Bible?

In one sense, you could say that the question could be stated more broadly stated still. Where is human history going? Where is human history headed?

You see how this expands like a telescope? You talk about, where is the book of Revelation going? You can expand it out and say, where's the Bible going?

Where is human history headed? Or you could ask the most broad question of them all and say, what is the purpose of God? Where is God going with what he is doing? What was the purpose of God when he established his decree in eternity past for the course of everything that would follow in creation, sustaining providence and consummation? Where are all of those things going? In other words, what is the purpose of it all?

What is the goal of it all? And beloved, I submit to you, until you start asking those questions, you're really wasting your time with the book of Revelation because the purpose of Revelation is to help us understand all of those things. And that's why I've stated many times already, I can only imagine how many more times I'll say it in the coming calendar year, that it makes me very impatient with trivial questions by people who have read too many fiction books loosely based on Revelation that want to talk about the mark of the beast. Is the beast Jewish or Gentile?

Is it possible to be saved if you take the mark of the beast? As one correspondent told me not too long ago that they were tired of the science fiction approach to Revelation that's just fascinated with the symbolism and the idea of end times and chaos in the world and what's going to happen and all of that. There's just this perverse, fleshly, carnal curiosity about details for the sake of being entertained by them. It's just actually completely unthinkable to think that in a book that is declaring the final purpose of God and showing the future judgment of all of the world, the people would approach it with a carnal curiosity to get details to gratify their curiosity without any desire for God, for holiness, for repentance, or anything of the like. And so these questions, where is it all going? Where is Revelation going? Where is the Bible going? Where is human history going?

Where is the purpose of God going? Those are the questions that matter. I don't care what anybody else says about Revelation. Those are the questions that matter. And they're obviously, beloved, infinitely more vital than whether a man can be saved if he takes the mark of the beast. Now here's the point for this morning.

If you know the direction of a story, you can follow the narrative. And so let's start with an elementary observation, shall we? This book, the Bible, starts with Genesis, and it ends with Revelation. Book number one in the Bible is Genesis.

Book number 66 in the Bible, and it stops there, there aren't any more books than that. It ends with Revelation, in our English text anyway. And let me ask you, let me ask you a somewhat hypothetical question.

Maybe you haven't, haven't considered it before. What if, what if there was continuity between the opening chapters of Genesis with the closing chapters of Revelation? What if we saw common themes from beginning to end? What if, what if creation in Genesis 1 finds its outcome at the end of Revelation? And what if there were multiple instances of this, 14 for our purposes today and on Tuesday, just to give you a little sneak preview there. What if there were more than a dozen obvious connections between Genesis 1, 2, and 3 and Revelation 21, 22?

What if it was so obvious that you could not miss it if only you were aware of the reality of it? What would that tell us? Well, suddenly we would be in awe of the Holy Spirit who inspired all of Scripture. We would be in awe of the fact that things from the very beginning of Genesis 1, 1 were actually being operated according to a sovereign plan as shown by the fact that there's an outcome at the end of God's revelation. It would show us that a sovereign plan was at work in all things, that there was a purpose of God from Genesis 1, 1 to Revelation 22, 21, and that it all points in between.

It was obvious that there was a powerful work of the sovereign God to accomplish everything that He desired. It would banish our Arminianism. It would banish our preoccupation with the purposes of man. It would open our eyes, beloved, to the very purpose of the universe. It would open our eyes to the purpose of human history. And then and only then would we be able to study Revelation in its total context. Only if you see that Revelation is concluding something that began earlier all the way back to the beginning can you begin to understand the significance of what is in front of us.

And so I want to do that today and Tuesday. Maybe it may spill over to a third message. Depends on how many tangents I go on over the next couple of hours in the pulpit. But I want to show you these things at the start. And it's probably right and fair for me to just acknowledge that while I've taken it much further than this, a simple chart in a book called Talk Through the Bible on page 515 triggered the development of my material here. And it stimulated my thinking and I started developing other thoughts and there you go.

Here's what you need to know, beloved. The book of Revelation closes the process of God's revelation. In other words, God began Revelation through Moses in the first five books of the Bible, Genesis through Deuteronomy. And when you come to Revelation, you find that Scripture has gone full circle, 360 degrees, in a way that it's obvious that God was closing the circle that began in the first early chapters of Genesis.

The book of Revelation ties together biblical themes. Scripture ends where it began and leaves us with an obvious conclusion that there's nothing else to say. God, having brought everything full circle, has said everything that he has to say. So much so that it's obvious, I mean this is a kind of a subsidiary argument, but a forceful one in my opinion, that it's obvious that there's no more revelation coming from God today. He is not giving new revelation in visions or through prophets or apostles or anything.

It's impossible because it's come full circle. He's completed the revelation as is obvious from the themes that have been given. And so what we're going to start to see here this morning is that the first three chapters of Genesis find their counterpart in Revelation 21 to 22. And there are so many parallels that it is undoubtedly the intention of God that we see them and take them to heart. And as he says in Isaiah that God knows the end from the beginning. And beloved, I know it's hard for some of you that have been raised and trained in thinking about the so-called free will of man. You've been trained to think that the power of salvation is in the hands of the man who will decide whether he accepts Jesus or not.

And you've been, some of you, conditioned in fundamentalist circles to hate Calvinistic doctrine. With that background, it's very difficult for you to immediately embrace and accept the fullness of what God says about his own sovereignty and his own word. But the reality is, what we're going to see, is that it is obvious that God planned the end from the beginning. That when the events of Genesis 1, 2, and 3 were unfolding, God, as it were, stood above it all and saw the end from the beginning. To use an analogy that a friend of mine has used in some of his writings, if you're standing at the front end of the parade, you're just seeing what passes in front of you, and you only see that limited segment because your perspective is so narrow, so earthbound, so geographically centered.

If you were able to rise up in a news helicopter and peer over and see the end of the parade from the beginning, you would see that there was a course that the whole parade was following. You would see that there was an obvious plan and progression to it so that you could not possibly doubt that this had a master plan that was being operated all along. Now, while I am sympathetic to those of you that come from that background, it is your responsibility to see what Scripture says and to alter your thinking and to change your opinions so that they conform to the word of God, and that you embrace the revelation of God in a way that gives honor to Him for His sovereignty, forsaking your previous love and preoccupation with the will of man. The will of man has to bow before the things that we see here today and perhaps on Tuesday. Creation and human history operate according to a divine plan on a divine timetable to achieve a divine end to the glory of God. That is where all of this is going.

Let me say that again. Creation and human history operate according to a divine plan on a divine timetable to achieve a divine end all to the glory of God. That's where revelation is going. That's where the Bible is going. That's where human history is going. That's where the purpose of God is going. And anything that is not brought into subjection of that is outside of the truth. A mind that does not think in these ways is a mind that is yet immature and fleshly in the things of God.

That's where all of this is going. And that's where, by the grace of God, the exposition from this pulpit on revelation is going to go. Now, a time or two ago when we started our exposition and for the benefit of our guests who were not with us, we started with the spiritual characteristics that are necessary to have a meaningful study of the Word of God. Revelation sets forth certain themes that are to have a spiritual impact upon us. And the only heart that is truly going to enter into an understanding of the book of Revelation is a heart that is submitted to these four themes.

And this is review for those of you that have been with us. Revelation is about the glory of Christ as seen in Revelation chapter 1. It starts with the glory of Christ and then Christ in His glory moves and judges and encourages the churches in chapters 2 and 3 and then moves on into His judgment and His ultimate return and final conquest.

The glory of Christ is central and a heart that's put it in a positive way, shall we? The heart that wants to understand Revelation must come with an unreserved desire and devotion and submission to the glory of Christ. That's why this idle curiosity of a science fiction kind of genre approach to Revelation guarantees misunderstanding and darkness before you ever begin because it bypasses the glory of Christ. We said that Revelation teaches the fear of God in light of the coming judgment of God. Revelation teaches us to worship God. And Revelation, especially in chapters 2 and 3 and in addressing the church as well as the world later on in the book, Revelation emphasizes repentance from sin and the need for the church to repent of false doctrine, of sinful practice, of a loss of its love for Christ. And if ever there was a time in the history of the church, broadly speaking, the church of Jesus Christ, if ever there was a time for so-called evangelicals to repent of losing their first love, beloved, we're right in the middle of those days for reasons that I've said many times from different pulpits in different places. And so the glory of Christ, the fear of God, the worship of God, repentance from sin, we have to keep those things in mind and realize that we are not... we are not playing an intellectual game here.

All right? We're not playing games here. We're not playing theological tag with people who view end times differently than we do.

As if this were some childhood game, we could run around and chase each other on the blacktop till we all got tired and then we collapse and drink Kool-Aid and, you know, and go play with toys. This isn't theological tag. This is about the glory of Christ. This is about the eternal purpose of God. This is about repentance from sin. This is about self-examination.

This is about knowing whether you're a conqueror or someone that will be sent away at the end. And so all of those things are vital. And in light of what I've just said in the review of the message Revelation and Personal Holiness, let me just encourage you to keep the glory of Christ in mind today. This is a two-part, maybe a three-part message. What I hope to do this morning is to cover quickly six of the 14 total points that I have to give to you on this matter. Where is it all going?

Six of 14 total points. Now here's what you need to do. You want to limber up your fingers a little bit. You want to put one finger in the first three chapters of Genesis in your Bible, the other finger at the last two chapters of Revelation in your Bible, and we're going to be going back and forth rather quickly with what we have to say here. What I said earlier was that creation and human history operate according to a divine plan. And we're going to see this in six different ways here this morning as we compare Genesis with Revelation. First of all, let's look at the plan for creation, shall we? The plan for creation. And Scripture opens, as you all know so very well, Scripture opens with the creation of the heavens and earth.

You read Genesis 1-1 and the very first words that you meet say, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now, with keeping your finger there, turn to Revelation 21. Turn to Revelation 21. And all we're going to do is simply see the parallels.

I'm not going to exposit much of anything here today. But in Revelation 21 verse 1, John is speaking of the vision that he saw at the end, and he said, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. Scripture ends with a new heaven and a new earth.

There is a purpose that is fulfilled. Immediately, just in what we've seen already, we realize that we are living on a globe. We are living in the midst of a realm with an inherited 6,000 or so years of human history, with everything that we see around us, and we realize that the globe upon which we live, the heavens which we look up to, the life and the realm that we live, it's all temporary, because the first heaven and the first earth are going to pass away, and there will be the introduction of a new heaven and a new earth. And so what began in Genesis 1 finds its counterpart with something new in Revelation 21 verse 1. This is after Christ has returned and vanquished his enemies and vanquished Satan, as we'll see a little bit later. And Christ, who begins the book of Revelation, is found at the center, at the end of it, and here's what you find, beloved.

Here's what you find. Heaven and earth, the realm in which we live, it's all going to yield to the glory of Christ, which is in keeping with things that we know from Philippians chapter 2. Every knee will bow. Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

The whole creation will bow, will yield, and Christ will be supreme over it all. And therefore, no wonder why the Apostle John, who wrote Revelation, also said words like this in his first epistle, when he said, Do not love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride and possessions is not from the Father but is from the world.

And then what did he say after that? And he said, And the world is passing away along with its desires. But whoever does the will of God abides forever. This, everything that we're preoccupied with in this life is temporary, it's transient, it's passing, and we're told not to love it with the affection that should go to God and to Christ alone. It's the plan for creation.

This is temporary. It will be wrapped up. The skies will be rolled back like a scroll and Christ will be made known in a new heaven and a new earth. Whatever else that means, it means that we're living in a passing world and that's the plan of God for creation. That the realm in which we presently exist, its purpose, its time, its manifestation will expire.

It will be over. And then a new heaven and a new earth will be introduced to the glory of Christ. It's wonderful to contemplate.

It's staggering. You know, I think that if we truly grasp anything of the significance of what we're talking about here, we would be staggered and crushed and simultaneously elevated by the magnificence and the magnitude of it all. That's the plan for creation. A new heaven and a new earth are coming.

The present heaven and earth in which we live will be done away. Well, my friends, before we go for today, I just wanted to let you know about a companion resource to this series that we're doing on the book of Revelation. There is a perennial interest in the end times from a biblical perspective, and there's so many different opinions about things that are out there. There's amillennialism and premillennialism and postmillennialism and various views of the rapture, and it's hard to sort all of that out.

I get it. Well, I wrote a brief book that functions both as an introduction to end times and also examines an aspect of end times that you're going to want to get. The book is titled When Christ Shall Come, and it gives you an overview of biblical end times, deals with matters like Israel today and the question about dispensationalism, and also has an expanded study on the topic of preterism, if you're familiar with that term. And so you can go to our website, thetruthpulpit.com, and look for the link to my books. And when you click on that, you'll find a link that would allow you to purchase a copy of When Christ Shall Come. It is a resource that will help you. So go to our website, thetruthpulpit.com, and look for the link titled Books. We'll see you next time. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.