{"id":18993,"date":"2019-07-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-07T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-044-how-long-is-forever\/"},"modified":"2019-07-07T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-07T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-044-how-long-is-forever","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-044-how-long-is-forever\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 044 – How Long is Forever?"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18993","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 044 - How Long is Forever?","sermon_date":"20190707","sermon_month":"7","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":6853,"sermon_slides":6852,"sermon_mp3":6865,"sermon_id":"77191611345823","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"14:8-11","sermon_transcript":"Dr. Andy Woods\n\nHow Long is Forever?\u00a0\u00a0 7-7-19\n\nRevelation 14:8-11\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 44\n\nGood morning everybody.\u00a0 If we can take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Revelation, chapter 14 and verse 8.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is How Long is Forever?\u00a0\u00a0 And as you\u2019re turning there I want to thank Jim for filling in yesterday, I trust you enjoyed his ministry to you.\u00a0 Let me explain why I said \u201cyesterday.\u201d\u00a0 First of all, my brain is on Pacific time; basically, where I went is I went on the ark trip with the youth, which was awesome by the way.\u00a0 Did you all in the youth group enjoy that?\u00a0 Gabe is going to be doing a report on that I think next week just to kind of give us a brief overview of it.\u00a0 And then from there I want with my family to Palm Springs-- I mean, someone has to suffer for the Lord in Palm Springs, right? -- to participate in a prophecy conference where I was one of the speakers.\u00a0 And then from there we went to visit my parents in Southern California where some interesting things happened, including our survival of two tremors.\u00a0 And I\u2019m not kidding--maybe you\u2019ll find this interesting--we were watching a movie about an earthquake happening [Laughter] and we were right in the middle of the movie when the big one was hitting. And I was thinking to myself, you know, we haven\u2019t had the big one in southern California; it\u2019s about due.\u00a0 And God as my witness, as soon as the thoughts crossed my mind the ground started shaking. So, if I get confused with last week versus yesterday, that\u2019s sort of the reason; my brain is sort of on Pacific time.\u00a0 So, what do you guys want to talk about today?\u00a0\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nThe Book of Revelation, chapter 14, verse 8. How long is forever?\u00a0 Of course, if you\u2019ve been tracking with us through the sequence of the Book of Revelation, the seventh trumpet has been sounded and essentially what\u2019s happening is there is a legal transfer.\u00a0 Revelation 11:15 with the seventh trumpet says, \u201c[Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,] \u201cThe kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; [and He will reign forever and ever.]\u201d\u00a0 In other words, Satan\u2019s days are numbered, it\u2019s just a matter of time, three and a half years to be exact, before the kingdom of Christ is established on the earth.\n\nAnd what Satan is doing here in chapters 13-14 is he\u2019s taking his last stand.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like the Barbara Streisand farewell tour which seemed like it went on for ten or fifteen years.\u00a0 But Satan\u2019s got about three and a half years left and he\u2019s asserting his authority.\u00a0 His days are numbered.\u00a0 But he\u2019s not going to sort of take it lying down; he has enjoyed running the world as he has done over this vast amount of time, these several millennia, and so in chapter 12 you have a description of Satan attacking the instrument through which the kingdom will come, the millennial kingdom.\n\nHe\u2019s attacking the nation of Israel which will bring in the millennial kingdom, chapter 12.\n\nChapter 13 is a description (and we went through it in depth) of the two people that he will use during this time period, two beasts, a political leader, the antichrist, and a religious leader, the false prophet.\u00a0 We\u2019ve learned all about them.\u00a0 And you kind of get outside of chapter 13 and you\u2019re sort of tempted to think that God has lost all control of things because Satan, in his heyday seems almost unrestrained.\u00a0 He seems like he\u2019s able to do anything he wants.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why chapter 14 has such a fine and appropriate balancing act, because it reveals to us six scenes of hope, six scenes of hope which reveal the fact that in the darkest time of human history God has not lost control of anything.\u00a0 Hope is around the corner, hope is on the horizon.\n\nAnd it\u2019s easy in life to get so carried down by circumstances that you forget the fact that God is still on the throne\u2026 Amen!\u00a0 And we need reminders of that.\u00a0 That\u2019s what chapter 14 is, and it\u2019s six scenes that give you the six rays of hope.\u00a0 The first two we\u2019ve looked at, the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who are doing God\u2019s work of evangelism during this time period.\u00a0\u00a0 What we learn in verses 1-5 is that God is going to preserve them, even if they are killed.\u00a0 And the scene of hope is even through this very difficult time period the world is being evangelized like it\u2019s never been evangelized before. We\u2019ve seen in our study of the Book of Revelation many instruments that God will use to evangelize the world during this dark time period and it\u2019s in verses 6-7 we learn of an angel flying to and fro, giving the eternal gospel.\u00a0 You know, even if the church bungles the great commission, which I hope she doesn\u2019t, the evangelization of the world is already something that God is going to see brought to fruition, if not by people at least by an angel.\n\nAnd then we move into verse 8 where we pick it up this morning and we have a description of the destruction of Babylon.\u00a0 This and these scenes as we\u2019re talking about them are sort of what you\u2019d call proleptic.\u00a0 These are things that really haven\u2019t happened yet in our sequence but they\u2019re so certain the Bible can speak of them as if they\u2019re a done deal.\u00a0 And one of those things that\u2019s destined to happen is the destruction of Babylon.\u00a0 Babylon, as we\u2019ll be studying, represents the height of antichrist\u2019s kingdom and Satan\u2019s kingdom.\u00a0 And even Babylon, when she reaches her apex, when she reaches her zenith is just allowed by God to be in power for a short period of time.\u00a0 She too is destined to be toppled.\n\nAnd notice what it says there in verse 8 of Revelation 14.\u00a0 \u201cAnd another angel, a second one,\u201d now that kind of alerts us to the fact that we\u2019re in a new scene here, scene three of six.\u00a0 \u201cAnd another angel, a second one who followed, saying, \u2018Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 Now when we get to chapters 17 and 18 we\u2019re going to have a lot more to say about Babylon because that\u2019s when Babylon falls.\u00a0 Babylon is going to be toppled in the seventh bowl judgment.\u00a0 Once the seventh bowl is released Babylon herself will be destroyed, and that\u2019s at the very end of chapter 16.\u00a0 It\u2019s around chapter 16:19 and following, if my memory serves.\n\n[Revelation 16:16-19, \u201cAnd they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.\u00a0 [17] Then the seventh angel<\/em> poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, \u201cIt is done.\u201d [18] And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and<\/em> so mighty. [19] The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath.\u201d]\n\nAnd then you\u2019ll have another break in the action, remember how we talked about there\u2019s about five or so breaks in the action to interrupt the chronology to give us a little bit more information of things that are happening.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s why chapter 16 is followed by chapters 17 and 18.\u00a0 And then there is a series of hallelujah\u2019s that rise up to the Lord in chapter 19:1-6 all related to the fall and the destruction of Babylon.\n\n[Revelation 19:1-6, \u201cAfter these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, \u201cHallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; [2]<\/a> BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.\u201d [3] And a second time they said, \u201cHallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.\u201d [4] And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sits on the throne saying, \u201cAmen. Hallelujah!\u201d [5] And a voice came from the throne, saying, \u201cGive praise to our God, all you His bond-servants, you who fear Him, the small and the great.\u201d [6] Then I heard something<\/em> like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, \u201cHallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns.\u201d]\n\nSo this is our first hint of Babylon in the Book of Revelation and we\u2019re going to have a lot more to say about Babylon when we get to bowl number seven and particularly Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 But you\u2019ll notice what it says here in verse 8, \u201cAnd another angel, a second one, followed, saying, \u2018Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, [she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.]\u2019\u201d\u00a0 No one of the things that we did in our study is we started off, not with the Book of Revelation but the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 Daniel is the basement; the Book of Revelation is the ceiling. It\u2019s impossible to understand the Book of Revelation without a firm footing or a firm foundation in the Book of Daniel.\n\nAnd this expression, \u201cBabylon the great\u201d has already been used in the Book of Daniel. If you jot Daniel 4:30 you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s an expression that Nebuchadnezzar himself used concerning Babylon, the kingdom that he was the head of.\u00a0 It says in Daniel 4:30, \u201cThe king reflected and said, 'Is this not Babylon the great,\u201d the exact same verbiage, \u201cwhich I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 To many \u201cI\u2019s\u201d and \u201cmy\u2019s\u201d there.\u00a0 \u201cI did it all,\u201d Frank Sinatra, \u201cI did it my way,\u201d not understanding that it was the God of heaven that allowed Babylon to come into existence and it was the God of heaven that had actually orchestrated Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s headship over Babylon.\u00a0 And yet, when Nebuchadnezzar uses this expression \u201cBabylon the great\u201d what was he referring to?\u00a0\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t referring to Rome; Rome didn\u2019t even exist yet.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t referring to a one world religious system; what he was referring to was an actual city that headquartered an empire that he presided over.\n\nYou say well, what is your view of Babylon the Great?\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 Here\u2019s my view on it; when you see the word \u201cBabylon\u201d in the Bible it means Babylon.\u00a0 I\u2019m an advocate of what is called the literal Babylon hypothesis or theory in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 In fact, the word Babylon is used 300 times in the Book, not just the Book of Revelation but the entire Bible.\u00a0 And guess what it means every single time\u2026 it means Babylon!\u00a0 So when you see that same expression at the end of the Bible which is sort of summing up every-thing in the Bible, the exact same expression \u201cBabylon the great\u201d that we see in Daniel 4:30, the exact same word that always refers to literal Babylon, I\u2019m of the view that Babylon means Babylon!\n\nNow the problem that I\u2019m handicapped with is I wrote my doctoral dissertation on this subject so I know way more about this subject than you\u2019re probably interested in.\u00a0 [Laughter] In fact, I was going to preach a sermon series here entitled \u201cBabbling on about Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nBut you notice it\u2019s very clear here, it doesn\u2019t say \u201cfallen fallen is Rome,\u201d \u201cFallen fallen is the Catholic Church,\u201d \u201cFallen fallen is\u2026\u201c I had one fellow read my dissertation and he sent me a book trying to convince me that Babylon is actually located in New York City.\u00a0 [Laughter] And he had all of these graphs and maps and charts in it trying to say that the Statue of Liberty is the harlot woman described there in Revelation 17.\u00a0 And in his email, he said I have over 5,000 footnotes to prove my point.\u00a0 And I thought to myself well, you\u2019d better have 5,000 footnotes, at least, if you\u2019re going to try to prove that because the United States of America is on the wrong continent than Babylon.\n\nBabylon in the Bible is always the same place. It\u2019s where the tower of Babel once stood; it\u2019s where the children of Israel were taken into captivity. It\u2019s an area called Shinar. The Greeks called it Mesopotamia. Do you recognize the word \u201cpotomia\u201d?\u00a0 We have a Potomac River named after it in the United States.\u00a0 Potomia means rivers; Mesopotamia between the rivers.\u00a0 Mesopotamia or Shinar is basically modern-day Iraq.\u00a0 I believe that that city, Babylon, about 58 miles south, if I have my map in my head correct, of Bagdad, will eventually be rebuilt and it will occupy a place of dominance in the tribulation period.\u00a0 In fact, the antichrist himself will preside there.\n\nAnd when you talk like this people say it\u2019s ridiculous to think that way.\u00a0 The argument you run into is it\u2019s too literal; you\u2019re taking things in the Bible too literally.\u00a0 Let me ask you a question; do you take the word \u201cIsrael\u201d literally?\u00a0 You know, there was a time when people said Israel is going to be reborn as a nation.\u00a0 I could locate that for you in many, many commentaries going back centuries.\u00a0 And it\u2019s interesting how such commentators were ridiculed\u2014that\u2019s ridiculous, you don\u2019t believe a Jewish nation is going to be reborn as a state do you?\u00a0 You don\u2019t think the city of Jerusalem is going to come under Jewish control, do you?\u00a0 You\u2019re taking these prophecies too literally.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting that no one says that anymore concerning Israel.\u00a0 I think the same type of thing is going to happen related to Babylon.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting when you go through the Book of Revelation it mentions geographical places many times. \u00a0And as we\u2019ve looked at these geographical places I\u2019ve tried to make a point that all of these places of geography in the Book of Revelation are always literal, whether it\u2019s Asia or the seven churches in Asia Minor or an actual Armageddon, which is an actual valley in northern Israel, or the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 Geography in the Book of Revelation always seems to me to be literal.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we take Babylon the same way?\u00a0 Well the answer is we really don\u2019t have enough faith to believe it.\u00a0 I mean, how could that city be rebuilt, it\u2019s just a dust heap today.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t see things through the eyes of faith, through the eyes of God\u2019s prophetic Word which cannot lie.\n\nI was very interested in an article that was sent to me this week.\u00a0 It\u2019s entitled as follows, it\u2019s in the times of Israel.\u00a0 \u201cIraq Celebrates Naming Babylon a UNESCO World Heritage Site [QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA of Times of Israel - July 6, 2019.\u201d\u00a0 This is what the article says.\u00a0 \u201cBAGHDAD (AP) \u2014 Iraq on Friday celebrated the UNESCO World Heritage Committee\u2019s decision to name the historic city of Babylon a World Heritage Site in a vote held in Azerbaijan\u2019s capital, years after Baghdad began campaigning for the site to be added to the list\u2026The 4,300-year-old Babylon \u2014 now mainly an archaeological ruin and two important museums \u2014 is where dynasties have risen and fallen since the earliest days of settled human civilization. King Hammurabi\u201d a famous king in the past, \u201cwrote his famous code\u201d legal codes, \u201cof laws in Babylon, while Nebuchadnezzar sent his vast army from the city to Jerusalem to put down an uprising and bring the Jews back as slaves.\u201d\u00a0 [Iraq Celebrates Naming Babylon a UNESCO World Heritage Site QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA of Times of Israel - July 6, 2019]\n\n\u201cThe Babylonian exile of the Jews lasted from 605 BCE until the Persian King Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and in 539 BCE allowed the Jews to return home and build the Second Temple\u2026Dozens of Iraqis waving their national flag gathered at the Ishtar Gate at the site celebrating their city\u2019s new international status. Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi described the vote as \u2018another victory for the Iraq of civilizations that was and will always be a lighthouse to the world.\u2019 President Barham Saleh tweeted that after Babylon, more ancient sites will be added to the list through which \u2018Iraq will restore that status that it deserves.\u2019\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that this idea of a rebuilt Babylon exists in the thinking of fallen man.\u00a0 It was Saddam Hussein himself, you might recall, who was trying to rebuild that city and make it a world capital.\u00a0 It\u2019s also interesting that this is where most of our attention is on the nightly news.\u00a0 We used to fight our wars in Europe and now everything is moving eastward in a Middle Eastern direction.\u00a0 It\u2019s also interesting to note that most of the world\u2019s oil supply is in that part of the world.\u00a0 I mean, if the antichrist sets up his capital there all he would have to do is annex a few of the surrounding nations and he would in an instant control the economies of the world through black oil, black gold I should say, that we call oil.\n\nMore on this when we get to chapters 17 and 18 but I just raise it here because this is our first hint or mention of Babylon in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 I believe that chapters 17 and 18 of the Book of Revelation are not describing two Babylon\u2019s; the common view that you get is chapter 17 is a religious system of some sort that is destroyed by the antichrist midway through the tribulation period.\u00a0 And then over in chapter 18 suddenly everybody says well that\u2019s an actual city, that\u2019s a commercial city, that\u2019s a political city.\u00a0 What I believe the Bible teaches is that the word \u201ccity\u201d is used in both chapters.\u00a0 For example, and this is a verse that most people miss when they look at the woman riding the beast in Revelation 17, it says, \u201cThe woman who you saw is the great\u201d what? \u201ccity which reigns over the kings of the earth.\n\nOver in Revelation 18:10 it says this, \u201cstanding at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 You don\u2019t have a situation where chapter 17 is allegorical and spiritual and chapter 18 is literal.\u00a0 If words mean anything and we\u2019re consistent with the word \u201ccity\u201d in our interpretation both chapters are describing the revived city of Babylon which will be destroyed with bowl judgment number seven.\n\nPeople say well, do you believe in Babylon as a city or do you believe it\u2019s a religious system and my answer is yes.\u00a0 It\u2019s a city which is the headquarters of a religious system.\u00a0 We throw around words like this quite frequently, take for example, Wall Street.\u00a0 What is Wall Street?\u00a0 It\u2019s a financial system but isn\u2019t there a literal city called Wall Street.\u00a0 Or we\u2019ll throw this word around, Madison Avenue, a marketing system.\u00a0 But isn\u2019t three a literal Madison Avenue?\u00a0 Or the Vatican, a religious system, Roman Catholicism but at the same time there\u2019s actually a literal Vatican, a place that you can point to on planet earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s what I think Babylon is in Revelation 17 and 18, it\u2019s describing a terrible enslaving religious system but at the same time, just like the tower of Babel of old it will be located in an actual geographical place on planet earth.\n\nAnd I reached that conclusion I think because of consistency in my interpretation but it\u2019s amazing the number of Bible interpreters, people from our own camp, that are inconsistent here.\u00a0 Here is a citation from the commentary by John Walvoord (one of my heroes) on the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 He says this about the city in chapter 17.\u00a0 He says: \u201cThe city here according to verse 5 is a mystery, not a literal city<\/u>...\u201d\u00a0 So, the word \u201ccity\u201d or polus i<\/em>n chapter 17 verse 18 in Walvoord\u2019s mind is not literal but notice what he does a few pages later in chapter 18.\u00a0 \u201cThe ultimate decision depends upon the judgment of the expositor, but in many respects, it is simpler to postulate a rebuilt Babylon as fulfilling literally<\/u> the Old Testament prophecies spoke of as well as that embodied in this chapter.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [John F. Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ: A Commentary (Chicago: Moody, 1966), 257, 263.]\n\nSo let me get this straight, the word \u201ccity\u201d at the end of chapter 17 is not literal but the identical word \u201ccity\u201d in chapter 18 suddenly becomes literal.\u00a0 This is sort of a blind spot by many in our camp and I think it was the work of Charles Dyer of Dallas Seminary in his Master\u2019s Thesis and some of his articles published in Bibliotheca Sacra<\/em><\/strong> that started to straighten us out on this issue.\u00a0 City means city!\u00a0 Babylon means Babylon!\u00a0 Both chapters may be highlighting chapter 17 and 18 different facets of the city but it\u2019s all involving the destruction of the same city in the seventh bowl judgment.\u00a0 A lot more of this to follow.\n\nBut this is not the normal view out there that I\u2019m sharing.\u00a0 Chapter 17 is religious, it\u2019s not even a literal city, it\u2019s going to be destroyed halfway through the tribulation period but chapter 18 is an actual literal city.\u00a0 Now having said that look directly at chapter 14 and verse 8 one more time.\u00a0 I want to show you something here that corrects a lot of confusion.\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnother angel, a second one, followed saying \u2018Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.\u201d\u00a0 This expression here in chapter 14:8, \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon the Great\u201d is a reference to Revelation 18:2.\u00a0 Revelation 18:2, \u201cAnd he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.\n\nSo part of this prophecy is referring to Revelation 18:2 but it goes on and it says, \u201cShe who has made all nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality,\u201d that is a citation from Revelation 17:2.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice what the Holy Spirit does.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit proleptically is describing the fall of Babylon and in the process the Holy Spirit is taking information from both chapters, and not describing two different destructions but a singular destruction that will take place with bowl judgment number seven.\n\nYou\u2019ll find this same pattern in the Hallelujah\u2019s when Babylon finally falls in Revelation 19:2-3.\u00a0 [Revelation 19:2-3, \u201c\u00a0<\/sup>because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.\u201d\u00a0 [3] And a second time they said, \"Hallelujah! HER SMOKE RISES UP FOREVER AND EVER.\u201d]\u00a0 It\u2019ll grab information from chapter 17 and it will grab information from chapter 18 and put them all together into a singular destruction.\n\nSo having said all of that I do not believe that the two chapters are talking about two different events, two different entities.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same destruction, the same entity and its brought up in chapters 17 and 18 because the seventh bowl has just been poured out and Babylon has fallen and the Holy Spirit stops and says let me give you more information about this coming city, the city of Babylon.\n\nI\u2019ll describe the religious side of the city in chapter 17, the Holy Spirit says, then I\u2019ll describe the commercial and the political side of the same city in chapter 18.\u00a0 It would be like any other city that you know of anywhere in the world; there are religious aspects of it, there are commercial and political aspects of it.\u00a0 It\u2019s no different with Babylon and her coming destruction.\n\nBut even if you don\u2019t believe any of these things that I\u2019ve said the main point is this; it doesn\u2019t matter how far evil progresses.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how much Satan gets his way.\u00a0 The height of Satan\u2019s empire, however you define it, will collapse.\u00a0 This is why John, in his little epistle, 1 John,\n\n1 John 2:15-17 tells us to not love the world because the things of the Father are not in the world, those being \u201cthe lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.\u201d [1 John 2:15-17, \u201cDo not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. [16] For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. [17] The world is passing away, and also<\/em> its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that we become so intoxicated and captured by the allurements of the world and yet the world system in its rebellion against God at its height is destined to come to a screeching halt, crashing to the ground.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we need to live our lives, not for things of the earth which are temporal and transitory but the things which count and will last forever.\n\nAnd so, this is a tremendous scene of hope in the midst of darkness, that even Babylon at its zenith, at its height, at its apex, is actually living on borrowed time and it too will be destroyed, which shifts us to our second scene of hope, the doom of the beast worshippers.\u00a0 We learned in Revelation 13:16-18 of a one world economic system, where people would have to receive a mark on their right hand or on their forehead to participate in.\u00a0 And we learned that those who did not participate in this system by receiving the mark could neither buy nor could they sell.\u00a0 In other words, they\u2019re shut out of civilization, they\u2019re shut out of society.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:16-18, \u201cAnd he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, [17] and he provides<\/em> that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either<\/em> the name of the beast or the number of his name. [18] Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.\u201d]\n\nAnd what a tremendous scene of hope this is for those people shut out of the system, when we learn in verses 9-12 that those who participate in this system by taking the mark itself are in the process of damning themselves eternally.\u00a0 [Revelation 13:9 \u201cIf anyone has an ear, let him hear. [10] If anyone is destined<\/em> for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.\u00a0 [11] I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb and he spoke as a dragon. [12] He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.\u201d]\n\nYou know, the unbeliever it seems like they are getting away with a lot, don\u2019t they; they seem to always be prospering, those that don\u2019t play by the rules always seem to be getting ahead.\u00a0 Christians always seem to be marginalized, pushed down, pushed back on the social structure in the world system, and isn\u2019t it interesting to suddenly look at that world that Satan himself orchestrates through the eyes of eternity and recognize that those involved in that satanic system itself are on their way to hell and yet they don\u2019t even realize it.\n\nWe can break down verses 9-12 as follows: the plea, verse 9, the punishment that will follow those that do not adhere to the plea, verses 10-11, and then you have verse 12, the perseverance people will need when they\u2019re shut out of this system and cannot buy or sell.\n\nNotice first of all the plea; notice, if you will, Revelation 14 and look if you will at verse\u00a0\u00a0 9.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThen another angel, a third one,\u201d so the scenery now is shifting, \u201cThen another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, \u2018If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Verses 10 and 11, \u201che also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.\u00a0 [11] And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.\u201d\u00a0 Verse 12, \u201cHere is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus Christ.\u201d\n\nThe plea, verse 9, the punishment if you take the mark, verses 10-11, and the perseverance that those pushed out of the system will need during this very difficult time.\u00a0 First of all the plea, what is the plea, verse 9?\u00a0 Don\u2019t take the mark of the beast because if you take the mark of the beast during this time period you are basically saying the antichrist is God, Jesus is not God, and you are eternally condemning yourself.\u00a0 In fact, you\u2019ll suffer the punishment described in verses 10 and 11. Taking the mark of the beast, in other words, as I understand it is something that\u2019s irreversible, it can\u2019t be withdrawn.\n\nNow the moment I start to talk like this, I start to get a flood of emails from people and they go something like this: in my work place they\u2019re giving me a number, a card or something to get in and out of the office and I\u2019m scared to death that I\u2019ve damned myself to hell.\u00a0 Well, let me sort of put your mind at ease. What you have in your work place, a number or a chip or whatever it is, even if it goes inside the body I don\u2019t think is the mark of the beast.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the mark of the beast system is when the antichrist is present; everybody will know his identity and you are volitionally swearing allegiance to him and rejecting Jesus in the process when you receive that mark.\n\nAnd the types of microchip technology, tattoos, all of these kinds of things that we see today are not the mark of the beast; I believe that they\u2019re preparatory for the mark of the beast. Technology is clearly moving in that direction but it does not equal the mark of the beast system.\u00a0 The people that will be damning themselves will be people who will do this after the rapture of the church, after the restrainer is removed, after the antichrist is killed and rises from the dead, after he announces himself as the ruler of the entire world.\n\nAfter everybody knows who he is and his system is fully in place, yes, those people taking the mark of the beast will be damning themselves. And how severe is this damnation.\u00a0 It\u2019s right there in verses 10 and 11.\u00a0 We read these verses earlier, \u201cthe wrath of God\u201d which he will experience, \u201cthe cup of God\u2019s anger\u201d will be poured out on such a person \u201cin the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.\u201d\u00a0 How long does this wrath last?\u00a0 It last (there in verse 11) \u201cforever and ever; they will have no rest day and night\u201d to the person who \u201creceives the mark of his name.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, a person that takes the mark of the beast during this time period automatically becomes a candidate for the Great White Throne Judgment that is described in Revelation 20:15 which says this: \u201cAnd if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.\u201d\u00a0 This is an eternal decision that cannot be reversed once people take the mark of the beast.\n\nThe Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, not if they come to your house but when they come to your house, will try to convince you of this doctrine called annihilationism.\u00a0 Annihilationism in their mind means the common grave or a common death and basically what they mean by that is your soul just sort of explodes if you\u2019re an unbeliever and you cease to exist.\u00a0 They don\u2019t believe in eternal retribution, they don\u2019t believe in eternal hell.\u00a0 They believe in something called annihilationism tragically in my lifetime.\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen a few mainstream evangelical Christians, the late John Stott being one, others would be Clark Pinnock, adopting this annihilationist mindset.\u00a0 And it generally comes from a position of emotion, not careful study of the Biblical text, where apparently someone in their family tree, a loved one or a friend, never trusted Christ and so they\u2019re on the other side of eternity and they just don\u2019t believe in this concept called hell and it\u2019s much easier to believe in annihilationism, that they won\u2019t be tormented forever and ever but they will cease to exist.\n\nAnd let me tell you something, that doctrine, whether it comes from evangelicals or Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses themselves is completely antithetical to what the Bible says.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m not here to preach and teach things that I like; there\u2019s an awful lot of things in the Bible I don\u2019t like.\u00a0 I\u2019m here to preach and teach the Bible.\u00a0 The Bible itself, just looking at verses 10 and 11, knows absolutely nothing about the doctrine of annihilationism.\u00a0 What it says is if a person dies without Christ they transfer into the eternal realm and they are tormented day and night forever and ever and that\u2019s why I have entitled this message How Long is Forever<\/em>?\n\nDaniel 12:2 says this: \u201cMany of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life but others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that the word used to describe \u201ceverlasting\u201d here two times in this verse, is the word \u2018\u014dwl\u0101m<\/em><\/a>.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that the word \u2018\u014d\u00b7w\u00b7l\u0101m<\/a> is repeated, once to describe heaven and once to describe hell.\u00a0 And so you ask people, do you believe heaven is forever?\u00a0 I\u2019ll sign up for that, I believe that!\u00a0 And you ask the same people do you believe hell is forever?\u00a0 Oh no, that\u2019s not possible.\u00a0 Do you see how linguistically and exegetically indefensible that position is, because of the repetition of the word\u00a0 \u2018\u014dwl\u0101m,<\/a> everlasting, same word, is used to describe hell and it\u2019s used to describe heaven.\n\nWhatever your view on the eternality of heaven is by definition it has to control your definition of the eternality of hell.\u00a0 In fact, \u2018\u014dwl\u0101m<\/em><\/a> is used to describe God Himself in Psalm 90:2, which says, \u201cBefore the mountains were born or you gave birth to the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting\u201d two repetitions of \u2018\u014dwl\u0101m<\/em><\/a>, \u201cYou are God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 And you say to people well, do you believe God is forever\u2026 I\u2019ll sign up for that!\u00a0 Do you believe heaven is forever\u2026 I\u2019ll sign up for that!\u00a0 Well, to you believe hell is forever, and suddenly you get crickets because no one wants to say anything when in reality the exact same word for hell is used to describe heaven and is used to describe God.\u00a0 If God is forever and heaven is forever then hell itself is forever.\n\nYou know, it\u2019s interesting that Jesus, when He came into the world talked far more about hell than He ever did heaven.\u00a0 Now why is that?\u00a0 I think the idea of an eternal hell is so foreign to the way we think that it had to come from the witness of Jesus Christ Himself to convince us that this reality is true.\u00a0 Had it not come from the lips of Christ over and over again, I for one, would be throne to second guessing the eternality of hell.\u00a0 And when you go over to Matthew 25:46 this is what it says: \u201cThese will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 Now here we\u2019re in the New Testament so we\u2019re using Greek and the Greek word here to describe punishment is \u03b1\u1f30\u03ce\u03bd\u03b9\u03bfs (ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em>).\n\nNow if someone just sort of ceases to exist, annihilationism, how can that be eternal punishment?\u00a0 Alan Gomes says this at Talbot Seminary, one of my professors: \u201cA punishment [such as torment] that is not felt is not a punishment. It is an odd use of language to speak of an insensate state (i.e., unfeeling), an inanimate object receiving punishment. To say, \u2018I punished my car for not starting by slowly plucking out it\u2019s spark plug wires, one by one,\u2019 would invoke laughter, not serious consideration.\u201d\u00a0 [Dr. Alan W. Gomes, (Summer 1991). \u201cEvangelicals and the annihilation of Hell\u201d (Part 2). In the Christian Research Journal. Page 11.]\u00a0 And what he\u2019s saying is the choice of words that Jesus uses in Matthew 25:46, \u201ceternal punishment\u201d could not be describing annihilationism.\n\nNotice again Matthew 25:46, \u201c<\/em>these will go away into eternal punishment,\u201d <\/em>ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em>, \u201cbut the righteous into\u201d what? \u201ceternal life,\u201d what\u2019s the word for eternal repeated here, it\u2019s ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em>, just like Daniel 12:2, \u2018\u014dwl\u0101m<\/em><\/a> is repeated twice in Hebrew to describe both.\u00a0 Jesus in Matthew 25:46 is using the Greek word ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em> to describe both.\u00a0 Well do you believe heaven is forever?\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019ll sign up for that.\u00a0 Well do you believe hell is forever? Oh no, I don\u2019t believe that.\u00a0 You see how exegetically linguistically indefensible that view is when the same word is used to describe both and is repeated?\u00a0 \u00a0And just like \u2018\u014dwl\u0101m<\/em><\/a> is used to describe God, in the Greek language ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em> is used to describe God.\n\nIn fact here, Romans 16:26 God is called the eternal ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em>, God.\u00a0 Well do you believe God really exists forever?\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019ll sign up for that.\u00a0 Do you believe heaven exists forever?\u00a0\u00a0 Yeah, I\u2019ll sign up for that.\u00a0 Do you believe hell exists forever?\u00a0 No, I don\u2019t believe that!\u00a0 That\u2019s exegetically linguistically an impossible position to maintain when you consider the fact that the same Hebrew word, \u2018\u014dwl\u0101m<\/em><\/a> is used to describe all three in the Old Testament.\u00a0 And the same Greek word, \u03b1\u1f30\u03ce\u03bd\u03b9\u03bfs is used to describe all three in the New Testament.\u00a0 Whatever you believe about the eternality of God and the eternality of heaven automatically controls how you view the eternality of hell itself.\n\nAnd if all of that weren\u2019t clear enough what do you do with Revelation 20:10 that we haven\u2019t even gotten to yet in the study?\u00a0 It says, \u201cAnd the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet\u201d what\u2019s the next word there that I have underlined, \u201care also<\/u>; and they will be tormented day and night\u201d for how long? \u201cforever and ever.\u201d\u00a0 To get the point across ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em> is repeated two times.\u00a0 And here\u2019s what\u2019s interesting.\u00a0 In Revelation 19 Jesus comes back as the rider on the white horse and His first order of business before He establishes His thousand-year kingdom is to take the two beasts, the antichrist and the false prophet and throw them into the Lake of Fire.\u00a0 They are the first inhabitants into the Lake of Fire.\u00a0 And then He establishes His kingdom, Revelation 20.\u00a0 Satan has a final rebellion at the end, Revelation 20:7-9.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:7-9, \u201cWhen the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, [8] and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[9] And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.\u201d]\n\nAnd then after these thousand years have elapsed what does Jesus do with Satan?\u00a0 He throws him into the Lake of Fire where the false prophet and the beast are.\u00a0 [Revelation 20:10, \u201cAnd the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.\u201d]\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 A thousand years have passed, they haven\u2019t disintegrated, they haven\u2019t exploded, they haven\u2019t been annihilated, they\u2019re still in there.\n\nHere\u2019s the reality of the situation: when God formed humanity, man and woman, He gave us an eternal soul.\u00a0 We are created for eternity itself.\u00a0 And consequently, all of us will be alive somewhere a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, a million years from now, a billion years from now, because God has set eternity into the hearts of people.\u00a0 To say that people explode or disappear or are annihilated and do not eternally suffer is to ignore our status in God as image bearers.\u00a0 As He is eternal, so are we.\u00a0 He\u2019s always been, we haven\u2019t, but at the point of conception we are designed to last forever and ever and ever.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the beast and the false prophet are still there a thousand years later when they\u2019re reunited with Satan at the end of the millennial kingdom.\n\nBack to our passage, Revelation 14:11. How much clearer could this be?\u00a0 \u201cAnd the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever,\u201d that\u2019s ai\u014dnio<\/em><\/a>s<\/em> repeated twice, \u201cthey have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name.\u201d\u00a0 Folks, believe me, there are ten million subjects I\u2019d rather be addressing than this but the problem with being a verse by verse teacher, like myself, like the way we teach at Sugarland Bible Church, is you have to confront every single subject.\u00a0 There\u2019s no wiggle room for the preacher to teach your best life now or whatever is in vogue today.\u00a0 You are harnessed to the biblical text and the method itself forces you to confront and explain and deal with every single verse in the Bible, even if the things I wish we weren\u2019t talking about today.\n\nSomething to understand about theology is this, it\u2019s like dominos in a row; theology is like a seam-less tapestry and whatever you do in one area of theology will have an impact, good or bad, on another area of theology.\u00a0 Just like knocking over a single domino lined up will cause all of the dominos to fall.\u00a0 If you start tampering with the Word of God and you start watering down and explaining through sophistry and philosophy clear passages in the Bible.\u00a0 As God is my witness you\u2019re going to throw a wet blanket over something.\u00a0 You know what that wet blanket is that you\u2019re throwing over?\u00a0 What subject is it?\u00a0 It\u2019s missions.\u00a0 It\u2019s evangelism.\n\nSugar Land Bible Church is a mission-oriented church.\u00a0 We take the first part of our budget and send it to missionaries.\u00a0 Well why would we do that?\u00a0 Because we think there\u2019s something to be saved from.\u00a0 We think there\u2019s something to be scared of.\u00a0 You say well pastor, you\u2019re just up there today, you\u2019re just trying to scare people.\u00a0 To be completely frank with you, that\u2019s not the worst thing in the world, is it.\u00a0 You know why I got saved at the age of 16?\u00a0 Pretty simple, I didn\u2019t want to go to hell! I got scared into a relationship with Jesus Christ and I\u2019m still walking with the Lord to this very day.\n\nI don\u2019t know if being afraid or scared of something if it\u2019s a biblical threat is the worst thing in the world, and that\u2019s what people are not hearing today.\u00a0 We talk all the time about being saved\u2014what are we saved from?\u00a0 Ever ask yourself that?\u00a0 I mean, doesn\u2019t the definition of \u201csaved\u201d mean you\u2019re rescued from something?\u00a0 What am I being rescued from exactly?\u00a0 I\u2019m being rescued from hell!\u00a0 And you start playing sophistry type games with eternal retribution the way John Stott and others have done and all of a sudden, the impetus or the stimulus for evangelism is removed.\u00a0 I mean, why not just build a bigger building?\u00a0 Why send the money to the missionaries?\u00a0 Well, we think there\u2019s something more important than a building\u2014it\u2019s keeping souls out of hell.\u00a0 And you take away the doctrine of eternal retribution you almost have no incentive to share the gospel with anybody.\u00a0 Why even share the gospel?\u00a0 Because the person sitting next to you on the plane is going the wrong direction, hopefully but not physically, but spiritually.\u00a0 They\u2019re going into a Christless eternity of eternal retribution.\n\nAnd so part of me is difficult to talk about this subject, verses 10 and 11, but the other side of me wants to rejoice because I know the other areas of evangelism and missiology that will be left intact and the urgency of the hour will be left intact if we simply follow what God says instead of trying to rewrite the Bible.\n\nThe last time I checked man is made in God\u2019s image.\u00a0 Now what is happening today is man is trying to make God in his own image.\u00a0 We no longer see ourselves as image bearers of the career fitting His rubric but we want to make God just like us.\u00a0 In fact, in our home-schooling program we\u2019re going through with my daughter, some of the Greek gods and deities, Greek mythology and as we reading through some of that literature as part of our home-schooling curriculum the reaction of my daughter to all of these gods being jealous of each other, quarreling with each other, doing stupid things, my daughter says those guys sound a lot like us.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it wonderful to come to the Bible and see the invitation of Jesus in John 4:24 where we are to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.\u00a0 [John 4:24, \u201cGod is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.\u201d]\n\nWe\u2019re not here to change God; God is here to change us!\u00a0 And let\u2019s get the order straight, let\u2019s get the creation-Creator distinction straight.\u00a0 And even if that means I run into something in the Bible that I don\u2019t necessarily like or makes me uncomfortable, it does not give me a right to take out White Out and plaster over the things that are uncomfortable.\u00a0 That\u2019s not biblical teaching at all.\u00a0 You know what that is?\u00a0 That\u2019s making a golden calf; that\u2019s exactly what the nation of Israel did with all of that metal that they had taken from Egypt.\u00a0 They got tired of God as he had revealed Himself and they said we\u2019re going to make a god after our own likeness, and they came up with this monstrosity, the golden calf.\n\nWhen you take a single attribute of God, like love, and you place so much emphasis on it that you deny another attribute of God, such as holiness or justice, what have you created?\u00a0 You\u2019ve created a golden calf, haven\u2019t you?\u00a0 And let me tell you something folks, there\u2019s an awful lot of golden calves being created today in modern day evangelicalism. It\u2019s called topical preaching.\u00a0 It\u2019s called bouncing around from place to place to place to come\u00a0 up with a sermon series that makes me feel good, because there are an awful lot of things in the Bible that make me feel good, a lot of things that meet my self needs so let me go through the Bible and string together a bunch of out of context passages that appeal to people\u2019s felt needs and that way we can get the church to grow.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the church growth movement.\u00a0 You go to some churches today you\u2019ll never hear anything like this, never hear anything about hell, anything about sin, anything about Satan, anything about judgment, it\u2019s all the feel-good stuff.\u00a0 My wife and I were, the church we met at and there was one of [can't understand word] reasons we decided to leave that church.\u00a0 The fellow got up on his Easter message; do you know what his Easter message was?\u00a0 How to catapult your career.\u00a0 And at the time I thought to myself what in the world does that have to do with the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ and he preached this sermon on Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday.\u00a0\u00a0 This is what passes today for modern day evangelicalism and in the process what have we created?\u00a0 A golden calf!\n\nSo we\u2019ve seen the plea not to take the mark, the punishment if people do take the mark, but what if you don\u2019t take the mark?\u00a0 You\u2019re pushed out of the system. Life becomes difficult.\u00a0 So you will need a strong word from the Lord in terms of how to persevere in the midst of that difficulty.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll pick it up next week with that strong exhortation towards perseverance.\n\nYou say well, gee, pastor, could you provide a good segue into the gospel today?\u00a0 Well, I can\u2019t think of a better segue; here it is:\u00a0 If you don\u2019t want to go to hell then trust Christ.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 I mean, simply believe in what He\u2019s done for you because He did all that was necessary to keep us out of hell. \u00a0All He asks us to do is to trust in what He has done so we can receive that gift.\u00a0 The gift is of no use to you, it\u2019s of no avail to you until you receive it.\u00a0 And you receive a gift from God only one way which is by faith, which means to believe.\u00a0 So, in the quietness of your own mind and heart, even where you\u2019re seated, without having to walk an aisle, join a church, raise a hand.\u00a0 It\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, where the Spirit places you under conviction and you trust in what Christ has done for you.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what gets you saved\u2026 saved from what?\u00a0 Saved from this horrific fate that we\u2019re reading about here in the Book of Revelation, chapter 14:10-11. If it\u2019s something that you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\n[Revelation 14:9, \u201cThen another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, \u201cIf anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, [10] he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. [11] \u201cAnd the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [12] Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.\u201d]\n\nShall we pray.\u00a0 Father, I don\u2019t know if the world system or even Christendom or evangelicalism would really look with favor on some of the things we\u2019ve talked about this morning.\u00a0 But I do pray that as the world frowns You\u2019re smiling because it\u2019s Your truth and Your ways are higher than our own.\u00a0 Help us, Father, to worship You as You have revealed Yourself and not to come up with philosophical excuses as to why we don\u2019t want to believe and created a \u201cgolden calf\u201d in the process.\u00a0 Help us to not be that kind of group, that kind of flock, that kind of congregation but people that are gathered week after week to worship you in spirit and truth.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t