According to Jesus, Luke, Paul & Peter

We have looked at the Day of the Lord.

We're in a series called The End of the World.

And let me just say, that brings with it connotations, I guess, of what camp in theology you might be in.

Please don't think that we are a certain type of church, just because we're doing a series called The End of the World.

I don't think you have to box someone or a church into any particular package deal.

I just think the Bible talks about the end of the world, and that's a good thing for us to study it.

We've looked at the Day of the Lord.

The Day of the Lord represents a day in history when the rescuing merciful love of God is displayed, while simultaneously the righteous wrath of God is revealed.

The Day of the Lord is one of mercy and judgment.

That was first week, and in last week, we looked at the three main views of the millennium spoken of in Revelation 20.

A passage that's probably the most debated passage in all of the New testament.

And we looked at Ben preached on that, and he went home and said, I never want to do that again.

But he did a great job.

We looked at the pre-millennial view, the post-millennial view, and the A millennial view.

And you know, if you've been around church for a while, you'll know the sort of cynical pan-millennial view.

It'll all pan out in the end.

And that's probably a legitimate position, because it's so hard to understand how to put the millennium spoken of in Revelation 20 in the context of the whole gospel story and biblical story.

Ben articulated last week that on this subject, from the pulpit, we're presenting an A millennial view of the end times.

And that is best described as a realized millennial view.

That means we're suggesting that we're in it.

We're in the millennium.

A thousand years is not a literal thousand years, but it's like the number ten we'll look at next week, Lord willing.

The ten in apocalyptic literature means big, large, unimaginable, and you'll see that in the multiples of ten.

So, we are coming at it from a realized millennial view.

There is a judgment, the day of the Lord, there is a millennium, and we're living in it, and today we're going to look at what jesus, Luke, Paul, Peter, and a little snippet of Daniel had to say about the end, and I'm sorry there are no women there, but I couldn't find any women that spoke in the Bible about the end times.

And we're going to see that there are four certainties, and this is not a catchy four points for a sermon that you'll remember.

You'll do well if you remember these four points.

But I think it's what we find from a survey of the biblical literature about the end times.

There is an unparalleled societal deception that's coming.

There is going to be a cataclysmic disruption of the physical order.

There will be a great moral reckoning, and there will be a God-glorifying cosmic homeostasis restored.

That's what's going to happen.

You can take a photo of that if you want, because you're not going to remember it.

But those things, that's what I have found as I've looked at a survey of the scriptures and tried to look at what are the key characters say about the end.

So just before we get to that, and let me pre-warn you like a nurse who's giving you a jab in the arm, saying this is going to hurt a little.

Apparently, that's a good thing.

So this sermon's going to hurt a little.

There's a bit of text for us to deal with.

So I invite you to gird up the lines of your mind and be ready for action, and let today be a day that you do some heart and head work.

Before we get into those four points, I want to establish a very important interpretive grid for understanding the end times.

We need to understand that the Bible teaches clearly there are two ages.

There's the age we're living in, and there's the age to come.

And I think that some of the confusion about millennium, about a thousand year period, starts to dissolve a bit when you just lock in the interpretive grid, that there is an age now, and there's an age to come.

And I would put it to you up front, there's no talk of a millennium in there.

There's no talk of a middle millennium, at front, back, across a very broad section of scripture.

So it's an argument, I guess, I'm putting across, that to rest in a millennial view that makes biblical sense, it's very important to remember there are two ages, and only two ages.

There is the age that we're in, and the age to come.

So let me do a bit of proof texting, and I'll race through this pretty quickly.

jesus said regarding this age, Matthew 24, verse three, the end of the age will be preceded by signs.

As jesus was sitting on the Mount of olives, the disciples came to him privately, they said, when will all this happen?

He'd just been talking about the end of the world, and the destruction of the temple.

What will be the sign of your coming?

End of the end of the age, this age will end, in the Great Commission, Matthew 28.

jesus said, surely I am with you always to the end of the age.

There is an age that we're in.

Mark 10 verse 30.

Truly I tell you, jesus replied, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age.

homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields along with persecutions.

And then let me just summarize.

You can look this up online, so we'll move quickly through it.

But if you want to go back and check these texts, just look it up on our website.

Luke 18.30 as a summary.

Let me just summarize.

Material rewards are given to us in this life.

Luke 20.

The people of this age marry and are given in marriage.

Romans 12.

We're not to be conformed to the pattern of this world, the age we're in.

1 Corinthians 1.

Philosophy is the wisdom of this age.

1 Corinthians 2.

Wisdom and rulers are of this age.

2 Corinthians 4.

Satan, the god of this age, blinds people's minds to the truth.

Galatians 1.

This present age is evil.

ephesians 1.

Christ reigns in this present age.

1 Timothy 6.

Those who are rich in this age are not to hope in their wealth for the next.

Titus 2.

12.

We are to live godly lives in this present age.

The Bible talks very clearly and there are many more verses.

But what you find is that this age is always temporal in nature.

This age is temporary.

People are given in marriage.

All these things that we are familiar with are of this age.

But there is an age to come.

Matthew 13.

40.

We are told that as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.

Moving into the next age.

Mark 10.

30.

Eternal life is a reward.

these people will not fail to receive 100 times as much in this present age.

homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, I read this just before, along with persecutions and in the age to come, as an age and in an age to come, eternal life.

No millennium, eternal life.

Luke 20.

There will be no marriage or giving in marriage in that age to come.

jesus said the people of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy of taking part in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage.

Paul describes the age to come in ethical terms.

He says in 1 Corinthians 6, evil doers will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Now the kingdom of God is a now and not yet idea.

We have the kingdom of God come now, but it's not yet as well.

And so these passages are talking about the kingdom of God consummated after the return of Christ and the resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15, flesh and blood will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5, those who live evil lives will not inherit the kingdom of God.

There's no evil in that next age.

And that's really important because if you have an idea of a physical millennium, there is evil in that age.

If you remember what Ben spoke about last week, the devil is unleashed after a thousand years and then evil goes mad.

That's not what scripture teaches here.

1 thessalonians 2, we are encouraged to live lives worthy of the kingdom.

ephesians 1, 21, sorry, jumping around a bit there.

That power is the same as the mighty strength, Paul writes, he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.

Far above all, rule and authority, power and dominion in every name that is invoked, not only in the present age, but in the one to come.

I hope you're getting a feel for it.

2 thessalonians 1, verse 5, our faith will make us worthy of the kingdom of God.

1 Timothy 6, the coming age has life that is truly life.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds and to be generous and willing to share.

In this way, they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

There is this age and then there's an age to come.

This age is temporal.

The age to come is eternal.

There doesn't seem to be, to me, to be in this scheme that we find, this schema, a place for a literal millennium.

Now, not to say there are not very intelligent, passionate people, some of whom are in the room, who think a certain millennial view.

And that's what you hold to.

And I just respect to you.

But one of the reasons I wanted to do this series is, I think some of us think there's only one view that's truly biblical.

It's called a dispensational pre-millennial view.

It's the literal view, supposedly, and it's therefore the biblical view.

But what I'm trying to put forward is, no, no, there's a different view that is just as biblical.

And it's realized millennium.

And it makes sense.

It makes sense from Daniel through all these passages we're gonna look at and all the way through Revelation.

It makes sense for me of the New testament and the gospel that we know.

So let's see what the key voices have to say about the end of this age.

There will be an unparalleled societal deception.

At the end of the Bible, the Bible says there will be a great deception.

And the apostle Paul talks about it in 2 thessalonians chapter 2.

And let me just apologize.

We've been here eight years and I've never preached on this.

I've avoided it.

We tend to avoid it.

It's sort of spooky and hard to understand.

It's certain groups of Christians tend to hang around this.

And us normal people avoid it.

But it's in our bibles.

So let's try to understand what 2 thessalonians chapter 2 teaches.

Paul writes, Concerning the coming of our Lord jesus Christ, this is the Perusia, the second coming of Christ, the end.

And our being gathered to him, we ask you brothers and sisters not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us, whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter, asserting that the day of the Lord, remember we've studied the day of the Lord, it's both mercy and wrath, the day of the Lord has already come.

Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he himself, he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

Paul's writing to the church at thessalonica and there is this idea, they've been spooked by this idea, a conspiracy theory of sorts, that jesus has returned already.

And so Paul is like, no, no, no, no, he hasn't.

In fact, there are certain things that need to happen before he does return.

And then he talks about this personality, the man of lawlessness, or is also called the man of sin, will exalt himself over the church.

I say church because he says he will set himself up in God's temple.

Now in the New testament, what is the temple?

There's us.

The temple sacrificial system has finished.

It got destroyed in 70 AD.

Now Israel want to get it back, but the idea in that package that I was talking about, that the temple will be reestablished and sacrificial system of animals will be reestablished is just ludicrous to me.

Hebrew says there's only one sacrifice.

It's jesus.

So when it says there's a man of lawlessness who's going to set himself up in God's temple, what do you reckon that is saying?

The church is going to get deceived.

The church is going to get deceived at some point.

Now, we will see this has happened over and over again.

The man of sin is normally understood to be the antichrist.

So if all these words start confusing you, I'm going to retell, say it over and over.

It's going to make sense, I hope, by the end.

The antichrist of one John is the man of lawlessness, is the man of sin.

And just like we saw with the Day of the Lord and Babylon being a type of a beastly empire.

So Babylon was manifest in the empire of Egypt.

And the man of lawlessness was, who do you think?

Pharaoh.

So Pharaoh is the type of the antichrist.

And then Nebuchadnezzar was the type of the antichrist and the evil empire was Babylon.

And then so we see this go along through history.

So there are types of the antichrist.

Some of the Roman emperors were types of the antichrist.

The man of lawlessness, types of that.

And the beastly empire was Rome.

And I think we see that manifest throughout history.

What I think is a good way to understand Revelation is that Revelation is talking about times throughout history when an evil empire represents the world and everything anti-God and they are led by a charismatic, powerful leader.

But that's gonna happen again at the end.

At the end of the end, there will be a great deception.

Paul writes, don't you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things, and now you know what is holding him back.

What is holding him back mean?

Holding the man of lawlessness back.

Apparently, the thessalonikans knew what was holding back the Antichrist.

So that he may be revealed at the proper time.

For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

Most evangelical scholars think that's the gospel.

The gospel is holding back the appointed man of lawlessness who would deceive the nations and the church.

The gospel is pushing him back.

And it's really important to try to match up some of these scriptures with the hard to understand passages we find in Revelation.

So let's look at Revelation 20.

And we mentioned last week, you can read Revelation and think it's chronological.

You start at chapter one and you finish at chapter 22, and it's just one thing after the other.

But I would put to you, a far better way to understand it is it moves around chronologically.

It retells stories from different angles.

It's a lot like a newsroom who have 20 cameras, and there's a producer who's giving the vision and going, look at that camera, look at that camera.

And so you're jumping around.

And so I think the most likely way of understanding Revelation 20 verse 1 is that we've been taken back to the death and resurrection of jesus.

You're thinking we're at the end by chapter 20 of Revelation.

We've only got three chapters to go, but we're not.

We've gone all the way back to jesus' death and resurrection.

And John says, I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the abyss and holding in his hand a great chain.

Then he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years because the realized millennium is saying, we're in the thousand years.

So at the beginning of the thousand years, the devil got chained up.

He threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended.

After that, he must be set free for a short time.

Is the devil doing damage?

Absolutely.

But if you've ever had to catch a possum or something, sometimes they're pretty dangerous in that when they're caged up.

And that's what an animal can be.

And that's what we would understand the devil does do damage.

In fact, we're told that his fury has no end against the church.

But I think Revelation is telling us that he's actually chained up.

And there will be a time when he's released at the end.

And that's what makes it worse.

Later on, a day will come when the dragon is unleashed to cause havoc.

So if we go back to 2 thessalonians, Paul writes, Then the lawless one will be revealed at the end, whom the Lord jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendour of his coming.

Let's not rush through that one.

Isn't that glorious?

You can read Revelation and hear about these battles and, you know, who's going to win, who's going to win?

Who does win?

jesus wins by words.

He's already done everything that needs to be done.

All he needs to do is say, remember I died for the sin of the world?

I conquered you.

You're done.

Like it's the word of God.

Out of his mouth comes a double edged sword.

So he wins, jesus wins, defeats the lawless one by his word later on.

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with how Satan works.

The antichrist, the lawless one, the man of sin, all the same person.

He will use all sorts of displays of power through signs and wonders that serve the lie and all the ways that wickedness deceives those who are perishing.

They perish because they refuse to love the truth and be saved.

They perish because for this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned to have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.

So there will be a revealing of this lawless one and there will be signs and wonders to trick people because remember Satan is a deceiver, right?

jesus said he's a liar from the beginning.

From the very beginning, he always lies.

He's not creative.

He just will deceive and lie.

That's what he does.

And that's what we can expect at the end of the end.

Revelation 13, sorry we're jumping around so much, but I don't know how to do it any other way to give a good survey.

Revelation 13 talks about this man of lawlessness when John speaks of the beast of the earth.

Stay with me, please.

John says, I saw a second beast because the first beast is a beastly empire.

But he sees a second beast.

This is the beast that Daniel saw with the little horns.

There's this second beastly character coming out of the earth.

He had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon.

What does that tell you?

Deceptive creature, looks like a lamb, but sounds like a dragon.

Wolf in sheep's clothing.

A monumental deception.

That's what he sees.

And this little lamb dragon thing exercised all the authority of the first beast, the empire, on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the empire, the first beast, which is Babylon, whose fatal wound had been healed.

And it performed great, this is the second beast, the Antichrist, performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people.

Isn't that what Paul just said would happen?

That the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness, he'll do displays of power and wonder.

Because of the signs it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, the empire, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth.

It ordered them to set up an image in honour of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

The second beast who was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so there's just a charismatic personality is, with their charisma, is giving power to an empire, to a world view, to a way of living.

And that's what's happened.

And so that the image could speak and cause all who refuse to worship the image to be killed.

And this is, we're sometimes familiar with this portion.

It forced all people great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they couldn't buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.

This calls for wisdom that the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for is the number of a man, the number is 666.

Anyone familiar with that part?

I think we might have heard it.

So I'm just going to sort of preach, because what I've discovered is, hardly anyone has a cohesive understanding of revelation.

I've been talking to people going, tell me about revelation in the end times, and they say, fire?

They got nothing.

So I'm just going to say what I think is happening here.

The dragon who is the devil, I think we've got a slide here.

The dragon who is the devil has been defeated and chained in the death and resurrection of jesus, hallelujah.

And from the dragon comes a beastly empire.

There have been many of these Babylon-like empires, and from this beastly empire comes a beastly charismatic leader, the beast of the earth, who is also known as the man of lawlessness and the antichrist.

He will deceive the entire earth, even the church setting his image up in the temple in the church.

Society will be deceived by this leader who will seemingly do the miraculous, because it's all about faking what jesus has done.

The devil is behind it all.

He's trying to deceive.

He's just trying to deceive.

He is called 666 because he represents an unholy trinity of the dragon, the beastly empire, and the antichrist, and seven is the number of God.

It's the perfect number.

So jesus, Paul, Luke, Daniel all agree and teach into this from different angles.

I say Daniel without going back to it because if you take the time to study that very complex bunch of prophecies towards the end of Daniel, you find that there is a key figure, an evil leader who sets up the abomination that causes desolation.

Anyone remember that, that name?

And most people would say, well, that was Antiochus' most epiphanies in history, 160 BC.

He was a Syrian leader, took over the temple, and just to really sort of get it up the Jewish people's noses and be an abomination, he slaughtered a pig and sprayed pig blood, which was anathema to the Jews, all over the temple.

And he set up an altar to Zeus and himself in the temple.

So it's not as though these prophecies haven't come true, but they're types.

They're going to happen again.

And there were actions that one of the Roman emperors did as well that seemed like the actions of an abominable man of lawlessness.

But what we're looking for is the idea that this is actually going to come again.

And jesus, he predicts the destruction of the temple in Stephanie AD, but it's more than that.

So we've spent the most time on that point, and we'll spend less time on the others.

We'll make it to the end, I'm confident.

The second point is this.

There will be an unparalleled societal deception.

And then the second point is there is a cataclysmic disruption of the physical order coming.

We're going to feel it in nature.

We're going to feel it in nature, that the groaning of creation is real.

jesus gives a very important speech, a teaching in what is called the Olivet discourses, on the Mount of olives, and Matthew, Mark, and Luke all speak about it.

It's Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.

It's that sort of spooky part.

Let me read part of it.

Luke 21, this is jesus' words.

He says, Watch out that you are not deceived, because a deception is coming.

For many will come in my name, claiming I am he, and the time is near.

Do not follow them.

When you hear of wars and uprisings, don't be frightened.

these things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.

Then he said to them, Nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom.

There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

And then a little bit later on in verse 12, but before all of this, they will seize you and persecute you.

And then I'm going to read from verse 20.

When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near, and this happened in 70 AD.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city.

For this is the time of punishment in fulfillment of all that has been written.

How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers.

There will be great distress in the land and wrath against this people.

They will fall by the sword and be taken as prisoners in all the nations.

Jerusalem will be trampled on by the gentiles until the times of the gentiles are fulfilled.

And this absolutely happened in 70 AD under the Roman Emperor Titus.

The Roman general at the time.

But it's more than that.

jesus is speaking of the end of the end that we're looking towards.

We may not live to that point, but when he writes in verse, when he says in the Olivet Discourse in verse 25, I don't think this is just talking about the temple being destroyed.

There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars.

On the earth nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea.

People will feint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the earth, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

The heavenly bodies will be shaken.

At that time, they will see the coming of man, son of man, that's him, coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

When these things begin to take place, stand up and lift your heads because your redemption is drawing near.

There's a shaking of the earth that will come.

And this is what you read in Revelation.

If you've read Revelation, islands disappear into the sea.

They disappear.

It's sea level rising.

Like huge hailstones fall from the sky, lightning, plagues.

There's always a terrible earthquake.

The earth shakes at the end.

Peter, just look at another voice.

He says in 2 Peter 3, the day of the Lord, remember the day of the Lord is the wrath of God and the love of God displayed.

It's going to come like a thief.

The heavens will disappear with a roar.

The elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.

Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?

You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God.

That's the day of the Lord.

And speed it's coming.

Come, Lord jesus, Maranatha.

That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire and the elements will melt in the heat.

There will be an end to this world and it won't be from a flood, but the world will end and it will be a cataclysmic physical disruption.

I'm not making that up.

That's not from some particularly conservative conspiracy theorist group.

I'm trying to present a survey across so much scripture.

That's what the Bible teaches.

There is a big shaking of this world to come.

The third aspect, which we will spend much less time on here, is there will be a great moral reckoning.

does it matter how we live?

Human being sitting in a room, living your life like me?

does it matter how we live?

Is there a transcendent being who sets up the moral code for how we are to live?

Is there a transcendent being that we talked about on the first week of this series who has defined what is good and evil?

Or do we get to make that up ourselves?

Well, the Bible's really clear.

We have been made in the image of God and we will be held to account for our lives.

And I get it on the whole, whether it's online or in this room, I'm preaching to the choir.

I'm preaching to the choir.

Most of you are here because you believe this.

But I also think some of us are probably moving a little bit away from faith or some are here or online or will watch this or listen to this sermon later.

And you're wondering about these questions.

these are the words of jesus.

Matthew 25.

When the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, this will be at the end of the age, the first age, he will sit on his glorious throne and all the nations will be gathered before him and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

They're jesus' words and he is saying very clearly there will be a moral reckoning for humanity and the fallen angels.

That's what we read many times in the Book of Revelation and also other parts of the New testament that we must give account for our life.

And this is where the good news should come in, and so I'm going to share it.

If we have to stand before the judgment seat of Christ, we're all failing.

Amen.

That's what Revelation tell...

That's what Romans taught.

We've all failed.

We're born into sin, but that wasn't even enough.

We've sinned.

We have missed God's perfect standard with our choices and in our lives.

And there is no hope, zero hope for any human being to stand before the judgment seat of Christ and make it through to new creation, to the next age.

Because nothing, remember what we heard before, nothing evil gets there.

Nothing evil gets there.

So someone else has to pay the price of our sin.

And this is the good news of the gospel, that there has been a divine exchange.

God sent his only son because he loved the world, to live the perfect life that we could not live, to die on a cross and offer that perfect blood, literally offer the perfect blood as a blood sacrifice, to cover our sin, to die in our place.

That's the divine exchange, hallelujah.

He took what we deserved on the cross, dying for our sin, so that by faith in him, we could get what he deserves.

Perfect relationship with God.

The biblical image is a robe of righteousness.

It's not stained, it's perfect.

So we stand before jesus in that judgment situation, and we say, my hope is in you, Lord.

And he says, well done, good and faithful servant.

Your name is written in the Book of Life because of faith in me, in jesus.

And that's available to all of us.

It's available to all of us.

Every person who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

That's what Roman says.

If we confess with our mouth that jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved.

Hallelujah.

That's available for you.

If you're not a Christian today, it's available for you online.

Call out for mercy and say save me.

Save me through your grace and by the blood of Christ.

I need to be saved.

There will be a great moral reckoning, but the answer to that reckoning is available by faith in Christ.

And finally, there will be a God glorifying, cosmic homeostasis restored.

Do you remember what homeostasis means?

It's just back to the way it should be.

It's restored.

It's in balance.

You know, the balance is meant to be God, creator of the universe up there and the created order down here, and we're going, glory to you.

Not glory to me, glory to you.

That's the homeostasis that we need to get back to.

And this is where I really came to with joy in my heart this week, because studying this content is just jolly confusing, amen?

It's hard work, it's challenging, it's like it does your head in after a while, and you sort of go, oh, is there another version of pan millennium?

It'll just make it all go away.

And you know, there's a lot in the Bible that's debated, less so about what jesus did.

We tend to agree on that.

But there's a lot that we can debate, certainly about the end of the world.

And, but you know, I've been studying Revelation really a lot the last six weeks, and I have beyond that back in my life.

But what I have come to is this sense that amidst all the images and all the challenging ideas, the one thing that is very clear is God gets glorified in heaven.

All of creation says glory to you.

And that's what you need to do.

That's what I need to do.

Give glory to God, because there's a homing device inside your head and your heart, inside your very soul that says, I was born to give glory to God.

Not to me, and not to a beastly empire, and not to a charismatic, deceptive leader, certainly not to the dragon.

I was born to give glory to God.

And his son, the Lord jesus, who is the perfect representation of the father.

So our final destination is a God-glorifying, cosmic homeostasis restored, and we're allowed to get there now, hey.

We're allowed to live like that now, to give him all the glory.

John said that in heaven, the heavenly court, all that is powerful, all that has always been around the eternal God, never stop saying, holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.

And regarding jesus, they say, you are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things and by your will, they were created and have their being.

An unparalleled societal deception, a cataclysmic disruption of the physical order, a great moral reckoning, a God-glorifying cosmic homeostasis restored.

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