Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20030511.htm
JESUS CHRIST IN OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY Part XXXVII: Shifting Our Trust From Governments To Christ's Reign (Psalm 2:6-9 with Revelation 19:15-16 and 2:27)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

Whether we look at secular, religious or business administrations, oppressive injustices seem to crop up almost on a continual basis:

(1) The Social Security System was begun to create a safety net for the elderly and infirmed. However, if the system is not reformed, the fund will be empty in forty years! Yet, the federal government has not addressed this issue even though experts report in the May 6, 2003 issue of Investor's Business Daily the problem could be in part resolved by privatized investments as Sweden proved can be done!

Accordingly, not counting on their legislators to address the problem, MANY American "baby boomers" are investing in stocks as though the Social Security System will not help them!

(2) In a letter to the Editor of World magazine, in the April 26, 2003 issue, p. 30, Douglas Pruiett of Savannah, Georgia wrote during the recent Iraq war, "I had been logging on to the discussion board on abcnews.com. When I posted anything with the name of Jesus Christ, my messages and all responses were quickly deleted. However, Allah [Islam's deity] was more than welcome . . . " (brackets ours)

A major American news organization has thus reportedly unfairly oppressed one religious view while promoting another.

(3) A number of religious leaders are seeking to tell their followers the deity, Allah in Islam is the same one worshipped by the Christian community. Vatican II (Nostra Aetate) claims Muslims "worship God . . . the Creator of heaven and eartth, who has spoken to men." (cited in The Berean Call, Nov. 2002, p. 2 in the article by T. A. McMahon, "Catholicism & Islam: Ties That Bind")

Yet, historian Will Durant, in his "classic" work, The Story of Civilization wrote "Allah" was a pagan deity of the Quraish tribe of the Arab people whom Muhammad isolated from the other pagan gods of a pantheon of gods to make into his deity for the Islamic faith, Ibid., p. 1.

Thus, religious leaders in Christendom are errantly misleading followers in even BASIC beliefs on the Islamic faith!



In view of oppressive administrations in various realms, WHAT may WE EFFECTIVELY to DO for RIGHTEOUSNESS?

(We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

Need: "Clearly, all sorts of human administrations that rule us are often sadly defective! Accordingly, what MEANINGFUL functions would GOD have ME do to address this need?!"

1. The RISEN Jesus told His disciples on the road to Emmaus how He fulfilled Old Testament Messianic prophecies, Luke 24:25-27.
2. As these men were edified by Christ's teaching of those passages (Luke 24:32), we also view them, following the list of prophecies named in the Ryrie Study Bible, KJV , s. v. "Messianic Prophecies."
3. The fulfillment of the Psalm 2:6-9 in Revelation 19:15-16 and 2:27 reveals we can EFFECTIVELY respond to defective human administrations of ALL kinds by (a) hoping for CHRIST'S coming reign and (b) INDIVIDUALLY STANDING for GOD'S WORD where GOD PLANTS us (as follows):
1. Psalm 2:6-9 reveals the world's Gentile nations will come under Christ's worldwide rule, and He will shatter the administrative controls of these nations by means of a much more powerful, perfect monarchy, the rule of Himself in His Messianic Kingdom.
2. Well, we know from Revelation 19:15-16 (with Revelation 20:4), this prophecy will be fulfilled at Christ's Second Coming, and the agency of the power behind this rule will be the Word of God:
1. Revelation 19:15b informs us Jesus will rule the nations with a rod of iron, an allusion to Psalm 2:6-9.
2. Yet, in keeping with this rod's use to shatter nations as taught in Psalm 2:9, Revelation 19:15a reveals the instrument of this "shattering" will be the Word of God, the "sharp sword" coming out of Christ's mouth that Hebrews 4:12 reveals is God's Word.
3. Well, for OUR use, in Revelation 2:27, a passage we before learned predicted the Protestant Reformation, an illustration on HOW this prophecy will be FULFILLED was THEN given:
1. In a previous sermon, we found Christ's message to the Thyatiran Church in Revelation 2:18-29 predicts the Protestant Reformation (see our sermons on "Christ's Commentary on Church History: Thyatira, Revelation 2:18-29" at www.nepaugchurch.org.)
2. Well, for those in that era, Christ promised its overcomer would rule with a rod, shattering the powers of the evil administrations about him as an iron rod would break pottery, cf. Revelation 3:27.
3. As know Christ will shatter these powers by God's Word He speaks (Revelation 19:15a), we review the history of the Protestant Reformation for insight on how this future event will occur:
1. When Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Church door at Wittenberg on October 31, 1517 to protest an errant, oppressive Holy Roman Empire, its rule and papacy were thought by many to be "eternal" (C. S. Anderson, Augsburg His. Atlas, p. 42).
2. However, these theses that Luther had hastily penned merely to spark a customary academic debate at his school in Wittenberg were taken down, copied and spread all over Germany and Switzerland in four weeks time, causing a huge stir among the common people, James Atkinson, The Great Light, p. 42-43.
3. So strong was this tumult that, four years later, Luther was called before the Diet of Worms and told to recant: he replied, "Unless I am convicted of error by the testimony of Scripture or by manifest reasoning, I cannot and will not recant anything . . . On this I take my stand. I can do no other, God help me. Amen." Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Ch., p. 282-283.
4. Martin Luther was soon after kidnapped by friends and hidden in the castle at Wartberg, so he continued writing and the Reformation caught fire in Europe outside of his own control.
5. By 1555, the map of the once "eternal" Holy Roman Empire looked like it had been shattered with a rod: chunks of Lutheran and other splinter lands that had broken away from Catholic rule lay scattered all over northern Europe, Ibid., Anderson, p. 46.
6. Thus, from Luther's history, we know that by His merely speaking God's Word as Luther exalted Scripture in his writings and preaching, Christ will destroy the world's evil religious and secular administrations at His Second Coming to the earth.
4. By way of OUR application, by hoping for Christ's coming kingdom and holding to God's Word where God plants us, like Martin Luther, WE can be used by God to CORRECT the errant influence of various human administrations.

Lesson Application: If concerned about errant administrations, we must START to address the problem by (1) FAITH ALONE on Christ ALONE (as did Luther) and be justified by God, John 3:16. (2) Then, like Luther, we should HOPE for the COMING REIGN of Christ to SHATTER the world's evil administrations and RULE by the POWER of God's Word. (3) Finally, like Luther, we should UPHOLD SCRIPTURE where GOD PLANTS US, and let GOD cause THIS to make us effective for a solution!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Dave Hunt, whose The Berean Call newsletter stands for Scripture truth, has been receiving some encouraging letters on the edifying EFFECTS of his newsletter's stand (as follows):

(a) "Dear Dave . . . How delighted I am to see someone [like Dave] not taken in . . . [by the error of a certain Evangelical group named in a previous TBC newsletter article]. After having been into Catholicism and then Jehovah's Witnesses, I look very thoroughly at any new aspect of religion . . ." DG (Florida) [June '98 issue, TBC]

(b) "Dear Dave Hunt, My wife and I manage a Christian bookstore and are appalled at the direction things seem to be going and the lack of discernment [re: various works by Christian publishing companies named in the letter] . . . We thank the Lord for the ministry you are involved in! It has been a ray of light for us in a darkening tunnel." LV (Idaho) [June 2000 issue, The Berean Call]

(c) "Brother Dave, I am from Yugoslavia and lived there for 17 years, but it wasn't until I came to the U.S. And got incarcerated that I found the Lord . . . I read different authors, writers, educators, et cetera, but it was when I started reading your monthly letter that it really stirred up my heart." IC (prisoner, Illinois) [April 2000 issue, TBC]

(d) "Dear Dave, I've received your paper for many years. I am 77 [and] have been a born-again Christian for many years, but not a practicing Christian. For some reason, God knows, when I read the February issue [of TBC] I was soundly rebuked, and immensely uplifted, and it suddenly dawned on me what a must publication' The Berean Call is for true Christians. As I read the letters from believers, I felt such a strong bond for these Christians. I wanted to reach out and hug them." MB (Kansas), Ibid.

(e) "Dear Dave . . . I was deeply offended when I initially heard of your book, A Woman Rides the Beast [that exposes errors in the Catholic Church] and wouldn't read it. Then, inexplicably, it was as if the Holy Spirit opened my eyes and some months later I purchased a copy and was confronted with the truth . . . It's like hearing a sane voice amidst so much insanity." JW (New York), Ibid.

In the midst of errant civil or religious administrations, may we like a Martin Luther or a Dave Hunt uphold the TRUTH where GOD PLANTS us -- GOD will MAKE us EFFECTIVE!