Born to Win Podcast - with Ronald L. Dart

Hello everyone and welcome to the Christian Educational Ministries . Tonight, we present Ronald L. Dart with a study on the Epistle of Jude from the CEM Vault. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born. She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her Child was caught up to God and His throne. Thus begins the 12 chapter of the Book of Revelation. The seventh trumpet has sounded. These seven trumpets are a part of the seven seals of the book of the last days of Man upon the earth and of Man’s mis-government. And we are following on the heels of incredible disasters that have struck the earth. Men have been dying by the hundreds of thousands—no, people have been dying in the millions. Disasters, wars, the beginning of what could be a nuclear winter—words fail to describe the kind of events that John has been seeing in this vision. But remember, this is all just a bad dream in a way. Nothing is happening. John is on the Isle of Patmos. He’s been carried in vision to the day of the Lord—the time of God’s wrath, the time of God’s vengeance upon the earth—and he’s standing there, round-eyed, looking at all these things that are happening and marveling at them as angels showed him one thing after another. So, the seventh angel sounds and blows his trumpet and there is silence in heaven about the space of half an hour, some statements are made, and all of a sudden there appears a great sign in heaven.

If you want to know about one of the places you’ll naturally go looking is the Bible, and if you grab a concordance and do a search for the expression you will find exactly six occasions where the term is found, Old Testament and New. However, if you search the Hebrew phrase, you will find the expression some 13 times in the Old Testament alone. The reason is that in over half of the occasions where it is used, it is rendered latter. I presume there are contextual reasons for choosing one expression or the other. We would like to insist that the expression always means exactly the same thing, but English doesn’t work that way and we shouldn’t expect Hebrew to be any more precise. We run afoul of some very bad interpretations because amateurs find a meaning of the Hebrew that fits their assumptions and then they impose that rendering everywhere it is found because it supports their particular bias. I have the impression that God wants us to be less dogmatic and more enquiring, but that’s a hard adjustment for some people to make. The last time I spoke here, I introduced the topic of the last days with Paul’s warning of debilitating, weakening times in 2 Timothy. Then came Peter’s powerful admonition in 2 Peter 3. I’ll begin here with another occasion when Peter addressed the question of , the , and the prophet Joel. We’ll find it in Acts, chapter 2, occurring on the Day of Pentecost. << Surviving the Last Days #1

The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be delay no longer, but in the days of the sounding of the seventh angel, when he is about to sound, the mystery of God would be finished, as He declared to His servants the prophets. Mystery? What mystery? Well, we’re in the Book of Revelation, chapter ten. And these angels that are appearing to John sequentially are telling things that are going to happen in the future. And John is writing them all down faithfully so that we will know what it is that’s coming, and why it is coming. Now we have come right up against the seventh of the angels that are going to blow trumpets. You’ve heard of Gabriel blowing his trumpet and the judgment day coming? Well, that’s where we are. This angel comes forth, puts the trumpet to his lips and blasts out. This is the time when the mystery of God will be finished. Whatever it is, this mystery is connected with the seventh trumpet. The fact is, John was leading up to this prophet, he saw an angel come down from heaven and stand on the earth and on the sea, and cry with a loud voice and when he did there were seven thunders cracked out with a voice, that said something. John took his pen in hand and was going to write them down, and somebody said, And so he didn’t. And one suspects because they made this statement, and then immediately say, The angel probably had said something about this mystery. John was privileged to hear it. We’re not. Alright, what is the seventh trumpet all about?

And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he had in his hand a little scroll open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not. Now, I am surprised that by now John could even hold a pen to write with all the things that had been happening to him and all the things that he had been seeing. A lesser man would have been prostrate on the ground and unable to stand or look. But I suppose after all the visions and so forth that had come before with John that he had made some adaptation by now, and he wanted to write down what these thunders said. This angel was huge, and the roar of a lion coming from him must have been awesome. And these seven thunders, don’t think of these like distant thunder rumbling in the background on the horizon; something where you see the lightening flash, and then count to five and then there’s a rumble that rolls across the way. No, no! Imagine thunder close enough that there is no discernible delay between the lightening and the sound, and you’ll be a lot closer to what this was probably like. A crack rather than a roll. What do you suppose the seven thunders said that John could not write?

And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. Now, this is an ominous silence. After all the seals that had been opened before: the four horses of the apocalypse had thundered across the landscape, there’s been religious confusion, persecution everywhere, a rain of meteors—not a shower, mind you—like a rain they’ve been hitting the ground; and there’s been earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions, and signs in the heavens. And then there’s silence for a half an hour. Now, half an hour is not a very long time, or it is a long time if you’re waiting for the next thing to happen. I wonder if it’s long enough to bring a man to the mouth of his cave to see if all the calamities that he’s been fleeing from are past. This is the Book of Revelation. It’s chapter eight. The Lamb of God has taken this book from the hand of him that sat upon the throne, and he has begun one at a time to open the seven seals on this book. The book is the story of the end of the age of man. We’ve had our time here. We’ve been walking about on this planet for at least 6,000 now, making all of our mistakes, and time, for us, will draw to a close. It’s the story of the end of the age of man, and the beginning of the age of the Lamb of God. A different world. The old song, , is right. Then, finally, the seventh seal is opened. There’s an ominous silence for about half an hour. Then, in total silence, seven angels step forward.

And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts its unripe figs, when it is shaken by a mighty wind. And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the generals , and the mighty men, and every slave, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath has come; and who shall be able to stand? Who indeed? When you consider what’s going on, when you consider that this that is happening is what really everybody thinks about when they think about the end of the world. We have a meteor shower that’s coming down, and this time they’re not burning up in the heavens, but they’re actually hitting the ground. Scientists tell us that this has happened in the past, and what happened in the past led to some of the great extinction when the dinosaurs disappeared off the earth because of all the clouds of dust and smoke and volcanic action and earthquakes and meteors hitting the earth threw so much dust in the air it blocked the sunlight, plant life died off and everything in the food chain that depended on it died off as well. The end of the world indeed. There was a movie some years ago about a meteor that struck at or near Phoenix, AZ, I forget the title of the move, but. I’ll never forget this one scene where a man comes up to a state trooper after all the big event is taking place and he says, And the trooper looked at him and said, Now, when you imagine that it’s like a tree that has been shaken badly and the fruit is falling to the ground like , all over the place, and you transfer that to meteors striking the earth, and you realize that one of them could actually destroy a city; well, I don’t want to scare you to much, but they say something like this has happened in the past, and that it’s sure to happen again. Scientist who specialize in looking at the universe and studying probabilities tell us that if something can happen, it will happen eventually. And, of course, if it already has happened, which it has on this planet, which has happened to the moon if you take a look at it, it’s going to happen again. Apparently it is going to rain very large objects from the sky at one point. In the movie, only one meteor, the people should have fled the city; some did and some didn’t, some had time, some didn’t. When the day of the wrath of the Lamb has come, there will be no place to run to.

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. There are two things that need attention in this statement: connects what he is saying with what he has just said—and we will need to talk about that. The word , though, is not exactly what Paul said. Other translations render the Greek word here as or . Actually, it comes from a Greek root that means . It is certainly true that what Paul describes here is a perilous time for men of faith, but it is perilous because the times are weakening—that is, they are debilitating, they tend to take us down. For Paul to caution Timothy as he did is suggestive that, for all he knew, they might be living in the last days. Paul didn’t know, of course. Jesus made it plain that no man knew the day or the hour. But that didn’t keep him from looking at the signs of the times. But then he when on to explain to Timothy, at some length, what it was he was driving at. We’ll see this as we continue in 2 Timothy, chapter 3. Surviving the Last Days #2 >>

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll, and to loose the seals thereof? And he looked all over heaven, and he looked all over earth, and he couldn’t find anyone that was qualified or worthy to open this book and break the seals, to look inside of it. It was only when the slain Lamb came on the scene that one was able to open it, and to break the seals. This book, this strange book, is the story of the end of the world. That’s a sobering thought. I remember the first time I ever heard that expression. I was just a boy growing up and living in the northwestern part of Arkansas. It was in the early years of World War II, and everybody was worried a lot back in those days. They watched the news daily, they listened to the radio, they read the papers, and it didn’t look good. These were pre-television and pre-air-conditioning days. On a hot summer evening when supper was over we didn’t set around inside the house you went outside and sat on the porch. You maybe swung back and forth in a porch swing or a rocking chair or if you were like us kids, we used to like sit on the cool concrete of the porch and think about this, or play with that, yet in our ears we were hearing what our elders were talking about. And I remember them saying that one of the signs of the end of the world was wars, and rumors of wars; and boy there was plenty of that in 1942 and 1943. I worried a lot about those things in those days. I remember, in fact, there was a light in the sky one night and I thought, This is it, This is it. The Lord is coming back, the end of the world is coming. I think it must have just been the Auroras borealis, but it sure sobered me up a lot. Well, only the Lamb of God who is identified in the pages of Revelation as Jesus Christ was found worthy to break the seals and to look on the book, and the only reason he was found worthy was because he was slain. He is the one that was killed, died for our sins, and the sins of the world, and he’s the one who’s qualified. And it’s not really a matter folks of looking into the book, but the breaking of the seal opens up the events. It’s actually, perhaps the start of the countdown toward what people are fond of calling the end of the world. It’s spooky to think about, isn’t it? The seven seals on this books are the seven steps up to the end of the world. I’ll bet you’d like to know what those seven steps are, wouldn’t you?

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Now, this was probably a scroll, and scrolls were usually written only on one side. You would write on the inside of a paper and you would roll up the writing on the inside. This one was written within and on the outside and was sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the scroll, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the scroll, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the scroll, neither to look thereon. We’re reading from chapter five of the great Book of Revelation. John is in vision, and John doesn’t even know what’s in this book and he was weeping uncontrollably because no one is found worthy to open it—not one of the elders, not one of the cherubim, not even, apparently, the one who is sitting on the throne and holding the book. Now, if you caught the earlier broadcast, you’ll know that the one sitting on that throne is none other than God the Father: the one who is, and who was, and who is to come—the eternal, the great God. He is holding it. And they’re weeping and looking around saying, What is this book, who can open it, and what is its significance?

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up here, and I will show you things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit; and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a carnelian stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in appearance like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones: and upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white clothing; and they had on their heads crowns of gold. And out of the throne proceeded lightning and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. Now, if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like where God is, you just heard an eyewitness account. A man named John was caught up in vision to where the very throne of God is, and was shown what things are like there. And, to the best of his efforts, he sat down and wrote it all down for us. We’ll find in the fourth chapter of the Book of Revelation.

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says he that is holy, he that is true, he that has the key of David, he that opens, and no man shuts; and shuts, and no man opens[.] Thus begins the sixth of the seven letters to the seven churches in Asia in the mysterious Book of Revelation. If you haven’t got any background in this, these are found in the second and third chapters of the Book of Revelation. And what many do not understand is—they’re used to the epistles of the apostle Paul and the epistles of Peter and the epistle of James, and not many realize is that of all the epistles in the New Testament, one of them is the Book of Revelation. It’s a letter. It’s a long letter. And within the long letter are seven letters written to seven churches—real churches on the ground in Asia Minor in the first century. Someone took this letter from John and went to each of these churches, stood before the group and read the letter aloud for them to hear. And John says: Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand. And so it is that this letter, penned by John, contains within it seven letters to seven churches. And they are sent around to be read, not just one letter in each church, but all the letters to each of the churches with special emphases to each one of them.

I’ll never forget the first time I stood on the Mount of Olives and looked out over the old city of Jerusalem, and I wondered why on earth someone would ever fight over the place. I wonder if so much blood has ever been shed over any comparable piece of real estate. Because it has gone on for so long, and so often. It was on that same hill where Jesus spoke further about what Jerusalem could expect. And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that you be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. I marvel over that, because so many people think that these are signs of the end. But Jesus said, the end is not yet. Nevertheless, I expect you have heard of something called . It is a word that has entered our language. It means I have been there and stood on the hill of Meggido and looked out across the valley. The place called Armageddon. And, just like with Jerusalem, I wondered, So I looked in the Bible to see what I could find. Let’s begin in Revelation, chapter 16…

And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he that has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know your works that you have a name that you live, and are dead. This is from the great Book of Revelation. The speaker, the one who has the seven spirits of God, and holds the seven stars in his right hand is nobody else but the risen Christ. The letter is the fifth of seven letters written to seven churches in Asia Minor, that place you and I call Turkey, late in the first century. They are a part of a vision given to the apostle John who was told to write down everything he saw and heard, and to send this writing, this letter, to these seven churches. They were real churches in real time. They were composed of real people with real problems. They had real lives, they had real names, they knew one another. So if the name of a person was mentioned in a letter, you could kind of look at that person and they would be there right in church with you on this day. But these seven churches were also symbolic of something else.

And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass[.] The letter is from Christ, it is addressed to each of them, and has some very important things to say. We’re in the Book of Revelation. These letters are written to real churches, in real time. They’re staffed with real people, who live in real cities, commit real sins, and do real good works. But that’s not all they are. There are seven of them. Seven is the number of completeness in the Bible. It represents the whole. And the Book of Revelation is a book about the day of the Lord. It’s about the end time. John was in the Isle of Patmos, a prisoner for the word of God for the faith he had professed. And in that time he was transported, in vision, into the day of the Lord; and he saw things which he was told to record and was given these seven letters to write to each of these seven churches. These seven churches are a model of the entire church at the end time. So, when we read this letter to Thyatira we can see what one first-century church was like, and we can wonder at the state of our church as we approach the return of Christ. The letter continues in Revelation 2, and verse 19…

God doesn’t speak to man very often, so when he does, it pays to listen. This is one of those occasions. John was a prisoner on the island of Patmos. He was in jail, I suppose. He was a political prisoner because of the faith of Jesus Christ for the witness and the testimony he had given. And he was transported in vision, and he heard in vision a great voice behind him and he turned around and saw someone who was so awesome in his appearance that John fell on the ground like a dead man as a result of seeing him. And this one that he saw reached down and picked him up and said, Now, if you’re going to know someone with a set of keys, the one who has the keys to hell—that is, the grave—and death is the one to know because he can get you out. And he continued to say, All this is in the mysterious Book of Revelation, the first chapter, verses 17 through 19. And this last statement in verse 19, is one of the keys to understanding the Book of Revelation.

I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, Thus begins that mysterious book: the Book of Revelation. The one that we look at and wonder, what does all this mean? what are the signs? what are the symbols? how do we understand it? Actually, its relatively simple in places because all it is, is a letter. A letter to seven churches. And the seven churches are named. These are really quite specific in their address. They go to seven and only seven, and one might ask, Why only seven? And, Why these seven? For in truth, there were a number of other churches in Asia at the time this epistle was written. It was written to these churches by name and to no other. Why?

I have to read a lot in preparation for the radio program, but most of what I’m finding to read these days is about politics. I have a feeling that we’re all, you and me, getting a politics overload. I would like to walk away from it, but I don’t think I should. There are some important things we need to think about regarding these people who are asking for our votes. We could very easily fall victim to the law of unintended consequences, and we could wind up with something we really don’t want to have. No offense, but we don’t want someone like you or me running the country. So let’s make a note of this for starters: None of the people we are watching in the political arena are normal folks like you and me. They are people who are obsessed with power; and by virtue of the fact that they are running for the highest office in the land, they are seeking more power. It was Lord Acton who said it, and it’s become true again and again and again: ; and everybody knows that the greater the power, the greater the potential (almost the greater the certainty) of corruption. Now, that doesn’t mean that you and I can afford to walk away and ignore the whole process—wash our hands and say, , because sometimes we are required to vote for the lesser of two evils. I’m even prepared to say that’s what we have to do all the time. I know that doesn’t seem quite right. Christian folk would like to vote for the good, and we’re tempted to think, But you have to decide. You can’t just walk away from it; and more often than not, refusing to decide is the worst decision of all.

Halloween is an odd event—very odd, in a way, because in its origins it was not evil; it was actually good. A number of you probably know that is ; in other words, All Hallows Eve—the evening before All Hallows. And is All Saints day. And, originally, All Saints Day (November 1st) was the day when all the saints were honored. In other words, it's a time that the Church had set aside to honor those people who had lived exemplary lives, who had blessed others by their lives, and were considered saints by the Church at that time. October 31st, though, among non-Christian Celtic people, was a different matter altogether. It was the festival of Samhain. What you may not know is the fact it was also New Year's Eve in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon England at that time. It was actually the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. It took place in the autumn, as a matter of fact. It was an occasion for fire festivals, they lit huge bonfires on top of hills to frighten off the evil spirits, and also it was a time when laws and land tenures were renewed. It harkens back, in a way, to the Old Testament. You'll recall where, in the year of release, all the captives were released. People who have been enslaved because of having been a thief and caught and sold into slavery were turned loose, in the seventh year. That was always in the autumn, not in the spring. In that Jubilee year, all the land again went back to its original family owner—the one who received it by lot. Here they had, in the autumn, a time when all the laws and land tenures were renewed. In the Celtic religions, the dead were supposed to visit their homes on this night. As a consequence, you get the sinister aspects of the festival. And, of course, you had the Celtic Church right alongside of the Roman Church; and the gradual melding that took place in these things over time created something along the lines of Halloween. And though it really became in later times a secular holiday, at the same time it has also retained a lot of those sinister overtones. only I think that is fascinating. For people who call themselves Christians—who are believers in Christ, people who try to serve God—you can almost see how it would be tempting, in certain circumstances (and I want to talk about that a little later), to get some guidance from that side of the spirit world. Halloween is a night of great evil. But really, it's a night of great evil only because the Devil is invoked in some of the customs and some of the practices. If it were nothing but a harvest festival, it probably wouldn't amount to much. The question is: Is there really a Devil, and are there demons in a spirit world that come out on Halloween or at other times? I recently received a letter from a long-time correspondent, and he had what I think is easily the most comprehensive set of questions about the spirit world and the paranormal that I have ever received in my life. I mean, to answer it would require me to write a book, . And he gave me a really good list. He asked me about spirit sightings, dreams that come true, UFOs, abductions, strange lights, hauntings, healings, psychics, miracles that seem to have nothing to do with God and yet are miracles, and a whole long list. And he asked that, somewhere along the line, I would do a sermon or a tape or something on the subject. And so you owe this sermon today to my friend who wrote to me about this.

The Book of Revelation is a book with a very specific purpose. John who wrote it tells us it is the revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him to show his servants things which must shortly come to pass. But, why bother? Why show them things which should shortly come to pass? Well, the logical answer is because he expects you to do something about it. He thinks that You know, it’s not a bad idea if God is about to do something drastic to society because things are not going the way they ought to go, and he let you know so you can get yourself straightened up. I think that is something we all could appreciate. So, John wrote all this stuff down that he went through and he wrote a letter to some people about it. And he said that he bore testimony of all the things he saw. And I guess because it was a vision, and it had to do with things he saw, the imagery of the Book of Revelation is highly visual. What John saw was a nightmare. What we want to know about that nightmare is: What does it all mean?