The Great Conflict and the God Who Comes

 Journey Through the Bible Series
Preached by Dr. Peter James Flamming, 
First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va.
June 29, 2003

            It was in the fall of the year when in the middle of October we began a series we are calling “The Journey Through the Bible.”  We have spotlighted the events, eight of them of the Old Testament, eight of the New Testament.  Now it is almost July and we are winding it up with two sermons on the final event, which is the Return of our Lord, the Second Coming.

The events of the New Testament are given in your bulletin in the middle page of the of the inner section in case you might like to kind of keep a memory of them.  There is the Birth, the Life, the Teachings of our Lord Jesus, then his Death and Resurrection.  Pentecost comes fifty days later with the Outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Then there are those three crucial decades, roughly 35 through 65 A.D. when the churches are planted throughout all the world of that day.  And then, finally, the Second Coming. 

          The Bible pictures the End of the Age as a crucially terrible time.  In Mark the 13th chapter, 19th and 20th verses the situation on earth is described like this:  “There will be days of distress unequaled from the beginning when God created the world until now and never to be equaled again.  If the Lord had not cut short those days, no one would survive.   But for the sake of the elect (that is the followers of Christ) whom he has chosen, then he has shortened them.”  

     It is an immense time of conflict.  Look at verse 12:  “Brother will betray brother, father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.  All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”  Dark picture on that horizon. 

          Let me give you a more hopeful sign and horizon-- verse 26:  “At that time, men will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory and he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heaven.”

          There are some who become completely preoccupied with the end of everything.  It is kind of a doomsday complex.  And when it comes to the Second Coming, there’s a kind of believer who is just completely obsessed with trying to figure out when it will happen, how it will happen, what will come first, do the Christians go through the Great Tribulation, etc. 

          Perhaps anticipating that, our Lord gave us a warning.  He says in verse 32:  “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven nor the son, but only the Father.”

     And then he tells us what to do.  He says don’t be a predictor.  Don’t try to figure God out.  This is God’s business, not yours.  Those who think they know when all of this is going to happen and how really think they’re smarter than Jesus.  But Jesus does give us some instructions.  He says in verse 33:  “Be on guard.  Be alert.”  And down in verse 37:  “Watch.” 

          Let’s take those three directives:  To be alert, to be on guard, to watch.  The first thing I’d like for you to do is to be alert to the pattern.  It is the pattern throughout the Bible, it is a pattern in your life, so don’t miss it.  Here it is!  There are those times when there are great breakthroughs.  Pop! And then, on the basis of that breakthrough, all kinds of conflict develops.  The conflict is born of many things but two of the biggies are every spiritual breakthrough brings new choices, and the devil comes in through those choices and manipulates, talks a good game, reassures us that whatever we want to do is going to be all right.  Choices! 

          I remember a young man some years ago who came to Christ. He came off of drugs.  I believe it was really a tremendous transformation in his life.  He got into the Word.  He became part of a small group.  We took him through the basics of the faith, but there was one choice he wouldn’t make.  He would not give up his old friends and they were doing drugs just like he had been.  And finally they dragged him down with them again. 

     You see anytime there’s a breakthrough, you’ve got some choices to make.  Choices that have to do with behavior and habits and support group.  Choices that have to do with friends and goals and the future horizon and dreams and vision you have. Every breakthrough brings choices.  And when that happens, you can count on Satan.  You can count on him showing up.  He loves to work his way through choices. 

     Well, take Adam and Eve.  Adam and Eve are in the Garden.  They have an idyllic existence and God comes to them and gives them a choice.  He tells them don’t even think about eating that fruit, because if you do the consequences are going to be not the kind you want.  Who shows up but Satan in the form of a serpent as the Bible story tells it, and smooth talker as he always is, he says, “Now listen to me brother and sister.  You listening?  Good.  Let me tell you how it really goes.  Don’t let anybody take from you what you’re entitled to.  You’re a free human being.  You have to look out for Number One.  You’re entitled to the very best.  Go ahead and eat that fruit because it will give you the same kind of power God has.”

     And they did it.  Satan won. They wind up in shame blaming one another.  They are cast out of the Garden of Innocence but then we usually miss the key event. The Key Event isn’t the choice.  It isn’t the arrival of the serpent.  It isn’t even that they chose wrong.  The key event is God comes back.  God is the God who comes.  God comes back to the scene of the crime.  No withdrawal here.  Confronting Adam saying, “Where are you Adam?” 

     Whatever you choose, put it down, mark it.  Underline.  Indelible.  Whatever you choose, God is not going to withdraw from you.  If you choose wrongly you’re going to find Him at some time or another coming back and he’s going to say, “Okay.  That chapter’s past.  Let’s recycle it.  Let’s redeem it and let’s get on with life.” 

     If you choose rightly, he’s going to say, “Wow!  Great, blessings on you.  Now let’s go to the next level.”  But God never removes himself, you see.  And that’s crucial because in the midst of the conflicts of life you need to be able to trust that God is there even when you can’t sense him, even when you can’t feel him.  Spiritual breakthroughs, that’s what the devil fears most.

          Would you like to know of that fear as told in the graphic form of the Book of Revelation?  The Christmas story in Revelation 12 is not one you find on Christmas cards.  Turn to Revelation the 12th chapter.

Now for all of you who have seen J. R. R. Tolkien in the movies they’ve made.  Now the Harry Potter book is out.  Listen friends, isn’t it weird that in an age when technology seems to have conquered, we have all of this great symbolism, mythology just coming on scene and people eating it up apparently.   

There is something within the soul that needs more than looking at a monitor all day long.  Something more than tinkering with biochemistry and the Book of Revelation supplies that for us.  It puts things in such graphic ways.  Consider how Mary is described.  “A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven.  A woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars in her head.  She was pregnant.  She cried out in pain.  And then another sign appeared in heaven.  An enormous red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns on his heads.  Now there’s a graphic.  I’ve never seen that on an advertisement.  His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. By the way, that’s a symbol that he’s very powerful but not All Powerful. A third came, not the whole batch.

Well, the dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour the child the moment it was born.  And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations (meaning all over the world, not just in the Mid-East, not just in Palestine, not just among the Jewish people.)  And the woman fled to the desert to a place prepared for her by God.” 

          Well then, there’s a great battle in heaven (that’s up in verse 7) and the dragon gets thrown out of heaven and guess where he settles?  On earth.

          Look at verse 17:  “The dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring.  Who are the rest of her offspring?  Those who obey God’s commands and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And so, he is with us. 

     It reminds me of something C. S. Lewis wrote once.  When C. S. Lewis talks about the devil he calls him “The Enemy.”  And he wrote:  “Enemy occupied territory (that’s what the world is).” 

Frederick Buechner in telling his own story wrote “Reality can be harsh and you shut your eyes to it only at your own peril because if you do not face up to the Enemy and all of his dark power, then the Enemy will come up from behind some dark day and destroy you while you are facing the other way.”

     There are two errors we make about the devil:  One is to ignore him completely and secondly to become obsessed with him.  Don’t do that.  Don’t overestimate his power for he is not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.  That means all powerful, all present, all knowing.  No.  Only God’s that.  You see, since he can’t be everywhere present at the same time he picks his places and he pitches his tent where good stuff’s going on.  He doesn’t worry about the taverns.  Man, he’s got those in his hip pocket.  Las Vegas he salutes.  And he comes to Richmond.  And he comes to our church.  You and me cause good stuff’s going on.  Like he came to Mary.  But you see you need to understand that while you don’t have the power to resist him, Christ has no trouble at all.  And when you and Christ are together, forget about it. 

          There’s an Anglican Bishop in a story about him that I just dearly love.  Things were not going well.  The devil was active and one night he had this terrible dream.  Everything in the world was going wrong.  He woke up in the middle of the night and there at the foot of his bed was the devil.  And the Anglican Bishop is said to have said, “Oh.  It’s only you.”  And he pulled up the covers and went back to sleep.

You see, if Christ is on your side, you can “pull up the covers and go back to sleep.”  Like Martin Luther’s great hymn says “Did we in our strength confide our striving would be losing, were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing.  Dost ask who that might be?  Christ Jesus, it is He.” 

     Now since the devil can’t be everywhere present and isn’t all powerful, but can manipulate our choices, that’s the reason Jesus says “Stay alert.  Be on your guard.”  But then he says, “Watch.”  Oh man, that’s a tremendous word because it has all kinds of holy meaning right here.  What you’re supposed to watch for is the God who comes, who comes every day in your life and mine.  At the end time he will come in glory.  But right now he comes every day.  I wonder how many times he comes our way and we ignore him or miss him or are so preoccupied we don’t even see… I wonder how many million times in a lifetime we miss the coming of the Lord and the blessing he would have for us.  Watch.  And when he comes, one of his immediate echo words is “Come.”  He comes to say “I’m here, Come.” 

          Let me give you some verses from Revelation:  Revelation 3:20 -   “Look at me, I stand at the door.  I knock.  If you hear the call and open the door I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you.” 

          In Revelation 22:17:  “Come says the Spirit and the Bride.  Whoever hears, echo Come.  Is anyone thirsty, Come.  All you will come and drink of the water of life.”

          And Revelation closes with these words:  “I’m on my way.  I’ll be there soon.”  And the reply comes, “Yes, Master Jesus, Come.”

          In the Broadway musical “Camelot” the final scene depicts King Arthur who sits dejectedly at his, at his table.  His head is bowed, his eyes are closed.  His world has come apart.  Lancelot, his great friend, and the greatest of the knights has turned against him.  Has rebelled.  Is at war with him.  He thinks of all of the dreams his life has been built upon.  About the closeness of the group.  He thinks of all of the battles they’ve fought together and now it all seems to be in shambles and then there is at it were a Presence at the door.  He takes his sword, Excalibur, and gets ready to fight and who should come in but a boy, ten or twelve.  The boy isn’t afraid of the sword, but awed.  He sees King Arthur and recognizes him and says, “Oh!  I never thought I’d be here.  Since I’m old enough to remember, I’ve wanted to be a knight and wanted to be your knight.  I wanted to be around the table.  I wanted to do the heroic deeds and here I am.” 

     And all of a sudden King Arthur’s spirit begins to leap.  It begins to come back and he realizes the dream isn’t dead.  The hope hasn’t fled.  And he says, “What’s your name?”

     “John”

     “John, kneel down.”

     And he takes Excalibur, the sword, puts it flat and puts it on both shoulders.  And then he says, “I now make you Knight John, Knight of the Round Table.”

     And then he lifts the boy up and he says, “John, go back.  You go back and tell them the dream isn’t dead.  That hope has not been quenched and the vision is still alive.” 

     Every time the Lord God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit comes to you he is saying, Go tell somebody the dream isn’t dead.  The hope hasn’t died.  Faith is still bright.  Hope is alive.