HARDENED IN SIN
“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” — Rev. 9:20-21
In the gospel of Luke the Savior gives the account of “The rich man and (the beggar) Lazarus.” The rich man, you may recall, ended up in hell (not because he was rich, but because he was a self centered unbeliever,) and in hell, among other things he became a would-be evangelist. Communing with Abraham and assured that there was no relief and no reprieve for him, he cried, “I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.” “Nay, father Abraham: but if one went to them from the dead, they will repent. And [Abraham] said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they he be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.” (Luke 16:19-31)
That this judgment is correct has been proved ever since “One rose from the dead.” Confronted with the testimony of the risen Christ the vast majority of mankind continue to reject the gospel and its awesome testimony. The principle is that the heart of man is conditioned from within, and not from without. That principle applies with reference to our “nugget” for today, which anticipates the condition of the human heart till the very end of the age.
We are often tempted to think that if men will not repent when confronted with the testimony of the unconditional love of God, they may be more responsive if confronted with His judgments. Though now and then there may be exceptions, this passage proves, in general, the opposite.
Here, in context, we are given prophetic insight into the tribulation period. The sixth of the seven angels sounds his trumpet of judgment and a holocaust is unleashed which results in the annihilation of one third of the world’s population at that time. Think of it! One in every three persons on the face of the whole earth will die in a brief space of time. If it happened today, according to “the world population clock,” two billion three hundred million souls would die! Surely that will send the world to its knees!
In fact, the stunning reaction is just the opposite. Just two categories are outlined for us, but they are enough to reveal how the human heart is confirmed in sin.
The first is the persistence of pagan religion. “And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk [v.20]. The living Lord, risen from the dead after having borne our sins in His own body on the cross is consistently rejected in favor of idols associated with the occult and the demonic. We are seeing those trends in our own culture today as Bible based Christianity is rejected by many in favor of religious fantasy, if not overt idolatry.
The second, and parallel category is moral degeneracy. Despite staggering circumstances, there is no moral re-direction in our society as a whole. Murder, sorcery (drug use), fornication (which is the Bible’s general term for sexual corruption,) and thievery will continue to be dominant in the world until the curtain rings down on this dispensation and Christ returns to take center stage.
What does it mean for you and me? For one thing, it means that Christians who entertain the vain hope that spiritual and moral reformation can come to any society through its political process are deluded and either ignorant of the scriptures or not convinced of their veracity.
Second, we should take note that “now is the day of salvation.” If we would see our friends, loved ones, neighbors escape the endless torments of hell, now is now is the time to warn them, and we are the ones who should carry the message to them—from the word of God. While we have the scriptures, and the Holy Spirit present to invest them with power, there is hope for the lost. After the rapture of the church there will be little hope, and those who may be persuaded will have to make their decision under terrible circumstances. Surely, “now is the accepted time.”
For His glory and our good,
"Pastor" Frasier
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