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INTRODUCTION
Last time we were together I gave us a big overview of the book of Revelation.
The reason is because sometimes, in getting so detailed in preaching through a book, we miss some of “big ideas” that ride above the surface.
The book of Revelation was written to remind Christians why they can have unshakeable hope in this broken world.
Those first century Christians needed to be reminded of certain “core truths” that would enable them to endure through their trials and tribulations.
The message of Revelation is as relevant today as it was to its original audience.
But the only way we can hear those truths is if we have ears to hear.
Jesus on Hearing
Throughout the Gospels Jesus would put at the beginning or end of his teachings, “Let him who has ears to hear, listen....”
Jesus often spoke in parables.
One day his disciples came up and asked him, “Why do you speak in parables?
Jesus answered him,
Matthew 13:11-17
...“Because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given for you to know, but it has not been given to them.
12 For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
13 That is why I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.
14 Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You will listen and listen,
but never understand;
you will look and look,
but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown callous;
their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
otherwise they might see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and
understand with their hearts,
and turn back—
and I would heal them.
16 “Blessed are your eyes because they do see, and your ears because they do hear.
17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see the things you see but didn’t see them, to hear the things you hear but didn’t hear them.
What Jesus presents in this text is a contrast between two types of people.
Those who are open and receptive to the message of the Gospel and those who are NOT.
Those who are spiritually open are granted access to truth.
The more open they are they more truth they receive.
The closed-minded, however, are cut off from knowing the truth.
If fact, even the general truth that they think they have will be taken away from them.
So when Jesus is asked, “Why do you speak in parables?”
His answer is, “So that the ones who CAN hear DO and the one who WON’T hear CAN’T.”
There are serious consequence to spiritual deafness.
How do you become the kind of person who hears the most wonderful news in the world and yet to your ears it’s a message worthy of rejection?
How does one develop that kind of spiritual deafness?
The consequences could not be more serious.
That’s what I’d like us to look at this morning in the book of Revelation.
The Deceived: Earth Dwellers
The book of Revelation describes those who “do not have ears to hear” as “earth dwellers.”
We first meet them in Revelation 3:10 when Jesus contrasts “earth dwellers” with those who “keep his commandments.”
Revelation 3:10 (CSB)
10 Because you have kept my command to endure, I will also keep you from the hour of testing that is going to come on the whole world to test those who live on the earth.
Again we see the contrast.
Those who hear God’s word and keep it are kept from the hour of testing (the Great Tribulation.)
Those who do not hear and keep will not be protected.
As you move along in the book of Revelation you see the description of the earth dwellers begin to worsen.
In Revelation 6 they are presented as the ones behind the persecution of the saints.
Revelation 6:10 (CSB)
10 They cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, the one who is holy and true, how long until you judge those who live on the earth and avenge our blood?”
In Revelation 8 the earth dwellers are the only ones on whom the trumpet judgments fall.
Revelation 8:13 (CSB)
13 I looked and heard an eagle flying high overhead, crying out in a loud voice, “Woe!
Woe! Woe to those who live on the earth, because of the remaining trumpet blasts that the three angels are about to sound!”
In Revelation 11 the earth dwellers are the ones who rejoice and send gifts to one another when God’s witnesses are put to death.
Revelation 11:10 (CSB)
10 Those who live on the earth will gloat over them and celebrate and send gifts to one another because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.
So far we’ve seen that those who don’t have ears to hear...
disobey Christ’s commands,
comply with Christian persecution,
deserve the judgment of God
celebrate the censoring of truth.
From all of this you might think these earth dwellers must be atheistic or men and women without faith.
But as you move forward in Revelation you see that’s not the case.
Every human has been designed to worship something.
Earth dwellers merely exchange the proper worship of God through Christ with the worship of a counterfeit.
So they worship a counterfeit god (idolatry).
In Revelation 13 this counterfeit is presented as “the Beast.”
Revelation 13:8 (CSB)
8 All those who live on the earth will worship it, everyone whose name was not written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slaughtered.
100% of these earth dwellers take the mark of the beast and help carry out the will of the antichrist.
The reason these “earth dwellers” reject Christ and “love this world” isn’t because they haven’t heard the Gospel or had an opportunity to repent (Rev 14:6).
They’ve had repeated opportunities to repent and rejected Christ at every turn.
Instead, they wonder after the Beast and persist in their unbelief no matter what.. Revelation 17:8.
In each of these days, the title “earth-dweller” is more moral than it is geographical, more theological than it is biological.
These are people who “live for this world” and not for heaven.
They are all about the here and now and not the sweet by and by.
Blind To Their Own Condition
We learned from our study of Revelation 17 that these earth dwellers - by and large - are blind to the truth about their spiritual condition.
Revelation 17:2
Revelation 17:2 (CSB)
2 The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.”
In the book of Revelation, Babylon represents a “counter culture” to the kingdom of God.
It puts itself in the place of God and has a replacement set of values, promises and consequences for those who won’t submit.
Babylon uses her power and influence to entice these earth dwellers to drink her kool-aid and follow her agenda.
As a result, these earth dwellers become drunk.
The image is that of someone who is totally numb to the foolishness of their own decisions and the dangers that are all around them.
From the perspective of an “earth-dweller” everything is good.
They are buying and selling, marrying and burying.
But from God’s perspective, they’re just a bunch of drunk idiots feeling their way forward in the dark.
Lamb Follower or Earth Dweller?
QUESTION: if someone was to evaluate YOUR life and convict you based on the way you live… would you be an “earth-dweller” or a “lamb follower?”
What’s interesting in the book of Revelation is that there is no neutral or middle ground when it comes to this question.
You’re either an earth-dweller or you’re not.
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