SONS OF BEASTS AND SONS OF
GOD
April 28, 2002 pm
MFBlume
Ecclesiastes 3:18-20 I said
in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God
might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves
are beasts. (19) For that which befalleth the sons of
men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one
dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that
a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
(20) All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all
turn to dust again.
The one factor that compares man to a beast is death and
returning to the dust.
- What brought death into the world?
- Sin.
- Therefore, without sin, man would not be compared to animals
and beasts.
The BEAST is related to humanity in this
world.
It was a beast that Satan used to possess and then lie
to mankind in the Garden.
- And instead of being sons of God, man became sons of the
beast.
Matthew 3:7 But when he saw
many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said
unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned
you to flee from the wrath to come?
Matthew 12:34 O generation
of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of
the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh.
Let us turn to Daniel
2.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream.
- Of an image,
- The image of a man.
- It stood for the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and
Rome.
- Four sections.
Daniel 2:31-33 Thou, O king,
sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose
brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof
was terrible. (32) This image's head was of fine gold,
his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of
brass, (33) His legs of iron, his feet part of iron
and part of clay.
A stone smashes the
image.
Daniel 2:34-35 Thou sawest
till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image
upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to
pieces. (35) Then was the iron, the clay, the brass,
the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became
like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried
them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that
smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole
earth.
Jesus is the Rock.
Matthew 21:44 And whosoever
shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it
shall fall, it will grind him to
powder.
Nebuchadnezzar then built what he saw
in his dream.
Daniel 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar
the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore
cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the
plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
Daniel 3:5 That at what time
ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery,
dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the
golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set
up:
He saw God tear it down in his dream, but
yet he still built it.
- People were commanded to worship the image.
- Revelation speaks about the image of the beast that must be
worshipped.
- 666 is associated with it.
- Note the size of the image of Nebuchadnezzar.
- 60 X 6
We need to let the ROCK of Christ deal with the
Beast!
- Or else you will feel a pull and urge to worship the beast.
- Man is like a beast without God.
- And Nebuchadnezzar did not honour God and let the Rock deal
with the kingdom, and he commanded man to worship the beast/image.
- You will feel a resistance to God's will if you do not let the
Rock deal with the beast.
Why do some people agree with
the Bible and God, and ever support it, but yet refuse to worship
God and serve Him?
- They resist honouring God, and the force that begins to work
in them to pull them away from His will and from praising Him is
caused by God giving them over.
Romans 1:21-24 Because that,
when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were
thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish
heart was darkened. (22) Professing themselves to be
wise, they became fools, (23) And changed the glory of
the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,
and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
(24) Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through
the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies
between themselves:
This force is of the
enemy.
- Without glorifying God, God gives one over to the enemy's
forces.
- And one acts unreasonably, and ever refuses to honour God even
though one attends church and agrees with the Word of God.
- Hearers and not doers.
God gave people up to worship
the creature -- the BEAST.
A person worships the beast.
- You may say it was man's image not the beast's.
- However....
- Watch the sequence of events.
Daniel 2 --
Nebuchadnezzar has a dream of a man's image.
Daniel 3 -- He
builds what he saw in his dream -- the golden image, since the head
of gold in the dream was himself.
Daniel 4 -- Nebuchadnezzar has
another dream....
Daniel 4:20-26 The tree that
thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto
the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth;
(21) Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and
in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt,
and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their
habitation: (22) It is thou, O king, that art grown
and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto
heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth. (23)
And whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down
from heaven, and saying, Hew the tree down, and destroy it; yet
leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth, even with a
band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field; and let
it be wet with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the
beasts of the field, till seven times pass over him;
(24) This is the interpretation, O king, and this is the
decree of the most High, which is come upon my lord the
king: (25) That they shall drive thee from men, and
thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall
make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the
dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou
know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth
it to whomsoever he will. (26) And whereas they
commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots; thy kingdom shall
be sure unto thee, after that thou shalt have known that the
heavens do rule.
So Daniel warns
Nebuchadnezzar to get right with God.
Daniel 4:27 Wherefore, O
king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy
sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to
the poor; if it may be a lengthening of thy
tranquillity.
He had an altar call right
there in the throneroom for the king!
Daniel 4:28 All this came
upon the king Nebuchadnezzar.
Here is what
happened.
Daniel 4:29-30 At the end of
twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of
Babylon. (30) The king spake, and said, Is not this
great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by
the might of my power, and for the honour of my
majesty?
He boasted of himself.
Daniel 4:31-33 While the
word was in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven,
saying, O king Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom
is departed from thee. (32) And they shall drive thee
from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field:
they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and seven times shall
pass over thee, until thou know that the most High ruleth in the
kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.
(33) The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon
Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as
oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs
were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds'
claws.
He acted like a BEAST.
The only
additional extrabiblical reference to this seems to be that of a
heathen writer named ABYDENUS who claimed he wrote under divine
influence and foretold the destruction of Babylon by a Perisan Mule
(Cyrus) and a Mede.
- Immediately after this event, Nebuchadnezzar allegedly
disappeared.
- Scholars believe this was the time when he went mad as
according to Daniel.
God gave him up!
Perhaps the
reason God instituted the sacrifice of beasts to atone for man's
sins was to show man what state he is in, like a beast, which must
die, and he be reborn as a son of God.
2 Peter 2:10-12 But chiefly
them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and
despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are
not afraid to speak evil of dignities. (11) Whereas
angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing
accusation against them before the Lord. (12) But
these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed,
speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall
utterly perish in their own corruption;
The
harlot rode a beast in Revelation 17.
- And was destroyed by the same beast.
Revelation 17:3 So he
carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a
woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of
blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev
17:16 And the ten horns which thou
sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make
her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with
fire.
Notice
there are seven heads and ten horns -- 10 + 7 = 17
There are
seventeen works of the flesh in the following verses.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the
works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (20)
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,
seditions, heresies, (21) Envyings, murders,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you
before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do
such things shall not inherit the kingdom of
God.
The beast is introduced in Revelation,
and is removed by the time the narrative ends.
A force of the
beast is upon us all, and Jesus, like a rock, came to crash it all
down.
Matthew 21:40-45 When the
lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those
husbandmen? (41) They say unto him, He will miserably
destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other
husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their
seasons. (42) Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read
in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same
is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it
is marvellous in our eyes? (43) Therefore say I unto
you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (44) And
whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
(45) And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his
parables, they perceived that he spake of them
.
The Jews would throw a man to be stoned down from
a height of two men's stature.
- They struck him on the loins and he fell on a rock.
- If he was still alive, they would take a rock as heavy as two
men could carry, and drop it on his chest.
- This was what Jesus alluded to in showing the wrath of His
might against those who refuse Him.
Jerusalem went with
the beast of Rome.
- Jesus said they'd all be crushed by a ROCK.
- Jesus is the Rock.
This morning I preached about the
serpent hanging from Paul's hand.
- He shook it off.
- The beast.
- The Kingdom of God is a Rock.
- All else, including the beast, will be shaken down and away.
- Only God's Kingdom will stand.
The beast worked
against the WOMAN in Genesis.
- And now all mankind born of Adam are as beasts.
- Children of the enemy, who must die and be born again.
- We die as children of the beast, and are born again to be made
children of God!
We die with Christ in the work of the
Cross by faith.
- And we are born anew as children of God.