Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #28 of Revelation, chapter 11, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 11:13-15:

And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven. The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly. And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

I will stop reading there. We have been carefully moving through Revelation 11, verse by verse and word by word, to make sure we are not missing anything and to make sure we understand what God is telling us.  We have learned of the “great earthquake” and how the Lord is speaking of Judgment Day.  In the Day of Judgment, “the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand,” or “seven thousand men of a name.”  If you remember, this identified with those that wear the name of “Christian” or the name of Christ within the churches and congregations.  God also spoke of them as “the third part” earlier in the Book of Revelation and they are killed once we entered Judgment Day and the door is shut; there was no more possibility of salvation for them because they had refused to hearken to God when He commanded them to “come out” of the churches and leave the congregations and flee to the mountains.  It was entirely for their own good and the good of their families. 

If they had left the churches, the Latter Rain was falling and God was saving a great multitude, but they “knew better,” in their stubbornness and rebelliousness, just as they had rebelled against God on so many other points of doctrine.  They did not leave – they trusted their church and they trusted what their pastor was saying when he said, “Do not listen to that.  Do not worry about the people that say these things – the gates of hell will never prevail against the church of Christ.  No man knows the day or the hour.”  They were actively fighting against the information God had opened up and the inevitable and tragic result was that they remained in their churches and, therefore, they could not become saved during the Latter Rain, the final outpouring of the grace of God and the last “little season” of salvation which completed the “day of salvation.”  That was their ruin because the next step in God’s program Judgment Day was when He shut the door to heaven, once and for all.  This has spiritually killed all those that have the “men of a name,” the “seven thousand” or the “tenth part of the city.”  They were killed by the judgment that had come upon the world. 

Of course, all the unsaved people of the world were killed by this; they are all ruined and, ultimately, destroyed, but the difference is that we know this for sure about everyone that stayed in the churches.  We do not know (for sure) about the people of the world and whether, or not, they became saved because God was still working outside the churches in the world and He saved a great multitude.  We cannot make any judgments or determine who is elect and who is not, so from our perspective, this gives hope for any person that was not within the churches.  Any individual that was outside the churches at the point when God shut the door to heaven could go to God and pray, “Oh, Father, I do not know if I am saved.  As a matter of fact, when I look at my life I do not see evidence of salvation, but the one hope you allow me is that perhaps you did save me before ending your salvation program, so I pray that having had mercy, O Lord, have mercy.  Could it be that you did apply the atoning work of the Lord Jesus to my life?  Could you cause me to know it and could you stir up your Spirit within me, if indeed it is in me.   Might I see the evidence of this and may there be a true change in my life.”  This is what God permits during this Day of Judgment and this is a very gracious, merciful and kind thing for God to permit.   We can still pray and from our perspective there is potential that we may possibly have become saved.  That is nothing but the goodness of God because, after all, this is Judgment Day.  As a matter of fact, it is only the presence of the true believers upon the earth in the Day of Judgment that allows us to consider the possibility others may be saved.  This lessens the grievous nature of the judgment for the unsaved of the world.  In other words, if God had taken all the elect by rapturing them, it would have been most obvious to all left behind: “We are the unsaved ones.  We are the ones under the wrath of God.  There is no hope for us.”  It would have made the character of this judgment far worse than it is with the true believers remaining alive on the earth.  It still provides the possibility of the hope that a person could have been saved before May 21, 2011.

Let us conclude the verse in Revelation 11:13:

… and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The remnant was “in fear.”  We saw this same word for “affrighted” was used in speaking of Felix, in Acts 24:25, when Felix “trembled” when the Apostle Paul preached to him of righteousness, of temperance and the judgment to come.  He “trembled” or was “in fear,” so this is what is really in view regarding the wicked of the earth at the point of judgment; they were in fear until May 21, 2011 (seemingly) passed without incident.  Then they began to relax and take their ease once again.  It became a joke and a mockery and a subject of ridicule: “Oh, we were concerned about nothing.”  Of course, they would not admit their concern, but there was great fear, in a sense, but not the “fear of the Lord” that is the beginning of wisdom, but the dread kind of fear that lies within the sinner because he knows deep down there is a God and he knows he is in trouble with God.

So the “remnant” was in fear.  Let us just look at a couple of places where “remnant” is used.  We are sort of trained to think of “remnant” as identifying with the elect, and it can, but this Greek word, Strong’s #3062” is a word that means “the rest of,” or the “remaining portion.”  It could even be a greater portion than what was initially spoken of and, in this case, it is – the “remnant” refers to the unsaved people of the world which number in the billions.  The seven thousand “men of a name” were all those in the churches, which were around two billion.  So there were far more of them left, after God first targets the “tenth part” and the seven thousand “men of a name.”  Then God, in effect, says, “Now for the rest of mankind, or the remnant of mankind,” and this would mean all the remaining unsaved people of the earth, which is a large number of people.

It says in Matthew 22:6:

And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

We just broke into the middle of a parable of a certain king who made a marriage for his son and sent his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding.  There were some we read, in verse 5, about that made light of it, or went their ways – one to his farm and one to his merchandise – and the “remnant” (those that were not just discussed in verse 5) took the servants and entreat them spitefully and slew them.  Obviously, this “remnant” has nothing to do with God’s elect.  These are evil and wicked men and they killed the servants of God.

In Matthew 25, we have the parable of the ten virgins and we read in Matthew 25:10-11:

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins…

The word “other” is the English translation of that same Greek word, Strong’s #3062.  It is the rest, or the remainder, of the virgins that did not go in with the bridegroom.

Then it goes on to say in Matthew 25:11-12:

…saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

These “other” virgins, the “remnant” virgins, were not saved because the Lord Jesus Christ did not “know them.”  They were not true believers, so we can see this word translated as “remnant” or, in this case, as “other,” can most definitely also apply to the wicked or the unsaved people of the earth.

Let us look at Revelation 9 and maybe you remember this when the Lord was discussing the death of the “third part.”  It says in Revelation 9:18-19:

By these three was the third part of men killed, by the fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their mouths. For their power is in their mouth, and in their tails: for their tails were like unto serpents, and had heads, and with them they do hurt. And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands…

Here, God does exactly the same thing.  First, He slays the “third part.”  The “third part of men” is killed; it is the final end of those people that called themselves Christians, but they are tares for the burning at the beginning of Judgment Day.  Yet, the “rest” or the “remainder” of men (like the Muslims, the Buddhists, the atheists, the agnostics or those that have no religion) were not killed by that particular plague which struck the “third part” on May 21, 2011.  But as we continue on into this Day of Judgment (a prolonged period of time which may very likely be 1,600 days), do these remaining people repent of the works of their hands that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold and silver?  No – and that is exactly what we are seeing in the world.  We do not see the wicked of the world turning to God; they are going further and further away.

It is just incredible what is going on with “gay marriage,” for example, with the world taking the initiative now and making that a good thing.  They are turning the Word of God completely around.  Now, according to their new morality, that is a good thing and it is now an evil thing to be against it.  This is nothing but the worship of the works of their own hands and of their own understanding.  It is their own “idol” that they are making in that area and many other areas and there is no repentance because they are unsaved, too.

When God shut the door, it sealed their eternal fate, but they were not killed by that plague because from mankind’s perspective we cannot know if one of these persons could have been saved.  Of course, the further we go along, the less likely that appears to be a possibility, but we cannot know for sure.  So they were not killed and we continue in the Day of Judgment and they do not repent and go deeper into their sins and evil deeds, but there is still that little hope.  Believe me, a little hope is better than no hope, and God does permit for this hope.

This same Greek word translated as “remnant” in our verse is also found in Revelation 19:19-21:

And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.

These verses are, again, describing Judgment Day and God’s judgment on Satan, who is called the beast.  The false prophet is also another name for Satan, especially as he worked in the churches which were given over to him.  Just as Satan was cast, spiritually, into the lake of fire, so were the tares – everyone that professed to be a Christian in the churches and congregations of the world – and they could also be identified as the “false prophet,” as a whole.  They are all judged at the beginning of Judgment Day, but then notice what it says in Revelation 19:21:

And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse…

Notice how God makes the distinction.  There was the beast and the false prophet which would identify with Satan and his emissaries and the “remnant,” or the rest of men.

And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.

The Word of God is now killing them, also.  They are not going to escape.  They have come under the wrath of God, once the door of heaven shut and shut for all time for this world.  It will never open again and it sealed the eternal fate of every unsaved individual.  The righteous will be righteous still and the filthy will be filthy still.  This comes from the Bible, so this is the “sword” that kills the “rest of the men” of this world.

Let us go back to Revelation 11:13:

… and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

They gave glory to God.    Believers, of course, give glory to God.  We read that many praise God and honor God and give Him the glory He is due, but so does the destruction of the wicked.  The judgment of the unsaved glorifies God.  We read in Joshua, chapter 7, of a man named Achan.  Achan was an Israelite that broke the Law of God in regard to the destruction of Jericho.  They were not to light upon the spoil or take anything away and, yet, Achan saw some gold and a “goodly Babylonish garment,” and he coveted them and he hid them in his tent.  That caused Israel to fall in the day of battle when they went against the city of Ai.  Ai was a little city and Israel had a mighty army that God had used to destroy the great city of Jericho, but that army fell against the few inhabitants of the city of Ai.  So Joshua was perplexed and Israel was troubled.  What if the inhabitants of the lands heard about this?  It could be the beginning of a catastrophe and they could be encouraged to all rise up against Israel, so it was a very dangerous point in Israel’s history concerning their conquest of the land of Canaan.  The Lord revealed to Joshua that there was trouble in the camp and that the reason was that someone in the camp had sinned in taking these things.  Achan was discovered and we read in Joshua 7:19-20:

And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to JEHOVAH God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against JEHOVAH God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:

Notice Joshua encouraged Achan to give glory to JEHOVAH God of Israel.  What happens to Achan?  We read in Joshua 7:24-25:

And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold, and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep, and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of Achor. And Joshua said, Why hast thou troubled us? JEHOVAH shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.

Achan and his family and all his possessions were destroyed.  They were killed and this was the judgment upon them and it glorified God.

I want to go to just one other place, in 1Samuel, chapter 6, and this is after the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines.  The ark was taken into the land of the Philistines for seven months and it was not a pleasant time for the Philistines; God plagued them in city after city, wherever they moved the ark.  Many men died and many men became sick and they could not wait to get rid of the ark of God.  In bringing that destruction to the Philistines, God brought judgment upon them and they wanted desperately to return the ark.  We read in 1Samuel 6:4-5:

Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.

Then they put the ark on a new cart tied to two milk kine and they put the trespass offerings on the cart and sent the ark back to Israel.  They had had enough.  So we see that when the sinner comes under the judgment and wrath of God, this results in giving God glory, whether they like it or not.  And this is why, in our verse, “the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.”  The fact that they were under the judgment of God glorified God Himself.