“Bent on Conquest”
Preached by Andrew Smellie

Am I victoriously conquering my sin?

Download audio
God’s judgment in chapters 6-8 shows the power and justice of God and was written to the 1st century Christians to encourage them that no earthly nor demonic conqueror would prevail if they remained faithful. Their valiant decision to follow Jesus even in the face of death, echoes down through the centuries to all of us who want to follow Jesus. Will we live our lives as conquerors for God or allow ourselves to be conquered by the world!?

Sermon outline:
“Bent on Conquest”
Sunday, June 17, 2007

Revelation 6:1-17
• The number three denotes the divine, the realm of the Spirit: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
• The number four denotes the cosmic, the created order of things. (e.g. four corners of the earth.)
• The number seven represents perfection: divine number (3) plus cosmic number (4).
• The number six denotes imperfection: falling short of perfection (666).
• The number ten denotes completeness (Revelation 2:10).
• The number twelve talks about the people of God: twelve tribes of Israel of the Old Testament and the twelve apostles of Jesus of the New Testament).
• The number twenty-four denotes all of the saved people of all time.
• The number three and a half (exactly half of the perfect 7) is the length of time that evil will reign on earth.
• The Roman emperor exercised ungodly authority for forty-two months (3.5 x 12) (Revelation 13:5).
• The color white denotes purity; white also symbolizes victory.
• The color red denotes conflict or war.
• The color black denotes the lack of something; for example, lack of food or money.
• The color pale (Greek “chloros” or a yellowish green color) is the color of a corpse.
• Jesus opened the scroll, which is the judgment of God.
• The seals represent the judgment against those living on the earth.
• The four horsemen come and each one of the four living creatures cried out for each one of the horsemen.
• Jesus was the one who opened up the scroll.
• The first horseman mentioned in the Book of Revelation was not Jesus.

Question: Who is he?
• In Rome, the Roman people felt that they had no enemies.
• Pax Romana: the “peace of Rome” spread out over the Mediterranean world.
• In Parthia there lived archers who stopped the Roman Empire in its tracks from spreading.
• Mighty Rome was stopped by these people and Rome feared them. The Christians could relate and take courage that God would conquer the mightiest of human conquerors (Rome).

Question: How does that relate to you today?
• Pax Americana is going to end.
• Our security in being Americans is a false sense of security.
• As powerful as you think you are, you are vulnerable.
• If you put your security in this world, then you will lose.

Question: Is your security in God or in the world?
• This is talking about conflict and war. There is an insecurity that strikes when you enter a war.
• The next thing that comes is internal conflict and people attacking the invaders.
• The scales have to do with the economy: economic challenges.

Question: Doesn’t it test your faith when economic challenges come your way?
• It is a test from God.
• God says that this horseman has the power to eradicate the whole earth.
• Right here, we find that the scene shifts from earth to heaven.
• Remember that the word martyr translates into the word witness.
• They were slain because of the Word of God.
• That is the test of whether or not someone is a disciple of Jesus Christ.
Question: Are you a disciple by this terminology?
Question: Have you been a disciple of Jesus?
• They were calling for the justice of God to reign.
• There was a hope that God would stop the killing of the disciples.
• But the disciples needed to be faithful in this time, that if God needed more witnesses, more martyrs to hold to the Word of God, then that would work for the good of all who love him and help fulfill his plan to take the Word to all nations.
• As long as they maintained to the word of their testimony, there was still hope for the world.
• They were willing to die because there were more people to be saved.
• No one would have the chance to be saved if it had stopped there.
• When people see the awesome power of God they will fear God.
Question: Is there a fear of God in you?
Question: Do you fear God?
• Remember, even though Revelation does speak here of judgment for the un-saved, this book is addressed to the Christians . . . what if you were half-hearted in your walk with God and were hearing this?

Revelation 7:1-17
• First, the four avenging angels were about to destroy the earth.
• Then, a fifth angel comes out and says: (Revelation 7:3)
“Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God.”
• One hundred forty-four thousand is the total of God’s redeemed on earth.
• It does not mean that there are only one hundred forty-four thousand people who will be saved.
• This is a symbolic figure representing all those who are saved (12×12x10×10x10=144,000 . . .with 1000 being the number of perfect completeness)
• God is not going to allow anyone to harm those who are His.
• The disciples of Jesus Christ can stand before God on judgment day!

Question: Do you feel like this last week was a tribulation for you?
• This book was meant to stop them from focusing on themselves and re-focus back on their God.
• This book was meant to give hope to disciples facing tribulations.

Question: Does that encourage you right now?
• No matter how many trials you have faced, God wants to encourage you.

Revelation 8:1
• All of creation in heaven and on earth are astonished at God, The Lamb.
• They are waiting for Him to speak.
• The conquest of Parthia gave Rome insecurity.
• He conquered by going to the cross for us.
• The paradox: Jesus gave life by dying.

1. Conquest by death.

Romans 6:1-4
• Baptism is something that we participate in by faith.
• If we are going to conquer in this life, then you have to die with Christ and be resurrected to a new life.
• Friendship with the world is hatred toward God!

Question: What does the world give you?
• Nothing.
• When someone gets baptized, it is about turning his life around.
• You baptize a disciple of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 28:18)
• When we get baptized, we die to that old life.
• In His death, Christ shed blood that cleanses us, forgives us of our sins and we are in a new relationship with God.

Galatians 2:20
Question: How crucified has your life been this week?
• Sin is like cancer - it spreads and you might not even know it is there. It is a deadly killer.
Question: Can you say this week that you have been crucified?
Question: Do you live by faith or by knowledge?
• Stop living by knowledge!
Question: Am I faithful doing this?
Question: Am I walking with God?
• What you are essentially saying when you do not pray or read your Bible is that you are god.

Luke 9:23-25
• Either we are walking by faith or we are walking in fear. We must walk by faith.
Question: How are your quiet times?
Question: What is the sin that I need to kill today?
• You will lose your life if you live the way you want to live and not a godly life.
• You will be a conqueror of sin in your life.
• The world does not go after what has an eternal significance.
• Christianity’s greatest opposition is selfishness.
• You cannot be selfish and call yourself a Christian.
• Jesus went through WAY more than we have, but if your eyes are not on God, then won’t serve like Christ.
• It is selfishness that stops you from living a Christian life.
• There are many ways that selfishness can manifest itself, such as: self-abasement, self-absorbed, self-centered, self-conscious, self-destructive, self-doubt, self-fulfilling, self-importance, self-interest, self-obsessed, self-pity, self-protective, self-reliant and self-righteous.
• The common thread is that we have to deny our self.
• For many of us, we are obsessed with ourselves.

Question: Am I fighting my sin or do I accept it?
• It is only by death will we overcome the sin in our lives.

2. Conquest over death.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
• God does not want ignorant people unaware of His greatest plan for our lives . . .we are destined to be with Him for all eternity!
• There is nothing to be afraid of for his disciples.
• It is a win-win for disciples of Jesus.
• If we are saved, then we cannot allow the judgment of God or the wrath/accusations of Satan to cloud our judgment.
• As a disciple it is challenging to go to funerals of non-disciples.
• You always want to use the opportunity to do good.
• If this loved one returned from the grave and could say one thing to us, I believe it would be: “Get your heart and life right with God!”

Romans 8:31-39
• God says that He made us to be more than conquerors.
• As a disciple of Jesus, you are bent on conquest as well.
• Our conquest is souls.

Share This

Categories: Audio Lessons       Download PDF: