Reformed Doctrine Daily Devotions

Today’s devotion comes from Revelation 9:13-21.

 

“¹³ Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, ¹⁴ one saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”  ¹⁵ And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.  ¹⁶ The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million;  I heard the number of them.  ¹⁷ And this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them:  the riders had breastplates the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone;  and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions;  and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone.  ¹⁸ A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths.  ¹⁹ For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails;  for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.        

 

²⁰ The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, so as not to worship demons, and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk;  ²¹ and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts.”  Revelation 9:13-21.

                                             

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Despite all these punishments showing the power of God and his fierce wrath toward wickedness, “the rest of mankind” did not repent of their wickedness.  Verses 20 and 21.  This is another example of man’s “Total Depravity”, the “T” of “TULIP, the Five Points of Calvinism, the Reformed Doctrine of Salvation.

                                                                                                                                                                                

We are reminded of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

                                                                

“¹⁹ “Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.  ²⁰ And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, ²¹ and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table;  besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.  ²² Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom;  and the rich man also died and was buried.  ²³ In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and *saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.  ²⁴ And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’  ²⁵ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things;  but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.  ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’  ²⁷ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house— ²⁸ for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’  ²⁹ But Abraham *said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets;  let them hear them.’  ³⁰ But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’  ³¹ But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”  Luke 16:19-31.

                                                                                                                                   

Repentance is not just a matter of common sense and “free will”.  Man is dead in sin, hostile to God, and enslaved to sin and Satan which is this “Total Depravity”.  Man will not repent unless repentance is granted to him by God.