And we'll stay right there where
Brother Richmond read in Revelation 13. I've entitled this message
and next week's, the Lord willing, Satan's Fleeting Victory. And I took that title, if you'll
look in Revelation 13, in verse seven, this is where I took the
title from, and covering the whole chapter of Revelation 13,
but this statement here in verse 7, it was given unto him, and
that's talking about Satan who is symbolized in Revelation as
the great red dragon. That's Satan, that's what that
means. It was given unto him to make
war with the saints. And I want you to really notice
that term given. It was given to him. Who gave
it to him? Who do you think gave it to him? God did as a judgment. And this thing about warfare,
spiritual warfare in heavenly places, it's not like a ball
game. We're going to see who scores
the most. And then they went out. It says here, it was given
to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. Now the
saints refers to believers, not just a certain class of believers. Not just, not some kind of super
Christian. But if you're a believer, if
you're a sinner saved by grace, you're a saint. And so we understand
that. The word saint means sanctified. The word sanctified means holy. The word holy means set apart. So if you're a sinner saved by
grace, you've been set apart by God for salvation. And we're going to see here in
this passage. Your name was written in the Lamb's book of life before
the world began. Now, that's what the Bible teaches. But here in verse 7, it was given
unto Satan. to make war with the saints,
and to overcome them, and power was given him over all kindreds,
and tongues, and nations." And what that's saying is that in
the last days, which refers to the time from Christ's first
coming into the world to his second coming, that's the last
days. During that time, as we near
the end, get closer and closer to his second coming, Satan is
going to have somewhat of a victory in this world, even over the
Saints, but it's not going to last. It's a fleeting victory. Satan may seem to have won out,
but he hasn't. And why is that? Well because
the Lamb of God the Lord Jesus Christ has already come and finished
his great work of saving his people from their sins by his
obedience unto death as our surety our substitute our Redeemer and
he is ascended he arose from the dead he ascended unto the
father and he now sits at the right hand of the father ever
living to make intercession for his people That's why if you
look back over in Revelation 12 look at verse 9 in Revelation
12 the great dragon Was cast out. This is talking about the
death of Christ. This is when Satan was cast out
and he was put in chains and now he's been released but that
old serpent called the devil Satan which deceiveth the whole
world and He was cast out into the earth and his angels were
cast out with him. But verse 10 of Revelation 12,
I heard a loud voice saying in heaven now has come salvation
and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his
Christ. The power. awesome power the
in invincible power of Jesus Christ for the accuser of our
brethren that Satan is cast down who it's accused them before
our God day and night and they overcame him by the blood of
the lamb of the lamb and by the word of their testimony what's
the word of our testimony it's the gospel Saved by grace Forgiven
by the blood of Christ Justified in his righteousness alone Which
cannot be contaminated and cannot be taken away Therefore we cannot
be charged in the court of God's justice The Bible says in Romans
chapter 8 who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect.
It's God that justified What does that mean? That means my
sins are forgiven by the blood of Christ. I'm righteous in God's
sight based upon his righteousness imputed and it says and they
love not their lives unto the death. You see Christ has already
won the battle. But he did tell his disciples
in John 16, he said, he said, in the world, you'll have tribulation. You'll have trouble in the world.
We're in the world, but we're not of the world and we'll have
trouble in the world. But he said, be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world. The battles won. But here in
Revelation 13 is given us a depiction of the last days leading up to
the second coming of Christ, and we're confronted in the whole
chapter with two great beasts. Wild beast. The first beast comes
out of the sea. That's what Brother Richmond
read. It's dealt with in Revelation
13, one through 10. The second beast, from verse
11 to the last of the chapter, comes out of the earth. Who are
these beasts? Well, the first one that comes
out of the sea, look at verse one. It says, I stood upon the
sand of the sea and saw a beast rise up out of the sea. Now,
in this culture, the sea was looked upon as something that
is ferocious, mysterious, dangerous, something to be feared. They didn't look at the ocean
like we do. We go to the beach and have a good time. We paddleboard
and sailboard and all that stuff. No, to them, it was a place of
danger, a place of ferociousness. And this beast rising up out
of the sea, and the sea represented the nations of the world. Sailing
the seven seas to the nations of the world having seven heads
and ten horns and upon his horns ten crowns and upon his heads
the name of blasphemy now I could go into all of the ideas that
people have on what these seven heads and ten and the ten Horns
and the ten crown, but I'm not going to do that this morning
People argue over this they fuss over it what this beast represents
is an agent of Satan and that comes in the form of governments,
nations, ungodly kingdoms. That's what it is. Political
entities that are in opposition to God. And that's the kingdoms
of the world. And I'll tell you, you don't
have to look very far to see that. You can just look right here
in America. And I want to tell you something now. I know as
we look at our country, I love our country, and I love the freedoms.
I thank God that we live here. I'm a patriot. But this country
has never been a Christian nation, folks. Now, the founders, who
mostly didn't even claim to be Christian, They use certain biblical
principles when they establish the Constitution, and I thank
God for that because we have these freedoms. But it never
was Christian. It wasn't believers in the Lord
Jesus Christ, believers in the gospel. So when we talk about
ungodly nations, oh yeah, we can talk about Adolf Hitler,
we can talk about these evil rulers. That's all nations of
the world are in opposition to the God of all grace and the
gospel of grace. Understand that. Politicians are not for us as
in the gospel now. And I'm not just trying to make
a political speech here or anything. I'm not going to try to tell
you who to vote for or anything. I'm just telling you that that's
what this beast stands for. nations, governments that are
in opposition to God. And here's the thing about, they
don't have to be immoral or unjust. What they do is they present
themselves as being your savior. We can fix your problems. We
can save the world. Think about it. And we recognize all religions
as being right. One's just as good as the other.
Now, let me ask you this, is that what the Bible teaches?
And the answer is no. One religion is not as good as
the other. And that brings me, we're going to get to this next
week, the second beast that rises up out of the earth, that's all
false religion. comes out of the earth. Remember
what Cain did when he came to worship God? He brought the fruit
of the ground, his works. And all false religion is symbolized
in the beast, the second beast. And these are agents of Satan.
And let me tell you what they are. This is an antichrist. Antichrist. You always go wrong when you
think of Antichrist as being one person, a political figure,
or even a religious figure. Look back at 1 John 2. Now Antichrist, the greatest
deception of Antichrist is religion that comes in the name of Christ
but denies the truth of Christ. appears. In fact, that second
beast, the first beast, is a ferocious looking monster, as described
here. Look at it, before I go to 1st
John 2, let me read Revelation 13 to you. The beast which I
saw was like unto a leopard, ferocious, with his feet were
as feet of a bear, his mouth as the mouth of a lion. This
is all symbolic language. Don't draw this, some do He says
and the dragon that Satan gave him his gave him three things
his power his seed his position and his authority This beast
accepts what Satan gives him You know what you remember Christ
when he was on the Mount of temptation and Satan tempted him he refused
all three of these He refused Satan's power and authority and
position but this beast accepts it and So understand, it's a
ferocious looking beast. But now the second beast is a
little different. He looks, he's a beast, but he's
got horns like a lamb. He appears to be a gentle lamb
and he appears to men and women to be okay, be great, to be right
with God. But he speaks with the mouth
of the dragon. He speaks lies, but we'll get
to that next week. But look at 1st John chapter
2 and verse 18. John is talking about mainly
people who claimed to be Christian, but they were Christian in name
only and they left the church. They are what we call apostatized. It's apostasy. That's a person
who claims to believe the truth and then turns against it totally. And it says in verse 18 of 1
John 2, look at this. Little children, it's the last
time. Even John says it's the last days back then. And it was. Christ had already
come and finished his great work of redemption, finished the transgression,
made an end of sin, and brought in everlasting righteousness,
shedding his blood to redeem his people from their sins and
ensure their salvation. Now that's important because
if the gospel you believe does not ensure the salvation of every
sinner for whom Christ died, it's a false gospel. But he says, it's the last time. And as you have heard that anti-Christ
shall come, even now are there many anti-Christ whereby we know
it is the last time. And he says in verse 19, they
went out from us, but they were not of us. They used to be with
us, but they really weren't of us. It's not that they lost their
salvation, they never were saved. For if they had been of us, they
would no doubt have continued with us. But they went out, that
they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. So, you understand this. Now,
a lot of commentators, going back to Revelation 13, when they
see the seven heads, the ten horns, and the ten crowns, they
think about Rome, the Roman Empire. And that was the cultural context
here. Rome, seven hills. They talk
about the succession of ten emperors, probably up until the destruction
of Jerusalem. But it's wrong to limit this
to one empire. It's any ungodly government,
any government that presents itself as our savior. Government
cannot save this world. Now, I'm all for being a good
citizen, for being a responsible voter, and for using our wisdom
and our morals when we do vote. And as I said, I love America. I'm a patriot. But America is
not my savior. Christ is. Do you understand
what I'm saying? God saves his people. And anybody on this earth who
is saved is saved by grace, according to the Bible, not by works. So
any religion that preaches salvation by works, salvation conditioned
on men and women, sinners, is a false gospel. We have to understand
that. Well, look here, he says that
the beast speaks the name or literally names, plural, of blasphemy. You know what blasphemy is? That's
insulting God. If I stand up here and I tell
you things that I believe about God that aren't true or not true,
that's blasphemy. If I give unto God qualities
of character that don't belong to him according to the scripture,
that's blasphemy. And that's what this beast does. That's what the followers of
this beast do. They speak things about God that
aren't true. Such things like God helps those
who help themselves. You ever heard that? Sounds good. But that's not what the Bible
teaches. The Bible says God saves sinners who cannot save them,
who cannot help themselves. That's right. Cleanliness is next to godliness. Now I hope you, I hope you're
clean. But that didn't make you any
more godly. God blesses those who work hard. Well, now you gotta get into
a context there. He may, you may work hard and
you may make a lot of money, but you know what? That lot of
money may be a curse rather than a blessing. It is for a lot of
people, isn't it? You may go to the casino and
win a million, but it may not be a blessing,
it may be a curse. These are things that people
just, they think about, well, I was preaching a message one
time, and I was talking about the sovereignty of God, and that's
a doctrine that most people, well, all people by nature hate
it. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I will, and I'll be gracious to whom I will. God said listen listen God saves
sinners by his grace and when he saves a sinner by his grace
that sinner is blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus Just as much as any other sinner who
say and a man came up to me one time He said he said my God's
not like your God and I said I expect you're right. I Speak the name of blasphemy. And the authority, verse 2, the
authority and the power and the position they have comes from
Satan. They're in the service of Satan
and understand something about Satan. Satan is a subtle devil. Turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter
11. Now Satan appears in this world
in many forms. Sometimes, you know, it's more
obvious than others. But listen to this. 2nd Corinthians chapter 11. Paul
writes in verse 2, He says to the Corinthian professing believers,
he said, I'm jealous over you with godly jealousy for I've
espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. Now, what he means by that is
I've preached to you salvation by Christ alone, not by Christ
plus this, Christ plus that, Christ plus your works. I want
to present you spiritually as a chaste virgin to Christ. You
have one husband the church has one husband Christ is the husband
the church is his bride and her loyalties and her love and her
devotion goes to no other. But he says in verse 3, but I
fear less by any means as the serpent beguiled a member Satan
appeared as a serpent to Eve in the garden. And he beguiled
Eve, he bewildered her, confused her through his subtlety. So your mind should be corrupted
from the simplicity that is in Christ. What is the simplicity
that is in Christ? That word simplicity means singularity. And what it says is this, my
whole salvation from start to its final culmination, is singularly
wrapped up in the glorious person and finished work of Christ.
It's not me and Jesus got a good thing going. It's all Him. Somebody asked
an old man, he said, well, what did you do in salvation? He said,
well, I did all the sinning and Christ did all the saving. But look across the page there,
2 Corinthians 11, in verse 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. Now, he's talking about false preachers who claim
to be Christian, claim to be preaching Christ. And he said,
and no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. Therefore, it's no great thing if his ministers
also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall
be according to their works." Satan occupies many pulpits in
this world. Preachers preaching a false gospel.
We'll look back at verse chapter 13 Revelation verse 3 He says
I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his
deadly wound was healed and all the world wondered after the
beast What's he talking about? Well, you ask five different
preachers you'll get five different answers But it's talking about a time
during this period where Satan is doing his work and that a
servant of this beast seems to be dead, but then comes back
to life. And the only way that we can
look at it is maybe through history, I don't know for sure. But I
do know this, in the context of this culture, where they would
think about Rome and the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire did
fall. And it seemed like it was dead.
But it came back to life. And you know how it came back
to life? In a religious form in the Roman Catholic Church. And that's both political and
religious. And it covered the earth. Somebody said it turned the world
Christian. No, it didn't. Turned the world into idolatry.
Because that's what it was all about. Salvation by works. Justification
based upon what you do. That's their doctrine. Worshipping,
praying to Mary instead of God through Christ. Bible says there's
one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. You don't pray through Mary.
You don't pray through any of the saints. You don't make statues
and bow to them. There's no magic in these things.
The Pope is not the vicar of Christ. You know what vicar means?
That means substitute, vicarious. There is no substitute for Christ. The priest, the preacher, there
were not substitutes for Christ. A true preacher of the gospel
is like John the Baptist. I must decrease, Christ must
increase. I'm just one beggar telling other
beggars where to find food. Just a signpost pointing you
to Christ. Don't, don't look to me. I'm
not your savior. I can't even save myself. Don't
pray to me. That's what the scripture teaches. Verse four, he says, they worshiped
the dragon who gave power unto the beast. They worshiped the
beast saying who is like unto the beast who is able to make
war with him. They say, who's likened to the beast? Who can
defeat him? Give up. What did believers say? Who is likened to our God? Who
cannot be defeated? Verse five, there was given unto
him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. Power was given
unto him to continue forty and two months. That forty and two
months is symbolized in that three and a half years which
symbolizes the whole period of time until Christ comes again.
And we derive that from Daniel chapter nine in his prophecy.
Verse six, he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme
his name and his tabernacle. Who is God's tabernacle? Christ
is. Remember the tabernacle in the
Old Testament? Every bit of that tabernacle symbolized, pictured,
typified the Lord Jesus Christ and His Church. How do you come
to God? By the blood of the Lamb over
the mercy seat, the tabernacle, the mercy seat, the Ark of the
Covenant. A high priest went in behind into the Holy of Holies
one time a year, sprinkling the blood on the mercy seat. That
was all a picture of Christ, our great high priest. Christ,
our altar. Christ, our sacrificial Lamb,
by whose blood God's justice is satisfied. Our debt to sin,
to God's law for our sins is paid in full. And this beast and his followers,
they blaspheme that. I remember sitting in a seminary
classroom hearing a professor of the New Testament tell us
that the idea of a blood sacrifice atonement sickened him. That was at Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, 1977. And he'd written a book on the New
Testament. And he said the blood sacrifice
sickened him. Well, my friend, it's our life.
We turn back Satan by the blood of the Lamb. His blood is our salvation. His blood is our life. His blood
is our defense. His blood is our righteousness
before God. Look at verse 7. It was given
unto him to make war with the saints, to overcome them, and
the power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and
nations. If you go by the numbers, Satan has won. The Bible says that straight
is the gate, narrow is the way, few there be that find it. Broad
is the gate, wide is the gate, and many go therein. The disciples
asked the Lord one time, why are there so few of us? And the Lord told him, this is
the way God works it for His glory. I don't relish in the
fact that there are so few of us, but I know that God is the one
who saves His people. And it seems like if you, like
I said, look at the numbers, Satan has won, but his time is
coming. Over in chapter 12, It tells
us that Satan knows his time is short. He knows his time is
coming up. Look at verse 9, he says, the
great dragon was cast out. This is in chapter 12, that old
serpent, he's cast out. This is a fleeting victory. And
look at verse 8 of chapter 13, all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. What's
that talking about? It's talking about God's election
of grace. God's election of grace. What
an amazing truth. how God chose a people before
this world began. He mentions it again in Revelation
21, how all who will fall prey to the beast except those whose
names were written in the Lamb's book of life. And it is the Lamb's
book, that's the sacrifice, that's Christ, who shed his blood as
the payment for the sins of his people and ensured victory by
his work. How do you know he was victorious?
Because he arose from the dead. He ascended unto the Father,
and he's seated right now. Not only is he making intercession
for his people, pleading the merits of his work, but he's
also controlling everything that goes on in this world. I believe
that. He's in control. You know, a
lot of people say that, but they don't believe it. They act like God is some kind
of a cosmic chess player. You make your move and then he
makes his counter move. Or some kind of cosmic janitor.
We mess it up and he comes back behind us sweeping up the mess. No. God's in control. The lamb slain from the, you
know the Bible talks about the book of life. That's the book of God's people. And it's not a literal book.
It's just speaking of the mind and the purpose of God in the
salvation of his people. And here's what I want to know,
and this is something you need to ask yourself. Is my name written
in the Lamb's book of life? Is your name written in that
book? Am I one of Christ's sheep for whom he died? That's what
he said, didn't he? He said, I give my life for the
sheep. Am I one of those sheep? Is my
name written there? Well, look at verse nine. Well,
if any man have an ear, let him hear. Do you hear what he's saying?
Now, what I mean by hear, what it means by hear is not just
do you hear the audible voice. Do you heed and believe what
he's saying? That's whose names were written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Christ said, my sheep hear my
voice. I know them and they follow me.
They won't follow another. And so he says in verse 10, he
that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth
with the sword must be killed with the sword. What's he saying
there? Justice will be done. God is a God of justice. So you who know Christ, you who
have ears to hear and eyes to see, don't worry about all this. God, vengeance belongs to the
Lord. And therefore here, he says in
verse 10, here is the patience, the endurance, and the faith
of the saints. What is the patience of the saints?
That's the long suffering. That's the perseverance. Keep
on looking to Christ, whatever you do. Hebrews 12 tells us that. He says, when we're confronted
with that sin that so easily besets us, our doubts and our
fears, our anxieties, run the race of grace, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. It's a done deal. Look to him, rest in him, plead
his blood and righteousness. Don't look anywhere else for
salvation, for victory, for it's all in Christ and in him alone. All right.