It is so good to be home. And it's good to see all of you.
How thankful we are that we have another opportunity to be able
to meet together. Let's take our Bibles and turn
to Revelation 19. Revelation 19. As we've been going through this
book, we stopped in verse 20 and 21. And let's take a moment
before we speak to the Lord. Let's hear what God has to say
to us first. 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
the lake of fire, burning with brimstone. 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." This morning we thank you for
the privilege that we have to be able to come together and
to assemble ourselves together in your presence. We realize
this morning that we are able with boldness to enter into the
very throne before the throne before you who sits upon the
throne for one reason. We have a great High Priest who
ever liveth to make intercession for us. Father, we know that as our High
Priest, that truth speaks of mercy. Help us today. Help us to hear. Help us to see. Speak, Lord. For Thy servants,
listen, teach us by Your Spirit, uphold us by Your everlasting
arms. In these things we ask for Christ's
sake. Amen. From these two verses that we
just read, we know this. Judgment is coming. The Scripture says that the beast
was taken. Now that beast, which the Scripture
refers, actually is said in Revelation 13 to receive his power by the
dragon. This beast is energized by Satan
himself. And if I be not mistaken, I truly
believe that the very heart, many things can be said concerning
this beast. I know it's of the world. I know
that. It came out of the sea, out of the symbol of this world.
But this beast is actually the representative. It's the heart
of our fallen nature. The government of it, the care
of it, the rebellion of it, it's the world. Because I know that
it says also that with him, in verse 20, the false prophet that
wrought miracles before him, I wish he deceived them that
received the mark of the beast. There is something that is being
deceived. The beast is being deceived by
the false prophet. Somebody is being duped. Mark 13, verse 22, the Lord said
for false Christs and false prophets shall rise and Show, that is,
shall commit, shall make, shall deliver up signs and wonders
to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." Lying wonders. I told you one time somebody
asked me, do you think that these people are really actually doing
miracles, these miracles? Well, the Scripture says, the
Lord said, Himself and through the Apostle Paul, Second Thessalonians. These are lying wonders. Let me ask you this. Whenever Moses
went into Egypt and those magicians dropped their staffs and turned
into snakes, do you think that those were actually happening?
The answer is yes. They were actually happening.
Lying wonders. How do you know? How do you know? Somebody will say, look, these
miracles, they must be of God. How do you know? Listen to what
they are preaching. If they preach not the gospel
of free grace, if they preach not these miracles and signs
and wonders, I am going to tell you, concerning the truth stopped
years ago. Those were evidences of God's
people, God's apostles that He sent. And they ended. They ended. Why? We've got His Word. We've
got a more sure testimony. The truth. Now you start setting
your eyes and affections and everything else on these lying
wonders and signs, and I'm telling you, You are watching and believing
the wrong thing. False prophet, beast. And it says in the remnant, those
that were left to themselves in unbelief, they were judged by the sword
of Him, the mouth of Him that sat upon the horse. Now, I could
go into or try to go into greater detail and look at the beast
and look at the false prophet and look at those that's been
left to themselves and them being cast into the lake of fire. But
I want to say four things about this passage, these two verses
about this passage of Scripture right here, that I know it is
concerning the God we serve. Number one, this is what I know
based on these scriptures right here, that Almighty God is faithful
and He is truthful. It says that they were taken. Verse 11 of this particular chapter,
John says, I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And
he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True. He is faithful. That is, He is reliable. I want you to turn to 2 Timothy
chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 11. 2 Timothy 2.11. This is what Scripture says, It is
a faithful saying For if we be dead with Him, we shall also
live with Him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with Him. If we deny Him, He also will
deny us. If we believe not, yet He abided
faithful. He cannot deny Himself. I know this for a fact. First
of all, He is faithful to Himself. Paul says, if we be dead with
Him. The Apostle Paul said that he
was crucified with Christ. When we died with Him, when He
died, we died before the law of God, and there at the cross,
when the judgment of Almighty God, Christ being made sin, when He suffered the just for
the unjust, when the penalty of the law was spewed out upon
Him, being made sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God. Listen to me. When the judgment
of the law was spewed out upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that ended
any judgment that the law has before God's people being found
in Christ. There is no judgment for the
law against us. There is no condemnation right
now before them who are in Christ Jesus. When He obeyed, we obeyed. What is left? Gary, He's the
end of the law, the completion of the law for righteousness.
Someone tells you there's something else that you need to do. Not
for a believer. Not for God's elect. Christ is
the end of it, the completion of it. So He's obeyed. He's the
completion of it. And He's also the one who has
taken the judgment of it. So there is nothing left for
me to do to establish a righteousness, and there is no judgment. If
I died with Him, I died with Him. Now, this is a faithful saying, Paul
says, if we be dead with Him, we are going to live with Him. The realization of the presence
of sin. No judgment. Now this is a faithful
saying. There's no judgment of God's
law against God's elect. No judgment. Why? Christ has
paid the debt of the judgment of God. But the presence of it. Oh, how much we realize the presence
of it if we believe not, and how often we believe not. I'll just use me as an example. You can think for yourself. How
many times have I thought and desired, longed to, Be faithful
to Him. And how many times do I realize
how much I don't believe? And it grieves me. It grieves
me. How many times have I asked Him
while I pray, approaching Him, asking Him for help? And the
next thing I know, I'm somewhere else. And all of a sudden I realize, where have I been? And then I'm
asking for forgiveness. Lord, help me. If we believe
not and thanks be unto Him that our establishment in mercy and
grace toward Him is not based on our ability to be faithful,
what is it? If we believe not, yet He abideth
faithful. He cannot deny Himself. He's
faithful to Himself. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad
that He's faithful to Himself? What do you mean Himself? We
are His body. We're one with Him. He's one
with us. Eternally married, your Maker
is your God, your Husband. If He be my Husband, He says
He is. These are one flesh, not two,
one. He cannot deny Himself. He entered into an everlasting
covenant to be the surety of the sheep. Is he going to remain faithful
to them, to keep them, to sustain them? Yes, he is. Why? He cannot
deny himself. He cannot. So he's faithful. I know he's faithful. He's a
faithful and true God. He's reliable. He's faithful to his people.
There in 2 Timothy, right? 2 Timothy 2. Faithful to his
people. He says, 2 Timothy 2, verse 19,
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are His. Let every one that nameth the
name of Christ depart from iniquity. The Lord knoweth His people. He's faithful to Himself. He's
faithful to His people. I will never Leave thee nor forsake
thee." I'm so thankful when I think
of how wayward I am that he says, I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. What do you think Peter thought? What do you think the other apostles
thought? When Peter denied Him three times. When all those that were there
at the crucifixion fled. Let me ask you this. What do
you think? When you know how many times, because of the frailty
of this flesh that we absolutely despise, have we left? He said, I won't
leave you. He's faithful to Himself. faithful
to His people and He's faithful to His Father. John 17, verse
4, one verse in a high priestly prayer of our blessed Savior. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. What work was that, Lord? The work of redemption. The work
of saving His people. Thou shalt call His name Jesus. He will, He shall save His people
from their sins. What does a believer have to
fear? What does a believer have to be afraid of? He's been faithful
to his Father, his Father who everlastingly chose a people,
loved a people, put them in Christ. And as Brother Scott said, where
He put them, He kept them. Thanks be to God for that. And
now the Lord Jesus Christ, in the fullness of time, made of
a woman, made under the law, came into this world in the likeness
of our sinful flesh, yet without sin, and obeyed God Almighty,
His Father, and finished the work that He gave Him to do.
lived for them, died for them, buried with them, rose with them,
ascended with them. And we're right there with Him
right now. You say, I still don't, I still can't perceive that.
I agree with you. I can't either. But I'm telling
you that where He is, there we are. These things are too high
for us. He's faithful. faithful. He's truthful. I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. Not by your will, not by blood,
not by the will of man, but of God. Lord, if you bring me not
to the Father, I won't come. Lord, if you don't keep me, I
won't be kept. 1 John 5, 20. We know that the
Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true. And we are in Him that is true.
Even in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God in eternal
life. God Almighty, I know this, He
is faithful and truthful. Judges 5.31, concerning the judgment
right here, the beast was taken, the false prophet was taken,
the remnant was taken, and they were cast into the lake of fire.
Judges 5.31 says, So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord,
and they shall. God's truthful. Number two, God's
just. Isaiah 45, 21, there is no God
else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There's none beside
me. Those cast into the lake of fire
are getting just exactly what they deserve. But I'll tell you this, even
in the salvation of God's elect, Almighty God cannot and will
not and did not compromise His holiness. The Lord Jesus Christ, He who
cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? I still am
lost in the wonder of that. I know why He forsook Him. He
was made sin. I know He was. But still, I think
of this truth. Why hast thou forsaken me, the
Lord Jesus? Because he would not forsake
those that he'd everlastingly loved. He forsook him rather than forsake me. You think about that, my friend. He would not forsake me. He wouldn't
forsake you. He forsook Him. How in the world can I ever enter
in to the mercy of God, to love a people that sent His own Son
and turned His back on Him God is just. God must be holy, for He is holy. He is holy in justice. He is
holy in mercy. Romans 3, 25-26, whom God has
set forth to be a propitiation of satisfaction. through faith
in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this
time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus." What do I know about this judgment
right here, this beast and false prophet and the remnant? I know
that God is faithful and truthful. I know that God is just. Thirdly,
I know God is powerful, all-powerful. It says that the beast was taken,
and with him the false prophet and all that believed their lie, seized, arrested. Listen to these two scriptures,
Nahum 1.6. before His indignation. Who can abide in the fierceness
of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are thrown down by Him. Nahum 1.3. The Lord is slow to
anger. That is, He is not immediate
in wrath. I got to thinking about that.
It says he's slow to anger and great in power and will not at
all acquit the wicked. The Lord hath his way in the
whirlwind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his
feet. He's not immediate in wrath. I could think of every illustration
in the Scriptures But I'll tell you the greatest illustration
that I can think of of thankfulness for that truth right there. He's
slow in anger, not immediate in wrath. How long was he long-suffering
for Christ's sake for me? How long? How long did I go in
rebellion, left in darkness, sinning against the God of all might and all
power? How long? Almighty God, thanks be unto
Him, did not look upon me in immediate wrath. because He had
looked upon me and His Son. And having seen me before the
foundation of the world, He looked upon me in kindness, compassion, mercy." Which is my last point. God is
truthful. faithful, just, powerful, and
He's merciful. The Scripture says that the beast
was taken, false prophet was taken, the remnant of the wicked
were there, but there's some that weren't. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. I will have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion." There were some, Mike, that weren't
there in judgment that day. Who were they? It was the remnant. And Paul
speaks of in Romans 11, 5, "...even so then at this present time
also there is a remnant according to the election of grace." Comparatively speaking, as far
as this world is concerned, as far as the numbers are concerned,
compared to just a few scraps, remnants, just the strings that are left
after a woman that truly knows how to measure, to make a dress,
How much is it going to take? I used to be amazed. My mama
would make a dress. It would say she'd get one and
seven eighths yards. I thought, well, couldn't you
just round it up to make it two? What if you make a mistake? Not one that knows what they're
doing. This remnant, according to grace,
are those that this world despises and hates. But this remnant,
according to just a few, just the few that's just left, that
God Almighty has shown mercy to, these aren't there. You notice
that? They're not there. There's some, turn with me in
closing to Ephesians 1, there's some that he might make known
the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had
aforeprepared unto glory. Ephesians 1, 3 to 9, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us. with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath
abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known
unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself." May the Lord be pleased to bless
this Word to our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.