Welcome to you. We're so pleased
to have Lynn back with us and for Egloth to have made that
journey. We took Alan and Christine on that journey last week, so
they have some appreciation of how much we're encouraged by
Egloth being here. We come together, we gather together
to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. But we're also looking at the
book of Revelation, and I love the beginning of Hebrews chapter
12. Wherefore, seeing we are also compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with
patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. It's a remarkable thing, isn't
it, to think that our God and our Saviour is now a man of joy,
a glorified man of joy. It's so easy to lose sight of
the fact that our God rejoices in his people, and he rejoices
over his flocks with singing, and he promises to inhabit the
praises of his people. And so we're gathered in his
name, we're gathered because of him, and we're gathered to
sing praises to him. So let's pray. Now, Heavenly
Father, we do commit ourselves into your care. We do thank you
and praise you for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we thank you, Heavenly Father, that has reached out throughout
time to individuals to gather them together as you've gathered
us here this morning. And we just pray, Heavenly Father,
that your dear and precious son, our Lord Jesus, would be lifted
up. The blessed Holy Spirit would reveal more of his glory and
more of his joy. before us this morning that we
might worship Heavenly Father, that we might find ourselves
at rest and at peace in who He is and what He has done. We thank
you for sending your servants from across the world to encourage
us, Heavenly Father, and we do pray your blessing on the preaching
of your word this morning. And bless us, Heavenly Father,
as you promised, as we hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ
declared again in our hearing. We do thank you, Heavenly Father,
for the proclamation of this Gospel throughout this world
and we pray for those fellowships where your Gospel is preached,
that you would bless them and be merciful to them, Heavenly
Father, and cause your people to know that the blessed Lord
Jesus Christ is now sitting on the throne of this universe and
is joyful about the finished work and rejoices over his people
as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride. Now, Father, we do
commit ourselves into your hands in Jesus' precious name. We're
going to sing. That's why God's people sing.
They sing to each other and they sing to the Lord. And he sings,
guide me, O thou great Jehovah, number 32, pilgrim through this
barren land. I am weak, but thou art mighty. Hold me with thy powerful hand. O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave Strong believer, strong believer,
be ye that still my strength and shield. Be ye that still
my strength and shield. I will ever be true to Thee. Well, Alan's going to come and
speak in a minute. He said from England that the
task was daunting. But we appreciate it very much.
We appreciate your labours and we appreciate again having the
opportunity to to delve into the book of Revelation in the
very early days of our fellowship. Some of you might remember we
had a morning where we just read all of Revelation, we just read
the lot. It's not a tradition but we've
done it often. over the years where we just
have the morning service where we just read the word of God.
And it's been a great blessing to us. But it's been a great
blessing to come back and ponder the things of this world and
the reality that we live in through the eyes. of the Book of Revelation. So we're thankful and we pray
the Lord will bless your time. We're going to do as we did last
Sunday and Alan will speak and then we'll have a 10 minute break
in the middle and we'll sing another hymn and then we'll hear
some more and then we'll have lunch together. So we're thankful
that you're all here and especially our visitors. We're going to
sing number 33, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. Down on every plain and sea,
through my halls you'd sing thy praise. Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave Here I face my Nebenezer, giv'n
by thy divine might, and I hope by thy good pleasure, safely
to a right at home. He's a scolding man, a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God. He took Hosea's precious blood. Hosea's race, how great the tether,
daily I'm constrained to be. When thy goodness I offender,
I'm not wondering how to be. Well, that's a good hymn. Very
good hymn. Just give me a moment to start. Well, here we are again in Revelation,
and what I'm trying to do through this daunting task, as Angus
reminded you, is to give the big picture of Revelation. The
big picture, because it's not that we understand every detail,
that's the key thing. If you look at the third verse
of the Revelation, it says, blessed is he that reads and they that
hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are
written, live by them, live in the light of them, for the time
is at hand. I'm comforted to know that it
doesn't say that we need to understand perfectly everything. We need
to read it, hear it, and keep it. And that's what we seek to
do. Just the big picture, and my desire, my prayer is that
maybe through this, through the book if you've got it, or other
things that you can look at, you can delve into it in more
detail, because it's a... I feel as though I've only just
and so scratched the surface. I really do. It's like John Newton
said when he was, you know, he was such a great scientific mind,
but he said, I feel just like a little boy on the beach who's
found a few pebbles. That's all. Compared with this
great world of the creation of God, compared with this great
revelation, of the truth of God in the Scriptures of God. You
know, to see how what is written here is echoed by other parts
of the Scripture. Why? Because although it was
written by different people in different ages, it's the same
Holy Spirit who inspired that same Gospel truth, and it's consistent
right throughout, right throughout it. So, I think also Why now? I don't think there's ever been
a... It's always been relevant to the Church of God, ever since
John was given it to write down. It's been for the comfort of
the people of God. But I really do feel that the
days in which we're living, and the days to come, it has never
been a more relevant message, a more needful message. A message
to give comfort to God's saints, to give assurance, and to declare
a clear warning to this world, to the lost. things are not going
on as they are, as it was in the days of Noah. So anyway,
yesterday evening we looked at chapters 15 and 16, and of necessity
all of these studies of these different visions, the seven
visions of the book, are much more hurried than if we had the
time I would like to do. As I said, it was 27 messages
I think in total when I preached it the first time round, and
even then that was a quick sprint through the book. But we did
15 and 16 last night, in which we saw the end of history. All the other visions had got
us close to the end, but last night it's absolutely clear,
the battle of Armageddon, that was it, that was the end, the
end of this space-time creation, culminating in Armageddon, where
false Christendom, anti-Christ, anti-Christendom, is arrayed
against Gog and Magog. Satan tries to bring together
this great worldwide consensus of unity without Christ, and
as it were, it backfires completely. It backfires because they self-destruct,
they mutually destruct. Now, although the end of chapter
16 is the end of history, pictured there clearly, it's obviously
not the end of the book of Revelation. There are more visions to come.
And the visions are like different reports of the same news scene. It's different reports, different
angles on the same thing. I say in the book, do you remember
when the planes flew into the Twin Towers? And I remember that
dreadful day. I was in London. It was such
an eerie, spooky thing that was going on. The internet just ground
to a halt. Nobody could do anything because
of the traffic that was whizzing around the internet. And I remember
as that day went on, for some bizarre reason, all our public
transport in London was completely screwed up. And I was very late
getting home that night. But even then, the news channels
were going mad with it. And over about the next three
or four weeks, we kept getting, ah, this was the view from near
the Twitter. Oh, here's the view from over on Staten Island. Oh,
here's the view from different perspectives. Exactly the same
thing, but viewed from a different perspective, and the news channels
were bringing out different aspects. It's just an illustration, but
that's the way to look at these visions. They're all telling
the same story of the kingdom of God triumphant over the kingdom
of Satan, and we get different views of it. 15 and 16 was to
portray the end. All scripture, from the start
to the finish, speaks of God saving his elect people. We know
this, don't we? The world of religion thinks
that the Bible is to tell people how to live. If only they would
live according to that, oh, what a nice place it would be. Well,
it does tell us how to live, but that's not its purpose. The
purpose of the scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is God
telling his people His saints, his elect people, he's telling
them the story of salvation. He's telling them how he has
saved them from their sins. How he has taken them from the
kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of God and to eternal glory.
Saving his elect people out of that kingdom of Satan and the
coming of his own glorious kingdom of true peace and true righteousness
because it's founded on justice satisfied. How is justice satisfied? The Lord Jesus Christ has come
and his blood has been shed and he has satisfied the demand of
the law which says the soul that sins it shall die. The soul that sins it shall die.
He has died for his people. His death is that which has satisfied
the law for his people. Okay then, so, it all reports
the same theme, but through differing scenes. In the scriptures we
have scenes of history, we have sections of poetry, we have prophecy,
we have epistle, we have the gospels, and now we come to chapter
17. And here we see a woman named
Babylon, a woman named Babylon. Look at verses 1 to 6, let's
read them. And there came one of the seven angels, which had
the seven vials, and talked with me, saying to me, Come hither,
I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth
upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed
fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk
with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the
spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured
beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and
decked with gold and precious stones, and pearls, having a
golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery, Babylon. Babylon the Great, the mother
of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered
with great admiration. You might ask the question, when
we get to the end of chapter 16, how did we get to this total
destruction that has been described, this end of history, of space-time
creation? Well, our reporter in verse 1,
the one who's bringing us this news report of how we got there,
is one of the seven angels. He's one of the seven angels
that were given the seven vials. It says it quite clearly there.
Here is his report. It's a report about the whore. that he sees. A whore is an unfaithful,
adulterous woman who is buoyed up by waters. What are the waters? Look at verse 15. He said unto
me, the waters, isn't it good when the scripture, you're thinking,
what does that mean? And the scripture there itself,
if only you will read it and look, it tells you exactly what
it is. The waters which you saw where the whore sits, are peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. You know, like the
sea in Revelation 13-1, where the beast came out of the sea,
is the peoples of the world. They're like a tumultuous sea,
it says in Isaiah 57. The peoples of the earth are
like a tumultuous sea. And look at it, look at the hordes
of people on this planet, it's like a tumultuous sea. She's
sitting upon that, peoples of the world. And she's in unfaithful
league, look, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. And the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Adulterous
interaction, unfaithful interaction, in league with world powers.
And there's a drunkenness, there's a drunkenness that made drunk
with the wine of her fornication. The inhabitants of the earth
are drunk. Drunk, loss of rational wisdom. Is that right? You know,
be not drunk with wine wherein is excess. Too much of it, you
lose rational wisdom. You get a distorted view of things. Is this not the world in which
we live? When it comes to the things of God, there's drunkenness,
there's spiritual drunkenness. They're drunken with the fornication
of this woman, this whore that we're looking at. And it's obviously
opposed to the holiness of God and deserving judgment. I will
show you, it says in verse 1, the angel says, I'll show you
the judgment of the great whore. Why? Because the cup that she's
holding in verse 4 is full of abominations and filthiness. It's full of sin, vile sin. Verses 3 and 4. So he carried
me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. This is a vision
again. This is symbolism again. This is a wilderness, not the
wilderness that the woman of chapter 12 was taken into, a
wilderness of separation from this world, but this is a wilderness
of godless sinfulness. We can only get that from the
context about the abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
Without God and without hope in the world, the scripture says,
that's this wilderness. Not the wilderness of the true
church is separation from the world. And there's this woman
sitting on this beast. We've seen the beast before,
but here's the woman sitting on the beast. And she's gorgeously
clothed, elaborately clothed, with expensive adornments. but
she's got vile contents in the golden cup that she holds. And
what is the woman's name? It says it's there. Capital letters,
the translators have put it in, in our King James Version. Mystery. Something that is hidden, and
not obvious. You know, it's not going around
with a greatly clear sign on it, what it actually is. It's
mystery. It's hidden. And the name? The
character? The name? is the appearance of
a glamorous woman, but the character of a city. Babylon, where people
live. And verse 6, drunk with the excess
of saints' blood. I saw the woman drunken with
the blood of the saints. She's drunken with the martyrdom,
if you like, the death of the true people of God. And John
looks, and when he sees her, it says in our translation, I
wondered with great admiration. And you think, oh, John's really
impressed. He's impressed with what he's
seen. I think that gives the wrong impression in our 21st
century English. What it actually says is astonished,
shocked. taken aback. He's looking at
a woman on a beast, and he's absolutely shocked at what he
sees. Why is he shocked? Because what did he see in chapter
12? He saw a woman arrayed with the sun and 12 stars on her head,
and that was clearly a picture of the true Church of Christ.
So he sees a symbol in his vision that should be the church. It's
a woman. She's the picture of the church.
Christ gave himself for his church. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved his church, his wife, the church, the bride of
Christ. She's a woman, the church. She looks like she should be
God's people. as it says in chapter 12. Israel was God's bride, symbolically. In the Song of Solomon, the Shulamite
pictures the Church of God. In Ephesians chapter 5, as I've
already said, Paul says there, talking about husbands and wives,
but he says, I speak of Christ and His Church. Why is what looks
like the Church of God drunk with the saints' blood? Why is
John so shocked? Answer? Because her name, because
her true character is actually Babylon. Babel, Tower of Babel,
that's where Babylon comes from, the Tower of Babel. Genesis 11,
Nimrod, Nimrod, that rebellious panther. Nimrod, the one who
rebelled against the justice and righteousness of God, he
initiated there the kingdom of Antichrist at Babel. All the
nations united in a consensus of unity, building their own
tower to reach to heaven, to reach to some eternal state of
bliss and cooperation, without the justice of God in Christ.
No need for Christ, no need for that promised seed of Genesis
3.15 that God said must come. The seed must come to bruise
Satan's head, to crush Satan's head, and in the process have
his heel bruised. In 13 verse 3, chapter 13 and
verse 3, we saw that that kingdom of Antichrist at Babel, God dealt
it a fatal blow. He dealt it a fatal blow by coming
down and confounding the languages, and their consensus of unity
was completely messed up by the confounding of the languages.
Is it not true? I know we've got translation
apps on our phone. I got pretty good school-level
French. I got to the stage, I even preached
a sermon in French. 2007? Yes. Now, if I go to France and I
listen to normal conversations, I cannot understand a word. I
grab the odd word out of it. That confusion of the languages,
what I'm saying, was a very effective splitting up of the peoples of
the world in their consensus of unity. But as we go on through
history, we saw in chapter 13, verse 3, that that deadly wound
was healed. The days in which we live, that
so great a stark separation of the nations, that wound is healed. We can get on a plane and fly
virtually anywhere in the world, and if you've got your passport
on you, they'll let you in in most places. You don't need much
documentation to go virtually anywhere. The deadly wound is
to a large extent healed. But the rise of Babylon is a
symbol of the oppression of God's people. Remember the days of
Nebuchadnezzar. So clearly, it was the oppression
of God's people. They were taken into 70 years
of captivity. But its fall, the fall of Babylon,
is repeated again and again in Scripture, in Isaiah 21 verse
9, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. In other words, be absolutely
sure, be in no doubt, Babylon False religion, that which opposes
the people of God, is fallen. We saw it in 14 and verse 8. In 14 verse 8, and there followed
another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great
city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath
of her fornication. Is it not exactly what we've
just seen in chapter 17? In chapter 16 and verse 19, And
that great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of
the nations fell. And great Babylon came in remembrance
before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness
of his wrath, for her sin. What looks at first sight like
God's church is in fact a whore. Unfaithful. Unfaithful. Named Babylon. We've seen it
before, in chapter 11. Remember in chapter 11 it was
about measuring the temple. Go and measure the temple. Why
go and measure the temple? Identify who the true people
of God are. So John's given a measuring rod,
and God says clearly to him, go and measure the temple, but
only measure the core of it and the people that worship there.
Don't worship the temple court. No, no, that's given to the Gentiles,
to trample it underfoot 42 months. Don't measure wider Jerusalem. Don't measure greater Israel.
Don't measure it! Because it's a picture of what
looks like Christianity is in the days in which we live, which
is false Christianity. It's not the truth. It has a
certain appearance of the things of the truth of God, but it is
in fact a whore, an unfaithful, an unfaithful marriage partner,
if not to use too strong a name, an unfaithful marriage partner
to the true God, named Babylon. We've seen that before. The true
people of God, whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of
Life, those who, as it says in chapter 14 and verse 12, here
is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus. What is it to keep The commandments
of God, is he talking about the ten commandments? No, of course
not. He's talking about the gospel. He's talking about gospel precepts.
He's talking about the belief of the gospel, where the scriptures
talk about, have not obeyed the gospel. The gospel is something
that we obey. How do we obey it? We obey it
by faith. And how do we get that faith?
It is the gift of God, not of ourselves. So then, not the outer
court, not the holy city given to the Gentiles. Jerusalem looks
like the holy city of God, but it's really Babylon. Really Babylon,
where does it say that? Down in chapter 11, wasn't it? Down in chapter 11. I think there
we are, chapter 11, verse 8. Their dead bodies, the witnesses,
shall lie in the street of the great city. Talking about Jerusalem. No, which is spiritually called
Sodom. Jerusalem called Sodom, because
in truth that's what it is. This woman that looks like the
church is really Babylon. And Egypt, Egypt? Egypt, I know
there are people in the kingdom of God, there are Egyptians,
there must be, because God says from every tribe and tongue and
kindred will his church be filled. But, symbolically, Egypt is a
picture of the world that hates and persecutes the church. Jerusalem,
where also our Lord was crucified. This is how Scripture, this is
how God judges it. It looks like, to the superficial
eye, it looks like the people of God, but in reality, it's
Babylon. Sodom and Egypt, killing the
prophets, crucifying Christ. We repeatedly read in the Old
Testament Israel, wider Israel, seeming to be the true people
of God. Always amongst them there was the remnant, according to
the election of grace, as Romans 11, 6 tells us. but always they
played the harlot, repeatedly they played the harlot until
they were taken into captivity. And then we read very little
of such blatant idolatry as there had been before. And the book
of Hosea pictures that, where Hosea the prophet was told to
go and marry a prostitute. as a picture of what Israel was
doing in the marriage relationship, the spiritual marriage relationship
with God. Ezekiel 16 pictures it likewise,
spiritual harlotry with idols. Now then, what's this telling
us of relevance for our day? We need to recognize the woman
named Babylon. What is the woman named Babylon? What's the relevance to us? This
woman is the church as she appears on the earth. It's what we call
Christendom. It has all the outward signs
of the true Church of God. It has the buildings that tell
people this is the Church of God. It has its ministers that
tell the world around them, politicians, that this is the Church of God.
in our country, and I'm sure here. If you were to ask any
of the governing parties, and remember, the Queen is the head
of the Church of England. There's this joining together
of church and state, that the two seem to go hand in hand. But it's buildings and it's ministers,
and it's office bearers, and it's hierarchy of authority,
and it's organisation. And it's Bibles. It even uses
a thing that's very similar to this. So that most people are
deceived into thinking the words they're reading are the true
scriptures. And it has the sacraments, doesn't it? It baptises people. It has what looks like the communion. That which Paul says, I have
received of the Lord. That which also, you know, where
he describes the Last Supper and the do this in remembrance
of me. And he also has works, works. Doesn't the world see the works?
They seem to do such great works of charity, of compassion. You know, characters like Mother
Teresa of Calcutta, you know, oh dear, the world bows down
in reverence for Mother Teresa of Calcutta, oh what wonderful
things she did. Yet there was no gospel there.
There was no gospel of redeeming grace there at all. There was
no blood of the covenant, none whatsoever. There was nothing
that... spoke of effectual salvation.
They deny effectual salvation. The only salvation that they
have is a salvation that is a do-it-yourself salvation, that is open to everybody,
should they choose. I saw in one of our friends in
America sent the bulletins I get, and he put in a little piece
about the corruption of the King James Version, the truth, with
one of the modern Bibles that's used widely throughout the United
States of America. the verse in Acts 13.48 which
says that they preached and those that were ordained to eternal
life believed has been changed in this one that's widely used
in America to and those that wanted to followed the Lord Jesus Christ. You know,
it's complete corruption of what the scripture actually says.
They deny Christ. You say, no they don't, they
use the... If you were to ask the Catholics, was there a man
called Jesus who came in the flesh? They'd say, of course.
And so people would say, ah well, they're of God, because as 1
John 4 verse 1 says, try the spirits whether they be of God.
Whosoever confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh
is of God. What does that mean? It means this. Whosoever confesses
that the baby born at Bethlehem, of a virgin mother, who grew
at Nazareth, and then fulfilled his earthly ministry, the commission
that his father gave him, that that man, reading the Acts, you'll
have seen it as you're going through the Acts, that this Jesus,
this physical historical character, is the Christ. The Christ of
the Old Testament, the Messiah of the Old Testament, what was
the Messiah to do? He was to save His people from
their sins. He was to come and accomplish
all that God had said He would do. He was to be the seed of
the woman who would crush the serpent's head. He was the seed
of the woman who would save His people and take His people to
glory. His particular people to glory. But they deny it. They deny it, because their gospel
is not that gospel. You say, well, it's close enough.
Somebody reminded me the other day, oh, it might have been Owen,
reminded me, that when Bill Clark came, because we knew Bill Clark
very well, Bill Clarke was the one who put us in touch with
Henry Mahan and Don and all of those, and ultimately that's
why we're here in touch with you. So we have a great affection
for Bill, but Owen reminded me of Bill with his illustration
of a glass of water. You can have a glass of water.
and I'll have a drink of the glass of water. And somebody
comes up and puts one drop of cyanide in that water. Now, that
glass is still, what, 99.99% H2O? Isn't it? Still water. It's virtually no poison in it
at all. Will you drink it? Of course
you won't drink it. Why? Because even that one little
drop has made the entire glass deadly to you. Absolutely deadly. So it is. Beware. Things that look like water are
not necessarily water. In terms of the Gospel, things
that have an appearance, as this woman did, of being the truth,
you have to look carefully. You have to identify. What is
it really? You see, they have no time for
the grace of God. Their grace is what people's
will exercises, their free will exercises. They hate. You know when Jesus said, the
world will hate you? You say, oh no, they won't. No,
people are pretty reasonable. They'll hate you. Why will they
hate you? Because of particular redemption. It is not of him
that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. You ask these religions that
look superficially like the Church of Christ, they hate particular
redemption, who are born not of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God. They have no need for blood,
they hate blood. They hate it. There's the great
poet, the poet laureate, John Betjeman, who's... I love his
poetry, it's very nice. As a collection of English, it's
beautiful, it really is. But nevertheless, he loved the
hymns of the Church of England, but he said, just leave out all
the ones that have got anything to do with blood. He didn't want
hymns that had anything to do with blood. This is it. It means
no blood, because it doesn't see any need. You know, as that
old hymn says, a sinner is a sacred thing. Why is a sinner a sacred
thing? You see, everybody's sinned. Everybody's a sinner. All have
sinned, without exception. But why is a sinner a sacred
thing? Because the Holy Ghost has made
him so. That's the reason why. The Holy
Ghost has made him so. And in making him so, Like the
Philippian jailer, what must I do to be saved? Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And anyone else
in your house that believes shall be saved. You see, they have
invented an unbiblical religion. They want to be called Christ's
bride, but they're committing spiritual fornication with the
kingdom of Antichrist. And I'm not talking just about
Roman Catholics, or Anglicans, or other Orthodox denominations.
I'm talking about so-called evangelical too, because the latter talk
about redeeming blood, but their redeeming blood is universal
redeeming blood. Universal. Do you remember last
night in chapter 16, we saw when the seventh vial was poured out,
there was the voice from heaven, it is done. The just recompense
of God for sin on this world is done, it is finished, it is
complete. You know what Christ cried on
the cross? It is finished, it is finished. What was finished? The payment of the sin debt of
the people that the Father had given to Him before the beginning
of time. That's what He finished on the
cross. If He had finished that work, as Fullerites and the like,
who sound very much like reformed, Calvinistic, believing Christians,
if what they say is true, when he said it is finished, there
was no need for it is done in Revelation 16, because it was
already finished. Why would there be anybody in
hell if Christ has paid for the sins of everybody without exception? and the key to it is only those
who then exercise that faith and it's made effectual for them,
that's not what the Scriptures teach. They teach that the sin
debt of the world was paid for in one of two ways. Either in
the death of Christ for his people, or in the vial, all the vials,
the seventh vial that pours out in Revelation 16 to say, it is
done, God's justice is satisfied. They offer a gospel to the free
will of all. That's not what the scriptures
do. They mix law and grace, because they mix up. As Galatians says,
it's such a pernicious error, they mix law and grace. They
flirt with the music of heresy, and that leads to spiritual adultery. They fear, I know from first-hand
experience of such churches, they fear isolation. And so they
espouse ecumenical associations as fellowship, and it isn't.
Christ is not the center of their creed. It's not the center of
their preaching, or their message, or their devotion. They're not
the people who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ
Jesus, who have no confidence in the flesh. They're not that.
Now, I know this recording's going on the internet, and so
I would say to anyone listening on the internet, do you attend
a church? You like listening to internet sermons, but do you
attend a church? Oh yeah, I like to keep going
to my church, you know, because the family went there, and we've
got lots of traditions. There's some good friends there, and I'm hoping
that if I stay there, I might be able to influence them for
good. Well, let me ask you, does it look like a true church? Or
is it really Babylon? Does it look like this woman?
Oh, superficially, the church. Or is it really Babylon? Does
it keep the gospel commandments of God and the faith of Jesus
Christ? Revelation 14, verse 12. Does
it follow the faith of Christ? Does it have the faith of God's
elect? Or is it flirting with idols?
Is it compromise with Balaam's doctrine? If yes, then read Revelation
18 verse 4. I heard another voice from heaven
saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her
sins, and that ye receive not of her plates. For her sins have
reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
come out of her. You know, I used to think I need
to tread very carefully if I tell people to leave their church.
Now I have no qualms about it at all, because on the strength
of this word, I think if your church is not clearly preaching
the truth of the gospel of grace as we see so clearly in the scriptures,
particular redemption, then the thing is, don't try and stay
and fix it, because you won't come out of it. That's what God
says, come out of it. Now, That's 32 minutes. I want to go on a little bit
longer before we have a cup of tea, because the next one I want to
look at is chapter 20. So if you can just bear with
me, I just want to say a few words about verses 7 to 13. Now, having seen what we've seen,
and being surprised as John was shocked, then the angel comes
and gives a bit more explanation. He says in verse 7, why did you
marvel? Why were you puzzled by this?
He says, I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast
that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns,
the beast that we've seen before coming up out of the sea in chapter
13, verse 1. Let's read these verses. Let's
just read down to verse 14. The beast that thou sawest was
and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and
go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life
from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that
was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath
wisdom. Seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman
sitteth. Verse 10, and there are seven
kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet
come, and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and
is of the seventh, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns
which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom
as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength
unto the beast. These shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of lords
and King of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen
and faithful. My oldest grandson is at Liverpool
University in his final year. One of his major subjects is
ancient history and he loves this. He's majoring on ancient
Rome. But you read that and at first
sight you think, wow, my head's spinning. How on earth do I pick
an order out of this? What's going on here? Anyway,
let's try and unravel it very quickly. Why do we try and unravel
it? It's not so that you can go around
bragging that you've worked out what these verses are, no. Why
do we try and unravel it? Because it gives us comfort,
that God is in control, that every... you know, people glibly
say, history is his story, it really is. This is God's story. This is the history of the ancient
world, and up to today. We saw that woman, and some people
are, you know, in Christian circles, in Christendom, expecting a great
revival before the end. They see what they think is a
church that is thriving, but if you look at this, you find
that it's truly Antichrist, because it has a false gospel, which
is no gospel. And the angel tells us the mystery,
the history, the development and the future of the woman and
the beast. Verse 8, the beast, it was reality. When was the beast reality? At
Babel, at the Tower of Babel. But it was deadly wounded. In
13, verse 3, we saw the deadly wound. And it's now not, it is
not. What? It's not now as it was,
is what that's saying. That tower of Babel, the beast
as it was then, that worldwide consensus of unity in opposition
to God, is not now as it was then. And then, Satan comes from
the bottomless pit, and we've read that in chapter 9 where
he comes, Antichrist. And from the sea, the beast comes
from the sea in chapter 13 verse 1. And the beast is not a creature
that looks like a dinosaur with multiple heads as artists might
try to portray it. That beast is in reality unified
political power. That's what the beast symbolizes.
Unified political power in opposition to the rule and the kingdom of
God. And he's supported by the second beast of chapter 13 that
comes up out of the earth, with all of his technical signs and
wonders, the magnificent things that are just so rampant around
us in the world today, and which, let's not be hypocritical about
it, we all make use of that technology. But the world is enthralled by
it, the world is seduced by it, the world is mesmerized by it,
the world worships the beast of this wonderful world that
we now live in with all its technology. And universally worshipped, it
says, except, who doesn't worship it? It says there, those whose
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. The dragon's kingdom is what
it is, Satan's kingdom of Antichrist. And in verse 9, the mountains,
the seven mountains on which the woman sits, are kingdoms,
or earthly powers. Who are the earthly powers? Look,
it says in verse 10, there are seven kings. Five of them have
already gone. When John was writing, One is
when John was writing, and the other, the seventh, is not yet
come. And when he comes, he must continue a short space. Who are
the five that have already gone? You look at ancient history. I know there's stuff to do with
China, but quite honestly, the history of those nations that
were not ever touched by the things of God, the message that
the Israel of God has, they don't really figure in world history.
But the empires around it were Egypt, that was a great empire,
that was the first, Assyria, shortly after Assyria, there
was Babylonia, Chaldea, Nebuchadnezzar, Then there was Persia, and you
know, from Babylonia it becomes like Nebuchadnezzar's dream that
Daniel interprets in Daniel chapter 2, with the head of gold and
then the shoulders of silver and then the midriff of brass,
is it, or bronze, and then the legs of iron and the feet of
clay. That's the same thing, he's looking at the same thing,
except there, Egypt and Assyria had already happened. Greece,
the empire of Alexander the Great, they're the five that have already
fallen when John was writing. And Rome was the empire when
John was writing, so that's the one that now is. Rome was the
one that now is, and there's another yet to come. Another
yet to come, all attempting to be world unifying kingdoms like
Nimrod's Babel, but failing. All those empires tried to produce
world unity, a consensus of unity by conquest of empire, but they
failed. Now verse 11. The beast that
was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven,
and goeth into perdition. Complicated verse, isn't it?
The old kingdom of Nimrod is going to form again. That's what
it's saying. as an eighth world empire. But
actually, it's a confederation of the ten kingdoms that we see
in verse 12 and in verse 13, having one mind. You see, they
have one mind, world consensus of unity. They constitute the
seventh world empire. They all support the beast. Remember
what verse 3 of chapter 1 says, just just listen and hear and
keep. You don't have to understand.
There's no need to put a tick in every box that you understand
every detail. But this is what I think it is
saying clearly here. Satan's intention is for the
woman adulterous religion, false religion, looking like the true
superficially, to seduce world powers so that there be one final
united kingdom of Antichrist, promising eternity without divine
justice, without the blood of Christ. Is that not what we have
seen, what we are seeing? even in the days in which we
live, down history and in the days in which we live. Is this
not the Christless philosophy of the world in which we live?
And that world makes war with the Lamb. They make war with
the Lamb. And the Lamb overcomes. The Lamb
is triumphant. Of course the Lamb is triumphant.
In verse 16, The ten horns which thou saw upon the beast, these
shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked,
and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire, for God has put
in their hearts to fulfill His will. The kings shall hate the
whore because God's put it there. God is ruling all of these things. Don't we see a mass, even though
there's lots of religion there, don't we see, certainly in Britain
we do, there is a mass turning away of all sorts of religion
apart from evolutionary materialism. That's the religion of Britain
these days, is rationalism, evolutionary materialism. He's put it in their
hearts to turn away even from that. What's the application?
I'll finish with this. Victory for Christ. In verse
14, He's overcome them. Victory for Christ and for His
people. Who are they? They're the called.
They're the called. You know, whom He chose, these
He also called. And chosen. Chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And faithful. Why? Because He keeps His people faithful
until the end. The destruction of the whore
is what is pictured there, and in chapter 18 it goes on, and
we haven't got time to look at it, but it's the destruction,
again repeating what was essentially in chapter 16 but from a different
perspective, it's the destruction of society, world society as
we know it. We need to recognize her. As
I say again, anybody listening to this that is not clear, they're
going to a church to try and reform it. Recognize what that
church is. Come out of her. Stay separate
from her, my people. Do your utmost to find a fellowship
of people that does believe the truth, with a pastor who is preaching
the truth. And sell your house, change your
job, do what you need to do, but go there and be with them,
because that's what you should do. That's what the Scriptures
teach. We'll have a break at that point.