Okay, welcome. We're going to
begin by singing hymn number 11. Thanks, Normie. Oh ♪ To be my soul a wonderful one
♪ ♪ To be his love and mercy strong forevermore ♪ ♪ I am,
I am ♪ ♪ Just as I am, just as I am ♪ With thou, O Lamb of God, I come,
I come. Just as my hand, my love alone,
hath broken ev'ry barrier, now to me lie you alone. You know the story of that hymn?
Alan would know it better than me probably, saying it was in
his country. But there was a lady who was,
the pastor of the church was invited to the house to meet
this young lady called Charlotte. And she had no interest in the
things of God and no interest in the things of eternity. And
he asked her about her eternal soul. and she went away unmoved. But over the next few days she
felt more and more troubled about the words that he'd said to her,
more and more troubled about what it meant to be an eternal
soul. And she met him in the village,
didn't she, some days later. And she said, well, how do I
come And he says, you come just as you are, just as you are. So she wrote this amazing hymn
and we've been singing it now for 160 or 170 years. We've come together, we're gathered
by the Lord, we've come together to hear about the Lord Jesus
Christ. I love the descriptions he has of himself in the beginning
of the book of Revelation. He says, I'm the Alpha and the
Omega. He says, I'm the beginning and the ending, which means that
he's not only the beginning and the ending, he's every little
bit in between as well. And then he goes on to say, I'm
the Alpha and the Omega, I'm the first and the last. And what
you see right in a book, and send it to the churches. And
he goes on again in verse 17 of chapter 1, he says, fear not,
I am the first and the last. We are here in the presence of
almighty, infinite and eternal God. And we need him to reveal
himself to us as he did to Charlotte Elliot. So let's pray. Our Heavenly
Father, we do thank you for the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ in this world, and we thank you especially for the
revelation of him in the scriptures, and we thank you for the promises
that you have made to your people throughout time, and particularly
in this gospel age, Heavenly Father. That the blessed Holy
Spirit would take the things of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
things of his being, the things of his work on Calvary's tree,
the things associated with his shed blood, and he would reveal
them to us. And Heavenly Father, as we study
this Book of Revelation, we pray that that might be Your mercy
and grace in our lives, that You would cause Your dear Son
to be revealed to us. And we might find ourselves coming. and continually coming to Him
in all the issues of this life here. So we commit ourselves
into your hands, Heavenly Father, trusting that you have promised
to be the teacher of your people and you have promised to lead
and guide your people into the truth. And we just want to hear
truth, Heavenly Father. the truth of your word, the truth
about the Lord Jesus Christ. So we do commit ourselves into
your hands with expectation that your promises will be fulfilled. For we pray and come into your
presence in the name and in the person of your dear and precious
son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, are we going to sing
again normally or are we going to do it from the other side?
♪ Oh, my shepherd, I am a-fallin'
♪ ♪ He makes me come to life ♪ ♪ He calls to me, he beckons
me ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave ♪ Presence of the Lord ♪ ♪ Oh, peace have you in your sight
♪ Well, here we are again, back
in Revelation. I'm beginning to feel very much
at home amongst you, it really is. You're a very warm, welcoming
company of people, it's great to be with you, a delight, absolute
delight. And we're attempting something
I certainly have never attempted before, which is to cover the
whole of the book of Revelation And what is it? About eight,
maybe nine? If we count the Sundays where we split it into two, then
maybe that gets it up more like to ten or eleven sessions. But
it's an awful lot less than when I preached through the book a
couple of years ago, which led to the book that I wrote on this. But anyway, we come... tonight,
to the fourth of the seven visions of the book of Revelation. And
we need to always bear in mind what these visions are for. It
is God, you read it in the very first verse of the book, it is
God showing his servants, who are his servants? The people
who believe him. The people who believe the truth of the gospel
of grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. What is that gospel of grace?
It's what Christ has done to save the people the Father gave
to Him before the beginning of time out of all humanity, to
save them from their sins. God is just and holy. We are
sinners. We have no idea of ourselves
by nature, what we are in the sight of the God who has made
all things. You say, oh come off it, you
don't believe that God made things, do you? Oh, I most certainly
do. And there's not a scientist on this planet can show me one
solitary, convincing explanation as to how life formed on this
planet. They cannot do it. They cannot
do it. It's a lie. It's a lie which is designed
purely so that men can say with some sort of intellectual superiority
that they have no need for God. That's the truth. That's the
truth. God has made all things. God is holy. God requires that
we be holy. But we're not. We're sinners.
And God's justice demands that the soul that sins, it shall
die. But Christ, the Son of God, became
man in a human body. that he might suffer death, that
he, as the substitute of his people, might pay the price of
the justice of God, that that justice might be satisfied. This
is what he came to do. And this is what we see through
these seals. The world in which we live is
the kingdom of Satan. It was handed over to Satan in
the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve there, what it actually
literally meant, I don't know, but they ate the forbidden fruit,
they disobeyed God, and thereby sin came into this creation.
And the kingdom of this world became the kingdom of Satan.
But as we were seeing yesterday, that verse that says, the kingdom
of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his
Christ, because that is what is happening. God is turning
it over. The history of the world from
Eden to the end is of God turning the kingdom of Satan into his
kingdom. He's finishing this kingdom,
this creation, to establish his own kingdom. And he does it through
the things that we've seen in history. He did it through that
sealed book. There was a seven-sealed book,
which is the plan of God, to implement the kingdom of God
and to overthrow the kingdom of Satan. We saw the only one
qualified to open the seals, because nobody could open the
seals. Why do you have to be qualified?
Because if the Kingdom of God is to have citizens who are people,
who are sinners by nature, the justice of God has to be established. And the only way the justice
of God is established is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He came, so that's why when John
looked, he looked for the lion of the tribe of Judah. Who's
going to open? Look at the lion of the tribe
of Judah. And he looked, and what did he see? He saw a lamb
as it has been slain. It's only Christ in the capacity
of the Lamb of God. What did John the Baptist say
to the crowds coming when he saw Jesus? Behold the Lamb of
God. who takes away the sin of the
world. Look to the Lamb of God. If you would be right with God,
if you would have the justice of God satisfied, you must look
to the Lamb of God. And so, in the capacity of a
Lamb, He is the one who is able to implement the Kingdom of God.
And these seven seals, seven is God's perfect number, these
seven seals unfold the plan of God to replace, to overcome,
to overthrow the kingdom of Satan and to establish his perfect
kingdom of justice and peace and righteousness. And then we
saw there were trumpets, and the trumpets were God grinding
down the kingdom of Satan. You know, there's so much of
a view in the false religious world that God is sitting on
the sidelines of this world, and he's wringing his hands with
grief that the people just don't get on with each other, and,
oh, why did they let this happen? And, oh, if only they would believe
me. That's not true. Our God, according
to Revelation, our God is sending these things to disrupt the kingdom
of Satan, that his glorious kingdom might be established triumphant.
And what we've yet to see come are vials, and we'll get to those
in the one after this. But today, I want to look at
chapters 12 to 14, which is the conflict that there is between
Satan and God. God is showing his servants how
things are. What's it really like? What's
it really like? The kingdom of Satan is a kingdom
where the attempt is always to make everything right, we all
get on well together, we don't need any of this religion of
God. We don't need Christ. We certainly
don't need the blood of Christ to pay the penalty for sin. What's
that all about? The kingdom of Satan hates that
idea. It tramples the idea of the blood of Christ underfoot.
And there's rebellion in that kingdom against the righteousness
of God and the justice of God. But all the time, God is saving
his people from their sins. Do you know why Jesus was called
Jesus? The angel said to Joseph, you shall call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall save
his people from their sins. And he commissions, as we saw
at the end of chapter 10, he commissions them to preach his
witnesses in this world, his church, his believing people,
to be witnesses of the truth of the kingdom of God. And he
keeps them through intense opposition. There's a clash, always a clash,
between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan. And then
he takes his people to glory. His message to his people, again
and again, is fear not. The people of God are a very
small company in this world. As a proportion, as a percentage,
it's tiny. And he always says to them, as
he said in Luke 12, 32, he said, fear not, little flock, why not? For it is your Father's good
pleasure to give you the kingdom, if God the Father, if the eternal
God, the omnipotent God, If it's His pleasure to give the Kingdom
of God to His people, then nothing is going to prevent it, because
He is God. But if you're contentedly in
Satan's kingdom of Antichrist, you people of God fear not, but
if you're in Satan's kingdom of Antichrist, the message of
this book is fear greatly. Fear greatly. Why do I say fear
greatly? Because there's an appointment coming. You might have a hair
appointment, you might have a dental appointment, but the scripture
says there's an appointment coming. In Hebrews 9, 27, we read, it
is appointed to man to die once. Undeniable. Am I right? It's
undeniable. It's appointed to man to die
once, and then, the judgment. After death is the judgment. And people say, oh well, we'll
just go along happily, and we'll put it off, and put it off, and
nothing will happen to us. And the scripture warns, it's
as it was in the days of Noah, in the days of the flood. Everybody
thought, no, nothing's gonna happen, it's gonna carry on as
it always did. But our Lord Jesus Christ said,
don't take that view. because the days of the end are
going to come just like those days of the flood, when everybody
thinks, nothing's wrong, everything's going to go on just as it always
has, and then the end shall come. And so then we get to this fourth
major vision. There are minor visions within
the visions, but the fourth major vision is in chapters 12 to 14. And what we have there is a different
perspective, a different angle on the same world history. You know when we say that word
history, sort of slow it down, I know it's a little bit hackneyed
this, but it's his story. History is God's story. It's the story of how God's kingdom
triumphs over Satan's. You say, oh come on, no, What,
you mean all the ancient history of Assyria and Egypt and Babylon
and Medo-Persia? You say, you're saying that?
Yes I am, absolutely, because this book tells it. This book
has it clear. This book shows it clearly. History
is God's story of how God's kingdom triumphs over Satan's. What it's
for is to show us that in this world when everything just seems
to be going on like it always has, Fear not, little flock,
children of God, don't be afraid. God is on the throne of the universe. He is implementing his unchangeable
purposes. His kingdom will triumph. Satan's
kingdom will be overthrown and crushed. He will institute his
kingdom, his glorious kingdom of righteousness and peace. So
then, let's look at chapter 12 together. We read in verse 1,
and this is John, in vision, the Apostle John, in about AD
95. He's in prison on an island in
the Aegean Sea. You can go and visit it today.
It's still there, the island of Patmos. And he was there,
and in that place, He was given this vision of the revelation
from God, and here he is. There appeared a great wonder
in heaven. This is what he saw. How did
he see it? He saw it in vision, in spirit. There appeared a great
wonder in heaven. And what did he see? He saw a
woman, clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and
upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she, being with child,
cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And then
there appeared another one. But let's think about this picture
of the woman. What is the woman representing
here? People will tell you all sorts
of weird things. The woman is picturing the people
of God, the Church of God. In the Song of Solomon, chapter
6 and verse 10, we read concerning the Shulamite, the bride of the
Beloved, Solomon, who is she that looketh forth as the morning,
fair as the moon, clear as the sun, is speaking of the one that
pictured the bride of Christ, the one that pictured the people
of God. This is the woman who is a picture
of the Old Testament Church, by which I mean the people of
God, before Christ came. That's what this woman is picturing
here. You go right back to Genesis, and Genesis chapter 3, when Satan
beguiled Eve, the fall happened, Adam disobeyed, they were cast
out of the Garden of Eden, but in the curse that God pronounced
upon them, speaking to Satan, he said this, in chapter 3 of
Genesis in verse 15, God speaking to Satan said, I will put enmity
between you, Satan, and the woman, Eve. and between your seed and
her seed. It shall bruise your head. The
seed of the woman shall bruise your head, Satan. That's speaking
of a fatal wound. And thou shalt bruise his heel.
He's going to suffer pain in the process, but he shall bruise
your head. That is speaking of the Christ,
the Messiah, who would come, born of the woman, made of the
woman, for the purpose of redemption of his people. He will put enmity,
and down the line of history there will be enmity between
the line from Eve from which the seed, the Messiah, the Christ,
will come in the fullness of time and the rest of the kingdom
of Satan. And Satan hears this and he knows
that this is going to happen. He knows that God is going to
send the seed of the woman to completely thwart his purposes
of Christless justice-violating rebellion against the true God. And so, a child is born to Eve,
Cain, and she thinks, that's the seed that's come, I've gotten
me a man from the Lord, she says, but Cain turns out not to know
the truth of God, the gospel of God's grace. And another child
is born, Abel, and he does know. In the sovereignty of God, he
does know. And they try to worship God, and Cain brings the works
of his own hands. He brings the fruit of the field
that he's grown. Something that he has done, he
brings to God, as an offering to God, to be reconciled with
God. He's a sinner because his parents have sinned in the Garden
of Eden. And he brings an offering to God, but it's the works of
his own hands. And God doesn't accept it. And
his brother Abel? brings a lamb, which is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who would come. And
the lamb is slain and its blood is shed, and you say, oh how
gory, but without the shedding of blood there is no remission
of sin. And animosity arose between Cain,
the kingdom of Satan, and Abel, the kingdom of God, the sons
of God. You see, Satan had heard from God that there was going
to be the seed that would come, that would crush his head, and
from then on he sought to prevent the seed from coming. How did
he do it? He got the sons of God, the godly
line, the able line, the Seth line from Adam and Eve, to entice
them to intermarry with the daughters of men. It means that he's trying
to intermingle the two lines so that the distinctiveness of
the line from which Messiah would come is lost. This is what Satan
has tried to do all the way down the ages. And we see that in
verse 3, because then we see another part of the vision. There
appeared another wonder. A wonder is a sign, a symbolical
sign. There appeared another wonder.
So there's John looking. Here's a woman who is clearly
the Church, the Old Testament Church, and she's with child.
She's going to bring forth a child. The Messiah, the seed, is going
to come from her, from the Church. And there appears another wonder
in heaven, and it's a great red dragon. A great red dragon, the
deceiver. And he's got seven heads and
ten horns. It's obviously symbolism. People
try to make art of this. I don't know how they decide
which of the seven heads the ten horns get assorted onto.
It's symbolism. It's not literal. It's a symbol. You see, seven, why has this
beast, this dragon, got seven heads? Everything Satan does,
he tries to mimic the true God. Seven is God's number of perfection. There were seven days of creation.
There are seven visions in this book. It's always seven all the
way through is God's perfect number for completing his glorious
kingdom. The seven heads, he's trying
to be like God. And the ten horns, that speaks
of worldly power. So he has worldly power. And
look what he does in verse 4. His tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to earth. And the dragon
stood before the woman. You see, what he's doing is,
when he fell, when Satan fell in rebellion against God, he
drew a third of the angelic hosts with him. We read of that in
Isaiah chapter 14, he drew the hosts down with him. These are
demons, and we read of them in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 12,
where Paul warns Christians that we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, physically, but against spiritual principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of the world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. That's the third part
of the stars drawn down from heaven. And Satan all the time,
look in the second half of verse 4, the dragon stood before the
woman, which is the church, which was ready to be delivered of
the child, the seed of the woman which would come, which was promised
in Genesis by God, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Why did he want to devour the child? Because he knew from what
God had said in Genesis 3.15 that if this child was born,
if this seed of the woman came, if this Messiah was born, somehow
what he would do would fatally destroy Satan, and therefore
he wanted to destroy the woman's seed. And all down history, from
the Garden of Eden to Bethlehem 2,000 years ago all down that
history there was war and Satan was trying to prevent the line
from which the seed of the woman would come look at verse 7 I'll
be jumping around a little bit in this, but try and stick with
me. There was war in heaven. Michael
and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought
against his angels. Well, let's just leave it at
that at the moment. But there was a war in heaven.
What sort of a war was it in heaven? It's the sort of war
that Paul the Apostle speaks about in 2 Corinthians 10 and
verse 4. He says, the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal, they're not of the flesh, they're not physical,
of the body, but they're mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds. You know, Jesus said on one occasion,
he said, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were of this
world, my servants would take up swords and fight. But they
don't. Why? Because it's not of this world. The kingdom of
God is not of this world. Those who are religious jihadists,
who seek to bring about their view of what their kingdom is
by force of arms, They're not in the line of what the Lord
Jesus Christ said. His kingdom is not of this world. The weapons
of our warfare are not carnal. They're not swords, but they're
mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds because they're
powerful spiritual arguments. And you see, what was the war
about? Well, look down in verse 10. So we'll look down at the
second half of the verse, there was a loud voice saying, but
we'll get to that in a minute, from the first, from the colon
in the middle of it. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
This is what Satan was described as. In that war, before Christ
came, in the Old Testament time, There was war in heaven between
Michael, who I firmly believe is one of the archangels. I do
not believe, as some do who I greatly respect, that Michael is another
way of saying Christ. The reason I say that is because
if you look in Daniel, in chapter 10 and verse 13, when Daniel
has a vision of one who is clearly the Lord Jesus Christ, the one
that he has the vision of says, Michael came to help me. So I'm
absolutely sure that on that Michael is one of the archangels,
and Michael and his angels are having this war of spiritual
concepts. Is that strong enough? Well,
that's all I can think of at the moment. A war of spiritual
concepts with Satan and with his spirits, with Satan and his
angels, his fallen angels. What about? They're accusing
the brethren. They're accusing them before
God, day and night. When the saints of God, when
Abel died, when Cain slew him in the garden, not in the Garden
of Eden, outside of the Garden of Eden, but when Cain slew Abel,
what happened to Abel? He went to be with the Lord.
He went to heaven. as did all the ones that followed.
Read Hebrews chapter 11, the faith gallery, read all of those
that by faith they did this, by faith, by what they saw, the
truth of God. And when they died, they went
to heaven. And what did Satan do? They're not justified to
be there. They shouldn't be there. They
have no right to be there. Look at them, they're sinners.
He's the accuser of the brethren. God, your justice is violated. Your justice is violated because
there in heaven you've got people who are sinners and you claim
to be a holy God. And this was the war between
Michael and his angels and Satan and his angels. Old Testament
saints are not worthy to be in heaven because they're sinners.
They're mine, said Satan. You should give them back to
me. They're mine. They're not fit to be in heaven. To Satan,
they still bear their sin and they are his. He doesn't accept
Michael's claim. I'm sure Michael was claiming.
If you look over at chapter 13 and verse 8, In the second half,
it talks about those whose names are not written in the Book of
Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In the
reckoning of God, our Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. And the Scriptures assure us
that the people of God, the believing people of God, those who are
the elect of God, How do you know that you're the elect of
God? You believe the gospel of God. That's what it is. That's
the only mark that you are amongst the elect of God, is that you
believe the gospel of God. In Him you are justified from
all eternity, because He is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Yet, He had to come in time. He had to come in this space-time
creation. He had to come at the right time,
at the right time to accomplish the redemption pay the purchase
price of the freedom, the liberty of his people. He had to do that. So down, all down Old Testament
history, Satan works to destroy the line from which the seed
of the woman, capital S, the seed of the woman shall come.
What was that line? Well, in Old Testament history,
it was the nation of Israel. It was the physical nation of
Israel. and that's where the lime would come from. How did
he seek to destroy the lime from which the seed of the woman would
come? He seduced the Israelites with
idolatry. They fell into idolatry. And
God had pronounced all sorts of curses upon them, that if
they fell into idolatry, he would punish them in one way or another.
And Satan tried to seduce them into idolatry, with great success
at times. He brought conquest of empires
upon them. He brought occupation by foreign
forces upon them, all sorts of means, all down history, through
the time in Egypt when they were enslaved, then when they were
brought out, they were afflicted by the nations round about, again
and again, by all those nations that were round them, the Philistines,
the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Moabites, and so on and so
forth, all down history until With their idolatry, God condemned
them to a 70-year period of exile under Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. And they went into that exile.
And it's all part of Satan's attempt through the empires of
the world to crush the line. through which the Messiah would
come. And that went on until, as we read in Galatians 4 and
verse 4, we read there, when the fullness of the time, whose
time? God's time, because God determines
these times. When the fullness of the time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. The Lord Jesus Christ was born
of Mary. He was conceived of the Holy
Ghost. He didn't have a human father. Joseph was like the stepfather
in the family, but he was conceived of the Holy Ghost. He sent forth
his son, made of a woman, made under the law, made to live as
a man in this world, that he might redeem. What is it to redeem? It's to pay the price, it's to
buy back. We still do have posh P-A-W-N shops in Britain, you
know, where if you're a bit hard up and you've got a nice jacket,
you will go and take it to the pawn shop and they will give
you £50 for it, and then when you get paid on the following
Friday, you go and redeem your coat. You buy it back from the
enslavement that it's in, in the pawn shop. He came to redeem
his people from the curse of the law. How did he do it? What's
the curse of the law? In Galatians 3 and verse 10 we
read this is the curse of the law. Quoting Deuteronomy, God
pronounces, cursed is everyone under the curse of God. That's
not a place you want to be. Under the curse of God, cursed
is everyone who does not continue, that means always, in all things
which are written in the book of the law, to do them perfectly,
without any error, without any faltering, perfectly, constantly,
never letting up. And James the Apostle says, you
say, well I'm not doing too badly, but he said, if you keep all
the law but you sin in one point, you are guilty of all. No, that's
the curse of the law. We're all under the curse of
the law, but read on three verses. Verse 13, but Christ has redeemed
his people from the curse of the law. How did he do it? By
being made that curse for us. For God says, cursed is everyone
that hangs on a tree. And Christ was nailed to a cross
of wood at Calvary 2,000 years ago. to pay the price to the
justice of God for the sins of His people, as a substitute for
His people, that they might have eternal life, that they might
be freed from condemnation, that because He has accomplished that
there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
So that's what he did, he came, and then in verses 4 and 5, he
was ready to devour the child as soon as it was born, but then
verse 5, the woman brings forth, this Galatians 4 verse 4 moment,
when the fullness of the time was come, she brought forth a
man-child, Christ is born, who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron. This is Christ. If you read Psalm
2, this is Christ. This is the Son of God. This
is the King that God has set on his holy hill of Zion. This
is the Son of God. We'll see more of that a little
bit later on. And so he's thwarted. Christ accomplishes his purposes,
and it says, it doesn't tell us any more details, but in verse
5 it says, he was caught up unto God and to his throne. He accomplished
his purposes of redemption and was restored to that glory that
he had with the Father before the beginning of time. And Satan,
throughout that, he was limited in his ability to locate the
child. I find that very comforting,
that as powerful and threatening as the devil so often appears
and he is one with great power Peter says he prowls around like
a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour but you know when
it came to the child being born at Bethlehem in Judea you know
the scripture in the days of Herod the king and the wise men
came following the star which they had seen when they were
in the east they knew that this was going to fulfill that which
I believe they had read in the book of Daniel back in their
eastern country where they were and they came and they went to
Herod who was the king in the land, the figurehead king in
the land they went to him, where is he that is born king of the
Jews for we have seen his star when we were in the east and
we've come to worship him and so Herod being Satan's instrument,
wants to try and locate the child. Where is he? And you remember
the story how he had all the male children under two years
old in that area killed. He had them slain. That was what
was spoken of the Prophet. So that he might destroy... That
was Satan trying to devour the child as soon as it was born,
as it says at the end of verse 4. So Christ is born of God,
accomplishes his purpose. God contracted to a span, as
the hymn says. Why did he come? For the suffering
of death, a body you have prepared for me. He came for the suffering
of death because it's only by the suffering of death that he
can satisfy the offended justice of God for sin for his people. How was Satan defeated? Verse
8. He prevailed not. Satan was defeated. He prevailed not. Neither was
there place found any more in heaven. When Christ died and
ascended to heaven, the war was over. There was no more war to
be had, because he had been defeated. How was he defeated? By exactly
what I've said. Christ has come and paid the
penalty for the curse of the law, for the sins of his people.
And in his dying and rising, we read in Romans 4.25 that Christ
was lifted up for the transgressions of his people, for the sins of
his people, lifted up on the cross of Calvary. And he shed
his precious blood as the law's price for the justification of
those people. And to prove that they were justified,
he was raised from the dead. That was the vindication. God
showed that all that Christ had accomplished had accomplished
its purpose. He raised Him from the dead.
How is it that He was overcome? Look at verse 11 of chapter 12.
They overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb. and by the word
of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto death. They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb." How did they overcome Satan? By what Christ came and
did. And so now, we read in Romans
8, in verse 33, You know, he was called Satan the accuser
of the brethren, the one who accuses the saints of God who
are in heaven. He accuses them day and night
to say they're not fit to be there. But we read in Romans
8.33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. God's done it. Who is He that
condemns? Satan wants to condemn. Who is
He that condemns? It is Christ that has died, we
can put in brackets there, for His people. Yea, rather, He hasn't
stayed dead, He's risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who makes intercession for us, for His people. So then,
Satan is cast out. In 8 and 9, verses 8 and 9, we
read it. That great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceives the
whole world. He was cast out. In the Old Testament
days, he's deceived the whole world, and he's cast out of heaven. And it says, therefore rejoice,
in verse 12, rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. He's
defeated. His defeat is accomplished, but
woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the
devil is come down unto you having great wrath, because he knows
that he has but a short time. There's rejoicing in heaven at
the defeat of Satan, But woe to the earth for a while for
the rest of history. Satan is furious. He has great
wrath because he knows his time is short. You know, towards the
end of the Second World War, probably by early 1944, it was
clear to Hitler that he probably wasn't going to win. When the
economic might of the United States was on the side of the
Allies, it was pretty clear that he wasn't going to win. But he
carried on. And then D-Day happened, and
the troops swept through northern France with great difficulty.
By the time they got to Paris, he must have known, it's over,
it's finished. He carried on. He knew his time
was short, but he carried on. An enormous, enormous death continued
as a result of that. I believe that that is an illustration
of what it's like with Satan. He has great wrath, but he knows
he's defeated, and he knows his time is short. And so he persecutes. Look what he does. When the dragon
saw that he was cast to the earth, verse 13, he persecuted the woman,
the church. The Church, the people of God
in the Old Testament which brought forth the man-child, the Christ,
who accomplished redemption, He persecuted the woman. He continued
to make war with the woman. Verse 17, the dragon was angry,
wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant
of her seed, which kept the commandments of God and had the testimony
of Jesus. Those who are the people of God who seek to believe him
and follow him and obey his gospel, trust him, he seeks to persecute
them and to make war with them. He's angry with them. And so
what happens to the woman? Well, back in verse 6, after
Christ has accomplished His purpose of coming and redeeming His people,
the woman, we read, fled into the wilderness where she has
a place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1,260
days. She fled into the wilderness.
The woman fled into the wilderness. Look at verse 14. And to the
woman, the church, were given two wings of a great eagle that
she might fly into the wilderness, unto her place, that place that
God's prepared for her, where she is nourished. God's going
to feed her there for a time, and times, and half a time, from
the face of the serpent. What's this talking about, this
wilderness separation? It's this. The Church of God,
in its beliefs, in its philosophies, in its affections, in the things
it loves, in the things it desires, in the things it wants to do,
is in wilderness separation from the kingdom of this world. It
doesn't want to do the things of this world. You find somebody
becomes a believer, and as they learn more and more of
the things of God and of the things of Christ. It's not that
they are constrained by legal constraint that they mustn't
do this and they mustn't do that. They just don't want to do them
anymore. The things that used to delight them in the things
of the world do not delight them anymore. They're in a wilderness
separation from the world. And these times are exactly the
same time. 1,203 score days is a time, times
and half a time. It's three and a half. It's symbology,
remember? It's for the second half, if
you like, of this... history from Eden to the end. It's the second half of it. It's
three and a half, which is half of seven. It's three and a half
a time, times, and half a time. She's in wilderness separation.
And how does she get there? She gets there on wings of faith. Great wings of an eagle. These
are wings of faith. I'm sure they are. Exodus 19
verse 4, God said to his people, you have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought
you unto myself. 1 John chapter 5 and verse 4,
whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world. Born of God, born
of the Holy Spirit, you know it's a hackneyed phrase, are
you born again, but it's a scriptural phrase. The new birth, Nicodemus
came to Jesus by night and said, we know you're a great teacher
of God because no man can do what you do unless God is with
him. And Jesus said to him, no man can see the kingdom of God
except he be born again. You must be born again. You must
be born again. Whosoever is born of God by God's
Holy Spirit quickening and giving the gift of faith, because it's
by grace that you are saved. That's the gift of God. By grace
are you saved, through faith, which is the means, and that
faith, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. He gives
faith. So, whatsoever is born of God
overcomes the world. And this is the victory that
overcomes the world. This is the victory that keeps
you not consumed and subsumed into the world, even our faith. The wings of the eagle picture
the faith of the believer that keeps us in a wilderness separation
from the philosophy and the lies of Satan and the thinking of
this world, which is so rampant in the day in which we live.
All down history, but it seems to be at a crescendo at the moment.
and Satan's furious, and Satan seeks the destruction of the
woman as a distinct servant of God in this world. And in verse
15, he casts out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman. Is he again trying to mimic God?
God sent a flood in Genesis 6, the Noah's flood. Is he trying
to mimic the flood of Noah's day with his own flood? What
does he want to do with his flood? I don't think he wants to drown
the woman. I think he wants to sweep the
woman off her feet and sweep her back into conformity with
the world in general, to sweep her out of her wilderness separation
from the world into conformity with the world in general. But
the earth helped the woman we read in verse 16 the earth was
too big if you like the earth was too big for satan's flood
and so therefore 17 satan's war with the woman her seed, the
children, the believers that are born in her, God's saints.
God's saints are not something that's made holy by the Catholic
Church in Rome. God's saints are what God calls
all of his believing people. They're all saints. The epistles
are all written to the saints that are at wherever it might
be. They're set-apart ones for the
purposes of God, by the grace of God, by the Spirit of God.
And he makes war. Why? Because he's trying to make
sure there are as few as possible of the seed of the woman and
of her children and the citizens of the kingdom of God to come.
So how does this war then proceed now? Chapters 13 and 14, I imagine
you're thinking, oh gosh, that was a long time, that was just
chapter 12. How much longer is it going to be? Can I hang in
there? I'm limited in energy as well, so we'll see how we
go. But anyway, chapters 13 and 14 present us a picture of that
conflict, that antagonism between Satan and his kingdom, and the
children of God, the woman, the church, the kingdom of Christ,
that antagonism that exists. And in chapter 13, we have the
perspective of Antichrist's dominance in the world in which we live.
This is a view of what it's like in this world, especially in
the day in which we live. You see language that sounds
like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, and you think, oh, it's all a
bit far-fetched, but actually it's symbolism, and when you
look at it, wow, this was written in AD 95. Honestly, it so accurately
describes, in so many ways, the world in which we live. The sea,
he says, he stands upon the sand of the sea, and he sees a beast
rise up out of the sea, and it's got seven heads, there we go
again, trying to be like God, 10 horns, and upon his horns,
10 crowns, and upon his heads, the name of blasphemy. opposition
to God. And it's the sea that he rises
up out of. What's the sea? What's the sea? The sea is the turmoil of humanity
in this world. In Isaiah 57 verse 20 we read
the wicked, who's the wicked? People that do wicked things.
Well yes, but when scripture talks of the wicked it means
those that refuse to believe the gospel of grace in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Because in Christ is forgiveness
of sins and redemption from the curse of the law. The wicked
are like the troubled sea. It cannot rest, whose waters
cast up mire and dirt. In Revelation 17 and verse 15,
just a few pages on, the waters, God tells John, the waters that
you saw are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. Out
of this world, of the turmoil of humanity of this world, rises
up a beast out of the sea. What is it? Don't think of a
physical beast, it's symbology. It's a worldwide consensus of
unity without God, without the need for God, without the need
for the justice of God, without the need for the Christ of God.
especially without any need for the blood of Christ to redeem
his people from their sins, it's a worldwide consensus of unity,
that we can all get on really well together and have a lovely
kingdom, and we don't need to bother with this God stuff, we
don't need to bother with this righteousness stuff, we just
do our own thing, and whatever's right in your own eyes, that's
what you do. That's the kingdom of Satan. And this beast is that
world. That's what it is, the powers
and the forces of this world. Now look at verse three, because,
well, in verse two you see, please understand that we could dig
down into each of these verses and spend probably 45 to 50 minutes
on each one of these verses. We haven't got that time, so
we have to skip over it quickly. And I leave a lot of the rest
of it for you to read up for yourselves. you can get the book
and read that you probably want to read in a bit more detail
than that at times but dig into it prayerfully to find out what
it's saying but there's a lot of similarity in verse 2 with
the vision that Daniel had of the kingdoms of this world and
in the way that they were opposing the kingdom of God and the ways
in which they were the instruments of the kingdom of Satan And it
says in verse 3, I saw one of his heads, one of the seven heads,
as it were wounded to death, and his deadly wound was healed,
and all the world wondered after the beast. What's that talking
about? What could that possibly be?
One of his heads were wounded. If this beast is symbolizing
a worldwide consensus of unity against God without any need
for God, think right back to Genesis. you know after the flood
Noah and his sons and their wives come out of the ark and humanity
goes on a huge swathe of sinful humanity has been swept away
in the just justice of God and then you think well that's going
to be fine from now on but it doesn't take many generations
until we get to Genesis 11 and we get to Babel and we get to
Nimrod it says in the margin of your King James Version if
you've got it that he is A mighty hunter, I think it says. But
I think the translation would be better, a rebellious panther. He was a rebel against the kingdom
of God. He was a rebel against the justice
of God. And what did they do there? They
sought to build a tower that would reach to heaven. What that
means physically, literally, I don't know. But they were all
of one language. And they had this worldwide consensus
of unity. And God dealt that worldwide
consensus of unity a fatal blow. Why? Because it was without Christ,
and it was without the justice of God, and it was without redemption
accomplished. It was without all of those things.
God dealt it a fatal blow. How did he do it? He said, let's
go down and confound the languages. And so the nation-states came
out of that. And from the nation-states, once
you have nations, you know what you have, Yes, you have European
Unions and United Nations. No, you don't. You have war.
You have war. There will always be wars and
rumors of wars, said the Lord Jesus Christ. Wars and rumors
of wars out of this troubled sea of this world. That's, I
believe, that is the Tower of Babel, one of the heads. But
it's healed now, because now in the age in which we live,
this worldwide consensus of unity that has no need for the justice
of God, rises up again. It's healed. It's healed. You
know, I think I said in the book that how are we overcoming the
language barrier? I have an app on there and if
I'm in a foreign country where they don't speak English I can
talk to it and it will speak the language to the person, you
know, which is the way to the station and it will speak the
language. Do you know what I mean? It's a trivial little example,
but the worldwide consensus of unity is facilitated so much
more than it ever was. That Tower of Babel crushing
blow has been healed, and we've got the removal of national barriers.
In what period of time? The last 60, 70 years, something
like that, more and more. Worldwide travel. I know we've
made great use of it in coming here. It's so relatively easy
to fly to the other side of the world in such a short period
of time. But it's this worldwide consensus
of unity. The wound is healed. And all,
all except the elect of God, verse 8, All that dwell upon
the earth shall worship this beast whose names are not written
in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. This is the people of God, chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, redeemed by Him in time, brought
by quickening grace of the Holy Spirit to believe the truth in
time in their own experience. All are swept up on the wave
of it. Everybody wants it. Then we see
a second beast. Then we see a second beast. Verse
11, I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth. Oh now,
that's a bit more stable. Coming up out of the earth. And
he had two horns like a lamb. He looked like Christ. He had
two horns, so he looked like Christ. But listen, he spoke
as a dragon. He spoke like the devil. This
second beast is exploiting earth's resources and technical wonders
in order that in verse 14 he might deceive them that dwell
on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power
to do in the sight of the beast. Now, let's not be hypocritical
about this, we all make use of technology and the modern wonders
of this world, but is it not true that these technological
wonders are galloping forward at enormous pace in the days
in which we live. I think back just 30 years before
there was an internet, and before there were mobile phones, and
before many of us had computers, and before there was instant
communication, and when you would mail a letter from Australia,
and I don't know how long it would take to get to England,
but it would take an awful long time. Now, in such a short period of
time, such technological wizardry that yes, let's admit, we make
the most of it. Back home in England, we broadcast,
we live stream our service on a Sunday morning and people in
lots of scattered places around Europe get it and appreciate
it. We couldn't do it without this,
especially for this time when the woman is in wilderness isolation,
when, as it were, as we saw in chapter 11, the witnesses are
lying dead in the streets, as it were, especially for these
days. But nevertheless, it's a manifestation of this beast. It's the removal of all opposition. Verse 15, He had the power to
give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the
beast should both speak and cause that as many as would not worship
the image of the beast should be killed. You see, there's an
overwhelming pressure to conform to the spirit of this world.
Overwhelming pressure. He causes all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their
right hand or in their foreheads. He removes all opposition from
the kingdom of Satan. Everybody's enthusiastically
in favor of it. He stamps them with Satan's mark
of ownership. In verse 17, he makes it that
if you're not on Satan's side and you do not have the mark
of Satan's ownership, that no man might buy or sell save that
he had that mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of
his name. It's talking there about economic
persecution of the people of God in this world. And increasingly
you find that there are situations that as a believer you cannot
go into. used to be, in my early days
of my career in the 1970s, I was a science teacher. Please forgive a little bit of
bragging, but I think I was a rather good one. At least some of my
pupils said I was a rather good one. If I was younger and wanted
a job as a science teacher today, and they would interview me,
I tell you, they would not employ me because of what I believe.
Because what I believe contradicts the consensus of unity that is
taught. You know, the syllabuses, the
science syllabuses in England have been corrupted with this
Kingdom of Satan notion. And if you for one moment say,
well, all right, you can You can teach your evolution as a
theory if you want to, but I don't agree with it. That would be,
for me, an instant bar to being given a job as a science teacher.
It's just like this, no man might buy or sell. I think the message
of this book is that for believers, for Christians, Times are going
to get harder and harder in this world as we get towards the end.
It sounds dreadful. It sounds terrifying. It sounds
as though the kingdom of Satan is utterly invincible. Beast
1 and Beast 2, what do they amount to? They amount to Antichrist.
They amount to Antichrist. That's what they are. This is
the kingdom of Antichrist. Satan's, you know, the... Satan's
means of implementing, you know, it's like the trinity of Satan,
he does everything to try and mimic the nature of God with
his trinity. There's Satan and he's beast
one and he's beast two, it's antichrist, antichrist. But,
verse 18, here is wisdom at the end of that chapter, here is
wisdom, it says it there, here is wisdom. Let him that has understanding
count the number of the beast. For it is the number of a man,
and his number is six hundred, three score, and six. There were
six days of creation. Six speaks of the fullness of
creation, and all the powers of creation, but without God,
and without the service and glory of God. 666 is this idea developed
to its fullest completion. I know people get all freaked
out when they see the number 666. They won't have a car with
a number plate 666. There's a road... It is true,
actually it is true. I put it in the book, but I checked
it the other day just to make sure, because they're always
changing the road numbers. But between Manchester and Bolton, in the
north of England, is the A666. And there are groups of people
who, for religious reasons, will not drive down the A666, because
they believe it's the number of the beast. No, it's talking
about that falling short of the glory of God. It's man falling
short of the perfection of God. And fear not, little flock, is
what Jesus says to his disciples. He says in John 16, 33, These
things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation.
In this world you will have trouble, you will have conflict with it.
But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. In 1 Peter
5 verse 8 he says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary
the devil is like a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he
may desire. But God gives his people armour,
he gives them spiritual armour with which to defend themselves.
In Psalm 2 he tells us what the true situation is. He says, the
heathen are raging and imagining a vain thing against the Lord
and his anointed. And then he shall speak to them
in his wrath, God shall speak to them, and vex them in his
sore displeasure. He says, Yet I have set my king
upon my holy hill of Zion. How does he do that? Look at
verse 1 of chapter 14. we've got that perspective of
Satan and his kingdom and it's an alarming perspective of the
world in which we live and the message of this book of Revelation
is that towards the end it's going to become more intense
but look You know we saw in the first vision, in chapter 1, Christ
in the midst of the golden candlesticks. The candlesticks are the churches,
they're the light bearers, the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And where is the risen,
glorified Christ? That vision that John had of
him, he's in the midst of his churches. He's walking in the
midst of his church, he's with us now. He said, where two or
three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst. He is
in the midst with us by his Spirit. He takes of the things of Christ
and reveals them to us. This is how God speaks to his
people. In this world, this kingdom of Satan, which is so alarming,
John is in the same place. We don't read that he's moved
and he's gone to heaven. I looked from his standpoint
where he was, and lo, a lamb stood on the Mount Zion. Is that
not exactly what Psalm 2, verse 6 said? I have set my king on
my holy hill of Zion. And with him 144,000. This is
such a comfort to the people of God. This is the victorious
perspective of Christ and his kingdom, as they are. Things
are not as they seem to physical sense. Do you remember the incident
in the days of Elisha, the prophet, when the Assyrians were overrunning
the people of Israel and Elisha's servant and Elisha were in a
place where they were surrounded by a great army of Assyrians
and the servant said it's all up for us master we've had it
this is it we're finished we're going to be overrun and destroyed
and Elijah sorry Elisha with the eye of faith could see the
true situation spiritually. And he prayed, Lord, open his
eyes that he might see. And his eyes were opened, and
he saw great multitudes of angels around them. This is the situation. As much as it seems as though
we're in a perilous situation as the people of God, we're with
the Lamb on Mount Zion. and with his 144,000. Who are
they? They're the people of God on
earth at any one time. We saw it earlier on in chapter
7. The 144,000, and they're on Mount Zion, where God in Christ
dwells symbolically with his people on earth. In the Old Testament
it was literal physical Jerusalem, and in the temple, and in the
Holy of Holies, but Mount Zion is the church. As Hebrew says,
you have not come to Mount Sinai, where the law thundered and the
people were terrified. You have come to Mount Zion,
to the people of God, to the multitude of angels, to the saints
who are taken to heaven in glory. Verse 3, those who are, as it
says at the end, redeemed from the earth. Christ has paid the
price of their redemption from this earth for their sins. These
are the ones on earth at any one time in history, compared
with what we saw in the last half of chapter 7, which is the
innumerable multitude in heaven. They're on the holy hill of Zion. That's the church of Christ.
That's the woman in the wilderness separation from the kingdom of
Satan. We're here in this world. Have
I already read Psalm 2? Why do the heathen rage, and
the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder and
cast away their cords from us. Let us be free of this God thing.
He that sits in the heavens, our God, shall laugh. The Lord
shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them
in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure. Yet have
I set my king on my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord has said to me, Thou
art my son, this is Christ speaking. This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me and I will give you the heathen for your inheritance.
This is Christ being given the people that the father gave to
him before the foundation of the earth. And the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron. Is that not what we read in chapter
12 about the child who would be born? Thou shalt dash them
in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye
kings, O ye people of the earth, O ye people of the kingdom of
Satan, ye judges of the earth, Serve the Lord with fear, and
rejoice with trembling. Listen, verse 12. Kiss the Son,
the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, lest he be angry and
ye perish from the way. It is appointed to man to die
once, and then the judgment. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little.
But blessed, blessed are all they that put their trust in
Him. All blessed who put their trust
in Him. The rest of this chapter 14, and I'm going to skip over
it very, very quickly, the rest of this chapter 14 is about the
people of God their condition as justified, their condition
as made the righteousness of God in Him. They're not defiled
with spiritual infidelity from God. They're made the righteousness
in God in Him, for we read in 2 Corinthians 5, He who knew
no sin, our Lord Jesus Christ, was made sin. the sin of his
people, he bore the sin of his people on the tree of Calvary.
Why? That his people might be made the righteousness of God
in him. What a transaction! What a glorious
transaction! And then final judgment is enacted. And you read it for yourself,
it's... It's terrifying words. It's words that need to be taken
so seriously. This is their end. The patience
of the saints. Verse 12. Here is the patience
of the saints. We live through this life, we
come and go, we live and saints die and the next generation comes
and it seems as though the kingdom of Satan goes on. We need patience,
we need patience. Because we need to see what the
gospel tells us about the end of the kingdom of Satan. Do you
remember in Psalm 73? The psalmist was concerned that
the prosperity of the wicked, and he tried his best to serve
God, and he seemed to get nothing for it. And he says, then I went
into the sanctuary. The sanctuary symbolized the
gospel, gospel truth. And when he went into the sanctuary,
and he saw the gospel, he said, then knew I their end. And this
is it. Then knew I their end. People
of God, this is the end of the kingdom of Satan. We read it
there. The harvest of the wheat is his people, his saints, being
taken out of this world before the harvest of the grapes, which
pictures the judgment, the final judgment of God on this creation. Heaven for God's people, wrath
and divine justice for the rest who bear their own sin before
God's judgment. Because God's judgment must be
satisfied. God's judgment must be satisfied.
In verse 20, There is no escape. The winepress was trodden without
the city. And the blood came out of the
winepress even unto the horse bridles. That's deep. And by
the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. What's the
symbology of that? Well, I think it's something
like this. 1600 is 4 times 10, brackets, squared. Yeah? Get that? 40 squared. 40 forties are 1600. What's it
speaking of? 4 is the number of creation of
this world. 10 is the number of completeness.
4 times 10, 40 squared, is 1600. What's it saying? It's complete. Absolute. No escape from it. Answer? What must I do, as the
Philippian Jaber said? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
kiss the son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when
his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put
their trust in him. Amen.