The first six verses or so in
Revelation 17 she's introduced and some things revealed about
her false religion in this world, the power of it, the attraction
of it, the pretty much universal problem of it. beginning in verse 7 it'll refer
us back some to To the previous verses as we go forward, so let's
just begin at verse 7 and start Looking at this the angel said
unto me Wherefore didst thou marvel I? Will tell thee the
mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her which
hath the seven heads and Ten horns now always when the Lord
or one of his angels asks, and it's the Lord asking he sends
his angels to To give his message and to speak for him So she says
wherefore didst thou marvel? It's like why gaze? Why stand
ye gazing into heaven? It's a correction. It's a It's
a question not to receive information, but to bestow information Why
are you marveling at her? She's not the one to be marveled
at. I'll tell you about her. I'll
tell you about her. And there is something in our
text that must, I started to say should be marveled at, it
must be. He must be. Now John did marvel though when
he saw this great whore because of the way she looked. Understand also that John is
seeing more than just the eye can see in these spiritual revelations
That's something that we learn here This is a spiritual description
of what was revealed to John about this whore How do you see
in verse 6 there it talks about he saw that she was drunk with
the blood of all these Thousands and thousands of people the martyrs
of Christ and the blood of the saints. Millions, millions and
millions upon millions of people. How do you see that, that somebody
has killed millions of people? Well, this just tells us that
something about these revelations, John was shown more than just
the human eye can see. It's a spiritual revelation. He knew things in his heart by
these revelations that can't just be witnessed with the eye.
Now we're fascinated with everything that this woman is by nature.
We're fascinated with killers, aren't we? We're fascinated with
killers. Charles Manson or Ted Bundy,
one of those guys, a little clip they showed on TV and it gets
our attention, doesn't it? We wanna, look, who is this person
that could do such things? We're fascinated with that. We're
fascinated with power. The seven heads and 10 horns
represent great authority. When someone powerful is speaking,
or according to this world, powerful, it means nothing to God. But
according to this world, we're fascinated with that. We're fascinated
with wealth. Look at how she was dressed in
verse four, gold and pearls. Let's see, verse four, scarlet,
precious stones, gold, pearls, a golden cup, purple and scarlet. She was clearly very decadent
and wealthy. And that fascinates us. John
did not admire her in the sense that we often use that word,
and that happens a lot, as you see, as we go through the scriptures.
There are words that are used a certain way in the Bible. We
use them a little different way now. To admire means to kind
of look up to, to kind of think highly of, or to be impressed
with. That's not the way this word
is used here. It just means he wondered at her. He was fascinated. There's a lot of things that
you can be fascinated with that are horrible. And this is one
of them, her. Everything that excites and attracts
the evil nature of the flesh is what she represents. And the
beast that supports her and moves her, as we see here in verse
seven, We know that that's Satan from other references. And he
is a master at attracting the flesh and deceiving the flesh
and manipulating the fleshly nature of sinners. And so that's
part of what John wondered at. Eve was seduced by him in the
Garden of Eden and billions have followed suit since then. The
seven heads and 10 horns, we've seen those twice before together
in chapters 12 and 13. and we know what they represent.
The heads are governments of the world. It says they're mountains
here. They built their cities, their seats of power on mountains
back in the old day, because it was easily defended. It was
good ground for, and think about, there are wars now that happen
around the world, but back when there wasn't the deterrent of
What do they call it? Mutually assured destruction.
Back when, you know, there were countries that were hugely more
powerful than others. You had no defense unless you
made alliances. You were susceptible to destruction
all the time. And so they built their cities
with that in mind. And so this is governments. Seats of power in the world and
it's not specific ones. It's seven of them So that because
that's the number of completion. It's all of them. It's all of
the governments or powers of the world and They are full of
all the evils that the woman represents Antichrist everything
I thank God that he's restrained the government of our land And
I make no bones about that He's caused America to prosper as
a result of his control, his restraining control over our
government. Relatively speaking, we still
do. We still enjoy freedoms that this world has never known in
other places. But even the best of the best
in this world, even here, the corruption is staggering. So
you see the evil that concentrated power in the world represents,
just this corruption and evil. The 10 horns are people of great
power, and they go together, heads and horns, and they do
elsewhere in the scripture. Those powerful sinners that are
represented by these horns, the horns always signify power, in
the scripture, and these powerful sinners, they come up from the
governments, or they are produced by the governments. The authorities
give them the power. The earthly authorities give
them the power that they have, or take from them power. And the formation of powerful
governments gives these individuals, these powerful men, theater of
operations in which to perpetrate their evil and Again, they're
not specific ones And I want to say something about that in
a little bit That's very important, but look at verse 8 first 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 Now the first part
of this verse This this may well refer to specific times in history
the beast was and is it doesn't mean there when he is not and
It doesn't mean that he's obliterated like he finally will be, and
then comes back, because we know that that's not possible. That's
not the way God's gonna do that. But he is not in the sense that
he was, in the same way that he was. He didn't have the power
for a while that he did have, and then he does. He ascends
for a while. And then he's put down again. And this just shows how God manipulates
him. He's powerful, he controls what
he's given power over. Look how he's just tossed about
by God in this verse. He is, he is not. He comes up,
he goes away. He's a goner. God just manipulates
him and uses him as his puppet to accomplish his almighty will
in the saving of his sheep. He's a pawn on God's board. Satan
is moved by God, he's used by God, he's controlled by God,
and he's expendable. The word perdition is utter destruction. That's the last of it. That's
when he is not for good then. Now to the lost. They wonder
at him in the full sense. Now they wonder at him. He looks
like a king to them. To the lost, he looks like God.
The one that they worship as God is Antichrist. He's at the root of that. Not
that only Satan is Antichrist. Sinners are too by nature. But
he's the root of that. They worship him as God. To the
lost, he's fascinating and attractive and powerful. They call him God. They call him Jesus. They worship
him. But he's anti-Christ. He's a
false god, a false Christ. He's the one who spawns the false
Christs that are mentioned in Mark 13, 21. where it says, And
then, if any man shall say to you, Lo, here is Christ, or,
Lo, he is there, believe him not. For false Christs and false
prophets shall rise, and shall show signs and wonders to seduce,
if it were possible, even the elect. Now we rejoice, every
time we read that verse, we rejoice in those words, if it were possible.
And that's the right thing to do. Thank God that they can't
seduce the elect. It's not possible. But the clear
implication there is that they do seduce everybody else. Of course they do. Those whose
names are not written in the Lamb's book of life are seduced,
and hence the word wonder in our text. They're wondering at
him. They're just fascinated and taken in by him. And then look at verse nine.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven
mountains, I said that it was mountains, but that's of course,
as we said, government, seats of power, on which the woman
sitteth. 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. Please understand, and
this is what I said a while ago, I gotta say something important
about that. Understand this. May God give us the understanding
to see this, even if this is, and the reason I say this is
because there's so much speculation and time put into figuring out
the seasons and the dates and the specific people that these
are. Even if this is speaking of specific
governments and specific powerful individuals, even if it is, consider
that for a moment. This is talking about specific
governments. One of them's Russia, you know,
and one of them's Egypt, because we're talking about all throughout
time here. One of them's Babylon. One of them is the United States,
okay. And then it's talking about specific powerful individuals. You could think of some names
there, okay. Even if it is talking about them,
remember two things about that. One is you're never going to
know who they are because God didn't tell you. And he didn't
tell anybody else either. And two, what difference does
it make? Because if they are specific
governments and people, they just represent all of them. They're
just representing all of them. Because all the governments and
powerful people of the world are Antichrist, every one of
them. So what difference does any of that make? And I just
realized I don't have the microphone. I've been yelling at y'all and
you can't even hear me. But you see what I'm saying?
What difference is it? They just represent the rest. So let's
just understand it that way. It's all of them. If we needed
to know who they were, even if they are somebody, God would
have told us. God's not mysterious in that
way. The mystery of the gospel is
that God doesn't explain things very well. That's not it. He
does. He knows how to say something.
When he wants you to know what it is, he'll tell you what it
is. So that's just important to me, and I hope that's clear.
It's talking about all the governments of the earth, and past, present,
and future tenses are used here just to indicate that it always
has been this way, it is this way now, and it always will be. Think about it, there are seven
king. That's the number of completion, it's all of them, and how many
of them have to be is, to show you the tense of now, present
tense. How many of them have to be future
to show you the future tense in it? Just one. The proportion
doesn't matter. He's telling you that it's all
of them, past, present, and future. That's what he's saying. I like the last part of this
verse. Because again, it's not just referring to the one only,
this is indicative of all of them. Just a short space. They're gonna have power as long
as God wants them to have power. And when time is up, it's up.
God decides that. And here's what I like about
it. It's not long. It's a short space. I like that
a lot. Love this passage of scripture
turn with me to Psalm 75 verse 4 the Lord told me to comfort
you and I want to do that so much Psalm 75 for I Said unto the fools deal not
foolishly into the wicked and Lift not up the horn. You know
what that horn is. That's power. It represents power. Don't be so high and mighty. Don't act like you're somebody.
That's what he's saying. Don't be an idiot and don't act
like you're somebody. Lift not up your horn on high.
Speak not with a stiff neck. Don't be rebellious against God.
Don't resist. his sovereign authority. For promotion cometh neither
from the East nor from the West. If you have some power in this
world, it didn't come from around you, it didn't come from government,
it didn't come from friends in high places, it didn't come from
the East, nor from the West, nor from the South, but God is
the judge. You know what that word judge
means, I've told you over and over, the one who decides. Promotion, authority, any authority
you have as a parent, on the job site, anywhere, anytime, anyhow, in
your home, in the world, at work, in government maybe, some form
or another, it doesn't matter what it is. Promotion, God is
the one that decides, not the voters. Although I'm thankful
for that, for the Republic in which we live. Thankful for that,
God uses that. He protects us with that. He
blesses us with that. Thankful for it. Thank God for
it. But he's the judge. Look what
it says next. He put us down one and set us
up another. And he doesn't set up anybody
up for long. He puts them down pretty soon
and puts another one up for a little while, for a little while. Thank
God for that. You know, you talk about, what do they call it? Limits,
term limits. I'm for that, by the way, if
that matters. It doesn't. I'm for that. Here's your term
limits right here. God decides who, where, when,
and how long. That's just fine. Verse 11, and the beast that
was and is not, even he is the eighth. Seven now mentioned,
completion. How can you have more than completion?
Well, look at what it's saying. He's the eighth and is of the
seven, and goeth into perdition. That's part. Of all the powers
of the earth, Satan is part of them. He's in on it with them.
Notice that he is represented here as just a part of it. People
don't need the devil to be evil. This is a quick reminder of that.
You reckon? They don't need the devil to
be evil. We're evil in our own right. We are corrupt and horrible
in our own right. Satan's in on it, and he is much
more powerful than we are, no question about it. But we're
wicked in our own right. That's what this is, one of the
things this is saying. He's part of it, he is part of
them. He is of the seven, and no doubt
he pulls a lot of strings. He entered into Judas Iscariot, and did the most horrible thing
anybody's ever done. And God used it for good. God
meant it for good. But he doesn't have very long
either. God is pulling Satan's strings
while he's pulling the other strings. And Satan's end is perdition. We get a little reminder here.
He says that twice. There's so much comfort in that.
Everything that Satan has a hand in, and you can, boy, We don't
know much about the spiritual world that's all around us, but
boy, you can see, we highly suspect we see his work in certain things. Perdition, again, utter destruction. That's his end. The psalmist
said, then I saw their end. I envied him for a while, but
then I saw end Verse 12 and the ten horns which
thou sawest are ten kings Which have received no kingdom as yet? But received power as kings One
hour with the beast now these are ten powerful people these
are powerful people in the world But also there's a spiritual
representation there that we'll talk about too. Who are these?
Powerful people these these horns. They're part of the government's
apparently And what are they all about anybody that's part
of government? That's corrupt. That's evil that
doesn't know God They're all about total power They're just
not kings yet Every last what you just ask them They just don't
have total power yet. They're going to Doesn't mean
they're actually ever will but that's who they are. They're
all about more power, more power, more power. Every politician that's a servant
of the beast, what is he in his own mind at least? A king but
not yet, almost a king. I'm gonna be in power, I'm gonna
win, I'm gonna be promoted, I'm gonna rise. That's what they
live for. That's what they do is they gain
power and increase power and exert power. But this is not just politicians
though. They again, they represent, they
picture all sinners who don't know Christ. What is false religion
about? Power. The ones that perpetrate
it and the ones that listen to it. It's all about their free
will. We decide, it's all up to us. We will not have this man to
reign over us. Really now? They'll receive power as kings,
though they're not ever gonna be kings, in the true sense. God makes us kings and priests,
by the way. You have real power when Christ
is your power. When he's your strength. You
can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth you. But
they'll receive power as kings. They're gonna be given great
power to do evil, but just for an hour, just for an hour. It's so interesting these periods
of time that are mentioned in the word of God. He says sometimes
things will be like a certain number of years, and it's a long
time in a sense. That's a long time in a sense,
but from the perspective of eternity, even 10 years is nothing. It's
nothing. But it's a while, it's a while.
Don't expect it to just happen quick in our time. Not specifically
10 years, but It's gonna take some time. An hour though, by
any measure, is not very long. It might seem long if you're
in pain or you're suffering. And this is gonna be a time of
suffering for God's people. I believe that there is gonna
be that things, as we've been told in the scripture, shall
wax worse and worse, and I don't think they're all the way there
yet. I think it gets a lot worse than this. And it's gonna be
a time of terrible, miserable, suffering, pain, misery, sadness,
all the things that we experience now when we turn the news on,
only a lot worse. It's painful to watch, isn't
it? It's very sad, it's very frustrating, it's infuriating. to see the world run by tyrants. But I'll tell you what, it always
has been. The Lord has just restrained
the evil at times to give his people some peace in this world.
Whether we have peace in this world or not, we have peace in
here where it counts because we rest in him. We trust him
to do what's right. And everybody doing wrong is
him doing right. Remember that. All the wrong
that takes place in this world is God doing right. He does what's
right. And he controls and manipulates
the whole shooting match. So this is not a literal hour,
but an hour is not very long. It's long enough when you're
hurting, but it's not long. Verse 13, these have one mind
and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. They
have one mind. You think about that for a minute.
Is there anything with this world? How could you describe this world
as having one mind? There's different. One of the
reasons that our enemies aren't a lot stronger than they are
is because they hate each other too. Nobody has one mind about
anything except one thing, and you know what it is. You know
what it is. But this world, you've got these
different religions that despise one another, different sects
and tribes that despise one another, different everything. Nobody
can agree on anything. I've been in the churches that
call themselves churches and don't know God. They don't agree
on anything. They contradict themselves. They
don't agree with themselves half the time. But they have one mind about
this. They all hate the son of God and everybody who loves him. They may not even know that.
If you asked them, do you hate God's son? They'd say, what are
you talking about? I go to church every week. It's the one thing
that everybody has in common, except for God's people. They
hate God, they hate his son. Politicians, presidents, pawns
and potentates, it doesn't matter. They're all exactly the same
in their hearts, in their hatred for God and his precious son. They're anti-Christ, as we see
in the next verse. That's what we're gonna see in
the next verse. What are they one about? What
do they agree on? What do they rally around? What
flag do they fly? We're gonna see that in the next
verse. Every evil that exists has one
core, one root, one common origin. You shall be as gods, discerning
good and evil. You shall be as gods. It's all up to you. God said, thou shalt not eat,
but really it's up to you. It's up to you, you can eat if
you want to eat. Doesn't matter what God said. Maybe God did
say that, but has he really said that? Is that what he meant by
what he said? Did you know that preachers are
still standing in pulpits tonight and telling people what God meant
by what he said? Do you really think God needs
a sinner to do that? What did God mean by that? Have
you read the Bible? You don't need anybody to tell
you what God meant by what he said. If I tell you the building
is on fire, and you say, what do you mean by that? I'm gonna
say you crazy, because you are. You see what I'm saying? This
is not unclear. This thing wasn't done in a corner.
Again, the mystery of the gospel is not that God didn't explain
himself very well. The mystery of the gospel is
that you're so messed up that you're blind as a bat by nature. And God's got to turn the light
on or you'll never see the kingdom of God. God has spoken. but ye shall
be his gods. Think about those words, ye shall,
ye shall. Satan is real good at saying
that. How many times did he say, I will, I will be as the most
high God. I will ascend unto the heavens.
I will, I will. Now he's saying, you will, you
will, you will. And we bought it. What is right for you, your truth,
is something that you can discern for yourself. That's what Satan
said. You can determine that for yourself.
That's man's religion. Sinners don't like God, so they
make their own. Who tries and wants to, but leaves
it up to you. Ye shall be his guides. People
want to be powerful, because they want to be God. They want
to be powerful in any way they can be, any way they can be,
whether it's just being a mean piece of garbage at work or rising
in great wealth in this world so that they can, people want
to be rich, why? Because they want to be God.
God gets what he wants. Well, we can get what we want
if we have enough money, we think. People kill each other because
they want to be God. That's God's prerogative. He
said, I kill and I make a lot. Oh, but sinners don't agree with
that. People worship a false God who
makes them God because they want to be God. These have one mind. And that's it right there. You
shall be his gods. If you asked him again, if you
said, do you serve Satan? They'd be highly offended by
that. But that's exactly what they're doing. You see that in
the text? All of their strength, all of their efforts, all of
their ambition, all of their ability, all of their time, they're
giving it to him and have no idea in most cases that they're
doing that. And I wanna look at verse 14
at the end. So let's look at 15 now, verse
15. He saith unto me, the waters
which thou sawest where the horse sitteth are peoples and multitudes
and nations and tongues. And man, this must have been,
we've seen that already. We mentioned that right at the
very beginning of this chapter. What the waters, the waters always,
I think always, as far as I know, represent peoples, nations, the
peoples of the world. Or great multitudes, if not the
whole world. But this must have been part
of what fascinated John as well. If you think about this. So many
multitudes of people were so deceived by this whore You ever think about that And
I don't repeat that word for no reason I don't repeat that
word because I like hearing myself say it those who are enticed
by such a woman In earthly in an earthly sense
in a physical sense I It takes a suspension of all
decency to enter into that. You think about that. It takes a suspension of all
decency to go there, and there are no
winners in that scenario, none. It's repulsive to God, it's destructive
Greatly destructive to both parties involved And whoever is affected by That
as well So it is with false religion It takes a willful suspension
of all that's good and decent and right and to be willing to
destroy the very character of God, to sacrifice the very character
of God Almighty on the hellish altar of man's
free will, man's inviolable will. The masses flock together to
blaspheme God. And they call it worship. Somebody
leads them. One of the horns leads them in
that. Verse 16, and the 10 horns which
thou sawest 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. Well, that's kind of surprising
and they hate her. Well, obviously not always. They didn't hate her from the
start, did they? They were customers. They were
willful participants. And then, though, how sad and
terrible. They're going to see the truth.
They're going to see the truth of what they've done, who they
are, what they are. It's not gonna bring them to
repentance, but they're gonna see it. Think about how they
make war with the Lamb, verse 14, we're gonna look at in a
minute, but think about how do these enemies make war with the
Lamb? False doctrine, lies, deception in spiritually eternal matters
concerning God. Well, how do you overcome that?
With the truth. The truth's gonna come home to
them sooner or later, isn't it? and they're gonna hate the whore.
They're not gonna hate themselves. That's what God does for his
sheep. They're gonna hate her. Like Judas, he cast down Judas. When he found out, when he figured
out that they didn't care about him, nobody cared about him. And he cast in that 30 pieces
of silver like they were the problem, like they were the repulsive
thing, you know, cast in those. And these will blame and hate
the whore when in reality, they are the thing that they hate.
Like King David, I'll kill him, it's you David, it's you. David repented with a broken
heart and God in all in his sovereign grace Told his prophet tell him
I've taken away sin That's grace in it Judas saw the truth didn't he
I've betrayed the innocent blood and these will too It's gonna
be a horrible sad and terrible day The Judas did not repent He threw himself off of a mountain
and hung himself he didn't throw himself at the feet of God's
Son Neither will these repent Nobody
will except those who are called and faithful and chosen. We're gonna get to verse 14 in
a minute, I promise, if the Lord is willing. We have a little
time. These hated the whore, but it
doesn't say they hated themselves. When Job saw God, he said, I
abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. When David saw that
he was the thing that he hated, he repented by God's grace with
a broken heart That's because his name was written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. Of the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Verse 8 in our text. Look at
verse 17. For God hath put in their hearts
to fulfill his will. When those who rose up against
the Lord Jesus Christ and crucified him, it says that God had determined
before that that would be done. His decree and counsel had determined
before that they do that. Here it says he put it in their
hearts to fulfill his will. His will is the destruction of
the whore. And they did it because God wanted
them to. Give their kingdom unto the beast
until the words of God shall be accomplished that last part
now they give themselves to the to the to the kingdom to the
beast and To the whore that sits on the beast but until Until
the words of God be fulfilled and then they hate her and they're
done with her Even that which man does in this world That's
wrong and terrible Has horrible consequences God manipulates
it to accomplish his will It's just another way of saying
God is God Look at the cross again Until
all of God's purpose of grace toward his elect is accomplished
that the words of God shall be fulfilled What's this book about?
I know we read of these things that are gonna happen, but this
is a book of redemption from cover to cover. All of it, this
is a passage of redemption that we're in tonight. The lamb, the
lamb, we're gonna talk about the lamb. Until all of God's
word is fulfilled, he'll use false religion in whatever way
he's pleased to that end. Saving of his sheep verse 18
and the woman which thou sawest is that great city We've seen
that already, but this is interesting which reigneth over the kings
of the earth this verse is telling us Not just being repetitive
We know that the woman is that great city Babylon the great
whore We've seen who she is but here. We see that she's over
them and not the other way around and Ultimate problem is not that
the wrong people are in power The problem is that people are
in power And the problem with people is
not their politics, it's not their ineptitude or their incompetency
Though it is blatantly on display It's their evil Antichrist hearts It's not that they don't know
economics, it's that they don't know God. That's what this is
talking about. She, the antichrist spiritual
harlot, she's the one that runs them. and not the other way around. It's not their incompetence and
inability to lead, it's that they hate God. But look at verse
14, what a beautiful, beautiful, I started to just preach a whole
message on this verse and I probably should have, and I may yet. These
shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them.
These shall make war, this is in what sense, they all are of
one heart. They're not of one heart in any
other way except they want the lamb gone. Just like Satan makes war, the
same way that God has been opposed and defied from the beginning
with lies and deception and corruption and prideful rejection of his
will and his rightful authority over sinners and everything that's
good and right, They make war with the lamb. Spiritual war. This is not a physical battle.
They can draw the pictures all they want to of a physical battle.
That's not what this is. And it's not just a battle that
happens in the end of the world. They've hated the lamb from the
start. It's been fought since day one
on this earth. It's just gonna be ended by God. at the time described in our
text. It's just going to be ended. And again, here's your epic battle
between good and evil. I use that a lot because that's
what people talk about. Oh, there's such a struggle between
good and evil. Oh no, everybody in the world
hates God. And is at war with God and they're
all rising up against God. What's going to happen? And the
Lamb shall overcome them. That's it. You see how the scriptures are
so clear about that. It's not, he is sovereign and omnipotent. If we really knew that, I'm not
sure we would be the same ever again. And the Lamb shall overcome them
because of who he is. Because they may be kings, but
he's the king of kings. They may have great power, but
he is the government, the government, the government is on his shoulders. He doesn't need a few good men.
All men need him. He is the mighty conqueror. Now
whose side are you on? You remember when Moses drew
the line and said, who's on God's side? It is of infinite importance
that we understand that it is the lamb that they make war against. Not the creator, though he is
the creator. not the one who upholds worlds
and by whom everything consists. That's not who they make war
against. They make war against the lamb. He is the creator. He is the
upholder of worlds. By him, all things do consist.
He is the king of all kings and the Lord of all lords, but it
is in his character as the redeemer that people despise him. the atonement for sin as the
effectual substitute of his people on Calvary That's who they hate The one acceptable sacrifice
for sin It's in that character that he's despised and that he
overcomes It's the lamb that wins Every victory is won by Christ
crucified and Every tragedy is brought to pass by Christ crucified
He won the victory over every enemy on Calvary and He saved
everyone he shed his blood to save on Calvary Everything revolves
around his cross and It is God as God that is despised
and opposed, and nowhere is God seen to be more godlike than
at Calvary. It is God as sovereign that is
rebelled against to the death, and nowhere does God display
his sovereignty like he did at Calvary, where his precious blood
redeemed his sheep Every single one of them, he said, I've lost
not a single one. And where he condemned and consigned
to everlasting torment, the reprobate, with that same precious blood. I am not condemnable before God
or men. I am holy in the sight of God,
justified by God himself, not because I made a decision, Not
because I exercised a free will, I don't have one. But because
Christ died for me. Romans 8, 34. The lamb is the
victory. It's the lamb's book of life. And he gives the victory to those
who are with him. I love those words in that verse.
Look at that verse again, verse 14. With him. I like that beautiful description
of us. That's where we come in, right
there. It's been talking about the evil and the powerful in
this world, the prideful, self-righteous enemies of Christ. Here's us. What's our part in this whole
thing? What is our part in this war? What role do we play? We're with Him. That's it. Boy, isn't that good? Where with
him, I don't want to have any other part in it, do you? I mess up the simplest things.
I don't want any part in this. I want to stand still and see
the salvation of the Lord. We're with him and we didn't
sign up. We didn't volunteer. We were called and chosen. You see that there? Called and
chosen and faithful. Strong's definition of faithful
there is one who trusts in God's promises. I'm with Paul on that ship in
Acts chapter 27. We can look around us and see that
this ship ain't going anywhere fast. We're in deep trouble. The ship's going down. But remember
what he said? Don't worry about it because
I believe God. This ship is gonna sink I'm not
worried about it because I believe God by his grace. I believe him. I believe his promises. All of
his promises are yay and amen in Christ Jesus. May we go from
here by his grace again rejoicing in the son of God, the lamb that
was slain. He has given us the victory. and we believe him by his grace.
Let's pray.