Complete dependence upon the
Lord for all needed help this evening. I wish to direct your
very prayerful attention to the second portion that we read together
in the book of the Revelation and chapter 12. And our text this evening is
found in verses 10 and 11. the book, the Revelation chapter
12. And our text is found in verses
10 and 11. And I heard a loud voice in heaven,
or a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength
and the kingdom of our God. and the power of his Christ for
the accuser of our brethren is cast down which accused them
before our God day and night and they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they
loved not their lives unto the death And I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ. For the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night. And they overcame Him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And
they loved not their lives, unto the death. What we have before us in this
chapter is a picture of the whole history
of redemption. It's one of the greatest sadnesses
of mine that I was in my early twenties before I ever really
had the book of the Revelation expounded onto in its true meaning. It was really the reading the
sermons of Mr. James Wells and the ministry
of a brother in the United States that opened my eyes to this great
book and it gripped me and why did it grip me? why did it grip
me? you see there's a great misunderstanding
here because this is not a book about Russia it's not a book
about China it's not a book about the world running out of oil
or any of that nonsense and all this sort of sensationalism that
goes on it's got nothing to do with that The message of this
book is this, the church is going to win. That's the great message
of this book. And who, why and by how does
the church gain the victory? We have the answer within our
text. This book speaks as much if not
more than any other of the preeminence of the Lord
Jesus himself and this is when we really get to know and really
appreciate this book for what it is and having experienced
in my own soul and feeling to have lost so much within my youth when the Lord
sent me forth into the ministry The Lord gave me this great burden
that others would see, hear and understand the truths of this
great book. And you know we have every scriptural
warrant for it. When the Lord, using John here
on Patmos, says unto him in that first chapter, in verse 3, Blessed
is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy
and keep those things which are written therein for the time
is at hand don't let anybody say to you that the book of the
revelation is only for scholars and for those greatly acquainted
with the original languages because that's not the purpose the purposes
that every believing soul would see, hear and understand the
great truths of this prophecy. So, we arrive at chapter 12. And what do we have before us?
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven. A woman clothed with
the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a crown
of 12 stars. That is not the Virgin Mary. It's not the Virgin Mary. This
here speaks of the Church. That's who is meant here. The
12 stars representing and bringing together the Old and the New
Testament Church. The Church from Adam until the
last man. The sun, that light of the gospel
which has come through Christ and the moon under her feet,
that's the Old Testament church. The moon is completely reliant,
is it not, upon the sun? The moon has no light of its
own. And upon her head a crown of
12 stars. Number 12 representing that great
number of the church. You see this is a spiritual and
it must be understood spiritually. We get ourselves into a mess
if we see it any other way. You see this? Is it not the Lord's
purpose? The Lord's great purpose is to
his church. It's to his church. Somebody challenged me the other
week. It wasn't a wrong thing. None
of us as preachers of the gospel should be above being challenged. But I was challenged on the statement
when I stated that, you know, grace is never common. Grace
is never common. It's not. What do I mean by that? Yes, the sun shines upon the
righteous and the unrighteous. That's true. But grace is never
common. Grace is always particular. Grace
is always distinctive. It is always discriminating.
Always. Always. Always. The Lord is long-suffering. He's long-suffering to the reprobate. But that's not to save His grace,
is it? The Lord bears with the reprobate. He bears with them. But His purpose
is always towards the Church. And that's what we have here.
That great wonder in heaven. There we have the woman presented.
And she being with child cried prevailing in birth and pain
to be delivered. Where do we have to go here?
We have to go right back, don't we, to the book of Genesis and
the promise of the seed that was given. The seed, the promise
that was given unto Eve. That the seed would come and
it would bruise the serpent's head and bruise his heel. This
is what we read off here. It's amazing if you look at the
comparisons of the book of the Revelation, the book of Genesis.
You see them. They are quite startling. That this is what
we have. Was Eve not expecting? She said,
I have gotten a man. She was expecting. She knew the
Saviour was to come. Of course, she conceived a murderer. And But the promise was still
there, wasn't it? And of course the Lord did come
in time. And we read of this, there appeared
another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having
seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. This
saint in himself. You see what is the message here?
Well the message here is that Satan will always attempt to
undermine the Lord's work and to destroy his church. But you see here, the dragon
stood before the woman which is ready to be delivered for
to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought
forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of
iron. And her child was caught up unto
God and to His throne. Here we have the humanity, the
sacred humanity of the Lord Jesus set forth before us here. You
see, He took upon Him the form of a servant, didn't He? But Satan could never undermine,
he tried, but he could never undermine the law. And the Lord,
you see, notice this here. It's so important. who is to rule all nations with
a rod of iron. What does that tell us? It tells
us that the Lord is on the throne. He knoweth all things. He knoweth
all things. Satan, friends, is a defeated
foe. Don't listen to these dispensationalists
who will tell you that the devil is in control of the earth until
the millennium. Because it's not true. We don't
read of any such thing here. The Lord rules and the Lord reigns. And He reigns today. And where
does He reign? He reigns in the hearts of His
people. He has made us kings and priests unto God and we shall
reign upon the earth. That's not a future prophetical.
That's today. That is today. Because the Lord
is bringing His people from every kindred, from every tribe, and
from every nation upon the earth, and He is bringing them unto
Himself. He reigns today. Is this not a comfort? I don't
know about you, but I would despair if I believed that the devil
was reigning, and that the devil was in control. You see the Lord,
He reigns. Where is He now? He is in heaven.
He sits at the right hand of the Father. make him until his
enemies be made his footstool we notice here that the dragon then turns his attention to the
woman you see Satan will always attempt he will always attempt to take hold of you and I. We'll see something of that later
on. As the time is hasting, verse
9 states, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent,
called the Devil and Satan, which deceived the whole world. He
was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with
him. You see, Satan is a defeated
foe, isn't he? That's why I read Matthew and
chapter 16. You know, the book of the Revelations
are bringing together of all the books of the Bible. We see
as it were a summary of all these books brought forth. And the
Lord says, speaks of the binding of Satan
and he speaks of the kingdom that he is building and I say also unto thee thou
art Peter and upon this rock will I build my church. He didn't
mean he would build his church upon Peter that's the Roman exegesis
of this and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. I will give unto thee the keys
of the kingdom of heaven. That's not Peter. What is that?
That is the gospel. That is the gospel. That is the key, is it not? Is it not only the gospel that
breaks the chain? You know, today People talk and
they attempt to give reasons for the state that society is
in. Religious, natural religious
or secular systems will never be the answer. No matter what
they are. It's only the gospel that breaks the chain. It's only
the gospel that makes a difference. That's the only difference. That's
the only difference. That's the only thing that will
bring light and that will bring comfort and that will bring strength
and will bring liberty. It's only the Gospel. And you
see the Gospel is the Lord's means. This is the means that
He has ordained and this is His way of bringing His people in. It's His ordained means. I will
give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven. And whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. That's the
binding of Satan. There's only one place Satan
was bound and that was at Calvary. Because when the Lord says it
is finished, it was really finished. That was it. Satan was bound. Yes, he goes about as a roaring
lion seeking whom he may devour. Yes, he is busy. But he can only
go as far as the Lord ever allows him. And that's all. And that's
all. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven. He is bound by the preaching
of the gospel. The preaching of the gospel.
And now we come to the words of our text. That is the context. Now that should shed light upon
these words and upon their significance and upon their true meaning. And I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, now is come salvation, the victory of the church. This is the cry. This is the
cry. From Adam until the very last
elect vessel of mercy is called by grace. now is come salvation it's the binding of Satan by
the power of Christ and by the power of Calvary in Leeds where I lived as a boy
there was a minister who came to live with my family in his
retirement a Mr Jones he came from Ivinghull in Bedfordshire
originally and he was a great student of
the word and he made this statement always made me test this statement
by things that have been said in the years that followed, he
said, you know all error all error has at the root of it an
undermining of the work of Christ at Calvary and you know that's absolutely
true whether it's Deism whether it's Arianism, Salcinianism,
Arminianism Russellism, Russellitism in the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormonism,
no matter what it is. Free will, and it's grossest
of all, Fullerism, no matter what it is. It always, always
undermines the Lord's finished work at Calvary. And it always
attempts to rob Him of His glory. Always. Always. now is come salvation and you know nothing will stop
it nothing will stop it you know we were speaking in the vestry
before on the very real and dangerous age in which we live it is dangerous
there is no question about that but you see the book of the revelation tells us this we are more than
conquerors and you know what we can figure from all of this
that in terms of the church things will turn out and will be well
they will be well why? because the Lord has declared
this now is come salvation you see the Lord did not come to
make salvation possible did he? Andrew Fuller might tell us that
the evangelicals might tell us that today but that's not true
he didn't come to make salvation possible he came to make it absolute
absolute and he came to make it guaranteed that's why now
is come salvation and you know this has a very real experiential
application Because without these things being made known in the
objective sense, they could not be made known in the subjective
reality. But they are made known in the
subjective reality. Now has come salvation. The victory
of Christ, known in the soul. That is why, you know, our doubts
and fears are so God dishonouring. We have them. We have them. but
you know some of our people they speak they're almost proud of
it dreadful state we've got ourselves into you know now is come salvation oh this is a reality is it not just contemplating upon this
word my mind goes to my friend in the ministry who was preaching
upon this text some of you here knowing Mr Richard Wells and he was speaking of somebody
who had been a member at Bexley where he's the pastor and he
was an elderly man he'd gone into the Bethesda home he's 93
years of age and he was most distressed and he said I'm 93
years of sin shortly before he died his face, he didn't say
much but his face John and he just said these words he has
come he has come you see this is the reality of the power of
this book and the power of these words an experimental truth that
the Lord Jesus Christ comes and He dwells in the hearts of His
people. Now is come salvation and it
can only be known by the Lord Himself. Now is come salvation. Perhaps
look to the time of your first love in the Gospel. I know I
can remember mine I did not desire to see a soul for perhaps two
or three days or more why? because I could say these words
in my own soul now is come salvation the pre-eminence of Christ you
see now is come salvation and strength strength we have strength in a two-fold
sense I suppose in this life we're granted a measure of bodily
strength which hits its natural peak around 27 or 28 years of
age and then slowly decreases but there is there not here more
than that spoken this is a spiritual strength now is come salvation
and strength spiritual strength spiritual
strength is that which is given and that which is granted by
the power of Christ and by the power of his gospel and in all
the way and there's no other strength that will stand the
test of time you see professions can start in a most ostentatious
manner full of blaze and perhaps a great deal of fireworks But you know we can't live like
that always, can't we? And you know life is full of
its ups and its downs. And yes there are the ups. The
Lord in his providence brings us into a time of liberty, a
time of perhaps great joy. But there are those things that
require strength, salvation and strength. and these scenes may be various
but there are things that require strength where do we take our
strength? where do we receive our strength? where does it come from? where
does it come from? is it not that faith which worketh
by love? is it not that unto him we can
say now is come salvation and strength. The Lord Jesus grants
strength. The Lord gives unto his people
strength to stand perhaps in a difficult situation, perhaps
to withstand a great sadness of the heart, perhaps to face
an almost impossible hurt now has come salvation and strength
you see when we become weak only then we can be strong you see
this strength is found in the Lord He must increase and we
must decrease you see we must learn in Christ's school that physical strength, we must
be thankful if we have it but spiritual strength is a far greater
grace because it's that which is spiritual and that which will
make us fit and ripen us for heavenly glory that's the benefit,
that's the benefit now is come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God, the Kingdom of our God. Well, is this not
what I was speaking of, of the Lord's Kingdom? Notice John says it's now. John
was writing on Patmos, in isolation, facing incredible opposition
writing a book that would have been most offensive to its recipients
in the first century. Could he not say, now has come
salvation, that is, the Lord has his strength, and the kingdom
of our God. You see, Calvary did not that
also achieve, did not also bring in His resurrection and His ascension.
The acts of the apostles, the disciples going about preaching. The early church could say, the Kingdom of our
God. It had come in as a marginal
reference to chapter 11 and verse 15. And the seventh angel sounded
and there were great voices in heaven saying, The kingdoms of
this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And He shall reign forevermore. You see people go on these what
they call marches for Jesus. Claiming towns for the Lord.
I can tell you this friends, it's His already. Portsmouth
South Sea is His already. West London is His already. Leeds
is His already. Doesn't matter where we live.
It's His. It all belongs to Him. And He
will do exactly as He pleases. None can stay His hand or say,
what doest thou? That's it. That's it. That's
it. The Kingdom of our God is coming.
The Lord is bringing in His elect people. He's bringing them in. The kingdom is established. This
is not some... Notice here, John, he says, now,
now! He's not speaking of some future
age. He's saying, now, we are living
today, friends, in the final days. That is the gospel age. The church age. And when this
is done, this world will be burnt to a cinder. It will be no more. Now is the accepted time. Now is
the day of salvation. The kingdom of our God. The gates of hell won't prevail
against Him. They can't. And the power of
His Christ. The power of His Christ. Does
this not speak of the absolute sovereignty and the absolute living, reigning, manifesting
and delivering grace of the Lord Jesus. The power of His Christ. You know the Lord is not on His
knees begging men to listen to Him. The Lord reigns. The Lord reigns. That's why we
can't go along with this activist mentality today. Because the
Lord is not begging anyone to listen to Him. We don't have
to plead with men. God is holy. We are sinners. God is righteous. We are undone. We need Him. We need Him. It's not the other way around.
The power of His Christ you might look and you might say well the
church is reduced we've seen better days and so on say not
that the former days were better than these we've been raised
for such a day as this and we think of this, we think of the
mass populace of the mass populace of this country and how comparatively
few seek true religion is it not a mercy? is it not a mercy? if we know any difference Can
we not say, there go I, but for the grace of God, the power of
His Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down. It's that binding of Satan that
we've read of. He's cast down. It is finished. So, the devil can only do that even to you,
what the Lord allows. We think of Job. He had his wife, his family, taken
from him, covered from heads to toes in boils. The Lord allowed these things. He permitted these things. But
the Lord turned the captivity of Job, didn't he? When he prayed
for his friends. He was delivered from this state. The accuser of our brethren is
cast down. Is this that Satan accused Job? He's accused The brethren, we
see how He tempted the saints in the Bible. Is He not the great
accuser of you and I? Notice this, when you pick up
to read the Word of God, or when you
go into your private place to pray, It's unique, isn't it? You feel
that opposition. You know you won't get opposition
through reading any other book. I'm in good books. I'm in good
books. But there's always that opposition
there, isn't there? Satan's always there. You've
something else to do. Bring something else into your
mind. When you attempt to pray, something else comes flooding
in. This is the Satan at work, isn't he? He's the accuser of
the brethren. Don't get me wrong, friends.
I'm not undermining the activity of the devil when I say he's
cast down, when I say he's defeated. The devil is busy. He's busy.
Do we not feel him? Accusing us. He accuses the conscience. Accuses the conscience. How can
you be a Christian, you, with all your sin? You're a hypocrite. These are the things that Satan
accuses the Brethren of. And do we not feel it keenly?
We have to remember this. The devil is a liar. From the
very beginning, he's a liar. The accuser of our brethren is
cast down. Which we read, accused them before
our God day and night. Day and night. He's always there. He's always busy. He's always
busy. But we read this, and, and, It
always brings a smile to my face when we read a butt or an ant
in the Scripture. And they overcame Him. How? How? By the blood of the
Lamb. By the blood of the Lamb. They
overcame Him by the blood of the Lamb. We are more than conquerors through
Him. You see this is the reality. There is no other way. There
is no other way to overcome Satan. You know Satan is stronger than
you and I. He's stronger than you and I. He would deceive as
it were the very elect if he were able. He's stronger than
you and I. He knows you and I. He knows our weaknesses. He knows
our frailties. He knows them. He knows them.
And the devil believes in all the right God things. The devil
believes in the eternal sonship of Christ. He believes in the
deity of Christ. The devil believes in a six day
creation. He believes in redemption. He believes in election. believes
in predestination he believes all those things but the devil
isn't going to heaven the devil isn't going to heaven and he knows he knows he has but a short time
to work they overcame him by the blood
of the lamb to overcome Sata. That's not to reach some state
of progressive sanctification to such a state that we're living
in a continual trance almost as it were. As Mr. Brangle who
formed the Salvation Army tried to set forth. It's nothing to do with that.
It's nothing to do with that. This is the Lord Jesus Christ setting
free overcoming by the blood of the Lamb to see the preciousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ to see what Calvary really achieved
and this is not an abstract thing this is made known in the soul
we can only scratch the surface We can only scratch the surface,
we can't enter into what it cost of the Lord. But we know this and I trust
we accept it by faith. They overcame by the blood of
the Lamb. The Lamb is all the glory in
Emmanuel's Lamb. And He has to be the centre of
our preaching. You know, a sermon is not a sermon
if the Lord Jesus is not at the centre. It is simply a lecture.
It is a lecture. But here we must preach, friends.
We must preach sermons. They overcame Him by the blood
of the Lamb. And this is the ultimate overcomer. This is the ultimate overcomer.
Because it is exactly enough the Lord Jesus' blood achieved
exactly that which it was set out to achieve and that's why
we can't accept general redemption or a two-wheels theology in the
Godhead because again it undermines the blood of the Lamb and what
it achieved. And they overcame Him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. You
see here, Satan will always attempt to destroy your testimony. He will attempt to destroy it. He will do his utmost to get
to you. He will say, you're only saying
this because of this event or because of that event. I know in my own soul there was
a significant event in my life that preceded. The Lord revealed
Himself in power. And the devil came time and time
again and said you can't put on a profession. It's only because
of this. That's how Satan works. He attempts to undermine the
testimony that you have by the word of their testimony you know if we know the Lord
we have to speak of Him and put Him on now I'm not one of these
people we find them you can find them in our chapels who are always
attempting to force people into the baptismal pool I don't believe
that that is God honouring nor wise but you know it's believing
in the heart and confessing with the mouth and then we shall find
the Lord's favour we have to speak of what the
Lord has done for us by the word of their testimony Has He done
something for you in your soul? Has He set your feet upon a rock? Has He set your heart at liberty?
If so, you must say so. You must speak these things before
the church and before men. Because friends, if we deny Him,
He will deny us. But if we declare Him to be our
all in all, He will honour us. He will honour us. He will honour
us. And by the word of their testimony,
Satan will always try and destroy it. And we read this in the final
clause, and they loved not their lives unto the death. Now, this may have special reference
to the martyrs, all those throughout the church history. I'm not speaking
necessarily of those at the Reformation period, although they are included.
But there were martyrs before and after at that time. There
are martyrs today for the Christian faith. And who knows? Some of
us, friends, may live to see such a thing. We pray that the
Lord will stay with us and continue with us in our civil and religious
liberties. But we don't know. We don't know. We do pray that
we would be enabled to remain faithful. And they loved not their lives
unto the death. What does that mean? Well, the crux of it all is this. We spoke this morning of laying
up treasure that is in heaven and not loving the world. It's
living this life for the cause of Christ and for the cause of
the Gospel. That's loving your life, not
unto death. You see, we are not our own,
are we? We're not. We're not our own.
We can't go about doing at what we like and being what we like. I know people call us antinomians
because we don't believe that law is the believer's rule of
life. That is simply a religious slander. A true antinomian is one who
lives without regard to the Lord and his ways. One who believes
he can rule himself. Friends, we are ruled by the
cause of the Gospel, by the cause of Christ. They loved not their
lives unto the death. For some, it has meant pain at
the ultimate price in respect of this life. But you know, it
doesn't just mean that. It's not just doesn't just mean
that. It means to endure. To endure. Again, some people start well.
But the question is whether you and I endure. There was an old man at the chapel
where I used to be a member, where I was baptised. The church
is gone now and this man has since died. Whenever you asked
him how he was, he had a vice-like grip. He was a man in his eighties.
He was very strong. He always gripped your hand very
tightly and he would always say, kept by the power of God. How are you? Kept by the power
of God. You can never forget it. Kept
by the power of God. And is not that the mercy? Is not that the truth? We are
kept by the power of God. They love not their lives unto
the death. you know we're so apt to love
ourselves speak to myself as much to anyone else to love what
we're doing, where we are, what our plans are all the things
that we were speaking of this morning that's human nature, we cling
to the earth my soul cleaveth to the dust
the psalmist says, that's how we are that's how they are but
you know when we're close and when we're in our right mind
we don't have that attitude do we? we don't have that spirit they loved not their lives unto
the death there's an imaginal reference here to Luke 14 and
26 you know Luke when he speaks he always speaks in that searching
that manner He says, if any man come to me and hate not his father
and his mother and his wife and his children and his brethren,
yea, and his own wife also, he cannot be my disciple. If we
consider some time ago, it comes from that parable of the Great
Supper. To love not our lives is to let
everything go. That's what Luke is saying there,
isn't it? It's to let everything go. That doesn't mean that we
treat others with contempt and treat them with disregard. It
doesn't mean that we go about being unpleasant and difficult
to people. It's precisely opposite to the
spirit of the Gospel. It means this. We put the Lord
first. We put the Lord first. and like
if we put the Lord first we'll find ourselves like John here
from time to time we might feel isolated we might
feel alone sometimes completely alone have you ever felt to be
completely alone? I have it's not a pleasant way
to feel but I'll tell you this you will love Christ you will
love Christ and you will be able to stand because He will be with
you because He will be with you so love not your life unto the
death, don't let everything else go and people may have their opinions
and they may think yourself very narrow, very bigoted but you
know we must stand for that which is God honouring and we must
It's part of the word of our testimony, isn't it? And you must forhold Him and
honour Him and desire to have communion with Him. Love not
their lives unto the death, to be kept unto the very end and
to desire the Lord Jesus Christ and to
see Him in all His glory. Well, and I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb. and by the word of their testimony
whom they love not their lives unto the death. Amen.