Book of Revelation chapter 17. I'd like to read verses 15 through
18 of this book, and I want to spend our time tonight on verse
17. It says there in Revelation 17,
17, for God hath put in their heart to fulfill his will. and to agree and to give their
kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. Let's back up to verse 15 there.
And he said unto me, the waters which thou sawest were where
the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and
tongues. Water's not literal water, it's
a figurative of every nation, people, and tongue. Everywhere
where the Lord gathers his people in is where religion has already
been, where this world religion, and it's the world's religion. World religion is this, works-oriented,
self-righteous religion. That's the world over. And it
takes the grace of God to ever sweep us out of that. And he
does that by his grace. And then it says, the ten 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. It's going to and has been in
the past and it will continue to be these mentions or these
ideas, these thoughts that religion gets God's punishment from time
to time around the world. That's what happens here. And
then it says in verse 17, for God hath put in their hearts
to fulfill his will. And to agree and to give their
kingdom unto the beast and to the words of God, till the words
of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest
is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
There's some things in there like in Paul's writing. Peter
wrote this. He said some of Paul's writing
was hard to be understood. But God says it's not completely
hidden. It is hard to be understood.
There are some things here that are hard to be understood, but
there is one thing in there that I can latch hold of, and I'm
thankful to God for. And that is in verse 17, for
God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will. What happens, what has happened,
and what will happen is going to be according to God's will. Now I'd like to spend a little
time on that subject tonight because it is dear to our heart.
It's dear to my heart. Though I find at times hard to
be understood, I am thankful that the scriptures declare from
cover to cover that God is doing all things after the counsel
of his own will. No one else counsels God. He
doesn't go into a council meeting with somebody and say, what shall
I do here? God is all wise. God's acts are
voluntarily, he acts voluntarily in everything that he does. He is never impressed upon by
what man is doing to help him make a decision because all his
decisions have been made ahead of time. We are imposed upon
at times by circumstances that would cause us to make a decision.
If you're going down on West 6th from where I live and you
want to get to a certain car dealership, they're telling you
you're going to have to change your course that you have usually
traveled and you're going to have to take 7th Street. I have to alter my course. Now,
not that I'm going over to that car dealership, but every day
we are forced to alter our course. We have something in our mind,
we have said that's what we're going to do, that's where we're
going to be, that's what we're going to say, because of circumstances. Now, God has never run up against
circumstances that has caused him to alter his purpose. It was ordained before the world
began, his purpose. And he's carrying it out. And
that's for the good of the church. That's for the good of the saints.
That's for the good of the sheep. That's for the good of God's
people, that he had a purpose before the world began. And he
is carrying that purpose out, and it is not altered. Every
once in a while, I look on the History Channel and it says,
weather that changed the course of history. Well, God uses weather,
but he never changed the course of history. This is what he purposed
to do. Now, from our viewpoint, sometimes
it looks that way, but from God's viewpoint, and as much as my
finite mind can understand infinite, he hasn't changed his course
ever. He has not changed his purpose
ever, and he never will. And that's for the good of us.
That's for good of the church. That's for the good of the saints.
That's for the good of the gospel. That's for the good of grace.
That's for the good of mercy. That's for the good of our peace,
that he does not change his purpose. He has a purpose, and he's going
to carry it out. And whatever God does is according
to a purpose. He has a purpose set out from
before the world began. Never has had a change. Now,
if God had a different purpose before the world began than he
does now, he's changed. And we need to find a God that
doesn't change because this Bible declares a God that doesn't change.
If our God changes and changes his mind, saw this great big
sign on the side of a trailer house or something the other
day, prayer changes things. Thank God it doesn't. We don't
want prayer to change things. We want prayer to change us and
our mind and our attitude, but never change God. If that's happened,
we need to find the other God, because the God of the Bible
is not going to change. Now, we change. Thank God He
moves on us to change, change our thoughts. If we're a new
creature in Christ Jesus, old things have passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. They're new to us, but they're
not new to God. Whatever God does is according
to a purpose that is eternal. Now that's hard for me to understand,
eternal. I'm so locked into time. Why
do we wear these? Why do we have them on the wall?
Why do we have alarm clocks? Why do we have clocks in our
car? Why? Why? We're locked into it. We're
locked into time. But God is not. Before time was
created, there was God and he had an eternal purpose. And it
was unchangeable. His purpose is unchangeable.
He's never changed his mind. That's another thing that's hard
for me to understand. God never has changed his mind. When Adam
sinned, he didn't change his mind about what he was going
to do. This was in his purpose. He never changed his mind about
Abel and Cain. This is in his purpose. Because
he's God, he can do things, and he does it because of his infinite
wisdom. Now, we don't have all wisdom.
We have Christ, but we don't understand all we have. We don't
understand the end from the beginning. It's hard for us to understand
what's going on in one day. It's hard for us to understand
what's gonna happen next week. We just, we have our plans. Lord
willing, Tuesday, Nancy and I'll get in on an airplane. That's
our plan. But you know plants change. They
have changed. They will change. But when we
find out, it is according to God's purpose. I'll never forget
visiting with a man that was down in California at a rescue
at the conference that was supposed to be on the Ohio Bridge when
it fell in. Not very long ago, I was watching
on one of the channels the Narrows Bridge up here. The old Narrows
Bridge. And It was going like this, and
it fell in. And there was a car on there.
There was a whole bunch of cars that got off, but there was a
car on there. You know, how God, in his infinite wisdom, works
all things after the counsel of his own will. This man was
supposed to be on that. bridge, and you know what happened? He woke up, and he either had
a dead battery or a flat tire, I can't remember what, and we
would just step out there, because we're late getting to work as
it is, step out there and say, oh no, this is the, of all the
days for this to happen. By the end of the day, he said
he was more thankful than any man could be, because he should
have been on that bridge when it fell in. He was thankful for
God's purpose. All right. Whatever God does
is according to a purpose that is eternal, it's unchangeable,
and it's perfectly free. And by that I mean nobody, nothing
interferes with God. He has free reign in this. Abel, Job, David, no one. influences the purpose of God. We are influenced by the purpose
of God and how peaceful it is when we have knowledge of God's
purpose and we're delighting in God's purpose, but he has
a purpose that is perfectly free and infinitely wise. Now turn
with me if you would back to the book of Ezra. Many years
before the book of Revelation was written, the Lord, he took
his people, the children of Israel, into captivity, and he purposed
that they would be there for 70 years. Now, one of the statements
he makes with regard to the reason that they will be there 70 years
is they forgot the Sabbaths of the land. And you're going to pay. The
land is going to be desolate to make up for the Sabbaths of
the land. That's one reason. Another reason we find is they
obstinately would not follow God. They exercised their natural
will and it was against God every time. Now in the book of Ezra,
we find a man, Ezra chapter 7, we find a man by the name of
Ezra. that is purposed to go back in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. There was one of the kingdoms
that we read about last week in the book of Daniel, last Wednesday
in the book of Daniel. First one was the Chaldean, Nebuchadnezzar,
he says, the head of gold. The next one was the Persian
Empire. And the reason we find that Persian
Empire was raised up was Cyrus was going to be king, and he
was going to be moved upon by God to let these people go back
to Jerusalem. And here's a statement about
it. Blessed be the Lord. Ezra chapter 7 verse 27. Blessed
be the Lord God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as
this in the king's heart. Would he have ever come to this
conclusion on his own? I think not. It wasn't in his
brain power, in his capacity to let Israel go. If they are
the bookkeepers, if they are the mathematicians, If they are
the doctors, if they are the lawyers, if they are the people
that keep this kingdom moving, there's no reason that the king
on his own would ever let any of them go back. And these are
the people that are in the kingdom under Cyrus. And it says here,
which hath God hath put a thing as this in the king's heart to
beautify the house of the Lord, which is in Jerusalem, He's a
pagan king. He had no interest in ever worshiping
down at Jerusalem. But God moved in his heart. God came upon him in his heart
and said, whoa, I have a good idea. I'm going to send these
people back down there and I'm going to provide the money for
them to travel and to build. Well, it's going to take God
to impose that on somebody's heart. Put this thing as this
in the king's heart to beautify the house of the Lord, which
is at Jerusalem, and hath executed mercy unto me before the king
and his counselors. What's that mean? He put favor
in the king's heart towards me to go. Now this is just not an
isolated thing. This has been going on since
the beginning of time. God has moved on pagans. God has moved upon haters of
God to fulfill his purpose. That's what he does. It was his
purpose, as we read there in the book of Revelation, that
these people should be angry at the great prostitute, the
whore, the religious system of the world, and do some battering
on it. That was his purpose. It goes
on here, it says, extended mercy unto me before the king and his
counselors, and before all the king's princes, and I was strengthened
as the hand of the Lord my God was upon me, and I gathered together
out of Israel chief men to go up with me. It is going to take
the grace of God on Cyrus to let the chief men go up there
and rebuild that place. God moved on him. It was according
to his purpose. It was the right time. It was
the time appointed by God. And I dare say, as we find with
regard to the children of Israel, they're going to be 400 years
in captivity in Egypt. And the day they left, it says,
the self same day they left. was the fulfillment of those
400 years. The selfsame day that these people
headed back to Jerusalem to rebuild it, they fulfilled their 70 years. And God moved upon Cyrus. We can't imagine. He's like Saddam
Hussein. That's the kind of man Cyrus
is. He'd just as soon stack men as
cordwood. Kill him and stack him as cordwood.
That is his history, and yet he's imposed upon by God Almighty
to take these people and send them back and rebuild Jerusalem. It is so out of character of
this man. Now, we could say, well, he's
a believer. No, he's not. He is not a believer. He loves God. No, he doesn't.
He has no concept of loving God. He has no concept of loving God's
people, but he's imposed upon by Almighty God. His purpose,
the time that God set up that the children of Israel would
be in captivity is fulfilled, and he moves on Cyrus to send
them back. Turn with you to the book of
Proverbs, Proverbs chapter 21. Proverbs chapter 21, we read
here, these words, and they are as valuable today as they were
given to this writer so many years ago. The church has been
comforted. I believe the book of Revelation
was written for the church's comfort. The revelation of Jesus
Christ, God's success against every enemy is presented in the
book of Revelation. It's presented in other books
too, but there, how outstandingly he presents the comfort of the
church is God Almighty in Christ Jesus, paying for all their sins
and defending them with his whole being. That's what we find there.
Well, in the book of the Proverbs, we find comfort was given to
the church here too. There's always been trouble.
There's been trouble in politics. It's gone against the grain of
God's people. I was visiting with Nancy's dad
the other day, and we just had to agree. Paul never brought
up slavery, but it was an issue. The only slave that's brought
up during the writing of the New Testament was one that had
been saved and sent home. But they didn't spend any time
on that stuff. But politics is often one against the grain of
God's people. Oh, and it does. Constantly goes
against the grain of God's people. God's people know God's word,
and here we are bashed on every side by those who think they
know better. Look here, Proverbs chapter 21,
verse 1. The king's heart is in the hand
of the Lord. Now, if that isn't comfort. Lord,
I don't understand it, but you're all wise. Lord, I don't understand
it, but you're unchangeable. Lord, I don't understand it,
but you're perfectly free in what you're doing. Lord, I don't
understand it, but you are eternal in what you do. Lord, the king's
heart is in the hand of the Lord, and as rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. Now that's comfort to God's people.
It's God and his purpose working out according to his eternal
and everlasting plan. And he did that with Cyrus. He
did that with Nebuchadnezzar. He did that with Herod. He did
that with the Pharaoh. For this very purpose have I
raised you up that I might show my power in you. That's what
he said with regard to Pharaoh. And he has done this. Caesar
was in place at the right time. All of the kings and princes
have been in place at the right time, exactly when God appointed
them. And they're in His hand, and
He moves them according to His eternal, everlasting purpose.
And for the good of His church, for the salvation of His people,
He has moved upon them. Turn with me, if you would, way
over to the New Testament, the book of Ephesians, chapter 1,
as we think about God dealing with even the outsiders, those
who have no relationship with God at all except they're his
servants. He is the director. And He directs all things according
to His purpose, and that's an eternal purpose, and that's an
unchangeable purpose, and that's a perfectly free purpose on God's
part, and it's an infinitely wise purpose. Sometimes we get
fogged up there, but it is an infinitely wise purpose on God's
part. He is wise in what He does every
time. not part of the time, not 95%
of the time, not 99% of the time, but 100% of the time, he is wise
in what he's doing. Because he knows the end from
the beginning. And he's working all things.
Notice here, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11. This has to do with
our eternal salvation. This has to do with our eternal
position with God, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated. Now I've used this illustration
before. I'll use it again. When Pat goes
down to the airport and gets on that plane, she wants it to
have a predestined destination. Yeah, yeah. She wants to end
up in Tennessee, Nashville, I think. We have no fault with an airplane
having predestinated destination. We should never have any trouble
with God having a predestination. He is all wise and eternal, and
perfectly free in what he does, and he's unchangeable in what
he does. And it says here, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him. Now it's not us, it's him. I've said this before, I wish
the translators, when it was a personal pronoun with regard
to God, they capitalized it. Some of the newer translations
have done that. But here, this him is him, the Lord, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him. And what does he do? Who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will, not influenced
by the stars. It's amazing the number of, I
don't know, dictators and presidents that have given over to astrology
to make their decisions by. God's not there. He makes all
of his counsels after his own will. That will was before the
world began and hasn't changed in time and never will. We're
thankful for that. We don't want a God that changes. If we have a God that changes,
we need to be saved so we can have a God that doesn't change.
We need a stable God, a God that's firm on his foundation, a solid
rock. That's the God of the Bible.
And this one, going on, it says, verse 12, that we should be to
the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. Now, go with
me back to the book of Acts chapter 15. We find another passage of
scripture that's just for the, it's for the comfort of the church. During the book of Acts, there
was some turmoil going on in this world where God's people
lived, just like it is now. There's turmoil on every side. I'm sorry to say this. But until
Christ comes again, this world will not see peace. It just breaks out all over.
People upset with each other. Border against border, people
against people, nation against nation. Someone mentioned that
the other day. In the end times, nation shall
rise against nation. I said that could have been written
in the days of Abel. Nation rising against nation.
It hasn't changed. It's humanity at its worst, if
you please. But notice here in the book of
Acts chapter 15, in the middle of all of this, Acts chapter
15 and verse 18, it says, known unto God. are all his works
from the beginning of the world. He's not caught off guard. And everything is working for
his purpose. The salvation of his people,
for the glory of the church, and for the glory of God. Everything. That's why we read
there in the book of Revelation, he gives his will to these people
to go up against that great religious system of the world. And for
a season, pound on it. So they'll accomplish his will.
We just, it's happened in the past. It's happening now. Religion in places is being stifled
so the gospel can be declared and his people can and will be
saved. That's what he's doing. They
will rise up against the world religion of works-oriented, self-righteous
religion and stifle it for an instant so the gospel can come
in and God's people will be saved out of every kindred, nation,
people, and tongue. If it wasn't for that, I remember
a pastor one time saying, A religious organization bragged, said, if
we can have the kids until they're eight years old, we'll have them
forever. You know, at that time, I agreed with him. Now, I'll
just say, sorry. God has people in every religion
of the world, and he will bring them out of it for his glory.
He will bring them out. It can be the worst religions
in the world. It can be the recognized religions
of the world, but he will bring his people out of it. It doesn't
matter whether they're steeped in it for 75, 80, 90 years. He can still and will bring his
people out so they'll see Christ. But he's going to stifle by,
he's going to impose his will so that religion will be ceased
for a moment so the gospel will go out and his people will hear
it. And it won't be through a screen
door gospel. It will be the gospel of his
free and sovereign grace to these people. Turn with me, if you
would, back to the book of Daniel. Daniel has so much to say about
God's greatness and his power. And it was written in a time
of great strife. Why are these people where they
are? They've been imposed upon by
the will of God. Leave your homeland against their
will, but accomplishing God's will and took them into Babylonian
captivity. While they're there, there's
an uprising and Cyrus takes over. Cyrus says, oh boy, I don't know
why I'm thinking this, but I think it'd be a good idea if these
people went back home. All right, Daniel chapter four,
verse 35. Daniel chapter four and verse
35. The scriptures share this. And all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing. Now that's God's view. They're
reputed as nothing. And he doeth according to his
will in the army of heaven. Now, I don't know of anybody
who'd argue with him over that. Have your will among the angels,
Lord, have your will. Make them bow. Have your will. Good, good. But you know, there's
trouble when it goes on and says, and your will among the inhabitants
of the earth. Boy, when he gets involved in
the will of people, in their stubborn will, in their self-will,
and changes their will to serve him, people go bananas. But it's for our great blessing
that he does that, that God would get involved. What's he say there? Daniel chapter four, verse 35,
doeth his according to his will in the army of heaven among the
inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or
say unto him, what doest thou? And the church is in the background
saying, amen. Hallelujah. We were thinking
that all along, but now it's explained to us. None can stay
his hand. None can stop him. He's moving
according to his purpose. kindly doing exactly what he
said he would do when he said he would do it. It is perfectly
free and it's infinitely wise and it's unchangeable and eternal
and he's doing it according to his purpose. And the purpose
of God is to save his people from their sins and to give glory
to God and the church is glorified on this earth. God's people praise
God for what he has done. In the book of Isaiah, Isaiah
chapter 46, that's why he said to those kings, take her down,
take her down. My will is that she be humbled
for a season so my people can hear the gospel in simplicity
and truth and not be intermingled with this works-oriented religion,
not be intermingled with this self-righteous religion, this
religion of the world. And that is one thing that every
religion of the world will agree on. People are saved by works. Check it out. Everybody, every
religion, the world's religion agrees on that. That great harlot
agrees on this. You're saved by works. And we
find that in the days of Paul, right there in the church at
Jerusalem. They rose up and said, these
Gentiles cannot be saved unless they're circumcised. Paul brought
a council together and says, that's nonsense. It's by grace. It's by grace, it's not by works. The religion of the world wants
it to be by works. Every religion wants it to be
by works. But God said it's by grace through
faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works
lest any man should boast. There's no boasting in this.
We boast in Christ. We don't boast in what we've
done. We don't even boast in our belief. We boast in Christ.
That's what we do. All right? Isaiah chapter 46
verse 9 says, Remember the former things of old, for I am God,
and there is none else. I am God, and there's none like
me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I will do all my pleasure." And the church says, thank you.
We need this God. There's comfort in this God.
There's future in this God. There's eternal life in this
God. He's ruling things like he sees
fit, according to his purpose. It says there, my counsel shall
stand, and I'll do all my pleasure, calling the ravenous bird from
the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country.
Yea, I've spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I've purposed it, and I will
also do it. All right. Take her on for a
season. Take on this great harlot for
a season. I have a purpose here. Right there in the middle of
this religion is one of mine. And I'm gonna shut religion's
mouth for a moment so my people can hear my thunder. My voice. I'm gonna bring them out. I'm gonna call them out. And
there might be one, there might be 5,000. And then, guess what? Religion reigns again. Persecution
starts again. God's people are saved by His
grace, but it doesn't make the world happy. They want people
to attribute it to works. Look with me, backing up just
a little bit there from Isaiah 46, back up to Isaiah 40. Isaiah
40. Isaiah 40 in verse 12. This God, this God of the Bible,
he's measured. It says he's measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand. That's just to give us an idea.
Oh, that's bigger than I can figure. all the waters of the
world in the palm of his hand. Now that's just a figure of speech.
He's big, grand, great. He has a purpose. He does according
to his purpose. That purpose is eternal. That
purpose is unchangeable. That purpose is perfectly free
on his part, and it's infinitely wise. And he does according to
his purpose because he is infinitely wise. He knows the end from the
beginning. He knows what's the best for
his people. He knows what's best for the
church. He knows what's best for his son, the best for all
the purpose of God. So it says here in Isaiah 40,
verse 12. who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
meted out heaven with a span, and comprehended the dust of
the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in a scale, and
the hills in a balance, who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord,
or being his, excuse me, who hath directed the Spirit of the
Lord, or being his counselor hath taught him. with whom took
he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path
of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding. Behold, the nations are a drop
of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance.
Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very small thing. Lebanon
is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient
for a burnt offering. All nations before him are as
nothing. They are counted as less than
nothing and vanity. How big is God? Immeasurable. And that's for the glory of the
church. That's for our peace. He has
all things. He has the king's heart in his
hand. He has all things, and he's doing
it all things after the counsel of his own will. And I'll stop
a religion for a period of time so that my gospel can get to
the hearts of my people. And when they're saved, I can
let that release and let the people, he says, I'll send a
strong delusion. They'll believe a lie. But my
people will not. My people are secure. Romans
828, we know this one, but let's turn over there, read that, Romans
828. If you're interested in a sermon, get on Sermon Audio
on your computer, type in Henry Mahan's name, and just recently
they put on there his funeral service for Roth Barnard. Just
put on there. I listened to it last night.
It's worth listening to. It's kind of hard to listen.
It was an old tape, 1969. But you read on there, or you
listen on there, and you'll hear what Rothbarner did to the South
in the 1950s over this verse of scripture. He turned that
place upside down. Young preacher sitting in the
pew was asked to quote this verse of scripture, and he did what
most people do, quoted part of it. Because the rest of it just
rasps just a little bit. And old Rolfe says, isn't there
more to that verse? And that young preacher says,
well, I believe there is. And he read the rest of it. Now,
Neate wrote it with us. And we know that all things work
together for the good of them that love God, and most people
will stop right there. But that's not all the verse.
We stopped at a comma, not a period. It goes on to say, to whom, to
them who are called according to his purpose. Brother Barnard told that young
preacher, says, you ever get a hold of that word purpose,
it'll change your life. God has a purpose. It's eternal
purpose. It's an unchangeable purpose.
It's a perfectly free purpose on his part. And it is an infinitely
wise purpose. And that's what God said about
that. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are the
called according to his purpose. And in 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy,
read the rest of that eighth chapter. That's a wonderful statement.
You can just say, that's my declaration of faith right there. That's
my declaration. All right, 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy
chapter one. No wonder God shares with us
in the book of Revelation, we're talking about the great victory
of Christ. I can shut the lips of the great whore when I want it done. I can shut religion down when
I want it done. If he couldn't, who is he? He's
an imposter. You can go into a town and say,
I shut this religion down for a season. So a man can come along
and preach the gospel of his free grace, and somebody's going
to hear it. I have them marked out. They
need to hear this message. They need to hear this message.
I've got them marked out from eternity. But my spirit will
not move until they hear this message. And I'm going to shut
religion down for a season in this community, in this country,
in this state for a season. so that my people will hear my
voice, and I'll call them out of darkness to my marvelous light. All right, First, Second Timothy.
Second Timothy chapter one, verse nine. This great God, who has
saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality
to light through the gospel. My purpose, we're saved according
to his purpose and grace. And so for a season, And every
time, every year, every decade, every lustrum, five years, every
decade, every half century, every century, every millennium, God,
according to his purpose, has shut down religion so that he
has free course with his word. That's what he said he'd do.
That's what he's doing. Thank God. Thank God. He saves us out of religion.
And when he comes to us, he focuses his people to hear his word. And we don't have, well, I hear
this over here, and I hear this over here, now I wonder what's
right. He shuts the rest down so he
can hear his word. His word, the gospel. Brother
Mike, if you'll come.