Alright, Revelation chapter 13. And I'd like to read the first eight
verses of this. And I stood upon the sand of
the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven
heads and ten horns. And upon his horns ten crowns,
and upon his heads the name which should have been translated names
of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was
like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him
his power, and his seat, and his great authority. And I saw
one of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly
wound was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon,
which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast,
saying, Who is like unto the beast, and who is able to make
war with him? And there was given unto him
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies. And power was
given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened
his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and
his tabernacle and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given
unto him to make war with the saints and to overcome them.
Power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him Whose names
are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world I Wrote this Whatever all these
verses represent, we may not ever completely understand in
this life. But we can understand this. If
it wasn't for God's electing love, everyone would be sold
out to those who oppose God. That's the only thing that makes
all the difference. And that's what's brought out
in verse 8. To the natural man, all these
things are quite inviting. There's nothing that the beast
has that's not inviting to the flesh. It's very inviting to
the flesh. The things that he does, I don't
understand all I read here, but I understand this, that religion
to natural man is quite inviting. and it is appealing, and it appeals
to the senses, it appeals to the flesh, it appeals to everything
but to the spirit, because it's dead, and it can't be appealed
to. Now the only thing that makes
all the difference here is found in verse 8. The things that these
people do, that the world does, that those whose names are not
written in the book of life, if we just follow them down,
they're following the worst form, the most blasphemous form, the
most ungodly form of anything in this world. whether how this
is interpreted how we interpret how we look at it whether it's
past present future or ongoing is nothing here to Christ's church
and to his people that is appealing this entity whether it and for
a long time I wondered if this just wasn't natural man's religion
this beast and everything represents it it's just natural man's inclination
to religion but everything about it is blasphemous to God it does
not honor God it does not honor God's son does not honor God's
Holy Spirit does not honor the word doesn't honor God's purpose
of grace doesn't honor any of his Sayings it honors nothing
about God and that's what these are doing They're not honored
honor to God and yet the whole world is following after them
the alternative to election Is found here The alternative
to election is found in this passage of scripture the alternative
to election is to follow the beast and The alternative to
election is to follow the dragon. The alternative to election is
to follow blasphemy. The alternative to election is
to follow after everything that hates God. The alternative is
listed here, whether we understand exactly what everything means,
that is the alternative. And wherever we go in the scriptures,
the alternative to God being involved in our salvation is
going to be found in this type of passage of scripture, where
people don't love God, where they're blasphemous, where they're
after things that appeal to the flesh. And I think what Paul
said when he said to Corinthians or Thessalonians, were, and I
think he could have put there, and it may be in the original,
such were all of you. We read such for some of you,
but I just, Paul would be glad to say, in our stead and in his
stead, we're all in that boat. And we're all blasphemous by
nature, and we're all away from God, and we're all looking to
ourself, and we're looking for things that appeal to the eye,
to the mind. Eve grabbed that piece of fruit
and saw that it was appealed to her eye, appealed to her mind,
and appealed to her desire to be wise. And that's what it is
when we're in this religion. So it just says there's the miracle
here some way of this beast being wounded and then it was a deadly
wound and it was healed. And people make all kinds of
statements about the miracles of their religion. The miracles
that have gone on, all of the things that are there, that appeal
to the flesh. But this is the alternative to
verse 8. In verse 8 we have, there is
only one thing that makes all the difference in the world.
And that it says, all that dwell upon the earth shall worship
him whose names are not written in the book of life of the land
slain from the foundation of the world. Now that's the alternative. That's the cutting point. That's
the line of demarcation. That's the separation between
God and people. This is all that do not have
their names written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. They will follow after this without
exception. And call it religion, call it
their approach to God, call it their way to God. And it's the
way of blasphemy because if we're not If we're not in God's love,
if we're not in God's elective love, and we approach God with
anything else, we just have the names of blasphemy to God. The word God should stand for
something, and it only does to the church. The word G-O-D, capital
G-O-D, only stands for something to the church. And that is, what
he had to say is right, and what he does is right, and where he
goes is right, and who he saves is right, and where he is is
right. Everybody in the church agrees
with that. Now, turn with me, if you would, over to the book
of 1 Peter. Two or three verses here of just plain review. Because
the alternative to election is this. Following after the beast. Following after lies. Following
after blasphemies. Following after religion. Following
after self. Following after miracles. Following
after the flesh. That is the alternative to election. In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 2,
Peter is enumerating a group of strangers He's sharing with us where they're
located. And these strangers are strangers to this world.
They've been translated out of the kingdom of darkness and placed
into the kingdom of His dear Son. The alternative to election
is darkness. The alternative to election is
away from God. The alternative to election is
natural man. The alternative to election is
following after blasphemies. That's the alternative. And if
people come and say, I don't believe in this, I don't believe
in election, the alternative is serious. There is no hope
in it. There is no peace in it. And
the alternative found in that passage of Scripture, notice
here, these strangers scattered abroad, they're elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father. 1 Peter chapter 1 verse
2. Now that makes the difference.
There is no preservative but the electing grace of God. Nobody will be preserved from
this. It goes rampant through the human
race from the time of Adam. It is the fastest moving sickness
that has ever moved. It's worse than the most serious
flu. Now, we have three or four days
of incubation with that. We're feeling fine. Don't even
know we're going to get it. But with this, it's instantaneous
travel through the entire human race. And the alternative to
this position before God is elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. He must deal with it before it
is started. He must have a means of dealing
with this terrible, terrible sickness before it was ever implanted
in the human race. And that's why we find in Revelation
chapter 13 and verse 8, there was a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He's the one that is giving the
inoculation against all of this dreadedness. The alternative
to God and to His Son and to elective grace is serious and
it has traveled through the human race in an instantaneous moment
when Adam ate that fruit. And every time our child is born
into this world is passed that strain on with no hold back. There is nothing found. Doctors
of the law have made every attempt to stop the strain that is traveling
so quickly and so rapidly through the human race. And they proposed
works, doctrine, baptism, Lord's Supper, all kinds of things.
Even, you must be in our church. And it hasn't stopped the strain
at all. There is only one that can do
that, and that's the Lamb that was slain before the foundation
of the world. All the other things have been
invented after it happened. Everything else that has ever
been proposed took place after it happened. And after it happened,
the man that brings it up has a faulty mind. He can't deal
with the issue. He's already got the flu. He's
already sick. He's already got the problem.
And to bring up these issues, these ways, these manners, these
means, we're dealing with a serious problem and we're only proposing
things by sick people. And God has already purposed
how to do this. Elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit. We've got the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit mentioned in this verse
on how He takes care of His business. And this is the only alternative
to following the beast. This is the only alternative
to following that dragon. The only one. He says here, unto
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace
be unto you and peace be multiplied. So this grace of God is exercised
in his statement about how he takes care of us and how he's
already prepared before the world began, already prepared for the
calamity. We just hear about that calamity
and the great tragedy down. According to God's purpose, I
recognize that. But there's a lot of suffering
going on there. During the best of times, they
don't even have an emergency room. During the best of times,
they can't put up a building that will stand. Buildings fell
down in some of those countries, and it didn't have to take an
earthquake to do it. Poor buildings, just poor building. Well, when it comes to our relationship
to God, people have come up with some of the sorriest, sorriest
ideas at the expense of God having a purpose before the world began,
and people just don't want that. That's the only alternative.
It's a serious problem. And you read down through there
in Revelation chapter 13. It is so serious because everybody
is following after that except... those whose names are written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now, turn with me if you would,
another just plain refresher, right over here in Ephesians
chapter 1. I'm only going to read a couple
of verses in Ephesians, but this is the alternative. Election
is the alternative to following the beast. Election is the alternative
from following the dragon. Election is the alternative to
following blasphemy. Election is the alternative to
speaking lies and promoting that. This is the only alternative
God ever gave. It is being elect before the
foundation of the world and having names written down in the Lamb's
Book of Life with the Lamb slain from before the foundation of
the world. That's it. And if people... I was in that
boat. And thank God that we don't send
away our day of grace. That we don't do so much that
God will never deal with us. Because we would already have
done that. And yet, because He has a purpose,
He will not allow His people to be cast away. They will be
brought in. Ephesians 1 verse 3, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he hath chosen us in him. That's the alternative. What's left over is following
all the other stuff. Following after lies and blasphemy,
having worship of the beast and the great dragon, and what all
of that encompasses. Our worst enemy is our own invention.
What we think. Well that just really gets it
done. Read the Bible. Well I think,
whoa, we're on faulty ground already. Let's just, well, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Holy,
it's blasphemy or holy. Without blame or lies. That's the alternative. We're
stuck in this. The strain went through the human
race instantaneously in Adam. That's why the scriptures share
with us the Holy Spirit gave it to Paul to write, in Adam
all die. It went through like lightning.
It was worse than the speed of light. 186,000 miles per second. It covered the entire human race
in that quick. And the alternative to that for
eternity is God writing names down in the Lamb's Book of Life
before the world began. Turn with me, if you would, to
the Book of Luke. The Lord Jesus, and we have people that model
themselves after this, they went out two by two. The Lord sent
out 70 people, two by two. That means two people went out. 35 groups, 35 doublets went out
preaching the gospel. They had something to say that
was important. They were preaching Christ. I
don't think I'll ever forget our friend Brother Lance talking
about that guy down there in New Guinea. While he's been away,
a group went down there and tried to sow some, this guy's a leader,
let's get him, then we got the whole tribe. And all he could
say is, they said, nothing about Christ. They said, nothing about
Christ. Well, I want to meet that man. That's the kind of people we
want to meet. Someone who says something about Christ. Before
the foundation of the world, since the foundation of the world,
and after the foundation of the world. I want to hear something
about that Christ. In the book of Luke chapter 10,
the Lord sent out 35 doublets. And they had success. Things
went their way. They were preaching the gospel
and they came back with this. Wow, Lord. What a mission trip
we had. And it says right here, Luke
chapter 10, verse 17. And the 70 returned again with joy. Now that's what I find when I
saw Lance. He came back with joy. He's going to go back with
joy. Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us through thy name. Now they knew where their power
was from. They made no mistake about that. Through thy name. Silver and gold I have none,
but such as I have. And he said unto them, I beheld
Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto you
power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all powers
of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Now that
verse is not talking about us handling snakes. It's spiritual
success. God's going to give His people
spiritual success over all the enemies. The worst snake in the
grass that walked the face of this earth is me. Saul of Tarsus said, I am the
worst snake in the grass. And God's power through his word
is able to overcome the greatest snakes. Notwithstanding in this,
rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you. This is
not the big issue. But rather rejoice because your
names are written in heaven. This can't be removed. This can't
be taken away. This is the alternative. This is the only way you'll be
moved from the position that you're in. This is the only way
that this great dreaded, strained disease that has gone rampant
through the human race can be changed and altered. And he does
that by taking us out of the kingdom of darkness. He does
that by giving us the new birth. I can't wait, since we've been
doing a little study on regeneration and a new birth, I just can't
wait for someone to tell me that they got born again by being
baptized. And I'm just going to say, is
that how your father treated your mom and that's how you were
born? Through a bucket of water in your mother's face? Oh, give
us a break. That's not how people are born.
And that's not how people are born again by having a bucket
of water thrown in their face, or by taking some elements of
the Lord's Supper, or being good. That's not how we got into this
world to begin with. And that's not how we're ever
going to get into the kingdom of God in the new birth. It's
an act of God. All right? He said here, rejoice
that your names are written in heaven. This Lamb's Book of Life. Now if somebody came along, I
almost call him an idiot, I've never met him, but there's a
song in our hymn book. And a lot of churches, they just
sing that. There's a new name written in glory. Now, ooh, if
you've ever stopped to think about that, that is so blasphemous. That is so full of lies. that that is bad song and should
be cut out. X'd out. It's a terrible thing
to even hum that. Well, maybe we should get a good
song that matches that tune. I don't know. A new name written
down in glory? That's blasphemy. That's lies. That's following after the beast.
That is following after the serpent. That is following after the worst
of the worst because everyone whose names are not written in
the Book of Life before the foundation of the world will follow after
the beast and the serpent and everything that goes with it. And the only people that will
ever, ever have a change of heart and mind about God are those
he's written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world began. Now, it's before we ever did
any good or evil. That's what it brings up there
in Romans chapter 9. Before those children had done
any good or evil, before they could do any good works or done
anything that was recognizable as bad in the front of other
people, God chose the youngest. and wrote his name down in the
Lamb's Book of Life. It's an eternal book with eternal
names written from eternity. There wasn't a time that God
wrote it down. It's always been. So it's blasphemy
to say he put a new name. That means God changed his mind
or God was changed. So his mind would write down
a new name. Oh, I accepted Jesus, so he's going to write my name.
No, no, no, no, that's backwards. We trust Christ because our names
are there. We find out our names are there
when we trust Christ. They're there. And the worst
of the worst, Saul of Tarsus, John Newton, Isaac Watts, William
Jay, all these guys that Robert Hawker, he says some things about
himself before he was saved. He was a religious man, pastored
a church, went through the form of it before God ever gave him
the gospel. He was a blasphemer. Paul said,
I was a blasphemer. What did he say? God can't do
what he says he will do. God won't save Gentiles. He's
already said he would. Saul says he won't. He's a blasphemer. Anytime we take our side against
the Word of God, we're a blasphemer against God. Thank God He protects
us by putting our name in His book in eternity past and will
not lose one. Now, turn with me, if you would,
over to the book of Numbers. Numbers. I was going to read this whole
account, but you will. You can. Numbers, the book of
Numbers, chapter 13. This is the account Moses sent
in 12 spies into the land to just reconnoiter. They're the Lewis and Clarks.
there to go in and spy out the land and see what it is and how
good it is and Moses already knew how good it was. He'd been
already shown it was good. There are several in Israel that
already knew how good it was. It was the land promised to Abraham. Now, here in chapter 13, it lists
the people that were chosen out of each tribe. Names and which
tribe they're from. Who they represent. And they
go in and they find out this is really a good land. I can't
imagine one flock of grapes had to be carried by two men. Can
you imagine that? I've seen pictures of how people
have depicted this. And they depict it with grapes
this big. I think they were grapes like this. It was just a big
cluster. Can you imagine? Raisins that
could be made out of that? They carried it between two men, brought
it back. It flowed with milk and honey. It was a good land. And ten of those guys came back
and they blasphemed. And they lied. And the only reason
that everybody else in that camp that was over 21 years old agreed
with them is that's how they had to come back with a report. They were following after the
beast. And it didn't take any time at
all. And those ten convinced the rest of the people, we can't
do it. And there's two in. They're standing
up says, we can do it. A lot of times, oh my goodness,
how faithful Joshua and Caleb were to stand up against all
of Israel and bring back this good report. Numbers 14, 24. But my servant Caleb, because
he had another spirit with him, That's the only reason. God had given him another spirit.
Two men came back out of ten, and those two were the only ones
over age 20 that went into the land, and the rest all died in
unbelief. That's what it says in Hebrews. died in unbelief, except for
two. Now, I don't know if they were
like Methuselah. He died just before
the flood happened. It appears that he knew the Lord,
but he wasn't put in the ark in the sense that Noah was. I think he was probably in the
real ark. but he died just before it happened. Now, there may have
been some people that died just before this happened, but when
I read that, they drop like flies. That's not what it says, but
they drop like flies, and in 38 years, all of that generation
was gone, and the next generation come on, and there's a whole
flock of them that got the same disease. They just get to go
in as a picture. Second-born ones. They get to
go in. It says there, But my servant
Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed
me fully, him will I bring into the land where into he went,
and his seed also shall possess it. I've given him another spirit. He did the same thing for Joshua.
And those two old men are the only ones that got to go into
the land of promise. because God had given them a
faithful spirit. Going back to the book of Revelation,
chapter 13. The description of the beast, I don't
know about you, but when I read this, I had to say, Lord, take
those pictures out that I saw on the charts. Wash them out,
because that's not what it's talking about. He's not talking
about that. I don't know exactly. I read
Robert Hawker and he thinks that this is this. Different period
of time when Pope Rick came on. I don't know. I think it's still
here. I don't think it has to be just... I think it was in the Garden
of Eden. I think it was in Israel's time. This whole thing was there
too. What all this means, I don't
know. But I know this, that everyone whose name was not written in
the Book of Life followed And that's the alternative. Election
is the only good alternative. Having our names written in the
Lamb's Book of Life is the only alternative to this. We'll do
this naturally. We'll follow this naturally.
The intervention is election. Election according to the foreknowledge
of God. That's the only intervention.
left to ourselves, without God dealing with us, we'd be in this
camp. It goes through and explains
great Verse four, and they worshipped
the dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped
the beast, and whose like unto the beast, and whose able to
make war with him, and that were given unto him a mouth speaking
great things, and blasphemies, and powers given unto him to
continue forty and two months. That's exactly the same amount
of time that the church is hidden in the wilderness. Just put it
in a different form. Until the Lord comes back. He opened his mouth and blasphemy
against God. God says I have a people and
someone says he doesn't have a people and it's our choice.
That's blasphemy. That's a lie. And the only way
we'll ever change our opinion about it is when he gives us
the new birth and we find out he's dealing with us before the
world began. It says there, verse 7, it was
given unto him to make war with the saints. Well, having this
system or this being or this item or these people making war
with the saints. What's it called? Saints. Made
war with the saints. To be in that camp and to have
war against us is much better off than being in the other camp
and following the beast and not having your names written in
the Lamb's Book of Life. Boy, this war just, this is trivial
compared to what the rest is. And he's given power over kindreds
and tongues and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of
life. It's just going to be as natural as falling off a log.
All will worship Him. Started in Adam in the Garden
of Eden. Went through the human race that
quick. It hasn't been stopped by any human intervention or
human means. And the only solution is the
blood of Christ. And He only has that solution
for those who are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And
then, if any man have an ear, let him hear. And the only way
we get that is the Holy Spirit opens our ears. Job said, I've
heard of you with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye seeth
you. Big difference. Big difference. We're going to
stop there tonight and we'll pick this up Lord willing next
time. Election is good. It beats the alternative.