17. It's a little bit warm up here. This is the hot spot, I suppose. Here's my subject, God's will
fulfilled. God's will fulfilled. In the book of the revelation
of Jesus Christ, John is led to see some amazing things. And
as we get into chapter 17 and get deeper into it, he witnesses a bunch of enemies against the
Lord Jesus. And this was, to John, astounding. That anybody would be opposed
to the Lamb of God. That anybody would be against
Jesus of Nazareth, that one who is the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. And yet in chapter 17, he sees
all a false religion against him. He sees the kings of the
earth and the empires, the governments of the world in opposition to
King Jesus. And this just, well, it astounds
him. And then we get down, if you
would, in chapter 17, verse 14. Look at verse 13 first. These,
all of these enemies, all of these kings, Revelation 17, 13,
All of the great harlot to his false religion, that's Babylon. All the kings of the earth, all
of the governments, all of these enemies, they all have one mind. And all of them give all of their
power and their strength unto the beast. All their power and
all their strength to the beast, that is to the dragon. to the
red drape, to Satan himself. And it's for this reason, here's
their goal, here's their purpose. Verse 14, These shall make war
with the Lamb. This is why they all come together.
They have one mind, they're all agreed on this. Yeah, it reminds
me of back in Acts, the fourth chapter, where the Jews and the
Gentiles and two men who really despised each other, that is,
Herod and Pontius Pilate, they all came together with one mind
and one goal, and that was to crucify the Son of God. And yet, they all came together
To do God's will is what it says in Acts chapter 4. But here they
all come together, and it is to make war. To make war. And not to make war against some
earthly entity, but to make war against the Lamb of God. Watch it. They shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. This is a foolish notion
that they've got, that if all of them gang up together, if
they all get on the same side together, they can all defeat
the Lamb of God. But this will be a very swift
defeat of all of His foes. of the Lamb of God. And it is
astounding, is it not, that any organization, that any nations,
that any group of people would dare to set themselves against
the Lord of glory. Oh, how foolish you must be to
be against Him who is the only Savior. who is the only one who
can rescue us. He's the only one who can forgive
us. He's the one who died for sinners. He's the very Savior
we need, and yet multitudes are in opposition to the Lamb of
God. He even said on one occasion,
he that is not with me is against me. And I would ask you this
morning, are you with Him? Or are you against Him? Are you
for Him? Do you believe Him? Do you love Him? Do you worship
Him? Do you adore Him? Is He your
all in all? Is He the Savior you need? The
Redeemer you require? Is He the one mediator you look
to between you and a holy God? Are you for Him? Are you with
Him? Or are you against Him? These
all come together against the Lamb of God. Now we know this
anytime in the book of Revelation when you read about the Lamb
of God. That takes us back to when He was slaughtered for sinners,
when He was crucified. when he was wounded for our transgressions,
when he was bruised for our iniquities. He's the Lamb of God. He was
led as a lamb to the slaughter. I'm sure you remember back in
the Old Testament in Genesis, the 22nd chapter, the Lord told
Abraham to take Isaac. Isaac, that one he loved with
all of his heart, that one he had looked for, that he had longed
for, he's the promised seed. And the Lord said, Abraham, you
take Isaac up on a mountain and you offer him as a burnt offering,
where I'll tell you, this being Father's Day, and
we have so many fathers in the congregation this morning, and
several fathers, you have sons. Can you imagine what a trial
of faith this was for Abraham to take his son His only son,
Isaac, whom he loved. But the Lord said, do it, and
Abraham was obedient, and Abraham took him up on the mountain.
He took him, and he had three servants, or two servants that
went with him. And as they went, having left
the two servants behind, Isaac said to his father, Father, here's
the fire, here's the wood. Where's the lamb? Where's the
lamb? We can't worship God without
the lamb. Isaac had heard his daddy say
to those two servants that left behind, said, you two men, you
stay here and I and the lamb will go yonder and worship and
we'll come again. And Isaac knew you can't worship
God without the lamb. There is no rendering any honor
to God without the Lamb. You can't even draw near to God
without the Lamb of God. And so he says, Father, where
is the Lamb? And Abraham said, my son, God
will provide himself a Lamb. for a burnt offering. God will
provide the lamb and God himself will be the lamb. And of course,
Abraham then, speaking prophetically, he looked way yonder beyond Isaac
and looked to the promised seed, that is Christ Jesus, who's the
lamb of God, who was offered for poor sinners like us. And
indeed, indeed, God did provide for Isaac because Isaac didn't
die that day. The substitute was found to die
in his stead. And then Abraham said, the name
of this place is Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide or the
Lord will see to it. The Lord will see to it. And
the Lord will also see. He will see the substitute. He
will see the lamb. This is the lamb that's seen
throughout the Old Testament. and throughout the New Testament.
And like I say, every time, especially in the book of Revelation, when
you see the Lamb of God mentioned, you should always think about
His substitutionary death upon Calvary's cross, because This
is the message of every preacher of the Gospel. It's the message
of the Word of God. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Behold Him. Behold Him. And this
is what astounds John. John, he sees Him as the Lamb. Remember back in chapter 5, he
saw in the book of the One who sat upon the throne of God, he
saw in the hand of the One who sat upon the throne of God, A
book, a book sealed with seven seals? And that's the book of
all of God's decrees. Everything God is purposed to
do is in that book. It's sealed with seven seals,
written within and without, by the hand of God. And John said
nobody could take the book. Nobody could even open the book
or look on the book, much less execute everything written in
the book. But then one of the elders said
to John, don't weep about this. Don't be discouraged. Don't think
there is no hope because the line of the tribe of Judah hath
prevailed. And then John looked and he saw
the Lamb, the Lamb of God in the midst of the very throne
of God. Because you see, He's worthy
to be in the midst of the throne because He is the Lamb. He's
the Lamb of God. He was smitten for sinners. He
died for sinners. He was crucified for sinners.
He was the sacrifice that satisfied God's justice for all of those
in whose stead He died. John sees the Lamb and the Lamb
then reaches up and He takes the book out of the hand of Him
who sat upon the throne. And then all of heaven and earth,
all the saints of God and angels just erupt in adoration and praise
for the Lamb of God. And the saints of God began to
sing, and they sang, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who
has redeemed us unto God by His blood out of every nation and
kindred and tongue and tribe. This is the Lamb of God. And yet, this is the one these
enemies are against. This is the one they set in their
minds to make war against him. This is the Lamb of God. Now
I would remind you of this, since he has the book in his hand,
he is opening all of the seals thereof. Seven seals, and we're
into the seventh seal now as we study the Word of God, as
we study The things that are in the book, these things are
being fulfilled, they're being brought to pass by King Jesus. It's the Lamb of God who's executing
the will and all of the decrees of God. And let me say this,
all of those who believe the Son of God, all of those who
rest in Him, do you rest in Him? Do you believe Him? Is He all
of your hope? Come on now. Have you cast all
of your soul's welfare upon Jesus Christ alone for your salvation? You say, it's His blood. It's
His blood only. That's all my hope. It's His
blood that brought in righteousness for me. Jesus Christ, He's the
only one I look to. He's the only one I hope in.
He's the only one I've got any confidence in. Remember this
then. The Lamb of God rules the world. for the good of His people and
to bring to pass all of the purposes of God. He's the Lamb of God
who ever lives to make intercession for us. Why, He's the Lamb who's
always stood good for us. There's an interesting verse
in the book of Hebrews chapter 7 that makes this statement.
that Jesus is the, He is Himself the surety, the surety of the
everlasting covenant. You know what a surety is? A surety is one who makes certain
that those who are given to Him or entrusted to Him or whatever
duty it is that He has promised to fulfill, He's given His oath
that He will do it. He is Himself the surety of the
everlasting covenant. That's in Hebrews chapter 7 in
verse 22. He is our legal representative. We've always had a legal representative
before God who is responsible for us, even in the covenant
of grace. He is our surety, surety. He stands good for us, and if
you look up I did some study this week. There's a guarantor. In legal aspects, you have a
surety. One can be a surety for you,
or one can be a guarantor for you. And there's a little bit
of differences in the meanings of those. And I talked to a lawyer
several years ago about this. Here's what a guarantor is. A
guarantor, he will Like sign your note for you. He's the third
party. Both a surety and a guarantor,
they're third parties. Like you have a creditor to whom
you owe something. And you're the one who is going
to acquire the debt. You don't have the debt. You
may need a guarantor or a surety. Here's a guarantor. The guarantor
must first go to the person who's in debt and get from them everything
he can, and then whatever's left over, then he goes to the guarantor
and he says, now you've got to pay the rest. That's a guarantor. Quite different from surety,
really, though they're closely They're very similar, I would
say, but here's what a surety is. A surety goes right to that
third party and says, I demand satisfaction for the debt right
now. He doesn't even go to the one
who owes it. He goes to the one who signs the note, who co-signed
the note, so to speak. And he says, you said you'd be
surety. You said you'd be good for the
debt. I've come to collect it from
you. I'm not going to so-and-so who made the debt. I'm coming
to you to collect the debt. That's our Lord Jesus. He's the
surety. He's not the gantor. You see,
the justice of God, the law of God doesn't come to us and say,
you pay what you can pay. and then we'll go to Jesus Christ
and He'll pay what you lack. No, the justice of God doesn't
do that because you can't pay anything. We have no ability
to pay whatsoever. Jesus Christ is Himself. The
Lamb of God is our surety. Our surety. And our debt, He
undertook that for Himself in covenant grace before the world
began. He said, Father, look to me for
their indebtedness. I'll pay it all. I'll pay it
in full. That's assurity. Assurity is
also one who stands good for another in the sense he guarantees
their safety. Over in the book of Genesis chapter
42, you remember your Old Testament history when Joseph His brothers
were envious of him. He had the coat of many colors.
Lots of you remember studying that from your Sunday school
days. The brothers were envious of Joseph. Some of them wanted
to kill him, but finally they sold him into slavery. He wound
up in Egypt. But eventually, through the providence
of God, and we'll have another message to cover that, but he
winds up He winds up sitting at the right hand of Pharaoh.
Pharaoh had had a couple of dreams, and Joseph interpreted those
dreams. It's going to be seven years,
we're going to have plenty of food. And we're going to have
seven years of famine. And Joseph said to Pharaoh, here's
what you better do. You better fill up all the granaries. Because I'll tell you, hard times
are coming. Times are going to be good for seven years. But
after that, it's going to be seven lean years. And so Pharaoh
said, well, I need somebody to take care of this for me. You're
the man for the job. He told Joseph, said, you're
in charge of this. And so Joseph was. Meanwhile,
back in Israel, back in Canaan, there's his daddy, Jacob, who's
brokenhearted because he thinks that Joseph is dead. They enjoy
the seven years of lots of food. And then they hit the famine.
And so he sends his boys and says, go into Egypt. I hear they've
got a lot of grain over there. They've got it for sale. Each
of you take some money with you. And go over there and buy some
grain. But he said, I don't want Benjamin. Benjamin was the youngest.
He said, I don't want Benjamin to go with you. And so he sends
the rest of them over there and they go and of course they finally
get to see Joseph. But Joseph disguised himself
and he spoke to them through an interpreter. So they didn't
recognize their brother, but he recognized them. And he says
to them, who are you men? They said, oh, we're sons of
Jacob over in the land of Canaan. And we need some food. We all
got some money for you. And we've come to buy some grain.
He said, no, I think you're spies. You're just a bunch of spies.
Come over here and see what's going on. Oh, they said, no,
no, we're legitimate. He said, I'll tell you what,
if you tell me the truth, I want one of you's got to stay with
me. This one right here, Simeon. You stay with me. The rest of
you go back and if you really tell me the truth that who you
are, you're the sons of a man named Jacob and you got a younger
brother Benjamin back home. If you're really telling me the
truth, go home. and get your younger brother Benjamin and
bring him back here and then I'll know you're telling the
truth. And then I'll let you traffic in and out of Egypt. That is, I'll let you come and
go and get grain as you need it." He said, then, I'm going
to fill up here some bags for you all. Here's some grain for
you. Each of you take your grain with
you. And so they did. But he also instructed his men,
he said, put their money, each of their money, put it back in
the bag for them. And one of them along the way
decided he was going to feed his mule some grain. And he opened
his bag and he said, man alive, here's my money. I gave my money
to that guy back there in Egypt. And the rest of them said, we
did too. And he said, whoa, this is a strange thing God is bringing
us through here. And they go home to Jacob. And
they tell Jacob the whole story. And he said, oh no, oh no, Joseph
is not. In other words, Joseph is dead
and now you want to take Benjamin from me? He said, all these things
are against me. Jacob forgot the promise of God,
the promise of God that the Lord made to him much earlier in his
life when Jacob saw the ladder reach from heaven to earth. And
the Lord said, I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to
forsake you. I'm going to fulfill every promise
I make to you. He forgot that. Well, Reuben,
who's the oldest, Reuben said, I'll tell you what, Dad. You
send Benjamin with me and I'll take good care of him. And I'll
bring him back safe. And Jacob said, you will not
take my son Benjamin. You see, he wasn't a picture
of Christ Jesus. The only one who's a picture
of Christ Jesus in this is the one through whom Christ came.
Judah. Judah. The tribe of Judah. And so then we get into the next
chapter of Genesis. And times are lean. Boy, they're hungry. And Judah
says, listen to that. We're starving to death here.
You send Benjamin with me. I'll be his surety. And if I
don't bring him back safe, you take my boys. You hold me legally
accountable. And here's what he said, I'll
be surety for him. That's what he said. I'll be surety for him. In other words, I guarantee his
safety. Always, any kind of surety ship,
whether it's about money or safety, it was always taken with an oath. Because it was like a legal matter.
I promise, Dad, I'll bring him back safe. Our Lord Jesus, in
the covenant of grace, the Lamb of God, He was our surety. And He says to the Father, I
promise, All of these that you have given me, I'll bring them
all safely home to you. And he can't be defeated. And
yet, here are his enemies, and they've all ganged up against
him here in Revelation chapter 17, ganged up against the Lamb
of God. Will he be defeated? Absolutely
not! He can't be defeated because
he's the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. These shall make
war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them for this
reason." That's what it says. He's the Lord of Lords, and He's
the King of Kings. And those that are with Him,
they're called, and chosen, and faithful. The cause of God is safe. The
cause of God is secure. because the one who rules all
things is the Lamb of God. Remember the way the book of
Revelation begins. It begins with the Lord Jesus
Christ in the midst of the churches. Do you remember that? He's in
the midst of the churches. You know how the book ends? All
of the people of God are with Him in eternity. And along the
way, There are going to be valleys, and there are going to be mountains.
There are going to be persecutions, and there are going to be difficulties.
But rest assured, the purpose of God cannot fail because of
the One who is our Protector and our God, even the Lamb of
God. I hear in Revelation chapter
17, John sees several things. We do have a nursery over here. You might want to make use of
the nursery over here, ma'am. One of the ladies would probably
show you where the nursery is, would be fine if you want to
exit the auditorium now. Lisa, could you perhaps show
her where the nursery is over here? Here in Revelation chapter
17, she'll help you. In Revelation chapter 17, again,
John sees something that really startles him. He sees something
that is quite amazing to him. In verse 1, there came one of
the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with
me, saying, I want you to come up hither. I'll show you the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. The
great whore, of course, is babbling its false religion. What are
the great waters? The great waters here are the
many waters, as you read down further in the chapter, you'll
find that the many waters are the multitudes of the earth.
Here's this awful harlot. And she has multitudes of people
that are with her. And verse two says, with whom
the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
So he carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness. Into
a wilderness. A wilderness, that's where there's
no food, there's no bread, there's no water, there's no life. That's
where false religion is. Do you remember in, and I'm going
to speak from Luke chapter 15 tonight, and fathers, don't worry,
I'll have a message for you tonight. Father and sons. That's my message
tonight from Luke chapter 15. But also, in the beginning of
Luke chapter 15, there were a man who had a hundred
sheep. And one of them was lost. And
it says, he left the ninety and nine, and he went after the one
lost sheep. You remember the song, there
were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold?
That isn't what the scripture says. The scripture says, he
left the ninety and nine in the wilderness. They weren't in the
fold. They're in the wilderness. Because
those ninety and nine represent the self-righteous Pharisees.
They're in the wilderness where there's no bread. There's no
life. There's no water. And He leaves
them. And remember how he rejoices,
he finds the lost sheep, and then he talks about there's joy
in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. Over 90 and nine who
need no repentance, that's the Pharisees who in their own estimation
said, we don't need to repent because we're not sinners, we're
the seed of Abraham, we're the children of Abraham. He left
those 90 and nine in the wilderness. And he went after one sheep.
In Mark chapter 8, the Savior and His disciples and a bunch
of people were out in the wilderness and the disciples said, where
can a man buy bread here in the wilderness? There's no bread
in the wilderness unless the Son of God brings it forth. You remember the message of John
the Baptist, Mark 1, verse 3, the voice of one crying? Where? In the wilderness! In the wilderness! He's in the midst of Judaism,
a legalistic form of salvation. And that can't save anybody. Rules and laws and regulations,
that is no salvation there. It's desert. And I'll tell you,
that's religion today. It's desert area. It's all wilderness. John says, I was led out in the
wilderness to see this harlot. This harlot. And she's on a scarlet
beast. She's being carried around by
the governments and the kings of the earth. And yet we read
the heart of the kings in the Lord's hand. He turneth it which
way He wants to turn it. John's in the wilderness. He's
taken out of the wilderness. And he sees this scarlet beast. He sees this harlot. And then
he sees all these kings, he sees all these empires, and they're all set against the
Lamb of God. They all have one mind. But watch
this. Look at verse 15. And he saith
unto me, the waters which thou sawest, where the whore setteth,
are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, and
the ten horns which thou sawest, that is, their rulers, their
rulers upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, they'll
turn against her, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall
eat her flesh, and burn her with fire, that is, one of these days,
even the government's gonna turn against her. But look at verse
17. For God hath put in their hearts
to fulfill His will. That's what we've always got
to remember. God has put in their hearts to
fulfill His will. Everything is fulfilling His
will. To agree and to give their kingdom
unto the beasts, watch it, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. until the words of God shall
be fulfilled. Never fear, children of God,
even though there's a massive amount of opposition to the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace, and there's opposition to the
true church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's opposition
to the Lamb of God. Never fear for the cause of God,
because all of these things are happening to fulfill His will. And they'll keep on happening
until the words of God shall be fulfilled. You see, that's
what we discovered about Armageddon. Look back in chapter 16. Chapter 16, we talked about the
river that dries up so that men can come together. We talked
about the three unclean spirits. Why are men coming together? This is what John is observing.
And in verse 14, he says of these three frogs, 16-14, For they
are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto
the kings of the earth, and of the whole world to gather them.
The Lord is gathering them to that great day of God Almighty.
And here in Revelation chapter 17, these are being gathered
together in opposition against the Lamb of God to fulfill His
will. It is the will of God that all
of the enemies of Jesus Christ come together and He'll defeat
them all just like that. And if you're one of His enemies,
you're included in this group. The will of God is going to be
fulfilled. It is going to happen. You see,
the Lord, the Lamb of God reigns always and everywhere. And that's
why I say again to the people of God, don't be discouraged
by the opposition you see against the Gospel. Everything that men
do, All that they say, all of their actions, in a mysterious
way, in a way that we can't comprehend, is fulfilling the will of God. Our God sits on His throne. He's
the Lamb of God. Do you know how He got to the
throne? How did He get to the throne to reign? By way of a
bloody tree. You see, that's what entitled
Him to sit on the throne and to open the book and execute
the will of God. And in everything that happens
throughout the world and in your life is just the Lamb of God bringing
to fulfillment that which God has written down concerning you. That's why we as the people of
God, we shouldn't fuss about what happens, we shouldn't Don't
worry about we shouldn't be anxious. No wonder. Here's what the Apostle
Paul said. Be anxious for nothing. Be anxious
for nothing. But in all things give thanks
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. That's what he says. And everything
that comes to pass in your life is fulfilling the will of God
for you. And I've said it a bunch of times
and I'll continue to say it, if there was a better road, a
better path for you to be on, you who are the children of God,
you would be on it. The road you're on is considered
the best road for you right now by Him who has all wisdom and
all knowledge and all power. This is the Lamb of God. He's
governing all things to fulfill His purpose. And in the end, He will not only
gather all of His enemies together and destroy them, but He will
first of all gather all of His people together and bring them
unto Himself that we may be with Him Always. Always. The book of Revelation, I know
it's a mysterious book in many ways. But it was never intended
to scare the people of God or to leave us questioning, what
is this all about? I can tell you what it's all
about. It's all about the victory of the Lamb and His followers. over the dragon and his followers. We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. Let's get our psalm books and
sing of the unsearchable riches of Christ Jesus. Number 495. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ. 495. Let's stand together. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, wealth that can never be told, riches exhaustless of
mercy and grace, precious, more precious than gold. Precious, more precious, wealth
that can never be told. All the unsearchable riches of
Christ, Precious, more precious than gold. Oh, the unsearchable riches of
Christ, Who shall their greatness declare? Jewels whose luster our lives
may adorn, Pearls that the porous may wear.