Revelation chapter 17. I titled
the lesson this morning, The Victory of the Land. You may
recall in our last lesson, the angel came to John to reveal
to him the mystery of false religion. And the mystery of false religion
was its nature, the nature of false religion. False religion
was represented to us as a whore who sells her wares, who sells
herself, who sells her soul or body for money. In false religion,
has power over the whole world because it so much appeals to
the nature of man. And while that false religion
will always oppose the gospel of free grace in Christ Jesus,
it will never be victorious. Not just at the end of time,
but throughout all time, all of human history, false religion
will be opposed, fiercely opposed to the gospel of free grace in
Christ. And when John saw it, he wondered
with a great wonder. At the end of verse six says,
and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. That word
admiration is wonder. I wondered with a great wonder
when I saw this mystery of false religion, its power in the world. But this is the lesson of our
text. It's the lesson of the whole book of Revelation. No
matter how powerful our enemies are, no matter how powerful false
religion is in the world, Christ our Savior will be the ultimate
victim. False religion, Satan, the powers
of man will never ever cause our Savior to lose one soul for
whom He died. Christ will be the mighty conqueror.
His people will be more than conquerors in Him because of
Him. So I have three things I hope
we can learn this morning from our text. The first one is this.
I want us to learn some things about the nature of false religion. in the end of false religion.
First, false religion, while it's very powerful, has a lot
of influence in the world today, it's not gonna last because of
its nature. Its nature is the nature of man
who won't last, who is a failure. Verse seven of Revelation 17.
An angel said unto me, wherefore dost thou marvel? I will tell
thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth
her, which hath seven heads and ten horns. Now the angel asked
John, why did you wonder so much about this whore, this beast?
Why were you so concerned about them? Don't worry about them
too much. Because false religion gets its power from the nature
of man. The seven heads that John saw,
you'll remember, represent the governments of this world that
rule the world like the head rules the body. These aren't
seven particular governments, powerful governments in the history
of the world. It's not Egypt and Babylon and Rome Russia or
whoever, you know. It's not seven specific governments. The seven head represents the
governmental powers that are always in the world. And they
will always oppose the gospel of free grace because they get
their power from sinful men. Verse nine tells us that. And
here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sit. The woman sits, she rests upon
the powers of the world, the worldly government support false
religion. In verse 18, the woman which
thou sawest is the great city, Babylon, which represents false
religion, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. She gets
her power from the earth and she reigns over this whole earth.
That's what the seven heads represent. The 10 horns represent powerful
people on the earth. That's what horns represent in
scripture, power. These powerful people exalt themselves
above the earth. They exalt themselves to the
point of opposing the Lord Jesus Christ. And it should be no surprise
to us that that happens. The nature of our flesh is to
oppose Christ. So just don't get too bent out
of shape about it. Because they're not going to
like this. If they're opposed to the Lord Jesus Christ, they
may have power for a time. but the Lord's going to put them
down in his time. Verse 12, and the 10 horns which
thou sawest are 10 kings, which have received no kingdom as yet,
but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. They do
have power. They're kingdoms of powerful
people of the past, people who will continue to be powerful,
but they're just going to have that power, that influence for
one hour, just a set time by our God. Look back at 2 Thessalonians
2. This has always been and always
will be the nature of man. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 1. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering together
unto him, that you be not soon shaken in mind or be troubled,
either by spirit, or by word, or by letter, as from us, as
the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any
means, for that day shall not come, except there come a falling
away first. And that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all
that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
Remember ye not that when I was with you, I told you these things?
See, this isn't something that's just going to happen at the very
end of the earth, the very end of human time on earth. The Apostle
Paul told us this must happen. He's speaking here of the Antichrist,
and the Antichrist isn't just one person. It's an attitude. It's the religion of man that
has been trying to exalt itself against God from the very beginning
of human history. Adam ate the fruit that God told
him not to eat. The reason Adam did that was
he wanted to be God. He didn't want to be like God,
knowing good from evil. Adam wanted to be God, determining
what is good and evil. He wanted to be able to determine
those things for himself. That's human nature. And it hasn't
changed from then until now. And it's not going to change
from now till Christ returns. This flesh is not going to change.
So all men and all governments formed by men, all manner of
false religion is all going to agree on that to make war against
the land. That's what verse 13 tells us.
These have one mind and should give their power and strength
unto the beast. They'll do it willingly. The
way of man will always oppose the gospel of free grace in Christ.
Now it's going to take many different forms, but it'll always be the
same. until Christ returns. Verse 10,
there are seven kings, five are fallen and one is, and the other
has not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue
his short space. Now again, these aren't, you
don't have to count up seven major governments of the world.
We get to the seventh one, you know, the world's going to end.
This is just telling us that human governments will always
be the same. Some have risen to power. And
now they've gone by the wayside. Some are in power now, but there's
always going to be one ready to take its place. Seven is not
telling us the number of great powers, you know, the governments
and the history of the world. Seven is the number of completeness.
All this is teaching us is this, that God's time for the governments
of the world to have power and influence over God's creation
is not yet complete. They're going to continue having
this power on the earth. while God's using them. Even
though they're evil, even though they're wicked, even though they're
opposed to him, even though they're opposed to his gospel, God is
using them to accomplish his purpose of the redemption of
his people. And when God's done using them and his purpose is
complete, he's going to wrap it up and be done. But not until
then. So don't be surprised when you
see all the powers of the earth standing opposed to the gospel
of free grace. They always will. All these different
governments, they're going to take on different forms. Some
of them will be republics, some of them will be communists, some
of them will be dictatorships, some of them will be whatever
they are. But at their core, they're always going to be the
same. Their core is to oppose God, oppose his gospel, oppose
salvation in Christ, because that's the nature of man. That's
where they get their nature from. And eventually, they're going
to fall. I don't care how powerful they appear right now. Eventually
they're going to fall because they're built on sin. They're
built upon the weak, crumbling, dead, fallen nature of sinful
man. So that's not going to last. All right. Second, false religion
is not going to last. It gets its power from the nature
of man and it gets its power from Satan. Verse 8, the angel
tells us that the beast that thou sawest was and is not and
shall send out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. They
that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names are not written
in the book of life from the foundation of the world when
they behold the beast that was and is not and yet is. Now this
beast, remember, is Satan. And Satan's always going to operate
in the world. This is his sphere. He's the
prince of the power of the air. And man is always going to follow
him. And that's never going to change.
The end of the verse says here that Satan was and is not and
yet is. Satan's always been in the world.
And yet the angel says he is not. He doesn't mean he's not
in the world anymore. He means he's not operating in
that form anymore. But he's still here. He's still
operating against God. Satan is a very, very powerful
enemy. And as I've told you before,
I wouldn't go looking for him. That's not wise. Don't go looking
for him. He'll sift us. He's a powerful enemy. But we
don't have to worry too much about him because he's not going
to last either. He is going to come up out of the bottomless
pit, bringing a religious message. His message is a message that
comes straight from the pit of hell. He's going to come up out
of the pit of hell. He's going to deliver that message
on the earth. And it'll be frightening. Many people will follow him.
but he's not gonna last. He's gonna go right back where
he came from. He's going to go into perdition. Verse eight tells us that, and
so does verse 11. And the beast that was and is
not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven, and he goeth
into perdition. That's where he's going to end,
in ruin. Now, in verse 11, John talks
about these seven again. It says those seven, those governments
of the world, and Satan is the eighth. The best way I can think
of to explain that is this. Satan is an extension of the
governments of the world. He's an extension of those seven.
And the governments of the world are an extension of Satan. They're
just tied together. They have the same nature, and
they're not going to last. They're going to go into perdition,
into ruin. Here's the third thing about
false religion, and this is so sad. People in false religion,
they're going to see the error of it. But not until it's too
late. Verse 16. And 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. People who have sought refuge
in false religion eventually are going to hate the whore.
They're going to hate this false religion. They're going to want
to destroy it. They're going to want to burn it up eat it up
and just do everything they can to get rid of it. But it's too
late. It's too late. Judas Iscariot
and Esau, perfect examples of it. They both saw what they did
was wrong when it was too late. They had a false repentance,
but it was too late. You know, Judas Iscariot had
a false repentance. He acted sorry about it, but
he didn't turn to Christ, did he? No, he went and hung himself. instead of falling at the feet
of Christ. It's too late. It's a false repentance. They
never truly repented. They never turned to Christ and
they perished. Now, all of this has happened throughout the history
of the world, and it's going to keep happening. Christ returns. These things are going to keep
happening. They're going to be frightening. They're going to
cause the church sorrow. It's going to be painful. This
is going to be an awful enemy. that the church is going to have
to contend with until our Savior returns. But you know why all
this is happening? You know why all of it always
happens? It's because it's God's purpose. God's using these things
to accomplish his eternal purpose of the redemption of his people. Verse 17. For God hath put it
in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree, give their
kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. All this has been done on earth
is going to continue to happen on earth because it's God's will
for it to happen. You and I can't understand this,
but God is using even this wicked, even the wicked governments of
the world, wicked people of the world, wicked false religion
that's in the world, he's using it to accomplish his purpose
of the redemption of his elect. And when his will is accomplished,
he's going to put an end to it. This is something that we can't
say too often, We need to be reminded of it often because
this is such comfort and assurance to the hearts of God's people.
Our God is sovereign over all. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing
happens in this creation that's not God's will for it. Even when
it's wicked, God's using it to accomplish his purpose. So we
don't need to wonder too much about it. Just rest in our God. All right, here's the second
thing I want us to learn. I want us to learn some things about
how Christ, our Savior, will be victorious over the world.
Verse 14. Now these shall make war with
the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord
of lords and King of kings. And they that are with Him are
called and chosen and faithful. Now you read that verse, and
the first reason that it's obvious The Lord Jesus Christ is going
to be victorious over the world. He's Lord of Lords. He's King
of Kings. Who could stand against Him?
He rules over everything. Our Savior is sovereign. And He's willed to save the people. He went to Calvary's tree, took
the sin of a people and His own body on the tree, and He suffered
and died to put their sin away. Is He going to lose one of them? Our Savior is sovereign. No one
He purposed to save can ever perish. Our God is sovereign
over this world. So nothing that happens in this
world can cause one of His elect to fall away from Him or be taken
away from Him. He's sovereign over the world.
He's sovereign over the hearts of men. Can wicked men come and
steal away one of God's elect from Him? No, He's sovereign
over their hearts. He's sovereign over the hearts
of His people. He'll break their stony heart. He'll break them
in their rebellion and cause them to come to Him. He's not
going to lose one. He's sovereign. Our Lord is sovereign
in salvation. He is the perfect maker. The
Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth as a man and He's perfect.
And that makes His sacrifice able to justify His people from
their sin. He put their sin away. He's sovereign.
You know, I can't do that. He can't. Because He's sovereign.
And He gives His people a new heart. A heart that loves Him.
A heart that believes Him. A heart that clings to Him. A
heart that will not leave Him. He's sovereign. He's not going
to lose anyone for whom He died. Our Savior is the Lord of Lords. And He's the King of Kings. So
there's no earthly power can stand in opposition to Him. Now that's good doctrine. that
sound, good, true doctrine. But can I say it's more than
good doctrine? God's sovereignty over all things is the assurance
of salvation to His people. Nothing can stop God's will to
save His people from their sin. None of them can perish. That's
our assurance. It can't be lost. If it was up
to me, I'd lose it in a heartbeat, but it's not. It's up to Him. It's all in His sovereignty.
None of His will will ever perish. In God's sovereignty over all
things, over every event, everything that happens, that is the comfort
of God's people. When these events come up and
they hurt our flesh, trials come that hurt the flesh, we think
it's going to crush us. This is our comfort. Do we understand
why it's happening? No, we do not. No. But this is
our comfort. They've been sinned by our sovereign
God. Then it's okay. It's okay. Even
if I don't understand it, it's okay. Even though the battle's
hot and the trial is severe, this is our comfort. Christ,
our Savior, is gonna be victorious. And His people are gonna be more
than conquerors in the end. He's the Lord of lords and King
of kings. Now, the second point is not
quite as obvious, but it's a very real blessing. Lord Jesus Christ,
our Savior, is going to be victorious over every enemy because of his
perfect sacrifice for his people. They will make war against the
Lamb. They're not going to make war
against the king of kings, are they? They're going to make a
war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them. All
throughout Scripture, many times we've seen this in our study
of Revelation. The Lord Jesus Christ is described as a lamb,
in his office as a lamb, as a sacrifice. That's all throughout scripture.
You remember when Abraham took his son to the top of that mountain
to offer him there as a burnt offering? Abraham told Isaac,
gave him a prophecy of Christ the lamb. My son, God will provide
himself a lamb for the sacrifice. The Passover lamb they took,
they watched it for those days, they killed its body at the right
time, they roasted its body with fire, they put the blood on the
door, they went in. That Passover lamb is a picture
of Christ our Savior. It's because of His blood God
passes over His people. And then one day John the Baptist
was there, his disciples with him. And he stopped in his tracks
and he explained the whole Old Testament. He explained the whole
Old Testament in one sentence. He explained every land you read
about in the Old Testament scriptures. Behold, look at it. Behold, the land of God was taken
away. Every Old Testament land was
a picture of this land. They all pictured the person
and work, the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ in false religion. The nature of man despises They
will make war against the Lamb. They'll refuse to bow to the
Lamb. They're too proud to bow to the
Lamb. They're still like Adam. They want to be their own governor.
They want to be their own ruler. They want to be their own judge.
They refuse to believe on the Lamb. It's got to be more complicated
than that. They just refuse. They're so
blind, they do not see their need of the sacrifice. They refuse
to submit themselves to the righteousness of the Lamb. They still think
they can produce some of their own. They refuse the blood of
the land. And you know why that is? They
don't think their sin's that bad. I've done some wrong things,
but I'm not totally depraved. Everything I do is not sin. They
refuse the blood of the land. They refuse to see the need of
the new birth. You must be born again. But they say, no, I'm
not dead. I mean, I'm not perfect, but
I can still learn some things. I can still do some things to
improve it. They hate the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just that,
oh, you know, they love Jesus and they do all these moral things,
these moral lessons that they do. No, they hate the Lamb. They hate Christ. And they make
war against Him. But John writes to tell us, have
no fear. The Lamb will overcome. He'll overcome them. in the office
of the sacrifice. He overcomes them in the sacrifice
that he offered for his people. Christ the Lamb will have the
victory. He will have everyone that he
purchased on Calvary Street. He'll have the victory. He will
have them all with him in glory because he was sacrificed to
atone for their sin. Christ the Lamb and his sacrifice
took away every reason God had to be mad at his elect. The sacrifice
of the Lamb took away every reason that His people should be separated
from God. He'll have the victory. He'll
have them all with Him in glory and He will be defeated if even
one of them lost. The Lamb will overcome them.
Christ is going to have the victory. He'll have all the preeminence
and He'll have all the glory because the blood of the Lamb
accomplished the will of His Father. redeem His people from
their sin. Heaven's going to be God's trophy
case where He shows off the exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness
to His people through the perfect life and the death of Christ
the Lamb. He will overcome. All right,
thirdly, I want us to learn this. Why will God's people, why will
they overcome the world? Well, in short, the answer is
this. God's elect are going to be victorious over the world
because we're in Christ, who is the mighty conqueror. We will
be more than conquerors. How? Through what we do. Through
the Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us and made us his people. John
describes God's people as those who are with Christ. They're
with Christ because they have union with Christ. God's put
them in Christ and they're one with Christ. So whatever it is
he's done, his people have done in him. Now, we'll contend with
these enemies. We'll contend with Satan. We'll
contend with false religion. We'll contend with the nature
of man. And not just the nature of man of people out there. We'll
contend with the nature of man right here that we carry around.
We're going to contend with that to the day we die. But Paul told
the church at Rome, you be of good cheer. The God of peace. will brew Satan under your heel
shortly. It'll happen shortly. Look back at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. Here's the simple answer. God's
people will have the victory because Christ is going to give
it to them. That's why they have it. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 57. The thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory. through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we have the victory,
because God's given it to us in Christ. God's people will
be victorious because of what Christ has accomplished for us
and in us. There's three descriptive words
here he gives to those people who are joined to Christ. First,
they'll be victorious because God called them to Christ. They
are called, John said. They've been powerfully called
through the preaching of the gospel. The Holy Spirit calls
his elect to repentance and faith in the heart. This is not just
a call that goes to the ears that you just hear my voice.
I mean, I guess it starts there, but when the spirit calls you,
he calls in the heart. He calls his people through the
preaching of the gospel. You're not going to do it sitting
out in the woods somewhere. It's through the preaching of
the gospel, through the preaching of the word of God. Faith cometh
by hearing. Hearing what? The Word of God. James says, if his own will begat
he us, how? With the Word, the Word of truth. The Spirit calls his people powerfully,
irresistibly. He calls them to Christ through
the preaching of the Word. And when the Spirit calls, they
come. They come lovingly. They come
willingly. They come in faith. They've been
called to Christ. Second, God's people will be
victorious because God chose them in Christ. They're called
and they're chosen. God's people, every one of them,
have been chosen by God unto salvation. There can't be any
salvation without God's electing of them. There can't be any victory
without, first, there being God's election of a people to save.
But did you notice the order that these traits are listed
in? I can't say in time because we
go back to eternity, but election came first, didn't it? Before
the foundation of the world, before anything happened, God
elected a people. Election came first. Our calling
came second. In time, God fulfilled his purpose
and he called his people, but he called them one by one. He
calls them to the preaching of the gospel long after he elected
them. So why is calling listed first
and election listed second? Because that's the order in which
we experience it. We didn't know that. The only reason any believer
knows God elected us is He called us first. Paul said, make your
calling and your election sure. You make your election sure.
Can you go look at the Lamb's Book of Life and find it? No.
You make your election sure by seeing God's called you to Christ.
If God's called you, if He's revealed Christ to you, That's
the proof positive he elected you, because everybody he elected,
everyone he chose, he calls to Christ through the preaching
of the gospel. First, in our experience, we were called. Then
we realized, oh, God elected me from the foundation of the
world. That's why he called me, because he chose me. He purposed
to save me, so he did it. All right, third, God's people
will be victorious, because God has given them faith in Christ.
The angel says here that they are faithful. Not only does God
give his people faith in Christ, but God keeps them faithful.
That's the victory. It's through faith in Christ.
Now, if someone comes for a while, then they quit and they leave
Christ. They return back like a dog,
returning back to the vomit of false religion. They return back
to that vomit of free will, the disgusting nature of fallen man. You know what they reveal? All
they reveal is that they didn't know Christ. If someone leaves
Christ, all they reveal is they weren't chosen and they weren't
called. Now, I don't doubt that they
had some head knowledge of doctrine. Some of those things maybe appealed
to them until they really heard what they were saying. But if
they left, it's because they didn't know Christ in the first
place. Nobody who knows Christ has ever lived. Nobody who believes
Christ can ever leave Him. Nobody who loves Christ can ever
leave Him. Because God's given them a new
nature. And that nature will not leave. To whom shall we go? And this is more important. Christ,
the King of kings, we're not going to let Him go. He's going
to have the victory. He's not going to let one depart
from Him that the Father chose, that He died for, that the Spirit
called. He's not going to let them go. He'll have them. So
he's going to keep them faithful. They're going to be faithful
to the end, and they're going to receive the victory. Not because
of anything they did, wasn't he? It's because of who Christ
is, what he did for them, and what he did in them. That's the
victory of the Lamb, and that's the victory of his people. Amen.
All right. Lord bless you.