Well, we come to Revelation 17
this week. You know, this world all around
thinks that it is so important, that all its politics, all of
its organizations, all of its management of things, and how
it's going to save this planet for the future and go on for
millions and millions of years. And this thing called religion,
and especially this thing called Christian religion, is such,
such an irrelevant sideshow. And people who are weak in their
minds cannot help but be sucked in and influenced by it. What
we see here in Revelation 17 is rather than the people of
God, the true believing people of God, being an irrelevant sideline,
and the purposes of God being irrelevant to what this world
thinks it's going to do with itself, it's the very center
of how things are. What we see in this world in
its history and how it's developing in these days is entirely the
eternal purposes of God and those purposes will culminate in the
triumph of the kingdom of God and the judgment of the sin that
is in this world. It will then seem to everybody,
it will then appear really to everybody that what God has said
in this book is absolutely true and they have been outside of
it. Will you be outside of it? In chapters 15 and 16, which
was the fifth vision, we saw the end of history, and it culminated
in Armageddon. And let me remind you that when
we got there, Christ's people, the true Church of God, had been
removed from the earth to heaven. All of his people are with him
in heaven, standing on, as it were, that sea of glass with
the justice and judgments of God in it, that sea of glass
mingled with fire, and they're there singing the song of Moses
and of the Lamb in eternity. And then in chapter 16, the seven
vials of wrath, to end sin for all eternity, they're poured
out. and they stop the world and the sea and the water and
all that from being that which healthily supports life, it makes
it poisonous. And the sixth vial removed all
barriers between peoples, between Christendom, because it's marked
by the boundary of the river Euphrates, that was the ancient
Old Testament barrier of the boundary between the people of
God, Israel, and the rest of the world that were not the people
of God. It's Christendom and Gog and Magog is what is symbolized
there. The removal of all barriers that
kept them separate, until very recently. You know, there just
wasn't this worldwide travel that there is now. The white
horse of the first seal being opened, the white horse is the
horse of gospel truth, and that going out into the world, yes
it undoubtedly truly calls God's true people by the true gospel,
but also there's lots of peripheral influence of it which produces
a big religious movement, which you might say is what we call
Christendom. There's a large proportion of
the world's population are in what would be recognized as Christendom. It characterizes itself as Christian
religion, and it's all because of the white horse influence.
They're not the true people of God, as we'll see, but it's them
versus The rest of the world, if you read the rest of Revelation,
was totally deceived by Satan. He was bound, when Christ accomplished
his purposes on the cross, he was bound for a symbolical thousand
years that he might not deceive the nations longer, as he had
previously done, and as he will do again when we get to Revelation
chapter 20. and so what he does in in verse 14 of chapter 16
is there are these frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon
and of the beast and of the beast from the earth and they're evil
spirits basically they're evil spirits gathering the forces
that are against the kingdom of God, to come and do battle.
And Satan, I think at that stage, I think he varies, but at that
stage I think he viewed Christendom as the kingdom of God on earth,
and he summons the nations of Gog and Magog that had not had
any influence of the Christian gospel to come and fight with
it and destroy that kingdom. But the result, as we saw at
the end of chapter 16, is the battle of Armageddon, which is
mutual destruction. So the end, having been revealed
in chapter 16, the remaining chapters, 17, 18, 19, 20, I won't come to 21 and 22 yet,
that's the triumphant kingdom of God, but these chapters 17
to 20 provide reports from varying angles of the background to it.
And what we see in verses 1 to 6, as Stephen read for us earlier,
of chapter 17, is a woman named Babylon. And We're given this
report by one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials. He
came and said, right, this is what you've seen in vision. This
is how it's all going to end. But one of them comes and says,
come hither. I will show unto you the judgment
of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. This is one
of the seven angels, and he's going to show the judgment of
the great whore. A whore? is an unfaithful, adulterous
woman, and she sits upon many waters. She's buoyed up by waters. What are these waters? Look at
verse 15. You see, it's all there. The best commentary is itself.
It comments on itself. Look at verse 15. He saith unto
me, the waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues, just like the sea
from which that first beast came in Revelation 13. The sea is
the sea of humanity. It's the sea of the peoples of
this world, the unbelieving peoples of this world, the peoples of
this world that are in the thrall of Satan. and his aspirations
and his designs of a kingdom without the justice and righteousness
of God. They're in faithful league with
one another, and this woman, this woman, whoever she is, we'll
get to it in a moment, they're in unfaithful league with peoples
and powers. And verse 2, with whom the kings
of the earth, this whore, the kings of the earth have committed
fornication. unfaithfulness, adulterous relationships. It's speaking spiritually. They've
committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have
been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Why is it
talking about drunkenness? Well, drunkenness is a loss of
rational wisdom. It's a loss of control. It's
a loss of the right perception of things. It's all opposed to
the holiness of God, and it's deserving of judgment. I will
show you the judgment of the great whore. And in verses 3
and 4, he carried me away, this angel, who'd had one of the seven
vows, this angel carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness,
And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornication. It's a vision, it's symbolism. The wilderness here is not the
wilderness of separation from this world, this is the wilderness
describing godless sinfulness, a place without God and without
hope in the world. And the woman is on a beast. The woman is riding on a beast,
is sitting upon a beast. This woman is sitting upon that
beast, which is the one that came up out of the sea in Revelation
13, 1 and 2. The beast from the sea, extravagantly
clothed, you know, to the eye, seductive, extravagantly clothed,
expensive adornments. but vile contents, terrible contents. What's the woman's name? Look,
upon her forehead was a name written, a name, the name of
mystery, mystery meaning hidden, not obvious. A name is character,
character, always in scripture, name speaks of character. Here's
the appearance of a glamorous, attractive woman, but the character,
the name of a city. And the name is Babylon, the
great. And look in verse 6, it looked
at her and she was drunk with the blood of the saints. Oh,
that's weird. Drunk with the blood of the saints.
And he says, with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. We've seen
them in chapter six where they cry out from beneath the altar
for the justice of God to be upheld because they've been martyred
for their faith in Christ. She's drunk, this woman is drunk
with the blood of those saints. And he says, I wandered with
great admiration. That's not really a very good
translation. It's not really wondered with
great admiration as if, oh wow, that's impressive. No, it's rather
astonishment. It's shock. I was absolutely
shocked, says John. Why? Why was he shocked? Because
the woman in Scripture, as we've already seen in chapter 12, is
a symbol of the Church, the people of God, the Bride of Christ.
The woman is the Church, is God's people in this world. The woman
is given the wings of an eagle, great eagle in chapter 12, to
fly away. That's faith, to fly away into
wilderness separation from this world where God will feed her. The woman is typically a picture
of the Church, the people of God. Israel as the Bride of God,
the Israel of God, in the Song of Solomon, you read all about
that love story between God and his bride, between Solomon and
the Shulamite, picturing God and his people. In Ephesians
5, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and
gave himself for it, that he might wash it and cleanse it
and deliver it up a perfect and holy church. And then he says,
but I speak about Christ and the church. Not about husbands
and wives, primarily. Why is what looks like the Church
of God, a woman, drunk with the saint's blood? Because the name
of that woman, the name of that which looks like the Church of
God, the true character of it, is Babylon. What's the significance
of Babylon? Genesis chapter 11, Nimrod, the
great rebellious panther against the doctrines of God. Just a
couple of generations down from Noah, having come through the
flood where God wiped humanity apart from those that were in
the ark, from the face of the earth, that Satan's kingdom might
not prosper and succeed, Nimrod initiated the kingdom of Antichrist
at Babel. And they built a tower. Symbolism.
Just think of the symbolism in the language. They built that
which aspired to heaven, but without the gospel of God, without
the grace of God, without the truth and the blood redemption
of God. That's what they did. That's
the kingdom of Antichrist. It seeks to achieve heaven and
it aspires to heaven without the accomplishment and satisfaction
of divine justice. But we read in Revelation 13
verse 3 that that beast from the sea had a wound, a deadly
wound in its head that had been healed. The deadly wound was
when God came down at Babel and confounded the languages. to
stop Satan's worldwide kingdom of unified opposition to God
from succeeding. He dealt it a fatal blow, but
that fatal blow was healed. The beast coming out of the sea
is what we see in the days in which we live. It's worldwide
globalism all against the truth and justice of God. And Babylon
arose as a symbol of the oppression of God's people. It was that
which made war with the people of God. Nebuchadnezzar, the emperor
of the Babylonian Empire, came and sort of subsumed Israel because
of its sin of idolatry. God allowed that to happen. God
brought that to happen. that they might go into 70 years
of exile for that idolatry and rebellion against him. There
was war, there's always been war. Babylon has always stood
for that which is the kingdom of this world, the kingdom of
Antichrist, the globalism, the global objectives of this world
against the truth of God. But its fall Babylon's fall is
repeated. Isaiah 21 and verse 9. Isaiah 21 and verse 9 says, Behold,
here cometh a chariot of men with a couple of horsemen, and
he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and all
the graven images of her gods he hath broken to the ground.
And you could look elsewhere in Isaiah. The gods of Nebuchadnezzar
and Babylon are brought down. In Revelation 14 verse 8, we
read it again, that Babylon is fallen. Let me just go there
now. And there followed another angel
saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication. Remember, the chapters of Revelation
are not sequential in time, in history. You see pictures of
things, and then a few chapters later you'll see the same thing
from a different perspective. In chapter 16 and verse 19, the
great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell, and great Babylon came in remembrance before God
to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of Israel.
Babylon is fallen, is what it says. So what do we learn from
this? What looks at first sight like
God's church, a woman in symbol, in vision, is in fact a whore
named Babylon. We've seen it before. Do you
remember in chapter 11 we were looking at the measuring of the
temple in the first couple of verses? John is told to take
up a measuring rod and to go and measure the temple, but only
measure the inner court of the temple. Don't bother about the
courtyard around it. Don't bother about the wider
city of Jerusalem. Don't bother about the wider
nation of Israel. Just don't bother with that.
That's left for the Gentiles to trample underfoot forty and
two months, it says. Only measure the inner court,
the inner part of the temple, the true people of God. The people
whose names, as we've seen many times, are written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. The Lamb's Book of Life? the
decrees of God concerning electing grace. Those who, they described,
keep the commandments of God. How do we keep the commandments
of God? They said to Jesus, the Pharisees in John 6, 29, what
should we do that we do the works of God? This is the work of God,
he said. that you believe on Him whom
He has sent. Keeping the commandments is believing
Christ, believing the gospel of His grace. They keep the faith
of Jesus Christ. Their faith is in the faith of
Jesus Christ. Not the outer court, nor the
holy city where the Gentiles tread. Jerusalem appears as the
city of God. Look in verse eight of chapter
11 of Revelation. Look back at Revelation chapter
11, and then look in verse eight. You see, What's he talking about? He's talking about the witnesses
of God. Their dead bodies shall lie in
the street of that great city. Which city are you talking about?
Well, look at the end of it. Where our Lord was crucified.
What's the city where our Lord was crucified? Oh, it's Jerusalem.
It's the holy city in the Middle East, isn't it? That's where
their bodies, oh, hold on. But spiritually, the city of
Jerusalem, the city of God, the city of David, the city of the
people of God, It's spiritually called Sodom. Wow. Wasn't Sodom the very basis with
Gomorrah, the basis of the society of this world and God's judgment
fell on it? violently in Genesis. Oh, and it's Egypt. Egypt, a
symbol of the world, not of the people of God, where our Lord
was killed. You see, there it is. Jerusalem,
which it says elsewhere, they killed the prophets. It's where
Christ was crucified, and yet it looks like the place where
the true people of God are. And repeatedly we read of Israel
seeming to be God's true people, but playing the harlot. You can
read about it in the book of Hosea, in Ezekiel 16, as we read
right at the start. Just look at these verses in
Jeremiah chapter 3, and verses 6 to 9. I'll read them to you,
you don't need to turn. The Lord said also unto me in
the days of Josiah the king, hast thou seen that which backsliding
Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high
mountain and under every green tree and there hath played the
harlot. He's talking about spiritual
adultery, spiritual harlotry. And I said, after she had done
all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And
her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when for all
the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery, I
had put her away and given her a bill of divorce. Yet her treacherous
sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
And it came to pass, through the lightness of her whoredom,
the triviality with which she treated it, that she defiled
the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
And yet, for all this, her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned
unto me with her whole heart, but faintedly, said the Lord.
You see there, it's pictured again and again in the Scriptures,
this spiritual harlotry, spiritual adultery, spiritual going away
from God. And what he sees as a woman,
which is always the picture of the church, the people of God,
the bride of Christ, this woman is a harlot, is a whore, committing
adultery, committing spiritual harlotry. We need to recognize
the woman named Babylon. That's my next point. We need
to recognize the woman named Babylon. This woman is the church
as she appears on the earth. It's Christendom. It's what the
media calls the church. It's what Hollywood calls the
church. It's what Everybody writing in
the secular press regards as the church, Christianity. They
have all of the outward signs. You'll notice that we don't have
any here, we're in a living room. Just a few of us, using the technology
that God has provided in these days. But they have all the outward
signs. They have the buildings. People
say, you're not a proper church because you meet in a living
room. If you were a proper church, you'd have a building. Well,
this woman, This is the proper church, they think, don't they?
They've got the buildings, they've got the ministers, they've got
the organisation, they've got their various Bibles, their various
Bibles. Virtually none of them use this
one that we use. Do you know why? Because this
one is the nearest one to the truth of God. They have their
sacraments, their religious liturgies. They have their works that they
adhere to. But they deny effectual salvation. They deny it. It's a social club. There's one down the road from
us, quarter of a mile down the road. It's a social club. It's nothing more than a social
club. They deny effectual salvation. They deny Christ. Do you know
what it says? Well, John, the same apostle, in his epistle,
1st epistle, chapter 4 and verse 1, test the spirits whether they
be of, test the preachers whether they be of God. Anyone who confesses
that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And you
say, well, that's a very broad net. That gets them all, doesn't
it? No. They don't profess that Jesus the man born at Bethlehem,
all those years ago, 2,000 years ago, was the promised Messiah
of the Old Testament, come to accomplish what that Messiah
would come to accomplish, which was the salvation of whom? Whom? Of his people. Call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. They
deny that. They deny that. They despise
sovereign grace. They hate particular redemption. What's particular redemption?
Who did Jesus Christ die for? to pay the penalty for their
sins. Oh, the whole world. Well, if
that's the case, the whole world is saved. And the whole world
has no case to answer before the bar of divine justice. No,
he died for his people. He came to save his people from
their sins. Oh, they say, there's no need
of blood. There's no need of blood redemption.
It's primitive. It's barbaric. It's silly. No, we don't need the blood of
Jesus Christ. No. And they've invented an unbiblical
religion, and yet the world thinks that that is the Christian religion.
The world looks and says, oh there's the woman which is the
bride of Christ, and it isn't. It isn't. They're wanting to
be called Christ's bride, but they're constantly committing
spiritual fornication with the kingdom of Antichrist. And I'm
not just talking about Roman Catholicism or Anglicanism, which
is all corrupted in this way, and various forms of orthodoxy,
but so-called evangelicals too. They talk of redeeming blood,
these evangelicals. Many of them say they're reformed
and Calvinistic. They talk of redeeming blood,
but it's a universal redeeming blood. They've forgotten what
we've read in Revelation. Well, Last week, verse 17 of
chapter 16, it is done. The balancing justice of God
against the sin of this world. It is either, not both, it is
either done when these vials pour out. It is done, verse 17,
or it was accomplished for the people of Christ on the cross
of Calvary. John 19, verse 30, when he cried
out, it is finished. It is finished. One or the other,
but not both. And yet the gospel of so many
of these so-called evangelical places is a universal one, where
the blood of Jesus Christ is made effectual. by your faith,
your work of faith. Read the little article I put
in by Paul Mahan this week in the bulletin. No, they offer
a gospel to the free will of all, and they mix law and grace. Read Galatians and see what Paul
says about that. They flirt with the music of
heresy, which leads to adultery, isn't it? How much does certain
types of music, what part it plays in unfaithfulness in this
world. And yet they do it in religion,
they fear isolation in this world, so they espouse all sorts of
ecumenical associations as fellowship, which is nothing of the sort,
it's just political convenience. Christ is not the centre of their
creed. Christ is not the centre of their
preaching, or of their message. They are not the true circumcision,
as Paul describes it in Philippians 3 verse 3, who worship God in
the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus, who have no confidence
in the flesh. If you're listening to us on
the internet this morning or to one of the recordings later,
let me ask you, do you attend a church because you feel you
need to go somewhere? Ask this question, in the light
of these words, is the name of that so-called church really
Mystery Babylon, the Great, the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations
of the Earth? Does it keep the gospel commandments
of God and the faith of Jesus? Or is it flirting with idols?
Is it under a cloak of religion, following Balaam's doctrine,
which taught the people of God to commit adultery with the daughters
of Moab? Is it doing that? If yes, then
heed what chapter 18 and verse 4 says. Revelation 18 verse 4,
we'll get to it next week, but for now, I heard another voice
from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, and be ye
not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. Now then, in verse 7, the angel wonders, he says, why did you
marvel, John? Why were you shocked when this
woman was revealed to you? He said, I'll tell you the mystery
of the woman and of the beast that carried her, which hath
the seven heads and ten horns. He's going to describe what it's
really like. Here's this woman, which we now
know is false religion masquerading as Christianity. And yet, it's
riding on a beast. And the beast has seven heads
and ten horns. The beast is this world. The
beast is the kingdoms of this world. The beast is the kingdom
of Antichrist. It's the globalist kingdom of
Antichrist. The angel tells the mystery of
this. And that involves history. And
it involves the development of history as it goes on, and the
future of the woman and the beast. Now, I know these words are incredibly
complicated when you first read them, but just stick with me,
I'm not going to be long with this. The beast, verse 8. The
beast that you saw was, and is not, and shall ascend out of
the bottomless pit, and go into perdition, and they that dwell
on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the
book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold
the beast that was, and is not, yet is. Unravel that. Imagine getting
that as an exam question, boys, you know, at some stage at school.
Unravel. What does that mean? Well, I'll
tell you what it's talking about. It's talking about the worldwide
kingdom of Nimrod in Babel, in Babylon, in Genesis 11. It's that beast that It was,
and then it was not, because it was dealt a fatal blow, but
it's coming again, and yet is. It's coming again. And it's pictured
also as the spirit out of the bottomless pit, earlier on in
Revelation. It's adored and worshipped by
those whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb. We've seen that. All the world
worship this beast, this worldwide kingdom, this worldwide unity,
except the people of God who believe the Gospel and are marked
with his mark. The beast was reality at Babel,
but the deadly wound was inflicted, it is not, then it was not, but
now it's coming again, as it was then, from the bottomless
pit, from the sea, this unified political power supported by
the second beast that we saw in Revelation 13 with technical
signs and wonders. It's universally worshipped except
by those written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And verse 9, here's
the mind which has, this is how to understand it, the seven heads
are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, and there
are seven kings, five of, right, hold on, what's this about? Well,
mountains, in symbol, in vision, speaks of kingdoms of earthly
powers. And verse 10, there are seven
of these. When Nimrod's universal one,
Babel, was dealt a fatal blow, there came empires, worldwide
empires, Satan's attempts to unify the world against the gospel
and truth of God. And there are seven kings. Five
are fallen. Five are fallen? Right. Read
your history books. Egypt. Assyria, Babylonia, you
know, the Chaldean Empire, Medo-Persia, Greece, that's the five that
have fallen. And one is, one is. Now, when John was writing,
when John was writing, what was the one that was then in power?
Rome. Rome was the one that is. And
the other is yet to come. Yes, and the other is not yet
come, and when he cometh he must continue a short space. And the
beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the
seven, and goeth into perdition. I know it's hard, isn't it? But
what he's saying is this, that the old kingdom of Nimrod, the
one global empire, is going to form again as an eighth. But in actual fact, It's a confederation
of ten kingdoms, as we see in verses 12 and 13, the ten horns,
which you saw, ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet
when he was writing. It's the history, up to the modern
day. They've received no kingdom as
yet, but received power as kings one hour, just a short time.
And they have one mind, and they shall give their power and strength
to the beast. They have one mind, and they
shall give their power and strength to the beast. World Economic
Forum, World Health Organization, United Nations, League of Nations,
European Union even. All of these things, they have
one mind, and they're giving their power and their strength
to the beast in the formulation of that kingdom of Nimrod, which
was dealt a fatal blow, but he's coming again. And they constitute
the seventh world empire. Seven heads, seven mountains.
They're all supporting the beast. which is the kingdom of Antichrist.
Unified world political power. And Satan's intention is for
the woman, adulterous religion, to seduce the world powers so
that there be one final united kingdom of Antichrist, promising
eternity without divine justice, without the shed blood of Christ.
Is that not what we have seen? Is this not the Christless philosophy
of the world? And look what happens in verse
14. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall
overcome them. For he is the Lord of lords and
King of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen
and faithful. How does he overcome them? Well,
if you go down to verse 16, the ten horns which thou sourced
upon the beast, these shall hate the whore. These shall come in
the progression of time to hate false religion. and shall make
her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with
fire. Why? For God hath put in their hearts
to fulfil his will. What's his will? The triumph
of his kingdom. Thy kingdom come. And to agree,
and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of
God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest
is that great city, Babylon, which reigneth over the kings
of the earth. God's put it in their hearts to do this. Don't
we see a mass turning away from Christian religion, even in our
day? That woman which was so powerfully
effective over so many people in these days, it's being hated. The history of the world is Satan's
kingdom of Antichrist, seeking the destruction of God's kingdom,
but ending up itself utterly desolate. But this is what I
want to focus on in the couple of minutes we have left. Where
does that leave you? You say, well that's very interesting.
I know, I could have done with an hour or more to logically,
one by one, step by step, go through each of this and show
how this is fulfilled in history that has gone in the past. rather
than the religion of God, the religion of his Christ, rather
than it being an irrelevant sideshow to this world which is so full
of its own importance. These purposes of God, this revelation
of God is absolutely fundamental to history that has unfolded
and that will yet unfold until the end comes. And we could have
done with hours to go in detail through this. So you'll have
to think about it and meditate upon it. But here's the important
thing. This is the key thing. Where does it leave you and me? Where does it leave you and me? How is it with you? Where does
it leave you? Is it well with your soul? Do
you know where you are? Are you with the Lamb? Or are
you with Satan? Look in verse 14. They that are
with Him are called and chosen and faithful. All of this attempt
to destroy the kingdom of God and for the kingdom of Satan
to triumph, they make war with the Lamb. The Lamb is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lamb is the manifestation
of God. No man has seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He
has revealed Him, manifested Him, made Him known. No man has
seen God. You cannot see God and live.
Christ. We can see Him and we live. He
was the one that appeared to the Old Testament saints and
they didn't die because they saw Christ. These shall make
war with the Lamb. John the Baptist said to his
disciples when Jesus was walking, he said, behold the Lamb of God. In this man is the Lamb of God
fulfilled. The Lamb shall overcome them.
They won't win. The Lamb shall win. For he is
Lord of lords and King of kings. The kingdom of this world is
become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ, and he shall
reign forever and ever. How is Christ Lord of lords? How is he Lord of lords? Let me remind you of Revelation
5. You know, when the book was on the right hand of God on the
throne, a strong angel proclaimed with a loud voice, who is worthy
to open the book? Who is worthy to implement the
plan of God for the recovery of his kingdom from that of Satan? Who is worthy to loose the seals?
And no man in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth, was
able to open the book. Nobody was worthy, nobody was
qualified. And I wept much because no man
was found worthy to open and to read the book, and neither
to look thereon. There's not going to be a kingdom of God.
Nobody's going to be the citizens of God in His eternal kingdom.
I wept much. And one of the elders said to
me, don't weep. Behold, there is one that's worthy. The lion
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed to open
the book, and loose the seven seals thereof. And he looked,
and I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the
four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood not a lion,
but a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven
eyes, which are the spirits of God. And he came, and He's the
one that was worthy because He died in the place of His people.
He satisfied justice on their behalf. He was slain. He is the
one who was able to implement God's kingdom because by His
death, He populates the kingdom of God with justified sinners
who were made meat for His presence. His blood has justified His kingdom's
citizens and they that are with Him are called and chosen and
faithful. They that are with him are the
ones who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. They're the multitude that are
with him. He said in John 17, 24, Father, I will that they
also whom thou hast given me in sovereign grace, in electing
grace, be with me where I am that they may behold my glory
which thou hast given me. This is a gracious deliberate,
sovereign, particular redemption and qualification of a people
for the Kingdom of God. They're chosen. They're chosen.
I heard somebody once say, I believe in election. Who does God choose?
He chooses him who will choose me. No, he doesn't. He makes
his people willing in the day of his power, but the choice
is the choice of God, who is sovereign over all things. Praise
his name. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. Elect,
elect. Brethren, we're bound to give
thanks to God always for you, he says to the Thessalonians.
For God has justified, I'm gonna have to turn to it, to remember
how the words flow in this moment of, where is it? One Thessalonians, two Thessalonians. We're bound to give thanks to
God, all the way to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. Their
belief, their faith, is the proof that they are chosen of God.
Called to his side in eternity, a gospel call in time, via a
preacher, written word or verbally made. And they're made willing,
as Psalm 103 says, in the day of His power. They're given faith,
they're kept for eternity. Now, this is it. This is the
key thing. They that are with Him are called
and chosen and faithful. Are you with the Lamb of God?
Are you with the Lamb of God? Ask Him to show you whether you're
with Him or against Him. Only He can do that. A preacher
can't do it, but ask Him to show you. Are you with the Lamb? Because if you are, you are safe
for eternity. You are destined for His kingdom.
Amen.