Okay, well, return with me to
Revelation to chapter 13 this week. We'll begin there, but
there's a strong link with chapter 12 which we need to think about
as well before we progress too far into chapter 13. You know, John Bunyan was right when he
wrote his Pilgrim's Progress, you know that famous book, that
well-known book, so full of biblical truth in its allegorical telling
of the story of somebody called out of this dark world, Vanity
Fair, and set on the road to the celestial city, set on the
narrow way. He was right in this, that the
Christian life is a narrow way. Those who have been redeemed
by the blood of Christ, the death of Christ on the cross as substitute
in their place to pay the penalty for their sins that they might
be justified and therefore qualified to be citizens of the kingdom
of God in His eternal glory. He must have redeemed people
there. They must be justified. Nothing
that defiles can enter in there. And so, those that are redeemed
by the Lord Jesus Christ, they follow Him in this life. Having
been born into this world in the flesh as sinners like anybody
and everybody else, when they come by gracious revelation to
a knowledge of the truth, when the Spirit of God brings about
the birth of a new man inside the soul of that one, They then
embark upon following Jesus Christ. They follow him with that goal
in view, the kingdom of God. What did Jesus come preaching?
He didn't come preaching morals, he came preaching the kingdom
of God. And it's the kingdom of God that we look to. We are
on a road, a narrow way, an uphill struggle to that celestial city
as Bunyan portrays it. But, but, struggle and narrow
and uphill, though it is in this life, the prospect is glorious,
an eternal glorious promise from God to his people. And what it
means for this life, for the duration of this life, which
all Christians now are living, those of you listening to me,
those that will listen to this, those that will listen to Good
Messages today, wherever they may be, It means, in truth, a
life of isolation from the majority of the world. It's a life of
isolation from the thinking of the world, from the aspirations
of the world, from the things that the world worships and loves
and desires. It's a life of rejection. I know
I told you last week, one very personal incident where there
was a discussion group to which I was invited, and I told them
that I thought that I would probably throw a spanner in their discussions
every time because I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they said, oh yes, you probably will. We'd prefer it if you didn't
come. We don't want any of that Bible stuff, that Bible nonsense
amongst us. Rejection is what you get. Persecution,
even. In some societies, it's physical,
it's hard, it's harsh. But we're safe in the everlasting
arms of God. His people are safe. As Jesus
said, no man can pluck you from the Father's hand. You're in
His hands. No man can pluck you. If you think that the Christian
life, if you're doing it right, the Christian life is one of
great big congregations. Do you know, we just cannot fit
the people in, there's so many people flocking in. I mean, it
was like that maybe 150, 200 years ago, but it isn't today. And where it is, you'll see the
reason why. Just examine what they're preaching.
They're preaching a message of this world. I was reading a little
article earlier on this morning, which, out of the blue, was a
report from the Keswick Convention, up in Cumbria, and it was that
the highlight of the whole thing was a rock band, and a wonderful
guitar solo. Nothing about the preaching of
Christ there, which was what the original purpose of it was.
No. If you're in a big, big congregation
situation, and the world around and your society respects you
and admires you for what you're doing, you need to question whether
you're really on that narrow way that Bunyan depicted on the
road to the celestial city. You see, The true Christian experience
is this, as that hymn says, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to
say, it is well, it is well with my soul, because I have this
eternal prospect of glory. In this, we're not deluded religious
freaks, as this world claims that we are, but, as his word
says, they shall all be taught of God. All of his people are
taught of God. Does the Spirit of God teach
you that these things are true? Does the Spirit of God witness
with your spirit that you are the children of God? And He nourishes
us in our separation from this world. He nourishes us with His
Word. He comforts us with His truth,
the solid assurance that our sins are paid for, that our home
is eternal in the heavens, that we're protected, that as Jesus
prayed for His people, we are kept from the evil which is Satan's
kingdom aspirations. Satan has a kingdom, and the
aspirations of that kingdom are completely contrary to the truth
and righteousness and justice of God. Remember, Satan rebelled
against God's kingdom his kingdom intentions. Because what were
God's kingdom intentions? It was to elevate man to rule
with him. Joint heirs with Christ is what
the scripture says. Christ is God manifest. Joint
heirs with Christ are his people. And Satan said, you're not elevating
them above me. And that was the cause of his
rebellion. That's at least what I think it must be. He said he
must stop God populating his kingdom with man. He must stop
it. So how would he go about that? He argued that God's justice
barred them from that kingdom of God, that heaven of God. He
accused them, as it says in chapter 12 and verse 10, the accuser
of our brethren. He accused them of being sinners,
and therefore disqualified from the kingdom of God. But Michael
the archangel countered that redemption was accomplished,
that Christ had accomplished redemption. He's the lamb slain,
as verse 8 of chapter 13 says, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. In the redeeming purposes of
God, it's accomplished. Satan is defeated. So why not? Why not, you might ask, does
God not immediately take all of the redeemed to glory and
destroy Satan and everything that goes with his kingdom? You
know, we see this all working out. Why does he not, once Christ
has accomplished redemption, take all of his redeemed to glory
and destroy Satan? It's because God's purposes must
take their determined course. seven, which is the number of
the completion of the kingdom of God, and the three and a half,
which is the half from Christ coming until he comes again in
judgment, the 1260 days, the 42 months that we've been coming
across, it isn't yet complete. It's not yet accomplished. It
must go on. And so, the woman, the woman
which is the church, the woman pictured at the start of chapter
12, which is the church, the people of God, the bride of Christ,
the elect of God, from before the foundation of the world,
chosen in Christ, in Him, that church is placed in wilderness
separation from this kingdom of Satan. This church, the people
of God, Jesus said in John 17 verse 15, he said, I pray not
that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them
from the evil whilst they're left in this world. So the church
is left in the world. The believing people of God,
in this three and a half times, in this 1260 symbolical days,
from Christ's ascension until he returns, to be kept from the
evil in this world. Until that time, the purposes
of God are accomplished. And in the wisdom and grace of
God, the redeemed multitude must be refined. They must be exercised
in this world, in this world of sin. Why? Why do you think? I can just think of this, that
God's kingdom might be ever more glorious, that it might it might
set it in sharp contrast to the evil of this world. The salvation
of God out of this, out of this realm, into the glorious, marvellous
light of God. The woman is the people of God,
the woman is the church of God, the bride of Christ, joint heirs
with Christ. And out of this woman, All true
believers are born in time. All true believers are born of
this woman. It's the children that will be
born in her, to her, of her. This is the church as this time
progresses. Believers are born, as Galatians
4.26 says. Speaking of this church, you
know, Jerusalem is, Salem is the peace of God. Jerusalem pictures
that peace of God. Not that pile of stones in the
Middle East, which once was, once stood as the place where
God met with his people, that was the place that he chose.
You read the five books of the Pentateuch, you'll hear this
phrase again, the place that he will show. Jerusalem was that
place where God met with his people, but Jerusalem is a picture
of the church, and in chapter 21 we see a new Jerusalem coming
down out of heaven as a bride adorned for her husband. Jerusalem
above, says Galatians 4.26, Jerusalem which is above the true people
of God, the church of God, the bride of Christ, Jerusalem which
is above is free, which is the mother of us all. The woman is
the church into which the believing people of God are born again
of the Spirit of God. The Church is the seed of the
woman, and they're united with Christ, who is the seed, capital
S, the seed promised in Genesis 3.15, the seed of the woman, man that would come, man who
is God who would come, and who would bruise Satan's head whilst
his heel was bruised in the process, that he might redeem his people
from the curse of the law. Christ is that seed, capital
S, and his bride, the seeds which are many, are united with him
and in him, so that what he is, they are. These will populate
the triumphant kingdom of God. That's how God's kingdom will
triumph. It will be filled with the people that God always intended
would be there with him. But for now, and until then,
this woman, this church, this people of God are in the world,
but they're not of the world. Oh yes, we have to breathe its
air. We have to eat its food. We have to drink its water. We
have to... survive, we have to feel its
sunshine, we have to feel its rain, all of these things. We're in the world but we're
not of the world, we're not of the mindset, we're not of the
philosophy, we're in a wilderness separation. If you're a child
of God, if you're a believer this morning, God has placed
you. This woman, verse 6 of chapter
12, the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared
of God. That wilderness is a place prepared
of God, that they should feed her there, a thousand, two hundred
and three. For this time, from Christ's
first, from his ascension to his second coming, for that time,
there's a place in separation from this world where God feeds
his people. It's a place prepared of God. So The people of God are in this
spiritual wilderness. What is a wilderness? Well, there's
nothing appealing to the flesh there. It's barren. There is
nothing that, you know, it's like... If you go to the hustle
and bustle of the West End of London, you know, right in the
heart there, and you compare that with the Sahara Desert,
I mean, it's as big a contrast as that. The desert, the wilderness,
is a place where Satan can't survive, because there's nothing
that nourishes him there. But it's a place prepared of
God. to nourish his people there. Oh, his people, his believing
people are nourished there. And how do they get there? It's
accessed by eagle's wings, we saw in verse 14 of chapter 12. Eagle's wings, and we saw that
that is faith, to fly out of this world. Faith to fly out
of this world. As John 16 says in verse 33,
These things I have spoken unto you, said Jesus, that in me ye
might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. And
then in 1 John chapter 4 and verse 4, year of God, little
children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is
in you than he that is in the world. And then over the page
in chapter 5 of 1 John, verses 4 and 5, Whatsoever is born of
God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh
the world? But he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Read in the bulletin, read this
little article here, Overcoming the World. The victory that overcometh
the world, even our face. Read that. Very, very, very poignant. So why does a defeated Satan
continue persecuting the woman? Answer? To prevent more people. More people filling God's kingdom. He wants to stop. He persecutes
the woman. He's angry. He's furious. Verse 13 of chapter 12, he persecuted
the woman. He tried to kill the woman. He
wants to stop. more people being born into the
kingdom of God. But the woman's feet are anchored
solidly to a rock. So when he spews out a flood
from his mouth, the flood is not a literal flood, it's a flood
of doctrinal and worldly compromise, to get her to abandon her faith
in Christ. It's a temptation Look at verse
17, keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of
Jesus Christ. It's a temptation to break the commandments of
God and to deny the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is the
nature of the spiritual flood that Satan fires towards the
woman, the people of God, the Church of God, in wilderness
separation from this world, He wants to sweep them back into
conformance with this world, and thereby prevent God from
filling His Kingdom up with those whom the Lamb has justified from
the foundation of the world. This is the history of the New
Testament Church, from the time of the apostles, this constant
flood trying to sweep them into conformance. So, history books
will tell you that the Church of God was a very pathetic little
thing until the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 400s AD, I
think it was, wasn't it, became a Christian, and therefore Christianized
the Roman Empire. No, he didn't. It remained the
evil Roman Empire. All it was was an attempt of
Satan, his flood, to subsume the church into the Roman Empire. And that's what you see the remnants
of it today. The martyrdom in the Reformation
was attempts of Satan to sweep believers, true believers, off
their feet, back into conformance. And all the while, down history,
down 2,000 years, literal years of history, the four horses that
we saw in chapter 6 of Revelation continue to disrupt Satan's worldwide
kingdom objectives. The white horse of his gospel
truth continues to go forth throughout all that time. The red horse
of disruption between the nations, war between the nations, disrupts
Satan's kingdom objectives of a universal utopia of peace and
happiness, the black horse of massive economic disparity between
one group of people and the majority, a tiny rich group and the majority
with a hand-to-mouth existence. And the pale horse continues
to sweep away millions in death, all disrupting Satan's kingdom
objectives. But as time progresses, things
develop. something new arises. This is
when we come to chapter 13. Let me say that again. As time
progresses, that which has gone on throughout history of those
four horses riding forth to disrupt Satan's kingdom objectives, something
new arises that hadn't arisen before. a beast from the sea. Chapter 13, verse 1. I stood
upon the sand of the sea, and I 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 of blasphemy. It doesn't
say, I saw a beast that had arisen out of the sea. It says, I saw
a beast rise up out of the sea. It's something new, appearing
before the end of time. And where does it come from?
It comes from the sea. I'm not talking about that body
of ocean that's less than a mile away down there. I'm not talking
about that, it doesn't mean the literal sea. In scripture often the sea
is a picture of unbelieving humanity. Isaiah 57 verse 20 says this,
the wicked, and what are the wicked? You know what the wicked
are? The wicked are those that do
not believe the testimony of God. What is it to do the works
of God? This is what it is to do the
works of God, is to believe on Him whom He has sent. The wicked
are those who refuse to believe. They call God a liar. The wicked,
the mass of humanity that doesn't believe God, the mass of humanity
that doesn't believe God are like the troubled sea. when it
cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. This beast,
this symbolical beast in chapter 13, arises out of the unbelieving
peoples of the world. If you were to turn to chapter
17, and I'll do that for you, chapter 17 and verse 15, He said
unto me, The waters which thou sawest, which waters? Verse 1.
There came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and
talked with me, and said to me, Come hither, I will show unto
thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many
waters. Verse 15, The waters which you
saw, where the whore sits, are people's. and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues. The sea is the unbelieving world. This beast arises out of this
unbelieving world. He's like the dragon of chapter
12 and verse 3. There appeared in chapter 12
verse 3 another wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon
having seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads. It's like that, but it's not
him, because here, in verse 4 of chapter 13, they worship the
dragon which gave power unto the beast, and they worship the
beast. See, they're separate. Who is
like unto the beast? In verse 2, you see that the
dragon... Sorry, in verse 1, he had seven
heads, ten horns, that sounds right. Upon his horns, ten crowns. The dragon, the crowns were upon
his heads. So it's like him, but not him.
The beast's crowns are ten, not seven, and on his horns, not
on his heads. These numbers all speak of Satan
attempting to imitate divine perfection, because ten is God's
number of completeness, seven is God's number of perfection.
The beast's heads carry names of blasphemy. Blasphemy is denial
of God's Word. It's denial of God's truth, like
the very first thing that Satan said to Eve in the Garden of
Eden. Hath God said? Questioning what God has said. A beast which derives its power
from the dragon, which is Satan and Apollyon and all those names
that he's given in verse 9 of chapter 12, the devil and Satan,
the serpent, that old serpent. He derives his power from that
serpent, but it isn't. This beast is like the one that
will come later in chapter 13, the second part of chapter 13. Together, they're the beasts
which form Antichrist, the spirit which is against the Christ of
God, and the Gospel of Christ. And in the time towards the end,
before Christ returns in judgment, the dragon, who is Satan, gives
power to a fearsome monster, rising out of godless, unbelieving
humanity. And look, he's described, he
is like a leopard, with the feet of a bear and with a lion's mouth. Now, we read right at the start,
Daniel chapter 7 and verses 2 to 7. There, there were four distinct
beasts, one like a leopard, one like a bear, one like a lion,
and another one that doesn't really have a clear description.
But they were all separate sequential competing empires. They were
the empires of Babylonia and Medo-Persia and Greece and Rome. That's what those four beasts
were. Separate, separate empires of
the world. But this is one, one beast. This is one beast. This beast
is one whose power derives from Satan. As it says in verse 2,
the dragon gave him his power and his seat and great authority. What is it? What is it? I can
only think it is this, it is globalism. It is the idea that
we'll have a one world government. It's the idea of world unity. It's the idea of a godless world
unity, a godless utopia, replacing the nation states. You see, it's
already been tried. Satan tried it after the Genesis
flood. You see there in verse 3, 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. If
you turn back to Genesis chapter 11, Genesis chapter 11, just
for a moment. We read in verse 1, the whole
earth was one language and of one speech. They were all united. It came to pass as they journeyed
from the east and they found a plain in the land of Shinar
and they dwelt there. And they said one to another,
Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they
had brick for stone, and slime they had for mortar. And they
said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top
may reach unto heaven. And let us make us a name, lest
we be scattered abroad on the face of the earth. And the Lord
came down to see the city and the tower which the children
of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the
people is one, and they have all one language, and this they
begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them
which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there
confound their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech. So the Lord scattered them from
thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build
the city. That was Satan's first attempt.
to have a global government of this world. One language. Nothing to do with the righteousness
of God, because how are they going to get to heaven? They're
going to build themselves a tower. Can you imagine? You don't have
to think too hard to see what this is all symbolical of. It's
man's aspirations for an eternal state of blessedness with nothing
to do with the righteousness of God, with the justice of God,
with accountability to God. Oh, we don't need any of that.
We don't need to bother with that. It was all started by this
man Nimrod. You see him back in chapter 10
and verse 9. He was, it says, a mighty hunter
in the translation, but The idea really is he was a rebel, and
not before the Lord, against the God of Noah. He was a mighty
rebel against the God of saving grace. And it was he who was
the leader. Look what he did, verse 10, the
beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Babylon. Babylon. You know, we'll see, verse chapter
17 and 18, we'll see Babylon as the symbol of all that is
Antichrist, all that is against the things of God. This is globalism,
a single world empire, one language, and chapter 13 says it's coming
again. Because one of his heads, this
beast, was wounded to death, but his deadly wound was healed.
It's healed. And all the world wondered after
the beast. There's a unity of purpose. They're
rebelling against the God of Noah and his justice back there.
But it's the same today. His wounded head, how was it
wounded? God confounded the languages.
And the separate nation states came. And the red horse of war
went. And there was war between the
nations. And Satan's objective of a global kingdom without the
justice and righteousness of God was confounded. God inflicted
a mortal wound. The red horse of war prevented
unity without divine righteousness and justice. This beast from
the sea has a healed wound in one of its heads. I ask the question,
Are we seeing this drive for world unity now? We're not there
yet, there are still separate kingdoms that are still fighting
each other, but are we seeing this drive for world unity now? You see, even a hundred years
ago, after the First World War, They raised up the League of
Nations to make sure there would never be war again, that the
red horse would be stopped from riding, that the aspirations
of a peaceful kingdom with no mention of the justice of God
would be achieved. And of course that didn't last
very long because the Second World War came along. And then
they raised up the United Nations, which is still there today, seeking
to exert its influence over everybody. And then there are all of these
other globalist organizations, the World Economic Fund, the
World Health Organization, always seeking to dictate to nations,
Overriding national sovereignty, overriding national governments
to tell people what to do. We even have Tony Blair and the
likes and his Institute for Global Change. The leaders gather each
January in Davos in Switzerland and they discuss how they're
going to achieve what they call the Great Reset. And they talk
about things like digital currency. which will determine where and
when and what we can buy and sell and where we can go. And
digital IDs, which will record where we've been and what we've
done. And our medical status will all be recorded on it, and
it will all determine what we can buy and where we can go and
the things we can do. And it's all building a modern
tower of Babel against God. And God's Word says that after
history has run its course of the woman in the wilderness of
this world being fed and kept by God, this beast is going to
arise. The objective is global unity,
global peace, global prosperity. You say, oh gosh, I'll sign up
for that. That sounds good. That's the objective of Satan's
kingdom. Global unity, global peace, global prosperity. I was
just thinking the other day, you know, there was a phrase
that was around a lot a few years ago. Make poverty history. Such a Christian objective, isn't
it? Christians against poverty. Make poverty history. Do you
know something? If you think about it in the
light of this word, that is not actually a mission of true Christianity. That is a mission statement of
Satan's global kingdom. Be clear about that. Be clear
about it. Have discernment. Seek God's
light to have the right discernment. You see, it's a kingdom of health,
and longevity, and happiness, and no God, and no accountability
for sin, and no judgment for sin. And the signs of these times
that we're living in now seem to indicate to me that this beast,
this antichrist, Maybe not here in fullness yet, but he's coming
to his fullness. Look at verses 5 and 6. Oh, this
world blasphemes the living and true God. It's most respected
icons. blaspheme the name of God. And people bow down and worship
them, and think, oh, if only, only so-and-so could be the leader
of this world, oh, wouldn't it be such a happy place? But they
speak great blasphemies against God. And power was given unto
him. I always liked that. When God
assures us that the power that Satan has, he doesn't have in
and of himself. It is power that is given unto
him. Who alone gives him this power?
It is God that gives him this power, and it is God that restricts
his power, and it is God that will take away his power, and
God will defeat him. and it's for a limited time.
Note it's for 42 months, you know, that's exactly the same
as 1260 days of three and a half symbolical years of time, times
and half a time. It's a limited time, the time
before Christ comes again. And verse 6, this beast, he opened
his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name. You know, the name of God is
not just the letters that constitute the word, which is the name by
which we know God. It's His character. It's His
characteristics. It's His character of grace and
of mercy and of compassion and of justice and of righteousness
and of judgment and of honour and glory, all of these things.
And his tabernacle, what's his tabernacle? His tabernacle is
the gospel, the gospel of saving grace, because the tabernacle
and then the temple that followed it, all of it was to picture
the gracious salvation of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he blasphemed those that dwell in heaven, he was already accusing
them before Michael in the previous chapter. And it was given to
him to make war with the saints to make war. So he's allowed
to make war. We saw in chapter 11 that the
two witnesses were killed by this beast that arises up from
the abyss, and to overcome them. And power was given him over
all kindreds and tongues and nations. He has universal power. He has vast power. There's a
division of humanity. You see, all that dwell upon
the earth shall worship him. Not all. all whose names were
not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation
of the world." There's a people whose names are in the Book of
Life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world,
and there's the rest whose names are not there. There are those
that have an ear, verse 9, if any man have an ear, let him
hear. If any man have the spiritual
gift to see the truth of these things, let him see the truth
and believe it. You see, in verse 3, all the
world wondered after the beast. This world that we're living
in, the people you live next door to, the people you go to
work with, they wonder after this beast. They follow the principles
of this beast and of this dragon. All shall worship him except
those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. Again,
I refer you to this week's bulletin. Read the article by Don Faulkner
about the Book of Life. It's there. It's such a comfort
in what are very, very difficult words in this passage. Do you
have an ear to hear? Has God graciously woken you
from this world's satanic stupor? Has He revealed His truth in
you? As Paul said, God who separated
me from my mother's womb, when it pleased Him to reveal His
Son in me. Are you willingly, enthusiastically,
on the world's side, worshipping the dragon and his antichrist
beast? You may not know it as that,
you may not see it as that, but that's what you're doing. Or
are you awake to the peril and seeking salvation? You know,
in Pilgrim's Progress, Pilgrim, first of all, he was in Vanity
Fair with his wife and his family, all going the same way as Vanity
Fair, and God awakened him, and he became very concerned about
it, and he had to flee that city, and he had to flee into the wilderness,
seeking life, and he found life at the cross. What does Matthew
7 say? Jesus spoke a lot about these
things. Which group are you in? Which
side of this division of humanity are you? Are you with the world
enthusiastically following the beast? All the world wondered
after the beast. Are you with them? Or are you
on the Lord's side? You know, I've said before, choose
you this day whom you will serve. Well, let's see what Jesus said
in Matthew 7 and verse 13. He said, enter ye in Because he's talking about the
kingdom of God. This is what he came preaching. He said, enter
ye in at the straight gate, the narrow gate. For wide is the
gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. Oh, it's
the nice easy way. It's where all the rest of the
world's going. And I'm so on my own if I'm not with them.
No, he said, enter in at the narrow gate. For wide is the
gate, and broad is the way, that lead to destruction. And many
there be, many, look at them, many, many there be, which go
in thereat. All the world was overwhelmed and worshipping this
beast. Because straight, narrow is the
gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life. and
few there be that find it. Few there be that find it. For
the woman in this world, as this beast arises from the sea of
godless humanity, this is the truth, and it's not easy to say,
and it's not easy to come to terms with, but difficult times
lie ahead. I think this is what the Word
of God tells us. There isn't some glorious revival
happening. The Word of God tells us that
for the woman in this world, in her wilderness separation
from this world, taken there by the wings of faith, as this
beast arises from the sea, as we see the signs of it doing
now, As she strives, at the end of chapter 12, verse 17, to keep
the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ,
difficult times lie ahead for the people of God. And here's
something we must come to recognize. This is not a call, believer,
to take up arms and fight against this evil that you see. There
are lots of people reporting some good things and it's good
to be aware of things that are going on in this world but don't
think that we can fight it. We cannot fight this beast and
overcome. He derives his power from the
devil and which is a permission from God. Don't think that we
can fight it and overcome it and triumph. It's only in Christ
that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. It's
only in Christ that we're on the Lord's side, on the side
of God, who must triumph in the end. Only in Him are we more
than conquerors. It's only in Christ that God
is for us and therefore who can be against us. No, don't try
to fight this. We can't do it. But God does
promise strength to endure through it. He promises His power to
keep His people faithful to Him. He promises that for the elect's
sake, the days will be shortened. And He promises a glorious and
a certain prospect of heavenly bliss.