In the book of Revelations, chapter
13, if you want to turn your Bibles there with me and read
along with us. In Revelations, chapter 13, there's
18 verses here, and I want to read it. We've got the way it
looks now, probably two, maybe three lessons in the 13th chapter
of the book of Revelations. But let's begin by reading it
together. Revelation chapter 13 and verse
1. And John said, I stood upon the
sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having
seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and
upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was
likened to a And his feet were like as the feet of a bear, and
his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power,
and his throne, his seat, and great authority. And I saw one
of his heads, as it were, wounded to death, and his deadly wound
was healed. And all the world wondered after
the beast. And they worshipped the dragon.
which gave power unto the beast, and they worshipped the beast,
saying, Who is like unto the beast, who is able to make war
with him? And there was given unto him
a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and power was
given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened
his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name and
his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given
unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them.
And power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and
nations. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of
life of the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
If any man have not an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into
captivity shall go into captivity. He that killeth with a sword
must be killed with a sword. Here is the patience and the
faith of the saints. Now that's what we're going to
study tonight, but I want to read about the second beast that
we'll look at next week. And behold another beast coming
up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, and he
spake as a dragon. And he exercised all the power
of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them
that dwelleth therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly
wound was healed. And he doeth great wonders, so
that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the
sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the
means of those miracles which he hath power to do in the sight
of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that
they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound
by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life
unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should
both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the
image of the beast should be killed. And he causeth all, both
small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark
in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might
buy or sell except he that hath the mark, or the name of the
beast, or the number of his name. And here is wisdom. Let him that
hath understanding count the number of the beast, for it is
the number of a man, and his number is six hundred and sixty-six. There is one thing that becomes
very evident, and I hope you have seen it as we study through
this book. three things that I've noticed
myself that has become very evident. And one is this, that Jesus Christ
will get the victory over all his enemies. Sometimes it seems
in this book that even Christ himself struggles and is defeated,
but that's not the case. It said over in the 17th chapter,
speaking of these world powers, that come against the Lord Jesus.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome
them. He'll defeat them. He'll put
their necks under His foot, for He is Lord of lords and King
of kings. Jesus Christ is reigning today,
and He must reign until devils and men who are His enemies are
put under His feet. Now that's evident as we read
this, isn't it? This is the revelation of Jesus
Christ, the purpose that God has made concerning His Son. And Jesus, our Lord, will get
the victory in the end. But secondly, there's something
else that's also evident, and that's the Church. In spite of
her temporal setbacks and her deep afflictions, and I'll be
the first one to admit, there are many. The church, every believer,
suffers afflictions. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous. But in spite of that, she will conquer her enemies. She will get the victory at last. Now, there's places in this book
that says Satan overcame the saints, and he does for a time.
And he's snowed us for a loop, hasn't he? You've been on this
way very long, and you can say, boy, he sure tripped me up. He
sure beat me up. But you know something? In the
end, the saints will win the victory. The Bible doesn't say
we're conquerors through Him that loved us. It says we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. We're overcomers
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Bible teaches that, doesn't
it? We looked at that last week. They overcame Him through the
blood of the Lamb. and the word of their testimony,
and they love not their lives unto death. And there is something
else as we read this book that becomes very evident, and that
is concerning Satan, that old devil, the serpent. He is a loser. He is a failure. It may seem
sometimes like he is not. It may seem sometimes like there
are battles that he wins, but in the end He's the loser. And really all through this book
as we've studied about Satan and whatever authority and whatever
liberty he is given at times to do what he does, he's bound. He's restrained by sovereign
law. Remember in the chapter 12 we
studied about him. He tried his best. Well, even
before that, we found out in chapter 12 that he tried to overthrow
God. I'm going to exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I'm going to be like the Most
High. But did he succeed in that? No, he was cast out of heaven.
Christ said, I besought him as lightning fall from heaven. And
he took a third of his angels with him, and they fell. And
then when he had fallen, He tried his best to defeat the coming
of Jesus Christ in this world. We looked at that, didn't we?
Four thousand years he labored to keep Christ, tried to kill
the holy seed that Christ would come out of. He failed at that.
When the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, he tried
to kill him then. Remember how he stirred up King
Herod to kill him? And the Lord protected the Christ
child and they took him down to Egypt. And then when that
didn't work, he turned his persecution on the church. He sent out these
floods to try to wash her away. But a place was prepared for
her in the wilderness of God where she was nourished. So Satan,
he fails at everything he tries to do. He fails. He's the ultimate,
ultimate failure. And I don't think you could say
that he's changed his strategy, but I think he's added a new
dimension to his purpose, or he's doubled down on his purpose. And you know what his purpose
is? And that's what we'll see tonight, his world dominance. That's what he's after now, his
world dominance. One world government that he's
over. Now, Satan can't rule in his
own person. He's a dark, black, fallen spirit,
and he can't rule in his person. He has to rule through people.
He likes to influence governments and turn them against God, make
anti-God governments out of them, anti-Christ governments. He loves
for people to share false Gospels. They worship Him that way. He
loves for people to set up idols because they worship Him that
way. But He has to have means. We
can't just worship Him because He can't be seen. He's a black,
dark spirit. But He loves to be worshipped.
And what He's doing in our text tonight, He's setting up these
governments to rule the world by these governments. Now, to
understand what these beasts are in our text in verses 1 and
2, we've got to go all the way back over to the book of Daniel.
Now, I'm not going to have you to turn there because it would
be too much reading. But there's just 12 chapters
in the book of Daniel. I sat down the other night, and
I'm not a great reader, but I read it all the way through in just
a few minutes. When you get time, sit down in the book of Daniel
and begin in chapter 1 and go all the way through chapter 12
and you'll see who this beast here is. Daniel saw several visions and
most of all the visions he saw was visions of beasts. He saw
all kinds of beasts. Some he could look at them and
They were horrible in their appearance, and others didn't look that bad. But all of them were different
kinds of beasts. For instance, he saw a ram. And the ram had
two horns coming up out of the sea. And the ram was fierce. Nobody could stand before this
ram with two horns. And Daniel wanted to know who
this ram is. He didn't understand and the
one that was showing him the vision explained to him who this
ram was. It was the kings of Persia and
the king of the Medes. And he watched this ram and he
realized, man, this is a vicious ram. But while he was watching
that, there was a he-goat with one horn between his eyes and
he was going so fast that his feet weren't even touching the
ground. And this he-goat hit that ram and knocked him down
and trampled him until he killed him. And it was said that no
beast could deliver him out of that he-goat's hands. And Daniel
wanted to know who in the world is this he-goat. Well, they told
him it was the kingdom of Greece. You've all read. Remember Alexander
the Great? We all read about Alexander the
Great and how quickly he conquered the world in his day. He was
that he-goat. And then Daniel saw other visions. He saw one vision. Remember the
vision he had? It was a beast-like man. And
he had a crown. He had a head of gold. And his
chest and his arms were silver. and his thighs were brass, and
his legs were iron, and his feet were iron and clay together.
He was such an image that it scared Nebuchadnezzar to death
when he had a dream about him. Then Daniel explained who he
was. He's these powers. He's these worldly governments.
The head was Nebuchadnezzar, and then the breast was the king
of of Persia and Medes. Then he went right on down to
the governments of Rome. But he's always seeing these
visions. And he saw a vision of three
beasts, four beasts. He saw four beasts. You'll find
this in the fourth chapter and the eighth chapter, I think,
in the eleventh chapter of the book of Daniel. He saw these
four beasts. One was like a bear, one was
like a lion, and one was like a leopard. And one was so dreadful,
Daniel couldn't even describe him, he was so dreadful. But
all of these beasts represented world governance. And we come
here now in our text in verse 1 and 2, and John sees this vision. But what he sees is not four
separate beasts. He sees all of Daniel's beasts
united in one beast. And when Daniel saw them, he
said, man, those are horrible looking beasts. They're fierce. They're violent. And they were
the world powers. The powers of Babylon with Nebuchadnezzar
and the government of the Medes and Persians over Darius and
I can't even think of the other one's name, can't remember his
name now. The king, can't think of his name, Mr. Baker, now,
but Darius was one of them. And the other kings, and the
king of Greece, and then Rome. But he looked at the fourth beast,
and Daniel had no idea who this could be. They told him who the
other beasts were, but he had no idea who this fourth beast
was. But here is the way they identified
this fourth beast. I saw in the night visions, and
behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible. And he was strong
exceedingly, and he had iron teeth. And he devoured and break
in pieces, and stomped the residue with his feet. And it was different
from all the beasts that were before him, and it had ten horns. And then in verse 19 of Daniel
chapter 8 he said this, Then I would know the truth of the
fourth beast, which was different from all other beasts, exceeding
dreadful, whose teeth were of iron and his nails of brass,
which devoured and broke in pieces, and stomped the residue with
his feet. Then verse 23 said this about
the fourth beast, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom
upon the earth, which shall be different from all kingdoms,
and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and
break it in pieces. And this fourth beast represented
Rome. And if you ever read the history
of Rome, man, that was a violent, violent government. Had some violent leaders. Nero
was awful, even Claudius Caesar. They had some good laws, but
boy, they were violent people. They ruled the world with an
iron fist. And they hated the Jews. when Aquila and Priscilla
in Acts 18 had to leave Rome and it's because Caesar forced
them out of Rome. It was a terrible, terrible government. The great fire of Rome burnt
like three quarters of Rome down and they accused Nero of sending
men out to set it on fire so he could blame Christians. You
ever heard the old phrase phrase, fiddling while the city burns?
Well, that's what they said Nero did. He was a maniac. He was
wicked and cruel. And that's who this fourth beast
that Daniel saw that was so violent and cruel and mighty represented. But the thing I want you to see
is these beasts that Daniel tells us about, especially the ones
that look like a lion and a leopard and a bear, and that fourth beast,
they're human governments. Their kings are leaders over
these human governments, but not just human governments. The
core of their government is not only that they're vicious, but
they're idolatrous and they're anti-God. You notice all of the
governments that we listed there, the government of Babylon, The
governments of the Medes and the Persians, the Greeks and
the Romans, you know all of those were heathen governments. Never mention even the good government
of David or Solomon, all of them were heathen governments. They
were idolaters. They worshipped gods and they
hated the God of the universe. They hated the God of the Bible.
Remember the image that Nebuchadnezzar set up? and required the world
to worship it. Remember that? And that's what
got Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the iron furnace.
Remember the law that Darius king of the Medes and Persians
made? That no one should ask a petition of any man or any
god for 30 days. That got Daniel thrown in the
lion's den. And it was said of Alexander
the Great that he was such a corrupt man and so perverted that he
actively sought, recruited homosexuals for his soldiers. And he did
that not only because they said he was probably one himself,
but he didn't want his soldiers longing for their wives and their
children when they were out on the battlefield for years at
a time. So he recruited. He was a very, very corrupt man. And in Daniel chapter 7 and verse
25, speaking of this fourth beast, this is what was said about him.
And he shall speak great words against the Most High, and shall
wear out the saints of the Most High. And that's what the Roman
government was. It was an ungodly government. And it hated God. I remember
reading in the Fox's Book of Martyrs where The Roman government
becomes so hostile towards believers, they were killing 5,000 believers every day. Ain't that
amazing? One of the reasons they kill
them is because, and we studied this in one of our other lessons,
they required everybody in the Roman Empire to acknowledge Caesar
as their Lord. And Christians wouldn't do it.
And so they started killing them. They said there was times in
some of the roads that they made examples out of Christians and
they would crucify them. You can look down the roads each
side and there were crosses and Christians were hanging on. You
can read that in Fox's Book of Martyrs. What Daniel saw in all three
of these beasts and in the fourth beast, John sees combined in
this one beast. Now, if they were bad when they
were separate, how bad are they going to be when they combine?
And that's what John is talking about here in his vision tonight.
This beast here in our text, he had on his head the name of
blasphemy. We read that, didn't we? And
there was given to him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemy. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy
against God, blasphemed his name and his tabernacle and them that
dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make
war with the saints and to overcome them for a time. And listen to
this, power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and
nations. This is what Satan has been longing
for. This is his aim. And this is
what's coming in the latter days of the history of this world.
This is what he's been trying to do all along through these
governments made up of men. God sets governments up for good. But Satan uses them. He influences
them to drive the knowledge of God out of the country. to set
up idols in that country and set up all kinds of perverted
acts and beliefs in a country. Look here in verse 2. This tells us something about
what kind of government this is going to be, this one world
government. I don't know It's going to be
made up, no doubt, of several governments, but they're all
going to be combined in one. But look here what's said about
it in verse 2 of our text. Revelations 13 and 2. And the
beast which I saw was likened to a leper, and his feet like
the feet of a bear, his mouth the mouth of a lion, and the
dragon, remember who that is? Satan, that old devil, the serpent. He gave him his power and his
throne and great authority. Where does this beast get his
power to be so mean and anti-God? He is being influenced by Satan
himself. Now Paul spoke of this. Look
over in 2 Thessalonians 2. 2 Thessalonians 2. And look in verse 1, Paul spoke of this very man of
sin who has come in his act of the working of Satan. And look
how he says it here in chapter 2, verse 1, 2 Thessalonians. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering
together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be
troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as
from us, as that 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." Now the church is going to be weak
in the last days. The church is going to get weaker
and weaker in the last days. There's going to come a falling
away. We probably, brothers and sisters, haven't seen anything
yet. We talk about a lack of desire on people, not living
up to their profession and all of this. We probably haven't
seen anything yet. Falling away, a falling away. And then what happens, that man
of sin be revealed, the son of destruction. He's the son of
perdition. Now, Paul calls him a man of sin. I don't know if
it's one man or if it's a group of men, but it's these governments
that's united as one that has a king over them or a president
over them or a group of people over these governments, and Paul
calls them collectively a man of sin. And look at him, look
at his attitude. Who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he as God setteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God. Remember, you know, when I was
yet with you, I told you these things, and now you know what
withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. Somebody
is restraining him. Aren't they? Get that? Now you know who is restraining
him. Somebody is restraining him. He has been trying to set
up these governments all along, but he has been restrained. He
has failed in his purpose. Verse 7, For the mystery of iniquity
doth already work, only he who now hinders will hinder until
he be taken out of the way. And then shall that wicked be
revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his
mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming,
even him whose coming is after the working of Satan, with all
power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness of them that perish, because they receive
not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for
this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should
believe a lie, that they might be damned, all be damned, who
believe not the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness."
Now, brothers and sisters, here is what I believe the Scriptures
teaches. There is coming a one world government. That is Satan's aim. He will
be anti-God. It will be anti-Christ. It will
be anti-Christianity, anti-good, anti-wholesome. And it will have
one man or a group of men over these governments of the world. And this government, this worldwide
government, will not be forced on anybody. The world will receive
it gladly. The world will rejoice to have
it so. They will say, Worship the beast
who's able to make war against this beast. Look at him. Look
how strong, look how glorious he is. They worship the dragon
which gave power to the beast and they worship the beast saying
who is able to make war with the beast. So we talk about resistance
by the world that the world would not accept such as the world
will love it. The world will love it. It's
just what the world is looking for. Christ said, I've come in
my own name and you won't receive me. But if another comes in his
own name, him, you will receive. And this one world government
will be represented as one that can solve all the world's problems
and bring peace and prosperity. Now, when you read the book of
Daniel, you'll see that. These beasts were violent and
cruel, but boy, they were prosperous. These kings were smart. Nebuchadnezzar
kept alive who he wanted to. He killed who he wanted to. He
was a vicious man, but he was a brilliant man. He's a brilliant
man. And the leader of this one world
government will be a smart guy. Listen to what Daniel said concerning
this world power that was coming. In the latter time of their kingdom,
When the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce
countenance and understanding dark sayings shall stand up. His power shall be mighty, but
not by his own power." There's coming a government, united,
and it'll be a powerful government. But where does it get its power?
We read it, didn't we? Satan gave it, the dragon gave
it its power. And he shall destroy wonderfully,
and he shall prosper and practice, and shall destroy the mighty
and the holy people. And through his policy also,
he shall cause craft to prosper in his hands." It's going to
be a government that everybody says, man, why didn't we have
this government all along? Look how smart these rulers are. Look at the things they're thinking
to do. They're making life so much easier. And it's a peaceful
government. Only thing about it, it's anti-God
government, anti-Christ government. And he shall magnify himself
in his heart. And listen to this. And by peace,
he shall destroy many. Saying peace, peace, when there
is no peace. And he shall also stand up against
the prince of princes, and yet he shall be broken without hand. Christ is going to destroy him
with the brightness of his coming and going to destroy him with
the spirit of his mouth. In Daniel chapter 11, he goes
on to mention this about this Antichrist's government. The
king shall do according to his will. and shall exalt himself,
and magnify himself above every God, and shall speak marvelous
things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation
be accomplished. For that that is determined shall
be done." It shall be done. And there's no stopping this,
is there? There's no stopping this government that's coming.
It's God's purpose. It's God's will that it should
happen. And for a while, he's going to let Satan have his way
and set up these governments. And brothers and sisters, it's
going to be a most terrible time of trouble for the church. Here's
what Daniel said in the 12th chapter of Daniel. This shall
be a time of trouble for the saints, such as never was since
there was a nation even to that same time. A time of trouble. They call it Jacob's trouble. So who are these? Who is this
beast that looks so dreadful like a bear and a leopard and
a lion? And that fourth beast that Daniel couldn't even describe,
he was so horrible. They're the governments of this
world. And they're governments that
are heathens. They hate God. They hate the
gospel. And with Satan's influence, they'll
push the knowledge of God out. They'll pervert the gospel. They'll
do away with it. There'll be no gathering of the
saints to worship if this government can stop it. That's what these
beasts represent. Now, two more things quickly.
Here in Revelation chapter 13, sit back over there, in verse
3. John makes this statement here
about this beast that had seven heads and that looked like a
leopard and so on. And then in verse three, he saw
one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound
was healed and all the world wandered after the beast. Now, what in the world is this
about? I think this, if we'll leave this in its context, And
remember, this is speaking of kings, those in authority, and
their governments. If we leave this in the context,
I think we'll have to come to this conclusion. Just after the
flood, the world had one language and one speech. And it was here,
just after the flood, when men began to populate, that Satan
attempted to set up one world government. You'll find this
in Genesis chapter 10. I asked Cindy this evening. I said, what was the first government
that was attempted to set up in this world? And you know what
it was? Babel. Babel. Remember the man by the name
of Nimrod? That mighty hunter before the
Lord? He was a most ungodly rebellious
man. And God spoke to humanity and
said, scatter out. It's time to scatter out and
repopulate and replenish the earth. And Nimrod said, no way. We're not scattering. If we scatter,
we'll lose our influence. Our power is to stick together. So what did he do? He tried to
set up a kingdom. That was the first kingdom that
was set up in this world. We have no kingdoms before the
flood that we read of. The beginning of his kingdom
was Babylon. And he set it up and he said,
let's start right here on this location and let us build a city
and let us build a tower to heaven And we won't be scattered, and
we'll give ourselves a great name. That was the first government
that tried to be set up. And the Lord came down, and what
does the Scripture say He did? He confounded their language.
He said, You're not setting up a one world government here.
And He scattered them all over the world, and they went. And
that was the wound that was given Satan. That was the wound that
was given to the king in that day that tried to set up this
kingdom. His head was wounded, but he
was going to set up the kingdom of Babel. Now, who was it that
undertook to redo that kingdom and really set it up? Remember
the king by the name of Nebuchadnezzar? What was his kingdom? Babylon. Remember what he said? He walked
out on his balcony and he looked out over the city with those
great walls and he said, Is this not great Babylon that I have
made for myself and for my majesty, the glory of my kingdom? And
that's when that voice fell out of heaven and sent him out to
eat like an oxen. And here is where the deadly
wound was healed. God yielded a wound to Nimrod
and to Satan through Nimrod. You're not going to do it. But
now he allows that wound to be healed and Nebuchadnezzar sets
up the kingdom of Babylon. I thought it was very interesting.
There was a little place, just a small area where Nimrod chose
to build that tower. They say there used to be a foundation
there that they could still see. I don't know if it's still there,
if they even know where it is. I don't know if that was true
or not. But you remember where it was located at? Genesis chapter
10? It was a little place called
Shinar. Shinar. Now what's significant
about that? Will you remember the image that
Nebuchadnezzar set up and said the world has to worship this
image? And if you don't worship this
image, you're going to be cast into the fiery furnace. Remember
where that little place was where that image was set up? Shinar. The very same place. So here
is the wound that went to the head of Nimrod when he tried
to set up a kingdom. But here is Nebuchadnezzar in
the very same place that wound was healed. And we see it all
the way over here in the book of Revelation. And it was simply
this. Satan was trying to set up this
one world government in rebellion against God. And the Lord wouldn't
let him. But the wound was healed and
now Satan was influencing all of these other governments. And
he's going to bring them all together in the last days. I
don't care if it's Russia, if it's China, the United States,
if it's Mexico, if it's Canada, they're all coming together under
the influence of Satan with this purpose. We want rid of God. We're anti-Christ. Don't ever
let us hear the gospel preached again. That's His aim in this
world. And that's why it so troubles
us when we look at our country and see what's going on in our
country. It's not going on over in Europe. Pastors are being arrested over
there from time to time because they preach against sin. It's
happened up in Canada. And this whole attitude is coming.
It's coming. The trouble and the turmoil in
the world and Satan is going to influence these kingdoms.
Anti-God kingdoms. The second thing about this is
this though. This one world government will
not stand but a short time. Only a short time. Our Lord Jesus
Christ who reigns in heaven and reigns on this earth will consume
this kingdom. The kingdoms of this world will
become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And there
will be no stopping that. Christ Himself. will destroy
thy kingdom. Look back in our text one more
time, Revelation chapter 13 and verse 8. This is encouraging to us. And all that dwell upon the earth
shall worship him. But then he almost like he corrects
himself, doesn't he? Wait a minute, he said, not everybody
is going to worship him. Those whose names are not written
in the book of life of the Lamb, they shall worship Him. But there
are some people that will not worship that one world government. They'll say, You're not our Lord.
We have a Lord. They'll hold to Christ. They'll
obtain mercy to be faithful. They'll obtain grace to be patient
and believe and wait. until the Lord destroys that
government. I love what this says here, don't
you? You know, we talk about things
that's going to happen in time, but I'm telling you before time
there was something that happened. You know what happened before
time? God in His purpose wrote the names of a great host of
people down in the Lamb's Book of Life. And His purpose is to
save them, and they shall be saved. In spite of flesh, the
world, and devils, they shall be saved. I have reserved to
myself 7,000 men that's never bowed the knee to the image of
Baal, and they won't bow to this government either. They'll be
like those princes of Germany when they bowed their heads before
the Council of Rome. You can have our necks, but you
can't have the truth. We bought it and we'll never
sell it. Aren't you glad for that book, brothers and sisters?
Aren't you glad that He tells us about it? The Lord sent His
disciples out to cast out devils and heal the sick, and they come
back and they were so happy. Remember that? They were just
rejoicing. They said, Lord, even devils
are subject to us through their names. And the Lord said, don't
get too excited about that. But rejoice in this, that your
names are written in heaven. Oh, brothers and sisters, to
live in the confidence of that, in the faith of that, is wonderful,
isn't it? What is it that we can't endure
if we live in the faith that our names are in the Lamb's Book
of Life? And God writes that down with
a pen of iron and they'll never be erased. Not one name will
be blotted out of the Lamb's Book of Life. That's what He
said. And Revelation chapter 17 and
verse 8 says those names were put in there before the foundation
of the world, before time. There was a time there wasn't
any government. There was a time there wasn't
a devil. But I don't know that there's ever been a time there
wasn't a book of life with the names of all God's elect written
in it. In the book of life of the Lamb
slain, from the foundation of the world. See that all along. Nothing is out of God's control.
We are not working on plan B. His plan A all along was to send
His Son to redeem those whose names are in the Lamb's Book
of Life. And He says it is just as though He was slain before
the world was. And the purpose of God, that's
how sure the cross is. We're living in a world, brothers
and sisters, that's under the wrath of God. But there are saints
in this world that will never know God's wrath. And I'll tell
you why. Somebody else has redeemed them
from it. Somebody else took the wrath in their place. I love
that, don't you? And that's why we can read this
book and see Satan here, where he seems like he's getting the
victory. It's short-lived. It's short-lived. So we can rejoice,
can't we? Father, thank You. Thank You
for this lesson. Thank You for Your Word. Thank
You for how plain it is when we compare it to other scriptures.
Thank You for giving it to us. What a comfort it is when we
look at these things, Lord, and realize the trouble that's coming
to the church. But you're the church's head. You're the church's foundation.
And we're safe and sound in you, and we praise you for it. Bless
these words to these dear people. May they rejoice in them. May
they believe them and understand them. In Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.