ResponsiveReiding

The Judgment of the Great Prostitute – Revelation Ch. 17

August 27th, 2018
Revelation Part 30

The Judgment of the Great Prostitute

Rev. Ch. 17

Ezekiel 16:1-32

I don’t know how may of you may have seen the movie The 6^th Sense – but if you haven’t and are planning to – let me issue a spoiler alert for next minute or so.

As with most of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, they contain a surprise ending – a big reveal that once seen, takes you back and makes sense of other things you’ve seen throughout the movie. The reveal completely reframes the entire story.

In the 6^th Sense, a child psychologist works with a young man who is troubled because he thinks he sees dead people. Some of whom talk to him. When the movie plays out, we find out in fact that it is the psychologist who is actually dead. Suddenly almost everything of what you’ve already seen is completely recast.

In a very real way, this is how chapter 17 of The Revelation works. In it, comes “the big reveal.” All of which centers around the new figure who is shown to John by the angel – someone called “the great prostitute” or the great harlot.

It is no surprise then that getting the identity of this harlot (as she is called) correct, takes you back and strings a whole lot of what has come before, together in an entirely new way.

In the process, a number of the metaphors or symbols we’ve seen along the way, get mashed up together and we see how they are often various ways of seeing exactly the same thing from different angles.

So bear with me as first, we try to establish who or what this “great prostitute” is. Then, we’ll read the entire chapter through, wearing this new lens. And we’ll end with some applications.

Once again we are reminded that though the book of Revelation does not quote the Old Testament very much, it nevertheless makes more references or allusions to the Old Testament than any other New Testament book. You truly cannot make real sense of it apart from a firm grip on the OT. And nowhere is this more true than in this chapter.

The purpose of the chapter is given to us unambiguously in vs. 1: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,”

There is no question regarding what it is we are to be taking away from this vision: The Judgment of the Great Prostitute.

That being the focus, we need to identify her. 3 things to note here.

The phrase that “she is seated upon many waters” is helpful, since that idea is explained in vs. 15 “And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.”

An individual cannot be seated upon peoples, multitudes and nations. That an individual is not meant here seems pretty clear.

This is reinforced by vs. 2 where her “immorality” is with “the kings of the earth.”

This is reinforced yet again by vs. 3 where she is seen “sitting on a scarlet beast.” This description of the Beast having 7 heads and 10 horns was seen to be Satan himself in ch. 12. AND, it is also the antichrist mindset Satan uses to create a human society founded upon principles opposed to the rightful rule and reign of God.

There is no individual personage who we can imagine actually sits astride Satan in some way. This is clearly symbolic – but of who or what?

Of all the theories throughout history on this question, perhaps the prevailing view among the Reformers was the closest one. They were convinced the harlot depicted the Roman Catholic Church. In their eyes, the Church having sunk into selling indulgences, its seeking such vast wealth and political power – all the while abandoning the Gospel of justification by grace alone through faith alone, and persecuting those who put their faith in Christ alone – made real sense. It still has a lot to commend it.

I think this is close, but a little too located in their own place and time.

I think the key does rest in the basic description: She is THE great Prostitute. And there can be little question that the prostitution being referred to here is spiritual, not physical.

There are 2 things which denote a harlot.

Rejection (or betrayal) of the sanctity of an exclusive intimate relationship in marriage, for some perceived gain. (Material wealth, security, status, satisfaction of illicit desires etc.)

Which always results in the harlot seeking to be as attractive as possible to the widest audience possible – rather than seeking to be most attractive to a singular love.

This is an image John and his first readers could not help but be drawn back to consider seeing as God’s most poignant way of referring to Israel’s sin against Him, as we just heard read to us from Ezekiel. A picture so graphically portrayed in the book of Hosea.

What appears to me to be the case, is that this pictures a people with professed fidelity to God and Jesus, I’ll say professed Christianity – but who in fact live more by the Worlds’ values and seek the Worlds’ acceptance and approval more than the Christ she claims to be betrothed to.

It is professing Christians & Christianity given over to the spirit of the age. Pursuing personal autonomy and denying that one owes allegiance to Jesus as Lord. Capitulating to the World’s morality so as not to be marginalized or persecuted. Inventing and promoting self-styled religion and spirituality apart from the Word so as to embrace everyone. Above all, seeking its approval from the World and seeking the material prosperity and security that acceptance offers.

We’ll claim to be “Christians” but we’ll seek what the World seeks, love what the World loves, approve what the World approves, and compromise wherever we need to, to be accepted and participate in what the World offers.

The liberal, compromising Church in whatever generation or form at any given time in history. And by whatever denomination or name.

God’s people, playing the whore with the world – to get its benefits.

And can there be a more timely warning to us? Can’t we see this all around us?

In July, I shared with you the account of Trinity Western University in Langley BC and their plight of being denied national accreditation for their law school because they require students and faculty hold to a very specific, Bible-based code of conduct. Each student was required to sign a community covenant which included a pledge not to lie, steal, cheat, curse, get drunk, use pornography—and to abstain from sex outside Biblical marriage. That last point proved too much for the Canadian Supreme Court. They ruled that to require students to abstain from sex outside of marriage discriminates against gay people. And on that basis, Trinity was rejected nationally from being able to add a law degree program.

The Canadian Supreme Court admitted that the University’s religious freedom was violated in this case. But ruled the law societies had the authority to refuse to approve this law school. Simply holding to a Biblical view of marriage was sufficient to keep them from forming a law school.

How did Western University respond to the Court ruling? We found out just this past week.

They have decided that getting the accreditation they were seeking, takes priority over their commitment to the moral covenant. And this very week have said students are no longer required to sign or abide by the covenant.

Believe me, I feel the pinch and the pain of the position Trinity was put in: Yield to the culture on this moral issue – or accept the consequence of not being allowed accreditation for the Law School.

But this IS the position the Church, Christians of all stripes, will be placed in increasingly in the days to come. And the question is, will we choose to consort with the World to get what it offers even if it means lack of fidelity to the God who made us, the Christ who saved us and the Spirit ho indwells us? Will WE play the harlot?

Will we take the temporary material security the World offers over the spiritual blessings of Christ? For we cannot have both.

Will we serve the World or self rather than King Jesus? We cannot serve 2 diametrically opposed masters. (Matt. 6:24)

Will we compromise on holiness to have what our flesh desires over what Christ has purchased for us? For without holiness, no man will see God. (Heb. 12:14)

Will we reshape worship and religion to be acceptable to those who reject the Gospel and the salvation found in Christ alone?

The Scripture paints those who claim to be Christ’s and yet take these steps – as prostitutes. And this spirit, this attitude, is the fountain from which every other abomination flows.

So now, let’s read through the text, stopping only long enough along the way to see how knowing this clarifies and changes the story line.

17:1 “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters”

What about this Prostitute – this compromising Christianity then? She is to be judged along with Satan and the World.

17: 2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”

What of this woman’s activities? The kings of the earth have consorted with her. She has entered into an illicit relationship with the world powers. Seeking their approval and security above that of the God she professes to love.

And this relationship distorts all truth. It has produced effects something akin to drunkenness.

When the Church compromises this way, she distorts people’s vision and understanding of God and the truth so that they cast off restraint: We contribute to the moral decline of the world around us.

(Rom. 2:21-24)

17:3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.

Make no mistake, the compromising church is supported by a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names. As we saw already, the beast with 7 heads and 10 horns was identified earlier: In ch. 12: this is the description given to Satan, and in ch. 13 to the Antichrist system.

So the metaphors get mixed together to reveal that The Beast is both Satan, AND the antichrist mindset he uses to create a human society founded upon principles opposed to the rightful rule and reign of God. The City of Man as opposed to the City of God. God created this world and mankind to live in right relationship with Himself, and Satan strives to turn that on its head in his hatred of God. And he uses us to do it. Precious mankind made in the image of God.

The picture is the Church allying itself so as to be supported by those/that which blasphemes God.

17:4-6a The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

The woman is dressed as royalty, with wealth. But in her compromise of the Gospel, she actually ends up slaking her thirst on her immoralities – her illicit union with the World and its values.

Her name is Babylon the great – Babylon being the OT pinnacle of a godless society raised up in opposition to God’s people in judgment.

Thus in her compromise she has given birth to all literal prostitution and all the earth’s abominations. For ALL sin from the Garden of Eden forward flows from rebellion against the God who made us for Himself, in order to please ourselves above Him.

As a result, she is even intoxicated by the destruction of the saints. She is so distorted in her pursuit, she actually contributes to the destruction of the faithful. The liberal church turns on those who hold to Biblical authority and truth.

17: 6b-7 When I saw her, I marveled greatly. But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.

John was astonished – but the angel tells him not to be intimidated by her apparent wealth and status. We’ll come to see why.

17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

The beast that supports her is what we’ve seen before; what was, but right then wasn’t on the scene, but would arise later and then be destroyed. Antichrist kingdoms and movements have come and gone before.

And as we’ve seen before, those who are not truly Christ’s will be taken in by the power, glamour and wealth she appears to have by virtue of her union with Satan.

17:9-11 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; 10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. 11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.

7 heads = 7 mountains – probably indicating pinnacles of power because they are also 7 kings. The antichrist spirit and philosophy always attaches itself to some worldly political system. Some have already come and gone, and some are yet to come.

The woman, the compromising Church always seeks to capitalize on the rise of world and political powers. To cozy up to whoever is most prominent and beneficial at the time.

But the last manifestation of this will have only a short time of power.

17:12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.

A great number of kings or world rulers will be allied with the Beast to get their turn at power.

17:13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.

Such world powers will always be in league with Satan’s agenda and in opposing Jesus as King.

17:14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”

Each and every one of them will fall apart – even the last, under the just and final conquering war of The Lamb!

17:15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.

So remember, all of this is about the corrupting influence the compromising Church has upon the entire world. This is why she will be judged along with the Beast.

17:16-17 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.

What happens to the Church which compromises with the world in order to get its approval and material wealth? Those 10 kings, when they have no more use for the Woman, will ravage her and throw her aside. Compromise always leads to destruction by the very ones whose favor we court through it. The Church cannot perpetuate itself though compromise.

This is all part of God’s judgment plan.

17:18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”

When it is all said and done – the compromising Church is itself the very counterfeit city set up in opposition to God’s city of the New Jerusalem where Christ will reign for ever and ever.

The prostitute and those who consort with her, take that which is most representative of union, exclusivity, intimacy and commitment, and turn it into a commodity to be bought and sold on the open market.

When the Church, Christ’s betrothed bride seeks the attention and approval of those other than Him; looks for security and enrichment beyond what He promises to provide; invites into union with it those who are not Christ’s and expends her gifts on others for their ends rather than for His glory – we become the great harlot.

NOW – we can go back and see why the warnings to the 7 Churches in the opening chapters are so important, and how they are the thread which runs through the rest of the book.

The individual Christian and/or The Church at large when compromising with the world.

APPLICATIONS: 17:14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”
1. A Word of Warning: Make no mistake – for all the money, all the machinery, all the Satanic influence, all the deception, all the prosperity and military might this world may possess, all will be defeated by the Lamb, the conquering Son of God. He is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, and those with Him remain faithful.
No matter how beneficial it might seem in the moment, all compromise with the world will end in those compromising – no matter what their profession of faith – being judged by the Lamb along with Satan and the World.
1. A Reminder of the Gospel: Note how it is that all human sin and satanic power is destroyed – by the death, burial, resurrection and return of the incarnate Son of God.
It is the Lamb of God who alone conquers sin, satan, death and all that is contrary to the glory and goodness of God.

And how counter intuitive this is. Satan is seen as this massive, dreadful beast, scarlet, with 7 heads and 10 horns. On the back of which is all that is wicked and abominable and destructive – brought down by a Lamb. Brought down by the sacrificial and overcoming love of the living God for those who were once His enemies, redeemed by the atoning blood of the spotless Lamb. What a picture!

The Lamb WILL conquer them.
1. An Encouragement to the True Believer: No matter how bad it might look. No matter how compromised the Church at large or some in it may become, those with Jesus are called chosen, and FAITHFUL.
He has saved us through His electing grace, and those He elects He preserves through the gift of faithfulness – to remain true to the very end. What a Savior this Lamb is. What a redeemer. How glorious our Jesus is.
Revelation Part 29 – The 7 Bowls of Wrath

August 14th, 2018
Revelation Part 29

The 7 Last Plagues

Rev. 15:5-16:21

Proverbs 19:3

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

In 2 recent sermons, we’ve been taken to Jesus’ parable of Lazarus and the Rich man. In the latter portion of that parable, we saw the Rich man in Hell, pleading that someone go back from the dead – namely Lazarus – to warn his 5 brothers not to live and sin as he did, so as to avoid the same fate.

It’s then we encounter Abraham’s response: Luke 16:29–31 “Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ The Rich man shot back, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ”

As though our text today were penned as a further explanation of the mysterious nature and the depths of the twistedness & hardness of the fallen human heart, in it, we’ll be brought face to face with this phenomenon once again in startling clarity – along with a picture of God’s continued faithfulness, goodness and goodwill toward His enemies. And both are jaw dropping.

It might be useful to go back and recall just a few key facts from earlier in our study for context and clarity’s sake.

You will remember that Ch. 5 introduced us to a scroll sealed with 7 seven seals – which no one in Heaven or earth was able to open until Jesus stepped forward to do it. He alone is worthy.

That scroll, as Don Carson put it: “contains all of God’s purposes for blessing and judgment…[it] contains God’s purposes for redemption and condemnation…the fullness of all that God wants to do in blessing and judgment. This is the whole plan”

The opening of the 7 seals gives us the big picture.

Then, in Ch. 8 once the 7^th seal is opened we are introduced to 7 angels with 7 trumpets. We saw how trumpets were used in ancient days as a means of communicating and sounding warnings like in Israel’s history. And how God appointed them for Israel. They were blown to summon troops to war, to warn about approaching enemies, announce feasts and special events etc. They announce.

So as each of the trumpets are blown, we get increased detail about the judgments of God on this fallen earth and those who reject the Lordship and salvation of Jesus Christ.

God’s goodness and patience are highlighted in the way He warns and warns and warns. He goes out of His way to prepare humanity and to call us to repentance from our sin and faith in Jesus. And He places the reality of the coming judgments front and center in graphic and even shocking detail.

Which brings us to our text today where having seen the plan in the opening of the seals, and being warned of what is coming – and in some sense has already begun – by the trumpets. We now see the final judgment actually being poured out or accomplished on the earth – figured by 7 golden bowls.

God reveals, God expands and warns, and finally God acts. He is never given to knee-jerk actions.

The scene itself doesn’t need a lot of explanation – but let’s look at it in the text and make some observations along the way. And then I have 4 considerations for us to entertain at the end.

Rev. 15:5 After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened,

John’s vision here begins in Heaven and recalls the same sanctuary or temple Moses was shown in Ex. 25. The REAL temple which was the pattern for Moses’ Tabernacle.

Rev. 15:6 and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests.

7 angels make their appearance, in pure bright linen – no doubt indicating the purity of their mission – and golden sashes indicating they have royal authority to execute their mission. They are God’s agents in what is about to unfold.

Rev. 15:7 And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever,

This would have been one of the 6-winged seraphim we saw in Ch. 4 – and the bowls may be representative of the ones we saw in Ch. 5 which contain the prayers of the saints. Hence something of God’s final judgment on sin is connected to our prayers. Perhaps Jesus’ instruction to us to be praying “Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

A fulfillment of what Paul notes in 2 Thess. 1:6–10 “indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”

15:8 and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.

This is nothing less than a picture of how dramatic and all consuming it is when God makes Himself known in greater ways than we are used to. As he reveals Himself, everything else must come to a full stop. It is reminiscent of the day when they dedicated Solomon’s temple in 1 Kings 8 – when even the consecrated Priests could not stand up to minister when the glory of God filled the place.

Remember back in the 1^st chapters when John encounters a fuller vison of the risen Christ? It is overwhelming, shattering. And now God is breaking out in revealing His holy judgment upon sin and His glory in rewarding the saints and even in Heaven – nobody moves a muscle. Not even the highest angels. Even the ordinary affairs of Heaven come to a screeching halt in the face of the cosmic spectacle.

Rev. 16:1–2 Then I heard a loud voice from the temple telling the seven angels, “Go and pour out on the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God.” So the first angel went and poured out his bowl on the earth, and harmful and painful sores came upon the people who bore the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.

Actual judgment has begun. Whether it is God Himself who gives the order here, or some angelic being, the command is to pour out the 7 bowls. In fact, that only one command is given may indicate these are not supposed to be thought of as being poured out in succession, but that each of the 7 angels go out at the very same time, each pouring out his unique plague.

The 1^st bowl is poured out with terrible results, specifically on those who bear the mark of the Beast – those marked out as his by virtue of taking on the World’s mindset in opposition to serving Christ: Material wellbeing; personal autonomy; cultural morality and invented religion or spirituality.

The question of course is whether or not this is literal or figurative. Sorting out what is literal or symbolic throughout this book has been a never ending task. But I will have to say that given the parallels between these 7 plagues and the last 7 plagues on Egypt in Exodus 7-12 – which were literal, it seems most in keeping with the text to see them as literal here too.

This is some sort of physical plague which manifests itself in harmful and painful sores breaking out on a large part of humanity.

The word “harmful” may indicate not just painful sores, but those which do severe and lasting damage.

Rev. 16:3 The second angel poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse, and every living thing died that was in the sea.

Whether this is meant to indicate the oceans of the world just the Mediterranean Sea or sea as referring to humanity is unclear, but that it is an ecological disaster of epic proportion is not.

The blood of a corpse is clotted, putrid and would create worldwide panic, famine and disease.

Rev. 16:4 The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood.

The disaster spreads so that the water sources of all the earth are affected.

Rev. 16:5–7 And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. It is what they deserve!” And I heard the altar saying, “Yes, Lord God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments!”

And as though anticipating how the reader might recoil in shock and disgust at such a gruesome sight, the text records how the angel in charge of the waters reminds himself and us that however extreme this seems – God’s actions here are in keeping with His holiness and justice. He cannot over punish any more than He can under punish and remain just and holy. However staggering the realities may be, they are fitting, right, proper.

Rev. 16:8 The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and it was allowed to scorch people with fire.

A cosmic disaster follows the 1^st 3, one in which the sun itself is employed to make people suffer.

Rev. 16:10 The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness. People gnawed their tongues in anguish

The above are followed by the terror of darkness.

Rev. 16:12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east.

All of this apparently gives way to global war as the east begins to attack the west. Demonically inspired to target the Believers as the source of their woes (14).

Rev. 16:17-18 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake.

All of this culminates in an earthquake unparalleled in human history and bringing civilized life on the planet to abject and final destruction. Accompanying this is a targeting of peoples with 100lb hailstones.

Well now, what are we supposed to do with all of this?
1. We are to realize that God WILL indeed finish His work and judgments upon human sin – and that His wrath is far more terrifying than anything we can humanly imagine. We dare not temper God’s wrath.
2. Given the hardness of the human heart – what a miracle it is that ANYONE is saved. If it were not for the sovereign working of God to overcome that hardness in us – NOTHING else would be sufficient to turn us around.
Look at the responses of those undergoing these plagues as it is emphasized for us in 3 places.

Rev. 16:9 They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.

10b People gnawed their tongues in anguish and cursed the God of heaven for their pain and sores. They did not repent of their deeds.

21 and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe.

This is the true condition of fallen man – no matter how much some want to whitewash it and claim some island of righteousness in us.

Prov. 19:3 When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.

Christian, marvel at your salvation this morning. What it took for the Triune God to bring you to Himself.

Nothing less than the overcoming love of the Father toward His enemies to want you for His own.

Nothing less than the sacrificial blood of the sinless Son of God to be shed in place of yours, and His righteousness to be placed on your account.

Nothing less than the same power it took for the Spirit to brood over the face of the deep in the first creation, to bring forth human life, and to raise Jesus from the dead – to bring forth the eternal life that you now possess – to raise you from your being dead in your trespasses and sins, RE-created.

Unbeliever – understand what a miraculous salvation is being held out to you today in this Gospel.

He calls to you once more today, as He has in every pain, every disappointment, every hardship and every blessing you have ever experienced.

He calls to you yet again though you’ve heard such sermons over and over and over.

He calls to you even now as you sit firm in your self-satisfaction and unbelief and offers you cleansing from all your sin; forgiveness for all your offenses against Him; eternal life and the righteousness of Christ that you may be with Him forever; and deliverance from all that this fallen world has inflicted upon you.

And will you instead rage against Him for the sorrows that find their root in our own shared sinfulness?
1. Look at the amazing grace of God as He continues to exert all manner of pressures upon mankind to bring us to an end of ourselves and turn to Him – right up to the very last moment.
Those statements that those suffering the plagues would not repent, show that they might – even then!
1. What will it take for you to finally bend the knee to Christ and stop playing at religion, self-justification and clinging to the sin you love so much – so that Jesus might have His proper place over your person and life?
What sin is so precious to you that you would rather suffer the loss of all for eternity, to have it for the fleeting moments of this life?

Whose opinion of you is so important that to humble yourself before the Lord of Glory seems too much to ask?

What great thing is it you think you need to accomplish, what experience do you think you need to have BEFORE you give Christ His proper place in your heart?

“What more can He say, than to you He has said?”
Deliverance! Revelation 14:14-15:8

July 29th, 2018
Revelation Part 28

Rev. 14:14-15:8

Matt. 13:24-30 & 36-43

DELIVERANCE!

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

The 1^st part of Ch. 14 gave us a vision of how human history will end. It portrayed only 2 alternatives. And, it challenges the reader to determine which of those two each of us is heading toward at present.

It was both heartening and sobering. And as we saw then, because we are still in the age of grace, no one need find themselves shut out from the Kingdom of Christ and the glories of it. But that human history IS on that trajectory is beyond question.

So the call is to every one of us to reckon with that fact now.

And if you haven’t yet, the call to you remains.

To be reconciled to the God who made you. The God you have sinned against in living your life for yourself instead of for the purposes for which He has created you.

To acknowledge your sin of rebellion against His right over you, and to believe the Gospel that Jesus died in your place on the cross, was buried, and rose again to show His substitution was accepted by the Father.

To turn from your self-government to Him, trusting that Jesus’ sacrifice was sufficient for your sins, and to receive the eternal life He gladly gives all who put their trust in Him.

But neither the passage nor the book ends there.

The balance of what follows are more pictures of how the final days of this present world order will play out. How God’s judgment against the world system which stands in opposition to His perfect rule will be dismantled, why, and what it will give way to. This, both for the Believer and the Unbeliever.

But its main thrust, is to tie together an Old Testament theme that John’s first readers would really identify with, and one we need to as well. It is the theme of DELIVERANCE.

This theme is then teased out in a metaphor – the metaphor of a HARVEST.

Revelation 14:14–20 “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud swung his sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, “Put in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia.”

Now a question immediately arises from this is; are we looking at 2 different harvests, or what? And what does this mean?

vss. 14-16 give us a picture of one who the majority of commentators agree is Jesus “harvesting” – whatever that means.

Then 17-20 depict an angel with a sickle also harvesting, but this time it is grapes, and clearly leads to a picture of judgment. Vs. 19 makes that unmistakable.

The main views on this are pretty straightforward.

Most would say the 1^st picture is that of Jesus gathering up the Believers at the end of the age. And the 2^nd picture is that of the angels gathering up unbelievers for judgment at the end of the age.

If this is two separate events, many argue, the first is what might be called the rapture of the church, removing Believers out of the world before God’s final judgment is poured out.

The 2^nd then would come sometime later. Typically, that later date is thought of as 7 years later – the 7 year period being the Great Tribulation.

While that view is possible, I would want to argue it doesn’t seem to fit the present context well, nor the tie the next chapter will make to the Song of Moses, nor Jesus’ parable in Matt. 13, nor a repeated picture throughout Scripture that we’ll explore in a minute.

What seems to fit the text best is that we are getting two looks at one and the same event. In other words, when the time comes for Jesus to gather His saints to Himself to reward us, judgment will also be poured out on those who remain His enemies in unbelief. 2 different peoples experiencing the same thing 2 different ways.

Let’s go back and look at Jesus’ parable in Matt. 13 for a moment.

The picture He gave there is simply one way of understanding how the kingdom of God works. It is one of 7 parables in Matt. 13 that taken together, were meant to give the Disciples a really well rounded primer on how they were to understand the unfolding plan of God.

1^st (3-9) was the parable of PROPAGATION – How the Kingdom of God grows – through sowing or preaching the Gospel.

2^nd (24-30) is the parable of MIXTURE & INIQUITY. There will always be both the righteous and the unrighteous in the world, and even in the Church until Christ returns. We’ll come back to this one.

3^rd (31-32) The parable of TRANSITION. Christ’s kingdom will start small like a mustard seed but end up large and full.

4^th (33) The parable of LEAVEN or TRANSFORMATION. Those in the kingdom are gradually transformed the way yeast permeates dough – until every aspect of our being is affected.

5^th (44) The parable of the hidden treasure: REVELATION. Once someone’s eyes are opened to the value of Christ and salvation, we will do everything and anything to be a part.

6^th (45-46) The pearl of great price: The TRANSCENDENCE or SUPERIORITY of having Christ above everything this world can offer.

7^th (47-50) The net. The mystery of the GOSPEL & CONSUMMATION. The Gospel will go out though the world, and many will respond, but there will be a final sorting out of those who are truly His, and those who are not.

These 7 parables would give the Disciples a realistic understanding of what to expect in the time between Christ’s resurrection and His return, so that we would neither get discouraged, confused nor have unreal expectations.

But it is in that 2^nd one that we find the parallel to what we’re seeing in Rev. 14.

Matt. 13:38 “The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one”

Matt. 13:39 “The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.”

Matt. 13:40–43 “Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

So when does this separation come between the sons of the Kingdom and the sons of the devil?

At the harvest – of BOTH, at the same time.

Matt. 13:30 “Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

In keeping with this picture, John is seeing that when the time comes for Jesus to gather in His sons and daughters – at the very same time, judgment will be meted out on the rebellious world. They are one and the same event, experienced by two different groups. The difference being one thing – their relationship to Jesus Christ.

And the figure of the blood of those being judged coming up to the height of a horse’s bridle for a distance of 184 miles, (the length of the land of Palestine) is meant to show the staggering thoroughness of that final judgment. It will be quite literally unimaginable.

Well OK Reid, thanks for spoiling my morning so far – where does this theme of DELIVERANCE that you mentioned factor in?

I hear your cry. Let’s move on into Ch. 15.

Rev. 15:1–8 “Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and amazing, seven angels with seven plagues, which are the last, for with them the wrath of God is finished. And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mingled with fire—and also those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name, standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” After this I looked, and the sanctuary of the tent of witness in heaven was opened, and out of the sanctuary came the seven angels with the seven plagues, clothed in pure, bright linen, with golden sashes around their chests. And one of the four living creatures gave to the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God who lives forever and ever, and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary until the seven plagues of the seven angels were finished.”

What do we see here? 2 things chiefly.
1. A picture of God’s final wrath on human sin and the world system it created – about to be poured out through angelic means – the details of which occupy the next several chapters.
2. The Saints, “those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name” standing on the crystal sea we saw in ch. 4 that surrounds the throne of God – SINGING!
And what are they singing? The text calls it “the song of Moses…and the song of the Lamb.”

And here is where the imagery strikes home for the first readers and needs to strike home for us.

The song itself is a composite from at least 4 Old Testament passages: Ps 111:3; Amos 4:13; Deut 32:4; Jer 10:7. But its being identified as “the song of Moses” unquestionably takes us to Ex. 15 and what Moses and the Israelites sang on the day God delivered them from Pharaoh and Egypt at the Red Sea. A 2-stage deliverance we’ll see more next time.

Of particular note in that song are these words: Ex. 15:11–13 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed; you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.”

God had swallowed up their enemies, but more, He had redeemed His people and brought them “to your holy abode.” Their deliverance, the great Exodus, as great and stupendous and miraculous as it was – was still only a type and shadow of the true and final Exodus and deliverance of God’s people from the oppression and slavery of sin and of this world. They were on the edge of the desert, not Canaan.

We see this model in Scripture elsewhere. It was true in Noah being delivered from the Flood, while others were perishing in it. It was true with Lot being delivered even as Sodom was being destroyed. And it was true with Israel being delivered from bondage in Egypt even as Egypt’s grip on then was being once and for all destroyed. So, Christ delivers His people from the bondage of darkness, demonic deception, sin’s grip on our lives and the chains of self-government, materialism, false religion and fleshly lusts – at the very same time that He finally crushes this present world system.

And this beloved is the song we’ll sing on that day. Not two separate days but that great “Day of the Lord” as it is most often called in judgment, and the “Day of Jesus Christ” as it is for Believers.

Jesus will not return to fix this present world system (which is why we can’t fix it now) but to redeem His people out of it, while wholly and utterly destroying this present world system.

And this will be the great celebration the redeemed will rejoice in: That Jesus Christ has delivered us from every last vestige of bondage that has had its claim on us since the Fall. Both externally AND internally.

In the immediate, to be delivered from the oppressive Beast that wages war against the saints. But not delivered to be still left to ourselves and our still indwelling sinfulness. No, much, much more!

To be delivered from all selfishness; pride; arrogance; bitterness; unforgiveness; lust; greed; hatred; anger; violence; faithlessness; foolishness; doubt; compromise; cowardice; lying; lovelessness; turmoil; self-promotion; uncleanness; fear; self-deception; self-pity; indolence; carelessness and anything and everything else that is part of the Fall in humanity as a whole and in each of us individually.

“Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”

Oh how we will glory, not just in what He has given us in Jesus, but what He has delivered us from by His blood!

Heaven will be Christ. But getting there is deliverance.

Rescue from the sinful world system that keeps people from the saving knowledge of Jesus and tries to stamp out His Church.

AND deliverance from all the remnants of indwelling sin.

No more groaning with Paul “who will deliver me from the body of this death.”

Absolute and complete – DELIVERANCE. And oh how we’ll sing!
What is Your Trajectory? Revelation 14:1-13

July 16th, 2018
Revelation Part 27

Rev. 14:1-13

2 Corinthians 11:1-4

What is Your Trajectory?

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

One of the surprising and useful features of the book of Revelation, is how it gives us these short interludes to catch our breath and gain some perspective.

Let’s face it, we’ve been wading through some pretty deep waters. There is so much symbolism to unpack. And deciding what is to be taken literally and what isn’t is hard work. There is no question that many of the details will have to await their fulfillment in time before we REALLY know what is being revealed to us. When that day comes, we WILL get it. Until then, we walk through these passages somewhat tentatively, and continue to put our weight on the things that are most solid and useful.

Fortunately, the passage we are considering this morning comes complete with its own explanation for how to use it.

14:12 spells out what this passage is for. “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.”

It is first and foremost meant to serve the Believers – the saints, defined as those who keep the commandments of God; to remain steadfastly serving Him, and keep their faith in Jesus – in His substitutionary atonement on the cross – against the onslaught of all the lies of the enemy and the pressures of the world around us.

The point of the passage is clear: It is meant to be encouragement. And it does this by reminding us of the future that is immediately before us – The glories we enter into immediately should we die before Christ’s return. And, the reality of final justice.

But, there is a 2^nd purpose in the text. That, is the depiction of the ghastly future of those who reject Christ and instead, take the “mark of the beast”. To those who live according to the values and priorities of this present world system. Just because the 2 may appear parallel doesn’t mean they share the same destination – like escalators.

And we are solemnly required to consider that as well. At the same time, never, even remotely to gloat in some way over those who find their end there, but to weep over it. To spark us to compassion for those outside of Christ – that we might plead with them with tears to be reconciled to God in Jesus Christ. In 1830’s Scotland, Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne were close friends. They would often meet on Monday to discuss what each had preached the day before. One time, Bonar said he preached the previous day on hell – to which Mc’Cheyne answered without skipping a beat: “And were you enabled by God’s grace to preach it with tears?” Spiteful glee at the judgment of the lost is never a right response.

So hot off the bad news that ended the previous chapter, the rise of the antichrist’s false belief system and its spokesman the False Prophet – deluding the masses and marking them out in their hand or forehead, by what they think and what they work for – John is shown the bliss of those who instead are marked by God as His own.

For what can be more useful to people enduring dark days of difficulty and persecution than to be reminded that this time will end? And that it will end in a bliss that so magnificently transcends the memory of their trials, as to make them fade into obscurity.

Or as Paul will state it in Rom. 8:18 “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

I understand that the idea of a life set on a conscious trajectory toward eternity with Christ is not the norm any more. So much of our preaching and teaching today is almost exclusively focused on how to have our “best life NOW”; How to succeed NOW; How to be happy NOW; How to have all that life can give us NOW. Actually ordering our lives now in line with where we WILL be for eternity is off the table.

We tend to look at everything in the short term. Oh, we’ll plan for our retirement. We’ll plan for our eventual death in buying burial plots and enough insurance to provide for those we leave behind. But beloved, that really still is the short term. What about after? What about where and how we will spend eternity? Are we planning for that? Are we preparing our hearts and minds to be with the Savior? For an existence so utterly removed from this present fallen world that comparison is impossible? No one will stumble into Heaven accidentally. The only ones who will arrive there are the ones intentionally going there by God’s grace and means.

How many of us here have purchased a piece of clothing that is the size we would like to be rather than the one we are at present? And then, don’t we do what it takes to be able to wear that eventually?

Well Christ has purchased a robe of righteousness for all who are His. Are we getting ready to be clothed in that robe? Are we preparing to be His bride? Are we living now with an eye toward what we will be in Him? 2 Peter 3:11–12 “Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn!”

Are we getting ready now for what is to come in HIM? Or merely for today?

This is the driving consideration this passage forces on us.

So let’s look at the text and see how all this unfolds.

Rev. 14:1 “Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.”

WHERE does the trajectory of the lives of those who are marked out by God as His in Christ lead?

To mount Zion. The idea here is not that the redeemed will be gathered into geographical Jerusalem. The writer to the Hebrews makes the difference clear: Heb. 12:22–24 “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.”

Nor is this thought new. As far back as Abraham, the anticipation of the fulfillment of God’s promises even to the Jews was not a sliver of land in the Middle East: Heb. 11:8–10 “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”

This is the life of faith – leaving the false riches of this world behind us, we go out seeking the Heavenly Jerusalem, the city whose designer and builder is God! We travel this earth now – walking daily toward the Heavenly City. This is what it means to BE a Christian.

Mount Zion is WHERE the Redeemed are headed. But we are not going there to be alone. WHO are we going there to be with?
1. With the Lamb, & the 140K – all those that are His. Hear me beloved – if the great goal of your life is not to be with Jesus and those He has redeemed by His blood – then Heaven would truly be Hell for you.
As the Psalmist said: Ps. 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.”

What makes Heaven Heaven is that Christ is there! That the One who died in our place on the Cross, taking all of the just wrath of God against our sin upon Himself will receive us to Himself.

And WHAT will that be like? We get a most sweet and inviting picture.

ECSTATIC JOY, FULL OF GLORY. Rev. 14:2–3 “And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.”

Heaven will NOT be quiet. An innumerable chorus with one voice like loud thunder singing a song ONLY the redeemed can sing. A song so transcendent that the 4 living creatures we saw in Ch. 4 with their holy, holy, holy, and the 24 elders too look on in stunned amazement. Caught up in the spectacle of wretched sinners redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and elevated to such unspeakable glory. Can we even begin to imagine such a sight?

But this is what is just before us Saints, and why serving Jesus and not this present world system is worth everything we might have to endure in the meantime.

And I love how the saints are described here:

Not Defiled w/Women: Celibacy cannot be the issue here since marriage was ordained before the Fall, and later Scripture notes the marriage bed is undefiled.

It may mean that they govern their sexuality only within the confines of Biblical standards – i.e. monogamous marriage between a man and a woman or chaste singleness.

But it more likely refers to their singular devotion to Jesus and the truth of the Gospel as opposed to false teaching and the 4 pillars of the City of Man: Personal Autonomy; Well-being n Material Wealth; Man-made Religion; Cultural Morality.

It follows Paul in2 Cor. 11 where he says he has betrothed or engaged Believers to Christ as a “pure virgin” through the Gospels. Sinners of every stripe become that pure virgin in Christ.

They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. It would be hard to find a more succinct description of the Christian life. Every call to the Disciples was to “follow me.”

There is no such thing as a Christian who is not called to follow Christ Jesus. This was the failure of the Rich Young ruler in Matt. 19:21. Leave everything else and come and follow me was Jesus’ directive.

But what does that mean to us today who cannot physically follow Him?

Just what it meant to them when Jesus had His exchange with Peter on the night of His passion.

John 13:31-38 Jesus was going to the Father, by way of the Cross. And this is where we follow Him today. Renouncing sin and self, and trusting in His substitutionary death on our behalf – we begin to follow Him to the presence of the Father – to Heaven!

Firstfruits: Not chronology, but priority. These (Christians) have been redeemed that they might serve God as their priority above all else they give themselves to. They will pursue all kinds of things in life, but their service to Christ informs and supersedes all else. They are Christ’s first, and that is why they are the Fathers, Mothers, Employees, citizens and neighbors they are. They are honest because they are Christ’s. They are gentle because they are Christ’s. They are chaste and sober and self-controlled because they are Christ’s. They aren’t this way to gain Christ, but because He has already gained them!

No lie. Complete fidelity to the Gospel, to God’s Word. Especially as opposed to the lies of the False Prophet.

Blameless: Eph. 1:3–4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” No wonder the passage ends saying: “Blessed are those who die in the Lord.” Even in death we are blessed beyond comprehension.

Oh how I wish I could end there. I have deliberately spent the bulk of our time this morning on this opening portion. Both, because, as I mentioned above, the Holy Spirit told us this was to be the emphasis of the passage (vs. 12) but also, because we do not want to be ghoulish or needlessly preoccupied with the terrors the next few verses convey.

At the same time, we cannot ignore them.

Our theme has been trajectory, and there are but 2 from God’s point of view. Either you are at present headed to the things we just saw, or to the only other alternative given to us in Scripture. As you hear me today, you are on one of those roads. And you will leave having either switched them, or advanced further down them.

14:6–7 “Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water.” This statement is not the Gospel, but the proper response called for having heard the Gospel.

In contrast to what was revealed to John for the saints, another angel brought some revelation as well. That having heard the Gospel men are called upon to believe it, to fear God and give Him glory – because judgment is at hand.

14:8 “Another angel, a second, followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.”

This impending judgment is amplified by another angel who makes us know that the judgment is so certain, it is announced in the present tense: Fallen IS Babylon. Judged IS the system that caters to personal autonomy above the Lordship of Christ; of cultural morality above Biblical holiness; of man-made religion above the Gospel of Jesus Christ; of material wealth above the riches of Jesus.

14:9 “And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand,”

And then a 3^rd confirming angel announcing how God’s certain judgment applies to everyone who is marked out by those 4 things – the mindset of antichrist, of this fallen world system. Of the City of Man – Babylon, versus the City of God – the Heavenly Zion.

To which 4 ghastly descriptors are appended as the most severe of warnings: 14:10–11 “he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.”

What is the end of those whose trajectory is not to seek eternity with Christ Jesus – who will not submit to the Gospel of grace in the substitutionary atonement of Christ on Calvary?
1. God’s wrath without any dilution, mercy or grace to temper it.
2. Torment in the presence of The Lamb Himself.
3. Torment that is perpetual. To use the words of Jesus in describing it: Where the worm never dies and the fire is never put out. (Mark 9:48)
4. And where there is never any rest from a perfected and tortured conscience. Forever guilty. Never pardoned. Never given any reprieve, any rest, of any kind.
Hear me Beloved – The revelation of God in this passage gives us only 2 ends. There is no 3^rd option.

And everyone here today or in the sound of my voice is on one of these 2 trajectories. There are no other choices. You are either on your way to that eternal and ineffable wonder of eternity in with Jesus having been reconciled to the Father through His blood, or you are on your way to be tormented in the presence of the holy angels and The Lamb.

But if you are not yet Christ’s today – look at what lengths He has gone to in these verses to grab your attention and draw you to Himself. He has shown you the sweet wonders of the bliss of the saints in Christ to make you long for what is blessed and holy and good and glorious and everlasting. And He has shown you the horrors of continuing on your present path to make you hate your sin and its consequences. Especially how it separates you from God Himself.

But that view is a future one. It is not where you are already. Today is still the day of grace. You can be born again right now. Today you can begin to enter into the fullness of His favor and forgiveness. Every speck and spot of sin and guilt can be washed clean away in the blood of the Lamb of God who was crucified for our sins, and raised up again for our justification – that everyone who believes and casts themselves on Him might be declared holy in Christ, and given all that belongs to Him as though it is your own.

Oh that today you would turn from this world and its fake offers, and look to Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God as your substitute, as your sin-bearer.

We want you to be able to sing the song of redemption with those who believe on that day. And to join even this very hour in the chorus the old hymn writer composed:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of creation!

O my soul, Praise Him, for He is your health and salvation!

All you who hear,

Now to His temple draw near;

Praise Him in glad adoration.
Rev. 13:11-18 / The False Prophet – Now it’s Getting Personal!

July 9th, 2018
Revelation Part 26

Chapter 13:11-18

The False Prophet: Now It’s Getting Personal!

Last time, in vss. 1-10, we saw Satan calling up out of the sea, what the text calls – The Beast. And we came to see this Beast was what we also call – antichrist.

It might have been a surprise to some of you to learn that not all in the church have held quite the same understanding of who or what antichrist is historically. As I said last time, from the 2^nd century on, there have been 2 main ways of understanding the idea of antichrist. Both are orthodox. Both views have their pluses and their minuses.

1^st : Antichrist as a literal historical person who will try to pass himself off as Christ, with the goal of replacing him and wreaking havoc on the world. Irenaeus (130-202) would be a prime example. He along with many others – solid, excellent men throughout history have argued some future, specific person will emerge as THE antichrist. F. F. Bruce, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Robert Mounce, George Eldon Ladd, John Walvoord, John MacArthur – etc. It is perhaps the most dominant view in American Evangelicalism today. It has a political, one-world government emphasis. And this interpretation is certainly possible and reasonable.

2^nd : Antichrist isn’t so much a person as it is a pervasive heresy which deludes the world and keeps people from the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. This view was held by Polycarp (69-155), a personal disciple of John, and Tertullian (160-220) to name a few. The idea here is of antichrist being a false teaching with perhaps a primary false teacher rather than a political figure. So the emphasis is neither political nor personal. It’s why many of the Reformers identified antichrist with the Papacy. Not a specific Pope, but the office and the system deceiving many in the guise of Christ and true Christianity. This is the direction I took because I believe has the most Biblical support. Though as I said, both views have both their pluses and their minuses.

I hope you are also able to see that no matter which of these two views you might hold, the take away points from the chapter are exactly the same. This is not a place for Christians to divide, even if we may not have precisely the same understanding. The bottom line is the reality of God’s sovereignty over Satan and world events; His provision for those who are His, and His promised protection for the saints against the deceptions of antichrist. These apply to both views equally.

That said, we will now go on to look at the 2^nd Beast Satan brings on the scene in vss. 11-18 – a figure named later in the book as “The False Prophet” (16:13; 19:20; 20:10). And here, commentators tend to be far more agreed.

This beast is denominated The False Prophet in Revelation 16:13–14 “And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.”

And here we get another interesting parallel: Where Christ is the logos, the Word Of God / Antichrist is seen as the word of Satan.

So I argued that taken together, the data seems to indicate antichrist is: The fundamental denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible and the entire world view which springs from that revelation.

A global deception regarding the person and work of Jesus instead of a specific individual or person. Nevertheless, I do see this portion of the text indicating a specific end-times individual who we can call The last False Prophet.

Just as every product has a spokesperson, and every cause or movement has its one person who seems to be the face and the voice of that cause or movement – so does antichrist.

Revelation 13:11–18 divides up into 3 parts.
1. (11-12) 4 Characteristics of the Beast (False Prophet)
2. (13-17) 4 Actions of the Beast
3. (18) The call to wisdom about 666
Then I saw another beast:

(11a) Rising out of the earth. Some have thought that rising out of the earth is meant to be in contrast to the 1^st beast rising out of the sea, but Daniel 7:1-17 shows the two are used synonymously. This seems to be simply reiterating that Satan has been cast down to earth (12:9), and that this is his theater of operation. What he does is earthly, not heavenly.

(11b) It had two horns like a lamb.

Probably a mock of Jesus as the Lamb of God as we saw in Ch. 5.

I.e. The False Prophet comes meek, mild, winsome. A Lamb not threatening. He doesn’t appear evil, threatening or scary.

Perhaps he even comes out of the Church? 1 John 2:18–19 “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.”

Cults and cult leaders might be good examples of this.

(11c) And it spoke like a dragon. In other words, it speaks deceptive lies like Satan does.

Satan was a liar from the beginning. Deception has always been his primary tool. John 8:43–44 “Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

1 John 2:22 “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.”

(12) “It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.”

It makes the case. As the False Prophet it does its job of being so convincing as to bring about a near universal mindset. It speaks with authority. And one has to ask, what authority any more – is universally appealed to? Certainly not the Bible. Given our current climate, I think a good argument can be made for this authority being “science”? Not genuine science as investigation and study, but science hijacked by political and social agendas that moves things moral from the realm of God and the Bible – to supposed science. A science that directly speaks to morality and denies the special creation of man as made in God’s image. The implications of which are vast. Some scientists have – for all intents and purposes – become the new priesthood. So it is the likes of the late Stephen Hawking, as brilliant as he was, begin to weigh in on theological topics – such as the existence of God, from a scientific point of view. Or consider this from astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: “Earth needs a virtual country: #Rationalia, with a one-line Constitution: All policy shall be based on the weight of evidence.” Evidence determined and interpreted by – “science.” Science that starts with a purely naturalistic explanation of all things and from the outset rejects anything supernatural. This is what Webster’s Dictionary refers to as “Scientism” – “an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities)”. And, we might add – religion.

Those are the False Prophet’s characteristics, now what does he do?

(13-14a) “It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth.”

Science can and does often do – the seemingly miraculous. Something we are all grateful for. But Science is not God. Science is not the final arbiter of all truth. Even when science has rightly called the Church to go back and re-examine its interpretation of some Biblical passages – it cannot be the final word – since science too has its limits, and its practitioners have their own interpretations of all things – which often need revised. We cannot displace the revelation of God with the suppositions of fallen mankind. When we do, a true, new idol has entered – at the feet of which all may be required to bow.

Am I saying this is it? No, but it is an example of how this kind of pervasive thought system can exert so much influence on society.

Matt. 24:24 “For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect.”

2 Thess. 2:8–10 “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.”

In terms of calling down fire – Primasius (fl. 550–560), Bishop of Hadrumetum in North Africa (modern Tunisia) speculates this refers to a false Pentecost. Trying to deceive the Church especially, the False Prophet recreates Pentecost and uses it to convince religious people he is from God. Don’t be fooled by false demonstrations of what people tell you is the Holy Spirit because of their supposed gifts. Just because they may speak in tongues or even work miracles DOES NOT mean they are Christ’s.

Whether false miracles or false gifts of the Spirit, the Church is being equipped to avoid deception.

Matt. 7:21–23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

(14b) Telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

The False Prophet will gain such influence that virtually everyone one will be forced by social and other pressures, to make his teaching, his worldview, the one which must frame everyone’s understanding. The ultimate image.

(15) And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

And the image will be given breath. Probably just a way of saying it will speak and be heard everywhere.

(16-17) Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

To THINK, and to ACT, according to the deception they are motivated by.

Remember how we saw in Ch. 7 & 9 that God marks His own people in their foreheads, and this was not a physical mark but a spiritual marking out? So here too. The idea isn’t a physical computer chip or tattoo, but a way of them being identified with the antichrist. The forehead once again pointing to a way of thinking. And the hand, as one working to promote antichrist’s mindset.

What might that look like in concrete terms? Let me give you just 1 of many examples – this, from our neighbors to the north – Canada.

Trinity Western University was founded in Langley BC in 1962. It serves 4,000 undergrad and grad students.

Research revealed a demand for a legal education from a school with Christian values like Trinity. So they applied to the accreditation agencies in all 8 provinces. 6 gave their approval, 2, Ontario and BC did not, preventing them from starting such a program. So Trinity took them to the Supreme Court.

The problem it turned out, was that the founders gave the school a mandate to teach from a Christian worldview. And it requires students and faculty hold to a very specific, Bible-based code of conduct. The community covenant each student is required to sign includes a pledge not to lie, steal, cheat, curse, get drunk, use pornography—and to abstain from sex outside Biblical marriage. The last point proved too much for the Canadian Supreme Court. It was ruled that to require students to abstain from sex outside of marriage discriminates against gay people. And on that basis, Trinity was told their rejection to add a law degree program was upheld.

In the decision, a majority of the judges recognized that religious freedom was violated for the University in this case. But ruled the law societies had the authority to refuse to approve this law school. Simply holding to a Biblical view of marriage was sufficient to keep them from forming a law school.
1. (18)This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
Wisdom then is needed on several fronts.

1^st. To recognize what is really going on. Once again this is a spiritual battle, not a political one. Seeing what is behind such things is vitally important in dictating how we respond to them. You cannot fight spiritual blindness and the deception of Satan in court. Faith as Rom. 10:17 reminds us “comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

2^nd. Wisdom is needed to navigate what become increasingly complex and confusing waters. Christians are called upon by Jesus Himself to be both as wise as serpents, but as harmless as doves. Knee jerk and retaliatory reactions will diminish the progress of the Gospel. We will suffer some injustices at times, and having the wisdom when and how to speak and what to do will grow increasingly important.

3^rd. Wisdom is needed to recognize the limits of our understanding, and therefor to rein in the focus and use of our energies.

Example: What is meant by 666? And to be perfectly honest, no one really knows. There are far more than 666 theories, but none of them is absolute. I’ve read a good many, and have my own – but ultimately the text does not appear to give us a solid interpretation.

Personally I think a reasonable connection can be made to the only other place in Scripture where 666 appears. 1 Kings 10:14 “Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold.” Possibly an allusion to what we’ve already looked at as fundamental to the City of Man vs the City of God – material wealth and well-being being all consuming. But that is mere speculation and I would not want to take it very far even though it makes sense.

Perhaps more likely than any direct 666 meaning is the idea that we simply do not need to know until time and circumstances reveal it.

Nor is that completely unusual in the Scripture. In 2 ways.

First you have many of the prophecies of the OT about Jesus that didn’t make complete sense until they were fulfilled in His incarnation.

Who knew before hand that Matt. 2:15 “Out of Egypt I called my Son” was fulfillment of Hosea 11:1 until it happened? We have many such examples in Jesus’ case.

Second, we have some revelations that are explicitly “sealed” until a time in the future.

We encountered this back in Daniel 8. Part of what Daniel had seen in a vision didn’t make sense to him. When he inquired God said: Daniel 8:26 “The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now.” I’ve shown it to you, but it is not for publication to others. It must remain a mystery for now.

We saw this again in Revelation 10:4 “And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.”’”

Irenaeus: “It is therefore more certain and less hazardous to await the fulfilment of the prophecy than to be making surmises and casting about for any names that may present themselves, inasmuch as many names can be found possessing the number mentioned; and the same question will, after all, remain unsolved.”

Andrew of Caesarea (early 6th century). Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. “For the sober-minded, time and experience will reveal the actual significance of the number and the truth of whatever has been written about it. For, were it necessary, as some of the teachers say, that such a name be clearly known, the seer would have revealed it. But the divine grace did not consent that the name of the destroyer be noted in the divine book.”
1. Look at the wisdom God has put at the disposal of His saints.
We not only have His promise earlier in the ch. that those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life will not be deceived – we have all of this detailed information to prepare us.
1. Note too how we are are fortified against fear by seeing how The Father has told us all about this before hand, and also revealed that no matter how supernatural the enemy may appear, his number, 666, is just the number of man – just that of a creature. A creature made by God and under His authority. Neither the dragon, nor antichrist nor the false prophet are divine. Angels were created to be servants of the heirs of salvation. They are not our superiors. In the Garden, Adam abdicated his authority and listened to the serpent rather than to God. We will be given the honor of reversing that scenario, and exercise our rightful place in refusing to hear the dragon, and heeding our Heavenly Father instead.
2. If 666 is tied some way to the amount of gold Solomon received as tribute each year, then how powerfully we are warned against the false gospel of material wealth that has become so prevalent in the church today. Wisdom from God rejects finding our hope, our security, our wellbeing in precious metals instead of the true treasure of Heaven.
1 Peter 1:18–19 “knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.”

Sin and the World and Satan and the False Prophet can promise the gold of this earth to those who bow before them, but oh how wretchedly worthless that is compared to the Christ who is promised to all who are His by faith – trusting in His saving work on the cross.

John Flavel: “It is a special consideration to enhance the love of God in giving Christ, that in giving him he gave the richest jewel in his cabinet; a mercy of the greatest worthy, and most inestimable value, Heaven itself is not so valuable and precious as Christ is: He is the better half of heaven; and so the saints account him, Ps. 73:25. “Whom have I in heaven but thee?” Ten thousand thousand worlds, saith one, as many worlds as angels can number, and then as a new world of angels can multiply, would not all be the bulk of a balance, to weigh Christ’s excellency, love, and sweetness. O what a fair One! what an only One! what an excellent, lovely, ravishing One, is Christ! Put the beauty of ten thousand paradises, like the garden of Eden, into one; put all trees, all flowers, all smells, all colours, all tastes, all joys, all sweetness, all loveliness in one; O what a fair and excellent thing would that be? And yet it should be less to that fair and dearest well-beloved Christ, than one drop of rain to the whole seas, rivers, lakes, and fountains of ten thousand earths. Christ is heaven’s wonder, and earth’s wonder.

Now, for God to bestow the mercy of mercies, the most precious thing in heaven or earth, upon poor sinners; and, as great, as lovely, as excellent as his Son was, yet not to account him too good to bestow upon us, what manner of love is this!”
The Assurance of Faith: A Recommendation

June 22nd, 2018

In the present climate of privilege in our culture, it is hard to convince people of their fallen condition and true need of a savior. Founded on a gospel of self-esteem, we have a cutlural construct that intentionally breeds a sense of each person truly deserving the best of everything. A desert which leaves countless numbers angry, frustrated and at a loss when they do not receive their perceived just due from life and everyone they encounter in it.

But there is also an opposite comdition that sometimes plagues those who have seen their sinfulness, need and lost condition. These are those who have fled to Jesus Christ for forgivness of their sins, and seek to live and walk as His – but who nonetheless are plagued with soul-ravaging doubt as to their newly minted Christian state. They have heard, believed and acted upon the good news of the Gospel of Christ’s substitutionary death. But they are also gripped by great fears that due to the remnants of indwelling sin, they are not truly saved after all. They lack the assurance of faith.

If this is you or someone you know, let me heartily recommend this slight but exceedingly rich little book by Loius Berkhof (1873-1957) – The Assurance of Faith.

Gently, tenderly and compassionately, in less than 70 pages total, this grand theologian walks the reader through a breif history of this vital question. He then goes on to a short but very sound Biblical discussion of what true assurance looks like, where it can be found, and how it can be cultivated.

Even if this isn’t an area you struggle with personally (not at the moment anyway) I believe you will find this very sweet book a refreshing and encouraging read.

Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy. One day, it WILL come in handy.
Antichrist – Revelation 13:1-10

June 18th, 2018

Revelation Part 25

Chapter 13:1-10

Catching a glimpse of Antichrist

Ch. 12 gave us quite a bit of insight regarding the nature of true spiritual warfare. James Hamilton in his commentary summarizes what we looked at last time: “By his death, resurrection, and ascension Christ defanged the dragon with seven heads and ten horns. Satan no longer has any standing in Heaven to accuse believers. He knows his time is short, and he is making war on the woman and her seed. Hamilton Jr., James M.. Revelation: The Spirit Speaks to the Churches (p. 258). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Exactly HOW Satan wages this war is what 13 focuses upon. And what emerges in this chapter is a picture of 2 “beasts”. 12 ends with Satan standing on the shore of the sea. And as we have seen all along, the sea is usually a symbol of what is mysterious, dangerous, unstable and unknown – the unredeemed world. Now, Satan calls the first beast from this sea. In vs. 11, he’ll call out another beast – but from the earth. And we’ll have to wait until next time to see how the 2 figure together. What we have at this point is Satan and the 1^st beast.

This Beast, given all that is said about him here and then in more detail in ch. 17 is most often identified as “The antichrist.” In fact the chapter ends with the very familiar idea that this Beast gives a mark to all who are his, and that the number of the Beast is – 666. Something we’ll have to wait to address.

Antichrist. The very word conjures up all kinds of mental images. Most often, a charismatic world leader with near supernatural powers, poised to lop off the heads of anyone who doesn’t worship him. Reigning over a one-world government using a one-world religion. Scary to say the least.

But it might surprise many today that not all in the church have held quite that same vision historically. From the 2^nd century on, there have been 2 main ways of understanding the idea of antichrist. Both are orthodox. Both views have their pluses and their minuses.

First view: Antichrist as a literal historical person who will try to pass himself off as Christ, with the goal of replacing him and wreaking havoc on the world. Irenaeus (130-202) would be a prime example. He along with many others – solid, excellent men throughout history have argued some future, specific person will emerge as THE antichrist. F. F. Bruce, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Robert Mounce, George Eldon Ladd, John Walvoord, John MacArthur – etc. It is perhaps the most dominant view in American Evangelicalism today. It has a political, one-world government emphasis.

Second view: Antichrist isn’t so much a person as it is a pervasive heresy which deludes the world and keeps them from the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. This view was held by Polycarp (69-155), a personal disciple of John and Tertullian (160-220) to name a few. The idea here is of antichrist being a false teaching with perhaps a primary false teacher rather than a political figure. So the emphasis here is neither political nor personal. It’s why many of the Reformers identified antichrist with the Papacy. Not a specific Pope as much as the office and the system deceiving many in the guise of Christ and true Christianity. This is the direction I am going to take and the one I believe has the most Biblical support. Though as I said, both views have both their pluses and their minuses.

Whichever view one may take, we have the words of John in 1 John 2:18 reminding us: “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” Other passages like this must be used in forming an opinion.

Interestingly, 1^st and 2^nd John are indispensable here since those are the only 2 books where the word antichrist is ever used in the Bible. So how John uses it must bear on how we understand the concept here.

Whoever or whatever antichrist is – from John’s words we know that while a final manifestation of antichrist is coming, in some sense it has already been here, and is here even now. Something more than a simple future person must inform our thoughts. That said, let’s look at the passage itself.

It divides itself up into 4 sections. The 4^th section specifically aimed at Christians, encouraging us and calling us to courage and faithfulness.

I. Revelation 13:1–2 “And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.”

The 1^st thing we have to ask ourselves is – do we see anything like this anywhere else in Scripture? And if so – is there help in explaining what we see here? And thankfully the answer is a resounding YES! Not only do we get far more detail about The Beast in Ch. 17, we especially have the 7^th ch. of the Book of Daniel to really help unpack it.

Daniel 7:2–8 “I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings…And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear…After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this…behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. 8I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little one, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things.”

The first thing you want to notice here is that the Beast in Rev. 13 – shares the key characteristics of the 4 beasts in Dan. 7. It is in some way a composite if you will. Leopard, Bear, Lion and 10 horns. But next, we need to see how Dan. 7 explains that vision.

Note then that The Beast in Revelation it is a composite of – kingdoms, not of individuals. We know this from the explanation given in Daniel itself. This would seem to indicate The Beast of Rev. 13 is not a man either but something else – a sort of kingdom unto itself. Let’s go further in Daniel.

Daniel 7:17–25 “These four great beasts are four kings…“Then I desired to know the truth about the fourth beast, which was different from all the rest… and about the ten horns that were on its head, and the other horn that came up and before which three of them fell, the horn that had eyes and a mouth that spoke great things, and that seemed greater than its companions. As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them…“Thus he said: ‘As for the fourth beast, there shall be a fourth kingdom on earth, which shall be different from all the kingdoms, and it shall devour the whole earth, and trample it down, and break it to pieces. As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings shall arise, and another shall arise after them; he shall be different from the former ones, and shall put down three kings. He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, times, and half a time.”

Dan. 8 goes on to explain that the Lion represents the Babylonian world empire. The Bear = the Medo-Persian empire. The Leopard = the Grecian empire, which then breaks into 4 after Alexander the Great’s death, and then into 10 (the 10 horns) which gives rise to the one horn that persecutes the Jews terribly for -1260 days – Antiochus IV Epiphanes. Which then gives way in some way to Rome. Contemporaneous with Rome, Christ’s kingdom will come on the scene.

In other words, no more global world powers are prophesied to come after these. Not in terms of political or military might. Yet we see this Beast here in Revelation and it is identified somehow with what Daniel saw.

So what might all of this mean? One thing is for certain, that the historical rise and fall of these world empires, prefigure in some way a final world empire – one that bears the traits of all that came before – and to which they were pointing. But not necessarily a political empire or government.

This prefiguring is a common way the Bible speaks. Historical events of the past are often meant to foreshadow things yet to come. Example 1: The Flood, followed by the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah are both pointed to as prefiguring the final destruction of the earth in judgment. Both serve as specific examples of God’s coming judgment. Example 2: The Jews entering Canaan is meant to prefigure both something of our rest now in Christ, and the final rest of heaven yet to come.

Second, remember John’s words that we looked at earlier – antichrist is to come, but there already ARE antichrists? The idea is that there have always been world systems that have been contrary to God’s rule and His people. This is nothing new. But behind them, inspiring them as it were – is Satan’s influence. We see this in John’s vision here.

Let me try to illustrate this in contemporary terms. Behind the murderous and godless rise of Marxist Stalinism and its opposition to all things Christian – was the influence of the Devil. He was behind the rise of Mao Zedong, Adolf Hitler, Pol Pot – and inciting the murder of the 94 million killed in the 20^th century under movements dedicated to stamping out Christianity as central to their core values. Each one of these was an antichrist.

So in some sense antichrist has been here in the past in Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Communist Russia, China, Cambodia and Germany etc.

And, for 215 million Christians today, antichrist is here now the way I John notes. Antichrist is here in some Islamic countries & present-day China and North Korea. Did you know for instance that for the 17^th year in a row N. Korea has been ranked as the most dangerous place on earth to be a Christian? 27% of the population live in prison work camps. Simply owning a Bible is a capital offense. For N. Korean Christians today, they are staring at the very face of antichrist. And, antichrist, the final antichrist, is yet to come.

What I am, arguing is that antichrist is not so much a person, as it is a global mindset, a universal worldview that denies God, the very idea of God, and marginalizes and persecutes everyone not in sync with it. A sort of dominant global group-think. All of which aligns perfectly with the demonic deception we saw portrayed in locusts from the bottomless pit and what came out of their mouths, and the flood that came out of the mouth of the dragon in Ch. 12.

Its key features are easily identifiable. If you do not buy into a completely naturalistic view of humankind as a cosmic and evolutionary accident; and of no moral responsibility beyond ourselves; of the highest good being material wellbeing, self-government, ever shifting cultural morality and self-defined “spirituality” – you’re out! So that while many are on the lookout for an antichrist person, they are at the same time actually imbibing the very spirit of antichrist in the world’s values versus God’s. It will have its various spokesmen, it’s false prophets – (we’ll see that later), but ultimately, its savagery becomes evident in how it blinds people to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and sees them lost in Hell and under judgment for the very sin they deny even exists. This is far more subtle and pernicious, for you have far more control over people if they simply all believe your version of reality.

In fact the 4 places where John uses the term antichrist spell it out for us quite plainly I think.

1 John 2:18: Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.

1 John 2:22–23: “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.”

1 John 4:1–3: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

2 John 7: “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.”

If I understand these correctly, when taken together, antichrist is: The fundamental denial of the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible, and the entire worldview which springs from that revelation.

Let me summarize these: Every religion and every cult that denies the Biblical revelation of the incarnate Son of God dying a substitutionary death for sinners on Calvary – is antichrist. But the great antichrist of the last day is a secular denial of God & Christ, that gains global acceptance and will demand a totally naturalistic worldview. No God of creation, and no humankind as the special creation of God in His image. This, IS antichrist. A wholly secular worldview.

II. 3-4 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”

The idea this pictures an individual receiving some sort of physical head wound seems unlikely given what we’ve just seen. Based on this verse some in the early church speculated Nero might be the antichrist, since after he died rumor had it he would rise from the dead and re-take the Roman empire. I remember similar wild speculations that JFK would recover from his head wound, and under the guise of being a great social reformer, then gather a one-world government. In fact, in Ch. 17 we read: 17:8 “The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.”

All those speculations aside, given the historical antichrists and the present day antichrists and the antichrist to come, it seems best to see this as understanding that time after time after time, antichrist rises up as an ideology, usually attached to a nation and a leader, and then it is brought down – as all of the previous empires were. And then it rises up again somewhere else with new leadership. It is a never-ending repeat. The Beast, was, and is not, and is to come. Antichrist thought systems emerge, die and remerge.

But what of the world? It never stops giving its allegiance to the Beast. It worships the Beast and what it stands for. Godlessness raises its head over and over and people love it so. In what way do they worship the Dragon and the Beast? 2 Cor. 4:3–4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” And to hear the present-day atheists like Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris – all belief in God must go! For it frees mankind to live out his most base desires without guilt or shame or fear of judgment.

III. 5-6 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”

So the Beast will be allowed to have its day. And it does what it does by one primary means: Uttering haughty and blasphemous words: By what it teaches and promulgates as truth. It will deny the truth of God, of the Gospel, of sin and judgment and righteousness. It will mock and make fun of everything sacred and holy and good. And it will have its 42 months, its 1260 days, its 3-1/2 years. Its period of trampling God’s people down.

IV. 7-10 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain. If anyone has an ear, let him hear: If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.”

Conquering the world in its deception and the church in its persecution, there will come a day when it will seem like the Church and the Gospel will seem to be all but snuffed out. For those in N. Korea, that day is now. But just as Jesus was crucified and buried and even His disciples thought it was all over – the new dawn is just about to break.

No wonder vs. 10 ends by saying this calls for “the endurance and the faith of the saints.”

Well then, what provision has been made for Believers so that we will endure? John is given 3 things.

1. vss. 5–7 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months…7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,

Our God and King is as much Lord over Satan and The Beast as He is over all else.

Without God’s permission – even The Beast can do nothing.

We can trust our Heavenly Father who reigns over all.

2. vs. 8 All who dwell on earth will worship The Beast EXCEPT, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Believers have been promised that we will NOT be deceived – because our salvation was decreed before God even made the world.

We can trust our God.

3. vs. 10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain.

Believers have their trials appointed by God and so are not at the mercy of The Beast – even when it may look like it.

He knows our individual strengths and weaknesses. He knows our constitutions. He is as much Lord over our sufferings as He is our blessings. We can trust Him.

The very confidence of Jesus when He stood before Pilate is ours. Pilate said don’t you know I have the authority to release you or crucify you? And Jesus calmly answered: You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above.

As He trusted the Father, so do we. For in our faith in Him, we overcome The World, The Beast, and even Satan himself.
Spiritual Warfare – Revelation Ch. 12

June 11th, 2018
Revelation Part 24

Chapter 12

Romans 3:21-26

Spiritual Warfare: What’s it all about?

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

Last time in our study, we saw how ch. 11 gave us what we called “The Tale of Two Cities”: The City of God, and the City of Man or This World.

The City of God being a way of speaking about God’s people as a citizenry which is under the authority and rulership of Jesus. A society established according to His values. It is in fact our being under His rulership that makes us citizens of His City.

In contrast to that stands the the City of This World – a citizenry of those opposed to Christ’s rule. Not necessarily consciously opposed to His rulership, as much as committed to self-rulership and the values we create or adopt for ourselves. All of those outside of Christ.

2 cities in perpetual conflict. So we saw that this conflict is a spiritual one as referenced in 2 Cor. 10:3–5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

So we see that our battle isn’t political, economic or even moral though it has implications in all of those areas.

Chaps. 12 & 13 go on to develop that pattern in a very interesting and helpful way by focusing on revealing to us the nature, the work and the motives of our great enemy – Satan. Exposing him as the one behind the City of This World – he is its chief influencer.

So much is this true, 1 John 5:19b can assert: “the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.”

And so Col. 2:8 warns: “See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.”

This is the conflict in a nutshell.

So ch. 12 will make abundantly clear what the nature of Satan’s involvement in this conflict is, and how God keeps His church through the conflict, and gives her ultimate victory.

Thus the chapter opens with 2 “signs” – or amazing spectacles to catch our attention.

And in these 2 “signs” or spectacles given here – we are chiefly meant to see 2 things:

The savagery of Satan’s involvement in this present world system. His thoughts, reasoning and purposes.

What provisions are made for Believers in this battle. That victory is ours. And that it is ours in a very precise, practical and rational way.

That’s where we are going this morning.

Next time, God willing, we’ll go on to Ch. 13 where the text will explain more of the complexities and realities of the battle. Especially Satan’s tactics. What we can expect in our day, right up until Jesus’ return. In this way chapter 12 acts like a lead in to 13.

I am going to approach this chapter a bit differently for what I hope is clarity’s sake. I want to be less technical than we’ve been recently, and will not tease out as much detail. I want to get to how this passage helps me personally, and thus I trust helps you as well.
1. First sign: The Woman / Rev. 12:1–2 “And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. “
Let’s put the facts together. 12 Key facts.

Some of these need some unpacking and then the others become self-explanatory.

1 – CLOTHED WITH THE SUN. This is most likely picking up on ideas given to us in Matthew 17:2 and again in Rev. 1:13–16 “and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.”

One immediately thinks of 2 Cor. 4:6 “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

And coupled with 2 Cor. 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

i.e. The brightness of Christ’s glory in some way clothing this woman – whoever or whatever she is.

THE MOON UNDER HER FEET. Someone or something being under the feet of another is a common Biblical picture of one having authority. I’ll let you all look up references to that idea.

A CROWN OF 12 STARS. This has echoes of Joseph’s dream in Gen. 37:9–10 Where Joseph “dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”

The 11 stars there being Joseph’s brothers or the 12 patriarchs when taken all together.

This picture will come up again later in the book in Ch. 21 where the New Jerusalem which is also called the Bride of Christ comes down out of Heaven and has 12 gates which bear the names of the 12 tribes of Israel, and 12 foundations which bear the names of the 12 apostles. Old Testament satins and NT saints comprising 1 city.

(2) PREGNANT AND IN THE THROES OF BIRTH PAINS

(5) GAVE BIRTH TO A MALE CHILD WHO WAS TO RULE THE NATIONS WITH A ROD OF IRON / Here we start to get more concrete help. “Ruling with a rod of iron” is a phrase used in at least 3 places to refer to the Messiah: Ps. 2:9; Rev. 2:27; Rev. 19:15

(5) HER CHILD WAS CAUGHT UP TO HEAVEN / This would seem to be a clear reference to the ascension of Jesus. Eph. 4:9–10 “(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)”

(6) FLED TO THE WILDERNESS WHERE GOD HAD PREPARED A PLACE FOR HER AND NOURISHED HER FOR 1260 DAYS / Where have we seen this before? 1260 days / 42 months / 3.5 years? The period of time we saw in Ch. 11 when the Church is both persecuted and protected. A period of tribulation extending from Jesus’ ascension to His return. That thought is being enlarged on here.

(13) PURSUED BY THE DRAGON / Now we get insight into this persecution that is “dragon fueled”. This will get unpacked as we go.

(14) ENABLED TO ESCAPE TO THE WILDERNESS

(15) SERPENT TRIES TO OVERWHELM AND DESTROY HER

(16) EARTH HELPS HER IN SOME WAY

(17) OFFSPRING ARE THOSE WHO KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AND HOLD TO THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS / So she both gives birth to the Messiah, AND, to those who believe and hold to the Gospel.

Who is she then: “Paul gives us the clue to the meaning of the heavenly woman when he speaks of the Jerusalem which is above, who is the mother of the people of God on earth (Gal. 4:26). She was the mother of the true Israel in the Old Testament, and of the people of the Messiah in the New Testament. The woman is the ideal church in heaven; her children are the actual historical people of God on earth.” George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), 167.

A picture given to us in Gal. 4:26 “But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”

Beale (Revelation (NIGTC)): “Vv 2–6 reveal that this woman is a picture of the faithful community, which existed both before and after the coming of Christ.”

2. Second sign: / The Dragon: Revelation 12:3–4 “And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it.”

This is unambiguously Satan: Revelation 12:9 “And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.” I won’t go into the symbolism of the horns and diadems here for brevity’s sake.

So what is the scene?

Satan was waiting for the birth of the promised Messiah, with an aim to devour – eat – destroy Him. It is a grotesque picture. Remember Herod trying to kill all the children 2 and under after the Wise Men came? Or the storm on the sea when He was asleep in the boat in Luke 8? And again in John 10 – the time when a crowd tried to stone Him? All thwarted. And just when Satan thought he had won in the crucifixion, that turns out to be the source of Satan’s actual defeat. Jesus was resurrected. Caught up to Heaven.

And what was the result of that?

Rev. 12:7–9 “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Satan and his angels (the 3^rd of the stars of heaven in vs. 4) are cast out NOT by Jesus – but by a peer – Michael, another angel.

Cast down to earth and no longer an accuser of God’s people to God, because Christ has died and atoned for sin, justifying God as the judge of sin even though He had waited so long in not judging sin, it began to look as though He was unjust. So Rom. 3:21–26 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”

What did his accusing look like before? Job. But since Christ has paid for our sin and we are justified by His grace, Satan no longer has such an outlet.

Robbed of that, angered by his expulsion and the reality that his time is short – that final judgment is coming upon him soon – what does he do? 12:17 “Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

He pursues the Church. Furiously!

How? We’ll see this in more detail next time – but the essential is in vs. 15 – opening his mouth to overwhelm us. A picture we’ve seen several times before. Like Jesus with the sharp 2-edged sword coming out of His mouth; the fire, smoke and sulfur out of the mouths of the demonic hoard in Ch. 9 and the plagues of the 2 Witnesses in Ch. 11. – the Devil does his work THROUGH HIS LIES!

Now I don’t know about you, but when I hear the term spiritual warfare, it conjures up all sorts of mystical and maybe even spooky ideas.

Chasing demons around with Bible equivalents of light sabers; wielding scripture verses like magic spells; using Christian symbols like good luck charms and that sort of thing.

The reality of spiritual warfare however is nowhere near as curious as those things. But because of its subtlety, is far more insidious and dangerous.

500 years before Sun Tzu penned the famous Chinese war manual “The Art of War” which said: “Know your enemy” – King David penned Psalm 144:1–2 “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.”

By God’s grace, Christians are well armed for the true spiritual warfare we find ourselves in the middle of.

But what this portion drives home is the fact that all Christians need to understand that we ARE in a battle. And to have that battle mentality. We have not entered Heaven yet, not gone into our eternal rest, even though it has dawned some. And if we imagine that life now is to be free of conflict and struggle, and disregard the reality of a real enemy who hates us, we will not be able to make sense of the hardness of life which sometimes caves in on us.

This devil opposes Believers, because he opposes God. There is no more painful way to strike at someone, than to attack those he loves most. So, as I’ve said already, the devil rages the way he now does because he has been deposed from Heaven, and because he knows his time is short.

BUT! God continues to protect and provide for His people even during this appointed period of opposition.

Christian, we are in a sort of wilderness now, but God has also provided nourishment in this wilderness just as He did for Israel when she fled from Egypt.

We have His Word vs the Devil’s lies. His Spirit vs the spirit of the Age and the culture. His People vs the World.

The devil creates a false reality to keep the lost bound in their sin, and the Believer paralyzed – all by false notions of God, sin, our guilt, the need of the Cross and eternal life and judgment.

He lies to humankind that we aren’t fallen, in rebellion against God and do not need a Redeemer.

That sin will satisfy and fill our souls.

That politics, science, education and material wealth will cure all of mankind’s ills.

That the Gospel – if there is one – is one of human effort.

That there is no final judgment.

That Christ isn’t who the Bible says He is and neither are we.

That if God loved us as Believers, life would be smooth, and we would not face disease, poverty, trials, loneliness, sorrow, loss, disabilities, disappointments, or unfixable circumstances.

And how is the Saint’s victory won? Rev. 12:11 “And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.”

FIRST: The victory of the saints in this battle is won by: The truth of the Gospel! The fact Christ has redeemed us with His blood, (we know our guilt has been fully discharged before God) and so justified by faith we have peace with God and the absolute guarantee of all His promises yet to come. And that it was all done by Him! And given as a free gift. That salvation has already been accomplished in the finished work of Christ. We aren’t trying to somehow finish that salvation, but learning how to live more and more in the fullness of what has already been done by Him.

SECOND: When we refuse to abandon the Gospel and following Christ, regardless the cost.

This is how we win the war.

We know our enemy’s real motivations – hatred of God and all those who are His; his anger over being thrown down from Heaven and bound to earth; and his fury over an impending final judgment that is about to take place.

And we live by the knowledge of our being the recipients of God’s eternal, unchangeable, unfathomable love and mercy and grace in sending Jesus to die for our sins – rescuing us from our sin and shame.

And by living as unto Him according to His truth as it is in Christ, no matter what the cost.

These are the things we cling to, to anchor our souls in the darkest, scariest, most confusing places. And by means of them, crush the enemy under our feet as Jesus said we would.
Quite possibly the best sermon on Sanctification ever preached.

June 5th, 2018
This sermon was preached by Robert Murray McCheyne (1813-1843) in 1835. A minister in the Church of Scotland, he was powerfully used by God in his short season. Andrew Bonar once wrote about McCheyne: “He cared for no question unless his Master cared for it; and his main anxiety was to know the mind of Christ.” J.D. Douglas, “Mccheyne, R.M.,” ed. J.D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort, Who’s Who in Christian History (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992), 440.

Aware that McCheyne wrote and preached to an audience whose English is quite removed from our own today, I’ve done my best to modify the text to make it more readable to contemporary eyes and ears. Others will have to judge whether I’ve done that without doing any violence to McCheyne’s thoughts. I have labored to make his words plainer, while retaining as much of the music of his style as I could. I obviously failed in some places. I will be happy to provide you with a PDF of the original should you write to me for it.

As short a summary as I am able to offer for what you are about to read is this: That in the battle for sanctification in the Believer’s life, the means God has provided for us is not His Law, but His Spirit. And His Spirit expressly opening to our hearts and minds, the unfathomable riches of the love for Christ for His redeemed. Dwell there, and sin will lose its grip. Or to quote McCheyne himself: “Love begets love.” And, “no man was ever frightened into love, and, therefore, no man was ever frightened into holiness.”

I commend this short but powerful and much needed to sermon to you all.

In Christ’s love: Reid

THE LOVE OF CHRIST

“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died;” —2 Cor. 5:14. (ESV)

Of all the features of St. Paul’s character, untiring activity was the most striking. From his early history, where we see his energy in attacking the early Church, to when he was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and so harmful, it is quite obvious this was the prominent characteristic of his natural mind. But when it pleased the Lord Jesus Christ to make known in Paul His long-suffering, and to make him a pattern to those who would believe on Jesus afterward, it is beautiful and very instructive to see how the natural features of this daringly bad man became not only sanctified, but invigorated and enlarged. It is so true that those who are in Christ are a new creation: “Old things pass away, and all things become new”, and as a result Christians can be “Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.”

This was an accurate picture of the life of the converted Paul. Knowing the terrors of the Lord, and the fearful situation of all who were yet in their sins, Paul made it the business of his life to persuade men; working hard that if by any means, he might drive the truth home to their consciences. “For (he says) whether we are beside ourselves, it is for God; or whether we are sober, it is for you.”—Verse 13. Whether the world thinks we are wise or crazy, the cause of God and of human souls is the cause that engages all the energies of our being.

Who, then, isn’t curious to find out the secret spring of all these supernatural labors? Who wouldn’t want to hear from Paul’s own lips what the mighty principle that impelled him was. What drove him and kept him through so many toils and dangers? What magic spell had taken possession of this mighty mind, or what unseen planetary influence, drew him on through all discouragements, with unceasing power? How is it he was indifferent to both the world’s dread laugh, and the fear of man, which brings a trap; disregarding the sneer of the skeptical Athenian, the frown of the luxurious Corinthian, and the rage of the narrow-minded Jew? What does the apostle say about this himself? We have his own explanation of the mystery in the words of this text: “The love of Christ controls us.”

That this verse is referring to Christ’s love to man, and not our love to the Savior is quite obvious from the explanation which follows, where his dying for all is pointed to as the revelation of his love. It was the observing of that strange compassion of the Savior, moving him to die for his enemies, to bear the complete weight of God’s wrath for all our sins, to taste death for every man. It was this view which gave him the impulse in every labor, which made all suffering light to him, and every commandment a joy instead of grievous. He ran with patience the race that was set before him. Why? Because, looking unto Jesus, he lived as a man crucified to the world, and the world crucified to him. How? By looking to the cross of Christ. Just as the sun exerts a constant gravitational pull on the planets which circle round it, so did the Sun of Righteousness, which had indeed arisen on Paul with a brightness above that of noon-day. Seeing the love of Christ for what it was exerted on Paul’s mind a continual and an almighty energy, constraining him to live no longer for himself, but for the Jesus who died for him and rose again. And notice that it was no temporary, or intermittent energy that exerted such power over his heart and life. Rather, it was a constant and continued attraction. For Paul doesn’t say that the love of Christ controlled him in the past; or that it will constrain him sometime in the future; or that it does so only in special times of excitement, in seasons of prayer, or peculiar devotion. Instead he simply said, that the love of Christ controlled him. It is the ever-present, ever-abiding, ever-moving power, which forms the main-spring of all his working. Take that away, and his energies are gone, and Paul is as weak as other men.

Is there anyone here with me today whose heart isn’t longing to possess just such a master-principle? Aren’t there any number of you who have arrived at that most interesting of all the stages of conversion in which you are panting after a power to make you new? Yes, you have entered in at the straight gate of believing. You have seen that there is no peace to the unjustified; and therefore you have put on Christ for your righteousness; and you already feel something of the joy and peace of believing. You can look back on your past life, spent without God and Christ and the Holy Spirit in the world; and you can see yourself a condemned outcast. You can say of yourself: “Even if I washed my hands in snow water, yet even my own clothes would still know my hidden uncleanness.” But you can look back at all of your shame and self-reproach and yet without dismay or despair. Why? Because your eye has been lifted believingly on him who was made sin for us. And you are persuaded that, as it pleased God to count all your iniquities to the Savior, so he is willing, and has always been willing, to count all the Savior’s righteousness to you. Without despair, did I say? No! So much more – with joy and singing. For if, indeed, you believe with all your heart, then you have come to the blessedness of the person to whom God imputes righteousness without works; which David describes, saying: “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not count sin.” (Ps. 32:1-2) This is the peace of the justified man.

But is this peace a state of perfect blessedness? Is there nothing left to be desired? I am speaking to those of you, who already know what it is to be justified by believing. Let me ask you – what is it that still hangs like a cloud, that represses the free exulting of the spirit? Why do we sometimes hesitate to fully join in the song of thanksgiving; “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgives all your iniquities!” If we really have received absolutely full payment for all our sins, why should it ever be the case that we cry out with the Psalmist: “Why are you cast down, O my soul: and why are you disquieted within me?” Ah! my friends there is not a man among you, who has really believed, who has not felt the disquieting thought I am speaking about.

There may be some of you who have felt it so painfully, that like a thick dark cloud it has kept the sweet light of the Gospel peace from shining in the reconciled countenance upon the soul. The thought is this: “I am a justified man; but, woe! I am not a sanctified man. I can look at my past life without despair; but how can I look forward to what is to come?”

There is not a more picturesque moral landscape in the universe than such a soul presents. Forgiven all trespasses that are past, you look inward with a clearness and an impartiality you never knew before, and there you still see long fostered affections for sin, which, like ancient rivers, have worn a deep channel into the heart. And you experience periodic returns of passion, sometimes irresistible and overwhelming, like the tides of the ocean. You are shocked at how there are still perversities of temper and of habit, crooked and unyielding, like the gnarled branches of a stunted oak. Ah! what a scene is here, what anticipations of the future! Will it always be this way? What forebodings of a powerless struggle against the tyranny of lust! against the old ways of acting, and of speaking, and of thinking! Were it not that the hope of the glory of God is one of the most basic promised rights of the justified man, who would be surprised if this view of terror were to drive a man back, like the dog to his vomit, or the sow that was washed to wallow again in the mire?

Now it is the Christian in this precise situation I want to address. The who is crying out morning and night, “How shall I be made new? what good does the forgiveness of my past sins do me, if I’m not delivered from the love of sin?” It is to that person that I would now, with all earnestness and affection, point out the example of Paul, and the secret power which was at work in him: “The love of Christ” (says Paul) “controls us.”

So it is Paul can say, we too, are men of like passions with yourselves; that same sight which you view with dismay within you, was in exactly the same way revealed to us in all its discouraging power. Ever and always, the same hideous view of our own hearts is opened up to us. But we have an encouragement which never fails. The love of the bleeding Savior controls us. The Spirit is given to all that believe; and that almighty Holy Spirit has one argument that moves us continually—THE LOVE OF CHRIST.

My aim right now, brethren, is to show how this argument, in the hand of the Spirit, moves the believer to live unto God. To show you how so simple a truth as the love of Christ to man, continually presented to the mind by the Holy Ghost, will enable any man to live a life of Gospel holiness. And if there be one person here today whose great question is: “How will I be saved from sin and how will I walk as a child of God should?” You are the one above of all others, whose ear and heart I am anxious to engage.
1. The love of Christ to man controls the believer to live a holy life, because that truth takes away all his dread and hatred of God.
Before Adam sinned, God was everything to him; and everything was good and desirable to him, but only in so far as it had to do with God. Every vein of his body, so fearfully and wonderfully made, every leaf that rustled in the trees of Paradise, every new sun that dawned, rejoicing like a strong man to run his race – refreshed him with godly thoughts and admiring praise for his God. And it was only for that reason that he could delight to look on them. The flowers that appeared on the earth, the singing of the birds, and the voice of the turtle heard throughout the happy land, the fig tree putting out her green figs, and the vines with the tender grapes giving a good smell; all these combined to bring in to him at every pore a rich and varied tribute of pleasantness. And why? Because every blessing of nature was one more token of how much God loved him and desired to bless him. The same way you may have seen a child on earth devoted to its earthly parent; pleased with everything when he is present, and valuing every gift just as it shows more of the tenderness of that parent’s heart. So was it with the genuine child of God. In God he lived, and moved, and had his being. Even if the sun had stopped shining, it could not have been as devastating to his life as hiding the face of God from him and taking away the light of his soul. But still Adam fell. And the fine gold became dim, the system of his thoughts and likings was reversed. Instead of enjoying God in everything, and everything in God, everything now seemed hateful and disagreeable to him, because it reminded him of God. A holy God who must judge sin.

When man sinned, then he feared God, and hated the God he feared. So he fled to all sin in trying to run from Him whom he hated. So just as you may have seen a child who has grievously transgressed against a loving parent, doing all it can to hide that parent from its view; hurrying from his presence, and plunging into other thoughts and occupations, just to rid itself of the thought of his justly offended father—in the very same way when fallen Adam heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, that voice which, before he sinned, was heavenly music in his ears—then did Adam and his wife hide themselves from the presence of the Lord, among the trees of the garden. In the very same way every natural man runs from the voice and presence of the Lord. Not to try and hide among the trees of Paradise, but to bury himself in cares, and business and pleasures and revellings. Any retreat is better, than facing God; any activity is more tolerable, as long as God is put out of the mimd.

Now I am quite sure that many of you may hear this charge against the natural man with incredulous indifference, if not with indignation. You do not feel that you hate God, or dread his presence; and, therefore, you say it cannot be true. But, brethren, when God says your heart, is “desperately wicked,” in fact, unsearchably wicked, who can know it? when God claims for himself the privilege of knowing and trying the heart; is it not presumptuous – such ignorant beings as we are, to say that that is not true, with respect to our hearts, which God affirms to be true, merely because we are not conscious of it? God says that “the carnal mind is at war against God,” that the very grain and substance of an unconverted mind is hatred against God, absolute, implacable hatred against him in whom we live, and move, and have our being. It is quite true that we do not feel this hatred within us; but that is only a sign of the depth of our sin and of our danger. We have choked up the avenues of self-examination so much, there are so many turnings and windings, before we can arrive at the true motives of our actions; that our dread and hatred of God, which first moved man to sin, and which are still the grand impelling forces whereby Satan goads on the children of disobedience; these are wholly concealed from our view. And you cannot persuade a natural man that they are really there. But the Bible testifies, that out of these two deadly roots—dread of God and hatred of God—grows up the thick forest of sins with which the earth is blackened and overspread. And if there be one among you, brethren, who has been awakened by God to know what is in his heart, I call that man this day to witness, that his bitter cry, in the view of all his sins, has ever been: “Against you, you only have I sinned.”

If, then, dread of God, and hatred of God, is the cause of all our sins, how else can we be cured of loving sin, but by taking away the cause? How do you most completely kill the worst weeds? Is it not by striking at their roots? In the love of Christ to man, then—in that strange, unspeakable gift of God, when he laid down his life for his enemies, when he died as the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God; do not you see an object which, if really believed by the sinner, takes away all his dread and all his hatred of God? The root of sin itself is destroyed.

In His bearing the full penalty for all our sins, we see the curse carried away, we see God reconciled to us. Why should we fear any more? Not fearing, why should we hate God any more? Not hating God, then what attractiveness is left in sin any more? Putting on the righteousness of Christ, we are again restored to where Adam was, with God as our friend. Sin can’t buy us anything anymore; and, when we see that, we don’t care to sin anymore.

In the sixth chapter of Romans, Paul seems to write of the believer sinning, as if it is just plain absurd. “How shall we, that are dead to sin;” that is, we who now being one with Christ are considered as having also died with Him; “how shall we live any longer therein?” And again he says very boldly: “Sin shall not have dominion over you.” It is impossible in the nature of things—“for you are not under the law, but under grace;” you are no longer under the curse of a broken law, dreading and hating God; you are under grace; under a system of peace and friendship with God.

Now someone might be ready to object that if what I’ve just said is true, if it takes nothing more than being brought into peace with God to bring us into living a holy life, how is it that believers still sin? My answer is, it is indeed too true that believers do sin; but it is just as true that unbelief is the cause of their sinning. If you and I were to live with our eye so closely on Christ bearing the full weight and penalty for all our sins, freely offering to all the full weight of His righteousness in exchange for all our sins; and if this constant view of the love of Christ was maintained within us, if we looked with a straightforward eye; the peace of God which passes all understanding; the peace that rests on nothing in us, but upon the completeness that is in Christ, then, brethren, I do say, that, frail and helpless as we are, we should never sin; we should not have the slightest object in sinning.

But, ah! my friends, this is not the way with us. How often in the day is the love of Christ quite out of our view! How often is it obscured to us! Sometimes even hid from us by God himself, to teach us what we are deep down. How often are we left without a concrete sense of the completeness of his offering, the perfectness of his righteousness, and without the will or the confidence to claim all that we have in him! Is it any surprise then that where there is so much unbelief – dread and hatred of God should creep in again, and sin should often display its poisonous head? The matter is very plain, brethren, if only we had spiritual eyes to see it.

If we live a life of faith on the Son of God, then we shall assuredly live a life of holiness. I do not say we ought to like that as though we are required to do so; but I say, we WILL, as a matter of necessary consequence. It is the natural result of seeing Christ’s love for us for what it truly is. To the same degree we fail to live a life of faith, that is just how far we will still live a life of unholiness. It is through faith that God purifies the heart; and there is no other way.

Is there one of you, then, brethren, desirous of being made new, of being delivered from the slavery of sinful habits and affections? We can point you to no other remedy but the love of Christ. Behold, think about, examine, meditate on how he loved you! See afresh what he bore for you. Put your finger, as it were, into the prints of the nails, and thrust your hand into his side; and stop being faithless, but believing. Under a sense of your sin, flee to the Savior of sinners. As the timid dove flies to hide itself in the crevices of the rock, so you, flee to hide yourself in the wounds of your Savior; and when you have found him, like the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; when you sit under his shadow, with great delight; you will find that he has slain all the division between you and God; that he has accomplished all your warfare. God is now for you. Planted together with Christ in the likeness of his death, you will also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Dead unto sin, you will be alive unto God.
1. The love of Christ to man controls the believer to live a holy life; because that truth not only takes away our fear and hatred, but stirs up our love to Him.
When we are brought to see the reconciled face of God in peace, that is a great privilege. But how can we look upon that face, reconciling and reconciled, and not love him who has loved us so much to accomplish that reconciliation! Love begets love. We can hardly keep from esteeming those on earth who really love us, however worthless they may be. But, ah! my friends, when we are convinced that God loves us, and convinced of how willing He was to give up of his Son for us all, how can we help but love him, in whom are all excellences—everything suited to call forth love out of us?

I have already shown you that the Gospel is a restorative scheme; it brings us back to the same state of friendship with God which Adam enjoyed, and thus takes away the desire of sin. But now I wish to show you, that the Gospel does far more than restore us to the state from which we fell. If rightly and consistently embraced by us, it brings us into a state far better than Adam’s. It constrains us by giving us a far more powerful motive. Adam didn’t have our advantage of having this strong love of God to man shed abroad in his heart. Therefore he didn’t have this constraining power to make him live to God. But our eyes have seen this great sight. Before us Christ hath been clearly and plainly set forth as crucified in our place. We really believe his love has brought us into peace, through pardon; and because we are pardoned and at peace with God, the Holy Ghost is given to us. Why was the Spirit given to us? Why, just to shed abroad this truth over our hearts, to show us more and more of this love of God to us, that we may be drawn to love him who hath so loved us, and to live to him who died for us and rose again.

It is truly admirable to see how the Bible way of making us holy is suited to our nature. Had God proposed to frighten us into a holy life, how powerless that would be! Men have always had the idea, that if one came back from the dead to tell us of the reality of the doleful regions where the lost dwell in endless misery – the spirits of the damned – that that would constrain us to live a holy life. But, doesn’t this just show how ignorant we are of our mysterious nature? Suppose God should this very hour unveil before our eyes the secrets of Hell where hope never comes; more, suppose, if it were possible, that you were actually made to feel for a season the real pains of the lake of living agony, and the worm that never dies; and then that you were brought back again to the earth, and placed in your old situation, among your old friends and companions; do you really think that there would be any chance of your walking with God as a child? I don’t doubt you would be frightened out of your positive sins; the cup of godless pleasure would drop from your hand; you would shudder to swear and curse, you would tremble at lying, because you had seen and felt something of the torment which awaits the drunkard, the swearer, and the liar, in the world beyond the grave. But do you really think that you would live to God, any more than you did; that you would serve him better than before? It is quite true you might be driven to be more charitable; maybe even give all your goods to feed the poor, and your body to be burned. You might live strictly and soberly, fearful of breaking one of the commandments all the rest of your days: but this would not be living to God; you would not love him one whit more. Ah! brethren, you are sadly blinded to your curiously formed hearts, if you do not know that love cannot be forced; no man was ever frightened into love, and, therefore, no man was ever frightened into holiness.

But thrice blessed be God, he has invented a way more powerful than hell and all its terrors; an argument far more powerful than even a sight of the torments of Hell. He hath devised a way of drawing us to holiness. By showing us the love of his Son, THIS is how he calls forth our love. He knew our frame, he remembered that we were dust, he knew all the peculiarities of our treacherous hearts; and, therefore, he suited his way of sanctifying, to the creature to be sanctified. And thus, the Spirit does not make use of terror to sanctify us, but of love: “The love of Christ constrains us.” He draws us by “the cords of love, by the bands of a man.”

What parent does not know that the true way to gain the obedience of a child, is to gain the affections of the child? Do you think God, who gave us this wisdom, doesn’t know that Himself? Do you think he would set about obtaining the obedience of his children, without first of all gaining their affections? To gain our affections, brethren, which by nature search over the face of the world to be satisfied, God has sent his son into the world to bear the curse of our sins. “Though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, that we, through his poverty, might be made rich.”

And oh! if there is but one of you who will consent this day, under a sense of undoneness, to flee for refuge to the Savior, to find in him the forgiveness of all sins that are past, I know well, that from this day forth you will be like that poor woman which was a sinner, which stood at Christ’s feet behind him, weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head; and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. Forgiven much, you will love much; loving much, you will live to the service of Him whom you love.

This is the grand master-principle of which we spoke; this is the secret spring of all the holiness of the saints.

The life of holiness is not what the world falsely represents it to be, a life of preciseness and painfullness, in which a man crosses every affection of his nature. There is no such thing as self-denial in the “works-salvation” sense of that word in the religion of the Bible. The system of restrictions and self-crossings is the very system which Satan hath set up as a counterfeit of God’s way of sanctifying. This is how Satan frightens away thousands from Gospel peace and Gospel holiness. He makes it seem as if in order to be a sanctified man one would have to cross every desire of his being and do everything that is disagreeable and uncomfortable to him. My friends, our text distinctly shows you that it is not so. We are constrained to holiness by the love of Christ. The love of him who loved us is the only cord by which we are bound to the service of God. The scourge of our affections is the only scourge that drives us to duty. Sweet bands and gentle scourges! Who would not be under their power?

And, finally, brethren, if Christ’s love to us is the tool which the Holy Ghost makes use of, at the very first, to draw us to the service of Christ, it is by means of the same tool that he draws us to persevere even unto the end. So that if you are visited with seasons of coldness and indifference, if you begin to be weary, or lag behind in the service of God, behold! here is the remedy: Look again to the bleeding Savior. That Sun of Righteousness is the grand attractive center, around which all his saints move swiftly, and in smooth harmonious concert,“not without song.”

As long as the believing eye is fixed upon his love, the path of the believer is easy and unimpeded; for that love always constrains. Vary from simply believing in Christ and His love, and the path becomes impracticable and the life of holiness a weariness.

Whosoever, then, would live a life of persevering holiness, let him keep his eye fixed on the Savior. As long as Peter looked only to the Savior, he walked upon the sea in safety, to go to Jesus; but when he looked around, and saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, cried, “Lord, save me!” It be the same with you. As long as you look believingly to the Savior, who loved you. and gave himself for you, that’s how long you may tread the waters of life’s troubled sea, and keep the soles of your feet dry. But venture to look around upon the winds and waves that threaten you on every hand, and, like Peter, you will begin to sink, and cry, “Lord, save me!”

How justly, then, may we address to you the Savior’s rebuke to Peter: “O you of little faith, what caused you to doubt?” Look again to the love of the Savior, and behold that love which constrains you to live no more to yourself, but to him that died for you and rose again.

College Church, August 30, 1835

Adapted from : Robert Murray McCheyne, The Works of the Late Rev. Robert Murray McCheyne, vol. 2 (New York: Robert Carter, 1847), 179–187.
A Gem from Robert Murray McCheyne

May 29th, 2018

“Nothing that is imperfect can make us perfect in the sight of God. Hence the admirable direction of an old divine: ‘Labor after sanctification to the utmost; but do not make a Christ of it; if so, it must come down, one way or another. Christ’s obedience and sufferings, not thy sanctification, must be thy justification.’ “