ResponsiveReiding

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.’ “
THE Tale of Two Cities: Revelation 11

May 28th, 2018
Revelation Part 23

Chapter 11

2 Corinthians 10:1-6

THE Tale of 2 Cities

AUDIO FOR THIS SERMON CAN BE FOUND HERE

As I mentioned last time – there is little question Revelation 11is one of the most – if not THE most – debated chapter in the entire book.

And you are all to be commended for sticking with me through the first part of this chapter last week, because there was a LOT there to try and unpack in interpreting the symbols.

Fortunately, the rest of the chapter is NOT as symbol laden and will end up very clear. But there is still one more symbol we need to deal with this morning. And if we can get this, it will make the whole rest of the book much more understandable. In fact, much of the point of the book of Revelation rests on it. So please bear with me just a bit longer in doing some hard work – I promise you it will pay off.

Before we even get into the immediate text – let’s stop at the “You Are Here” sign to get our bearings and then forge on ahead.

You will recall that there are a series of 7’s that we are right in the middle of.

There were the 7 churches in 2-3.

The 7 seals on the scroll Jesus opened in Chs. 5-8 – Which scroll contains the complete plan of God in bringing final judgment upon sin and final reward for those in Christ by saving faith. The opening of those seals gave us an overview of the plan.

That was followed by introducing 7 trumpets. A series of announcements or proclamations that expanded on some aspects of what we saw when the seals were opened – and are meant to serve as a period of warning or a cosmic heads up that the end is really coming. The blowing of the trumpets goes from Ch. 8-11.

The period of time in which these warnings are declared will ultimately come to an end, and then there will be 7 bowls of wrath. Another word picture to say simply that judgment won’t just be talked or warned about any more, but actually carried out.

Well at this point in our study, we are in the midst of the 6^th trumpet or warning which was begun in 9:13.

And as we’ve seen, this group of warnings have been dire indeed.

The Church. So far in ch. 11 we’ve seen that God marks out His people to keep and protect them spiritually, indicating the Believer cannot lose his or her salvation even though there will be times of severe persecution for some in the Church. Times when many who profess saving faith in Jesus will lose their lives in martyrdom.

A symbolic 42 months.

The 2 Witnesses. In fact, there will come a point in history when for all intents and purposes, it will appear as if the ministry of the Church in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the call to lives lived according to God’s standards and not those of the world or the culture – will be snuffed out. But that will only be for a short time – for then the Church will rise again supernaturally.

The more you think about those pictures, the clearer they become.

But there is one more detail we need to tease out to get the full picture. And I want to be sure you know WHY I think we are to interpret this symbol a certain way – and that we don’t just assign meaning to these symbols without Biblical or textual warrant.

Let’s look at the text: Revelation 11:3–8 “And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. They have the power to shut the sky, that no rain may fall during the days of their prophesying, and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague, as often as they desire. And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.”

What about this city referred to in vs. 8, and why does it matter?

It matters because how you interpret this symbol, has a lot to do with how you look at the entire remainder of the book.

And on the surface, it is very common to take the phrase “where their Lord was crucified” – to simply mean Jerusalem as the defining idea. And therefore to say Jerusalem is also “the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt.”

If that interpretation is correct, then what we’ve looked at so far has to be completely revised and the entire chapter looked at as a scene which must unfold on the literal streets of geographical Jerusalem. And if that’s so, the 2 prophets are 2 human personages. There is a literal rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. These 2 prophets literally shoot fire out of their mouths to consume their enemies, and literally bring all sorts of plagues on the earth. Now without question – it is POSSIBLE for all of that to happen as literal. But the question is – is that what the passage is actually teaching?

I think we established Biblically why we should not take the previous portions as literal last week. If you weren’t with us for that, I would encourage you to go on line and listen to it. But what about this part – what about the city?

Once again, we have to look more closely at the text itself, and other portions of Scripture to put it all together.

We have to ask ourselves: What are the clues both in the immediate text, and the rest of the Bible? There are 4 I think are most helpful.
1. Mixed metaphors. As we’ve seen already in this book, sometimes the metaphors or pictures are mixed, so as to give fuller explanation. You remember that Jesus is depicted BOTH as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah AND the Lamb slain for our sin, in the space of only 2 verses in Ch. 5. Then again how in Ch. 7 the 144,000 and the great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, tribe, peoples and languages, standing before the throne, were one and the same. And last week in vs. 4 how the 2 prophets are referred to both as the 2 olive trees and the 2 lampstands which stand before the Lord.
So here, we have to take note that the “great city” where Jesus was crucified is also called Sodom, and Egypt. 4 descriptors that have to be taken together to arrive at a clear understanding.

2. The use of the term “the Great City”. The 2^nd clue grows out of the mixed metaphors. In the 7 other uses of this term in Revelation, each time it unambiguously refers to Rome. This is decisive in my view.

3. Calling the City “Sodom.” We have no Biblical precedent for Jerusalem ever being called Sodom. The closest we come is Isa. 11 – but there the reference is the people of Israel in their sin, not Jerusalem. So equating Sodom with Jerusalem has no Biblical basis. It is obviously symbolic of something.

4. Calling the city “Egypt”. Egypt obviously isn’t a city. But throughout the OT it IS used as a type for “The World.” You have God’s people, the Israelites, and you have the world outside of Israel. And Egypt gets used as the quintessential way of expressing that idea. Morals, values, worship, all apart from God’s revelation and influence.

So, what do we do with all of this? How do we put it together and what does it mean?

If we take all 4 designations together I think the clearest option is this: For the first readers, Rome would be the obvious choice.

But not Rome merely as a geographical place – but Rome as a picture of the world – just like Egypt. Rome as a “symbol of all of civilization against God.” (Carson) And when it is all said and done, the combined actions of an apostate Israel in league with the World empire of the day crucified Jesus in geographical Jerusalem; but in the larger sense, in the kingdom or city of this world, versus the kingdom or city of God.

For a people who had only known the experience of living in the great City States of the ancient world – this makes perfect sense. Babel was a city/state. And it represented mankind as a group, rebelling against God. Babylon was a great city/state. Sparta was a great city/state. Tyre and Sidon in the Bible were city/states. And Rome was, according to the book of Daniel to be the last great city/state. So when you spoke of Rome, you spoke not just of the city, but of the empire as a whole. And from that picture God now reveals that He views – and want US to view – the whole of existence as the bifurcation between The City of Man or Humankind and the City of God.

In fact, it was this chapter that formed the impetus behind St. Augustine’s famous book: The City of God.

For what will appear later is that in opposition to this “Great City” – the City of God, God united with all of His redeemed will come down out of Heaven and be permanently joined with earth.

Rome as both the city, and the empire under which these first readers were oppressed. And it was a City and an Empire which was antithetical to everything Christians believed and taught and lived by.

So yes, geographically, Jesus died in Jerusalem, but under the authority of Rome, which was morally as bankrupt as Sodom and as antithetical to God’s people as Egypt – wanting to enslave God’s people to serve the state rather than Him, for its own enrichment and denying the God of the Bible at every turn. All of these are being mixed together into one picture:

The World (the City of Humankind) vs.

The City of God – God with His redeemed people.

Why was this important for the 1^st readers and why is it important for us? And let me tell you – this is as current and relevant to the Church in America today as it was to them in the Roman empire.

The “Great City” being Rome, it would be the natural instinct of the Jews to see the Roman empire as their chief problem – especially since the destruction of the Temple in 70 C.E. by Titus.

It would also be the natural instinct of the Christians to see the Roman empire as their chief problem, especially given current persecutions and even the present exile of John to Patmos. And in the coming days when persecutions WILL increase for them, as they did historically – Christians looked at the Roman government and would be tempted to say: That is our great enemy, that is the great evil – ROME! And given some other references further on in the book – that view would seem to be justified. Especially when Rome is further linked in the book to Babylon the Great, The Great Whore, etc.

The natural tendency would be to see the Roman empire as their chief problem rather than this present fallen World under the sway of Satan. The very same way so many Christians today think the Government is our real problem, when in fact it is the World system which ours – and every other government – bows to. The world’s values and morality and mentality – apart from Christ.

Again, Egypt is consistently used as a metaphor for the world in the Bible – or humanity in opposition to God’s rule. Sodom is used similarly. And Jerusalem, having rejected Jesus as Messiah and crucifying Him WITH Rome – the symbolism becomes that Jesus came into the World, this present world system, and both its secular and its religious branches rejected and murdered Him.

He was crucified in this world. This world as a system built upon human governance and autonomy as opposed to submission to God’s rule in Christ. And so it is that the World will rejoice when the Church seems to be snuffed out. Some from Peoples and Tribes and Languages and Nations. A picture once again of the World.

All of this boils down to one crucial point.

Because we do not see that it is worldliness as opposed to Christ’s rule that is our real problem, we will think we can solve our societal problems by simply fixing government.

And when this happens, The Gospel is soon eclipsed by political and social activism. And Biblical, Spirit empowered holiness is eclipsed by moralism. And we will completely miss what it is that is really going on around us.

We will forget: 2 Corinthians 10:3–5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Christian, our battle isn’t political.

It isn’t economic.

It isn’t even moral.

Our battle is spiritual.

And our only weapons are the proclamation of and lived committed to – Gospel truth!

We don’t need to secure more voter registrations, as good as that may be in itself – for it is of NO power in THIS battle. For this, we need Biblical truth that can destroy arguments and lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God! Only in this way can we take thoughts captive to Christ. Preach and live the Gospel. In other words: We must BE the TWO WITNESSES.

And so this chapter ends with a renewed vision of THE end. How will all of the moral, criminal, military, economic and social crises of this earth be met? Only in the return of Jesus Christ, and the kingdom of this world becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ – reigning for ever and ever.

So this chapter ends with its own application – where we want to end today – turning our eyes toward the promise of the fulfillment of all Christ reveals in this book. The 7^th trumpet is the final announcement of all of this.

How are we to apply what we’ve seen here? Revelation 11:17–19
1. THANKSGIVING: Despite all the trials and tribulations and dire things to come. 15-17
“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign.”

Because all of it leads to His reign. And there can be no greater blessing than to live in perfect union with the One who died for us, and whose Kingdom is the manifestation of love, grace, beauty, holiness, unity and wonder. And the utter absence of all pain, woe, discomfort, sorrow, despair, injustice, abuse, hatred, violence, sickness, disease and death.
1. JUSTICE: Final and absolute justice. 18
“18 The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

I watched a documentary recently on a bizarre crime that took place in Erie PA in 2003. A man there robbed a bank – claiming to be forced to do so while wearing a collar bomb around his neck. The man later died and the man who actually fabricated the bomb died of cancer years later having never been charged. Some say he got away with his crime. It is true he eluded human justice – but one of the core themes of the Revelation is that while men MAY elude human justice, NO ONE can avoid God’s ultimate justice. As Romans 3:23 reminds us: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – which places us in need of reconciliation to God – which the Bible shows us can only be had through faith in the substitutionary death of Jesus for our sins on the Cross. Apart from the grace to be had there – each will have to stand before the unwaveringly holy God and will receive full, true, eternal and absolute justice for our sins. It is why we preach the Gospel! We do not want anyone to have to face that end. We want all to have the benefit of the grace that each of us have already found in the Gospel.

And not just justice for all who seemed to have escaped it in this life – reward of unimaginable glory for those who have put their hope in Christ Jesus, His substitutionary death on Cavalry – and the promise of eternal life with Him.
1. FAITHFULNESS: 19 Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.
God will exert all of His omnipotence to remain faithful to His covenant promises to all who are His. And we are to live filled with the confidence that His faithfulness cannot fail and will deliver all He has promised – no matter what it takes.

Romans 8:31–32 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”
1 + 42 + 2 = Victory! Revelation Part 22

May 21st, 2018
Revelation Part 22

Chapter 11:1-14

1 + 42 + 2 = Victory!

John Newton once began a sermon with this short poem – I take it as my own prayer today as we enter this very difficult passage:

1 Now, Lord, inspire the preacher’s heart,

And teach his tongue to speak;

Food to the hungry soul impart,

And cordials to the weak.

2 Furnish us all with light and pow’rs

To walk in wisdom’s ways;

So shall the benefit be ours,

And thou shalt have the praise.

There is little question, that this chapter in particular is one of the most – if not THE most – debated chapter in the entire book of Revelation.

If you are coming at this book with a grid already in mind, ANY grid, you will look for some foundational concept of that grid in this chapter.

As we’ve seen so far, untangling what is symbolic and what is quite literal in this book is sometimes hard to unpack. That remains true here. Just which aspects of this portion fall into which of those categories is especially challenging.

Nevertheless, by time we are done this morning, I hope once more to tease out the main points which can be useful for suffering Christians in all ages, no matter which end-times scheme one might hold.

As we’ll see, there are 3 things which stand out in the passage that deserve our special attention and which then translate into the practical applications we’ll end up considering:

I. Measuring The Temple (1 & 2)

II. Forty two months (2 & 3)

III. Two Witnesses (3-13)

Fortunately, all 3 of these have clear precedents in Scripture.

Measuring – whether it be a people or in this case the Temple – is something already encountered in a number of OT references.

The significance of 42 months would have had an immediate connection for the first Jewish readers, that we need to dig out of Daniel and the historical records of the inter-testamental period.

And the 2 Witnesses could have several connections: 1. In Jewish law, two witnesses were always required for major judgments. 2. More likely though, in the 7 letters to the Churches in chs. 2-3, only two had no issue of compromise: 2:7-13 Smyrna – The Satanically persecuted church. 3:7-13 Philadelphia – The un-influential but ENDURING church. This I believe gives us a direct textual tie in helping us understand what’s being said there. Thus, these witnesses represent the uncompromising church. This will get teased out as we see the ministry of the witnesses.

So it is, my understanding of this portion parallels that of Don Carson when he writes about it this way: “the temple is the church, the two witnesses are that part of the church that must suffer martyrdom as they bear witness, and the great city represents this fallen world order, civilizations that finally are utterly alien to God and his will and are climaxed in destruction all the way to the very end when the witnesses, in fact, are justified before them.” D. A. Carson, “Revelation—Part 15,” in D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2016), Re 11.

Let’s look at them individually then.

I. Measuring The Temple (1-2): “Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.”

Measuring some-ones, or some-thing in this way is not new in Scripture. In the other places where we see this same idea it is always with one of two purposes in mind: Measuring for protection (like sealing the saints in the ch. 9) or for judgment. The way we might use the phrase – taking the measure of a man – or the measure of a situation. So, we get this understanding from the prior use of this figure of speech in some OT passages.

Before we look at those though we need to ask ourselves just what temple this is that is being referred to here. And there are 3 main schools of thought on that.

1. Some think that this temple must be the temple which was standing in Jerusalem during Jesus’ lifetime – Herod’s temple. And from that, they argue this book must have been written before that temple was destroyed as it was in 70 C.E. When we began our study we took time to establish why this book was almost certainly written in the mid to late 90’s C.E., which would rule out that interpretation right out of the gate.

2. Perhaps the most common view in American Evangelicalism is that this is a reconstructed temple – one they are looking to see rebuilt in Jerusalem sometime in the future. Perhaps even in our lifetime. Hence many keep an eagle eye on events in the middle east and on Jerusalem especially for indications that such a rebuilding might be right around the corner, and a sign of Jesus’ soon return. We need to keep in mind that for that to happen, the Temple would need to be rebuilt on the site of what is currently occupied by the Mosque of Omar – for Sunni Muslims, the 3^rd most holy site in Islam.

3. This is not referring to a literal physical temple at all, but instead is a picture of the Church – a picture reiterated later in Revelation as the Church and the New Jerusalem seem to be intertwined. I.e. a “spiritual” temple.

The 3^rd one in my view has the most Biblical support, since in the NT era, we are introduced to the Church now being considered the temple of God. Let me give you 3 references: 1 Cor. 3:16–17 “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

Eph. 2:19–22 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

1 Peter 2:4–5 “As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

These would seem to indicate that the Tabernacle Moses erected in the wilderness and the later Temple – were meant to be types and shadows of the final reality of God dwelling with and IN His people in a more complete sense in the Church AS God’s redeemed people. The idea is not going back to some physical edifice, as it is the edifices being ways of understanding the union of God with those redeemed by the blood of Christ. We’ll see this later in the book in a much more complete picture.

That said, let’s go back to Biblical examples of this sort of measuring.

2 Kings 21 – God says He will stretch out a measuring line over Jerusalem to take stock of what it’s punishment for idolatry should be.

Lamentations reiterates that idea, as does Amos 7. Then in Hab. 3 measuring is used in judging the whole earth.

But in Ezek. 40-48 and Zech. 1-2, the image is God measuring His Temple, His people and Jerusalem so as to pour out blessing on them.

Which image seems to fit most rightly here, as the text notes that John is instructed to take the measure of the Temple – and, that in part, some of that Temple – or as the 1^st century readers would have thought of it, the Temple complex with the Temple proper and its courtyards – will be trampled under foot for a period of time. In other wards – some of God’s people will suffer great persecution, even martyrdom, and others not. Which has been the case throughout the ages and will remain so until Jesus returns. This is where the 42 months comes in.

II. Forty two months (2-3): “but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

If I were to simply say to you “9/11”, virtually everyone here born before say 1995 would immediately picture the twin towers of the World Trade Center being brought down by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001. Most of you would even remember where you were or what you were doing the moment you heard of the attack.

Some events that happen historically become so ingrained in a culture, that a simple reference like “9/11” needs no explanation – but refer to such a massive shared experience, that they conjure up all sorts of memories, feelings, etc.

“The Depression” was like that to my Mom, or say “Viet Nam” to so many. “Watergate” or one meeting their “Waterloo” are similar.

And there is little question that 42 months, or 1,260 days (based on a 360 day Jewish year), or time, times and ½ a time – 3.5 years – would immediately bring to mind an event or era that was so woven into the fabric of the Jewish identity as to instantly evoke a common picture or understanding.

The connection here is with the book of Daniel and what happened in fulfilling some of the prophecies given to him back during the Babylonian captivity.

In Daniel 8, Daniel receives a vision that shows him how the Medo-Persian empire – which was at that moment the most important world power – was to be conquered by Greece. And that when the Grecian empire dissolved, it would break into 4 separate segments – 2 of which are expanded upon in the following chapters: The Ptolemaic and the Seleucid empires. The Ptolemies centered in Egypt – the kings of the South as they are called there – south of Israel; and the Seleucids – the kings of the North headquartered to the north of Israel in what we would call Syria today – with Israel being the monkey in the middle between them. Each fighting the other for control of Israel’s territory.

The worst of all the Seleucid kings was Antiochus IV Epiphanes, a rabid anti-Jew. When he gained control over Israel, he outlawed virtually anything having to do with Jewish worship. In trying to eradicate the Jewish religion altogether, he made most infractions capital offences: Owing a part of the Jewish Bible, practicing any of its rights or even just observing the Sabbath.

Around 167 B.C.E., a Seleucid emissary was passing through a village where an old priest by the name of Mattaniah refused to pay homage to him. In fact, he killed the guy. The priest had several sons, one whose name was Judas and who was nick-named in the Semitic, Judas Maccabaeus – or Judas the Hammer – who took this moment to start a bloody rebellion against the Seleucids which eventually won back Jewish control over their territory for the first time in nearly 200 hundred years. It was both a time of severe persecution, savage battle and then finally amazing victory. And it lasted – 1260 days or 42 months or 3-1/2 years.

So it is as Don Carson writes on this point this idea of 42 months: “came to be identified with a period of extreme suffering that would only last for a period of time and then it stopped… it’s an acute period of time, and then you cut it off.” D. A. Carson, “Revelation—Part 15,” in D. A. Carson Sermon Library (Bellingham, WA: Faithlife, 2016), Re 11.

So if we follow this train of thought, what we have is the Church, marked out by God and protected inwardly or spiritually, but also suffering severe persecution outwardly and being trampled down by the World for a period of time which will eventually give way to victory. And during which time 2 witnesses will be prophesying on the earth. Which then leads us to ask, who or what are these 2 witnesses, and what do they do?

III. Two Witnesses (3-13): Who or what are these witnesses? The text gives us our best clue. Revelation 11:4 “These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth.”

Again, a wide variety of opinions are available here. If we see these as 2 literal personages, then the ones most often suggested are Elijah and Moses, or Elijah and Enoch – from the OT.

Elijah because he is prophesied to come in some way before Christ does, and also that he did not die but went to heaven in a fiery chariot per 2 Kings 2. Though that seems to be fulfilled in John the Baptizer. (Matt. 11:14)

Moses because he is the foremost of the OT prophets and performed some of the miracles we seem to see mirrored in this passage. And also, that though the Bible says he died, God took him and buried him but no one saw him die or ever located his grave.

Or Enoch, because as Genesis 5 says, he prophesied and then evidently went to heaven without dying.

How do we decide? I think the clue is in the text itself. “These two are the 2 olive trees,” is an obvious allusion to Zech. 4 where after the Babylonian exile, Joshua a high priest and Zerubbabel the Jewish governor are pictured as the 2 sources keeping the lamp of God’s presence burning in the rebuilding of that temple.

But the designation of these 2 as being the “two lampstands” takes us right back to chs. 2-3 where in the 7 letters to the Churches – or the 7 lamp-stands as they are called there – only two churches had no issue of compromise: 2:7-13 Smyrna – The Satanically persecuted church. 3:7-13 Philadelphia – The un-influential but ENDURING church.

In other words, the 2 Witnesses – I believe are the Church still preaching the Gospel of justification by faith in Christ’s finished work on Calvary alone – and living lives changed by the Spirit: The uncompromised preaching of the Word, and uncompromised lives lived in the power of the Holy Spirit as opposed to the culture of the World.

In truth, nothing more vexes and invites the world’s wrath than the exclusive claims of the Gospel of salvation by the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross ALONE, and lives lived by the power of the Spirit while rejecting the values of this world in living unto Christ instead of fame, money and pleasure. These are the two most stinging rebukes to this present world system and inflict the most discomfort on all who reject them. Hence, they invite the most virulent wrath of the World.

That fire pours from the Witness’s mouths is figurative, just like the sword in Jesus’ mouth in 1:16, or the fire, smoke and sulfur that came out of the mouths of the demonic hoards in ch. 9. And it is nothing less than the Church having the authority to announce what is sin as God declares it, and the certain coming of final judgment upon that sin. Those who reject the warning will suffer death apart from Christ as a result. It is akin to 2 Cor. 2:15-16 “For we (the Church and the Gospel we preach)are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?”

In shutting up the heavens – We see that the Church cannot bless sin but is duty bound to announce God’s opposition to it. No rain: Speaks to the fact that we cannot pronounce blessing on anything God’s Word calls sin. We cannot approve the fallen World’s morality. We take seriously God’s Word when it says “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.” Isa. 5:20

(7-10) How the world will rejoice when it imagines the Church of Jesus Christ is no more. But that delusion will not last long. Every time some dictator or Gospel resistant power has thought it has persecuted the Church out of existence, it has risen again and again against all odds – supernaturally. And it will be so up to the very end.

What then are we to take away from all of this?
1. PERSECUTION & PERSEVERANCE. Since the coming of Jesus, some parts of the Church have suffered persecution and trampling by its enemies – but God has taken the measure of His people – and the Church will persevere, survive and thrive. Now as we grow closer to Jesus’ return, this will no doubt take on a global reality under the rise of the antiChrist. But it has in some capacity been happening throughout Church history in various parts of the world. One thinks immediately of China or other oppressive governments, and even regionally – like some of the new legislative restrictions in California. And of course, this dynamic also applies personally. Believer, God has taken your measure. You might well suffer severely in the breakdown of your body and opposition in life of all kinds which the Enemy will attempt to capitalize on to threaten your spiritual life as well. But He will keep you! He has taken your measure. As Paul noted in 2 Cor. 4:7-18. “But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you. 13 Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, 14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. 15 For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. 16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
2. GOSPEL & HOLINESS. The call to the church in every age and under all circumstances is the 2-fold call to remain uncompromising on Biblical truth – especially the Gospel of grace in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the Cross, and uncompromising on lives lived seeking out the holiness of God rather than capitulating to the World’s or the Culture’s morality and standards. Sin is what He calls sin, and righteousness is only what He calls righteousness. Those don’t change with time, trends, culture or personal opinion.
3. SUPERNATURAL VICTORY. Even in those times and places when it seems the World has extinguished the light of the Gospel God has always raised it up again. And this will be true no matter how dark the coming days may be.
I recently watched a documentary on the wild account of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the brand of mysticism he brought to Antelope Oregon in the 1980’s. Buying 65,000 acres in Oregon they sought to establish an entire city there based on the furthest thing from Biblical Christianity you can get. After raids and deportations and arrests for attempted murder and a host of other crimes, the compound was abandoned. Only to be purchased a few years later by a wealthy benefactor who then donated the property to Young Life. And in the place where they once sought to extinguish Christ – lives are being brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus every day.

And that is how the history of this present world system will end. Though the Church will undergo persecutions and attempts to put out the light of the Gospel in every quarter, Christ will keep His Bride. There will always be those who in the face of all persecution continue to preach the Gospel and live for Jesus rather than for themselves and this present world even unto death. And one day, when it seems as though the Church has been extinguished altogether, it will rise by the power of the Spirit and the entire world system will give way to Jesus’ rule reign for ever and ever. It is only our 42 months.

In the words once again at the end of this marvelous book: Even so, come quickly Lord Jesus.