Cosmic Conflict (Revelation 12-14)

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Well, good morning. Go ahead, grab your Bibles, open up to Revelation 12. Revelation 12 will be hitting 12, 13, and 14 this morning as your turn in there. Question for you history buffs out there: what caused World War One? Some of you are getting it. Excellent. All right, I can hear it being muttered out there, the assassination of the Austro Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Serbian nationalists associated with a little terror group known as the Black Hand. Why, we might ask, did they assassinate him? It’s because they had designs on Bosnia Herzegovina, which, at that time, Austria and Hungary ruled, and so that’s what was going on. Although, when I tell you that, you kind of may be thinking yourself, okay, that would explain war between the Austro-Hungarian empire and Serbia. What’s the deal, though, with Russia and Germany and France and Britain, which are probably the countries we think of when we think of World War One? And so you can start to see already the causes are probably a little bit deeper. There are these military alliances. Of course, Russia comes in on the side of Serbia immediately, which draws Germany into the War. Germany marches through Belgium into France. And so all of a sudden, France and Britain are in the war as well. Although even then, it’s not just these military alliances but it’s the fact that this continent was like a powder keg. It was ready for war because of rising nationalism and militarism and growing imperialism, which means these countries have been stepping on each other’s toes all over the world as they were trying to carve up what they saw as their colonies. You get the idea the surface explanation isn’t wrong. That’s what happened. They assassinated this guy. It’s just not sufficient. There’s more going on multiple layers of causation, and that’s what we have here as well, in Revelation, because we’re actually going over the same territory that we went over last week, like chapter 12 is just chapter 11 again, except we’re going deeper. We’re peeling back the layers like an onion, or getting a behind-the-scenes tour of what’s happening, especially in the heavenlies, the cosmic conflict that is underneath all of this, because you can see what’s going on in Revelation. Why is Revelation written in the first place? Even it’s because people are persecuting Christians, and that’s not wrong. It’s just not sufficient. There’s so much more going on, like what is driving this hostility toward the church, and what are the systems of thought that are creating this enmity? And is there a spiritual reality behind it all that we sometimes ignore? Three long scenes show us what’s really going on. This is, by the way, the longest chunk of text we’re going to hit in this series. So, you know, buckle up for that and whatnot. The good news, though, is, even though it’s three long scenes, three full chapters, they’re all gonna drive us to a single and simple reality that this is a time for choosing. It is a time for choosing. Of course, it is, by the way, because this is about war, and war is always a time for choosing. So let’s look at these three scenes, and we’ll kind of build to the choices as we go. But three choices that we’re going to make choose your side. First of all, choose your side in the war chapter 12. Let me read chapter 12 for us. A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of 12 stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth, and another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous Red Dragon with seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns on its heads, its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born, she gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God into his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 12 160 days. Then, war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say, now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah for the accuser of our brothers and sisters who accuses them before our God, day and night, has been hurled down, they triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice you heavens and you who dwell in them, but woe to the. Earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you. He is filled with fury because he knows that his time is short. When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. Woman was given the two wings of a great eagle so that she might fly to the place prepared for her in the wilderness where she would be taken care of for a time, times and half a time, out of the serpent’s reach. Then, from his mouth, the serpent spewed water like a river to overtake the woman and sweep her away with a torrent. But the earth helped the woman by opening its mouth and swallowing the river that the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. Then, the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring, those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. There are not many more vulnerable than a pregnant woman giving birth. She is, needless to say, a bit preoccupied, already unable to flee when danger comes and after giving birth, really, really weak, like not ready for a fight. And of course, the baby is about as helpless as you can imagine, as well. At the same time, there’s not much more threatening that we could imagine than a dragon, especially a dragon with seven heads and 10 horns. So you’re looking at this thinking, yep, the dragon’s gonna win, like he’s gonna devour that baby for sure, which is pretty serious because this baby, of course, is humanity’s last best hope for salvation. So that’s the drama of this scene, like all that’s going on right there. The drama of this sign, as John calls it here, a sign, meaning it symbolizes or signifies something greater that is spiritually significant; not the first time in Scripture, by the way, that a pregnant woman has been a sign like this. Isaiah chapter seven, that most of us, you know, at least think about every Christmas season, Advent season, you know, we read the Lord himself will give you a sign. The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and he’s to be called Emmanuel. So we’ve got this same sign here of a woman giving birth and honestly giving birth to Emmanuel. It’s quite clear, as we keep reading now, who is this woman? She is not named, of course, and she is almost certainly not an individual because she is this sign. I mean, she’s clothed with the sun, so right there, thinking we’re probably in symbolism at this point, and she’s royal based on all this. I mean, she got the crown on her head and whatnot. So this is not Mary, even though, yes, this woman gives birth to Jesus, maybe it includes Mary. But I think what we’re talking about here really is the Messianic community, like the people of God. And we know that, of course, because this woman actually straddles both sides of Jesus, right, gives birth to Jesus, and then is still there after Jesus ascends into glory. So I think this is the people of God here, pictured as a woman. Not unusual happens throughout Scripture because both in Hebrew and in Greek, the word for church is female, and so almost always pictured as a woman. What’s interesting here, too, though, is that this woman giving birth fulfills the first great promise of God. I mean, she gives a loud cry because childbirth is painful. Childbirth is painful because Adam and Eve sinned. And when God cursed Eve, this is one of the things he said, right, childbirth is going to hurt. And then, almost in the very next verse, he says, but by the way, snake, this the dragon. By the way, is the snake. He gets called that ancient serpent in verse nine, right? So, by the way, is he cursing the serpent? Then he says, Your seed is going to get crushed by her seed. And here he is, the snake Crusher has arrived on the scene. So all this is coming together in this sign of the woman. I actually love verse three, by the way, because in verse one, a great sign appeared in heaven. And then verse three, there’s another sign. You’re like, dude, is that dragon? Nope, nope. Not great. Not a great sign at all. Just a tiny little sign, okay, just another sign. This red dragon. It is the reminders we get this dragon, which, of course, is a mythical creature that we do not war, we know, not battle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers and the authorities and the powers of darkness. That’s who we have here. This dragon, again, it’s Satan. That’s who we’re talking about here is the one who is trying to usurp God’s rule. That’s why he’s got seven heads. That’s the perfect number, symbolizing perfect power, right? And then 10 horns. Horn is always a sign of strength. So it’s this rule and strength that belong to God alone, and he’s pretending. And this dragon that is now ready to eat the promised seed, the Messiah, God’s king. And now this makes me think immediately, of course, the many satans who have come. I mean, John himself said, right, there been many antichrists already. We have many antichrists in this scene. I mean, I think of Herod, for example. Like a literal moment when Jesus is born, physically. He is there, ready to devour God’s promised King, and so he slaughters the baby boys of Bethlehem, hoping to devour that child. Of course, he is thwarted. I think of Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness in Matthew four. It’s the same thing. He’s trying to devour him spiritually if he possibly can. And so it’s it’s always happening. But, of course, he never wins. We read it. It’s quite quick, right? So, she gives birth to a son, this king, quoting Psalm 2. And then it says, and her child was snatched up to his God, snatched up to God and to his throne like he’s just gone like that, which is really interesting. Jesus’s life and his death and his resurrection, which, you know, are kind of big important topics in Scripture, it’s all just glossed over, like doesn’t even get a footnote or anything like that. It’s just gone the whole point, of course. We skip right to his ascension to show that Jesus is beyond Satan’s reach, and that’s important for us because it so often looks like Satan is winning in this life. And not only that, (and tell me you haven’t felt this way before), sometimes it looks like God is losing, and you’re like, Well, yeah, that’s just the flip side. But no, no, no, that’s not what I mean. I mean, sometimes it looks like God has picked a losing strategy. You got a dragon, and you got a baby. Which one are you betting on? And then that baby grows up and says things like, if somebody slaps you, turn it off the other cheek. You should love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, bless those who insult you, and you’re like, that’s a losing strategy. That just means we’re gonna get beaten up. We’re just gonna get trampled all our days. It looks like Satan is winning, but it is never true. And that’s that reminder he just snatched up no chance Satan could ever reach Him. So what does Satan do, though? And is not great news for us. He turns his attention to the woman, again, God’s people at this point, clearly including the New Testament, people of God, because we’re on the other side of Jesus. So this is the church here in both ages. And notice, by the way, the woman fled into the wilderness. So this can be taken care of for 12 160 days. We talked about this last time, right? 1260, 42 or 4212 6012, 6042, y’all remember the chiasm? You got this down perfectly. I know no questions or anything like that. We’re talking about the exact same period, of course. And this is why I think it is the whole church age, because it begins right after the ascension of Jesus, Satan begins to persecute this woman. So that’s why I said last week, I think we are talking about the whole Church Age. Here it is again, the woman is taken to the wilderness. Why the wilderness? Partly because that’s the place of testing, like Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, of course, but more so, I think, because it reminds us that Jesus is the true and better Moses, who is leading us into the new Exodus. And the exodus is the paradigm here because what happens in the Exodus, God delivers his people out of Egypt, then they’re in the wilderness for a long time, and then they’re in the Promised Land. And what has happened to us with Jesus’s life, death and resurrection, He has delivered us from death and from sin. But we’re not in the Promised Land. Yet we are not in glory, right? We gotta get to Revelation 21 before we get there. We’re in the wilderness. We’re in that time between so here we are in the wilderness. This is you and me being described right here. And what is God doing in this time in the wilderness? What he always does in the wilderness, protecting and preserving his people. You hungry, here’s manna from heaven. Here’s some quail. You need water. Smack the rock. Okay? Water will come out. I think of Elijah when he flees to the wilderness and God sends ravens to bring him food, like this is what God does in the wilderness. Then we get to verse seven, and this will be important that we understand this. Verse seven is a second pass through the same material. Okay, so this is not a new scene here. This is a second pass through the same content, except the camera is going to kind of look in different spots. Okay, so we had a lot of attention paid the woman in particular. Now we’re kind of like zooming into heaven instead. And so we see Michael, who shows up, by the way, because he’s there doing battle against Satan In Daniel we saw already. So there’s Michael again. He defeats Satan and cast him out of heaven. And this is the one time today where I’m gonna, like, blow your minds and be like, I never thought of that. But of course, it’s true, until Jesus’s death and resurrection, Satan was still in heaven. You know this because you’ve read the book of Job, for example, And God’s like talking to all the angels and. The Satan is there. You see it in Zechariah three, same idea, and Satan’s there to accuse Joshua, the High Priestess in heaven until this moment, until Christ’s death and resurrection. Because there, like Colossians, two, tells us, He disarmed the powers and made a public, public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. And so it’s no surprise then that at this moment, celebration breaks out in heaven as Satan is cast out, the war has actually been won at this point. But it’s not the end. So this is not the song that we sing at the end. That’s quite clear, because it says in verse 12, you know, he’s filled with fury because he knows that his time is short, short from a prophetic standpoint, by the way, which could mean quite long for us, like couple 1000 years. But his time is short, he’s already lost, so the fatal blow has already been dealt. And so that’s why he’s angry, and that’s why he keeps attacking us. But the good news is that the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been hurled down. Of course, he has, of course, the accuser isn’t there anymore, because what can he possibly accuse us of? At this point, Jesus has saved us, so there is no longer any ground of accusation. Romans, 81 therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ, Jesus. And then the rest of Romans, eight just develops the majesty of that truth. And so we get near the end of that chapter, when we read things like, who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies, who, then is the one who condemns, no one. And we get the, you know, these great questions, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ and and Paul lists all these things. And it’s things like famine and persecution and the sword, you know, like what the dragons doing to us. And in fact, Paul even seems to acknowledge that, because he says, right after who’s going to separate us from the love of Christ? And he’s like, we are being led like lambs to the slaughter for your sake all day long. Yep, Revelation, right? We’re getting killed for your sake all day long. And then Paul says, in all this, we are more than conquerors in Christ. So Romans eight is just revelation, by the way. Okay, now you know how to read Romans eight for the rest of your life, or probably more likely, now you know how to read Revelation for the rest of your life. Just go back to Romans eight. This is exactly what we see here, even in these verses, we Christ has triumphed by his blood, and so we triumph over Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, by our faithful witness to Christ, even to the point of death, they did not love their lives so much as so as to shrink from death. And of course, all that means is that we love Jesus more than we love our physical lives. And why would we not? Of course, because to live is Christ and to die is gain. So to love Jesus more than we love our lives is to know that God is holy and powerful and wise and good and loving and merciful. And so we know that God will vindicate his people and raise them in the end. And so that means we know that it is better to die with Jesus clinging to the truths of the gospel than it is to live denying him.
And that’s why we can rejoice even while being persecuted, and frankly, if you’re ever experiencing persecution, I truly hope you rejoice in this. Just remember that that’s proving that Satan’s Time is short. The whole reason we’re being persecuted is because Satan is throwing a temper tantrum because he already lost. So when you get persecuted. You don’t think, oh no, maybe Satan’s winning. You think he knows he lost. That’s why it’s happening, and that is cause for rejoicing. But again, he didn’t get the child, so he goes after the woman, starting in verse 13, right? Same, same story, just expanding on verse six. Here, God raises her up on eagle’s wings. That makes us think of the Exodus again, of course, Exodus 19, when God is establishing His covenant at Sinai, and he says, I’m the Lord who brought you out of Egypt on eagle’s wings. So that’s what’s happening here. It’s God’s faithful protection. Again, the dragon goes after her, and he spews water. And in Revelation, when something comes out of your mouth, it is words, right, not on a literal sword, not literal fire, not literal water. It is words. And of course, it is because this is what Satan does. He deceives. We already saw that verse nine, who leads the whole world astray. And so here is his deceit. It’s the. Seat we read in the letters, if you were here for our series last summer, it’s the false prophetess Jezebel. It’s the Nicolaitan heresy, all these things. And of course, it’s the ever-present danger of heresy in every age, in every place. But the good news, of course, is that the dragon cannot triumph over the church the woman, right? And so that is the body of Christ, conceived as a whole. The gates of hell shall not prevail against God’s church. That’s the really good news. The bad news is that means that then Satan goes after the individuals that make up the church instead her offspring, right? And he can certainly kill us. And so here we are being preserved through the dragon’s attacks, right? We’re not taken off Earth where we’re being preserved through this time of testing. We are at war. We are at war. That means we cannot remain neutral. When I see that really clear, really clearly in the next chapter. We have to choose a side, and it should be such an easy choice, like, do you want triumph or defeat? Tough call, right? But that’s why Satan’s deceit matters so much, because that is an easy choice, and it gets made cloudy when Satan tries to woo our hearts away from the Lord. And how does he do it? By trying to flip that by promising us false triumph, false victory in a short-term pleasure. And so what do we get at the end of this chapter? Of course, we get the emphasis on keeping God’s commands, right? He’s attacking the individuals, those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus. It’s like the parable Jesus tells of building your house on the rock. And what is the rock? It’s not just the word of God, but it’s putting into practice God’s word. And so the question we have to ask as we close this chapter is, are you? Are you keeping God’s word? And most of us in this room would go, I’m trying, right? So where you are not keeping God’s word. How is Satan deceiving you? What is he promising you that you think actually, that sounds better than eternal glory and eternal triumph, because we are being deceived. That’s why obey. Obey. And what does it mean to obey? It just means you’re choosing your side, right? That’s my king. I’m going with him. Imma, listen to him. We choose your side. Second scene, second choice. Choose your God. Let me read chapter 13 for us. The Dragons stood on the shore of the sea, and I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had 10 horns and seven heads with 10 crowns on its horns and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leper, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, Who is like the beast, who can wage war against it? The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority. For 42 months, it opened its mouth to blaspheme God and to slander His name and His dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them, and was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Whoever has ears, let them hear. If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity, they will go if anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword, they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people. Then, I saw a second beast coming out of the earth. Had two horns like a lamb, but it spoke like a dragon. It exercised all the authority of the first beef beast on its behalf and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast whose fatal wound had been healed and performed great signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to the earth in full view of the people because of the signs, it was given power to perform on behalf of the first beast, it deceived the inhabitants of the earth. It ordered them to set up an image in honor of the beast who was wounded by the sword and yet lived the second beast. Was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom with the person who has insight to calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number. Is 666, all right, I once was driving behind a BMW. We pulled up next to it at a stoplight, and I was not paying much attention to it, but kind of looking at it, and it was like, that’s not a BMW. All of a sudden, occurred to me that this was, I don’t remember what it was like a civic, or something like that. Something like that, where they just had, like, popped off the Hyundai thing and then put a little BMW thing on it instead, like, I think it still said Civic, even I was like, Who are you fooling exactly, someone obviously wouldn’t have done it. It was a counterfeit. Was the point I mentioned that because counterfeit is the keyword for chapter 13. Okay, get nothing else from 13. Get counterfeit because the first beast who comes out of the sea is a counterfeit Christ. He is an image of the dragon, of course, with all the crowns and the horns and all that stuff, in the same way that Jesus images God, the Father for us, Hebrews one. He’s the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, and so we get the image of the dragon. Of course, the the difference between Jesus and this beast is that the beast is well, Beastly, whereas Christ is beautiful, like Jesus will see, he’s given names, but they’re blasphemous names. Jesus has names written on him like Faithful and True King of Kings and Lord of lords, not this beast. Do you notice that he doesn’t just counterfeit Christ, but he counterfeits Christ’s resurrection as well? Verse three, right? He’s got this wound that seemed to be fatal, so to counterfeit resurrection because he didn’t actually die, it just looked like maybe he should have died and then the wound was healed. So who is this beast? Well, you look at all of these things and these the the details that people get bogged down in Revelation, let’s figure out what the bearer’s feet are. What is it? It’s a combination of the beasts of Daniel seven. So it’s bringing them all together, right? That’s what this is. Now, the beasts in Daniel seven all quite clearly represent worldly kingdoms that were coming. So we got in our head, you know, things like Babylon and Persia and Greece and Rome. Of course, Rome, at this point, is what we’re thinking of. That’s so that’s what the beast is. Here it is. This, this combination of these evil worldly kingdoms all brought together. Now, in Daniel, these kingdoms are all about state-sponsored persecution, like that’s a huge chunk of what the book of Daniel is about. That’s why Daniel gets tossed in a lion’s den. That’s why Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego go through the fire, all that kind of stuff. So what we’re likely dealing with here, then in this first beast, is state power being used against God’s people, state power. We’re talking about a demonized state. In other words, now, if you lived in western Turkey in the first century, what would you think of
Rome? That’s the beast, right? This worldly kingdom that is persecuting you at this point. And that’s not wrong. That is what this beast is. If you were living today in a place like China or North Korea or Iran, what would you think this would be, China or North Korea or Iran? And that’s not wrong, right? We had the preterist school of thought. We got the idealist school of thought, meaning it’s like, so that was back then. Happens all the time. And then there’s the futurist, like, there’s also going to be some climactic final Kingdom where all of these certainly come together. We can see that, by the way, in Second Thessalonians, so Paul kind of walks through the same thing, except instead of talking about a beast, he talks about a man of lawlessness. Listen to what he says. Second, Thessalonians, two that day, the day of the Lord will not come until the man of lawlessness is revealed. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he’s taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow. So you get that idea. There’s already these lawless powers at work. They’re already these like mini beasts at work. And then there’s gonna be one coming in the end, and that is the one that Jesus will overthrow. Finally, what’s most shocking to me, though, about this beast is not what a beastly beast it is. It’s the fact that people are drawn to the beast. They’re fascinated by the beast, and they worship the dragon. And then, as a result, worship the beast, by the way, in the same way that we worship the Father. And as a result, worship the Son as well. Still, the counterfeit Did you notice, by the way, that it’s a counterfeit church, because there are people from every tribe, people, language a nation just like that great multitude in heaven singing around the throne. So here we have a counterfeit church offering counterfeit praise. Robert read for us Exodus 15 earlier, and this sounds like they’re misquoting Exodus 1511 right? Who among the gods is like you, Lord, who is like you? Majestic. And holiness, awesome and glory working wonders. And they’re going, who is like the beast? So the answer to their question, the question Moses asked in Exodus 15, their answer is, well, actually, the beast kind of is, why? Why would you be drawn to something as grotesque as this? And the answer, of course, is that, that it’s because they’re drawn to power. They’re drawn to power. They want to be on the winning side. Wanna make sure they hit their wagon to the right star. And let’s not kid ourselves. That’s true with the church, too. Always has been. Why? Because we’re being deceived, by the way, by the dragon. That’s why you think of how quickly the Church of Jesus Christ went from being willing to die for the cause of Christ to being willing to kill for the cause of Christ. That’s satanic, is what that is, that’s being drawn away by the beast. And this is important for us because our culture, 21st-century America, is obsessed with power. We don’t like a losing strategy. There are people who are claiming the mantle of Christ, who are talking about the fact that we can’t afford to be like Christ. We can’t be nice the way Jesus was any longer because the stakes are too high. And you know what happens to nice people? They get crucified, they get nailed to two blocks of wood on a hill outside Jerusalem. You right? It’s a deceitful message, but it is a seductive message as well, and that’s why we have to go back to keeping the Lord’s commands. And of course, remembering that Jesus is losing strategy worked out. All right, yeah, they get crucified by Rome. Guess who wins in the end? We know the answer. That’s why we’re in Revelation. So we go on keeping the Lord’s commands. This is verse 10, the very last sentence before the break there. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people. What does that word patient mean? By the way, it doesn’t mean you smile in traffic. It means you suffer. Well, the root word Patti means suffering. We are a long-suffering people. That’s patient endurance, and we are faithful, meaning we imitate the Lord we love, and not the world that crucified Him, even when that involves sacrifice, because that’s how Jesus won us, and even more so, given the nature of the beast, because, of course, the beast is promising all this, but it’s giving its people false hope because the beast can’t actually rise from the dead. The Beast can’t actually triumph over the Lamb who was slain, and the Beast also does not love you. Kyle talked about this a few weeks back, right? You worship demons. Guess what happens? They devour you, and that’s what we see here too. This is why we go to war against the beast and the Beast in our own hearts. This is why we go to war against our idols, not little gold statues that we have hidden in cupboards, but our wrong desires and our false hopes, whatever that looks like. Maybe it’s power, maybe it’s pleasure, maybe it’s pesos. You take your pick, right? The thing about them is that they work briefly, and that’s why they’re seductive. I just read recently a pastor who was counseling a woman so she’d come to Christ out of a lifestyle of sexual immorality, and she couldn’t defeat it in her life, she kept going back right like a dog to its vomit. She kept falling into it. She was talking to her pastor, and she was like, like, how can I be so stupid that I keep doing this over and over again? And he said, You’re not as stupid as you think. Although, yes, sin makes us stupid. Sure he’s like, you’re not as stupid as you think. The problem is that sex works, which caught her off guard, by the way. Now what you’re expecting the pastor to say right there, but of course, it does, briefly, for a moment, it gave her the intimacy she craved, that feeling of lovability. The problem, of course, that it’s gone an instant and devours a little bit of your soul in the process. And that’s what we have to keep in mind. This is counterfeit, which means it’s temporary, right? In the end, this power, the power of the state, even opposed to God, it collapses. Rome fell. No one thought that was going to happen when this book was written. Rome. They fell, and so will all other kingdoms. We saw this already. The great city is knocked down in the great earthquake. So choose your god wisely. Choose the one that wins in the end. But notice you do have to choose in the end, all inhabitants, verse nine or sorry, verse eight. All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast, all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We are all going to worship in the end. We’ll either worship the beast, or we will worship the Lamb of God if our names have been written in the Book of Life since before creation, which, by the way, if you’re looking at the NIV, it’s got a little footnote for verse eight, and the footnote is probably the better translation there. But before creation, even God knew those who were his and wrote our names in the book of life. Both are true. The lamb was also slain before the creation of the world as well, because God’s whole plan of salvation had been decreed even before creation. In fact, that’s really important because God’s sovereignty is emphasized throughout this section. Did you notice back in verse five and verse seven, the repetition of the phrase was given in the in the original? It actually shows up twice in verse five, beast was given a mouth and then a beast was given authority to exercise, and then in verse seven, you can see it there shows up twice as well. So the big question then is, if we get this passive verb here was given, given by whom? Linguists have a word for this passive tense. They call it the divine passive because every time it shows up the New Testament, it’s God. God is the one giving the beast this authority for a time, in the same way that God gave Satan permission to harass Job for a time. God is in control. And then you get to verse 10, this quote from Jeremiah, and you’re like, hang on, if you’re to go into captivity, into captivity, you’re gonna go if you’re gonna be killed by the sword, you’re gonna be killed by the sword. Why? God’s in control. God is in control. He has ordained all things from eternity past. And I don’t know about you, but the fact that there is this ordained distress brings some measure of comfort to me. I don’t always love what God has ordained for my life and the lives of the people I love, but I trust the one who ordained it, and I know where it goes in the end. Then the second beast comes out, this one from the earth instead of the sea. This is the counterfeit Holy Spirit, by the way, which means we have a counterfeit Trinity, an unholy trinity. How do I know it’s the spirit that we’re mimicking here? Well, this one’s working signs and wonders like the signs and wonders that we see the Spirit work through the apostles in the book of Acts after Pentecost and in the farewell Discourse, Jesus says, I send you another comforter, right? And he’s going to lead you into all truth. Well, this one leads people into all error and into false worship in the same way that the spirit has this like floodlight ministry, directing our worship to Christ and Christ’s father. In other words, we had a corrupt, demonized state with the first beast, we have a corrupt, demonized religion with a second beast, which often happens, of course, in these authoritarian types of regimes. Again, we think of the Imperial cult that was happening in western Turkey. That’s where the persecution was coming from in this time, you think of what happens when Hitler takes over the German church, for example, all this stuff. So we got to beware of propaganda, propaganda, right? Deceit, always, not just political propaganda, but religious propaganda, all sorts of misdirection. And how do we do that? You steep your minds in the truth. That’s how you go, nope. That’s fake. I know it because I know what the truth actually is. By the way, this idea of a demonized religion is still true in a post-religious culture. What performs miraculous signs and wonders Today, technology, technology which is quite clearly demonic at points. Of course, you think of nuclear warfare. You think of the stupid devices we carry around in our pockets that have been used for such evil in so many ways. Some good, sure, plenty of bad, always with technology, right? It’s a mixed bag. But let’s get apocalyptic. Isn’t just my usual rant against your kids shouldn’t have smartphones, by the way, your kids shouldn’t have smartphones. Okay? I was reading some stuff about Tiktok just yesterday, like we’re gonna do a series about how demonic Tiktok is soon, and what it’s doing to your kids. I don’t often invite you to take your phones out. If you wanna take your phones out and delete Tiktok right now, do it. This is your pastor with all the authority I have, which ain’t much, but there’s some saying you should not have this on your phone. Things and you’re laughing and it’s not funny. I was joking with Ivan last night. I said I’m gonna tell people it’s the mark of the beast, because I knew I’ll be like, well, then I gotta delete it. It’s not the mark of the beast. Okay, you should still delete it. But let’s get apocalyptic here with technology for a moment. Okay, so there was an interview with somebody, wish I could remember, who didn’t pay attention at the time, and then it struck me later as I was prepping this sermon with a guy who was talking about AI, and he’s saying, You know what we’re doing with AI, aren’t you? We’re creating God. There you go, signs and wonders, demonic technology, some of it, at least. Well, what does this second beast do? It makes a statue. Hopefully, you’re thinking of the Nebuchadnezzar statue in Daniel chapter two, which breathes life into this image, an image of God that has life breathed into it. Y’all in Genesis, right? In your minds, that’s Adam, right? When the Spirit of God comes, the breath of God comes in, Adam, and he comes to life. So we get a counterfeit creation here. But then, just like that Nebuchadnezzar thing, this image kills those who refuse to worship it. This should encourage us, by the way, why Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? That’s why we’ve been through this before we will get through it again. Our God will deliver us through the fire. And if not, he is still good, and we will still worship him. Of course, he wins in the end. And of course, this beast then exercises control through a counterfeit seal. We got that. That’s the authoritarian control you might be picturing like a yellow star in 1930s Germany. But again, think of the power of temptation that that then brings like if you were as a father. I’m thinking as a dad here, right? As a father going, I cannot buy food for my children unless I take the mark of the beast. You think of how powerful that would be, that temptation, and how much you got to love Jesus more than your lives. This is why we cannot be Switzerland. Here. We have to choose, choose your god wisely. Do you want the counterfeit and temporary, or do you want the genuine and the real, the real and the eternal? And if you’re wavering about which one of those, let me help you choose your god wisely. Look at that number, 666, and everybody wants to know what this number is. Look it’s easier than you think it is. It’s true. The Hebrews and the Greeks love to play with like numbers and letters having points. And you can maybe spell Nero Caesar in Hebrew and get to 666, but you have to spell it wrong, like nothing really works. 666, there’s three numbers like an unholy trinity. And guess what? 666, is short of perfection. It’s not 777. Why would you settle for less than perfect when you could worship the Holy Trinity? And by the way, if you like playing with numbers and letters in Greek, Jesus adds up to 888, and it’s not that he’s better than perfection because that’s like infinity plus one, nonsense, right? But it’s the week, right? Seven days like that’s where that number seven, it’s all there in Genesis, when Jesus comes, he brings the new day. He ushers us into the new creation. What we’re going to see in Revelation 21 right? That’s why we celebrate on the Lord’s Day. It’s not the first day of the week, it’s the first day, first day of the new week. So yeah, let’s choose our God wisely. Let’s worship Jesus. Lastly, I hope you didn’t have plans for lunch. By the way, we’re going to be here all day. Choose your eternity, chapter 14. And then I looked and there before me was the Lamb standing on Mount Zion, and with him, 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a sound from heaven, like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. They sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, no one could learn the song except the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered his first fruits to God and the Lamb, no lie was found in their mouths. They are blameless. And I saw another angel flying in mid air, and he had the eternal Gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth, to every nation, tribe, language and people. He said in a loud voice, Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water. Second angel followed and said, fallen. Fallen is Babylon, the great which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries. A third angel followed them in sudden a loud voice. If anyone worships the beast in its image and receives its mark on their forehead, around their hand, they too will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb, and the smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever. Forever? Do we know rest, day or night for those who worship the beast in its image, for anyone who receives the mark of its name, this calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep His commands and remain faithful to Jesus and I heard a voice from heaven say, write this, Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, yes, says the Spirit, they will rest in their labor for their deeds will follow them. I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a Son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. Then another angel came out of the temple and called in the loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is ripe. So he was seated on the clouds, swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. Another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle. Still another angel who had charge of the fire came from the altar and called a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, take your sharp sickle and gather the clusters of grape from the Earth’s vine, because its grapes are ripe. The Angel swung his sickle on the earth gathered its grapes and threw them into the great wine press of God’s wrath. They were trampled in the wine press outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horse’s bridles for a distance of 1600 stadia. If
any of you have seen the 1953 classic film, The robe, you’ll remember the climactic final scene. If you haven’t seen it, highly recommend. By the way, there’s a Roman aristocratic couple who come to know Christ and are sentenced to death as a result, because they will not worship the beast Caesar. And so they’re, at the end of the movie, their arm and arm, this husband and wife, and they’re going out to their death, and they look nervous. And then all of a sudden, the husband smiles, and he looks down at his wife, who smiles and looks back up at him, and as they’re walking, the Roman court behind them fades away, and it’s, you know, clouds and glory, like they have walked through persecution into heaven. It’s a powerful scene. It is exactly what just happened right here, the Roman court fades away, and we go through persecution, through gates of splendor, and in to Heaven itself. We know we’re in heaven, by the way, because we got the throne and the four living creatures and the elders, so we’re back in Revelation four and five, right? We’re back in that same throne room. And what happens here is fulfilling Psalm two, which we already had quoted. But you know, this is Psalm two. Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth rise up. That’s all those beasts, right? The kings of the earth rise up, and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, his Messiah, right? And then it says the Lord actually laughs. Like, what do you think is about to happen here, guys? And then we wrap up with, I have installed My King on Zion again. We’re in heaven. So we’re talking about the heavenly Zion. So it’s not Jerusalem. This is the new Jerusalem that we’re talking about. There is Jesus reigning. And we go back to the 144,000 I mentioned. There’s a lot of recapitulation between chapters seven and 14. So seven was the 144,000 here they are again in chapter 14. This is the perfect number redeemed from the whole earth. And notice that they are undefiled by the world. That’s this. The stuff about being virgins is you think of how often sex is used, especially sexual immorality, is used for our spiritual adultery. And that’s what’s being talked about now. We are at war, and so, because this is a wartime metaphor, during war, the Jewish soldiers would abstain from sex, and so that’s what’s being talked about here. But the idea is they are spiritually pure, and it’s just worth asking, as we read this how we’re doing here, like none of us, is wholly undefiled by this world. But are you killing sin, or are you letting sin kill you and again, maybe it’s sexual immorality, maybe it’s power, maybe it’s lying that gets mentioned here. But you know, are you following Jesus? That’s what we’re talking about. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. Are you following the Lamb? The good news, of course, especially for those of us who are not perfect in this area, is that our active obedience follows our passive redemption. It says that we were purchased by God, by Christ, right by the blood of the Lamb and Christ alone. Our hope is found, but we respond to redemption with repentance. That’s exactly where we head next, these three angels who give us the eternal message, meaning the message we always need to hear. And I can just sum it up really simply for you, turn, turn, turn. That’s the message. Okay, so first angel, turn from sin, right? You’re facing sin. Turn from sin and turn to God. God instead, choose the right God. The heart of sin is idolatry, exchanging the glory of the Immortal God for nothing for junk. So we turn to the Creator second turn before it’s too late, because judgment is coming. And that’s why this angel says fallen. Is Babylon the Great and you go, really, when did Babylon fall? Remember, we keep getting these previews in Revelation. Well, in two weeks, Babylon is going to fall. We’re going to see it okay in chapters 17 and 18 in particular. But that judgment is real. It hasn’t fallen, but it’s fall is certain. And so let me ask you this, are you living like the world’s kingdoms and the world’s temptations are already defeated, like what we have here, where this angel is like the leaflets they would drop in World War Two before they firebombed a city? Get out. Get out. Now, while there is still time, this place isn’t going to make it, so leave your stuff and run now. Just give you an example what this might look like when it comes the area of finances, like, are you storing up treasures here in the great city that is going to get firebombed? Or, by your generosity, are you prepping for heaven? The third angel then turned because judgment is certain and it is serious. Oh so serious, like we saw earlier that these bowls were filling up with the prayers of the saints, right? Well, here we see the cups filling up with God’s wrath. Like every one of us has a cup with our name written on it. Every time I sin little Brandon cup, another drop of God’s wrath comes into it. Every time somebody cries out against me because of how I have offended them, there was another drop in the cup of God’s wrath towards me. And guess what, all our cups are brimful and overflowing. We are in trouble. We’re gonna come back to that by the way, just hang on to that cup for now. But notice the word to church that interrupts this message. We get this call for patient endurance yet again. Why? Because we know our future is certain, and so we should respond with faithful obedience. We get the second of these seven benedictions that we’re gonna get in Revelation right here, and it encourages perseverance because we will rest from our labor, which is good because this life has been laborious. We’re enduring persecution, or we might, as Paul puts it in Galatians, grow weary of doing good. What kind of good might we grow weary doing, you know, like turning the other cheek over and over again and blessing those who curse us over and over and over again? So we get to rest from our labor, not because our deeds don’t matter, but because we know our deeds will follow us into heaven. We will receive final vindication and reward based on how we followed Christ. Yes, we are saved by grace alone, but we will be rewarded according to what we have done with that grace that is consistent in the New Testament. And then, to drive home this final vindication, we’re given the vision of these final two harvests, two destinies, two possible eternities. Choose wisely here. So Jesus is the one. You know, the white cloud seated on the cloud is one like a Son of Man with a crown of gold, like this is the vision of Daniel seven, again. So this is the Jesus, the Son of man, and he harvests his people, most likely, maybe it’s the same harvest twice, but I think this is Jesus harvesting his people, like the parable the wheat and the weeds, right? We’re the wheat. And so Jesus comes to harvest his people, to bring them home, but then the other angel harvests the wicked, and they are trampled, even as they have trampled God’s people, and these are distressing images in chapters, in verses 10 and 11 and verse 20 here about as distressing as any image in Scripture. Like even though we’ve seen the brutality, the beastliness, the wickedness of this evil regime, it’s still hard to read, and we wonder, why, like, why are they being tormented with sulfur? Sort of makes us think of of Sodom, right, and the fire that falls from heaven. Why? Why does God have to pour out His wrath? Why are they being trampled outside the city? Really, what we’re asking is, why does a good God send people to hell? That’s the question.
We gotta correct a caricature here is a lot of us, we have in our minds a contrast between heaven and hell, and so this world is kind of a proving ground to see who gets to take the escalator up and who takes the escalator down. But that is a character. You get on Bible Gateway. Type in Heaven and Hell and see how many results come up. Zero. Heaven and hell are never set in contrast in Scripture. Now, type in heaven and earth, and you need about 200 responses. That is the contrast. It’s a different story. God created heaven and earth to exist together. That’s why he was right there in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. But by our sin, we brought hell into Earth. We lit Hell’s fires, and in the process, we tore Heaven and Earth asunder. That’s why Adam and Eve got kicked out of the Garden of Eden at that moment. The rest of the Bible is about how do we bring them back together. And in Revelation, by the way, they come back together, that’s revelation 21 gonna be so good when we get there. Okay, so he’s gonna bring them back together. But you cannot have heaven where hell exists. And so, to reconcile Heaven and Earth, God has to kick hell out, and that’s maybe the key for us. Hell is not down there. Hell is out there. It’s in quarantine outside the city, which, by the way, is right there in verse 20 you can read outside the city. And that’s the picture Jesus uses. Of course, the word for hell that Jesus uses is Gehenna, which is a real place of a landfill outside Jerusalem. It was this vivid symbol of hell, because this is where the people of God had apostatized so completely that not only were they worshiping idols, they were sacrificing their children to those idols in this valley. So to defile this defiled place. The Jews made it their garbage dump, and they set the garbage on fire. It’s organic waste anyway, and the maggots are there. That’s all the images we get of hell, right? What a picture to keep the city pure. You toss the trash outside to keep heaven holy, God will toss sin outside. So hell is not a place God creates for the wicked. It is our trash and our fire. Hell is a boundary that he sets on us. Evil can go this far and no farther. It’s like a tourniquet put on the gaping wound of our sin. And for those who desire autonomy above all else, God hands them over to it. That’s Romans chapter one. The harshest judgment God can give is to give you over to your sinful desires. That is punishment enough. We will turn that into hell instantly. The only thing is, it will be outside. It will be outside. But look at the end of Revelation, just as you understand, as you’re listening, going, that sounds harsh. Still look revelation 21:25-27 on no day will it the City of God will, will its gates ever be shut? There’ll be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it. Nothing impure will ever enter it. Nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful. But only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. Do you see it? The gates are open. The glory of the nations can come. All may enter, but you ought to leave your sin outside. The doctrine of Hell is a doctrine of reconciliation, and it is an act of love, the renovation of the new heavens and the new earth for all who would come. But how? Because we’re all still holding our cup full of God’s wrath. And again, God www, it’s just his just response to our wickedness. And so the biggest choice we have as we’re holding the cup of God’s wrath is who will drink it? Choose wisely, because either you will drink it or Jesus will drink it for you, those are the only two options. Look in the Garden of Gethsemane. What does Jesus pray, Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, what cup, the cup of God’s wrath, which is poured out on him at the cross, Jesus drinks it to the dregs for us who will follow him, you have been offered refuge from God’s wrath. There’s only one place where you can flee for safety from this just wrath that we deserve. And his name is Jesus, as RC Sproul put it, the glory of the gospel is this, the one from whom we need to be saved is the one who has saved us. It is a time for choosing. I almost never give you the big idea with the last sentence of the sermon, but it’s it’s been there all along. It’s not hard to remember. You don’t even need to write it down. Choose this day whom you will serve. Choose your side, choose your God. Choose. Your eternity, but choose wisely. Let’s pray, Father, we pray that even now, you would help us to choose wisely. Many of us are here because we want to follow you already give us the strength we need to follow well, to endure, patiently and faithfully obeying your commands, because you are our King, and we love you. We know what you’ve done for us, and we want to bring you the glory you so richly deserve by offering a faithful and true testimony to your goodness and glory. But Lord, I know there are people in this room who are wavering still, some who’ve grown up in the church, some who’ve been playing church for time, some who are checking church out. God, would you help them to choose wisely now and also give them a vision of what is coming? Open their eyes and their hearts wide to see the future and then to choose triumph and not defeat, glory and not death. We ask this in Christ’s name, amen.