Let's hear from the word of the Savior that we love, Revelation chapter 12 and verses 7 through 12. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Father, I thank you for the beautiful, beautiful book of Revelation, and I pray that as I give an exposition of this book, that you would enable me to faithfully preach, and each one of us to appreciate the glory of this final capstone to your awesome word that you have given to us. May we be blessed, and may you be blessed with the responses of our heart, and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we are finally diving into the last book of the Bible, and what an amazing book it is. When we went through our series, we saw many, many ways in which this book is an amazing capstone to the whole Bible. I'll just give you three amazing features of this book. One of the amazing features is the complexity and the beauty of its structure. Now the tiny little outline that I've given on the back of your bulletins does not do this book justice. Even my bigger massive outline of the book does not because this is one of the most intricately designed structures in the entire book of the Bible and woven all through it are other beautiful mini structures. It's also amazing in how much of the Old Testament has been crammed into this little book. Beale, Carson, Van der Waal have, I think, conclusively demonstrated that there are at least 1,000 clear allusions to the Old Testament. And more recent computer analysis have shown 1,500 parallels and allusions. So the bottom line is, to understand this book fully, you really do need to be immersed in the Old Testament. There's much we can understand without that, but boy, is there a lot of the Old Testament. But it's amazing on so many other levels. It's amazing how many topics have been crammed into these 22 chapters. Topics that cover every area of life, including mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, heart issues, behavior issues, physical warfare, spiritual warfare, music, worship, angelology, demonology, grace, law, civics, you name it. You probably will find it in the book of Revelation. But today, I can only give you a bird's eye view. Actually, I'm gonna give you two overview perspectives. One's gonna be a jet airline way, way high, just a very, very brief encapsulation, then we're gonna dive down into a fast bird's eye view. Well, it won't be very fast. It's gonna be a long sermon today, but. Now the advantage of the little outline that I've given you there is it enables you to see the overall flow of the book and the dates that are involved in the main events without bogging you down into too much detail. You can see that the heart of the book is chapters 12 through 14, which shows the church's victorious advancement from the time that Jesus was born until AD 136, when Israel was scattered to the winds. So my Preterist approach is a lot different than most partial preterists, and it completely solves the conundrums that have been found in those other approaches. My interpretation takes us way beyond 8070 and does not end until Israel ends as a nation and was scattered to the four winds in 8136. That was the Bar Kokhba rebellion. where at least three eyewitness accounts say that the blood was so thick it flowed up to the horse's noses. Three eyewitness accounts. The end of that central section prophesies a continual harvest. of souls to the end of time, a worldwide harvest. And so that's really the end. I didn't put it in your outlines, but there's a double covenant structure. So all five parts of the covenant are mentioned ending with covenant succession. And then it goes through all five parts again with covenant succession at the end of the book. But it prophesies prophetically what the last section describes as having happened from eternity's perspective. Okay, the two A sections are the introduction and the conclusion, and readers hurry over those two sections to their own peril. One of the reasons I believe that there is so many different viewpoints on Revelation, and there's so many false interpretations, is that people have this tendency to just skim over these introductions and conclusions, dive into all the exciting stuff that goes on at the end. But here's the thing. John has given us very detailed instructions on how he wants us to interpret this book. So when we go over the 33 principles in the first day, we're going to get ourselves into trouble. And then he repeats many of those principles and adds a few more at the end. Both B sections deal with the church. The first B section constitutes Christ called of the first century church to be a holy church that militantly batters down all of the strongholds of Satan. That section shows to me that God has no patience with any church that wants to maintain the status quo. His command here is to conquer or be conquered, okay? Advance or you will perish. There really are no other options in God's army. And so the first B section calls the church to be the church militant, and hey, with Christ walking in the midst of the churches, that's the introduction to the first B section, with Christ walking in the midst of the candlesticks, there is no reason why we cannot fulfill the Great Commission. So that's the first B section in a nutshell. The second B section shows that the Great Commission will indeed be fulfilled as anticipated and that the nations will be converted. It's an incredibly glorious description of the advancement of the church with the last two chapters of that section looking backwards from eternity's perspective at what the church militant had accomplished in history. And basically the world that Satan tried to rob from Adam is going to be wrested out of Satan's hand by the second Adam, Jesus. Hallelujah. He is the victory. Now, the four C and D sections that are in the blue letters focus upon God's judgments on Rome and on Israel, and so this is a book of grace, but it is also a book filled with God's judgments, and you have a false view of God if you do not have both sides of God's character in your mind, and you worship God for both sides of his character. Now, we call these judgments redemptive judgments because They aren't just doing away with God's enemies, they're also preparing the elect to be harvested into the kingdom. And so judgment and grace always go side by side. So that's the big picture overview. Now let's go down to the bird's eye level and let's pick up some of the details. And we're gonna be taking the parallel points together again, just like I did right now. Now, I've already mentioned that the first 11 verses of the book give us 33 hermeneutical principles by which we can read this book accurately. And because of lack of time, I'm only going to give you a brief introduction to nine of those 33 principles, just to give you a taste. First two words are the revelation. The word revelation, the Greek word is apocalypsis, and it means unveiling something so that it can be seen very clearly. God did not intend this to be a difficult book that obscures the truth. He intended it to be an unveiling, an opening up of the truth. And so any approach to this book that makes the book very difficult and obscure is suspect. It's missed the boat. First century readers were intended to understand it. And we saw in our series, this is not a book about Cobra helicopters in Russia and China. They wouldn't have had a clue about those things. The first century readers would have known immediately what this was about, especially if they took these introductory principles seriously. But second, when the curtains are drawn aside, that's the word apocalypsis, what is the first thing that the readers see? They see Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah. He is the central vision of history. He is the central vision of the church, of the covenant, of nations, of time itself. He is the central vision of this book. Now here's the sad thing. Many of the commentaries that are out there just scare you to death because Jesus is not the central vision of their commentaries. Christ's enemies are the central vision. But that's not the way that it should be. That's really the way that the 10 spies reported to Joshua in the book of Numbers. They accurately described the giants, but their focus was wrong. Their focus was on the enemy, not on God. And so John wants you to stop being discouraged and to fix your eyes on Jesus. And so principle number two says that this is not a book designed to scare the daylights out of us by showing everything that's wrong in this world. It's a book designed to focus your attention on what Jesus is doing in history. It really is more about Christ than it is about the Antichrist, though both are mentioned, but the Antichrist really is a pawn in Christ's hands. I'll skip principle three. Fourth principle is that this book is not simply intended for experts or academics. This is a book, he says, for all of Christ's slaves, which means you and me. And sadly, many Christians have been scared off from even reading this book because of all of the bizarre things that have been inserted in here and all of the failed predictions that people have made based on misunderstandings of this book. But really, God intended this book to be for the ordinary Jane and Joe. One author said that the whole point of the images of this book was to turn it into a cartoon book that even the youngest people among us could understand to some extent. And yes, there is depth. In fact, this book can go so deep that it challenges even the academics, you know, who read it. But it also, on the surface of it, has so much that is comforting and encouraging and understanding that even a child can find benefit from it. Now I'll skip over principles four and five. The sixth principle is that this book deals with history, not just with ideas. The first verse of the book says that it speaks of, quote, things that must occur shortly. Now that phrase rules out the idealist interpretation of this book that says this is not history, this is not dealing with history, it's just dealing with general principles, general ideas that are good for all time. Now they do actually have some good applications. But this phrase shows that the whole purpose of this book is to show us something about things that will occur in time. It deals with real history. But that phrase also shows that this book is a providential history, and that is seen in the word must. Who rules history? Where does this determining must originate from? And again, the way you read a lot of commentaries, you would think Satan was in charge, or the Illuminati, or some other creaturely force, but that's not the case at all. This is history that must take place because Jesus Christ is the Lord of history. Amen? It's a book of comfort that gives us the utmost confidence in Christ's Lordship over history. Now the eighth principle can be seen in the word shortly. That word shows that the bulk of this book really deals with events that started to be fulfilled within months or even weeks of Paul, I mean, John, writing this book in early AD 66. Every section has at least the start of it beginning to happen. Now, I did in my series distinguish between the things that were going to happen shortly, and then he says earlier and later in this book, the things that would happen afterwards. There are some references to the second coming of Christ, but the vast bulk of this book is said to happen shortly, must happen shortly. There's other synonyms that are scattered throughout the book, like soon, about to, and near. And this rules out about 95% of the commentaries out there that put the vast majority of this book as something 2,000 years off into the future. That's hardly shortly, or soon, or near, or about to happen. The ninth principle comes from the second sentence in verse one, and he communicated it, sending it by his angel to his slave, John. Now, the Greek word for communicated is a very special kind of communication. It is a communication by signs or symbols, and so the new King James, more literally translated, he signified this. The word signifies means to communicate with signs, symbols, images. And some people like to mispronounce that word. He signified it, you know, to show that there are signs that are involved in this. And this book is jam-packed with symbols that symbolize something beyond the symbol. Okay, well, this means we've got to understand what that symbology means. But, and this is the next principle, which is a very, very important balance to this one I just mentioned. We also saw that in the Bible, signs that symbolize things were often, if not always, real events in history. So the Bible does not pit signs against real history. And I use the illustration of Moses striking the rock. The fact that the New Testament uses that rock that was smitten and water flowing out of it as a symbol of Christ being smitten and the Holy Spirit flowing from Him does not mean that this was a fable in the Old Testament. No, it's real history. It was a real rock in space-time history. And most of the symbols in this book are symbols that literally happened in history, like the moon turning red. It literally happened, but it was also a symbol of the lights going out for Israel. And the people at that time would have understood that because the moon was the symbol of the rulers of of Israel. Now, we're almost 2000 years removed from those symbols. So we have to get, you know, a little bit Going back trying to figure out what those symbols were it'd be similar to Every one of you knows what a donkey and an elephant is and the political cartoons of today, right? the donkey represents the Democratic Party the Elephant represents the Republican Party, but 2,000 years from now if people started reading these, you know in archaeology They read these car they wouldn't have a clue what it's talking about unless they went back to the original context And so that's what we did. We don't have time to define those symbols today, but we saw that once you understand what the symbol stood for, wow, all of them come to life and they symbolize especially what God was going to do with Israel and Rome in his judgments. And there are many other sub symbols. Principle 12 comes from the word prophecy. And there are several other indicators that the book was a covenant lawsuit. It was a covenant lawsuit against the church and against the nation of Israel and against Rome. And if it was a covenant lawsuit, then that means that it has all of the features of Old Testament prophetic literature, not the heretical apocalyptic literature of the Gnostics that so many people impose upon this book. It's a prophetic book. It is not an apocalyptic book. And if that's the case, then there is a lot of applications, since this shows us how God works with nations. Just a couple of examples. if Israel was judged by God and cast away despite the fact that Israel was in covenant with God, then we cannot say that America, you know, say it was a Christian nation, God's never going to cast us off. We'd have to say no. Any nation that violates God's covenant is in the same dangers. Likewise, we could say that if God judged Rome, which was a pagan nation who didn't know God's word, but he judged them for violating God's laws, then every pagan nation is subject to God's laws, and every pagan nation is subject to his judgments as well. So even though it's rooted in history, it does have applications that are far-reaching. Now I don't have time in today's sermon to go over all of the principles of interpretation, but when you read through this book, it's pretty obvious that John wants readers for all time to understand it and to obey it, which is actually another principle in chapter one, verse three. This is a book to be obeyed, right? He's not wanting us to just read it out of curiosity. He wants our lives to be transformed by it. And in our series, we saw the many ways that this book was transformational for every area of life. So, first 11 verses of the book tell us how to read the book, and then in case we didn't get it, the last 16 verses of the book repeats those things so that we will not miss the idea of how to read this book. Now, the first B section describes the church militant. Christ has willed to extend his kingdom through the church. Weak as the church feels itself to be when it is being persecuted, God intends to use it. Whatever happens to nations, and they will rise and they will fall, the church of Jesus Christ will never die. Why? He has promised, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. It may sustain injuries, it may become corrupted for a time, but this section guarantees that the church will never fail. Why? Well, the introduction tells us why. It tells us that Jesus Christ is in the midst of her and he is always victorious, right? Look at verses 12 through 13. It's chapter one. There I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me and having turned I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the seven lampstands was one like a son of man clothed down to the feet and girded at the chest with a golden belt. And by the way, I should point out that each one of the seven major sections of this book starts with an introduction that focuses our eyes on Christ, upon His grace, upon His victory. Now here, he's borrowing imagery from Zechariah 4, where there was a candlestick. But at its heart, it's showing us the need for the Holy Spirit to flow into our lives. The Holy Spirit is symbolized by the oil. And over and over, John tells the churches, without the Spirit, you can do nothing. Let him who has ears hear what the Spirit says to the churches. But I'm going to point out that each of these churches is not simply a local church. There were a lot more local churches than just one in each of these cities. They had several churches, and even the symbol that is being used here shows that, because it's a multiple of what was in Zachariah. In Zachariah, there was one candlestick with seven lights upon it, and here we have seven candlesticks, each of which has seven branches and seven lights on it, and so there are really 49 lights in Asia Minor. Since each light represents a local congregation and each lamp stand represents a city presbytery, We're talking about a ton of churches that are represented symbolically in chapters two through three. Now, obviously, there's a lot of instruction we can take for local churches, but it's also instruction of what presbyteries should look like and how the whole church should relate to each other covenantally. By the way, each of those letters is structured as a covenant document. We won't get into that. But the bottom line is Jesus is in the midst of these churches. He's cleaning the lamps. He's trimming the wicks. You know, he's intervening into the life of the church so that those lamps do not go out. He inspects the churches. And when he inspects the churches, what does he find? Well, he finds that some of the presbyteries are doing pretty well and other presbyteries are not doing a good job at all. And so he works with them. He brings covenant lawsuits against them. He seeks to bring them to repentance. And by the way, he was successful because we know from history that most of these presbyteries did repent and most of these presbyteries grew in holiness and grew in numbers and eventually were successful in taking over the Roman Empire. They became powerhouses of the Holy Spirit that took over the enemy empire. But every generation really needs to heed the instructions that are given to these seven churches. For example, it's very easy for a vibrant ministry to become ministry-focused instead of Christ-focused. That's exactly what happened to Ephesus in chapter 2, verses 1 through 7. There were a church that was fantastic. They had a lot of ministries going on, but they lost their first love for Jesus. On the other hand, the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia in chapter 3 are both testimonies of the fact that groups of churches can be doing so well that they don't need any rebuke from Jesus. I think that's just fantastic. It's awesome. That's something we ought to aspire to, to have Jesus be able to say to us, well done, you good and faithful servant. Each of those two churches did have trials and Jesus, who was the shepherd of those churches, he kind of helps them navigate those trials. But the point is, there's two presbyteries, entire presbyteries that were very faithful. The church of Pergamos was needing rebuke because of some moral compromises that were happening. And it reminds me of a lot of denominations in America, evangelical denominations that have tolerated evils. The church of Thyatira needed rebuke because the moderator was failing to lead his family and his wife Jezebel was destroying the church. We saw in our series that the Jezebel spirit is very much alive in modern churches. The church of Sardis in chapter 3 verses 1 through 6 had become almost dead in its zeal for the Lord, and the church of Laodicea had become lukewarm and self-sufficient. Now, there's obviously a lot of other things that he addresses in those seven presbyteries, but all of them taken together let us realize it's impossible to be the church militant unless we're endued with power from on high by the Holy Spirit. Now the second B section does exactly the same thing, but it uses different language. It begins with a powerful introduction as well, which is all of chapter 19. It shows the church to be up against the enemy enmity of Rome and Israel. The task of the church seems impossible. They know they're supposed to win the nations. That's what the Great Commission calls, but how are they going to win the nations? Well, they can't. unless they have Jesus helping them to do that. With Jesus on our side, there is no reason why we cannot fulfill the Great Commission. So take a look at the imagery in chapter 19, verses 11 through 16, because just like in the first B section, Jesus is the key. It says, I saw the heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and the one who sits on it, called Faithful and True, both judges and makes war with righteousness. Now his eyes were a flame of fire, and on his head were many diadems, having names written, besides a written name that no one knows except himself. And he was clothed with a robe that had been baptized with blood, and his name is called the Word of God, and the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white clean, followed him on white horses, and out of his mouth goes a sword, a sharp two-edged sword, so that with it he may strike the nations, and he himself will shepherd them with a rod of iron. And he himself treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And he has a name written on his robe, even on his thigh, King of kings and Lord of lords. I want you to notice that even though there are judgments that are being brought, it anticipates using the future tense that he will shepherd the nations. Well, that implies that the nations are gonna become sheep. That implies the nations will become converted, but there's a lot of spiritual warfare that needs to take place before that can happen. And chapter 19 teaches the church to rejoice in the imprecatory prayers and to not be afraid of those judgments. God uses those things to advance his kingdom. And we need to be ready to pick up the pieces when those judgments fall. We've seen this down through history. Take a look at the Black Plague that swept across Europe and Russia between 1347 and 1353. That black plague was devastating. It was horrible, and yet the Lord used that to harvest millions of souls into his kingdom. Or you can look at the plague of London, 1664 to 65. So plagues, wars, famines, locusts, drought, even horrible state tyranny, which he talks a great deal about in these books, even that is used to harvest souls into his kingdom. So don't be discouraged by the darkness that is out there. Chapter 20 shows Satan being bound in the pit in 8070, at least that's the way I take it. Some people say, no, no, no, it's an 8030, but either way that you take it, he's bound in the pit and it anticipates this process of gradually binding all demons over the course of history as the world is Christianized over time. And then chapters 21 through 22, look back on what the church militant has done, it says, it did get Christianized. I'll just give you some sample examples. 21 verse 26, and they will bring the glory and the honor of the nations into her. And in that church, there will be such antithesis that it says, there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. Eventually the church will be worldwide, will have a high degree of holiness, and at the end of the metaphorical 1,000 years even the universe will be transformed into a beautiful cosmos in which no vestige of the curse will be found. Chapter 22 verse 3 says, and there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him. So that's the trajectory of human history, a gradual reversing of the curse that happened through Adam. until finally at the second coming every vestige of the curse will be removed. This is what the hymn Joy to the World talks about, that his grace will flow far as the curse is found. And it's my belief that there will be no final apostasy. I used to believe in a final apostasy of Gog and Magog, but a few awesome scholars convinced me otherwise. So chapter 20, I can't go into all of the reasons why, but let me just give you a brief summary. why believing in a final apostasy in Revelation 20 contradicts so many scriptures. I'll just give you one example. Isaiah 2 describes the thorough conversion of all nations in the world, and it goes on to say this in verse four. They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Now, in many people's views of Revelation 20, they do learn war once again, but this guarantees that they will never, ever, ever learn war again. And there are numerous verses that guarantee that when Christ comes back, he's going to come back to a completely converted and righteous world. Martin Selbretti has a marvelous essay on Matthew 5, verse 18, that shows that heaven and earth cannot end until every jot and tittle of the law is being fulfilled in the world. And I found his essay very, very convincing in what till all is fulfilled means. It's the same interpretation that B.B. Warfield gave. So when the law is being 100% lived out in this world, there will be nothing left in God's prophetic plan to put under Christ's feet so the final event, heaven and earth being purified, can then happen. That interpretation is in perfect harmony with the eschatology of 1 Corinthians 15. Neither passage leaves any room whatsoever for a final apostasy. So the question comes, well, what on earth then? Does Gog and Magog battle? What's it about? Well, obviously, there is going to be a Gog and Magog on the earth. But here's how it will happen. That chapter means that when the final resurrection happens, the Tares will be resurrected first, as guaranteed in Matthew 1330. It's not the believers who will be resurrected first. It's the unbelievers who will be resurrected first. The non-elect who are resurrected will include Gog and Magog. Those two nations were long ago destroyed. They don't exist. There's not a single human in existence today who came from Gog and Magog. According to the Bible, they were wiped out completely. So for them to be here on earth on the final day of history, they had to be resurrected to be here. And that's exactly what the text indicates. They come up from the land, from the ground, literally, where they had been buried. And so having glorified bodies, these unbelievers are deceived by the also-released Satan to try to take over and win, but they cannot do much of anything, because before they can even connect, God judges them. He gathers the goats on His left hand, the sheep on His right. He brings this universe into its purified and eternal state of glory. And thus, Isaiah 9, verse 7 is literally correct, that as long as there is history, Christ's kingdom will continue to grow. No room there for a final apostasy either. And so the second B section is a glorious picture of what we as a church militant should be aiming for. If your target for what you are seeking to achieve is low, you're going to aim low. You're going to shoot low. You're going to hit low, right? But if God's promises grip your heart, you have a big faith, you're going to be laying up bricks and materials for the long haul. You're going to have a long-term vision. Everything that I do, I have the idea. How do I do this in a way that it's going to last beyond my lifetime into the lifetime of other people? Now, you can have the same vision by saying, my education and my children is not irrelevant. I'm going to invest in my kids. I'm going to invest in every way that I can so that they will build on my shoulders. There's other ways that you can have this long-term perspective. You can invest in ministries like biblical blueprints. that are strategically trying to have a long-term perspective. But here's the point. Revelation calls us to have a vision that is very high. All members of all nations submitting to King Jesus, just as we saw last week, was promised in the second half of Psalm 22. So, how exactly should we live and operate in a world that's filled with sin and with judgments? And that's the subject matter of the bulk of the book. Chapters 4 through 11 are the first C and D sections, and chapters 15 through 19, 10 are the second C and D sections. Now, some people, when they read those sections, they are scared to death. And they think, oh, man, they don't want to keep reading because it's so gory. It is so horrible, the judgments that are there. But there are two things that you need to keep in mind as you're reading through those that will give you faith rather than fear. The first thing you need to keep in mind is that every single one of those judgments in the C and D sections was fulfilled to A.T. And we saw that in our series on Revelation. in the years 30 through 136 AD. Second, every one of those four sections has an introduction that sets the tone for those judgments. Now, there's a very historical, logical progress in the first C and D section, and then historically moving backwards in the chiasm. So those four sections, they cover such a massive amount of material. I'm not going to be able to do it justice this morning, our bird's eye view is going to fly fairly fast. The two C sections of the book show God's judgments between 80, 30, and 70. And both sections show why Rome and Israel are such lousy saviors. Both had grown into tyrannical states. Both were in bed with each other, both were persecuting Christians, and so those two C-sections paint a rather bleak picture of civil government. By the time you are reading through those two sections, you don't trust the civil government with much of anything. Okay, for sure you don't trust the civil government to be involved in banking, condemned in those verses, or with printing money, condemned in those verses, Or with regulating commerce and farming and other industries also condemned in those verses. As you see many of the things that our own civil government has illegitimately been involved in trying to control, you realize Now wayshake, these things have been done over and over again. Mises Institute has demonstrated over and over the failed policies we are trying have been done before and have failed. Why? Because these are not God's ways of doing things. Unless a civil government is Christian and is following God's laws, It is automatically controlled by demons and is not to be trusted further than you can throw it. And so this book deals with good civics and bad civics. Now, in contrast, there is so much naivete in homeschooling. In much of classical education, they idealize Roman Republic as if it was good. This book does not. Each of the riders of the four horses of the apocalypse were demon princes who were allowed by God to possess and control the emperors of Rome. The rider of the white horse, in chapter six, verse two, controlled Hiberius. The demon rider of the red horse, in verses three through four, controlled the next emperor, Caligula, made him astonishingly corrupt. The demon rider of the green horse, of verses five through six, controlled Claudius. Now many modern people see Claudius as a very enlightened emperor who was trying to be fair, and thus verse 5 pictures him as having a hand holding scales. You know, I'm going to be fair. We're going to balance everything out, right? Interestingly, the coins minted by Claudius all had this hand on one side, horse on the other, green horse. but had this hand with these balances and Methinks he was protesting too much. Hey, I'm a balanced king. All the while, he is stealing money by mixing copper with the silver. And he got caught because he wasn't a very good mentor. And so the horses on the backside started shining through the copper and it was green horses on the other side. Anyway, in our series, I showed how every one of these emperors minted coins that were exactly like the descriptions in these first four seals. If you had change in your pocket in first century Rome, you would know immediately which emperors he's talking about as he goes through these things. Now, I didn't have space in the handout to show you the green horse and all that kind of stuff, but The fourth horse in the fourth seal of chapter 6 had two riders, and both of those demons are pictured on Nero's coins. The names are exactly the same. It portrays the first stage of Nero's reign. But here's the point. This book is about the demons who stand behind the flesh and blood. According to this book, you are naive if you think you can successfully influence or manipulate politics better than the demons can. I think they've had a whole lot more experience at it than you have. Nothing but God's grace can make civil governments good. Nothing. And that's why I never vote for a Christian, no matter how conservative that Christian is. Claudius was a conservative. He promised to bring things back to conservative ways. So was Tiberius. And yet they were controlled by demons. Now that doesn't mean Christians can't influence in government. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, they can. But keep in mind, this is the picture he paints of pagan governments. They are demonic to the core. The second C section covers parallel themes about the awfulness of demonically controlled civil governments. Chapters 17 through 18 Describe Rome and Israel persecuting the Saints just like they did in the first c-section and it paints the civil governments of both Rome and Israel again as Demonic to the core that's parallel. For example the Beast of Revelation 17 Where does he come from? He comes up out of the abyss. He's a demon. And that beast makes every emperor take on his demonic characteristics. The beast, first of all, when he came up out of the abyss, possessed Nero. And then he possessed Vespasian. And then Titus, before he was finally cast back down into hell. And the harlot who rides that beast is Israel. So even though in history, the second sea goes three years beyond the first sea, its themes are exactly parallel. And so let's look at the seductive second figure, which represents Israel. John paints Israel as a harlot who rides this scary, scary beast of Rome. How on earth did Israel get to ride Rome? Well, through international banking, we saw that the leadership of Israel powerfully influenced and directed the beast during the time of Nero. And actually, using international banking did it far earlier than Nero. But boy, was it powerfully done under Nero. Nero converted to Judaism, according to the Talmud, had a Jewish wife, filled his court with Jewish advisors, and because of that influence, Israel used Rome to try to exterminate the church. Both nations were behind the great tribulation that almost wiped out Christianity. But, there's always a but in the Revelation, but scary as it was, the book makes clear that God was in control. In chapter 18, God caused the beast to get so upset with the harlot who wrote him that the beast devoured the harlot, devoured Israel. And that was in God's outpouring of wrath. In the series, we got into all of the details such as the literal mark of the beast on the hands and on the forehead, sometimes tattooed, sometimes it was branded. But that happened from AD 70 through 74. The demonic miracles, we looked at many other historical details. I'm just trying to fly fast, give you the general contours of the book. But I do want to spend time on one of the passages that most people are extremely skeptical could have happened in the first century. It is the sixth seal in chapter 6, verses 12 through 17, and let me read that. And I saw, just when he opened the sixth seal, there was a severe earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood, and the stars of heaven fell to the earth like a fig tree drops its late figs when shaken by a strong wind, and the sky was split like a scroll being rolled up and every mountain and island was moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth and the magnates and the generals and the rich and the mighty and every slave and every free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains, and the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, because the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?" Now, in our series, we saw that every tiny detail of this was indeed perfectly fulfilled in May of AD 66, when God's wrath began to be poured out. And the text makes clear that a lot of history happened after this sixth seal. It's not the last seal. It's not the last trumpet. It's not the last bowl. A lot of people think this is the last day of history. That's absolute nonsense, even based on the seals themselves. It was simply a powerful warning of things to come. For example, it talks about a great earthquake. How great was this earthquake that happened in May of 8066? Well, in the Revelation series, I gave documentation from various science journals dealing with tsunamis, earthquakes, history, and archaeology. And we saw that this earthquake was so massive that it literally moved every landmass in the entire Mediterranean region. by several feet. They estimate the average upheaval was 6.6 meters. And in one place, the land moved upwards of 9.9 meters. 9.9 meters is 32.48 feet. It was absolutely terrifying as the earth everywhere around the Mediterranean began to rise. You start rising 32 feet, you think the end of the world is here. So tsunamis resulted from these earthquakes. What about the stars falling from the sky to the earth? No commentary whatsoever believes that it's speaking of stars as we think of stars, because they are millions of times bigger than the earth. You can't have all of these stars falling to the earth. I mean, it doesn't make sense. In Hebrew, as well as in the Greek, stars can refer to any light in the sky, and it frequently refers to meteorites. And I quoted eyewitness accounts of meteorites falling, of a sudden blackening out of the sun, of chariots in the sky, and the appearance of a huge man. They called him a beautiful man, but a scary man. in the sky, leading armies that struck terror into the hearts of the witnesses. Both Roman and Jewish eyewitnesses saw Jesus leading armies in the sky. Now, I can't get into the details, but every detail of the signs, wonders, persecutions, and the other things in these C-sections happened to Ati in the first century. We know the dates. We know the exact dates when they happened. The point is, When you're going through trials and tribulations like those first century Christians were, it would be very easy to think that all of history is out of control, that God does not control things. But Revelation is written in such a way that we become absolutely convinced that Jesus controls meteorites, plagues, fire, hail, volcanoes, poisonings of underground cisterns and other things that we looked at. Hey, when hail hits your roof, it is not an accident. It has been put there by Almighty God, and He is advancing His kingdom even through things like that. Amen? He is in control. And that's why each of the seven sections of the book begins with an introduction that shows the power and the victorious grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm going to illustrate with the introduction to the first C section. So if you turn back to chapter 4, I know we're jumping around a little bit in these C sections, but hopefully I'm doing it in a way where you see the flow and the meaning of them clearly. Chapters 4-5 are the introduction to the first C section, and in chapter 4, verse 1, God calls John and a vision up into heaven to see what's God's command center looks like. And yes, it is. God's throne is a command center. It's not just something, you know, theoretical and some ethereal something. No, God rules the universe in every detail from his throne room. Anyway, beginning at verse one, after these things, I looked and behold the door standing open in the heaven. The after these things shows that this is John's next vision, a new vision. The Greek for a door standing open is in the perfect tense, which refers to a past action. In other words, something happened prior to John's vision, prior to this book being written in AD 66 with an abiding result. So at some time in the past, the door was opened to heaven and now stands enduringly open for not just John, but all believers to enter heaven for the remainder of time. When I preached through the book, I showed how saints went to paradise in the heart of the earth prior to Christ's resurrection, and it was only after Christ's resurrection that saints went to heaven. That's when this door was opened to humans. In John 3.13, Jesus said, no one has ascended to heaven. That's an absolute statement, no one. Elijah is not an exception. They all went to paradise in the heart of the earth. Likewise, prior to Christ, no one could fill the messianic shoes. In chapter four, John witnesses the fiery stream that flows from the throne of God, the awesome power that he represents. So God's power is indisputable. Can't question that, but his power alone cannot redeem. In chapter 5, verse 1, God holds up the scroll of the Old Testament and gives the challenge to any claimant to fulfill the qualifications that were laid out in the Old Testament. The true fulfillers, Jesus alone, would be qualified to reopen the canon of Scripture and to start adding books to it, which is a big theme in Revelation, with Revelation being the final little book that is added to the big book of Scripture. We're not going to get into that today. But who is qualified to be this Messiah? The Jews had rejected Jesus, so this is the challenge. Who is your replacement that lives up to the rigid conditions of the Messiah? I think the apologetic implications of this are obvious. The Talmudists rejected Jesus, but without Jesus, there is no redemption possible for them. They sensed a need for a Messiah, so they raised up political Messiah after political Messiah and failure after failure. The last political Messiah of the Jews was Bar Kokhba, and later chapters will show how God disposed of him. So anyway, in chapter five, from God's perspective, no mere human can fulfill the demands of the book of the Old Testament. Look at chapter five, verses one through two. And I saw on the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals? Is there anyone who can open the scroll? and loose its seals by claiming to fulfill it. Verse 3 says that prior to Jesus, the answer is no. Verse 3 says no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the seal or to look at it. The Old Testament required perfection and no one was open to that perfection. And in this vision, John is deeply moved. In verse four, it says, so I wept much because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll or to look at it. So one of the elders said to me, stop weeping. Look, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has prevailed to open the scroll and its seven seals. And I looked. And behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. Then he came and took the scroll out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne." So Jesus is the only one who can claim to fulfill the Old Testament. He's the only one qualified to open the canon, to add to the Old Testament new books, which the Old Testament, by the way, prophesied the Messiah would do. He's the only one qualified to sit on the throne of the universe. And from chapter five on, Jesus rules in history and brings judgments in history and advances his kingdom through historical events. So chapters four through five are the introduction to the seven seals. If Jesus is bringing those seal judgments then we ought not to mourn as if this world is out of control. God is training his people to hate statism. You know, just like some cat trainers will sometimes stick the nose of their cat into the poop that they've pooped inside the house to train them, no, you make your messes outside, not inside. God is putting the noses of people who have put too much trust in the government saying, you're gonna fail over and over again. Learn, learn from your past lessons. As the title of Robert's book on Romans 13 words it, tyrants are not ministers of God. They are not saviors for sure. They are ministers of Satan. But in this book, Satan and demons can only go so far. Ultimately, they are pawns in God's hands. But this book is not just about what Jesus does, God uses means, he uses angels and humans to advance his cause and one of the many purposes of writing Revelation was to give the church a spiritual war manual. This book teaches us how to engage in spiritual warfare. Now obviously I can't show how that's the case chapter by chapter, but you will see God stirring up the church to pray and to call down God's fire upon his enemies. Now when the church refuses to sing God's imprecatory psalms, we can't expect imprecations to happen. God involves us as His agents, and the two c-sections give the church confidence that it can win these battles if we will be dedicated to God's cause and use God's methods. Chapter 7 is a beautiful description of the Christian Green Berets of the first century who fearlessly advance Christ's Lordship in every area of life, come what may. God protected some, and he gave others the incredible privilege of becoming martyrs. Yes, even the martyrs in this book are said to be overcomers. They didn't lose. Their lives were not wasted. Everyone who is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith. That's the promise of John in 1 John. So when you understand the structure of the book and that each section of this book has an introduction that keeps our eyes on Jesus and his victory, wow, all of a sudden the darkness does not seem so formidable. This is a powerful book that instills hope and faith and commitment to the brethren where we have each other's backs and stop fighting each other and we see the true enemy as being outside. Both these sections start with the same victorious attitude of the saints. Yes, they are facing horrendously troubled times, but chapter 15, verse 2 says, each of the saints has the victory over the beast. They already have it. And in faith, they sing in that chapter, great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Who could not fear you, O Lord, and glorify your name, because you alone are holy, because all the nations will come and do obeisance before you, because your righteous judgments have been manifested? And what do their faith-filled prayers produce? Well, they produce seven awesome bowls of judgment. OK? Now, the same is true in the first D section. If you look at chapter 8, the first six verses constitute the introduction. They're the prayers of the saints. And immediately as a result of those prayers, the seven trumpet judgments are produced. So there are clear thematic parallels between the two D sections, even though they deal with their own unique judgments. But let's read chapter 8 verses 1 through 6 just to get a little bit of a feel for how God crafted this book to make us work and pray during troubled times. When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour, and I saw the seven angels who stood before God, and seven trumpets were given to them. And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer. He was given lots of incense so that he could offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar that is before the throne. And the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints went up before God out of the angels' hands. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it at the earth. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to trumpet." Now there are several passages in Revelation and the rest of Scripture that makes a strong link between our prayers and what angels can do, can work. The angels in Daniel 9 and 10 were at warfare. Why? Because of Daniel's prayer. In Daniel 9, 22 through 23, the angel says he was sent because of the prayer. The angels in Revelation 8, they're made to wait silently until the incense goes up with the prayers of the saints. So here are these angels, they're itching to go into battle. They've got their swords and everything. Nope, gotta be silent until the prayers of the church goes up. And as soon as those prayers go up, you hear trumpet blast after trumpet blast as a regiment after regiment of angels goes into battle. And so weak as the church might feel that it is, Under persecution, if we're willing to pray according to God's will, which, by the way, does not mean guessing His decreed will, it's praying according to the Bible, His revealed will. If we're willing to pray according to His will, which includes the imprecatory Psalms, then those prayers are acceptable to God. They are just as powerful as the saints here. Why? Because they're mixed with the prayers of Christ, and the Father always hears the prayers of Christ. And again, I can't get into all of the details of the judgment portions of these two D-sections, but in the Revelation series, I gave boatloads of documentation that all of these prophesied judgments were fulfilled to a T, did indeed fall on Rome and Israel. Just to give you a hint, let's look at chapter eight. The first trumpet in verse 7 was sounded on September 8 of the Feast of Trumpets when Sestius's 12th legion came through Israel with his 35,000 soldiers. And in our series we saw that, yes, he created a lot of death and blood and fire, which is what most commentaries focus on. But I also pointed out that there was very literal, miraculous blood falling out of heaven that the historians talk about, mixed with hail and fire that fell out of heaven. We should not pit symbols against the literal. Yes, these were symbolizing the fact that God's judgments were soon to fall upon Israel and Rome, but those symbols literally happened. The second trumpet happened on September 22, when a huge asteroid streaked overhead, fell into the Mediterranean, creating a massive wave that destroyed ships, heating up the water, producing a red tide, and when it hit the ocean floor, starting a chain reaction of earth movements. The third trumpet in verses 10 through 11 happened on September 28. It, too, was a meteorite that hit the area that we now know as Lake Ram. and poisoned exactly one-third of Israel's water, just like the text right there says. Lake Ram is connected to one of three water aquifers in Israel, and the Roman historians say it was the Jordan aquifer, which is what Lake Ram is connected to. Anyway, all of these details happen. Now, I'll point out that so many commentators take these trumpets out of order. No, they are in sequence. The fourth trumpet happened on October 15. It happened in sequence after the others. There were literal signs in the heavens, just like the text says. But they symbolize something. One third of the sun being darkened, which literally happened, symbolized the fact that one third of Cestius' Roman army would be soon wiped out. Now back then, the sun was the symbol for the Roman leadership, and within a few months of this book being written, Cestius' army was indeed routed by the Jews. They had to flee in disgrace. Who on earth would have ever thought that that was possible? And then the moon. symbolized a vassal ruler back then, and one-third of the moon being darkened symbolized one-third of Herod Agrippa's Jewish army being destroyed in battle. And you can see an Agrippa coin in your handouts that symbolizes Agrippa with the moon, right? In my series on Revelation, I pointed out you do not need to pit the literal against symbolic. Literal symbols still symbolize, but they are historical events. By the way, I would point out God seems to love, I probably shouldn't go down rabbit trails, but he seems to love to put these kind of symbols in the sky and earthquakes and different things all down through even modern history. I one time did a study of about 4,000 years of history and looked at all of the major geopolitical upheavals and found that there were these amazing signs in the heaven and tornadoes and other things that happened right before that. Now, could it be coincidence? Yeah, I guess it could be coincidence, but I doubt it. Now, those are not infallible. You cannot look at signs and say, now we know what's going to happen. Only the Bible's interpretation is infallible. But it does seem that God loves to do this. Now, chapter 9 shows a massive unleashing of demons out of the abyss. And there were a lot of historical evidences and applications that we looked at. But to have millions or possibly billions of demons unleashed upon a nation is a disconcerting thing. In chapter nine, verses 13 through 21, there's another army of 100 million demons that are allowed by God to leave the Euphrates River and come to the land of Israel. Now, in the New King James, it says 200 million, but the majority text says 100 million. In any case, these demons accompanied humans and we saw that all of the pictures of these demons are the exact same pictures of the gods of these legions that they had on their standards and their shields. They worshiped demons. They were controlled by demons. And all of this can be extremely disconcerting until you realize the book of Revelation says those demons cannot step one step beyond what God allows them to go. I mean, it's God himself who unleashes those demons that were bound at the Euphrates in chapter 9, verse 15. And so for me, the message is so comforting. God is sovereign over even Satan and his hosts, and nothing can thwart God's plans. See, God wants the readers of Revelation to have faith and to stand fast. Now, there are two parallel interludes as part of Revelation's structure, and I don't have time to get into those, but they are a very important bridge, and it's beautifully woven together. But we'll move on to the introduction to the second D in chapter 15, verses two through eight, where the spiritual warfare of the church is once again tightly connected to the spiritual warfare of angels, and their prayers unleash the seven bowls. Now these go backwards from the final judgment on Israel in 136 A.D. Central section ends with that. We haven't gotten to that yet. But if you understand the historical progress in the first half, going up to the final destruction of Israel in 8136 at the pinnacle of the book and then going backwards in history, you got a general idea of what God was doing. But why was Bar Kokhba rebellion even included in the book? Why was it allowed? It ended up being far, far worse than anything that happened in AD 70. Why a further judgment? And the answer is simple. Israel did not learn from the AD 70 destruction of their capital, Jerusalem. And even though they were forbidden from entering that Jerusalem for I don't know how many hundred years, they could not go into Jerusalem. Israel continued to rage against God and against Christians and pronounce blasphemies against Jesus and continued to persecute severely the Christians. And I document the enormous persecution and the hatred that the Jews poured out upon Christians and why these bold judgments were absolutely needed. So the second D section of chapters 15 through 16 fills out the picture of the first day and shows that judgments continued to be poured out upon Israel after AD 70. We looked at the detailed fulfillments of these, I can't get into them today, but they were astounding. The Sea of Galilee was so filled with blood that it coagulated, it became an incredibly nauseating sewer. No fish survived. History tells us that every river, every spring was polluted with blood. The modern historians think this is impossible. On what basis? But anyway, they think it's impossible. Ancient witnesses said 80 million Jews died. I have no idea how many died in reality, but there's no reason to take any of the biblical details here as hyperbole. God controls the earthquakes, meteorites, water, germs, sun, fire, and all of the other events for His kingdom purposes. And none of us can die one day sooner than it's God's will for us to die. And God can make us more than conquerors in life and in death. Now, just for the sake of time, let's look at one of these bowls. It's the fifth bowl in verses 10 through 11. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom was plunged into darkness. So they gnawed their tongues because of the pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and because of their ulcers, yet they did not repent of their deeds. Wow. No matter how much God afflicts humans who are depraved, they will not repent apart from God's grace. These chapters, I think, are such a vivid example of human depravity. But let's look at the sign itself. This is a prophecy of Mount Vesuvius, which ended up being a judgment on Rome itself. Now, keep in mind that this book, contrary to what many people say, this book is not just dealing with judgments on Israel. All nations are subject to God, and it's dealing with judgments on Rome and on Israel. America is no exception. Anyway, in AD 80, there was a solar eclipse. Then the two eruptions of Mount Vesuvius with supernatural beings flying around the top of that mountain, and with the eruption completely blotting out the sun, turning Italy into deep, deep darkness. And that darkness extended out over Africa and other continents. The second eruption of that volcano is thought by scientists to have unleashed 100,000 times the thermal energy of Hiroshima-Nagasaki bombings. Scientists who have studied both the history and the deposits at Pompeii and Herculaneum say that the second blast produced a dense, rolling, ground-hugging mass of lethal gas, ash, and rock, basically a pyroclastic flow, that must have reached temperatures up to 1,830 degrees Fahrenheit. Those closer to Vesuvius would have been killed instantly, with their brains boiling, skulls exploding. Skeletal remains show bodies further out, burned to the bone in seconds. And by the way, this was prophesied also in Zechariah 14, 12, where God promised this to the Gentile soldiers who would fight against Jerusalem in AD 70. He promised. their flesh shall dissolve while they stand on their feet, their eyes shall dissolve in their sockets, and their tongues shall dissolve in their mouths." I mean, this literally happened since Titus' legion that had fought against Jerusalem just happened to be on vacation at the vacation resort in Campania and they all perished along with other Roman and Jewish dignitaries. Those closest to the volcano did not really suffer much, it was a quick death. Those further away from the pyroclastic flow were scalded badly, many dying much later after a great deal of suffering. Those even further away were scalded but did not die. But the judgments didn't stop with Mount Vesuvius. There was a massive fire that burnt down the city of Rome. And it didn't stop there. This was the year of enormous calamities upon the entire Roman Empire without exception. The Roman historian Tacitus says, Italy was prostrated by disasters either entirely novel or that recurred only after a long succession of ages. And one of those disasters he describes was a very strange disease. Within weeks or months of Vesuvius erupting, the entire empire experienced the worst disease epidemic in Rome's entire history, causing great pain and anguish, killing an estimated 10,000 people a day. And so that's a broad overview of the historical background of these C and D sections. They were all fulfilled. Even the sequences within those sections match history perfectly. But that brings us to the center of the chiasm, which is chapters 12 through 14. Now, everyone agrees that chapter 12 backs up to AD 30, to the birth of Christ. and not 30, AD BC 4, to the birth of Christ and moves forward. It's a broad overview. I believe that it moves forward to the end of Israel, AD 136, and then declares the victory of the gospel going worldwide after that. And chapter 12, as I said, is the introduction to this section and is itself formed as a chiasm with verses 10 through 11 being the heart of the book and really the key to Revelation as a whole. Revelation 12, 10 through 11. And I heard a loud voice in the heavens saying, now the salvation and the power have come, even the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, who accused them before our God day and night, and they conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not cherish their lives even up to death." Verses 10 through 11. show a victory which had been achieved in heaven and on earth. And it describes this victory in a way that might have been puzzling to those who did not have eyes to see, eyes of faith. It might seem puzzling, first of all, because it seems to onlookers as if Satan is winning and the church is about ready to get annihilated. Apart from the eyes of faith, it might have looked like anything but victory. And it might have seemed puzzling, secondly, because verses 7 through 9 attribute the victory to Michael and his angel. I mean, it is, after all, warfare in heaven. And yet verse 11 attributes this victory to the saints on earth. In fact, the Greek for they in verse 11 is an emphasized they that some versions have translated, they themselves overcame him. So it's attributing the stupendous victory of verses 7 through 9 over Satan and his angels to the weak saints on earth. How could that be? One commentary vividly describes the striking language this way. That's the puzzle in this passage. Because a decisive victory has been won, but it seems that two quite different groups of people have been involved in winning it. There is war in heaven, an alarming enough concept, Michael, the great archangel of Daniel 10, summons all his angels to fight against the dragon and his angels. But wait a minute. The song of victory, which follows this great event, gives credit to the victory, not to Michael, but to God's people on earth. They conquered him, says the loud voice from heaven, by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, because they did not love their lives unto death. So who defeated the dragon? Was it Michael or was it the martyrs? Well, in a sense, it was both. The heavenly reality of the victorious battle is umbilically joined to the earthly reality of the martyrs' deaths. What a vivid image. This commentator says, there is an umbilical cord that connects the saints on earth with the angels of heaven and empowers both to be involved in spiritual warfare. Both must be involved in spiritual warfare if we are to win. And so you've been seeing this common theme throughout the whole book. This is a training manual for spiritual warfare. Every introduction to every section shows Christ the King using weak vessels like us to advance his kingdom. And by the time you get to this section, you recognize that. So it's not the angels that empower Christians or the Christians that empower angels. It is Christ who empowers both. The umbilical cord of both is really connected to Christ. He is the source of 100 percent of their victory. Yes, verse 10 alludes to the angelic war. But what was it that was the means and the cause of the angels victory? It was Christ's salvation, Christ's power, Christ's kingdom, Christ's authority. They could not have won without those four things, and neither can we. Yes, verse 11 says that believers on earth themselves overcame, but how did they do it? By the blood of the Lamb. by the word of Christ upon their lips, by dying to themselves, living only to Christ. Ultimately, the warfare is Christ working through us, and we have seen this Christ-centered focus right from the beginning of this book through to the end. Angels could not have won this victory without Christ's prior victory in 8030. Believers could not have won this victory without Christ's shed blood conquering Satan in 8030. That's when the battle was legally won. And so the chapter as a whole shows a great battle that occurred in the heavenlies between Satan and his angels, Michael and his angels, and this somehow corresponds to the spiritual battle being waged by humans. So that's the introduction to section E. That victory enables Christians to stand against all odds. And what were the odds that stood against them? Well, there are three demonic rulers. who do everything in their power to destroy Christianity. The first demonic ruler is the dragon, Satan, who's trying to devour the remnant. And what a formidable enemy. Chapter 13 shows the second enemy, the beast, a fallen living creature who possessed Nero and made Nero think of himself as a beast, and later that demon possessed Titus to do exactly the same. The third demonic enemy is also formidable, and the second half of chapter 13 introduces us to the third formidable demonic enemy, the beast from the land, or the demon that controlled Herod Agrippa II. But the text indicates that that demon who controlled the politics of Israel also had two lesser demons symbolized by two prophetic horns of this beast that perform miracles and that prophesy. And in our series, we saw bountiful evidence that these horns controlled the only two other Jewish leaders that survived AD 70 in Israel. It was Josephus and Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. And so between the head, Agrippa, and the two horns, you have the entire leadership of post-8070 Israel that continued their severe persecution of Christians. All three of them pretended to be lambs, in other words, pretended to serve God, but were in reality breathing dragon's breath. And we saw that both Josephus and Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai performed astounding miracles, even calling down fire out of heaven prophecies that were so amazing that even the skeptics, the Emperor Vespasian and Titus, were convinced that they were prophets, okay, and followed their prophecies. Yohanan especially is credited with being the most important rabbi in modern Judaism since he single-handedly gave us what we now know of as Talmudism, a demonic religion that has created havoc in the last 2,000 years. It purports to be a lamb, to be biblical, but it has the breath of the dragon written all over it. It is occult through and through. And believe it or not, all three of those leaders taught the Jews how to worship the beast with crossed fingers. And I explained their reasoning and exactly how they did that. And yet, even though these demons and the moon whom they controlled were frightening, God was still growing his church. Chapter 14 shows how God used 144,000 who had earlier been spared in Pella. They were protected in Pella for the first half of the war. He used them as his shock troops to spread the gospel throughout the world. So let me read you chapter 14, 14 through 16. And behold, I saw a white cloud, and someone like a son of man sitting on the cloud, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time to reap has come because the harvest of the earth is dry. So the one sitting on the cloud swung his sickle upon the earth, and the earth was harvested. So this is speaking of the positive harvest of souls that would continue. It's covenant succession to those who are faithful. Verses 17 through 20 then end this section by introducing the harvest of judgment that takes us up to the Bar Kokhba rebellion that the second D section will pick up on. This final judgment was needed because Israel was so filled with demons that it would not repent. Indeed, its justification for immorality became famous. I won't go into the rabbinic justifications for gross sexual immorality that became rife between the conquest of Jerusalem in AD 70 and the Bar Kokhba rebellion, but it wouldn't take you much reading in the Talmud to discover it. It is gross. I cannot speak of it from the pulpit, but the Palestinian Talmud, which tends to be a bit more conservative, the two Talmuds, summarizes in more discreet language why over 1,000 villages were destroyed in Israel. It says, because of contention, because of witchcraft, because of fornication. Okay, that's a summary of the pervasive witchcraft that had taken over Israel during that time, and the pervasive sexual immorality that had taken over Israel. It had slid into the sewers, and when that kind of thing happens, like is beginning to happen in America, you know that judgment is near. You know it. And verse 20 says, and the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 stadia. This was precisely fulfilled in AD 136. And I want you to notice the bloodshed was only outside the city. That does not fit AD 70 at all, which was rife with bloodshed inside. It does fit AD 136. Jews had not been allowed into Jerusalem since 8070, so there was no bloodshed there. But outside the city, the blood flowed freely. The Palestinian Talmud in Gittin 57b claims that 80 million Jews were killed by the Romans. And the Roman historians said that they lost so many soldiers that they had a hard time finding replacements and had to start using children as their soldiers. So Rome lost a lot as well. Almost no one believes the various Jewish sources nowadays. But all of those sources claim to quote rabbis who were there, claim to reflect real history. The Jerusalem Talmud says the number of Jewish men, women, and children slain at Bitar was so enormous that the Romans, quote, went on killing until their horses were submerged in blood up to their nostrils. That is almost word for word identical to what this prophecy said would happen. Midrash Rabbah 2, 4 through 5 says, they slew the inhabitants until the horses waded in blood up to their nostrils. One place simply says the Romans went on killing Jews until a horse was sunk in blood up to its nose. That's a lot of blood and there are other references like that. The Jerusalem Talmud goes on to say that the blood flowed for miles to the Mediterranean. And another place says that the ocean was stained with blood as far northwest as the island of Cyprus. Cyprus is almost 200 miles away. Now how that's possible, I don't know. I'm just recording the only history we have. One Jewish author summarizes the ancient testimonies this way. With virtually no survivors, rivers of Jewish blood flowed for miles to the sea, and the Romans were able to fertilize their fields for seven years using their victims' blood. Jewish bodies were not buried, but were used as fences for fields and a chilling premonition of Nazi practice. Bar Kokhba also died, either executed by the sages for making false messianic claims or during the final battle of Bitar. Yet another quote by a Jewish scholar, they slaughtered the men, women, and children until blood flowed from the doorways and sewers. Horses sank up to their nostrils and the rivers of blood lifted up rocks weighing 40 seah and flowed into the sea where its stain was noticeable for a distance. Well, if they were right about rocks being lifted up by a flood, it would indicate a flash flood may have accompanied the blood flow. And that seems to be hinted at by Rabbi Eliezer the Great, who said that the two streams near Bitar flowed in two directions, and both streams were running with one part blood, two parts water. That contradicts the other testimonies. It says pure blood. Hey, they're not infallible. Here's the point. For people to claim there is no historical evidence of the fulfillment of these verses, I would say that the only historical evidence, however much you may doubt those histories, the only historical evidence that we have shows that it was fulfilled to a T. And I give a lot more details in my series. Now we might wish that the central section would end with a positive note of verse 17, you know, the worldwide advancement of the gospel. That would be a cool way to end. That's probably the way I would end. But the point is they were not at the end of history. You know, he ends the book that way, but they're not at the end of history. They're in the midst of persecution. We're not at the end of history either. We're still living in a time when Christians are being persecuted, and the central section ends on a note of realism. You cannot hide your head in the sand about the fact that persecution will always increase when the gospel is successful. Demons fight back, and there may still be tough times ahead. But the message of this book is that Christ is at our side, and we can overcome by the word of our testimony and the blood of the Lamb. whether in life or in death, we need to be willing to face anything to see Christ's kingdom advancing and His glory being lifted up. And so we're gonna end this service by singing the hymn, The Son of God Goes Forth to War. And in that refrain, it calls us, are we willing to follow in His train? The bottom line of the Central East section is that Jesus is victor in history. We aren't waiting for His victory. Whatever defeats we may face, Jesus is always victorious and He loves to lead the church to victory if the church will only dedicate itself to His cause and have faith in what He provides. May we exercise such faith. Amen.