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in pain to be delivered. And
there appeared another wonder in heaven. And behold, a great
red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns
upon his head. And his tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven, and it cast them to the earth. And the
dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered,
for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought
forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of
iron. And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed
her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there
was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed
not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now has come salvation
and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of
his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren
is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the
word of their testimony. and they love not their lives
unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell
in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea!
For the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because
he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw
that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness,
into her place, where she is nourished for a time and times
and half a time from the face of the serpent. And the serpent
cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that
he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth
helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed
up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the
dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with a remnant
of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ. Let's ask the Lord's blessing
on his work. Our Father, as we come to thee
tonight, we are thankful indeed for our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are grateful that we can come in knowledge of the
provision that he has made for our salvation, for the glorious
gift of eternal life that is available to each one of us.
We know, Father, that had it not been for this There would
be no cause for this meeting this evening. There would be
no cause for Bibles or for churches anywhere throughout the world.
But we're grateful that you have seen fit to reveal yourself through
this wonderful person of thy son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That
he is indeed the one mediator between God and man. And we praise
you that tonight in the light of these things, we can come
with full knowledge of what it means to be children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. We are looking to you now to
give us the understanding that we need as Thy children, to learn
more of Thee as we see it revealed here in the Word. We ask Thee,
Father, to give us the grace to humble ourselves before the
truth as it is in Christ Jesus, and to be willing to walk each
day realizing that it is out of weakness that we are made
strong. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. We began in our last studies
together here in the book of the Revelation to note some of
the great volume of Bible symbolism that's contained here in the
twelfth chapter of the book of the Revelation. We noted that
the symbols of the Bible are never something that God has
given as a base for building doctrine. They're simply designed
to encourage us in our study of the Word of God that we might
learn to compare scripture with scripture. and that we might
know what it means to receive a blessing as we see the teaching
of the Word of God confirmed as we study together in this
manner. We've seen also how these things
add great beauty and character and power to the Word of God.
How the symbols of the Bible are to God's Word what the symbols
of nature are to his works. God, of course, could have made
all the leaves turn black in the fall of the year. But that
wouldn't have been too interesting, would it? He could have made
all the flowers of spring be gray instead of the many colors
that they are. But our God is a God of beauty.
He's one of mystery. He's one of character. And we
see this revealed not only in his works around us here in the
world, but we see them right here in the Word of God. These
symbols speak to our hearts much the same way as the beautiful
things of nature speak to the hearts of man. The heavens declare
the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. And we
see his glory also revealed right here within the pages of his
work. There are so many things in nature that are beyond the
understanding of man. They are clothed in beauty, they
are clothed in mystery, and they are things that man is unable
to understand no matter how much he searches, no matter how hard
he tries. And the very same thing is true with some portions of
the Word of God, because just as the Apostle Paul said, how
unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.
There are many things that are just too high for us here within
the Word of God, things that we'll never plumb the depths
of or understand the height of as long as we're studying the
Bible together. These symbols of the Bible are something that
mock the unbeliever. They come to these pages and
they see them set down there and they see things that are
hard to be understood, especially with the mind of a natural man.
And so they take the book of the Revelation and they brand
it as a dark book, a mysterious book, one that is unknowable
by human knowledge. And of course this is true. It's
only those who have been enlightened with the understanding of the
Spirit of God that can understand the depth of the teaching of
the Bible. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness to him. Neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned. So when we come to
know the Lord Jesus, we can come and enjoy these things together.
We can come and stand amazed at the fact that the God of mysteries
has brought light and spiritual knowledge to our sin-darkened
hearts. And by comparing Scripture with Scripture, we can understand
many of the symbols that are given to us here within the pages
of the Word of God. Now, we've studied briefly in
the beginning of this twelfth chapter of Revelation, and we've
found the woman clothed with the sun, as we see her in the
first verse, to be the nation of Israel. We see her clothed
with the divine protection of the son of righteousness, the
Lord Jesus Christ. We've seen also that under her
feet is the moon, symbolizing the Church. And this pictures
to us the superiority of Israel's earthly glory compared to that
of the Church. We noted also how this woman,
this nation of Israel, is crowned with a crown of twelve stars.
The stars representing messengers, whether they be angel or human.
But here they are human messengers. These 12 stars would speak to
us, I believe, of the 12 tribes of Israel who were God's messengers
in the days of the Old Testament. They would speak to us of the
12 apostles of Israel who were God's messengers in the New Testament. They would speak to us of the
12,000 from each tribe during the tribulation period, which
are going to compose the 144,000 witnesses who will be God's messengers
in that hour. They also speak to us of the
twelve apostles again in the millennium, because according
to Matthew 19, 28, during this thousand-year reign of the Lord
Jesus, they are going to sit upon twelve thrones, judging
the twelve tribes of Israel. Now this is the crown of Israel's
glory, her position as a messenger to mankind with the good news
of her King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel's purpose and grace has
always been that of telling forth the Messiah, the coming one,
who is to be the Redeemer not only of Israel, but of those
who would put their faith and trust in him. We saw another
symbol here in verse 3, a great red dragon. And we noted how
13 times in the book of Revelation we find the devil under this
symbol of the dragon, the number 13 being the number of rebellions. And we noted also how this 9th
verse identifies him very clearly. And the great dragon was cast
out. That old serpent, called the devil and Satan, was deceived
with the whole world. There is more symbolism, as we
noted here in this 3rd verse. And there appeared another wonder
in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven and
ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. The devil here has seven heads
with crowns upon them, and ten horns with no crowns. Notice what we read in Revelation
13, verse 1. And I stood upon the sand of
the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven
heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon
his heads the name of blasphemy." So here we see the beast, the
devil's representative, having seven heads with no crowns and
ten horns with crowns. A comparable situation, the same
symbols, but a shift in the emphasis. From Revelation 12 to what we
see in Revelation 13. I notice what we read in Revelation
13, verse 2. And the beast which I saw was
like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear,
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him
his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one
of his heads, as it were, wounded to death. And his deadly wound
was healed, and all the world wondered after the beast. And
they worshipped the dragon, which gave power unto the beast. And
they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? Who
is able to make war with him? So here we are seeing something
of the characters that are going to be on the stage here in these
closing hours of man's history before the Lord Jesus comes to
set up his kingdom. we see that the motivating power
behind these things is going to be the great red dragon, that
old serpent, the devil and Satan that deceiveth the whole world.
He's the one who ultimately is going to be worshipped. And he's
going to be giving power to this beast, to this individual as
we see it here, who also is represented as having seven heads and ten
horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the
name of blasphemy. We see that this individual is
going to get his power and his seat and his great authority
from the devil, from this great red dragon that we've encountered
here in Revelation chapter 12 and verse 3. All right, so we're talking here
about seven heads and ten horns. These are the symbols that we're
trying to discover. First of all, we want to try to understand
what the heads symbolize to us. Let's turn, if you will, to Revelation
17. Notice what we read in the 9th verse. And here is the mind which hath
wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sitteth." So here we see that we have a
picture of seven mountains on which the woman is sitting. In
an earlier message we turn to this chapter to see that this
is one of the three prominent women in the Bible. This is the
one representing the unsaved Gentile nations. Mystery, Babylon
the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.
And we see in verse 9, here is the mind which hath wisdom, the
seven heads or seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Now
the head in the Bible over and over again symbolizes authority. And this is exactly what we are
seeing here. We are talking about Rome, the city of seven hills. That's what they taught me in
the 6th and 7th grade. The seven heads are seven mountains,
or hills, on which the woman sitteth. Now look what we read in Revelation
17, verse 10. And there are seven kings. Five
are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come. And when
he cometh, he must continue a short space. and the beast that was
and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven, and goeth
into perdition." That's not too easy to understand, is it? But
the point is, we're talking here about seven forms of government
or authority in connection with the Roman Empire. We can see
that much. We're talking about the seven heads, the seven kings. seven forms of government, seven
symbols of authority in connection with the Roman Empire. Now we're
going to be studying this more as we come to it. But what about the ten horns?
Notice what we read here in the twelfth verse of the same seventeenth
chapter of Revelation. And the ten horns which thou
sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but
received powers, kings one hour with the beast. These have one
mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast."
So here we are talking about the symbol of ten kingdoms, ten
kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but are going
to receive power for a short period of time with the beast,
during this tribulation All right, now all these things are put
to us in this way because of representation that we find elsewhere
in the Word of God. Let's turn, if you will, to Daniel,
chapter 2. Now, it's impossible to understand
what's going on here in this portion of the book of the Revelation
without comparing it to the things spoken by the prophet Daniel. Here in Daniel chapter 2, the
story is that King Nebuchadnezzar has had a dream, trying to find
somebody to interpret it for him. His own interpreters can't
do any good, so he calls on Daniel. And this is where we take up
the narrative in the 36th verse of Daniel chapter 2. This is
the dream, and we will tell the interpretation thereof before
the King. Thou, O King, art a King of kings. For the God of heaven
hath given thee a kingdom, power, strength, and glory. And wheresoever
the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field, the fowls
of the heaven, hath he given into thine hand, and hath made
thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold. Now
King Nebuchadnezzar had seen a great image and it was made
up of four distinct parts. We see it revealed here by the
prophet Daniel. He's talking about this great
image that was seen and speaking to King Nebuchadnezzar, the king
over Babylon at that time, he says, Thou art this head of gold.
In verse 39, And after thee shall arise another kingdom. inferior
to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule
over all the earth. And the fourth kingdom shall
be strong as iron, forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces, and
subdueth all things, and as iron that breaketh all these, shall
it break in pieces and bruise." All right, now all we want to
notice here is the fact that Daniel is prophesying to us about
world empires. And when he comes down to this
fourth empire, he's talking about what is known in literature as
the Iron Kingdom, the Roman Empire. Now, notice what we read in verse
41, or verse 40 rather. Let's continue
that again. And the fourth kingdom shall
be strong as iron, for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and
subdueth all things, And as iron that breaketh all these shall
it break in pieces and bruise. And whereas thou sawest the feet
and toes, part of potter's clay and part of iron, the kingdom
shall be divided. But there shall be in it of the
strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed
with miry clay. And as the toes of the feet were
part of iron and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly
strong and partly broken. And whereas thou sawest iron
mixed with my clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed
of men, but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron
is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these kings
shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be
destroyed." Here we see that Daniel is talking to King Nebuchadnezzar
about a great image. He's talking about the fact that
this image is made up of these different metals. He's talking
about the gold, he's talking about the silver, he's talking
about the brass, he's talking about the iron. But when he comes
down to talking about this iron kingdom, the one symbolizing
the Roman Empire, we see that as it progresses down toward
the feet of the image, it gets weaker and weaker. There's division
there. We see the iron mixed with miryc
clay. We see weakness coming into this
iron kingdom, until finally we come all the way down and there
are ten toes sticking out on the feet of this image. Now these
ten toes represent to us ten kings, as we saw there in the
book of Revelation and as we'll see again in just a moment. The
ten toes of this represent the kingdoms of the last days as
a part of this Roman Empire. Now turn to Daniel chapter 7. Notice what we read in the first verse. In the first year of Belshazzar,
king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head upon
his bed. Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.
Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold,
the four winds of heaven strove upon the great sea. And four
great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another.
The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings. I beheld till
the wings thereof were plucked, and it was lifted up from the
earth, and made stand upon the feet as a man, and a man's heart
was given to it. And behold, another beast, a
second, like to a bear, and it raised up itself on one side,
and it had three ribs in the mouth of it, between the teeth
of it, and they said thus unto it, Arise, devour much flesh. After this I beheld, and another,
like a leopard, which had upon the back of it four wings of
a fowl. The beast had also four heads,
and dominion was given to it. After this I saw in the night
visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible,
and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth, and it
devoured and break in pieces, and stamped the residue with
the feet of it, And it was diverse from all the beasts that were
before it, and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold,
there came up among them another little horn, before whom there
were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots. And
behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man, and a
mouth speaking great things." So here we see another vision. connected with the last days.
We see a situation that is very much comparable to the verses
of the 13th chapter of the book of the Revelation, as we are
going to be seeing when we get there. But notice that again
as we come to this fourth beast in verse 7. After this I saw
in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and
terrible, and strong exceedingly, and it had great iron teeth,
the Iron Kingdom, the Roman Empire once again. And when we come
down to the last words of that verse, we see, and it had ten
horns, the same ten horns that we read about there in Revelation
12 and in Revelation 13. We're reading here about the
little horn that came up among the ten, the very same as the
beast that we noted there in the opening verses of Revelation
13. Now let's go back to Revelation 12. Now, as we compare scripture
with scripture, we find the same types of symbols used here in
the book of the Revelation and there in the book of Daniel,
bringing to our attention the fact that the character of the
devil and his outworkings in connection with the last days
has to do with ten horns or ten toes. a ten-nation federation, a portion
of the Roman Empire, operating in weakness as compared to the
iron kingdom of before, and yet a revival just the same. We see
in Revelation 13, verse 2, the beast that was like unto a leopard,
and his feet like the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the
mouth of a lion. And we see set forth to us right here the same
vision that Daniel had in chapter 7, all pointing us back to this
one thought, that here in the last days, in the time of the
revived Roman Empire, there is going to be a ten-nation federation. There is going to be a government
segmented in ten parts in some form or fashion. Now, of course,
God is not outlining the thing here for us in perfection. But
it's interesting indeed that almost 2,000 years ago, Caesar's
armies were together on a place called Capitoline Hill in Rome,
the city of seven hills. And there on Capitoline Hill
almost 2,000 years ago, the armies of Caesar set out to build the
Roman Empire, to conquer the world. And in 1959, on that very
same hill, Capitoline Hill, and Rome, the
city of seven hills, six statesmen met there to form the common
market. The revived Roman Empire, what
is no doubt the beginnings of exactly what we are reading about
right here in Revelation 12 and 13, and Daniel 2 and Daniel 7.
Ten men didn't meet. That's going to come later. The
number was six. Because the word of God says,
here is wisdom, let him that hath understanding count the
number of the beast. For it is the number of a man,
six, six, six. You see, six in the Bible is
the number of man. That's why there were six men
meeting in the city of Seven Hills, on the very same hill
where this iron kingdom began. to form the beginning of this
ten-nation federation, which is going to comprise this ten-horned
thrust of the dragon as the revived Roman Empire in its quest for
world dominion here in the last days. As we see it here in the symbolism
of Revelation 12 and verse 3, in the past the crown has been
on the heads. It has been on the forms of government. This has been Satan's principal
means of operation. But in the future, here in Revelation
13, the crowns will be moved to the ten horns, to the governments
themselves, for the devil's final thrust in this matter of world
domination. As we are going to see in upcoming
studies, this drive for world government in a total sense will
never be attained. Satan will be working toward
a one world But it will never be actualized because, as we
read just a few moments ago, in the days of these kings, these
ten horns, in the days of these kings, the God of heaven will
set up a kingdom. It will never be destroyed. It
is going to be the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we
read in Revelation 12 and verse 3, and there appeared another
wonder in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon
having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did
cast them to the earth." So here we encounter stars again. Now
remember we were talking, as we noted in the first verse,
how the stars in the Bible symbolize messengers, whether angel or
This time they are angels. We see them here in symbol form
connected with the fall of Satan. In Job 38, verse 7, we read of
a time when all the morning stars sang together and the sons of
God shouted for joy. According to Isaiah 14, one of
these stars in this angelic host was Lucifer, son of the This
same glorious angel Lucifer, because pride was found in his
heart, was cast down. He became a fallen angel. He
became the great red dragon, that old serpent, the devil and
Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. But when he fell, he didn't fall
alone, because as we see it right here in this fourth verse, with
his tail, he drew one-third of the other angels with him, one-third
of these other messengers from heaven, and he cast them to the
earth. Now again, we have a symbol,
the tail. The tail in the Bible symbolizes
baseness and crudeness and inferiority, and that's exactly what we see
here. It was with the wickedness of Satan, with his crudeness
and baseness, that he drew these other angels after him when he
fell as an angel of light. Now let's turn for just a moment,
if you will, to Exodus chapter 4, and we'll see something about
that there. Exodus chapter 4, notice what
we read in the first verse. And Moses answered and said,
he's speaking to God, But behold, they will not believe me, nor
hearken unto my voice. For they will say, The Lord hath
not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What
is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said,
Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground,
and it became a serpent. And Moses fled from before. And
the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it
by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and
caught it. And it became a rod in his hand. Now, this is a good example of
how throughout the word of God the symbols fit together. Everything
in here ties together if we just had sense enough to understand
it. If we had the spiritual insight to see how all these various
parts fit. But here we see again this symbol
of the tail. And we see Moses. And we see
a rod becoming a serpent. And then the serpent becoming
a rod. Now Stephen, speaking in his sermon in Acts chapter
7, said this. speaking about Moses. He said,
This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel,
A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your
brethren, like unto me. Him shall ye hear. Now, he was
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. A prophet shall the Lord
your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me.
Him shall ye hear. So the Lord Jesus was a prophet
like unto Moses. And whenever we see Moses here
in the Old Testament scriptures, not only is he a man, not only
is he a historical reality, but he is also a type or a symbol
of the Lord Jesus Christ, a prophet like unto Moses. Now, we see
prefigured right here what's going to happen in the case of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, as God's true
prophet in the tribulation period is going to take that old serpent,
the devil and Satan, by his tail, by the very baseness, by the
very crudeness that motivates him. And it's going to become
a rod in his hand. The Lord Jesus is not going to
do anything to people here in the tribulation period, even
though all judgment has been committed into the hands of the
Son. He's going to use the wickedness and the vileness of the devil
himself and turn it upon the people of this earth in judgment.
He's going to lay hold upon the tail of the serpent. It's going
to become a rod in his hand as he rules the nations with a rod
of iron. As like a vessel of a potter,
he's going to break them to shivers. Notice what we read back in Revelation
chapter 12. In the 4th verse, "...and his
tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and he cast
them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman, which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her
child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child,"
there's the Lord Jesus, "...who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron." Perfect symbolism. The iron kingdom of the Roman
Empire is going to become a rod in the hand of God's prophet,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going to use that very
rod, he's going to use the baseness, the wickedness of the devil himself,
to chastise the people of this world in judgment. Rule the nation
with a rod of iron. But as we see here in the fourth
verse, his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven,
and did cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon
as it was born. And we've seen how this speaks
to us of what we read in the second chapter of Matthew, as
the nation of Israel was bringing forth the man-child, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Herod, the king, was one of the
heads of the dragon, and he was standing there with the decree
to slay all the babies from two years old and under in Bethlehem
and in all the coasts thereof. trying to devour this man-child,
the Lord Jesus Christ, as soon as he was born. But it didn't
work. She brought forth a man-child,
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child
was caught up unto God and to his throne. Now here we see that God passes completely over the
earthly life of Jesus in this narrative. We see him caught
up to God and to his throne. This speaks, of course, in one
sense, of the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. This man,
when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at
the right hand of the throne of God. He was called up to God
and to his throne when his work was done. This can speak to us
also of the rapture. Because many times we see the
Lord Jesus in the Bible pictured as the head of the body, the
Church. We read in the Word of God that
we as believers are already glorified in the sight of God. We're seated
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So this could be not only
the ascension of the head, but the catching up of the whole
body to God and to his throne. But at any rate, this whole dispensation
of grace has passed over, and for a very good reason, because
this is Jewish ground here. We're talking about God's purposes
concerning the nation of Israel. And that's why we read in the
6th verse, "...and the woman fled into the wilderness, where
she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her
there a thousand, two hundred, and threescore days." Now, 1260
days is half of the Tribulation period. There are 30 days in
the prophetic month in the Bible and 360 days in the prophetic
year. So this is three and a half years, the last half of the seven
years of Tribulation. The Great Tribulation, as the
Lord Jesus called it. Now, according to Matthew 24,
this scene of Israel, the woman, fleeing into the wilderness where
she had a place prepared of God, has to do with this last three
and a half years, the Great Tribulation. We read in Matthew 24, 16, Then
let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him which
is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house.
Neither let him which is in the field turn back to take his clothes.
And then he says this, For then shall be great tribulation, such
as was not since the beginning of the world of this time, nor
ever shall be. For twelve hundred and sixty
days, for three and a half years, the last half of the tribulation
period is going to be known as the great tribulation. because
it's going to far surpass any tribulation that has ever come
in any way, shape, or form upon the people of this world. Now,
this is a time to be ready, because we're standing at this moment
on the threshold of these things of which we've been speaking.
At any moment, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the
Bible says, the Lord Jesus could descend from heaven to catch
away his And this time of trouble would begin, this time upon the
earth when men's hearts are going to fail them for fear, for looking
after the things that are coming upon the earth. Now more than
ever before in all of man's history is a time when people need to
know the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Because you know it was
one thing to live and die and go on out into eternity lost.
a hundred years ago, or five hundred years ago, or a thousand
years ago, but it's something else again to face what the Lord
Jesus himself called tribulation the great. Tribulation the great. A great tribulation such as was
not since the beginning of the world of this time, nor ever
shall be. And this is the very thing that's
going to come upon the inhabitants of the earth. upon all those who have never
come to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. Now I hope tonight
that you understand the simplicity of the gospel message, how that
Jesus has died on the cross for your sins, how that he was buried,
how that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
And it's upon the basis of this sacrifice that we must be saved.
It's upon trusting in that precious blood alone, apart from anything
that man can do. that we must have hope of eternal
life. We're not looking to go to heaven because there's anything
in us, because there's anything in this church, or anything in
man, or anything in anything that man can do, but because
the Lord Jesus has paid it all. He bore our sins in his own body
on the tree. And the Word of God promises
that if we'll come to him acknowledging our sinfulness, Asking him to
forgive our sins and to come into our heart by faith, he'll
do just that. Upon the merits of the Lord Jesus, and nothing
that we can do. And tonight can be the night when that happens
to you, if it's never happened before. Let's bow our heads in
prayer. Our fathers, we've gathered tonight
to study these things together. We realize that we have indeed
looked at things that are hard to be understood. Now we do pray
that you will take them and impress them upon the minds and hearts
of thy people. That as we go further in this study of these
things together, that it might become abundantly clear that
you have indeed set forth a program of prophecy that's beyond the
imagination of man. We can see here the intricacies
of history, of government, of the spiritual working of Satan
and the powers of darkness is just beyond human understanding.
We realize when we see these things that we are dealing with
a foe that is indeed powerful. Fathers, we come next week to
consider the war in heaven. We pray that we might understand
the desperate need to depend fully and completely upon the
Lord Jesus Christ, realizing that we have no power of our
own to stand against this adversary. as one who is out to doom and
damn the souls of men forever. Father, we are thankful that
we can escape not only the powers of darkness, but the power of
the wickedness of our own heart by simply coming to the Lord
Jesus and trusting him as our only hope for everlasting life.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
A Study Of Bible Symbolism Part 2
Series Studies In Revelation
| Sermon ID | 915111918100 |
| Duration | 45:00 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 12 |
| Language | English |
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