War With the Saints Revelation 13:7-10 2/5/2017 Copyright by Mark Vaughan 2/2017

Transcription

1 War With the Saints Revelation 13:7-10 2/5/2017 Copyright by Mark Vaughan 2/2017 Open your Bibles to Revelation 13 & let s read this chapter that we re studying in the midst of our trek through this last book of Scripture. We ll finish through verse 10 today but let s read the whole chapter again as we get started Revelation 13:1-18. [READ] Today we come to verses 7-10 of this chapter, the war with the saints that the dragon will have in the future Tribulation period. We ve covered the 1 st 7 Seals of Judgment & the 7 Trumpets Judgments & we re in a bit of a recap of those times. Those times include most of 7 years of the future Tribulation that escalates in its final 3 ½ years as we ve seen that time indicated. And here through chapter 15, we re in an interlude, learning in chapter 12 of the battle from the beginning as the Devil has tried to stop the Promised Messiah from coming. We learned of 2 supernaturally powerful witnesses in chapter 11 & chapter 13 transitioned to introduce the antichrist & false prophet. The two beasts of chapter 13 are first the future antichrist who will rule a global kingdom & second the false prophet who will point people to worship the first beast. Since the devil can t get out of God s shadow, even his rebellion mimics the real 3-in-1 Godhead in His roles. God the Father sent God the Son to earth to be worshipped & lead others to the Father & then the Spirit points people to worship both the Father & the Son. The devil will copy those roles to try to gather worshippers. The devil is the dragon who sends the antichrist first beast to earth to be honored & then the second beast, the false prophet, will point everyone to worship the dragon & the antichrist. As we said last week, the devil & his antichrist are incessantly aware of their inferiority under God & the real Christ. Though they know their blasphemous rebellion against God will end in judgment, they will continue in it. God will allow the devil will orchestrate some death & resuscitation type miracle for the antichrist that will fuel false worship. God will even allow the antichrist to rail against the true Christ in blasphemies against God & His name & His dwelling in heaven & those who are in heaven with Him. And the whole earth will be amazed & followed after the beast & worship him & the dragon who will give him authority. When we read that & know it s yet future, it s easy to miss how it will feel to be a follower of Christ in that time. It s hard for us rightfully wrestle with the doubts & questions & temptations that God s people will have in such tumultuous times. It s especially hard for us as American Christians who are so sheltered & spoiled & wrapped up in our comforts that we assume everyone should be nice to us all the time. We are more likely to sue slander those who wrong us than to plan how to sacrificially love them & serve them for the Gospel s sake. I thought about that when I read an from our missionary Tim Keesee this week about what s going on in Syria. Many of you received that also, but listen to what was said. 1

2 [In Syria,] Those who have left Islam to follow Christ face extreme persecution, including murder, kidnappings by ISIS, and forced slavery. Because of this, approximately 50% of the Christian population has fled the country, leaving behind their homes and businesses. The remaining Christians are conflicted about whether to stay or to leave. In Aleppo, the Christians who stayed are seeing extraordinary opportunities to reach Muslims with the Gospel. Bombs are exploding around their church, but one pastor said in spite of that, they are conducting mercy ministries to 2,000 families half of whom are Muslims. Muslims are shocked to see Christians caring for them, which often causes them to abandon their prejudice against Christians. How often do you ponder conducting mercy ministries to groups who are bombing your church & trying to kill you & your friends? It s more likely that we think about how to keep them out of our neighborhoods to keep our property values higher & we do whatever to guard our own safety & leisure space. I don t say that as an accusation of others, but as an indictment of my own heart of what I am more likely to think as a first reaction. I say it as a sad commentary & confession of how sheltered & selfish our lives are as comfort-loving American Christians. And I say it to highlight how different we are from most Christians in the world who are not among the richest people on the planet. I say it to remind us how easy our lives are compared to most Christians throughout the history of the church. Persecution has been the norm for most Christians now & in history. We can be thankful for the level of peace & safety we enjoy in the church in our nation s history. But we also need to ask whether such privileges are energizing our urgency to give & serve more rather than dull us to care & do less. If much is entrusted to us, Jesus taught that much is required. Yet when we extend ourselves to give much & serve much, we need to be prepared for opposition & persecution like Jesus also promised. We need to be ready with truths that are especially precious to those who are outcasts & martyrs for their faith in Christ. We need to know how to think when everyone is against us despite what we do & when no one responds to efforts we make to serve. We need to know the truths that will sustain Tribulation saints. We need to know how those who come to Christ in the Tribulation will endure without caving in just to be accepted by others. Whether you now struggle with fitting in or you battle the pain of rejection for your faith, you need to know how God taught Tribulation saints to stand strong no matter what. And since we may face severe persecution in our lifetimes, we need to be prepared to persevere for what may come soon for us. We can learn from preparation for perseverance in persecution. That s what we find in verses 7-10 of Revelation 13 as we learn of the antichrist successfully warring against Christians & winning the world to follow in his hatred of them. So today we re going to outline 2 encouragements for future Tribulation saints that also bring us encouragement in the fight of faith in our lives today. We ll cover 2 broad reminders when facing trials & persecution. 2

3 These are especially precious & helpful to those facing intense opposition & danger for following Christ. But they also apply to us in whatever hardships we have faced or are facing & how we should view & respond to sin against us. The 1 st of those broad reminders to encourage Christians in difficulties 1 st, remember the extent of divine sovereignty. Application point #1 today we glean from verses 7-8 of Revelation 13 is to remember the extent of divine sovereignty. In other words, remember from these verses how far reaching is God s sovereign planning & governing of all things. Recall the fullness of everything God ordains & controls & limits & allows that ultimately functions all to His glory. Revelation 13:7-8 shock us with the great extent of God s preordaining & predicting exactly what happens. That s part of the nature of prophecy I mean, just imagine when the Seal judgments & the Trumpet judgments start unfolding in real time & people who read the Bible see their fulfillment. It s no wonder they will know it s the wrath of God & the Lamb as they do at the end of Revelation 6 when it has been predicted millennia before. Before we consider the extent of time in verse 8 that God is sovereign over, consider the extent of evil that God is sovereign over in verse 7. Read Revelation 13:7 again to look for the extent of divine sovereignty over evil & the devil & the antichrist. [READ] How can the world get so evil that God s own people who are set apart as holy to Him become the most hated villains in all the world? How can Christians that s what saints are those counted as holy by faith in Christ who are being transformed into holiness how can such saints be so mistreated? How can evil become so dominant that senseless killing like ethnic cleansings & suicide bombings & other tragedies of our times happen? Does God check out at those times or will He somehow disappear in the future Tribulation? Does He sometimes not care or will He get tired of caring in the future after people keep rebelling so bad? And what about now does He know what s going on in Syria with those Christians we read about & does He care about the evil that s happened to you or those you love? Yes, yes, He does know & yes, He does care. And no, He never stops caring & He will never get tired of caring because He is timeless & eternal. The reason evil can be so prevalent worldwide in the future & now in various situations is because God allows it. God gives the freedom for evil to function & at times flourish. Christians can be killed & senselessly persecuted in the past, present & future because God has planned to allow that for greater purposes. God has ordained that He will overturn all evil to bring about good for His people just like He did for Joseph & Job. He will fulfill Romans 8:28 to work all things for good for every saint called to Him like He did in making Christ s death His victory. For reasons we may not grasp, God has ordained that evil exist without being the author of evil & without approving of evil. 3

4 God hates evil & He hates it so intensely that He will pour out His wrath on it eternally in the fires of Hell for all who do not know Christ. So God does care & He is emotionally saddened & angered by evil just like Jesus demonstrated by both weeping & being righteously angry in His life on earth. But God s fervent opposition to evil does not mean that evil can run wild outside of God s governing providence. No. Instead, just like the devil could only do with Job what God allowed, so all evil is circumscribed to stay within the circle of permission God gives. No more evil can occur than what God has purposed for His glory & somehow for the ultimate good of His people. That is the extent of divine sovereignty. We see that in the beginning phrase of Revelation 13:7 it was also given meaning that in addition to the antichrist being given a mouth of arrogance & blasphemy in verse 5, he s given more in verse 7. He s given to make war with the saints & to overcome them. That means the antichrist will be given the freedom to fight against God s people & to conquer them, to battle them & win temporarily. The antichrist will conduct mass killings of Christians. Who will give the antichrist such freedom? Well, we know from verse 4 that the devil the dragon is the one who gives the antichrist beast his power & authority. So the author of the evil murderous war against the saints is Satan. The great adversary of believers the devil is the one who will fight to the death to crush all followers of Christ. That s apparent from the context here. But that s not the point of the phrase that begins verse 7. That phrase is the divine passive we ve seen throughout Revelation where God is the unstated Actor. When we ask by WHOM was this given to the beast, the answer of the divine passive is the silently Sovereign God. Verse 7 quietly screams God s sovereign rule over the exact freedom that the devil & antichrist will have to spread their violence. We know that also because Revelation 12:12 says the devil will know his time is short, meaning he will know that God has only planned to allow him 3 ½ years to wreak his havoc. So even as we read of terrorist targeting of true saints, we know that it can only happen under the governing umbrella of divine sovereignty. It will only transpire for God s greater glory as He allows sin to be proven utterly sinful & empty & senseless. The beast s world-spanning rule will also come by God s permission. That s evident in the last phrase of verse 7 that authority over every tribe & people & tongue & nation was given to the beast. Again the divine passive silently summarizes divine sovereignty. Unified global worship of the atrocious false christ & the dragon with him will only happen because God will allow it. God purposed to let the antichrist rise up partly to prove again that the devil only works to steal, kill & destroy. 4

5 He will prove again that evil does not bring lasting love, joy, peace & blessing to anyone. The way the antichrist will manipulate his way to power & selfishly rule will finally explode & fall apart in judgment. It will bring down to death & hell everyone who follows him. And he will not stop Christians from finally winning in heaven. But in contrast, God & His true Christ will prove perfect & faithful as the lavish giver of all good things. And He will be worshipped forever to the joy of all who trust Him. So at least part of God purposing evil is to increase the pleasure of all who seek Him as their treasure. Though every tribe, people, tongue & nation will one day worship the beast on earth, heaven will also be populated by people redeemed by faith in Christ from all those groups through time. God will give the devil his short time, but He will govern & keep it short to spread His greater glory forever. So when you despair or feel defeated over evil that has happened or is happening or will happen, remember the extent of divine sovereignty. Remember God s sovereign rule even over evil & recall His promises to overturn all evil to bring about good. Rehearse the times God has transformed evil into good in the past in the lives of Job & Joseph & Jesus & Paul & in your life & mine. Review His faithfulness & gain hope for the good He has coming out of whatever He allows that is so bad. It will be terribly bad to be a Christian alive in the Tribulation & yet God has written Revelation 13:7 to prepare them to remember the extent of His sovereignty over the violence that overtakes them. Knowing our God is greater & that His victory is sure & His promises are better will make all the difference. So remember the extent of divine sovereignty over evil. And then remember the extent of divine sovereignty over time. Read Revelation 13:8 to find that. [READ] Verse 8 begins with another of those repeated phrases in Revelation all those who dwell on the earth which we ve seen refers to unbelievers during the Tribulation. All of those earth-dwellers live for life on earth & so they worship the antichrist beast & don t trust the God of heaven revealed in Christ. That same group of unbelievers is described with another phrase that shows the extent of divine sovereignty in time. Those unbelievers names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain. Their names are not in the Lamb s book of life because their names have not been written there since before time. The extent of divine sovereignty goes back before the foundation of the world, before the very beginning of time. God had a plan in mind before He created & started to orchestrate that plan. Allowing sin was not plan B that God had to figure out after the devil messed up God s original plan. 5

6 No. God had from the beginning planned that He would send Jesus in the world as the Lamb who would be slain for sinners. So there is a sense in which Jesus is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world as some translate the Greek word order. But what is more likely emphasized time-wise is that these names were not written before the foundation of the world. That s clearly the grammar & word order in Revelation 17:8 when all these same earth-dwellers are described as those whose names have not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life. The idea is that before He set the foundation of the world, God wrote a book of life of those who would belong to the Lamb. God recorded those names in that Lamb s book of life as those who would trust in Jesus as the Lamb slain for their sins. So God not only knew beforehand who would trust in Christ, but He also planned it & wrote their names down. As Ephesians 1:4 says, God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that is, He chose whom He would save & place in Christ. As Ephesians 1 repeats in light of God s choice & predestining plan, it is all to the praise of the glory of His grace. In that way of planning salvation, only God gets the credit because only He is the source of all good & only He is the One who saves. And since it s all freely given by God s initiative, then it s also only & fully by God s grace. So it is to the praise of the glory of His grace. Of course please understand that that doesn t mean that God never gives unbelievers a chance to trust Him. Every person has the light of creation & conscience showing that God exists & that He has a moral law everyone has broken & they need to praise Him as their Creator & get right with Him as their Judge. But Romans 1 says people suppress that truth in unrighteousness & chase after other things to worship & serve. That s what will happen in the Tribulation when people know that the wrath they are facing is from God & the Lamb, but they will still refuse to trust Him because they want to do their own thing. They will want the ways of the world & the antichrist & prove they deserve punishment as 2 nd Thessalonians 2:10 & 12 state. Unbelievers will get exactly what they want & what they choose & it will be completely their fault. Yet those who are rescued by faith in Christ will learn that God chose us from before the foundation of the world & wrote our names down in the Lamb s book of life. As you study Scripture, you find that theme of God s grace extending back in time to His predestining choice to save us before time. That s the extent of divine sovereignty in time & salvation. And that s not merely a theological point to argue or ascribe to it s a truth that gives comfort in times of trouble. If you are a Tribulation saint & the world & its ruler are warring against you & you feel all alone & vulnerable, you need to know this truth. You need to know God s loving choice of you before time is so secure by His grace that He even wrote your name down in the book of life of the Lamb who was planned to be slain at the cross. 6

7 Romans 9:23 calls us vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory. So He will bring you to glory there is no doubt. God will finish the work He began, as Philippians 1:6 says. No matter what opposition or persecution or enemies or tragedies you face, you can know God will bring you to glory if you are in Christ. Your name literally stands fixed as written in the Lamb s book of life already in the past with lasting results in the present. That s very comforting when everyone & everything is against you. Knowing God is for us & no one can succeed against us is healing & hope-giving medicine for weary souls in trials. That s why Romans 8 mentions persecution & nakedness & famine & other enemies that cannot separate us from God s love in Christ. Revelation 13:8 says divine sovereignty is the hope Tribulation saints need as they face prison & martyrdom in the beast s war. That applies to us too in whatever we face in Christ we can know we are part of a sovereign plan God is working that He will fulfill. So even if evil takes life here, we have eternal life that matters. Therefore we can persevere in the faith. We can keep trusting Christ & not give up on following Jesus because He has promised us His security. And in that security, He has also told us how to live. He did not tell us to rest in His grace & then do nothing. He has freely given us rest for our souls in His grace & told us to live by faith in His grace, to press on & fight the fight of faith. He has told us to seek to know & be like Jesus in every way & especially in the ways we approach & respond to trials. Jesus particularly modeled the way His people should face opposition & how to deal with those who mistreat you for your faith in Him. Revelation 13:9-10 tells Tribulation saints how to follow Jesus in response to being taken captive or being killed. Verse 9 calls for hearing & then verse 10 describes what to do. Read Revelation 13:9-10 to see that. [READ] Verse 9 introduces the value of Christian perseverance in verse 10. Like the calls to hear what the Spirit says to the churches in chapters 2-3, this is a call to hear for those with ears of faith. So this is a call to Christians & it addresses the importance of persevering in the faith, of enduringly trusting Christ to the end. And it gives us a 2 nd application point for our outline today #2, remember the value of Christian perseverance. Reminder #2 remember the value of Christian perseverance. We said 1 st to remember the extent of divine sovereignty & now 2 nd ly to remember the value of Christian perseverance. We know Christian perseverance in faith & faithfulness is the topic of emphasis because that explanation is given at the end of verse 10. The word faith pistis can mean faith like trust or belief or it can mean faithfulness as in the effect of enduring faith. 7

8 It encompasses both here because of the emphasis on perseverance, which means to remain under, to stay put under the load & not give up. That perseverance can be translated steadfastness as in staying power over the long haul, enduring with endurance. Christian perseverance is particularly that vital fruit of a true believer remaining a believer, continuing to trust Christ & follow Him. It is enduring in faithfulness as well, keeping on growing & living a life faithful to the Lord & His Word. That doesn t mean we ll ever reach perfection before heaven, but it does mean that keeping on the path of faithfulness is key. So after remembering the mind-boggling reach of sovereign security, we find a corresponding call to stay faithful. And for the Tribulation saints especially, that perseverance will likely be tested through captivity or death as verse 10 highlights. That s the significance of what stated that seems obvious if anyone is destined to captivity, to captivity he goes. Well of course, if someone is destined for captivity, then he will go into captivity because that was his destiny, right Yes, that s obvious but it s given here to teach that in God s sovereignty, He continues to call His people to live faithfully. Divine sovereignty is not an excuse for laziness or giving up & assuming all is well when you are not faithful to Jesus at all. So in light of divine sovereignty over the evil that Tribulation saints will face, verse 10 says to walk faithfully into it. Accept God s plan with the meekness Jesus modeled as He was led away to be crucified. [1 st Peter 2:23; 3:16; 4:14, 19] And the second phrase of verse 10 has the same point of accepting what may come for saints, but it s worded differently & can be taken one of two ways. It is either a parallel to the captivity destiny meaning to accept it like Jesus did or it is a warning against violence against persecutors. I think the latter interpretation makes the most sense because it is worded different from the first & yet worded similar to the way God ordained government punishment of murderers. Genesis 9:6 gives the initial value of life commandment that instituted capital punishment for those who murder fellow humans. And verse 10 seems to be restating that as a warning against Christians fighting against persecutors in any murderous way. Either understanding of that phrase gives the same basic idea that Christians should respond like Jesus did as He was led to the cross. He knew what God had planned for Him & He embraced it & didn t hate or fight against His opponents. As 1 st Peter 2:21-23 says, For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in His mouth; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously. That s the example that saints in all times should follow. That kind of trust in God is the perseverance & the faith of the saints. Real perseverance is experienced by that kind of faith & true faith is also proven as it perseveres. 8

9 Unlike the Tribulation saints, we likely will not know how our lives will end or what God s enemies may do to us before we die, but you may have thought about what ways we do not want to die. Whatever that may be, the greatest longing for all Christians should be that we do not want to die dishonoring Christ. We should long to finish this life persevering in faithfulness to such an extent that no questions linger about the reality of our faith. We should want increasingly to walk in faithfulness to Christ so that when our time on earth ends, it is clear we endured. We should all long to finish steadfastly committed to Christ. Regularly remember that value of Christian perseverance. It does matter how we finish it matters for our own eternal souls & it matters to all we leave behind & it matters for our future reward. So remember the value of Christian perseverance. That reminder will help Tribulation saints facing trials. And it can help us in our trials until we take our last breath. We can find comfort & hope & purpose & motivation as we consider the truths revealed for Tribulation saints in the future. We can be strengthened & sustained remembering the extent of divine sovereignty & the value of Christian perseverance. I pray those truths are helpful for you today. And it s fitting now that we close by remembering the Lamb who has been slain to purchase us whose names are written in His book from before the foundation of the world. The names in the Lamb s book of life can remain there & never be erased because God s plan was fulfilled by sacrificing Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus Christ suffered the eternal penalty of every person in His book of life so that He can grant us faith & life in Him with payment already made in full. So we never need to add to what Christ has finished & we never need to question His sufficiency. The plan was all His from the beginning & He fulfilled exactly what was needed to pour out His grace on us. And we remember that cost of the cross at the communion table regularly as we worship our Risen Lord Jesus until He comes again. If you have not truly turned from your sins to trust Jesus as your Lord & Savior, we d love to help lead you to Him. We encourage you to watch this ceremony & ask God to apply the work of Christ pictured here to you. And if you have trusted Christ, then we welcome you to join us as we together take the bread & the cup in honor of Jesus. Respond to God as He has revealed Himself in His Word & in Christ. Now as the men come to prepare the Lord s Table & musicians come to serve us, take a minute silently to pray & praise Jesus for who He is & what He has done for you. Praise our Triune God for His all-encompassing sovereignty & renew your commitment to Christian perseverance in light of what we ve studied today in Revelation 13:7-10. Pray alone & then I ll lead us in prayer. 9