Gooding, David: 6 - The Temple of God in Heaven Opened

The grace and peace of our Lord Jesus be with you. And welcome once more to this, the sixth of our present short series of studies on the book of the Revelation. There are three more studies left, God willing. Tomorrow at seven o'clock, we shall be examining what this book has to say about God's final judgment and the principles upon which he will deal with people on that occasion. Now, for some people, that is a very unwelcome topic. Certainly it is grave. But then, you know, when we read some of the psalms and lyrics of the Old Testament, we find that when the people look forward to the coming of the Lord and to his judgment, they didn't necessarily feel very gloomy. They bade the mountains and the forests to clap their hands at the prospect. The Lord is coming, they said, you know. Marvelous, isn't it? Evil is not always going to triumph and carry on as it is now. And what sane person would want it to? Who of us would hope that there would never be a judgment and that the world, in all its confusion, iniquity, and cruelty, should carry on as it is now? Well, no pa- sane person, surely. It is therefore understandable that some people should feel that this is a glorious hope. Do you know what? There is going to be a final judgment. And of course, then of course others of us have reasons not for, for not feeling that it will necessarily be something to clap your hands over. The fact is that we have all sinned. Isn't that not so? And if we have to face a final judgment, the natural question is, how shall we fare? Well, there's no sense putting our heads in the sand. If God has spoken and told us about it, then it would be wisdom on our part, would it not, to listen to what he has to say, that we may know his way of preparing for it. So tomorrow at seven o'clock it is, uh, in this place. If you are free to come, you will be very welcome indeed. Then on Monday and Tuesday, on those nights at eight o'clock, will be our final studies. Two more practical things. Some of you were inquiring about the notes that were given out on the second night of this series, and they had, uh, last night run out. We have repaired that, and there are some for you if you wish to collect them. And the head teachers tell me that, uh, tapes are being made of this particular series, and so if you should, uh, care for them and wish to have them, uh, you'll see, then ask the people on the door at the end, and they will direct you to the right authorities. That said, shall we sing another hymn? The hymn is ninety four. Ninety four. The countless multitude on high that tune their songs to Jesus' name, all merit of their own deny, and Jesus' worth alone proclaim. It's the hymn ninety four, and we shall stand to sing the whole hymn. So Shall we we rise rise to to sing? sing. Jesus was alone roaming. Come on the ground of sovereign grace, stand before the earth's throne. The only son in heaven place is Is. the. And now shall we speak to God in prayer? And now, Father, as we come to read thy word, aware that thy word will call upon us to fight the good fight of the faith, we bless thee from our hearts for the glorious sense that thy dear son has already overcome. Remember his parting words, in the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Once more this evening, we listen in to the choirs of the heaven, and they sing the name of him who has prevailed, who has conquered, to open the book and to loose the seals thereof. So that our vision of glory to come, of a pacified world, and at last of a glorious eternity is no idle daydream or product of wishful thinking, but is based on the solid fact that our blessed Lord proved sinless all his days and went to Calvary's tree and there triumphed gloriously and stripped off from himself principalities, powers, mights, and dominion, and took the bill of handwriting that listed our sins in their innumerable quantities, and nailed it to his cross, thus setting us free. How we do bless thee, and therefore we pray thy grace that thus caught up in the wonderful pro- triumphant progress of thy Son, we may find strength from thy word tonight, realistically to face life and all its complications, and this sorry world and its sin and its sorrow, its cruelty and its hopelessness. That in the life's daily practice we might prove the power of the Savior to keep us from falling, to deliver us from temptation, and that we in turn may become men and women in thy hand that shall prove a tower of strength to those that around us seem to be lost and are helpless and hurting and need thy grace and compassion and the balm and ointment of thy lovely gospel. So bless our studies, we pray, because we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Now, yesterday in our fifth study, we arrived, whether we knew it or not, to the midpoint of the book of the Revelation. And tonight we must now move forward and enter the second half of this glorious book. So it seemed to me this might be a suitable time just to pause in our studies for the moment and take once more a bird's eye view of the territory that we have covered and that which remains to be covered, so that seeing it somewhat as a whole, we may sense where we have arrived at and where still we are to go. And for that reason, you have in your hands, I hope you have, two sheets of paper, and we shall look now at the first of them, which gives you what you were given on Monday, only now in greater detail, a conspectus of the contents, the major contents of the book of the Revelation. And there you see, as we have often said, this book is in six major sections or parts. There is, of course, the first section in the first column there, in which we have the vision of our blessed Lord Jesus in all his risen glory, and an account of the letters which he dictated to seven of his churches. Then stage column two, opens, as we see, begins with something opened in heaven, and so do all the remaining stages of the book. In column two, it is a door opened in heaven. In column three, the seventh seal, we are told, in heaven is opened. And then in column four that we begin tonight, the pattern recurs. It begins with the temple of God in heaven open. So in its way does column five. There we are told that there was opened the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven. And finally, the last, the sixth and last section begins with heaven open. The pattern is not difficult to see, is it? And then we have noticed hitherto, in column two and column three, two and three stages, that when heaven is open, John was given to see some part of heavenly tabernacle furniture. In column two, it was the throne of God surrounded by twenty four other thrones. And we notice that once this piece of furniture has been seen, observed, and described, it forms what becomes the dominant theme of that particular stage. So it was also in stage three, For there, when heaven was, uh, uh, when the seventh seal was opened, there was silence in heaven, says John. And presently attention was drawn to the big altar, and then to the altar of incense. And the opening idea that there was a silence in heaven before the prayers of the saints had incense offered to them and began to be answered. That idea of the timetable of God for the answering of the prayers of his people and the completion of God's purposes for this world became the dominant, uh, theme of that section three. It shall be so again this evening, because now, when we're told the temple of God in heaven is opened, we're then, uh, told also that the Ark of the Covenant was sealed. And it will not take us long tonight to discover what is the relevance of that particular piece of heavenly furniture, so to speak. Because the Ark of the Covenant is so called Ark of the Covenant, because it contained the two tables of the law of Moses that formed the basis of the covenant that God made between himself and the people of ancient Israel. And first and foremost, in the demands of that covenant and its conditions was this: Thou shalt have none other God but me. That prefaces this second half of the book, in which now, in stage four we are to see the scene on Earth, when at the end of this age there shall arise a world ruler with almost universal sway, and he and his accomplices shall persuade the people and the, and the end demand that they worship the world ruler himself, and in their infatuation, the crowds will be worked upon by the media of that day until they give vent to utter blasphemy, as they say, who is like unto the beast, and who can make war against him? The phrase who is like unto being, of course, a phrase that you will find in the Old Testament, where people are challenged with the thought, who is like unto Jehovah? It is a rhetorical question, of course, for it carries the obvious answer, there is none like him and none beside him. But the day shall come when men and women, having cast off the yoke of God, and in their imagined strike for human freedom, deny there is a God in the heavens that can command their ways. And so far from finding freedom, shall eventually find themselves manipulated and deceived and carried along with international fervor and infatuation, and shall bow down and offer divine honors to the head of state, a mere man. It will be the biggest slavery of the human spirit and soul that this world has ever seen. Once that subject is broached, we shall find it proves the dominant theme of that section four that we begin this evening. We needn't go further with the other sections, though, as you perceive, they follow the same pattern, with heaven open, something visible in heaven, and then that being the prime theme of the section. But look now, if you will, at what we have put in the final columns. In column two, we have comment by one of the twenty four elders. In comment in three, by the all of the twenty four elders. Then at the end of our passage this evening, a song, which is a comment on what has happened, a song by the victors over the beast. Then at the end of column five, a response to the great events recorded in that s- in that section, a response by the great multitude. What I would like us to notice now is that in each of those four, two, three, four, and five, those comments are not simply like the last words of a preacher trying to wind down his sermon and not finding a convenient way to do so and going on too long, but, uh, are great statements of salvation and the triumph of redemption. Each of those comments aimed very appropriately and perceptively to crown what has been the theme of the preceding s- uh, section. So, in the se- end of section two, the comment by one of the elders comments upon this great multitude that come out of the great tribulation. And there they stand with palms in their hands, their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, and stand before the throne, unafraid in the presence of God. And the elder makes his comment, how can they then stand before the throne of God with such confidence? And he says they have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, therefore they are before the throne of God. And the Holy Spirit then carries on the comment right into the distant and eternal days of what God shall do for those whose robes are washed white in the blood of the Lamb. No sun shall strike them anymore, nor heat or cold. Creation shall no longer hurt them. The Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall eternally lead them to life's fountains of water. Similarly, last night, when we came to the end of section three, we had been thinking about the silence in heaven, as you remember, and the big problem that that poses and has posed for the people of God all down the long centuries, who have suffered persecution and the injustices of wicked men, and have cried to God that he would intervene, not to get revenge, but to avenge them, and to see that justice is done and that wickedness does not triumph. And so very often, though they prayed, there came no answer. Nothing but apparent silence in heaven. The great problem that has perplexed the people of God all down the ages. That problem will grow worse, warns Scripture, as this age comes near its end. But then there will come a moment when the prayers of the saints prevail before God, and he rises up to judge. And there will come that dramatic moment noticed by the twenty four elders in those verses in chapter eleven, sixteen to eighteen. Hallelujah, they say. Now the time has come, at last the time is come, and God has taken to himself his great power and begun to reign. Not that he didn't reign before, for the most high rules in the kingdoms of men all the time and has never vacated his throne, but there's coming a day when God shall take this world by the scruff of the neck, and he shall establish his thori- his authority, and his will shall be done on earth as it is in heaven. We don't pray that for nothing, you know. The prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, is not just hitching our wagon to an impossible star. It shall one day happen. Oh, what a hallelujah will break out all around the universe when the prophets get their reward and the martyrs are honored and evil is shown for what it is, not triumphant but defeated, and Christ shall reign from shore to shore. Uh, resist shouting hallelujah if you can, you'll see. But then, so we find tonight, or shall find, we're to talk about those terrible days, and there shall arise this world ruler, called in scripture, vividly and appropriately enough, the beast, along with his false prophet, the second beast. And we shall read of the slaveries they shall impose upon the spirit of men, demanding each to take the mark in forehead or hand, and to bow down and worship the image of the beast. Ah, but it's not all dark. For when we come to the end of this section, we come to a song. Well, just let's read it together, shall we? It is the Revelation, and uh, this time it is chapter fifteen. It is chapter fifteen And beginning there in verse two. This is how this great section will end. And I saw, as it were, a glassy sea mingled with fire, and then that come victorious from the beast and from his image and from the number of his name, standing by the glassy sea, having harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, O Lord God, the Almighty, righteous and true are thy ways, thou King of the ages. Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou only art holy. For all the nations shall come and worship before thee, for thy righteous acts have been made manifest. And we should notice the terms of that song and who it is that the song speaks of. Those that had come victorious on the beast. Now, just one or two more things about this chapter of ours. We're going to read of this coming world government under the symbol of a beast. And that is not an unknown symbol in scripture, because in the Old Testament, in the book of Daniel, in chapter seven in particular, there too, when Daniel is giving us his critique of Gentile imperial government, he likens the governments of the earth to wild beasts. He's not being, uh, rude, well, not unnecessarily so, you see? Because that is one side, is it not, of Gentile imperial government. We deceive ourselves if we think otherwise. You'll see, if you ask what a beast is, lion or other such brute, they can be magnificent creatures, can they not? But they have no morals. I never knew a lion that had morals, did you? They are amoral, that is without morals. They are amoral power blocks. Yes, if you meet a lion one sunny morning, as I once did, didn't get out of the car, of course, eh, you'll see. And he just had his breakfast, a kangaroo or something, and felt sleepy and benign, he positively winked at us, and I could see he felt gloriously content, and I moved on before he changed his mind. But, of course, he was full. He didn't, uh, consider attacking me. But, you know, if that lion were hungry... And so decided that Gooding would make a temporary breakfast, faute de mire. Do you know what? He would have not the slightest compunction. It's in my national interest, he would say. And that would settle it. No morals, just a power block. And the nations nowadays still, they occasionally talk about developing a moral foreign policy, don't they? But you listen to them in the end, what determines it in the end, we must consider first and foremost, they say, our national interest. Imperial Gentile governments are, just like the animals, amoral, power blocks. Now Daniel describes them, and he comes at length to describe the fourth of these beasts, and a hideously strong beast it is, with power to trample underfoot anything that comes its way. But eventually it is destroyed by God, and the kingdom hadn't handed over to the saints of the most high. That's very interesting, because, as we say, now that we come to the book of the Revelation, we shall meet a beast, another world ruler, described in very similar terms as Daniel describes him. But in the Revelation, there is this marked difference. Instead of occupying just one chapter, as in Daniel seven, the beast recurs in several different chapters. And so it is in this particular part of the revelation. You'll notice that here the kingdom is not just given to the saints, it is said of these who stand by the glassy sea. They have come victorious over the beast. And you get the implication, don't you? They've had to fight. The length they come through, having won their contest, their battle with the forces of darkness. And so must we in our day. Isn't that true? Must we be carried to the skies on fiery beds of ease, while others fought to win the prize, sailed through bloody seas? Since I must fight if I would reign, increase my courage, Lord. So we must pray tonight that God would apply his word to our hearts. We fight on a different battlefield than what they will fight on in that coming day. But ultimately, it's the same enemy we fight. We listen to the words of the inspired and gracious Apostle John to his fellow believers. 'Tis good, you little children, says he, you know the Father, don't you? How delightful that is. And, uh, that your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake. Why, even the toddler in the family of God knows dad, doesn't he? Lovely thought. Abba Father, and feels himself hugged to the breast of God in the assurance his sins are forgiven. We shouldn't, if we can help it, remain babies forever, should we? And what about the young men? That includes, of course, the young women, the young folks. I write unto you, young men, says John, because you are strong and have overcome the evil one. Tonight, as we study this passage, we shall be looking for the secret of that kind of strength that can fight and, having done all, is able to stand and come through victorious at the end over the enemies of God. But before we get down to detail, let's sing another hymn, shall we? For your convenience, you have in your hand or nearby you a second sheet of paper that outlines the main contents of this section four of the book of the Revelation. We shall not have time to cover all the detail, but as we pick out its themes here and there, you may find it convenient to cast a glance at this piece of paper so that you will see just exactly what it is we're talking about in the course of these next moments. There is a remarkable emphasis, is there not, in the New Testament of our Lord, to the effect that at the end of the age there shall come a period of intense and almost universal deception. So that multitudes of men and women will be carried away by this perpetrated deceit and deception. Our Lord himself spoke of it very clearly. I'll read you his words found in Matthew twenty four and in verse twenty four. For talking of the end of this age, he says, for there shall arise false Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders so as to lead astray, if possible, the very elect. No, of course, it is not possible to lead astray the very elect. But such will be the strength and the persuasiveness of this almost universal propaganda and deceit. Multitudes shall be deceived thereby. So did Christ warn us. The Apostle Paul says similarly, does he not? Basing himself upon our Lord's words and also on the prophecies of the Old Testament. For writing his second letter to his converts in Thessaloniki, he talks about the coming of the day of the Lord, the great day of God's judgment. And he says that day will not come ab- until, first of all, there come the apostasy and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. Even he, now note these words, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that are perish- are perishing, because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie, that all might be judged, who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. If that seem excessively hard in our hearing when we first hear it, just let us ponder what it is saying. It is saying that people had the opportunity to receive the truth, many times given. When at last they rejected the truth, with their eyes opened, preferred the lie. God will eventually say, as he honors their free will, very good. If you will not have the truth, have your own choice. Believe the lie. This is solemn, isn't it? But God will in the end give people their choice. And of course, now the book of the Revelation that we study tonight in chapters twelve and thirteen says the very same thing all over again, doesn't it? There comes this beast, he is described in the first paragraph of chapter thirteen. who exalteth himself above all God, and crowds and millions glued perhaps to their TV sets are whipped into fervor and, uh, worship the beast and pay him divine honors. And he has his minister of propaganda described here as another beast. He spoke like a lamb, but sorry, he had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like the dragon. He was the mouthpiece of Satan himself. And it says of him, verse thirteen, that he doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. And he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by reason of the signs which it was given him to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast who hath the stroke of the sword and lived. And it was given unto him to give breath to it, that is to this image, even to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause that as many as should not worship the image of the beast should be killed. There you have this deception as talked of by our Lord in the New Testament, repeated by the Apostle Paul, now given to John in his visions. The end of this age is going to see a worldwide propaganda of deceit, and it will deceive millions. The revelation indicates that the period in which this deceit will be at its zenith will be a short period. The period is variously described. Let us look at chapter eleven and verse two, for instance. Talking of the temple, it says, and the court which is without the temple leave outside and measure it not, for it has been given unto the nations, and the holy city they shall tread under foot forty and two months. So it is described as forty two months, a short time in anybody's calendar. And then in verse three, I will give unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days clothed in sackcloth. That, if you work it out, twelve hundred and sixty days, taking a th- hundred and sixty day year calendar, as the ancients used, is of course the same as forty two months. It is three and a half years. Look at chapter twelve, if you will, verse fourteen: and there were given to the woman two wings of the great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent. You get the figure again, don't you? Time, that's one, times, that's two, and put together they make three, and half a time is three and a half. And once more in our chapter thirteen and verse five: it was given to this first beast to continue his authority forty and two months, three and a half years in all then. Now there are some who say, but Mr. Preacher, you couldn't take those figures as being meant literally. They are symbolic figures. Well, that is always a possibility in the book of the Revelation, isn't it? So symbolic of what? They say they're symbolic of the whole of the age from Christ, his birth, death, and resurrection, and ascension to heaven, and his coming again in power and great glory. Well, if you will ask me to see that that those figures, three and a half years, are symbolic of that whole period, I find it a trifle difficult, I do have to confess honestly, because symbols are meant to match somehow, aren't they? And to say that three and a half years is a very good symbolic, uh, symbol for what has proved to be nearly two thousand years strikes me just a little bit odd, but I must pay my respects to better theologians than I am, of course. Eh, but you see, then our Lord Jesus is, uh, on record as talking about this. In that same Matthew twenty four, he said that the deceit, uh, will be so overwhelming that if possible, they would, um, deceive the elect. So, unless those days had been shortened, no flesh had been saved, but for the elect's sake they shall be shortened. And here is our Lord saying that intense period of persecution and deception against the saints of God has, by God's own decree, been shortened. It is a short time. I can't see how two thousand years is a short time in anybody's book. So we are to think tonight of that specially short period at the end of the age. But you see, we must not fall into the opposite temptation, must we? Saying, well, thank the Lord, now that's in a period still to come. That's nothing to do with me. Oh, but it is my brother. It is my good sister, isn't it? For Satan won't start deceiving men, never having deceived anybody before, will he? It has his been his job from the very start. He has set state himself to it from the very, very days of the Garden of Eden, when he told his lie to our first parents, as our blessed Lord characterized him. He is a liar from the very beginning and stood not in the truth. He is a murderer from the very beginning. Lies are his special weapon. Cunning lies, beautifully attractive lies, but lies nonetheless, often sprinkled and coated with a modicum of truth, because that's the way to get people to swallow lies, isn't it? To coat the lie with the truth. And while they're swallowing the truth, they sli- swallow the lie that is enwrapped in need. And all down the years he's been at it. So are we told, we of this age, that those who are not yet saved, that the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel, who is the glory of God, should shine in to them. And Satan walketh about still, seeking whom he may devour, and will not hesitate to tempt us. For if he tempted our Lord, though ineffectively, of course, he will not stop at tempting us. He walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. And if he frightened Peter into temporarily denying his Lord, we must seek grace of God, mustn't we? But when we are tempted, we stand. So that we fight the same war, even if we fight on a different battlefield. And therefore, it is wise of us to listen to the Lord Jesus as he tells us how this war is going to proceed and what God's counter strategies are, and how we shall find strength ourselves in our war, as the saints of that day shall find in their war, to overcome Satan and his lies and his threatenings. You know, the, uh, fact is, according to chapter t- chapter twelve, the first great fact to notice is that this universal ruler shall set himself up as God, exalt himself above all that is called God, and demand divine honors of all his universal subjects. Does that sound, um, fantastic to you? A sort of an unlikely story, wild, overheated, uh, prophecy mongering or something? Well, it shouldn't do with its experience of history behind it, should it? Or history has recorded similar things from time to time, though on a lesser scale. They came against the nation of Judah in times BC, the armies of the great Assyrian emperor. And there was the king Hezekiah of Judah in his little handkerchief pocket sized state, and little Jerusalem perched up there on his rock, and the great armies of Assyria had flooded the land right up to their necks, so to speak. And the Assyrian sent his commander in chief to Hezekiah and to the people, and he put his loudspeaker to the mouth and spoke over the walls of the city and appealed to the people. They hadn't got the BBC to do it for them in those days. And he said, now look here, you people, don't be stupid. This Hezekiah, he tells you to stand there and resist my advance, and he tells you to trust in this Jehovah. Oh, come off it, do. Who is Jehovah anyway, this little tin pot god of yours? In fact, you've only got one god in your temple. The other nations that I've conquered, they've got glorious thousands of gods. There isn't a nation, but while I have subdued them and I've taken their gods, like a poacher takes a potterage out of its nest. And do you think your little God Jehovah is going to stop me? I shall come and take him, and you too. Don't let this Hezekiah deceive you that there's a God in heaven that you boast of is real, with supreme and absolute power. Ah, said all the provinces, he said, what time you hear the orchestra play, you are to bow down to my image. The old trick that emperors have used, wanting to keep together a shaky or ramshackle empire, and wanting not merely to get the people to keep the laws when he's looking, but to instill in their hearts a loyalty to the emperor and to the state. Having that need, emperors have not hesitated from time to time to try to take advantage of that loyalty of the human heart that should be given to its creator and to none else. Politicians and emperors have tried to filch it and divert the loyalty, the absolute loyalty that men owe to God, and divert it to the state. The Roman emperors did it, didn't they? Because the state was so multi-ethnic, with a thousand and one different religions and hus- customs and fashions. How was Augustus going to weld it together into a peaceful empire with the Pax Romana and get all these different nationalities living cheek by jowl to live in peace. He devised in the end this means that you should worship the emperor. He didn't mind what else gods you worshipped. He was an old a- uh, polytheist himself, but you had to offer your pinch of incense on the altar, watched by an official, and have the act authenticated and signed. You worship the emperor as God. The educated did it with their tongues in their cheeks, but they did it. And the poor went mad in their infatuation for the emperor that had brought them peace. No new idea, is it? And totalitarian governments in our own century have done it, haven't they? And done it more crudely. Take the great assemblage of nations that was the Soviet Union. They did their best to stamp out God, telling men that if only they got rid of God, they would be free. What a lie that was, wasn't it? And there came such an bondage enforced by the state, an obedience contrived by Stalin, who eliminated some sixty million of people, and people lived in fear. Of a secret, please. The state had taken over that part of the human heart where God alone should dwell. So it will happen in the future, but happen in a way that for extremeness is almost unprecedented. Pray notice that this isn't silly prophecy mongering and superstition. This is and will be the flowering of a harvest. You sow wheat, one day you'll reap wheat. You sow barley, one day you will reap barley. The signs that God offers us are not the superstitious signs of the prophecy monger, you know, nine cats had nine kittens all at once on the ninth of the ninth month of the nineteen ninety nine or something, and that's supposed to be some terrible sign. That's all nonsense, isn't it? God's prophecies are built on deeper principles. Where you have sown atheism, you will reap the deification of man. And I suppose the last one hundred and fifty years in our Western world have been remarkable for this, haven't they? We have taught, we've had our children taught in our schools, not just evolution as a possible theory, but atheistic evolution. Generations have been given the impression that somehow science has proved that there is no God. You can explain everything you see without God, they say. We don't need the theory that there's a God. We can explain the universe without, and because we can explain it all without any God, therefore there is no God. I invented a little analogy to show what that argument is worth. Suppose you've got some savages and they found somehow, uh, a Cadillac, you'll see, or better a BMW, much favored by the up and coming yuppies, up and coming yuppies, yes? And here was this engine going, they didn't know where the thing came from, and they listened to the engine, and then they saw the maker's name, old BMW. Well, that would be his initials, I suppose, on the bonnet, you see. And they said, listen to that, that's BMW in there making that car go. Listen to him. And when the engine ran nicely and sweetly, they thought BMW is pleased with us, and they offered a few sacrifices to it. And when he backfired, they said he's angry with us now, we must be careful how we do. They thought that old BMW, whoever he was, was inside the car, making it go. Well, then they grew up, these savages, and one day they knew enough to take the thing to pieces to see how it worked, and they looked through the whole engine, and there wasn't any Mr. BMW inside it anywhere. They said, how foolish we have been to believe that there's a BMW. There's no such maker. We looked through the whole thing, you can't find him anywhere. Logical? So that proved there was no car manufacturer. And suppose they had got over a Ford and they thought it was Mr. Ford inside making it go. And when they took it to bits, there wasn't any Mr. Ford inside, so they decided there was no Mr. Ford anywhere. The thing just evolved. That would be nonsense, wouldn't it? Absolute logical fallacy. Ah, but our good atheistic evolutionists say they can explain everything. They can't, of course, but they say they can, and they're aiming to, and what bits they haven't yet explained, they're going to explain, they tell us, and they won't need God to do it. Therefore, there is no God. That is a sheer fallacy of argument. Might well argue there's no Mr. Ford who originally made the car. And you'll see, not all, far from it, but carried along with that kind of tide of attitude to the universe that, by definition, science has to assume there's no God. People come to think that the science that results has proved there is no God. Sometimes the more extreme among them will say what Professor Lewontin has said in recent times and written it. He is a Marxist and a thoroughgoing atheist, and he's intent in one of his writings in explaining to the public how he is an atheist and fellow atheists and materialists go about their scientific endeavor. And we arrange our experiments, and we come to results that are counterintuitive, uh, and seem to be nonsensical. But we do it, he says, because we start with atheistic materialism. That's our presupposition. And we so work our experiments because we cannot allow a divine foot in the door. That's an atheist talking. Then they're pleased to tell generations of school children that science has proved there is no God. But I tell you, if you sow that in generations of people's minds, it will reap its harvest. The day will come when men who have given up the idea of God shall look around for someone to rule Earth and save it from the chaos of its military and economic threatened disasters, and they shall fall for a man of tremendous brilliance of genius, unbeknownst to them, perhaps inspired by Satan himself. And he will eventually come out in his true colors and demand divine worship. Does that sound fantastic? Oh, but do please remember, I was listening just to the recent little piece of news, weren't you, that a child has just been bought- born, absolute first in all the long history of medical affairs. A child born, conceived, and developed outside the womb in its mother's fallopian, uh, tubes, and has survived. And the learned were discussing this morning whether it would be possible, perhaps, to have children born that way in the father's body. And genetic engineering, thank God for it, for it brings us many, many advantages, doesn't it? But now, as they said this morning, man is, so to speak, beginning ever more to be in the position of playing God. And if there's no God out there, who shall take the ultimate decisions about human values? Someone will take them. Man shall take God's place, says scripture. And that is what theologian- uh, philosophers have been saying for a long while, haven't they? Old Feuerbach, he's old hat now, I don't know if anybody here ever reads Feuerbach, I hope not. But he, in his day, had a colossal influence on Marx, and what influence Marx has, I leave you to sum up. And Feuerbach says, you see, we don't need to believe in a God out there. When we talk about God, we're really talking about the human race as a whole. You see, says Feuerbach, man himself is too small to save himself. Don't we all know it before he told us? Man is too small to save himself, but take mankind as a whole, then mankind as a whole is absolute, almighty. And so when we talk about God loving us, all we mean is mankind loves us. And when we talk about God saving us, it's mankind that saves us. For man, says Feuerbach, man is God. And Marx believed it and acted on it. With what resultant slavery, as you know. Or here the famous American psychiatrist Eric Fromm, lived to well in his nineties, son and grandson of Jewish rabbis, himself an atheist and a Marxist, and a famous psychiatrist. And he writes in one of his books, the book entitled You Shall Be as God. He is a Jew says, you know that story in Genesis, Genesis chapter three, about how a man was tempted to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the suggestion you sh- was made, you should be as God. Says Eric Fromm, that was a marvelously good suggestion. He maintains that the word sin doesn't occur in all the chapter three of Genesis. It's a meant to be a good thing. So the old serpent was on God's side, I suppose. It was a good suggestion for the development of mankind. Man was to be strive to rise and become God, bowing down to any god in the sky, man himself being God. From famous American atheistic humanists. It is humanists in America that have turned the Constitution upside down so that in schools run by the state, you mustn't mention God. Education has to be completely God-free. If you sow these things, with the inevitable law that what you sow, you reap. Man will reap a world dictator who will eventually require them to give to the state, to the dictator, the loyalty that they would otherwise have given to God. It will lead to the deification of man. Ultimately, there's only a choice between two things: the truth and the lie. And they who refuse the truth that there is a true God shall fall for the lie. I assure you it's not my brain has got overheated. Let me quote you Sir Julian Huxley, who at the World, uh, Conference in Chicago of the Society of Evolution said, you know, what a relief I found when I discovered that there is no personal God, says Sir Julian. But now he says, I think we shall have to be careful, we evolutionists. You'll see, of course, evolution will one day automatically bring in a perfect paradise, but it could take a long while yet. Old evolution has taken a long while, according to him, multi-millions of billions of trillions of years to get us so far, and to get to paradise, we seem to be a long way off it at the moment, all agree. And to get to paradise, you'll see, um, it might take us a long while. And the trouble is, you know, some silly fool, much, much sense in his head or her head, is going to push the wrong button one of these days, the old atomic bot- button, uh, hydrogen bomb or something, and the whole thing go up in smoke before evolution has had the chance to bring in the paradise. That would be a pity, wouldn't it? So what shall we do, says Sir Julian? We must have another religion, says he. Oh, not religion with God in it. No, no, no, no, no, no. We must have some other kind of religion. Because, you see, a lot of people, they can't really feel great strong emotions and loyalties to test tubes, nor even to computers once I got used to them, you'll see. Uh, how, how could you, you know, really love a computer and say, I would do anything for you, dear computer? Of course not. Nor a test tube either. Men and women have something to love, to admire, to serve, if need be, to sacrifice themselves for it. God is that God. We were made for him. But take him away and start another religion. Now what will you have to take God's place? Can you think of things? Write in and suggest them. Well, start worshipping frogs, will you? Or animals like the old Egyptians. What will you worship then? You've got to worship something pretty up, couldn't you, mustn't you? They falsely, unfortunately, don't even believe in angels, so what will you worship? Think of the highest thing you can think of without God. And that's man, isn't it? This is not prophecy mongering. Seems to me nothing but sober truth. This is the God of heaven telling us that what you sow, you will reap. That is sorry stuff, admittedly. But, uh, and inspired by Satan. But now I pray you to come to happier things. I have been preaching to you, or commenting upon, really, section two on your sheet, what I have called the second trilogy. But you will notice that there is a first trilogy that comes before the second one, and that is exceedingly important, not only to its content, but to its significance. Because the second trilogy il- is painting what shall happen one day on earth, where Satan shall have his man, and Satan's man shall seem to achieve absolute and universal success. And before God allows us to think about that, he says, please step aside a moment, will you? We're taken up to heaven, to have an heaven's view of it. And there appeared a great sign in heaven, says John. And in the first place, there was the woman standing in pain, ready to be delivered of a man child. And there was the serpent, the old dragon, the woman, the serpent, and the dragon. And now it's God asking you to look at it as he looks at it. What shall we make of that first thing? I'm going to suggest to you that the three parts of this early trilogy are pointing out to us what is necessary if anyone is going to get universal dominion. Three things that will be necessary to do. Like an ar- an army, a general in an army who wishes to take a certain terrain, he knows he has to take certain strategic points, and if he can't, whatever ground he gains, he'll never be able to hold it. So here, before the rise of the beast, God is showing us his people that that kingdom of Satan will be founded on rotten foundations. And however much success it seems to come at, it will not be tenable, and in the end must fall. You see, this woman is there about to give birth to a man child who is destined to rule the nations. And Satan obviously is aware of what has been said by God's authority. And so he's standing in front of this woman, a great cat he is at the best. He's standing in front of this woman in that condition, about to be delivered of a child, to gobble up the child in its jaws the moment it is born. And we watch him there, can you see him, with those fearful jaws and those tongues and talons, waiting for the child to drop from its mother when it'll swallow it up. Satan will have won the day. But just in that very moment, when the child is born, before Satan's jaws can close around it, the child is caught away to God and his throne, and Satan goes away gnashing his teeth. He's lost it. They can't both rule the nations, can they? It's either this child will or Satan will. They won't both. Satan must capture and destroy him. If he can't, then he's lost, whatever else he does. Yes, but I must ask you to pause a moment. Can you see that woman in your eye, mind's eye? Towed with the sun beneath her feet and the stars and the moon. A heavenly portent this. And the child. What is this story? Who is that woman? And who's the child? Who's the child that she's carrying in her womb? Say, who is it? The child that's destined to rule the nations. Oh, my good friend, that woman is carrying God incarnate in her womb. This is the promise made to Eve in the garden and to the serpent. The seed of the woman shall crush the serpent's head. This is the promise that was given to Abraham and Sarah. Your seed shall inherit the gate of its enemies. The promise made through Isaiah to the house of David in his day, the virgin shall be with child and bring forth a son, and you'll call his name God with us, Emmanuel. This is the story how the human race, and eventually the Jewish race, brought forth a virgin, and in her womb was carried God incarnate. All pray the significance of it, see the significance of it in this cont- in this context. Here is God answering Satan's tactics. And what are Satan's tactics? He's going to defeat God. He's going to push Almighty off his throne, for Satan believes in God if his minions don't. He's going to push Almighty off his throne, and he's infatuating men with the idea that men can be God. Man has to climb up and be God. Infatuation of human pride. How will God answer that? You say, come on, God, get out of one of your thunderbolts and clutch him hard. No, no. How shall I overcome Satan when he's persuading man to climb up and be God? What, says God? I shall answer that move by God becoming man. Oh, the divine subtlety and wisdom. Yet that's the story, isn't it? That is the story. Against his arch enemy, a man in his rebellion trying to be God, says God, I'll answer that. I will become man. Oh, what a lovely story. That God was manifest in flesh, born into the human race, that one day Satan might come across the man, the God man, impervious to all his temptation, that should triumph. And how triumph? By promoting himself and glorifying himself and putting himself on a pinnacle and demanding that men worship him at the pain of death. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. How will he get men to bow at his feet? Well, here's the story, who being in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, wherefore God has highly exalted him. And should I ask you why this very night you bow at the feet of Christ? What has overcome your rebellion as a sinner, an enemy of God? Why do you give him the loyalty of your heart? Because he is exalted and a heavenly tyrant and compelled you? Or you say, no, no, no, no, the way that the God Almighty has got at my me and my heart is becoming man and dying for me at the place called Calvary. And I, the rebel, and the very God whose shins I kicked, died for me. Oh, what a mystery, they say. What a gospel. What divine wisdom. This is self-evidently of God. Mm-hmm. It has already worked, you know. Millions have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son, brought by a power that Satan never knew how to wield. And he gave himself to the cross, and God has highly exalted him beyond Satan's ability to capture. Satan's empire is doomed. I guess it's doomed another way. There is in a war broke out in heaven, we're told, second part of the trilogy. And, uh, Satan, the accuser of the brethren, was cast down. He accused them day and night. Did Satan, these people that are called the brethren, very widely spread they are. Uh, you'll say all true believers in Christ, and the believers of that final age too, brethren. Now, what is the point of Satan's accusations? Why should he bother? Hm. I'm not being insulting, but why should Satan bother to accuse you, eh, Wallow? Or me either. Ah, but God, Satan has a point with God, hasn't he? It is Satan's intention, it is God's intention that Jesus Christ should rule, but not just Jesus Christ. All Christ's people shall rule with him. Ephesians goes so far as to say that God has raised up the Lord Jesus, but not only he, but you as well, all believers in him, raised and seated in the heavenly places, far above principalities, powers, mights, and dominions. Satan says, no, you don't, God. No, you don't, God. Well, you can do it if you like. Uh, you have the almighty power to take these miserable sinners and put them on the throne of heaven. Do it if you want to, God, but I shall never cease to accuse you. How can you cast out us, Satan and his hosts, and put in place such miserable sinners as these are? Have you no morals, God? Don't you care for justice? What will God say? Ha, look, he was talking. Please keep quiet, Satan. Put you in the abyss. What have you right to talk about morals? It's not the point, is it? He can be the biggest old moral blackguard out if he could lodge an accusation against the brethren and it stuck in the presence of God. And the whole scheme of God's salvation is finished. What answer then. For we know our own hearts, don't we? It is said they overcame him. However did they overcome him? It doesn't say God overcame him, it says they overcame him. How did they overcome him? And all his accusations before the throne of God's holiness. They overcame him, that is Satan, by the blood of the lamb. Not as though it were some horrible, powerful smell or something that the demons don't like and so run away when they smell it. That's superstition, that is. When we talk about the blood of the lamb, we're thinking of that sacrifice at Calvary that atoned for human sin and is sufficient to wash away all stain before. All precious is that flow that makes me white as snow. No other name I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. I hear the accuser roar, things that I have done. I know them well, and God knows more. And Jehovah findeth none because of the merits of the blood and the atonement of Christ. I overcame him because they, uh, a word of their testimony, they refused to shut up. Huh. What right have I got to speak? Well, none in myself. For who am I? And yet I can testify this, that though I was the sinner, I have a right to speak because I'm not hiding myself. I'm telling you what God has done with a sinner, and if he could save me, he could save anybody. Yes. And I refuse to be shut up. And they love not their lives to the death. The fight is going to be severe, not merely in that coming day of great tribulation, but now. Who hasn't heard of our two, of our brother and his two sons, our Christian brother, missionary in leper work in India, set upon by fanatic Hindus, doused with petrol and burned alive in their truck as they slept. God has not promised any of us that we shall never suffer persecution. We overcome him, by God's grace, by willing, if need be, to give our lives. And then Satan tries to overcome this woman, figure for Israel, of course, to destroy the whole notion of Israel. He's tried it down the centuries. He will try it yet again. But God shall intervene to guarantee that Israel, the nation, shall never be wiped from the earth. But now, as we go, there is one last thing I call your attention to, and that is what we find in the Third Trilogy, and I only take a moment to deal with one of its, uh, uh, uh, paragraphs. We are told that when Satan came to set up his devilish kingdom, he stood upon the seashore and organized the rise of this universal dictator. And when he has, uh, done his worst, then the, uh, uh, the writer turns our attention and says, I looked, and there upon Mount Zion stood the Lamb. Ha, you see the change, don't you? Here's Satan down here on the seashore, organizing the world to his advantage, so he thinks, and he's forgotten to look up there on Mount Zion already there is the Lamb. And with him, one hundred and forty four thousand. You say, who are they? Oh, I'm not going to tell you. Don't know I would if I could, but I'm not going to tell you anyway, because the Bible doesn't tell us anyway. Why are we so interested in what the Bible doesn't tell us and forget to look at what the Bible does tell us? What does it tell us about them, these one hundred and forty four thousand? Oh, they're virgins. That is moral and spiritual virgins. They've lived for Christ. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes, in utter unsperving devotion to the Lamb and to his God. Follow him wherever he goes. They are a kind of a first fruits of God's creature, first fruits to God and to the Lamb from the earth, it says, the most beautiful. I say, I say, I say, I say, do tell me, how did the Lamb get these? How did he get this wonderful bunch of such devoted people given absolutely at a hundred percent to following the Lamb and serving his Father? How did he get them and where? Who says, uh, God, you'd like to know where, how I got them, how I got them? I bought them. You what? Bought them. Some English versions say he redeemed them. Well, that's not bad, but it's the ordinary Greek word for buy. I bought them, says God. I bought them out of the earth. Really? And then we remember the context. How did the second beast get the world to worship the first beast? Well, you said he demanded that they take, you see, the beast's mark in their forehead or on their hand, and if they didn't take the mark of the beast on their forehead and hands and bow down and worship the beast, then they could neither buy nor sell. Oh. And how did God get these? I got them from earth, he said. I, I, I went down to the marketplace and bought them. You did? Well, how did you manage to buy them? And now we meet a drama, don't we? And it's a contest for the soul and hearts of men. And the buyers are Satan and the beast. And on the other side, the lovely Lord Jesus Christ. And they bid for the souls of men. And what will Satan pay? Oh, dazzling money he'll pay. Bow down, young man, and worship me, and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. I'll give you position and honor and fame and pleasure. I'll give you anything you like. Bow down and worship me. But if you don't, let me tell you straight, you will not buy nor sell. I offer you life's necessities and all its pleasures and glories and material things galore. If you don't bow and worship me, I withdraw them. I withdraw your bread and your butter. Now, come on, Christ, you bid. What will you bid? Come on, God, what will you bid? Promise these people and outbid Satan. What will you bid them if they follow you? Palaces and all the rest of it. No, says Christ. I tell them straight. They may end up having nothing and losing life. What will you bid then? Says Christ, I bought them with my own very blood given myself. That is the struggle of the ages. That is the pivot of time and eternity. He buys us with himself and with his own blood. And you, I'm persuaded, have made the decision long since. You have decided who the fairest bidder is. And you said no to Satan. And come what sacrifice may, you have said yes to Christ. O Jesus, thou hast bought us not with pearl or gold and gem, but with thine own life's blood for thy diadem. Thank God that he's won our hearts, and one day, when the suffering is over, we shall reign with him. And now, blessed Lord Jesus, we pause that in the quiet of our hearts we might make our response to thee. O Lord, thou hast loved us and loved us unto blood, and thou hast by thy grace won our hearts. We would like to tell thee that we love thee in return and wish to s- follow and to serve thee to the end. Only, Lord, thou knowest our hearts. How often the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Take thy word, we do beseech thee, loving Lord. So speak it and speak it again in our hearts, and tell us of all thou hast done for us and paid for us, that we shall find strength and grace in return to stand for thee and fight the good fight of faith and live for thine honor and glory, so that at thy coming again we may rejoice with thee in the spoils of thy victory, for thine own name's sake. Amen.