The Word On World Affairs

Transcript

GRM 1164
06/26/2016
The Word on World Affairs
Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We're not in a regular study on Sunday morning at this point, so it gives me a chance to jump in and out of some areas of the Scripture. I want to look at an area today that is a review for you but reviews are good for us. These are exciting days for us as believers as we see what is going on in the world. I think it is important that we look at the world through our Scriptures, not look at our Scriptures through the world. We want to be careful that the Scripture is the foundation. But as we look at what the Scripture says and we look at what is going on in the world, these are amazing days. And we as believers ought to be excited, thrilled to see the hand of God at work in the events of these days and be reminded that Jesus Christ is coming again. And these are days of opportunity, days of salvation.

Let me look at two expressions with you in Scripture before we look into the subject at hand. The first is in Romans 11. It's in this great book on the doctrine of God's salvation. He talks about the nation Israel and the way we relate in this day to the nation Israel. In Romans 11:25 God says, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery.” A mystery in Scripture is something that had not been revealed before, that would not be understood apart from direct revelation from God. “So that you will not be wise in your own estimation.” And here is the content of that mystery. “That a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved.”

We live in a period of time when God, in His judgment on Israel for their unbelief, has set them aside so to speak. He has brought a hardening to their heart, a closed-ness to the truth of the salvation provided by their own Messiah, Jesus Christ. This partial hardening goes on while the fullness of the Gentiles is taking place. The fullness of the Gentiles is the period of time in which we live; it's the church age. It began in Acts 2, sometime around 33 A.D. We'll come down until the rapture of the church and the subsequent beginning of the seven-year tribulation. It's this period of time when God's program of salvation in the world focuses among the Gentiles. Now it doesn't mean Jews are excluded, it's a partial hardening. God in His grace is saving some Jews, but it is primarily a day of Gentile salvation. That's what the expression “the fullness of the Gentiles” means, it's the day of Gentile salvation and you better not miss it. This is the day when God is giving His opportunity, His blessing of salvation primarily to Gentiles, to some Jews but primarily Gentiles. When that day is over the focus will return to Israel and thus all Israel will be saved. And God's purposes for them as a nation will be fully realized. So remember that expression the fullness of the Gentiles, the day when God's salvation blessings are focused on Gentiles.

Come back to Luke 21, and this section is parallel to what we have in Matthew 24 when the disciples ask Jesus, “what will be the sign these things will take place and You will be returning?” Jesus mentions to them the coming destruction of the temple in Luke 21:6. Then they ask the question, “what will be the sign when these things are going to take place?” And there are going to be various signs. There are going to be “nations battling against nations” in verse 10, “earthquakes and plagues and famines and persecutions.” Now He is talking here about the time just before He returns to earth to establish His kingdom. Some of you have studied biblical prophecy, you know this as the tribulation, that seven-year period prior to the return of Christ to earth. The last half of that in particular will be a time of great suffering and persecution. Unbelievers will be persecuting believers, the Jews will be particularly the object of a program of annihilation but every believer in Jesus Christ will be subject to intense persecution in those days. It will divide families, there will be betrayal among family members. Verse 16, “you will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends. You will be hated by all because of My name.” And during that period of time will be the worst of times, the worst that ever occurred. Jesus said if He didn't bring that to an abrupt end by His return to the earth, there wouldn't be a person left alive on the face of the earth. So anyone who talks about things are going to get better and better are simply declaring that God is a liar. They have no clue of what the sovereign God says He is going to accomplish and thus what will be accomplished.

During this time there is going to be intense suffering for the Jews and Jerusalem. So you come down to verse 24, “They will fall by the sword, will be led captive into all the nations,” talking about the Jews in particular. This is the time, He says in verse 34, “Woe to those who are pregnant, to those who are nursing babies.” What a terrible time to have to try to escape intense persecution. You see parts of the world today where you see refugees leaving their cities, trying to take whatever belongings they can. But if you are pregnant, if you have a young baby, it is a terrible time because you are just not in a position to focus on getting away like you must. “Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles,” verse 24, “until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

“The times of the Gentiles” is the other expression I want you to note. It is not the same expression as the fullness of the Gentiles we looked at in Romans 11. The fullness of the Gentiles refers to the church age when God's program of salvation primarily focuses on Gentiles. The times of the Gentiles is that period of time characterized by Jerusalem and the Jews being under the domination of Gentile powers. So Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. The church age began, the time of the fullness of the Gentiles, in about 33 A.D. The times of the Gentiles with Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and so representing that nation being under the control and authority of Gentile powers began about 606 B.C. with the Babylonian captivity. In 722 B.C. the northern ten tribes of Israel were carried into captivity by the Assyrians. But the southern kingdom, Judah where Jerusalem is, remained. But in 606 B.C. the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar asserted their control, they conquered Jerusalem in Israel and then began the first of three deportations of the Jews.

This times of the Gentiles will continue all the way down until the Second Coming of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom. That's what I want to talk about with you. We live in an overlapping time, we live in the time of the fullness of the Gentiles. We also live in the times of the Gentiles. But the times of the Gentiles covers a broader period than the fullness of the Gentiles.

So we're going back to Daniel 2. We studied the book of Daniel not too long ago so I'm going to give you a test to see what you remember. No, we're going to review what we studied and hopefully will help you fix it in your mind. Just watching the news is encouraging and exciting for me as a believer, and for you as a believer. And we have had events take place which draw me back to the Scriptures. We see some turmoil in Europe as England has decided to exit the European Union, and it has caused a lot of discussion in the news. It's interesting to me how this all fits with what God unfolded over 500 years before Christ was born. And what seems like turmoil and confusion and causes despair and you can hear both sides going on, those that think it is a good thing that the European Union starts to break up and others who say this is terrible. You sit there as a believer and you watch all this and say, God has it moving right on schedule, moving to His appointed end.

What happens in Daniel 2, we’re just going to hit the highlights. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, is thinking on his bed one night, I wonder what is going to happen in the future. He realizes he conquered the empire before him, which conquered the empire before them. What is going to take place in the future? He wants to know what this dream means. He has a dream and it has this image and different parts in the image. So he calls his wise men and says, “tell me what this dream means. And first tell me the dream.” And they say, “O tell me the dream and then we'll tell you what it means.” Nebuchadnezzar didn't get to rule the mightiest empire of the time by being stupid. And he knew, if I tell them the dream and they say this is what it means, how will I know whether that's what it means or not. They could tell me anything. So he says, no you tell me what I dreamed because if you can tell me what it means, you can surely tell me what I dreamed.

Well you know the end result of that is Daniel is called and he tells Nebuchadnezzar what his dream was. Daniel 2:29, “As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future.” So Daniel by the grace of God not only can tell him what the dream was, he can tell him what you were thinking about before you had the dream because obviously God knows the thoughts of our minds. “And He who reveals mysteries,” remember mysteries, things that could not be understood apart from revelation from God, “has made known to you what will take place in the future.” And this is in the context Daniel has already told Nebuchadnezzar up in verse 20, “Daniel said, let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, for wisdom and power belong to Him. It is He who changes the times and the epochs, He removes kings and establishes kings, He gives wisdom to men, knowledge to men of understanding.” This is among his friends and he will make that then known down here to Nebuchadnezzar in verse 29, that there is a God who can “reveal mysteries” and this is the same God who “removes kings and establishes kings.” Keep this in mind.

We have the ruler of one country who has submitted his resignation. We'll be voting for the leader of a country in our country. Do you know who sets up the rulers and takes them down? All the hand wringing that goes on in the world that we know, and God sets up and takes down, sets up and takes down according to His plan.

So Daniel tells him the dream and basically what the dream is, is of a magnificent image of a man and this image is comprised of different metals, starting with a head of gold. Then it will move down to legs and feet of iron. The metals basically go from higher quality metals but weaker in strength to metals of lesser quality but greater strength, the iron being the strongest. So each of these parts of a man and the metal represent a subsequent kingdom, starting with Babylon. And we have the interpretation. Verse 36, after telling him what he saw he starts out. “You are the king of kings to whom the God of heaven,” verse 37, “has given the kingdom.” Note, the God of heaven has given him the kingdom. It is God who sets up kings and takes down kings, whether it's by an act of war or whether it's by a vote. God is in control. His purposes are accomplished and they can't be thwarted. The end of verse 38, “You are the head of gold.” He has given all the kingdoms into your hands, you rule now, you are the head of gold. So in this image the head of gold represents Nebuchadnezzar and the kingdom of Babylon.

Verse 39, “After you there will arise another kingdom inferior to you, then another third kingdom of bronze which will rule over all the earth. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron.” You see he moves rather quickly. He said a little more about Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar because he is talking to Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. So you have that in verses 37-38. In verse 39 he can talk about the second and third kingdom. Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron. Now here is where all the attention is going to be given, he's going to talk about that from verse 40 down through verse 43 in some detail. And then the climax will come when this image of man as Nebuchadnezzar saw it, back up to verse 34, “You continued looking until a stone was cut out without hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and crushed them.” Down in verse 35, all these kingdoms, they were crushed at the same time, became like chaff but the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

This carries us from the time of Babylon all the way down until the time Jesus Christ will return to earth and establish His kingdom which will never end. Now we are going to get an overview in Daniel 2, then we are going to get more detail in Daniel 7 and then centuries later we are going to get even greater detail in the book of Revelation as God unfolds how the course of Gentile powers is going to go. We ought to be aware of this, we live in this time. God has told us where we are going. Now if you take the Bible in a normal, literal way, you see this is where you have to come to. Many people don't. Some of you come from a Roman Catholic background, some of you come from a Lutheran background or different Protestant groups. Some of those say the kingdom that is pictured here is the spiritual kingdom established by Christ at His first coming. When He was crucified on a cross, He set up a spiritual kingdom ruling in the hearts of men. He is not talking about a spiritual kingdom here. The ultimate kingdom that Christ will establish will have a spiritual dimension, but it will be physical one on this earth, replacing all other earthly kingdoms. I hope nobody is here who thinks that has happened, that would be delusional.

Let's pick up. We know the kingdoms, we go from Babylon to the second kingdom pictured by the second metal and the other parts of the image, the Medo-Persian Empire that conquered the Babylonians. After Medo-Persia, sometimes we just refer to it as Persia because the Persians become dominant. Starts out the Medes were dominant and they become a combined empire and the Persians become the major players. Persia is replaced by Greece, this is just history. When Daniel writes it, it is future events because God knows the future, He has planned the future. Following Greece is Rome, and it is key because it is the empire in place when the Messiah comes to offer a kingdom and is rejected. Rome rules. When Christ comes back it will be the revived Roman Empire as we will see.

Let's pick up with this fourth kingdom, since we know about from where we are these other kingdoms—Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. The fourth kingdom, verse 40, “will be as strong as iron because crushes all things, like iron that breaks in pieces.” I mean, there was never an empire like the Roman Empire. Now we immediately move to the feet and the toes. “In that you saw the feet and toes.” You have a normal image of a man, you have the feet and toes partly of potter's clay, partly of iron. So we have a kingdom but as you get down to the toes it's a divided kingdom. The toes are partly of potter's clay, partly of iron. It will be a divided kingdom. It will have the toughness of iron and yet the brittleness of clay, verse 42.

You just watch the European Union discussion. Well, these are nations that for centuries had autonomy and the responsibility of a nation to look out for its own citizens. So they are upset, some of them, with the fact that now they have a centralized government in Brussels. They want to take back their power. You hear pros and cons on that from leaders in our country. Yet the other side is they have much more power when they are united together because they are a much bigger entity. And so commerce and that . . . And it goes on. I sit and watch the news and say, sounds like it has the strength of iron and the brittleness of clay. I'm not saying that is the fulfillment, but you understand the iron of Rome continues down into the toes. You say maybe the toes happened back . . . But the kingdom wasn't established, all the empires of the world weren't crushed and replaced with an empire that never ends. It hasn't happened. Unless you say we know that Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome were all literal, physical empires. Now you have an empire that comes and crushes all prior empires and replaces them . . . Well, that's spiritual, in the hearts of people. We still have wars going on, we still have battles for power, all of that. No, we haven't come to this, yet.

So we are at a yet future time. You keep in mind what happens in Old Testament prophecy. The Old Testament prophets did not see the period of time in which we are living. The period of time that we saw in Romans 11, the fullness of the Gentiles, is not part of Old Testament prophecy. That's why Peter writes, and we saw it in his letter, the Old Testament prophets couldn't understand how their Messiah they prophesied about could suffer and die and rule and reign in glory. It seemed it couldn't be both. Now we see it clearly, He came the first time to suffer and die, He'll come the second time to rule and reign. But that wasn't revealed. That's why Paul said in Romans 11, I want to make known this mystery to you—a partial hardening has happened to Israel because this is the time of the fullness of the Gentiles. That hadn't been revealed before. So Daniel's prophecy of what God revealed goes right on from the first coming of Christ to the Second Coming of Christ. Now it's not making a mistake, everything it says is exactly accurate. It just does not reveal that there will be a period of time there not revealed until a later period.

Verse 43 says, “In that you saw the iron mixed with clay, they will combine with one another in the seed of men,” they'll come together as on the human level but they will be divided because iron doesn't mix with pottery. So you will have that brittleness and that strength. But the iron is there. That's why we keep talking about a revived Roman Empire, encompassing at least the general area of where the old Roman Empire did. It is what we know as Europe and down around the Mediterranean. We say that will come together.

Now there are ten toes. You listen to the news, what do they say? Twenty-seven nations in the European Union? That's not ten. That's why you look and see all the turmoil and confusion, I don't know how that will all shake out. I know what the end result of the shake-out will be. How many fingers do you have? Ten. How many toes do you have? Ten. What does the Bible say? Ten. So I don't have to know how He is going to get us there, the connections, Daniel didn't have any idea. How is Babylon going to end and then Persia come and then how will Persia…? One way and another God moves it along.

So here is what we have, then verse 44, “In the days of those kings.” What kings? Well I take it what he has just talked about is the toes that are a mixture of iron and clay. Now he doesn't say they are ten toes, I said that. But it's an image of a man, talking about his toes. Some commentators say, it doesn't say ten. But later revelation does so we can be comfortable saying ten toes, I'll show you that in a moment. “In the days of those kings” the toes will represent kings. Not because I say so, but because God says so. And you'll see He is going to give further revelation to Daniel to clarify that. So he's talking about the toes and the kingdom they form, ten in an alliance has strength but it has weakness. “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed. It will not be left for another people.” We're not just talking about spiritual things, we're talking about physical things. “It will crush,” put an end to, “all these kingdoms, it will endure forever.” And the end of verse 45, “The great God has made known to the king what will take place in the future.”

Come over to Daniel 7. Later Daniel is given dreams and visions himself, and in this time he tells us he writes a summary of the dream and visions that he had. He mentions that in verse 1 and then he says this is the summary of it, what the Spirit directed him to write. And what he is going to see covers the same time period that was covered in Daniel 2, but with different images. Nebuchadnezzar got the dream, Daniel was given to know what the dream was, but Nebuchadnezzar saw the empires of the world as this majestic image of a man. Daniel will see a vision of the empires of the world, each one represented as a ravenous beast. And so he says “he was looking in the night vision,” verse 2, “the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.” I take it when he talks about the great sea he is talking about the sea of humanity because later in the book of Revelation when you get further information, we are told that the sea represents peoples. So we clarify as we move along.

Now the first animal he sees (there are four beasts coming up from among the nations) a lion, and it is described. And that is going to represent Babylon. Then another beast, the second one, representing a bear. That will represent Medo-Persia. And this bear is raised up on one side because as I mentioned it was the Medo-Persian Empire but the Persians come to be dominant. Sometimes just refer to it as the Persian Empire. “Three ribs in his teeth,” three major smaller kingdoms that they conquered. One was the individual who created money and that and brought great wealth to them. “I kept looking, and behold another one like a leopard. On its back it had four wings of a bird.” And this represents Greece. The leopard and the four wings, Alexander's empire, as you are aware, gets divided among four generals, following his death, and Alexander's empire was known by the speed at which he moved his armies. Different than the Persian armies, just the lumbering bear.

So all this conveys something centuries before it happens. But do you know where the emphasis is given here? To the fourth beast. Verse 7, “I kept looking in the night visions and behold a fourth beast.” And Daniel is going to ask for explanations in all this, but he is going to ask for the greatest detail, just look over in verse 19, “Then I desired to know the exact meaning of the fourth beast.” That's where he is drawn, the ultimate end that comes. But look at verse 7, “I kept looking in the night visions, a fourth beast dreadful and terrible, exceedingly strong and it had iron teeth. It devoured, it crushed, it trampled down and it had ten horns.” Now remember you had the iron representing Rome and it gets mixed with clay in its final form in the toes. We assume there were ten toes. And here you have the same information with a different symbolism. You have this terrifying beast, it has ten horns on its head, indicating the connection of the horns with the head. Just like the iron indicated the connection to the fourth kingdom, Rome. It had ten horns. Now we are going to get information that wasn't revealed in the older vision in Daniel 2.

“While I was contemplating the horns behold another horn, a little one, came up among them. Three of the first horns were pulled up by the roots.” And that carries us to the kingdom. We can jump down to verse 13. “I kept looking in the night visions, behold with the clouds of heaven one like the Son of Man was coming.” Son of Man, that's Christ's favorite name for Himself during His earthly ministry, Son of Man. The Jews recognized it as a title of Messiah, who comes to reign. Verse 14, “To Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is everlasting, will not pass away, will not be destroyed.” Same thing we saw in Daniel 2. So you see we have moved to the same climax but we have filled in details. Hasn't changed anything, it has just clarified. It's like a picture and the more details that are filled in, the clearer it becomes to you. That's what God is doing. Something maybe like a puzzle you put in and the more pieces that go in, the more clear the picture becomes. This is why we compare Scripture with Scripture, look and God moves along.

So now we have this fourth empire, Rome, and there are going to be ten that come out of it. So Daniel is distressed, verse 15, I didn't know what to make of all this. So he asks the angel to explain it to him. Then he says, verse 17, “these great beasts are four in number, they are four kings who will arise from the earth.” Well he said they “stirred up the great sea” in verse 2, “they arise from the earth.” These come from humanity. In Revelation 17 it says they are peoples, a different way of saying the same thing—the mass of humanity. We still talk about there was a sea of humanity, the earth. These are kingdoms that come from within the earth. There will be four, the saints of the Highest One will receive the kingdom. So there is a summary for you. These are four subsequent kingdoms and the end result, God's people will reign forever.

Well, appreciate that summary, I would like to know the more specific meaning of the fourth beast. That's Rome, and then the ten horns and then the little horn. Tell me more about that. “I kept looking,” verse 21, “and the horn was waging war with the saints and overpowering them.” This is that little horn. We had the kingdom of Rome, we had the ten-horn from of it, now we have the little horn and that little horn is “waging war with the saints and overpowering them until the Ancient of Days came and judgment was passed in favor of the saints.” So Daniel says this is what I see.

Thus the angel said, “the fourth beast will be a fourth kingdom on the earth, more powerful than all the others. As for the ten horns out of this kingdom ten kings will arise.” So no doubt the ten horns, the ten toes represent ten kings or kingdoms. A king and a kingdom will be used interchangeably. Again like we do, we would refer to the ruler of the country as representative of the country because his actions represent the nation he is representing. The ten horns, out of this kingdom, so it comes out of Rome. Ten will arise. In fact we get more specificity but in Daniel 9 he will say that little horn is tied to the people who destroy Jerusalem in 70 A.D. So we know we are talking about Rome. There will be ten kings or kingdoms and another will arise afterwards, he'll be different from the previous ones, he'll subdue three kings. He will speak out against the Most High, wear down the saints of the Most High, change alterations in times and law. He'll come to the point, no one in the world will be able to worship anybody but him, even the Roman rulers who had themselves deified. They just put themselves in the pantheon of gods. This guy will have no room for a pantheon of gods, he is the only god.

“They will be given into his hand for a time, times and a half time.” So the saints are going to be losing, if you will, humanly speaking. This person is going to be so powerful, it looks like the Jews may get annihilated along with any believing Gentiles. This will go on for a time, times and a half time; time, two times and a half time—three and a half times. What's a time? Later in Daniel and we'll go to Revelation, we'll be told that is three and a half years. The final period of time that we are talking about overall is seven years, that's the 70th week of Daniel talked about in Daniel 9. We don't have time to go there today, but that's the 70th week of Daniel, a seven-year period that climaxes with Christ returning to earth to establish His kingdom, being that rock that will crush all the kingdoms, the kingdom that is set up finally here in Daniel 7.

He'll have victory during this last three and a half year period, “the court will sit for judgment, his dominion will be taken away, annihilate and destroyed. Then the sovereignty, the dominion, the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, dominion . . .” You know there is no excuse for being confused on this. The days of Constantine, he merged the church and the empire and we've had a mess ever since in what we call Christendom. It's Roman Catholicism with a kingdom and the pope as the representative of Christ on earth, the earthly ruler. You combine spiritual and political power and any rulers there are ought to be subject to the pope. And there is no room for diverse religions where they could control things. That's why they had the Inquisition and all of that. Protestants got as confused because they thought they ought to have a Protestant political empire. A corruption of it all began with Constantine seeing that he could have greater power by merging the two. That's why we, as a church, believers, understand we are not part of this political process. We are looking for the kingdom that will be established. That doesn't mean we can't vote, but I'm not caught up in it. My citizenship ultimately is not of this world, as Paul wrote to the Philippians.
So that rule and reign will come.

Let's go back to Revelation. Now we go through the centuries of time. With Daniel we were 500-600 years B.C. The book of Revelation was written at the end of the first century, around 95 A.D. So centuries of time have gone by, and where we are going to pick up in the book of Revelation with chapter 6, that picks up with that seven-year period. And we're going to talk about the things that Daniel talked about. From Revelation 6 to the end of the book, do you know what we will do? We will get more details on that time of the ten toes or the ten horns, the ten kings, and the one king, climaxing with the return of Christ in Revelation 19 and the establishing of His kingdom in Revelation 20, the first phase of that kingdom being a thousand years but which moves into eternity in Revelation 21-22. And nothing changes but we get more clarity. This is not the only information that has been given prophetically, but we're jumping here for time.

So come to Revelation 12. And we're looking at revealing events around the middle of that seven-year period. The book of Revelation runs sequentially, this has brought us to the middle of the book of Revelation, talking about events here and what is going to go on from here. Verse 1 says, “A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars.” The Roman Catholic Church says this is Mary and if you see some of the pictures and depictions of Mary you will see her described this way, with the sun behind her head and the twelve-star crown around her head. It comes from this interpretation of Revelation 12:1. If you go back to Genesis 37, there are over 500 references, you remember when we studied Revelation, to the Old Testament in the book of Revelation. Why people were so confused in the book of Revelation is we are so unfamiliar with the Old Testament. We get confused. Genesis 37, and Joseph has a dream and remember he tells his dream to his family and it causes trouble. Now verse 9, “He had still another dream and related it to his brothers and said, I have had still another dream.” Now note this, “Behold the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” He would be the twelfth. “He related it to his father and his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, what is this dream you have had?” Who are the sun and the moon in this? Joseph's father and mother. So Jacob is the father. And the stars bowing down represent his eleven brothers. It represents the nations Israel, Jacob being the father. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they are the fathers and it's from Jacob's twelve sons then that we will have the twelve tribes of Israel. But it's Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. What does Jacob recognize? That the dream, you say you had a dream that indicates that we will all, the family, bow down before you?

So when you come to Revelation 12:1, “The woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars,” anybody who has read the Old Testament knows that is referring to the nation Israel. “And she is with child,” referring to the nation. Christ is born a Jew. “And another sign appeared in heaven, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns.” Ten horns, wait a minute. I remember that, Daniel 7, that terrible beast, on its head were ten horns. Now here is a red dragon, wonder what the red dragon is. That sounds a little bit like a fantasy. Well, picture something. Well, I don't know how to figure it out but if you read verse 9 it says “the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world.” So we know the dragon represents Satan.

And he has seven heads, where do the seven heads come from? Well remember we had different pictures. In Daniel 2 we had the kingdoms of the world represented by the metals in the parts of the man, the image. In Daniel 7 the kingdoms of the world were pictured by different beasts. But we didn't have this many. What do we have here? Well remember Daniel started from his day, saying to Nebuchadnezzar of the Babylonian kingdom, you are the head of gold. The first animal in Daniel 7 represented Babylon. But those aren't the first nations and the Bible is only concerned with nations that impact Israel. What is the first nation to impact Israel? Egypt. Where does Israel be developed as a nation? In Egypt. They go down as a family of 70 people and they come out as a nation of 2 million. What is the next nation to greatly impact Israel? Assyria. And in 722 B.C. Assyria carries the ten northern tribes away into captivity.

So the book of Revelation, John takes you back to the beginning of the nations that have impacted Israel. Now Abraham is the father of the nation but it doesn't move from being just a large family to a nation until the captivity in Egypt. So that's the nation you begin with. So you have Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. That's six. Then you have the ten kings or kingdoms, that's seven. So he has seven heads and we will have the eighth and it is going to be called the little horn. So Revelation gives you the full scope. So it's no conflict, Daniel just picked up at the beginning of his time, John goes back to the beginning with the nation Israel and Egypt and includes Assyria which greatly impacted the nation. Then he is going to carry us on.

So you have seven heads, ten horns and on the seven heads were seven diadems. A reminder that these are kings or kingdoms, the diadem is the crown of a king and stephanos is the crown of a victor. These are diadems. The tail of the dragon swept away a third of the stars of heaven, which may indicate a third of the angels in heaven followed Satan in his rebellion, and he attempts to kill the child that is born. You know the story of Bethlehem and Herod attempting to kill all the male children and so on. And the child ultimately is caught up to heaven because the crucifixion of Christ couldn't frustrate the plan of God. It accomplished the plan of God to provide redemption.

So “the child was caught up to God and to His throne,” verse 5. “The woman fled into the wilderness.” You see here now he has compressed the time. John is talking about the events for Israel in those closing days, he is summarizing the history for Israel. The church is not included in Revelation 6-19. He talked about the church in Revelation 2-3. During this period of time the church will have been raptured to heaven. He's talking about here particularly the nation Israel. Israel will have a place prepared in the wilderness, she will be nourished for 1,260 days. A prophetic year in Scripture is 360 days, so you divide 1,260 and you get three and one-half years. If we're not sure about that, down in Revelation 13:5 he calls is 42 months and 42 months is three and on-half years. Up in Revelation 12:14 he says the “woman flees into the wilderness where she was nourished for a time, times and a half time.” That sounds like Daniel, right? Time, times and a half time, which is the same thing as Revelation 12:6, “being nourished for 1,260 days.” That's not so difficult, you don't even have to have a degree in math to be able to go to this level. Even a preacher can do it. This is picturing what? The end here, we're moving toward the end.

Come to Revelation 13. “I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads.” That's what we saw with the dragon, having seven heads. What does that picture? This dragon has seven heads because where is the power behind earthly empires? It's Satan. That's why we don't expect earthly empires to promote or be supportive of the cause of Christ. Remember when the devil tempted Christ at the beginning of His earthly ministry? Fall down and worship me and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world, for they have been given into my hand. God ultimately reigns, but Satan is the god, small “g”, of this world. The futility of their thinking they'll manipulate the government, and this government will be . . . They have been given into the hands of Satan as he tries to create a kingdom that will prevent the kingdom of Christ from ever taking place.

So you come to Revelation 13. Ten horns, seven heads. On his horns were ten diadems, the heads were blasphemous names. These are the kingdoms and this is the climax of the kingdoms. Then you have the beast and he is an amalgamation. See verse 2, “He is like a leopard, feet like a bear, mouth like a lion. The dragon gave him his power.” You see you pick up elements from Daniel 7 and here is the culmination of earthly empires. You know the devil's goal started in the Garden of Eden with the temptation. I want creation to worship me and I will reign. That's what is going on today. The sovereign hand of God is even moving in the activities of all His creation to accomplish His purposes. You can't frustrate God's plan, but Satan relentlessly tries. And all his followers join in that.

“I saw one of his heads,” Revelation 13:3, “as if it had been slain. The fatal wound was healed, the whole earth . . .” Evidently this final little horn, and we know him commonly as the Antichrist, 1 John 2 talks about that, perhaps killed in the conflict, assassination, whatever. But he comes back to life. Do you think that won't get the world's attention? There is a person to be followed, it's “given him a mouth speaking arrogant words, blasphemy, authority.” You'll note it was given to him. Verse 7, “It was given to him,” at the beginning of the verse, at the end of the verse. God is in control. He is simply using the rebellion of the devil and his followers to accomplish His purposes.

“He makes war with the saints and it is given to him to be victorious.” During this last half of that seven-year period looks like the Jews and all believers lose. “All who dwell on the earth,” verse 8, “will worship him.” You'll note where we are going, we are going to world-wide worship of the devil. So if you ever had any hope for improvement, you are someone who ignores the clear truth of Scripture. “Anyone has an ear, let him hear,” pay attention. The book of Revelation is the only book that promises blessing on those who read and understand it and live in light of it. We ought to be living in light of these truths today, not think what are we going to do if so-and-so gets in, what are we going to do if we don't get the right Supreme Court, what are we going to do. We are going to do what God called us to do, proclaim His word, share His Gospel, prepare for His coming. Whoever said we ought to be about doing the devil's business? The whole earth joins in worshiping this little horn, this final beast. And many miracles are done and we have the number 666.

Come to Revelation 17 and we're at the end of time but I just want you to see you have the same thing here. Verse 9, we're just picking up, you'll have to read the first part of the chapter. “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits and they are seven kings.” The seven heads are seven mountains are seven kings, a mountain in Scripture pictures a king or a kingdom. That's why in Daniel that rock crushes the image and then it grows into a great mountain, a kingdom. And it's clear here, the seven heads represent the same thing as the seven mountains. They are seven kings or kingdoms. “Five have fallen”—Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece. “One is,” Rome. “The other has not yet come.” That's the ten-nation confederacy. Verse 11, “The beast which was and is not is himself an eighth is one of the seven.” That's right, he comes out of that ten-nation confederacy, but he is different enough, he'll be an eighth kingdom.

And verse 12, “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom.” As John writes this in 95 A.D., this is still future. So Rome ruled but we have that gap there until we are going to get to the final form of that kingdom. “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom. They receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, they give their power and authority to the beast.” So the religious dimension of this is covered in Revelation 17, the commercial dimension in Revelation 18. And you find a strong religious, so don't be confused. And we don't have time to go into that.

All this to say when we read the newspaper, we watch the news, we talk to people about what is going on, we know where we are going. We don't want to get drawn into the conversation, what a mess it is. What is going to happen? How is this going to back up from Europe to the United States? I don't know what is going to happen financially. Where is this world going to go if we get the wrong President and they appoint the wrong Supreme Court justice? We get caught up in the world's conversation. We know how it is going, it's going exactly the way God says. You know God says it is going to get a lot worse. Do you know what God says? He says we live in a time when He is graciously holding back evil to give men and women a chance to hear and believe His salvation. Peter is going to say that in his second letter. What has it taken so long for His judgment to be . . . God is patient, not willing that any should perish. This is a day of salvation. Why wouldn't people take advantage of it? Wrath is coming, Christ came to spare us wrath to come.

So we look at the news, we don't want to be drawn in. And then at work, our friends, what do we talk about? How bad things are, what is going to happen? We know that. The Bible told us it is not going to get better, it's going to get worse. And the worst is yet before us. That doesn't discourage us, doesn't mean we are glad people are rejecting Christ, but we're not surprised by it. It's exactly what He says. If we are getting close to that seven-year period, do you know what? We can expect and understand why things seem to be getting so much worse so much more quickly. Because if the church is removed in the next day or two, week, month things are going to go very quickly. God has laid it all out. We know the future, not because of our great wisdom but because of the great God who has revealed Himself and we read and believe. And thus are blessed and encouraged.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the riches of Your Word. Lord, what a blessing and a privilege to live in these days. And Lord, we would not be surprised if they become more difficult days for believers, individual believers in their jobs and their associations. Lord, as the devil works to arouse greater opposition to the truth, arouse greater opposition to You and the people that belong to You, Lord, may our feet be firmly planted, may our minds be filled and fixed on Your Word, may we count it a blessing to live in these days as we anticipate the return of Jesus Christ and be bold with the truth. May You be pleased to use us to bring others to the knowledge of Christ. We pray in His name, amen.