Revelation: The Spiritual Conflict and Christ's Victory

We have suggested suggested that the book consists of a series of seven Revelations or visions each one parallel to the other, each in a sense dealing with the same thing from a slightly different standpoint and aspect. We are suggesting that the theme is the history of the Christian Church from the first coming of Our Lord to his second coming, and the different aspects of the history of that period are herein revealed. [00:01:31]

In the first section, chapters 1 to 11, you are given an account of the conflict of the Lord Jesus Christ and his church against men, against human instruments, human beings that are opposed and antagonistic. You are told something of the nature of the conflict and how it ends in the Victory and the conquest of the law. [00:02:29]

The Apostle Paul tells Timothy, remember, yay, and all that live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and here it's prophesied in this book, and it's actually come to pass. It was already happening when John had his vision and when he wrote his book, so it is meant to encourage us and to comfort us. [00:05:06]

The trumpet series is not total; it is only partial, and we must bear that in mind because when we come to consider the series in connection with the seals in chapter 16, we shall find that the same things were affected in a total manner, no longer a third but the whole. But here, under the trumpets, it is only a third. [00:08:48]

A trumpet is a sound of warning. Trumpets always stand in the scriptures for warning, a warning of judgment, and a warning of punishment. And I suggest to you that what we have in this whole trumpet series is an account, as I say, of what happens to those who are opposed to God and His Christ and opposed to the church. [00:09:48]

The first Angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the Earth, and a third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. It's the same with the others: a third part of the sea and a third part of the creatures which were in the sea and a third part of the ships, etc. [00:08:07]

There is no question at all but that this whole trumpet series is a kind of parallel to the plagues you remember with which Egypt was afflicted for its treatment of God's people, the children of Israel, before they went out in the Exodus. You go back and read your book of Exodus, and you'll find that God visited them with certain plagues to warn them. [00:13:46]

There is nothing so sweet in this world as the gospel of Redeeming Grace, and when you first see it and appreciate it and know what it is, it brings to you a sweetness which nothing else in this world can do. But my dear friend, certainly and as surely as you become a Christian, and because you've become a Christian, because you eaten that word and masticated it and swallowed it, you'll get trouble. [00:26:01]

The two witnesses, you remember, go on preaching, but then they begin to be persecuted with terrible severity. Who are the two witnesses? Many, many answers have been given to that question, and I can't prove to you that what I'm going to suggest to you is the right one. You can't prove these things; nobody can prove. [00:28:36]

The law prepares for the gospel, and the gospel reflects its Radiance upon the law. You can't really understand one, as it were, without the other. They always go together, the two Witnesses. Yes, and they're persecuted in a most terrible and terrifying manner. Indeed, at the end, we are told that they're actually killed, and the world at this point is full of rejoicing and of exaltation. [00:29:58]

The nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the Dead that they should be judged, and that thou should us give reward unto thy servants, the prophets, and to the Saints and them that fear thy name, small and great, and should us destroy them which destroy thee Earth, and the temple of God was open in heaven. [00:33:42]

The second section, as I've already reminded you more than once, goes on to deal with the same things again but shows us all this at a very much deeper level. There, at the beginning of chapter 12, you remember, you go back again to the Incarnation, the man child that is born of this woman, the woman isra he was born of the seed of David according to the flesh. [00:35:02]