Understanding Revelation: Assurance of Christ's Triumph

"Now that is I think a very important matter that we should have that division in our minds so I'll repeat it again one to 3 4 to 7 8 to 11 12 to 14 15 and 16 17 to 19 20 to 22 and there I think I was able to establish there is an obvious parallelism in other words you get that repetition as I've just reminded you of those elements in the whole story of the Christian Church from the first coming of Christ to the second come Christ himself with his people but is a people undergo certain experiences there are those who are against and then you end in each section with the last or with the final judgment." [00:21:24]

"Very well we can therefore lay it down that there is this parallelism this repetition in a number of sections but there are certain other facts which I want to put to your consideration which support that contention and which help therefore to substantiate it there are certain other repetitions for instance you will find that the same time factors the same figures symbols represent in time are used in certain of the sections in for instance the Section chter 8 to 11 and the section CH 12 to 14 for instance in chapter 11 the 2 verse you have a a reference to 42 months in the third verse of the 11th chapter you have 1,260 days which is again actually 42 months but there are those figures then in ch 12: 6 you noticed in the reading we had again 1,260 days and in the fourth chapter we have time times and half a time again you see a year two years and half a year three and a half years again 42 months again 1,260 days again and in the third the fifth verse of the 13th chapter there is likewise a mention of 42 months 3 and A2 years again and 1260 days once more now the same figures are used the same duration is indicated of what I suggest to you were the same events so that there is a repetition a parallelism what has already been said in one form is being said again in a different form surely an important bit of evidence then another very striking bit of evidence and perhaps one of the most convincing of all is this that if you read the account of the blowing of the trumpets in chapter 8 been and the pouring forth of the vials in chapter 16 you will find that the same things exactly refer to you do this at your leisure read chapters 8 and n which record what happens when the trumpets are blown and chapter 16 which records what happens when the vials are poured forth and you'll find that they have reference to exactly the same thing it's the Earth in the first trumpet it's the Earth in the first vow it is the sea in the second trumpet it's the sea in the second V it is the rivers and the fountains in the third trumpet and the exactly the same in the third V then it is the sun in the fourth trumpet and the fourth vial in the same way and then it is the seat of the beast in the fifth trumpet seat of the Beast likewise in the in in the fifth vile and lastly the river Euphrates in the sixth trumpet and the river Euphrates in the sixth fire now that surely is something that ought to engage our attention at once why the same thing oh why is it the same things that are affected no now that I say is a very powerful argument to support this contention that there is this principle of repetition or recapitulation or parallelism whichever you like to call it that the book is a book in which the different sections seem to be concerning the same things but looked at in a slightly different way and in order to bring out a particular and a differing aspect of the truth now there is a very bit good bit of evidence and in the same way you will find that there is reference to the battle a great battle which is to be fought and it's called in the original the battle you will find references to that in chapter 16 12th verse chapter 19 19th verse chapter 28th verse same battle obviously if you check these references you'll see exactly what I mean the same thing is being spoken of on the three occasions but in a different kind of setting in other words three times over the story leads up to this same battle now I do trust that as the result of the evidence which I put before you last week with this supporting and additional evidence this even I am establishing in your minds this principle common to all of repetition or of recapitulation or parallelism and of course it's a very interesting thing to observe that this is something which is not unusual in prophetic literature let me give you one example to show you what I mean take for instance the book of The Prophet Daniel now in the second chapter of Daniel's prophecy you remember you have an account there of that great image which is divided into different sections The Head and the trunk and so on and the feet and ending off with the toes now that picture is the question ref has reference to precisely the same thing as you read of in the seventh chapter of De now everybody's agreed about that nobody disputes it at all chapters 2 and 7 of the the book of The Prophet Daniel are obviously describing exactly the same great Empire istion with which the children of Israel were going to be concerned and everybody I say is agreed about it there but there are so many who accept it in the Book of Daniel and can't see it here now why did Daniel do that well the answer is of course that though he is really saying the same thing he says it in two different ways and repeats it because he's got additional things to bring in in chapter 7 over and above what he said in Chapter 2 now that's very typical of the prophets they all tend to do that they kind of make a BAL statement about a thing then they'll come back to it and take it up put it in slightly different terms different symbols and add to what they've already said the principle of repetition seems to be a characteristic of all prophetic writing very well then now there is what I would call a kind of General analysis of the Book of Revelation may I remind you again as to what I'm attempting to do in these discourses at the moment I am not proposing to take you through the Book of Revelation in detail that would be a very inappropriate thing to do in a course of addresses on biblical doctrines yeah if I wanted to do that well I should announce a series of addresses going right through the Book of Revelation that's not my purpose I'm simply concerned that we may have the general message of the book especially in its relevance to this question that we're considering of the time of the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ so I I'm trying to give a kind of outline of interpretation leaving the detail to be filled in well having gone so far I propose next to make this statement that while it is clear in this way that the book is divided into seven sections which seem to be dealing with the same matter the same events it is equally clear that you can divide up the whole into two sections in other words the seven sections can be grouped again into two big divisions and the dividing point of course is the end of chapter 11 and the beginning of chapter 12 so that I suggest to you that you can think of the book in this way the first big section consisting of chapters 1 2 and 3 chapter 4 to 7 chapter 8 to 11 three of our seven sections go into the first big section then you've got your second big section consisting of our four subsidiary sections 12 to 14 15 and 16 17 to 19 20 to 22 now why do I say this well I say this because it seems to me that the Book of Revelation itself insists Upon Our saying it and for this reason say which is of take this 12th chapter which we read together just now is it not perfectly clear that that chapter takes us back to the beginning of the Christian era it takes us back to the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the one who is described here as a Manch child who is brought forth but you remember what we were told that the devil had decided even before he was born that he would try to kill him the moment he was born and we remember of course from the gospels how we try to do that through King Herod Etc very well then here is the Lord Jesus Christ born and the devil tries to kill him but doesn't succeed at the beginning then we are told that this Manchild is taken up into heaven caught up unto God and to his throne surely a perfect account of the resurrection and the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and in connection with that you remember we were told that there was war in heaven and that the devil was cast out that great Dragon was cast out that old serpent called the devil and Satan and you remember how our blessed Lord himself is recorded in the 12th chapter of John's gospel as saying now is the Judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out you see the correspondence and it did happen at that time so that the death and resurrection of Our Lord are accompanied by the casting out of Satan from Heaven to the Earth as our Lord had said it would happen there in the 12th of John well then you remember the account goes on to say that the devil then turns his Venom and his wroth upon the seed of the woman and the seed of the woman at this point is obviously none other than Christian people those who belong to the son himself the Manchild whom she brought forth the devil begins to persecute the church now that is surely the reading of chapter 12 it gives an account thus of the Incarnation the devil's attempt death and resurrection and then the devil turning upon the CHR Christian Church the Israel of God you remember we are told that the man child is born of this woman in other words he did come of the seed of Abram and of the seed of David he was born of Israel the Israel of God and the church is now the Israel of God he's come out of this Israel in order to redeem this Israel born according to the Flesh of the seed of Israel and of the seed of David and so on very well now I mention all that in order to show that it seems perfectly clear that the book takes us back again to the beginning in chapter 12 the and therefore it suggests very strongly that there is this major division the first 11 chapters the second 11 chapters the dividing point being the beginning of chapter 12 well now then ask someone is there any difference in these two sections I suggest there is a very marked and a very striking difference and a most important one for us to observe from the standpoint of the interpretation of the book what have you got in the first section well in the first section you have got an account of the struggle of the Christ himself and the church against men against unbelieving men against unbelievers it is the great account of the struggle between Christ and his church and the world the world of men that's the message of the first section but you see when you come on to the second section beginning at chapter 12 what you've got here is not so much the struggle of Christ and his church against men unbelieving men what you've got here is the struggle of the Lord Jesus Christ and his church against the powers that are behind the world the powers that are behind evil men the devil and all his assistants and Associates you see he's not mentioned until this chapter 12 he's there of course behind men but we're not told that until you come to chapter 12 now this therefore is surely a most important Point well this is how he put in this chapter we are given the beginning of this struggle the devil first of all turns all his power against the Lord Jesus Christ the gospels tell us all about that how the devil tempted him in the wilderness tempted him in the garden came back to him having tried to kill him at the very beginning but then as I say he turns himself against the church so that this second section therefore is really taking us over over the same history as the first section only that it shows us The Struggle at a deeper level it's the same struggle but in the first section we are only seeing it in terms of men in the second section we are seeing it in terms of the principalities and Powers the rulers of the darkness of this world spiritual wickedness in high places and how important it is that the Christian church should understand this we all of us know something about persecution we all of us know what it is to be confronted by people who are unbelievers anti-christian and how difficult they can make life for us at times yes we know all that but that isn't the whole story we need to be enlightened to the fact that these men and women these persons these individuals these human beings are but being used used as the instruments of great Powers behind it all you see the Bible so impresses this truth upon us that it is the devil who's fighting God that's the ultimate of it all life and our trouble is so often that we fail to remember that and therefore we become confused and we can't understand things what you and I see with our Naked Eyes is simply the visible part of a great great spiritual war that is going on as it were in another realm and simply using us as it were almost as its instruments so that in a very interesting way therefore we find that in this book of Revelation we are given the surface picture and the deeper picture it's the same thing it's the same history that's why you get your recapitulation your repetition that's where you get your parallelism but you see it here on the surface in the first section beneath the surface with this Mighty background in the second section believe on the Lord now if you look at it like that I think you'll see at once that there is no more important book for us in the whole of the Bible in the Book of Revelation what's its theme well its great theme is this it is concerned to unfold to us the great struggle between the Lord Jesus Christ and his church and his people people with these Powers headed up by the Devil Himself and his instruments and Associates whom he is using against us but thank God the book can doesn't uh present itself to us merely in order to give us that picture its ultimate object is to show us the final Triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ and his people truth and that is why you see it does that in every single section it doesn't want us to wait until the end for the victory in every single section you're LED on to the victory you told yes this is going to happen to you but it's all right he's with you and you're going to Triumph and Prevail its purpose I say is to unfold to us the glory of the Triumph that is certain to be ours and the assurance that even in the meantime though the world may treat us very Cru and though it may even kill us it can never separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our lord so that this book you see is a book which in its own pictorial dramatic manner tells us exactly the same thing as the Apostle Paul is saying in the 8th chapter of the epistle to the Romans it's the same message the same message which you get in all the scriptures and you see the Book of Revelation is no longer a book merely for some people who are going to be here on Earth after the Saints have been Suddenly raptured It's a book which speaks to us and our present condition it has spoken to all ages of the church because they've all had to go through these things and thus it becomes a living and a real and a spiritual book and then you see if you go back and read it again in the light of all this you'll find you Lear understand it in an entirely new way so plain because it not only tells you what's going to happen it tells you what you've got to do to overcome it warns you what's going to happen to you if you don't obey it and if you don't carry out its precepts so that it's no longer a sort of jigsaw puzzle about times and seasons and dates and enable you to talk cleverly about political events and so on and so forth no it's a spiritual book that speaks to your heart to your experience and that helps you to live from day to day it's got warning it's got instruction as well as its consolation and thus it becomes one of the most practical and daytoday vital books in the whole Canon of Holy Scripture does matter what well now then there is I suggest to you a general statement concerning the analysis of this book and a sense what is I was tempted to leave it at that and uh to leave you to work out the details for yourselves but let me go a little bit further let me try to suggest to you some other broad headings which may be of value in the detailed interpretation take that first section now in the light of all this chapters 1 to three what have you there well you've got there a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ among the churches the Saints the Lord Jesus Christ with his people well what are these seven churches are they just seven particular churches that were in existence then or are there some would have us believe descriptions of the general state of the church in different eras and periods and epochs in a chronological sense I suggest to you that they're not but that seven again is the perfect number that is used to give us an account of the whole state of the Christian church in other words I'm suggesting to you that if you read your church history you will find in the church Universal on Earth churches conditions amongst Christian people corresponding to what is described in the letters to the seven churches it's true today of there are churches today like the church at Ephesus there are churches today like the church at SMR and all the rest of them Philadelphia Leo Leia and all the rest of they're always present there are always pictures to be found in the church at any time corresponding to what you read in the seven churches and that is why you see the letters to the seven churches are always up to date I will go further I am quite certain that in this congregation at this moment there are people who correspond to what you read in the description of the seven churches I am in all these different states and conditions you you always find them they're always there it's a picture of the state of the church from the first coming to the second coming is not the condition of the church only at the end before our Lord comes surely before the Protestant Reformation you had led the SE to Perfection and you've had it in the Protestant Church many times since the church in this country before the Evangelical Awakening of 200 years ago was typical leysia and it seems to me to be monstrous to suggest that the leod dean and state of the church is only now being entered into it's been there all from the very beginning and to be seen at any time and the same is true of all the other descriptions of life in the churches well very well there is in essence the first section and you see start with that and the details will be easily worked out what about the next section chapters 4 to 7 there was a very great well you remember this starts off with those two great and glorious chapters four and five where we are given the great scene in heaven that without he calls fear where we are given some dim picture of the glory and the might and the majesty and the greatness and the Holiness of God and that IDE and then this great question of History arises this book with the seals and nobody's strong enough to take off the seals it's all right John is told when he begins to weep because he couldn't see anybody big enough and great enough an angel tells him it's all right the lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed the Lord Jesus Christ and John looks for this lion to appear and what does he see a lamb as it had been slain yes it's the crucified Lord who risen who is the Conqueror who is the great king Eternal and he because of what he's done has become the Lord of history as Paul tells us in the second chapter of Philippians because he humbled himself even to the death of the Cross wherefore God ha highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every other name you've got it at the end of the 28th chapter of Matthew he is in control L I am with you even unto the end all power has been given given unto me it's the Risen glorified Lord there he is in chapter 5 in other words we are told that he is the Lord of History he controls history he is the master of history and I know of nothing more consoling and that's what makes this book of Revelation so wonderful before it begins to tell you of the things that are going to happen to you as a Christian it starts by in you that your lord is on the throne the result of all this is that that he is the master and that he is reigning until all his enemies shall be made his foottoo the people to whom John wrote the book were told that and they needed to be told it they were living and were being persecuted by the Jews at one time now the persecution by the Roman Empire had started they were going through terrible things and do you think John simply wrote to tell them of something that might happen after 2,000 years at past how would that help them it would almost be to mock them no no John's writing to tell them what was already happened but he tells them your lord is there and is's in control of history but I can't fren well now then having been told that what does he go on to say well something like this he brings us now in chapter 5 to the opening of the seals and in the first seal you see a Rider on a white horse with a sword who is he I think I can say well I as for the reason I've already given you I can't stay to argue it tonight though I could argue it and give reasons I suggest to you that this is none other than the same person who is described in the same way in the 19th Chapter of this same book he is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ himself he's the rider on the White Horse and that's why it is a White Horse He sets out as it were with the gospel he sends out his word so I'm not concerned about these these aspects of and what follows my statement well he's already told us himself what to expect when he sends out his word you remember how he put it he said think not that I am come to send peace on Earth I came not to bring peace but a sword what's he going to do he's going to set a man at variance with his father and the daughter with her mother and all the rest of it you'll find it in the 10th chapter of The Gospel According to St Matthew he prophesied that the effect of his coming was going to be division he comes with a sword you see on his White Horse yes and he's followed therefore by the second horse and here is again another sword what does this mean well this is a picture this red horse of the way in which Christian people because they're Christian are persecuted yes even slaughtered killed it seems that the word in the Greek here carries the idea of slaughtering it's a short sword that's a Broad Sword it means a personal direct attack it isn't referring to a great big General War it refers to persecution of the Saints even unto death and hasn't that followed didn't it happen to the Christians in the early centuary reason were they not butchered and massacred and murdered simply because they were Christians no other reason our Lord has told them here that it was going to happen to them the rider on the red horse follows the rider on the White Horse that's the order the word goes out then comes the opposition if you don't come down quickly y says Paul in a word to his young follower and disciple Timothy yay and all that live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution some of them will even think they're doing God's service when they put you to death says our Lord in another place well there it is the red horse follows the White Horse what about the next well the next you notice he is not a picture of fine as some interpreters would have us believe should be frightened but it is a very Vivid picture of suffering as the result of poverty there is wheat and there is wine and oil yes but only the rich people can afford it and Christians were very poor people most of them were slaves at the beginning they were poor people and they've been poor generally ever since for this reason that because they're Christians they've had to suffer in this world many of them lost employment because they wouldn't say that Caesar is Lord not many wise not many noble are called says the Apostle no no it began amongst the slaves and the poor and when difficulties arose they hadn't the money to pay for the wine and the oil the others had the money and therefore they could buy it it isn't fine but it does suggest shortage and poverty and if you read the long history of the Christian Church you will find that it is so often been true there is no then the next picture of course is a picture that's the which is that of war leading to death now it isn't persecution so much now as literal War Warfare sometimes religious War the great clashes and the Christians are involved in it you see all these seals are an account of what happens to Christian people they are descriptions of the suffering of the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ those who receive this word that he sent out and they're involved in these wars so that you go on to the fifth seal and there you're given a picture of certain Souls under an altar crying out how long oh Lord you see it's very natural the Christian people who have been described as suffering in the way have just been indicated to you they cry out and say how long is this to continue how long are you going to allow these enemies to do this to your people how inevitable it is how naturally it follows that's the fifth therefore then thank God we go on to the Sixth Seal where we are given a great and dramatic picture of judgment upon these terrible powers that are opposing Christ and his people you we read about the sun becoming black as sackcloth often used in Prophecy as a picture of judgment and the moon becoming as blood and the stars of Heaven falling this is just a dramatic way to describe a great cataclysmic judgment and the heaven departed as a scroll as it is rolled together and every mountain and Island were moved out of their places listen to this then and the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the Mighty Men And every bondman and every free men hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains and said to the mountains and to the Rocks what will this fall on us and hide us from what amazing answer hide us from the face of him that sth on the throne and from the wroth of the land for the great day of his WTH is come and who shall be able to stand you see we've been given a picture of what happens to God's people throughout the whole of the Christian e leading up to that final judgment now then that's the meaning of the message of the seal but I would remind you that we are given also that glorious statement in chapter 7 which is still a part of this particular section you remember yeah we are given this wonderful Assurance terrified they trembling that all these Great and Mighty and terrible things are going to happen a great God knows his own before the seventh seal was broken we read this and after these things I saw four Angels standing on the four corners of the Earth holding the Four Winds of the earth that the wind should not blow on the earth nor on the sea nor on any tree and I saw another Angel ascending from the East having the Seal of the Living God and he cried with a loud voice to the Four Angels to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the Sea saying this is the promise hurt not the Earth neither the sea nor the trees till we have sealed the Servants of our God in their for Tred he was filled that's a description of the Christian in other words before these last judgments are going to come upon the world God's people are to be put safe a seal is to be put on their father the prach how many are there well you're told that they were 144,000 and I heard the number of them which were sealed and there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel what was it it was but you said well then that's Israel after all it isn't Christian people likewise and how surely my friends I need scarcely remind you again that this is a book of symb and lest somebody may think that it is a description of literal Israel listen to what you read in the ninth verse of this same seventh chapter after this I beheld and low a great multitude which no man could number of all Nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood Before the Throne and before the land clothed with white robes with Palms in their hands in other words it's a symbolical figure know to suggest that it means 144,000 Jews only is really almost to make the thing ridiculous what is it what is this 144,000 well if you take the customary meaning attached to biblical Sy symbols you'll find this the number three stands for the Trinity god father Son and Holy Spirit four the four Beasts for instance represents the whole earth of mankind you multiply 3x4 what you get well you get God the Father Son and Holy Spirit concerned about the whole world there's your 12 but they were concerned about the old world the 12 tribes of Israel you see you've got 12 in the Old Testament you've got 12 Apostles in the new test and you have 12 12s and that comes to 144 but it's 144,000 what's a th000 well a th000 is 10 Cub 10 is a number of completion always in the scripture 10 means a complete number you work through this book of Revelation and keep your eye on the figure 10 and you'll find it's always meant to represent a whole a completion 10 cubed is perfect abs absolute completion so I suggest to you that 144,000 means just that it means the saving work of the Blessed Holy Trinity the Saints of the Old Testament the Saints of the New Testament the New Testament era all of them brought together and absolutely perfect and complete chapter 7 in other words is a description of all all the glorified Spirits in heaven whether they were Jews or Gentiles it matters not what nation or Kingdom or language or tribe they've come out of they're Christ's people and they're all safe and they are all with him and shall spend their eternity in his holy presence well we've got to leave it at that point our time is gone but thus I'm trying to show you in detail how these big principles that I've indicated to you can be worked out and God willing we will continue with this next Friday evening we do hope that you've been helped by the preaching of Dr Martin lyd Jones all of the sermons contained within the mlj trust audio library are now available for free download you may share the sermons or broadcast them however because of international copyright please be advised that we we are asking first that these sermons never be offered for sale by a third party and second that these sermons will not be edited in any way for length or to use as audio clips you can find our contact information on our website at mlj trust.org that's mlj t.org" [00:56:56]