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Looking at the Lamb of God, what
a wonderful theme to think about from eternity past into eternity
future. And it's a wonderful theme that
we have before us this morning too, the reigning Lamb. So let's
turn in our Bibles to Revelation chapter 17. It would be good if you just keep your
Bibles open in front of you. Although we're looking at Revelation
17, and we're also looking at other parts of Revelation 2,
so it would be good for you to follow along. But let's read
now Revelation 17. And there came one of the seven
angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto
me, Come hither, and I will show unto thee the judgment of the
great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings
of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he
carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw
a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious
stone and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand. full of abominations
and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman, drunken
with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered
with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore
didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery
of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath
the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was
and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go
into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth
shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life
from the foundation of the world when they behold the beast that
was and is not and yet is. And here is the mind which hath
wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains
on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings. Five
are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come. And when
he cometh, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was
and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven, and goeth
into perdition. And the 10 horns which thou sawest
are 10 kings which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive
power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind
and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These
shall make war with the lamb and the lamb shall overcome them.
For he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with
him are called and chosen and faithful. And he saith unto me,
The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the
ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the
whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her
flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts
to fulfil his will, and to agree, and to give their kingdom unto
the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest
is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Amen. May the Lord bless the reading
of his own precious word. Let's now have a moment of prayer. Let's pray. Oh Lord, we do give thee thanks
that even when we come to parts of thy word that have details
that seem very difficult to understand, Yet we know that the message
is clear and simple enough. And that the things that we need
to know for our salvation are abundantly clear in thy word. So clear that even young children
can understand Jesus Christ came into the world to seek and to
save sinners. Bless our time now, we pray,
Lord. Bless this conference. Bless our young friends here. We pray that they would have
an enjoyable and safe time, but also a blessed time. May they
come to behold the Lamb of God. that taketh away the sin of the
world, and see the reigning Lamb now, and see the worthy Lamb
later. As Pastor van der Swaeg speaks
again, we pray, Lord, that all the talks and the talks yet to
come would be blessed to us all. We're thankful, Lord, that we
have such a conference as this. And we pray these things all
for Jesus' sake. Amen. Well, like we just prayed, there
are many things, aren't there, in the book of Revelation that
are, at first glance, quite puzzling, aren't there? There are vials
and beasts and certain timings, numbers, that might seem strange
to us. But as we said also in the prayer,
there is an unmistakably clear message that is running through
this book of Revelation. And just by the way, it's always
good, especially when you come to difficult parts of Scripture,
say like Leviticus or Ezekiel or Revelation here. It's always
good to, as it were, step back. And even if you don't understand
all the details, it's good to ask the question, what is the
picture? What's the impression that's
being painted? And the picture and the message
here in the whole book of Revelation is very clear. And it's the fact
that Jesus Christ is reigning. He is on the throne. and all
his enemies will be destroyed. That's the clear message of this
book. And that's not the message that
you might get from looking at the world today. It's not the
message, it's not the impression that the news will give you today. You look at the world around
you and you might think that evil is reigning, evil is on
the throne. People in high places of power
are calling good evil and calling evil good. Abortion clinics are
still in our land. God's ordinance of marriage is
being rejected and perverted. Schools in this country are teaching
evolution, that there was no God who made all things out of
nothing in six days and very good. Teaching our young people
that there is no such thing as absolute truth. The pornography industry is booming. And you could go on and you could
go on and all the time you might look at the broader church and
say that the church seems so weak in comparison to the strength
of the world around us. And so the impression that we
might get as we look around is that Christianity is actually
a thing of the past. It was something that was justifiable,
people say, for our weaker ancestors in the past, but not now for
our scientifically informed class of today. Now science is on the
throne. Now mankind is on the throne. Now you are invited by people
to sit upon the throne. to build your own kingdom. And
it would seem that everything and anything except Jesus Christ
is on the throne. It would seem. You know what
we really need, friends? What we really need is a revelation. What we have is a revelation. We need a sight. We need to see
things as they really are. You know, we use these kinds
of phrases, don't we? Don't judge a book by its cover. Things are not always the way
they seem. And never is that more true than
with what we are speaking about here this morning. Whatever things
seem to us or to others as we look around the world today,
this book, this revelation of Jesus Christ is showing us the
way things really are. It's giving us a picture of the
world today and your life in it, and it's showing you that
picture from the perspective of heaven. That's the only perspective
ultimately that really matters. Not Fox, not CNN, not any other
channel, but the book of Revelation in particular is giving you the
most current, the most up-to-date, the most thoroughly accurate
and comprehensive account of the world today. And while kings and queens and
presidents and prime ministers and governments and parties and
world superpowers come and go and ebb and flow down here, this
revelation is telling us that there is one throne that is settled
in heaven. There is one who is on that throne
who never comes off that throne. And that one who is on that throne
has been elected, has been put there, has been appointed by
God Almighty. And his kingdom will never, never
end. You can't miss this theme in
the book of Revelation. 38 times, have I got my math
right? 38 times this book speaks about
the throne, the throne that is in heaven. In chapter 4, John
speaks of a door that is opened in heaven, like a window opening
in heaven. John is seeing in and he says,
behold, and what he sees there in Revelation 4 verse 2, He says, I was in the spirit
and behold, a throne was in heaven and one sat on the throne. And
my dear young friends, nothing is more important for you or
for me this morning than that we would see the one who is on
that throne too. What an eye opener that would
be. The book of Revelation is giving
us a glorious eye-opener. You know, it will change your
perspective of everything. It will change your perspective
of work and worship. It will change your perspective
of your time and your talents, your marriage and your children,
if the Lord gives you that, of life and of death, of time and
eternity. It will change your perspective
of everything. It will change your perspective
of how you view the world around you. And what we want to do now
this morning is we want to, from the vantage of this throne, from
trying to look at things as from the vantage point of this throne,
we want to take three looks. We want to look, first of all,
around us from the vantage of this throne. And then we want
to look up. And then we want to look in. And you have these three points. First of all, as we look outward,
we see resistance to the Lamb's reign. This is what we see when
we look outward, resistance to the Lamb's reign. Revelation
17, 14 says, these shall make war with the Lamb. And the question
for us then as we look around is, who are these? Because surely
it's important for us to know who the enemies of this reigning
king, who these enemies are. Do you recognize them? Would
you recognize one if he or she or it came up beside you and
spoke to you and made suggestions to you? Would you recognize the
enemy? If you don't recognize the enemy, you and I are in great
trouble. Who are these? Well, this chapter,
chapter 17, gives us a description. And indeed, the book of Revelation
has been describing the enemies of the king. But in this chapter
17, we have a description of the enemy as a great whore or
a great prostitute. And that great prostitute, that
great whore, is one who also represents a great city. And John here is taking two metaphors
and putting them together. He's saying the great city, Babylon,
and this great harlot, this great prostitute, they're the same
thing. And what I want you to see is
that certainly this is not a reference to any one physical city. It's
not saying this is the ancient city of Babylon or this is the
ancient city of Rome or some other physical city. It's a picture. And what it's representing is
a city or a world of godlessness. It's a world that is opposing
the reign of King Jesus. And we must recognize this opposition. But I want you to see too that
that while this Babylon is godless and spiritually disgusting, yet
she has an alluring and a seductive charm. Notice that even John looks at
her in verse six of this chapter and says, I wondered with great
admiration and receives a rebuke from the angel who comes and
says, John, why did you wonder? So are we able to recognize this
enemy of the king? And here then, let us, as we
look out, give some marks by which you can identify this rebellious
and dangerous enemy. And the first mark I would give
as we look out is that she is morally corrupt. She is morally
corrupt. Look at the name that she has
in verse five, at the end of verse five. The mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth. Doesn't that make your hair stand
on end? Not just a harlot, but the mother
of harlots. The one who produces harlots.
The one from whom all harlots come. The mother of harlots. And look at her diet. Look at
what she feeds on at the end of verse 4. She has this golden
cup that, yes, looks attractive on the outside, but look what's
inside it. This is what she's feeding on. It's full of abominations
and filthiness of fornication. She feeds on iniquity. She feeds
on filth. And this is what she's feeding
her children. This is what she's nourishing
her children with, with filth and with abomination, with dirt,
with poison. And notice that she has many,
many, many children that she feeds. Notice at the end of verse one
that she is said to sit upon many waters. And what's that
saying to us? She sits on many waters. Well,
the ancient city of Babylon, this is the picture, the ancient
city of Babylon sat on the river Euphrates. And the river Euphrates
had tributaries that went in practically every direction and
influenced and reached and influenced lots of different places. And
that's the picture. Just as Babylon's waters did
that in the ancient world, so this one who sits on many waters
has an ability to penetrate, has an extensive influence and
reach. She can get into your family. She can get into your house,
your bedroom, your phone. She can get into your thought.
She can get into your conference. She's everywhere it seems. She
was the first one to sign up for this camp. Her influence goes to kings,
her influence goes to the inhabitants of the earth. And she's drinking
this filth and she's feeding this filth and you might think
of sexual immorality We live in a world flooded with sensuality,
a shameless, public flaunting of filth. And how these tributaries
of this Babylon have stretched in our day. Immoral filth flaunted
in the media, movies, music, jokes people tell, jokes professing
Christians laugh at. Careful. She says, well, boys
will just be boys, but don't listen to that. It's the mother
of harlots speaking to you there with her filth. Just drink of
it. And the question for us is what are we doing with this?
Do we think we can just let a little trickle of her stream in? Do
you think you can just have a little hole at the bottom of your boat
and just let a little in? You let a little in, she will
overflow you. Make no mistake. She's morally
corrupt. She appears beautiful. Look at
verse four. She's arrayed in purple and scarlet,
gold and precious stones. She has glamour, she has glitz,
but she has no beauty. And whenever people become more
obsessed with glamour, with glitz, with what we are putting on,
over the inward beauty of the heart to which we're called,
then be sure that the streams of Babylon have reached us. These
morally corrupt make war with the Lamb. But not only is Babylon
then morally corrupt, she is also militantly anti-God. She is militantly or strongly
anti-God. Notice verse three. John says,
he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness, and I saw
a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. Into the wilderness. What an appropriate picture.
The wilderness is the place where there's no fruit, where there's
no water, where there's no life. And John is saying that though
she looks beautiful, see behind her a wilderness, desolation. And then notice that she is sitting
on a beast. And what a kind of strange picture
is presented here to us. But I think it's clear what is
being communicated, isn't it? Sitting on a beast full of names
of blasphemy. Blasphemy. Blasphemy. You know, when I was in university
some 16 years ago, studying French, math and French, in my first
year, I was translating a French poem by a man called Jacques
Prévert. And, if you know French, Notre
Père qui est aussi, And as I began to try and translate
this, I realized what was being said. Our Father, which art in
heaven, stay there, and we will stay upon the earth, which is
sometimes so pretty. And then I went on to speak of
New York and Paris and the glories of this world being so much better
than the glory of the Trinity. Blasphemy, horrid blasphemy. It's this woman here, it's the
beast. A woman sitting on a beast full
of names of blasphemy. What a picture! A wild beast
in a desert. And you can picture stickers,
if you will, slogans, graffiti on this beast, this large beast,
with signatures. Jacques Prévert is there. Stickers that take God's name
in vain, that mock God, that dishonor God, that joke about
God, that speak about God in a careless way, full of the names
of blasphemy. But here, my friends, Are you
putting a sticker on the beast? Would you dare take a sticker,
write a blasphemy on it, sign your name, take it up into the
wilderness, put it on the ugly beast and put it there? Blasphemy with your name on it. You wouldn't dare do that, would
you? Not when every Lord's Day morning you hear, he will not
hold the person guiltless who takes his name in vain. But what
are we doing when we take God's name carelessly on our lips,
thoughtlessly? Sincerely hope there's nobody
here who would deliberately take God's name in vain, but be careful. When someone begins a joke this
way, Johnny went to heaven and saw the apostle Peter and said
to God, then immediately, friend, you've got to say, stop. This
is the woman sitting on the beast, full of the names of blasphemy.
Don't take God's name in vain. So she's morally corrupt. But she is militantly anti-God. But she also has, this Babylon,
an obsessive materialism. She is obsessed with materialism. And materialism's a kind of big
word, isn't it? But it just means stuff, the stuff of life. She's obsessed with stuff. There's an obsessive materialism. You know, Babylon is in this
world. She's in this world that God made. She's under, in one
sense, the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ is the
worthy reigning lamb is giving her so many blessings. He is
making the rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. He is
giving her good things in this life. But she is taking these
good things, these gifts, and she is making the gift the God. She is becoming obsessed with
the things that are gifts. And to be enjoyed, yes. And she then is characterized
by luxury and extravagance. Notice if you go to chapter 18
in your Bibles, and you see at the end of verse 3, that the merchants of the earth
are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Now just get
the overall picture here. The abundance of her delicacies.
And now go to verse 7. How much she has glorified herself
and lived deliciously. She said in her heart, I sit
as a queen. Look at verse 11, again, speaks
of merchants who buy her merchandise. In verse 12, we have in Babylon,
jewelers and fashion houses, the merchandise of gold and silver
and precious stones, pearls, linen, purple, silk, scarlet.
You have here in verse 12 in Babylon, expensive furnishings,
fine wood, that's a hard, durable, fragrant wood. All manner of
vessels of ivory, precious wood, brass, iron, marble. You have
perfume stores, cinnamon, odors, ointments, frankincense. You
have fine food stores, wine, oil, breads, meats. You have
car showrooms, horses and cottages. And look at the end of verse
13, people. She sells people, slaves and
the souls of men. They even sell people in Babylon.
Now understand again that in themselves, so many of these
things are good gifts to be enjoyed from the king. but not to be made a god of,
not to become obsessed over. But this is Babylon, it's a picture
of the arrogant, self-obsessed and merchandise-obsessed world,
pleasure-mad. You know, Jesus Christ walked through
Babylon. He was tempted in the wilderness
with all the kingdoms of the world I'll give you them all,
bow down and worship me. He was tempted to take God's
name in vain by worshiping Satan. But he never succumbed once.
And the question for us is, when we look at all these things is,
do we enjoy these things as good gifts? Do we have these things? Or do these things have us? Do we enjoy them with gratitude
to the King? So that's our outward look, and
we spent a bit of time there because it's so important, and
there's a lot more that could be said, but it's so important
that we recognize Babylon. We recognize her. But now let's
look up. And this is the recognition of
the Lamb's reign. And you know, if you know your
own heart, and you really see Babylon, and it's alluring, and
it's seductive charm, then it should alarm you. It should alarm
me, because you look at this, and if John the apostle wondered
with amazement at it, will not we also? You know, the great question
in this book, in chapter 13, verse 4, is this. Who is like
the beast? And who can fight against it? She's so strong. She's so alluding. She's so powerful. She's so influential. She can get everywhere. Who can
fight against the beast? Good question. But verse 14 answers
the question. And it's not you, and it's not
me. These will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome. The reigning lamb is the one
who overcomes. You need this revelation, friend,
so do I. You need faith to see beyond
the clouds. You need faith to see the throne
room of God in heaven. You need faith to see the one
who is sitting on that throne even now. You need to see his
glory. If you look at the beginning
of verse 18, After these things I saw another angel come down
from heaven, who some people take to be Christ, having great
power. And the earth was lightened with
his glory. This is something that Babylon
does not have. Babylon with all its seductive
charm and allurement will be put in its perspective. When
you see this King of glory, when you see His brilliance, the one
who is the brightness of His Father's glory, then Babylon
and the things of Babylon will grow strangely dim. When we recognize
the Lamb's reign, we will recognize the enemy for who she is. When we recognize the Lamb's
reign, we will recognize the enemy for who she is. You won't
believe her lies, you won't be so gullible. And Christ knows
his people are gullible, but her lies, life has never been
so good. Enjoy life to the full. But you
see, when you see the reign in Christ, you see that behind what
the world is offering is corrupt morality, is at root anti-God,
and is an obsessive materialism. And behind it all, you'll hear
the hissing of the serpent. If you see the reign in Christ
and his glory, you'll never listen to a song like Frank Sinatra's
again. One man said, this is the most
wicked song that was ever made. You know it? Maybe not, but here
it is. And now, he says, Sinatra, now
the end is near. And so I face the final curtain. My friend, I'll say it clear.
I'll state my case of which I'm certain. I've lived a life that's
full. I traveled each and every highway. And then with particular emphasis
he says, and more, much more than this, I did it my way. I did it my way. It wasn't Sinatra
who first composed that song. This song was composed in hell. It was the woman on this beast.
You're your own king, do it your way. You don't need this man
to reign over you, but you surely, friend, know when you see the
reign in Christ and you know the first question in your Heidelberg
Catechism, what is your only comfort in
life and in death? It's that you're not your own.
It's that you're not going to do it your way, but that you
belong to your faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who with his precious
blood has redeemed you That's comfort. So you'll recognize
the enemy for who she is, but when you recognize the Lamb's
reign as you look up, you will realize and you will see, you
will get this perspective that the enemy, Babylon, is doomed. She is doomed to destruction.
Chapter 18 begins to speak of Babylon's destruction. Not a
recession, not a natural disaster, but divine judgment. You will see that she is cursed,
that she is a city given over to destruction. And you will already begin to
hear the great lamentation made for her. Do you notice How many
times in chapter 18 you get the words, no more. Now the world
today is saying, this is the moment, this is my life, it's
now or never, I'm not going to live forever. And that last part
is true. But they're saying that now is
the time to enjoy life, and get the most out of life, and gain
these riches, and how they don't view it in terms of the life
that is to come, in terms of these two words, no more. But by faith, if you see Christ
now, you can see now that these things will be no more very soon. And there will be great lamentation,
the pleasures of Babylon will soon be no more. Verse 14, the
fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed, and all the things
which were dainty and goodly are departed, and thou shalt
find them no more. Verse 21, the city itself, With
violence shall that great city, Babylon, be thrown down and shall
be found no more. The arts, verse 22, the voice
of harpers, musicians, pipers, trumpeters, shall be heard no
more. Industry and craft, whatsoever
craft it be, verse 22 again, shall not be found any more in
thee. The sound of the millstone, ordinary
work really, shall be found no more. In verse 23, there's a
darkness coming upon Babylon. Light, light will be no more. The light of the candle will
shine no more. Happiness, the voice of the bridegroom
and the bride, no more. Do you see the desolation that's
coming upon Babylon? The world and all its allurements,
all that it's offering to you that is pleasant will soon be
no more. How true, how true it was what
John Newton said. Fading are the worldling's pleasures,
all their boasted pomp and show, solid joys, lasting treasures,
none but science children know. But then lastly, we have submission
to the Lamb's reign. We've looked out at the world,
we've looked up into heaven, and now we have to look in to
ourselves and ask these questions about submission to the Lamb's
reign. The Lamb in this calling, 18 verse 4, I heard another voice
from heaven saying, come out of her. Come out of her, my people. This is the voice of the king.
It's his royal edict as he goes forth. Come out of Babylon, my
people, that you be not partakers of her sins and that you don't
receive of her plagues. Come out. It's a call for separation. It's a call for holiness. And
the reason is solemn enough that you don't partake in her judgment.
Yes, the church is in the world, but the world must not be in
the church. You are in the world, but the
world must not be in you. Come out, says Christ, of her,
my people. Don't flirt with Babylon. She'll
kill you, she will. You flirt with her, she'll kill
you. That's what she wants. You notice that she is drunk
with the blood of the saints. She hates the saints. She hates
God. She hates the souls of men. Come
out and don't flirt. To flirt is spiritual prostitution. is to believe the satanic lie
that you can have a relationship. No, not a full relationship. You don't need to come all the
way. You don't need to marry me, but you can just come and
have a good time with me, just for a little bit. No, come out
of her, my people. Don't flirt with Babylon. Come
out of her morally corrupt lifestyle. Come out of the anti-God blasphemy. Come out of the obsessive materialism. Of course, it's not a call to
come out of the world entirely, to be secluded away in some little
group somewhere. Christ said, I pray that you
don't take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the
evil. We're to be salt in the world. And how does salt react
with what it touches? It rubs against it. And you're
to be light in the world. And how does light react with
darkness? It penetrates the darkness. but were to come out in the sense
that Daniel did when in Babylon, this man who would not take the
food at the king's table, he was different. And my dear friends,
you must be different to the world, and the world must see
that you're different. And then, so the call is not
only to come out of her, but there is something more. The
call is to come to Christ, to come to the King, to submit to
his rule, to submit to his reign. And what we must do here, we
must seek by faith to get a view of the glory of Jesus Christ,
the reigning Lamb of God. We must seek to get that view
of Him because that will give us a perspective about the world
that we live in and ourselves and what we are to do. It will
give us the perspective that chapter 6 gives us of a man who
goes on a white horse, conquering and to conquer. And you will
see that with all that has been happening in the world around
you, that Jesus Christ is not inactive. He has been going forth
all this time. He has been building his church.
He has been preserving his church. He has been riding forth with
his gospel on the chariots of salvation. And He has been holding
out His scepter to sinners left, right and center. And He's holding
that scepter out to you today. We were wrong when we said that
the woman was the first to sign up for this camp. She wasn't.
Christ was as the King, as the reigning Lamb. He gets the first
say and He gets the last say. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. I am the root and the offspring
of David the King. He signed up. And we know that
because there is the call to you to come to him, to believe
in him. He's going to have the first
word and he will have the last. Aren't you thankful that the
captain of salvation has come riding forth in his chariot?
You see, this is the perspective it gives you. That Christ is
building his church. Christ is offering the gospel
to sinners. Christ will be victorious, and
you're to kiss Him, to kiss the Son. You know Julian the Apostate,
Julian the Apostate, when he came to die, after trying to
kill Christians, after trying with all he could to put out
Christianity, That was his aim in life. And when he came to
his deathbed, do you know what he said? Thou hast triumphed,
O Galilean. Thou hast triumphed, O Galilean,
and that is what Babel and that is what the harlot will be forced
to say. Thou hast triumphed, O Christ. Can you say that when you look
at your own soul? Thou hast triumphed, thou hast
conquered me, a rebel. Bow and kiss this son. Come to
him. What a one you are coming to.
Hear him in chapter 22, 16 and 17. I, Jesus, have sent my angel
to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the root
and the offspring of David, king. I am the bright and the morning
star, hope. The spirit and the bride say,
come. And let him that heareth say,
come. And let him that is athirst,
don't drink of her water, come. And Christ says, whosoever will,
let him take of the water of life freely. What a throne you
are called to come to. One of my favorite verses in
scripture is chapter four and verse three. He that sat on the throne was
to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone. And there was
a rainbow round about the throne, not half a rainbow, a rainbow
all the way round the throne, a picture of peace. Remember
Noah and the flood and the rainbow that pictured peace? Now there's
a rainbow all the way around the throne. So when you were
called to kiss the sun, what John is telling you and the word
of God is telling you is now in the gospel, there is a rainbow,
an emblem of peace around his throne and it's emeralds, likened
to an emerald, green, a picture again of peace and the gentle
colors of grace. It's not a hard, austere king
you're called to serve, my friend. It's the king of peace. And he
is the one who will preserve his people in Babylon and bring
them through to the heavenly banquet, which I think you will
hear of more later. You know, there was a poet, James
Russell Lowell, an American poet, I think in the 19th century,
and he wrote this. Truth forever on the scaffold,
wrong forever on the throne. Things are not always the way
they appear, are they? But this is the way it appears
sometimes, doesn't it? Truth forever on the scaffold,
wrong forever on the throne. But he goes on. Yet that scaffold
sways the future, and behind the dim unknown standeth God
within the shadow, keeping watch above his own. You want this
kind of king reigning over you, don't you? He will preserve,
he will keep, kiss the sun, These make war with the Lamb. The Lamb
shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings.
And they that are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we give thanks that we
are not our own. But in Christ we belong to our
faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. And we do pray that we would
have that only comfort in life and in death. Help us to recognize
the enemy. Help us to flee from the enemy.
Help us to come out of her. Help us to follow the Lamb, whithersoever
he goeth. Help us to kiss the Son, lest
he be angry, but rather let us know the blessedness of all those
who trust in him. Continue with us, continue to
bless this camp, we pray. We pray this all for Jesus' sake,
amen.
Behold the Reigning Lamb
Series 2017 Youth Camp
Behold the Reigning Lamb: Living for Christ Counter-Culturally - The reign of Christ is met with rebellion and resistance at every turn. The Lamb’s followers also meet that resistance and rebellion in the culture in which they live as they are bombarded with temptations and vain philosophies that undermine the exclusivity of Christ. The reigning Lamb calls his followers to bring every thought, word and action captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5), which will be reflected in growing in a life of leadership for Christ in our culture.
| Sermon ID | 71617041361 |
| Duration | 48:33 |
| Date | |
| Category | Camp Meeting |
| Bible Text | Revelation 17:14 |
| Language | English |
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