Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to the book of Revelation, chapter 13.
We will briefly review from uh from the beginning of the book just to catch up those who
are visiting with us on where we’re at in the book.
But let’s begin with a word prayer.
Our gracious father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you
blessed us with, grateful for the opportunity that we have to serve you, to glorify your
name, to sing praise to your name, to pray and to bow before your throne, to come to you
in.
uh supplication and in prayer, but also in thanksgiving.
Lord, we are mindful of those who are not with us and not present because of illness or
health.
We pray that you give them the strength that they need to be able to once again be
assembled together with us.
Lord, we pray for endurance for those who deal with chronic issues and continually day by
day are afflicted with hardships.
Lord, we pray that you be with those who are struggling spiritually and we pray that you
help them to open your word and to align their heart and their mind with your word and
your will.
And Lord, we pray that we might be an encouragement and an exhortation to them to do those
things.
Lord, we pray that you will forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
All this we ask in Jesus name, amen.
John is on the Isle of Patmos.
for the testimony of Jesus Christ.
And as he is there on the first day of the week or on the Lord’s Day, as the text says, he
hears a voice behind him and he turns to see one who has the appearance of Christ, but in
a glorified state.
He has seven stars in his right hand and the stars represent what in the book of
Revelation?
The churches.
and he has seven golden lampstands that are before him and they represent the angels of or
the messengers of the churches.
so Jesus speaks through John to the seven churches of Asia Minor and to each one of them a
message is delivered.
Some of them nothing positive is said about them.
Some of them nothing negative is said about them and others there’s a
There’s a mix.
There’s some good and some bad, some things they need to work on.
But many of them are told to repent, to correct things that they are doing, at least some
portion of the congregation is doing.
And if they do not, then he will make war with them.
But they’re also warned, as in Revelation chapter two, verse 10, that persecution is
coming.
Some of them were going to be imprisoned.
Some of them were never going to come out.
of prison.
Then chapter four opens and John is shown an open door and in the vision he goes through
the door and he goes into the throne room of God and he sees the glory that is described
there, the glory of the one who sits on the throne, though he doesn’t actually describe
the one who sits on the throne.
The representation of God the Father’s glory might
and power surrounded by the Spirit of God, surrounded by the sea, surrounded by the four
beasts that turn every direction and that are a picture from Ezekiel of God’s battle
wagon, as it were.
They are the ones who see everything and deal with it on behalf of the Lord.
But he also sees the 24 elders that are surrounding the throne.
And every time the beast
call out to praise and glorify God because he is worthy.
The elders praise and glorify God and they take their crowns of victory and they cast them
down before the throne.
And this goes on continually.
Then chapter five opens.
In chapter five, you find again, as the worship continues in the throne room of God,
An angel comes forth and they are searching for one who can open the scroll that’s in the
right hand of the one who sits on the throne.
The scroll is filled front and back with writing and John desires to know what the one who
sits on the throne has revealed in the scroll, but there’s no one found who’s worthy to
open the scroll.
And so John begins to weep.
One of the elders comes to John and says, do not weep.
for we have found the one who is worthy to open the scroll and is the lion of the tribe of
Judah.
It is the lamb who was slain but is alive.
He is the one who appears to be dead but is alive.
He is the lamb that has seven eyes.
He sees everything.
He has seven horns.
And that means this isn’t a cute little lamb.
This is a lamb that does battle, okay?
It is the Christ.
It is the descendant of David.
Chapter 6 opens as the scroll begins to be opened, as the seals from the scroll begin to
be opened.
Seal 1 is opened and a white horse goes out and begins to conquer.
And the white horse looks like a Parthian warrior.
He looks like the only enemy Rome never defeated.
And he’s going out and he’s conquering.
And then three more horses.
persecution starts coming, hardship starts coming.
And so there’s economic hardship, there’s physical hardship, and there’s death.
And then you have the fifth seal opened, and the altar uh is seen, and the souls that are
under the altar are crying out, how long, Lord, are you going to allow the persecution
that is seen representatively in the?
second, third, fourth horse, how long are you gonna allow this to continue?
They’re killing us.
And those saints are told to rest for a little while, they’re given white robes, and
basically are told, I’ll deal with it, I’ll deal with it when I’m ready to deal with it.
Next seal opens up, sixth seal opens, and God forecasts dealing with it.
He says, this is how it’s gonna happen.
All the rich people, all the mighty people, all the glorious people, all the people who
think they are secure in everything they have are going to run for the hills, they’re
going to run under the mountains, and they’re going to cry for the mountains to fall on
them because they’re trying to avoid the wrath of the Lamb.
But before we go too much further, there’s a question that needs to be asked.
In the day of the wrath of the Lamb, who will be able to stand?
And so chapter seven, you have a pause.
Chapter 7, you have a pause because God’s going to tell you who can stand in the day of
the wrath of judgment from God and the answer is everyone who has God’s name written on
their forehead.
You go back to chapter 3 and you find the church is told that God’s name is going to be
written on their forehead.
So what is he saying?
He says, everybody who belongs to me, who’s a part of the church, who’s alive on the
earth, but who’s dwelling places in heaven.
Those people can stand in the day of God’s wrath.
And so they’re all marked so that they do not get touched by the judgment.
Then you have seven trumpets begin to sound.
These are going to be partial judgments.
So the first four trumpet sound, then the fifth trumpet, sixth trumpet, seventh trumpet
with the last three trumpets, they’re three woes.
We’re not gonna go through all of the things that happen in those trumpets.
They’re partial judgments.
We’re gonna see pictures of them happen again with the full.
pouring out of judgment because the trumpets were partial and the bowls that are coming up
are going to be complete.
Okay, so we’re not gonna go through all of them.
Then we see uh chapter, I don’t know, lost track of my numbers here.
Chapter 10 opens and John sees as the seventh trumpets about to sound, another pause,
another reassurance to the Christians.
God’s in control.
You’re gonna look all around you and you’re gonna see everything that’s coming and you’re
gonna see everything that John’s about to tell you and you’re going to assume that God’s
lost control and that the Christians are going to be annihilated and there is no hope, but
that’s not the case.
So mighty angel stands one foot on the sea, one foot on land, which by the way, pause real
quick.
We’re in chapter 13 and where did the first beast come out up out of?
the sea.
Where’s the second beast going to come up out of?
The land.
So in chapter 10, an angel standing with one foot on the sea and one foot on land.
In other words, God’s in charge.
When the beast rises up, the angel’s already able to be victorious over him.
He’s already standing over where he came from.
It’s a picture, you know, when, if you were to think about it this way,
um When you’ve got a great big tall skyscraper and then the penthouse, the area at the
very top is owned by the person who owns the skyscraper, what’s the point?
Everybody else lives underneath them, right?
They’re in charge.
What they say goes.
The angel is standing on the place where the two beasts are gonna come up out of saying,
I’ve already told you what’s going to Isaiah would make the point over and over and over
in Isaiah’s prophecy that God is going to tell you the end from the beginning.
He’s going to tell you what’s going to happen before it ever happens.
He’s going to tell you how it’s going to turn out before it ever happens.
He’s going to tell you how he’s going to be victorious and how he’s going to deliver his
people before any of the trouble ever begins.
And that’s what the angel standing on the sea and on the land is doing.
He’s got another revelation.
He’s got a small little book and John is told to take a little book and consume the book
and he does.
And the message is sweet in his mouth, but bitter in his belly.
It’s sweet because it’s the word of God.
It’s bitter because the message is going to include troubles coming.
And it’s coming in the form of the attack of Satan on God’s people using an empire.
that looks like the three first empires Daniel talked about.
Okay, so we’ll get into that more in just a moment.
But before we do, there’s also two witnesses.
In chapter 11, John sees these two olive trees and seven lampstands, one on each olive
tree, and this uh picture that the fire of God, the message of God never goes out.
But then the two messengers, the two witnesses turn into two prophets.
The two prophets speak God’s message and they can’t be stopped as long as they’re speaking
God’s message.
But the moment they stop speaking God’s message, when the message is completed, the people
come and they kill the prophets.
They kill the messengers.
They kill the witnesses and they leave them dead in the streets for three and a half days.
And they don’t bury them.
They just leave them dead lying there in the street.
But then God comes and resurrects them back to life.
Pope takes them out.
of harm’s way and the message is you’re going to speak God’s message, you’re going to
declare what God tells you to declare and they may kill you for it, but the moment they
kill you, they can’t touch you.
You remember what Jesus said all the way back in Matthew chapter 10?
Do not fear what men can do to you.
Do not fear him who can kill the body.
rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
And that’s the message to the churches.
Don’t fear the people who can kill you.
So then chapter 12 opens and you see the woman and the dragon.
The woman is represented with 12 stars above her head.
She represents the people of God and the dragon is clearly stated in chapter 12 as being
Satan, the devil himself.
The devil wants to consume the one, the child, that the woman gives birth to.
The woman is representative of God’s people.
The God’s people in the Old Testament bring forth the Messiah.
The child’s the Messiah.
All of that is clear within the text.
So she gives birth to the child and the moment she does, as the devil’s waiting, as the
dragon’s waiting to consume the child, the child escapes up into heaven.
Devil loses.
Then the devil goes up into heaven and tries to make war with the child in heaven.
The devil loses.
The devil’s cast with his angels, cast back down to the earth, comes down to again try and
attack the woman and the offspring of her children and loses again.
The devil’s a three-time loser.
But when he can’t get his way trying to defeat God’s people in the Old Testament,
And when he can’t get his way trying to defeat God’s people in the form of the Christ, the
Messiah, and when he can’t get his way to stop the birth of the church and the formation
of the church and the offspring of the woman, then what is he going to do?
Well, he’s going to take the government that he’s got influence over and he’s going to
start using the government to persecute the people of God.
So we find at the end of chapter 13, we’re going to be introduced
to the sea beast, which is representative of Rome, the land beast, which is representative
of Rome’s prophets and priests and their religious leaders, and a number which is given to
the people.
So, before we get into chapter 13, just a reminder, we’re not gonna deal with chapter 17
yet, but I do wanna put in front of you the kings that are represented from Daniel’s
prophecy.
Again.
This is looking at Rome from Daniel’s prophecy.
John doesn’t care what the latest historian or the first historian had to say about who
the first king of Rome was.
John doesn’t care what everyone in consensus in world history says the first king of Rome
was.
John only cares what Daniel said about the first king of Rome.
And Daniel said the first king of Rome was Augustus.
And the second king was Tiberius and the third king was Caligula and the fourth king was
Claudius and the fifth king was Nero.
And in Nero, that fifth king, persecution began against God’s people.
Up until that point, Rome didn’t care one whit about the church.
There was persecution from the Jews, but under Nero, persecution began and Nero looked
like he was going to kill the people of God.
And then Nero died.
And suddenly the persecution stops because Rome enters a civil war.
And for three kings that are all gonna be uprooted, they’re gonna come and go in just a
matter of two years, no persecution.
Then Vespasian comes to the throne and he’s represented in the sixth because the first,
the three that come after Nero are there for such a short time, they don’t matter.
Okay?
So Vespasian comes to the throne and is in the days of Vespasian.
that John is writing.
John is writing because the persecution’s about to begin again.
Now after Vespasian, Titus is gonna come to the throne, but he’s only gonna reign for two
years, two months, and two days.
And then Domitian comes to the throne.
And in Domitian, you have the resurrection of the beast.
You have the resurrection of persecution.
But Domitian does something different than what Nero did.
Nero took the Christians as a convenience in Rome, in the city of Rome, and he hung them
up and he lit them on fire in the streets because they were a distraction to what Nero was
doing in destroying the empire.
He needed a scapegoat, and that’s what the Christians were.
And everybody, you remember the quote from the Jews that come to see Paul in Rome?
As Paul, in the end of the book of Acts, gets to Rome, and he’s about to be on trial, and
he’s there in the city of Rome, and he’s under house arrest, and the Jews come to him, and
they say, tell us about the sect everywhere spoken against.
the perception of Christians by even the Jews in Rome is everybody hates these people.
So they were a good scapegoat because everybody hated them, okay?
So chapter 13, verses one through 10, we have the sea beast arise out of the nations.
The nations are in turmoil.
The picture is one from Daniel chapter seven.
We went through most of this.
Last week, we’re not going to go into it in depth, but notice just by way of reminder, we
find in verse 7, it was granted to him, that is the sea beast, to make war with the saints
and to overcome them, and authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
Do you remember what the three temptations that Satan offered Jesus were?
What was the first one?
turn the stone into bread.
What was the second one?
We can use Matthew’s recording because Luke and Matthew swap them up, the second and the
third.
What was the second one?
Took him up to the pinnacle of the temple and said what?
Cast yourself off because the Old Testament says that the angels won’t let you dash your
foot on a stone.
Let’s see if God keeps his promises.
What was the third one?
And if you bow down and worship me, what will I give you?
All the nations of the earth.
Seems as though Jesus wasn’t the only one that Satan used that offer with.
because what does Satan deliver to the sea beast?
What does the dragon deliver to the sea beast?
He delivers to him uh authority over all tribes, tongues, and nations.
but it’s important to remember verse 6.
Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name, his tabernacle,
and those who dwell in heaven.
As we continue to point out and will continue to point out every time we run into it, the
Christians alive on the earth are not described as those who dwell on the earth.
They are described as those who dwell in heaven.
their home, their abode is in heaven, their temporary dwelling place, their sojourn is on
the earth.
and the dragon and the sea beast are going to blaspheme the name of the Lord, they’re
going to blaspheme his tabernacle, the church, and they’re going to make war with those
whose dwelling place is in heaven, but are alive on the earth.
When it is described as the sea beast having authority over every tribe, tongue, and
nation, we all understand because we’ve already been told by John that the dragon only has
the authority God lets him have.
His authority is three and a half.
His authority is temporary.
His authority is circumscribed.
And so when someone who has limited authority gives someone else below them limited
authority, they don’t have any more authority than the first person had.
Jesus is offered by Satan every nation under heaven.
And yet when you come to Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, when Jesus has been resurrected from
the grave, Jesus tells his apostles all what?
Authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
That hadn’t changed.
Jesus still has all authority.
Jesus’ authority isn’t circumscribed authority.
Jesus’ authority is complete.
authority as the Hebrew writer will point out, his authority is complete with the
exclusion of the one who gave him the authority, which is God the Father himself.
The Hebrew writer will point out that we rationally recognize that the one who put all
things under his feet, that is the feet of Christ, is excluded from being under his feet.
So Christ does not have authority over the Father.
rather the Father has put all things under the authority of Christ.
Okay, that includes, by the way, the dragon, all nations, tongues, and peoples, and the
sea beast.
We’re gonna see that before we’re done.
He says, verse eight, sorry, verse seven, it was granted to him to make war with the
saints and to overcome them.
And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.
All who dwell on the earth will worship Him whose names have not been written in the book
of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
Who’s going to worship the beast?
Everybody who’s not a Christian.
Why are they going to worship the sea beast?
Because they already worship the dragon.
and he’s a representation of the dragon.
Why are they going to fall before Rome?
Because they want what Rome has to offer.
He says, if anyone has an ear, let him hear, verse 9.
He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity.
He who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword.
Here is the patience and faith of the saints.
As John concludes his description of the sea beast, he reminds the people of God, he
reminds the Christian, you’re not going to get out of this by raising an army and going to
war.
you’re going to get out of this by faithfulness to Jesus Christ.
So then we read verse 11, and then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he
had two horns like a lamb and spoke like a dragon.
Every good thing has an opposite.
So when Jesus is seen in chapter five, what did he look like?
a lamb and a lion.
Okay?
Go back to the sea beast and notice verse 2, now the beast which I saw was like a leopard,
his feet like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
Everything good, Satan makes a corrupted version of.
Everything righteous that God does, Satan corrupts.
Think of it this way.
Back in Genesis chapter three, what did Satan say?
You shall not surely die.
Everything God says, Satan turns it on his head.
So now we have the second beast and the second beast comes forth, he looks like a lamb.
He’s got two horns.
And notice he speaks like a dragon.
In other words, he’s just the mouth.
piece of Satan.
He looks cute and cuddly.
He looks nice and friendly.
He looks kind of like the wolves in sheep’s clothing of false prophets look like because
that’s what he is.
He’s the false prophets of Rome.
So notice he saw he had two horns like a lamb.
and spoke like a dragon and he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his
presence and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast whose
deadly wound was healed.
They come forth, the second beast comes forth, he says to all the nations and all the
people and all the tongues, you’ve got to worship this guy, he’s been resurrected back to
life.
They claimed that Domitian was Nero resurrected.
They claimed that Domitian was a god on earth.
And so the priests of Rome would go about and they would say, do you good business owner
proclaim Caesar to be god?
you do?
That’s great.
You go ahead and keep running your business.
Why don’t we help you with your business?
Why don’t we, I tell you what, why don’t you incorporate your business into the worship
that we have?
and they would corrupt people both through monetary and religious matters.
But the qualification was you had to declare Caesar to be God.
Notice he performs great signs so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on earth
in the sight of men.
What did Elijah do?
All right, Elijah disproved Baal from being God and proved that the false prophets of Baal
were false prophets by the fact that they couldn’t bring down fire from heaven.
Well, know, Satan’s got a little more sophisticated since then.
So now Satan’s false prophets are able to appear as though they can bring fire from
heaven.
That’s convincing enough in the Old Testament to convince people that that must be God.
So it must be God.
He performs great signs.
He also, verse 14, deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs, which he was
granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an
image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.
So they say, hey, you know what?
Caesar is God.
Caesar’s resurrected.
Caesar is who we say he is.
Caesar is this great God who can do these great things, watch us perform these false
miracles and be convinced by them.
All right, now let’s make an image to Caesar.
Now in Daniel, do you remember somebody who made an image to themselves and told
everybody, when you hear the music, what are you gonna do?
You’re gonna fall down and worship Nebuchadnezzar.
The picture here is not about going in history going, where did the priests of Rome do
this exact thing?
These are all still Old Testament pictures.
John is representing what the false prophets of Rome are going to do in pictures from the
Old Testament.
And he uses this time Daniel’s picture of Nebuchadnezzar and Shadrach, Meshach, and
Abednego.
is going to make this great image and everybody is going to fall down and worship or
they’re going to die.
Okay, so notice he granted power, verse 15, to give breath to the image of the beast.
So now in the representation in the image and the vision, John is seeing it and he sees
the sea beast and he sees the land beast and then the land beast builds this great image
like Nebuchadnezzar and the dragon breathes the image to life.
Oh, look, this is going to be the very image of your God in front of you.
He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, and the image of the beast
should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be
killed.
Old Testament imagery.
You don’t worship the image.
You don’t worship the beast.
What happens to you?
You die.
He causes all, verse 16, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a
mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.
that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark of the name of the beast or the
number of his name.
Now if you read Hal Lindsey’s book, The Late Great Planet Earth, and you go read about
what this is, this is a coming technology where you won’t be able to buy anything, you
won’t be able to sell anything unless you’ve got a chip implanted in you.
and you read all of the nonsense about the central bank digital currencies coming today
and you’ve got people breathlessly, this is it, this is it, you won’t be able to buy or
sell or anything and the government’s gonna have complete control over everything, you
won’t be able to get a loaf of bread unless you’ve got the central bank digital currency
and that’s 666, that’s the number of…
Because if, if we were to accept that interpretation, long before that, you’re going to
have every Christian walking around with God’s name tattooed on their forehead.
And if that were the case, I don’t think the world would have to try too hard to figure
out which one was which.
in the vision.
All of God’s people are already marked.
So what does Satan do in the vision?
Satan says, well, I’m going to have my own mark.
And I tell you what, if you don’t use my mark, you’re going to starve to death.
You’re going to go hungry and you’re going to do any business.
Have we ever seen a time in world history where a government decided to mark a bunch of
people so they could know exactly who they were and whether or not they were allowed to
own a business, do business, or participate in an economy?
absolutely.
Is this anything new?
No.
And by the way, if you go back to World War II, there were people.
who were dispensational premillennialists that were saying, it’s the end of times.
Look what they’re doing in Germany.
They’re marking people.
Was it the end of times?
Was it the return of Christ?
No, it wasn’t.
So John says, here’s wisdom.
Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a
man.
His number is 666.
Now there’s nothing mysterious, ominous, or special about the number 666 except this.
What’s the number of perfection?
Seven, what does John say the number of a man is?
Six, what day was man created?
Sixth day.
God said, there, I’m done.
And he rested.
He stopped.
But when you look at perfection, man doesn’t attain to it.
And when you put a number in a row and you say, you know what?
I’ll tell you what.
If we put man’s number here and we just keep putting man’s number, if it ever maybe, if it
just improves a little bit, eventually it’ll be seven, right?
Well, put it one sixth.
Is it seven?
No.
Try again.
Put one six.
No?
Another six.
It’s kind of like an Avon Costello routine.
You keep putting the numbers there to see if they ever make seven.
They never will!
His point is, this isn’t God.
That’s the point of 6.6, sis.
It’s falling short every time of perfection.
It’s never going to achieve Godhood.
It’s false.
It’s derived from men, not God.
So the number 666, what does it say?
Well, John tells you what it says.
It’s the number of a man.
It belongs to men.
It doesn’t belong to God.
It’s not his number.
So John sees the sea beast come forth and he sees the land beast come forth and he sees
them go forth and start persecuting the church.
and he sees them entangle all the world’s economies in all of the worship of the beast.
And if you were watching this in the form of a movie, you would have seen John looking at
the earth and seeing all this stuff happening on the earth, and then John would have
looked up to heaven.
And you might have considered the thought crossing John’s mind.
I wonder how the Lord’s going to deal with this.
Chapter 14 opens, I looked and behold, a lamb standing on Mount Zion and with him 144,000
having his father’s name written on their forehead.
you go back to the days of Elijah.
And as Elijah is running for his life, being threatened by Jezebel, and he finally reaches
his point of what he considers safety, and he stops.
And then he runs more and he finally reaches Sinai.
and God talks to him there.
And he says, I’m the only one.
and God informs him, no, there are 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.
You think you’re the only one left.
You feel like you’re the only one left, but you’re not.
John is seeing the whole world swept over by the influence of the sea beast and the land
beast and the influence of the dragon.
And John is reminded by Christ, don’t worry, I have those who belong to me.
Now over in chapter seven, we were already told who the 144,000 are.
They’re the righteous people of God who are alive and who dwell in heaven, but they’re
alive on the earth.
They’re the Christians.
They’re the ones that are faithful to Christ who will not give up.
their testimony of Christ.
And they’re standing with the Lamb on Mount Zion.
They’re the church, and they’re faithful, and they might be dying physically, but they’re
not succumbing to the influence of the beast.
They’re not trading the name of God for the name of the beast.
They’re not getting 666 written on their forehead.
They’re faithful.
They’re overcoming, even if they’re dying.
So they’re standing there on Mount Zion with a lamb.
And they have the Father’s name written on their forehead.
And I heard a voice from heaven like the voice of many waters and like the voice of a loud
thunder.
And I heard the sound of the harpists playing with their harps.
They sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and
the elders.
And no one could learn that song except the 144,000 who were redeemed from the earth.
These are the ones who were not defiled with women, for they are virgins.
These are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes.
These were redeemed from among men, being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.
And in their mouth was found no deceit, for they are without fault before the throne of
God.
Now.
will close the challenge to any premillennial dispensationalist that’s waiting for a
thousand year reign of Christ, which they think they find right here.
and ask them, when Christ reigns, how many women are going to be found with Christ?
Because according to this text, none.
How many married people are going to be found with Christ?
None.
How many people are going to be those who are going to be with Christ who can sing this
new song?
Well, it’s going to be a male chorus.
And for some of the more foolish of my brethren who would like to come to this passage and
therefore argue that instrumental music and worship is therefore authorized because the as
they’re as they’re singing in a vision, there’s visionary harps that are being strung.
You might also ask you, does that mean that you’re going to recommend that all Christians
remain virgins?
Because if one is a good idea, then so is the other.
The picture is an Old Testament picture.
The picture is a Davidic picture of the nation of God unified under a king’s banner.
When did that happen in the Old Testament?
It happened when David took Jerusalem.
Go back and read the history of David.
Northern Kingdom divided.
They wanted the descendants of Saul.
Southern Kingdom, Judah said, no, we’re making David king.
And so, Northern Kingdom and Southern Kingdom go to war with one another.
For years they go to war with one another.
And when David takes Jerusalem, which is also known as what city?
Zion.
The nation shortly thereafter will be unified.
They will be one.
And through the remainder, basically, of David’s reign and the reign of Solomon, you have
12 tribes all unified in worship and praise and allegiance to God.
It’s an Old Testament picture.
And where in the Bible were harps authorized for use in worship?
In the Old Testament, under David.
This picture is a representation of the church represented by a glorified Israel led by a
glorified King.
lion of the tribe of Judah.
the son of David, reigning from his throne in Zion.
But I remind you in Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, as of the point that Jesus was
resurrected and was back on the earth before he ascended into heaven, Jesus said, as of
that moment, all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
And he’s been reigning ever since.
Thank you for your attention.