Corona Chronicles - Crown of Gold

Okay. Welcome back to Coroda Chronicles. We are in chapter 13 the book of Revelation. And in the last 1, we saw this The Dragon, which is like Satan, aping God, copying God. And I think we see more of the same here and also some encouragement for for Christian.

So I'm gonna start reading from verse 5 of chapter 13. The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for 42 months. It opened its mouth the blaspheme God and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. It was given power to wage war against God's holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.

All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast. All whose names have not been written in the lamb's book of life, the lamb who was slain from the creation of the world. Whoever has ears let them hear. Anyone is to go into captivity into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword with the sword they will be killed.

This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God's people. Yeah. So we were we were seeing that Satan or the dragon here is the great ape and He he he he he has no originality and he apes and copies God and Christ and even the Holy Spirit, we'll see you later on. But it's all a lie, it's all a sham to take us away from truth. And I love that I love that phrase which is used quite a lot in the bible, isn't it?

He who has ears to hear him here. Yeah. Jesus said it quite a lot. Yeah. And it's a funny thing, isn't it?

Because you think, well, I got ears, you know, what are you talking about? But It's amazing how we don't hear. Yeah. And I think the truth is that there is this this serious spiritual battle going And there's this hideous strength behind our world. Who is mimicking an aping God in order to take us away from truth.

Mhmm. And to take us away from worshiping God. And this is what's going on. But will you listen to this, you're saying? Yeah.

Open your ears. Yeah. You know, this is a reality. This isn't just fairy tale. Yeah.

Yeah. And you have to be you you need to tune into it and and understand what's going on. Because because Satan is aping, he is almost in disguise. Mhmm. And in this world, an awful lot of his work is completely disguised.

No 1 walks around Well, very small numbers of people walk around deliberately worshiping Satan, like some people do. Most people walk around thinking they're good people doing okay. But actually here, we see that all people worship the beast except for those who whose names are written in the lamb's life. So Yeah. There's 2 groups of people.

But it is interesting in verse 5. It it it talks he's given he's given words of his his mouth. And we saw yesterday, he's like a lion and like Jesus is the lion -- Mhmm. -- and speaks out the word and he roars out his word but they're proud words. Yeah.

And they're brass for me and they have power in them. Yeah. And you just think about I mean, when I when I was younger, to talk about being proud of anything was was really a no no. Yeah. It's it is actually in my lifetime.

Where it's actually now I'm proud of myself. And we're we're constantly talking about Yeah. I know I know we can use it as a figure of speech, but But, you know, it is interesting, isn't it? That that whole word of pride and be proud in yourself and, you know, people even have marches with pride on it. To be this and proud to be that.

Yeah. And these come from the blasphemer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

It's almost like because I think a lot of pride nowadays is is probably more to do with kind of dignity. But but this is this is the very opposite to Jesus. It? Because Jesus came with with humility and humbled himself to the cross. But here, there are proud words and authority and blasphemy.

No. So it's it's it's the complete opposite of the lord Jesus. And even when it comes to the whole corona thing, I mean, you know, it it's it's it's great, isn't it? To be optimistic and think, you know, let's work hard at trying to discover a to discover a vaccine and so forth. But the amount of things that we will beat this, we will do this.

Mhmm. We think, gosh, will we? Yeah. You know, it it it seems to be the wrong emphasis rather than let's ask the law to help us. Yeah.

You know, there isn't humility. So we got these proud and then blasphemous words. What do you reckon that's what's going on there? Well, I mean the all of this is in very opposition to God. Is waging war against God's holy people.

So I suppose also he's encouraging the the people who are worshiping him. So in verse 4, which we looked at yesterday, you have the people saying, who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it? And I imagine the blasphemy is like, God is not. You know, God is God isn't God can't help us.

We have to help ourselves. Yeah. Yeah. That's probably the whisper that's being blasphemed to us now that Yeah. I have to fix this coronavirus ourselves.

Yes. Exactly. I mean, you know, so that so I mean, that is a blast for me, isn't it? That, you know, we we worship ourselves, believe in yourself, trusting yourself. Mhmm.

I mean, all those expressions are around today. And they're they're just common. Yeah. They own. You know -- Yeah.

-- instead of looking looking to God. Yeah. Then you've got this sort of imagery again of Christ. That the beast is given. So verse 8, all inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast.

Yep. I'm I'm sorry. The end of verse 7. He was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Yeah. So that's what Christ has given, isn't he? Yeah. So Christ who who's died on the cross and he's exalted his given ruler. Yeah.

So he's a pretend ruler again, isn't he? Yeah. Although, actually, it's not so because people as you say -- Yep. -- are listening. They are.

Yeah. And they and they end up worshiping him, which is the worrying thing, which we've mentioned. That there there aren't 3 camps. You worship God. You worship the devil or you're neutral.

Here, it's quite it's quite plain. If you if you don't worship the true triune God and the lamb of God, then then you are worshiping this sort of fake version Yeah. Which is quite a serious black and white. And then that's why he's saying whoever has ears let them hear, this is important. Yeah.

And then there's this lamb's book of life. That even though this beast has power to harm wage war against the God's people -- Mhmm. -- which you see in all kinds of countries, don't you? Yeah. And it says even conquer them.

Yeah. In 1 sense, they conquer them, perhaps physically putting them to death or something, but they're not conquer because they're in the lamb's book of life and you can't take any name out of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So there's hope there, isn't there? Yeah. I mean this I mean, when Satan was tempting Jesus in the wilderness. The best thing he could offer him was the world, wasn't it? Yeah.

He said, I'll give you because that's that's as much power that Satan as Satan has. So here when he's conquering them, it's only conquering them in a worldly sense, but you're right. He cannot blot out their names from the book of life. And then you have this little expression in in verse 10 at this quote, I think it's from Jeremiah book in the old testament. If anyone is to go into captivity into captivity, you'll go if anyone is to be killed with the sword with the sword, it'd be killed.

And it sounds sort of slightly odd. But I think it's saying, look, god's in control here. You're in the lands book of life. You can never be conquered in the sense of losing your name from that. Yeah.

And then, this calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God's people. Yeah. Stick in there. Yeah. When life is going hard and you feel the blasphemous words breathing down your neck and the sort of smell of sulfur -- Mhmm.

-- against you from hell itself. You you it's okay. God knows. God knows those who are going into captivity, those who are going to be killed by the sword, but your name is in the lamb's book of life, be faithful. Yeah.

Be faithful in that. Yeah. Yeah. It's like it's like look up, isn't it? Take your eyes off this world.

There is existence and life beyond this world. And if you are to be slain by the sword in this world, then so be it, you know, that God is in control of that. Your name is in the book of life. Sort of look up. So the I guess the question to you if you're listening is, are you in the lamb's book of life?

Have you listened to the real son of god or are you listening to this blasphemer, this false voice? He who has ears to hear let him hear.