John J Blanchard
April 28, 2018 –
Now the end of the world had been predicted so many times that people have dreaded it over and over again. It’s gotten to the point that people are starting to scorn the concept or ridicule it. Although the vast majority of people, if you ask them, “Are they concerned about the times in which we live?” they would respond, “Yes.” There is this sense of impending disaster. Now, the Bible and the interpretations of it have had a great impact on that sentiment. Whether people are religious or not, you’ll often hear news commentators or people who are in the know writing books about various topics use Biblical descriptions for the times in which we are alive. Things like “Oh, that was Apocaliptic.” Or the devastation from the storm or whatever was of Biblical proportions. And they’re using those types of descriptive words and phrases more and more, even if they’re not a religious person, because they equate the end of the age with such devastation and horrible calamities. That’s how they get their point across. These biblical descriptions are often used to describe horrible things in the near future. I think it does have an impact on people in their innermost selves. They live on this edge of fear.
Satan, as we know, is a master deceiver, and a lot of times we hear about “fake news” today. Well, Satan is the literal embodiment and start of fake news or disinformation, or spin, or deceit, and he deceives everybody. Let’s turn to Revelation 12: 9. I think there’s not a person alive, other than Jesus Christ, who hasn’t been deceived for at least a good part of their life. Revelation 12:9: So the great dragon was cast out. That serpent of old, called the devil, or Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was hurled to the earth and his angels with him.” So literally the whole world, all people have fallen under his sway. And he does it with lies. “He’s the father of lies,” Christ said.
Today we’re going to try to dispel some of Satan’s deceptions, and, of course, in one sermon we couldn’t possibly dispel all, we don’t even know all of the ways he has fooled us. He has certainly fooled us in a lot of ways. We are going to look at the end of the age and how it might wrap up by looking at the big picture. Rather than taking a slice here and a slice there, we’re looking at the overall big picture.
Six thousand years ago an age began for Adamic man. I’m not talking about the actual, literal creation of Adam and Eve, but after their fall. They fell into an age in which Satan had sway over them. Adamic man, in essence, had ingested a way of life that eventually consumed him. It devoured him. Let’s read about that in Genesis, chapter three, back at the beginning of the Bible. We’ll start in verse one.
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more cunning than any of the other animals that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘you must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God did say, you must not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, neither shall you touch it, or you will die.’ “ And the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die; for God knows that the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eye and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. So they ingested, as it were, Satan’s way of life. It was more than just eating physical fruit. They were imbibing of a different way of life than what God had been teaching them in the Garden of Eden.
Let’s drop down in the same chapter to verse 14, where God had some words for the serpent: “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all the livestock and all the wild animals. You will crawl on your belly, and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.”
So there’s a curse put on Satan here and he’s told he will eat dust all the days of his life. What is the dust? Now we can back up to Genesis chapter two and verse seven: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.
So we can see that man became a living being, composed of dust. So when Satan was told he would have to eat dust, it was telling him that that in order to have power and vitality, he had to consume human beings. We will explain this as we go through the sermon. Consuming the dust is what would give Satan his strength. He was to continue to consume, devour humanity. It was what would keep his position intact as the ruler of the earth. But one being of dust conquered Satan. He was impossible for Satan to devour, and that being was, of course, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was and will be Satan’s total undoing. Since the incident in the garden six thousand years ago mankind has been the prey of Satan. His strength comes from devouring human beings.
Let’s go to I Peter, chapter five and verse eight. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. So Satan is literally walking about the earth. We could go to Job, chapter one and see that. We don’t see him, but he’s here and his demonic followers are here. We are told to resist him in verse nine, be steadfast and alert, knowing that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings
We are persecuted by Satan, and he continues to persecute us and our job is to resist him. All mankind has the job to resist evil, but without God, without Jesus Christ, it’s hopeless. Humanity often does the best they can. There are a lot of decent people who resist the evil temptations that we all get. Some do it better than others. Some don’t resist at all. They embody evil. Some people let Satan completely run them. They are controlled by him and they seem to enjoy it. Most of mankind is not like that, but we all have sinned and the wages of sin is death. We are all getting devoured by death. The only way out of it is by Jesus Christ’s blood as our savior so that we can have a chance at resurrection.
This idea of devouring mankind is the most wicked thing Satan can do, and he is working through his people to do so. We are told to resist him and he will flee. There are a lot of scriptures that back this up. We don’t have the time to look at everything, but let’ go to Revelation Chapter twelve beginning in verse one.
Revelation 12:1 A great and wondrous sign appeared in the heavens. A woman clothed with the sun with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. Then being with child, she cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared and behold a great fiery red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads. His tail swept a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. Now, that child was to go on and rule the nations. That child is Jesus Christ. So you get a picture here of Satan and one third of the stars, stars represent angels, these angels having become demons, waiting to devour Christ as soon as he was born. Christ was tempted in all ways just as we are we are told in Hebrews, but he never sinned. He never got devoured, He never fell for any of Satan’s devices unlike the rest of us. That’s what makes him able to be our savior. He was a perfect human being, an assemblage of dust that lived a perfect life, and was sacrificed for the rest of us. Because of his perfection and the life that he led, he was able to take our sins upon himself and free us from the burden of the penalty for sins, giving us a chance at eternal life. Satan was trying to devour Christ. He tried in every way he could, but he was unable to do it. But he has held the entire world captive ever since Adamic man fell. Isaiah 14 explains that quite well, so let’s go back to the Old Testament, Isaiah 14.
Isaiah 14:12. We’ll just read a portion of this chapter. It’s beneficial to read the whole chapter, but we will start in verse twelve of Isaiah 14. How you have fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning. You have been cast down to earth, you who did weaken the nations. For you have said in your heart,” I will ascent to heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the North. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds and I will be like the Most High. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit. So we get this picture of Lucifer wanting to be like God, part of the godhead and ascending above the congregation of God’s people and above the stars of God, which means he wants preeminence among all the angels, and he does have that amongst the demons.
Continuing in verse sixteen. Those who see you and consider you will gaze at you saying, “is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners.” We can see that he literally has held the world captive, he’s destroyed our cities through war, famine, disease. He brought death to the human race. We could look at (and indeed we have in previous sermons and Bible studies) the fact that he is called a man is because angels have characteristics similar to men, but he is not a human. He is considered a son of God, like a man. Some day we will be able to look at him when he is captured and his strength is taken away, and we’ll be astonished at this being who brought so much suffering to the human race.
Well, two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ began setting men free. He started with twelve, one was a traitor replaced by another and added three thousand more on the day of Pentecost, and that grew and grew. We don’t know exactly how many people are “saved”, only God knows; how many people are first fruits, only God knows, but it’s certainly not anywhere near the majority of the earth, because, look at the world today and most of the world does not believe in Jesus Christ, and even those who profess to be Christian are not following the things that Christ told us. So, only God can determine who is who, but it’s our job to do the best we can and to do what we know is right.
At the end of the age, this whole thing changes dramatically. Instead of most of the world being non-believing and non-baptized, non-converted; it changes very rapidly to a world getting ready for the Millennium which we know is just around the corner. Going back six thousand years, we know we’re on the verge of the millennium starting. We know Jesus Christ and his return are very close. There must be things happening that we don’t see clearly yet. There are things happening behind the scenes in the spirit realm, getting ready for an innumerable multitude, for a massive conversion. We have to go back in time to see what happened in the past in order to understand what is about to happen now.
You see Satan has been ruling in the affairs of men for six thousand years, and he has been devouring people, consuming them; getting them to do what he wants through his influence. We can look at a few scriptures to illuminate that. If you go to the book of Ephesians, chapter two and verse one: And you he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the Power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. He goes on to enumerate the sins that even God’s people were held captive by, but we should be conquering, obviously, that’s what resisting the devil means, but we’re told here that he is the Prince of the Power of the air. He has the power to get right into our minds, I know probably you’re all like me and sometimes you get a thought in your head, and you say, “Where did that come from?” Well, Satan’s always able to broadcast attitudes and temptations into our minds. But with the power of Jesus Christ we are able to resist.
In Ephesians chapter six we are told we resist by putting on the whole armor of God. But what are we resisting? Starting in Ephesians six, verse ten: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness in this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” So we are at war with spirit beings. When we become baptized and receive the Holy Spirit, we are engaged in a struggle against evil, but we have been given the tools, the armor of God to properly resist while the rest of the world is resisting through their own strength and character traits in their own struggles. Many of them are trying, but you can’t gain victory over sin without the sacrifice of Christ, without his blood, and you can’t truly defeat Satan without Christ in you. But you can grow as a person, you can learn to do what’s right from wrong. You may not be able to sort out what’s the true religion or what’s the Truth of God’s Word and studying the Bible, but you will get the sense that murder is wrong, adultery is wrong, theft is wrong. These things we can learn and resist the devil on, but he wins if we die in sin without the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit. He wins until the resurrection when mankind is given a chance.
Well, Satan has been ruling in the human race now for six thousand years, but that’s about to change in a dramatic way, and this is what is pictured by the end of the age. It’s not the end of the world, physically speaking, which is where people have gotten off track. We’ve talked about that in the past in Bible Studies and sermons, so we’re not going to go through it all that right now. We’re not talking about the end of the world, physically, we’re talking about the end of an age and the end of Satan’s reign.
What do we look for to know that we’re close, and what do we do to participate in this and to help it along. So that’s what we will discuss now. We will start with Satan’s world and how it is arranged; how does he set things up? Well the first thing that is what we saw in Ephesians six. It is the powers of darkness arranged over the earth as the host of the heavens. And they are arranged in such a way that they’re over the geographical divisions of the earth, and try to influence the people of the earth to do evil. It’s a hierarchical organization. You have at the top, Satan. You have underneath him, his two main cronies, the Beast and the False Prophet, and under them you have the four horsemen and their influences over the earth, and underneath them you have two hundred million horsemen, which are the third of the angels which have gone bad and become demons. So, it’s very straightforward and structured with Satan at the top. We have to understand that because it’s built in a pyramid that’s called a mountain. If you recall in Matthew 4, the temptation of Jesus Christ where Satan took Christ up on a mountain here he could see all the kingdoms of the world? Well, there’s no mountain on earth where he could do that, but he was taking him in a spiritual sense to a mountain where he could view all the nations of the kingdoms of the world from the Garden of Eden until now.
So that is how he has structured. We know from Daniel that Christ is a stone that will grow into a mountain and cover the earth as the Kingdom of God. We are going to replace one mountain, one system of government, one mountain with God’s Kingdom. God’s mountain. And how does this happen? We’ve got a book about How the Mountains Rise and Fall, and we’ve got various other things to study various aspects, so I am trying to look at this over-all picture to see what’s going to happen so that they will not fear and dread what’s actually going to be the best thing that’s ever going to happen to mankind since the creation of Adam and Eve.
This Kingdom, this organization, this mountain that Satan has is called Babylon, and it has a capital city called Babylon. Just as Satan is spiritual and his demons are spiritual, these are spiritual things as well. Now there was a physical city of Babylon in the ancient past, but it was just picturing what Satan does to rule the earth. Just like we cannot see spiritual Jerusalem right now, we cannot see spiritual Babylon, but it exists. It’s the name of his kingdom. As a matter of fact, the name Babylon means bitterness, confusion, wormwood, false doctrine, calamity and tyranny. And that’s what Satan does to the world. He keeps us in confusion and bitterness toward one another. He keeps us in fear, and he’s a tyrannical ruler. So the name of his system is Babylon.
We want to look at some of his divisions and systems and how they operate over the earth, and the best place to begin is in Revelation six, the four horsemen of the apocalypse. A lot of people don’t realize these horsemen have been running for a long time. There are people who are confused by the Book of Revelation and they think these horsemen haven’t started running yet. Well, they certainly have, and they’ve been trampling the human race. These are powerful demons, probably in charge of sections of the earth and there are sections of Satan’s horsemen who influence portions of the earth. Just as we have governments, and principalities and localities and towns and villages that typify human government, there is this spiritual government over the earth.
So let’s look at the first seal. We’re in Revelation six, verse one. Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.” And I looked, and behold a white horse. He that sat upon it had a bow and a crown was given to him and he went out conquering and to conquer. Now this is in direct opposition to Jesus Christ. So this is going to picture a very powerful demon in charge of a good chunk of Satan’s army who is in charge of distributing false ideology, inspiring false ideology, and inspiring religion to go off track and be false religion. So this demon is a very powerful deceiver in those ways; with false religion and ideology.
The second seal, verse three. When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come and see!” Another horse, fiery red went out, and it was granted to the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another, and there was given to him a great sword. So, has this horse been riding for a long time? Well, how long have we had wars and violence? Since Abel was killed by Cain, we’ve had murder, and we’ve had war. So this horse has been riding for a long time. This is a very powerful demon who takes peace from the earth. He wants us all at each other’s throats, person against person, family against family, country against country, and, of course, people and populations against other people and populations. It’s been a horrible six thousand years when it comes to violence and warfare.
The third seal, starting in verse five: When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see!” So I looked and behold a black horse, and he who sat upon it had a pair of scales in his hand, and I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, a quart of wheat for a denarius and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not harm the oil or the wine.” Now my subheading here says, “scarcity on earth” but I don’t think that’s properly reflecting everything that’s underneath this demon’s power because, you see, he starts with a pair of scales. These are the scales of justice. If we look at the world today, the scales are often tipped against the poor, tipped against the middle class, tipped against those who do not have power to fight for themselves, which is why Jesus Christ said he fights for the widows and orphans and the poor. If you take the scales and expand the thought here, yes there are shortages and scarcity, but there’s really no shortage of food. There is no reason for people to be starving on this earth. There is plenty of food, but because the scales are tipped, because there is corruption, because there is economic greed, and control by certain nations or corporations or whoever controls the access to food in exchange for money from poor people who don’t have the money or whatever the case may be. But withholding food from a population to literally starve them out as we see in the case of Syria, we can see that these scales are not just. They’re not fair.
Now I want to go to Proverbs, keep your finger in Revelation six, we’ll come back to it, but I want to go to Proverbs, chapter eleven and verse one. God tells us here that dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is his delight. See, scales that are used justly, an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work would be a basic would be a basic weight of the scale, or justice in the eyes of the law, where a poor person is listened to and has as much right to be heard as a wealthy person, but that’s not the way it is today. The wealthy can afford the best attorneys, can twist things to their advantage, so that the poor or the working class has a very difficult time against a wealthy person who can afford the best that law can provide. The scales are tipped, you see. The same thing with corruption between governments or between corporations where people are the pawns. I could expand this to our agricultural system where people are fed food that’s bad for them so that other people can get rich. Or drugs, like the opioid crisis where people’s pain is taken care of or dealt with in a way that will make them addicted, but enriches the pockets of another. The weight of these scales, you see. God says that’s an abomination when I see these things done.
If you want to go to Proverbs sixteen and verse eleven, God tells us here, “honest weights and scales are the Lord’s. All the weights in the bag are his work.” So when God judges, He judges fairly, equitably, and he stands up for widows and orphans and the poor; for the oppressed. There are many scriptures that proclaim that He brings liberty to the oppressed; that’s part of what Jesus Christ does. He sets us free in liberty so that the scales are once again balanced. Now let’s go back to Revelation chapter six and verse seven.
Rev. 6:7 When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come and see!” I looked and there before me was a pale horse. Its rider was named Death, and Hades followed with him and power was given to them over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine and plague and by the wild beasts of the earth. In other words, we can’t escape. There is going to be death by hunger, physical hunger or starvation, or disease, epidemic or pestilence for it is appointed unto all once to die because of what Satan has done to this earth.
So, these beings have been running amok among the human race for six thousand years. This is what Christ is angry with. This is what Christ is upset with. Too often we think, or we’ve been taught that He’s angry with us and He wants to destroy the human race. No, He came to save mankind. Now He’s not going to save the people who literally love this and won’t give it up. If they’re involved in any one of these things and do not want to give it up or repent, or just give themselves totally over to Satan, and we could mention lots of people over the centuries who literally gave themselves to do evil. That’s not what Christ is fighting for. He’s fighting for the rest of us. He’s fighting for the vast majority of mankind who have been trying to resist evil, who have been trying to figure out what is the right thing to do, or how to interpret the Bible. But Satan has been there as the master deceiver to trick us every way we turn. But, here at the end of the age, he runs out of tricks in his bag of tricks, because Jesus Christ is going to do something to help people understand. You see, the book of Revelation is called the book of revelation for a reason. It reveals. It takes away the cloak so that we can see what’s behind. For six thousand years, very few people have been able to grasp that God is so good that He’s going to take care of us without killing us all, without destroying us all. It’s Satan who wants to destroy us all. Jesus Christ is fed up with Satan, and his time has reached its climax, its fullness. He’s done with this and we’re going to get on to the Millennium, a wonderful period of time.
So the four horsemen are going to be stopped. And how are they going to be stopped? Well, it’s a remarkable thing that’s going to happen. They’re going to be stopped in the sea and with blood. It’s Christ’s blood. I want to look at one scripture in Revelation fourteen and verse fourteen. I looked and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one “like a son of man” with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. And another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him who was seated on the cloud, “Thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” So he who sat on the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth reaped.
Then another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven and he also had a sharp sickle and another angel from the alter who had power over the fire and he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, “Thrust in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for the grapes are fully ripe.” So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth and gathered from the vine of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress up to the horse’s bridles for one thousand six hundred furlongs. We’ve studied that in depth in the past. We’re not going to go over it right now, but you notice the blood reaches to the horse’s bridle. So, what do you do with a horse’s bridle? You control the horse. You bring it to a stop. So this is a good event in history here. We’re talking about Christ’s wrath on Satan, and freeing mankind so that blood will reach to the horse’s bridle. People think that we’re actually going to squish billions of human beings so that their blood runs out. God’s not going to do that! Now the interesting thing here is that when we’re baptized, the water becomes Christ’s blood. We’re set free from sin and given a chance at eternal life because of that.
Now, to look at a few more scriptures that will help us to flesh this out. What we’re seeing here is that it takes blood, and it takes the sea. The sea, as we’ve studied in the past is the sea of mankind. Now, this is going to be a direct parallel to something that happened in the past. We’ve just come through the days of Unleavened Bread and Passover, so we’re not going to look at all of that, but we do know that before the Israelites went into the wilderness, they had to cross through the Red Sea. So, after the Passover, Pharaoh and his horsemen and his chariots pursued God’s people. When they went through the Red Sea, ancient Israel went through a type of baptism that literally destroyed Pharaoh and his armies. So baptism, this is the point to remember, baptism of God’s people destroys evil. Pharaoh being a type to represent Satan, and his chariots and horsemen being a type of Satan’s demons. Now there is a New Testament scripture that tells us about that. Let’s look at First Corinthians chapter ten and verse one.
I Cor. 10:1 Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all your fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea (being the Red Sea). All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. So, of course, Christ delivered ancient Israel, but He did something physical and dramatic that would affect mankind forever. It was: first He became a Passover sacrifice that we can get baptized into, but ancient Israel symbolically did it by going through the Red Sea. And that baptism of Israel led to the destruction of Pharaoh and his horsemen and his chariots. We could look at all the demons that they worshipped back then in the form of their deities in Egypt. We could look at the ten plagues which were a physical manifestation of spiritual demonic powers over Egypt that they worshipped. All that came to an end for the people of Israel when they were baptized.
Now, we’re going through a spiritual battle of the same sort. Getting set free from Satan’s captivity and then we have a job to do which is to resist the devil so that he does not devour us a second time. Resist those temptations, allow Christ to work in us to conquer Satan and put him out of our lives. When this is done, for the first fruits, and only God knows when that’s going to take place, but it’s getting very, very close if not just having passed or just entering it, before salvation opens up to the entire world for this innumerable multitude. And that’s at the end of the age.
So Babylon is going to fall very quickly just like Pharaoh and his charioteers. As soon as those walls of water came together, it was over. The sea covered them. They were gone. Well, Babylon is going to fall in a similar manner. Let’s go to Revelation eighteen, beginning in verse nine.
Rev. 18:9 The kings of the earth who committed fornication with her and shared in her luxuries will weep and lament for her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment saying, “Alas, alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city, for in one hour your judgment has come. Many scholars realize this is an end of the age event, but Babylon itself, physical Babylon, is gone. It’s been gone for a long time. We’re talking about Satan and his system that’s going to come crashing down – in one hour, which means a very brief period, a season, very quickly. Verse 11: The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her for no one buys their merchandise any more. Cargoes of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen, purple and silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of article made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, and cinnamon, incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots and the bodies and souls of men. You’re looking at a system that trades in all kinds of physical goods and services, including the bodies and souls of men. Which is what Satan ultimately wanted, which was to destroy our bodies and our souls. But Jesus Christ has given us a way out. This is a titanic struggle between good and evil, so when Babylon falls very quickly at the end of the age, we’re talking about Satan’s mountain, his system, his kingdom literally losing its power and influence over the world. Those four horsemen in that hour get stopped! They get stopped by blood, and they get stopped when people are baptized and the blood of Christ covers them. That’s the sea of mankind getting covered and when enough people of the sea of mankind are baptized and receive the Holy Spirit and are kicking Satan out of their lives, Satan loses power, and his system comes crashing down into the Red Sea. It’s a wonderful thing, and it’s going to happen very, very quickly when it happens.
So the corruption that has enriched so many kings and merchants of the earth, dictators and tyrants who have learned to use Satan’s system and made a deal with the devil, so to speak, they are going to weep and wail when they see this current way of life based upon greed and corruption come crashing down, and people start living God’s way. When this collapses and the sea of mankind – it’s talked about a little further down here in Revelation eighteen. Let’s go to verse fourteen: The fruit that you longed for is gone from you and all the things that were rich and splendid are gone from you and you shall find them no more at all. The merchants of these things that became rich by her will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing and saying, “Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones and pearls, for in one hour such great riches came to nothing.” Every ship master, all who travel by ships, sailors and as many as trade on the sea stood at a distance and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning saying, “what is like this great city.” They threw dust on their heads and cried out say, “Alas that great city where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth, for in one hour she is made desolate.” Rejoice over her, O, heaven, you apostles and prophets for God has avenged you on her. Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea saying, “Thus, with violence, that great city, Babylon, shall be thrown down and shall not be found any more.” So, it’s thrown into the sea. That’s the sea of mankind that reject Satan’s way of life and is turning to God. We’re saved by Christ’s blood, and the world will be converted in massive numbers, called the innumerable multitude, in preparation for the Millennium.
Ezekiel thirty-five talks about the fall of Satan’s mountain and being pursued by blood. Let’s go back to Ezekiel, and read a little bit of chapter thirty-five, starting in verse one. Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Son of man, set you face against Mt Seir and prophesy against it. (Mt Seir is another name for Satan’s mountain. It means a mountain that causes humanity to shiver in fear.) And say to it, “I am against you, Mt Seir, and I will stretch out my hand against you and make you most desolate. I shall lay your cities waste and you shall be desolate for you shall know that I am the Lord. Because you’ve had an ancient hatred and have shed the blood of the children of Israel by the power of the sword. At the time of their calamity, when their iniquity came to an end, therefore, as I live says the Lord God, I will prepare for you blood, and blood shall pursue you, since you’ve not hated bloodshed, therefore bloodshed shall pursue you. I will make Mt Seir most desolate and cut off from it all who come and go. I will fill its mountains with the slain. On your hills and on your valleys and in all the ravines, those who have slain by the sword shall fall. I will make you perpetually desolate and your cities shall be uninhabited. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” So, this is a spiritual battle in which Satan’s mountain falls. God tells Satan here, “Since you did not despise killing people and seeing their blood flow, I will, with the blood of my Son, Jesus Christ, pursue people and baptize them and save them from their sins, and weaken you and your cities and your mountain and those that come and go.” Right now Satan and his host of heaven come and go at will on the earth, tempting and doing their evil. That’s going to come to an end. And it’s when people get converted. It’s not talking about people dying and getting squished so their blood flows out. It’s talking about the sword, the word of God, being understood by people so that they accept the blood of Christ. It’s an amazing time.
There are other scriptures that back this up in the New Testament. Let’s look at Galatians, chapter two and verse twenty. Paul says here, “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who loves me and gave himself for me.” When we “die” at baptism it is Christ who “lives” in us. It’s a type of death of the old man, which is what we’re talking about. When we experience that type of death, Satan gets weaker and his demons get weaker.
Turn back to Romans chapter six and verse one. “What shall we say the? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us who were baptized into Christ, Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we, too, may live a new life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, so we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. Knowing this: that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with that we should no longer be slaves of sin, for he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead and death no longer has dominion over him.” So we see the concept here that we die with Christ when we accept his blood. We were part of the sea as well. And as the sea of mankind goes through the same process, we’re dead to sin. Which means Satan is losing his power over us. It’s a marvelous thing that we are beginning to understand now at the end of the age. It’s not the destruction of the physical earth; that’s what Satan wants. Christ is mad at Satan and his demons and what they’ve done to the human race that was created to be in his image and likeness.
Now, let’s go to the gospel of John chapter six and verse forty-eight. We’ve talked about Adam and Eve ingesting Satan’s ways and getting devoured by Satan. We are doing the reverse when we accept Jesus Christ into our life. John 6:48 “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If a man eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I shall give is my flesh which I shall give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore quarreled among themselves saying “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him. As the living Father sent me, I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers ate the manna and died, he who eats this bread will live forever.”
We don’t chew on the body of Christ. We don’t physically drink his blood, but we partake of him. What is Christ? We could look at the scriptures to back all this up, but you know what they are. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He is the Word, scriptures. He is the Light of the World, the opposite of Satan’s’ darkness. We are told in first John that He is Love. Christ is love. He is also the way of forgiveness. So, when we partake of him, this is what we are partaking of: the way of Truth, the way of Life, the word of God, the light, love, forgiveness. When we imbibe of him, we are literally ingesting these ways of life which are in direct opposition to Satan’s ways. When we eat of Satan’s ways and get devoured by him, what are we doing? We’re imbibing of hatred, envy, division, jealousy, greed, corruption; and we get filled with that. There are dozens of analogies for that. When you say, “that person was consumed with anger, or consumed with bitterness, or his soul was filled with hatred,” These analogies are true. As we turn to God and become more like him, all these things diminish, diminish, diminish in our lives which means Satan is getting weaker and weaker. And when billions of people are doing this, Satan is becoming a tiny little man. On the Day of Atonement in the not too distant future, we’re going to look at that tiny little man and say how could that being do so much evil in the human race?
This is what we’re talking about at the end of the age. What is happening to Satan. There are many scriptures that explain this. Let’s just go to Revelation chapter nineteen and verse one. After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and honor and power and might belong to our God. True and righteous are his judgments. He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants that was shed by her.” So, we’re talking about this system that has hurt humanity and God’s people for so long.
Dropping down to verse six: And I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters (that’s the sea of mankind) and like loud thunder shouting “Alleluja, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give glory and honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright. Fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.”
Then he said to me, “write, ‘blessed and holy are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb’ these are the true sayings of God.” I fell at his feet to worship him, but he said, “See that you do not do that. I am your fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
So you see this enormous multitude coming to see the truth of God and what the saints, the actual first fruits, have been trying to explain to the world for two thousand years. It is now opened up. The Bible and the book of Revelation is now opened up to their minds so that they can be converted.
Revelation nineteen goes on to say: I saw heaven opened and there before me I saw a white horse whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. The opposite of the first of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, this is Jesus Christ. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. He had a name written that no man knew except himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God. This is Jesus Christ, and he is going to use his blood to save mankind. This is a tremendous thing at the end of the age.
Verse fourteen: And the armies of heaven follow him riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen white and clean. (This is Christ’s angels, His cavalry, and, of course, his saints, who have been resurrected at this point.) Out of his mouth there goes a sharp sword that with it he should strike the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron. He, himself, treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Then I saw an angel standing on the sun and crying with a loud voice to all the birds of the air, “Come. Gather together for the great supper of God (Remember, birds picture angels.) that you my eat the flesh of kings, captains and mighty men, of horses and their riders, the flesh of all people, free and slave, small and great. And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the white horse and his army. (These are Satan’s demons fighting against Christ and his angels and his firstfruits, and we’re talking about his angels consuming the flesh – getting rid of the fleshly nature of human beings, getting Satan’s influence out of them.) But the beast was captured and with him the false prophet who performed miraculous signs by which he deceived those that received the mark of the beast and worshipped his image. These two were cast alive into the lake of fire burning with brimstone, and the rest were killed with the sword that proceeded out of the mouth of the rider, and all the birds were filled with their flesh. (In other words, just as Satan’s demons have been infusing their way of life with us being eaten and consumed by them, Gods angels will be doing the reverse, helping us get cleaned up, giving us power which gives them power. It is an amazing turn of events in which human beings are now getting cleansed of Satan and his influence. It is all very spiritual, I understand, but it is the explanation of how we can go into the Millennium with the earth being a beautiful place with peace on earth without everybody being dead. It doesn’t work if all these people have been physically killed and destroyed.
You see, Jesus Christ is a consuming fire who wants to get the dross out of us, get the evil out of our lives. And this system brings that to fruition. And in one hour, this one quick season at the end of the age, everything gets flipped upside down. Satan’s kingdom goes down, Christ’s kingdom goes up, and the apocalypse, the end of the age, the book of Revelation is opened up so that people understand that they don’t need to be in dread of this last event in time. It’s the opposite. It is Satan who has deceived us into dreading to be set free from him, because Christ is going to set us free. It was the ultimate deception all along that God wants to kill us all. Nothing gets achieved by that. Now those of us in the human race who will not repent and are just in love with Satan’s system – they’re in deep trouble. But that’s not the vast majority of mankind. The only way you can get an innumerable multitude from every nation, kindred, tongue and people is by most of them surviving this, getting converted and getting the blood of Christ applied to them so their sins are forgiven and they are set free from Satan’s system.
So that is the broad view of what’s going to happen here at the end of the age. It should be very hopeful for people to understand that God is actually going to deliver us and bring us into a marvelous time when Satan no longer has any power over the human race and the world will indeed be a peaceful and wonderful place. So we look forward to the Millennium, and we’re so grateful that God would help us understand these things, and we appreciate, with humility, that he has opened our mind and allowed us to share it with others