Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #15 of Revelation, chapter 13, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 13:10:

He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

We looked at the first part of this verse last time.  We saw that if any would “lead” or “gather” into captivity, he will go into captivity and if any kill with the sword, he must be killed with the sword.  We saw how this applied to Satan and his forces during the Great Tribulation period.  They were gathering together into captivity when they overcame the churches and God had given up the churches to Satan, the beast.  They also killed with the sword, as many died spiritually within the churches and congregations of the world, in the sense that they believed the “lie.”  They stayed within the churches, trusting their pastors and church leadership and they did not trust the Word of God which was warning them to flee and to come out of the churches, so they ended up being killed with the sword.  Just at the Lord Jesus Christ is viewed in the Bible as having a sword protruding from His mouth (indicating the Word of God), Satan comes looking like Christ and looking like “an angel of light” and he uses the sword of the Bible, but, of course, he twists and turns the Scriptures and he will say things that sound close to the truth, but he will also be sure to include his lies and with that sword he kills, spiritually.  Of course, he is not able to kill God’s elect; he has never been able to (spiritually) “kill” even one individual that has been chosen by Christ from the foundation of the world and for whom Christ died.  Satan has never been able to do that; he has greatly desired to do that and has always attempted to do that, but he could never “kill” one of those the Lord had His hand upon.  So this “gathering” into captivity and “killing” with the sword can only refer to the unsaved.

We also had looked a little bit at the last part of Revelation 13:10:

…. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The word “here” means exactly that – it means “in this spot” or “in this location” or “in this time” and not another.  For instance, it says in John 6:9:

There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

The lad is not in another town or 100 miles away, but he is right there with them.  Also, it says in John 11:21:

Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

This is our word “here,” and there is an obvious meaning that when Lazarus died physically, Christ was not there, but was in another place.  He was not where Lazarus was, so Martha is saying, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  That is what God is saying concerning this context, so let us step back and take an overall look, again, at the context of Revelation 13, which is the loosing of the beast (Satan) that was bound for the figurative thousand years.  He has been loosed and he comes up out of the sea; his deadly wound is healed.  He overcomes the saints (verse 7) and all the unsaved that dwell upon the face of the earth shall worship him.  It is a time of tremendous success for Satan and his kingdom.  It is the time of the end and the Great Tribulation.  After telling us all this information that Satan and his army will take into captivity and kill with the sword, God is letting us know that the context is one of total conquest at the time of the end, which identifies with the judgment on the churches because it speaks of Satan making war with the saints and overcoming them.  At the time of the Great Tribulation, which has the same elements in view in Matthew 24 as are in view in Revelation 13, God is saying, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”  That can mean only one thing.  The people of God, the elect, will be on the earth in the time of the Great Tribulation.  Some will say, “Obviously, of course they will be.”  Well, it is not so obvious to many.  Actually, there are many churches and many theologians that have said, “No – there will be rapture of the saints before the Great Tribulation.”  They call it a pre-tribulation rapture because they believe the saints would be raptured before the Tribulation and it is taught by some dispensational churches and it is laid out in commentaries by certain theologians.  But, here, God is saying that is not so.  It is not a possibility.  God is saying, “Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.  You will need patience because you are going to go through that Great Tribulation.  You are not going to be taken out of the world and you are not going to be raptured before that time.  It is my plan for you to go through the Great Tribulation and that will demonstrate faith.”  Revelation 13 is contrary to the teachings of most churches concerning their end time scenario of what they believe will happen and what they believe the Bible teaches and, yet, this verse is very clear.  God is not saying, “Here is the patience and faith of the corporate church.”  It is referring to the saints and it refers to the patience and faith of the saints at a time when the corporate church is not displaying either of those traits.  The churches lack patience.  They lack faith.  They lack trust in the Word of God.  There is no doubt that this speaks of the true believers: they will be on the earth during the Great Tribulation. 

Of course, in our time, we have already gone through the Great Tribulation and we are in a period of post-Tribulation.  We are living in “those days after that tribulation,” and the Bible does say in Mark 13:24 that there is a period of days after that period.  This is a quote from Mark 13:24: “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light.”  I have never heard anyone (who claims we are not in Judgment Day and that the Tribulation did not end) explain why the Bible speaks of a period of days (plural) after that Tribulation.  How can that be?  How does that fit with their idea that Christ comes in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye – He might come today or He might come tomorrow – but then that’s it and the world is over and it is Judgment Day (singular)?  But where are those “days after that tribulation?”  How do they fit in? 

Now we know how they fit; we know perfectly that God is speaking of the days after May 21, 2011, because that date ended the Great Tribulation and we have lived over three years beyond that point.  We have been living “in those days after that tribulation,” and it has been a severe test of patience and faith, also.  God will direct us into discussing that aspect a little later, but right now the focus is on the Great Tribulation in Revelation 13 and this statement that it is happening “here” at the time of the Great Tribulation when Satan has been loosed; when the beast is winning and the world is following him like never before; when iniquity is multiplying across the face of earth; when the churches are apostate and there has come a falling away first and the time when God is judging the churches.  Everything just seems so hopeless for the truth and hopeless for the Word of God and for those that love the truths of the Bible.  How can all of these things have gotten so bad, so quickly?  Yet, God is saying, “This is all according to my plan and at this point your patience will be tried and severely tested.”  We were tried and tested during the Great Tribulation by these circumstances, like the increase of sinfulness in the world, as the world began, more and more, to toss aside the Law of God and the commandments that previously had some authority over the world in the past.  But now the response is, “We do not care about Sunday the Sabbath.  We do not care about divorce being wrong.  We can marry and divorce as we please.  We can marry two, three, four, five or six times.  It is not all that important.  We can have gay rights and gay pride.  There can be promiscuity and fornication.”  The Law of God has been cast aside like never before because it is part of God’s plan. 

The Holy Spirit had been holding back the iniquity that was always in the hearts of men.  Men were desperately wicked and they had hearts that were deceitful above all things.  All throughout time this has been the nature of unsaved people and, yet, the “mystery of iniquity” was that God restrained their sin to some degree, but now the Holy Spirit has been taken out of the way: “He who now holdeth will hold,” it says in 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, “until he be taken out of the way.”  And He was taken out of the way and now it is as if the dam had burst and the floodgates were completely demolished and iniquity, like thousands and thousands of gallons of water, rushed from the hearts of men and came forth out of their mouths and out of their minds and out of their lives.  Now man was doing what he had always lusted after and what he had always desired to do deep within, but these things had been held back.  Now, not only could they do these evil things, but God had arranged for the electronic medium to develop to such a degree that mankind had more access and ability to do these (evil) things.  It was like what Satan had said to the Lord Jesus as he tempted Jesus in the wilderness by showing Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and he said, “If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.”

Well, with television and movies and computers, you can have the whole world before your eyes.  Whatever your particular sin weakness is; just type it out and “click” and there you are!  You can have your fill and, certainly, it was as though God was giving the world their evil heart’s desire to the fullest and was giving them access to all they had craved throughout time.  Man had wanted to be free of the Law of God and now mankind was free.  This was the final preparation for man’s destruction.  It is just like we read in the Bible when the Israelites lusted after meat and they murmured and cried and they criticized Moses and Aaron whom God had placed in authority over them.  They said, “Oh, if only we were back in Egypt.  We could have the food we had in Egypt.”  Then God determined to give them their hearts’ desire to satisfy their lusts and He brought the quail in abundance all around the camp, so it would be possible for them to eat for thirty days.  Yet, while the food was still in their mouths, the Lord brought a plague.  This is the idea here: “You want this and you are never going to be happy until you get this.  Very well, here it is, but it is preparation for your destruction.”  That is what God has done in allowing the world to finally obtain the evil desires it has always wanted.

Also, just look at the world.  Just look at what happens when men are able to get what they want and when people are finally able to get hold of the things they want that are apart from God and they are free to pursue wickedness.  It is just chaos.  It is incredibly desolate in the world.  There is hardly any good that can be seen when people have what they have lusted for.

I think we got a little off track, but, again, God is saying that this is when it all began.  When Satan was loosed at the beginning of the Great Tribulation, it began the time of the end.  It began the period of the final testing of the people of God, wherein it would be necessary for them to have patience and faith.  Both of those things reside in Christ: He is our patience and our faith.  If we have Christ, then we will have patience; they we have faith.  We will have the Spirit of God and through His Spirit, we will have “fruit of the spirit” and we will start to show forth similar fruits like the Lord Jesus Christ, which would include patience and faith.

The Greek word “patience” is Strong’s #5281.  I would pronounce it as “hoop-om-on-ay” (hupomone) and, believe me, that is not a good pronunciation.  It is from Strong’s #5278, which is pronounced “hoop-om-en-o” (hupomeno) and it is a compound word made up of two words in the Greek.  “Hupo” means “kept under” and “meno” means to “stay” or “abide” or “tarry” or “continue.”  For instance, we find the Greek word “meno” (Strong’s #3306) in John 15 and it is found seven or eight times from verses 4 through 11.  It says in John 15:4-5:

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Every time we read the word “abide” it is the Greek word “meno.”  Then it says in John 15:9:

As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.

The word “continue” is also the Greek word “meno.”  Then it says in John 15:10:

If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

So, again, and again, “abide” means “to continue.”  It is not to follow a doctrine or teaching for a while and then when persecution arises for the Word’s sake, you fall away.  Remember, that is what Christ taught in a parable.  The sowing of the seed is compared to the sowing of the Word of God upon the hearts of men.  Some endure for a while, but they do not “abide” or they do not “continue.”  So Jesus is saying, “As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.”  He also said, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.”  In other words, “Keep obeying the Word of God.  Keep submitting to the Word of God and doing the Word of God;” that is, “abiding” in Christ and “abiding” in the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, which are the truths of the Bible, and this is the evidence of being a child of God.  It is not someone that ceases to “abide” and no longer “continues” in the truths of the Word of God.  Of course, there can be “correction,” if a child of God had been wrong on a point of doctrine.  He would receive correction and this is not what Christ is talking about.  Certainly, Christ would not want us to continue in an error.  But when there is a true and faithful teaching of a “right doctrine” that was arrived at through God’s methodology of comparing Scripture with Scripture and which harmonizes with the entire Bible, then “abide” and “continue” in that doctrine. 

But, today we see some that do not “continue.”  They have turned back and they have ceased to “abide” in certain doctrines.  Why?  Have they proven the doctrines wrong?  Have they proven that the Biblical calendar of history is wrong?  Have they proven that the Great Tribulation date is incorrect and the date for judgment beginning on the churches is incorrect?  Have they found an error and now they have made correction?  No – they just stopped following that doctrine.  They made a determination, “I do not like this.”  In all probability this was because of tribulation and affliction that came because of the Word’s sake after May 21, 2011.  Many were critical and there was much reviling, so they no longer wanted to associate with the Word that was the focus of the reviling or with those that identified with the Word.  So they stepped back and they went away.  The problem is, however, that those teachings were true and faithful.  Those things are taught by the Bible and those things are Christ, because you cannot separate the Word of God and Christ; He is the “Word made flesh.”  So if they are stepping back from the truths of the Bible (right doctrine), then they are stepping back from Christ.  They are not “abiding.”  That is a very dangerous thing and a very tragic thing for anyone to do.