Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation. Tonight is study #3 of Revelation, chapter 15, and we are looking at Revelation 15:2:
And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
In our last study we looked at the “sea of glass mingled with fire,” and we saw that it related to the “molten sea” that was in the temple and in which the priests were to wash before performing their priestly duties. It was a ceremonial law that God instituted in order to teach the necessity of the priests to be cleansed before performing priestly duties and, spiritually, that points to what God would do when He saved one of His elect and made them a messenger of God. He would make that person a spiritual priest of a “royal priesthood.” For instance, in that individual’s life there would be an “offering” up of himself, as each child of God would take up his cross and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, sacrificing himself. In so doing, as we give up our life, we are fulfilling the role of a priest, just as when the Lord offered up Himself as He was performing His high priestly function. So God used the “molten sea” that pointed to the cleansing and washing away of sin in salvation and this is what the “sea of glass mingled with fire” represents; it is the fire of the wrath of God that was put to Christ for the sins of His people in order to purify them. It is really a spiritual picture that indicates that all the people standing “on the sea of glass” have had their sins washed away and, therefore, they are cleansed and qualified to perform the priestly duties that God would have them to do.
It goes on to say, in Revelation 15:2:
…and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
This is speaking of those that god the victory over the beast. Notice that it mentions four areas of victory:
This is because it is teaching a universal principal. All of God’s elect in the entire world, the great multitude that came out of Great Tribulation, have all gotten the victory. It is a victory over Satan. The name of “beast” is a name that God assigned to Satan specifically for the 23-year Great Tribulation period. Whenever we see the name “beast” we can know the Lord is telling us something about the Great Tribulation period. Satan is the devil. He is the serpent. He is the dragon. But the “beast” is the name given him exclusively for the time that has to do with the Great Tribulation period and, therefore, when God says that those upon the sea of glass had “gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name,” it can only apply to true believers that lived during the Great Tribulation. Why do I say that? Let us ask the question regarding the “144,000” firstfruits unto God that we read about in Revelation, chapter 14. Did they get the victory over his name and over his image? The “beast” really became the churches and congregations of the world that had been given over to Satan and, therefore, took upon themselves the likeness of Satan. What is Satan like? He is a liar and the father of it. When the churches developed false doctrines and false gospels, claiming that they had salvation when they had none, they were speaking lies and taking upon themselves the image of the beast. If they had the image of God, they would have truth, but they had the image of the beast. This was not the situation throughout the church age, even though there were individual churches or even whole denominations that would go astray from time to time and fall away from truth, becoming a “synagogue of Satan.” God does refer to that in Revelation, chapters 2 and 3. Yet, the church as a whole had some faithful congregations and the Spirit of Christ was there, so God counted them faithful. So the “image of the beast” was not set up until the end of the church age and when the Holy Spirit would come out of the midst and Satan was loosed to enter in as the man of sin to take his seat in the temple, the corporate church body, showing himself that he is God. Now the beast was there and the “image of the beast” was in place and the other things God said about “the mark of the beast” and the “number of his name,” which we discussed in previous chapters. The “mark of the beast” indicates ownership, as it identifies with the mind and the will of the unsaved, which were given over to Satan. The “number of his name,” which is “666,” when written as a fraction is “two thirds” and it points to unsaved mankind. Typically, God would identify the true believers as “one third,” but then the “one third” became identified with the churches themselves. Eventually, when God brought judgment on the “third part,” it was due to that identification with the place where true believers had been found, but the true believers were not the ones under the judgment of God – it was only the corporate body. But the “666” is a figure that represents all the unsaved.
The ones that are standing on the sea of glass had gotten the victory over the beast and over Satan’s rule that had been given him by God for that 23-year period. The only way to gain that victory would be to go through the Great Tribulation and come out the other side. In other words, they would endure the entire 23 years and enter into the time period of “those days after that tribulation,” because at that point Satan fell; Babylon fell; Satan was deposed and put down and his official rule in the churches and in the world came to an end. The Lord Jesus Christ began to rule over all that was Satan’s, albeit ruling with a rod of iron because it is a rule where He is pouring out the wrath of God. But, immediately after the Tribulation the saints of God had gotten the victory over the beast. The victory was the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ that had caused the elect to endure and to remain faithful, and so forth. This is the victory that God refers to in our verse. It is a victory over all that had been given over to Satan, including the churches. The people of God got the victory because God called His people out of the congregations to a place of safety.
Then when the Great Tribulation period came to a close, everyone remaining in the churches were bundled as tares for the burning; as soon as judgment began on the world it was as though the entire bundle of tares (all the unsaved in all the churches in the world) was cast into the spiritual fire of Judgment Day. Yet not one of God’s elect were among that number; there was not a single one because God made sure He brought them all out and separated the wheat from the tares and, therefore, God’s people got the victory over the “image of the beast.” What Satan had desperately been trying to do was to destroy God’s elect – if only he could destroy even one of them. He failed. He was not able to do any spiritual damage to any one of those chosen before the foundation of the world. Each and every one was safe and secure in the safe chamber of God’s salvation and they would remain there during the entire Day of Judgment. The victory was accomplished.
The victory was won and this a glorious, triumphant statement the Lord is making. We have not talked about it much recently, but it is good for us to remember that May 21, 2011 was not a day of defeat. It was not a day for which the child of God should hang his head. It was a glorious day of triumph over Satan and his forces, the enemies of God. It was a day in which God had finally completed His salvation program by saving everyone whose name was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. It was a day of great and utmost salvation because it meant the Lord had saved everyone that was predestinated to be saved. It was a wonderful victory. It was what the battle had been all about. It is why the Gospel had been sent into the world, to find all of God’s lost sheep. Now they were all saved and, here, God is reminding us that this is not a defeat.
Some people have the mistaken idea that the “two witnesses” were killed on May 21, 2011, but they have it all backwards. They think because they felt a little “down” and because the world was mocking them, it must have been a great day of defeat. But have they not taken a look at what happened at the cross? When the Lord went to the cross and was crucified, the disciples went away sad and sorrowful, like the two that were on the road to Emmaus. Jesus asked them why they were so sorrowful and they asked Him if He were a newcomer that did not know what had taken place. They told Him that Jesus was crucified and they had thought He was the Christ and then Jesus had to set them straight. The true believers were in error. They had misunderstood what had happened before their very eyes when Christ went to the cross. They thought it was a defeat and that their hope of the Messiah and the kingdom of God was ended. Was it a defeat? Was it the conclusion of all their hope? Was it a great defeat that Christ went to the cross? No - it was absolutely necessary and it was all part of the predetermined plan of God and it was by the will of God that Christ went to the cross. Yet, for a short time the people of God were confused. They did not know why it had happened this way and then God began to open up their understanding and revealed to them the truth of what had happened. Then they began to see that the cross was not a defeat. Of course, even today as we look back at Christ nailed to the cross and we see it as a tremendous triumph and the greatest of victories for the kingdom of God. But it was not seen as a triumph immediately, was it?
Likewise, people have the wrong idea about what happened on May 21, 2011. “Oh, the world mocked.” Well, the world mocked when Christ was on the cross, too. There was tremendous mocking taking place, so the world’s mocking or the church’s mocking, just as Israel mocked Christ, means nothing. It proves nothing. People who think we were defeated on May 21, 2011 are about as wrong as anyone could be wrong and that is why they do not understand. They keep getting it wrong concerning the timeline we have been in since that day and they do not understand that we are to publish and proclaim these things. We are to prophesy once again. They think, “Oh, we are to be quiet. We were defeated.” But God is setting it straight in Revelation 15:2. There was “victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name.” Now where in this do we find that Satan “killed the two witnesses” or that he has overcome the true believers? Satan overcame the saints during the Great Tribulation, at the very beginning of that period. That is when the “two witnesses” were killed and lying dead in the streets. It had been given to him to overcome, as it said in Revelation 13:4-5:
And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
He continued for the duration of the Great Tribulation. Then is says in Revelation 13:7:
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.
And that word “overcome” is the same word that is in Revelation 15. In Revelation 13:7, there was the time when the beast that came out of the bottomless pit killed the two witnesses. It was at the beginning of the Great Tribulation because it was God’s plan to raise up Satan as a destroying instrument to bring destruction upon the churches. But at the end of the Great Tribulation, the tables were turned. Just as Satan had overcome the saints, now he is overcome. It is very similar to what we read of Babylon. Babylon was conquering Judah and winning left and right, but then it was the end of the seventy years and Babylon fell and the king of Babylon is the one that is overcome. It is very similar.
This is what God is teaching us, so we have a real cause of thanksgiving. We have genuine reason to praise God and lift up our voices to exalt His name because He has done a wonderful work. He has saved all His people and He has finally won the battle that has raged over the centuries over the souls of men. God ransacked the kingdom of Satan to free the captives and to make them free indeed, through salvation. Now all of God’s people that were elected to salvation have been freed. God is no longer making forays to send forth His Word to seek and to find and to deliver the lost souls because they have all been delivered. It is as if the gates of Egypt opened up and all Israel came forth; none of the Jews remained behind; every Israelite came out. That is the glorious thing that took place on May 21, 2011. It was a day to be much remembered, as God said of Egypt when He delivered the Israelites. And if that was a date to be much remembered, how much more so the day of spiritual deliverance for all the captives that are God’s elect. It should be held high as a day in which God gets the glory.