How the Great Controversy depicted in Revelation 12 applies to the broader experience of God’s Remant church today. Part 2

2016 Hartland Summer Campmeeting: Mission and Purpose of the Remnant Church

<p>How the Great Controversy depicted in Revelation 12 applies to the broader experience of God’s Remant church today. Part 2</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Cody Francis

The Destiny of the Remnant

If you were here yesterday, we began by looking at what I would consider as we study it, the focal point of the book of Revelation.

We mentioned that Revelation is basically building up to in the historical section of Revelation.

It is building up to the great controversy vision that John sees there in Revelation 12, 13, and 14.

And then when you pass 12, 13, and 14 in Revelation, it starts to point back to the events that transpired in that great controversy vision.

And so you have a build-up to this, and then you have the focal point coming in this conflict that is seen there in Revelation chapter 12.

And we saw the, as we look at Revelation 12, Revelation 12 itself builds up to a climax as well.

And it reveals this woman and the dragon and gives the background of the great controversy and the attack that took place, the war that took place in heaven.

And then we come to Revelation chapter 12 and verse 17 and let's turn and read that together.

Revelation chapter 12 verse 17, And the dragon was wrought with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." So here we see that Revelation 12 is building up to this dragon being wroth, angry with the woman, and goes to make war with the remnant of her seed.

We looked at remnant and how this remnant in Revelation chapter 12 is a culmination of the biblical concept of remnant.

It's the rest that is left remaining after a cataclysmic event.

It has been condensed into the faithful remnant here, and it also is the final remnant where those from all that are honest in heart are gathered into this remnant.

We looked at seed and how that's the culmination of the promises made to Abraham and to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.

But today I want to look at what I'm going to call the destiny of the remnant because the remnant concept does not stop here in Revelation 12.

In fact, it continues into Revelation chapter 13 and especially into Revelation chapter 14.

So in Revelation 12, 17 the dragon is angry with the remnant and he goes to make war.

Then in Revelation chapter 13, what do we see taking place in chapter 13?

What 2 things do we see in Revelation 13?

We see 2 beasts, 1 rising from the sea and the other rising from the land, right?

So we have a sea beast and a land beast in Revelation 13.

Now I would suggest to you that in Revelation 12, 17, when it says that the dragon was enraged with the woman and went to make war with her, that Revelation 13 is now a picture of, to a great extent, the war that the dragon is making against the woman.

And we're going to look at a few verses to see how that takes place.

And so, Revelation 12 builds up to this anger of the dragon and this war against the remnant.

Revelation 13 is going to picture for us the historical, but especially the final war against the remnant that the dragon is going to be doing here.

And let's just notice some of the things here in Revelation 13.

We're not going to go through, this is not an evangelistic series, we are not going to go through and identify these different points of these beasts.

I am going to take for Granted that you have studied this chapter before.

If we were in an evangelistic experience, we would spend at least 2 nights in Revelation chapter 13, where we would give 1 on the sea beast and the other on the land beast.

We're just going to notice how these 2 beasts are interacting with the woman and with the remnant here.

Revelation 13 verse 7, and it was given unto him to, what does it say?

Make war, doesn't it, with the saints and to overcome them.

And power was given him over all kindreds and tongues and nations." We see 1 of the attacks, and this is more of attack against the woman rather than the remnant here, but we see 1 of the attacks that says, war is made against the remnant.

Land beast here which we know to be the United States as we have studied it in prophecy.

The first beast of course the papal power, we've studied that as well.

But Revelation 13 verse 13 it says, And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire "'come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men.'" So what do we have transpiring here?

Revelation 13 verse 7, it says, "'He makes war against the saints, ' but this is also a form of war that is being made and what is this form of war that is being made here in verse 13?

So he performs miracles and as he performs these miracles, these miracles are for the purpose to lead people astray, are they not?

So this is a part of the war against the remnant.

Then notice verse 14 what this leads to of Revelation 13, and he deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast, saying to them that dwell on the earth that they should make an image to the beast which had the wound by a sword and did live.

So here we see he does miracles in verse 13.

Is deception a type of warfare against the remnant?

And so we have miracles being performed and the reason for these miracles is shown in verse 14, because he wants to deceive.

So there's deception that is taking place.

And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause, that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed." Now what is this?

This is spiritual warfare and he is resorting here to first there were miracles to induce, to entice, and then there is deception and Now we see not just deception but we see coercion isn't there?

And so here we have war being made, we have inducements being made with these miracles, we have deception and we have coercion.

So we see these different tactics that the devil is using through these 2 powers that are making war with the remnant in this last period of earth's history.

Then we see in verses 16 and 17, Revelation 13, 16 and 17, and he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand or in their foreheads, and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark or the name of the beast or the number of his name." Now we have miracles being performed, we have deception taking place, we have coercion.

What is these next 2 verses that we've just read?

Okay, it's all spiritual warfare, isn't it?

Isn't the devil trying to isolate the remnant here?

He tries to induce them with miracles, he tries to deceive them with other means, he tries to coerce them, and then he tries to isolate them from society, doesn't he?

Now, this form of warfare is not used a lot anymore, but anciently it was a very common form of warfare, and that was when they would make a siege against a city.

What were they doing when they would mount a siege against a city?

They would be trying to isolate them, wouldn't they?

You remember when Cyrus, of course we don't remember, but we have read about it and heard about it in history, and when Cyrus surrounded Babylon, what was that?

Now Babylon had some advantages and they were protected or thought they were protected against sieges.

They had the River Euphrates running underneath, didn't they?

They had a water supply And they had, according to some historians, a 20-year supply of food for the entire city.

Now, 20 years is a long time to withstand a siege, isn't it?

They could withstand a siege more than the army on the outside could, and so they thought they were protected from a siege.

But pride grows before a fall, doesn't it?

Babylon fell not by being sieged for years and years, but Babylon fell because of their pride and inattention, and the Cyrus was able to march underneath the city.

But a siege was a common form of warfare, And you even see that taking place in World War I and World War II.

Like I said, it's not as common of a method of warfare anymore today, but it certainly was a very common for thousands of years, actually.

Now, isolation is basically a siege, isn't it?

And when we see that you cannot buy or sell unless you have this mark, The dragon is attempting to isolate the remnant from society, to seek to get them to capitulate to his demands, right?

And So when we look at Revelation 13, Revelation 12 ends with this warfare against the remnant, the anger of the dragon against the remnant of her seed.

Revelation 13 reveals the warfare that is being used against the remnant.

Miracles, deception, coercion, isolation.

These are all methods that are being used to attack the remnant.

Now, there's a lot that we could look at on all of these accounts, but that's not our subject.

We don't want to look at the attacks of the dragon.

We want to look at the destiny of the remnant.

Let's turn to Revelation 14 because really these, although they're not in exact chronological order, really they're all connected and we have to look at them as a connected line here.

Revelation 12, the development of the final remnant through which the final prophecies regarding the remnant are going to be fulfilled.

Revelation 13, the final assault against the remnant in which the devil is going to seek to exterminate and annihilate the remnant.

By the way, why does the devil want to exterminate and annihilate the remnant?

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The Destiny of the Remnant

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