Revelation chapter 12. I want to read this chapter.
It has only 17 verses in it. We'll spend a couple of nights
in this. I want to begin in verse 1 of
Revelation chapter 12. And there appeared a great sign,
a wonder, in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and the
moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she, being with child, cried,
trevelling in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared
another wonder in heaven, another sign. And behold, a great red
dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon
his head. And his tail drew the third part
of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth. And the
dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered,
for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought
forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of
And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness,
where she had a place prepared of God, that they should feed
her there a thousand two hundred and sixty days. And there was
war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. and prevailed
not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And
the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil,
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I
heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is salvation and
strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his
Christ. For the accuser of the brethren
is cast down, which accused them before God day and night. And they overcame them by the
blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And
they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, ye
heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea! For the devil is come down unto
you, having great wrath. because he knoweth that he hath
but a short time. And when the dragon saw that
he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought
forth the man-jove. And to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness
and to her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times,
and hath a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent
cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that
he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth
helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed
up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the
dragon was angry, enraged he was wroth with the woman, and
went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments
of God, and to have the testimony of Jesus. Last week, you and
I finished chapter 11, and if you'll remember, one of the things
we noticed in the last portion of chapter 11, at the seventh
trumpet, that ended the history of this world. The seventh trumpet
had sound, and the Holy Spirit said, It's time. The time has come, He said. The
time had come. The end of time had come. Christ
had come. The mockers had been saying,
where is the promise of His coming? Well, now He came. In chapter
11, He came. The saints were raised. They went up to be with Christ.
They were glorified, and rewards were given to them. last portion
of chapter 11. I love how the Holy Spirit said
that. He said the rewards were given to the prophets and to
the saints and to those who fear God, small and great. Aren't you glad that the Lord
is going to reward His people, not just the imminent saints,
the prophets, but the small. That's what we are, the small. But the wicked were frightened
The wrath of God came and every man was assigned his long haul. The saved into life everlasting
to be with the Lord forever and the wicked were assigned to everlasting
fire. And we saw that last week in
chapter 11. And we could have stopped there
because that ended the history of the world. It's sort of like
chapter 6 that we saw the same thing happen there. The end came. And then we went back and looked
at the history of this world from another perspective. And
here in chapter 12, it's the very same thing. The end of the
world had came. Judgment had came. The mystery
of God was finished. And we could have said, well,
let's close the book. That's it. But the Lord has something
else to show us. He wants us to look at history
from another perspective, and that's what Chapter 12 is about. But one of the things that's
different from Chapter 12, as opposed to the other chapters
that you and I have been looking at, the other chapters, when
they start their history, it starts at the resurrection of
Christ. He ascends back to heaven and
you see the church and what's happening in the world and all
the judgments of God from the ascension of Christ to the return
of Christ. But chapter 12 is different.
In chapter 12, John does something that he doesn't do in any other
of the chapters. He not only goes back to the
beginning when Christ came, but he goes back to the very beginning
of the world, the very beginning of humanity. back in the days
of Adam and Eve. And he brings us up all through
the Old Testament to the time that the Lord Jesus Christ was
born. And we'll see that here in this
chapter. But first of all, I want us to
look, just look in general and get a wide view of this vision
that John sees. In chapter one, he sees this
woman and it's amazing. Because she's clothed with the
sun and she's standing on the moon and she has this crown up
on her head and in the crown is 12 stars and she's glorious
and she's shining. Can you imagine what she looks
like? And we'll find out just in a minute who that woman is.
But in verse two, he tells us something about this woman. She's
pregnant. She's with child. And she's crying. She's in labor. She wants to
deliver this child. And then in verse 3, John sees
something that's dreadful. He sees something that's very
frightening. And there is a great red dragon. There's a monster. And he has
seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. I drew a picture of this monster
one time. He was a dreadful looking thing.
I didn't know what to do with all the horns, ten horns on seven
heads, but he was a dreadful, can you imagine? This red dragon,
and he was a great dragon, and what made it so frightful, he
was standing facing this woman. He was looking at this woman,
waiting for her child to be born so he could devour the child.
But he failed. The text tells us here that he
fell because in verse 5 it said the child was born and he was
caught up to heaven and to the throne of God. Now, that'll keep
us busy tonight, figuring out who these people are. What does
this mean? Well, there's no doubt who this
man is. There's no doubt who this child
is. There's two things here that we're told about this child that
was born here in verse 5. She brought forth a man-child
who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Now there's no
doubt who that is. Every commentary you read said
this is the Son of God. This is the incarnate Christ,
the Lord. He is to rule all nations with
a rod of iron. And what did Peter say about
him? Well, Peter says he rose from the dead and he was received
up into heaven and set down on the right hand of God and angels
and principalities and powers being made subject to him. He
that's ruling the nations is none other than the Son of God,
the Son of Mary. And then something else is said
about him here. Not only did he rule, but he
was called up unto God and to His throne. He's on the throne. We saw in chapter 5 when John
began to weep because nobody was found worthy to open the
book. You'll remember that. And he saw this one that looked
like a lamb that had been slain. And it was standing in the midst
of the elders, those men, and He was in the midst of the throne.
So there's the incarnate Christ, Jesus Christ. He's fully man
and He's fully God. In the midst of the elders and
in the midst of the throne. So this is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God. This child is. Now, hold that
right quickly and turn over to Psalms chapter 2 with me. David mentions this in Psalms
chapter 2, and he brings out these two things that John mentions
in chapter 12 of Revelation. You know the context here of
chapter 2, where the heathen was raging, and they said, let's
break their bands asunder and cast their cords from us. They
were going to try to defeat the Lord Jesus Christ in His purpose. But in trying to defeat him,
they fulfilled his purpose. They killed him with wicked hands. But God raised him from the dead. And look in verse six. Yet have
I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. That's Jesus Christ. God has exalted him. I will declare
the decree, the Lord said unto me, Thou art my son, this day
have I begotten thee. And Paul said that was the resurrection
of Christ from the dead. Ask of me and I'll give you the
heathen for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth
for your possession. And you shall break them with
a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. That reminds us so much, doesn't
it, of our text. Be wise now therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the
earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss
the Son." This is all about the Son of God and His birth. Okay, look back over at our text
then. So we see the child is Jesus Christ, the Son of Mary. Who is this red dragon? Well,
we're told. There's no doubt about that in
verse 9. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent
called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out
with him. That old red serpent, that monster, he is Satan. He is the devil. Why is he called
a dragon? Well, for his cruelty, for his
fury, He's a dragon, and he's a red dragon. He's a murderer. He sprinkled
himself with the blood of humanity. Christ said he was a murderer
from the beginning, didn't he? He's a dragon. He's cruel. He's
called the old serpent because that identifies him with that
snake that was in the Garden of Eden. He was in that serpent
that deceived Eve. We call him a snake in the grass,
don't we? And that's what he is. He's a snake in the grass. He waits on people. When they
come by, he bites them and infects them with his poisonous lies.
And then he's called the devil. Now, what does devil mean? That
means a slanderer. That means an accuser. He's a
false accuser. We read in this chapter where
he accuses men before God. He accuses God's children before
God, and he accuses God before men. He seeks to misrepresent
the Lord Jesus Christ to our minds. He accuses one man to
another man. You know, there's one sin in
our day that's very prominent, and you know what it is? False
accusation. People accusing other people
of things that's just not true. And you know where that comes
from? Satan. This comes from the devil. And
then he's called Satan. And what's the definition of
Satan? Well, it means he's the adversary.
He's the enemy of God. He's the enemy of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our enemy. He's our chief
enemy. He's the enemy of all that's
wholesome and the enemy of all that's good. That's why they
call him Satan. And this great red dragon was
not always a dragon. Satan was always Satan and the
devil was not always the devil. You know, when God created him,
he was a great angel. He was a good angel. He was a
beautiful angel. You'll read this in two places
in the scriptures. Sometimes read Ezekiel 28 and
Isaiah chapter 14, and you can see where he came from. God didn't
create him. like what he became. Listen to
what he said about him in Ezekiel 28. He is called the anointed
cherub that covers. He was a cherub. He was a bright
and shining and great and mighty angel. He was said to be perfect
in his ways from the days that God created him. God created
him perfect. He is called the Son of the Morning
in Isaiah 14 and 12. God created him good. God created
him a bright and shining and powerful angel. But you know
something? He fell. And you know how he
fell? Through pride. Pride goeth before destruction,
doesn't it? And that's what brought his fall.
Listen to this passage. Listen to what Satan said. He
said in his heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will ascend above the heights
of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. That's what he told Eve, wasn't
it? He said to Adam, if you eat this fruit, you'll be like God.
And here's what God said to him. Now art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning. Now art thou cast down to the
ground, and you shall be brought down to hell and to the sides
of the pit." Boy, I tell you, men, men better be careful about
attributing to themselves what belongs to God. There are things
that belong to God only. And you know what belongs to
God? Salvation. Salvation is of the will of God,
not man's will. Of His own will be God, He asks. And how often have we heard somebody
say a statement like this? I'll come when I want to come.
I'll be saved when I will to be saved. And they put everything
in their will. But salvation is not in the will
of man, it's in the will of God. And when men make statements
like that, they best remember that that's nothing but pride.
God owes me a chance. What is that? That's pride, isn't
it? And where did pride come from?
Satan. I will, I will, I will, I will. And I tell you, it got him kicked
out of heaven. It got him cast down to hell with absolutely
no remedy. We'd better be careful, hadn't
we? We'd better be careful when we
talk about the power of somebody's will and the power of free will. It came from Satan himself. And here's something else about
this anointed cherub that fell. Verse 4 tells us that he had
so much influence and so much power that one-third of the angels
sided with him and fell with him. See verse 4? His tail drew
the third part of the stars of heaven, that's the angels of
heaven, the messengers of heaven, and cast them to the earth. Boy, he must have had some power
and influence to deceive one-third of the angels and they fell with
him. I wonder what he told them. He
probably told them, if you'll follow me, you'll be like God. You follow
me and we'll exalt ourselves above God. We'll be gods. And he deceived them. No wonder
he deceives the world. If he can deceive angels, he
can certainly deceive fallen man, can't he? Peter and Jude both made mention
of this. Peter said, God spared not the
angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered
them into chains of darkness to be reserved to the day of
judgment. And Jude said, the angels kept
not their first habitation, their first estate. They left that
place, their habitation, and He has cast them down. He has
reserved them in everlasting change under darkness and to
the judgment of the great day. Yeah, he probably told them just
the same thing he told Eve. You know, you come and follow
me and we'll overthrow God. We'll be like gods ourselves. One third of the angels, he pulled
with it. And the angels are innumerable. There's no telling how many he
pulled with him and influenced to follow him. And you know something? After all of that, he's still
not satisfied. He's like a roaring lion, and
all he's interested in is not kingdoms. He can't give a flip
about a huge bank account. He don't have any desire for
gold and silver or cars. All he wants is to destroy men's
souls. He's a roaring lion that goes
about seeking who he may devour. That's his whole job, isn't it?
Brothers and sisters, you and I, every day, we should be thankful
in our hearts that the Father in heaven has delivered us from
that dark kingdom. Giving thanks unto the Father,
who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated
us into the kingdom of His dear Son." We were in that kingdom,
weren't we? He had taken us captive by His
will. And men can't get out of that
kingdom. They can't see their way out of it. They don't even
want out of it. They have to be delivered from it. So there
we have this child. We have this dragon. We know
who they are. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
The dragon is Satan himself. Now, who is this woman? We see here that she was great
with child. She was crying. She was in pain,
wanting to be delivered. Now, who is this woman? Well,
it has to be the Old Testament church because Who else could
it be? This woman was here before the
incarnation, before the Son of God came down from heaven and
took our humanity. This woman was praying and she
was desiring for this child to be born. Who else could it have
been but the church in the Old Testament? They had the prophecies
of Christ. They had the shadows and the
figures and the tops that pointed to Christ. And they waited with
bated breath. They longed and they prayed for
the coming of the Son of God. This is the Old Testament church. And for 4,000 years, Satan watched
diligently. He waited and looked to see when
Christ would be born. where He would be born and to
whom He would be born so He could destroy the Christ. Get a picture of that. He's standing
right before this pregnant woman just waiting to devour Him as
soon as He's born. Let me take you quickly through
some places in the Old Testament and bring us up to the birth
of this child and see how this dragon was doing everything he
could to hinder the birth of Jesus Christ. Remember in Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 16, after the fall of our parents, God
gave them that wonderful promise. The Lord said to Adam and Eve,
I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed
And her seed, he even told that to the devil, didn't he? That
serpent. And when he comes, he's going to bruise your head. That's
what he told the serpent. And you're going to bruise his
heel. So what did Satan learn from
that promise? That the Messiah was not only
coming, but he would be the seed of the woman. He would be born
of a woman. Now, what you've got to remember
about Satan, he's not sovereign. He's not omniscient. He doesn't
know everything. He's still trying to figure everything
out, and he can't until God gives him information and reveals some
things, and then he tries to take hold of it and see what
he can do with it. Well, when the Lord there in
the garden says, you're going to have a man that's going to
be born, a child that's going to be born of a woman. Well,
what did he begin to think immediately? Well, you just about know what
Satan began to think. I know who the Christ child is
going to be. He's going to come out of Abel. He knew he wasn't coming out
of Cain because Cain already belonged to Satan. So when he
thought he was coming out of Abel, what did he do? He moved
upon Cain to hate Abel and to kill him. Doesn't John tell us
that Cain killed Abel because he was of the wicked one. Who tempted him to kill Abel?
Well, Satan did. And he did because he said, if
I can kill him, then the Christ jaw is not coming. But what a
mistake he made. When he killed Abel, he realized
when Seth was born, it's not Abel. It's Seth. Christ is going
to come through Seth. So now I've got to kill him.
So what did Satan do about that? Well, I'll tell you what he did
when he found out that Christ was coming through Seth and that
family was predestinated to bring forth the Messiah. Then he spends
1,000 years trying to get the family, the descendants of Seth,
to sin against God and corrupt themselves so God would destroy
them. And you know something? He just
about did it. Because in Genesis chapter 6,
the descendants of Seth fell in with the wicked of this world
and they began to marry each other. Remember that? The wicked
saw the sons of God that they were, that they were beautiful
and they intermarried with them. And the earth became corrupt
before God and God said, I'll destroy all flesh that I've made. I'm sending the flood and the
world is going to be destroyed. But what about the Messiah then?
If you destroy everybody, what about the promise of the coming
of the child? So what happens? There's one
family that finds grace in the eyes of the Lord. That was Noah
and his family. And you know who Noah came from? Seth. The only family left. And he found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And he built an ark. And his
family was saved. And the promise was secure. And
the dragon was frustrated. After the flood, We find Abraham
and Sarah, and the Lord came to them and promised them a son. Remember that? Genesis chapter
12. Instead you will call his name
Isaac, and in his seed shall all the families of the earth
be bled. Who was that seed? Galatians 3 tells us it was Christ. In Isaac shall your seed be called. Well, what's the first thing
that happens? Well, Ishmael, Isaac's twin brother,
hated him. And Satan was tempting Ishmael
to kill Isaac. And when Abraham took Isaac up
on the mountain to offer him as a burnt offering, and he raised
his knife ready to stab Isaac in the heart, Can't you just
see Satan there with baby breath saying, now that will end this
child because he's got to come through Isaac. But just as that
hand was coming down, there was a voice from heaven that said,
Abraham, Abraham, do the child no harm. And the promise was
secured and the dragon was frustrated again. Then Isaac, marries Rebecca,
and they have twin sons, and their name was Jacob and Esau. And Satan, the dragon, knew that
the blessing was going to be to Jacob. So what does he do? He tries to kill Jacob. He moves
upon the heart of Esau to kill his brother. And Jacob has to
flee into a foreign country What's going to happen to the promise
now? Lo and behold, while he was there in that foreign country,
he married two wives and two concubines. And out of that relationship
came twelve sons. And one of them was named Judah. Judah. And Satan then finds out
that Judah is the very family whom the child would come through. And in process of time, Judah
and his 11 brethren were enslaved in Egypt. Satan moved upon King
Pharaoh to destroy them by killing their children. Remember that?
He tried to get the midwives to kill all the Jews that would
be born. And then he enslaves them. He
beats them. He grieves them. The Lord comes
down and redeems them and He brings them out of the land of
Egypt. And they come into the place
of the Red Sea and mountains on each side and the Red Sea
in front of them. And Satan whispers to Pharaoh,
kill them. Slay them. I've got them now. If I can kill them all year,
the Christ-yaw cannot be born. Because he has to come through
these Jews, especially through the family of Judah. And lo and behold, just as Pharaoh
is ready to get there with all of his soldiers, and some of
them have got their bows drawn back ready to shoot, the Red
Sea opens up. And they go across safely to
the other side, and Pharaoh is drowned, and the promise is secure,
and the dragon is frustrated again. See where I'm going with
this? The dragon is standing before this woman, right in her
face, to destroy her at every turn. And then out in the wilderness,
Satan moves upon the children of Israel to corrupt themselves.
and to tempt God to destroy them. There came a time out in the
desert when God came to Moses and He said, Let me alone, because
I'm going to destroy this nation, and I'll make of you a great
nation. Remember that? And Moses, that beautiful type
of the Lord Jesus Christ, became a mediator between God and those
sinning Jews. And God spared him again, and
the promise was secured. Then we come to King David, the
descendant of Seth. Isn't that a wonderful thing?
After all of this time, we have this family, and he traces his
lineage all the way back to Seth. Why? Because the Messiah is coming
through Seth. And the Lord appears to David,
and this is the promise that he gives to David, of the fruit
of your loins will I set upon your throne. Christ is going
to sit on your throne. Christ is coming through the
family of David. So what does the Satan do? He
stirs up King Saul to try to kill David. He throws spears
at him. He hunts him. to try to kill
him. If you can kill David, the Messiah
cannot be born, because he's coming through David. What happens then? David has
a son, and his name is Solomon. And through Solomon, the Christ
child is born. And here's an interesting turn
in events. Remember Ahab and Jezebel, wicked as they could
be. They had a daughter by the name
of Athaliah. She was the daughter of wicked
Ahab and Jezebel. And they crowned her as queen. And as soon as they did that,
she said, I've got to secure my reign. And she sent forth
and slew all the seed royal. All of David's children. She
slew every one of them. What about the promise now? If
she slew every one of them, then the Christ child can't be born
because he has to come through David. Well, let me correct what
I said. She slew all but one of them.
Remember when they came, her soldiers, and they slew all the
sons of David, and a nurse came rushing in, and down under some
of the dead bodies, she found this little baby. She got him
up in her arms and fled with him, and she fell, and he was
crippled the rest of his life. His name was Joash. She took
him to the house of the Lord and hid him in the back rooms
for six years. And the seventh year she brought
him out and told the priest, our priest, who he was. She told
the generals who he was. They all gathered around this
little child. They put a crown on his head.
They anointed him as king over Israel and they said, God save
the king. And Satan was frustrated again.
And the promise was secure. And in the process of time, we
come to the little town of Bethlehem. And we hear that glorious message
to those shepherds, until you is born this day in the city
of David, a Savior, the Christ YAH. He's Christ the Lord. He's here. He come to atone. He comes to suffer for our sins.
He comes to redeem us. And that He did. And He was called
up to God. And to His throne. And Satan. Boy, he don't give up easy, does
he? He put it on Herod's heart to
go and slay all the children. To try to kill the Christ child.
Joseph and Mary flees with a child down into Egypt. God calls him
out of Egypt. Puts him in the city of Nazareth. And he goes about doing good
and healing all that was oppressed of the devil. Rendering perfect
obedience to the law of God. Satisfying justice. And redeemed
us from our sins. Isn't God's ways wonderful? Isn't His providence amazing?
When we follow Him all through the Old Testament, and this dragon
standing before the woman to destroy Him, and He gave it everything
He had, and yet He failed. We're more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. There in the temple, when the
child was born, Simeon, the old prophet, was
there. And I think it showed when it
said the woman, she cried and travailed for this child to be
born. I think we see what that means
for men like Simeon. And when they brought in Christ
to circumcise him, he tucked him up in his arms. And he said,
I'm ready to die now. Let me die now. My eyes have
seen what I've longed to see. Thy salvation. Here He is. He's born now, the woman. Anna
came in, saw who He was. She had been waiting for Him.
And she spake of Him to all that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. And our Lord Jesus one day was
teaching His disciples. And He said, you know something,
He was teaching them these parables and they were so interested in
these parables. They were watching him heal people,
raise the dead. And he got the twelve off for
themselves and he said, there's been many righteous men and kings
and prophets that desired to see what you see and to hear
who you hear and have not been able to. David longed to hear
my voice. Abraham longed to see my day.
They pained. They waited. They prayed. Oh,
send him! Send our deliverer! And now he's
come. And he bruised the serpent's
head. And he redeemed his people. And now he's seated in heaven. I love Luther's old hymn that
he wrote. Did we in our own strength confide? Our striving would be lucid.
We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ
Jesus, it is He. The Lord shall buildeth His name
from age to age the same, and He must win the battle. And if He wins the battle, then
we win the battle. We're more than conquerors through
Him. And though this world with devil's fill should threaten
to undo us, we will not fear, for God has willed His truth
to triumph through us. The Prince of darkness grim,
we tremble not for Him. His rage we can endure, for lo,
His doom is sure. One little word, one little promise. The seed of the woman, she's
coming. And that failed him, didn't it?
And he'll fail in the end, too, because Christ is the King of
kings and Lord of lords. Our Father, we thank You for
Your precious Word, how encouraging it is, how it rejoices our hearts,
Lord Jesus, to know that for 4,000 years You secured Your
own promise of Your coming And now you're in heaven, exalted
high, and we have a good hope. We bless you for your word. Thank
you for this, dear people. Bless us as we go home. Visit
us in our homes. Visit our hearts. Visit your
dear children. We pray for Christ's sake. Amen. Next. Gail, is it next Wednesday? Next Wednesday, we're going to
have a little meal at the church. I have no idea what that's about,
but that's what Gail said. And whatever Gail says, we'll
go along with it around here. So, if you want to stay next
Wednesday night, if you've got time, Okay, sweetheart, dinner next
Wednesday evening. I'll try to make it short. I'll
try to preach less than two hours.