Revelation 12, 11. And they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. And
they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice
ye heavens and you that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea for the devil has 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-child. And to the woman were given two
wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness,
into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half
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
wroth 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. Let's pray. Father, thank you
for your precious word. Lord, give me grace tonight to
be true and faithful to your word, to be bold in the proclamation
of your power to save, Lord, and your great mercy. How plentiful you are in mercy
towards sinners like us in Christ Jesus. And we see him and rejoice
in our Savior. Trust him tonight and find in
him our peace and rest. In his name, amen. Now the thought
in verse 11 really begins in verse 10, where we finished last
time. He said, I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the accuser
of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our
God day and night. And they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb. Of course, he's talking there
still about the brethren, the brethren who, or accused day
and night overcame him by the blood of the lamb. And
I thought about this name a little more, the accuser of the brethren. It literally means to bring an
accusation before a judge, to come before a judge and accuse
you of wrongdoing. Can you imagine Satan pointing
out all of our sins to the Lord? It would take a long time, wouldn't
it? He wouldn't have any lack of material. We know that Satan
accused Job of only serving God because God had hedged him about.
Accused Job of being a hypocrite, didn't he? He said, he doesn't
love you, he loves your benefits, he loves your prospering him
and all the things you've done for him and you've hedged him
about so that he's been blessed in everything that he's done,
but you take all that away and it'll be a different story. I wonder if he could find any
evidence in us to that effect, that we're hypocrites, that we
just love God for what we get out of him. And what else might
he accuse us of? If Satan is pointing out all
of our sins, all of the reasons why we should go to hell, and
pretty much all of them are right, he's not omniscient, He may be
wrong about some things by God's grace. If it wasn't for God's
grace, he wouldn't be wrong about any of it. But he's right about most of
it anyway. Then how are we gonna overcome
that? We know that in God's court, justice is done. And the guilty must perish. The answer is, of course, in
our text, they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, by the
word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto
the death. Our plea in this court, the court
of God, the court, our plea is not that we haven't
done the things that we're accused of. That wouldn't be a very smart
plea. Our plea is the precious blood of Christ, and that's it.
That's it. I need no other argument. I have
no other argument, and I need no other argument. I need no
other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
and that he died for me. I love that song. Who is he that
condemneth? It is Christ. That died, it doesn't
matter how many accusations Satan brings against us, and there'd
be a whole bunch of them in my case. It doesn't matter that he does
so day and night. And by God's grace, we've washed
our robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. He can bring them and they can
be true. And we're still safe under the blood The blood, the
blood of Christ represents how that Christ bore all of my sins
in his own body on the tree. His blood was shed, but that
happens to other people. What doesn't happen to other
people is the wrath of God poured out upon them for a numberless
people that Christ represented on Calvary. He bore all of our sins in his
own body on the tree. He began to bear them in Gethsemane,
where his soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. I used to wonder if I was right
in saying that, that our Savior began to bear our sins. I don't
want to speculate about anything, but I can't think of another
thing that would cause such sorrow, except for sin, and it wasn't
his. It wasn't his, I believe it was
mine. And he bore them to Calvary where
he cried, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And having paid the unspeakable
penalty for all of the sins of all of his sheep, he cried, it's
finished. Having perfected forever those
that he sanctified, with that precious blood. He had satisfied God for all
of their sins by that precious blood. That's how we overcome. We just have one problem, our sin. And we overcome that problem
by his precious blood. He overcame it, He says we do. He says we do good works too,
but you know how that is. Oh boy, what a gracious savior
he is. He had satisfied God for all
of our sins. He had accomplished salvation
for us with that blood. And it says they overcame. They overcame Satan, but not
by something they did, by something he did, his precious blood. And by the word of their testimony. Now the picture here is clear. We're in the court of God's justice
and law. And Satan is the accuser. He's
the one bringing the charge against us, but we overcome all charge
of any sin, any wrongdoing, any iniquity by the blood of the
Lamb and by the word of our testimony. His testimony is that we're no
good. He testifies and we're our own
witness against ourselves, aren't we? We're a hostile witness against
ourselves. without even volunteering to
be. But he brings that testimony
against us, but we have a word of testimony too. So if this
is saying here, we overcome him by the blood of the lamb, that's
primary. by the word of our testimony?
Does this mean that we overcome because of what we testify in
that court, what we say when the charge is brought against
us? Or is the word of our testimony, does that just mean the gospel
that we preach? Think about that. Which one would
you say it is? Well, you don't have to think
about it long, do you, to realize it's exactly the same thing. What are you gonna say in that
court? the precious promises of God
for us in Christ. That's all we can say in our
own defense. We can say that Christ shed his
precious blood for wretches like me and promised if we believe
on him, we plead his promises, his blood,
his gospel. Our defense in court is the gospel,
the promises of God, all of which are yay and amen in Christ Jesus.
Satan says we're hypocrites that are hedged in by God or we'd
forsake the Lord in an instant if we weren't. And we say what? Thank God for that hedge. Thank
God for that hedge because he's right. If we could get out, we'd
get out. If we could mess it up, we'd
mess it up. He's exactly right about us. It's a hedge though
of the righteousness that the Lord Jesus Christ lived for me
as a man. As the last Adam. It's a bloody hedge. It's the very hand of our Savior
out of which no man can pluck us. No one can pluck us. It's a hedge of promises. And there are unconditional promises,
promises that require no qualification on our part. You've read the
new covenant. Do you see anything in there,
any qualification that's required of you? Any condition that you
have to meet? The Lord said, I'm just gonna
bless you. And I'm gonna put my word in
your heart. And I'm gonna forgive you for all your sins. There's no ifs. There's not a
single if in there. That's the promises that hedge
us about. It's a hedge of grace. Sovereign,
free, eternal, electing grace. And we use all those adjectives,
I guess, those qualifying words, because everybody talking about
grace, but what they're calling grace is not grace. God giving
you another shot to do the right thing is not grace. We've had enough shots, we need
a savior now. Just like when our Lord was attacked
by Satan in the desert, what did he answer? You remember what
his answers were? It is written, it is written,
it is written. That's how we answer, by the
gospel, by the word of God. We answer Satan's accusations
against us. It is written, whosoever believeth
on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not be condemned, but shall have
everlasting life. It's written. It's written, by his own precious
blood, Christ entered in once into the holy place, not made
with hands, having obtained eternal redemption for us. He finished salvation for me. And I know that because it's
written. It says they love not their lives unto the death. This
doesn't mean they had a death wish. Doesn't mean they were
some kind of weird kamikazes, you know, committing suicide
in this battle. It just means they knew what
life is. Life doesn't consist in the days
that we have here on this earth or in the things that we possess
here. Christ is our life, Philippians
121. For me to live is Christ and
to die is gain. For me to live is Christ and
for me to die is even better than Christ. How is that possible?
because it's gonna be Christ with no sin in me. Christ without me being selfish
anymore. Christ without me being proud
anymore. Christ with me being incorruptible
and like Him. Religion says you need Christ
in your life. Have you ever thought about that? What a horrible thing to say.
You need Christ in your life? What is your life? Your life
is death. Christ don't want to be in that.
You need life in Christ is what you need. Not Christ in life,
you need life in Christ. You see the difference? There's
a big difference. Our life is death. No, we love
not our lives. No, we don't. By his grace, we
take up our cross and we follow him. The thing about crosses
is people die on those. That's what they're for. We take
up our cross. Listen to this passage in John
6.53. Then said Jesus unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you,
except you eat the flesh of the son of man and drink his blood,
you have no life in you. And there's a whole lot of people
walking around in this world that haven't done that. They
have not partaken of Christ in the gospel and salvation. So
what is their life? It looks like they're alive,
doesn't it? Christ said, you're walking around, you're talking,
that you have no life in you. That's your life in this world. We don't love that. We don't
love that. We love Christ and life in Him. You don't need Him in that. When He saves us, He gives us
life eternal. That's not just living a long
time. That's a whole different kind
of life. It's real life, true life. What this world calls life, the
Lord Jesus calls in that text right there, John 6, 53. People call it life. I just want
to live a long time. I'm going to do this and this
to live. The Lord called it what? No life. You have no life in
you, not life. Colossians 3.1, if ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Seek those things which
are above where Christ is sovereign. Where Christ is the mighty savior
that saves whom he will. You see what he's saying there?
That's things above. where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God, where Christ sits on the throne. Set your affection
on things above, not on things on the earth, for you're dead. You're dead to this world, aren't
you? And this world is dead to you
if you're a believer. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. That's what
we're talking about. This is the grace of God at work
in the heart of a believer. Think about this. This is God's
grace right here at work in the heart of a sinner, Acts 20, 22. And now behold, Paul said, I
go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall
befall me there. Save this, I know this, that
the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city saying that bonds and afflictions
abide me. I know it ain't gonna be good
as far as the flesh is concerned. I know that. But none of these
things move me. Neither count I my life dear
unto myself. so that I might finish my course
with joy and the ministry, the ministry which I've received
of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. We can't love this life, can
we, and know Him? Can't love it. Enjoy it, I'm
thankful for the life that He's given us. Once you have life
in Christ, then your life here It's a whole lot better, isn't
it? It's a whole lot better. We know His peace. We have His
comfort in that. But we have life in Christ, and
that's the life that rests in Him. Life that's by faith in
Christ. Verse 12, therefore rejoice,
ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them, woe to the inhabitors
of the earth and of the sea. For the devil has come down unto
you having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time. Every believer rejoices that
Satan is cast down. There's rejoicing in that. Those
who are in heaven and rejoice ye heavens and you that dwell
in them, that's his people. We live in Christ, right? We're
citizens of glory. Just because we haven't experienced
that yet don't mean we're not in on that. We rejoice in that
Satan is cast down. And every believer also knows
that there can be rejoicing and woe at the same time. We rejoice that God's will is
being done, that it's just exactly as he purposed from eternity.
Satan bruised his heel and he's crushing Satan's head. We rejoice
in Christ's victory over Satan and that it's secured and soon
to be final. But there is woe because Satan
is given a little more time by God. Just a little more time. Now we know what God uses Satan
for in the scriptures. We have examples of that. There
are a lot of things he does that we don't know about. I'm sure
Satan has a role in some of those. by God's providence, but we know
that God uses Satan to try his people, to try their faith as
he did with Job. Satan has his role in the affairs
of this world by God's design. We see that, but we can't pinpoint
a single thing and say, well, that was Satan. God may not have
used Satan. He may have just used us to mess
things up. We can mess things up just as
bad as the devil can. Satan is a real and present threat
that we're warned to be sober and vigilant about. In Satan it says he knows he
has a short time and so his wrath is great. There's really just
one thing I want us to remember about that. He's angry and he's
determined because he sees that he doesn't have much time. But though this great wrath may
well manifest itself in wars and destruction and great spectacles
of Satan's fury, but remember this, the greatest damage that
Satan has ever done, plunging our entire race into
sin and its consequences, its horrible consequences, was accomplished
by a subtle suggestion. Maybe God wouldn't be in square
with Adam. Just maybe God is holding out
on you. Maybe there's something you deserve
that God didn't give you. Maybe there's something he's
withholding from you. There weren't any explosions,
there was no fire or famine or flood, just a simple lie. So that's what we watch for.
We don't look at the disasters of this world and say, oh look,
Satan's at work. God's at work. That's who's at work, whoever
he uses. But Satan's great wrath, we need
to remember, comes in a whisper. It may have to do with you not
getting the consideration or respect you deserve. It may have
to do with you not getting a little bit of glory that you think you
should. And your whole life can turn on one lie, one lie. Just remember this, remember
this as believers and never forget it. The only one that deserves
any glory is Christ. We don't deserve any of it and
we're not getting any of it. We're not gonna get any of it.
if you can remember that Christ is all and that you are nothing.
I always remember what Spurgeon said, be content to be nothing
because that's what you are. That's pretty profound, isn't
it? That's just the truth. That's just the truth. It's nothings that flee to Christ. So just remember that Christ
is all and we're nothing. If we can remember that, that
ought to do it. That ought to do it and we ought
to pray for that because we'll forget as sure as the world if
God didn't help us. Verse 13, and when the dragon
saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman
which brought forth the man child. Christ's church, his people,
and his gospel are the focus of Satan's attacks. Again, religion
talks about, oh, you know, Satan is down at the bar. Don't go
drinking and carrying on and whatever they call it. Satan
will get you. I don't suspect Satan gives a
lot of thought for people that are outwardly, openly, continually
in sin. Why would he worry about them? No, he focuses his attacks on
the people of God. And that's what we see in verse
13 here. He knows that God's entire purpose
Think about this, Satan knows this. We know a lot that he knows
and we know a lot that he doesn't know. Satan knows that God's
entire purpose in having an earth at all is the glory of Christ
in the salvation of his elect. Satan knows that. Satan was in
glory for an unknown amount of time before God cast him out.
And that's been the, I mean, it's God's eternal purpose. No
beginning and no end. Satan knows about that. And all of that purpose is accomplished
by means of his church, the preaching of the gospel, the church of
God, his people, which he purchased with his own blood. Then look at verse 14, and to
the woman, were given two wings of a great eagle that she might
fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished
for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent. This is how God describes bringing
his people to himself. And this is important to see,
always we want to see if there's another place in scripture where
this kind of language is used. It's Exodus 19.3 in this case. Let me read it to you. Moses
went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountains,
saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell
the children of Israel, You have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,
and how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself.
Now therefore, if you'll obey my voice indeed, and keep my
covenant, Then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people,
for all the earth is mine, and you shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests and an holy nation. These are the words which thou
shalt speak unto the children of Israel." He said, remember
Egypt, remember the Egyptians, and how I brought you on eagle's
wings to myself. That's how God describes what
happened at the Passover. when he delivered them from a
400-year bondage from the Egyptians. So we see what's described in
our text. The Lord whisks his people away
from danger and into a safe place. It's called their place in the
text here. And it's in the wilderness. And we know that, don't we? We
know that's the truth. What a wilderness this world
is. This world is a hostile environment to the people of God. You see how the world reacts
now to just somebody that just disagrees with them on something.
They'll beat you and maybe shoot you, maybe kill you. Think about
if you had about 10 minutes to tell them who God is, what do
you think they'd do to you? Hmm, but it's good to know God
says we're in our place. Doesn't it feel like that? I
believe I'm in my place. I'm in my place, the place that
God has brought to me, brought me to on eagle's wings. And ultimately our place is Christ
himself. were gathered unto him as a hen
gathers its chicks. It says there that we're nourished
for a time and times and half a time, however long this world
stands. And that's a definite amount
of time, isn't it? I don't know how long that is. And you don't
either. The scriptures tells us. You're
not gonna know. And people still trying to figure
it out. You're not gonna figure it out.
Don't need to. What difference does it make?
He said, occupy till I come. Occupy till I come. But we're nourished. The church
is where God's people are fed. The gospel, Christ in the gospel
is our necessary food. We're given the sincere milk
of the word that we may grow thereby. Time, times, and a half a time. Sounds like a lot, doesn't it?
We keep saying it, time, time. Sounds like a long time, but
it's good to know that it's a finite amount of time. But however long that time is,
we're hid from the face of the serpent. I'm glad of that. We know that we're no match for
the devil. We might talk a good game, but we wouldn't last two
seconds. Not two seconds. And the fact that we're hid from
his face doesn't mean that none of us will ever have any encounter
at all with Satan. We know that, we see that his
people do. But God's church can't be harmed.
His chosen ones can never be harmed. And that's a comfort. And that's not because of their
ability, that's because God has ordained it and spoken it. In
verse 15 it says, 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. The destruction that Satan brings
comes out of his mouth. Always been that way. That's
how it was in the garden. It was what he said. He did the
damage he did by what he said. It came out of his mouth and Adam
swallowed it up. Swallowed it up. It's still that way. He has his spokesman in all of
the false free will churches of this religious world. And
to be carried away of this flood is to swallow these lies of universal
love. You know what they preach. God
loves everybody. Think about that. That sounds
real nice, doesn't it? But the problem with that is
that God loves a whole lot of people that go to hell. So what
does the love of God have to do with salvation if he loves
everybody? Not much, not much. Christ died for everybody. Again, that sounds real sentimental,
doesn't it? That's so nice to say. Christ died for you, Christ died
for everybody. Problem with that is there were
already people in hell the day he died. Did he die for them?
If he did, what does the death of Christ have to do with salvation?
Not much. So we have a problem with that,
don't we? We have a problem with this world's religion. We don't want to sound nice,
we want to sound true. We want to tell the truth of
God. If it sounds mean to somebody, I tell you what, if God ever
shows it to you, it won't. It'll sound real nice. If you're
ever a sinner, it won't sound mean to you. It won't sound unfair that God
chose a people. So many swallow the multitudes,
the masses of this religious world. swallow all of the flood
of heretical nonsense that this world satanic religion teaches,
comes right out of the mouth of Satan. It's a lie right out of hell.
If you say God loves everybody, you just lied. Satan just spoke
through you. to be taken away in this flood
of lies. And they do it for the sake of
gain, filthy lucre, whatever you wanna call it, and the acceptance
and applause of men. But this can never happen to
the true church. God keeps his elect. They can't
fall. They can't be plucked out of
his hand. See how the church is called a remnant there in
verse 17? There's always a remnant. And everywhere you see that in
scripture, I don't know of any place where the word remnant
is used, where it's not talking about the people of God, the
elect of God, a remnant. And listen to what they're called
in Romans 11, five. Even now also at this present
time, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. And Paul is saying that's true
now, just like it was in Ezekiel's day. Elijah's day he's talking about
Elijah there, I believe So according to the election of God's grace There's a remnant that will not
let Christ go They're not gonna let him go now by his grace. They're not The Christ of Scripture
that saved everybody he came to save and That's what sounds
nice to his people. He saved everybody he came to
save. That's a Christ you can trust right there. That's a sovereign
you can bow to and worship. The sovereign Christ that redeemed
all for whom his precious blood was shed. We know when we come to him,
we'll be saved. Why and how does the earth help
the woman? That sounds a little strange,
doesn't it? The earth helped the woman. Well, I'll tell you
this, they're not gonna do it on purpose, are they? He said
the world's gonna hate you just like it hated me. They're not
gonna help us knowingly. But they do it according to God's
purpose. and they do it on God's purpose, not theirs. The earth,
the world that swallows up the flood of lies that comes out
of Satan's mouth, that helps the true church. Satan thinks
he's winning, I imagine. I don't know that for sure, but
I believe he's got to feel pretty good about what's going on in
the religion of this world. He's deceived so many, of course,
all by God's design. When he sees the whole world
drinking up what he's dishing out, he gotta be pretty happy
about that. Satan doesn't know who God's elect are any more
than we do. He doesn't know that. You reckon
God told him that? I don't think so. He doesn't
know who God's elect are. He knows the truth when he hears
it, but he doesn't know who God's elect are, and so his plan is
to just wash everybody away. everybody that even mentions
the name of Christ. His plan is to just wash them
all away in this flood, and it looks like on the surface of
things, he's doing a good job of it. You would think so if
you didn't know better. Thank God we know better. As
verse 14 says, we're hidden away from the face of the serpent. He's not gonna find us. He might be allowed to He might
be used of God to try somebody like he has been in the past.
That'll be for the good of his elect, of God's elect. Verse
17, and the dragon was wroth 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. Satan doesn't know
who the elect are, but that's who he's looking for. He's looking
for the elect, isn't he? That's what it says right there. We said that a while ago. That's
not speculation to say that Satan's not so much worried about the
outwardly, openly just depraved criminal and complete godless rebel in this
world. I know that's what we are at
heart. but not openly and outwardly. We can't renounce the Savior.
We can't renounce the one that saved us, not if we're his. He keeps us from that, but this
world, you know what I'm talking about. It's not that we're better
than them by nature, but there is a difference, isn't there?
Made by God. Christ in us is our hope of glory.
It's not that way with this world, and Satan's not worried about
them. That's what this says. He went to make war with the
remnant of her seed, the church's seed, those who were born of
God by hearing the gospel, which keep the commandments of God.
That's everybody in Christ. That's not any of us outside
of Christ. So Satan doesn't know who the
elect are, but he knows there's an elect. and that's who he's
looking for, not this world. You reckon that Satan knows that
Christ didn't pray for this world? I suspect he was there when our
Lord prayed that. It's Satan that bruised the heel
of our Lord, right? That's talking about the events
surrounding the crucifixion. I highly suspect Satan was there
when our Lord said, I don't pray for this world. Well, that's
a whole bunch of people Satan ain't gotta worry about. He's not interested in the world. But it's the ones the Lord did
pray for. That's who Satan's after. The
remnant. The remnant according to the
election of grace. He knows Christ didn't die to
save everybody. and that most of this world is
already his. Just look at him. If we know
that, he knows that. You reckon? But if Satan can get just one
of God's elect, why is he after the elect? If
he can get just one of them to forsake the Lord. If Satan can separate one sheep
from the love of Christ, he's won. He's won the whole shooting
match, hadn't he? He's not smart enough to know
that he can't win, but he's smart enough to know
how to win. Think about that now. That's something that would
be good for us to remember as we walk through this life. He's
not smart enough to know he can't win, but he's smart enough to
know what he's gotta do. And we bless God that it can
never be. And at the same time, all of his disciples asked him,
Lord, is it I? Is it I? Am I the one that'll
betray you? Not one of his elect can or Satan's
one. That's somebody that looks a
whole lot like one of the elect, Ken. We know that, don't we? And we know there's nothing to
us. But what comfort and hope we
have in Christ, if we just look to Christ. If you're looking
to Christ now, then you'll be looking to Christ the day you
die, right? That don't change. The gifts
and calling of God are without repentance. We know something that Satan
doesn't understand, and I just wanna close with this. Satan
doesn't understand this. He knows in his head, I'm sure,
a little bit about it, but here's what he doesn't understand. who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Can you think about why it says
it that way? It doesn't say who can cause one of the elect to
fall. That's a good question too. It doesn't say it that way. Who shall separate us from the
love? Tribulation When you're going
through something horrible If we can just remember that
Christ loves us and nothing that happens it's going to change
there Or distress Persecution or famine
Or nakedness or peril or sword or It is written for thy sake
we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep For
the slaughter does that mean Christ doesn't love us Nay and all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us We don't just win it's a lot
better than that There's never been a win like
that than what Christ gives us. For I'm persuaded that neither
death nor life, nor angels, that's what Satan
is, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love
of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen, let's be dismissed.