Revelation 12, the title, the
subject is a wonder, a woman with wings, or simply the woman
in the wilderness. We've looked at this before and
several years ago, and as I said last Sunday, I was going to read
this, actually going to deal with this and read Matthew 1
and 2 in conjunction with it, because they go together. But
I started looking at Matthew, and because of the time of year,
we went ahead and dealt with that. So we're going to do this
today. And this is so relevant, so current. God's Word is always current,
isn't it? Look at verse 1. There appeared
a great wonder in heaven. a woman clothed with the sun,
the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve
stars. Now this woman is the church,
that's who she is. This is not Mary the Virgin,
which Catholicism claims that it is. No, not at all. We'll
see this very clearly. This is the church, the bride
of Christ, the Lamb's wife. Read this with me in Isaiah chapter
8. Go back to Isaiah chapter 8. I think this is it. Yeah, here it is. A wonder, it
said, a wonder. Behold, a wonder, a great wonder
in heaven, a woman. clothed with the sun, the moon
under her feet, and twelve crowns upon her head. Isaiah 8, talking
about the wonder, verse 18, the Lord says, Behold, and this is
what Christ is going to say in the end, Thy and the children
whom the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders. You are a wonder. I am a wonder
to myself, to each other, the wondrous grace and mercy of our
God. After the woman in the garden
rebelled, was deceived and rebelled, and yet the woman's seed came. What a woman, made of a woman,
made under the law. This is a wonder. She's clothed,
in our text, clothed with the sun. What's that? Well, the sun
of righteousness. We wear His covering, His righteousness,
His garment. Clothed with the sun, and the
moon is under her feet, on her head a crown of twelve stars.
We're seated with Christ. We're clothed in Christ. We're
seated with Christ. And since everything is under
His feet, it's under ours too. Right? And we'll see that very
shortly. He'll bruise Satan, scripture
says, under our feet. We'll see him put down. He's
as good as done in God's purpose. On her head, a crown of 12 stars.
They represent the apostles. given to the church, the crown
of salvation, the gospel that they preached. The crown jewels
of the church were the apostles' given worth. Verse 2, now she
with child, she being with child, cried and travailed, travailing
in birth and was pained to be delivered. Oh, how the church
in the wilderness, that is, The children of Israel travailed
till Christ came. The child, Christ, till He came. How the church travailed then
and now. We travail until He comes again. And in Exodus it says, she was
in pain to be delivered. Exodus 3, when it all began,
the Lord began to deliver His people. They were crying unto
Him, weren't they? They were crying unto Him and
He heard their cries and their groanings. He said, I've come
down to deliver them. out. So how they did and they
do now, the church cries, travails for our birth, eternal, to be
delivered. The whole creation groaneth,
waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. The deliverance
of God's people forever from this dragon Chapter 3, there appeared another
wonder in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon. This is not mythology. This is not a fantasy. This is
not a fairy tale. Peter said, this is no cunningly
devised fable. This is true. Though it's put
in allegory form, a red dragon. Fire, we think of a fire-breathing
dragon. That's precisely our adversary. Like a roaring lion, Peter says,
seeking whom he may devour. And that's Satan, that's who
it is. And he's red because of all the
blood that was shed, the martyrs and so forth. We're going to
read that in a moment. And his head, it says he has
seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns upon his head, which is,
we're not going to deal in depth with that, but that's kings and
kingdoms. He's called the god of this world. The god of this world. And there
are kings and there are kingdoms that he has great influence and
power over according to the will and the power of God. This is still God's earth, God's
world. I think we're going to sing that
this morning, that this is my Father's world. Are we? No. Okay. I thought about saying it. This
is my Father's world. Let us ne'er forget that though
the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler. Yeah. He owns this blood. And everything
is doing His will. And though He gives it over to
the will of men and to the will of Satan under His rule, they're
not doing anything apart from His will. It's Him who worketh
all things after His will in heaven and earth. He's the only
one with three will, able to do as he will, because he will. That's God. So, this adversary
of ours, Satan himself, he has much power, but not all power. And there are many kingdoms and
kings that are under his influence, according to the will of God.
Verse 4, it says, His tail drew the third part of the stars of
heaven, did cast them to the earth. That is clearly told of
in Jude. Go back there, Jude, the little
book of Jude. It tells us this clearly, that
Jude chapter, there's only one chapter, Jude verse 6 says, The angels which kept not their
first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved
in everlasting chains under darkness, under the judgment of the great
day." Call them demons is what they are. Satan and his demons. Well, Satan's on a leash, chain,
and so are his demons. They're going to go as far as
God lets their leash out, right? That's right. It says that at
some point, and most believe this was before the world even
began, and that's why the world in Genesis 1 was without form
and void, and I'm not going to deal with that in depth, but
there was an uprising. the third of the heavenly hosts,
Satan and his angels, kept not their first estate. It says that
he drew a third part of the stars of heaven, did cast them to the
earth. We're going to look at that in
a moment, over in chapter 19. But look at verse 4, it says,
the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered
to devour her child as soon as it was born. What did Satan do
as soon as God made the man and the woman? They were his target
immediately. He declared war on God's man,
Adam, and his wife. which is a picture of Christ
and his bride. But he set himself against Adam
and Eve. Adam in the garden, remember,
he went after him. He went through the woman. You're
going to see that in a minute. Went through the woman. The man
was not deceived. The woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Then he went after Moses, who was the deliverer. Moses was
the deliverer. He went after him, had Pharaoh
kill every child. But God had Pharaoh raise the
deliverer. Then he went after God's son,
didn't he? And God's son, the child, was
born. He went after him, didn't he?
And had all those children killed. Who did? Well, Satan was after
him, but God did that according to His will and purpose. As soon
as the child was born. Verse 5. Now she brought forth
a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Now
that's Christ, isn't it? That's Christ. And Christ was
given to the church. This is what Colossians said.
He's not talking about Mary. She's just a member of the church,
okay? She's just like a sinner saved by grace. She was just
a vessel used to give birth to that child. But the head of the
church is Christ, and the church is His body, and Colossians says
very plainly, He was given to the church. Christ was born in
Zion. What? In the midst of her. He
was in the midst of her. And he still is. And he's the
one who rules all nations right now. Psalm 2 says, O ye kings
of the earth, you rulers, serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with
trembling, lest he dash you in pieces with a rod of iron. Well,
her child was caught up unto God and to the throne. That's
clearly Christ did. Where is our Lord and our King
right now? Seated at the right hand of the
Majesty on high, reigning and ruling. He sits in the heaven. You know what? He laughs. He laughs at man's attempts to
dethrone Him. Man's claims to have some sovereignty. Satan's claims. He laughs. That's what Psalm 2 says. He
that sits in the heaven shall laugh. So that's where our Lord
is. He's on His throne right now.
Some silly false prophet told my aunt, my aunt, who lives in
Birmingham, Alabama now, my mother's sister. And, you know, she, my
mother's sister grew up under Farrell Griswold's preaching,
and my dad grew up, I mean, she was saved under that preaching.
But anyway, some fellow who is supposed to be a preacher now,
he said to her, trying to comfort her, he said, Sister, now, God
is aware of what's going on right now. God's doing everything that's
going on right now. Aware? What an idiot. Verse 6, a woman fled into the
wilderness. A woman fled into the wilderness. Oh, the persecution of the church. If you'll read church history,
there are ten great persecutions. It happened to the church down
through the years, the early church. Ten great persecutions. The blood shed, the blood that has been shed
of all the martyrs, of our brothers and sisters for the sake of the
truth, at the hands of the enemies. It's just rivers of blood. And
that's why the scripture says when our Lord comes, He's going
to be covered with blood. He's going to avenge the blood
of His servant. Oh, the bloodshed. They say that
the dust of the Roman Coliseum is the bones and the flesh and
the bones of all the martyrs that they killed for sport. God's not laughing at that. She fled into the wilderness.
The world has always been a wilderness to God's people. Wilderness of
sin, it's called. We live in a wilderness. We're
in the world. This woman was in the world,
but she was not of the world. Neither are God's people. We're
in the world. We live in it. We're not of it. Not friends
of it. The world is not worthy, Scripture
says, the world is not worthy of God's people. Doesn't it say
that? And God's going to take them
out of this world someday. So we live in a wilderness. And
it says of Jacob, the Lord found him in a waste, howling wilderness. Have you ever howled? Help me. Come get me out. That's what
all the children of Israel We're crying. But it says there was
a place prepared for her. Look at this. This is beautiful.
Verse 6. She had the place prepared of God that he should feed her
there 1,203 score days. And if you read Daniel, then
42 months is the exact number of 30 days. But anyway, the church
has a dwelling place prepared for her in this wilderness. That's
Christ himself in it. Well, there are actual tabernacles,
little places that he's prepared, where he prepared a table for
them to feed in the midst of our enemies. And you're sitting
at it right now. Sitting at the table. Table prepared
in the midst of her enemy. Look at verse 7. There was war
in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon. The dragon fought and his angels.
And verse 8, prevailed not. The dragon prevailed not. Neither
was their place found anymore in heaven. So the great dragon
was cast out. The old serpent. He was cast
out. Look at chapter 20. Go over there
with me. Chapter 20. And again, this is
not a fable. This is not fiction, this is
true. Like the parables, this whole
book was written in symbols, but it's truth. It's all true. In chapter 20, verses 1 through
4, I saw an angel come down from heaven and had the key of the
bottomless pit. Who's that? That's Christ. He has the keys
of hell and death. He laid hold on that dragon,
the old serpent. When did he do that? Didn't he
say what he was going to the cross now is that Satan cast
out? Didn't he? Now is the judgment
of the God of this world, right now. That's when he bruised the
serpent's head, didn't he? Right there on Calvary Street.
Read on. And a great chain in his hand, everything. He has
control of everything. He laid hold on the dragon, that
old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan had bound him a thousand
years and cast him in the bottomless pit, shut him up, set a seal
upon him that he should deceive the nations no more until a thousand
years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loose a
little season. And verse four, look at this.
I saw thrones and they sat upon them. Judgment was given unto
them, the apostles. I saw the souls of them that
were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, for the word of God.
Those which had not worshipped the beast will not submit to
the world, and it's neither his image, neither had received his
mark upon their foreheads or in their hand, and they lived
and reigned with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the day
it lived not again until it's up. Now go back to our text in
chapter 12, and back there in chapter 20 it talked about Satan
being loosed out of his prison. He goes out into the nations
to do one thing, deceive. That's what he does. And he's
a master at it. And the first woman who better
mentally at the time than any woman in here was deceived. That's how deceitful he is. And
the Scriptures talks about his ministers deceiving, waxing worse
and worse, deceiving and being deceived. This is Satan's ploy
to deceive. Paul talked all through the Scriptures.
He said, I'm not ignorant of his devices and don't you be
either. Deception, deception, deception. How does he do it?
Many ways. Many voices, and we'll see that
in a moment. Alright, look at our text. It says in verse 9
that the devil deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. That
was when Christ was crucified. And then there was a dark ages
and then the light came with the word came back in. And verse
10, I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now has come salvation
and strength. When he was cast down, now has
come salvation and strength, 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. When was it? As I said. When
did salvation come? When did salvation come? Strength.
The kingdom of our God. The power of our God. What is
the power of our God? The gospel is the power of God.
Christ, the wisdom of God, and the power of God. When did this
happen? Salvation. When was it accomplished? On
the Calvary tree. Now we see the salvation of our
God. Now we see the strength of our
God. Though he was crucified in weakness,
Yet, he crushed the serpents in. Satan thought, I've got him
now. Satan thought, I've destroyed
God's son. You know what happened? The son
destroyed him. That strengthened him. And the
power of his Christ, the accuser of the brethren, The accuser of the brethren.
This is what Satan does. He's called the accuser of the
brethren. And he uses the law. You're guilty of the law. That's
what he says to all of God's people. To God. He accuses them
before God. He's broken the law. You know
how God answers him? Who is he that condemns? Christ said that. Who shall lay
anything in the charge of God today? It is God that justifies.
The law has been kept. This is how God answers Him and
this is how we answer Him by faith in Christ. The law accuses
us. Sin or temptation. He's fallen
to every sin. She's fallen to every temptation
accuser said. She can't stand before one. They're all guilty. They all
fall to every temptation I send them. How does God answer that?
How does our Lord answer that? He says, but I didn't. I didn't
fall for one of them. And I did this for them. I'm
their covenant head. I'm the second Adam from above. I have reinstated them in my
love. That's how he answers him, the
accuser of the brethren, ourselves. The old man accuses us, doesn't
he? Satan uses the old man to say
to you, how could you possibly be a son of God? You're such
a sinner. But then there's a new man in us, led by the Spirit
of God, that says, you know what? Tell that old man there's no
condemnation of them that are in Christ and those who Christ
is in. None. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God? And there's a lesson for us here,
brethren, brethren. is the accuser, and he can use
you and me to accuse the brethren. Don't do his work, because as
soon as accusations are made, guilt. Don't do Satan's work. Don't
level accusations at your brother. Their Lord is their Lord. You aren't. We aren't. This is
why our Lord says, don't judge or you'll be judged. But the
merciful, he shows himself merciful. So don't accuse your brethren.
You're doing Satan's work. All right, verse 11. How did
they overcome him? They overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb. You see what the power of God
is? The gospel is the power of God. He overcame him by the blood
of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Now don't you love
this? They loved not their lives. under
death. If we seek to save our lives
here on earth, we lose it. But if we lose our lives for
Christ, for the gospel sin, we'll never lose it. This is not our
life. Christ is our life. We look for
eternal life that God has promised them to live. We're in a wilderness.
We're going out. Seeing that all these things
shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be? Taken
up with trying to save this sinking ship? No. Set your affection on things
above. If that's where your life is,
where Christ our life is, then nothing can bother you. Nothing can trouble you. They
loved not their lives unto death. They didn't stop and think about
it like the three Hebrews didn't stop and think about it. Like
Daniel didn't stop and think about it. Throw me in the lion's
den, you just send me to the Lord. Unless he spares me. That's where I want to go. Like
Paul said, I have a sentence of death in myself. He said,
I'm ready to depart. He said, I have a desire to depart
and be with the Lord, which is far better. He said, for me to
live is Christ, but to die is gain. They love not their lives unto
death. And verse 12, therefore rejoice,
says you heavens, Rejoice, them that dwell in them, our brethren
that are in heaven right now, your father and my father, they're,
they're, they're, no words, perfect peace, happiness. They're rejoicing. They see things clearly. Rejoice, those who are in heaven.
Oh, but woe to the inhabitors of the earth. and to see the
devil has come down on them. It's great wrath. They know it
yet, but a short time. Woe unto us! Didn't our Lord,
when He was going to the cross, those women were weeping for
Him. He stopped, and with a firm voice, He said, Weep not for
me, but weep for yourselves and your children. Whoa, one of the inhabitants
there. Verse 13. Now when the dragon
saw he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which
brought forth the man, child. He persecuted her. He was after
her. The bride of Christ, the wife
of Christ, began in the garden. As I said, the woman was deceived,
not Adam. So can we be. My, my, we can
be so deceived. And we are, often, when we fall
for what comes out of his mouth. We're going to see that. Verse
14, the woman though was given, she was given two wings of a
great eagle to fly into the wilderness, to her place. Two great wings
of an eagle. What is that? What is the eagle
who bears us on his wings? I just told you. It's Christ,
our Lord. Under His wings. We're under
His wings. We're on His wings. He bears us up with the wings
of eagle. What are these wings? Well, they're
the law and the prophets. They're the prophets and the
apostles. It's the Word of God. Word of God. It's the blood and
the covenant. These others overcame Him by
the blood and the testimony, by the Word. The blood of Christ,
faith in Christ, promises of God, His oath, His covenant,
His blood support us. They're on His wings. And it's
filled me. For who is He that overcometh
this world? The fear of it, the unbelief
of it, the threats of it, the God of it. Who? Who overcomes
it? Those that have these wings to fly away above their mind,
your heart. Hmm. Faith. These two wings are
faith and hope. We don't walk by sight. We don't
listen. We don't judge things by the
hearing of our ears or the sight of the eyes. What are we judging
by? Faith. God's Word. The trial of our
faith works. Experience. Experience. Hope.
Faith and hope. That supports us. That's what
enables us to not be overcome by all of this. And she flies
into the wilderness. There she is, back in her place
where she's nourished. Look at this. She's nourished
for a time and time, a half and a time. That's the church in
the wilderness. She's nourished and she's flourished. She's flourished and she's nourished.
That's Psalm 92. Let me read that real quickly.
I had it written down. It's worth reading. He talks about a good thing,
give thanks unto the Lord. He says, the righteous are going
to flourish like the palm tree. They're going to grow like the
cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. Flourish! They'll
bring forth fruit in old age. What's that? Faith. They shall
be fat and flourishing while the world is a famine, not of
bread, but of the hearing of the Word. Not us. He's prepared
us a table. And we're feasting on fat things
and wine on the leaf. What's that? The blood of Christ
shed. God spared not His own Son. Everything's
for us. That's the next message. Oh,
the world's against her. Oh, Satan's against her. God's
for her. And He's given her these two
wings. She's flourishing to show that, listen, to show the Lord
is upright. He is our rock. Rock salad. Well, he don't. It says, verse 15, so the serpent
cast out of his mouth water. He's after her. He's after us. What does he do? He cast a flood
of something out of his mouth. to her to be carried away of
the flood." What's that? Words. Have you ever heard such
a flood of words in your life? So many voices. Who's behind
all this? The God of this world. And it says in verse 16, the
world swallows it up. Everything that's being said,
the world swallows it up. And Satan's laughing. God's people aren't swallowing
it. See the Lord, look at this, verse 16. The earth, they swallowed
up the flood, and it says they helped the woman. You know what
we believe? The opposite of what the world
believes. Whatever the world is swallowing, I'm running the
other direction. Right? There is a way that seemeth
right to man. What is it? Wrong! Concerning
everything. What do they say? Whatever they
say, I ain't swallowing it. What does he say? Flood of iniquity. Romans 3 talks
about out of their mouth, their throats an open sepulchre. Poison
of asp under their lips. Who's behind all this? The world
swallowed it up. It helps us. It helps me. I'm not going to fall for it. I'm going to fall at his feet.
I'm going to sit at his feet like Mary. and hear his word,
and have peace. I have peace. And I won't fall for what the
world is falling for. I will overcome. Overcome. And it says, verse 17, the dragon
was wroth. I'll get you. No, you won't. If you can get to Christ now,
you can get to her. But you can't. And he makes war with what? The
remnant. See, she's few in number, which
is the next thing in Luke 13 that the Lord, when they asked
the Lord, are there few that be saved? He said, yes, few. The remnant of our seed. What
do they do? What's this remnant do? They keep the commandments
of God. They keep His Word. They're laying
hold, they're holding fast the Word of Truth and the Gospel,
the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is how they're not
going to be overcome. They're not. They're going to
overcome the world. By the blood of the Lamb and
the covenant. Amen.