Revelation chapter 12 and I want
to read the first six verses again and spend a little time
in review and then look at a couple of things with regard to this
great red dragon. I can say this with all fervency
and honesty and straightforwardness. There's nothing in the book of
Revelation that would ever discredit God. There's nothing in the book
of Revelation that would ever bring God lower. There's nothing
in the book of Revelation that would ever dishonor God. And
I said that just to keep in mind this is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And we will see conflicts in
this book, just as they are in the lives of the saints at the
time this was written, and just as there are in the lives of
God's people today. But the victory will be God's. The victory will be Christ's. And the church gets to enjoy
that victory. And I could say the same thing
about every book of the Bible, that no book ever had anything
written in it to discredit God or to make Him look smaller.
Every book just shouts the sovereignty of God, that He is where He is
because He is God, and He does rule. Among the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his
hand He does rule so as we look at this glorious book of Revelation
we just look more and more at the conflicts that arise and
the victory that's in Christ and Here's another one of those
It is the victory of God to have a church. I It just reflects
the glory of God. The children of God are placed
in a very special relationship with God, and we call it the
church. Now, I hope I'm over looking
at the church as just an aggregate of everybody that says they are.
Because that's not the church. Some people call that the church
visible. Well, the church visible to me is the people that are
on the earth right now that love God and are loved of God. They're called God lovers in
the book of Romans chapter 8. And that love is kindled because
of God's love. We love Him because He first
loved us. Now, the church is more than
just a building. It's more than just a group of
people raising their hands. It's blood-bought people. They are the redeemed of God.
They have been called out of darkness to His marvelous light.
There are people that were addressed by God in the covenant of grace
before the world began. Now, in the seven churches that
are mentioned in the first three chapters of this book, I'm convinced
by some of the things that are said there that in those local
bodies there were people that didn't know what it was to know
Christ. They knew religion, and that's
the same as it is today. They know religion. They know
a system. They know a doctrine. But to
know Christ comes by what we find in this chapter of the book
of Revelation, and that's by a birth. Alright, in Revelation
12, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, and I just
have to emphasize, it's been such a blessing to me to see
that this great wonder in heaven is a creation of God, it's His
body, it's the church, it's every believer out of every generation. past, present, and future. And right now we could even think
of it as all believers that are on the earth. We could think
of it as all believers on the earth and in heaven. It's just
all believers, those that are in Christ. It was a woman clothed
with the sun. This is the righteousness of
Christ and every believer is clothed with the righteousness
of Christ. He clothes them with himself. There's only one righteous, and
that's the Son of God. Now, when we talk about the Son
of God, and Duane and I had a great visit today, talking about the
relationship between God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit, when I say that there is only one righteous,
and that's the Son of God, I'm including the Godhead in this.
God the Father is righteous. God the Holy Spirit is righteous.
But the one we have to deal with is the Son. God is going to deal
with His people through His Son. Now, it is a collective work
of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We heard in
the Bible class on Sunday, and it just really touched my heart,
the number of times in the 17th chapter of the book of John,
the Lord uses the term that about his being his people a gift given
to him now seven is a is an important number in scripture and it's
a complete i mean he's talking about the complete number of
his people and every last one of them were given to him by
the father now the holy spirit is in the business right now
i've rounded them up I had a very interesting and enjoyable conversation
with Wayne Boyd yesterday and we were talking about all the
children of God and their children before they're born again. Their children before they're
born. And we have an example of that. The world wants us to
call that unborn baby a fetus. But those who know, know it's
a child. And that's the same with God.
The world wants to call them goats, or the world wants to
call them this or that, but we know the difference. They're
children. unborn children, just like we have here in this chapter.
Alright? The moon under her feet. We don't
give any room for the law. It's holy, just, and good. Good
if it's used lawfully. And how's it used lawfully? Let
God take care of it. That's how it's used lawfully.
Let God be obedient to it. Let the Son be obedient to it.
He was, and in His obedience, I'm obedient to it. That's what
it is to use it lawfully. And upon the head was a crown
of 12 stars, and these 12 stars, it just shares the gospel ministers,
gospel preachers, men, women. Jim asked me, when I first got
to know him, he says, what's officers in your church? What,
you got deacons? I said, yeah, I've got deacons
and deaconesses. Every born-again male is a deacon, and every born-again
female is a deaconess. That's what I find in scripture. It's not a position that we set
someone aside to. God does that. He says, we're
just servants. We're just servants. That's all. We can't be any more. We're just
servants. Well, I'm thankful that satisfied
Him. That's what the Bible has to say about it. So, anybody,
and I realize that there are people that are called to be
in a pulpit to preach the gospel. But there are people called,
everybody's called that knows the gospel, called to share what
they know when they're asked. Pat, wake her up once in a while. Sit up, honey. Sit up. She's about to say amen. She's
praying for us. Verse 2, the church is being
with child, and that's what I have to say, is that everyone that's
ever born by the gospel, by the preaching of the gospel, by regeneration,
how it all works together, they're a child before they're ever born. They're an unborn child before
they're born. God never takes a goat and creates
a sheep. That is so contrary to the Word
of God, so contrary to God. He doesn't make... He doesn't...
Well, we just have to settle on this. Genesis shares with
us everything brought forth after His kind. And God's going to
bring forth after His kind. And they're going to be children.
Children of God. And it's travailing in birth.
And this is a birth. It's a spiritual birth. And God
works it. God does it. The Holy Spirit
is so involved. We're not. The greatest thing
we can do when someone gets troubled, go to jail. That's what happened
in the scriptures. Get out. Send them to the mountain. Say, go get alone with the Lord.
Don't start reading to them. Leave them alone. That's my advice. Now, if you're led differently,
I don't know about you. Leave them alone. Why? God will take care of his business. And he's the author and finisher
of our faith. He's the one that bears children
into his family. He chose his children before
the foundation of the world. He adopted his children. Christ died for the children. and they have been made righteous
as children and they have been glorified as children so they're
children and it's a birth and we've mentioned going through
here the biggest problem that religion has with this whole
issue is they want to be involved they've got newsletters to send
out they have I used to go down to Pilgrim Bookstore and the
first of the year they had books on preachers could keep track
of their religion. How many were one to the Lord?
How many did you baptize? And I mentioned this last week
that even though we don't see what we may want to see, we're
not changing the plans. We're not changing what God ordained.
that only brings chaff and only brings problems when we change
what God ordained. If we get people that don't know
Christ to make a little prayer or get on their knees or do a
little thingy or sign something, we've just created a problem.
And it's going to be our problem too. They're problem children. They just go off with some of
the stuff that we have today. It's just poor parenting. And we're not parents. We're
not parents. We're our children. And he brings
us in. Alright. And there appeared another
wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon having seven heads
and ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. Now I read an
article one time and I think there was more said about that
great red dragon than ever said in the book of Revelation about
the Lord Jesus Christ. Trying to explain what it was,
what it's going to do, who it represents. Well, we have some
idea who the red dragon is. But we also have a lot of information
in scripture that this great red dragon only does what he
does by permission of God. Now, I want you to go over to
the Old Testament with me. 2 Samuel. One of the things that
God instructed Israel, the kings of Israel in particular, don't
ever number the people. Don't take a census. Now, I know
who they are. Isn't that kind of reminiscent
of spiritual things? Don't number them. Don't try
to put them in a category. God's taken care of it. All right,
here in the book of 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel chapter 24, chapter
24, 2 Samuel chapter 24, Verse 10, David numbered the
people. Verse 10, and David's heart smote
him after he had numbered the people. And David said unto the
Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done, and now I beseech
thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant, for I have done
very foolishly. Turn with me, if you would, to
2 Chronicles, chapter 21. 2 Chronicles, chapter 21. This great red dragon, as As unkind as he looks, as vicious
as he looks, there is one that has him in absolute control. He is controlled by the Lord.
He's a created being. Yesterday I received an email.
There's a guy down in Portland, Nancy and I have known for years
and years and years and years and years. And his wife sent
out an email that he now has victory over sin and over death
and he's in the arms of the Lord and on and on this went. And
I wanted to write an answer to this email. It wasn't to the
wife. It was just to someone who sent it to me and I may yet
But I was under that man's... not preaching, but teaching.
I was in his Bible class one time. They'd asked me to hold
a service for him. And I told him, you don't want
me. You don't want me. Oh yeah, we do. We want you to
come over. No, you don't. Please. Oh yes,
come over. Well, I went over. Listen to
this guy. All the problems in the world were as a result of
Satan. And I went, oh my goodness. I'm sorry. And I wish I'd have
said something to him. But all the problems in the world
are not because of Satan. All the problems in the world
are as a result of the fall. Man's heart. every imagination. God looked
down to see if there were any that looked after him and there
he found none. The heart of man is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Who
can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard his spots? No, neither
can you. What you're accustomed to doing
wrong, do good. And the Bible is so filled with this. So he
was wrong on that part. And the second thing that I had
a great problem with this guy over was they called a preacher
that he couldn't If he had a paper bag, he couldn't preach his way
out of it. He knew nothing, and they kept him. So, he has two
strikes against him. Where he is with the Lord, I
don't know. But he had two strikes against him, in my book, right
off. Well, Satan is not in control. But notice here, in 2 Chronicles,
chapter 21, and verse 1. Is that right? That's not what I wanted. Is
it 1 Chronicles maybe? 1 Chronicles 21. Yeah. 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles 21 and verse 1. David was smote in his heart
for numbering the people because God told him not to number the
people. In 1 Chronicles 21 verse 1 it says, And Satan stood up
against Israel and provoked David to number the people. David smote in his heart because
he had numbered the people in 1 Chronicles 21 verse 1. And Satan stood up against Israel
and provoked David to number the people, number Israel. Now,
let's go back to 2 Samuel one more time, chapter 24 and verse
1. Now I don't understand all this,
but I know this, that Satan did only what he was permitted to
do, the great red dragon, as many crowns as he has. And what all that represents,
I just can't share with you right now. religion I know because
that great red dragon wants to destroy the birthing of children
he's waiting and it has a lot of there's a lot of typology
there with regard to the birth of the Lord Jesus and Herod and
that's just how that all played out but it happens every time
there is a child born into the kingdom of God there is there
is anger the part of religion and anger
on the part of the great red dragon when that takes place
because it is not promoted by flesh all right 2nd Samuel chapter
24 and verse 1 notice this yep verse 1 and again the anger of
the Lord was kindled against Israel and he moved David against
them to say go number Israel and Judah Almighty God is in control. He
is victorious. He does whatsoever He pleases.
He's not the author of sin. But because of His justice, He
moved David to do what He did. Now, I'm not pretending to understand
that. But I know this. Satan is a created
being, and he's on God's leash. Go to the book of Job and read
that whole account. Satan was in control, was controlled
by God, could only go so far, could only go so far. I don't
know how far he can go. God says you can't take his life.
You can put boils all over him. You can take his... on and on
it went. But God permitted every bit of that to happen. He doeth
his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth and by what means he does that is his business. And that makes him a sovereign
God. And that makes him greater than we are. And he does it. All right, going
back over here to the book of Revelation. Gray, red dragon,
had seven crowns, ten horns and seven crowns upon his head. I've
read people, they got that all figured out. You may have it
figured out. I don't have it figured out.
His tail drew a third part of the stars of heaven. And that
could certainly represent that when Satan fell, he took a third
of the angels with him. They're reserved in chains now,
but whatever. The dragon stood before the woman
which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon
as it was born. There's two words in that statement
that are just so important. Devour her child. before or as
soon as it was born. There's a child before it's born
and it's born. It doesn't come into this world.
A child of God does not come into this world by reformation.
A child of God does not come into this world by agreeing to
some doctrines. A child of God comes into this
world by the new birth. And we mentioned on Sunday evening
that one of the statements that the Lord Jesus mentioned in Nicodemus,
we've been doing some more ruminating on that, how often we find in
the Old Testament that God shared with Israel, this happened because
of me. Jericho, this happened because
of me. Don't you get the credit for it? You went to battle, but
I gave you the victory. AI. The second time they went up
against it, I want you to know that I'm giving you the victory."
Well, all of those statements, opening up the Red Sea, opening
up the Jordan River, sending hornets out and scattering the
Philistines, I mean, they are in control by God. And Nicodemus
comes down to this place in his life after reading all of that
and didn't understand that everything is a statement about God's glory
and God doing it. And that will be the case until
he reveals Christ to us. And then we have no problem with
it. Well, of course he opened up the Red Sea. My goodness,
that's what it says right in the book. Of course he opened
up the Jordan River. That's what it says right in
the book. And yes, they didn't have to plant the vineyards.
That's what it says right in the book. We don't have any disagreement
with it. So all the Old Testament, it's
just over and over and over and over. All of the judges, the
kings, all of them read down to the fact that God is God. Even the kings of the Gentiles,
Nebuchadnezzar, God is God. And that's what he said. He's resting. Now, as soon as
that child is born, it says there, ready to devour the child as
soon as it was born, and she brought forth a man-child. Now,
it says some many similarities about the birth of the Lord Jesus. Mr. Robert Hawker made a comment
that I had to chew on a little while, and that was, He told,
the Lord told John, I'm going to show you things that are going
to come hereafter. He's not reflecting on the birth
of Christ, he says. We're reflecting on what's in
the future. And then he went off and said,
this is about the church and about the church giving birth
to children through the preaching of the gospel as God gives regeneration. Well, we can say, in some ways,
this is reflective of Christ, because we are reflections of
Christ. Christ went through life and he had a lot of people after
him and Herod was after him. As soon as this child was born,
the great red dragon was there to devour him. If it wasn't for
God and God's purpose in the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
he could do just that. And that's why we see a lot of
people depart from the faith. They don't have this very special
relationship of the resurrection of Christ. Now turn with me,
if you would, over to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter
1. Brother Wayne Boyd and I were
talking, and he's got a good friend down there, Wayne thought
he was going to come and be part of it. He said he agreed with
the gospel and now he's going to a church that believes in
free will and so forth and so on. I just said, Wayne, could
you go back to where you used to go? Oh, no! No way! I said, what does that say about
someone who can? If you can go back and you have
no hard feelings about it, what does that say where you are?
He said, I could never go back. Well, by the grace of God, we
could never go back. Grace is so valuable. It's riches
and glory in Christ Jesus. It is so valuable. Mercy is so
valuable. The purpose of God is so valuable. The eternal covenant is so valuable. You just can't give it up, can't
throw it away. Well, Ephesians tells us one
reason why. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 20. The Scriptures share this, Which
he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and
set him in his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and
every name that is named, not only in this world, but also
that which is to come. And hath put all things under
his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth
all in all. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein, in time past, ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
and power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in
times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. This is the difference. This is what the new birth is.
It is so tied to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He said, in
the resurrection of Jesus Christ, all my children are raised up
to the heavenlies and they're sitting there with me. And that's
why they can't go back. I've secured them. I've put a
nail in a trusty place. I've secured them. I raised them. They're sitting with me. And
so this child that's born ascends up to the heavens. Every one
of God's children are going to they ascend up they ascended
with him and they're Identified as being ascending with him when
he gives them spiritual birth They're sitting in the heavens
Didn't know it Now we cling to it. His resurrection means something. His resurrection was on purpose.
His resurrection was glorious. We're caught in it. When He raised
from the dead, we raised from the dead. When He ascended to
the Father, we ascended to the Father. When He sat down at the
right hand of the Father, we sat down. What's that mean? There's
no work to do. He's performed it all. We are
sitting in Him. And so this great red dragon
is prepared to destroy and yet the child is taken care of says
in verse 5 She brought forth a man child back in Revelation
12 brought for the man child Who is to rule all nations with
a rod of iron caught and the child was caught up into God
and to his throne Now we read over here in Revelation chapter
2 and I just want to read that again Revelation chapter 2 and
verse 26 In 27, this verse kind of helped me
a lot because I had the impression that the only person that's ever
going to rule with a rod of iron was the Lord Jesus. Well, guess
what? All of His saints rule in Him with a rod of iron. The
Gospel has the ability of breaking the rock to pieces. It is a rod. It's a chastening
rod. It's a breaking rod. It's a hurting
rod. It just, and he said here, Revelation 2 verse 26, And he
that overcometh, and keepeth my words unto the end, to him
will I give power over the nations. And he shall rule them with a
rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall be broken to shivers,
even as I received of my father. They shall rule with a rod of
iron. Well, where's an example of that? Just go over there and
read Stephen and Saul. What Jesus tells Saul on the
road to Mass, it's hard for you to kick against the rod of iron. Kick against the ox goats. It's
hard. Oh, I just love it when the gospel
gets a hold of someone. They can get so upset and angry. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let them have it. Just let him
be angry. God is gracious. So the church
has this ability of holding up a rod of iron. It just breaks,
touches, moves. It breaks the rock. It's a fire
that just burns. That's why we say just let him
get away with God. He's a consuming fire. Alright,
going back over to Revelation 12. She brought forth a man-child,
verse 5, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,
and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne. Now, oh,
the victory for the church. Looks bad. The child got away,
sitting at the right hand of the Father, just like all children.
Church, oh, it's in trouble. Got a great red dragon after
it. What are we going to do? Look at this. And the woman fled
into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God. Now, where is that? Wherever
God wants it. Now, there's a period of time,
and it wouldn't be very hard to bring this in, but there's
a period of time when the church was on the run. Martyr's Mirror, Fox's Book of
Martyrs. Church was on the run. But they were protected by God. He appointed a place for them. Jesus said to his disciples that he was building a church
and the gates of hell would not prevail against it. Great Red Dragon is not going
to win. The church will. The church is my body. I'll take
care of it. To a place prepared. And it says
there, and thou shalt feed her a thousand, two hundred, and
threescore days, all the time that's necessary. He will feed
her. And what does he feed her? Sweet
manna from heaven. He feeds the church, the message
of the gospel, the message of grace, the message of the Lord
Jesus. He's fed even in dire times,
perplexing times, great times of sadness. I just have to say that the Bible
had a lot to say there when Stephen was stoned to death. It says
there's great lamentation. Man, our friend. Great lamentation. He's our friend. There's great
trouble. Been a lot of trouble. There's
a lot of trouble here in the times of the early apostles. Dark ages. We call them dark ages. I was
sitting with that lady that gave me acupuncture down there in
Florida for 4,000 years. China has been giving acupuncture.
4,000 years. What's been the greatest hindrance
for scientific discovery in the Western world? Religion. Greatest hindrance. Religion. Where's the darkest places in
the world? The most religious. That's a
dark place. My dark continent, Europe. Religious. Everybody is a member
of the church. Nobody goes. England. Dark place. Dark. Across America. Dark place. Dark. Religious. Boy, everybody
in the city of The Dalles could fit in one of the buildings around
here, but you see that there are really not that many in there.
There are a lot of buildings around. They are not worth nothing. Nothing's going on, not a hoopla,
but this, oh... 1,203 score days, as long as
necessary, God will take care of His church. He's going to
win the victory. Every child will ascend. Every
member will be protected. God's watching over, taking care
of. Satan is not in control. He may
look big, he may look tough, but God rules in the armies of
heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay
His hand. To say that the devil is control
is to say that he has more power than God. And out of something,
God created this that we know as the devil. He's not even a
mud baby. He's not like Adam. But God created
him, created all the angels. And those who left their first
estate, The elect angels stayed because
God marked them out. Those who kept not their first
estate fell without ever any hope whatsoever. And those who
fell in Adam, a number that no man can number, God will give
them Christ and they will be victorious. And then it says
there was a war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels and look at verse
8 and prevailed not Michael, so often, is just another name
for the Lord. And he prevailed not, the dragon
prevailed not, neither was there a place found any more in heaven. And the great red 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 the angels were cast out with him. I heard a loud voice
saying in heaven now is come salvation and strength and the
kingdom of our God in the power of his Christ For the accuser
of our brethren is cast down which accuses them before our
God day and night And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb
What victory Christ won? When he said it's finished What
a victory You'd think that the person said it's finished wouldn't
be victorious, but the greatest victory that was ever won was
concluded by it's finished. And His death, greatest victory
that was ever had on this earth, was the death of Christ as it
had been mentioned throughout the Old Testament Scriptures
and by Himself, later by the disciples. This was according
to purpose. He went to the cross for a reason.
It's the covenant of grace being fulfilled. And we have overcome
all our enemies by the blood of this one, the Lord Jesus.
And every enemy of the church is cast out as a result of the
blood of the Lord Jesus. And we're going to stop there
tonight.