So turn with me to Revelation
chapter 12. There's a lot here. Some of this stuff will partner
with what we looked at last week such as the number of 1260 days
and some other things. But I want us to go through and
read this and then I will talk about it verse by verse and we'll
probably get through Yeah, we'll get through the entire chapter
tonight, so if I get talking too fast, just hold up a number
like you're bidding on something and I'll slow down. All right?
Chapter 12, Revelation 12. Ready? And a great sun appeared
in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under
her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant
and was crying out in the pains of birth and the agony of giving
birth. And another sign appeared in
heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns
and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of
the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon
stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when
she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male
child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.
But her child was called up to God and to His throne, and the
woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared
by God in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days. Now war arose in heaven, Michael
and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and
his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no
longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon
was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil
and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down
to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And
I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and
the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of
His Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers
has been thrown down, who accuses them this day and night before
God. And they have conquered Him by
the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.
For they love not their lives, even unto death. Therefore rejoice,
O heavens, in you who dwell in them, but woe to you, O earth
and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because
he knows that his time is short. And when the dragon saw that
he had been thrown down to earth, he pursued the woman who had
given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two
wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent
into the wilderness, the place where she is to be nourished
for a time, and times, and half a time. The serpent poured water
like river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with
a flood. But the earth came to the help
of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river
that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became
furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of
her offspring and on those who keep the commandments of God
and hold to the true testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the
sand of the sea. This section of Revelation, chapters
12, 13, we start to see this beast introduced,
this dragon, this mystical picture of this great lizard or serpent
or whatever we see the different names here. Interestingly enough,
if you look at the history of the church and you look at the
commentary historically, of the church, you will find as we've
been talking about different views of revelation, different
end time views, different interpretive views, and as we've been reading
through this in the context of its writing and starting to see
that it's a very clear picture and that it's a continuation
of the same thing and a recapitulation or a repeating of the same thing
over and over again from different viewpoints, We have to ask ourselves
then, what now becomes of chapter 12 and 13, because all of a sudden
now we've been seeing what? We've been seeing Jesus speaking
to the churches, talking to them about what He is requiring of
them, talking about the power that He has over them, the power
that He has over all the calamities of the earth, and that one day
He will bring judgment, the seventh seal, the seventh trumpet, and
as we'll see the seventh bowl, that the judgment of God is coming
to bring wrath upon His enemies, And He is sealing and protecting
His people from the beginning days. It'd be good for us to
remember that Romans 3 teaches us that God put forth Christ
as propitiation in order to be received by faith. So that God,
in doing so, putting forth Christ to actually suffer in our place,
God's wrath is satisfied in relation to us because Jesus paid the
price for us. So therefore now there is, what
would Paul say in Romans chapter 7 and 8? He would talk about
condemnation. He said, therefore now there
is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because
Christ has suffered and paid the penalty of sin so that God
is satisfied. Alright? In the same way, we
know that Jesus Christ was put forward by God and Jesus has
paid this penalty not just for the people who know who He is
in the context of the New Testament. The Bible doesn't say, so that
He can save those who are to believe in Him. The Bible says,
in order that God may be just, because in His divine forbearance,
you know what forbearance means? You don't have to pay for it
yet. So, when you've got student loans and they're in forbearance,
you're not making payments. You know what that's like. See,
Trey knows what it's like and other people like it. I know what it's like.
You've got a mortgage and it's in a forbearance program, you're
not making payments. God put sins and the judgment
on the sin of the Old Testament saints in a forbearance plan.
But somebody had to pay for their sins. So Jesus Christ on the
cross paid for the sins of Adam. He paid for the sins of Eve.
He paid for the sins of David, who cried out, Oh, my sin is
forever before me. In my mother's womb was I conceived
in iniquity. He paid for the sins of Rahab.
He paid for the sins of Ruth. He paid for the sins of all the
Old Testament saints, of Abraham, of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He paid for the sins of Daniel.
He paid for the sins of Samuel. Jesus Christ suffered on the
cross, and in doing so, He satisfied the wrath of God Against all
those in the Old Testament that believed fully in Him, even though
by name they did not know who He was, they trusted in the sufficiency
of the fact and the truth and the promise that God would give
them forgiveness. God would do it. So, it's good
for us to have that in our minds today. That Jesus Christ atoned
for anyone who is in heaven. Anyone who has believed, is now
believing, or ever will believe in the future. Jesus Christ satisfies
the judgment of God. And because of that, God then,
because He is righteous, can never call us to pay for our
sins. You see that. Romans 3 teaches
us how that is applied to us. It's applied to us to be received
by faith. And when we talk about Christ
alone and faith alone and grace alone, that means we not only
agree with the Scriptures, but we trust wholeheartedly in the
Scriptures and what God has revealed to us from His own mouth that
He has satisfied His own wrath through Himself, through the
giving of His Son, to satisfy holiness and to satisfy justice. So that believing on Jesus Christ
is not just saying, yeah, I believe He did it, but it's, I believe
in the work of Jesus Christ as it is my reconciliation to God. I believe that Jesus Christ bought
me. and claimed me as his own. See,
that's what saving faith is all about. It's not agreement with
the fact that Jesus did something to bring salvation. It's trusting
wholeheartedly in the truth that Jesus gave you salvation. That's
why when we learn in Scripture, nobody is believing because God
is believing for them. God needs not believe. God is
truth. He knows what He's done and knows
what He's doing. We must believe. And so as we start to see all
the different things that come together now in this apocalypse
and this writing of Revelation, we're going to see the birth
of why redemption was necessary to begin with. Because here we
have all these Christians throughout all of history. I mean, Adam
and Eve suffered because of their sin. They're chilling, they're
hanging with Jesus. Everything's good. There's no
problem in the world. They're walking in the cool of
the day with God in the flesh. And then all of a sudden, bam,
they sin against God. The first thing they notice is
what? They were naked. And they were ashamed. So the
intimacy they had with God was then destroyed. Now all of a
sudden we have this continued problem of sin in the world and
the wages of sin is death. And death comes because it is
right. It is right for God to require
judgment when sin entered the world. And here are these Christians
who have come to faith in Jesus Christ and all of a sudden their
what? Their fortunes have changed.
from a worldly perspective. Here's Jesus, the God of heaven,
created all that there is and He's given Himself for you. Do
you believe on Christ's estate? I do believe. I do believe. Oh
my goodness, we're running for our lives. We're losing our homes.
Our children are being taken away. Our heads are being chopped
off and our butts are on fire. Something's wrong. I thought
God was rescuing us from judgment. You see, that's not judgment.
That's the wages of sin. And the same thing is true that
we've already read up in this first 11 chapters of Revelation,
is that there is a group of Christians here, the church of this first
century, who are suffering greatly, and John wrote this, that they
may be at peace and rejoice in the midst of their pain. And
so there's the seal of God, the perfection of the number of those
who would come, the church of Jesus Christ who are, as we see
in Paul's teaching to Romans, the true Israel. Those who are
in Christ are the seed of Abraham, not those who have the blood
of Abraham. And so when we start to try to
put ourself in their place, what it must have been like to receive
this letter. Remember, I've told you all to think about that a
few times in the last few months. All of a sudden, where are the
apostles? Oh no, John is the only one alive. Remember that.
He's the only one alive when this was written. The others
have been martyred. And John is in prison. He is
imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos in isolation, exiled from the
Roman provinces to just live out his days and die, and then
all of a sudden here's the letter. You can imagine Polycarp getting
this letter from John and taking it to the people here and saying,
look guys, and how excited they were, finally some peace. And
as they heard these words, they began to understand not only
what God was doing and why things were happening in the world,
but now in chapter 12, how it all began. What started all this
stuff? Did Jesus come and start... Are
people just hate Jesus so much the scripture says that they
do? The scripture says that they hate God, that's why they hate
us? And so in this, chapter 12 begins to introduce an old reality
that's as old as time itself. And it may seem odd and out of
context in what we've already learned, because haven't we already
seen the witness of the church is continuing? The witness of
the church, even though the church, people who are the church may
die, God's going to raise them to life and vindicate them. That's
what the point of the two witnesses are there. And then as we continue
to see even before that, what did Jesus tell John? You, though
you are arrested, though you are exiled, you still have the
work of apostleship. You still have the authority
as an apostle. Continue to send my word out. Continue to put
the gospel out there. Continue to pray for the saints.
Continue to intercede so that the world might hear the truth
of Jesus Christ. And of course, John was the last
apostle. There were no more. And there will never be any more.
God does not continue to call people to the apostolic office.
Though we may do apostolic-like stuff, like go out and plant
churches and go out and teach the world, we're not apostles.
The apostles are the apostles and we take their word out. We
take their word, which is the word of God. So in this chapter
12, this introduction of an old reality, we see a couple of things
at play, and this is sort of introduction to the introduction,
and then we'll get on to the text. The decrees of God in redemption,
we're going to see that here. We're also going to see the purpose
of God in evil. We're going to see it right here.
And it's interesting enough in class today, somebody asked,
and we're going to answer it next week, she basically says
it this way, I feel this way and I don't know how to say it
except like this. And what that usually means when somebody says
that kind of, is they're about to say something that's going
to sound totally sacrilegious or blasphemous. But I feel like
God set Adam and Eve up. That's what she said. I'm like,
that's great. We'll talk about it next week
because we've got archaeology coming up. That's what some people
come to. And is it a setup, or is it a
divine decree? So here in the scripture, as
these Christians are suffering, they're asking the question,
what started all this garbage to begin with? Where did it come
from? You know, we remember Job. We remember what God wrote through
the book of Job. We saw the interaction with Satan,
with Lucifer and God, and God says, go get Job. Lucifer's like, nah, I'm not
going to bother Job. I can't bother Job. And God says,
I'll let you bother Job. Go get Job. In like manner, God
probably said the same thing. Go get Eve. Why? God is God. He does what He wishes. And He's always right. Why did
He create the world to begin with? So that He may receive
glory and honor and praise and worth in the redemption of His
people, and that He may receive glory and honor and praise and
worth in the destruction of wickedness. What else do we know about it?
That's it. We don't impart on Scripture that which Scripture
doesn't teach, Deuteronomy 29, 29, for the hidden things belong
to God and God alone. So if that's true, then we just
accept it for the way that God's written it and accept it the
way God's given it. And we don't try to pit both things against
each other. It's just like the responsibility
of man. That comment came up today in
some conversation. What in the world? How does God's
sovereignty work with the responsibility of man? Because God in His supremacy
sovereignly decreed that man was responsible for his sin.
And sovereignly said, man is responsible for his faith. And
supremely and sovereignly commanded man to believe in the gospel
and to walk holy, which man cannot do because he's depraved and
sinful. Then God then enables man to
do that which He's commanded them to do. So that when we praise,
we're happy for our salvation, who gets the glory? God does.
That's the whole point. Where did it all start? If you
want to think about the idea of if there were a little legend,
and I'm not talking about legend as in like the Lone Ranger or
the Incredible Hulk. I'm talking about like a little
key at the bottom that say, when you see this symbol, this is
what it means. You know what I'm talking about with a legend? This little
symbol, like when you're reading a map. Alright, chapter 12 and
somewhat chapter 13 can be sort of like a little legend to help
us all of a sudden to understand some pictures that we haven't
seen yet in the book of Revelation. And so, Revelation chapter 12,
starting in verse 1 and 2, we'll just use these. And a great sign
appeared in heaven, and a woman clothed in the sun, with the
moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelves. Does
that sound like somebody you've heard of in the Old Testament? And
it's very reminiscent of Jacob's wife. And we start to see that
it's not Jacob's wife, it's just an expression. It's an expression
of beauty, expression of glory, expression... And there's a sign.
What is he seeing? He's given a vision of this,
and he's writing it down as God has given it to him. There's
two signs that appear in heaven. In verse 1, there's a great sign
that appeared in heaven, a woman clothed. And in verse 3, another
sign that appeared in heaven, behold, a great red dragon. You
see that? Now this is not chronological.
This is not about teaching us the history of anything. It's
about exposing where all this wickedness came from to begin
with and why redemption was even necessary and what God did to
warrant and grasp redemption and also how God's already won
before it even started. That's what we're going to see
in this text. In these first two verses, there's A woman that
was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony
of giving birth. Now a lot of people automatically go, oh that's
Jesus. Yeah, but it's not Jesus. It's
not Jesus because we see Jesus down there in verse 5. So it
didn't give birth to Jesus and then give birth to Jesus again.
So what in the world are we looking at here? Well, there was a great
sign and a woman clothed in the sun and the moon on her feet
and on her head with a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant,
crying out. What could it be? Well, it could
be the birth of Jesus. if we stop and don't read the
rest of it. The decree of God before the foundation of the
world that Jesus would be born of a virgin, that Jesus would
come into the world, incarnate, advent of God coming into the
world, Messiah, Emmanuel, God with us. Before creation, God
did purpose to save His people through Jesus Christ. Before
creation, God purposed to send His Son to His people. Before
creation, a cosmic battle happened in heaven before creation? All of this was set into motion.
Jesus, who is the God of heaven, was born as a human. But here,
this woman is more talking within the context of what we've already
seen. Who is the main character, not necessarily the main character,
but the main subject of affection and focus of all these eleven
chapters thus far? Who are they? The church, the
people of God. So in this sense, we see this
woman. We need to understand that God is talking here about
the one, the church, the bride. And what does this mean about
birth? Well, before creation, God purposed
His people to be in Christ Jesus. And the war is with Jesus. And
if Jesus is not going to fight and can't be destroyed, who's
the next best thing? Let's just go after his body.
Let's go after his people. Let's go after his church. The
church is created. And the church continues to give
birth and to grow and to be perpetual. And it's at a very bad cost. Hear that, beloved. All of a
sudden these people are like, you know what? We're the woman
and we're in the pains of childbirth. And people are coming to faith
and then they're in the pains of childbirth. And the more people
that come to faith... Friends, there has never been
revival in peace. I want you to hear that. Oh,
what about Pax Romana? What about the Peace of Rome?
Listen, that just got it out. When people started believing,
their heads came off. They fed them to animals for
fun. It is not easy to live for Christ. It is not easy to walk
as a disciple of God. It is not easy to walk as someone
whose very affections, the very core of our heart and soul is
contradictory to everything the world holds true. I mean, think
about it. Just in conversations at the
supermarket, You can become, you can be diametrically opposed
to everything you hear. You can be diametrically in contrast
to everything you see on the magazine rack. Think about it. Everything we look at in this
world as Christians, it's opposed to our worldview. People magazine,
the greatest guy in the world, the most amazing person in the
world, the most beautiful woman in the world. I'm just making
that stuff up, but you see that stuff. You go over to the drugstore
and you're trying to get your cough medicine, and you see all
these things, and then you see the Inquirer. You know, there's
a guy that looks like a bat, but it's really Elvis' baby with
the Loch Ness Monster. I mean, that kind of stuff, you
think, you know, this is all fun entertainment. People believe
that garbage. If they believe Scientology, they believe that. And one thing leads to another. Friends, take a good look in
the mirror. The world hates who we are as Christians. The world
hates who we are as a church. Not just, I'm not talking about
specific grace, but the body of Christ, no matter what our
congregation may be named. The world in its entirety hates
us. And another sign here, here's
this sign that God has created a church, this beautiful bride
for him, and everything she's experiencing continually in her
replication is painful. Secondly, another star pit in
heaven. Behold, listen to these words, listen, a great red dragon. with seven heads and ten horns,
and on his head seven diadems." Now, come on. You ever see what's
in it? No, I don't have it. I mean,
what's that? And crown Him Lord of all, the
song there, and a bunch of different things we see in Scripture that
Jesus has crowned, He's the King. I think the devil wrote this
line. I think this is some of the kind
of stuff he said to God. I will ascend to the throne. I will ascend to the mountain
of the gods. I will be like you. I will stand
in your glory. I will be worshipped as you are
worshipped. He's probably saying, I'm going
to put a crown on my head. I'm going to be complete. I mean,
can you imagine? This isn't the reality of who
Satan is. This is how Satan sees himself.
A great red dragon with seven heads, ten horns, and crowns
on every head. In verse 4, his tail swept down
a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth, and
the dragon stood before the woman Through the church, so that he
could take the church and destroy the church and devour the church. Satan forgot that he was a created
angel. Satan forgot that he was a reflection
of his creator. And in himself, he was not special. Except that God created him to
reflect the nature of himself. That's God's nature. He boasts
that he should be equal with God. Satan boasts that he should
receive the same glory that God receives. He boasts that he is
worthy as God is worthy. And he names himself equal to
the King of Kings. Here in this text, Satan is boasting
that he's this great sign. The manifold wisdom of God in
chapter 3 of Ephesians, verse 10, it says that the church exists
in order to display the manifold wisdom of God, listen very carefully,
to the principalities and powers of the heavenly realm. In Ephesians
6 we see that same principality and powers of the heavenly realm
of darkness. This is Satan, this is Lucifer,
who thinks that he's the greatest sign that ever existed in the
cosmos. And God said, no, my church is the greatest sign.
If you were around when I preached Ephesians 3, that text there
teaches us several things. One in particular of Ephesians
3, Tim, teaches us that because we exist as Christians, because
God has created us in Christ Jesus, the devil knows he's lost. He doesn't want to share glory.
We are the glory of God. Well, that sounds a little blasphemous.
Jesus said that in John 17. Brother Luke even read it out
this weekend. That, I will give them my glory, that they may
share in my glory. This is what Jesus says. One
day when we're glorified, we will share in the reflection
of the glory of God. The very antithesis of what Satan wants,
we get. Not really. What he wants, we
get. He never will be. We are the
contrast. He is wicked. We are the righteousness
of God. And you might think, well, this
is about humans being pitted against angels. No, for broad
is the path that leads to destruction. The devil and one-third of the
heavenly host that are swiped out by his tail, the stars of
heaven. I mean, think about it. There's this great dragon, and
in his boasting, one third of the angels of heaven stand behind
him and lockstep and say, oh yeah, we're about to get us a
heavenly throne. And what happened? He threw him
out. He's gone. Not only is he not
glorious anymore, he's not even in the presence of God anymore.
He's been cast away to do the work of God like a puppet. His desire was to thwart the
plans of God, and He was thrown to the earth with one third of
the angels who stood with Him, or with the angels who stood
with Him, which are one third of the heavenly host, and Jesus
was surely on His target list. Why do you think Satan did this? Doesn't Scripture teach us that
angels have eternally looked into the matters of salvation?
Do you think God sort of sat quiet for 50 billion eternities? I think God was always being
praised for His glory. I think God is always being praised
for His magnificence. And I think God is always being
praised for the future of His decrees that had yet to even
be started. And so here is now Satan thinking,
there's not the Son of God going to take my shine. I'm going to
stop this. We don't know. But all these
things that we see in Scripture and all the places where Lucifer,
the devil, is continually at odds with God, the greatest thing
that he could ever do was to kill the Son of God. But it's
exactly what God wanted to happen. It's exactly what God planned
before the world began. Jesus was on his target list.
There's not any way for Satan to defeat Christ. So he continues
to attempt to destroy God's people. He continues to attempt to destroy
the church, the body and the bride of Christ. God, therefore,
permitted and decreed and purposed Satan's influence. I want you
to hear this. This is not popular, but if you read Job and if you
look at what the prophets teach, and if you see what Scripture
shows us, that even Jesus Christ at the Last Supper says, go do
what you need to do. Is it I? Is it I? Is it I? They
didn't even understand. Who asked me that question Sunday?
Was it you? I mean, no. They didn't even understand,
I believe, that Judas was going to betray Jesus in the context
of his crucifixion, because had they thought that, they would
have murdered the man right there. Evidenced by the fact that when
Judas kisses Jesus, and they put their hands on him to arrest
him, Peter's like whacking off ears and stuff. No, no, no, no! I mean, you know, they're thinking
Judas is just going to leave like the rest of everybody else
that left. betray Jesus, just walk away, like everybody in
John 6, like the 10 to 15,000 people that walked away when
they said, where's the next miracle of food? We want food. Jesus
says, I'm the bread that comes down from heaven. Or, do not
labor. Labor for the bread that leads
to eternal life. Well, what sign do you bring? Where is it? Where
is the Ark of the Covenant? Where is this myth about all
of this manna that's going to come and you're going to show
us manna to prove you are who you say you are? And Jesus says,
I am the bread, my body is the bread, and my blood is the wine.
And if you don't drink of my blood and eat of my flesh, you're
not worthy of me. You can't follow me. You can't
receive life. And all of them except the twelve
left. We can't hear this preaching.
We can't hear this. This is garbage. Who does he
think he is saying that he is the way to God? Who does he think
he is saying that if we don't accept who he is and his flesh,
even the Pharisees probably thought he was thinking cannibalistic
a little bit. This is gross. Surely this man's a lunatic. God purposed Satan's influence. God purposed that Satan would
tempt Jesus. God purposed that Satan would
continue to attempt to destroy the church, and He continues
to allow him to stir hostility, corruption, power, evil, and
control over the lives of those who belong to Him. So that's
really a negative statement to say. I like to say it this way. It's never wrong to repeat what
Jesus says. It's never wrong. No matter where
you are, it's never wrong to repeat what Jesus says. And when
people don't like what Jesus says, let them take them up with
Jesus. Now let's do it in love, and let's do it with kindness,
and let's do it with, you know, with the right attitude. Don't
say, hey you moron, listen to what Jesus says, and stick our
tongue out at them, like some of you kids might like to think
would be funny. Don't look at somebody. No. But we can say what Jesus says.
Jesus ridiculed and said that people who denied Him were the
sons of Satan. The Pharisees. But let's look
at verse 5. She gave birth to a male child.
Who is she? The church. This is not the Virgin
Mary, y'all. Romanism will argue to the dirt,
but it's not the point. Well, wait a minute. Jesus wasn't
born through the church. Yes, He was. What does church
mean? Gathered ones. Who are the gathered
ones of God? Those who He has called out of
the world for His own. Who was the first one? Careful. Adam. Okay? Adam was in Christ,
Adam fell from the glory of God, and then Adam was called out
of the darkness. And then later in history we see Abram. To get
the succession right, Jesus Christ is birthed from the people of
God. The one who was to rule all the nations with a rod of
iron. But her child was called up to God and to His throne.
And the woman, the church, the body, the bride, fled into the
wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she
is to be nourished. 1260 days. See, now Jesus is
mentioned. Through God's chosen people,
Jesus Christ comes to the world to provide propitiation and justification
and redemption. Here is this God-man who has
come through the people of God. His rule was not on earth, therefore
He did not stay, but He finished the work of redemption and ascended
to His proper place, the throne of heaven. The woman, the church,
the people of God fled into the wilderness. Why the wilderness?
Beloved, listen. The body of Christ, true living
Christians, don't really have a place in the world. Now, we
of all people in the South have a better place than most. My
friends who live in Afghanistan, they don't walk around with Bibles
in their hands. My friends that live in China, even Hong Kong,
don't walk around with Bibles in their hands. Pakistan, not
a bit of Bibles in their hands. It just doesn't happen. Well,
they're sorry Christians. No, they'd like to live long
enough to preach. to share the gospel? What about on the West
Coast? Little pockets of Christians,
yeah, but have you ever been sitting in a coffee shop and
had a Muslim come up to you and begin to curse you out? I have. Show me one thing Jesus said.
You show him the reading in John's gospel, the red letters. No,
that's what John said. You believe a false prophet?
Start being ugly. And that's in the United States.
What about the laws that are continually being boiled on the
books? Friends, if we think that the
United States of America will succeed a thousand years without
being hostile toward the Church of Jesus, we've not looked at
history. We've not looked at history. 1260 days as we saw last week
is a temporary thing. It's like the point of ascension
to the seventh trumpet, to the seventh bowl, to the seventh
seal, the day of judgment, when things are over, is to show a
temporary, short time in essence, the finishing of God's redemption
for His people. This continued calamity that
is seen in all the previous chapters, coupled with the continued protection
of God for His church. The church then, as we see, will
live in perpetuity. We will continue to live on,
and even though some of us will die, the church will never disappear.
You see that. The church has never disappeared.
Though there may be portions of the land and temporary segments
of time in certain people groups where the church does not exist,
the church is still alive in the world and the church is still
powerful. Beloved, I don't want to be just a country club with
a steeple on it. I want to be a powerful people,
empowered by the Word of God, through the Spirit of God, that
there's change that comes. That whether we have to get out
and fight for our lives or whether we're just walking with someone
in life and as they complain or as they are distraught or
as they are hopeless, we can share with them the gospel of
Jesus Christ, which is good news that God is victorious and that
His church, though we suffer and maybe we'll die. What does
Paul say in 2 Corinthians? Though we die, yet we live. This war has been and will continue
to be fought, but it is a worthless fight because Christ has already
won. He won before it started. Look
at this. He reminds us. So the church
is being persecuted. Christ was persecuted. Where
did this start? Look at verse 7. And a war had
arisen in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting
against the dragon. The dragon and his angels fought back, but
he was defeated. Now, I don't want you to get
the idea that Satan had a third of the heavenly host armed with
swords and bows and arrows and spirits and nunchucka and all
this other kind of stuff and they were up there and they were
going to it and they were hi-yah and key-yah and I mean, this
was just a, I'm going to stand up here and I'm going to share
your glory and God went, it's over. Dude, that was awesome. You know, if the lights went
out, dude, we'd just have to call church gone. I'd have to
go pray for a couple hours. He was defeated. There's no longer
a place in heaven. He has no place because the heavens
belong to God. He sits on the throne and no
one can touch Him. There was never an opportunity
for Satan to win. He was always lost. He's always
going to lose. There was never even a fight.
It's sort of like, you're done. What are we just reading that
hymn? One little word would fail him. I mean, think about the
kings of the world. You think about the annals of
history where we read and we see people would implore peasants,
please don't rebuke the king. Please don't do that. Please
don't say that. No, don't disrespect. Don't look
at the king. Because the king can stand there
and just with a hand motion, they die. And if the king of
humanity can kill people like this, what can the king of heaven
do? Satan and all those angels that
oppose God were struck down. It says, he was defeated and
there was no longer any place in heaven for him. And verse
9, and the great dragon was thrown down. That ancient serpent who
was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the entire world,
he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down
with him. Verses 7 and 9 depict the beginning of Satan's rebellion
and the end of it in the same moment. This is to remind the
readers of Revelation, hey, this is an ancient war that's already
been fought. And you're just experiencing
the shockwaves of it. You're just experiencing the
consequences of what God is allowing His enemy to continue to do.
You're experiencing the moral evil and the natural evil that
is just naturally being allowed through the decrees of God. And
one day God will put all things under the feet of Jesus Christ,
Ephesians 1.10, and everything will be made right. His enemies,
we sang that in a song Sunday. His enemies shall be under His
feet. Praise God, we are not the enemy
of God anymore. Satan's purpose to overturn God's
throne and God's plan of redemption in these following verses, 10
and on, depict the work of evil against the church of Jesus Christ.
But look at what happens in verse 10. And I heard a loud voice
in heaven saying, we call this a hymn in literature, it's a
hymn Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our
God and the authority of his Christ have come. You hear that? I'd make a good song to sing,
wouldn't I? He has come. He has come and the accuser, it says, for the
accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them
day and night before God. Christ's rule has been established. He already rules because He always
has ruled. And Satan's attempt, as I've
already said, has failed from the beginning. And though Satan
desires to destroy the church, the only thing that he's allowed
to do is accuse her. Out of his mouth come accusations.
Out of his mouth come blasphemies. Out of his mouth come temptations.
Out of his mouth come lies. He's the father of lies. Brothers
and sisters, you hear something that disturbs your spirit, you
hear something relational that starts to really cause you just
bitterness and frustration, you can better believe it, that Satan
has sent somebody to lie to you. And you better believe that He's
lying to your conscience. You better believe that when
we feel like this unity is going to come into our lives as Christians,
between each other and even between our enemies, that it is not true. And we can trust that Christ
is victorious, but we can also trust that the devil is not going
to stop lying until he's destroyed. So we have to have discernment.
But where is our focus? Salvation and power and the kingdom
of our God and the authority of Christ have come. That's our
focus. That's what Paul would tell the
Corinthian church in his second letter. that this light momentary
affliction prepares us for an eternal weight of glory beyond
all comparison as we do what? As we look to the things that
are unseen. What is that? Salvation, the
power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of Christ.
As we look to the things that are unseen, which are eternal,
rather than the things that are seen, which are temporal. And
we do that and we hold fast to that which is unseen. concerning
our salvation, the salvation of our souls, Peter would write
in his first epistle. And we're going to say that angels
intently look into these things. Why? Because they love God. They
want to see the work of God in such a way so that they can celebrate
that which they have the highest affection for, which is God,
which is Jesus. And what is the power? Though
Satan desires to, in some sense, blackmail the church, we are
innocent. Satan can say we're liars. Satan can say we're lost.
Satan can come against us, and we'll see what that looks like
here in just a second. But we're innocent. Why? Look at verse
11. And they have conquered Him. Who is Him? The devil. Who are
they? The woman running into the wilderness.
Who are they? The church. Who are they? The
sealed. We've already been seen. The people of God have conquered
Him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony,
for they love not their own lives, even unto death." You look at
that. I mean, you hear the song of Paul's heart as he continued
to preach. You hear the song of the heart
of Jesus, the Anointed One. As he buried his heart in the
garden of Gethsemane and he prayed, Oh Father, take this cup from
me. But not my will, but yours be
done. Paul would say the same thing. It is not my life that
matters. In Acts 20 I believe that my
life accounts for nothing but that I may do that which God
has called me to and complete the ministry that God has called
me to and fulfill that which God has called me to. I'm nothing.
Paul would teach the Corinthians the same thing. For God, we are
not of noble birth, we are not of wise pedigree, we are not
those who are high up and lifted. For God takes the nothings of
the world, we are the nothings, and brings to nothing the things
that are. And he uses some incredible hyperbole
as an illustration there. He says, if God had weakness,
the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of man. If
God had stupidity, the stupidity of God is greater than the wisdom
of man. It brings to nothing because
he's already won and Satan will, out of his mouth, accuse the
church of Jesus Christ. And it's not rightly, folks.
It's part of it. Man, I just hate myself. I just
can't get my sin together. Oh, sister so-and-so, brother
so-and-so, whatever. You see the accusations. You
see the governments rising against the church. You see people scream
tolerance. But we don't want tolerance when
it comes to standing not for morality but for Christ. The church is victorious. And
there is no reason for us to have dismay. The Christ rules
and therefore the church rules. The victory is won before the
battle ever began. Verse 12, Therefore rejoice,
O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O the
earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great
wrath. Why? Because he knows that his
time is short. And when the dragon saw that
he had been thrown to the earth, he pursued the woman who had
given birth to the male child. The church is sealed. The church
can rejoice in Christ because the victory is won. John writes,
greater is he who is in me, Jesus Christ, than he who is in the
world, and who is that? The power of the prince of the
air, which is the devil, Satan, Lucifer. And what is it that
gives us victory? Our faith. We strongly believe the devil
will leave us alone? No. We strongly believe, which
means we hold to Christ, who's already defeated him. That's
the point. The church is sealed. In verse 12, the earth will see
calamity. Whoa, we've already seen that,
haven't we? and all these other seals and all these other thunder
peals and trumpets, we've seen that the earth is in despair. The earth is in disarray. The
earth is in chaos. Natural evil happens. I say evil as in bad things.
Cancer, death, divorce, frustration, earthquakes, fire, all sorts
of stuff. moral evil, physical evil, people
evil. It's running rampant, but it's
still under the check of God. It's only going to do and be
exactly as God has ordained it to be. And so we don't have to
be scared, beloved. Some of the greatest rebukes
that I've ever got given, I mean, not great as in, wow, that's
an awesome rebuke, but strength-wise, is during this last election
season. where people would tear up in fear of what might happen
to our country. And it's an okay fear. I understand. I have compassion for that. I
have empathy in that context. I understand that we love our
country. We want to keep it together. We want to keep it moral. We
want to keep it somewhat, at least, deist. But we don't fear. And we cannot
put our trust in men. God can take a king who rules
all people with a hand and he takes property and he takes people
and he takes money and he has everything. He can make him walk
outside and strip off his clothes and live in a yard and eat grass. That's what he did. Imagine seeing
the king naked, moving, eating grass. God did that to that man. Nobody's greater than God. The earth will see calamity.
The devil is malicious. He's active because he knows
he is already lost. So he's thinking in his insecurity,
in his fallible way of just rage and wrath. You ever been so mad
you didn't know what happened? You ever been that man? I've
been that man. I've been that man. Sadly, I've
been that man. And you say things, and you act
a certain way, and when you're done, people are looking at you
like... And they're trying not to laugh, but it was so funny,
because you look like such a fool, but they're scared if they laugh
too hard, you might break them in half. I mean, you know. Yeah. Wrath. This is the blind rage
that the devil is in. He is doing that which he thinks
is going to cause havoc, but it's not going to do one thing
outside of God's sovereignty. Not one thing. The devil will
pursue the people of God, the church, through whom Christ came,
Israel. He will pursue God's people. But the church will not suffer. The church will not die. The
church will not suffer eternally, though the church may suffer
and die. Because the woman is given two wings of the great
eagle, that means she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness,
to the place where she is to be nourished. What's that talk
about? God is not going to let His church be destroyed. It's
victory. Verse 14, the church is certain
to exist. And one day, as we've seen, the
blood of the martyrs under the altar, the prayers of the saints
will be answered when God says, now's the time, and everything
is set correctly. Everything is set right. But
look until that time, verse 15 and 16. Until that time, remember
the accusations of the devil? They're not coming around like
little sprinklers. They're coming around like river.
And the enemy, the dragon, the serpent, poured water like a
river out of his mouth after the church, after the woman.
The irony is, every position of Revelation, every end times
position, they always, they always interpret this text in chapter
12 exactly the same. Look at the metaphor of his accusations. Even this piece. The serpent poured water out
of his mouth in order to sweep her away with a flood, to ruin
her, to drown her, much like Egypt pursued God's people up
to the edges of the sea. And then the sea opened up for
them and then swallowed up the enemies of God. So though the
world is Satan's to rule, guess who is sovereign over it? God
is. But the earth came to the help
of the woman. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river
that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Satan pursues destruction
of God's people even when he loses. He floods after them,
tries to trap them, tries to kill them, tries to destroy them,
tries to defame them. He did the same thing to Jesus.
He'll do the same thing to us. He brought witnesses against
Stephen, y'all. A man full of the Holy Spirit,
humble, holy, and pure. And everybody knew it. But yet
the devil found two men willing to lie at the cost of death so
that Stephen would die. See, lying back in that day was
not something you did flippantly. Perjury these days, lying to your neighbor, lying
to your parents, lying to your wife, lying to your husband,
lying to your preacher, lying to yourself, lying to God, it's
just like no big deal anymore. But he didn't lie back then,
but Satan put it in the hearts of people. They could find witnesses
to lie about God's church. And it's happening today. And
you know what? It's not the cults and the world
religion. It's not atheists and agnostics. It's not philosophers.
It's not Armenians and Calvinists fighting. It's not Methodists
and Baptists fighting. It's not Presbyterians and whatever they
fight with themselves. It's not about that. That's not
what we're talking about. We're talking about the world and everything
in it fighting against the people of God. It's not an argument
over theological understanding or biblical interpretation. It's
the fact that the people of the world hate Christ. And the devil has his permission
to go and continually try to accuse the brethren. But he will
not succeed. And when the dragon says, look
at that, could not get the woman, look at verse 17, he became furious
and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring. Who are
they? On those who keep the commandments
of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the
sand and the sea. Look at the position he's just
taken. Remember last week, the angel? depicting Jesus Christ
and His rule, had one foot on the sand, on the land, and one
foot on the sea, now Satan's taking that spot. It's not his. It's not his, but he thinks it
is. And he couldn't stop Christ, he couldn't stop God, he couldn't
stop Jesus on earth, and he surely is upset, and he's trying to
stop the church, and he's not going to stop us either. I used to have a wrong theology
about suffering, friends. I used to look at my mirror,
not literally, but I'd look in the mirror of my soul every day
and wonder, Lord, why is this continuing to crash down upon
me? What sin have I committed? I mean, I have some sin, you
have some sin. We all could list a sin or six
right now, right? Or more. Sin or two. Sin or six sounds sinister. So,
it just sort of came out that way. But you know, when things
are rough and it's like, Nothing's working right. Relationships
are bad. My internal relationship with
myself is messed up. What's going on? My thoughts
are out of whack. Oh God, what have I done? A lot of times it's
not what you've done, it's that we are in love with Christ. Paul tells Timothy, all who desire
to live a godly life will be persecuted. You think that persecution
is coming from other people, don't you? Not according to Paul in Ephesians
6. For we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but the powers
and the principalities of darkness. See, every well-meaning busybody
that sticks their nose in our life so they can flip it upside
down and cause us pain is working for Satan. Every little temptation
that comes our way where we, and I'm going to say this and
I'm not meaning it, I'm using it as an example, where we would
rather punch someone in the throat I'm trying not to say that flippantly
anymore. I've been rebuked. So it's an example. Rather put
somebody in the throat than listen to them rant. That temptation
is also from Satan. When we'd rather give up the
goat, leave the faith, woe is me, I can't take it anymore,
I'm done. Just by a show of hands, how
many of you have spent a season away from the church because
you were hurt? If I could levitate, I'd put
them all up. And I've been a pastor of a church, loving people, hoping,
praying, preaching, teaching, weeping, crying, giving, and
then they stab me in the back. If God's people will do this,
what are my enemies going to do? I'm moving someplace else. Where can I go? Nowhere, because
there's people everywhere. A remote island. I'd probably
punch myself. There I am again. Friends, it's going to happen.
It's going to happen. It happened to Jesus in His life.
His very own disciples tried to sway Him. No, no, no, don't
go to Jerusalem. You're going to get arrested.
Dude, you're going to get arrested there. I've got to go." And of
course, what is it? Thomas, you know what? Let's
go. Quit being weaklings and sissies.
Let's go. Let's all die. You know, that
was Thomas' testimony. Let's just go die with him. Peter's
like, you ain't got to die. And Jesus doesn't say, guys,
I'm missing the point. No, no, no, no, you're missing the point.
I've been with you almost four years and you still ain't got
it? Oh my gosh, I'm such a failure. I mean, this is not what Jesus
did. Jesus turned to Peter and said, get behind me, Satan. Dana
Carley should have done that. I'm sorry. Satan. You know, church lady.
Anyway, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. Not shut
your mouth, Peter, you're such a dork. Not, what is wrong with you?
Did you not go to seminary? I mean, you know. Oh great, I'm
leaving you behind to preach. No, get behind me Satan. Imagine
what they thought as the other eleven are standing there going.
It's like kids in the back seat when you get on to one of them.
Dude, he just called Peter Satan. Still didn't get it. Well, let's
just go die with him then. I just didn't get it. What tempted
Peter to try another way? Satan. And why did it work? According to James, it worked
because that's what Peter really wanted in his flesh. If somebody
walks back there and, I don't know, dangles a dollar bill outside
the window and tries to get me off this stage, I'm going to
go out. There's a weirdo back there with a dollar bill. But
if he walked by and had a sign that says, hey, you want to add
on to your building? It was like a briefcase full
of money. I'd say, excuse me for a minute. We're going to
at least inquire what's going on. I'll call somebody, dude,
beat that dude up, take that money. I mean, you know, that
could be a temptation because it might be something that appeals
to us. You give the Hope Diamond to an infant, give it to a homeless
man, wow, life changing. The temptation works when it's
something we desire. The devil doesn't make us want
things, the devil just suggests that we do them. And according
to James, it comes and gives birth to sin and sin to death
because it is what we really want. Friends, that even goes
to show us that as God's people, there is no hope for us if God
does not keep us. And God has promised to keep
us. And if you think that we as a church are going to be happy-go-lucky,
always singing zippity-doo-dah down the road, I don't like that
song anyway, by the way, you know, it's not going to happen. We're going
to have good times and we're going to hit brick walls. We're going
to have times where we can love each other and times where we
can just not quite love each other. We could hate each other,
but God is sufficiently working and has sealed us so that we
would forgive and we would forbear and we would repent and we would
stay together and we would not give up because if we think that
it's tough now, what's it going to be like in generations to
come if we don't teach the truth of what this is showing us today?
Where is the hope for tomorrow? Where's the hope for the generation
to come? Where is our grandchildren and
our great-grandchildren? What are they going to look forward
to? And they'll weep on the floor wondering who's going to come
to the White House to save them. Or what army is going to set
them free from persecution. Or what program they can put
together to try to get people to like them. Beloved, Christ
is victorious. And we are too. And there's hope
there. and Satan has lost. Be encouraged,
be blessed, be joyful, be alive. Next week we will look at chapter
13 and see a little more about the work of the enemy of God
against the people of God. Let's pray. Father, oh it is
so good to be in Your Word and it is so rich for me to be in
John's writing. I thank You for it. I thank You
for all of Your Word. I thank You for every apostle,
for every prophet, for every saint, for every jot and tittle
that I can hold in my hands and look with my eyes and hear with
my ears the beauty of Your majesty and glory and can see You perfectly
in Jesus Christ through the lens of these pages. Father, it is
so much more than just an incredible affection Lord, it's an incredible
anticipation that one day we will not have to look here anymore,
but can look straight to you. And until then, Lord, stir us
that we might love each other in such a way that only Christ
could get the glory and that we would live in such a way that
only Christ could get the glory and that we would teach and learn
in such a way that only Christ could get the glory so that as
the enemy continues to do the work he does, you are praised
in the midst of it. Keep us from temptation. Deliver
us from evil. For Father, your kingdom is the
power and the glory in Christ. Amen and amen. Amen.