Now in Revelation chapter 12,
we've been talking about these two great wonders in heaven.
Verse one, there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed
with the sun, the moon under her feet, upon her head a crown
of 12 stars. This is highly symbolic language. And the symbols that we, we interpret
the symbols by the scripture. I've tried to emphasize constantly
as we go through the book of Revelation, don't try to interpret
Revelation by reading the headlines or looking at the local news
or even by history. There are historical things that
come down. There are historical illusions
here. We're going to see that. But
this is highly symbolic language. This unnamed woman ultimately
is a symbol of the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, the church.
Christ was born of woman. We know that Mary was the human
instrument through which Christ came according to the flesh,
that's his humanity. He wasn't born of man, we call
that the incarnation. The word made flesh, Emmanuel,
God with us without sin. But this symbolizes the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ whom he calls his bride. And this church here is, I'm
not gonna go in all these symbols again, because we did that last
week. It says in verse two, she being with child cried, travailing
in birth and pain to be delivered. We can think historically of
Mary having the Christ child. That's part of it. and Christ
was born and she delivered, but we can also think of the church
being born in him and of him, him coming out of our nature
as far as humanity goes, not sin, not sinful. Christ was never
sinful. We need to understand that. He
was never contaminated with sin. He dwelt among sinners. He walked
among sinners, he ate with publicans and sinners, but he was never
contaminated by sinners or by sin. When he was on the cross,
he was made sin. Now that doesn't mean anything
more than that sin was imputed to him, charged, accounted to
him. He was our surety, our substitute. Verse three talks about, there
appeared another wonder in heaven. This is a wonder, and that word
wonder, remember that means a sign. In other words, this is a symbol. And he says, there appeared another
wonder in heaven and behold a great red dragon, that's Satan, who
is allowed by the providential sovereign purpose of God to attack
the church. We see a historical reference
to that when the Christ child was born, Herod, King Herod,
who was an Antichrist, you could say, the spirit of Antichrist. You remember he made a decree
that all the male children from two years old and below were
to be killed in Judea. And he went after, and of course,
Joseph and Mary had to flee into the desert. But look here, this
red dragon comes and declares war. Now look at verse five,
this is where we're going to. There's warfare in heaven. He
says, and she brought forth a man-child, And that's the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Messiah, who was man in every way without sin. He's God-man. And he was to rule all nations
with a rod of iron, with a rod of justice. And that's what that
rod of iron means, a rod of justice. This is Christ. who is God in
human flesh, and from and in him the church is saved, born,
preserved, and lives forever. Remember he told the disciples,
he said, upon this rock I will build my church. And to rule
the nations with a rod of iron is his kingly office as he is
the just judge of all things. Now understand this judgment. When we think of judgment, we
always think of something negative. Something bad. But if we're in
Christ, if we're true believers, if we've been brought to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works, we don't have to fear
judgment. Let me show you that. Turn over
to 1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four and look at,
oh, I'm in chapter three. Yeah, look
at verse 17. First John chapter four. Now
we're gonna see this later on in these verses. Judgment is
against sinners, sin. And we're all sinners. We've
all sinned and come short of the glory of God. So the question
is, in judgment, do I get what I deserve? Now if I get what
I deserve, what's it gonna be? It's gonna be death, eternal
death, eternal damnation. You see, that's why salvation
and God's grace and mercy is not a matter of us getting what
we deserve. The wages of sin is death. But what about salvation? The
gift of God, not the wages now, the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. So whenever we're talking about
a right relationship with God, we better not be talking about
what we deserve or what we've earned. Because any person, listen,
from the best of us to the worst of us, we've only earned eternal
damnation. That's what the scripture teaches.
Salvation is by grace. But look at 1 John 4 and verse
17. It says, herein is our love made
perfect. Now that perfect there doesn't
mean sinlessly perfect or morally perfect. It means complete. Here's how our love is made complete. It's the idea of reaching a goal.
Now what's the goal of this, all right? And he says, herein
is our love made complete, that we may have boldness in the day
of judgment. Now that boldness is confidence.
Now John is talking to believers here now. He's not talking to
everyone without exception. He's not making some blanket
promise here that applies to everyone. He says that we may
have boldness, confidence in the day of judgment. Why or how? He says because as he is, the
he there is Christ. As Christ is, so are we in this
world. As Christ is right now, so are
his people right now in this world. Now, what does that mean?
That means we're justified. What does it mean to be justified?
That means we're not guilty. Well, wait a minute. Didn't you
just say we're sinners? Yes. But our sins are not charged
to us. Now why? Because God charged
them to Christ. He was, all our iniquities, Isaiah
53, were laid upon Him. He was made sin, He was made
a curse for, He's our substitute. He stood in my place under the
judgment of God and drank my damnation dry. That's what He
did. And that's what the whole thing
is about, see? And to be justified is to be declared righteous in
the sight of God. Not because I'm so good, because
I'm not. but because I have Christ's righteousness
imputed, accounted, charged to me. And that's the only way I
can say that as he is, so am I in this world. I can't say
that in any other way. All right? So when we're talking
about him over here in Revelation, judging with a rod of iron, he's
talking about justice. But that justice is to a believer,
to a sinner saved by the grace of God, washed in the blood of
Christ and clothed in his righteousness, that justice is for us, not against
us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. So when
we read over here, go back to Revelation 12, here he comes,
he's gonna rule all nations with a rod of iron. I've thought about
this quite a bit this past couple weeks because I was listening
to a so-called, quote, Christian philosopher, unquote, answer
these issues, trying to answer these issues concerning the absolute
sovereignty of God and the responsibility of man. And he started off his
answer by talking about how love is the supreme ethic. And you
know, I can understand why people think that, because you remember
when the man asked the Lord, he said, which is the greatest
commandment? And the Lord said, love God with all your heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbors yourself.
Well, what that's talking about is our relationship with God
and with each other. But here's what I want you to
see. Love is not the supreme ethic. You know what it is? Justice. is the supreme ethic. What is
the first thing that God revealed to Adam in the garden before
the fall in order to maintain a right relationship with God?
Do you remember what it was, Genesis chapter two? He said,
Adam, in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. He didn't come to Adam and say,
Adam, I love you, so it doesn't really matter what you do, I'm
gonna love you in spite of. He didn't say that. He said,
in the day that you eat of that tree, you shall surely die. You know what that is? That's
justice. Now, that doesn't negate, diminish, or ignore the supremacy
of God's love. But it puts it in the right context. Because let me tell you something,
when it comes to God and a right relationship with God, any love
that is without justice is empty. Fruitless. God is love, the scripture
says. But God is also just and right. He rules with a rod of iron.
He rules with justice. He rules in righteousness, you
see. Love must come from God in the
context of strict justice. And I'll tell you the greatest
proof of that, Jesus Christ had to come into this world and do
what? he had to keep the law and he had to die for the sins
of his people so understand that that's what
he's talking about the gospel is a gospel of justice yes it's
a gospel of love but it shows us how God is both a righteous
judge as well as a merciful loving father he must be both so any
preaching that's called gospel today that doesn't Put love in
the context of God's justice, how he can be both a just God
and a... It's empty preaching, folks. It's empty preaching. When Christ comes again, he's
coming with a rod of iron. That's what, and he's already
come with a rod of iron. It says in verse five, and her
child was caught up unto God and to his throne. We can see
all of that when, when Christ was born, he was born to save
his people by establishing righteousness by himself as our surety. He,
upon his finishing his work of redemption, he died, he was buried,
he arose from the dead. And then what did he do? He ascended
unto the father. He's now seated at the Father,
I quoted Romans 8, what, 33? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. And
the next verse says, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ
that died, yea, rather is risen again, and is now seated at the
right hand of the Father. Look at verse six. He says, the
woman, this is Revelation 12, the woman fled into the wilderness. where she hath a place prepared
of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred
and three score days now this again this is highly symbolic
language there is a historical reference you remember when Joseph
and Mary they went to Bethlehem she had the child and then later
on they had to flee to Egypt because of Satan attacking through
Herod and through others trying to kill him. And of course, there
was no way they could accomplish it. But when he says here this
1,203 scored days, now every time you see that phrase, when
you see the 1,260 days, the 1,203 scored days, I'm not going to
stop and go into the mathematical symbolism of that because it
takes too much time. I've already done that. But what that's referring
to is a time period. that pretty much equals like
three and a half years, that is, where the church was persecuted
sorely in its beginnings, but it's symbolic to tell us that
throughout the last days, up until Christ's second coming,
the church is gonna be like somebody who's in the wilderness, fleeing
into the wilderness, outside the world, separate from the
world, being persecuted by the world, and we've already seen
that. It's a situation where, like
Paul said in Philippians chapter three, we're in the world, but
we're not of the world. We are citizens of a heavenly
kingdom. Our citizenship is in heaven.
Now that doesn't mean we walk three feet higher than everybody.
That doesn't mean that when you look at us, you're going to see
a halo or a glow or something like that. Because we don't judge
anybody after the flesh, you know, has nothing. It has to
do with our view. Uh, well, it has to do with our
view of Jesus Christ and him crucified and our reconciliation
with God based on his righteousness alone. We know things that others
don't know. And that's not being listened.
That's not being arrogant. That's not being arrogant at
all. It's a revelation from God. What is the hope of your salvation?
What is the ground of your salvation? Where is your righteousness? What does the world say? Well,
it's in us, it's in our wills, it's in our way, it's in our
works. Well, we're separated from that. Our hope is in Jesus Christ.
And you know, people sing that all the time, but they don't
really believe it. What's some of the popular hymns that they
sing? My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, a holy lean on Jesus' name, on Christ's. What can wash
away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
So that's what he's talking about here. We're in the wilderness,
the church in the wilderness, and it's a place prepared of
God, it says in verse six. In other words, this is no accident.
You know, with God, there are no accidents. Remember, I told
you about the preacher who wrote me one time, this was years ago,
and he said, he said, I can't believe that you believe that
God ordained the fall of man. Well, God did. Now, he's not
the author of sin. You say, well, explain that to
me. No. And I'll tell you why, because I
can't and you can't either. God is not the author of sin.
And yet everything that he's prepared for his people was prepared
before time began. Scripture says that. But I told
the guy this. I said, well, I can't believe
you think that Satan sneaked up on God and took him by surprise.
He said, I don't believe that. I said, yes, you do. I said,
you just don't want to admit it. You don't want to put it
that way. Salvation is not God's plan B. Salvation by grace has
always been God's plan throughout. And so here's this woman in a
place prepared of God that they should feed her there 1,203 score
days. How's she gonna be fed? With
the word of God. What do we feed upon? The bread
of life. The preaching of Christ. Look at verse seven. He says,
and there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon. And the dragon fought and his
angels and prevailed not, neither was their place found anymore
in heaven. Now I understand something here. In the English translation
it talks about war in heaven. He's not talking about geography
here. He's not talking about there's
a war going up above our heads or in outer space or beyond space.
This is a heavenly warfare. It's a spiritual warfare. He's
not talking about geography. He's talking about The nature
of this warfare. What kind of warfare is it? This
is not a warfare with guns and knives and tanks and bombs. This
is a warfare that is spiritual. I mentioned last week how Paul
brought this out in 2 Corinthians 10 when he says the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal. They're not physical. But they're
spiritual. Our weapons are the word and
our weapon is the word of God, the gospel. And the battlefield
is the minds and hearts of men and women. That's what it is.
But here's a spiritual warfare going on that is a heavenly warfare. And he says, Michael and his
angels. Now, a lot of people, you know,
this thing, I don't have time to go into all of this, but this
thing about angels. Most of what people believe about
angels or angelology or whatever is no more than myth and stories. Comes from TV. Touched by an
angel, that kind of thing. But it's not biblical. There
are heavenly beings called angels. We don't know a whole lot about
them. We know that the Bible speaks of the elect angels and
the non-elect angels. Satan was an angel. His name
was Lucifer. which means light. And they are
attendants. They are attending angels. They are sent by God to protect
His people. They are ministers. You know,
they had a big part in the Old Covenant, ministering. Hebrews
chapter 1 speaks of that. But what he's talking about here
is Christ and his ministers. You know what the name Michael,
the Bible doesn't teach any hierarchy of angels or any hierarchy in
heaven like that. The word Michael means one who
is God. That's what the word means, one
who is God. Michael is Christ, that's who
he is. It's just another name. You say,
well, why would he give him another name? Go through Genesis to Revelation
and see how many names there are that describe the Lord Jesus
Christ. What, a thousand maybe? Why? Because, and they all mean the
same thing essentially. Why? Because he's so glorious.
The grandeur of the person of the God-man. Here's one who is
God. You see, Satan and his ministers
are attacking Christ and his church. And it says here, Christ
and his church, it says that they fought against the dragon.
And the dragon fought against his angels and prevailed not. Satan prevailed not. So that's
the nature of this spiritual warfare that Satan's waging against
Christ and his church. And somebody said one time, they
said, well, Satan knows he's going to be defeated. Well, I
don't know about that. Satan is not omniscient. He's not the
evil counterpart of God. Satan is a created being. He
fell. He rebelled. He's limited. He's stronger than
us. He's more powerful than we are, but he's certainly no equal
with God. So he's limited in his knowledge.
But it says here that he prevailed not in verse eight, neither was
there any place found anymore in heaven. In other words, there's
no position there. There's no hope of salvation
or eternal life for anyone who fights against Michael and his
archangels, Christ and his church. That position, listen, the only
way that we can have a permanent, abiding, position in the household
and family of God is to be found in Christ. That's the only way. There's no other way. Fighting
against him and his truth, fighting against him and his church, there'll
be no position found for those who continue to do that unless
they're, that's why we have to be turned. That's why we have
to be born again. That's why we have to be brought to faith
in Christ. Now, we'll conclude with verse nine here and then
pick up there. Well, I'll be back. I won't be here next Sunday.
I'll be in Ruston preaching. But the next Sunday we'll pick
up. I think Jim's going to be doing the lesson, aren't you,
Jim, out of Romans, so next week. But look at verse nine. It says,
and the great dragon, that's Satan, was cast out. Now, when was he cast out? I've
got it referenced, I believe, in your lesson here. Satan was actually cast out at
the cross. Because that's when, in time,
the Lord Jesus Christ established the only ground of salvation. You see, Satan brought condemnation
and death into the world. He brought, as in Romans chapter
5 there in verse 12, it says that by one man, Adam, sin entered
into the world and death passed upon all men for that all sin.
Well, that was Satan's work bringing Adam down. Adam took side with
Satan against God. And what happened when Christ
died on the cross? He established the ground of
justification for his people by his blood, the righteousness
of God in Christ. And it says, the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, all these names of Satan, they
talk, it's describing his character. You know, he was that old serpent. He appeared in the form of a
serpent to Eve and it says, called the devil, the word devil which
means slanderer or accuser. We're gonna see that next time. He's the accuser of the brethren.
Remember what he says there. The accusations of Satan do not
stick to God's elect. That's why David of old said
in Psalm 32, he said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. Blessed is the man to whom God
does not charge with sin. David said that, King David.
David was not a perfect man in himself, you know that. We're
not perfect men and women in ourselves. So how blessed could
it be if God doesn't charge you with sin? Well, there's no blessing
greater, is there? You say, well, I have spiritual
life. Well, that comes because God
doesn't charge you with sin. He charges you with righteousness
in Christ, if you're a believer now. And righteousness demands
life. So here's the devil, the accuser,
the slanderer. He says here, and Satan, which
means adversary, that means the one who is against us, which,
look here now, deceiveth the whole world. You know, people
argue about the, I've been reading on the internet, you know, these
guys going back and forth with, when you see the word all in
the Bible, does that mean all people without exception? Does
that mean all the elect? When you see the word every,
does that mean everyone without exception? When you see the word
world, does that mean everybody without exception? Well, all
of those words, all and every and world, can only be defined
by their context. For example, I'll give you an
example. I think it's Luke 2 or Luke 3, 1. I think it may be
Luke 2, chapter 1, where it talks about Caesar Augustus declared
a decree that all the world should be taxed. Well, did Caesar Augustus
back then, did he tax every individual without exception? Well, no. Talking about the Roman Empire,
isn't it? How do you know that? Context. Caesar Augustus didn't... He probably knew nothing about
this country. And, you know, he certainly couldn't
tax anybody who was living in this country at that time. Well,
right here, the context. The whole world, it says. Satan
deceiving the whole world. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about the fallen unregenerate world that stands with him against
Christ, against the gospel of salvation by God's grace. And
it says here, he was cast out into the earth and his angels
were cast out with him. In other words, he was brought
down to this place of what is called his realm deceiving the
whole world with his false gospel. And you remember, we talked about
how Satan, 2 Corinthians chapter four and verse three, if our
gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost, in whom the God
of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the knowledge of the glory of God should shine
unto them, to keep them from hearing and believing this gospel
of God's grace, which sets sinners free in Christ. All right, okay.