Well, good morning. Good to see
all of you. We were going to come up anyway
and worship with you today, and Gary asked me if I'd speak for
him since we were on vacation and we were coming up. And I
said, I just want to come and listen to you. And in fact, I
said no three or four times, and he wouldn't take no for an
answer. But then he said, I'll give you two jars of Duke's mayonnaise
if you'll come preach for me. And I said, you had me at one. We don't get Duke's mayonnaise
up our way, so I will be looking to get my mayonnaise before we
leave. It's good to assemble with you,
and I've been blessed so much already by the singing of the hymns, and the
excellent hymn in the bulletin, and the special music. Open your Bibles to Revelation
chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. I acknowledge
to you that In many ways, the book of Revelation is a mysterious
book. And there are some mysteries
in the book of Revelation I certainly would not be able to solve them
for you, to fully explain them to you. But I do know this about
the book of Revelation. It is the revelation of Jesus
Christ. It is not the revelation of Saint
John the Divine. It's a revelation that God gave
to John. But it's the revelation of our
Savior, as is all of the Scripture. You see, the entirety of the
Word of God is the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
in this last book of the Bible, we have seven visions that God
gave to John, and they all have to do with the revelation of
Jesus Christ. That is, there is a revelation
of who He is, and there is a revelation of what He has done. In these
seven visions, or seven sections of the book of Revelation, there
is a revelation of three things. If you want to understand the
book of Revelation, and I'm a simple-minded fellow, and I want to get an
overview of something first, and then go into the details.
And as I look at the book of Revelation, and I know there
are seven visions in the book, seven sections of Scripture,
In each of these seven sections of Scripture, there are three
things that are always significant, they're always outstanding, they're
always there. And if you want to understand
each of the visions of the book of Revelation, you have to understand
these three things. It's a revelation of three things
in every vision. There are seven visions. And
in every vision, there is a revelation of three things. Number one,
the Lord Jesus reveals what He has already done for sinners. Now this is revealed seven times
in the book of the Revelation. The Lord Jesus reveals what He
has already done. That is, He has washed us from
our sins in His own blood. And He makes that statement back
in chapter 1 to John. That is, this One who is being
revealed in the book of the Revelation is Himself the Redeemer. He is
the Redeemer. What has He done? He has redeemed
us from the curse of the law. He has saved His people from
their sins. He is the Lamb of God who has
redeemed unto Himself a people. a people out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue, for the glory of His name, the glory
of His free grace." We see that in every vision. So as you read
through the book of the Revelation, in every vision, look to see
what the Lord Jesus says He's already done. He's redeemed His
people. He's brought in for us everlasting
righteousness. He satisfied the law of God. He saved His people from their
sins. This is the one who says to John,
I'm the first and I'm the last. I am He that liveth. I was dead,
but I'm alive evermore. And I have the keys of death
and hell. So, in every vision, we see a
revelation of the Lord Jesus, that is, what He has already
done. Secondly, in every vision, there
is a revelation of what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing during
this gospel age. That is, the gospel age that
reaches from His first advent to His second advent. And each
of these visions covers that entire section, that entire segment
of what we call time. That is, from His first coming
when He redeemed us, when He saved us, when He Himself paid
the price for the redemption of His people, and He, having
paid the price, went back to glory, that segment of time from
then all the way to the end of this gospel age, that segment
of time is covered in every one of these visions. And in every
one of the visions, the Lord Jesus shows us what He has already
done. He tells John what He has already
done. And secondly, He reveals what
He is doing during the gospel age. What is He doing? He is
watching over His golden lampstands, candlesticks, that is, the churches. He walks among the churches.
He reveals Himself to His people, to His bride. He shows us the
gospel of His grace. He is executing the counsel of
God in chapter 5. John sees a book written within
and without and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. That's
the book of God's predestination. It's the Lord Jesus Himself,
the Lamb slain. That's who John sees, the Lamb
slain, and that's emphasized in every one of the visions,
Christ the Lamb of God. The One who was slain for sinners
to satisfy justice and bring in life for us to save us by
His grace. In John chapter 5, John sees
the Lord Jesus take the book of God's predestination, the
book of God's eternal decrees out of the hand of Him who sat
upon the throne, and he proceeds to open up the book, to loose
the seven seals thereof, and thereby bring to pass everything
that God has determined to do since before the foundation of
the world." What is Christ doing today? He's fulfilling His eternal
purpose. That's what He's doing. Our Lord
Jesus is seated upon His throne of sovereignty. None can frustrate
His purpose. None can stay His hand. Everything
that the eternal God has predestinated to happen, which is everything,
shall most assuredly come to pass, because the hand of the
sovereign, all-powerful Christ is executing the will and counsel
of God. And in every one of these visions,
you'll see that our Lord Jesus tells John, and of course He
thereby tells us, that He's executing His will. What He's doing now?
He's governing the nations. He's governing Satan. He's governing
all demons, all the demons of hell. all the godless pagan rulers
of the world, they are under the authority of and the control
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's earned the right to rule
all things and He's executing the purpose of God throughout
this gospel age. And then thirdly, in each of
these seven visions, Not only does the Lord Jesus reveal to
John and to us what He has already done, He saved us, He redeemed
us, and not only does He reveal to John and to us what He is
doing now, He is our Mediator, He is the Sovereign who executes
the counsel of God, He is the One who ministers to His church.
But thirdly, He reveals what He will yet do. what He will
yet do. He will continue to provide for
His people until that appointed time when He comes back to fetch
us unto Himself. And then He will execute judgment
upon all those who know not God. He will dispose of all rebels,
all unbelievers. But before that, He will gather
His redeemed children into heaven's eternal glory where we will be
with Him forever and ever and behold His glory and worship
Him, worship Him Forever and ever and ever, and never grow
weary, never grow tired. The body won't be tired. We can
only, you know, we sit here for an hour, an hour and fifteen
or twenty minutes, and you know, you're beginning to hurt a little
bit. I need to stretch a little. Preacher, you know, there'll
come a day when we won't grow weary of worship. When the mind
won't wander. when with our hearts and our
souls we will fully be delighted in, our souls will be enraptured
by a view, a face-to-face view of our glorious Redeemer and
will sing His praises forever and ever, singing, worthy is
the Lamb who was slain to receive power and glory and wisdom and
might and honor forever and ever. That day is coming. He is coming
back. He is coming back. So in each
of these seven visions, these three things are always prominent. The Lord Jesus, who is giving
this revelation of Himself to John, He tells John and He tells
us what He has already done, what He is doing now, and what
He shall yet do. Now this morning, We're in chapter
12, which begins the fourth vision. This vision goes through chapter
14. And it may be significant to
you, just to make note of this, this begins the second major
division of the book of the Revelation. Because chapters 12 through 22
form Sort of a unit. And what we see
here, you know, the entirety of the book of Revelation tells
us this, that we are more than conquerors through Him who loved
us. We are more than conquerors.
Things have always been tough for God's church. Sometimes the
persecution is more severe, other times it's not quite so severe.
Sometimes there are more trials, sometimes there are less trials,
but there will always be trials for God's people because those
redeemed of the Lord, they all are said to come out of great
tribulation. But here's the encouragement.
Because our Savior is the victorious Lord, having conquered all of
our enemies. You name one of our enemies,
and I can tell you this, it's already a conquered enemy. It's
already a conquered foe. Our Lord Jesus, by His substitutionary
sacrifice at the cross, He crushed the head of our great enemy,
Satan himself. He put all of our sins away.
He silenced the thunder of the law against us because the law
found our sins imputed to the Savior. He was dealt with. He suffered the wrath of God,
and now there is therefore no condemnation to them who are
in Christ Jesus." The message of the book of Revelation is
an encouraging one, a thrilling one to the people of God. Admittedly,
there is much that is mysterious, but that which fills us with
joy is this, our Lord has conquered. And we are conquerors in, through,
and by Him." And chapters 12 through 14, we see the persecution
against God's people stepped up even more. In fact, throughout
most of the rest of the book of the Revelation until the very
end comes, We see Satan, he ramps things up and the persecution
that the world, the pagan world powers throws at the church,
it's ramped up. And then Babylon, false religion. That persecution, that opposition
against God's people, it also swells until finally the end
comes when our glorious Redeemer comes back He puts a millstone
around Babylon's neck and sinks it into the pit of hell itself,
and all the pagan world rulers and nations perish with the harlot,
and our Lord shall reign glorious forever and ever to our eternal
delight. Here in chapters 12-14, we get
another panoramic view of the Gospel Age. That is, here we
see Our Lord's incarnation, and we see His enthronement to God's
right hand, which was based upon His successfully triumphing in
the work that God has given him to do. He finished the work that
God gave him to do, the work that he was assigned, the work
for which he volunteered. He saved his people from their
sins. He finished, to the Father's
satisfaction, the work of reconciliation, the work of salvation, the work
of redemption. The just one died for the unjust
in order to bring us to God. Our sins have been totally put
away The demands of justice have been absolutely met. The death
of our Lord Jesus has satisfied the law, which required death
for sin. He died in the stead of His people,
and all for whom He died are justified before God. And having
finished the work He came to do, He rose from the dead, He
went back to glory, He took His rightful seat upon the throne
of sovereign authority. And in this vision, we see not
only His incarnation, but then His work of redemption and the
fact that He has great concern, great care for and protection
of His people. You see, He must protect us,
lest we be destroyed by what is here called the red dragon,
which is another name for Satan. And then toward the end of chapter
14, and I said this vision, chapter 12, 13 and 14, at the end of
chapter 14, we see that He's coming back to judge all of our
enemies. Now keeping in mind the three
things I told you already about what's seen in every vision,
And this vision is chapters 12, 13 and 14. So we know in this
vision, which I don't have time to cover it all this morning,
but in this vision, we're going to see what Christ has already
done. We're going to see what He is doing. And we're going
to see what He will yet do. See, that's a simple way to look
at each one of these visions. Now, I'll show you what he has
done and what he is doing, but let me show you here in this
vision what he will yet do. Look at chapter 14 and verse
14. Chapter 14 and verse 14. And
I looked, and behold, a white cloud. And upon the cloud one
sat, like unto the Son of Man, having on his head a golden crown,
and in his hand a sharp sickle." A sharp sickle. This is a reaping
hook. He's coming forth as the reaper.
Here's the second coming of our Lord Jesus. Verse 15, another
angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him
that said, upon the cloud, thrust in thy sickle and reap. For the time has come for thee
to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And he that sat
upon the cloud thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the
earth was reaped, and another angel came out of the temple
which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle, and another angel
came out from the altar which had power over fire and cried
with a loud voice, a cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying,
Thrust in thy sharp sickle, gather the clusters of the vine of the
earth, for her grapes are fully ripe." The angel thrust in his
sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast
it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. And the winepress
was trodden without the city. The blood came out of the winepress,
even into the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and
six hundred furlongs." And that's just a symbolic or a figurative
way of saying, the devastation is going to be great. When our
Lord comes back, there will be a great slaughter of all of His
enemies. When He comes back with a sharp
sickle to reap, to reap His wheat and gather them into His garner,
to be forever with Him, and then to cut down all the tares, everything
that's left to be absolutely destroyed forever and ever. There's
that vision. There's the end of the vision.
But I want to show you what happens at the beginning of this vision
and in the middle of it. So go back to chapter 12. So
in this vision, and I'll repeat it again, we learn by repetition. In this vision, like the other
six visions of the book, we have said before us what Christ has
done, what Christ is doing, what He shall yet do. Remember, this
is the revelation of Jesus Christ. And since that is the title of
the book, we may safely conclude this is what the final book of
the Bible is all about. Wouldn't you think that's a safe
conclusion? If the name of it is the revelation of Jesus Christ,
then this is what the final book of the Bible is all about. Therefore,
here we see the first coming of Christ, here we see the providential
reign of Christ, and here we see the second coming of Christ.
Well, look at chapter 12. Let me read the first five verses. There appeared a great wonder
in heaven, a woman, a woman she's clothed with the sun, The moon
is under her feet. On her head is a crown of twelve
stars. She, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and
pained to be delivered. There appeared another wonder
in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon,
having seven heads and ten horns, seven crowns upon his head. With
his tail he drew a third part of the stars of heaven. He did
cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the
woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon
as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child. By the way, the title of this
message is, The Victorious Man-Child. The Victorious Man-Child. And
she brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with
a rod of iron. And her child, having finished
the work that God gave him to do, was called up to God and
to His throne. We're confronted in this vision
with a great wonder or sign in heaven. There are three leading
characters here that need to be identified. And I'll spend
the rest of my time identifying these three and then kind of
covering the chapter in general. First of all, here's a radiant
woman. I want to identify her. Secondly,
here's the man-child. that the woman has borne through
great travail." I want to identify Him. And thirdly, there is a
red dragon. I want to identify Him. Now, remembering that this is
a vision, this is a sign. We're looking for a spiritual
understanding and interpretation of these three. So, number one,
the glorious woman. This woman is certainly adorned
radiantly. After all, it says she's clothed
with the sun. She stands upon the moon. And
upon her head, there's a crown with seven stars. She travails
in pain as a woman in labor, who is the woman. I'm sure it
wouldn't surprise you, the Roman Catholic Church says this woman
is Mary. Which of course leads to the
worship of Mary. Exalting Mary to a position she
does not hold and she doesn't deserve. After all, Mary was
a sinner saved by grace. She said, my soul doth rejoice
in God my Savior. She saw that that One that she
would travail and then give birth to, that One that she would raise,
was Himself the eternal Son of God, her Savior, her Redeemer. She realized, and she was brought
to believe by the grace of the Spirit of God, that this One
who would come through her womb was indeed that One who would
save her from her sins. He's the Savior. Of Mary we read,
she was blessed among women. It doesn't say she was blessed
above women. And she's not a mediator. She
needs a mediator. And you listen, there is no mediator
between God and men, but the man, Christ Jesus. He's the only
one there is. Our Savior said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me." You don't come to God the Father for anything except
through the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is not Mary. Others say
this is national Israel of the Old Testament. Well, the problem
with that is we know that all of national Israel of the Old
Testament, all of them weren't believers. In fact, there was
just a remnant according to the election of grace. Those are
the ones who believe the Lord. As we read in Romans chapter
9, not all Israel are Israel. And it is obvious that all of
national Israel was not true Israel when our Lord Jesus was
on this earth, because all of the organized religion of Israel
turned thumbs down on Him. They were opposed to him. They
said, we will not have this man rule over us. So when Pilate
cried out, whom shall I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus of
Nazareth? They cried out, release Barabbas.
Well, what shall I do with Jesus who is called the Christ? I say
crucify Him. We all say crucify Him is what
they said. So this woman doesn't represent
either Mary or national Israel of the Old Testament. Well then,
who do you think she represents? Who do you think she's symbolic
of? She's symbolic of the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. For
both the church of the Old Testament and the church of the New Testament,
the redeemed of the Old Testament and the redeemed of the New Testament,
the chosen of the Old Testament and the chosen of the New Testament,
the called of the Old Testament and the called of the New Testament,
those made righteous in the Old Testament and those made righteous
in the New Testament are one in Christ Jesus, one redeemed
group. It was the church in the Old
Testament, the remnant according to the election of grace that,
listen, looked for Christ, longed for Christ, lived in expectation
of the coming of Christ. This was the message of all the
prophets. He is coming. He is coming. Go back to Isaiah chapter 66. Look at Isaiah chapter 66. You know, our Lord Jesus said
to the Jews of His day, literally, you do search the Scriptures,
for in them you think ye have eternal life. And then He said,
for these are they that testify of Me. You miss Me. With all of your Old Testament
readings, with all of your memorization, You've missed me in the Old Testament
Scriptures." All of the Old Testament announced that He was coming.
Every sacrifice pointed to the Lord Jesus. We know that though
rivers of blood flowed from Jewish altars in the Old Testament Scriptures,
none of those sacrifices which pictured Jesus Christ, none of
them could put away sin. The blood of bulls and goats
couldn't do that. But they all pointed to one whose blood would
do that. They all did. Only his death
answered the question of how can God be just and justify the
ungodly. And in the Old Testament, the
church looked for him and agonized for his coming as a woman in
birth pains. until He came." They waited for
the consolation of Israel. They waited and waited, so anxious
for His coming, longing for His coming. Look at Isaiah 66 verse
5. "'Hear the word of the Lord,
ye that tremble at His word. Your brethren that hated you,
that cast you out for My namesake, said, Let the Lord be glorified,
but He shall appear to your joy. And they shall be ashamed. A
voice of noise from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice
of the Lord that rendereth recompense to His enemies. Before she travailed,
she brought forth. Before her pain came, she was
delivered of a man-child." They were looking for a man-child.
The seed of the woman. That's who they looked to. They
were looking for Him. In fact, we know that when Cain
was born, Eve said, I've gotten a man, the Lord. She thought that man-child was
her firstborn son. No. No. No, that man-child that
the church of the Old Testament lived in expectation for His
coming, that man-child wouldn't be born for 4,000 years. And
for all those 4,000 years, the church was, as it were, in travail,
longing for His coming, anxious for His coming. Now, it's interesting
from Revelation chapter 12 to Isaiah chapter 66, the difference
in wording. In chapter 12 of Revelation,
we do have the church in travail. Right here it says, before she
travailed. What's the difference? Well,
I think it's this. That coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, make
no mistake about it, it's all of God and all of grace. And
man made no contribution to it. Man by nature doesn't seek the
Savior, nor long for the Savior, nor expect the Savior. He's a
gift of God's grace. He's a gift of God's love. This
One who redeemed us. Look at verse 8. Who hath heard
such a thing? Who hath seen such things? Shall
the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Or a nation, a whole
nation, be born at once? A whole elect nation? A whole
people out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue born at once? Oh yeah, in this man-child. in this man-child. For as soon
as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children." What's this
a reference to? Well, I would liken this to Galatians
chapter 4, where Paul talked about, he was in travail till
Christ be formed in you. You see, the church today, we're
in labor. We're in labor. We labor in the
Word. It's an enjoyable labor, but
it's labor. We send forth missionaries. We
put sermons out there on Sermon Audio. We labor. We set forth the Word. Why? To give birth to other believers.
That is, we look for them to be born again by the Spirit of
God, by the Spirit of His grace. The church is in travail today. and travail." So the woman in
our text over here, go back to Revelation chapter 12, the woman
in the text depicts the church of our Lord Jesus. And notice,
she's in heaven. She's in heaven, after all, she's
united to Jesus Christ. He's the head, she's the body.
Where the head is, that's where the body is. She's seated in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We're one with Him. When He died,
when He was buried, when He arose, when He ascended, when He took
His throne in glory, we're there with Him. We're there with Him.
John Caesar clothed with the Son. You know what the church
is? She is robed in the dazzling
garments of the righteousness of Jesus Christ Himself. Oh,
how glorious His church is! He sees no spot, nor wrinkle,
nor blemish, nor any such thing in His church. She is dazzling
as the sun, washed in His blood, robed in His righteousness. She
stands justified before God. Who can condemn her? Who can lay a charge against
her? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather, that's risen again.
And it says, the moon's under her feet. In Christ Jesus, she's
exalted above all things. And as the moon reflects the
light of the sun, so the church of the redeemed shines in the
glory of His light. He says, you're the light of
the world. We're His candlesticks. left in this spiritually darkened
world to set forth the light of the glory of God shining in
the face of Jesus Christ. We preach the gospel. That's
the light. It says, upon her head was a
crown of twelve stars. She stands victorious in Jesus
Christ. We are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us. But wait. Look a little closer
at this. Yes, she's a woman clothed with
the sun, the moon's under her feet, and upon her head a crown
of twelve stars. Who's her head? Christ is her
head. He wears the crowns. Crown Him
with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne. He wears the diadem. He wears the crown of glory.
It adorns His brow because of who He is and what He has done. And you know, He gives to His
church, He gives to us the crown of life, the crown of glory,
the crown of righteousness. which are given to us to the
praise of the glory of His grace, which we'll cast at His feet."
Well, then there's the man-child. Well, this is none other than
our Lord Jesus. Here's the incarnation of our
Savior. Note verse 5 again. She brought
forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of
iron. And her child was caught up unto
God and to His throne. Here is God in human flesh. This
is the promised seed of the woman. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt or tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth." Isaiah wrote of His coming. Isaiah said, "'For unto
us a child is born. Unto us a Son is given. and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace." We read in Galatians 4, "...in the fullness
of the time God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law." You see, it was
ordained that this man-child should rule the nations with
a rod of iron. Read Psalm 2 again. Psalm 2. The Lord promised him. He promised his Son, you'll rule
the nations with a rod of iron. Look over at Revelation chapter
19. And let me just show you here,
if you had any doubt at all, that this is the Lord Jesus Himself. This is our Savior. This is Christ
our Lord that's being spoken of in Revelation 12. Revelation
chapter 19 verse 11, And I saw heaven opened, John said, and
behold, a white horse. He that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His
eyes were as a flame of fire. On His head were many crowns,
just like we read there in Revelation 12. And He had a name written
that no man knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood. And His name is called the Word
of God. The armies which were in heaven
followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine leaning, as the
dazzling church, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations, and
He shall rule them with a rod of iron." And he treaded the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of
kings and Lord of lords. This is the Son of God to whom
the Father promised universal authority and sovereignty." Now,
he already had that right. He already had the right to rule
and reign because he's God. He's the second person of the
Trinity. But as the man-child, he earned
the right. There was a specific work given
to him to perform. And that work was to save his
people from their sins. His name is Jesus. That's what
his name means. He came into this world not to
try to do something or other, but to actually save his people
from their sins. And save them he did. We read,
"...he humbled himself and became obedient unto death." Thank God
for his perfect life, which showed his qualification to be the sacrifice. But it was his death. His death
that satisfied God. His death that answered every
demand of the law. His death that put our sins away. His death that brought in for
us that everlasting righteousness. It makes it right and just and
fair for God to save His people from their sins. It says here
in the end of verse 5, her child was caught up to God and to the
throne. Upon what basis did he ascend up to God and to His throne? Upon the basis of finishing the
work. He triumphed over the devil, over death, over our sins, went
back to glory. Here's his reward for his sufferings
and death. And you know how it is we overcome?
By His blood. Look down at verse 11. Speaking
of His people, the church, they overcame this evil one by the
blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, by the gospel.
And they loved not their lives unto death. We triumph over all
of our foes because God sees the blood. It's the blood that
makes atonement for the soul. No enemy can defeat His church
because of the blood. The blood has been shed. Our
Savior has defeated all of our enemies. And then there's the
red dragon. The red dragon is none other
than the enemy of our souls. Well, he has several names. Look at verse 7. There was war
in heaven. Michael. I believe that's another
name for our Savior. One who is God. And Gabriel,
the man of God, I believe both Michael and Gabriel are names
for our Savior. The name Michael is used as the one who is the conqueror,
the one who fights all of our battles for us. It's Michael
who has engaged himself to save his people and take on all of
our enemies. He is God. It's Gabriel who communicates
the message of God to us. After all, he's the Word. As
Gabriel, he brought the message to John's parents, to Mary. Called his name Jesus, he said
to Joseph. Michael and Gabriel are other
names for our Lord Jesus Christ. But we'll go on. Michael and
his angels fought against the dragon. The dragon fought in
his angels. Back up in verse 4, we saw that
the dragon brought down a third part of the stars of heaven.
And I suppose that's talking about one third of the angels
that fell when Satan fell. But here in verse 7, there's
a war and Michael instigates the war. He takes on our enemy. And then the enemy fought back,
look at verse 8, and prevailed not. Oh, I love that. Can't prevail against our King.
He can't prevail against our Conqueror. He can't prevail against
the Lord, our Righteousness. He can't prevail against Him.
Neither was there a place found anymore in heaven, and the great
dragon was cast out. Well, who is he? He has a name,
that old serpent. The accuser of the brethren,
called the devil and Satan. He is the accuser. Bless the
name of God, we have an advocate. Jesus Christ the righteous, let
this one accuse all he will. We have an advocate, an advocate. He is Satan and he was cast out
into the earth, his angels were cast out with him. And I heard
a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength
and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ. For
the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them
before our God day and night. Now it has happened." Well, here's
the question. When is the now? At the cross. At the cross. Our Lord Jesus
said, now is the prince of this world cast out. And I, if I be
lifted up, lifted up to die, lifted up to be the sacrifice,
lifted up on a cross bearing the sins of all my people, all
those sins imputed to me, if I be lifted up, I'll draw all
to me, all my people to me. He has prevailed. Now is salvation
come. Now it's come. It doesn't say
now it's a possibility. Now is salvation come. May I
say it this way? It's a done deal. He said, it
is finished. That's what He said. It's finished. Therefore, verse 12, Rejoice
ye heavens, and ye that dwell there rejoice, all you people
of God. The work is done. It's finished! God's satisfied! But, woe to
the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! Woe to the ungodly! For the devil is come down unto
you having great wrath, and he knoweth that he has but a short
time. Verse 13, the dragon saw that
he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman. Well, where
is the woman? Well, go back into the chapter,
verse 6. The woman, having given birth
to the man-child, and remember, this covers the entire gospel
age. The woman fled into the wilderness,
where she had the place prepared of God, that they should feed
her a thousand, two hundred and threescore days." This is the
three and a half years. That's the gospel age. Where
is the church today? This church that's been redeemed
by the blood of the Lamb. Well, go back in your minds to
the book of Exodus, when the Passover Lamb had died. The blood
had been shed and put where God said, when I see the blood, I'll
pass over you. That blood meant the liberation
of God's people. And they went forth into the
wilderness. That's where the church is today.
She's in the wilderness. But notice it says that they
should feed her there. I know the Lord's church is still
in the world. Now watch it. We're not of the
world. But we're in the world. But even
though we're in this wilderness of the world, the Lord still
feeds us and He nourishes us. With the manna from heaven and
water from a rock, we're in the wilderness. Now the dragon, he's
after the woman. He couldn't kill her man-child.
Oh, he tried to. As soon as our Lord Jesus was
born, Herod was waiting on Him. He said, I'll just kill all the
babies two years and under. I'll make sure I get him. Joseph and Mary fled into Egypt,
into their wilderness for a while, for safety. Our Lord watched
over His Son, and He watches over His sons too. And watch this in verse 14. And
to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle. that she might
fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the
serpent." Here she is protected by the Lord, and the Lord says,
I'll give her two wings of a great eagle. The Lord said to Israel,
I have borne you on eagles' wings. He protects us, He carries us. He nourishes us throughout our
pilgrim journey. Verse 15, the serpent cast out
of his mouth, oh, he's so angry and full of wrath. He spews out
of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might
cause her to be carried away of the flood with a flood of
heresy. He is flooding the world. It rained on us the whole way
up here today. We were under a black cloud the
whole time. And some sections of the road
were nearly flooded out. Listen, Satan has flooded the
earth with false religion, especially the false religion, the polluted
water, the deadly water, of free will works religion. He spews it out of his mouth,
but he can't destroy the church with it. He cannot. In verse
16, the earth helped the woman. The earth opened her mouth and
swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
There are a lot of people who do swallow it. You remember,
Years ago, I don't remember exactly when it was, down in Jonestown,
Guyana, South America, Jim Jones had his cult down there, People's
Temple or whatever it was, and he convinced them all to drink
the Kool-Aid. And they died. Satan is convincing
millions and millions of people to drink his Kool-Aid. That salvation
is ultimately decided by you. And he has his liars out there
who say, you know, God's done all He can do, now the rest is
up to you. You need to make your decision
for Jesus. Don't drink the water. It's polluted. I'm telling you the truth. His
sole aim is to wash you away in the flood. You see, Satan
is the great imitator. The gospel is the water of life. The Savior stood on the last
day of the great feast and said, if any man thirst, come to me
and drink. I'm the water of life. Satan's
always got a counterfeit. Always does. Don't drink his
water. Drink in the water of the gospel.
Free grace. Salvation by the doing and the
dying of our blessed Redeemer. Salvation conditioned upon His
obedience unto death alone." That's good water. You can drink
that from now on. Well, verse 17, the dragon was
wrought with the woman, and he always will be. And he went to
make war with the remnant of her seed. He's still making war
today. But who are her seed? those that
keep the commandments of God, who love the Word of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus Christ. What is the testimony of Jesus
Christ? Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That's our message to you today. The Lord Jesus and Him crucified. This is the victorious man-child. Oh God, help us to trust Him,
to believe Him. No other Savior. nor the water,
but this water of life. Drink freely. Therefore, with
joy, shall we draw water from the well of salvation. Amen.