Revelation chapter 12, the title
of the lesson is Satan Cast Out. Jonathan called me Friday afternoon.
He said, I think I know what you're doing, but what are you
doing? I said, well, I'm wrestling with the great red dragon. And he said, oh, you want some
help? I said, well, I believe I found
some. I believe I found some. So that's what we'll look at
this morning. Satan cast out. Now this chapter
12 begins a new vision that John has in the book of Revelation.
It's a vision of the same thing that he's given us in the previous
three visions. This is a vision of complete
victory of Christ and his church over Satan and over every enemy. The vision begins here in chapter
12 with the birth of Christ. And it ends with Christ enthroned
in glory, all enemies put under his feet. In our text this morning,
we see three characters that are prominent throughout this
whole vision. First of all, we see the church.
Second, we see the Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, we'll see
Satan. First, in verse one, we see the
church. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed
with the sun and the moon under her feet and upon her head a
crown of 12 stars. And the Lord reveals to John
here A great wonder. He said, this is a great wonder.
And what his is revealed to John here is that God has a bride. There's a people that he is united
to. The woman that John sees represents
the church. He says she's clothed with the
sun. She's clothed with the glory, the glorious radiance of the
sun. She's clothed with the son of righteousness, the S O N of
righteousness. John's really not here telling
us about her clothes and her outward appearance. He's telling
us about the character of Christ's bride. She has put on Christ,
so she is all glorious. She appears in the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. She's united with Christ, so
she's one with him. She's been made just like him.
And not only is she clothed outwardly in the glorious righteousness
of Christ, But she's been made righteous in Christ through and
through. She appears in the glory of Christ.
And he says under her feet is the moon. She has all authority. She has authority over the world.
She's overcome the world because Christ, her savior, Christ, her
husband has overcome the world. She's united to him. And upon
her head is a crown that has 12 stars in it. She's wearing
the crown of victory because Christ has won the victory for
Now, we looked at these crowns before. Let me just repeat this.
John's not teaching us in scripture. Nowhere teaches us that in glory,
all God's people will be wearing crowns upon their heads. John
does see a crown upon the head of the bride. But who's our head? Christ is our head. Christ is
the one who's wearing the crown. He gets all the glory. This is
a crown of victory. Well, he gets all the glory for
the victory because he won it. But the bride gets to fully enjoy
that victory and fully enjoy the glory of that victory because
she's united to Christ. That's what John sees. I want
to be sure to make this personal to every believer here. This
is not a description of what the believer will be someday.
This is a description of what the believer is now here on this
earth. No believer can be overcome by
the world. Every believer is already made
perfectly righteous in Christ. If you believe Christ, you'll
never be more righteous than you are sitting right here. Every
believer is more than conquerors through him that loved us. So
the world can't overcome us. And this is not something that
we're waiting for. You know, someday in the future we'll have
all this. What John is describing is what we have in the Lord Jesus
Christ at this very moment, what we have in Christ, our husband
and Christ, our head. This is the church upon earth. Now, second, we see the Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse two. Is she being with
child cried, travailing in birth and pain to be delivered. Now,
John here is giving us a picture showing us the incarnation of
the son of God. The Son of God became a real
human being. He was born as the seed of woman. He's the promised Savior that
God promised Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter three, right
after the fall. The seed of woman is coming to
destroy the serpent's head. Now, John describes the church
as being in labor. He's not meaning that the church
somehow gives Christ life. He's not born from us. We're
born from him. He gives us life. The church
does travail and giving birth to God's children through the
preaching of the gospel. But Christ is the one who gives
his people life. It's through his seed, through
his power. But in order to save his people from their sin, the
Lord Jesus Christ had to become one of them. He had to become
one of his people. He had to become a real man and
be born from a real woman who's a member of this church. He was
born a real man. to save a real people, to save
a real people that the Father gave him. It's the people that
he identified with in his birth, in his life, in his ministry.
Our Savior always identified himself with sinners and nobodies. Does that describe you? A sinner
and a nobody? Worth nothing? That's who Christ
came to save. He was born of a sinful woman
whose family tree was all but dead. It just didn't appear to
be a dead stump in the earth. He came to save sinners. There's
three women. He was born of a woman. And there's
three women listed in his genealogy. Tamar, who played the harlot
with her father-in-law. Rahab, who was a harlot. And
Ruth, who was an idolater. That's who Christ identified
with in his birth because that's who he came to save. Real sinners. And he did indeed save them from
their sin. We'll see that complete and utter
victory of the Savior in just a minute. But here what we're
seeing is the wonderful good news for sinners. The door of
salvation is open. Christ came incarnate. He came
as a man to save real sinful men and women. But then the Lord
shows John another wonder. This is a wonder, something that
you think, I can't understand this. There are those who stand
opposed to this glorious savior of sinners. The third character
we see in our text, verse three, is Satan. And there appeared
another wonder in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon,
having seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns upon his heads. And this great red dragon, you
know, represents Satan. This phrase, great red dragon,
means a fabulous red serpent. This is the serpent that beguiled
Eve. And he has seven heads, seven points of power. And that's
a picture of Satan having authority in the governments of this world.
Now, don't try to go pick out seven governments in the world
today or throughout history where Satan has power, like he only
has power in those seven. He doesn't have power in the
rest of the governments of the world. No, he has power. in all governments
of this world. He has influence in all the governments
of this world. And that power is very real.
The horns represent power. He's got 10 of them. He has very
real power. And there are seven crowns upon
his head. Now, these are not a crown of
victory like is on the head of our Savior. These are crowns
of usurped authority. They're crowns of authority that
the Lord allows Satan to wear for a little while. Now, it's
this power that Satan has. It's power on loan from God.
He's allowed him to have it. And it's real. It's real power
and real authority. But don't ever forget this. Satan
is 100% under the dominion and control of Christ our Savior.
Satan knew that. I mean, this is not something
that Satan questions. He knew why he couldn't touch
Job. The Lord put a hedge around him. He couldn't touch him. And
when Satan could touch Job, he could only go as far as the Lord
allowed him to go. All his power and influence is
under the direct control of our God. But with that power throughout
human history, Satan has, and he will continue to cause great
damage. Look at verse four. And his tail
drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to
the earth." I'll tell you what this is describing. It's when
Satan was cast out of heaven. He tried to take the throne of
God. He was cast out of heaven. I'll show you that in Job chapter
38. The stars that John speaks here of being cast out of heaven
with Satan are the other fallen angels. We get a pretty good
idea, a clue to that in Job chapter 38. Verse 7. When the morning star sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy, what the Lord is asking
Job is where were you when that happened? Job, you were nowhere. This is before the creation of
the world. The morning star singing together, the sons of God shouting
for joy. That's talking about the angels.
When only God and those angels, the created beings existed, They
worship God, serve God before the creation of the world. And
Satan wanted to take the throne and his destructive power and
trying to take the throne of God is so great that one third
of that heavenly host, one third of the angels fell with Satan
and his rebellion. That's what John talking about
his, his tail sweeping and causing him to fall from the sky. A third
of them fell. You know, we're going to look
this morning, Lord willing, in the message in election. Why didn't,
why didn't all the angels fall? Why did just a third of them
fall? Scripture tells us God has some elect angels. Those
that he would, he predetermined he would not allow them to fall.
But these third, a third, one third fell. One third of these
angels. I just, you just, that's hard
to imagine. Angels who from the time they
were created spent their time. worshiping and serving almighty
God. They saw him. They flew around
his throne and then they fell. See, this rebellion against God
was destructive, wasn't it? But it didn't get very far. The
throne of Christ, the rule of Christ was never threatened in
this rebellion. But that still hasn't stopped Satan in his agenda
to destroy Christ, even after he's cast out of heaven. He's
got this agenda to destroy the Lord Jesus Christ. It hasn't
stopped him. One defeat didn't stop him. Look at the rest of
verse four. And the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready
to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born. See, Satan has always tried to
find a way to stop God's purpose. If he couldn't take the throne
by force, now he's going to try to take it by destroying the
Lord Jesus Christ, by destroying God's purpose of redemption for
his people. That's why he tempted Eve. That's
why the serpent came and tempted Eve. And he thought when he got
Eve to eat that fruit, and Adam, he saw Adam eat that fruit, he
thought he'd won the victory. He thought he'd taken away, he'd
destroyed this man that God had created. Then Satan watched in
amazement as they were not destroyed, but mercy was promised to them
through the seed of woman. Then 4,000 years later, he watched
in amazement again. as the Son of God was born as
the Son of Man in Bethlehem's manger. And Satan thought, uh-huh,
now I see what God's doing. He sent this Redeemer. Now I
understand what this seed of woman is. He's been born a baby. Well, what's easier than killing
a baby? This baby's defenseless. He's helpless. What's easier
than killing a baby? All I've got to do to win this war? All
I've got to do to destroy God's purpose in saving His people
is kill this baby? He thought this would be an easy
battle to win. God's really messed up now, he thought. And Satan
moved in the heart of Herod to kill the king of the Jews. That's what Herod's whole purpose
was. But when the wise men didn't come back and tell him where
the child was, then Satan moved Herod to order the death of every
boy baby two years and younger. What a horrible day. Those Roman
soldiers came to kill every boy baby, two years old and younger. But he failed to destroy the
child Jesus. He was already long gone, hidden away safe in Egypt. Satan did not destroy. God's
purpose did. But you think of the destruction
and misery he caused upon this earth. How many thousands of
babies died? under the satanic power and influence. It's real destructive power,
isn't it? Then it was Satan who moved in
the heart of Judas to betray the Lord. Not only did that not
work to destroy Christ, it actually put in motion the crucifixion
of Christ where Satan was ultimately destroyed, where his power was
crushed, his head was crushed. Yes, he bruised the heel of our
Savior. He caused him to suffer and die. But in that death, through His
death to put away the sacrifice, to put away the sin of His people,
Christ got the complete victory in the salvation of His people.
And that's what verse 5 is talking about. And 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. Now this
man-child who was born of Mary was born king, wasn't he? That's who they came looking
for Where is he that's born? King of the Jews. He's king.
He rules over all nations. Now Satan has influence in the
governments of this world, but Christ rules over all of the
governments of this world. Satan has some influence that
the Lord allows him to have for a time, but Christ is the one
who rules everywhere for all time. His rule is never ending. Satan was waiting to devour this
child born of Mary, but he was caught up back to God. He was
caught away from Satan, caught back to God in his ascension
to glory after his resurrection. And there he sits on the throne
of glory with a rod of iron. And everyone who refuses to bow
to him and believe him is going to be crushed by this rod of
iron. The rule of Christ is absolute. It's unquestioned. It's unassailable.
And Satan can't touch Christ anymore. He's caught away from
Him. Caught back to glory and he's not allowed to be where
Christ sits enthroned. He's not allowed to be there.
He can't touch Christ now. He's being caught away from Him.
Well, Satan still won't quit. He still hasn't quit. Since he
can't get his hands on Christ now, now he turns his full attention
to his church, to his people. But what he's going to find out
is he can't touch any of them either. Just like the child Jesus
was already safe in Egypt when Herod's men came, God already
has his people put in a safe place in this world. That's what
he tells us here in verse six. And 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 the
church has fled. into the wilderness. And you
know that wilderness is represents as a picture of this world. That
is an awful good description of this world. A wilderness,
a dry, barren place where there's no life. There's no water. There's
no love for Christ. There's no interest in Christ.
And the church is out there in the middle of this wilderness. I kind of picture her there being
in an oasis in the middle of this great wilderness. Now listen,
she's not there on accident. She's not just gone out into
the wilderness willy nilly. She's in a place prepared by
God. Why don't you get to that place
prepared by God? God brought her there. God put
her there so she could be fed, so she could be nourished. Sheep
don't go out into the wilderness all by themselves. No, they go
with the shepherd. If they go into the wilderness
without the shepherd, they're not going to last two seconds. But
she's in a place where the shepherd has brought her. She's in a place
that God has prepared for her. And this place that's been prepared
is a place to feed God's people, to feed His bride, to feed His
sheep. And she's going to be there for a set number of days.
John says 1,203 score days. Now, I have no question. There
is utterly no question in my mind that that 1,203 score days
tells us the exact number of days from Christ's birth to His
return, or from His death to His return, but we're never going
to figure out what it means. This is all we need to know to
give comfort and assurance to our hearts. Our Lord has this
prepared place, and it's going to be there for a set number
of days. Nobody can shorten it. Those
set number of days are the days until Christ returns. This place
that God has prepared is the church. They're always going
to be feeding the sheep there. They're always going to be calling
God's sheep to repentance and to faith in Christ until Christ
returns. There's not going to be a day
on this earth when preaching is over before Christ returns. He's always has this place prepared
until he returns. Now, let me say this. I think
everybody can see that's what he's talking about. That's so.
Now again, let's make this personal. This, what we have here is a
place that the Lord himself has prepared. He's prepared it for
the good of his people. He's prepared it for the safety
of his people. He's prepared it for the edification of his
people. The Lord has prepared a place here where the gospel
is preached. I was in Pikeville Thursday evening
Though Tom introduced me before I preached, he said, Frank's
the pastor, Hurricane Road Grace Church in Catlettsburg, Kentucky.
Where's Catlettsburg? It's a place just this little
dot on the map. God has prepared a place for
his people. This is the place where God protects
the hearts and the souls of his people through the preaching
of his word. What a special, special place
God's given us. Don't make any mistake about
this. Now, this is a wonderful place of safety, a place where
the sheep are fed. Don't make a mistake about this.
Let's not just get so awful comfortable that we forget this. Brethren,
there's a war going on. There's a war going on right
now. That's why we need this place
of safety. That's why we need to be Watchful
to protect this place. Because we don't war with flesh
and blood. Now we're in a war. Don't worry too much about flesh
and blood. The people who would destroy this ministry and destroy
the preaching of Christ from the face of this earth if they
could. We're not warring with flesh and blood. Not really.
Really, the church is at war with spiritual wickedness in
high places. And while we preach the gospel,
when we meet together, there's a war going on. Verse 7. And
there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon and the dragon fought and his angels. This appears
to be Michael, the archangel. He's fighting with Satan and
along with the other angels. And this may very well be Michael,
the archangel who's fighting under the direction of our Lord.
You know, we don't know the names of very many angels. Michael
is one of them. And it might be the archangel
Michael contending warring with Satan. If you look back at Jude
verse 9, this wouldn't be the first time that the Lord sent
Michael to do this. Jude verse 9. Yet Michael, the
archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about
the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation,
but said the Lord repudiate thee, the Lord repudiate thee. So this
could be Michael, the archangel. Many people, John Gill, many
people that I put a lot of stock in, they think that John is still
using figurative language here. So much of, if not all of Revelation
seems to be figurative language. And they think that Michael is
referring here in picture to our Lord Jesus Christ. The name
Michael means one like God. So this very well could be referring
to Christ, who's like God because he is God, warring against Satan. But either way, whether this
is Christ himself or whether it's his angels doing his bidding,
either way, it's the work of Christ to destroy this arch enemy,
to defeat Satan. And he'll do it, too. Now, remember,
since Satan can't get his hands upon our Savior, he's turned
his warfare to the church, to the people, to the church. Right
now, Right this very minute, as we meet preaching the gospel,
I'm telling you, there is a war going on for the souls of God's
elect. John here is not describing a
final battle that's going to happen one day that will ultimately
destroy the whole earth. He's describing a battle that's
going on right now. That's going on every day for
the souls of God's elect. Look, I'm going to show you that
Mark chapter four. Satan is doing everything he can do to stop
God's elect from hearing the gospel and believing it. That's
the warfare. Mark 4, verse 14. This is after
our Lord gave the parable of the sower. Now he's given the
meaning. This is what this parable means. Verse 14, Mark 4. The sower soweth
the word. And these are they by the wayside
where the word is sown. But when they've heard Satan
cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in
their hearts. And these are they likewise,
which are sown on stony ground, who, when they've heard the word,
immediately receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves.
And so endure, but for a time afterward, when affliction or
persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they're offended. And these are they which are
sown among thorns, such as hear the word and the cares of this
world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other
things entering in, choke the word and it become unfruitful. Now we know this, Satan cometh
and immediately taketh away the word that was sown in our hearts. I think we're on safe ground
to say that it's Satan who causes persecution and affliction to
rise. He causes the cares of this world, the deceitfulness
of riches he offers. You know, we think a trial is
when the Lord, you know, takes away things and makes us, you
know, impoverished and the. You know, a very real trial could
be the deceitfulness of riches, Satan offering all the riches
of this world. Chokes out the word that was
heard. Satan has real destructive power to take the seed away. Think of that. You know, I am
fanatical about our worship service. I make no apologies for that.
And I would caution all of us to remember this about the worship
service. Don't be a distraction to it.
Just don't be a distraction to it. During the service, don't
be a distraction to it after the service. Make it all about
you so that Satan's coming, taking that seed away. Is this too strong? Be a distraction
in the worship service to Satan. It's not too strong, is it? Not
too strong. Satan has real destructive power. Rather than there's a war going
on in the preaching of the gospel. Here's our comfort, here's our
assurance, here's our confidence in utter victory. Christ is not
going to lose one of his own. Try as Satan might, Christ will
not lose one of his own. Verse 20 of Mark 4. And these
are they which are sown on good ground, as hear the word and
receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty,
and some a hundred. Christ has a people, and he's
going to have them all. See, there's a real battle going
on. Christ, our Savior, Christ, our King, will be the victor
in this battle. Back in our text, Revelation
12, verse 8. The dragon fought in his angels
and prevailed not. Neither was their place found
anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out. That old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which deceived the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. See,
Satan cannot prevail against Christ. He can't take his throne.
He can't touch his people. He cannot derail God's purpose
of redemption in Christ. Try as he might, Satan cannot
stop Christ from having all of the preeminence and all of the
glory and have any of it for himself. He can't do it. Christ
is going to win this battle. He's already cast him out of
heaven. And one day he's going to cast him into hell. And the
way Satan tries to take away the glory of Christ is his glory
and redemption. He tries to take away just one
person that believes upon Christ because he knows if he can do
that, he's taking away all of Christ's glory. Verse 10, I heard
a loud voice saying in heaven, now has 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. Satan hadn't given up. He still
comes and accuses the brethren. He's the accuser of the brethren.
And I tell you why he accuses the brethren. Because if he can
make one accusation of sin stick against just one of God's left,
he's taken away the glory of Christ and redemption. because
he's lost one for whom he died. If Christ loses just one, just
one out of that number, no man can number. If he loses just
one, he lost all of his glory. But this is what we know for
sure. Satan's the accuser, the brethren, but he's going to fail
in that endeavor. He can't, he cannot cause an
accusation to stick. Because Christ came as a man.
This is where we started in the lesson. Christ came as a man,
born of a virgin, so that he could be the representative of
and the sacrifice for his people. And yes, his people were guilty.
They were vile sinners, wretches. But Christ took all of their
sin. He took all the guilt of their sin. He took all the pollution
of their sin, all the filth of their sin, into his own body
on the tree. and put all of that sin, all
of that filth, all of that guilty, put it away by the blood of his
sacrifice. So it's gone. So let Satan accuse
all he wants. Let's let him accuse all he wants.
Do you know what God's going to say? God's going to say, let's
see. I don't see any sin. It's gone under the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ. One more scripture. Let's look
at Romans chapter eight. We just looked at this a few
weeks ago in our study through the book of Romans. This calms every fear in the
heart of a believer concerning the accuser of their brethren.
Verse 33, Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? Who can condemn? It's Christ
that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the
right hand of God. He's been caught away from Satan,
just like John shows there in Revelation 12. He's even at the
right hand of God. What's he doing there? Who also
maketh intercession for us. So none of those accusations
can stick. Christ is going to win the battle. He's going to
win and have all the glory, having all of his people safe and secure
with him. because of who he is and his
work for his people. All right. I hope the Lord will
bless that too.