It is certainly my delight always
to come to Danville. I appreciate your hospitality
and our fellowship together in the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I pray that our Lord will
bless us this evening as we look at Revelation chapter 12. The
title of the message is, And They Overcame. I took the title
from the first verses of verse 11, but Let's work our way to
that in just a minute. And they overcame. What is it
that they'll overcome? Why is there a need for God's
people to overcome? You don't need me to tell you
this. No child of God needs me to tell you that this world is
a difficult place to live for a child of God. It's like a soldier
trying to live behind enemy lines. in a hostile environment. A believer's
not like this world, and this world's not like the believer.
This world hates our God, hates our Savior, and hates our Gospel.
And the feeling's mutual. We hate their false God, their
false Savior, and their false Gospel. Fallen man hates God
in every way, and he would rid the world of the Gospel, of God's
free and sovereign grace in Christ Jesus, if he could. Maine would
do that if he could. And Satan is the ally of fallen
Maine. It's always been Satan's goal
to take Christ off the throne. That's always been his goal.
He tried to, by force, to take Christ off the throne one time,
but it didn't work. John tells us about that in picture
here, verse seven of Revelation chapter 12. And there was war
in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon, and the dragon fought in his angels, and he
prevailed not. Neither was their place found
anymore in heaven. Satan tried to take the throne
by force once, but that didn't work. Then later on, Satan tried
to take the throne away from our Lord Jesus by trying to kill
him as he was here on this earth. It was Satan who moved in the
hearts of men, in the hearts of Judas, in the hearts of those
priests. to crucify the Lord Jesus Christ. And when that happened, I'm just
confident he thought I've won the war. He got his way. And
what really happened was he lost the whole thing. Right there
at Calvary, the Lord Jesus crushed Satan's head and put him out
of business. Verse five, we read that. And
she brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with
the rod of iron. That's our Lord Jesus Christ.
He was born king, born to rule all nations with the rod of iron.
And her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. Now this speaks of the incarnation
of Christ. And when his work as a man was
done, when the work of redemption was complete, he was caught up
back to the Father. And Satan is cast out of heaven.
Christ is enthroned in glory, Satan can't touch him anymore.
He's not allowed to go back into heaven where Christ sits enthroned.
Satan is cast out of heaven, but he still exists. He's been
cast to this earth, verse nine. And the great dragon was cast
out. That old serpent called the devil
and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And 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 is cast out of heaven.
He can't get his hands on Christ anymore, but he's cast into this
earth, where God's church is, and he has turned his full attention
to the church, to those who believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ, verse
13. And when the dragon saw that
he was cast under the earth, he persecuted the woman, and
the woman represents the church, which brought forth the man-child.
His full attention was turned upon the church. If Satan can't
take the throne by force, if he can't take Christ off the
throne by force, he's gonna try to do it by turning just one,
of God's elect away from Christ and causing them to perish. If
Satan can accomplish that goal, if he can accomplish the goal,
just one person for whom Christ died to get them to turn from
Christ, to get them to fall away from Christ, he's going to win
the whole war. He's going to get exactly what
he wants. He's going to take Christ from the throne. He's
going to take all of the glory away from Christ the Savior.
So his war against the church will be fierce, fierce. Verse
12. Therefore, rejoice ye heavens
and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the
earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you,
having great wrath because he knoweth that he hath but a short
time. The heaven rejoices because Satan
is cast out from heaven, but woe to the inhabitants of the
earth. Satan is here in a fierce battle against God's church.
And he knows he just has a very short time left. He doesn't know
how long, but he knows it's a very short time. He's got a very short
time to try to derail God's purpose of redemption in Christ Jesus.
So he's gonna fight with a great, great fury. I thought of the
illustration of the Japanese in World War II. You know, they
expanded their empire, kept expanding it, And then it started shrinking,
started shrinking, started shrinking. The closer that thing got back
to the main island of Japan, the fiercer they fought because
it's getting closer and closer and closer to home. The end is
near. That's why Satan is so fierce
in this. He just got a short time. Now, I don't really, I
hate to spend very much time talking about Satan. Satan is
a real being. who is determined to destroy
the church. But my very strong advice is
don't go looking for Satan. We don't need to go looking for
him or looking for evil and demons and all these things. No son
of Adam is gonna stand a chance there. Don't go looking for Satan. Why would you? Why would you
go looking for things that are evil? Give yourself. to looking for Christ. Give yourself
to seeking Christ. If you find Christ, you'll find
salvation. You'll find mercy. You'll find
grace. You'll find forgiveness. You'll find peace from God. Give
yourself to seeking Christ, knowing that Satan is a real being, but
there's no reason for the church to fear him, none whatsoever.
Before we're told about Satan's war, before the beginning of
it, from the very beginning, we're told he's gonna fail. Verse
11, this is where I wanted to get to, verse 11. And they overcame
him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony.
And they loved not their lives unto death. Now before Satan
even begins his attack upon God's church, we're told He's gonna
fail. The church on earth shall overcome. Not one of them will ever lose
their salvation. That's our word of comfort. And
I wanna give us tonight four ways that the church will overcome. Number one, the church will overcome
by the blood of the lamb. The blood of Christ Brother Henry
said, you cannot make too much of the blood of Christ. It's
the blood, it's the blood, it's the blood, it's the blood. Our
gospel is a bloody gospel, isn't it? With good reason. There's forgiveness of sin. We
have a glorious message to preach. There's forgiveness of sins to
be found. And it's found only in the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood,
it's no remission. There's no remission. But just
like Rex just read to us, it's not animal blood. It's not just
any blood we're talking about, is it? No, without the shedding
of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no remission. There is a blood sacrifice that
atones for sin. But it's not all those animal
sacrifices. God said he had no pleasure in
them. But there is a blood sacrifice that atones for sin. There is
a blood sacrifice that the Father is pleased with. It's the bloody
sacrifice, the slaughter of the Lord Jesus Christ as a sacrifice
for his people. The only way any of us can ever
escape God's wrath against our sin is to be under the blood
of Christ. God gave us that in picture in
the Passover. You just studied it in your Bible
lessons. What did God say? Not when I
see your sincerity. Not when I see your sound doctrine.
Not when I see your faithfulness. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. If there's no blood on the firstborn,
on the door, the firstborn's gonna die, isn't he? There's
got to be death for sin. But if there's blood on the door,
the firstborn's gonna live. Because in that house, there
already has been death for sin. So either way, there's gonna
be death for sin. Either the death of the sinner or the death
of the substitute. But one way or another, there's
gonna be death for sin. And if the firstborn lives, I'll
tell you why he lives. It's because the substitute died
in his place. The substitute shed his blood
to give him life. Now we read that Satan is called
the accuser of the brethren. And there is no point in us pretending
his accusations are false. They're not made up. Every one
of them's true. But the church overcomes. by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church will overcome because
there is eternal life in the blood of Christ. Our Lord said
in John 6 verse 54, whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood,
hath eternal life. Now he's not, you know, he's
not talking about being a cannibal and what he's talking about is
union with Christ. Wherever you eat and drink, you
have union with it in your body. If we have union with Christ,
we have life because Christ is our life. If Christ is our life,
if we have union with Christ, nothing Satan can do can ever
take it away because Christ is our life. Then the church will
overcome because Christ has purchased the church with his blood. In his parting words, the Ephesian
elders, the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 20 told those elders,
Now you feed this church, you take care of it, you feed it,
you take the oversight thereof. This is the church that Christ
has purchased with his own blood. Now no accusation of Satan is
ever gonna make the Lord cast out those people. He's bought
them. He bought them lot, stock, and
barrel with his own blood. He gave his life to buy them. Nothing Satan can say can ever
make him cast them out. Nothing Satan is gonna say could
ever make the Lord stop loving his people. Then the church will
overcome because there's justification in the blood, in the blood of
Christ. Paul said in Romans 5 verse 9,
we are now justified by his blood. I told you this this morning,
justified means made without sin. Well, if we have no sin,
then no accusation of Satan can ever stick, can it? He makes
accusations, comes to the Lord, makes accusations against his
people. You know what God says? What sin? I don't see any sin. It's been blotted out under the
blood of Christ. There's justification in the
blood of Christ. So no accusation of Satan will
ever stick. And here's something, you get
this for free. No accusation of your conscience
will stick either. Look to the blood, look to the
blood, look to the blood. There's justification in the
blood of Christ. Then the church will overcome,
because Christ has redeemed his people by his blood. Ephesians
1 verse 7, in whom we have redemption. in whom, in Christ, we have redemption
through His blood. Even the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of His grace. Peter told us, you're
redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. This is no small price. The redemption price has been
paid with the precious blood of Christ. So no accusation of
Satan will ever stick. redemption price has been paid
by the blood of the Son of God. Then the church will overcome
because in reality, we've already been brought into heavenly places
in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2 verse 3, but now
in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes were far off are made nigh. by the blood of Christ. We've
been brought into the presence of Almighty God by the blood
of Christ. So nothing Satan can say can
ever cause the Lord to cast his people out of his presence. He's
already bought them. He's made them fit to be in his
presence by washing them in the blood of Christ. Then the church
will overcome because there's peace with God through the blood
of Christ. Colossians 1 verse 20, Paul told
us that Christ has already made peace through the blood of his
cross. Now, nothing Satan can say can
ever disturb that peace. Nothing Satan can say can ever
make war to break out again. Adam did that once, one time. Christ came and he undid for
his people everything Adam did to him. War can't break out again
because Christ has made peace with his people, for his people
through the blood of his cross. So if you believe Christ, you
can have total confidence in the outcome of Satan's war against
the church. Now we don't have any confidence
in ourselves, do we? None whatsoever. Our confidence
is in Christ and the blood that he shed. Hebrews 10 verse 19,
having therefore brethren boldness, confidence to enter into the
holiest by the blood of Jesus, complete and utter confidence.
The church will overcome by the blood of the lamb. Number two,
Church will overcome by our gospel. That's what John means here when
he says, and by the word of their testimony. The only thing we
have to say against the accusations of Satan is our gospel. That's the only thing we have
to say. My testimony is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. despise those places where they
get people to get up in front of the congregation and tell
their testimony. I've heard a few of them, and
every single time they degenerate into, look at me. But let me
give you the believer's testimony. This is my testimony, this will
be the testimony of every believer here. I was lost in Adam. When Adam sinned, I sinned. When Adam sinned, he lost life,
he lost righteousness, and he lost holiness, and so did I.
And more than that, I lost any desire for righteousness, holiness. I lost any desire for fellowship
with God. And if God had left me to myself,
I'd have gone straight to hell as fast as I could. I'd have
gone as far away from God as I possibly could have, left to
my own devices, because that's the nature that I received in
Adam. But Almighty God intervened. He crossed my will with His will.
He imposed His will upon me because God chose to save me. And God
sent His Son to do for me what I could never do. He sent His
Son to keep the law for me. He gave me His perfect obedience. He kept the law as my representative.
And then Christ the Savior, the Son of God in human flesh, went
to the tree and he took my sin in his body on the tree. When
the father made his son sin, he made him my sin. And by his sacrifice, by his
blood, he put my sin away forever and made me righteous, justified
me. And the father gave undeniable
evidence that that's so. that Christ justified his people
in his death. The father made him sin, we read
that in scripture. Then why did the father raise
him from the dead? Because that sin charged to him is gone under
the blood of his sacrifice. And the father raised him from
the dead, that's the evidence. The sacrifice of Christ justified
his people. And my sin is gone because Christ
put it away. And then God the Holy Spirit
came. and revealed himself to me. He gave me life. He gave
me faith. And I repent of my sin. And repenting
is more than just being sorry. Repenting is turning. It's turning
away from all those things that I did to try to make up for my
sin. It's turning away from trusting
and knowing the right doctrine and having all the ribbons for
having the most memory verses and winning the most sword drills.
It's turning from all those things and putting all of my trust upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, He is all I need to be accepted of
the Father. That's the word of our testimony,
isn't it? In short, the word of our testimony is this, Christ
did it all. That's the word of our testimony.
You take whatever text you want from the word of God, this is
our testimony, Christ did it all. So when Satan makes any
accusation against the church, Whatever it may be, and it'll
be true, whatever the accusation is. We just turn to Christ. This
is the word of our testimony. He did it all. That's the word
of our testimony. Christ is my Savior. He paid
for that. He's the one who atoned for that.
Christ is my surety. He's my righteousness. He's my
sanctification. He's my keeper. Christ did it
all, and Christ is all. Is that your testimony? That's
the testimony of every child of God. The word of our testimony
is the whole word of God. Every page of it. I don't have
to understand it. I just believe it. I don't have
to understand how it can be so. I just believe every word of
it. And I know this is true. If we
just stick to the word of God, we never fail. A dear friend
of mine took a message, and he had it on audio, and he listened
to it, and he thought, that must be the greatest message I've
ever heard. And you know what he did? He
typed it out. He typed out everything, and
he used a different color or different font or something when
the word of God was being quoted or read. And you know what he
discovered? More than half of that message
was the word of God. And he said, oh, now I know why
it was a blessing. It's the word. This is the word
of our testimony. I tell you when we fail in preaching,
we fail when we think, okay, this is my point. Now I want
to take the word of God and prove my point. We're going to fail. But if we just testify to what
the word says, we just say what the word says, will never fail. We overcome by the word of our
testimony, the word of God and his gospel. Thirdly, the church
overcomes by the power of God's grace in us. John says, and they
love not their lives unto death. They would rather die than recant. They would rather die than deny
Christ I'm sure you're like me, if you haven't read it all, you've
read parts of Fox's Book of Martyrs. I have a dear friend, he started
reading that book, and he'd get so angry, throw the book across
the room. He'd just be so mad, and later
on, he'd go and read some more, and just get mad again, you know.
What this world did to those who refused to recant, who refused
to deny Christ, well, I tell you the only way a person would
do such a thing is the power of God's grace in them, in them. That new man who's born of God
cannot deny Christ. He cannot deny the gospel. He
cannot say he loves or believes a lie. Salvation is not only
a powerful work of God's grace for us, although it is, Salvation
is also a powerful work of God's grace in us, causing a new man
to be born in us. Brethren, there's no salvation
without it. There's no salvation without it. The church can only
overcome by the power of God's grace in us. If he caused a new
man to be born in us, it's that man that'll overcome. Someday soon, somewhere, I don't
know where, but somewhere, somebody's gonna hold a funeral service
for Frank Tate. You're gonna read it in the paper
or the internet or whatever. Frank Tate died. Lord came and
called him home. Such and such a day, there's
gonna be a funeral service. Some folks may come and look
at that shell laying there in that casket. Don't you weep. Frank Tate ain't there. That
new man, born of God, is finally overcome. God set him free from
his body of sin and took him home. It's that man that'll overcome. Fourthly, the church will overcome
because our God is sovereign in all things. Now we believe that, don't we?
We believe in the sovereignty of God. We believe, this is a
much better way to put it. We believe in the God who's sovereign,
don't we? We believe Him, we bow to Him,
we trust Him. We need to be reminded of it
often, many times a day, many times in our life. We need to
be reminded of it, but we do believe it, don't we? Do you
know nothing, nothing, can make God's will not happen. Nothing. Do you know why? Because God's
sovereign over all things. Whatever God's will is, that
is exactly what's going to happen. Go home, listen to the news tonight,
and they're going to tell you all the events that happened
today. Want me to tell you why they happened? That was God's
will. Everything that happens is God's will. Nothing will ever
happen that's against his will. And God uses whatever means he's
pleased to bring his purpose to pass. We may think it's evil,
we may think it's hurtful, we may not understand it, but all,
everything that happens are the means that God is using to bring
to pass his purpose to save his people from their sins. Now,
I know most of all of this world hates God, hates his gospel,
hates his son, hates his people, but do you know God's using them?
Even though they hate God, God's using them as his servant to
accomplish his will. God uses this earth, this world
that hates him, that hates his people to actually protect the
church. Verse four, or 14, excuse me,
verse 14. And to the woman, this woman
represents the church, were given two wings of a great eagle that
she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she's nourished
for a time and times and half a time from the face of the serpent. Now these two wings of a great
eagle that took the woman, took the church into this safe place,
what are those eagle wings? What does that represent? It's
the sovereign power of God to bring his people to him. And
I can make good on that, Exodus chapter 19. You know, so much of the book of
Revelation, you know this, is figurative language. I don't
wanna just say these wings are God's sovereign power to bring
his people to glory unless I can back it up. Doesn't just sound
good, I got scripture for it. Exodus 19, verse three. And Moses went up unto God, and
the Lord called unto him out of the mountains, saying, Thus
shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children
of Israel, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and
how I bear you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself."
Those eagle wings are the sovereign power of God that brings His
people to Him. We're gonna overcome, brethren.
because the Lord in His power is gonna carry His people to
safety, carry His people to Him. The Lord carries His people to
a safe place in the middle of the wilderness. Now, that can
only be a picture of one thing. It's God's church in the middle
of this dry, dead wilderness of a world. In this world where
there's just spiritual deadness everywhere, there's little oases. Spread all around where God's
church can come and find safety and refuge. And she's nourished
there. The church is nourished there. And this, what we're doing right
now, this, this meeting is preaching of the gospel. This is how God's
children are nourished and fed and kept healthy. It's by the
preaching of the gospel. The word nourished here, it means
to feed and to nourish like what we think it means. But it also
means cherished and pampered. God's people are well fed, aren't
they? And they're well taken care of by our master. You all have heard the story
of the preacher who was accused of throwing the feed at the chickens
making the chickens run and scatter, because he's throwing it at them.
It's like a missile coming at them. And then the farmer took
the preacher and he started just laying the feed on the ground
all around him. Those chickens just come and
gobbled it up. Same feed, same feed. It's just all the manner
of how it was delivered. God feeds his sheep well, in
a tender, compassionate way. We've got to preach the gospel.
boldly, clearly, without ever compromising. But let's preach
it in compassion for sinners. God feeds his sheep in a way
that's compassionate, tender, nourished, and cherished. And
the church is gonna overcome by our Lord's provision for us.
The whole time the earth exists, that's what this time and times
and half a time, that just represents the whole time from when Adam
fell until Christ returns. And I'm sure that someday we
might say, oh, well that means exactly this many years and days,
but we're not gonna figure it out now. And don't waste your
time trying to figure it out. Honestly, don't waste, that's
not what we need to know. We don't need to know when the
Lord's gonna return. We don't need to know when the
world's gonna end. We need to know Christ. And this
is enough for the believer. During all the time, however
long the Lord lets the earth continue, during all that time,
this is our comfort. This is our assurance. The church
is not going to be destroyed from this earth. This is the
way that God has chosen to reveal himself to his people and to
feed and comfort and care and edify his sheep. God's going
to protect it. That's why we'll overcome. Now
Satan's going to try to sweep it away. The world is going to
try to sweep it away. But our Lord is sovereign over
all things, and he'll use even the rest of the earth, even those
that hate his gospel and love a false gospel, he'll use them
to protect his people. Verse 15, and the serpent cast
out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might
cause her to be carried away of the flood, and the earth helped
the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the
flood, which the dragon cast out of his mouth. Now this flood
of water, you notice where it comes from. It comes straight
from the mouth of Satan. This is a message of lies. Now
that's all Satan can use. All he can use is lies. He's
the father of lies. The first thing we ever hear
of Satan saying is directly contradicting God. You shall not surely die. He's the father of lies. Now
Satan doesn't know who God's elect are anymore. We do. So
what he tries to do is carry away the whole world with false
religion. Satan doesn't have to worry about
the people living in open sin and rebellion like Henry said
in the honky tonks and brothels. You don't have to worry. He doesn't
have to worry about them. The people who may be God's elect
are those who are in religion and Satan tries to sweep them
away with this river of false religion. Now listen, it's a
religion that sounds good. It sounds good, but it's a lie.
Remember where it comes from. It comes from Satan's mouth.
It sounds a whole lot like water, but it's not the living water.
It sounds like something that you could be cleansed in, water
that you could be cleansed in, water that could refresh you
if you just, you know, live right and keep the law well enough.
It sounds, but it's not. It's a lie. It's not the water of
life. It's not Christ alone. That's why we're so adamant.
I mentioned this a minute ago. We've got to preach the gospel
boldly and without ever compromising. We can never compromise with
false religion. Don't ever think, well, you know,
they're, they're doing some good things and they got some things,
you know, maybe we could use, or maybe we ought to help out
in and helping people and doing all these things. No, No, it's
not good. It's satanic. It's something
to get people's attention off of Christ. And this false religion
has swept across the whole world. And I know exactly what it is.
It's Satan trying to carry away just one of God's people. But
we're not going to get carried away by Satan. if we don't get
carried away with all these other things. If we don't get carried
away with the issues of the day, if we don't get carried away
with morality, if we don't get carried away with all the isms
of religion, and we just stick to preaching and worshiping and
seeking Christ, we won't get carried away. You're not gonna
get carried away by lies. You're not gonna get carried
away with lies. if you're taken up with Christ, if you're carried
away with Christ. Now, I hate this false religion
that's just sweeping across this world, lying to people, just
the bondage and the misery that they cause. And I'd shut it off
if I could. But you know what? This is our
confidence. None of God's elect are gonna fall for it. God won't
allow it. He'll keep his people. It's not
that we're not going to fall for it because we're too smart
or we're too good or we're, no. We're not going to get swept
away by it because God's not going to allow it. And God's
going to use the rest of this religious world to protect his
people. The rest of the world just opens
up, just opens its mouth up wide and swallows up all Satan's flood
of lies to keep it from carrying away God's people. The church
will overcome. Satan's not going to carry away
any God's people away from Christ. At the end of verse 14, it says
here the church has been hidden from the face of the serpent.
They've been hidden. God's put his people in a place
where they're kept away from the most direct attacks of Satan
that would destroy all of us. We're not destroyed because God
protects his people. So verse 17, and the dragon was
wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant
of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ." Satan has turned from the church as a whole to
those individual believers. That's the seed that he's talking
about, individual believers. Because he knows if he can take
just one of them away, he's going to win the whole war. Now, if
you think about that for too long, you're going to get scared
to death. If Satan turns his attention on me, oh, I mean the
disaster that would be. Just look at our brother Job.
Satan turned his attention on him just once. Look what happened
to him. But he will never take away one of God's people from
him, never. Everyone God saves is gonna persevere
in the faith. They'll never be plucked from
the hand of the Savior. No man, nothing, nothing ever
happened can pluck us from the hand of the Savior. Every last
one of his people are gonna die in the faith. Just like all of
our brothers and sisters we read about in Hebrews chapter 11,
these all died in faith. And we will too, if God's the
one that's given us faith. We'll persevere, we will overcome,
because our Lord Jesus Christ is the mighty conqueror. He's
already defeated every enemy, and we're more than conquerors
in Him. We will overcome, and Christ,
our successful, victorious Savior. God help us not to look for anything
other than Him. All right, the Lord bless you.