we'll come back this week to
chapter twelve of revelation chapters twelve to fourteen uh...
constitute the fourth of the seven visions of revelation uh... basically it covers creation
history from the creation to the return of christ gods seven
seven as far as time is concerned perfect God's perfect time, divided
into two, three and a halves. Two times time, time, times and
half a time. And we're in the second one of
those three and a halves. Not precise arithmetically, but
symbolically we're in that second half. Now that second 1260 days,
42 months, three and a half years. Its creation history from the
perspective of the conflict between Satan and God's people. Who are
God's people? Look at verse 17. Look at the
end of verse 17. The remnant of her seed. What
marks them out? They keep the commandments of
God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. What you mean,
they're perfect? They're perfect law keepers.
Is that what it means? No. No, there's none righteous.
No, not one. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. No, of course not. But we seek to live our lives
in conformity to the word of God, to the principles of God's
law. Do we bind ourselves with rules
and regulations in this gospel age? Absolutely not. But do we
flout the law of God? Of course we don't. The law of
God is good. We keep the commandments of God.
not as in any means to make ourselves righteous or sanctified in any
respect whatsoever. For Christ is made unto us wisdom
from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
No, He is all of those. But as His people, we seek to
live according to His word, to follow His truth, to obey when
He says. When He says to us, do this,
don't do that, His Spirit speaks in the inner man. Because we're
his sheep. If we are his sheep, we hear
his voice, and we follow him. We keep the commandments of God.
Not in a legalistic sense. No, no, no. We fail constantly.
But out of the desire of our hearts. We love the law of God,
says Paul, after the inner man. I love the law of God. The law
is good. Don't ever despise the law of
God. The law of God is good. We're
those who are people who, out of principle, seek to follow
the living God, and we're those that have the testimony of Jesus
Christ. Do you remember how Paul puts it in Philippians? Worship
God in the spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence
in the flesh. This is the people, the church.
I'm not talking about Christendom, I'm not talking about the buildings
that call themselves churches. Christ's church opening up down
the road. I'll tell you one thing, it is not. I mean, it's a trades
description infringement, is that? To put the church of Christ
outside that building is an infringement of the trades description app,
because the church of Christ is not there. No. A worldly religious
club is there, not the Church of Christ. The Church of Christ
rejoice in Christ Jesus alone. They know the gospel. They trust
Christ. No. This church may seem irrelevant,
does it? How many people? Forty-odd thousand
in Wellingarden City. And you went round them and said,
is Nedworth Grace Church that meets at 38 Hyde Way, does it
have any relevance? And do you know, I would think
that 39,950 out of that 40,000 would say absolutely none whatsoever.
And of the remainder that said they knew of us, they would say
it has no effect on them at all. But I'll tell you what, I'll
tell you what, Satan is morbidly obsessed with us. Satan is watching
us like a mouse watches a cat. Sorry, the other way around.
Like a cat watches a mouse, you know? Have you ever seen a cat
waiting where it knows that there's a mouse? Have you ever seen a
cat waiting? That's how Satan is watching
the true people of God. Religion? He's not bothered about
that. Do you know why? This religion that calls itself
Christian, it threatens his kingdom, not one jot, not one tickle. It doesn't bother him in the
slightest. Why doesn't he bother with it? Why is he not bothered
about the Catholics and the Anglicans? Because they don't threaten his
kingdom in any way whatsoever. But those that have the truth
of the gospel of grace, he's interested in us. If you remember
last week, verses 1 to 6, we're talking about a woman. that was
about to give birth to a child. That's a picture of the church
in the Old Testament. How do I know that? Because the
child hadn't been born. The child is Christ, who is coming
from the people of God. Christ, who is coming from the
people of God to save his people from their sins. That's the Old
Testament church, is that woman in the first six verses. The
promised seed is the one who is going to come and, as it says
in Genesis 3.15, bruise Satan's head. Or, probably better, crush
Satan's head. Deal him a mortal wound. And
so his intention, Satan's intention, is to prevent that seed coming.
or to destroy that seed as soon as he comes. Why? Because Satan's
objective is his unchallenged sovereign rule of the created
order. So he must frustrate God's plans
by whatever means he can. He must frustrate. What are God's
plans? I'll tell you what God's plans
are. God's plans are the justification of his people to fit them for
his eternal kingdom. That's God's plan. God has a
kingdom. Thy kingdom come. A kingdom must have citizens.
What must the citizens of God's kingdom be like? Sinless. Perfect. Holy. Without blemish. Without
spot. As just and righteous as God
is. How is he going to make them like that? Only by justification
in his Son. The seed must come. Satan must
frustrate that plan. Throughout the Old Testament,
from the fall to Christ coming, Satan was striving, read Old
Testament history, he's constantly striving to evaporate the woman,
to vaporise the woman, to cause the woman to disappear, to get
rid of Israel, because in the Old Testament, the nation of
Israel was synonymous with the true Church of God. The true
Church of God was there. Not all of them were the true
Church of God, but the true Church of God was there, and virtually
nowhere else. in the world, and his objective
was to vaporise that woman so she didn't exist. And as soon
as he was born, to devour the child. Meanwhile, verses 7-12,
we saw that in heaven In God's realm, the realm of
the spirits, there was war. There was war going on. But it
was a war that wasn't fought with weapons of swords and nuclear
missiles and things. It's a war of ideas. As 2 Corinthians 10 verse 4 says,
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not physical. They're not swords. This is why
Islam is so wrong. Islam takes up swords and chops
people's heads off to try and achieve its purposes. No, no,
the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. but mighty through
God, to pulling down of strongholds. It's ideas. It's ideas that we
fight this war with. And what's the war about in heaven
between Michael? Michael's one of the chief of
the angels, and the angels of God, and Satan, and his fallen
angels. What's the war about? It's about
the qualifications of the Old Testament saints you know, read
Hebrews 11. Those are the Old Testament,
they're listed. And many, many, many, many, many more, but those
ones were picked out. Gideon, and Barak, and Samson,
and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and Sarah, and by
faith, by faith, by faith, they did what they, by what they saw
that was different to what anybody else saw. They did what they
did. Those people, when they died, were taken to heaven. And in heaven, Satan goes, they're
not qualified to be here. Abraham, he's a liar. He's a
liar. And he was. And Satan was right. But why has God got him in heaven,
where nothing that defiles must be there? Michael says, ah, God
has justified them. No, He hasn't. No, He hasn't,
argues Satan. Yes, He has. You will see. No,
He hasn't. And Satan's furiously arguing
and making war in heaven, that the Old Testament saints are
not qualified to be there. But in the end, he loses. Look
at verse 8. He prevailed not. Neither was
their place, the place of Satan and his angels, found any more
in heaven. They were kicked out. They'd
lost. My first point is the defeat
of Satan. The defeat of Satan. Satan had
argued that the Old Testament saints, those I've mentioned,
read about them in Hebrews 11, Old Testament believers, before
Christ came, his argument was that they were not qualified
to be in heaven. They were his. They were sinners, and all sinners
are his. Just as Adam forfeited his rule
of the creation of God, that God had given him, when he handed
over power and subjected himself to Satan, so everybody else,
all his progeny, every one of them, belonged to Satan. And Michael rebutted that by
this, by saying, the promised seed will justify. And Satan
refused to accept it and kept accusing until, verse 5, 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 unto his throne. Despite Satan watching the woman
as she's going to bring forth the child, despite Satan watching
the people of God for this promised seed to come he doesn't know
where Christ will come. Has that ever occurred to you?
That struck me the other day when I was thinking about this.
Satan didn't know How come he didn't know? He's an awesomely
powerful being, but his powers are limited by what God allows
him to know. Can he believe it? He didn't
know, did he? That he was going to be born
in Bethlehem of Judea. Or at least if he did, he was
limited in his ability to go there. Think of that. However
powerful and he is, however terrifying a being he is, he is limited
by what God allows him to do. Satan had to rely on Herod and
the wise men, the Magi, coming from the East. And I believe,
I think I've told you, it wasn't six days after Jesus was born
or twelve days or whatever they say, nonsense. It was two years.
Why was it two years? Because Herod had all the little
boys in the area of Bethlehem under two years old killed just
to try and make sure he killed the Christ. Satan had to use
Herod and the Magi And even then, can you believe? Have you noticed
this? Where is he born? And the Magi
said, well, we've seen his star. When we were in the East, we've
seen his star and have come to worship him. But Satan didn't
see the star, did he? For the star led them and showed
them exactly where he was born. and Satan didn't know that. I
find that remarkable. Don't underestimate Satan by
any means, but at the same time, know this, children of God, God
gives Satan his power, he has no power and no ability that
isn't granted him. And he finds Christ, when God
guides them to go down into Egypt, to escape the attention of Satan
and Herod, Satan using Herod as his instrument. And Christ
grows in Nazareth, out of the way, out of the gaze of the Pharisees
in Jerusalem. Why did he grow up in Nazareth,
in Galilee? Because it's out of the way. Out of the way. So
Satan wasn't going to get him. It's out of his way. And then
he comes in his public ministry. And do you know early on he goes
into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan, doesn't he? Why do
you think he does that? Why does Jesus go into the wilderness
to be tempted of Satan? Do you know what I believe? I
believe, and I hope I'm not being, I'm not leaping beyond what scripture
says. I think it's perfectly reasonable
to infer this. You know what God said to Satan
about Job? You know, Satan's there before
God, and God says, have you considered my servant Job? you know it means
two things it means have you been considering I know you have
but at the same time I'm going to let you go and tempt and do
things to Joe to test him have you considered my only son and
there he is in the wilderness to be tempted of Satan forty
days have you considered him and he gives him permission to
go and tempt Christ the man the God man why why did he have to
be tempted to prove that the Son of Man is sinless and therefore
a fitting Passover lamb. When they picked out the lamb
to be the lamb for the Passover, do you know they had to keep
it for 14 days? And they had to examine it to
prove that it was without blemish and without spot. That's why
Christ walked this earth, perfectly obeying the law of God. I don't
believe he was earning our righteousness. We're made the righteousness
of God in him. He was proving that he was a
lamb fit. And in the temptation, the temptation,
the worst Satan could throw at him, proved that he was a sinless
substitute. And he constantly, Satan constantly
seeks to destroy Christ, you know, via the Pharisees. Whenever
he went up to Judea, to the Passovers, to the Feasts, the Pharisees
were seeking to kill him. But his hour had not yet come.
How many times do you read in the Gospels, my hour has not
yet come? It hadn't come. It wasn't the time. And so he
slipped away. And you wonder, why didn't he
just confront him that the hour had not yet come? He slipped
out of the way and Satan couldn't get to him. Up until the last
Passover, I think it was the fourth Passover of his public
ministry, wasn't it? Three and a bit years, so four
Passovers. And in Luke 22 verse 3, then
entered Satan into Judas. Ah, the trap is set. The trap is sprung. Think of
Satan's delight. The Romans, he's got the weight
of the Roman Empire. That iron fist empire. That iron empire that comes and
with all of its power and military might arrests Here he is. Can you imagine his delight?
The seed is being destroyed. At last the seed is being destroyed.
And he watches him, and they nail him to the cross, and they
put that cross in the ground, and his blood pours out, and
you can imagine Satan's absolute delight. Here is the seed being
destroyed. T. Satan is going to be triumphant. And he's dead! And he's buried,
and he's put into the tomb. And on the third day, he rises
from the dead. What? Can you imagine Satan?
He's finished, he's risen from the dead. What? And he's fully,
perfectly satisfied divine justice for his elect. And his blood
has paid their sin debt. And he accuses in heaven in that
war that's going on. And he accuses in heaven and
now, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Satan's
trying in heaven. It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? Now it is Christ that has died,
yea, rather, that is risen again, and is even at the right hand
of God. In the moment when he thought he had destroyed the
seed, it is revealed to him that the seed has destroyed him. because
the seed has justified the people of God, has perfectly satisfied
justice. And all of his weapons in that
heavenly war, to say those Old Testament saints are not qualified
to be there, his weapons are useless, because the case is
dismissed. Let's say you're up before the
judge in a court of law, and the charge is against you. And
you say, but no, it's not true. And they say, well, let's examine
the evidence. And somebody walks in and goes, there's the evidence. There's a photograph of you somewhere
else at the time that the crime was committed. And the judge
will say, dismiss the case. There's no case to answer. And
that's what happened with Satan. He's kicked out of heaven. He's
lost. He's defeated. We're more than conquerors. He's
no more power to claim the people of God for his own. They're God's,
not his, for Christ has bought them. We're more than conquerors.
Look at verse 9. 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 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
day and night before God, and they overcame him. How? by the
blood of the Lamb. It was the blood of the Lamb
that overcame him. It was the blood of the Lamb that disarmed
him. It was the blood of the Lamb that took away every argument
he could ever bring of accusation, and by the word of their testimony
They confessed him. They believed him and they confessed
him. And they love not their lives unto death. So you see,
hallelujah is the response. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord for
what he has done. Satan is defeated. Satan has
had his house, this world, plundered. for one stronger than him has
come and bound the strong man of the house he is the defeated
foe of God so is that the end of Satan? is that the end of
him? no, verse nine he was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast out with him verse
twelve verse twelve Rejoice, you heavens, but woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time. Second point. So Satan's defeated. The second
point is the place for the woman. The place for the woman. Verse
13. And when the dragon saw that
he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman, which brought
forth the man-child. Why did he persecute the woman?
Why? Was he not already defeated?
Well, he's trying, in his anger and his rage, to prevent more
children being born in her. But God will not lose one. God
has said, I will not lose one. He shall not fail. The Lord Jesus
Christ did not come to make salvation a possibility for all. The Lord
Jesus Christ came, not so that a gospel offer can be made to
all, listen carefully, people listening online, he didn't come
to make an offer possible, he came to save his people from
their sins. Everyone that the father gave
to the son before the beginning of time, that multitude which
no man can number, that that multitude which any one time
on earth is 144,000 and 144,000 will see them in heaven God's
perfect number every single one of them all in their place absolutely
living stones in the temple made without hands made by God he's
trying to stop more children being born but he can't look
at verse 14 to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle
that she might fly into the wilderness and to her place where she is
nourished for a time and times and half a time from the face
of the serpent look back at verse six and the woman after the man-child
is born and does his work and is caught up to God in heaven
the woman fled into the wilderness where she had the place prepared
of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred
and three score days the wilderness. She needs to get to the wilderness. The woman needs to get to the
wilderness. Why? Because Satan can't touch
her there. Why can't Satan touch her in
the wilderness? Because there's nothing to sustain
him there. There's none of the stuff on
which he feeds to sustain him there. He can't survive there.
If there's nothing to sustain him there, that's where the woman
needs to get to. What is it that sustains him?
What is it that sustains Satan? Sin. Godless rebellion. Everything about the spirit of
this world is what sustains Satan. But in this wilderness, he can't
survive there. The woman must get to this wilderness.
What is this wilderness? You're thinking of scrub, you're
thinking of sort of a barren area of central Australia or
the Sahara Desert. That's the picture, that's not
the reality. The church is not meant to uproot
and go and live in the Sahara Desert, or the Kalahari Desert,
or the middle of Austria. No, no, no, not at all. The wilderness
is the non-worldliness of the Church, of the true Church. That's
the wilderness. When you think of wilderness
here, think of non-worldliness. Non-worldliness. of the true
church, not of religion, not of its false piety, no, the true
ethos of the true people of God. Do you remember last May when
we had the conference and there were about 80 of us there and
I think the vast majority were true believers and wasn't it
a delight to talk to fellow believers? Everywhere you turned, the conversation
was sweet. Everywhere you turned, the conversation
was of Christ, and of the gospel of his grace, and of the goodness
of it, and the delights of eternity, and of our aspirations, which
are aspirations for eternal glory, and not the things of this world.
The things that we love, and the things that we hate, and
the things we want to be separate from. This is the wilderness.
Individual believers, we all have to live in the world. We
have to go to work in the world. We have to make a living in the
world. We have to do business in the world. But true believers
are not of the world. We don't have a mindset of the
world. The things of the world might
be fleeting entertainments, but they don't sustain us. They don't
feed us, they don't nourish us. They're okay for a while. You
know, what would you like to live on? I mean, to me, the very
worst thing, the very worst diet you could offer me would be bags
of sweets. I could stay alive on it because it's got sugar
in it, but I'd absolutely hate it. I need meat, I need food,
I need nourishment. And all the world offers is the
spiritual equivalent of bags of candy. Occasionally one's
alright, but I'm just not interested in them. No. We have to live
in this world. We're not hermits, not hermits
at all. We strive, as Paul tells us,
to live at peace with all men. We strive to be kind and friendly
and sociable as far as we can, without violating the principles
of God's commandments. But as a church, as the true
people of God, we're as much part of the world as the middle
of the Sahara Desert is part of the West End of London. Do
you see the difference, the analogy there? There's separation, completely. This idea that the church and
the state can be united and therefore you'll have a good strong society,
absolutely not. Oh, how I used to be taught when
I was in legalism to pray, you know, about Sin is a reproach
to any people. Righteousness alone exalts a
nation. And oh how we ought to be on this bandwagon to try and
make the laws of this country so much better and so much more
in accord with the principles of God's Word. What a complete
and utter waste of time. This world is falling. You will
never reform society by trying to unite the church with the
world. In fact, all you'll do is the
very opposite. It's what Satan's trying to do,
as we'll see in a minute. No. There's got to be separation. As far as a wilderness is from
the centre of a big city, so has
the church in its thinking to be separate from this world.
So, in this separated state, from the world, Satan can't survive
or operate. Look at the end of verse 14.
In this wilderness, we're taken away from the face of the serpent. If you're in that wilderness,
the face of the serpent can't look at you. See, that's what
he's saying. That's what this passage is telling
us. So how are we going to get into this wilderness? Look, verse
14. To the woman were given two wings
of a great eagle. Have you ever seen an eagle flying?
What magnificent flight. What a magnificent bird. I remember,
do you remember years ago in Montreux, sitting by the lake
on an absolutely beautiful summer's evening, watching the eagles
coming down from the mountains and fishing in the lake, and
just majestically circling around and then just down and picking
a fish out of the surface of the water. It was fabulous, fabulous. And I always said, I must go
back there, and we've never been back. And it was 30 years ago
now, more than 30 years ago. Fabulous. Two great wings of
an eagle were given. What are these wings? In Exodus
19 and verse 4, remember when God took the people out of Egypt? He says this, and He took them
into a wilderness, didn't He? He separated them from Egypt
and everything that it had, and He took them into a wilderness.
And what did He say? Ye have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians, and how I bear you on eagles' wings. Not literally, but He bore them
on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself. What are these
wings? What are these wings that God
gives? If you're a child of God, God has given you wings, a pair
of wings, to flee into the wilderness, away from Satan. Do you know
what it is? Faith. Faith. The wings of faith. Absolutely. Listen to what 1 John says. 1
John, chapter 5, verses 4 and 5. For whatsoever is born of
God overcometh the world, and this is, in other words, escapes
into the wilderness of God and this is the victory that overcometh
the world even our faith who is he that overcometh the world?
but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God faith in Christ
is what carries us out of this world of Satan into the wilderness
where God would have his church to be in that place prepared
in order to nourish, look, verse six to nourish her there God
puts us in a wilderness of non-worldliness, separated from the world, to
feed us. What does he feed us with? The pure milk of the word.
The milk, the bread of life. That water that comes down from
heaven. That's what he feeds his people with. Throughout this
period. How long? 1,200 and 3 score days.
1,260. Three and a half years of 30 months. 42 months of 30
days. That's where he puts us. That's
what he does with us. Throughout this period, from
Christ's ascension to his return. Verse 14, without Satan's interference
there. Oh, I know the church is, because
of sin with tensions and strife riven asunder, but the true church,
the true church is a pure wilderness. Those that battle on in compromised
churches saying, oh, do you know, the fellow that we listen to,
he's okay up to a point, but do you know, do you know what
my advice to them would be and what I think the advice of the
Word of God is? Come out from her, my people." It's Babylon. Come out from her, my people.
Be separate. God will nourish you in a wilderness
of His making, even as many of the people that listen to us
on here are entirely on their own for that one sole reason,
that they cannot be members of Babylonian Christianity. No.
So Satan's wrath, verse 12, Verse 12, he's furious. Woe to the
inhabitants of the earth, for the devil is come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knows his time is short. He knows
he's as good as finished. He's furiously vindictive. I
used the analogy last week, it's a good one. Like Hitler. You
know, when Adolf Hitler knew that the Allies would surely
win in the end, yet clutching at mad notions of victory, he
perpetuated that war and millions more were killed in the process
because he was so determined to carry it on. That's like Satan. He knows his time is limited.
He knows it is passing. He knows it's but for a while,
but he's furious. So he focuses on the woman. He
focuses on the woman to persecute her. Verse 17, the dragon was
wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant
of her seed, but he can't get to her as long as she is in her
God-given wilderness, worldlessness, worldlessness. He must get her
out of that wilderness. How does he do it? Look, verse
15, 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. He spews, as it were, this flood into this wilderness
to try and get her, to get washed out of it. He's not trying to
drown the woman. He's not trying to kill her.
He wants her to be his. He wants her and her children
to be his. So he tries to carry her out
of the wilderness back into worldly union, back into the world. the world of compromise from
the true gospel of God's grace, the world of the loss of distinctiveness
which is the mark of the true church of God, the world where
in religion there is such a temptation to break God's commandments openly,
the world where there is a dilution of the testimony of Jesus Christ. You look around, you say, where
have the churches gone the last 30 or 40 years? I'll tell you
where they've gone. If they ever were true, and I'm
not sure that many of them were, They had a name, many of them,
like the letters in chapters 2 and 3, to the churches in chapters
2 and 3. You have a name that you live,
but Jesus says you're dead. Many of those great Reformed
Baptist churches that we thought were such pillar and ground of
the truth were in fact dead. They were like Laodicea. They
thought they were full and fat and full of goodness and had
need of nothing. and Christ was counselling them to buy of him
eye ointment that they might see come back to him. How many
of those churches have gone, they were carried on Satan's
flood back into compromise with the world of worldly religion.
Ecumenism. What is ecumenism? It's not just
Catholics and Anglicans getting together, you know. I'll tell
you what ecumenism is. Churches which have got the true
gospel, and they're so determined to have mates, oh because it's
so lonely if you haven't got mates, that they'll do anything
to compromise with what they call Bible-believing churches
in the area, that are nothing of the sort, they don't believe
the Bible, they fly in the face of the truth of God. And they've
compromised with it. and they've been washed by the
flood from Satan's mouth back into the world. There are those
that are bound up with legalism. What do I mean by that? Well,
they're in associations, religious associations, from which they
can't break free, because the worst thing they can do is break
free from their friends, and they'll be on their own, and
they'll have nobody on their side. And so, oh no, we'd better not
do that. So they conform with legalism. And others have gone
into antinomianism, and countless other errors. If we're the true
Church, and what is the true Church? We confess that Jesus
Christ is the Messiah God who fulfilled every decree of God
in the Old Testament concerning the salvation of his elect. This
is what it is, to confess that Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh. We testify of his truth. We seek to live for him. We serve
him. We obey him. We seek to obey
him. And Satan is furious with us.
And all like us. How does he seek to harm us?
This is how. Right? Listen. This is how Satan
seeks to harm us. He's not like a dragon in one
of these kind of you know, great spooky movies, Lord of the Rings
and all that kind of thing. No, that's a nice picture but
no, it's not the truth. This is how Satan seeks to harm
us just simply by getting us to conform to the world. He spews
out a flood to get us to conform to the world and in the process
get us to renounce our faith, the testimony of Jesus. Sounds
awesome. Sounds terrifying, doesn't it?
Sounds a worrying situation. But God says to his people, fear
not, little flock, fear not. Luke 12, 32, fear not, little
flock. It is your father's good pleasure
to give you the kingdom. Satan's not going to wash you
back into the world. It's the Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom. John 16, 33. In the world, said Jesus, you
shall have tribulation from the devil, from Satan and his attentions.
But be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. The
path for believers is narrow and difficult. The valley of
the shadow of death through which we walk is daunting. the lions
on chains either side of it. Satan prowls. 1 Peter 5, verse
8, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as
a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Whom
resist, steadfast in the faith. How are you going to resist him?
I'm going to close by reading Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10
to 20. Just turn to it with me if you've
got it. Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 to 20. How are you going to
resist Satan who is prowling like a lion seeking whom he can
devour? Resist him in the faith. Resist
him in the faith. How are you going to resist him?
Verse 10. Verse 10 of chapter 6 of Ephesians.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might. Put on the whole armour of God,
that ye may be able to stand against the wiles, the tricks
of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, all trying to sweep you into
conformity with the world. against spiritual wickedness
in high places. Therefore, wherefore, take unto
you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand
in the evil day, and having done all, to still be standing at
the end of it. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with the truth, be clothed, be clothed with the
truth of the gospel of grace. and having on the breastplate
of righteousness. Where do you get it? Christ has
given it to you. He's made you the righteousness of God in Him.
And your feet? What's on your feet? The preparation
of the gospel of peace. And what's in your hand? Hold
it in your hand. The shield of faith. What is
it? Wings of faith take us into the
wilderness. The shield of faith will keep you there. Wherewith
you shall be able to stand, withstand, quench all the fiery darts of
the wicked. and take the helmet. You need
to protect that, don't you? The head. Take the helmet of
salvation. And the sword of the Spirit,
which is the Word of God. But what do we fight with? The
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Pray. Ah. Pray. Pray. We're not alone. Pray. Pray. Isn't it, you know,
one of the great things about the last 20 years, you know,
now? We're never out of... Do you remember the time when
You might have only gone to town and it was like, with me, where's
she gone? Where's she disappeared to? Now
I know, I can text her. I can even do more than that. You know, we're always in touch,
aren't we? We're always in touch with each other. praying always,
with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, and watching thereunto,
with all perseverance and supplication for the saints, and for me, that
utterance may be given me, that I may open my mouth boldly to
make known. Pray for these things, for I am an ambassador in bonds,
and therein I speak, that I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
Well, there you have it. That's what we've got. God has
given us that armour. Believer, don't fear Satan. Oh, don't underestimate what
he is. We know his objectives, which
is to get every one of God's people to conform to his ways.
He can't pluck you out of the Father's hand. Jesus said as
much. He's not strong enough. My Father is greater than all.
Take the armour. Look to Christ. Comfort and encourage
one another in fellowship. You know, those of our brethren
who are lonely, I encourage you, if you're able to do it, write
to them. Communicate with them. Let's stay in touch. Mutual encouragement,
one of another. Next time, we'll move into chapter
13 of Revelation, and we'll see how does Satan make war with
the woman's seed. That's next time. Amen.