The scripture is read from the final book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation, the 12th chapter. Majestic in its poetic imagery of the great struggle, the great battles, summarized by mighty metaphors, reading the 17 verses of chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 12, beginning with verse 1. Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars. Then, being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in the heaven. Behold a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his head. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them down to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with the rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to his throne. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was their place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, And that serpent of old, called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world, he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the dragon has come down to you having great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the desert to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. This is our third study on major battles that are revealed in the scripture. And part of the intent is to give you a broader picture of this season of the year. I am very conscious of all the glitter and all of the traditional songs, the folly, the activities that are offered before us. And I wanted to be able to speak on something much more serious, much more dramatic. The birth of our Savior brings into effect this third major battle which will culminate in the cross. It gives us more reasons to think of what God has been doing and what is necessary for us. We've been exploring what it means to be united to Christ, what communion with Christ means. We've been looking at what we can see in the scriptures of the battles of our redemption, what had to be accomplished that we might be saved. The first battle was the battle in heaven, the battle of angels who rebelled against their sovereign. We pondered how could any angel without any temptation ever think that they could be wiser than the Almighty or stronger than the Almighty. The incident of sin is recorded for us but not the reasons for it. But we do observe some of the consequences of sin for the glory of God. With the introduction of sin we begin to see something of the majestic holiness of God that we would not have known because sin is such a contrast. It reveals to us something of the mighty power of God. of his wisdom that goes beyond our understanding that he would conceive of and ordain the entrance of sin. And it shows us that creatures who are created good and upright need also to be sustained by the sovereign. Which among Satan and his angels he did not strengthen them, intervene, and they fell into sin. And that sin as it begins to unfold itself appears to us all the more atrocious, deceitful, and disastrous. The nature of sin is so fierce and so atrocious. But in contrast, the glory of God and His grace is set before us. This first battle also begins to reveal to us the distinctives of the persons of the Trinity. Through the scriptures we understand that it was God the Father who not only foreordained to give a people to his Son, but he so made it possible that sin would enter the world. And the predestinating purposes of God in selecting some people and bypassing others is illustrated in some angels remaining holy and other angels falling in sin. The why is not given, but the consequences do point out the majestic purpose of God in foreordaining whatever comes to pass. Let me turn to the battle in the Garden of Eden and notice that it was taking place with perfect people in a perfect world who had no reason to doubt the goodness of the Lord. But there was apparently a time of probation in which they were charged to not eat of a certain tree, which if they did not eat, they would be confirmed in righteousness. The scriptures reveal that they yielded to the temptation, they disbelieved the word of God and they disobeyed their creator. Perfect people in a perfect world still need the grace of God. We summarize that they had sufficient grace to call upon efficient grace that would have enabled them to remain in perfection, but they did not. And so as a consequence, we are all born under the tyranny of sin and death. Death reigned since Adam. Paul makes the clear point that death is not a natural event in life, it is the result of sin. And we all face the calamity of sin because we are all descendants from Adam, which we begin to understand that our first parents acted not only for themselves, but for all of their descendants. And this begins to open up for us the whole drama of covenant representation. What Adam did for the human race affects the whole of the human race, which affects you and I. But it also anticipates the revelation of the second Adam, or the Lord Jesus, the second covenant head, who would bring to pass and who would reveal the redemption of God. And that's the place where we are on this occasion. We're at the battle in Palestine. We're thinking about the events that would lead up to the cross and the meaning of the cross, its consequences. The battle in Palestine was headed up by rebellious men, but they were led by Satan. Satan had a direct interest in resisting and in contradicting the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus. Yet in this battle, Jesus Christ reveals God's glorious conquest for His elect all the more certainly, and He reveals a certainty of damnation for His enemies. This tremendous consequence is brought before us in the birth of the Lord Jesus. This battle, which culminates at the cross, is a battle that would go all through our Lord's life. One has aptly titled it, it is the mother of all battles, the most amazing combat of all time. In this battle, God himself enters the worst possible environment, a sin-cursed world, comes in the weakest and humblest position as a man. The fascination that the scriptures would reveal the Incarnation, God, the Divine, taking upon Himself a genuine human nature is of great interest. For by taking a human nature He is able to be our representative to the full. And in this battle God incarnate, God in the flesh, obeys every requirement of the law and bears the sins of his people and thereby satisfies the full wrath of God and secures full righteousness and peace. And that is what begins with the advent of the Lord Jesus into this world. We've looked at the 12th chapter of Revelation, for it gives us a sense of the intensity and the consequences of this battle in Palestine. The woman who is presented before us represents the community of God's people throughout the history. In verse 5, she is named as giving birth to God's Son. In verse 17, she is depicted as giving birth to God's people. She represents the community of God's people throughout history. Then in opposition to her, we have a representation of Satan. A grotesque representation as a dragon, going beyond what a cartoonist could draft for us. Having seven heads would certainly portray something of shrewd and cunning ability, verse 3. Ten horns show tremendous power. Seven crowns, verse 3, also indicate significant authority. And then the tail that sweeps other stars from heaven and knocks them to earth speaks of that influence that he had in the opening rebellion in heaven and gives us a dramatic, picturesque way of him being cast out of heaven. The consequence is also that he is cast to the earth and in the arena of the earth is where he is carried on his battle. First he assaults at our parents and in a moment we'll see his assault against the Lord Jesus. This third battle is directed against God in the flesh, God incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want to think about three areas What is this attack against Christ? How does it develop in the scriptures? Then a few moments on the scriptural description of the destruction of Satan. In the third area, meditate upon the significance of Christ's death. Christ entered the world to die. What did he accomplish in his death? So first the reflection upon the attack against Christ. If we would run briefly through the Old and New Testament we would see that Satan was active all along seeking to bring a resistance or a reversal of the promise that a seed would be born who would crush the head of the serpent whose heel would be bruised. The first born turned out to be a murderer. Cain killed Abel, and it looked as if the promise of God would come to naught. But God gave further children to Adam and Eve. When the world degenerated so quickly by the time of Noah, the world had to be purged with water. The floods arrived and the rains felled, and only Noah and his household were spared. That drama of purging the world is significant in that Satan had just about swallowed up everyone in deceit, but God kept Noah in his household. Then as God calls Abraham in mysterious ways, delays the advent of the arrival of the promised son that he might know it was by resting in the promises of God and not by his own innate energy, The family began to be drawn unto the Lord. With the birth of the twelve sons of Jacob, the family began to expand mightily until the time in which starvation disrupted their lifestyle. They had to seek relief from the only source, which was Egypt, where their younger brother had been expelled. but God had raised him up and caused him to provide stores and so the family was not starved to death but was comforted and brought into Egypt until the famine had passed that family grew as a nation and resulted in them being despised by the Egyptians and threatened thinking they were threatened and so the nation was enslaved family was once starved under Joseph, now with the coming of Moses, the nation is enslaved, is in bondage. And that's not only political, that also has demonic aspects to it. Satan is seeking to resist every stage of the Lord's development of his people. But the Lord saves his people. The ten plagues show his mighty power over the impotence of Egypt's Egyptian gods. And the Lord brings his people out with a mighty triumph. The struggles through the wilderness lasted because of their unfaithfulness. In the time of the judges, some of the tribes were driven out of the land and they wondered whether or not the promise to Abraham would be restored. Under David, the kingdom was virtually restored according to the lines that God had promised. But David himself was assaulted by his son Absalom and had to flee for a time and it looked as if the Lord's anointed would be thrown out. Time passes, and the wicked king Ahab almost brings the whole nation under the influence of pagan Jezebel. But Elijah speaks for the Lord, and Elijah calls the people back to renewed alliance. As the time passes, the northern kingdom falls into apostasy, the southern kingdom is under judgment, and we have but Daniel and his friends, representing that chosen line, and Daniel himself is threatened, thrown into a lion's den, and it looks as if one of the last hopes that have survived would be lost. But the Lord restores Daniel. And so the line of faith, the line of God's people has always been under assault. It has always tried to stop this son that the woman would bear. The Old Testament, Christ appears temporarily and periodically. The Lord Jesus did appear numerous times in the Old Testament. Every divine manifestation of the angel of the covenant or an appearance of God was the appearance of the Lord Jesus before he became a man. Like the time with Moses on the mountain, giving of the law of God. Those are references to the second person of the Trinity who met with the people of the Lord. The angel of the Lord came unto Abraham, to Joshua, to Manoah, to Gideon. There is the evidence of God's presence in the fire and the cloud, both to Abraham, to Mount Sinai, to the tabernacle. And finally John brings us to see that The fullness of God was given birth in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 1.18 No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. With the birth of Christ, we have those temporary manifestations giving way. Satan had sort of a moving target all through the Old Testament. and all of Satan's attempt to stop the coming of the Son of God were frustrated. Satan appears to be a good student of the Bible. He just hates everything he reads. And Satan realized that when the second person of the Godhead takes on a real human nature, he will take it forever. He will no longer be a moving target, but a fixed target. and he will also be, in a sense, limited by human confinements. So in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus appeared in a fixed place by the Incarnation. Verse 5 of Revelation 12, She bore a male child who will rule the nations with a rod of iron. The child was called up to God and to His throne. Speaking of the resurrection and the ascension, The Word of God was made flesh and told among us, John wrote, we beheld His glory. The glory is the only of the begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The incarnation, what we would celebrate in the festivities of the season, speak to us of the majestic way in which God became man, without leaving anything of His Godhead, but taking up a full manhood, and thereby being a fit representative for us and able to endure all that was required of him. The New Testament records the continuing threats against Christ right at his birth. When the Magi came to worship him, Herod learned of a potential threat and ordered the massacre in Bethlehem. But the Lord gave Joseph a vision and he left for Egypt. The beginning of Jesus' ministry, his public ministry, started with wilderness temptation. Much like when Israel was brought out of Egypt and went through the wilderness for 40 years, Jesus was tempted and tried by Satan right after he was anointed with the Holy Spirit in baptism under John. And through that tremendous assault, without eating for 40 days, we have the record of three occasions in which Satan assaulted him and Jesus remained firm, worshipping the Father and completing all that is necessary for us. For a spell, the demonic activity was dismissed, And yet, soon we find that Satan had aroused the suspicion and the animosity of the Sanhedrin, of the ruling class of the Jews. And we find that on occasions, the disciples would not only misunderstand him, but would abandon him, until it led to the crucifixion, the accursed crucifixion on the cross, which appears to be a triumph for Satan. We can only imagine the way in which Satan would have vowed to try to oppose God in the flesh. Satan would have realized that if he could destroy Christ, he would have to get the establishment against Christ. He would have to turn God's people against him. And when Satan had those in authority against Christ, he could then manipulate the sentiment of the people. He was not the Christ they had expected to bring glory and honor. He was a Christ who was the suffering servant. The establishment was the easiest to turn against Christ. Long before Satan had the Jewish authorities plotting the death of Jesus. Early in his ministry, the leaders watched him closely that they might accuse him. On occasion in Mark 3, Jesus healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath It's recorded that the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against him how they might destroy him. There is the establishment, the Jewish establishment, seeking to destroy the Lord Jesus. But to succeed, Satan would have to get in close. He would have to alienate the disciples. In order to destroy Christ, He would have to see if the disciples were disappointed. Judas was taken by Satan by greed and disappointment. But to strip away the most significant one, their leader, would take a different approach. Peter, while he may not have been the brightest of disciples, he was unquestionably loyal to Jesus. A direct attack on Satan would fail because Peter would be willing to go down fighting The attack that would take Peter was ridicule, scorn. Satan realized, sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will kill me. There are people who are ready to shed their blood, but they cannot take scorn. Satan got a serving girl to point the finger at Peter and to say, you are a Galilean. You're a follower of Christ. Peter curled up and died that night three times. The great point of this battle is that when Satan was able to beguile the establishment and strip away the disciples and got the crowds to shout crucify him and the soldiers to drive the spikes to his hands and his feet, it appears that they had destroyed Jesus. But in Christ's death, Satan found his own head was crushed, and the heel of Jesus was merely bruised as Jesus rose triumphant from the grave. That's a summary of the great battle in Palestine. I want to reflect a few moments on the destruction of Satan When we think of the work of Christ, most naturally we think of our salvation and of his substitution for us. But there is also a broader aspect to it. And the reason why Christ entered this world was not only to save us, but also to destroy Satan. That initial rebellion against God in heaven will have a disastrous consequence for those rebels. The work of Christ, which is so essential to our Christian faith, is essentially the work which terminates on the destruction of the power and the work of Satan. And that's not incidental. That's a major feature of redemption. It's integral to what Christ has accomplished. And Jesus' life of obedience to the Father brought victory to heaven, and his work in the human realm changed the whole spiritual dynamic. Because Christ defeated the dragon, the good angels are able to defeat the evil angels. Because Christ carried out his mission, the devil and his demons are forced to flee. There are references in the New Testament that speak of the importance of the death of Christ, which was the destruction of Satan. Four examples. John 12, 31. Our Lord Himself, as He approached Calvary, said, Now is the judgment of this world. Now is the ruler of this world will be cast out. That was Jesus' analysis of His own crucifixion. The ruler of this world will be cast out. This same emphasis is brought out by John the Apostle in his first epistle, in 1 John 3 verse 8, where he wrote, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. So it was not only to save us from our sins, but also to destroy Satan and his hosts. A third mention is in Hebrews, Hebrews 2 verses 14 and 15. The writer of the Hebrews understood that Through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and release those who through the fear of death were all their lives subject to bondage. Because of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, we no longer have to fear death. Satan's power has been destroyed. Paul also makes reference to the destruction of Satan's power by the cross in Colossians 2 verse 15. Paul wrote, Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. The New Testament declares the importance of the destruction of Satan. The destruction of Satan is an important part of this battle in Palestine. Third, I want to bring before you something of the nature of the death of Christ. When Christ was born, His death was unique. He came into this world as one who bore the sins of His people. His death was unique in that the Holy One, the One who had always been holy, now came in contact with that which is unholy. Paul verifies this in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 21. for he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus' death was necessary for the Holy One who took our sin upon himself. Then think of his death as the very contradiction of himself. Here is the eternal God who now experiences death in the person of the Son of God. John wrote in 1 John 1.4, and in John 1.4, in him was life, and the life was the light of men. He was essentially life. Yet he laid down his life that he might atone for the sins of his people and might destroy Satan. He laid down his life of himself. It's not Satan who triumphed. Jesus testifies, John 10 18, No one takes it from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received from my Father. The death of Jesus is most unique, and thereby He is able to be our representative. Its application, its contradiction, its transaction point to the uniqueness of Christ's death. Why did He die? Why was it necessary? It was necessary that he might fulfill obedience to the Father. The lack of obedience that we inherited from Adam and which we have deproved upon, Jesus satisfies. Paul wrote in Romans 8.3, For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, in the account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus' death was in obedience to the Father. His death was according to the nature of sin. Sin results in death. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5.21, For he made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Sin has certain consequences. We can think of at least five consequences of sin. It brings guilt, it evokes God's wrath, it causes alienation, it brings bondage, and it demands death. There is a pollution of sin, which is answered by the sacrifice of Christ. Christ's death was a sacrificial death. All of the Old Testament ceremonies and sacrifices anticipate that he would be in the place of another. Hebrews testifies in Hebrews 9.26, but now at the end of the ages he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Sin brings guilt. There is a pollution of sin, and the death of Jesus was a sacrifice for sin. Sin, secondly, evokes wrath. There is a punishment for sin. But Jesus provides the satisfaction for that, the propitiation. 1st John 2 verse 2, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins. And not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. The death of Jesus satisfied the righteous demands of the Father. Sin demands punishment. Christ's death was not only a sacrifice, it was also a propitiation. Third, sin causes alienation. Sin makes a partition, it separates us from God as well as from one another. And Christ's death came as reconciliation. Peter mentions this, 1 Peter 3 verse 18, For Christ also suffered once for sin, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, made alive in the Spirit. So what sin did in causing alienation, Jesus, accomplishing His death, He accomplished our reconciliation. Sin brings pollution and punishment and partition. Fourth, sin has a power. It brings us into bondage. And the death of Christ provides a redemption for us. Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Christ's death mightily breaks that bondage and the power of sin, as He redeems His people by His death. And fifth, the death of Christ answers the demands of sin, which is death. For Jesus not only died, but rose again. And that speaks to the vanquishing of the presence of sin. Romans 6, verses 9 and 10, knowing that Christ has been raised from the dead, He dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him, for the death that he died, he died once to sin for all, but the life that he lives, he lives to God. So the entrance of our Lord into the world, while it is tender in thinking of the birth of a baby in such lowly and humble circumstances, brings the wonder of God's redeeming grace so much closer to us with majestic force to see that he would take our very nature in order that he might take our place. With the result that the pollution of sin is brought in sacrifice, the punishment for sin is answered in the propitiation of Christ. The partition of sin is reduced in the reconciliation of Christ. The power of sin is broken in the redemption of Christ. The presence of sin is answered in the resurrection. We've looked at what Satan has been up to as he moves openly and behind the scenes. Satan never gives up. Jonathan Edwards calls Satan the greatest blockhead who ever lived. Satan never learns. Even though he is possibly the most intelligent creature God has ever made, But for the most intelligent creature to think he can out-fight the Almighty, or out-think the all-wise, properly earns him the title, the greatest blockhead of all time. Despite being dealt the most deadly blow, he goes on battling even more furiously. Part of the clamor of the season, part of the distraction of the season, I fear, has a demonic background that seeks to replace replacing Santa Claus, replacing all of the traditions with the wonder of Christ entering our world. Satan's insane rage only reveals the power and the majesty of the Lord who is pleased to unite himself with his people. Next time we'll ponder what that union with Christ has actually accomplished and how it causes us to be triumphant over Satan. And what we are learning is that God has designed to find a way to enter our world that we might be united to a divine human representative who would satisfy all things necessary for us for righteousness and who would secure life for us by his own mighty power. The battle in Palestine is the culmination of the work of the hatred of the evil one from the very beginning, but it also reveals the marvelous grace and power of God that we would not have known apart from the entrance of sin in the world. And in the next battle we'll see that in our own lives that majestic power is displayed in bringing us to faith and uniting us to Christ. The indispensable necessity of union with Christ is seen in all these battles, as well as the purpose of the Father, and what the Son has purchased, and what the Spirit seals unto His people. Here is a season in which we can genuinely rejoice in what God has accomplished for us in the face of tremendous opposition, providing for us life and peace with God. Father, the description in Revelation 12 is very majestic, very vivid, very moving, to ponder the hostility of Satan and the active way in which he sought to hinder or to stop the coming seed, the full antagonism during our Savior's earthly ministry, beginning with the onslaught in the wilderness and the periodic outbursts of demons, the hatred of the rulers and the foolishness of the people, the weakness of the disciples, all points to the glory of the Son. He knew exactly what He was doing and exactly what He was accomplishing. He was accomplishing our salvation and Satan's vanquishing. And for that wonder, that you would think so kindly upon us, that you would be pleased in our weakness to unite us with Him and to cause us to be triumphant even in these days while we are still so weak and so erring, gives us real reason to rejoice and to reflect upon the wonders of Christ entering our world. take a human nature to remain with Him and to triumph over sin. How we look forward to the final culmination and the final realization of dwelling in your presence in the fullness of righteousness. The purpose that you have for us is even greater than the privileges that you allowed Adam and Eve to enjoy before sin in the garden and the wonder that we'd be drawn so close to you that we are still astonished with. Grant to us that we might rejoice in the Lord in this season and see more of the wonder of our redemption and the sureness of our Savior and the purposes he has for his church. Grant your mercy to us in Jesus' name. Amen.