Well, we're looking at another passage that also illustrates both the love of God and the sovereignty of God, how he is exalted on high and yet he cares for the lowly. Revelation 12, 7 through 12, this is the last sermon on this section here. War was declared in heaven. Michael and his angels were to wage war with the dragon. So the dragon and his angels made war, but he was not strong enough, neither was there any place found for him in heaven anymore. So the great dragon was expelled, that ancient serpent who was called slanderer and Satan, who deceives the whole inhabited world. He was thrown into the earth and his angels were expelled with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power have come, even the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accused them before our God day and night. And they conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not cherish their lives even up to death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, yes, you who are dwelling in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has little time. Amen. Father, we thank you for this, your word, and I pray that you would enable us to receive it into our hearts in a way where it would take root and it would blossom and fruit to your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, we come to a verse that commands joy in heaven and pronounces woe or grief to land and sea. And a lot of people have actually been discouraged by this verse because they assume that the only way that we can have permanent joy or consistent joy is by escaping from the earth and getting to heaven, that everyone left on earth will face woe. Okay. In their mind. Woe is our earthly destiny, okay? And they get discouraged because they wrongly assume that the sea and the land represent everyone on planet Earth, including Christians. But let me assure you that the sea never represents God's people, nor does the land. And even though the dragon does persecute the church, and the rest of this chapter is going to go on to talk about that, that it's not the bride of Christ who is the recipient of this woe. Instead, the sea represents Rome and the land represents Israel. And we're going to be seeing in verse 16 that the land actually helps the church by diverting the dragon's venom away from the church. And when verse 12 is looked at in light of the whole chapter, it actually teaches the exact opposite of what pessimilennialism says. As we'll see, this is a verse that is rich in irony. The two nations that Satan had used to destroy God's people end up destroying each other. Okay, the very people that the world might have thought, wow, these are the people who have made it in life. They've made it big. They're the ones who are the recipients of the greatest woe. Israel was envied by all of the other nations. You read the histories of other nations, what they thought. They envied Israel because Israel had privileges. No other nation was given. No other religion was given. And they envied Rome because obviously Rome was in power. But over the next few years, both Israel and Rome would suffer unbelievable misery. Satan had intended to use both Rome and Israel to exterminate the church, but verses 13 through 16 indicate that the very venom that Satan spewed out of his mouth to devour the woman, the woman represents the true church member, would end up destroying the land. In other words, it would end up destroying Israel in verse 16. In fact, let's just go ahead and let's read verses 15 through 16, because those two verses are rich in irony as well. So the serpent expelled water from his mouth after the woman, like a river, so as to cause her to be overwhelmed by the flood. But the ground, and that's the Greek word ge, which throughout this book refers to the land of Israel, But the ground helped the woman. Indeed, the ground opened its mouth and drank up the river that the dragon expelled from his mouth. Now here's the weird thing. Israel was the church's mortal enemy. So how on earth can you say that Israel helped the church? But it did. The water of Rome's armies, designed to destroy the church, got sidetracked into destroying Rome's ally, Israel. You see, the leaders of Israel tried desperately to avoid confrontation with Rome. They were actually allied with Rome. That's where they got a lot of their power, a lot of their wealth. They tried desperately to avoid this war But God made sure that the hot heads of Israel provoked Rome to wrath. And in 8066 and following, Israel absorbs most of that venom that was intended for the church and Israel ends up being destroyed by that venom. But what happens to the water that spewed out of the dragon's mouth? It disappears too, right? And so we're gonna be seeing later that as a direct result of this war, a great deal of the Roman empire was going to be destroyed as well. And thus both the woe on the sea and the woe on the land, both of them very, very important. So back to verse 12, God is pronouncing woe upon the very ones who have enjoyed the world's happiness so much. If wealth could produce joy, then we would expect Caiaphas, who was the Sadducean billionaire leader of Israel and his incredibly wealthy family, would be the happiest people on earth, but they had the most misery. If power could produce happiness, and could produce joy, you would expect that both Vespasian and Caiaphas would be the happiest, the most joyful people on earth, and yet the histories tell us that they were some of the most miserable people upon earth. These two people groups represent the epitome of what the world considers essential of we are to be happy, and yet they have the opposite. They have woe, nothing but woe. Robert Savage once said, the most miserable people in all the world are those who make pleasure a business. In contrast, those who have experienced the true joy of the Lord will never be satisfied with merely having fun. So today's sermon is going to be examining the topics of joy and woe by examining these two quite different people groups and then applying it into our own lives. The first sentence deals with joy. Therefore rejoice, O heavens. Yes, you who are dwelling in them. The first word, therefore, points back to the previous sentences as the reason for joy. Anytime in the Bible you see the word therefore, don't ignore it. You always need to ask about a therefore, what is it there for? It's pointing to something. And in this case, it's pointing to the previous sentences saying, these are the reason for this joy. Well, what are in the previous sentences? It's the purging of sin and Satan out of heaven. What greater reason could there be for joy? Satan and sin are at the root of joylessness. They promise joy, they promise happiness, but they cannot deliver. So in the previous two sermons, we've been examining the battle in heaven that removed Satan and sin from heaven forever. Verse 8 says that from AD 66 and on, Satan could no longer be found in any place in heaven. Verse 9 says all of the angels were expelled with him. Verse 10 says the accuser of the brethren could no longer bring his accusations before God's throne. Verse 7 says that Satan was conquered by the angels. Verse 11 says he was conquered by the people on earth. Therefore, Therefore, heaven was called to rejoice. Now commentators many times point out that there's indications, there's hints that God's saints on earth have joy as well, but that's not the focus here. The focus is on heaven, the joy of heaven. And so that's what I want to be making our applications for. And there are applications we can make to ourselves. But it's heaven that's teaching us these applications. And the first application from that theological point is that Satan is the great joy sucker. He promises happiness to people through sin, independent living, pleasure, position, and other things. But when people pursue Those promised pleasures, they are robbed of all joy. What's in the previous verses? Well, it describes Satan, a name which means the adversary. Demons, sin, war, accusation, slander, deceit, and conflict. I mean, they're describing the reasons why those who pursue joy apart from God end up ultimately not being successful. In the May 1993 edition of Turning Point, the editor wrote, men have pursued joy in every avenue imaginable. Some have successfully found it, while others have not. Perhaps it would be easier to describe where joy cannot be found. Not in unbelief, Voltaire was an infidel of the most pronounced type. He wrote, I wish I had never been born. Not in pleasure, Lord Byron lived a life of pleasure if anyone did. He wrote, the worm, the canker, and the grief are mine alone. Not in money. Jay Gould, the American millionaire, had plenty of that. When dying, he said, I suppose I am the most miserable man on earth. Not in position and fame. Lord Beaconsfield enjoyed more than his share of both. He wrote, youth is a mistake, manhood a struggle, old age a regret. Not in military glory. Alexander the Great conquered the known world in his day. Having done so, he wept in his tent before he said, there are no more worlds to conquer. Where then is real joy found? The answer is simple, in Christ alone. That word therefore points to the real source of lack of joy, to sin and Satan. When we lose the joy of the Lord, I think we ought to ask, is it at least possible that my joylessness is in part due to some sin or perhaps the demonic in my life? But I want you to notice that this was a command to be joyful. It didn't automatically happen. It had to be commanded. So here's the question. Why would those in heaven have to be commanded to be joyful? Aren't they already full of joy? Isn't heaven the place of fullness of joy? And the answer is, well, yes, it is. Psalm 16 verse 11 says, and your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So why does heaven need to be commanded to be joyful? They're already rejoicing, right? Well, think of it this way. If God's presence brings fullness of joy, Perhaps Satan's occasional presence in heaven, such as what happened in Job 1, could diminish that joy. Or perhaps joy could be diminished in the presence of sin, or when they look at the sins and the rebellion on earth. Or perhaps it could be diminished when they're engaging in warfare with demons, such as went on in verse seven. Now, is there a certain kind of joy that's involved in fighting against the devil and his agents and engaging in war? Yes, there is. There is a kind of joy in fulfilling God's will there. But I'm sure that verse seven types of situations had joy mixed with something that might diminish joy to some degree. So I want us to just examine a few scriptures that to some skeptical minds might help you to understand what I'm talking about here. I'll turn first of all to Revelation 6 and verses 9 through 11. This is a passage that is describing the souls of martyrs in heaven. Okay, they're dead. They're in heaven right now. And I want you to notice that there is a holy discontentment with the way things are, the way things are existing. Even though they're in heaven, even though they're in glory, they have a holy discontentment, okay? Even in heaven, they recognize things are not right yet. So let's begin reading at verse nine. And when he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar, the souls of the people who had been slaughtered on account of the word of God and on account of the testimony of the lamb, which they held. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, how long no sovereign holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth. So a white robe was given to each of them, and they were told that they should rest a while longer until both their fellow slaves and their brothers, who were about to be killed just like they were, should complete the number. Now, first of all, it says that they cry out, and the Greek word krazo has the implication of disturbed emotions being loudly expressed, and that they are disturbed can be seen by their question of puzzlement. Lord, why have we not yet been avenged? Something doesn't seem right here, okay? In heaven, it is possible to have a degree of joy removed when people are confronted with or they are face to face with things that are contrary to God's revealed will. So perfect beings will respond perfectly by being grieved in the sin of unbelievers. After all, the Holy Spirit is grieved when he's confronted with sin and unbelievers, right? It says in Isaiah 63 verse 10, but they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. Ephesians 4.30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit. So think about it this way. If the perfect Holy Spirit can be grieved without in any way diminishing his perfections, I see no reason why believers in heaven cannot be grieved when confronted with injustices on earth or when confronted by demons in heaven. They could be, and this passage indicates that they were at least prior to 8066. Grief would be the perfect response to an imperfect state that displeases God. So it makes sense that when heaven was cleansed of sin and of Satan, that heaven is commanded to have full joy. There'd just been a grievous battle going on with incredibly evil beings. But now there's been a change for the better, and I would say any time there is a change for the better, there is the potential for increased joy. Let me give you an example. Luke 15 verse 7 says, I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just persons who need more repentance. More joy indicates that each time there is a new convert, there is increased joy. So if heaven can have fluctuations of joy up, it implies there could be fluctuations of joy down. There's still joy, but it's not as high as it was earlier. The words more joy indicate either a qualitative or a quantitative difference in joy, but either dimension, either definition, I think it indicates joy is not static in heaven. It's not just a blast static or even a static high. There are fluctuations. And while the next verse in revelation six does indicate the saints in heaven do have rest. and relief compared to what they had on earth, and the Greek word anapao does indicate both rest and relief. There's an aspect of relief. God makes them wait just a little while longer before their holy discontentment with the way things are will be resolved. And interestingly, it gets resolved at exactly the same time that our passage says it is resolved, and they're commanded to have joy. And it's in AD 66, and I believe for the same reason. Now turn with me to Isaiah 25 and verse eight. This is a passage that gives, gives comfort to afflicted saints. And by the way, as we go through these passages, they really should inform our understanding, our belief in what goes on in heaven. Too many people have a sentimental view of heaven, not a biblical view. Okay, Isaiah 25, verse eight. Verse eight says, he will swallow up death forever and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. The rebuke of his people he will take away from all the earth for the Lord has spoken. So when are all tears wiped away from all faces? Well, according to this verse, it's at the very same time that death is swallowed up forever and that the rebuke of God's people is forever removed from the earth. When does death get swallowed up forever? Well, just so happens the New Testament quotes this and tells us. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 54, it quotes Isaiah 25, verse 8, and says that death gets swallowed up forever on the last day of history, at the second coming. And why would there be tears on judgment day? Well, Jesus said that believers are going to be judged on Judgment Day. We're going to be judged for every idle word that we've ever spoken, for every evil thought that we have ever thought. And when I think about Judgment Day, even though I know I'm saved, I am sure that I am going to have waterfalls of tears gushing out of my eyes. And yes, those tears will be wiped away at that point, but there will be sorrow, there will be sadness on that day. And yet there's gonna be relief and gladness, tears of sorrow, tears of gladness all mixed together. Now turn to Revelation 21 verse four, and this is another passage that quotes Isaiah 25 verse eight. And it too places the taking away of every tear at the future second coming of Christ. Revelation 21 beginning at verse one. I saw a new heaven and a new earth because the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also, the ocean was no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, take note, the tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they will be his people. Yes, God himself will be with them and he will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain. They will exist no more because the first things have gone. Now, here's the logical conclusion. If all tears are not removed from every eye until the second coming, it implies that there could be crying out in heaven or tears in heaven prior to that time. Now, when we die and we go to heaven, will our tears be wiped away? Yes, they will be, but there's still going to be further opportunity to grieve over the rebellion against God that's going on on planet Earth. If saints in heaven are perfect, my guess is that they will occasionally be grieved with Earth's rebellion, just as the Holy Spirit is grieved. So anyway, in terms of our passage, now that Satan and sin have been removed from heaven, there is a reason for increased joy. The command to rejoice implies the need to be commanded. And we too, let's just apply this. We too, as many blessings as we have, and Gary just expounded on a whole bunch more blessings that we have in the covenant. As many blessings as we have, we still need to be reminded to be a joyful people, don't we? The command to rejoice occurs more than 100 times in the Bible. Rejoice before the Lord, Leviticus 23, 40. You shall rejoice in all to which you put your hand. Deuteronomy 12, verse seven, you shall rejoice before the Lord. Deuteronomy 12, verse 18. Having given the implied possibility of diminished joy and the fact that a new focus gives a increased joy, we see that heaven after 8066 at least should be the place of pure joy now that Satan is removed. There's nothing in heaven itself that should remove earth. The only thing that could diminish joy would be a focus upon the rebellion that's going on on the earth. So when we get to heaven, it will be the place of joy, completely unmarred by Satan. As Psalm 16 verse 11 says, in your presence is fullness of joy, at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So when we get to heaven, We're not gonna be in the presence of the world unless God, through a portal, or I don't know how he does it, gives us glimpses, because we're gonna have prayer life in heaven, gives us a glimpse of part of the warfare that we need to be involved in. When our focus is on God on his throne, it's just gonna be a place of joy. If we're only in the presence, not of Satan, but only in the presence of a holy God, holy angels, and holy people, then it'll be a place of fullness of joy. I mean, oh, the glory of heaven. And I think it's a shame so many reformed people have read nothing on heaven. We really ought to. I'd encourage you to read Richard Sibbes, or if you wanna read a modern author, there aren't a lot of good modern authors, but John Piper is another one who tells us how to learn to enjoy God right now here on earth. He plays just a one-string fiddle, but he plays that pretty good. That's the one thing that he does a really good job on. Now, as I mentioned, we're going to be joining the people of joy. Verse 12 says, therefore rejoice, O heavens, yes, you who are dwelling in them. So joy is one of the benefits of Christ's atonement that was purchased for us, and joy will be our eternal heritage once every vestige of sin and of Satan is removed from this universe. Now, I would add that since Christ has purchased us to eternally be a joyful people, We dishonor his name. We dishonor the atonement if we are never joyful. It's something he has purchased dearly, and it's something we need to appropriate. We need to follow Paul's admonition, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. So do study the doctrine of heaven. The more you study it, the more it can actually increase your joy today. It's a wonderful doctrine that can help us to anticipate the future. Now, we're gonna turn to woe. Verse 12 says, woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has little time. The word for woe, why? In some cultures, that's the way that they grieve. Why, why, why, why? Not Y-W-H-Y, O-U-A-I. And it is a word that indicates intense distress, grief, sorrow, even horror. It can cover even the experience of those who suffer depression and fear. Certainly, it's connected with God's prophetic judgments, and when God pronounces uai upon people, it's always upon his enemies. Now, I've already identified the two places of this woe. The sea represents Rome, and to prove it, let me have you turn to a couple of passages. We'll just look at the next chapter, chapter 13, verse one. As John looks out at the Mediterranean, what does he see? Now I was standing on the seashore and I saw a beast of prey coming up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns and on his horns 10 diadems. and on his head blasphemous names. Now Rome came from the direction of the Mediterranean, but in one sense it wasn't just ethnic Rome. It represents all of the national peoples that the empire ruled over, as Chilton and others have rightly pointed out. So for example, look at Revelation 17 and verse 15. Then he says to me, the waters that you saw where the whore sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. Now Rome ruled over those peoples and multitudes and nations and languages. When you study the histories and the books on the Roman legions, you'll recognize that they represented a vast array of ethnic, language, and skin colors in those armies. And as I've pointed out many times in this book, we make a huge interpretive mistake if we apply the whole book only to God's judgment upon Israel. That's the way many partial preterists do. No, God is an equal opportunity judger. He judges any nation that is in rebellion against his law. And in this book, we see Israel and Rome over and over, side by side, being judged. Anyone in rebellion against God can expect the same judgments. Now, with this woe being pronounced, you would expect that Rome would immediately start to suffer some pain, some discomfort, some misery, and they did. It will suffer astonishing judgments in the next few years. In fact, within two years, Rome will break apart as an empire. It's in 68 AD. It'll completely break apart and vast multitudes will die. But he first of all mentions the earth because it was the first to be destroyed. Woe to the earth, or literally to the land. The Greek word is gay. Unfortunately, Pickering translates the word gay as ground, land, earth, It's the same word all the way through. It's always referring to Israel. So verse 16 says that the dragon spews out his venom in a torrent on the Christians who are in Israel, but unbeknown to him, the Israels have escaped and they're in secret hiding. and he can't find them there. So when Satan comes to destroy the church in Jerusalem, all he can find is two lone prophets, the last two prophets that we looked at in a previous chapter. So it's possible that when Satan came there, he thought maybe Rome's already destroyed these demons. We don't know, but it appears that he doesn't know where these 144,000 Christians are. But whether that's the case or not, in Satan's attempt to kill the last two prophets in Jerusalem, he has to fight against Israel as well. So that's why verse 16 says that the land, the gay, ironically swallows up the flood of venom. Israel consumed the bulk of Rome's fierce attacks. And where does the water go, as I mentioned? It disappears into the ground. Satan's two tools fight each other, consume each other, neutralize each other. Now the next phrase gives the reason for the woe. Because the devil has come down to you having great wrath, knowing that he has little time. Now there's three parts to that answer. And the first deals with the devil's presence. And let's just think about it. I think it's worthwhile thinking about how demonic presence can bring woe or grief. It makes sense. If being in God's presence brings fullness of joy, it makes sense that being in the presence of Satan would bring woe and grief, or for that matter, being in the presence of any demon. And yet many Christians have no idea that it may be demons who are inflicting their depression, their discouragement, their suicidal thoughts, temptations, doubts, and other joy robbers that have been injected into their consciousness. You know, when I first moved to Omaha in 1987 as a pastor, For the first time, I experienced unbelievable oppression to the degree where I couldn't even pray spontaneously. I thought, what is wrong with me? Am I going crazy? What is going on here? It was such a dark cloud that it was like all of the wind was taken out of my sails. And because I couldn't pray spontaneously, I decided, well, I can at least read some prayers. So I'm hunting on different sources for prayers, and I happened to stumble on some spiritual warfare prayers. And it was interesting, the moment I started praying those prayers, Joy flooded my heart and the cloud lifted. Now I'm kind of dense. It took me three times praying these and getting rid of the darkness to realize there's something going on here. There's something, and I realized it was demonic that was going on in my life. And that's when I really began engaging and studying in spiritual warfare. So Like my experience in 1987, there are many Christians who go year after year enduring these miserable feelings without ever considering the possibility that demons may be the cause of these things. Certainly sickness can take away joy. It needn't, but it can. But how many Christians only go to medicine in their pursuit of joy? And certainly our flesh can rob us of joy. We don't even need Satan to rob us of joy. Our flesh can do that when we're involving ourselves in sin. But I've known Christians who have examined themselves. They confess their sins. They're right before the Lord, but they still lack this joy. Too many Christians have never thought about engaging in unseen joy robber, the devil or his demons. James 4, verse 7 says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Now, if you're not aware that Satan is one of the joy robbers in your life, you may not think to resist him, and if you don't resist the demonic, it's not going to flee from you. It will continue on, even though you are a Christian. See, the Puritans were far more aware of these demonic attacks than most Reformed people today are. Most Reformed people I talk to about these things are skeptical until they come under demonic attack themselves, and they say, help! You know, they want to know, well, how do I deal with this? Go back to the Puritans. The Puritans understood spiritual warfare, and I think we need to return to fighting against three enemies, the world, our own flesh, and the devil, if we're going to have full success. That's one of the messages of this book. We've got three enemies to fight against, and until we do, we are in trouble. So one of the goals is to get rid of the presence of demons in our lives, in our homes, in our churches, and within this world. Why? It's his presence that can rob us of joy. Second, Satan's rage spells woe. Verse 12 gives us the second reason, having great wrath. Now he was angry because he was kicked out of heaven. Anytime Satan loses territory, he's going to get upset. He will get very, very angry. And you can expect when he gets angry, there's going to be trouble. There were times of relative peace in history, such as in Job chapter one. Later, he starts inflicting his problems. But what is Satan doing? He's not warring. He's just walking to and fro on the earth, just seeing what's going on. When there is relative peace in the earth, it probably means that the church is not doing much. But if the church is advancing, if it's penetrating Satan's territory, taking territory away from Satan, if it's confronting him head-on, you can bet your bottom dollar that Satan's going to fight back, that there is going to be some unleashing of his wrath on the front lines of the battlefield. So just like the two prophets of chapter 11 were casualties of Satan's wrath, There have been countless casualties of Satan's rage, or at least the rage of Satan's underlings. When I say Satan, I just mean all demons, right? His kingdom. And this is why it's so critical that we pray for Christians who are going into the lion's den in Washington, D.C., and Lincoln, Nebraska, and Des Moines, Iowa. Okay, when Christians try to undo what Satan has accomplished, he doesn't take it well. He has irrational hatred against those people, so he's gonna bring attacks against them, he's gonna bring slander against them, he's gonna rouse up people to hate them. I mean, just think about what's happened recently. It is so, irrational, the kind of hatred and venom that has been unleashed against even a Donald Trump. Why? Because Donald Trump, at least for a while, maybe he's starting to get to be part of the establishment, but for at least for a while, he's outside the establishment and he's been messing around with things that Satan has clearly established in this nation. And Satan doesn't take too kindly to that. He gets upset. Well, in the same way, Satan got mad, not only at the Christians in the first century, but he got mad at these Jews who were leading things into war and complicating things, and he gets mad at Rome. Why did he get mad at them? Because they're not doing what he wants them to do. If he can get angry at his subjects, he can certainly get angry at you. So do not be surprised when you are persecuted or opposed or resisted when you're on the front lines of the battlefield and you're making a difference. Satan goes after people like Job, Joshua the high priest of Zechariah 3, the apostle Paul, and others. The bottom line is you cannot impact Satan's kingdom for very long without demons being upset. And we're gonna see in verse 17 that when Satan can't find the 144,000, he goes after the remnant of believers throughout the empire. Now the last reason given as to why Satan was upset was knowing that he has little time. What does that mean? Most of my commentaries agree that the little time refers to the three and a half year war that's mentioned in this book. That three and a half year war is mentioned in verse six, again in verse 14, again in chapter 13, verse five. Look at the way he words it in chapter 13, verse five. And he was given a mouth speaking great things, that is blasphemy, and he was given authority to make war 42 months. This is speaking of the beast, now, If he's given authority for 42 months, it implies that that authority is taken away at the end of that 42 months. So most people agree with, and I don't agree with his whole eschatology, but a pretty good commentator, G.K. Beale, most people agree with him when he says this. This little time is the same period as the 3 1�2 years of 11-2-3, 12-6, 12-14, and 13-5, and the delay of 10-6-7. But while there is agreement that it refers to the three-and-a-half years of this book, there's not as much agreement on when those three-and-a-half years occur or even what those three-and-a-half years are. For example, John Wolvard is a futurist. He sees this as being way off into the future. And he says this, the devil knew that his time was limited to 1,260 days, the period of the great tribulation, which he sees as often our future. He says by no stretch of the imagination, can these prophecies be spread to cover the whole inter Advent age as some attempt to do. Now the view he criticizes and rightly criticizes is the view that the three and a half years is metaphorical or symbolical of the whole time from Christ's first coming to his second coming. Some of these authors see the three and a half years as identical to the thousand years of Revelation 20. They would tend to be the amillennialists. Others, some of them are historic premills, there's variations, say it's everything from Christ's first coming to his second coming, which will inaugurate the thousand years. But what is common to this symbolical view is they take the little time, the three and a half years, as being a long time instead of the little time that it's talking about here. Robert Utley represents many when he says this. This seems to refer to the time from the ascension of Christ, the little time is what he's referring to. This seems to refer to the time from the ascension of Christ to the second coming which John and the first century Christians thought would be in a short period of time. It has been almost 2,000 years now. Every generation has the hope of the any moment return of the Lord. Believers were warned of this delay in 2 Thessalonians in Matthew 24, 45 through 51. Now you would think only unbelievers would hold to something this silly, but there are many, many evangelicals that do. So let me deal with it, interact with it. There are four major problems with this view. The first is it makes no sense whatsoever as to why the devil would be so upset and feel it's so urgent that he's got to do something quickly because he has so little time if that little time represents thousands of years. It doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. Why is he mad? He's mad precisely because he thinks he doesn't have much time. Uh, we'll, we'll deal with their objections to that in a moment. But the second major problem is it seems to make John and the early church mistaken in their belief that Christ would bring the tribulation soon, or he would come in judgment on Israel and Rome soon. Uh, what does that say about biblical inerrancy? They claim that the Apostle thought that the Second Coming would happen soon. Third, it makes the Bible contradictory since their explanation of the soon passages are explained away by other passages that it won't happen soon. It'll be delayed. Now my view is that the soon passages happen soon and the not soon passages don't happen soon. They happen at the end of history, right? But in any case, it makes the apostle Paul in the know and it makes John mistaken. Anyway, let me read that quote again. See if you can detect these first three problems. Utley says. This seems to refer to the time from the ascension of Christ to the second coming, which John and the first century Christians thought would be in a short period of time. It has been almost 2,000 years now. Every generation has the hope of the any moment return of the Lord. Believers were warned of this delay in 2 Thessalonians and Matthew 24, 45 through 51. Now to me it makes no sense, and yet it's a viewpoint shared by many premills and all mills, not all, but virtually anybody that holds to an any moment return of the Lord Jesus Christ, called an imminent return, has these contradictions inherent in their eschatology. A fourth reason why this makes no sense is pointed out by several commentaries. If John meant the little time to refer to the whole age, he would have used the Greek word chronos, not the Greek word kairos. The Greek word kairos refers to a very specific pointed time. It never refers to an age, okay? He uses kairos here. So for those four reasons, I reject the second view. The third view is the one that I hold to. and that partial preterists hold to, and I believe it makes a whole lot more sense, it's the view that the three-and-a-half years are literally three-and-a-half years, and that those three-and-a-half years were about to start, and they would soon end in AD 70. I mean, that gives a lot of urgency to Satan. If he knows he's only got three-and-a-half years before he's going to be bound to the pit, he's going to do everything he can to avoid that, to try to win this battle if he can. And it would also make little time mean little time. And it would contrast little time with a thousand years, which is a long time, during the whole of which Satan would be bound. It also makes the flow of this chapter totally unforced. And we've already seen in the previous sermon, the right-hand demon to Satan would be bound in 80, 70. So that's not a new concept to you. But if this is a second demonic ruler, Satan, And if the three-and-a-half-year war of Revelation chapter 19, that describes the end of that three-and-a-half-year war, if that is immediately followed by Revelation chapter 20, which describes the binding of Satan, then you see we've got a very, very strong exegetical position, strong exegetical support. It would certainly make Satan have a desperate and irrational attempt to do everything he can to win during that little time. Now, of course, that makes the thousand years of Revelation 20 symbolic rather than literal. And it makes the thousand years start in 8070 rather than an 8030. Now, you know, I've struggled with, is it symbolic? I'm open to that. Is it literal in the future? I was open to that, but I think it is symbolic. It's just like the other numbers in the book of revelation. When he speaks of the seven spirits of God, he's not denying the Trinity. He's using seven as the perfection. It's the number of perfection. Thousand, even in the historical books, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. You know, he blesses us to a thousand generations. Does that mean we have to take that literal and say, well, we've counted up a thousand hills. I wonder if hill number 1001, God doesn't own the cattle on that hill. That means he owns the cattle on all of the hills, right? So I do believe that it is a symbolic number And in terms of this book's focus on AD 70, I think it makes a great deal of sense. Now, once we get to chapters 19 and 20, you're going to see it makes eminent sense. It flows so beautifully. So that's the general meaning of verse 12. Satan was cast out of heaven in AD 66. He unleashes his fury on Israel and Rome and the Jewish war and following. And it's his attempt to exterminate the church. And we'll look at the disaster and the bold judgments later on in this book. But though the beast and Satan would be bound in 8070, Daniel seven, verse 12 makes clear as we we've looked at that chapter, Daniel seven in depth before. And you'll remember that Daniel seven, verse 12 makes clear that even though the beast was bound in 8070, There are a whole bunch of other beasts, in other words, other demonic princes and their armies that are not bound. And they're not bound, it says, for a season and a time. So what is a season and a time? The Hebrew word for season means a long age, a long period of time. And the word for time means an appointed time. The Hebrew word for appointed time has exactly the same meaning as this Greek word for time when Satan was bound. So amils, postmils, premils, they're all agreed. This is not controversial. They're all agreed on the meaning of this term. For example, premil, Page Patterson says this, not only is his time short, but in the Greek text, the very use of the word kairos rather than kronos, as one might have expected, suggests that the matter is not simply that time is running short, but that God has set a particular time for the final judgment of Satan. So the beast and Satan had an appointed time to be bound in the pit, I believe that was in AD 70, and other demons will have their appointed time to be bound, I believe that is in our future. And Daniel 7 verse 12 says that the other demonic princes would have their appointed time to be bound after a long season, after an age, long period. Are we nearing the end of that age when those demonic princes will be bound? Have no idea. Have no idea. And let me quote from Acts 1 verse 7 where Jesus doesn't want you to have an idea. He doesn't want me to give you any kind of a prediction of when that would go on. Jesus said, it is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. Now by using that phrase times and seasons, he may well have been alluding to Daniel 7 verse 12. So for the full manifestation of the peace and the prosperity of the kingdom to come, It's not just the beast and Satan that have to be bound. All of the other demons have to be bound as well. According to Daniel 7, Revelation 20. Okay, it's gonna require the binding of all. And God does not tell us when the rest of the demons will be bound. Instead, what he says, get about your work. Forget about the father's responsibility of binding. You get about your work of fulfilling the great commission. Okay, we cannot expect victory in history unless we aggressively engage in that task. Now we looked at a portion of that task when we looked at the spiritual warfare verses 10 through 11, but I praise God. God has put limits on Satan's kingdom, okay? Satan himself is already bound. And I praise God that he commands us to be joyful because it means we can be joyful. If he commands us to do something, he gives us the resources by which we can. And when Paul commands us to rejoice in the Lord always, to me, it's an indication that there can never be a time in a believer's life if he is operating by faith when he cannot resist the demonic that is robbing us of our joy and enter into the joy of the Lord, which is our strength. So it's my prayer we would more and more avoid the woe that Satan wants us to experience and that we would enter into the joy of the Lord. May it be so. Amen. Thank you, Father, for this year's scripture. Thank you for the promises that it gives to us and the commands that it gives to us. And we want to live consistently with your word. Help us to be a joyful people. And help us to operate in faith, knowing that if you are for us, who can be against us? Knowing that you have ordained our victory, and you have ordained that eventually every demon will be bound in the pit. Help us as we engage in spiritual battles to be involved in this process. And we pray it in Christ's name. comment.