Well, we're in a shift in the book of Revelation. We're gonna be in chapter 12, and it really is quite a break from what came before. And let me pray, and then I'll read the entire chapter. Heavenly Father, we ask your blessing on your word. Lord, and we ask your blessing on us, that we have ears that could hear and minds that can understand, hearts that can receive. Lord, that we would be a changed people, changed for the better. Lord, that we spent time with you and in your word. And Lord, we thank you for that. In Jesus' name, amen. 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 heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to 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 a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and 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 a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, 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 devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. 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 wilderness 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. Quite a spectacular chapter in the book of Revelation. If you look in your Bible, I'm going to make mention of this when we work our way through the passage, but if you look in verse 9, you'll see that Satan being cast out is actually mentioned three times. It's mentioned again in verse 10. It's mentioned again in verse 13. A major theme in chapter 12 is Satan being cast out of heaven, and we'll look at that as we move through. Have you guys ever seen a rough sketch? And I've seen it many times. And when you look at the sketch, it's obviously a sketch of a beautiful woman. But when you take the paper and flip it the other way, it's an old hag. Have you ever seen that? It's almost like an optical illusion type of thing. Revelation is such a book. that it depends on how we approach it, from what angle we're looking at it to see how we interpret it and how it unpacks. And I'll give you a second little analogy. When I was in elementary school, I had a teacher who had visited Alaska. And he came back, and this is dating me a little bit. But he had a slideshow for us. And he put the slides up. And one of the things he showed us was the condition of the roads and the sign that said, choose your rut. You'll be in it for the next 35 miles or something like that. Because there's all these ruts. And once you got in there, man, you weren't getting out. And the way that people interpret this type of genre, apocalyptic genre, if you interpret say, the Old Testament book of Ezekiel in a certain way, and then the Old Testament book of Daniel in a certain way, you're going to carry that into Revelation. And so there's various viewpoints, and you kind of know, I've said enough where I come from with my viewpoint, but that helps a little bit to see, well, why would somebody else have such a different interpretation of the book from what we're hearing here? It's basically because that's their rut. Maybe that's not the best word, but that's their perspective, and they probably carry that through the Old Testament and into the New Testament. So let's take a look at this scene here a little bit. I want to read you a summary of the chapter. It's a little short summary by Robert Mounts, and I thought it was good. John is taken behind the scenes of history to learn the fundamental reason for the intense antagonism that is mounting against the church in the last days. To understand that the rising tide of persecution is simply the final death struggle of an already defeated foe. And that'll encourage believers to hold fast until the ordeal is over. And that sums up my view of this chapter as well. So let's look at what's here. It begins with a woman, right? A great sign appeared in heaven, verse 1, a woman. And we'll look at how she's described, but there's a woman here. And of course, the first question we're going to ask, since the book of Revelation is such a symbolic book, is who's this woman symbolizing? I have no doubt that when we look at the child she gives birth to, that's our Lord Jesus Christ. So it leads some to say, well, this must be Mary. It must be, you know, the Virgin Mary in the story. Who else could it be that would give birth to Jesus Christ? Some see it as Israel, that the woman is actually Israel, that Jesus came through, you know, Jewish blood and through the line and through the line of Israel. And I don't think it's either of those. I think that this woman is the church. True Israel. The messianic community from both the Old Testament and the New Testament. And you see that a little bit, like in Romans chapter 1, where it speaks of Jesus, that He's His Son, the Father's Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David. He comes from that lineage. He comes from the Messianic community, and humanly speaking, born as a man, the God-man. And she's described here as being clothed with the sun, radiant beauty, I would say. The Bible speaks of how we're washed with the water of the word by our Lord. He wants to present us as a radiant bride. She has the moon under her feet. I think that speaks of authority. In Acts 1.8, Jesus, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witness to me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, all the ends of the earth. So an authority that's been given to us from our Lord to herald the gospel, kingdom authority. And she has a garland of 12 stars. And you can see the 12 stars, perhaps the 12 tribes, the 12 apostles representing the church. But I do want you to notice that in the Greek, she has the Stephanos. She doesn't have a diadem. She has the victory wreath, just conveying the thought that the church is victorious, even though we go through these times of trials and tribulations and persecution. When we get to the dragon, he has not the victory wreath, but a diadem. And we'll look at that, too. Actually, he has several diadems because he has several heads. And this woman is going through birth pangs. It would be a picture of struggle, of travail, of pain awaiting the birth of Messiah. Secondly, we have the dragon. Another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great, fiery, red, Dragon. And we don't have to struggle with, well, who's the dragon? Well, it tells us who the dragon is. Verse 9 says, the serpent of old called the devil, Satan. He's the great deceiver of all the world. He's fiery red. It could be a picture of warfare. Some look at that and think, well, this is speaking of the devil. He's a murderer. Jesus said he was a murderer from the beginning. He's seven headed, each head royally crowned. In Revelation 9, if you remember, in verse 11, it speaks of the devil and that his vast army had a king over them. He's a king. The angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, in Greek is Apollyon. He's the destroyer, right? Ten horns representing power, a plenitude of power. John 14.30, Jesus speaks of the devil as the ruler of this world. This coming has nothing on me or nothing in me. Ephesians 2.2 speaks of the devil as being the prince of the power of the air. So Satan is pictured as the king of his demonic army. But it's a usurped power because of the fall. Jesus, later in the book, we'll see that he's declared triumphantly that he is the Lord of Lords. He is the King of Kings. And we'll get to that. He says, the Bible says, that the angels possibly could be interpreted in the swing of the tail that knocks down a third of the stars. And obviously, that's symbolic. You couldn't have stars hurling down to Earth. That doesn't make any sense. It's symbolic. And some see that as maybe Satan being cast out and the original rebellion and taking a third of the angels with him. Maybe it just means not a majority, but some of the angels came along with him and became demons. Interesting, and we'll look at this, what's the significance of him being cast out? And we'll dig into that a little bit deeper. But he's the accuser of the brethren, and he's not in God's courtroom to bring accusation any longer. And we'll dig into that a little bit deeper in a bit. So thirdly, her son. I think very clearly it's our Lord Jesus. And quite honestly, it's a grotesque scene. It's a grotesque scene. It's a picture of a woman about to give birth with a dragon between her open legs, ready to devour the child as he comes through the birth canal. It's a grotesque picture in the Bible, but that's what the text says. It's right there in front of you. It's a major theme in the Bible, Satan wanting to destroy Messiah. You'll see it all the way through. If you follow the string through the Old Testament of the coming of Messiah, you'll see many, many times a sort of a murder plot. It begins after the fall, where you have Cain killing Abel, the first murderer. Satan's a murderer from the beginning. Sin was crouching at the door, God had told him. And behind all of these things is Satan. It's satanic in nature. Cain kills Abel. If you remember, King Saul attempted to kill David with a spear. Haman in the book of Esther wanted to annihilate all the Jews, wipe the entire Jewish population out of Persia, have them all killed. You see it in the New Testament when Herod slaughters the innocents and all the little children, Rachel weeping or refusing to be comforted. And ultimately, at the cross, from the devil's perspective, finally, at last, Messiah was put to death. Yet, God uses that as the death blow against the serpent himself. So here it doesn't really go into much detail of Christ. He's not the main focus. We saw all of his accomplishment in chapter 5, as far as his blood that was shed, his atoning death, and so on. But here we just see Christ is born, even though Satan wants to snatch him and kill him. And he ascends. It didn't work out for Satan. And the Lord, in chapter 12, the child ascends to the throne of God. He takes rule and reign from the throne. It says that he is the one who will rule the nations. That's almost a direct quote out of Psalm 2, that he was the one to rule the nations. So the woman then, once he is ascended to the throne, it says in verse 6 that the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God. that they should feed her there 1,260 days. Again, that's back to that timeline. That's also time, times, and half a time. It's also three and a half years. We keep seeing that time frame. And I didn't spend much time on it last week, but I referenced Antiochus Epiphanes, the Maccabean War that's between the Old Testament and the New Testament's three and a half year period of travail and suffering. But it was cut short, I mean, God sovereignly. And I think that's what it's really representing, the three and a half years, is a time of persecution and trial and tribulation that's been cut short. to three and a half, probably not literal years, but it's time of travail that's been cut short. If you haven't picked up on it in the chapter, there's a real theme of the Exodus going on in the chapter. And where God provides for his people in the wilderness. And you see that in the actual Exodus experience of God's people in the Old Testament. God delivers them from Egypt. But then there's this time in the wilderness. They don't immediately go into the promised land. And it's a picture of our own deliverance by Jesus Christ. Yet we're not immediately ascending to glory. We go through our wilderness wanderings, if you want to call it that, in this life. We're waiting for the return of Christ when we will be taken up to glory. So a couple verses from the Old Testament here. 1 Kings chapter 17, we see it like Elijah, where it says in verse 2, Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Get away from here, turn eastward, and hide by the brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you'll drink from the brook, and that I have commanded the ravens to feed you there." That Elijah was to go into the wilderness, and God was going to be his provider and provision. He was going to take care of Elijah while he was in that wilderness experience. When you see Elijah fleeing from Jezebel, not one of his strongest moments, but he flees because Jezebel threatens to kill him. In 1 Kings 19.4, it says, But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree, and he prayed that he might die, and said, It is enough now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my father's. And did he die? No. The Lord provided for him. The Lord revealed himself to Elijah in a fresh way in that experience. When God is speaking to his people in the Old Testament through the prophet Hosea, in Hosea 2.14, he says, Therefore, behold, I will allure her. They were drifting. And God says, I'm going to allure her. I will bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak comfort to her. It's in those wilderness experiences that we go through as Christians, that God strengthens us, and provides for us, and nourishes us, and reveals himself to us in fresh and new ways. You see that in the summary of the faith of the saints in Hebrews 11.38, where the writer of Hebrews writes, of whom the world was not worthy, they wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens, and caves of the earth, right? And their wilderness experiences, but God was with them, using them, filling them with his words, the prophets of old, right? So I believe this is a picture of the church in her wilderness experience here on planet earth. as we await the return of Christ. And I believe that three and a half year period is actually the entire period from the Ascension to Jesus' return. But our God's with us and He provides for us as we seek Him in prayer. But God's a provider. Hendrickson, in his commentary, wrote this. I think this is good. Or I wouldn't be sharing it with you. It says, three factors emerge from spending time in the desert. A person is completely dependent on God to provide the material and spiritual necessities of life. The desert is always a temporary place. And last, the desert is a place where God trains his people spiritually and prepares them for service. Thus, the members of the church depend on God to be their provider and protector. They also realize that their stay on earth is but temporary while just about a temporary while, and they know that they are being trained for more extensive duties. And wasn't that true in the life of the apostle Paul? And we get this little hint of what God brought him through to prepare him for his ministry of being the apostle to the Gentiles. Remember, he went to Arabia, right? And there, I believe, God himself was training him and preparing him for ministry. He later went up to the apostles and confirmed that he had the true gospel. And they basically gave their blessing. Yes, yes, go to the Gentiles. And he carried out his ministry. But first, he went into the wilderness. And that's a little bit of not only what the church collective goes through, but beloved, that's what every one of us goes through. A wilderness. This isn't our home. We're walking through a wilderness here. And there's difficult days. There's trials and troubles and tribulations. And there's times where we're maligned just because we're Christians. We're thought to be, you're not one of those people that believes those fairy tales, are you? I think I shared with you, we were down witnessing in DC one time, and a woman came up to ridicule us, and handed the lady that was next to me, handing out gospel tracts, a little teeny unicorn horn, and said, here's a unicorn horn for you. I just saw him right around the bush. And what she was meaning was what? Just like your fairy tales, is what she was meaning. So there's warfare in heaven. In verse 7, war broke out in heaven. And Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. And the dragon and with his angels, they fought. So there's war going on, right? It says, but they did not prevail, nor was place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, there's that language, that serpent of old, the devil, Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him, cast out of heaven. He is called the great deceiver. He works through seduction and deceit. And it would be good for us to know that. The Bible speaks of us knowing the wiles of the devil. That we would understand. The Bible speaks of husbands and wives. If you're going to separate for a little bit for prayer, you've got to come back together. You don't want to give the devil a foothold. We have to know how the devil works. But he's a deceiver. If you remember in the Gospels, Jesus... It was really interesting. It's the same chapter in the Gospel where Peter says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And it's just a couple of verses later where he's trying to convince Jesus not to go to Jerusalem to be put to death. And Jesus turns on him and says, Get behind me, Satan. I don't think he was saying Peter was, at that moment, filled with the devil, that the devil had taken him over. I think what he was saying was, the evil one has deceived you. He's seduced your mind into thinking this. You don't have the things of God in mind, Peter. You have the things of man in mind. I'm going to the cross to die for the sins of my people. Philip Hughes, in his commentary, says, Here the armies in conflict are the angelic hosts under the leadership of the great archangel Michael on one side, and the great archdemon, the dragon, on the other. And the engagement takes place in heaven, where the dragon has mobilized the great rebellion against God and his authority. The reference is to warfare that has long continued rather than a particular battle. And the development of central importance here is the climactic moment that has arrived when the dragon and his angels are cast down to the earth. This does not mean that their evil influence had not previously been exercised on the earth, for indeed it had, from Eden onward. But now an event of literally crucial significance has taken place. Namely, the death of the incarnate Son on the cross. And I think that's what's being conveyed here, is that if you remember, the devil had access to the courtroom of God in heaven. He comes into the courtroom one day from going to and fro on the earth, and he comes to God, and God says, have you considered my servant Job? Kind of points out Job. Not a man more righteous than this guy on the whole planet. And he accuses Job of not loving God. Because he says, of course he's righteous. Look what you've done. You put a hedge of protection around him. You put a hedge of protection around his family, everything he's got. You remove that hedge and he'll curse you to your face. That's what Satan said. And you know the story of the book of Job, what carries out. But he's been cast out now, because of the cross. Satan was definitively defeated at the cross. And we'll look at this when you see, how does the church overcome? And there's three things, the way that the church overcomes. But he can't accuse us any longer, because we can point to the cross. We can almost say, Satan, you're right. Everything you're saying about me is absolutely true. But the Son of God died for me in my stead. He can't accuse us any longer if we're in Christ Jesus. As a matter of fact, Charles Wesley picked up on that thought in his hymn, Arise, My Soul, Arise. In the third stanza, he writes, Five bleeding wounds he bears, Received on Calvary, They pour effectual prayers, They strongly speak for me. Forgive him. Oh, forgive, they cry, nor let that ransomed sinner die." His blood, his blood, right? We'll look at that when we see how we overcome in a moment. And then there's a song of victory in heaven. Verse 10. 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." Right? Satan is a defeated foe. Keistmaker writes, throughout this chapter, Satan is portrayed as a five-time loser. Because it's mentioned five times. while Christ and His church are victorious. And that's why Paul writes to the church in Rome, in chapter 16, in verse 20, and says, "...and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly." In a short amount of time. And in the meantime, endure. Endure. So the accuser's been cast out. So how does the church overcome? How do we overcome the devil? They overcame him, past tense, right? It's a done deal because of the cross. They overcame him, one, by the blood of the lamb. We saw in chapter 7 verse 14 where it said, These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. That's how we overcome the devil. You think the devil doesn't still try to whisper in your ear or one of his demons? Who are you? Who are you to get up in that pulpit and preach, I know who you are, he says. I know what you've done. I know how you failed this week. Who are you to call yourself a pastor and get in that pulpit and preach the Word of God? And we have to point the devil right to the cross. You know, Satan, I agree. I'm not the righteous one. I'm only righteous in the pure righteousness of my Savior, Jesus Christ, who died for me. You're a defeated foe, Satan, because I point to the cross, and I say, that's where my Savior bled unto death, and died an atoning death for me. Right? So they overcome by the blood of the Lamb. Secondly, they overcome by the word of their testimony. Warren Wiersbe, in his commentary, and he's in a little bit of a different rut than I am in his opinion of Revelation, but it's a good quote. Warren Wiersbe writes, Christ's shed blood gives us our perfect standing before God, but our witness to God's word and our willingness to lay down our lives for Christ defeats Satan as well. Satan is not equal to God. He's not omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. His power is limited and his tactics must fail when God's people trust the power of the blood and of the Word. Nothing Satan does can rob us of salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. if we are yielded to him, right? He's a defeated foe. And then third, by loving Christ more than we even love our own lives, right? I look at that, and it very well could be that none of us will ever be called upon to actually die a witness death, a martyr death. Those two words mean the same thing. A witness, a martyr. We might, and if we are called to that at one point, we have to be willing to be true to Christ. And as they say, let the chips fall where they may, right? But I think even beyond just not loving our lives unto death is kind of the way the original language speaks. But that we give our lives. We give our lives to Christ, to Christian service. We serve God all of our lives. We serve the brethren all of our lives. We give up our life in service to his church, his people, to God himself. They overcome by the blood, and by the word, and by their testimony, and hereby not loving their lives unto death. And Satan knows that his time's short, the Bible says. I was listening to a really good sermon on this chapter by D.A. Carson. And I really love his writings. But I happened to find a sermon. It was a teaching, probably. It sounded more like a Bible study. But it was really good. And he talked about, just practical in our lives, our experiences, how when people know they're defeated, the end is coming. It's soon. You almost can see it in the sporting world as all the fights break out, like right at the end of the football game, when the losing team realizes they're done, they're defeated. And then they're on the field getting in fist fights and whatnot. But he gave the example, and I thought it was a good example, of World War II and Hitler. And when the Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy and stormed across Europe on their way to Germany, Hitler himself, he had to have known his time was short. I think we landed like 1.1 million troops on top of that equipment. And when we stormed the beach and those soldiers, in their bravery, went to the cliffs and took out the gun, I can't remember what you call those things. No, I'm talking about the concrete gun safe holds, I call them, turrets. But when they went up there and took that, the war was, in effect, over. It was just a matter of time, when we were going to get there and accomplish this. But Hitler didn't give up. And what happened? They're going on the march, and we're progressing in World War II. And this horrible event occurs where Hitler is throwing everything he's got at the middle of this line. And you get what's been known as the Battle of the Bulge. Right? The Ardennes Forest. I mean, if you're a World War II buff, I heard it's mandatory after you hit 40, you have to watch TV shows about World War II. So I watched those. But he was roaring because his time was short. I mean, Hitler was even training up little boys and giving them guns. 14, 15, 16 year old little boys. The Hitler youth and sending them into the battle. That's what Satan's doing. Satan knows he's a defeated foe. We can point him to the cross and have victory. We can defeat him by the word of our testimony. But he knows that his time is short. So in verse 13, now when the dragon saw that he'd been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman. He turns his full-blown attention, in my estimation, on the church, on those who are God's people. Dragon now battling against the church on earth. But she's given these wings like an eagle, right? That's reminiscent of God's protection in the Old Testament, Isaiah 40. But those who wait on the Lord, he shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. When God is speaking of how he delivered the Jewish people from Egypt in Exodus 19.4, it says, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. And that's the same language we see here in Revelation chapter 12. And then it says in verse 15 that, "...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. The earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth." It's a picture of God delivering God's people from their enemies, right? You almost get, coming to mind there, Moses, by God's power, leading the Israelites through the Red Sea, right? The sea waters, they were blocked. Remember Moses stopped? And what did God say to Moses? He said, why are you talking to me? Why are you looking up to them? I told you to lead them. Moses was thinking, there's a sea. Right? And he strikes it with a staff, and you know the story. And it's very much the picture you see here of God delivering the church through these events where Satan is coming after us like a flood. And you'll see that language all through the Old Testament, by the way. Psalm 18.4, the pangs of death surround me, and the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. Psalm 32.6, for this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to you. in a time when you may be found, surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him." Psalm 124.2, if it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive. when their wrath was kindled against us, then the waters would have overwhelmed us, the stream would have gone over our soul, then the swollen waters would have gone over our soul." And how does that start? If not the Lord been by our side, if we didn't have the Lord with us, right? So I'm gonna wrap up with two thoughts. And I got this from listening to D.A. Carson, but I thought it was good. And I've already covered this, but I think I'll end with it just for emphasis. The reason why Satan rages against the church, why is he doing that? One, because his time is short, he's defeated. Two, his fear is restricted, he's been cast out of heaven to the earth. And three, because his success is limited. The church will prevail. And how will the church prevail? By the blood of the Lamb. We point Satan to the cross. By our testimony, preaching the gospel, teaching the gospel, personal testimony. And third, by giving our lives away in faithful service to our Lord and to his church. They love not their lives even unto death. Well, let's pray. Our Father and our God, we ask your blessing again, Lord, this time that the word has been tucked away in our minds, our hearts, And now, Lord, we ask that you would just massage these truths, that we would walk in your ways. We would walk in not human confidence, but in God confidence. And Lord, thank you for that. In Jesus' name. Amen. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you. and give you peace. Go in the peace of Christ Jesus to a world that desperately needs to hear the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.