Revelation 12 verses 13 through 17. These are God's words. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the 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. And then so far the reading of God's inspired and inerrant word. In the previous passage in Revelation 12, we saw the three great examples and reminders that the devil is continuously defeated, that he was defeated when he fell from heaven with the angels whom he also had deceived. He was defeated at the cross of Christ. He's defeated continually by the saints who overcome him. by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, and love not their lives, even unto death." But this does not mean that the devil is benign, safe, not dangerous, not harmful. We ought to take him seriously, especially in his attacks upon the church and her children throughout this age. Notice that the church that he continues to attack is the same woman as the one who gave birth to the child. There's no room for dispensationalism in the view of scripture. There's no room for the idea that Old Testament Israel and the New Testament Church are two different things, that the one has replaced the other. No, Old Testament Israel was always a covenantal spiritual entity. It wasn't even purely ethnic, even from its beginning. If you look closely at Exodus 12, you see that a mixed multitude came out with Israel and was incorporated into Israel in order to participate in the taking of the Passover. The church is one throughout the ages. She is the woman who gave birth to the child, and she's now the woman whom the devil continuously attacks. And all those who genuinely believe are her offspring. Notice her offspring are those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. To be offspring of the woman, to be offspring of the invisible church, true spiritual members of the church, it's more than just your formal, covenantal, external church membership. It's having the testimony of Jesus Christ and by the life of Christ in you, keeping the commandments of God. Well, there's the fierce attack of the dragon, there's fierce attack of the devil, but there are multiple comforts given us. in the face of the attacks of the devil here. First, that God himself is our strength. The woman is given two wings of a great eagle. We do not sprout wings, as it were, but Ephesians 6, we stand in the Lord and the strength of his might, and we do so by use of his armor. Isaiah 40, we wait upon the Lord, and we renew our strength, and we mount up with wings as eagles. The one who is in the world, the one who has been cast down to the earth, verse 13, is very fierce and strong and dreadful indeed. But the Lord also comes to us in 1 John and says, greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. I don't know what kind of dreams you guys have had. I don't seem to have dreams like this anymore in my older age. I don't know why I don't have dreams like this anymore, but when I was younger, I would have dreams that were a little bit similar to being chased by people and being able suddenly to sprout wings and fly away. the Christian who waits upon the Lord mounts up on wings like eagles. So the first thing that the church has is the Lord himself is her strength. The second thing is that wherever she is chased to, wherever you end up, you end up there in the providence of your God. And so to you, it may seem like a place that you ran to, a place you didn't want to end up at, a place that you got cornered at. People do not choose, well, people in their right mind do not choose to go into the wilderness. But notice what the wilderness is for her in verse 14, the place where she is nourished. Wherever you end up, it's in the providence of your God. It's what He did plan for you as the place where He would nourish you, the place that He would take care of you, the place that He would grow you. He's always nourishing you, taking care of you, growing you. And he is sovereign over your whole life. So wherever you end up, wherever you go, whether Cyprus under a psychopath or back home to the States with nothing living above your father-in-law's garage or your grandpa's garage or your dad's garage. wherever he takes you, whatever the condition of the house, anything like that, even whatever attacks you are under. If there's a narcissistic, satanically deceptive person who everyone can't see the way that she controls and manipulates all relational situations, and you're tempted to focus on the person and to focus on being in despair, well, you're actually under attack by someone worse than the most narcissistic person in the world. All these people who are in these toxic, hostile, dangerous relational situations, and I'm not saying they don't exist, every believer, every church is in such a situation from the devil himself. And yet, the place where you are, the circumstances that you are in, though they be as a wilderness, have been planned for you by God, and they are the place where He is nourishing you and taking care of you. So not only do we have God Himself as our strength, not only is the place that you are in planned by him, is the place where he takes care of you, but he also shortens the time. Again, you have this time, times, and half a time. So one plus two plus a half is three and a half, which is... half of seven. In other words, the complete time that it could have been had been intentionally shortened. The Lord makes the times of our persecution intentionally short out of compassion for us and out of regard for our frame. We've seen this listed as the three and a half years. We've seen this listed as 42 months. Here, a time, times, and half a time. It's the same concept as Jesus when he's telling about the fall of Jerusalem, and in that particular instance he also says that the days are shortened out of regard for our frailty and our need. So however long your trial seems, Know that there isn't one unnecessary moment of it, and that God has made it intentionally as short as possible for your sake, because He knows your frame, that you are like grass, like Psalm 103 says, here today and then thrown into the fire. So the Lord is our strength. You have the spreading the wings of the eagle. The place where we are is the place that he has prepared for us, for our preservation and provision, protection. He has intentionally shortened the time And then he reminds us that as fierce as the devil is, he's but a creature. He is not God. This was how he fell. He thought that he might be as the most high and exalt himself above the angels. As we read in Isaiah about how the devil came to fall. Here in verse 15, he tries to make a flood in his wrath. Like God made a flood in his wrath. Only problem is the devil isn't God. He can't make a flood that goes up above the mountains. The only thing he can make is what the crazy evolutionists say must have been the case, that it was a localized flood that went above the mountains. Not quite that, but notice his flood. The earth opens its mouth and swallows the flood. The power of the devil is limited. He's but a creature. His wrath is not like the wrath of God. It is not able to obtain its ends against the church. And so do take the devil and his fierceness seriously in part so that you might all the more trust in the Lord against him and praise God for his infinite superiority over him, the devil is unable to consume the objects of his wrath. And so know that if you are the genuine offspring of the woman, If you are a genuine believer in Christ, you have the testimony of Christ. If you are a genuine obeyer of the commandments of God, then you will be persecuted. As the apostle tells Timothy, everyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And as we see here, the dragon, who is unable to destroy the church, attacks every individual believer he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And so if you are a genuine believer, then the dragon has gone to make war with you. This is not something to be taken lightly. Something to be taken by faith in the Lord by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony and loving not your life even unto death It's not something to be taken lightly, but it's not something of which at which to be dismayed either because one of the things that That it is an indicator of if the devil genuinely is attacking you if you genuinely are persecuted, one of the things it may be an indicator of is that you are her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. And so praise God for the encouragement and comfort that he gives us even in the fierce attack that we are under during the time between the two comings of Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we do pray that you would make us to wait upon you and to mount up with wings like eagles and renew our strength. Please continue ruling and overruling all things for the good of your church, generally, corporately, and for the good of each of us believers individually as well. I pray that every member of our family would indeed be offspring of the woman and would have the testimony of Christ and keep God's commandment. Grant all these things we ask through Jesus. Amen.