Our scripture lesson is from Revelation chapter 12. As we continue in this brief series on the church in Revelation, we want to consider this evening the fact that the church is at war or in a war. It's a sobering truth, but we'll also see that there's a comforting reality in that truth as well. And as we read chapter 12, if I haven't mentioned this before, I should have, but The proper way to read Revelation is not to try to find some straight historical timeline from the beginning until the end. That's just simply not possible. Revelation 12 should make that very, very plain. But the whole book is a series of seven cycles through the whole history of the age of the world and especially of the age of Jesus Christ. And so what we have, especially in chapter 12, but in all of these different cycles is we have multiple glimpses of history from various angles, from various angles. You might think about it like if you're a sports fan and you're watching a football game and a great play happens, you're going to see that play about five more times from five different camera angles. or if you watch hunting videos, which I hope you do sometime, you're gonna see sometimes different angles. You see the main camera, and you'll see a GoPro from over here, and sometimes you get a trail camera picture from down here, all the same shots. That's a little bit like what Revelation is doing. It's showing us the same truth, the same time frame, the age of the Church of Christ from different angles. That's what we'll see not only in the section in which chapter 12 falls, but in the different parts of chapter 12. I'll try to alert you to those. Um, we're not seeing just a straight sequence of events from the beginning of revelation to the end, or sometimes even within chapters. So with that thought in mind, we hear God's word from revelation chapter 12 and a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and on her head, a crown of 12 stars. She was pregnant. and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child, he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. But her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1260 days. Now war arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down. That ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives even unto death, Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle. so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood. But the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea. Amen. Well, friends, we've heard a few times from this book, something that we could find in chapter one and in chapter 22, the first and last chapters of this book, that Revelation shows believers what must soon take place. What must soon take place? It does that, of course, but it does more than that. It's not simply talking about future events. It also reveals what we might call the whole entire spiritual history of the world. And by spiritual history, I mean an account of what has happened and what is happening now and what will happen that is invisible to the eye. It's a spiritual history. So men write, men and women write books about the history of this country and of that event and that war. And those are things that we can see and hear about and find relics of on earth. But what Revelation tells us about is a spiritual history, the deeper history, the things that cannot be seen with the eye. And knowing that history of things past and present, and future is vital to living by faith, because it's what cannot be seen. It tells us, this history does, the deeper truths about reality. It confirms to us, as Paul says in Ephesians 6, verse 12, that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. the things that can be seen, the countries or the empires or the various opponents in our day and age. Instead, we wrestle against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. What Paul is saying, put simply, is that we, Christians, are in a spiritual war. We are in a spiritual war. And that's what Revelation reveals to us. Clearly, Chapter 12 reveals that to us, but the whole book presents that to us. So that's one of the important things that Revelation does. It shows us the things that cannot be seen. And sometimes with images that aren't, of course, meant to be literal, paint a picture of a deeper spiritual reality. So Satan, for example, doesn't have seven heads and ten horns with seven diadems on his head. It's painting a picture of a degree of power and tyranny over this present world. But it's showing us something you can't see by just looking around. But just as important as that, Revelation also reveals the outcome of this conflict. It doesn't leave us in suspense in terms of how this war will end. What it tells us is that the saints of God, ordinary believers who trust in the Savior, united to Christ the victor, will overcome the evil one. And that means that our labors in the Lord, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, are not in vain. What would you do if you knew you were fighting a losing battle? Right? If you took a boat out onto a lake and it sprang such a leak that the ship, the boat is surely going to sink. At first, you might try to bail water out, but eventually you'd say, this ship is sinking. I'm not going to fight the water anymore. I'm just going to jump out. you'd quit. And that's what Revelation doesn't want us to do. That's what God doesn't want us to do. This is not a losing battle. Your labors are not in vain. Resistance is not futile, though it may feel that way sometimes. And so what we have in chapter 12 is an allegory, a story about things that we can sort of visualize and imagine that have such characters as a dragon, and a woman and her son and her other offspring, which tells us the deeper spiritual history of the world. It tells about the coming of Christ, the defeat of Satan, and the victory of the church, among other things. And so let's give our attention to these two points this evening. First of all, we'll see in this chapter, Satan's war against the Christ, the anointed one of God, the Messiah. And then second, we'll consider Satan's war against the church. So first of all, Satan's war against Christ and At the beginning of this chapter, John tells us that he sees a sign. So that sign is pointing to something else. He's not seeing sort of a literal history, he's seeing a sign of something. And the sign that he sees is a dragon bent on killing a woman's newborn son. Dragons positioned himself in front of the woman who's about to give birth to a son in order to devour him. a very strong, picturesque scene. And he tells us later on in this chapter, at least explicitly, who some of the characters are. We learn in verse 9 that the dragon is that ancient serpent. So already, if you know your Bible, you're in Genesis 3, aren't you? You're picturing that serpent, that deceiver, that he's the ancient serpent who's called the devil. and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. And he wants to devour the baby that is born to this woman. So you hear that and that imagery immediately suggests to you probably the birth of Christ. And we'll get to that because it certainly does significantly include that. But the scene depicts much more than this single event of the birth of Christ and Satan's intent to devour the Christ in that moment. This conflict between the dragon and the woman and her son is about the ongoing war between God's true son, the Lord Jesus, and that usurper, the one who wants to be seated on the throne. We learn throughout Scripture some of the things that Revelation 12 touches on. We learn that the devil who was made as an angel, perhaps the highest angel, was unsatisfied with his position as an angel and so has tried from the very beginning to be a god. to displace the true God and his Christ. And we see him acting in this way from the beginning of the history of redemption. He deceived Adam and Eve and instigated their fall into sin. He'd already fallen from glory and now seeks to wreak havoc on the world. So deceived the man and the woman to bring much hardship into this world. Consequently, as we read in Genesis 3, the Lord promised that though Satan would be constantly resisting God's plan, God would send a victor who would crush the devil and his rebellion. And I don't know if you've noticed this before or if I've mentioned this, but that promise, what we sometimes call the mother promise in Genesis 3.15, is actually spoken to the devil. It's something that Adam and Eve overhear, thankfully, but it's the Lord telling the devil, you will rise up and continually be trying to frustrate my plans, but I will defeat you. It's a wonderful promise. And so what we have here in this scene of this dragon trying to devour this child coming from this woman is descriptive of the entire history of conflict between the true son and the usurper Satan. And so while we might see, as we're trying to figure out these characters mentioned in this allegory, while we might see the woman as Mary, the mother of Jesus, or perhaps Eve, the mother of all the living, as Genesis 3.20 calls her, she is also, and probably most truly here in this allegory, a picture of Israel. The people who would give birth to the Messiah who would defeat the devil. And so the dragon's attempt to devour the woman's baby is a long story. It's not just this conflict at the fullness of time in the coming of Jesus Christ. It's the long story of his attempt to prevent the coming of the Messiah that Mother Israel would deliver. So Satan has always tried to prevent Messiah's reign. And we see this in many instances in the Old Testament. You might be able to think of several examples of how the devil sought to prevent the people of Israel ever coming to continue as a people and thereby be able to deliver the Christ. You could think of the devil being behind Pharaoh's murders of the baby Hebrew boys in Egypt, in Exodus. Or you might see, as I know some of the young ladies of our church studied in the Kingdom Seekers season, you might see the devil behind Haman's plans to eradicate the Jews. You might see in the New Testament, Satan behind Herod's murders of the male children in Bethlehem. That may be, in a certain sense, one of the clearest images of Satan trying to devour this male child having been born to this woman. You see many other examples as well, but what we see throughout scripture is every plan of the devil has failed. Every plan of the devil has failed because Christ, the Savior, as we read not long ago in Galatians chapter four, was indeed born of a woman and flourished in godliness and in righteousness. in his lifetime on earth and beyond. Even after Christ was born, Satan continued his war against the Christ. We see that in the Gospels. But even there, every attempt was unsuccessful. You see this conflict pointedly, as I mentioned in our psalm meditation, in Satan's temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. There's a direct attack by the devil against the Christ to cause him to fail in his mission, but it was Satan who failed. We may see Satan trying to discourage the Lord Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane to keep him from going through with this plan that he had committed to. But the Lord Jesus, shaken in some way as he clearly was, says to the Father, not my will, but your will be done. He perseveres in his redemptive work. Satan failed most magnificently in Christ's crucifixion. Because even in death, Christ was conquering Satan and sin and death. Now, that's not what it looked like, right? That's why what we see here is a spiritual history of redemption. It didn't look like Christ was conquering. It looked like he was being conquered. but he was conquering Satan and sin and death. And after this great victory, we see what Revelation 12 verse 5 is talking about. So Satan is crouched, ready to devour the child when he's born. Verse 4, she gave birth to a male child. Verse 5, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but before the devil could pounce on the Christ, her child was caught up to God and to his throne. That is a reference to the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, where he's caught up into heaven. And we read in Hebrews 1 verse 3, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, having completed his work and being recognized as the victor. And so what we see in the first six verses of Revelation 12 is the earthly conflict between Christ and Satan personified by this woman and her child and the dragon making war against the woman and eventually the child. So we see that many times. rehearsed and repeated in the Old Testament going into the New Testament as well. Earthly conflict between Christ and Satan. Now, when we get to the next six verses, what we have is not necessarily a chronological continuation, but another angle to this same conflict, a heavenly angle. Behind the earthly conflicts between Christ and Satan. So we've we've mentioned a few of them Pharaoh and the baby boys in Egypt or Haman and the Jews, and there's many others as well. Behind all of these conflicts between Christ and Satan and the church and the world is a heavenly, spiritual war. And so it says, war arose in heaven. It's not only starting after the events described in verses 1 through 6. It's just saying, now this is what was happening. War arose in heaven. Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And we see that also behind the events that the gospel writers witnessed and bystanders witnessed. Consider what happened when Christ went to the cross, something that even a heathen historian could write about because he saw it and could have said, here's what happened. But he can't see what was behind what was happening. Bystanders saw the Jews and the Romans colluding to crucify Jesus of Nazareth under false charges. But in heaven, As Christ died, as we could see in verse 10, a loud voice announced the coming of God's salvation, his power, his kingdom, and the authority of his Christ. Listen to verse 10, the cry in heaven says this, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. That couldn't be seen from earth, but it's what's happening in the deeper reality. When Christ was raised up, as he promised in John chapter 12, for example, Christ was raised up, Satan was cast down. And that's the foundation of our faith, a thing that can't be seen, but is the most important event in history. And it's through the lens of Christ's victory on the cross over the devil that we need to see our spiritual fight. And so having considered this evening the devil's war against the Christ, a failed conflict, failed from the beginning, will fail colossally at the end when the devil is thrown into hell and locked there so that he can never return to make mischief on the saints. Through the lens of that reality, we need to see our spiritual fight. And that's what John sees as he transitions from the war of the devil against Christ, which is victorious because of Jesus, he helps us to see that we also are at war with the devil. So let's consider Satan's war against the church. And if you know the Bible story, if you know the reality of salvation being union with Christ, then you would expect that Satan's fight against God's Son must involve those who are united to him by faith. Because that union is a real union. If Christ is assaulted by the devil, it cannot be different for his people who are united to him And so we read about that in verse 13, which says, Now again, John isn't referring to a particular event in history, but rather God's constant providential care of his Old Testament people against the devil's devices. We read in verse 14 of chapter 12 that when Satan turns against the church, having been cast out of heaven, the Lord prepared a place for her. He nourished her. He preserved within the race a remnant of holy people. I'm thinking the Old Testament, but also the New Testament as well, preserved within Israel a race of a remnant, rather, of holy people who live by faith. Hebrews 11 tells us about that, doesn't it? There's these people whom God preserved under the attacks of the devil with all kinds of temptations to give up the fight and save what part of their life they could save in this age. But they wouldn't. They refused to do it. They lived by faith amid persecution because, the writer says, they expected a better resurrection. With the coming of Christ, it was clear that Satan failed to frustrate God's plan of redemption. But he didn't stop fighting. And so we read in verse 17 that the dragon went off to make war with the rest of her offspring. So I think we should see this as sort of a transition between the Old Testament and the New Testament. Mother Israel being this woman, Satan failed to defeat her. The Christ came, born of a woman, but now he went off to make war on the rest of her offspring. That's the church. The New Testament church is the offspring of Mother Israel. Paul teaches that in his epistles as well. We've come out of Israel. And so Satan still wars against the church. And the way that John describes who the church is, who the people are that the devil rages against is very important for us to recognize. I'm thinking of verse 17. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war with the rest of her offspring. Who is that? It's not just people who go to church. or call themselves religious, or who identify as Christian. No, he's making war on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Satan isn't concerned about nominal Christians, those who simply take the name of Jesus Christ. They're already not truly for Christ, as Jesus says. He's not concerned about those who perform church rituals from a heart that's devoid of love for the Lord and that doesn't bear fruit in real life. Satan hates those instead who are really, genuinely on Jesus' side, who are engaged in the same battle, not against flesh and blood, but against these principalities, these powers, these heavenly forces. That's why we sang this evening that great hymn of Martin Luther. He writes in that hymn of the, and I love the imagery, seems to be flowing from Revelation chapter 12 and verse 15, he speaks of the flood of mortal ills. The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to keep her away with a flood and Luther says, That's the flood of mortal ills that true believers face. He goes on to say this, our ancient foe, language from verse nine, doth seek to work us woe and his craft and power are great. So craft is like the skill that you might have. If you're a crafts person, you have a certain skill. So his skill and his power are great and armed with cruel hate on earth. is not his equal. The earth is filled with devils who, as Luther said, threaten to undo us. But that's why the chapter reveals to us that we're not fighting alone. Now verse 7 says, Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back. Now they're going to be defeated. But you need to know, as a Christian who's engaged in the fight, that you're not fighting alone. Michael and the angels are fighting against the devils. You can't see them, but Hebrews 1 verse 14 reminds us that the angels are fighting on the side of those who will inherit salvation. They're ministering servants sent out for those who are going to inherit salvation. And so the fight is going to be won because of the virtue of God and the angels the host of heaven, the army of heaven. But it's more than that, as Paul says in Romans 16, verse 20, that under Christ's care, our own feet will soon crush Satan. So, in other words, there's a couple things going on here, isn't there? There's the fact that we're not fighting alone. Christ is interceding for us. The angels of God are fighting against the angels of Satan in ways that we can't recognize all the time. So we're not fighting alone. That's wonderfully good news, but we must fight. That's why Paul says your feet will crush the devil by your works of godliness, by your keeping of the commandments, by your prayers, by your support of the gospel going out into the world in places where Satan has already lost his ability to deceive the nations and the number of believers in Christ is swelling. Christ will help us to defeat the devil, to defeat Satan. And I want to close on a note of application that flows from that encouraging reminder that God's people will conquer. We read that in verse 11, talking about this battle between the devil and the church, and they have conquered him. Now, he's seeing something that isn't fully manifested in this present age yet, but he's telling us already they have conquered him. John notes three ways that believers conquer Satan. So I want to close with this because this is immensely practical. Because we don't always think about it, but even at this very moment, you're doing battle against Satan, right? Satan wants you to not hear a word of this sermon, to be distracted by other things, to leave this place and get involved in other things, forget about what you've heard. You're going to face challenges and trials in the week. You're in a war. against the devil if you're a child of God. So how do you conquer? How will you conquer? The story is already told in heaven. How will you conquer here on earth? And three things that John notes. First of all, he says they conquered by the blood of the lamb. So it's the lamb's blood. It's his atonement. It's his crushing of the head of Satan. But the saints conquered by that blood. Christ's blood is the only antidote to Satan's venomous accusations. If we're using the same sort of imagery that the writer does here in chapter 12, then we ought to apply this to the, one of the main functions of Satan is to deceive and to accuse. Satan is the great accuser. He is the accuser of our brothers, verse 10 says. And that's what he does. He comes to you and he accuses. Satan says that our sins make us too wretched for God to love us. And you've probably felt that at some point in your Christian walk. Maybe often you think, how could God love me? Why would Christ have died for me? And the accusation starts to feel plausible, that this gospel business couldn't be true. That's what Satan wants you to believe. But Christ, the gospel says, went to the cross to prove God's love for his children. That's why he did it. That's why he shed his blood. And so the saints take the blood of Christ, as it were, and throw it back at the accusations of the devil. So Satan says, because of your sins, you cannot be saved. And the Christian says in response, because of Christ's blood, I cannot be lost. And that's how you overcome Satan. That's how you defeat his accusations, his slanders, his lies, his undermining of the gospel. The blood of the lamb is how we conquer. There's a second way that the saints conquer according to this chapter, and that is by the word of their testimony. And this could tie in to that earlier meditation on Psalm 119 and the showdown between Christ and Satan in the early days of his ministry. The word of God, when we believe it, when we learn it, when we internalize it, when we trust in it, when we wield it, when we recall it, The word of God becomes a powerful sword against Satan's devices. By storing God's word in our heart and retelling it in a time of temptation, like Jesus, we send the devil away in frustration. It was the Word of God that sent him away. And we have that same weapon in our arsenal, our spiritual arsenal that we read about, for example, in Ephesians 6. So we defeat Satan by the Word of our testimony, holding on to the Word of God. believing it, trusting in it, living according it. And then third, John says, or he sees the loud voice, or hears the loud voice saying that they, the saints, conquered by properly valuing eternal life. By properly valuing eternal life. He says in verse 11, For they loved not their lives, even unto death. Those who conquer Satan are not afraid of him. Not afraid of the difficulty God may allow him to bring into their lives. They don't overvalue this present life. They aren't willing to throw off eternal life. for a life of present ease, because they value eternal life. And that's how they conquer. They expect Jesus, as we heard in Hebrews chapter 11, to give them a better resurrection, a resurrection unto a better life. And so we conquer Satan by saying, Satan, that what you're offering is fading. It's failing. It's a kingdom that's already been defeated and is presently crumbling. I have no interest in what you're offering, what you're claiming to be able to give, because I love not this present life unto death. I would rather give my life, not just as an official martyr, but I would rather give this present life and all of the allurements of the world, I'd rather give it up because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has promised to give to me in glory. And so what chapter 12 does is it reminds us of a sobering truth that if you are part of the church militant, a true believer in Jesus Christ, connected to the body of Christ, but not yet in heaven, not yet in glory, you are in a war. And it tells us that if you are in Christ, you will win. He will win, and you will conquer with him. He told his disciples in Luke chapter 10, I saw Satan fall like lightning, reminiscent of what we hear in this chapter. He gives his disciples authority over the power of the enemy. So Satan is already defeated. He's presently a leader of a failed rebellion. And yet, we read in 1 Peter 5.8, he still prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He's furious. Revelation 12 says in verse 17, he became furious. like a condemned criminal on the run. Sometimes you hear news reports about someone who broke out of prison, but they've sent a thousand people into one small part of a town, they're gonna close in and they're gonna capture that person again. But it can do all kinds of damage in the meantime. That's a little picture of what the devil is like in this present age. And so what God is calling us to do in response to this chapter is this, live like you understand the fight you are in. Live like you understand the fight that you are in. Trust in Christ, be watchful over your life, give no quarter to the devil's temptation, pray for the Holy Spirit to give you heavenly strength. A lot of different ways to pray for heavenly strength, but I like the way Isaac Watts suggests that Christian soldiers ought to pray. He says this, let this be your prayer. Since I must fight if I would reign, that's true, isn't it? I must fight if I would reign, increase my courage, Lord. I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, supported by thy word. If you pray and live like this, you will surely conquer Satan, who is no match for God's Christ. Let's pray together. Our Father in heaven, we worship you as the great God of our forefathers, and the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have been pleased to give us this insight into what's really happening in this world. It's much more happening than what we can see, than what historians will record. The Christ is conquering the devil and bringing the church victorious in his wake. We pray that we would live like we understand the fight that we are in that we would use the blood of Christ to frustrate the accusations of Satan, that we would use the word of God and that we would value properly eternal life. And so in this way we anticipate, and let this encourage us, Lord, we anticipate soon crushing Satan even under our feet. Make it happen and come Lord Jesus. Amen.