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Well, I would invite you to grab
your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Revelation, chapter
12, and we'll be in verses 7 through 12 tonight. And we began looking
at this chapter by discussing how the Bible combats other ancient
myths and other ancient Near Eastern religions. And this has
been a battle that has raged from the very moment that the
serpent slithered into the garden. And Adam and Eve, as our parents,
and we as their descendants, believed his lies over the word
of God. And so we have sought wisdom
and knowledge and life by other means other than the very one
who gives life and knowledge, who is God himself. Therefore,
chapters 12 through 15 reveal this ancient warfare that has
been going on since Genesis 3 and continues even to this day until
Christ returns. But here's what we will see tonight.
The devil knows that his days are limited. So he attacks the
church, though he will not prevail. But in fact, the church, by the
blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony, will overcome
the serpent, even unto death. Because what do we know? Even
in death, it's gain, because we get to be with the Lord. So last time we were together,
we watched this war rage between the dragon and this pregnant
woman who delivers Jesus. And we said, there's two layers
of meaning here. One, it's speaking about Mary
because she is the one who delivers Jesus into the world, but she
is a type of Israel as she is the one who fulfills this promise
to God that Israel brings the Messiah into the world. We are
saved by a Jewish Savior. Jesus has the blood of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, and Judah, and David running through his
veins. He is the very offspring of Abraham. And last time, we briefly mentioned
that not even the heavens, though, are free from conflict, and that's
what we see tonight. And tonight, John reveals to
us this war between Michael and the angels of heaven and Satan
and his angels. But even as this war rages, we
are told that Satan and his followers are defeated. and they are conquered
by the shed blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.
So with that, let us look at the text and we will read Revelation
chapter 12, beginning in verse seven, and we will read through
verse 17. Hear the word of the Lord. 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 is 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 by day and night before our God. And they have conquered
him by the blood of the lamb and 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. For 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 in the 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. The earth came to the
help of the woman. 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, let us pray. O Lord, whom have we in heaven
but you? And to whom shall we go? For you alone have the words
of eternal life. Therefore, we come to your scriptures
tonight seeking these words for our eternal life. And so we pray
that you give us eyes to see and ears to hear, a mind to understand,
a heart to believe, and your spirit to obey. Guide us with
your counsel tonight, oh Lord. Amen. Now, this is one of those passages
where we need to stop and ponder how are we to read the book of
Revelation. It doesn't appear as though John
is continuing a chronological theme as some suggest here, but
rather, this seems to be a synonymous vision that is happening concurrently
with the previous vision in chapters one and six. Or to put it another
way, the vision reveals the significance of Jesus's life, death, and resurrection
and his exaltation as a triumph over the devil and the crushing
of his head as promised in Genesis 3.15. So last week, or last time
we were together, we saw that in verses 1 through 6, and the
results of it on earth. This is the result of Jesus'
life, death, and resurrection, and his exaltation, and the results
in heaven. And what are those results? The
devil's kicked out, and he can't return any longer. So here in
verses seven and eight, the significance of Christ's triumph is unveiled
as we witness this war in heaven between Michael and his angels,
which represents God's armies, and the devil and his angels,
those who war against God. So if you would look at verses
seven and eight, it says, now war arose in heaven. So notice,
not even the heavens are free from conflict. But 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 the heavens. I love how it's
just a quick defeat. Quick, decisive, done. They were
kicked out of heaven. Like, there was no question about
it. We have this reality in our world where people think that
God and the devil are equals. But notice, it's not even God
fighting against him, it's his angels fighting against him. The devil is not the equal of
God. God is sovereign over all, and the devil must give an account
to God. We see this in the book of Job.
The devil has to come before God and give an account for what
he is doing on the earth. But it's a quick and decisive
battle. There's no question. They win. Now, this contention
between Michael and the devil has been raging for as long as
the devil has been attempting to thwart God's plan. We read
about this battle raging in the book of Daniel. In Daniel 10,
Daniel is having a conversation with an angel sent by God. And this angel says to Daniel
in Daniel 10 verses 12 and 14, then he said to me, fear not
Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand
and humble yourself before your God, that's a good line for what
we do when we pray. Just a side note. Right? We set our heart to understand
and humble ourselves before God. That's what we're doing when
we pray. Your words have been heard. That's good news for praying
people. If we would humble ourselves and set our hearts to understand
God's will for our life, here's the good news. God hears our
words. So we need to be a people who
pray. for our words have been heard.
And then listen to this, and I have come because of your words. The angel is a response from
God to the prayer of Daniel. Daniel's praying, God sends his
angel to answer his prayers. Can I give you some good news?
God loves to answer prayers. But notice, again, how prayer
is. We are setting ourselves to understand
God's heart, God's will. Too many of us will use prayer
as a means to get what we want, as though God's a genie in the
sky, granting our every wish. But that's not what Daniel is
seeking. Remember, Daniel is not in Jerusalem. Daniel is in
the diaspora. He's in exile, and yet he's still
seeking God's will. Why are we here? What are you
doing? We trust in you. Tell us. He's
aligning his heart with what God wants and wills for his life. But here's the important part
to our text tonight. The prince of the kingdom of
Persia withstood me 21 days. Now this is just language. Prince
here refers to angels. This is kind of what we see in
the beginning of the book of Revelation where messengers or
angels stand as representatives of churches. So this Prince of
Persia is a representative to the kingdom of Persia, and he's
withstanding this angel sent by God to deliver this message
for 21 days, for three weeks. I've been trying to come to you
with this answer, but this one has been fighting against me.
But Michael, One of the chief princes came to help me, for
I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you
understand what has happened to your people in the latter
days, for the vision is for days yet to come. So he's coming to
give Daniel understanding, but his attempt is being thwarted
by this Prince of Persia. But then what does God do? He
sends Michael, this greater soldier, and Michael fights on his behalf. And he is free to come. So here
we see these angelic messengers stopped by an evil angel associated
with the Persian Empire. those who are against God's people
and oppressing God's people, who is resisting God's plan and
purpose, but this angel is freed by the arrival of Michael who
fought on his behalf so that the angelic messenger could come
and deliver this good news to Daniel. Then we go down a little
bit further into verses 20 and 21, and the angel states, then
he said, do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return
to fight against the prince of Persia, and I will go out. Behold,
the prince of Greece will come. I will tell you what is inscribed
in the book of truth. There is none who contends by
my side against these except Michael, your prince." So notice
there, he's saying, I'm going back. I have delivered the good
news. I'm going back to fight. But there's this great little
phrase in there. that it says, I tell you what
is inscribed in the book of truth. The book of truth refers to the
plan of God and the plan that he has for both Israel and the
world. He's telling him about the coming
Messiah. We have seen this. Daniel 7, we have often gone
there. We see that the son of man comes
to the ancients of days and he receives a kingdom from him.
What did we see in Revelation 4 and 5? The exact same thing. The ancient of days and Jesus
coming and receiving a kingdom from his father. So it's this.
plan that God has for Israel in the world. And though the
devil rages against God's people, and he often does so through
human adversaries, we are not destroyed because God continues
to sustain and protect us through the strengthening ministry of
his own angels. And this isn't anything that
should seem weird to us, for we can go to the book of Hebrews.
where the author says in Hebrews 1.14, are they not all ministering
spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to
inherit salvation? God sends out his angels to minister
to us, to strengthen us in these times of trouble. Likewise, in
Hebrews 1.14, The New Testament, certain New Testament authors
give us an insight to the struggle that is going on even all the
way back to the time of Moses. Jude 9, Jude is a really good
book that you should go read. It's one chapter, 24 verses. You can read it tonight before
you go to bed. And then you'll probably have
weird dreams about angels. But Jude 9 says this. But when the
archangel Michael, contending with the devil, notice there's
that war that we just read about in Revelation, was disputing
about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous
judgment, but said, the Lord rebuked you. So this is one of
those great little verses that's just tucked away in the back
of your Bible. But here we see that Michael is fighting with
the devil about the body of Moses, which we're told that God is
the one who buries the body of Moses. And they're contending.
And you know what? Even this great archangel Michael
does? He says, in the name of Jesus,
in the name of the Lord, rebuke you. Even he relies upon the
power of the Lord. So as we consider the significance
of events here on earth, we must be mindful that these events
are often influenced by what is taking place in the heavens. And that is what we see here.
And often behind human events in history, there is this unseen
realm where things are taking place. That we might not understand
why certain things are happening in our lives, and yet they are
happening because God wills it, and he is in control of it. Michael
and his angels are in a heavenly battle against this dragon and
his angels. But they defeat them. But his
victory in heaven is based on Christ's triumph over the dragon
on earth through his death on the cross and his resurrection
from the grave. Now, as an interesting note,
John doesn't linger on the details of this cosmic battle, probably
to the chagrin of some people. He doesn't even really focus
on the details at all, but instead he focuses on how the battle
ends. The dragon and his minions are
expelled from heaven forever. But what is interesting is that
there are many who will devote much time to studying the mythology
of angels and demons, when there's not a lot within scripture. In
fact, I'm sure you could go on YouTube and see hours and hours,
or go find blogs and see pages upon pages of material about
the battle between Michael and his devil, and Michael and his
adversary, the devil. However, John seems uninterested
in describing the details of the battle. He just says, eh,
they lost. It is over as quickly as it's
introduced. Now, what John is concerned about
is that the dragon and his angels were defeated by Michael and
his angels of God, and they're kicked out of heaven forever.
He's not concerned with how the battle goes, other than he says,
yeah, they were defeated quickly. Now, this raises another important
question that is often discussed and debated. When was Satan thrown
out of heaven? Some identify it as happening
before the fall. He rebels in heaven, he's kicked
out, and he seeks revenge. So he goes and he corrupts Adam
and Eve. I don't read that in Genesis
3, but that's often the interpretation given by some. While others argue
that he is cast out at the end of history or somewhere in between.
We could argue from the book of Job that even after the fall
of man, Satan has some kind of access to heaven for he comes
with the sons of God to give an account before God for his
workings on the earth. We could go to Job 1 and 2 and
read those, though I'm sure you're familiar with them since I point
them out quite often. There are often, there are good
arguments for both sides, whether he was kicked out before the
fall of man, or he was kicked out after the fall of man. But
to me, it seems that's a more probable interpretation that
Satan is defeated and cast out of heaven at the death and resurrection
of Jesus. At least that's what John is
communicating here in Revelation 12. In Revelation 12.5, Jesus
is caught up before the throne of God, and then the devil is
kicked out of heaven. And as we'll see in a minute,
the saints likewise conquer through the blood of the lamb and the
word of their testimony. In verse 11. Likewise, the testimony
in the Gospels declare that the ruler of this world is cast out
because of the blood of Christ. Two instances, one we'll see
in a few weeks and on Sunday, but John 12, 31, 32, it says
this. Now is the judgment of the world. Now will the ruler of this world
be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from
the earth, will draw all people to myself. So notice the connection
there. Who is, the world is being judged. The ruler of this world
is being cast out. Who is that? The devil. And then
in verse 32, when is it connected to? When Jesus is lifted up upon
the cross. Then he is drawing people unto
himself. When he's lifted up. Luke 10, verses 17 through 20. We'll see this in a few weeks
when we read about the 72 returning, but the 72 that Jesus sends out
returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons, who would be
who? The angels of Satan. Lord, even the demons are subjected
to us in your name. So not only are they subjected
to Jesus, but they're also subjected to the people of Jesus. What
do we see in verse 11? They overcome the devil by the
blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. What do we
see here in Luke 10? That even the demons are subjected
to us. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven. Behold, I have given you authority
to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the
enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice
in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that
your names are written in heaven. But notice, he's not really focused
on us conquering the devil rather than us having life in him. That's
his focus, is our life in him. But even notice this is a playing
out of what we will see in verse 11 that we have overcome by the
blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. That is to
say the decisive defeat of Satan is at the burial or the death,
burial and resurrection of Jesus. It is there that the serpent
is bound and kicked out of heaven. And even now the demons are subject
to God's people because of the authority of Christ. But then
we read in verse 9 the identification of this dragon and what happens
to him. And the great dragon was thrown
down, the ancient serpent, who is 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. Now I find this passage
quite fascinating because we see all the different identities
that the devil has gone by throughout the history of scripture. If
you go to seminary, if you go to a liberal seminary especially,
or you read higher textual criticism upon the book of Job, people
will like to point out, well, you know, the Satan isn't actually
the devil, it's just this adversary. It means the adversary, the accuser. And then John comes along and
just destroys that argumentation. He's just like, let me tell you
every name of the devil goes by in the Bible. And it's all
the same person. He pulls back the curtain and
he's just the same guy wearing different masks. Which is why
I love this passage, because it just makes it clear. Throughout
the Old Testament, he is identified as the great dragon here in Revelation. And you can go to places in Psalms
and in Isaiah, in the book of Job, and dragons are talked about. They're often called things like
Leviathan, or sea monsters, or Rahab. Now, Rahab in Isaiah and
in the book of Job and in Psalms refers to Egypt, but it also
refers to this ancient deity, which is a sea monster. It's
the splitting of the Red Sea. God is cutting the sea monster
in half. It's the splitting of the River
Jordan, cutting the snake in half. But here's this great dragon,
this Leviathan or sea monster, and he's being identified as
the one who seeks to destroy the people of God. What did Egypt
seek to do? Destroy the people of God. So
he's this ancient dragon. He's this ancient serpent, the
one who came slithering into the garden to deceive Adam and
Eve. So he's like, he's that guy too. He is also called the
devil, which is the Greek word, which means slanderer, the one
who slanders the people of God, the one who slanders God himself.
Did God really say, oh, you won't die? God's lying to you. And Satan, which comes from Job,
which means our adversary. So John essentially says to his
reader, you know your enemy by all these names, but it's the
same person. And he has been defeated by the cross of Christ.
He is the one who came slithering into the garden, and he is the
one to which God said, there is one coming who will crush
your head. And Christ crushes his head upon the cross. Now
before the cross of Christ, Satan could legitimately accuse believers
before God and in his presence because of their sin. And we
see that in the book of Job. We get a glimpse of that in the
first two chapters of the book of Job, where Satan is called
before God to give an account for his wanderings and works
on the earth, which culminates in his persecution of Job. Now,
I would point out that God is the one who points out Job. Have
you considered my servant Job, who is upright? And then Satan
begins to accuse him. But he's only upright and righteous
because you bless him and give him all these things. All right,
take him away. And then he takes everything away from him. And
Job does not sin, but he worships God. And then he says, well,
he only worships you because he's still healthy. All right,
take it away. And he worships God and doesn't
sin with his lips. We see that the Satan comes and
persecutes the people of God. And yet, we also see there that
God still protects us even in the midst of our persecution.
The devil does not have the power to take Job's life. In fact,
he doesn't have the power to take Job's possessions until
God gives it to him. He doesn't have the power to
take Job's health until God gives it to him. But now that our sins
are cleansed and forgiven by the blood of the cross, he no
longer has any grounds to accuse the elect, so he's kicked out
for God no longer wants to hear his slithering words. Or as we read in Romans 8.1,
there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
He has lost his power. He has lost anything that he
has to say against us. For all Christ must say is, I
have died for those, Father. Therefore at the death and resurrection
of Christ, the devil has been defeated and he and his angels
are thrown to earth and removed from heaven forever, never to
accuse God's elect again. And following the defeat of Satan,
a voice rings out from heaven in verse 10. 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. Now just a few key words in there.
Salvation, power, kingdom of God. So notice all of that. The salvation of God has come,
the power of God has come, the kingdom of God is here, and the
authority of his Christ. Great commission. All authority
has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that
I have commanded you. That is the kingdom of Christ
going forth. But notice, Also, what does the
devil do? He's an accuser of the brethren. But he's been thrown down. And
yet he used to accuse us day and night before God. So this
voice from heaven declares the defeat of Jesus and the coming
of God's kingdom. What glorious words those are.
The kingdom of God was inaugurated at the first advent of Christ.
And its presence here on earth firmly established at Christ's
death and resurrection. In this heavenly war, Christ's
victory over sin and death powerfully declares that Jesus and his kingdom
have invaded this present and evil age and will soon conquer. And we have talked about this
throughout the book of Revelation. Jesus is coming as one to conquer
this evil age and to subject it to his kingdom and all will
bow to him. Whether they do so willfully
as his subjects or they do so as a conquered army, they will
bow to him. And since Satan has been expelled
and cast down, he can no longer accuse believers. But the point
of this text is more profound than Satan just being cast out
and locked out of heaven. Rather, Satan no longer has any
warrant or basis to accuse believers because of the blood of Christ.
God no longer wants to hear the hissing words coming from the
serpent's mouth, but instead he listens to the word of his
son in whom he is well pleased. And this leads us to the words
of verse 11 about the elect. and they have conquered him by
the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. For
they loved not their lives, even unto death. Not only has Christ
conquered the dragon, but we have conquered the dragon through
Christ. As we have seen throughout the
book of Revelation, the theme of conquering is central to John's
revelation. But how do we conquer? Through
Christ, being faithful to Christ. That is what we see in the letters
to the seven churches, that we conquer by being faithful to
Christ who is ever faithful to his people. So here John states
that we conquer Satan by the blood of the lamb and the word
of our testimony. Notice our triumph is not ascribed
to any intrinsic virtue that we possess. Rather, we conquer
by blood and through faith. So what Christ has done and what
Christ has given us. Specifically here, our conquering
is tied to the dragon's expulsion from heaven. His accusations
no longer have standing because the blood of the lamb that covers
us has freed us from the guilt of sin. Or we can take it back
to the Exodus. The wrath of God passes over
his people because of the blood of the lamb on the doorpost. Not because anything that we
have done, but because of the one who covers us. So the atoning
work of Jesus is foundational to the church conquering the
dragon. We are more than conquerors in
Christ. Now, John began his revelation
by stating that he was imprisoned because of his testimony for
Jesus in Revelation 1.9. He's on this island of Patmos
where he receives the revelation because they tried to kill him
and they couldn't, so they just sent him out to this prison island.
Likewise, he stated in 6.11 that the martyrs were slain for their
testimony. So notice, back what we read
in verse 10, the devil accuses the brethren, and then he uses
people, the world powers, to have us persecuted and killed.
Think about Nero. Think about Domitian. Think about
all the persecution that we have seen throughout the world. Why
are we killed? For our faith in Christ. Our
faith and commitment to the gospel is evident Even when we have,
or is evident when we have a willingness to give up our lives to remain
faithful to Christ. Even if we are slain, we continue
to confess Jesus as Lord. This is why Jesus tells us, don't
fear the one who can kill your body and do nothing else. Fear
the one who can kill both body and soul by throwing it into
hell. We don't fear death. In fact, death becomes our friend
because of Christ. Because as Paul says, to live
is Christ, but to die is gain. To be absent from the body is
to be present with the Lord. It's gain for us. You wanna kill
me and send me to my savior and give me my reward? Do it! This is why Rome feared the Christian
gospel that Paul preached. Because we can threaten them,
we can threaten to crucify them, and yet they are joyful when
we kill them. Or as Augustine once preached,
quote, the earth has been filled with the blood of martyrs as
with seed. and from that seed have sprung
the crops of the church. They have asserted Christ's cause
more effectively when dead than when they were alive. They assert
it today. They preach him today. Their
tongues are silent. Their deeds echo round the world. They were arrested, bound, imprisoned,
brought to trial, tortured, burned at the stake, stoned to death,
run through, fed to wild beasts, In all their kinds of death,
they were jeered at as worthless, but precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of his saints, end quote. They have asserted Christ's cause
more effectively when dead than when they were alive. They assert it today. They preach
him today, though their tongues are silent. The blood of the martyrs is the
seeds of the church. What kind of message must this
be if they willfully and joyfully go to their deaths proclaiming
Christ? For they love not their lives,
even unto death, because we love Christ more, because Christ is
life. Finally, in verse 12, we see
this command to rejoice because of the Lamb's victory over Satan.
Therefore rejoice, O heavens, in you who dwell in them. Now
this is important because as we have read through the book
of Revelation, we see the statement of those who dwell on the earth
refers to those who rebel against God. But here we see, O heavens,
in you who dwell in them. Who is that? The faithful brothers.
The faithful brothers and sisters in Christ. We rejoice in heaven
because we are freed from sin. This is that reality. The accuser has been thrown out.
There is now life and peace in the heavens. So at the resurrection
and exaltation of Christ, we rejoice because we have life
and we are freed from the very presence of sin and the accuser
by dwelling in the heavens with God. So therefore rejoice. That should cause us to rejoice.
Oh heavens and you who dwell in them, but woe to you. Oh earth and sea. But the devil
has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his
time is short. Those who dwell in heaven rejoice
because the devil has been cast out. However, the earth and the
sea mourn because the devil has been thrust upon them. That is
to say, while the devil has no standing in heaven, he still
plays a role on the earth before the kingdom of Christ comes in
full at his return. The devil still seeks to harm
and kill God's people. And yet even in our death, we
rejoice for we are with Christ. We see in verse 11 as Christians
still die for their faith and their testimony. The devil knows
that his time is short as his head has already been crushed
by the death and resurrection and exaltation of Christ. there
is no more thwarting the promises of God. For they have come in
the full, in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ."
So as we saw in verses 1 through 6, the devil hears about this
coming one who's going to crush his head, and so what does he
do? He has Cain kill Abel. He has Shem, or he has Ham, sin
against his father and become this adversary to Shem and his
offspring, who brings up Egypt and the Canaanites and all the
enemies. We have Egypt, and then we have the exile to Babylon,
and over and over again throughout the Old Testament, we see the
devil trying to thwart the plans of God. But then Christ comes
and he goes, I have one last chance. So he has Herod try to
kill all the children in Bethlehem. And then the devil's like, finally,
I got him upon the cross. But at the cross of Christ, the
serpent's head is crushed. And we know that because the
language used about the crushing of the serpent's head and the
bruising of the son's heel is the same as the boxer when he
beats the snot out of someone's face and his knuckles are bruised
from beating the guy to death. The crushing of the serpent's
head is what bruises his heel. So we look upon Christ upon the
cross and we see a lamb standing as though slain. He's slain because
he has conquered the serpent. He crushed his head in his death
upon the cross and he raised victoriously from the grave.
So at this point, there is no more forwarding. His time is
nigh. He has been mortally wounded
by Christ, and he is in his final death throes. So the devil's
time is limited to this period between Christ's resurrection
and his return. And his final defeat and destruction
is near. It is only a matter of time before
his influence ends entirely, and he is thrown into the lake
of fire. And so he wants to destroy and
ruin all that he can in the time that he has left. That's why
we read in scripture that he would try to deceive the elect
if he was able to. He's not able to. What we see
on earth, John tells us, is not all there is to reality. There is a cosmic conflict, a
heavenly war between angels and demons, between Satan and Michael.
But the war is won in a most unusual way that we would never
imagine, by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Though Christ appears defeated,
he rises victoriously. Satan was expelled from heaven
because of the blood of the lamb. What this means for those who
belong to Christ is the removal of guilt. Satan no longer has
any basis for accusing believers before God. We are free from
our sins forever. Christ has freed us from the
guilt. And we are free also from clinging
to our own lives. We are willing to give our lives
for the sake of Jesus Christ if we're called to do so. And
in doing so, we gain our eternal reward, which is eternal life
with Christ. Let's pray. Father, we know there is much
more that goes on behind the scenes that we cannot see. And
yet we know that we have victory in Christ, that he has crushed
the serpent's head. And though Satan is in his death
throes now, he will not succeed. but he will soon perish and the
kingdom of Christ will be fully realized. And we will have life
and peace eternal with him and with all his people. So Father,
may we cling to the blood of Christ and the word of our testimony. And may we love him more than
life itself. And though we may die for our
testimony, may we rest in the reality that we will gain our
just reward. which is eternal life because
of Christ and eternal life with Christ. We pray all this in the
strong name of Jesus. Amen. Love you guys.
War in Heaven
Series Revelation
| Sermon ID | 82924183943294 |
| Duration | 43:06 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Revelation 12:7-12 |
| Language | English |
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