All right, Job chapter 2, starting at verse 1. Again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord. And Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord and said, From going to and fro in the earth and from walking up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and askeweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause. And Satan answered the Lord and said, Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath he will give for his life. But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.' The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand, but save his life. So went forth Satan went forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal, and he sat down among the ashes. Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this, did not Job sin with his lips? So far, the reading. Let us pray. Holy God in heaven, we come before you and we thank you for your word. Lord, this is a tremendous passage. It speaks so much of suffering and of your sovereignty. I pray, Lord God, that you would sovereignly work in our hearts and lives this morning. Lord, some of us are going through hard times. Some of us are seeing hard things. Some of us, Lord, don't have much by way of suffering right now. But God, you are sovereign. You've said that Your people will suffer. And so, we pray, Lord, that You would use this to prepare us. Open our hearts, open lives, hearts and minds, and give me wisdom to utter and to speak the Word of God faithfully. In Jesus' great name, Amen. Alright, and so we move into this second council scene in the heavens. We've seen the first one in Chapter 1, the angels are gathered before God the first time and here we have another heavenly cabinet meeting where we see what's going to take place. Now we don't know how long this cabinet meeting was between Job's losses, it may have been very fast, it may have been a while, we just don't know that. But notice in the text if you compare it to chapter 1 verse 6 there's a shift in the way the sons of God present themselves, because the accuser, that's how we'll be referring to the Satan, the accuser, he seems to tag along in the first time. Here, he's there. He's ready to present. It seems as though the accuser has something substantial to report. It seems as though he's kind of proud of what he did to Job. If you just compare the way the text flows in verse 6 of chapter 1. Now, it's interesting, as you look at the text, the same line of questioning comes in, as in the first counsel scene, it comes from the Lord, where he says, Whence comest thou? Where have you been? What have you done? Have you been about your duty? We unpacked last time what the heavenly counsel is all about. I'm not going to rehash that here. You can listen to those messages or that message. But it's interesting that the answer is exactly the same as in the first chapter where he says, he says, going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down it. Now we saw last time that this isn't just some casual stroll, casual fly over the earth as it were. This actually means he's been busy. He says, I've been looking. I've been intentionally doing my business, he says to Yahweh. Now this time, We know that's a double-tongued answer because he's done something, right? In chapter 1, we don't know what he did. Here, we know what he's been up to. But he still doesn't say it. Do you see that? He avoids it. He's been very busy. He's been busy instigating all sorts of havoc with Job. But notice he just deflects from that. He just doesn't notice it. He doesn't want to talk about his dirty work and The fact that he was wrong. He was wrong about God and Job. This manipulative creature still isn't humbled. He's still looking for a way out when he has to give an account to the Most High. He's a deflector. I think there's a lesson here for us about this deflection. Because we can quickly be deflectors just like the accuser, can't we? Kids, maybe when your parents ask you, so what have you been up to all day? And you know you didn't do something right. You know exactly what you've been up to. But you deflect. I don't know. Stuff. Stuff. Maybe at work, your boss asks you to give an account. I can tell what you've done this week and it wasn't a good week for you. Things just didn't turn out the way you wanted it to. Maybe a sale you wanted or a balancing the books the way you wanted. Something went wrong and you don't want to really give an account to your boss and you deflect. Maybe it's at church. After church, a good godly friend comes up to you and asks you how your week has been. Intentionally wanting to help. You had a miserable week. Things went wrong. You yelled at the kids. You had an argument with your wife. You reamed out somebody that works with you. And so when they ask you, how's your week been, you know what you say? Oh, OK, I guess. Pretty good week. We do that. We do that. You're wrestling with all kinds of guilt, and this is a godly friend, and you deflect. You avoid being exposed. You clamp shut and refuse to be helped. I just ask you, are we right in doing that? We're deflectors, aren't we, when we do that? Interesting. That's what the accuser does. But look at the, as the text goes on, who brings up Job again? It's the Lord who brings up Job, right? The Lord says, hast thou considered my servant Job? And again, he calls him my servant. And I think that's very, very comforting again, because God's love for his people doesn't change in light of the changing circumstances, right? Job's life just went through Whirlwind a storm and God says he's my servant and have you considered him? Again, my servant. I like that. I like that. We're still his Now notice God again brings up Job's character, Job's faith, and Job's hatred of evil. Same things. But now the Lord adds to that exactly what the accuser has done in the text, right? Though thou movest me against him to destroy him without cause, God brings that up. The accuser, forget it, he just doesn't bring it up. Look what he says. He says, you moved me. Interesting, because we think of prayer here, right? Through praying, we move God. We plead with God and He is moved to act. And here the text says the accuser moved God to act. Really interesting thing. You see the tension in that. You see the tension in prayer. You think of Ephesians where it says, pray, pray. As it talks about us wrestling against flesh and blood. And the text says, you move me against him. Now, we learn here that the accuser has a clear motive, right? In the text. To destroy him, he says. The accuser wants God, the covenant God, we see His covenant name used throughout this text, the Lord, Jehovah, Yahweh. He wants Him to destroy His servant, to break His covenantal love. The accuser wants nothing less than God's people to be forgotten in trials, to use the trials to destroy Him. Do we see that? When we think in trials and suffering and the hard things we may have been going through, the wrestlings we may have had, the questions that God may have forgotten us, they're not from God. They're not part of His character. To question His character doesn't come from Him and His Word. These are things the accuser wants you to do. To question God. He wants us to believe that, oh, God doesn't love you anymore. God has broken covenant. Because look what you did in this trial. Look how you responded. God's done with you. Right? To move you against him. He wants, the accuser wants you destroyed without cause. Interesting isn't that in the phrase? To destroy him without cause. Now this is vital information in this book because now we know for certain that Job is going through a tremendous whirlwind without cause. without cause. He did nothing wrong. Job did nothing to deserve this attack. Job did not have a specific sin in his life that led him to this suffering. I think this is massive. This is a massive point. Because in His sovereignty, dear people, in His sovereignty, the Lord will bring trials in your life, in our lives, that we did not quote-unquote deserve. We did nothing to To merit that particular trial because of this specific sin, but God in his sovereign wisdom will bring trials through our lives Some of the struggles you're going through right now Maybe your situation the the hardship. Maybe it's the sickness Maybe it's the broken thing that you have to fix that's completely changed your day or your week or your month These are not God's quote-unquote payback because of what you did That's not how God works. Now think about this. This is all without cause from Job's perspective. Ultimately, from the Lord's perspective, nothing is without cause. But it's referring to Job didn't do anything to instigate it, but God has purposes. That's the interesting thing. God has purposes in doing this. This isn't just willy-nilly. God is not moved by the accuser to just, let's see how this thing turns out. Let's roll the dice. on your suffering. Let's roll the dice on Job. Let's roll the dice on all of us. And see how we respond. God is not a roll the dice kind of God. Remember that. Take comfort in that. The accuser goes on. Now he's talking. Skin for skin, he says. Yea, all that a man hath he will give for his life. He goes really deep now, right? He says, look, you can get rid of the outer skin. A man's family and his possessions, expendable, expendable stuff. But as long as you don't get to the inner guy, to him, to his body, to his soul, you can't see the real deal. That's what he's saying. Is he grasping at straws here? He says as long as the trials don't touch our bodies, We can be very confident. And it somewhat is true. I mean, think about this. Others are going through hard things. We may have suffered outward loss, but when it hits our body, I'm inflicted. I'm slowed down. This thing is hitting my body. It's no longer outward, it's inward. Suddenly, we get humbled. Sometimes it takes the suddenness of a broken bone, the suddenness of a sickness, or the new chronic health condition to really make us examine ourselves. Think of how a simple thing like a cold can just humble you. Right? You make plans for tomorrow. You get the cold. You have to call off. I can't go. I feel miserable. I'll be in bed all day. So maybe the accuser's got something going here. Maybe he's going to expose something in Job. And so the accuser challenges God to afflict his body big time. He doesn't just say, hey, let's just do a little bit here. He wants the whole thing. And then he's going to see. He's confident then. He's going to find out Job's a fake. Job's a fair-weather Christian. Job doesn't really love and trust God in hard times. He just wants the good stuff. Think about how far, how far the accuser is willing to go to put Job to the test. Now as I was thinking about this point, right here, put forth thine hand now and touch him. I couldn't help but thinking this question, will God permit this final trial? And that question, you've got to put yourself in the heavenly council, all of the sons of the gods gathered around, and the accuser launches this question to the Most High, put forth thine hand and the entire council. Is it hush? Will the Most High act? Will He do it? Will He give them more? And we'd probably say, if we were the judge, if we were sitting on that throne, No way! No way! Look, look accuser, you didn't make your point. The first time, the first series of trial, they were horrendous. Look what you did to the guy. You took his kids. No way! No way! Court is over. I can just imagine that the heavenly council thinks that's the way Jehovah is going to respond. But amazing, amazing, and for our providence and for our edification, He permits the accuser to move to Job's body. But with a line. Notice what he says. But save his life. There's a line. There's a line here. The accuser has limits. Think about that. He goes far. He goes very far. Maybe in your life, too. He has gone far. He's taken things. Things have happened in your life. Circumstances have unleashed that are big. But remember this. He's on a leash. But save his life. He's on a leash. He cannot and absolutely cannot and will not break free past God's command. God is most high. And remember that as we're going through struggles, as you go through trials, the sudden loss, maybe the teetering marriage, the wayward child, maybe the drop of income, maybe you've had no work, maybe the simple thing like the burnt dinner because the phone went. All of these circumstances are in the hand of the sovereign, almighty God. But God allows Job to be brought to the brink, to become the object of intense suffering. Think about this. God's glory is that great, that great, that He is willing to bring this servant of His, this great servant of His, to the brink. Christopher Ashe, one of the commentators I've been reading, says, in the end, it is necessary and write that this man, Job, should suffer personal intimate attack upon himself, and then he says this, so that we, you and me sitting here this morning, see absolutely and without a doubt that God is worthy of worship. It is necessary for this man to demonstrate a full and deep obedience to the glory of God. Maybe what you're going through makes no sense to you right now. Think of the persecution that's going on in the world. Think of people bereaved of their family, the tortures that Christians have gone through. These are God's children being persecuted. How do we come to grips with God giving His own blood-bought people so much suffering? Well, we've got to think about this account, because this heavenly court that is gathered where the sons of God are gathered has one ultimate aim, and that aim is the glory of God. Knowing God is infinitely Do you believe that? Do you believe that in your trials, that God is infinitely worthy, in the hardest of things you go through, He's still worthy of worship? It's a tough question. Well, the accuser goes right to work, doesn't he? The boils. He gets the go-ahead, he's almost eager to go prove El-Elyon wrong. He doesn't waste any time, it seems. Well, the affliction, we see it's severe. The author, it says, he inflicts him, he smites Job, he hits him with sore boils from the sole of his feet unto his crown. Now, that's interesting because boils, what are these things? Well, we know the same word was used in the Hebrew for the sixth plague to the Egyptians. Leviticus 13 names it four times among skin infections. The same thing affected King Hezekiah in 2 Kings 20. But interestingly, remember Hezekiah is sick with this thing and they put a fig leaf on it. One boil. One. Job inflicted from the soul to the crown. He could have said from your foot to your head. No, he goes from the soul of your feet to the crown of your head. His whole body ravaged with boils. You know what's interesting? Deuteronomy 28.35 talks about this. It talks about the curses that would come upon Israel if they would disobey the covenant Lord and His commandments. And one of the curses that is written there, it says this, the Lord shall smite thee in the knees and in the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head. Same word. Interesting, it's part of the curse. Job, almost as it were, becomes a prototype, a picture of the full extent of the curse in the Old Testament that ultimately points to Christ becoming a curse for us. It's really interesting. Job gets this vileness put on him. Have you ever had an open wound in your body? I think most of us have. Some of us have. You know, it's funny, yesterday, I was going through my hair, I felt something, and I got stung by a wasp. That bugger hurt me! Right on the bone, as nothing! As nothing! And this man, from his whole body, is so sore that the text says, he goes and grabs a potsherd, like a piece of pottery, broken pottery, and scrapes his body everywhere. He's scraping these festering wounds. In fact, in chapter 7, verse 35, he says this, my flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become loathsome. You're scraping worms all over. Here, here, here, everywhere. Later in chapter 1, verse 30, he says this, my skin is black upon me and my bones are burned with heat. It's terrible. It's disgusting. Can you imagine this man sitting in the blistering sun? Worms all over him. Sweating away the salt, the wounds, the agony. This man having lost everything. Nothing left to maybe buy some lotion or something. Nothing. Nothing. Now at this point, if it was you or me, we'd be in a hospital. We'd probably be on morphine. chock full of antibiotics. Our wounds would be dressed and cleaned. We could push a button and a nurse comes to us. Guess where Job goes? He tells us, doesn't he? He sat down among the ashes. That's the town dump pile where they burn everything. Everything gross. Anything they discard. It's where Job goes. It's a place of mourning. It's where you go if you're heavily afflicted. But here's a man that is so ravaged that he goes and sits in what we know now medically is the worst place to go. Terrible mourners would sit there. It's interesting that in the town dump of Jerusalem, Gehenna would become later a picture of hell. This man is in misery. He's a man with nothing. Nothing. He's reduced to suffering in his own body. At this point, we meet Job's wife. Interesting. We hadn't heard of her before. The author didn't feel it was necessary to know how she responded to the loss of her own children. We still don't know. All we know is this. She says this. Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. That's all we get. That's all we get. Interesting. She's lost her kids. She might lose her husband. She says, Dost thou retain thine integrity? Her question is very direct, isn't it? She doesn't mention the losses, but shoots at God. Shoots at God. Indirectly through her husband. He must have watched him offer the sacrifices that chapter 1 talks about. Watching. My husband really loves God. And now she attacks him for it. Interesting. It's interesting because in verse 3 of the chapter, God says, and he holdeth fast his integrity, and his wife is questioning his integrity with God. She questions it. She questions what God affirms. You see that? That kind of a question, that comes straight from the accuser. It's something we would expect the accuser to put through this woman. Isn't it? Notice though, his wife doesn't deny the existence of God. So many people use suffering as a springboard to say, well, see, God doesn't exist because a good God would never put his people through this. We are in a world that is flat out in misery and suffering. Look at hurricanes, look at suffering. God doesn't exist. She doesn't do that. She just says, ditch him. He's no good to you. You might as well be in his bad books. She seems to propagate a health and wealth faith. That's what she does. You see that? She says, God isn't serving you with stuff anymore. Get rid of Him. Is that the kind of God we want? Is that the kind of God we would serve? Look, we might be going through suffering. We might be going through hardships. Are you going to have someone counsel you and say, ditch Him? He's not giving you stuff anymore. Don't delude yourself. Where's your God now? And then she says, curse God and die. Now at this point, let's just quickly take a look at what this word curse means. It's interesting because the Hebrew word actually means to bless. That's funny, but it's used as a euphemism. And in the context, you can see it actually means to curse. It means to despise in this context, to esteem Him lightly. It means to repudiate God. Treat Him with disdain. But notice what she adds to it. She says, curse God and die. Because ultimately to curse God is to bring a human being under the sentence of death. Now, of course, this world is in that sentence already, but it is a very clear repudiation of any blessing you might seek from Him. And she may have thought, well, he's going to do it right away. If Job curses God, would God smite him like that? That's what she's wondering. That's almost what she says. Well, you know, it's funny. A lot of people say, well, you know, people use God's name as a swear word all the time. You think of how many times the holy name of Jesus is just flippantly thrown out. I was listening to the, when I was reading Revelation the other day and constantly blasphemy, blasphemy, blasphemy of the wicked one. He's used, and you walk in this world, you talk with people, they use his name as a blasphemous name. And so you got to wonder, is his wife right? And die, we deserve death for misusing the name of the Most Holy God. It is a mercy that we are standing here, it is a mercy that this town exists this morning. I had to think, as I was reading this, of Herod. Remember Herod Acts 12? It says he gets up in his royal apparel and the people look at him and say, it is the voice of a God and not of man. Remember what happens? It says, and the angel of the Lord, where's that coming from? The unseen realm peels back for a second and smites him dead in front of all these people. You know why? Luke tells us why. Because he gave not God the glory. And he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghosts. You know, his wife knows something. Job's wife knows something here. God is not mocked. God is not a swear word to be thrown around like our culture has him to be. God is holy. Infinitely holy. And because of suffering, so many people have turned his name into an object of hatred or unbelief. How many books haven't been written against God because of suffering? You go on Amazon, you type it in, God and suffering, you'll find them. Bart Ehrman, leading textual critic, used to be a professing Christian, went to Moody Bible Institute, then went to, I believe, Princeton or Harvard, studied under Metzger, He repudiated the faith, not because of all of his academics. He repudiated and quit believing because of suffering. The question of suffering is interesting. It is no wonder that Saint Augustine called Job's wife the devil's assistant, and Calvin called her Satan's tool. I wonder, in her statement, if she ever had the faith of Job. Maybe she's just telling Job, take the easy way out. You know, it's a form of suicide. Quit. Give up your life. that then you can rest from all your suffering. That would be a speculation. You see your husband in so much misery, like curse God and die, be over with it. Honey, you need to just be best. Commit suicide. You'll have rest then. Well, think about this. If she knew God at all, She would know that repudiating God, cursing God, is not a pathway to rest. You know what the book of Revelation says about those who have repudiated God? You know what it says about the wicked? It says they have no rest day or night. Some people in their suffering have abandoned God. They have cursed Him to His face, but to reject Him is to go to hell, to intensify the suffering, to take these boils and amplify them forever and ever and ever. And if any of us sitting here this morning think God is just an object to be played with in suffering, think about that. Think about that. Now we move to Job's response. You know, he says, thou speakest as one of the foolish women." What does that mean? You know what he's saying? You've been listening to the gossip mail about God. You've got the God of Facebook. You've got the God of Twitter, these quick, speculative ideas of God, shooting off the hip, trying to figure out God. And I was thinking, we should not be a shoot-off-the-hip church, a shoot-off-the-hip people when we give counsel. When people are going through suffering, don't take snippets of who God is. Know this God. Be in the Word so that you can counsel the whole counsel of God, as Paul did in Acts 20. Now, it's interesting, because if you look at how Job says this, he's tender in this, right? He doesn't say, oh, you foolish woman. Oh, you fool. He could have. But he says, you're speaking as the foolish women speak. It's quite nice. He's kind to her. It was a foolish comment, wasn't it? It was a foolish comment. That's what we get out of this. Interesting. Psalm 14.1, the fool has said in his heart. There is no God. That is a foolish comment to make, even in suffering. Any suggestion to repudiate God is utter folly. I remember when we went through a miscarriage many years ago, a church leader came to visit us and he told us, I remember it to this day, he said, you can be angry with God. It was a shocking statement to me. You can be angry with God? God is worthy of being angry at, because providentially the circumstances turned out this way? I remember that shock, and I think Job's words would ring true. That was a foolish bit of counsel there. We have to guard our counsel, people. We have to guard our counsel, that we don't speak folly in these things. And look at Job, he says, we. Look at that, he says, we. We've received good at the hand of God. He doesn't say me. He says we. He pulls his wife in. He recognizes her suffering. He recognizes that they have lost things. They have lost their wealth. Most of all, they lost their children. He does this in suffering. What a lesson we get from Job in that little statement of we. We have received. We need to remember this because so often in suffering, people start to navel gaze. I'm going through. Oh, miserable me. Me, me, me. Job says, we. He recognizes the other in the suffering. Do we do that? Human nature is to focus on the one with the worst hit, but both were hit. And maybe we have to remember that there are more people going through hard things than just me. Job remembered that. Take counsel from that. We need to take counsel from that. And then look what he says. He says, what? Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil Amazing. Even though Job is in agony, he speaks of God as the great giver, the benefactor. God gives us all that we have. And he basically says, when it comes to life, should we not take what he sovereignly gives us? Isn't this his right, his domain? Now, either Job is a heretic, or he's absolutely right. And so many theologies about God need to reconsider the question of the sovereignty of God. God brought this evil upon Job. God brought these sufferings in your life. We get the answer. Was Job a heretic? Look at the next phrase. In all this, did not Job sin with his lips? He's right, isn't he? Got some questions for you. Is God only worthy of worship if he gives you what you want? Is God only worthy of your faith if he doesn't put you through sickness, job loss, a broken car, broken friendships, a friend backstabbing you, Will you lose, will we lose our confidence in the great giver of life as soon as he puts difficult family members in our lives? Will you? You know, Albert Barnes, he says to all of this, in addition, he says, any and all claim to blessing, if it had ever existed, has been forfeited by sin. What right does the sinner have to complain when God withdraws his favor and subjects him to suffering? What claim does the sinner have to God that he should make it wrong for Him to visit him with calamity? So if there ever was a claim, sin had clearly forfeited that claim. If, if. Do we have the right to expect only good things from God? Answer that question. Maybe that last question is where the rub really is. We feel entitled. Is that the lie of the accuser whispering in your ear? I deserve different. I want to bring this all together here. Because in the end, Job maintained his integrity. And this is the last we see of the heavenly court scene. This is the last of the heavenly appraisal. The Lord and the accuser are done. We don't get the accuser anymore, do we, in the rest of the book? And although we cannot see the unseen realm, we have clearly learned from this account, God reigns in the heavens. We have learned that. Now think about Job. Most of us will most likely never come close to what Job experienced in such a short time and so extreme. At the same time, as I was thinking about that, we don't want to discount things like the Holocaust, the gulags. I was thinking, these people, Lost everything. Wealthy bankers brought to concentration camps. Brought to nothing. I mean, these were horrendous, horrendous things. Suffering is real. Suffering is real. This is a real world. And maybe the road has been hard for you. Maybe the trials have upset all your hope and your dreams, and maybe you've been brought to the edge of giving up. You feel like you're at the precipice of just saying, I can't anymore, God. I can't. I can't. I can't. Job reminds us that God has a sovereign right to bring these things in your life and He measures them out perfectly for you. The loveliness and the greatness of our God is not dependent on what He gives you today or tomorrow or what He may take away from you today or tomorrow or next week or next year. The loveliness of God is not contingent on His gifts. The loveliness of God is dependent on God Himself. It is who He is. He is altogether lovely. And may your soul be satisfied in God as God. In your hardest days, in your most perplexing circumstances, and the unexpected twists of providence that have come in your life, God is still good. God is still holy. God is still loving. God is still pure. God is still right. Do you believe that? At the same time, in trials and suffering and temptation, we do face a foe that is much greater than we are able to handle. The accuser wants us all to mess up in these trials and these sufferings and the struggle you're in right now. He wants nothing more for you to be destroyed, to repudiate God, and to die. That's what he wants. He wants you to mess up. He wants you to sin. That's what he wants. And here's the rub. We do, don't we? You think of the trial he went through this week, maybe his last year. Oh yeah, you better believe it. I take inventory of my life. Yeah, there's lots of sin. There's lots of brokenness. There's lots of times where circumstances didn't go my way and I get angry. I get angry. And I take it out on others or just thoughts come in my head that aren't right. And maybe you've complained in your trials. Maybe you got bitter. Maybe you've gotten angry at God. Maybe you've blamed someone else. Maybe you tore a strip off of your spouse because of what you were going through. You blamed them. No, you would never have. It's your fault. And the failure reminds you that the accuser has a lot of dirt on you, doesn't he? You're a sinner. You're guilty. And He loves your guilt. That's what He loves. That's the kind of guy He is. And so as we close this section of the divine counsel, we've got to remember, we must remember where the book of Job is in the Bible. Because the book of Job is pre-Christ, isn't it? Something happened in the heavenly counsel that would shake it forever. This is an amazing thought. This is pre-Christ, heavenly counsel stuff. Something happens. And we read of that in Revelation. Turn with me please to Revelation 12. Revelation 12, we could go anywhere, but we'll just pick it up here at verse 5. Revelation 12 verse 5 says this, speaking of the Old Testament. church and she brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up unto the God and to his throne and the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God and they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days I believe that is the time between Christ's first and second comings and then it says this and there was war in heaven Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels and prevailed not. Neither was their place found anymore in heaven. Get that? And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, which called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now, hear this, now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren is cast down. down which accused them before our God day and night in the heavenly council. He's out. God no longer gives him an ear. He is out. How did he get booted? Verse 11, and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb. by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death. It is the blood of the Lamb. It is Christ who gave himself to rid us of that foe in the heavenly council room. You could go to Hebrews 2 to look at this. You could look at Colossians 2. They all talk about spoiling principalities and powers. Christ came to set us free from the accusations that he would level at us and say, he got mad, God, when you took that away. He yelled when you did this. He this, he this, she this, she went there, he went there. The accuser's out. He's out. For everybody who is in Jesus Christ. Nothing. No charges will stick. And you know what? Instead of having an accuser in heaven, the Bible tells us we now have an advocate. in heaven, the Lord Jesus, the paraclete. He comes alongside of us. The prosecutor was the accuser. The defense is Christ. And this defense will say, yeah, they did all those things. You did all those things. But I gave myself for them. His own merits, His own blood was shed for sinners, for people that have turned to Him, so that in the heavenly courtroom, the Most High sees servants loved through His Son. Loved because of what Christ has done. Infinite love. Dear people, the crushing weight of the storms in your life can drive you deep into despair. They can drive you Also to a haven You can either go away in the storms and be lost or you can look for a haven a place of rest Safety in the storm and I plead with you that you would flee to Jesus Christ. He is the haven of He underwent the deepest storms of the wrath of God on Himself. He gave Himself. And if you are sitting here this morning and you have never fled to that haven, the storms are over your life, the waves are crashing down on you. If you've never fled to Christ, I plead with you, flee to Him for the first time. You know Him as your Savior. He wants to save you. And if you have come to Him, go to Him again and again and again and remember that nothing ever will, nothing ever can remove you from His love for you. him who loved us and gave himself for us and washed us in his blood." That's for the believer. Anyone here who will turn to Jesus, the storms may come crashing in your life. You know what John says? He says, if any man sin, in those storms, We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he's the propitiation, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world as you. Anyone who turns to him, anyone, and he will hold you fast to the end. Amen. Let us pray. Father in Heaven, indeed if it was up to us, we would be completely consumed by the waves. Father, we could not hold. Lord, truly If we would anchor ourselves in our confidence, in our faith, in our strength, Lord, we have nothing. But we have an anchor that passeth into the veil. We have one that goes in. Lord, we know that in Christ we are anchored secure to your throne room. Lord, you are our haven. I pray that we would look to you this morning. I pray for everyone sitting here this morning, Lord, you know the struggles, that every mind is going through right now. Lord, You know the hardships, and I pray that You would instigate faith, that they would look to You in these trials, and love You, and be strengthened this morning, be encouraged this morning, that You will hold Your people fast, that You are the giver, that You will hold Your people, You gave Yourself. Oh God, may we remember that. In Jesus' great name, Amen.