Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this Sunday school hour. We thank you, God, for all the people here this morning, all the people listening online as well. God, we pray that you would bless this time as we study this amazing chapter and finish it up, Revelation chapter 12. We just, we pray, God, we would rejoice in the fact that your son is the triumphant one. And we pray, Lord, you would bless us now. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's go to Revelation 12. Revelation chapter 12. And let's break this up into three different sections. So who can read verses one through six? Versus seven through 12, and then 13 to the end. So one through six, Mark. Seven through 12, Paul. And then 13 through 17, Manuel. All right, go ahead, Mark. Now a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of 12 stars. Then being with child, she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and 10 horns and seven diadems on his heads. His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth to devour her child as soon as it was born. She bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God at his throat. Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1,260 days. And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. But the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth. He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she is nourished for a time and times and a half a time from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Okay, thank you to the readers. So some of the goals that we've had, kind of the two main goals that we've had as we've been going through the book of Revelation, I'll go with the second one first. The second one was we want to come and we want to understand the symbolism of the book. It's a very symbolic book. I'm sure you were able to catch some of the symbolism just in this chapter, especially at the end. So that was kind of the second reason we've been focusing on. But the first reason or the first goal that we've had is to come, and for us as Christians, to rejoice in the fact that Jesus is the triumphant one, and that Jesus has triumphed over the devil. So this is something that has already happened. Jesus is already the victorious one. And here, Revelation chapter 12 brings this out, probably the best out of any of the chapters in the book of Revelation. So we want, as believers, We want to find comfort and encouragement in the fact that Jesus is the victorious one and he will be victorious. He's the triumphant one. The outcome is not in doubt. So there's no doubt here, it's not coming to scripture, looking and saying, well it seems like Jesus is going to win, and I can say this with 99.99% certainty. No, Jesus has already won, and we're going to see how that's already indeed the case. Last week, we looked at Revelation 12, verses 1-6. And just to quickly recap some of the things that we spoke about there. We spoke about how we're in the last days right now. So the last days isn't referring to something that's going to happen seven years only before the Lord Jesus comes back. Like the seven years before Jesus comes back will be the last days, but we're in the last days right now. We also spoke about how Revelation 12 to 14, it presents this new section in the Book of Revelation. So the way that the Book of Revelation works out, you have these seven parallel structures or seven recapitulations of the same thing. And what is that same thing that's being repeated to us? over and over, especially as we're taking in amillennial interpretation. So each section starts off with the coming of Christ and ends with the return of Jesus. Yes, so each section starts with the first advent, ends with the second advent, and Revelation 12 to 14 does that as well. Last week, as we started in Revelation 12 verse 1. Right before we get into it, we discussed the three characters that were present. So the three characters were the woman, the child, and the dragon. Who is the dragon? Satan. The church. Yes, very good. The woman is not married. She would be included in it, as you see all throughout the course of redemptive history. Satan, the dragon, trying to devour the woman, trying to devour the church, but this is talking mainly and specifically, we could say, about the church. All right, in verse one, we saw some things there. If you just quickly look at verse one, we won't go through it like very, very specific. But some things to talk about here about the church in verse one, it says that the church is clothed with the sun, representing the beauty of the church. Also says that the church has the moon under her feet, represents the church's authority. And then it spoke there about a garland of 12 stars. Throughout the Old Testament, the Church is spoken about in this royal and precious way. And then in verse 2, we saw that the Church in the Old Testament, you can say, was pregnant with child, in the sense that the Old Testament Church And in the Old Testament, what were all believers waiting for? Well, they were all waiting for the child, the child to be born who would deliver them. They were all waiting for the Lord Jesus. And then verse 3 spoke mainly about the dragon, and it said some things about the dragon. It said that this dragon, that he has seven heads and seven diadems. And the, does anybody remember what we spoke about here last week? Seven heads, seven diadems. This is how Satan shows himself. And yet we know in the book of Revelation that the number seven is typically good. So why would this be? a way in which, what's going on here? What is? Yeah, yeah, deceptions. This is what he does right here. He's the master of trickery and he appears as an angel of light, but he's not. He's an angel of evil. All right, and then in verse four, If you just quickly look there, verse 4, specifically the first part, I'll just read it. It says this about verse 4a. It said, his tail, referring to the dragon's tail, referring to Satan. His tale drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And this was, well, there's some debate, but this was referring to the fall of Satan back in, well, depending on who you talk to, some people say it was before God created anything. Others say it took place between Genesis 2 and 3. Or Genesis 2, hold on, let me get the actual, Genesis 2 verse 3 and verse 4 is where others say that Satan's rebellion in heaven would have taken place. So it's referring to that, saying he took a third of the angels with him. Those angels, of course, now are demons, and they're demons who attack the church, demons who hate God's people. So that was one way of looking at it. The other way of looking at it, was that it's just referring to how Satan is powerful and has the ability to even throw down stars to persecute the people of God. And we could just say it's referring to both of these things. It's referring to the fall of Satan between Genesis 2, verse 3 and 4. And it's also referring to Satan's power. And what is it that Satan tries to do? all throughout the course of redemptive history, he tries to devour the child, tries to devour the seed of the woman, and the big event that shows this in, well, the life of Jesus, what was that big event where Satan tries to do this? Yeah, Herod seeking to put all the male children to death, right? That was kind of the big event. But then we also discussed how all throughout the Old Testament you see Satan doing this, trying to destroy the seed of the woman. And then in verse 5, we saw in verse 5 that Satan cannot stop the plan of God. So he tries to do this. but he's unable to do it, and the best evidence that he was unable to do this is the fact that Jesus came, he was born of a virgin with a perfect life, went to the cross, bore the wrath of God for the sins of his people, died on the cross, didn't stay dead, arose victoriously from the dead, and ascended to the Father's right hand. So Satan tried to stop this from happening, but he was unable to do that. And then in verse six, We saw there that this is what happens after Christ is on the throne. So Jesus is on the throne right now. He's ruling and reigning right now at this very second. And yet, even though that's the case, what is going on is Satan is still persecuting the church of the Lord Jesus. So what does the church do? According to verse six, the church, flees into the wilderness, and the wilderness, sometimes the scripture is depicted as this really bad place, but other times, it's to be depicted as a place where God provides for his people, and that's the way that it's supposed to be depicted here in verse six of Revelation chapter 12. that God's people are led into the wilderness, and what does God do? Well, he provides for his people every step of the way, and that's exactly what he does for us. One last point. When you see there, that phrase in verse six, this is just in case you didn't listen to last week's Sunday School or you weren't here, when it says, and they should, so verse six, then the woman, the church, fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God. he provides for his people, that they should feed her their 1,260 days. So it's not referring to a literal three and a half year period or 42 months. It's just referring to this time of intense persecution. So that is a symbolic number. Okay, so that was a very quick recap of last week. Last week we kind of started in verses 7 and 8, but we will pick up there now. So verses 7 and 8 of Revelation chapter 12. Can somebody just read that for us? And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. Now, some different interpretations of this. Last week, I gave you the interpretation that we're taking here. But there are different interpretations. Specifically, I mean, this is pretty confusing, right? If you come to this, it talks about Michael and his angels fighting against Satan. So some people look and say, well, this is referring to the fall of Satan between Genesis two, verse three, and Genesis two, verse four. So it's referring to that. I guess it could be referring to that. Others. Specifically those who are more dispensational in their eschatology. They'll say that this war that's being spoken about, this is referring to something that only happened within those last seven years before the return of Jesus. So that's one way people have taken it. Another way that people have taken it is to say that this is just referring to like a period of persecution. It's just another way of saying it that it's not actually referring to any specific thing. It's just referring to what happens and from heaven's standpoint, you could say. So those are three interpretations. But the interpretation that amillennialists and basically most postmillennialists, I think every postmillennialist, have taken is that Revelation 12, verses seven and eight, this is speaking about the war that took place during the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus. And it may sound confusing now, but once we get into verses nine and 10, you'll see that, I think you'll see that this actually makes a lot of sense. So this war being spoken about here, This is the war speaking about the defeat of Satan in heaven at the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus. So we have here what it says. It says, war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and they defeated the dragon. And last week we spoke about how Michael in scripture, spoken about in Daniel chapter seven Daniel chapter 12, he's also spoken about. In the book of Jude, and interestingly in the book of Jude, it speaks about this battle that took place sometime, or I shouldn't say battle, a fight, took place sometime after Moses died between Michael the Archangel and Satan and they battled over Moses' body. And just as a side note, it's good that we don't know where Moses is buried because you could just... What do you think would happen? People would go and... People would still idol him to the neck. Right. They would go down and bow down there. So we wouldn't want that to happen. So he's mentioned there. Daniel also mentioned in the the book of Jude. But the timing of this battle, as I just mentioned, took place during the life and ministry of Jesus. So there's this cosmic battle happening in the heavenly realm, you could say, as the Lord Jesus was here on earth. So, Satan and his demons, as we see here, as it says in verse 8 at the beginning of it, says, but they, that is Satan and his demons, did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. Now, why is it that they did not prevail? Well, if you think back to what the first six verses six verses and really what the whole book of Revelation is all about is the fact that Satan is the defeated one and Jesus is the victorious one. So we saw specifically in the first six verses, Satan's goal was to devour the child. Satan's goal was to devour Christ and to devour the church. but he was unable to do that. Satan is defeated. As a result of that defeat, he is cast out of heaven and we will talk about all that that means and how this should be like just some of the best news that we've ever heard. All right, so it's a little confusing. Let's go now to verses 9 and 10, and we'll spend the majority of our time in verses 9 and 10. Who can read verses 9 and 10 of Revelation 12? Go ahead. 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 day and night before our God? Thank you. All right, so some of the two most awesome verses in all of the Bible. What does the word Satan mean? Accuser of the brothers. Accuser. Yeah, adversary, slanderer, deceiver. So Satan, he's the adversary, the slanderer, the accuser, and Satan is defeated. Now what is, and let's see, because I preached on this, so let's see if anybody was paying attention. What is the, it's in the Gospel of John, what is the main verse that brings this out? If you have a Bible with cross-references, you can just look. You will see. Alright, well it's John chapter 12, verse 31. So let's go to John 12, verse 31. All right, who can read John 12, verse 31? Go ahead. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be cast out. Okay, so when is Satan defeated? Well, Satan is defeated at the cross, right? Satan is defeated at the cross. You could say he's also defeated in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. But Jesus says here, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And if you have, It's actually not a cross-reference here for John 12, but it was a cross-reference in Revelation chapter 12. So Jesus is already victorious. Satan is already defeated. Now, this isn't the only verse that speaks about this. If you go to John 16, verse 11, Which is good, because I'm actually preparing for this message at the moment, so this is very good. But who can read John 16, verse 8 to verse 11? Who can read that? And when He comes, He will convict you to you. Convict the judgment concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see me no longer. Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. Okay, so he's speaking here about the work of God, the Holy Spirit, right? That's what he's speaking about. But then he says this about the ruler of this world, who is Satan. He says that He is judge. Now, last place we'll look at. Go to Luke chapter 10. Okay, Luke 10. Yeah, verse 18 and... We could just read starting verse 17. So Luke 10, 17, 18, and 19. Then the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you. Okay, thanks. Now, the way that this has typically been taken by those who hold to Reformed theology, so some have taken it to say that, well, this is, like, what do you think he's talking about when he says, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven? What would you just think? What's the first thing that pops into your mind? When he was cast out. Others have said that Jesus here is talking about the triumph of the gospel, that he knows, obviously because he's God, that the gospel will be successful, and because of the success of the gospel, that Satan's kingdom is falling like lightning. And I think that that's a valid way to look at it as well. But then, this is, again, I believe the majority way that those who hold to Reformed theology are taking it, that Jesus here, he's speaking prophetically about what is going to happen when he goes to the cross, when he rises from the dead, that Satan will fall from heaven like lightning. Pretty cool, Luke chapter 10. So, as we talk about this, that Satan is defeated, what are some of the ways that Satan is defeated? One of those ways will be that Satan can't stop the spread of the gospel. So if you go to Revelation chapter 20, you know that Satan, he is bound, right? And he's bound in the sense that he cannot stop the spread of the gospel. So the gospel goes out, the gospel is victorious. So that's one way. for sure. But another way, and I think the best way for us to think about this, is that Satan is defeated in the sense that he cannot accuse the brethren before God any longer. So he cannot do this. He has lost legal privileges, you could say, in the courtroom of God. So he no longer accuses Believers before God so perhaps you've wondered this perhaps you read through what would be a What would be a place in scripture where... So you may be wondering, well does that still happen today? Does Satan still go before God and try to do something like this? And the answer to that is no. That no longer happens. That because of Jesus' defeat of Satan on the cross, Satan can no longer accuse believers in God's courtrooms. means that Satan has been thrown out of the courtroom of God and is no longer able to accuse us before God. So we no longer have an accuser before God. Instead, what do we have? We have an advocate. Yes, very good. I feel it would be an advocate if you do not have an accuser. Well, we're going to get to that. Let's continue here. 1 John 2, verse 1, it says, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. Alright, so, picture it this way, and I think this is the best way to take it. This is the way that amillennialist, postmillennialist Satan was already thrown out of heaven at the beginning when he rebelled against God, but not fully thrown out until the cross when his access to the courtroom of God is shut completely because of the finished work of Jesus. And if you just look here in Revelation chapter 12, right, it says, Revelation 12, Verse 10, this is after Satan's been cast out. It says, then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength in the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. So now if, again, different ways to interpret it, if somebody's dispensational, they'll come and say, well, again, this is talking about a future event, but that's not, it's not the way that we are taking it. Satan is already defeated, he has been cast out. His access to the courtroom of heaven is not there. You just think about this, you think of how much Satan must hate this. Because Satan is the accuser, right? So if you think of Bob the Builder, what does Bob the Builder love to do? Build. Yeah. What about Dora the Explorer? She likes to explore. Well, Satan is the accuser, and Satan loves to accuse, but he is no longer able to do this in the highest courtroom. You can just think how much he hates this that he cannot do this. But now I'm saying this, is Satan still an accuser? The answer is yes. And how is it that Satan accuses? Makes false accusations? Yeah. Yeah, he accuses us nonstop. He makes false accusations, tries to tell us things like that, you know, Christ could never love someone like us. And on and on he goes, tries to say things like... You're worthless. You're worthless. Well, a Christian would never think something like that, or a Christian would never do something like that. That is Satan accusing. So he accuses us, but he is no longer going into God's courtroom and accusing the brethren. Here are some people who have spoken on this. Douglas Kelly, he said this, he said, Satan lost that privileged access of the incarnation and work of Christ. Richard Phillips, who were using his commentary, which is very good on the book of Revelation, he says, the battle between Michael and Satan might be thought of as a legal contest in the courtroom of heaven. The heavenly voices rejoice that with Satan's defeat, he who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down. he has lost courtroom privileges. James Hamilton, who's not an amillennialist, he's a historical premillennialist, he says, Christ accomplished the victory, and apparently God sent Michael to enforce it. And in G.K. Beale, he said, what Michael did is a heavenly reflection of what Christ did. on earth. So, Christ wins the victory on earth. So then, therefore, Michael and his angels righteously assault Satan, defeat him, and cast him from heaven's courtroom. Pascoe. Yeah, in Romans 8, verses 7-8, what should we say to these things? If God is for us, verses 8-31, who could be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him? also freely give us all things. Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Amen. Yeah, great chapter and verse to go to, Annette. Works very nicely here with Revelation 12. Surprisingly, this isn't a cross-reference in my Newton-James, but it probably should be. Yeah. All right. Let's move on. And anyway, if you're confused about this, I mean, that's okay. But I would encourage you to, if you want to know more, to read what, These four guys that I mentioned, so Douglas Kelly, Richard Phillips, James Hamilton, or G.K. Beale on it. Ken Gentry is also very good on this point. There might be something in the library over there from Ken Gentry on this specific thing. All right, let's go to verse 11 here. It says in verse 11, it says, And they overcame him, so the they here is referring to the church, right? And they overcame him, that is referring to the dragon, and they overcame him by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. We see here how it is that Christ overcame Satan and how we overcome him today as well. There are three things here laid out. What's the first thing laid out in the text? The first way in which by the blood of Jesus. We could say Christ overcame Satan by the shedding of his blood. That's a valid statement and a correct statement. And we know that the blood of Jesus pleads for us. Jesus, he paid the penalty for our sins and thus there's no charge against us and we overcome by trusting in Christ. Trusting in what it is that Jesus did for us. So the first way, that we overcome is by the blood of the Lamb. Second way, what's the second way that's laid out there? By the word of their testimony. Which would mean what? The Bible. Bible, okay. More specifically, the word of their testimony. What Jesus did for me. Yeah, faithful gospel witness, yep. So this includes in our lives, this includes the spread and the advance of the gospel. If you just think about what Jesus did, nobody's ever faithfully preached the gospel like the Lord Jesus, right? You can say, well, when Jesus was doing that, he was triumphing. over Satan. He was overcoming Satan and we overcome as well by faithfully preaching the gospel. And then what's the last thing that's there? So the three ways you have the by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and the last thing there is they did not love their lives to the death. Say it again? You gotta deny yourself. Yeah, you gotta deny yourself, take up your cross, follow after Christ. These believers also, like, not afraid to, well, see what it says there, like, not afraid to die, they did not love their lives to the death, and this just gets at, application-wise for us, is that we don't need to fear death. As difficult as it is, we don't need to fear it. And even in the face of persecution, we don't need to fear. And maybe you've thought about this, and I'm sure that you have. I think every Christian has thought about this. You look at Nigeria, where Nigerian Christians get killed all the time by crazy Muslims. And you think to yourself, you say, well, if I was in that position, what would I do? Would I deny Christ to save myself? And if you're a Christian, the answer would be, no, you're not going to do that. He's going to give you the power not to do that. He gives you the grace that we need to endure. So they did not love their lives to So three ways, by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony, and not loving their lives to the death. Alright, let's look at verse 12 here. Verse 12, it says, Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he So this should be our reaction. We should look and we should rejoice, right? We should rejoice in the fact that Satan has been thrown down, that Jesus is already the victorious one, that Satan is already the Defeated one so the victory of Jesus means that we could rejoice right now on earth and we await the day when we will rejoice to a greater extent in the new heavens and in the new earth as well, but for those who don't trust in Christ Well, you see what it says here. It says, Woe to them. Why? Because destruction is coming. So they won't be exempt from this. We aren't exempt from this either in the sense that when Satan brings destruction, well it's not only upon, like he hates believers. And believers, they face, we face the destruction of Satan. We're not exempt from this persecution. But we experience it. in this short time knowing that we will not experience God's eternal judgment in hell forever. We experience it now and we know that there's coming this glorious day when the Lord Jesus comes back. So we experience this temporary short time of the dragon's wrath And the dragon, Satan, he knows his time is short. And thus, he tries to bring about as much destruction and persecution as possible. That's what he tries to do. Why? Well, because he knows that his time is short. He knows that his doom is sure. He already knows this. So he tries to bring as much destruction in the meantime. I was trying to think of like an illustration. I couldn't really think of one, except maybe like if there was, I don't know, like a really bad divorce happening. as much as possible, but the husband, he's coming to go inside the house, and she might, as fast as she could, try to destroy as many things in the house, because she knows that the husband is coming, and she won't be able to do that when he's there. Well, that's kind of a way to think about it. Noelle? I've heard one before, obviously futile in comparison, but that at the end of a bee's life, They sting as much as they can because they're going to die. So before they die, they usually go out and they will sting what they can. That's a better illustration than the one I just gave. Yeah, that was good. So bees, this is what bees do at the end of their life. They just try to sting and sting and sting. And that's a great way to think of what saving is trying to do. Okay, let's go to verses 13 through 17, and we'll see here that since Satan no longer has access to heaven's courtroom, since that is no longer happening, he no longer has access, he attempts to hurt the church as much as possible, which is what we were kind of just talking about in verse 12. So verse 13, it says, in verse 13, it says, now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, He persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. All right, so what's happening here? This is kind of just like a verse that shows us the main theme of the book of Revelation. What's happening here? It's not like a trick question, it's just very simple. What's happening in this verse? Persecuting the church. Yeah, it's just Satan persecuting the church. It's just reminding us that this is what Satan does. He persecutes the church. His persecutions, his attempts at devouring the church are still continuing and he persecutes the people of God. Verse 14. It says in verse 14, it says, but the woman was given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. Alright, so is this, would this be literal language being used here? The answer is no. It's symbolic, symbolic language. And the church here, again the woman is the church. The church is given two wings of a great eagle. Alright, what do you, I didn't look this up because I'm not, I'm very bad with animals, by the way. There was one time with the totter girls, Eden and Haley, and they have like a little animal book. And I'm like, oh, this is a cheetah. No, it's not bad. Yeah, I'm really bad with animals. So you have to kind of just think, what do you know about eagles? Again, I didn't know this. I didn't look it up. They soar really high. They soar really high? Yeah. OK. They also apparently soar really fast and fly really fast. Apparently, they could go up to, and this is just what I saw on Google, up to like 99 miles per hour they could fly. in the air. So they fly really, really fast. And the picture here is to be that God will rapidly protect his people and bring them to the wilderness for safety during this time of persecution. And this is what he does. He rapidly protects us. This is what he's doing for the church throughout the course of history. He has, and when I say rapidly protected the church, you just think of how many times when powerful men had stomped out Christianity, only to be shown that actually this hasn't happened. Why? Well, because God has protected the church. I think of there's a Roman emperor. I forget his name. But he kind of, let's see if I'm getting it. Spurgeon told the story once. I'm getting the story right. He erected these two massive pillars somewhere in Europe, talking about on these pillars how Basically, I'm being very general, how he's victorious and how everybody's going to remember his name. Nobody's going to remember Jesus's name. And now, 1,600 years later, I don't even remember my name. That's how inconsequential this guy is. And everybody remembers Jesus's name. Here, just on this expression here, this expression, a time and times and half a time, which we see here in verse 14, if you just look at the end of it, it says where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent. This is from William Hendrickson. It says, or he says, the expression, a time and times and half a time, occurs first in the book of Daniel, and it occurs there in chapter seven and chapter 12. It is the period of the Antichrist. John emphasizes the fact that the spirit of the Antichrist is already in the world, that's in 1 John 4, verse three. In the Apocalypse, or in the book of Revelation, this period of three and a half, three and a half, refers to the entire gospel age. It is followed by the three and a half, sorry, it is followed by the three days and a half during which the beast that comes up out of the abyss, he refers to it as the anti-christian world in its final phase, will kill the witnesses and will attempt to silence the voice of the gospel. So it's just another way of referring to intense persecution that's gonna come on the church. So again, you see the main theme here. One of the main themes in the book of Revelation is that intense persecution will come upon the church. Okay, so that was verse 14. Verse 15. It says here in verse 15, it says, so the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood. So again here we have symbolic language being used of persecution of the church. Oftentimes this persecution comes from the mouth a.k.a. Satan trying to persecute the church, not just physically, though he does that, but trying to persecute the church with things that come from one's mouth. So what would be some of those things? Ways in which Satan persecutes the church with false teaching. Yes, that's the number one thing. Deception, false teaching. He does it with false churches. So some of the biggest Christian, and I'm putting Christian in quotes because they're not Christian. They masquerade as being Christian. But they're not. And who's really at the head of these churches? Well, Satan is. He's the one who works in those places. So this is what he does. He tries to persecute with deception. Just on this point, I feel like it's important to bring out. But when we know people who are in these churches that either preach a false gospel, well, actually, this is what I shouldn't say either, that do preach a false gospel and are seeking to persecute the church with their deception. But we know people in these churches, the loving thing to do is not to say, oh, it's so great that you're in that church. The loving thing is to say in a nice way, you need to get out of this place. demonic, and it's not good. It's not advancing the kingdom of God. All right, so that's verse 15, Satan trying to persecute with deception, persecute with things that come from the mouth. Verse 16, it says here in verse 16, It says, but the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had spewed out of his mouth. So if you could picture it from the unbelieving world's perspective, from those who don't know Christ, as they look, this is unexpected. So unexpectedly to the world, the church prevails. Unexpectedly, to the world, the Church is continuing to advance. And it seems like they will not prevail. It seems like the Church will not prevail. the church does. And the church here is referred to as being nourished by the earth. And this is just a way of, another way of saying that God is the one who provides for his people. So being nourished by the earth, it's synonymous with God's provision for his people. So the church is nourished by the earth, AKA the church is provided for by the Lord God. And in verse 17, Verse 17, it says, and the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. So what does Satan do at this? Well, Satan, he rages with more venom. He rages even harder at this. And Satan, he makes war with the church, with those who keep God's commandments, and with those who love the gospel. So Satan hates us, obviously. He hates us, and what does he try to do? Well, he rages even harder and tries to make war, and does make war. with us, with the offspring of the church, those of us who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. That's just another way of saying somebody who's actually truly been converted. Because if there's somebody who says, oh yeah, I love Jesus, I believe in Jesus, but they have no desire to obey Christ, Well, that gives evidence that that person is actually not saved, but then evidence that somebody actually is saved is, yeah, they're trusting in Christ, Christ alone, and there is this desire to obey Christ, to obey the commandments And of course, we don't do this perfectly. I know we always say this, but you just have to say this, because somebody will say, oh, it sounds like you're saying that you're saved by keeping the law, but nobody's saying that. We get saved, and then a result of that is a desire to obey God's commandments, and for the hundredth time, we don't obey them perfectly, but generally speaking, All right, so that's Revelation chapter 12. So the big thing, and this is such an important chapter, I actually highly recommend if there's, from this chapter, at least two verses to memorize, it'll be verses nine and 10, because it just so preciously and obviously puts it how Jesus is victorious, Satan is defeated. But Revelation 12 is just a great chapter to meditate on. And it flows very nicely with John chapter 12, Luke 10, and John chapter 16 as well. Yeah, so that's Revelation chapter 12. Let's pray here, and we will ask the Lord to bless the morning service, which Pastor Doug is gonna be preaching, and yeah, Paul. Yes, if you could pray, Paul and a few others, they pray in the main floor classroom at the end of the hallway. Everybody is welcome. All right, why don't we pray? Pastor Bob, would you mind praying? Heavenly Father, we do. We do come before you amazed. We thank you for this teaching. Thank you, Pastor Dan, for teaching us this morning and how we can see how Christ's victory for us is certain, is eternal, forever. We thank you, Lord, for your amazing work on our behalf, taking our sin and giving us eternal life. Help us, Lord, now to worship you in spirit and truth as we think upon these things that are Lord Jesus Christ. We pray your blessing now. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.