Intro / Review:
Satan's Wars. (Revelation 12:1-17)
The War Through HISTORY : Satan vs. Christ. (Rev 12:1-6)
The War in HEAVEN: Satan vs. Michael. (Rev 12:7-12)
The War HERE: Satan vs Christ's People. (Rev 12:13-17)
How to Win Satan's War on You. (Rev 12:11)
PERCEIVE How the War is Won: By the Blood of the Lamb.
PERSONALLY receive Jesus Christ: Have a Testimony.
PERSERVERE No Matter the Cost: All the Way to Death.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:03-01:06
Open up your Bibles with me please to Revelation chapter 12.
01:07-01:12
And while you're turning there, just a quick review to get us all on the same page.
01:12-01:27
The title of this series is "Coming Soon, the End of the World." In chapters 4 and 5, Revelation, John was taken to heaven and forward in time to see God seated on His throne.
01:28-01:42
and in his hand was the title "Deed to the Earth." And the question was asked, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and to break its seals?" In other words, who is able to reclaim the earth from Satan and sin?
01:43-01:51
The Lamb, Jesus Christ, steps forward, takes the scroll, and thunderous worship results, and then begins the judgment, right?
01:51-02:00
Revelation 6-8, we saw seal judgment, six seal jumpers, And the seventh seal contains the seven trumpet judgments.
02:00-02:09
In chapter 9, talking about the fifth and the sixth trumpets, we saw demons attacking the earth, but people still refused to repent.
02:10-02:16
And we get to chapter 10, we're kind of standing alongside John asking, how are we supposed to feel about all this?
02:16-02:19
I mean, God's judgment is being poured out on the earth.
02:19-02:21
How should I feel about that?
02:21-02:24
And the answer is bittersweet, right?
02:25-02:29
It's sweet and bitter at the same time to think of God's coming judgment.
02:30-02:46
Then last time, Revelation chapter 11, we saw that victory is declared, that God's not pacing in heaven wondering how he's going to eke out a victory, that in heaven they're already having the victory party that Jesus Christ has won.
02:47-02:49
We're all caught up, right? So let's play a game.
02:49-02:51
Anybody want to play a game? Great. We're going to play a game.
02:52-02:54
We're going to play Famous Rivalries.
02:55-03:00
All right, I'm going to give you one side, and then you are going to shout out the other side.
03:01-03:01
All right?
03:02-03:06
The first one, this is just for an example, just so everybody understands what we're doing.
03:06-03:11
If I were to say the Hatfields, you would say the McCoys.
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Okay, you do know what we're doing, great.
03:13-03:14
Here we go.
03:15-03:15
Muhammad Ali.
03:16-03:18
Did someone say Cassius Clay?
03:18-03:19
The answer's free.
03:20-03:21
Pittsburgh Penguins.
03:21-03:23
Philadelphia Flyers, right?
03:24-03:27
Okay, today we're going to talk about the longest rivalry ever.
03:28-03:29
And it's between God and Satan.
03:29-03:37
Now when I say rivalry, I guess to use an illustration, it's almost like calling the Steelers and the Browns a rivalry.
03:38-03:41
It's not really a rivalry if it's one-sided.
03:41-03:43
So it's really kind of a misnomer.
03:43-03:54
It's not like when we talk about God and Satan, it's not like, "Ooh, we got all this back and forth between two equal opponents. Because reality is God is perfectly unstoppable.
03:55-04:46
But there is a legitimate danger for mankind because Satan can't touch God. So what he does is he goes after what God loves. And that's you. That's us. So as I said, we left off chapter 11. The victory was proclaimed. The victory was celebrated. Now the question victory over who? And chapter 12 answers that question. The answer is Satan. Today we're going to talk about the enemy, because again, that's where under inspiration of the Holy Spirit through the direction of this revelation, this is what John now is prompted to talk about. Big victory party. What's the victory over, John? Well, the victory is over Satan, a very powerful and beautiful angel who rebelled against God according to Ezekiel 28.
04:47-05:02
Satan took a third of the angels with him, what we commonly refer to as demons, and Satan has made it his mission, you're going to see this through the chapter, that Satan has made it his mission to steal, to kill, and destroy.
05:03-05:10
And again, you should be listening very closely because his mission is to steal and kill and destroy you.
05:10-05:16
So the timeline of Revelation actually doesn't resume until Revelation chapter 15.
05:17-05:23
And what you need to see, Revelation chapters 12 through 14, it's almost like a giant flashback.
05:24-05:27
You can actually draw like parentheses between Revelation 12 through 14.
05:28-05:31
And I guess to, here's how I understand Revelation 12 and 14.
05:31-06:04
You see it in movies all the time, like the storyline of the movie is going along of a sudden there's this flashback, right? Maybe it's in black and white. And it takes you back to show you something that happened in one of the characters' past that brings you up to the present day. Oh, that's why he's acting that way. That's what Revelation 12 through 14 is about, to say, you know, why is God pouring out his judgment? And why is his victory being celebrated? And who's really the enemy here? And it's like, we're going to take a flashback, and we're going to go back to the beginning and see the enemy.
06:05-06:36
this flashback takes us all the way back up to the time of the tribulation, focusing on the person and the work of the enemy. So at this point in Revelation, John is giving us a vision. He's giving us a panoramic overview, specifically in chapter 12, of the wars that Satan has waged. So on your outline, Satan's wars. Let's look at the first one. The war through history, Satan versus Christ. The war through history, Satan versus Christ.
06:36-07:18
Look at verses 1 and 2. John says, "And a great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars. She was pregnant and crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth." Stop right there. John is describing a great sign, and you should circle that or underline that in your Bible because that is hugely significant. Why? Well, a sign obviously is intended to symbolize something real. But here's why this is so significant. You see, some people when they read Revelation, they just want to put it all in the category of it's all a sign. None of it's literally true. None of this is actually going to happen.
07:18-08:28
It's all just a big poetic metaphor. And you have to see here that that's absolutely not true because John made it a clear point to say, "This here is a sign." In other words, he was assuming and expecting that we were going to take everything else he's been talking about as being literally true. Do you see that? He didn't say back in chapter 1, "Here's a bunch of signs." Remember, we said from the beginning we were going to read and understand and preach and teach God's Word straightforwardly. And if we do that, we see, "Oh, okay, Revelation chapter 12. These things are signs. These are symbols to teach us literal truths. But John obviously was expecting us to take everything else literally and straightforwardly. So what are these signs? Well, the woman represents Israel, God's covenant nation. You're going to see that. Why Israel? Well, a couple of things. One, Jesus Christ, according to the flesh, came from the nation of Israel. Jesus was, you could say, birthed through the nation In fact, the Old Testament often describes Israel as a woman, right?
08:28-08:33
Like the whole book of Hosea, God saw Israel as his bride.
08:33-08:42
Plus, the description of this woman, obviously a sign that she was clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, crown of 12 stars.
08:42-08:43
What's that all about?
08:43-08:45
Well, just jot this down in your notes.
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You can look this up later.
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comes from Genesis 37. The image of Israel as the sun and the moon and those words associated with this picture comes from Genesis 37. And the crown refers to the 12 tribes of Israel.
08:59-09:18
Your Bible tells you that she was pregnant. These are birth pains because clear from the beginning Israel was waiting for the Messiah. Israel was waiting for the Christ to finally and bring deliverance, and that is pictured as a nation pregnant in birth pains.
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Verse 3 says, "And another sign appeared in heaven.
09:21-09:30
Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems." Those are crowns.
09:31-09:35
"His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth.
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and the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth so that when she bore her child, he might devour it." You know, when I read that this week, I thought, "What a grotesque image that is, that a woman's about to give birth, and right there is a monster wanting to destroy the baby." And then I thought, "You know, there are some lawmakers in New York that would read this and say, 'Ain't no thing.'" Sad, isn't it? But I digress.
10:02-10:06
Like Genesis 3, here we have the woman and the serpent.
10:06-10:13
You're going to see throughout this passage serpent and dragon are interchangeable terms talking about the same person.
10:13-10:15
This sign describes Satan.
10:15-10:25
Like, "Well, what's up with the seven heads and the crowns?" Well, the seven heads refer to seven world empires that are used by Satan.
10:25-10:31
Throughout history, Satan has used and will use seven great empires to attack God's people.
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What are those empires?
10:33-10:41
Well, Egypt and Assyria and Babylon and Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome.
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That's only six.
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Well, the seventh is going to come at the end.
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And that's where the ten comes in, because the final empire is going to be a league of ten nations.
10:53-10:55
That's what the horns represent.
10:55-10:58
It's like, "Wow, Pastor Jeff, you got all that from that text?" No, I did not.
10:59-11:01
In Revelation, Chapter 17, he explains that.
11:01-12:05
we'll get there. But these stars are angels that rebelled that we also called demons, a third of them, when Satan rebelled went with him. And the image here is Satan trying to destroy Israel, which is something that's been going on since the book of Genesis. Like, well, why is Satan after Israel? Well, it's very clear in the text. Satan wanted to stop the baby from being born. That's what's going on. This very graphic image is a description of what Satan has been up to. We need to stop Israel. We need to stop this baby from being born and I'm going to make sure that this baby is not born, talking about the coming Christ. And I don't even have time this morning to walk through the Old Testament with you to see all of the times that Satan, hard at work to stop Israel in order to stop the Messianic line, in order to stop Jesus from being born. If I can get Israel sidetracked, if I can bring God's judgment on Israel. If I can, I want to stop God's plan for Israel.
12:05-12:55
But this isn't just an Old Testament thing. I'm sure you noticed Satan tried to get Jesus sidetracked throughout his ministry, didn't he? Actually, even before Jesus' ministry, right? Remember what happened when Jesus was born and Herod said, "Let's murder all of the babies, two years and younger." Who do you think was really behind it? The enemy. It's the dragon. When Jesus went into the wilderness after fasting or during is fasting, why did he go? In order to be tempted by the devil. Again, it was another opportunity for Satan to sidetrack the Christ. And you can study the Gospels. Many, many, many times Satan tried to have Jesus killed before the cross. Mobs wanting to stone him, throw him off of a cliff. Satan has been determined that he is going to stop the Christ.
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Well, look at verse 5. It says, "She gave birth to a male child." The Messiah eventually came.
13:00-13:12
"She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne." Again, Jesus Christ obviously is in view here, that rod of iron.
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That's a reference to Psalm 2, and it refers to Christ's upcoming millennial reign when he has an absolutely dominant And after Jesus' first coming and before his second coming, Jesus ascended to sit at the right hand of God.
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That's why it says he was caught up to God and to his throne.
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Then verse 6 says, "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days." Now this verse is actually a fast forward back to the Tribulation.
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You're going to see that very clearly in the text here in just a moment.
13:54-14:00
in this image Israel flees to the wilderness for 1260 days, which is three and a half years.
14:02-14:10
Like, well, wait a minute. Why would Israel do that? Well, that takes us to the second war. I brought this down, the war in heaven, Satan versus Michael. Why did Israel flee?
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You're going to get your answer here. It says, "Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he He was defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
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And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.
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He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him.
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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.
14:56-15:05
And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they love not their lives, even unto death.
15:06-15:26
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." So Satan's war on God and on God's people, it's a major milestone here, because here Satan wages war against Michael.
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Who's Michael?
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Well, Michael's an angel that pops up several times in Scripture.
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He's actually a defender of God's people.
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Jot these references down.
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Daniel chapter 10, Daniel chapter 12, Jude verse 9 references Michael, defender, protector of God's people.
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I have a question.
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What do you think prompted this fight?
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The Bible doesn't say.
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exactly what prompted the fight. Do you think maybe it was the rapture? Do you think maybe Satan saw God's people, his church, being caught up to heaven and he made a desperate attempt to somehow try to stop that? And Michael and his crew stepped in to fight? I don't know. I don't know. You know something else that really gets my imagination going about this passage? What do you think it looks like when angels fight? What do you think that's I mean haven't we seen the awesome power that angels have in Revelation? I mean these Angels are Powerful beyond our comprehension. They're not God but for a human I mean Angels are more powerful than we can explain. So what do you think? It looks like when they fight do they have weapons?
16:32-16:58
Can they hurt each other? I don't know. Thank Wow pastor Jeff for studying all week. You sure don't know a lot I only know what the text says But here's what I do know the Bible says this battle results in Satan and his angels being cast from heaven I do know that all right that's in the text the result of this battle was no more access to God No more being in God's presence You know with Satan there's a lot of myths that surround Satan, right?
16:59-17:06
I think a lot of our theology about Satan comes from like Tom and Jerry cartoons You know where Satan's good. He's what color is he what color Satan?
17:06-17:37
He's red and he's got horns and he's got the tail and he's holding a none of those things are true By the way, you know, the biggest myth about Satan is that he's ruling hell right now And he's not Satan is not in hell and I saw that Tom and Jerry cartoon. That is not true Satan is not in hell the Bible says that he prowls around the earth like a lion and And for now, for now, he has access to heaven.
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Job chapters 1 and 2 talk about that.
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So the question is, what does Satan do in heaven and earth?
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And the answer is right here in this passage, verses 9 and 10.
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You want to circle these, underline them, whatever.
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But here's what you need to know about Satan.
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And we could spend a whole sermon series talking about Satan.
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But you have to see this from the text, church.
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Satan is described as a deceiver and as an accuser.
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There's a whole lot we could say about that, I just want to give you this today. Satan's mission is to turn God against people and at the same time to turn people against God. Think about that. As accuser, Satan wants to turn God against people. Day and night, Satan accuses God's people. He's standing before God. I don't know why you think these people are worth it. They're not. These people are garbage. You know, they pretend to be all religious and nice. You know what's in their heart. You know they are lustful. You know they are hateful. You see what they're like. I can't believe you waste your time on them. He's the accuser trying to turn God against his people. He says people aren't worth it. But then as deceiver, Satan is trying to turn people against God to try to convince us God isn't worth it. God isn't worth it.
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God done for you lately? Huh? What's God done for you lately? Oh, you're praying to God like you think that's going to make a difference? It doesn't matter. See, these are the kinds of things Satan... His tactics haven't changed. Just like the Garden of Eden, did God really say? Did God really say that? Did God really say that? Did God really say that? No, no, no, no, no, that's not true. Satan wants to turn you against God, and he does that by deception. So his accuser, he wants to turn God against his people, and his deceiver, He wants to turn people against God.
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Here's the good news.
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Because of Jesus Christ, both of those are absolutely impossible.
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Because as Satan accuses you before the Father, you have a defense attorney standing there saying "You know what?
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That might be true, but I died for that." Yeah, Satan says he's a terrible sinner and Jesus says "Yeah, you know what?
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I took his sin on myself when I died on the cross." He is forgiven and he is restored in the family.
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He is not guilty and he will receive no condemnation.
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So Satan can flap his gums all he wants before the throne, but when somebody is in Christ, it makes no difference.
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Because you have the ultimate defense attorney.
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When a person is in Christ, you cannot be turned against God.
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He can't deceive you to turn you against God, because true saving faith is persevering faith.
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We're going to talk about that more in a minute.
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Satan is unable to turn a true follower of Jesus Christ against Jesus Christ.
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He can't do it.
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He cannot do it.
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And we'll talk about that in a second.
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But this defeat of Satan and his angels at the hand of Michael and his angels results in praise from God's saints in heaven as Satan is expelled, the accusations are over, and Christ is ready to receive his kingdom back.
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The victory party is still going strong.
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That last verse says, "Rejoice, O heavens, for Satan has been evicted, but woe to the earth." Did you see that?
20:52-21:05
"Woe to the earth and see, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short." See, at this point, this is going to set the stage for later events here through the Tribulation that John outlines in Revelation.
21:05-21:08
But when Satan's thrown down to the earth, he knows his time is ticking.
21:09-21:13
And he is furious, and he is desperate, and he is dangerous.
21:14-22:11
this point Satan's going to say I got three and a half years and I'm going to make them count. So the war through history we saw Satan versus Christ the war in heaven Satan versus Michael thirdly the war here Satan versus Christ people Satan versus Christ's people look at verses 13 and 14 when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth he pursued the woman who's the woman Israel okay who had given birth to the male child who was that Jesus, alright. But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time. Stop there for a second. Okay, so that's why she fled. Remember we had that question clear back in verse 6. Why did she flee? Here's why. Upon Satan defeat at the hands of Michael, Satan on the earth more violently than ever turns his rage upon Israel.
22:12-22:19
And because of the intense persecution during the last three and a half years of the tribulation, Israel's only chance is to flee.
22:20-22:22
But God is going to provide an escape plan.
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Jesus actually talked about this very thing, you know, Matthew chapter 24, verses 15 through 21. Jesus talked about all of this.
22:30-22:34
But during this time, God is going to protect and provide for Israel.
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Like, well, how's he going to do that? He'll figure it out.
22:37-22:51
Remember the Exodus manna from heaven. Maybe he'll do something like that. Remember Elijah birds bringing food. Maybe he'll do something like that I don't know but God says he's gonna take care of them So I'm inclined to believe that God's going to take care of them. You're like, well, what's up with the eagle wings?
22:51-23:05
Okay, so we have this woman now all the sun she has eagle wings. Well, that's more Old Testament imagery Exodus chapter 19 Talks about wings as being God's protection of Israel like okay, I get that but what's this time times and half a time thing?
23:05-23:11
Well, that's a really fancy way of saying three and a half years like well, then why didn't he just say three and a half?
23:11-24:22
Years, I'll tell you why because that figure of speech time times and half a time is the same language That's used by Daniel in the Old Testament And I believe that this is John's way under inspiration the Holy Spirit of tying this prophecy to Daniel's in the Old Testament All right verse 15. Okay, so you have the scene here okay, so the dragons after the woman who'd given birth to the child, but he was caught up to heaven and and She has the wings and she flies the wilderness verse 15 the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman To sweep her away with a flood but the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and Swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth Wow, obviously more symbolism water Flooding that's used throughout the Old Testament talking about overwhelming trouble from an enemy Jeremiah 46.8, I'm not giving you a lot of cross references here, but you have to see this language that's coming up here might sound weird to us, but when you're familiar with the Old Testament, you're like, "Oh yeah, yeah, that sounds very familiar." The Old Testament uses this water flood terminology and poetic ways to talk about enemies of God attacking.
24:22-24:30
"But God has the earth swallow the river, and there's nothing new there." The Lord repeatedly did that throughout the Old Testament.
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the earth swallow up people attacking Israel. Exodus 15, number 16. Look at verse 17 here.
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"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.
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And he stood on the sand of the sea." Okay, so Israel flees and Israel's in the wilderness and he's like, "I'm going to get Israel and God prevents that.
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So now we see Satan standing on the beach.
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Like, all right, there are some people that didn't flee.
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There are some of God's people that aren't in the wilderness.
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You better be sure I'm going to get them.
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Why did people decide to stay? Who knows?
25:13-25:20
But here's something we do know. This persecution that's coming is going to lead to the salvation of many people in Israel in those days.
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Jeremiah chapter 30 talks about that.
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God's going to allow this persecution to result in people coming to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
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So, Revelation chapter 12.
25:32-25:38
Right now somebody's thinking, "You know, for somebody that fights a lot, Satan's not very good at it." Right?
25:38-25:40
I mean, isn't that what we saw in this chapter?
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Like Satan's waging war here, waging war here, losing every turn.
25:44-25:46
Yeah, Satan's not very good at fighting against God.
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Satan's not even very good at fighting against Michael.
25:50-25:56
But for you and I to walk away from this passage and underestimate him would be falling for his deception.
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Because, listen, comparing your power to Satan's power is like comparing the power of a toy remote-controlled car to a semi-truck.
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And if you don't think Satan is dangerous to people, even God's people, ask Eve in the Garden, ask Paul in the New Testament, ask Peter who Satan asked to sift as wheat, ask Jesus who withstood temptation directly from the enemy, if you don't think Satan is dangerous to people. So if you're sitting here today, you're listening to this podcast and you don't know God, you're at wars with God. You've got bigger problems than all of this. But if you do know God, you're going to war with So the last thing, here's what I'm going to close with.
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How to win Satan's war on you.
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How to win Satan's war on you.
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And it all comes from verse 11, because it's nothing new.
26:52-27:00
The same way these future believers conquered Satan is the way anyone is ever able to conquer Satan.
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So Satan's waging war on you.
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How do you conquer?
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First of all, perceive how the war is won by the blood of the Lamb.
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Do you see that in verse 11?
27:09-27:23
It says, "And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb." "Perceive how the war is won by the blood of the Lamb." You know a phrase that I hear that drives me nuts is when people say, "You need to rebuke that devil." You know the Bible never says that we are to rebuke the devil. Do you know that?
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The Bible says that we are to resist the devil.
27:28-27:35
James 4, 7, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." But this idea that we puff our chest out and we're like, "Bring it on, Satan!
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I rebuke you!" Like, that is just not in the Bible.
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But resisting Him is. And step one in winning the war that Satan is waging against you is simply this, you realize that the war's already been won.
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Hebrews 2.14 says, "Through death he," Jesus, "might destroy the one who has the power of death," that is the devil. In other words, when Jesus was on the cross, that looked like Satan's greatest day. Look, the Messiah came.
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I've been trying from the beginning to stop it. He's here and look what happened.
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His people turned on him and they brutally executed him.
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Now what might have looked like Satan's greatest day, instead the crucifixion of Jesus Christ marked the day that Satan lost.
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Conquered by the blood. Satan is already defeated. Satan's already condemned. He's like a prisoner just waiting for the sentence to be carried out.
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First of all, perceive how the war is won by the blood of the Lamb and secondly, personally receive Jesus Christ, have a testimony.
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Personally receive Jesus Christ, have a testimony.
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Did you see that in verse 11?
28:41-28:46
"And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony." Like, what does that mean?
28:47-28:55
It means this, the blood of Jesus Christ does you no good unless you personally receive him as your Lord and Savior.
28:55-29:52
And that's why John says in 1 John 5, "For this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith." Jesus' death on the cross isn't automatic salvation for all. It's only for those who believe in His name, only for those who receive Him. The Bible describes salvation as a gift, and a gift must be received. And receiving that gift is receiving life change, and receiving life change is receiving a testimony. So this is just a fancy way of saying that the blood of Jesus Christ to me is not just a point of theology. It's saying the blood of Jesus Christ for me is something very personal, because the same blood that defeated the enemy also purchased me. I belong to him. And this is my testimony that Jesus Christ isn't just a Lord and a Savior. He is, that's true. He is a Lord and Savior, but it doesn't end there for me. He's my Lord. He's my Savior. That's my testimony.
29:53-30:06
And then finally, persevere no matter the cost, all the way to death. Verse 11, "They conquered him and you will conquer him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony by the word of your testimony.
30:07-30:12
Look at this, "For they love not their lives even unto death." They said, "I don't care what you do.
30:13-30:19
Murdering me right now is just giving me a ticket to be with my Lord." And that doesn't sound too bad.
30:19-30:21
But persevere no matter the cost all the way to death.
30:21-30:25
And by the way, that's the only kind of faith there truly is.
30:25-30:28
That's really the only kind of faith there is, biblically.
30:28-30:40
And if you would define or describe your faith as, "You know what, yeah, I like going to church and I like those church people, but you know, I wouldn't like, I wouldn't like die for this stuff." Then you don't have faith.
30:40-30:44
And you've been deceived and are being conquered by the enemy right now.
30:45-30:52
If you think some lukewarm, half-hearted, warming a seat on Sunday commitment means that you have faith.
30:52-30:53
Because it doesn't.
30:53-30:59
A faith that doesn't see Jesus Christ as the treasure worth giving up everything for.
30:59-31:05
That doesn't see Jesus as the pearl worth selling all your other stuff in order to buy.
31:06-31:14
A faith that doesn't embrace the call to take up your cross and be willing to die for the one who was willing to die for you.
31:15-31:25
A faith that doesn't embrace the reality of the promise that the next life surpasses anything attained or experienced in this life, it's not faith.
31:25-31:29
You can call it whatever you want, but biblically it's not faith.
31:29-31:31
It says they loved not their lives.
31:31-31:32
They got it.
31:32-31:34
Jesus said it in John 12, 25.
31:34-31:40
Jesus said whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
31:40-31:43
How far are you willing to go to follow Jesus Christ?
31:44-31:49
Because there's one thing Jesus clearly taught us, it's the faith that leads to death also leads to victory.
31:49-31:50
There's a war going on.
31:51-31:53
Like it or not, you've been dragged into it.
31:53-31:54
But the war's been won.
31:55-31:55
Let's pray.
31:55-31:59
Father in heaven, we thank you for the reality that the war has been won.
32:00-32:10
Father, we thank you for the reality that though Satan is an accuser and a deceiver, because of the blood of Jesus Christ, those things mean nothing.
32:11-32:21
Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters here because just in speaking to people over the last few days, I know there are some people here who are under incredible spiritual attack.
32:21-32:47
And I pray Father that during these times of the spiritual attack, instead of being discouraged and running to something to take our mind off of it or to distract us, I pray that we recall your Word from last week and we run to the secret place and get on our faces and celebrate that no matter how vicious the battle we are going through, the war has already been won.
32:47-32:49
Thank you, Father, for the victory.
32:49-32:52
By your grace, may we humbly walk in it.
32:53-32:54
We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Revelation 12
GROUP
What is your big take-away from this passage / message? What did you learn about Satan that you previously did not know?
What is the point of John being shown these signs here, at this point in Revelation?
What is the significance of John explicitly telling us “this is a sign” (Rev 12:1,3)?
Describe some things Rev 12:9-10 tell us about Satan.
“There is only one kind of true faith: faith that is willing to go all the way to death.” Do you agree or disagree? See Rev 12:11 and Matthew 16:24-26.
BREAKOUT
Pray for one another!