Revelation 12 // Persecution Of The Woman

okay revelation 12 we've been in this for weeks and it's because I keep going places and we keep starting over we're not starting over we're gonna get through it so Revelation chapter 12 let's pray before we start and again thanks Lord for the word thank you for prophecy specifically thank you God that we deal with the God who knows the end from the beginning and you tell us these things you said in your word that you don't do anything unless you reveal it to your servants the prophets and you've revealed this to John John's revealed it to us and Lord where we get the benefit of going through it and just being able to look at what your Bible says and seeing how closely it fits to the world around us and so Lord just bless as we go through revelation 12 and to speak to our hearts let me ask it in your name amen okay revelation 12 and even though I'm not going to teach on it will start verse 1 it says 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 twelve stars then being with child she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth and another sign appeared in heaven I behold a great fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns and seven diadem's or crowns on his head 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 and his throne then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1260 days so we have the woman which is Israel we have the dragon which is identified as Satan when you look at verse 9 so the great red drag or the Great Dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world he's cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him and so we have the picture of the dragon and that's fulfilled we talked about him drawing a third of the angels that's what the stars are and again in verse nine we know that the dragon the devil and Satan has angels himself so you have good angels you have bad angels the bad angels are called demons where we left off last week or last time was with a dragon waiting to devour the child it says in verse 4 his tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and drew them to the earth through 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 and what that's letting you know is that the the the attack on Jesus at his actually wasn't at his birth he was probably at least a year old at the time that Herod tried to kill Jesus that was satanic Lee driven you guys know the Christmas story right so the wise men come to Jerusalem they say where's the king of the Jews Herod goes on no calls in the priests and the scribes they come in they say he's gonna be born in Bethlehem which is like five miles south and so they send the wise men down to Bethlehem Herod says when you find him come back and tell me because I want to worship Him also that wasn't the truth what he wanted to do was kill him because Herod was the King of the Jews it was a title that was given to him by the Romans and he was jealous of it in fact he killed one of his sons over it killed his wife over it and so Herod was basically a nutcase as far as being a controlling guy and we know that that came from Satan according to this passage right here so when Jesus was born Satan's going after him Satan's trying to kill him when he when he's small and helpless can you imagine you go through the Old Testament and you got thousands of years a basically spiritual warfare between God and Satan and then God comes and he makes himself available to Satan he comes down in human form makes himself available puts himself in a position where Satan can get to him and Satan goes after him with a vengeance and so you have the destruction of the little boys in Bethlehem because of what Satan did it says verse five she bore a male child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron and her child was caught up to God and his throne and so you have there a reference to Jesus and actually Psalm 2 in verse 9 it specifically talks about the fact that the the fact that Jesus was going to rule with a rod of iron it says you shall break them with a rod of iron you shall dash them to pieces like a Potter's vessel and then finally he's caught up to God and his throne that's a reference to the Ascension in Acts chapter 1 Jesus when he's leaving he just takes off and he disappears into a cloud we know the cloud was probably the glory of God he left in a cloud he's coming back in clouds so when he appeared on the earth for the very first time when he was just a baby remember the Shepherd's in the fields and the glory of God surrounded them well the glory of God is the presence of God it's the cloud it's the Shekinah it's the it's the the fire of God in the sky and that's what was surrounding the Shepherd's in the Shepherd's field hadn't hadn't been seen for hundreds of years until the appearance of Jesus he's on the Mount of Transfiguration there's a cloud that surrounds them on the Mount of the Transfiguration a voice comes out of the cloud it's the voice of God it's the glory of God once again and then the glory of God is what Jesus disappears into when he goes to heaven next time we see the glory of God is when Jesus comes back he's coming back with the clouds of glory and so that's all Old Testament stuff brought into the New Testament and so you have the Ascension of Christ verse 6 it says then the woman talking about Israel fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1260 days that is also compared to a time and times and half a time if you look down in verse 14 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 in another place that's compared to 42 months and this is the period of time that Jesus identified is the Great Tribulation and so the Tribulation Period is divided up into two parts the first part verse 3 and 1/2 years is a period when the Antichrist is on the ascendancy he's he's consolidating his kingdom he's putting himself into power and in the middle of a seven-year period and the 7-year period comes out of Daniel chapter 9 God God had mandated a certain period of time for the rest of Israel's history as far as God dealing with them and that period of time from the time of the rebuilding of Jerusalem with the wall and the streets up until the time of the Messiah was 483 years and then there's a pause and in that pause there are three things that take place there's the there's the death of the Messiah and then there's the destruction of Jerusalem which which took place about thirty-eight years later and then there's the dispersion of the Jews which lasted for about 1,900 years and then you have this last seven years so it was a total of 490 years that God had planned out for the nation of Israel again this is in Daniel chapter 9 and that last seven-year period is what we call the Tribulation Period and that's what the book of Revelation is all about it's about that period of time the tribulation period the last three-and-a-half years comes after an event called the abomination of desolation and that's when the Antichrist walks into the temple so the temple has to be rebuilt he walks into the temple he sits down and he proclaims himself to be God in fact he the Bible says he walks into the Holy of Holies and sits down remember the temple is divided up into basically two rooms one is the holy place where the menorah was and where the where the altar of incense was and where the the table of showbread was and that's where it's going to be again and then there's an inner room that was called the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was and so what this guy does is he walks into that inner room where the high priest is only supposed to go once a year only the high priests and he goes in and he sits down in that room and proclaims himself to be God that's the abomination of desolation when that happens everything just breaks loose on the planet lots of lots of events start taking place and one of the major events is this persecution of the Jews and it's going to last for three and a half years the Jews are going to be under the knife again and so the same kind of thing that happened in world war two is going to be the same thing that happens during the Tribulation Period the Antichrist is going to go after these people with a vengeance he's going to is going to try to kill them off and that's what's being spoken about in these passages the fact that he comes after them Jesus identified this time like I said as the Great Tribulation in Matthew chapter 24 verse 16 he said actually that's that's worth reading turn over there real quick Matthew chapter 24 let's start in verse 15 it says therefore when you see the abominable Bhama nation of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the Holy Place that lets you know that at the time of Jesus it hadn't happened yet there are guys who will teach that the abomination of desolation was something that took place under a guy named Antiochus Epiphanes who was a guy who came on the scene hundreds of years before Jesus Jesus in Matthew chapter 24 is letting you know that's not true the abomination of desolation hasn't taken place yet and so he tells tells the disciples when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing in the Holy Place whoever reads let him understand God expects us to understand this stuff then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains let him who's on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house and let him who's in the field not go back to get his clothes but woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days and pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath for then there will be Great Tribulation such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time no nor ever shall be and unless those days were shortened no flesh would be saved but for the elects days elects sake those days will be shortened okay and so Jesus says when you see the abomination of desolation then those who are in verse 16 where Judea again he's talking about the Jews here Judea is in Israel right those who are in Judea need to flee to the mountains those who live he who's on the housetop you ever hang out on your housetop no but they do in Judea okay because they they put their porches on top of their houses he let him who's on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house he talks about those who are fleeing on the Sabbath day verse 20 who keeps the Sabbath now the Jews do right and then look at verse 21 again for then there will be great tribulation and then he says such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time no nor ever shall be one of the things that we've been seeing as we've been going through the book of Revelation is that the the judgments that come down in the book of Revelation are are just intense they're catastrophic if you take them as their as they're written these are catastrophic judgments just the one that always blows me away is the is the asteroid hitting the ocean you know just catastrophic crack the earth you guys and so the just these catastrophic things coming down and he says it's worse than anything that the world's ever seen well the world seen a worldwide flood and it's worse than that and that's one of those passages that again will help you out as far as picking interpretations there are people who believe that Matthew chapter 24 was fulfilled in the destruction of the city of Jerusalem okay so in 70 AD the Romans came in destroyed the city of Jerusalem took a bunch of people slaves that kind of that kind of thing and dispersed the Jews right okay destruction of of Jerusalem how many of you ever heard of the destruction of Jerusalem before you were a Christian raise your hands yeah me neither I never heard of it so before I was a believer I had no idea about Jewish history and a destruction of Jerusalem I had an idea about the flood I'd heard of the flood I'd heard of Sodom and Gomorrah I'd heard of that there's a couple different stories that I heard about you know God judging people in the Bible but never this the destruction of Jerusalem the events that Jesus says are going to take place during the Great Tribulation or worse than anything that the world's ever seen that's why it's called the Great Tribulation and so during that period of time back over to Revelation 12 during that period of time the Jews are told actually in Matthew chapter 24 to run to the wilderness and again it's because there's going to be a persecution take that takes place and so anybody who's following Jesus during that the Tribulation Period are people who have you know they basically have an X on their foreheads it's a you know they got a they got a mark on them for destruction and the Antichrist is going to be coming after these guys it says that the the woman fled into the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1260 days now that whole place prepared by God thing is kind of interesting so let's talk about that for a minute turn over to Isaiah chapter 16 Isaiah chapter 16 starting verse one it says send the lamb to the rule or ruler of the land from Sayla to the wilderness to the mount of the daughter of zion for it shall be as a wandering bird thrown out of the nest so shall be the daughters of Moab at the Fords of the Arnon take counsel execute judgment make your shadow like the night in the middle of the day hide the outcasts do not betray him who escapes let my outcasts dwell with you o Moab be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler for the extortion or is at an end devastation ceases the oppressors are consumed out of the land in mercy the throne will be established and one will sit on it in truth in the tabernacle of David judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness have you heard that whole thing with the people of Israel going into the wilderness and going to the city of Petra right have you heard of that this is where it comes from so Sayla in the wilderness salem means rock and most commentators believe that that's that's talking about the the stronghold of petra and when you see verse 3 and verse 4 let my outcasts dwell with you o Moab so Petra is in the area of Moab and so a lot of people think that one of the things that's going to be taking place is that when they go into the wilderness that Petra may be the destination and what's what's cool about Petra is it is a place that is inaccessible and so you've seen Petra if you watched Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade when he when he's riding through the canyon and they come upon that that building basically built into the carved into the rock that's what they thought what they thought was a Treasury in the city of Petra he goes inside and you see the you know the blue guy that's watching you know the the cup of Christ and all that stuff all that stuff is made up that's not what it looks like inside it's just a big square room basically with a couple puffs off shoot rooms but that's that picture is the entrance to the city of Petra one of the things that that's a little problematic about going into the city of Petra is that's not a place that is inaccessible from modern armies right and so you can just go in and bomb the place right if you want to and wipe them out that way but one of the things that you have to remember and I you know I'm not somebody who's absolutely dogmatic on this whole thing as far as them going to Petra I don't know if they do or not I don't know I don't know if that's what what the Lord is talking about or not in this passage it looks like something's going on with them going to Moab with the people of Israel going to Moab one of the things that you need to remember is we've already gone through and looked at a number of judgments that are going to take place and so some of these judgments that are gonna take place first judgement is World War 3 and so on stein said I don't know what manner of weapons World War three is going to be fought with I do know that World War four is going to be fought with sticks and stones the expected the next world war to devastate humanity and that's exactly what you have in the Bible the Bible kicks off with World War three and a quarter of the planet being destroyed presumably by nuclear weapons okay and so you do that kind of stuff you you have done things that is going to destroy the infrastructure of multiple nations that's that's the first thing and then you just start going downhill from there there you know we talked about the asteroid hitting the ocean and a number of other judgments that come down you have that kind of stuff taking place the Bible talks about the fact that during this this time of judgment during this time that's that's being spoken about that the cities fall the cities fall so when I think of that I think of New York on the you know shaking and buildings tumbling down and if you have those kind of earthquakes and the Bible talks about multiple earthquakes that are like that in the book of Revelation you know those kind of earthquakes you're gonna be busting up the infrastructure as far as roads and and that kind of thing obviously airports those kinds of things and by the time you get to the end of the book of Revelation riding in on cavalry and it talks about this in the Old Testament writing in on cavalry is probably going to horses as what I'm talking about it is probably going to be the easiest way to wage war fare at that point and at that point Petra becomes a place that's highly defensible right and so again when you're looking at these things you put it in the context of what's taken place during the period of time Jeremiah chapter xlix turn over there Jeremiah chapter 49 in verses 13 and 14 it says for I have sworn by myself says the Lord that brought Basra shall become a desolation a reproach a waste in a curse and all its cities shall be perpetual wastes I've heard a message from the Lord and an ambassador has been sent to the nation's gathered together come against her and rise up to battle and it goes on and talks about the battles that are gonna take place one of the things that the Bible specifically talks about is that Jesus when he comes back it pictures Jesus's coming back to Israel specifically from Basra and Basra is in that area again it's down in the area of southern Jordan if you look down you know if you look in Isaiah 63 let's go there real quick Isaiah 63 who is this who comes from Edom with dyed garments from Basra this one who is glorious and his apparel traveling in the greatness of his strength I who speak in righteousness mighty to save verse 2 y is your apparel red and your garments like one who treads in the winepress so just picture that okay so back in these days these guys are wearing dresses basically there were in robes right and so when you are treading out grapes you're going to be stomping on great some grape juice is gonna come up in the grape juice is gonna hit the bottom of your robes even if you hike them up you know your girdle them up and all that stuff it's gonna be hitting the bottom of your robes and that's what the Lord looks like when he comes back this is about Jesus and the second coming and he says verse 3 I've trodden the winepress alone and from the peoples no one was with me for I've trodden them in my anger and trampled them in my fury their blood is sprinkled upon my garments and I've stained all my robes for the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come I looked but there was no one to help and I wondered that there was no one to uphold therefore my own arm brought salvation for me my own fury it sustained me I've trod down the peoples in my anger made them drunk in my fury and brought down their strength to the earth and that's a description of Jesus in the second coming when he comes when he comes in he's coming from the area of southern Jordan Basra is in Edom and Moab is just north of Edom and it's pictures Jesus is coming from that area the enemies that he's trampling it looks like our armies that are coming down against the Jews so at the second coming one of the things that Jesus is doing is he's stopping the destruction of the Jewish nation by all the nations that have come down against it and so he comes in from Basra and he's already taken armies out by the time he gets to the city of Jerusalem he touches down in Jerusalem according to Zechariah chapter 14 and when he touches down there it's the Mount of Olives splits in two and there's a valley that runs into the city from that point and the people who were in the city under siege by these armies of the Antichrist are able to flee and then he takes care of those armies and then after that he takes off and goes north to the valley of Megiddo or the valley of Jezreel to a place called Megiddo and that's where the Battle of Armageddon takes place and he destroys the armies up there the Bible in the book of Revelation talks about the blood coming up to the horses bridles in that situation and so Jesus is coming back and he's taking care of business and so this whole thing with it with armies down in Baz that Jesus has to take care of if they're just armies stationed there what would he be doing that for but it looks like what's happening is the people of Israel or downed in what we would call Jordan at this point and Jesus is coming back and he's protecting these guys as it comes back so just for your edification Revelation chapter 12 back back over there so again I don't I don't know that they're going to be using Petra specifically but there's a lot of pee a lot of Christians who think that they are and actually back in the late 70s early 80s there were guys who were storing food down there I don't know what's happened to it it's probably been taken by you know you know guys going in and and just stealing this stuff but food and tracts and and that kind of thing for the people of Israel when they were there it says back in Revelation chapter 12 again in verse let's see verse 6 the woman fled in the wilderness where she has a place prepared by God that they should feed her there 1260 days and it says if you go down to 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 but the woman was given two wings of a great Eagle that she might fly into the wilderness to her place where she again is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the presence of the serpent the serpent being Satan and so you had this two wings of a great eagle and so some people have thought that maybe there's an airlift that what happens is the people of Israel are taken over to that area whatever area it's going to be and that they use airplanes to do that whole thing there have been people who have said that maybe this is one of the places where the United States is mentioned because what's our national symbol yeah the Eagle right so bald eagle right and so bald eagle means that the eagle is really wise I mean in any case actually that term is used throughout the Bible wings of an eagle and so it's it's always better to keep it biblical than it is to try to force an interpretation it comes from the outside like maybe this is the United States two wings of an eagle is used of God delivering Israel from the Egyptians and so in Exodus 19 four it says you've seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself it's so similar then you have Deuteronomy 32 11 through 12 it says as an eagle stirs up its nest hovers over its young spreading out its wings taking them up carrying them on its wings so the Lord alone led him and there was no foreign god with him again talking about God's relationship with the people of Israel and so most most likely what that's talking about is the fact that God just delivers these people he takes care of them you know that whole story of Eagles and Eagle it's still learning to fly what what Eagles do you know the eaglets are just when when the Eagles make nests you know that they make them up high right and so usually upon up on a crag someplace up on a cliff someplace and the eaglets are just having a really good time until it's time to move on and then what the mom does is she throws the eaglets out of the nest and the dad goes down and follows them as they're falling and you know flapping around helplessly going that kind of stuff and when they when they get far enough down he swoops down underneath them and grass you know has them land on his back and then flies back up and then just one of these foot and down they go again until they learned to fly and so that's the that's the classic interpretation of that passage that's what God does with you at some point you know you're happy you're happy you're happy go-lucky everything's going fine in church you love Jesus you're following him you're about two years old the Lord and then all of a sudden the Lord comes along and pushes you out of the nest and you start falling and then he swoops down takes care of you takes you up in your like Hall Oh God you're good you say me that's awesome and then he flips over and you're falling again and he comes down until you learn to fly and wants you to learn to fly and so again the whole Eagle thing it says verse 15 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 okay and again this this whole chapter and the next chapter also are highly symbolic there's all these symbols that are used and so again when you're when you're looking at a flood if it's if it's a symbolic passage then we needed to go again to the Bible to look for what floods may represent and again I'm not dogmatic about this could God do a bit or could Satan do a big flood and and chase them through the wilderness well sure he could but all the other things you know the woman clothed with the Sun in the in a great fiery red dragon Satan isn't a great fiery red dragon he's an angel right and stars and you know the woman who bore the male child obviously this is a picture of Israel not just one woman and so everything else is symbolic and so it looks like the flood may be symbolic too and if that's the case then maybe that equals armies and so when you go through the Bible Jeremiah 46 8 Egypt rises up like a flood and its waters move like the rivers and he says I will go up and cover the earth I will destroy the city and its inhabitants Jeremiah 47 - in another context the Lord thus says the Lord behold waters rise out of the north it's talking about the northern armies coming down to destroy Israel Babylon specifically and shall be an overflowing flood they shall overflow the land and all that's in it the city and those who dwell within then the men shall cry and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail Daniel 11 26 it's talked about one of the Grecian kings and says yes those who eat of the portion of his delicacies shall destroy him his army shall be swept away and many shall fall down sláinte and pictures being like swept away by a flood Isaiah 59 19 talks about the the fact that opposition comes up against us and so it says this so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the Sun when the enemy comes in like a flood this fear the Lord will lift up a standard against him and so you have all these pictures of a flood and armies and that kind of thing and it just it's just a natural thing in in the sense that when you're in a city like you're in the city of Jerusalem and you see armies coming in to surround Jerusalem what's going what's going to be happening is they're gonna be coming down in through the valleys because Jerusalem is up on a hill and it literally looks like a flood coming in it would be the same thing up in the valley of Jezreel armies coming down from the north are armies coming up from the south they enter the valley they started they start sweeping in and it would look like a flood that's why they use the symbology that's why they use the the simile in in the passage and so most likely what that's talking about is armies coming down and we already talked about the fact that Jesus comes from that area at the second coming and he deals with a bunch of these armies and takes care of these guys then it goes on and it says these guys come in like a flood verse 16 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 what's that I don't know necessarily what that is I do know that there's an instance of the earth opening up and swallowing people like a mouth and it's in the instance with Cora in fact we're gonna be talking about it this week probably oh actually not this week next week it says in number 16 31 I came to pass as he finished speaking all these words that the grounds split apart under them the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the men with Cora with all their goods and so in that instance what she had was a group of guys who decided to rebel against Moses Moses was taking too much upon himself and they decided they were that they were the the leaders of the people of God didn't like the fact that God had appointed Moses and so they you know they rebelled against him and so Moses goes well you know let's let's figure this whole thing out and so you had a group of these guys come in said go get your sensors you sons of Levi these were Levites from his own tribe go get your sensors you sons of Levi that came in with a bunch of sensors and they they put incense in him brought him before the Lord and God had the fire of God come out from the tabernacle destroy these guys just wiped him out the instant cremation apparently destroys these guys the sensors go down hit the ground and God goes okay took care of them I want you to go pick up those sensors because those are holy he's gotten rid of the things that weren't holy kept the things that are holy and he goes I want you to take the brass from those sensors and I want you to cover the altar with that and one of the one of the guys that didn't get involved with that he started the whole rebellion but when he saw where it was going he decided to camp out in his tent with his family and wouldn't come out and Moses came over and said come on out Korah and Korah wouldn't do it I'm paraphrasing obviously Corr wouldn't do it and so Moses said well you know what if I'm if I'm not on the Lord if I'm not a prophet of God then let nothing happen to Korah but if I am if God's chosen me then let the ground split open and swallow Korah and his family and that's exactly what happened because of the rebellion of Korah it looks like it may be the same kind of situation in this and again you can take this whole thing and you can you can you can wrap up the Tribulation Period you can put it all together we've had something slamming to the earth it's cracked the earth when we were talking about that we went to the passages in the Old Testament that talked about the earth reeling to and fro like a drunkard the earth is split open the cities are falling that kind of things going on and so I'm not saying that this is just a naturalistic explanation but it could actually be the explanation that the earth cracks open under these armies and a significant number of them are destroyed before they can get to the people of Israel then the rest of them are taken care of at the second coming and so the earth up opens up and swallows the flood and again you have that in verse 17 it says and the dragon was enraged with a woman and he went to make war with the rest of her office bring who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ and so you have the persecution of the woman I skipped over the war in heaven and I did that because you could tie in verse six with verses 13 through 17 let's go back to verse 7 it says in war broke out in heaven so well actually I'm gonna I'm not gonna get him ahead of myself here it says war broke out in heaven and Michael and his angels fought with the Dragon and the dragon in his angels fought Michael is obviously Michael the Archangel Michael is mentioned at a total of five times in the Bible five times and so one is in Daniel 10:13 where he's called one of Israel's chief Prince's in Dan in Daniel chapter 10 21 Michael is called by God to Daniel your prince Daniel chapter 12 verse 1 he's called the Great Prince who stands watch over the sons of your people in Jude 9 you have Michael specifically mentioned having an argument with Satan over the body of Moses which is kind of weird and we talked about that when we were talking about the two witnesses his voice is mentioned actually I didn't throw that one in his voice is mentioned he's not mentioned specifically but his voice is mentioned at the coming of Christ for us so Jesus comes with a trump of God the voice of the of the Archangel and what that speaking about is the fact that Jesus has an entourage so anytime a bridegroom came for his bride he came with his groomsmen and usually the best man what we would call the best man in that situation would be shouting the bridegroom comes and that was a warning for the bride to get ready to get prepared because she's about to be stolen away by her bridegroom to go back to her to his father's house which is exactly the situation we have you guys all know that and like am I anybody not know what I'm talking about okay you guys got it okay so Michaels voice is mentioned there but Michael himself is not mentioned in that passage just he's identified as an archangel and so the name Michael is also mentioned in this place so five places in the Bible where Michael is mentioned it's all in the context of being the protector of the people of Israel which is cool okay so war broke out in heaven Michael and his angels fought with the Dragon and a dragon and his angels fought but they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer and so you again have a situation where the devil has angels and those angels we would call demons I'm aware there you know there's there's been guys who've tried to go through and make demons out of like the Nephilim at times the Giants and Genesis chapter 6 there have been some people who have tried to make a distinction between fallen angels and demons in Wiest Word studies in his study in 1st Peter chapter 3 he does a lot with this he talks about you know maybe there was a pre-adamic race in Genesis chapter 1 in other words there was a race of of people on the planet before God created us and this group of people had all these weird animals with them thus explaining away dinosaurs and that kind of stuff that we find in the fossil record God got rid of all those people then he started over with us and so that was something that was an interpretation it's called the gap theory that was an interpretation from about the beginning of the night of the 1900s and the the idea behind that was all these people that had lost their lives were demons and they wanted to have a body in that kind of thing and so people tried to make a distinction between demons and fallen angels it sorry to give you all that stuff because I know I just opened up multiple cans of worms there but you know that's that's one of those things that that go on and I'm you know I'm of the opinion that you know when you're going through the Bible you don't have to make up a bunch of stuff you know I've always thought that that kind of thing was interesting but I think we pretty much got it with the third of the Ange falling in them being the demons I think I think that's pretty straightforward and so I think that's where demons come from and so the devil has angels they have demons and these these fallen angels or demons and then verse 9 it says so the Great Dragon was cast out that serpent of old caught that 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 look at verse 10 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 for the accuser of our brethren who accused them before our God day and night has been cast down and so what was Satan doing in heaven accusing the Brethren right in heaven so who are the brethren because we might be talking about angels right it says verse 11 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 is that talking about angels that's talking about us and so the brethren that's being accused by Satan in heaven is us that's the Brethren that puts where the that puts the timing of the warfare during the Tribulation Period this is not the the casting out of Satan because of Satan's pride in Isaiah chapter 14 or in Ezekiel chapter 28 Satan still has access to heaven and so you guys you guys I quote from job 2 all the time right and so there's a day when all the sons of God appear before the Lord up in heaven and Satan's among them and God says to Satan have you considered my servant Joe an upright man it was just the right thing oh he's a good guy have you considered him and Satan says you know what you put a hedge around him I can't get to him you take away everything that he has he'll curse you to your face and then God says okay you can touch his things do not touch him and so he goes down and wipes Jill bow one day and we talked about this that this morning job ends up with you know the Lord gives the Lord takes away blesses his name he's still blessed and then in chapter 2 it says there came another day where the sons of God were standing before the Lord in heaven and Satan appeared among them sons of God by the way in the Old Testament is a term that was used of angels Benet elohim in hebrew and every time that you can identify it it's talking about angels and so Satan appears among the angels in heaven and God goes so where you been walking to and fro throughout the earth have you considered my joy my servant job and although you made me break out against him he's still held to his integrity he's still a righteous man he still does the right thing and Satan so skin for skin a man will give all that he has for his body you let me touch his body and he'll curse you to your face and then that's when job gets ill and has boils all over him has a scrape himself and that whole thing point being Satan has access to heaven and when he's in heaven he's accusing job he's an accuser of the Brethren and so Satan had access and to have into heaven not too long before the appearance of Abraham that's long after the fall of Satan long after the fall so when Satan is cast out of heaven the first time he doesn't have it's not a situation where he can't come back he just becomes the Prince of the power of the air like the Bible talks about he's the guy who's influencing mankind who's fighting against God here God allows that whole thing but he's the one who's doing that stuff and he has access to heaven periodically in fact in this passage it says that he's there day and night there day and night accusing the Brethren before God so means he's accusing me that means he's accusing you he's standing before God you know pointing out our flaws pointing out our sin pointing out our inconsistencies pointing out our hypocrisy pointing out all of this mocking God mocking mocking men and women and accusing them before God and everybody's up there to listen to it have you been in a situation where you're in a meeting and the one guy is gonna stand up who's gonna suck out all the air in the room and he's just gonna go on and on about his little agenda right and it's a you know he stands there and you're just like oh here we go can you imagine being Michael and for decade after decade century after century you have to hear this bozo come up accuse the people of God do exactly the same thing with the that he did with Joe be shown up by the people of God and God himself and then we start it all over again we do it again and we do it again and we do it again if I'm Michael the Archangel by the time we get to the tribulation period I'm pretty ticked off at that point I'm pretty mad about the whole thing and so when it comes to the point where it's time for Satan to go God unleashes Michael on him Michael God doesn't just do it himself he allows the Angels to take their part in this whole thing and we already know if you're if you're talking about the comparison of the stars it was a third of the stars that were swept from the heavens that means two thirds are left so that means Michael's got a bigger army so Michaels badder dude in the first place and he's got a bigger army and he goes after Satan and you know the reason that I'm pointing that out is because in the Bible Satan is not the equal opposite with God a lot of times you get that idea from the way that Christians treat him he's not the equal opposite of God he's nothing but a created being and so when you're when you're looking at God versus Satan you made it you may may as well and look at God versus an earthworm both of those are created and God can uncreate them at any moment and that's exactly what God does in the end he uncreate s' this guy he basically throws casts him into the lake of fire where he's destroyed and not destroyed in the sense of he ceases to exist he's destroyed in the sense the word destroyed that's used of that is a word that means ruined he's ruined forever and so God God does this whole thing when he wants to but when he decides that it's time for Satan to be cast out of heaven what he does is he and Lisa's Michael unleashes Michael and his angels and they go after him with a fury and they cast him down to the earth and that's a cool thing it says in verse again in verse eight it's verse seven 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 and it says verse nine so the Great Dragon was cast out serpent of old called the devil and Satan and then it goes on and says and his angels were cast out with him at the end of verse nine and when you get down to 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 has a short time so not only do you have a situation with the Great Tribulation in a sense that it's the it's the beginning of the time of the ultimate radical judgments that are going to be coming down on the earth it looks like coincidental with that because it happens the woman flees into the wilderness for three and a half years and that three and a half year period looks like the last three and a half years it looks like those two things go together so Satan is cast out of heaven at the point of the abomination of desolation he comes down to the earth he's got three and a half years later left and he just goes after people with a vengeance because he knows that he's done he doesn't quit he doesn't stop he doesn't repent he doesn't turn he's read the book he knows what's happening and he will not stop he will not stop there's no room for repentance for this guy and it's because his rebellion against God has been with full knowledge of who God is you know our rebellion against God the Bible says that we see through a glass darkly it's the idea of when we're we're looking at our relationship with God it's kind of a ghostie thing we're kind of we're kind of if about and I can't really see Jesus all the time and I wonder if God's really speaking to me I wonder if God really wants me to do this usually I know that God doesn't want me to do what you know certain things but it's kind of its kind of like that not so was Satan he knows exactly who God is he saw him create the universe well at least the earth he saw him create the earth and he he knows the power that's there he knows the goodness that's there he knows the purity that's there and he hates it and he wanted to replace God and God said no there are times when you say no to people and they just don't like you anymore you know it's like you can be kind to them you can you you can just be a yes guy to them yeah you can do that yes you can do that that'd be awesome if you did that and they come up and they they you know they they push a boundary or something you just go no can't do that that can't happen what do you mean can't do that well there's reasons for that here are the reasons who do you think you are well the pastor well what makes you think that this is your church this is God's church which once again means you want it to be yours and you want to take it over and there have been people that I've said no to over the years I've gotten really really really ticked off at me just love me you know praise me up and down up until the time that I say no and if I ever say no to him they throw a hissy fit you can't believe and and they you know it's it's like seriously have you never been spanked seriously and when I say no to people I have good reasons for it you know I don't just go around saying I mean I hate going to government offices where they just tell me I was a contractor I dealt with inspectors inspectors would come out and tell me well you can't do that what do you mean I can't do that is that in the code book well no and so you're just making the rules up well yeah sorta I had an inspector this one time came out and said you know your your your crawl hole is too small for your your for your what's that underneath it yeah the crawl space your crawl hole is too small and I'm like dude I that's code I've measured it for me because no it's too small and I'm like I you know I can't make it any bigger the closets not that big and so it's all you know that's that's the code and he goes nope you're gonna yeah it's gonna have to change it it's too small and so he just goes off no talking to the guy he just goes off and so I get on the phone I get on the horn and I call up the the the county and I say hey just had an inspector out here and he told me my crawl space is too small to or my micro hole is too small to get into the crawl space and they go what size is it you know tell him what the size and they go Watts code and I go well he won't pass my framing inspection and so they call him back and he comes back out and and you know does the whole thing now he's all mad at me and I go there's no reason to be mad at me dude all you got to do is do what the code says you don't get to make things up on me right and so I deal with people like that I've dealt with people like that most of my adult life and so I don't like it when people tell me no just because I don't I didn't you know just because they want to say no and so I don't do that to people if I have to say no to somebody I have I have a good reason for it God had to say no to Satan and he had a good reason for it obviously the best reason ever and Satan through the biggest hissy fit that the world has ever seen and he's been throwing the hissy fit since that time big baby God let me this is like ridiculous ridiculous especially in the position that he's in and he never repents and he tries to take as many people with him as he can he tries to destroy everything that he can he tries to wipe out everything that he can in the midst of his hissy fit and it's you know it's just a pitiful thing let's wrap it up with this devil has angels he accuses us verse 11 is one of the coolest verses in the Bible it says again in verse 10 no salvation strength and the Kingdom of our God 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 and they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb by the word of their testimony that they did not love their lives to the death three things blood of the Lamb you know the the way that I overcome Satan the way that I win this is the way to win the way that you win is by the blood of the Lamb I don't win by my good works I don't I don't weren't win by my honorable reputation I don't win by you know all the stuff that I do for God I don't win by those things I win by the blood of the Lamb when Satan comes up and accuses me before God most of the accusations he doesn't have to make anything up on me you know I could give you a list that Satan actually would use before God I could give you a list of my my shortcomings my failures and that kind of stuff and you may not know them but I could give them to you and so a lot of the times when Satan is standing before God accusing you before him he doesn't have to lie about it he just tells the truth he can see the things that you're doing as well as as well as God can in the sense that he's invisible he can be in the room with you when you're doing something stupid and he could just take that straight before God right and so he doesn't have to lie about anything so going to the Lord and saying that's not true is not going to work but going to the Lord and saying that's covered by the blood that's what works because God knew me he knew everything that I was ever gonna do he knew everything that I was ever gonna be and he dies for me and it's Bible Jesus's blood that I'm given access to heaven given access to God you overcome Satan not by arguing with him about your sin you overcome Satan by the blood of the Lamb so you know when Satan comes a you know comes up and starts talking to you about your past just remind him of his future and so the blood of the Lamb then the word of their testimony the word of their testimony what Satan wants to do is he wants to discourage you that's why he attacks you in the area of your sin he wants to discourage you the reason that he wants to discourage you is to shut your mouth because given your you know first off the first thing that he wants to do is keep you from knowing God in the first place and so you remember the the conflict that was going on in your life at the time when you were gonna give your life to Jesus and so with some of you it was a longer conflict it could have it could have been years with you with me it was a conflict that took a matter of an hour basically there was a conflict that was taking place while a Bible study was going on and it was a back-and-forth thing and so what he was trying to do was keep me from coming to the Lord once I came to the Lord that conflicts over and now what he wants to do is discourage me and one of the specific things he wants to discourage is me opening my mouth and talking to anybody about Jesus that's why the whole thing with talking to people about the Lord is so hard now that's that's why you know I I can't I can talk to people about baseball I know almost nothing about baseball and I don't have a problem talking with people about baseball now I could talk to him about science I could talk to him about history and I could talk about you know what I read last week I could talk to him about anything I thought I could talk to him about cooking all kind there's all kinds of subjects I could talk to people about when the subject of Jesus comes up all of a sudden it gets hard and it gets scary and it gets intense right why do you think that is and the reason is because there's something to it and what Satan is trying to do is keep your mouth shut and one of the ways that we overcome him is by the word of our testimony the fact that we go and tell people what Jesus is done with us and then finally they did not love their lives to the death you know what do you do with somebody that doesn't care if they die what do you do with somebody who just you know it's like you know you kill me dude that's just a promotion I go into the presence of God it's like I'll give you cancer if you don't shut up okay you know I'll wipe you out if you don't okay you know oh I have somebody murder you okay whatever you know first off you can't do it unless God allows it and if God's God allows it you know awesome I'm in the presence of God for the rest of eternity in whose presence is fullness of joy in his right hand are pleasures forevermore they did not love their lives to the death and that's that's a that's somebody who is unstoppable unstoppable and again that's how you take care of that Jesus talked about the ideal of selflessness the idea of not putting your life ahead of the things of God and not only your life but the things that people treasure Jesus has to be first this is out of Luke 9:23 through 26 will end it with this says then he said to them all if anyone desires to come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily and follow me for whoever desires to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it do you see a point there where Satan can attack you so save in your life that's like I need to save my marriage I need to save my family I need to save my job I need to you know it's it's the whole life thing and if Satan come can come in and he can start tweaking that where he makes your children something that's more important to you than God or he makes your wife or your husband something that's more important to you than God if he starts tweaking it that way what ends up happening is people get out of balance they get all messed up and pretty soon they're destroying what they love the most people people who have monstrous bratty children are not people who don't love their kids they're people who love their kids more than they love the Lord that's the problem and so Satan comes in and destroys a family in that kind of way and so you love your life more than you love the Lord you're gonna lose it but if you lose your life for his sake you're gonna save it it's amazing how when you start treating your wife and the way that the Bible says your marriage just naturally becomes something that's awesome you treat your husband the way that the Bible says but God first treat him the way the Bible says your marriage becomes awesome your children become awesome your job becomes awesome you you you lose your life in the sense of you're not running it anymore and allow God to be the one who's running it and you end up saving everything that you think that you're giving up that's the point that Jesus is making there for what profit is it a man - a man if he gains the whole world and is himself destroyed or loss for whoever is ashamed of me and my words of him the Son of Man will be ashamed when it comes in his own glory and in his father's and of the Holy Angels in Matthew's Gospel it says if you love your father your mother your sisters your brother your wife your husband anybody more than me you're not worthy of me if you love your own life more than me you're not worthy of me so there's a there's a place that we need to put ourselves and it's under the authority of Jesus and when you do that life becomes something that's awesome you become Teflon to the enemy and you win all the time you win all the time I like winning so there let's pray thanks Lord for your word thank you God that there are passages that are just simple where you just speak truth you speak it clearly you'll let us know where we need to be and we need to be under the blood of the Lamb we need to understand that are standing before you comes from what Jesus does it's not from what we do that's a good place to be and the word of our testimony we need to not be afraid to pronounce your name in front of the world to honor you in front of the people who are around us they need you just as much as we do and then finally we need to be people who will put you before our lives and when we do that it's just an awesome thing bless these people or go with them bless the rest of their week and just honor them especially this week Lord as we're coming up to Thanksgiving just use them let me ask it in your name amen god bless you

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 11,498

Rating: 4.8813558 out of 5

Keywords: The End of the World in the bible, Truth, Jesus' Return, The rapture, the second coming, The book of Revelation, The Revelation Of Jesus Christ, The last book in the bible, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, The End Times, End Of The World, The Millennial Kingdom, Revelation's meaning, Jesus

Id: Jv4rjgtiAYY

Length: 61min 21sec (3681 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 03 2019