will you please turn to the book of
revelation chapter 12 revelation chapter 12 will
read from the first verse through the 12th
verse revelation chapter 12 verse 1 and a
great sign was seen in the heaven a
woman clothed with the sun and the moon
under her feet and upon her head a
crown of 12 stars and being with child
she cried being in travail and in pain
to bring forth and another sign was seen
in the heaven and behold a great red
dragon having seven heads and ten horns and
on his head seven diadems and his tail
draws the third part of the stars of
the heaven and he cast them to the
earth and the dragon stood before the woman
who was about to bring forth in order
that when she brought forth she might devour
he might devour her child and she brought
forth a male son who shall shepherd all
the nations with an iron rod and her
child was caught up to God and to
his throne and a woman fled into the
wilderness where she has there a place prepared
of God that they should nourish her there
a thousand two hundred and sixty days and
there was war in the heaven Michael and
his angels went to war with the dragon
and the dragon fought and his angels and
he prevailed not nor was their place found
anymore in the heaven and the great dragon
was cast out the ancient serpent he who
is called devil and Satan he would deceive
the whole habitable world he was cast out
into the earth and his angels were cast
out with him and I heard a great
voice in the heaven saying now is come
the salvation and the power and the kingdom
of our God and authority of his Christ
for the accuser of our brothering has been
cast out who accused them before our God
day and night and they have overcome him
by reason of the blood of the lamb
and by reason of the word of their
testimony and have not loved their life even
unto death therefore be full of delight he
heavens and he that dwell in them woe
to the earth and to the sea because
the devil has come down to you having
great rage knowing that he has a short
Lord as we continue in thy presence we
just bow in worship and adoration how we
do praise and thank thee that thou hast
sent thy beloved son into the world to
be the lamb of God slain for us
we do praise and thank thee that thou
hast exalted him far above all and thou
has given him a name that is above
every name and to that name every knee
shall bow every tongue confess that Jesus is
Lord oh how we praise and thank thee
that thou has been so gracious to us
that we can come to thee this morning
with a willing heart bowing our knees and
acknowledging thee as our Lord all thou art
worthy we worship thee this morning and we
just pray that as we read thy word
that thy Holy Spirit will breathe again upon
thy word make it living and operative in
our lives we do pray that our open
our eyes to see and our touch our
heart that we may be fully in tune
with I shall we want I will to
be done on earth as it is in
heaven we ask in the name of our
Lord Jesus this is
the last full day of this conference and
I don't think I need to remind you
of our theme if you still do not
know what the theme is I do not
know where you are press on to fullness
this is the will of God for us
our God is the God of fullness and
his fullness is located in his beloved son
and we are made full we thank God
for accomplished work of our Lord Jesus we
thank God for the operation of the Holy
Spirit that we might enter into that fullness
to the glory my assignment is with the
book of Revelation we have seen first of
all the fullness of Christ in relation to
his church and then we continue on with
the fullness of Christ in relation to the
world now this morning we were like to
see the fullness of Christ in relation to
the overcomers we know that the book of
Revelation was written approximately in the year 95
or 96 AD the revelation was given to
the Apostle John who was exiled to the
island of Patmos for the word of God
and for the testimony of Jesus this is
the last revelation the full revelation of the
Lord Jesus and of his fullness this book
of Revelation covers the time from the end
of the apostolic age through the whole history
of the church age and reaching further into
eternity there we find in the first two
chapters of the book of Revelation that seven
churches in Asia now these seven churches in
Asia are selected by the Lord with a
specific reason because we know at that time
that is towards the end of the first
century there were actually more than seven churches
in the province Roman province of Asia we
know there were the church of Colossae and
others but we find that the Holy Spirit
purposely chose these seven churches because these seven
churches represent the Church of God throughout the
ages on the one hand they are actually
the seven local assemblies in Asia at the
time of the Apostle John but they are
also prophetically telling us of the whole church
history from the end of the apostolic age
to the end of the church age and
then you find in these seven letters to
the seven churches they all end up with
one call he that has ear let him
hear what the Spirit says to the churches
and this call is repeated seven times and
I do believe that this is a call
that has been going on throughout the whole
church age and this call is ringing out
today in our midst he that has ear
let him hear what the Spirit says to
the churches what is that call what is
the voice of the Spirit we know that
the call is the call to overcome he
that overcometh this is the call in order
to know to understand what the call really
is I think first of all we need
to know who is the caller who is
calling us the one who call us is
none other but our Lord Jesus he is
the overcomer and that is the reason why
he calls us to overcome he calls us
to join with him as overcomers here we
find our Lord Jesus he revealed himself to
his church he revealed his fullness to his
church and as he reveals his fullness is
to his church he also examines his church
in relation to his fullness to see whether
they do respond to his fullness they do
correspond to what he is and after he
has written after he examined then you find
the voice of the Holy Spirit in other
words the Holy Spirit takes up that which
our Lord Jesus is given to us and
cry out and say he that has ear
let him hear what the Spirit says to
the churches we have the letters we have
the revelation we have the examination and now
we shall hear the voice of the Spirit
saying overcome throughout this book
of Revelation we find this call to overcome
ringing again and again we do thank the
Lord that there is not only that call
to overcome but we find throughout the church
age there have been and there are and
there will be overcomers you know in Chapter
2 and Chapter 3 of the book of
Revelation in every letter it says he that
overcomes in other words they are not only
that calling to overcome but they are actually
those who overcome by the grace of God
and these are the overcomers at the end
of the apostolic age at the end of
the first century then when you come to
chapter 7 you find countless number of people
they are they are standing before the throne
they are clothed with white garments in their
hands were palms they are waving the palms
now who are they they are the overcomers
throughout the ages that is to say from
the second century to the time the end
time they are countless in one sense we
don't know that the overcomers of you in
every age it seems to be that the
overcomers are the minority a remnant and yet
we do thank God throughout the ages there
have been overcomers in every generation in every
age and when they come together you cannot
count them they are countless then you come
to chapter 12 and in chapter 12 you'll
find the man child the man child is
a collective term it represents the overcomers at
the end time we are in the end
time and there you'll find a man child
is going to be born overcomers at the
end time then you'll find in chapter 15
there will be those who have overcome the
beast and the mark of the beast they
did not worship the beast during that great
tribulation time and there you'll find they were
there on the crystal sea before God these
are the overcomers through the great tribulation even
out of the great tribulation there will be
overcomers when you come to chapter 17 you'll
find that when our Lord Jesus will come
down on earth for that final battle in
the world of this present age there will
be his army following him they are the
call the chosen the faithful they are the
overcomers of the church you come to chapter
20 and there you'll find thrones are set
up and who are those who sit upon
the throne they are the overcomers of the
ages and of course when you come to
chapter 21 and 22 he knew Jerusalem he
says he that overcomes shall inherit these things
and I will be their God and he
will be my son so brothers and sisters
you'll find throughout the book of Revelation there
is the call of overcomers and we do
thank God that there are overcomers in every
generation and in every age our
Lord Jesus is the overcomer from the time
of Adam up to the time of our
Lord Jesus we have not seen even one
overcomer in the fullest sense we find that
Adam and the Adamic race have been and
are defeated captured by the enemy but then
thank God one day the son of God
came to become a man and as a
man he overcame he overcame by his life
and he overcame by his death in life
he overcame the enemy and all that is
of the enemy in a personal way in
other words he overcame as a person when
he was tempted he overcame the tempter when
he was on earth nothing could put him
under you find he was always in charge
always in control he always was above the
circumstances he was the only one who obeyed
the father even to death and that the
death of the cross he was the overcomer
in life in a personal way but when
he went to the cross and there on
Calvary's cross you find he again overcome but
he overcame in a corporate way in other
words he overcame not only for himself but
he overcame for us there on the cross
he laid the foundation for us to overcome
so in life and in death we find
that our Lord Jesus overcame and because he
is the overcomer and that is the reason
why he is calling us to join him
as overcomers in 1st John chapter 5
verses 4 and 5 it says he that
is begotten of God has the victory over
the world and this is the victory
that has gotten the victory over the world
our faith who is he that gets the
victory over the world but he that believes
that Jesus is the son of God here
we find who is he that gets the
victory over the world he that has been
begotten of God he that believes that Jesus
is the son of God and dear brothers
and sisters are we those people are we
not begotten of God or do we not
believe that Jesus is the son of God
we do and because we do we have
gotten the victory over the world even our
faith our Lord Jesus said in John chapter
16 in this world you shall have tribulation
but be of good courage of good cheer
for I have overcome the world and again
in Romans chapter 8 we are told that
we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus
our Lord in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 that
he has led us in triumph in all
things so in other words our Lord Jesus
is the overcomer and the church that he
has redeemed is an overcoming church the
church is the church triumphant the church is
not supposed to be a defeated church the
church is called to be an overcoming church
every brother and sister in the church should
be an overcomer why because we have believed
in the Lord Jesus we have received his
overcoming life so in other words the whole
church as God has ordained her to be
is to be an overcoming church thank God
for that but unfortunately we find that even
at the closing of the apostolic age in
the seven letters to the seven churches here
you'll find our Lord Jesus who was walking
in the midst of the seven lampstands and
when he looked over the seven churches the
seven lampstands what did he see what did
he find he saw many things there good
and bad but not of him he could
hardly find himself in some of these churches
we find that even in the first century
at the end of the first century we
find they have lost their first love the
work is going on the labor is going
on but the inward reality that inward power
force was gone they have lost their first
love we find that false teachings began to
slip into the church we find that corrupt
manners began to find its way into the
church we find that the church has fallen
from what it ought to be we find
that instead of being overcomers the church has
fallen and has been defeated so even you
find in the first century at the end
of the apostolic age already you find the
church has failed in her calling they were
not what he was and because of that
you find there is the calling to overcome
he that overcomes to every local assembly at
that time we find the spirit of God
is calling out to each one personally the
church as a whole has fallen now the
calling comes to each one personally he that
overcome now we see that overcomes it is
he who responds to the revelation of Christ
in every church he tells us who he
is that is to say he reveals himself
to us and his revelation ought to be
our vocation that we should respond to what
we have been revealed to but here you'll
find many did not respond but those who
respond to Christ to his fullness they are
the overcomers the overcomers of the church are
not super Christians the overcomers of the church
are normal Christians because Christians have become abnormal
and that is the reason why those who
respond to the revelation of Jesus Christ those
who respond to the fullness of Christ they
are the normal Christians and they are the
overcomers they are those who are to stand
for the whole church they are to do
the work of the whole church they are
to bear the testimony of Jesus for the
whole church because the testimony of God cannot
fail he will have his testimony in every
generation and every century so here you'll find
a call to overcome and this call has
been going out for two thousand years and
we do believe that today this call is
upon us dear brothers and sisters the whole
church ought to be an overcoming church but
if the whole has failed then God is
calling for overcomers of the church.
Today we will focus our attention on chapter
12 of the book of Revelation the reason
why we be so focused is because that
chapter tells us of the overcomers at the
end time now brothers and sisters we all
know that we are in the end time
the last days you know in a sense
when we read the scripture what is really
the end time what is really the last
days the last days or the end time
is a term you can even find it
in the Old Testament and it refers to
the time that our Lord Jesus came to
this earth so in other words the last
days actually began with the first coming of
our Lord Jesus and it will end with
his second coming so the whole time is
the last days you know in the letter
of the apostles you find he already mentioned
this is the last days so actually you'll
find the last days of the end time
refers to the time from the first coming
of the Lord Jesus to the second coming
of the Lord Jesus that is the last
days now if this is the case then
we are at the end of the end
time we are at the last of the
last days this is a very critical time
we know that the Lord is coming soon
we know that this is the end of
the end time and we are living in
a very very vital important period and this
is the time that we are involved and
that is the reason why we should pay
special attention to this chapter John saw a
woman in travail in pain now
who is that woman without going into detail
interpretation or into many interpretations
we were just mentioned it very briefly you
know in the scripture God often uses woman
to represent the church we find Eve in
the garden of Eden Adam represents Christ is
a type of Christ and Eve is a
type of the church he is she represents
the church in God's original thought and then
we find Ephesians chapter 5 Christ loved the
church and gave himself for her he sanctified
purified sanctified by the washing of the water
with the world that he might present to
himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle
or any of such sort holy and blameless
here again you'll find another woman and that
woman represents the church through the age of
the church the church throughout the church you'll
find our Lord Jesus is nourishing and cherishing
his body in order to bring that body
to maturity that she may become his bride
and then you'll find in Revelation chapter 12
here is a woman and that woman again
represents the church but it is the church
at the end time or at the end
of the end time and there she is
in travail in pain for birth and then
of course you go to Revelation chapter 21
-22 you find the holy city the new
Jerusalem and she is the bride the Lamb's
wife another woman that is the church in
eternity so you'll find that woman represents the
church and this woman is in travail she
is in birth pains she is going to
bring forth a child brothers
and sisters is it not a universal law
that if there is no travel there is
no birth if you're looking for birth you
have to suffer and to travel in pain
in order to bring forth this is true
physically and this is true spiritually we think
of our Lord Jesus it says in Isaiah
chapter 53 that he shall see the fruit
of the travail of his soul and be
satisfied here you'll find our Lord Jesus how
he travail in his soul we see his
traveling especially in the garden of Gethsemane brothers
and sisters it doesn't mean that he did
not travel before that as a matter of
fact he was the Lamb slain from the
foundation as a matter of fact his very
incarnation was a travail his whole life on
earth was a travel but we find especially
how he travel in the garden of Gethsemane
there he said he was even to death
he was deeply distressed agonizing he asked his
three disciples that were closer to him closest
to him to wait with him and he
went forward he prayed father if it be
possible let this cup be passed from me
but not my will thy will and as
he travail in prayer the Bible says his
sweat came out like blood drops and the
angel had to appear and sustain him in
other words if the angel did not sustain
him he might die in the garden of
Gethsemane the conflict was tremendous brothers and sisters
we could never understand what transpired in the
garden of Gethsemane there you find our Lord
Jesus travail in prayer he was to give
birth and there on the cross we find
he cried out my God my God why
has thou unbearable
but then we know after he died usually
when people were crucified they did not die
in several hours they might linger for days
and you remember the two robbers that were
crucified with him they were still alive they
had to have their legs broken to feed
them to death but when the soldier came
to our Lord Jesus he was already dead
to make sure that he was dead a
soldier thrust a spear through his side it
entered into his very heart and out of
him came out blood and John witnessed it
and he said what I saw was true
he said it very emphatically why brothers and
sisters out of the sight of our Lord
Jesus God took out something to build the
church is built with his blood with his
life blood to atone our sins water represents
his life to give us we are the
fruit of the travail of his son and
when he sees us he is sad just
like a woman when she was in tears
in travail she was in pain and probably
she went through a sense of death but
after a child is born she forgot all
her sorrows she rejoiced and this is our
Lord Jesus brothers and sisters our Lord Jesus
rejoiced in his church not
only with our Lord Jesus we find that
we are called to the fellowship of his
suffering and there you find apostle Paul when
you read Galatians chapter 4 verse 19 he
says little children I prevail again for you
that Christ may be formed in you brothers
and sisters those who know the heart of
our Lord Jesus those who love the church
as Christ loved the church oh how they
prevail for us that Christ may be formed
in you many brothers and sisters remain as
babes do not grow up many brothers and
sisters are deformed and the burden
of those who know the heart of Christ
for the church who love the church they
prevail they prevail in prayer they agonize that
Christ may be formed fully formed in us
oh brothers and sisters that we may be
made full that we may know the fullness
of Christ that is the travail going on
as a matter of fact the whole world
is travailing Romans chapter 8 we are told
that the whole world all creation is groaning
together they are prevailing in pain they are
waiting for the manifestation of the sons of
God that they might be set free from
the corruption the vanity they are being put
in by man brothers and sisters do you
know it is man that puts the whole
creation into bondage into corruption the creation is
innocent we are the guilty one but all
creation groans if you have ears to hear
you can hear the groaning of all creation
they are longing for liberty set free from
the bondage from emptiness when will they
be set free when the sons of God
are manifest when the church becomes full grown
men until the measure of the fullness of
the statue of Christ it is when the
man child is born then you find the
whole creation will be liberated from corruption and
bondage and Paul says in Romans chapter 8
even we the first fruit of the spirit
we groan in ourselves waiting for adoption for
the redemption of our body brothers and sisters
is it not true that we do groan
waiting ourselves especially when we come to the
last the pressure increases to a tremendous degree
brothers and sisters we as believers today we
are under great pressure probably our forefathers have
never experienced such pressure as we are in
today we find that the world is pressing
upon us we find the enemy is tempting
us deceiving us attacking us trying to devour
us trying to kill us we find that
we are pressed from all sides we are
pressed by the world situation we are pressed
by the political situation by the economic situation
we are pressed by social situation we are
pressed by the moral situation of the world
we are pressed in the family we are
pressed in the work you find we are
pressed on all sides the pressure is tremendous
today the enemy wants to break us brothers
and sisters when we are under such great
pressure are we groaning are
we travailing do we give ourselves to prayer
there is not only the pressure around us
but we find the spirit of God groans
within us the pressure around us is to
crush us but the Holy Spirit groans within
us that we may grow we may be
matured we may expand we may rise above
in pressure we are enlarged this is the
growing pain this is the way that we
grow into the fullness of Christ brothers and
sisters if we allow this pressure to crush
us we miss the point these pressures that
come upon us serve as a kind of
opportunities the Holy Spirit within us groans for
birth groans for growth and if we give
ourselves to Christ if we yield ourselves if
we cooperate with the Holy Spirit we find
all these pressures will only mature us all
these sufferings will only bring us into conformity
to the image of Christ do we travail
within us are we benefited by the
travailing that woman is in travail
in pain but
unfortunately it seems as if that
woman herself doesn't enter into the real meaning
of traveling why because you find
the red dragon satan is standing before that
woman we know that satan is opposing Christ
when Christ was on earth he was trying
to kill him when he was born try
to kill all the children below two years
of age in Bethlehem when our Lord Jesus
came out to minister in his own city
of Nazareth you find they push him out
of the synagogue on the cliff and try
to push him down and kill him satan
tried to kill our Lord Jesus and finally
he succeeded in killing him on the cross
but he found that he was killed throughout
the church age the dragon is there trying
to devour the church to kill the church
he tried to kill the church by taking
away the first love you may continue on
outwardly but there is no reality in it
and when he couldn't succeed that then he
would do it outwardly and try to persecute
and try to wipe the church out but
he couldn't do it but sadly you find
at this time that dragon was standing before
the woman but he had no interest in
the woman in other words you can exist
you do not count to me my kingdom
will not suffer because of you you have
lost the reality you have lost the power
you have lost the testimony the dragon doesn't
care about that woman what he cares is
that man child in the womb through the
travailing there is a man child growing into
maturity within the womb of that woman and
the enemy knows this woman doesn't count but
that man child will be his end so
he wants to devour that man child he
is waiting for that man child to come
out and then he will devour that man
child brothers and sisters isn't that a picture
of today when we look at the church
today what do you see in spite of
all the pressure in spite of all the
things that are happening it seems that the
church does not respond to the working of
the spirit within it seems that if the
church is not groaning it seems that if
the church is like the church in Laodicea
they are boasting look we have become so
big so influential so prosperous we lack nothing
isn't that a picture of the church today
if you want to know what the church
is see what is the attitude of the
red dragon he may stand before that woman
and will not even bother to do anything
with her she doesn't count the church today
does not count not even in the sight
of God but even in the sight of
the enemy the church has fallen as
the scripture said there will be a falling
away a general falling away but
thank God within the womb of the church
a man child is growing they receive the
benefit of all the pressures and the movement
of the holy spirit within they respond to
the voice of the spirit they repent, they
return, they go back to the source, they
humble themselves, they empty themselves, they deny themselves,
they look at the Lord, they receive from
him what he did brothers and sisters these
people the enemy is afraid of this
man child is collective because we are told
they overcome they overcome brothers and sisters in
this last days the spirit of God is
calling for over he does not call you
to be super Christian he calls you to
be normal Christian he calls you to respond
to the revelation of Jesus Christ he calls
you to receive Christ Jesus in all his
fullness he calls you to be faithful to
him he calls you to bear his testimony
in this last days will you respond and
when this man child was born do you
think the enemy can devour him actually in
the womb of the woman he has already
defeated the enemy he has got the victory
the Lord has led him in triumph so
as soon as he is born he is
caught up raptured to the throne this
rapture is the sign of the coming of
the parousia the presence of the Lord one
day brothers and sisters when the world say
peace, peace, when the world is sleeping suddenly
you find throughout the whole world a number
of the Lord's children disappear the Lord they
are taken to the throne as they are
taken to the throne they go through the
air the headquarters of Satan they break through
the headquarters of the enemy and they arrive
at the throne when they overcome and because
of this the Bible says there will be
war in the air Michael and his angels
will fight with Satan and his angels and
Satan shall not prevail but he shall be
defeated and he will be thrown from the
air to the earth with his angels you
know why?
you know what this is?
because the air must be cleared for Christ
be delightful those who are in heaven but
rule to those because Satan now he knows
his time is very I have to borrow
a little time this man shall be overcome
they are not super Christians they do not
overcome because of themselves they overcome because
of the blood oh brothers and sisters they
are not perfect they are weak they may
even fall but they know the preciousness of
the blood whenever they fall they
repent they go to the blood of the
lamb and they have their garments washed the
enemy is the accuser Satan is the accuser
sometimes his accusation has some ground unfortunately but
many times he exaggerates and sometimes it is
completely false but brothers and sisters we do
thank God that we have the blood of
the lamb and that blood shut up his
the more you are near to the Lord
the more you find the blood do
nothing that you can outgrow the blood of
the lamb brothers and sisters the more we
are closer to the Lord the more we
know how weak we are how full of
spot wrinkle blemish how we need the blood
to wash us day by day even our
tears of repentance need to be washed thank
God for the blood of the lamb oftentimes
the enemy try to use darkness we do
not even know ourselves and because we do
not know ourselves we may have sinned and
yet we do not know or we may
not have sinned but in darkness when we
are under accusation we think we have sinned
but brothers and sisters if we walk in
the light he is in the light God
is in the light we shall have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus
God's Son shall wash us cleanse us from
all our sins if only we walk in
the light that is the light of life
we have this light of life within us
this life that we have received from the
Lord Jesus will shine within us and if
we walk in that light as he is
in the light we will have fellowship with
him and the blood of Jesus will wash
us from all our sins in other words
there is no need for us to be
in darkness there is no need for us
to be defiled in defilement there is no
need to us to be under accusation there
is no need to us to have our
fellowship communion with God interrupted these people have
uninterrupted communion with God that is the secret
and it is based on the blood of
the Lamb secondly they overcome because of the
word of their testimony what is their
testimony they have a testimony but as Paul
says I do not preach myself I preach
Christ in other words our testimony is not
ourselves our testimony is the testimony of Jesus
what is the testimony of Jesus to put
it in one word the testimony of Jesus
is the Lord said I am the first
and the last and the living one I
have become dead and I'm a living alive
and live forevermore and I hold in my
hand the keys of death and of Hades
this is the testimony of Jesus in other
words these people know the fullness of Christ
they know that Christ is the first he
has to be the first in all things
to their lives they know that Christ is
the last he has to have the last
word in their life they know that Christ
is the living one he is life he
is not only the one who died for
us but he is our life they know
his life they know that Christ has died
but he is resurrected in other words they
know the cross the cross is not a
theory to them they know the cross in
their life and they know resurrection life and
they know that Christ has the keys of
death and Hades in other words they know
the victory brothers and sisters this is their
testimony they have the word of testimony in
other words they speak out they say Jesus
is Lord and when they say Jesus is
Lord there is power in their word why
because they have a life sometimes we say
but there is no power why there is
no testimony behind it oh brothers and sisters
may we know Christ to know him and
to know the power of his resurrection to
have fellowship with his suffering conform to his
death this is our testimony the word of
our testimony and when we say Jesus is
Lord Satan flees they love not their life
even unto death that is their attitude the
life there is the soul life the Lord
Jesus said if anyone will come after me
let him deny himself take up his cross
and follow me he who loves his life
shall lose it but he who hates his
life and loses his life for my sake
and for the gospel sake he shall gain
it to eternity brothers and sisters we all
have that soul life self in us as
our brothers have mentioned before do we deny
take up the cross and follow the Lord
wherever the land goes we go these and
they shall shepherd the nations with an iron
rod they shall reign with Christ they
are the one who prepare the way of
the return of our Lord and they are
the one doing the work may God
dear heavenly father how we praise and thank
thee that thou art working out thy purpose
we pray Lord that all the suffering that
go on in this world to thy church
to us individually may not be in vain
but they will bring forth we
pray that by thy grace we may be
among those who hope not for ourselves it
is for the church it is for thee