We'll turn to the Word of God, and
turn today to Revelation chapter 11, to the
closing part of that.
In our last study, we considered verse 15,
where the seventh angel sounds his trumpet, and
there were loud voices in heaven saying, the
kingdom of the world has become the kingdom
of our Lord and of his Christ, and
he will reign forever and ever.
We considered how, at the last trumpet, Jesus
establishes his kingdom.
That looks forward to the beginning of the
1,000 year reign of Christ on earth.
And in verse 16 to 18, we have
another picture of worship and praise.
The 24 elders who sit on their thrones
before God fell on their faces and worshiped
God.
We find them again and again leading the
hosts of heaven in worship, saying, verse 17,
we give thee thanks, O Lord God, the
Almighty, who art and who wast, because thou
hast taken thy great power and hast begun
to reign.
We find in the book of Revelation there
is frequent mention of the Almighty power of
God, and that's one of the things they
praise God for in heaven.
They praise God for the fact that he
is sovereign and he rules over the whole
universe, rules over everything.
He's in complete control, and this is why
heaven is a place of such peace.
And this is how it can be in
our life too, when we recognize that the
Almighty God is ruling.
And then in continuation of their praise and
worship, they say in verse 18, the nations
were enraged and thy wrath came.
All the nations of the world have turned
in rebellion against God, and God has been
long suffering with them for many thousands of
years, but finally his wrath has come.
In other words, there's a time limit to
God's patience and to the time that he
gives to people to repent.
A time comes when this word will be
fulfilled, thy wrath has come.
It hasn't come yet, we are in the
day of grace now, but one of these
days this word will be fulfilled, thy wrath
came.
And the time came for the dead to
be judged.
That also is going to come.
We read in John chapter 5 and verse
29, John 5, 29, verse 28 and 29,
Jesus said, don't marvel at this, for an
hour is coming in which all who are
in the tombs shall hear his voice, that
is the voice of the Son of Man.
Everyone, believer, unbeliever, etc., and shall come forth.
Those who did the good to a resurrection
of life, and those who committed the evil
to a resurrection of judgment.
There are two resurrections.
There's not going to be just one general
resurrection of the dead.
Jesus said here, there is a resurrection of
life and a resurrection of judgment, and as
we study later on in the book of
Revelation, we'll discover these resurrections are separated by
about a thousand years.
But it's all brought together here in Revelation
11, 18.
The time has come for the dead to
be judged, and the time has also come
to give their reward to thy bondservants, the
prophets, and to the saints, and those who
fear thy name, the small and the great,
and to destroy those who destroy the earth.
Notice the categories of people mentioned here.
Bondservants, that is a phrase that is found
mostly in the New Testament.
The apostles called themselves bondservants of Jesus Christ.
They were the leaders in the New Testament
age, and then the prophets.
The prophets were essentially the leaders in the
Old Testament age, and then it says to
the saints.
Saints is a New Testament word.
It refers to all those who have come
to faith in Christ and become his disciples,
and those who fear thy name is an
Old Testament phrase.
So here we find the Old Testament leaders,
and the New Testament leaders, and the Old
Testament believers, and the New Testament believers, all
brought together, and it says here the time
has come to give reward to these who
have been faithful in their earthly life.
I want you to turn in this connection
to one verse in Malachi chapter 3, the
last book of the Old Testament.
Malachi chapter 3, this phrase rewards to those
who feared thy name.
We find a little amplification of it in
Malachi 3 verse 16.
Then those who feared the Lord spoke to
one another, and the Lord gave attention and
heard it, and a book of remembrance was
written before him for those who fear the
Lord and who esteem his name.
And they will be mine, says the Lord
of hosts, on the day that I prepare
my own possession, and I will spare them
as a man spares his own son who
serves him.
So you will again distinguish between the righteous
and the wicked, between the one who serves
God and the one who does not serve
him.
Now today it's very difficult to distinguish between
the one who is really serving God and
the one who is not really serving him.
It's very difficult, I would say almost impossible,
because we can only look at the external
appearance and we do not know with what
motive a person serves God.
We don't know whether a man is seeking
the glory of God or seeking his own
honor.
We don't know whether mixed up in all
is serving God is a desire for some
honor or some money or something or the
other.
But the Lord says, that's all right, you're
in your earthly lifetime, you won't know.
But a day is coming when God will
turn the focus of his heavenly searchlight on
everybody's heart, and then the time comes to
reward those who fear his name, the saints,
and to reward the prophets and the bond
servants of Christ in that day, when the
hidden motives and everything is exposed.
It says in that day, you will see
very clearly who really served God and who
served only themselves.
And in that day the word of Jesus
will be fulfilled.
Many who are first will be last.
Many whom we considered to be such wonderful
servants of God, when God exposes their inner
life and their motives, you will discover they
were pretty corrupt inside.
Many believers whom we had such a high
opinion of, when God begins to reward them,
we will discover their loss in the line.
And some others whom we didn't think very
much of will be pretty high in that
day, because of the sincerity and uprightness of
their heart before God.
So God's got a book of remembrance, and
there he carefully watches everyone to see who
fears his name, who fears him, who fears
him in their conversation.
It says they spoke to one another.
I believe there are very few names in
that book of remembrance, very few.
Because my own experience has been that there
are very few among believers who have any
fear of God in their private conversation and
in their private speech.
Very few, I would say less than 1
% of born-again believers that I have
met, have any sense of a fear of
God in their private conversation.
So there are very few in that book.
I don't believe it's a very fat book,
it's a very thin one.
There are very few, but those are the
ones whom the Lord calls his special jewels.
So it says in Revelation 11 18, that
time has come.
Jesus said in Luke chapter 14, Luke's gospel
chapter 14 verse 14, he said this in
verse 12.
He said, When you give a lunch or
a dinner, don't invite your friends or your
brothers or rich neighbors, lest they invite you
in return and repayment come to you.
Here is a command of Jesus, which again
less than 1% of believers even bother
to pay heed to, leave alone obey.
But when you give a reception, invite the
poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.
The point is not that we have to
go around looking for the lame and the
blind people.
The point is, we are to look for
those who cannot return the gift we give
them.
And you will be blessed, verse 14, not
because they are poor and lame and blind.
No, that's not the reason, because they do
not have the means to repay you.
Blessed are you, if you have learned that,
to do your good to those who have
no means to repay you.
When are you going to get repaid then?
You will be repaid at the resurrection of
the righteous.
That is the time when God is going
to repay good to others without any personal
motive.
And in that day again, we shall find
that many who are first are last and
many who are last are first.
So the time has come, we, the 24
elders, praise God, Revelation 11, 18, the time
has come to reward all these people.
And then one phrase in Revelation 11, 18,
the last part we read, the time has
also come to destroy those who corrupt the
earth.
There are people who corrupt the earth.
We read in Revelation 19, and verse 2,
that the great harlot Babylon, Babylon we shall
discover later on in our study of Revelation,
is a picture of harlot Christianity.
A Christianity that claims to be engaged to
Christ, but lives after its own lusts in
the world.
It says, the great harlot, middle of verse
2, has corrupted the earth with her immorality.
Spiritual immorality is what corrupts the earth.
And it says here in Revelation 11, 18,
that God is going to destroy those who
corrupt the earth.
That's also mentioned in 1 Corinthians in chapter
3, verse 17, if anyone corrupts the temple
of God, God will destroy him.
And the temple of God, we are told
in verse 16, is all of you.
The church in Corinth is the temple of
God.
And if a man brings corruption into God's
house, the day will come when God will
destroy him.
We read that Ananias and Sapphira brought corruption
into God's house, God destroyed them immediately.
But that hasn't happened in these 2,000
years regularly, otherwise very few people would have
been left.
And our churches probably would have been a
little more pure.
But God in his great wisdom has delayed
that judgment, but that doesn't mean that the
people who have sat in so many churches
like Ananias and Sapphira, corrupting it with their
hypocrisy, have got away with it.
They certainly haven't, because that time is going
to come.
It certainly will come when God who has
taken note of every Ananias and Sapphira in
these 2,000 years, is going to haul
them all up one day, and he's going
to destroy them.
I believe that is going to be fulfilled
exactly like it is written.
That if anyone corrupts the temple of God,
God will destroy him.
If that doesn't mean what it says, then
we have to say that God's alive.
And he's not talking to unbelievers, he's talking
to believers in Corinth.
He says, you are the temple of God,
and don't you know this?
That if anyone corrupts the temple of God,
God will destroy him.
Maybe not immediately like Ananias and Sapphira, but
at this time described in 1 Corinthians 11,
verse 18.
I want to show you another verse concerning
this corruption in Ephesians 4.22. Ephesians 4
.22. What is it that corrupts the world?
We read in Ephesians 4, in verse 22,
that the old man is corrupt in accordance
with the lusts of deceit.
Corruption in the world is due to lust.
As we read also in 2 Peter 1,
and verse 4, the corruption that is in
the world by lust.
It is our lusts by which we corrupt
the earth.
And those who have lived after their lusts
are mentioned here in Revelation 11, 18.
We can read Revelation 11, 18 like this.
The time has come for God to destroy
those who have lived after their lusts and
corrupted the earth.
In other words, this earth which was meant
to be a pure, holy place for the
sons and daughters of God, have been corrupted
by people who lived after their lusts.
And the time has come for them to
be destroyed.
Revelation 11, 19.
And the temple of God, which is in
heaven, was opened.
That is the sanctuary of God.
It's symbolic language.
We read in Revelation 21, verse 22, that
the city doesn't need any temple, because the
Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its
temple.
So this is symbolic language.
Revelation 11, 19.
The temple of God in heaven is opened.
That is the very presence of God with
His throne.
And the ark of His covenant appeared in
His temple.
The ark of the covenant was the symbol
of God's faithfulness in the nation of Israel.
That was the most sacred thing to the
nation of Israel.
That was kept in the most holy place
of the tabernacle and the temple, and people
could not go in to look at it.
It was in God's presence, and it symbolized
God's faithfulness to His covenant.
The Bible teaches that God is a covenant
-keeping God, and this ark of His covenant
symbolizes His faithfulness to the covenant that He
has made with us.
And there were flashes of lightning, and sounds
and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and
a great hailstorm.
These are just symbols of God's power.
Now we come to Revelation chapter 12.
In Revelation chapter 12 we read, and a
great sign appeared in heaven.
A woman clothed with the sun and the
moon under her feet, and on her head
a crown of twelve stars.
Now, there are many people who have interpreted
this in many different ways.
We read that this woman gave birth to
a child, and the child was caught up
to God, and so they say the child
was Christ.
And therefore the Roman Catholics would say the
woman was obviously Mary, but there are many
things here which indicate it couldn't be Mary
at all.
And then there are those who would say
it's a church, and there are those who
would say it's Israel.
Now, I just want to give you a
little helpful advice at this point.
Whenever someone gives you an interpretation of any
passage of scripture, and he cannot show you
another passage of scripture which is the reason
why he gives that interpretation, you must always
put a question mark on his interpretation.
It may be right, but you have to
allow for the possibility that it may be
wrong.
But the best way to interpret scripture is
by comparing scripture with scripture.
I find that the best way, because then
it's not a question of what we think.
So, when we look through the whole Bible,
as far as I can see, there's only
one place where we read of a community
of people described by this figure.
Sun, and the moon, and the twelve stars.
That's not Mary, that's not the church.
We read in Genesis 37, and verse 9.
You know the story of Joseph, who was
the eleventh of Jacob, that is, Israel's twelve
sons.
Israel had twelve sons who became the father
of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Now, Joseph was the eleventh of these twelve
sons, and he was blessed by the Lord.
And it says here he had a dream.
And in this dream, he said, Joseph had
a dream, verse 5.
And one of the dreams he had, verse
9, he still had another dream.
And he told his brothers about this dream,
Genesis 37, 9.
Lo, I had still another dream, and here
it is.
The sun, and the moon, and the eleven
stars bowed down to me, the twelfth star.
And his father understood what that meant.
He said he related to his father and
his brothers, and his father rebuked him and
said, what is this dream that you have
had?
Shall I and your mother, that is, the
sun and the moon, and your eleven brothers,
actually come to bow ourselves down before you
to the ground?
And you know that later on in Egypt,
that actually happens.
So, we see that the sun and the
moon and the twelve stars are a picture
of Jacob and the tribes of Israel.
So, we turn to Revelation 12, 1, and
we understand that that woman is symbolic of
the nation of Israel.
Now, this is one thing that I mentioned
earlier, too, and I want to repeat it
here, that everything that we find in the
Bible in terms of prophecy in relation to
Israel can be applied physically, literally to Israel
and spiritually to the church.
It says here in verse 2, she was
with childs, the nation of Israel, and she
cried out, being in labor and in pain,
to give birth.
Now, what's this?
Let's turn to an Old Testament passage again,
in Micah, chapter 5, verses 2 to 4.
But as for you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, from you
one will go forth to me to be
ruler in Israel.
This is speaking about Jesus' birth in Bethlehem.
You remember, when the wise men came to
Herod, the priests pointed out this verse and
said, Jesus has to be born, the Messiah
has to be born in Bethlehem.
Therefore, verse 3, He will give them up
until the time when she who is in
labor has borne a child.
Then the remainder of His brethren, that is,
the Gentiles who will be converted, will return
to the sons of Israel, and He will
arise and shepherd His flock in the strength
of the Lord.
And so we find here that there is
someone who is in labor, verse 3, who
is going to bring forth a child, and
we find the mention of Bethlehem in Micah,
chapter 5, verse 2.
This is the nation of Israel bringing forth
Jesus Christ, Jesus the Messiah.
And we are told in Romans, chapter 9,
and verse 4 and 5, that one of
the glory, one part of the glory that
Israel had is that from them has come
Christ, verse 5, according to the flesh.
And so we find here in Revelation 12,
this is a picture of the nation of
Israel giving birth to Jesus Christ.
And we find here further in verse 3,
Revelation 12, verse 3, and another sign appeared
in heaven, and behold a great red dragon.
Now, we don't have to interpret this.
We are told in verse 9 that this
dragon is Satan himself.
That's very clearly explained in verse 9.
So this dragon is Satan, having seven heads
and ten horns.
We'll come to that when we study chapter
13, but just in passing, let me say
that the seven heads and the ten horns
are both symbolic of world government.
Now, we'll come to that in chapter 13.
That's why I don't want to take time
on that now, but it's significant that Satan
has got these seven heads and ten horns,
which means that Satan is in control of
the governments of the world, which is something
which is taught in other portions of scripture
too.
You read in Daniel, chapter 10, for example,
of an evil spirit who was in control
of the nation of Persia, and you read
in Ephesians 6.12 that we wrestle with
the world rulers, not only the evil principalities,
but the world rulers in the heavenlies.
The world rulers are not in the capital
cities of the world.
They are only puppets being pulled by strings
by some evil spirits up there.
That's why the church is told to pray
for those in authority, so that we can
bind those evil spirits who are pulling the
strings of these puppets, and that's something we
ought to bear in mind.
The church has got authority to pray for
those who are government leaders, because these government
leaders are puppets controlled by evil spirits in
the heavenlies.
The dragon has got seven heads and ten
horns, on his head were seven diadems.
We find he is called a red dragon.
Red is the picture of murder, blood, and
Jesus said in John 8.44 that the
devil was a murderer from the beginning.
The thief, Jesus said, does not come but
to steal and to kill and to destroy.
That's why he's a red dragon, and in
passing let me say that when God created
him, he wasn't like this.
He was the most beautiful of all of
God's creation.
We read about him in Ezekiel 28 as
the anointed sheriff who ruled over the garden
of God, but when pride came into his
heart and rebellion against authority came into his
heart, this beautiful sheriff became a horrible dragon.
What's the lesson from that for us?
You may be like an angel today, but
let a little pride come into your heart
and you'll be like a dragon in no
time.
Let a little of the spirit of rebellion
against authority, whether that authority is your parents,
or that authority is someone in your office,
or that authority is someone in the church.
Let a little bit of that spirit of
rebellion come into your heart, and beautiful and
clever as you may be, you'll become like
this dragon in in a matter of time.
Satan is always seeking to make people like
himself, just like the Holy Spirit's always seeking
to make people like Jesus, and the way
Satan succeeds in making people like himself is
by infecting them with pride and rebellion.
Remember that.
Steer clear of any type of pride, particularly
spiritual pride and rebellion.
And we read here in verse 4, and
his tail swept away a third of the
stars of heaven and threw them to the
earth.
This seems to indicate, though we can't be
dogmatic here, that perhaps one-third of the
angelic host joined Satan in his rebellion.
Because there is a passage in the Old
Testament, in the book of Job and chapter
38, Job and chapter 38, where we are
told that when God laid the foundation of
the earth, verse 7, the morning stars sang
together.
That's referring to the angels, and the sons
of God again referring to the angelic beings
shouted for joy.
Job 38, verse 7.
And so we see the stars are a
picture of angels.
We saw that earlier in Revelation 9, verse
1-2, that the star is used as
a symbol of an angel.
So when it says in Revelation 12-4
one-third of the stars of heaven were
thrown with him down to the earth, it
seems to indicate that with his tail of
deception, if you want a reference for that,
Isaiah 9-15, it says the prophet who
deceives others is the tail.
Deception is the tail of the devil.
Isaiah 9-15, with that tail he pulled
down one-third of the angelic hosts and
gathered them in his rebellion against God Almighty.
And this dragon, we read in verse 4,
stood before the woman who was about to
give birth, so that when she gave birth
he might devour her child.
Now this is something that has happened right
through the history of Israel.
You know it began, for example, in Exodus
1-16, where Pharaoh gave an order to
the midwives who were delivering the babies of
the Israeli people, that if there is a
son, just wait.
As soon as the woman delivers, if it's
a son, kill it.
But that's not all.
Through the years, Satan has been against the
Jewish people, this woman, and he has mainly
been against the Jewish people because the Messiah
was to come through the Jewish people.
And in the Old Testament, we read in
the book of Esther, of another Satan-inspired
man called Haman, who tried to destroy the
entire Jewish people.
Haman was a sort of type of Hitler,
he was the Hitler of the Old Testament,
who tried to kill all the Jewish people,
but he didn't succeed.
And we read when Jesus was born, we
read that Satan instigated Herod to send his
soldiers to Bethlehem to kill all the male
children under the age of two.
So there are many fulfillments to this picture
here.
This dragon waiting to devour the child, he's
not really interested in the other Jews, he
was interested in the child that was going
to be born, the Messiah.
How did he know he was going to
be born?
Because the promise was given in the Garden
of Eden.
His seed, the seed of the woman, will
bruise the head of the serpent.
That's why he wanted to finish off the
child.
That's why he wanted to finish off Jesus.
But he didn't succeed, we know, through the
ages.
And neither has he succeeded through Hitler, Haman,
or Herod, or any one of them, or
Pharaoh.
And it says here, she gave birth to
a son, a male.
That is Israel bringing forth Christ.
And we know this is referring to Jesus
Christ, because it says that He is to
rule this son, is to rule all the
nations with a rod of iron.
And that we read in Revelation 19, 15.
Revelation 19, 15, we read about Jesus Christ.
That He, in the middle of that verse,
He will rule the nations with a rod
of iron.
And His name, verse 13, is the Word
of God.
Verse 16, He's the King of Kings and
Lord of Lords.
So we see that the one who rules
all nations with a rod of iron, the
Lord Jesus Christ, is the one referred to
here.
And notice, in verse 5 of Revelation 12,
Jesus is called a son and a child.
She gave birth to a son, and in
the last part of the verse, her child
was brought up to God.
That reminds us of Isaiah 9, verse 6.
Isaiah 9, verse 6, where it says, A
child will be born to us, and a
son will be given to us.
His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty
God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace, referring to
Jesus Christ again.
So we see here that this child is
to rule all nations.
And I just want to point out to
you in verse 5, that if you've got
a margin in your Bible, the word rule
is also called here shepherd.
He's not going to rule them in the
way that earthly rulers rule today.
He's going to shepherd the nation.
And true rulership, in God's eyes, is by
the spirit of the shepherd who leads his
sheep.
So Jesus Christ is going to shepherd the
nation.
Today, He shepherds the church.
And any true God-appointed leader can be
identified by this mark, that he will be
a shepherd, not a tyrant, not a boss,
but a shepherd.
If you find a Christian leader who is
more like a boss, you can be perfectly
sure he's got the spirit of the Gentiles,
not the spirit of Christ.
The spirit of Christ is one of a
shepherd.
His leadership is always that of a shepherd
who goes ahead and leads by example, not
with a whip from the back.
We find here the child is caught up
to God's throne.
Now, this is another indication that this child
is Jesus Christ, because we read in Revelation
3.21, Jesus says, if anyone overcomes, he
can sit with me on, not on the
throne of God, but on my throne, the
throne of Jesus Christ, even as I overcame
and I have sat down with my father
on his throne.
So who is the one who is sitting
with the father on his throne?
That's not us, that's Jesus Christ.
And so we find in Revelation 12.5,
the child was caught up to God, the
father, and to his throne.
That again refers to Christ.
Now, as I said, all this is a
very beautiful picture of Israel bringing forth Christ,
Satan trying to devour Christ, but Christ being
caught up, his whole life is skipped over
there, but finally ascended up in the cloud
to sit with the father on his throne.
But what is literally true of Israel is
also spiritually true of the church.
And I just want to point out a
few things here in relation to the church,
in its application to us spiritually.
There's a verse in Galatians 4 and verse
26, Galatians 4.26, which says, the Jerusalem
above is free and she is our mother.
Symbolically, we could look at this woman also
as a picture of the church to get
some spiritual truth out of it for ourselves.
What is the truth then?
The truth is that through the travail of
this woman comes forth a child.
And that is the picture of the overcomer
that comes forth through the travail of the
church.
Galatians 4.19, my children, with whom I
am again in labor until Christ is formed
in you.
God is looking for those who will have
a spirit of travail to bring forth Christ
in others.
That is part of the spiritual application of
this truth.
And Jesus said also in John 16 and
verse 21, when a woman is in travail,
she has sorrow because her hour has come.
But when she gives birth to the child,
she remembers the anguish no more for joy
that a child has been born into the
world.
Therefore, you also now have sorrow.
What type of sorrow?
Verse 21, the sorrow of a spiritual travail.
Do we have it?
I think perhaps one percent of believers have
this.
A travail that Christ will be formed in
people in the church.
That Christ will be formed, not just a
question of having our sins forgiven and going
to heaven when we die.
The travail that Paul had.
He says, but I'll see you again and
your heart will rejoice.
And this is what we see here of
those who have overcome being caught up to
meet the Lord in the air.
Well, let's turn back to Revelation and chapter
12.
That's just by the way, but as I
said earlier, it literally applies to the nation
of Israel.
Now we come to Revelation 12 and verse
6.
The woman, which is again Israel, fled into
the wilderness where she has a place prepared
by God.
Now this is referring to the time when
the Antichrist is going to rule on the
earth after he has broken his covenant with
the Jews.
You remember in our last study, we saw
how the time is going to come when
the Antichrist will present himself to the Jews
as their Messiah and the Jews will be
deceived and they will make a covenant.
He'll make a covenant with them for seven
years, not the God fearing ones, but with
the nation of Israel, which is basically ungodly.
And in the middle of that seven year
period, he's going to break that covenant and
he's going to trample the Jews underfoot and
Jerusalem.
And at that time is going to be
a time of tremendous persecution for the nation
of Israel.
And at that time, the woman is going
to be protected by God.
We read here and nourished by God in
the wilderness for a period of 1,260
days.
That is this three and a half year
period that we considered last time.
I want to show you an Old Testament
reference about this in Jeremiah chapter 30, where
we find again a picture of travail.
Jeremiah chapter 30.
First of all, it says in verse three,
I will restore the fortunes of my people,
Israel and Judah, says the Lord.
I will bring them back to the land
that I gave to their forefathers.
And then that says the Lord, verse five,
I've heard a sound of terror.
Verse six, ask now and see if a
male can give birth.
Why do I see every man with his
hand on his loins as a woman in
childbirth?
Notice the same picture again.
Alas, for that day is great.
There is none like it.
This is the period of the great tribulation.
It is called here the time of Jacob's
distress.
That is the time of distress for the
people of Israel.
But he will be protected from it.
That is the protection that we read of
in Revelation 12, 6, where the woman is
going to be protected in the wilderness for
this period of three and a half years.
And we read further in verse seven, there
was war in heaven.
Michael and his angels waging war with the
dragon.
And the dragon and his angels waged war.
Michael is the archangel.
And we read of Michael in Daniel chapter
10, verse 21, the last part.
Yet there is no one who stands firmly
with me against these forces except Michael, your
prince.
There we find, we don't have time to
go into Daniel, but some time ago we
studied that chapter where we find when the
angel was coming to answer Daniel's prayer, he
was resisted by the evil spirit of Persia.
And it says Michael, who is called here
the prince of Israel.
There are many evil spirits appointed over the
different nations by the devil.
And God has appointed Michael the archangel over
Israel.
That's why he's called here Michael, your prince.
And Daniel chapter 12, verse one, at that
time, Michael, the great prince who stands guard
over the sons of your people, that is
over the Israelites, will arise.
He will arise.
That's what we saw in Revelation 12.
Michael the archangel is going to stand up
against this dragon who was persecuting Israel.
There will be a time of distress such
as never occurred since there was a nation
until that time.
That is the period of great tribulation.
And at that time, your people, those who
are sealed by God, everyone who is found
written in the book, will be rescued.
And verse seven, I heard the man dressed
in the linen who was above the waters
of the river as he raised his right
hand and his left toward heaven and swore
by him who lives forever and ever that
it would be for how long?
For one time, that is one year, two
times, plus two years, plus half a time,
that's half a year.
Total, three and a half years.
And as soon as they finish shattering the
power of the Israelites, all these events will
be completed.
So there we see in the book of
Daniel too, there's going to be a three
and a half year period at the end
of the age when there's going to be
this fight between Michael and the dragon.
And there will be this time of intense
persecution.
And we read in Revelation 12, back to
Revelation 12, and the dragon and his angels
fought.
And verse eight, they were not strong enough.
And there was no longer a place found
for them in heaven.
And the great dragon was thrown down.
Now we know that this is still in
the future.
This is the final three and a half
year period before Jesus establishes his kingdom on
earth.
That is the time when Satan is going
to be thrown down to the earth.
So where is Satan today then?
He's in the heavenlies.
Not in hell.
Hell is in the heart of the earth.
He's not there.
By popular misunderstanding, people think Satan is in
hell.
Those who go to hell will be surprised
to find Satan isn't there yet.
He's going to be cast into the lake
of fire, but he's not there now.
He's in the heavenlies.
That's why it says we wrestle with the
evil forces of darkness in the heavenlies, Ephesians
6.12. Now the Bible speaks of three
heavens.
The first heaven is this visible heaven, which
we can see as we look into the
sky.
The third heaven, which we read in 2nd
Corinthians 12, is where the apostle Paul was
caught up, is called paradise.
Between the first heaven and the third heaven
is an intermediate space, which we cannot see,
which is called the second heaven.
This is why we find it difficult to
pray sometimes, because we've got to penetrate the
second heaven to get to the third one.
And the only way to penetrate it really
is by the spirit of praise.
There's one thing the devil can't stand.
It is praise.
Praise to God.
And that's the way we penetrate through the
second heaven into the third.
That's why I tell people if you find
it difficult to pray, stop praying and start
praising God.
Get connection with the third heaven and then
start your prayer.
That's just in passing.
So we read here that the dragon and
his angels were cast out of heaven.
And we read further in verse 9, and
the great dragon was thrown down.
You remember what Jesus said, I beheld Satan.
Luke chapter 10, verse 18, Jesus said, I
beheld Satan fall from heaven like lightning.
I was watching Satan fall from heaven like
lightning.
And then what did he say?
Luke 10, verse 18 and 19, he says,
I have given you, my disciples, authority to
tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all
the power of Satan, and nothing shall injure
you.
Jesus had already seen Satan fall when he
fell initially, but that verse also refers to
Satan's final fall down to the earth, and
then his final fall into the bottomless pit,
and then the last fall into the lake
of fire.
Satan's got a number of falls from the
presence of God down to the second heaven,
and then from there to the earth, from
the earth to the bottomless pit, from the
bottomless pit to the lake of fire.
And Jesus puts that all together as Satan's
falling like lightning.
He says, I've seen it.
And I want to tell you something, brothers
and sisters, you and I need to see
it.
When we see it, we won't be afraid
of Satan anymore.
We'll know that he was defeated on the
cross.
The prince of the world has been judged.
It's an absolute shame for a believer to
be afraid of Satan.
No, no need to be.
Let's ask God to open our eyes to
see the fall of Satan.
Like I said in our first study of
this book, if there's one reason why the
devil hates the book of Revelation, it's because
it describes his final doom.
And sometimes the devil puts off the lights
at a time like this when we are
talking about things like this.
The thing he doesn't like people to hear,
that he's already defeated.
He's already cast down.
And Jesus has triumphed.
He's the victor.
We are members of his body.
So we see here, Michael and his angels
cast Satan out.
There was a time long ago when Satan
was above Michael.
He was the leader.
But he lifted himself up and he was
cast down.
Finally, Michael is given the job of clearing
the second heaven of Satan and his hosts.
That's pretty much of a humiliation for this
man who was once the boss and who
had that spirit of a boss, who didn't
understand the spirit of God.
And he's cast out.
There was no longer a place found for
them in heaven.
God has allowed him to be there for
some time, but he's going to be thrown
out.
Verse 9, And the great dragon was thrown
down, the serpent of old, who is called
the devil.
Now I want to tell you something interesting
about this word devil.
The word devil is a Greek word called
diabolos, from which we get the English word
diabolical.
Diabolos and the Greek word diabolos just means
slanderer or backbiter.
And I'll tell you something.
I'll show you two or three verses in
the New Testament where the same word diabolos
is used.
First of all, 1 Timothy 3 verse 11.
1 Timothy 3 verse 11, it says concerning
the women, verse 11, women must likewise be
dignified, not diabolos.
They must not be devils.
It's the same word.
Now, I'm not against women.
Neither is the apostle Paul, neither is God.
He's just giving us a loving exhortation that
women must not be little devils.
That is slanderer, speaking evil about somebody behind
their back.
Of course, men shouldn't be slanderers either.
2 Timothy chapter 3, here it speaks about
the men.
2 Timothy 3, the word of God is
very balanced.
Verse 2 and 3, it says the last
days, difficult times will come for men will
be lovers of self and, verse 3, unloving,
irreconcilable and little devil.
Diabolos.
You see it there?
Titus chapter 2, Titus chapter 2, verse 3.
Older women, oh these are the ones who
should be full of wisdom with their gray
hair, are to be reverent in their behavior
and not diabolos, not little devil.
Slanderer.
When old women become little devils, boy, that's
really something.
Now, I just mentioned that in passing, that
the same word which is translated as devil
throughout the New Testament has been translated in
these three passages as slanderers.
To slander is to engage in the activity
of Satan, the devil.
It is to get his name.
Like Christian is to get the name of
Christ, slanderer is to get the name of
the devil, whether man or woman, old woman
or old man, whatever, it makes no difference.
To slander people, to speak evil of them
behind their back, that is to be a
devil.
And so we read here, the devil and
his other name is Satan, which means adversary,
resistor of God, resistor of truth, resistor of
God's people.
And he's also called deceiver, the deceiver of
the whole world.
Here are three titles, slanderer, resistor, deceiver.
He's thrown down to the earth and his
angels were thrown down with him.
And that is for a period of three
and a half years that Satan is going
to be right here on this earth.
He's not here yet.
If the world is a mess right now,
you can imagine what it's going to be
when he's down here on the earth with
his angels and he's left that place.
And it says that he's going to have
great wrath at that time.
Verse 10, I heard a loud voice in
heaven saying, just by the way, in heaven,
they are not afraid of raising their voice.
It's only here on earth that people whisper
praises to God.
Oh, Lord, I'd like to praise you.
Things like that.
In heaven, they shout and they praise God
with all of their voices.
There are no shy people there.
In a loud voice in heaven, that comes
a number of times in the book of
Revelation saying, now the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of God and the authority
of his Christ have come.
For the accuser, this is the slanderer, accuser
of our brethren has been thrown down.
Do any of you or I, do any
of us get that title sometimes?
Accuser of the brethren.
The next time you speak evil about a
brother or sister, remember what you heard this
evening.
The accuser of the brethren.
Let it ring in your mind as you
are slandering someone to someone else.
The accuser of the brethren, the accuser of
the brethren, the slanderer, the diabolo, the devil
is active now, has been thrown down who
accuses them before our God day and night.
This teaches us that the devil is accusing
us before God day and night.
See that child of yours, see how he's
behaving there.
See that person there who calls himself your
child, the way he's talking there now, accusing
day and night.
You think the devil isn't watching your private
life?
Other believers may not be watching, but the
devil is because he's got plenty of material.
He wants plenty of material to accuse you
and me before God.
That's something we need to bear in mind.
Our calling is to glorify Christ and give
no room for Satan to accuse us in
any area.
And it says here in verse 11 about
the believers overcoming Satan, overcoming Satan.
Now, in the Old Testament, you know, in
the book of Job, how Satan accused Job
to God saying, oh, Job serves God because
you blessed him.
You stop blessing him and he'll stop serving
you.
Do you think Satan accuses people like that
today?
Yes, he tries to.
Oh, that fellow there, he's serving God with
the wrong motives.
Sometimes the devil, God has to say, well,
that's right.
In his case, that's right.
But in that other person's case, it's not
right.
You see, God is righteous.
He doesn't try to cover up for us
when we are serving him with wrong motives.
That's why we have to judge ourselves and
cleanse ourselves so that there's no room for
Satan to accuse us to God.
And it says here they overcame him.
These are the believers who overcome Satan.
How do we overcome Satan?
Three weapons.
One, the blood of Jesus Christ, which was
shed for our sins.
Lord Jesus, you shed your blood and I
have repented and confessed my sin.
Therefore, it is cleansed.
There is no need for anyone to remain
under the accusation of He accuses us to
God, he accuses us to ourselves.
The only way to overcome is to say,
well, that particular sin you're accusing me of,
Satan, I've already confessed and repented of.
It's forgiven.
I'm cleansed.
The blood of Jesus has cleansed me.
Second, by the word of their testimony.
That means the confession of our mouth about
the blood of the lamb.
Confession, not public testimony in the meeting, but
testimony to Satan.
We have to speak the word to Satan.
I have been cleansed in the blood of
Jesus Christ.
Speak that to Satan, otherwise we cannot overcome
his accusation.
And third, they did not love their life
even to death.
That means they took up the cross and
died to themselves.
Those are the weapons.
The blood of the lamb, our spoken word
of testimony to Satan about the blood of
the lamb.
And third, that I take up my cross
because it is on the cross of Calvary
that Jesus defeated Satan.
And it is as I take my place
as crucified with Christ and die to myself,
take up my cross every day that I
can overcome Satan too.
People ask, why do you always preach about
taking up the cross, taking up the cross?
I'll tell you, because we want to overcome
Satan.
That's why every day I want to take
up the cross because I want to overcome
Satan every day.
That's why Jesus said take up the cross
every day.
The only way to overcome Satan every day.
The day you're unwilling to die to yourself,
the day you want to stand up on
your right and your reputation, that day Satan
overcomes you.
Right, verse 12, for this reason rejoice, O
heaven, and you who dwell in them.
Now in the New Testament, I find there
are three places where it says heaven rejoices,
at least three.
You know one, Luke 15 verse 7, there's
joy in heaven over a sinner who repents.
Second, Revelation 12, 11 and 12, there's joy
in heaven when a believer overcomes Satan.
Third, Revelation 19 verse 7, let us rejoice,
they say in heaven, because of the marriage
of the Lamb has come and his bride
has made herself ready.
Notice these three stages.
Stage one, when we repent of our sins,
there's joy in heaven.
Stage two, there's joy in heaven when I
overcome Satan in my personal life.
And stage three, when I have made myself
ready as the bride for the marriage of
the Lamb.
And every one of us is to become
a cause for joy in heaven if we
go through these three stages, repentance, overcoming, and
being ready to be the bride of Christ.
Now we see here, they overcame him.
I just want you to notice this one
thing, it is because Jesus has overcome Satan
that now the Lord gives us the privilege
of executing that victory which he has already
won.
Why does it say in Romans 16 20,
the God of peace will crush Satan under
your feet shortly.
There's a sense in which he's already been
crushed on the cross, but now as believers
on this earth, we have the privilege.
He tried to devour Christ when he was
born, verse 4, he didn't succeed.
In heaven he fought with Michael and the
angels, he got thrown out.
He fights with us, are we going to
be defeated?
No, shame on us if we don't see
our calling, that that which Jesus has accomplished
on the cross, we are to now execute
that the God of peace will through us
be able to crush Satan in our daily
life, and finally completely.
And then we read about the time when
the devil comes on the earth, verse 12,
woe to the earth and the sea because
the devil has come down to you having
great wrath knowing he has only a short
time.
The devil is a student of prophecy, he
knows that he's got only three and a
half years once he comes down, and it's
going to be a terrible time.
And when the dragon saw that he was
thrown down to the earth, he persecuted Israel
who gave birth to Jesus Christ.
And that's going to be a terrific time
of persecution, but God is going to protect
his people, his earthly people.
Verse 14, the two wings of a great
eagle were given to the woman.
I don't know whether this refers to some
type of airlift or something by which they
can escape in order that she might fly
into the wilderness to her place.
It seems to indicate there's going to be
some place where the Lord is going to
protect his people from the persecution, and where
she was nourished for one year plus two
years plus half a year, that is three
and a half years from the presence of
the serpent, so that there's going to be
protection for the Jews at that time.
And the serpent poured out water like a
river out of his mouth.
This seems to be some type of persecution
through the nations of the earth after Israel,
so that he might cause her to be
swept away with the flood.
But the earth helped the woman, which seems
to indicate that there will be some people
who will help the Jews, like in the
second world war time.
And the earth opened its mouth and drank
up the river which the dragon poured out
of his mouth.
There is going to be human help for
the Jews at that time too.
And the dragon was enraged with the woman,
with Israel, couldn't do much to her, and
went off to make war with whom?
With the rest of her offspring, those who
were born through the twelve apostles, who were
all Jews, that is those who keep the
commandments of God and hold to the testimony
of Jesus Christ, which seems to indicate that
at that time there will be Christians on
the earth as well, who hold to the
testimony of Jesus Christ.
And they're going to overcome him.
And it's going to be a tremendous testimony
to God.
Brothers and sisters, God's preparing a people for
that day, when we shall really bring glory
and honor to him, being prepared in these
days to overcome Satan completely in that day,
so that he can be crushed under our
feet.
Jeremiah 12 5 says, today the Lord teaches
us to run with men, so that one
day we can run with horses.
Today he trains us in the time of
peace, so that one day when the flood
of Jordan comes, we shall stand.
And it's going to be a tremendous glory
to God in that day, when there's a
company of people on earth who will stand
as overcomers, overcoming, because they do not love
their life even unto death.
And today is the day when God is
preparing that people.
We can't be prepared all of a sudden,
but if we take every opportunity that comes
our way today to die and go down,
then when the flood comes, we shall stand
up and be a testimony for our Lord.
Amen.