Dragon, Angels, King & Conquerors

If you would, take your Bibles this morning and turn to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. You follow as I read this chapter. And the great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth.

And another sign appeared in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns, and on his head seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron.

But her child was caught up to God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.

And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, in you who dwell in them. But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short. And when the dragon saw that he'd been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child.

But the woman was given two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood But the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring and those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. Let's pray.

Our Father, we are here by your appointment for you and your providence has chosen that these who are gathered here would hear this word to them. Give them ears to hear. And Father, I pray that when we leave here today, we would leave with hope, the hope of conquerors who have been equipped to fight in this great battle against evil in which we are engaged.

Pray that you would show us the realities, the true realities just behind the appearances that we would be prepared. Thank you for your word which equips us. Thank you for the gospel which motivates us and drives us and gives us hope. God, help us this day to serve you well because of what we hear in this hour. In Jesus' name, amen. No doubt all of you here, and I would guess that every one of you, have seen the movie The Wizard of Oz.

And you remember that one scene where you see Dorothy and Toto, Tin Man, Scarecrow, and the Lion, all standing in the great hall, trembling before that great big image of Oz. And Toto jumps out of Dorothy's arms and runs behind them and pulls open a screen. And behind the screen is a little man pulling all these levers and pushing all these buttons. And you see that the reality is not the great and terrible Oz, but a little unassuming man. and so as we re chapter 12 of Revelation remember that we have here God pulling open the curtain for us to see the realities behind the appearances of our experience Now again, I want to remind you that Revelation is a letter.

A letter written to the seven churches that have been identified in chapters 2 and 3, and a letter that's written to us who live in the 21st century. We are locked in a battle against evil, against evil expressing itself in persecution and in seduction. And you recall that in this letter, we are commanded to overcome. We are commanded to overcome and to conquer by enduring persecution and remaining pure in the seduction.

And if we would conquer, we must see the reality behind the appearance. if we would be conquerors, if we would be overcomers in the way that the Lord Jesus has commanded us, then we must have heaven's perspective on what is going on. And as we've seen so far in this chapter, in the first six verses, we have seen that behind all the persecution and all the seduction stands our opponent, this great red dragon. Behind the ancient kingdoms who oppressed the people of God in the Old Testament was this dragon.

Behind the efforts to derail and to destroy and to undermine the Christ is this dragon. Behind all the efforts to annihilate us today is this dragon. we also saw in the opening scene of this vision in verses 1 through 6 that during the entire time of tribulation symbolized remember by three and a half years that three and a half years is a symbolic number that talks about a limited period of time of intense persecution and intense evil that during that entire time of tribulation that three and a half years that age in which we now live that God protects and nourishes us in the wilderness of suffering. However, as we move on in our text in the next several verses, we get another more detailed perspective on the events of verses 1-6.

And again God gives us the perspective that necessary if we would be overcomers if we would conquer our opponent in these evil days Let look at them again verses 7 through 17 This will probably be the last time I read these words, so you have to follow along carefully. Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God. and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony for they loved not their lives even unto death therefore rejoice oh heavens and you who dwell on them but woe to you oh earth and sea for the devil has come down to you in great wrath because he knows that his time is short and when the dragon saw that he'd been thrown down to the earth he pursued the woman who'd given birth to the male child but the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle to so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness to the place where she is to be nourished for a time and times and half a time the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman to sweep her away with a flood and the earth came to the help of the woman and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of offspring and those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.

Now, if the church will conquer, it must first see the victory in heaven. It must recognize the rage on earth and it must understand the power that it possesses. That's what we read in this chapter. The church must see its victory and see the victory in heaven. It must see the rage on earth and it has to understand the power that it has, that it possesses.

First of all, we're told to see this victory in heaven. If you would overcome, then see that a great victory in heaven has already been won. Notice the two combatants in this war, two forces led by two powerful beings. The first mentioned is one called Michael. Who is Michael? When I read through this and I started taking notes and asking questions of the text, that's the first that came to my mind. my mind.

Who is Michael? Who is this great and powerful angel? We're introduced to him in the book of Daniel. And Daniel sets the stage for this. So I want you to turn back to Daniel chapter 10. Because in Daniel chapter 10 we see this Michael.

I want to begin reading in Daniel chapter 10 verse 2. You follow. In those days I, Daniel, was mourning for For three weeks I ate no delicacies, no meat or wine entered my mouth, nor did I anoint myself at all for the full three weeks. On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, that is, the Tigris, I lifted up my eyes and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist.

His body was like a barrel, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude. And I, Daniel, alone saw the vision, for the men who were with me did not see the vision. But a great trembling fell upon them, and they fled to hide themselves.

So I was left alone and saw this great vision, and no strength was left in me. My radiant appearance was fearfully changed, and I retained no strength. Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground. Here is this incredible vision of this being that we see later in the book of Revelation, chapter 1.

In chapter 11 is the Son of Man, is Jesus. This is what he is seeing here in Daniel chapter 10. In Daniel 7, identified as the Son of Man, that divine figure that comes and receives from the Father all dominion of all the earth and all the kingdoms. All right? So that's what we see. We see here Jesus or the Son of Man.

Let's go on. Michael one of the chief princes came to help me for I was left there with the kings of Persia and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days for the vision is for days yet to come speaking of our days But here's the point that we need to see. Here is Michael introduced as the ally of this Son of Man.

He's an angel of some sort of powerful being who is the ally of this Son of Man. Drop down to verse 18. Again, one having the appearance of a man touched me and strengthened me. And he said, O man greatly loved, fear not. Peace be with you. Be strong and of good courage.

And as he spoke to me, I was strengthened and said, Let my Lord speak for you have strengthened me. Then he said, Do you know why I have come to you? But now I return to fight against the prince of Persia. Again, another supernatural being. And when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth.

There is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince. Michael, the ally, the son of man in these spiritual battles, is the prince of the people of God. Is in some way an angel, a protector, a deliverer, if you will, of the people of God. Look over at chapter 12, verse 1. at that time, speaking of the latter times, I believe the times in which we live, at that time shall arise Michael the great prince who has charge of your people and there shall be a time of trouble such as never has been since there was a nation till that time but at that time your people shall be delivered.

Every one whose name shall be found written in the book. Here is Michael identified as our, if you will, our protector, our angel protector, our deliverer of some kind. Now, do not ask me the mechanics of all that. I do not know, and I don't think the Bible gives us all that. How are these powerful beings behind the nations, and how does that? I don't know, and the Bible doesn't tell us.

It just gives us that much information. So, okay, let's drop that and just understand. Michael is this powerful being who is charged with the people of God to fight on their behalf. He is identified here as the protector of God's people in the last days, and that is us. He is an ally of the Son of Man Now the second combatant in this battle that we see in Revelation 12 is his adversary the great red dragon Only here he is identified.

He is identified as that ancient serpent, which of course brings to mind the serpent that came to the garden. And that's what it's intended to do. The one who made his appearance in Eden. He is, it says in our text, the devil. Devil is the word that means slanderer. In the garden, he deceived Adam and Eve by slandering the character of God.

How did he deceive them? He said, did God really say? And God's not good if that's what he told you, because he doesn't want you to be like him. So he deceived them by slandering God. He is Satan. The word Satan means adversary.

He is the adversary. Now, he and his agents do on a worldwide scale what he began in the garden. He deceives, it says in our text, the deceiver of the whole world. He is a deceiver. And verse 10 says he is the slanderer. Again, notice, because he accuses the people of God night and day.

He accuses or slanders the brothers. So here is the other adversary. this ancient enemy of us from the garden who began his career, if you will, by slandering God and deceiving Adam and Eve, and now goes out, deceives the whole world, and slanders the people of God. Now these two, it tells us, with their respective forces, fought against each other. Michael prevailed in the battle, and Satan and his troops were thrown down out of heaven.

No place was found in heaven for them any longer. Now, let me just say this. This is symbolic of some kind of a contest. Don't get in your mind Captain Michael back at headquarters getting the angel artillery to open up on Hill 468 where the other angels are with their captain and then rushing up the hill with their guns or quite possibly we think of swords, fighting each other with swords.

If an angel swings at another angel, will he connect? They're spirit beings, right? There is no material to them evidently I don know But it symbolic Okay we got to keep that in mind But here what we need to see Remember that Michael fights in association with the Son of Man. The Son of Man won the victory on earth. Verse 5. The Son of Man won the victory on earth.

And it's encapsulated. He was born and caught up to heaven. He was, by his life, his death, his resurrection, and his ascension to the throne of God, he defeated the forces of evil on earth. And Christ's resurrection and the beginning of his rule is immediately reflected in heaven, or if we might say, in the spiritual realities, with Michael beating Satan and his troops, if we want to put it that way.

Christ's redemptive work on earth unleashes this victory in the spiritual realm. So what happens on earth is reflected not just here, but in the realm of heaven. The forces of Satan have been defeated by what Jesus did on earth. It's reflected in Michael's victory over Satan. And that's exactly what Jesus said. You remember the New Testament reading from this morning just a few minutes ago?

They went out and they were saying, wow, we have all this power over these demons. And Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like a bolt of lightning. And don't miss what happens at the end. Rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. How is Satan defeated? How does he fall?

Their names are written in the book of life. Look at John chapter 12 with me for a moment. John chapter 12. Here we read, this is where some Greeks are questioning Jesus. Verse 27, Now is my soul troubled. This is Jesus speaking.

And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour, but for this purpose I have come to this hour. What hour is He talking about? His death. That time when He was going to be humiliated and die on a cross. I came for this very hour.

Father, glorify Your name. Then a voice came from heaven. I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. The crowd that stood there and heard it said it had thundered. Others said, an angel has spoken to him. Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake, not mine.

Note, now is the judgment of this world. Now will the ruler of this world be. Be cast out. See the same thing here. So Jesus' victory at the cross is the reason why Satan is cast out of heaven. And the great voice that we see in verse 10, this great voice from heaven makes clear that this battle, here's the key now, this voice in verse 10, okay, let's look at that.

And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, And now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brother has been thrown out, who accuses them day and night before our God. The great voice from heaven makes clear that the battle symbolizes, this battle between Michael and Satan, symbolizes the truth that Satan has been disbarred from his status as prosecutor in the divine court of justice. Satan is this unceasing accuser of the brothers.

That's what it says. He's day and night, up to that point, day and night, he's accusing the brothers before God. You see glimpses of this in the Old Testament. First that glimpse from Job where he appears before God and he accuses Job. He says, oh yeah, sure, yeah. Job will serve you if you keep bribing him like you're bribing him.

Right? He accuses Job of just being, you know, you make him hurt, he'll curse you to your face. And then in Zechariah chapter 3, we see another instance where Satan accuses the high priest of sin. Which, by the way, he is sinful. He's dressed in dirty clothes. Now, the devil's accusations are based on a truth. and that is this that god should exact the penalty for our sin rather than reward us that's the accusation he had been making for centuries that god your people should die because they've sinned against you but what happened the death and the resurrection of jesus banishes the devil from this privilege formerly granted him by god jesus death was the penalty exacted for our sins that answers those accusations.

Oh, I love it. At the beginning of this book, you remember verse 5? We read it this morning. To him who loves us and has freed us by his blood The accuser no longer has any basis for his accusations because the penalty has been paid. And now he is disbarred from heaven. Michael has prevailed because of what Jesus has done on earth.

He no longer is in heaven accusing the brothers because the penalty for which he pleads has been exacted by Jesus' death. Jesus' victory in Satan's defeat means, verse 10, that the salvation and power and kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have arrived. Satan has been defeated. And thus, we are equipped to conquer, knowing that there are no accusations lodged in heaven against us by our adversary.

Do you know what it's like to have charges pending against you? Do you know what that's like? You get indicted. Charges are pending against you. You're charged with a crime. You wait for the trial.

And you wait for the trial, either in jail, or you post bond. And you're let out of jail. But posting bond doesn't do anything for you, really. You can't do what you want, because if you skip town, you lose the money. And if they get you, you're in big trouble, right? Charges are pending against you.

You're not free to do anything until the court has convened and you are either convicted or acquitted. Guess what? There are no charges pending against God's people in the courtroom of heaven because the prosecutor has been disbarred. He's no longer in the courtroom. He's not allowed to show up anymore. Therefore, we are free to conquer because our adversary does not have the power over us of accusing us.

Oh, listen. Do you ever listen to Satan accuse you? Do you listen to him? You don't need to. There's victory in heaven. And so we can conquer.

But even though our enemy no longer stands in heaven's courtroom, he is still a powerful enemy our text tells us You see because he been banished from heaven he then now unleashes his fury on earth And so we need to recognize the rage on earth. Verse 12, Satan is enraged at his expulsion from the prosecutor's office. He is enraged at that. Now, this causes great rejoicing among the saints and the angels in heaven. but it also causes it's also a cause for woe on the earth satan will now unleash his increased fury in this theater of operations his fury has increased and he's going to unleash it on the earth now look he cannot tempt or conquer jesus any longer verse five why because the the child he was waiting to devour has been caught up to heaven.

So he can't get at Jesus anymore. And he cannot accuse the brothers in heaven because Jesus died taking away our sin with its guilt and its curse. And so he has no standing in the courtroom of heaven any longer. So what's he going to do? He's going to unleash his fury on the earth in this theater now. And note that his rage is fueled by the knowledge that his time is short.

His desire now is to cause as much destruction as he possibly can before the end arrives. you know late in 1944 a few months after Normandy the jig was up for Germany there was no way Germany was going to win that war the Russians were advancing in the east the Allies in the west had taken Normandy they had started to move into France they had landed tons of material and more men were coming every day there was no way Germany was going to win the war in a few months after Normandy their days were numbered so Hitler said oh boy did I make a mistake with this war I'm going to surrender is that what happened? you know what happened? in the winter of 1944 one of the most bloody battles in the whole war was fought it was the battle of the Bulge And it called the Bulge because the Germans came with such ferocity that it caused this huge bulge in the Allied lines It was an appallingly destructive, life-destroying battle. It was horrors. That battle was unbelievably bloody.

But the jig was up. You bet. But boy, they fought with great fury at that point. That's exactly what's going on in the earth today. That's exactly the way it is with the devil. He furiously wreaks havoc in this world while he still has the time.

While he still has the time. Now notice verse 13. Satan makes God's messianic community the target of this enormous rage. He goes after the woman. Now, we saw last time we were here that this woman is both Old Testament community of God and New Testament community of God. In the Old Testament, this is the community that gave birth to Jesus.

We come to the end in verse 17. It talks about the same woman giving birth to those who are followers of Jesus. So it's the Messianic community in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. And he's making that target. He's making the community of God's people the target of his attacks. He's unleashing this enormous rage against us.

Against us. The death of a Christian teacher in Nigeria at the hands of an Islamic mob is the rage of Satan. When your colleagues wave a penthouse in front of you in the break room and taunt you about your Christianity, you're experiencing Satan's rage. When you read about Christians in China being beaten by the police, you are seeing the rage of Satan.

When a division occurs in this body, and someone holds something against someone else and it isn't resolved, and you start seeing a widening gap between two people, and then the rest of the church congregation, that is the rage of Satan. Satan has unleashed his fury against the people of God. The question is, oh no. What hope do we have then? Let's keep reading.

Verse 14. God frustrates the destructive attacks of Satan. He frustrates them. He protects his people by bringing them to the place of refuge. He takes the woman and he gives her these wings of a great eagle and they fly into the wilderness. That's directly taken out of Exodus 19, where it describes the original exodus of God's people.

So turn there with me. Exodus 19. All right, verse 1. On the third new moon, after the people of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt, on that day they came into the wilderness of Sinai. They set out from Raphidim and came into the wilderness of Sinai, and they encamped in the wilderness. There Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God.

The Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now that's important for us to see. This is the image of God. in this passage it's in the wilderness it's in the wilderness that God's covenant community is brought to God himself he gives them the wings of eagles and brings them to himself and that is their refuge God's people may suffer in the wilderness but it is also the place of God's protection and nourishing care the symbol of the wilderness in this book is all about suffering and protection.

Suffering in the wilderness while God nourishes and protects, right? What did he do with them in the wilderness? Did he let them starve? Did he take care of them? He did all those things. He took eagles' wings, he says, and flew them into the wilderness to the place where God would have them for himself.

So while we suffer the outrages of Satan's fury, we have the nourishing presence of God himself in Jesus with us. We have these great wings that take us to the place of protection We may be in the wilderness for this period of suffering and there again is that note there the symbolic number again times, time, and half a time, three and a half, period of suffering. In that period of suffering, because of the cross and the resurrection, we have God.

God. we will find sanctuary against satan's rage in the presence of god we will find sanctuary from satan's rage as we come to god in his word as we read i don't know if you can if you've put your mind around this but the two-year reading plan that we're really trying hard as a church to do. And if you haven't started it, I beg you, start today on the chapter that's meant today and start going. You know why?

Because that's part of our sanctuary against the fury of Satan. Because there you will find God. And you will find God in His temple. Where is His temple? I'm looking at it. The temple of God is the bodies of believers all across this world. and we will find sanctuary against the furies of Satan amongst the people of God where God is present by His Spirit.

This is where we need to be during our wilderness wanderings. Dear people, if you make church something you do when it's convenient, you will not be able to stand against the fury of Satan. He will eat you alive. you need the people of God. You need the fellowship of God's people because in that fellowship is the presence of God. And if you think that you can only come here just a little bit of time and ignore times of fellowship and ignore the preaching of the Word, you will get eaten alive.

This is the reality that God wants us to see. There is a furious adversary out there. He's unleashing his rage. and the only way you're going to find help is in an eagle's wings to the wilderness and the presence of God which is here. The Lord's table is where God is present. God has given us all kinds of things in this wilderness by which we may have the presence of God and find sanctuary against the fury of Satan And because of our great refuge, we will remain faithful.

God will protect His people. He will nourish them. He will care for them. He will see that they make it through. And notice in verses 15 and 16, Not only does God protect his people against the destructive attacks of Satan, but also against the deceiving attacks of Satan. There's this really weird picture now.

All of a sudden, here's what the dragon does. He opens his mouth and flames don't come out. Isn't this weird? Right? We all expect when a dragon opens his mouth, there's going to be flames. But instead, what happens?

A whole flood of water comes out of his mouth. What is that all about? God protects his people by frustrating the deceptive attacks of Satan. Not just the destructive ones, but the deceptive ones. When you see water coming out of his mouth, it's speaking of the power of words. When you see this, in this book, what proceeds from the mouth symbolizes words and their power.

So let's take a real quick survey. Chapter 1, verse 16, where we've been already. chapter 1 verse 16 in his right hand this is talking about jesus again this vision of christ in his right hand he held seven stars from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword what his mouth has a sword coming out of it what's that all about he does battle with his words he fights with his words chapter 2 verse 16 therefore repent he says to Pergamum if not I will come to you soon in war against them with the sword of my mouth I'm going to speak judgment chapter 19 this is where we see it most graphically chapter 19 verse 15 from his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he'll rule them with a rod of iron. Drop down to verse 21.

And the rest were slain by the sword that came from the mouth of him who was sitting on the horse. What is that speaking of? It speaking of Jesus pronouncing judgment and the power of him speaking those words brings judgment Remember we saw in chapter 11 the fire that proceeded from the mouth of the two prophets meaning their preaching is going to accomplish the judgment of God.

Alright, so it talks about, it symbolizes words and their power. And so the floodwaters from the dragon's mouth symbolizes, I believe, the deceptive teachings that will drown the church's faith and destroy it if they are believed. And the church has always, always, always faced that flood. Just as the serpent deceived the first woman with words, he seeks to destroy the latter-day woman with a flood of words.

And now with his demonic agents, he floods the church with demonic, destructive doctrine. You see that already. We've seen that already in chapter 2 with Pergamum and Thyatira. What are they supposed to do? They're supposed to fight against the lies of the Nicolaitans and Pergamum and against the deception of Jezebel and Thyatira. Remember?

Alright? Those are part of the flood that could, oh, wash us if we weren't under the protection of God. The Apostle Paul already notes this in 1 Timothy chapter 4, in which he says this, Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times, that's the times we live in, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Wait a minute, I thought you said demonic, destructive doctrine. Yeah, the demonic destructive doctrine that says you're more holy if you give up certain kinds of food and if you abstain from sexual relations and marriage. If you do that, then you're more holy than other people. That's demonic destructive. Do you ever think of that? That's exactly what the Apostle Paul says.

This week I came across a group that calls themselves Inclusive Christianity. All right? You want to hear some of their things? inclusive christian i'm quoting them now inclusive christianity affirms the presence of god's will and power to save in non-christian religions while still maintaining that christ is It's a definitive and authoritative revelation of God.

It couples the Christian's confession of Jesus Christ with genuine openness to the truth and goodness found in other religions. God being revealed definitively in Jesus Christ does not imply that he is not working in the wider world than in other religions. Praise God. Isn't that wonderful? Part of the flood that can sweep over us and destroy us, except for the fact, that what?

God is looking out for his people and the earth opens up and swallows the flood so that the church remains faithful to God. The earth opening up, what's that all about? What's that all about? It's like, it's recalling for us the Egyptian forces who were swallowed by the sea or the sons of Korah. in Numbers chapter 16, who rebelled against God and the earth opened up and swallowed them.

Anyone who by their deceptive practices or their intent to destroy the church or the people of God, it's the idea that anyone who is going to destroy us, God will protect us and the earth will swallow it up. He'll protect us. So we can overcome in the battle against evil with the knowledge that God remains faithful in protecting His people against the rage of Satan found in the deceptive teaching that He tries to flood us with.

Now there's one last thing I mentioned. If we're going to conquer, then we need to understand the power that the church possesses. You need to understand the power you possess. It's found in verse 11. Armed with the knowledge of victory in heaven and God's faithfulness on earth, we can be victorious. But that does not mean that we have no battle to fight.

We are still called to overcome the enemy, and we can with the power we possess. Look at verse 11. How are we going to stand in this wicked, evil age? how are we going to stand against the fury of this one who is against us? Look at verse 11. It talks about us. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death We conquer Satan by the blood of the Lamb.

We conquer Satan by the blood of the Lamb. Not, not by some incantations. Not by anything other than the blood of the Lamb. by his death Jesus released us from the guilt of our sins and Satan does not have a foot to stand on again at the very beginning of this book to him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom and priests to his God and father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.

Amen. We have been freed by the blood of the Lamb. We are no longer under Satan's power. We are no longer under Satan's accusations. We beat the devil by trusting in the death of Jesus. Let me say that again.

We beat the devil by trusting in the death of Jesus. That's how we beat him. You can say to the accuser, Satan, your accusations are absolutely true. I have sinned. And I do deserve death. But then you can turn to your Savior and you can say, but Lord Jesus, you delivered me from death by the death you died.

I trust you. And then you can turn to Satan and you can say, you have no grounds to accuse me. Leave. you will defeat Satan it says here by the blood of the Lamb that is why we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day that is why we must be reminded of the power of the cross that is why every Sunday week after week after week we confess our sin and then hear the glorious good news of the gospel every Sunday.

We beat the devil by the blood of the Lamb. But notice this, we overcome our adversary by the word of our testimony We overcome the devil not by taking up the sword not by gaining and wielding political power but by bearing witness to the gospel, by speaking the gospel. We overcome our adversary. To the world, it's foolishness. And even some of you here today might be saying, our culture is going to the dogs. and what you're telling us is to just speak the gospel?

Don't we need to win Congress this year? Don't we need to win the presidency next year if we're going to make any inroads against evil? It doesn't make a bit of difference what happens in the political realm. It is the gospel that will change. It is the gospel that will defeat Satan. We overcome by bearing witness to the gospel.

Whether our society accepts us or reviles us, Whether we're accepted in society, like we pretty much are in this country, or whether we're reviled and persecuted and thrown in jail, we advance with the witness of the gospel. It doesn't matter what situation we're in. We beat the devil by witnessing in massive campaigns, or we beat the devil by witnessing to the gospel in a house church. whatever we do we beat him when we speak the gospel and then the last thing he says here we conquer by the simple willingness to die the devil can't scare us with dying you know he can't scare us with that because we have the promises of the gospel absent from the body present with the lord right death where is your sting there's no sting in death oh it's still an enemy but it can't sting us anymore we're not afraid of it why because the gospel has delivered us from the accusations of the law that says you deserve to die because you disobeyed doesn't count.

The sting is gone because the law has been satisfied. In America, that means dying to self-interest and self at least that much It means we going to die to ourselves Listen if we glory in ourselves and this is you know when I go overseas the Romanian brothers will say to us, oh man, you have so much to offer us. And God in His providence has worked it out so they have what they have to offer us, and we have what we have to offer them, and it comes together, and it's really a wonderful thing.

But if we start glorying in our superior resources, if we start glorying in our biblical knowledge, if we start to glory in our education, we have no means of overcoming the adversary then. We have to die to self. We have to be willing to die. And he can't get anywhere. You know what? There are things worse than death.

There are things worse than death. Shame, dishonor, disobedience, faithlessness to Christ those are worse than death you know what I'm 56 years old there's still lots of years left Lord willing if he gives me more years there's still time for me to cheat on my wife and destroy everything I have ever said or done there are some things worse than death is there not if we die at the hands of those who persecute us through the apparent defeat of death we gain the victory that's been the message of this book all the way through been following it to the world it looks like we're losers and if we endure to the end and they kill us they think they've won but in killing us they've been defeated because we have endured to the end faithful to Christ and when we endure to the end faithful to Christ we win just like Jesus right? at the what's the apex of the glory of Jesus? it's the glory of the cross if you would say that to people who lived back then they say glory of the cross the cross is the ultimate symbol of humiliation and shame where you're hung naked as a criminal before the whole world that's shameful at the point of shame is when Christ won the victory you see you know what The world should be left scratching its head and saying to itself, you can't beat this crowd. What are you going to do?

Kill them? Right? You see, the gospel holds out promise to us. And death, death has nothing on us. You see, we possess the most powerful weapons in the world that come from the gospel and its promises. So that we are locked in a cosmic battle against the devil.

And we are commanded to conquer. We cannot give up. We are told you must overcome. And we can overcome. We can conquer, knowing that the victory has been won in heaven. There is no more acute accusations leveled against us in that courtroom.

We overcome in the knowledge that behind the evil of this age is a raging, powerful opponent who cannot overcome the faithfulness of God's protection. and we overcome and we conquer against our adversary by our faith in the gospel of Jesus And so we can say with confidence and though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him his rage we can endure for lo, his doom is sure one little word shall fail him Father thank you for your word which equips us to overcome and to conquer even when faced with an adversary with the power of the devil whose fury is unleashed in this world today and we see it all over the place. Incredible, unbelievable rage.

Yet, Father, we do not tremble because of that. Because the victory has been won in heaven. We have your faithful protection against his rage on earth and we have the gospel as our weapon. God help us. now to go out with hope because of what You have accomplished on our behalf. We thank You in Jesus' name. Amen.