Mesa Hills Bible Church

Pastor Tim Dane: Well, we are in Revelation chapter 12, if you will open your Bible with me to Revelation chapter 12. As Dominic made note, Alana, hopefully today, has a baby. She's on her way to having a baby. Most of you might have seen through our church's Facebook that Jessica Kelly had her baby yesterday—Friday. So there's a new James Marion Kelly, a brand new baby boy to Josh and Jessica. You can show your love to that family and supporting them and helping them. There may be some need for some meals if you'd like to help out. See Lisa Lang about that.

As I was coming down the hill this morning, thinking about the fact that it's the end of the year, a new year, I heard this song on the radio that reminds us about change. We live in a world that is constantly changing, and we're going to have a world of constant change until Christ brings His Kingdom to this world. Time's still going to happen when Christ brings His Kingdom, but we're not going to see the kind of upheavals that we see in the world that we have right now. It's going to be a different kind of change.

Now, in Revelation chapter 12, we've been looking at this spiritual war that's going on here. This message here is the Great War Part Six, even though your bulletin says Part Three. I think we're on six on that, but that's okay. We have looked at six kinds of messages as we've come through Revelation chapter 12 to understand this spiritual war that started with the fall of Satan. Now, there are six, as you go through this chapter, we can identify six keys to understanding this great war.

The first key was in verses one to two, where God identifies in scripture two key players, if you want to say, two key players in this war. The first one is this woman that is clothed with the sun and the moon and 12 stars, and that woman symbolizes Israel. Then there's a great red dragon that comes in verses three to four, and this symbolizes Satan. So the first key for understanding what's going on in this war is that we're living in a fallen world, Satan and his fall is a part of this world, and Satan hates the nation of Israel. Why does Satan hate Israel so much? Primarily because God chose that nation to bring us a Savior.

We also learned about a second key for understanding this great spiritual war, and that would be in verse five: the birth of this male child. We celebrated His birth last week. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a man. Jesus Christ is eternal God, and yet He took on human flesh 2000 years ago, born to Mary. We also saw that Christ, it says in verse five, was taken back up to the throne of God. He died on the cross, He paid for our sin, He conquered death, He rose again, and the day is coming when He's going to return and bring the Kingdom of God to this world. He ascended back to heaven after 50 days after His crucifixion. He's coming again to make right all the wrongs.

What that means is that we're living in the middle of history, and this war, this spiritual war that began with the fall of Satan, is still raging. Satan hates Christ. Satan hates Christ's people. He hates that nation of Israel that God chose. He especially hates Christians who believe in Christ. In verse six, we looked at a third key for understanding this great war, and it was the persecution of Israel. Now, verse six introduces us to an entire section of this chapter that talks about the last three and a half years of the tribulation period.

So if you look at chapter 12, verse six, it talks about how in the future, Satan is going to come after Israel for a period of 1260 days. That is the last three and a half years of the tribulation period that is going to come after the rapture of the church. 1260 days is the last three and a half years, the final 42 months of the tribulation period. Satan is going to come against Israel to annihilate the nation of Israel during that time period. He's always hated because of God's choice; he's hated Israel. Israel has a special place in the plan of God, not because Jews are better people; they're sinners just like you and me. But God chose to use that nation, and so the Bible shows us that there is a particular hatred that Satan has against Israel.

During that tribulation period, especially in the last three and a half years, Satan is going to come against Israel to annihilate Israel. We see that happening right now, this thing that's going on over there with Israel and the Muslims and all of this. It's not like the Arab world doesn't have land; they have 500 times more land than the Jews. This is not about land. It's kind of like the war in Ukraine. Russia already has 11 time zones; they don't need a 12th one. But that doesn't matter when it comes to people like this.

This morning, we're going to look at the fourth, fifth, and sixth keys for understanding this great war. It comes down here in verses 7 to 17, where we look at, first of all, Satan's eviction from heaven. Verses seven to nine tell us that God is going to kick Satan out of the presence of heaven. The Bible shows us that Satan at the present time has access to the presence of God. At the present time, Satan and demons, however this works, the Bible shows us that Satan and demons have access to the presence of God. One of the things that Satan spends his time on doing here, as we see in verses seven and nine, is that he spends his time mocking and blaspheming God and mocking and blaspheming God's people.

This is not a new kind of thing. For example, you go back into the book of Job, and you see that it says that the sons of God, in Job chapter one, referring to the angelic host, are there in the presence of God. But then it says, and Satan was there as well. God says, look at Job; he's an upright man of God. He's one of my shiny examples of somebody that knows me and loves me and follows me. Satan says, yeah, tell you what, you let me have my way with him, and I can make him turn his back on you. So he was blaspheming God's grace, and he was blaspheming Job. This is what Satan does.

We see this again in Zechariah chapter three. There in Zechariah chapter three, it says that Joshua, the high priest, was there. Joshua, the high priest, and this is way back in 520 BC. Joshua, the high priest, was standing before the Angel of the Lord, and then Satan was standing at his right hand to accuse him. Israel had fallen badly by turning its back on God way back in the times of the Old Testament. Israel had polluted itself with idolatry. So Joshua, the high priest, is standing in this filthy robe, and Satan is accusing the people of Israel before God. And rightly so; they had badly turned their back on God.

And yet what happens here is that the Angel of the Lord, who is Christ, says, take off those filthy garments. I'm going to clothe him with beautiful turban robes, a beautiful turban crown, and a robe. I'm going to restore my people. But the point is that Satan, as you see that situation, Satan was there accusing God's people before Him. We see this right here in chapter 12. Notice down here what it says in verse 10. It says that John says, I heard a loud voice from 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 brethren has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night.

He is constantly making attacks upon God and making attacks upon God's people. But as you come down to verses seven and nine, Revelation 12:7 and 9, we find out that at that midpoint of the tribulation period, he's going to be cast out. Look here at this fourth key for understanding this great war, chapter 12, verse seven: There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels waged war, and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the Devil and Satan, the one who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. This is the word of God.

Let's pray. Father, we thank you for giving us the help and strength to be here this morning. I know there's a lot of people with colds and flus and COVID viruses going around again, but we thank you that this is not as intense as it was previously. I pray that you will bring healing to the bodies of those that are sick. Thank you for allowing us to be here. We pray for our dear sister Alana today, that you will show your kindness and grace in this childbirth. We thank you for this opportunity to learn from your word, and we pray that you will guide our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen.

So we're looking here at verse six, at these last 1260 days. And in verses seven and nine, we see two things that are going to happen. First of all, look at verse seven: a war breaks out in heaven. A war, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. Now, just who is Michael? We see Michael mentioned several times in the Bible. In verse nine of Jude, he's called Michael the archangel. The word arch means ruling angel, so Michael was a very high class of angelic being. The Bible indicates that there are different classes of angels, and it doesn't tell us exactly what these different classes of angels are, but Michael was an angel of a very high position.

In the Old Testament, in Daniel chapter 10, verse 13, he is called Michael, one of the chief princes of Israel. In Daniel chapter 10, verse 21, it says there's nobody who stands firmly against the demonic forces except Michael, your prince, this other angel says to Daniel. So Michael is called a prince to the nation of Israel. In Daniel chapter 12 and verse one, it says now at that time, talking about this tribulation period right here, at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise, and there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time. And at that time, your people, Daniel, everybody that's written in the book, they will be rescued.

So Michael is an archangel. He's the only one in the Bible that we know of that is called an archangel, but it says that he is one of the chief angels or one of the archangels, so there were other archangels that God created. And it seems as we look at the fall of Satan, that Satan, as we look at what the Bible does say about Satan, is that Satan held an extremely high position as a created angel. He had a really highly privileged place. He might have been one of the archangels; we don't know that. I would say that's a possibility. If we look at the term cherub, he might have been one of the cherubim, but he very well could have been one of the archangels, basically in a parallel position with Michael.

And what you see is that there is an intense animosity and hatred that exists between the holy angels and the demons that rebelled against God. It is a very nasty kind of animosity that exists. Now, this rebellion that we see happening, this war that we see taking place, is happening right here at the midpoint of that tribulation period. That's what we see in chapter 12, verse six; it talks about these last 1260 days. This is the second half of that seven-year time period that's going to come after the rapture of the church. As we've seen in former studies, that seven-year time period begins, according to Daniel, when the Antichrist makes a seven-year covenant involving the nation of Israel.

Daniel chapter nine also tells us that at the midpoint of that seven-year tribulation period, the Antichrist is going to break his peace treaty that he made with Israel, giving them the promise of protection and giving them the permission to reinstitute a sacrificial system in Jerusalem. Daniel chapter nine, verse 27 says he breaks it in the middle of that seven-year time period. So at a three-and-a-half-year mark, this is when the Antichrist turns against Israel. It says in Daniel chapter nine and in Daniel chapter seven and in Daniel chapter 12, that for those last three and a half years, the Antichrist brings his military forces from 10 nations that he controls; he brings his armies to go against Israel in those last three and a half years to destroy the nation of Israel.

These things are spoken of multiple times in multiple prophets. It's all future; it's all going to happen. This is that last three-and-a-half-year time period. The Bible says that the Antichrist is going to invade Jerusalem. One of the things he's going to do, it says, he's going to desecrate that Jewish temple that he allowed to be rebuilt. Now right now, if we look at that, we say, well, there's no way in the world the world would ever allow Israel to have a rebuilt temple in the city of Jerusalem. Not going to happen. Well, they said that about the restoration of Israel as a nation as well, and 75 years ago, they came back on the radar screen because there is a purpose that God is going to work out, and that is going to involve certain things with the nation of Israel.

Israel is going to get a temple system in that tribulation period, but the Bible says in Daniel 9:27, the Antichrist breaks that agreement at the three-and-a-half-year mark. Well, this is all what's being spoken of here in Revelation chapter 12, verses 7 to 19. These are going to be terrible days. Now we can look at the world; the world has had terrible times in many different ways, right? I mean, how many wars have there been since human began fighting and waging war? Who knows. Tens of thousands of wars, probably hundreds of billions have died in wars. And we look at stuff, even right now at this moment, there's stuff that you and I don't really get to hear about because it doesn't catch popularity with our news systems, right? But there's wars going on in Africa, there's terrible slaughters of Christians that are happening right now.

So there's bad stuff that's happening everywhere all the time. This is life in a sin-cursed world. But the Bible explicitly tells us that something is going to happen in that last seven-year time period, and it is going to be the worst time period. That's what Daniel chapter 12 just said. It's going to be the worst time since there has ever been a time. Verse eight, notice what else it says is going to happen right here. This war begins waging between Michael and Satan, and it says in verse eight that Satan and his angels, Satan and his demons, were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven.

Satan is going to get evicted from the presence of God. So we've seen from Job, we've seen from Zechariah, Satan has access to the presence of God right now. That's going to change at that three-and-a-half-year mark in the tribulation period. All right, now I had a joke. I thought about it when I was working on this message here over the last few weeks. I'm going to see if anybody can pick up on it, okay? A little bit of a joke.

Okay, here's the quote, and it comes from a movie, and you have to identify what it comes from: "You have no power here. Now be gone before somebody drops a house on you." Who knows what that comes from? Anybody? The Wizard of Oz. So in that movie, Dorothy's house fell upon the Wicked Witch of the East, and then Glinda speaks to the Wicked Witch of the West and says, "You have no power here. Now be gone before a house drops on you too." Kicks out the Wicked Witch of the West. Anyhow, that just came to my mind when I was working on the study, and I thought it was kind of funny, so I thought I would throw that out there. I know it really is not related to the Bible, but humor me on that one, okay?

The point is this: Satan is being kicked out. Now look at what verse nine tells us: And the great dragon was thrown down. Who is the great dragon? He is the serpent of old. Dragon speaks about this idea of a terrible monster who devours. Serpent of old takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden, that that serpent that came and brought deception and temptation to mankind, that was actually a fallen angel, Satan, working through a physical, literal serpent. He's also called the Devil. The word devil, diabolos, the Greek word, means slanderer. And as I've shown you from a few of these passages, this is what the devil does. He slanders God, and he slanders God's people. Unfortunately, sometimes we give him a good reason for slandering us, right? That should make us think about, I don't want to give Satan a reason to slander God by falling into sin. We don't want to do that.

He's also called the Satan, which means the word Satan means the adversary. He's been the one that has been there from the very beginning opposing God and opposing God's redemptive purposes. And he's also called the one who deceives the whole world. Remember what Jesus said there in John chapter 8, verse 44: the devil is a liar. He's the father of lies. So when he speaks a lie, he's speaking from his own nature. Now right now, we can look in passages of the New Testament, we can tell what Satan does at the present time. MacArthur's comments on this, he says in the present age, Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. That's a quote right out of First Peter chapter five, verse eight.

You've heard some people say, well, Satan is bound right now because they will say that we are in the millennium, in the kingdom right now. In Revelation chapter 20, it tells us that when Christ brings God's kingdom to this world, it says that Satan is going to be bound for a thousand years. He is not bound right now. We are not in the kingdom of God. First Peter 5:8, Peter says he prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We are not in the kingdom of God. Satan does his best to try to blind men to the gospel. That's what Paul says in Second Corinthians 4:4: he blinds the hearts of men. So he is actively at work to try to blind people from understanding their need for Jesus Christ.

In Ephesians 4:27, Paul says, make sure you don't give him any opportunities to cause problems. Be forgiving. Don't hold grudges. It says, do not give the devil an opportunity, Ephesians 4:27. And in James chapter four, verse seven, James says you need to resist him. So Satan is very much here in the world. Demons are very much at work in the world. You need to know what God says in the scripture, and you need to stand firm against his lies.

But here's what happens at the three-and-a-half-year mark of the tribulation period. It says that Satan is cast down to the earth and his angels were cast down with him. Now you gotta remember how all this fits together with other events that are described in the Bible about what's going to happen in that tribulation period. For one thing, we know that when the Antichrist commits this abomination of desolation at that three-and-a-half-year mark, when he goes in and desecrates this Jewish temple, the Bible says that Antichrist is going to get killed. And he's going to go to hell.

In Revelation chapter 13, notice what it says over here in verse three: John said I saw one of his heads as if it had been slain; its appearance was having been slain, but the fatal wound was healed. This is talking about how the Antichrist is going to go into Jerusalem, he's going to defile Israel's temple, he's going to get killed in the process, and he's going to die, but he's going to come back to life. Go back to Revelation chapter 11. Notice what it says here about this same guy that we call the Antichrist. Revelation chapter 11, verse seven: It says that when the two witnesses have finished their testimony, the beast who comes up out of the abyss will make war with these two witnesses and overcome them and kill them. He's called the beast who comes up out of the abyss.

Antichrist is going to go into Jerusalem, he's going to defile Israel's temple, he's going to get killed in the process, he's going to die, he's going to go to hell, but God is going to allow him to come back to life. But when he comes back to life, he's now possessed by Satan himself. When the Antichrist comes back to life, he's going to come back possessed by Satan, and he's going to go against the people that he hates more than anybody in the world, and that is the nation of Israel. And he's going to seek to destroy them, and that's exactly what you see described in Revelation chapter 12, verses 6 through 17.

Now there's other stuff going on in these last three and a half years as well. Look with me back at Revelation chapter nine. Notice what happens during the trumpet judgments as they begin to unfold. In Revelation chapter nine, in verses 1 to 12, it talks about the blasting of the fifth trumpet, and what comes out of the blasting of that trumpet is a massive release of demonic forces that are presently held in a place called the bottomless pit. A massive quantity of demons that come out, and it says that these demons that come out during those last three and a half years, they have one purpose: to torment, to torture unsaved people who have rejected the gospel. So all of that's going to be going on at this same time period as well.

And this is going to produce, all that demonic influence is going to produce a massive increase in warfare, and that's what you see in chapter nine, verses 13 to 21 with these demons inciting men to war. These are going to be horrific times for this world. Now let's shift and come next to Revelation chapter 12. Now we come to verses 10 to 12. We look at a fifth key for understanding this war. We've just seen how Satan is going to be cast out of heaven and it's going to increase the demonic activity in the world. But here in verses 10 to 12, we see that there's going to be a victory that comes to God's people in the middle of all this demonic activity.

Satan comes down with great rage to murder and destroy, but in the end, Christ and His people will have the victory. Now there's a term that is used a number of times, especially in John's writings, and it's the word overcomer. What's that popular kind of tennis shoe that has the little check mark on it? Nike. Nikao. That's the Greek word; it means victory or to overcome. Nike. And there's the verb form, nikao, it means to overcome. And this term overcome, John uses it many times in both his gospel and in his letters and in the book of Revelation. You see this idea of overcomer, and in the end, if you want to boil it down, this is the idea of having the victory over sin, curse, and death.

Jesus said in John chapter 16, verse 33: "These things I've spoken to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take good cheer. I've overcome the world." Hey, in a fallen world, we're going to have persecution, we're going to have hatred, it's going to get especially intense in that seven-year tribulation period. But Jesus said, "I have overcome the world," and it's that verb nikao. Now when you look at John's other writings like in First John, John uses that same term, and he says, "Who is the one that has the victory? Who is the overcomer? It's the one that believes that Jesus is the Christ."

When you put your faith in Christ and you truly repent from your sin and you trust in Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Bible says that God gives you a victory. You didn't do anything to achieve it, you didn't earn it, we can't earn forgiveness, we can't achieve victory over our own sin. The Son of God died to give you and me the victory over sin and curse and death. Amen? And God's promise is this: if you will believe in what my Son Jesus Christ has done to save you from sin, God says I'll save you, I'll forgive you, you will become an overcomer.

Now John uses this expression overcomer numerous times throughout the book of Revelation. For example, just a couple of illustrations: in chapter two, verse seven, Jesus says, "To the one who overcomes, I will grant to eat from the tree of life in the paradise of God." In Revelation chapter 21, verse seven, Jesus said, "The one that overcomes will inherit all of these things, and I will be his God and he will be my son." We see John using that term again here in verses 10 to 12, where we see how God's overcomers gain a victory over the Antichrist, even if it means that they're killed. They're still the winner. You die, but you're the winner. You're an overcomer.

Notice what happens here in verse 10. Revelation chapter 12, verse 10: 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 brethren has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night." Look back to chapter 11 for just a moment. Notice how when the seventh angel sounded the seventh trumpet, look at 11:15. When the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, there arose loud voices in heaven saying, "The kingdom of the world has now become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever." When you get down here to that seventh trumpet, that seventh trumpet is going to introduce in very rapid succession those final seven judgments that we call the bowl judgments.

Seven bowl judgments which come out of that seventh trumpet. So by the time you get to that seventh trumpet in 11:15, you're right down in the last weeks or months of this entire seven-year tribulation period. We don't know the exact timing, but you're way down at the end of this seven-year time period. And so when the seventh trumpet sounds, which introduces the seven bowls, it says, "Now it's time for the kingdom. It's time for the King to return and bring His kingdom." And this is what you see spoken of here in chapter 12 in verse 10. He says, "The salvation and power and kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come."

When Satan is cast down at that last three-and-a-half-year mark, this is where you see all these things coming to a point of culmination. Now who are these people? If you look at chapter 12, verse 10, when it says a loud voice in heaven. Well, you notice that in the middle of this, they say, "The accuser of our brethren has been thrown down." So the people that are praising God, the people that are saying, "Yes, finally the enemy has been cast out of God's presence, the time for the kingdom has come," these are martyred saints. These are people that have been killed by the Antichrist; they're in heaven waiting for the consummation of Christ's judgment, and they're praising God because they're saying, "Yes, the time has finally come for the salvation."

And the idea of the salvation is God's victory over this sin, over this curse. It's time for the power of God to be executed here on earth. It's time for the kingdom of God to come on earth and the authority of Christ to come down because the accuser has been cast out. There's going to be great rejoicing. Now go back with me—these same people, what we're looking at here, the people that are singing this praise are the ones that have been killed for their faith. Bear in mind, they've been killed for their faith in Christ. Go back with me to chapter six, because we're going to get a look at this same general group of people in chapter six.

Look at chapter six and verse nine. Way back to the fifth seal. When he broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and because of the testimony that they maintained. And they cried out with a loud voice saying, "Oh, how long, O Lord, holy and true, will you refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" Even here in the first half of the tribulation period, you see these saints that are being killed for their faith in Christ. Now, if you look at chapter 12, verse 10, these same saints are saying, "Yes, the time has arrived. The time for the kingdom is here."

You know, fact is you and I are not going to stay in this world forever, right? Kind of hard fact to accept that you know we're only going to be here in this present realm for so long because life is good. Life is good, life is wonderful. Little babies are wonderful, love is wonderful, the joy of God's grace in this life—all of this is wonderful stuff. And we hate to let go of it because it's good. Now we also know that there's a lot of terrible, terrible pain and evil in this world as well that we have to put up with in the whole process. But here's the point that I want to make to you. You know, we look at the things that we have at this moment that we hold on to—no matter how you cut it, what we have in this present life is only temporary, right? Fact of the matter, it's all temporary.

These saints right here in Revelation 12:10, they have been killed for their faith in Jesus Christ. And they're rejoicing because they're saying, "Okay, Lord, we know that the time is near for you to bring a final and complete judgment on Satan and his forces. And we know it's close because the accuser has been cast down." The one who accuses—look at this what it says, chapter 12, verse 10—the one who accuses God's people day and night. Imagine how much patience God has to have a wicked, fallen, evil, unclean spirit constantly getting in your face. I mean, God must want to say, "Get out of here," you know. Just constantly blaspheming, constantly mocking.

Well, his time is coming. Look at verse 11: They—meaning the ones that have been killed—verse 11: They, the overcomers, overcame—so there's that verb overcome—they overcame him, Satan, the dragon. Why? Because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death. You kind of see here three reasons why they have the victory. One of them is you might call it the divine reason: it says it was because of the blood of the Lamb. God paid the price through the blood of His Son. That's what gives us the victory. Not because we're good. We're not good. We're sinners, every one of us. Nothing we do can erase the stain of sin. Jesus Christ, though, paid the price for that sin. Amen?

But also, there's two human reasons for this victory. It says here it's because of the word of their testimony and they did not love their life even when faced with death. They had faith in the Son of God. This is their testimony they believed in Jesus Christ. And when it came to push versus shove, they loved Christ to the point of death. They would not deny the Son. And now, because of their faith in Christ, they are there in the presence of the Lamb. This same group of people comes up again in chapter 15. Look over at chapter 15. This time when you come to chapter 15, it's honing in on that final phase of the judgments of the tribulation period, when God's wrath is being poured out upon an evil world.

John, Revelation 15, verse one: John says I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who have the seven plagues which are the seven last judgments, because in these the wrath of God is finished. And I saw as it were a sea of glass mixed with fire, and then I saw those who had come off victorious from the beast and from his image and the number of his name standing on the sea of glass, holding harps of God, and they sang the song of Moses and the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb saying, "Great and marvelous are your works, O Lord God the Almighty, righteous and true are your ways, thou King of the nations. Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy, and all the nations will come and worship before thee, for thy righteous acts have been revealed."

These slaughtered Christians are in the presence of God and they're praising God because they're saying, "You finally have brought the judgment. You're dealing with their sin." They're praising God for God's judgment on evil. Jesus said in Revelation chapter two, verse 10, "Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life." Listen, so no matter what it is, okay? One way or the other, you know, we're going to come to the end of the road, right? It might be a long, long lifespan with old age that we're going to expire. It might be something sudden like a car wreck. It might be something sudden like somebody chopping our head off like these guys here getting martyred right here. Sooner or later, one way or another, death is going to come to every one of us. But here's what Jesus said: "Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life."

No matter what this world brings, stay faithful to the Lord. Look with me back at Matthew chapter 10. Look at chapter 10, verses 28 and following, where Jesus talks about staying faithful in the middle of persecutions. Matthew 10, verses 28 and following. Jesus giving instructions to His followers knowing that they're going to be persecuted. Matthew 10, verse 28: Here's what He says: "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul, but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Don't be afraid of man. Now, if you're in a war, you know, don't stick your head up too high, right? Okay, that's just being wise. That's—but don't fear the world. He says fear God, trust God, and don't worry about this life.

You know, we look at what's going on politically in our country, you know, some of us get a little up-tight about all the stuff that's going on. You go, "That's not right. This is not good." No, it's not. Some of the stuff, we simply you and I can't do anything about it, a whole lot of this stuff. Maybe you can make a difference in this world in one way or another by being involved, you know, in some kind of political process or education board or something. That's a great thing to do. But this is where it's heading. We are not going to save this world. God has called you and me to preach the gospel, to make disciples. And that's the second point here: never grow weary in preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our calling is to bring people into God's kingdom. When Christ brings that kingdom here, every soul that you have reached and every soul that you have touched is going to be part of that eternal kingdom.

Every soul that you impact, that you might impact by God's grace, they're going to be there eternally with you in that kingdom. Don't grow weary in preaching the gospel. And here's a third point of application on this: just don't lose hope. You know, when you look at stuff and you say, "This is so wearying to see the things that are going on." You know, the other day I read one of my friends put a note up in in Kyiv, and Russia, you know, made a really, really severe attack a few days ago. And my friend Slavik said, "Yeah, you know, here's—here's one of the buildings," he says, "the Russian attacks destroyed." He goes, "That's where my little daughter Lydia used to go to school." Lots of people being killed all over the place: Ukraine, Israel, and all over. Don't lose hope.

So keys for understanding this great war, let me rehearse five of them so far. Verses one to four: the two great signs. Verse five: the male child, Christ the Savior. Verse six: the persecution of the woman. Verses seven to nine: Satan's eviction from heaven. Verses 10 to 12: the victory of the overcomers. And number six, here in verses 13 and following: the dragon's raging against the woman. The Bible shows us that Satan is a defeated foe, but he just won't stop. But that doesn't surprise us because we can look at human history and see people who have basically, you know, had nowhere to turn but they just won't stop, right? You look at Hitler and what was going on in World War II.

Satan will absolutely not stop because he wants to cause as much damage and death and ruin as he can. So here in verse 13 and following, we see some final phases of this great war as chapter 12 describes it. Look at verse 13: When the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. Satan sees that the end is come because he's cast out of heaven in that last three and a half years. What he does, he goes out to hurt and destroy as many as he can, and he goes after the people that he hates most, as you see right here in verse 13: he goes after the woman, who is the nation of Israel.

Now remember some of the things we've talked about here in this message. We know that the Antichrist is going to invade Israel at that three-and-a-half-year mark. It says so in Daniel 9:27. Jesus said so in Matthew 24:15. He said, "When you see the abomination of desolation that Daniel predicted standing in the temple, get out of Jerusalem." That midpoint of the tribulation period, Satan is going to do this. We know and we've already seen that the Antichrist gets killed, Revelation 13:3. He receives a mortal wound, and he goes into the abyss, but he comes back to life by God's design and God's purpose, and he comes back possessed by Satan. And then he goes after Israel to destroy Israel with the nations that he controls. And this is what you see happening right here in verse 13. He will not stop.

But what happens? Look at verse 14: Two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman in order that she might flee, fly into the wilderness to her place where she was nourished for a time, times, and a half time. All right, how long is that? It's three and a half years. The same thing that you had in chapter 12, verse six: 1260 days. Literally the last three and a half years of that future seven-year tribulation period. So Satan is going after Israel to destroy Israel, but God gives two wings of a great eagle to His people Israel. The language and the imagery comes out of the Old Testament because God described His salvation to Israel when He brought them out at the Exodus. And in Exodus 19:4, Moses said, "You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians," says God, "and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." You saw how I brought you on eagles' wings; in other words, I gave you this great deliverance with eagles' wings.

I remember my Hebrew professor one time said, "Well, the biggest bird down there in the Sinai Peninsula, Dead Sea, Red Sea area, it's called a griffon vulture." Now we like to think of it as a nice bald eagle, right? Beautiful bald eagle. Those griffon vultures are not very pretty, but they're huge. And that would have been the bird that would have been in mind there, this giant bird. But the imagery, here's the point: God is saying to Israel in the Old Testament, he says, "I saved you out of Egypt," and now He's going to do it again in the tribulation period.

Now what is this wilderness where the woman flees to? The answer is we don't know dogmatically where exactly that is. It's popular for people to say, well, this is Petra over in Jordan, that big canyon city that you've seen, like in Indiana Jones movies. Yeah, maybe it's Petra, which is over in Jordan, but that's just kind of like a conjecture. Israel has a huge amount of desert area in the southern part of Israel. There's a lot of wide-open area where you could stand against some invading forces. It doesn't really matter where exactly it is that Israel is fleeing for protection, but God is giving Israel refuge.

Verse 15 shows us that despite God's protection of Israel, Satan is relentless. Verse 15: The serpent poured out water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. The language here of talking about a flood, you see it used numerous times in Daniel and Revelation, and it refers to a military invasion. For example, in Daniel chapter nine, verse 26, it says that the end of Jerusalem will come with a flood. Wars are determined. In Daniel chapter 11, verse 10, verse 26, and verse 40, it uses this flood imagery. So down here in verse 15, when it says the serpent pours out water like a river, the idea here is that of massive military invasion. He wants to sweep Israel away in destruction, but God is not going to allow Antichrist and his forces to succeed.

How do we know? Look at verse 16: The earth helped the woman, and the earth opened up its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. How does God protect Israel from this annihilation of the Antichrist and his armies? Well, doesn't tell us exactly how. Doesn't matter how it is; it might be through counter-military kinds of efforts, it might be through some kind of direct supernatural, miraculous acts of God by which He destroys these powers. Doesn't tell us exactly how, but by whatever means it is, God shelters Israel from annihilation from Satan's onslaught. One commentator by name of Paige Patterson says this: "The interpreter can certainly say that God will provide that means by which Israel is protected."

That brings us down to verse 17. God is protecting Israel, but Satan still will not let up. Look at verse 17: The dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went off to make war with the rest of her seed, or the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus. So it's talking about Jews because it's talking about offspring of the woman, but here it's especially talking about those that have faith in Jesus Christ, those who keep the commandments of God and hold the testimony of Jesus.

Now one of the things that we know as we study and we pull together other passages that talk about this tribulation period—and we know this from Zechariah chapter 14, we know it from Revelation chapter 12 right here and other chapters of Revelation—when the tribulation period is happening and Satan is working through the Antichrist to destroy Israel, there's going to be mixed kinds of results in terms of some of these war efforts. It does tell us that part of Israel is going to be scattered, other parts are going to be trampled down, but parts of it are going to be scattered. Now if you say, who are the rest of these offspring, the ones that keep the commandments of God? Very possibly here, he might be talking about the 144,000 that were sealed back in Revelation chapter seven.

Regardless of who these groups are, some of the city, it tells us in Revelation chapter 11, some of Jerusalem is going to be trampled down and conquered by the Gentiles; other parts of it are going to remain, some of them are going to flee into the wilderness. So whatever the exact dynamics are in terms of some of these battle situations, when Satan is not capable of destroying one group of people that he goes after, he goes after this other group: believers, Jewish believers that have their faith in Jesus Christ. Satan hates believers, he wants to destroy them, but he's not going to succeed in destroying Israel.

That brings us down to a final verse. Chapter 13, verse one really kind of connects with chapter 12 and really kind of belongs to chapter 12. Notice what happens in the first part of chapter 13, verse one: it says, "And he," talking about the dragon, "and he took his stand on the sand of the seashore." When we look back at the parallel passages that stand behind Revelation, in chapter seven of Daniel, Daniel tells us about events that are going to happen to raise up demonically driven powers from the nations of the world. Look with me for just a minute at Daniel chapter seven, be our last point here to look at.

Daniel chapter seven: in the first year of Belshazzar, the king of Babylon, Daniel saw a dream and visions in his mind as he lay on his bed, and he wrote the dream down and related it as follows: Daniel said, "I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the Great Sea," which is referring to the Mediterranean world, the Gentile world of the Mediterranean. "And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another." Verse four says the first one was like a lion, the second one, verse five, was like a bear, verse six says the third one was like a leopard, and verse seven says it was a beast that was dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong.

These are four world empires that rise up out of the Gentile world. The first one is the Babylonian Empire that invaded in the days of Daniel. The second one is the Persian Empire that overthrew the Babylonians. The third empire, the leopard, is the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great. And the fourth empire is the Roman Empire. Those same four kingdoms were symbolized in Daniel chapter two as being a head of gold, chest of silver, thighs of bronze, and legs out of iron, and a time period when there would be 10 toes coming together. Here in this vision, the fourth beast has a time period when it will have 10 horns.

So the reference here when it says that these empires are coming up out of the Great Sea, it's referring to a successive blocks of Gentile powers that are going to raise up from the world. So with that as a background and you come back here to Revelation chapter 13, what it does is chapter 13, verse one, the first part of this, is going to introduce to us another individual that is part of this entire plot line. And this is the guy that we call the Antichrist. Satan, in chapter 13, verse one, took his stand on the sea. Robert Thomas says in this place by the sea, this comes out of Daniel chapter seven as the source for the little horn, the Antichrist, and this is the one that's going to get described in significant detail throughout the rest of chapter 13. Basically, it's introducing to you a next key of this entire drama, and that is a lengthy description about this guy that we call the Antichrist, who gets introduced right here, chapter 13.

Well, this is a vicious spiritual war that's been going on since the fall of Satan, and this war, this spiritual war that we have, it shows itself in all kinds of terrible things: literal wars, literal fights, divorces, sickness, disease, death. One day God is going to purge all of this, Christ is going to take it all away. So what is our part in this thing right now? Let me just leave you with five points of application on this. When we look at Satan and we see how terrible and how powerful Satan is, know this: our place is not to try to get in fistfights with the devil. You'll get people that say, "I'm going to go do spiritual warfare, I'm going to bind you, Satan." The Bible says resist him, be wary of his lies, understand how terrible his lies are. So knowing the Word of God is really critical. Don't think you can go and fight him. Pray to God for grace and pray to God to restrain demonic powers, but know the Bible. That's number two.

Here's a third one: don't fall into his temptations. In James, James talks about temptations, and when James talks about the temptations, it's dealing with things like pride. That's a big one. We may think, "Well, I'm a good guy, I'm a good girl, I don't go and steal." Sometimes pride, that pride that is within every one of us where we think, "I know better." It's ugly. Here's a fourth point of application in this: love Christ more than you love your own life. That's what He said back in chapter 10. Love Christ more than even your own life, because if you lose your life, you'll find it.

And here's a last point of application: just stand firm in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. When you feel tempted, when you're beaten down, when you're weary, go back to the truth of the cross. Never, never ever leave behind the gospel and the truth of the cross. Cling to the Lord when you feel like giving up and you feel like saying, "You know what, I can't do it, I'm not good enough, I'm a piece of garbage, I'm a terrible example of being a Christian." Just out of curiosity, how many of you can look at yourself and say, "Man, I sure am a lousy example of a Christian sometimes"? Yeah, New Year's Day, right? All right, there's some good resolutions. Oh God, help me to love you with all of my heart, soul, and strength. Oh God, help me to love others like I love myself. Help me to be faithful in preaching Christ to a dying world. Oh Lord, come quickly. Amen?

Father, help us to be the people you've called us to be. We long for that day and Lord, we say, "Come quickly, Lord Jesus." Thank you for all of these precious saints. Lord, I love this church. I love the saints that you have brought together. I pray that you'd multiply the love of Christ within our church, and that you'd multiply the name of Christ and the gospel of Christ as we come together to love you and serve you in the coming year. I pray, O God, do great things in our life personally by drawing us to yourself, and do great things in our congregation by giving us faithfulness to you. We thank you for all of this in Jesus' name, Amen.