Simple Faith

Guest (Male): God is faithful. That should be a source of great joy for all of us. Here's Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: But one of the things that you learn when you walk with the Lord as you read His word is you see His faithfulness. That even when we fall in sin, even when we get weak as we still do, that He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness.

That His power is still available to us every single moment of every single day because nothing can separate us from the love of God.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Simple Faith, the radio outreach of Simple Faith Calvary Chapel, featuring Pastor Bill Henry. It's safe to say no one has ever had a dream like the vision given to John that became the book of Revelation.

Remember what Pastor Bill said when we began this study: Revelation is about one thing, Jesus Christ and His power, His glory, and His soon return. Before the millennial kingdom of the Lord is established, there are a series of events that must take place.

Among them is Satan's battle for power. We're in Revelation chapter 12 today, so go ahead and turn there in your Bible as we join Pastor Bill.

Bill Henry: And notice they come though to Jerusalem, verse two, saying, "Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him." Now notice here in verse three, when Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.

And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet: 'But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.'"

Then Herod, look at verse seven, then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, "Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me that I may come and worship Him also."

You can almost hear the whisps of a serpent there, can't you? "When you find Him, come back, I want to worship Him." Hop up to verse 12 with me here. It goes on and says then being divinely warned in a dream that they, the wise men, should not return to Herod, they departed for their own country another way.

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, "Arise, take up the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him." When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, "Out of Egypt I called My Son."

Now look at verse 16. Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.

So here came Satan as Jesus the Messiah, the promised Messiah all the way back from the Garden of Eden, had come forth here through the nation of Israel. Satan came as this great dragon seeking to devour Jesus. And yet again as God is on the throne, He tells the wise men, "Go out this way." He tells His stepdad to say, "Hey, go that way."

And so again, God is victorious. And yet it didn't end there as Jesus goes through His life. We see that as He was being tempted by Satan, Satan brings Him to this precipice and says, "Hey, just throw Yourself out, the angels of God will take care of You," seeking to kill Him, to devour Him.

He tried to use the religious leaders at a later time as they tried to stone Him at one point and throw Him off a cliff at another. And so finally, when it came the time at the cross, we're not told in the scripture, but I'm sure Satan was ecstatic. I'm sure the demons were rejoicing as they figured Satan, the great dragon, had finally defeated the Son of God, the Lamb of God.

I just could almost imagine it if you will. But he thought he had won, but nothing could be further from the truth. Three days later, Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Can I have an amen on that? I mean, it's just glorious.

Wasn't it Carmen that did a song on that? Didn't he do a song on that, if any of us old-timers out there? He did this kind of story of the whole thing and it's like, "Hey, what's going on? What's happening?" And Jesus is rising from the dead. "No!" It's awesome. You get chills. It's so awesome.

But here's the thing: Satan again defeated. And not only that, He not only did He rise from the dead, but He is now forever victorious. He died in humiliation and He's risen in glory and in power. And notice it goes on in verse five to tell us this, "She bore a male Child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron."

So again, Jesus who came as a servant, as the Lamb of God, risen, King of kings, Lord of lords, when He comes, He will rule one day all the nations, all the nations of the earth, for at least a thousand years with the rod of iron.

And I don't believe He's going to need that rod of iron when there's a new heavens and a new earth because all those things will have passed away, all the sin, all those things gone. You know, as we look around the world today, there are so many different forms of government. You have kings and queens, you have dictators, you have Marxism and socialism and all these other many different forms of those things.

You have a constitutional republic here in the United States. If you didn't know, we're not a democracy, we're a constitutional republic, very different by the way. And yet none of them worked. I think what we've had, I've talked about this before, what we've done in the United States, I think it's been the best, but it's still so flawed, so imperfect.

Why? Because the moment you and I get involved, guess what? So does sin. And yet there's going to come a time, and I think that's part of the reason that there's going to be this thousand-year reign of Christ, is that Christ will reign and rule perfectly upon the earth. And part of His rule as we're told here is going to be with a rod of iron.

Now in the NIV it says an iron scepter, the Amplified calls it an iron staff. And basically what it means, when He rules, He will rule with great strictness, but with perfect fairness. And He will judge perfectly. We read about this, you don't have to turn there, but in Psalm 2 we read about this.

Psalm 2 verses 8 through 12. It says, "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; you shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel. Now therefore, be wise, O kings; be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him."

You see, there's not going to be a time anymore as we see today, the lawlessness that is just so increasing. As we know, 95% of the world is already lawless. As you look down to Mexico, South America, Central America, you look to Asia, just so many lawless cultures. Even though they might be a theocracy, they might have a dictator, whatever, it's just lawlessness.

And now we see lawlessness here growing in America, Canada, Europe, lawlessness just increasing all around us. But not so when Jesus comes to rule and to reign upon the earth. Not so. You see, when He rules upon the earth, it will be with great power and yet perfect justice.

Now today, most people don't seem to be able to distinguish between justice and vengeance. It's really sad thing when the righteous are demanding justice, the wicked always say, "You don't want justice, you want revenge and vengeance." And that's not so.

And it's interesting, it leads to what Isaiah described as good being called evil and evil being called good, light darkness and darkness light. And so again, we live in a land that is becoming, as Jesus said would happen in the last days, that is becoming more lawless. I saw a video on the news the other day, a fellow was down in Los Angeles and some guy was trying to carjack an old lady's car in his neighborhood, a quiet little neighborhood.

And he came out with his gun in broad daylight and says, "Get away and get out of here," and drove him out of the neighborhood. No police to be found anywhere. People are starting to have to try to stand up more and more for themselves because cities like Portland, cities like Seattle, or our governors and legislatures, they're tying the hands of our police officers.

And so there is no fairness, there is no righteousness, there is no true justice hardly at all anymore. And it's wickedness. Is it vexing to anybody? Does it bother anybody here? Remember what Jesus said though, because lawlessness increases the love of many will wax cold. Let's keep our hearts warm. Let's not let ourselves go too far into that.

To stand up for righteousness, yes, but be careful with this stuff. And just remember who our God is. He's not going to come and sing Tip-Toe Through the Tulips with me. He's going to come and rule with the rod of iron. And I don't know about you, but that just brings peace to my heart because I love righteousness.

Anybody else here love righteousness? If we love Jesus, if we love God, we should love righteousness and the truth and justice, by the way. And so this is going to happen when Jesus comes and for me, I find a peace in that. I find a peace in knowing that yeah, we're human beings and man, we just mess up pretty much anything we touch.

But when God comes, He makes it all perfect. And what a blessed thing. Now look at verse five as it continues, "And her Child was caught up to God and His throne." And so even there, even though we're looking back almost 2,000 years, this happened almost 2,000 years ago.

And it's been the status quo since. Jesus Christ sits at the right hand of God the Father as He was caught up to God. Turn with me to Luke chapter 24 please, as we read about this happening after His resurrection. Luke 24, starting in verse 46. Then He, Jesus, said to them, "Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high."

Verse 50. And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped Him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.

So again, the end here back in our Revelation 12 verse 5, it says, "And her Child was caught up to God and His throne." So we see this picture here in Luke. We see it again in Acts chapter 1 as Luke kind of recaps that. And then look at verse 6, what happens to the woman? "Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days," or three and a half years.

Now again, Jesus almost 2,000 years ago, verse 5, goes up to heaven. And now we're almost 2,000 years later, and now we're in the midst of the tribulation. We're at the center point, the three-and-a-half-year mark of the tribulation. Notice, "Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days."

So again, I believe this is speaking again of the nation of Israel in the middle of the tribulation when it comes for time for the people of Israel to run from a great persecution that has come upon them. Jesus talks about this in Matthew chapter 24. Please turn there with me. Matthew 24, Jesus talking about Israel where they're going to need to run.

Matthew 24 verses 15 through 21. And this is Jesus speaking. He says, "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place" (whoever reads, let him understand), "then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop," now again, this is where I think we're talking about here within our text, "let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let him who is on the housetop not go down to take anything out of his house. And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. But woe to those who are pregnant and those who are nursing babies in those days! And pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great tribulation such as not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be."

So again, it's interesting because there's the seven-year period that Daniel tells us about that we see here in the book of Revelation. And the whole thing is called the tribulation, but the second part of it, the last three and a half years, as Jesus says here, there will be great tribulation. Why? Because of this desecration that is happening.

You don't have to turn there, but in Daniel chapter 9 verse 27, we read this of the same events. "The ruler will make a treaty with the people for a period of one set of seven. But after half of this time, he will put an end to the sacrifices and offering." So there'll be a peace treaty, as we've talked about before.

There'll be a peace treaty with Israel and they'll be able to build their temple again and they'll begin to worship. Now how long will the temple have been finished at this point? We don't know. Has it been built for three and a half years? Is it just finished being built? Again, we don't know at the three-and-a-half-year period.

But we do know this: that in the midst of it, it goes on to say that he will put an end to the sacrifices and offering, and as a pinnacle to all his terrible deeds, he will set up a sacrilegious object that causes desecration until the fate decreed for this defiler is finally poured out on him. I'm reading it out of the New Living Translation to kind of change it up just a little for us.

So what's going to happen is he's going to stand in the temple and he's going to demand that the whole world worship him. And this is at the three-and-a-half or the halfway mark. And the Lord's wrath is now just going to come as never before upon the earth. And that's why Jesus said, "Dude, it doesn't matter where you're at, run. If you're up on the roof, don't stop to get stuff out of your house. Don't go back from the field to get your clothes. Pregnant women, nursing babies, it's going to be a bummer for you and hopefully it's not in the winter on the Sabbath. Get out! Go! Run!" because the wrath of God, even more so than it has been, is going to be coming out.

Look at verse 6 in our text, Revelation 12. It says, "Then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred and sixty days." So as we're going to see in verse 13, Satan is going to be cast out of heaven. And part of what happens there is he gets so angry, we're told, that he's now going to persecute the people of Israel.

He's going to persecute this woman. And again, this is not the church that's going to be persecuted, although believers will be persecuted, but here he's specifically talking about the woman, Israel. So Israelites all around the world will begin to have persecution like they've already probably had it before then, even more they're having it today, but even so much worse then for now Satan knows his time is limited and he's trying to rebel against that even still, but he's coming after the woman.

But here's the beautiful thing: as these people flee into the wilderness, notice again in verse 6, notice that she has a place prepared by God. And most of these Jews, I don't believe, are even going to know that they have a place prepared by God. You see, God is the one who goes before us. Anybody have an amen on that?

And again, what a great application even for us here this morning. Do you know that God is going before you today? Do you know that God has already been where you are right now? He's already been, he got that appointment next week for this, or you're going through this trouble. God knows and knew this was coming and He has already prepared a place for you and for me.

He always goes ahead of us. There she has a place prepared by God. I love this. And notice too, this is not just a place to go, but this is that they're going to feed her for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, or three and a half years. So I love this. Now many Bible scholars seem to think that the place that they're going to go to is Petra, there in what's southern Jordan today.

That may be, that may well be. It may be somewhere else. And notice, but he's also going to feed them. Maybe He's going to set up a couple In-N-Out burgers for them or something like that, God's manna for today. We don't know. How's He going to feed them?

But we've seen many times throughout the scriptures that God takes care of His people, whether it be manna come down from heaven, whether it be birds bringing food to them like the prophet Elijah, whether it be jars of oil that miraculously are filled up, whether it be as Jesus fed the thousands with fish and loaves on a couple different occasions.

God is their provider. And basically I love the promises here once again. But here's the question: how do we know that God will fulfill His promise? How do we know that God will do as He says? You know how we know? Because every promise of God is yes and amen. God will not renege ever upon His word.

And what a blessing for us here to know today. "Hey, Pastor Bill, why do I really care that Israel's going to be taken care of during the great tribulation? We're going to be up having the wedding feast of the Lamb." That may be true. But when we see these things that are going to come, and we see the prophecies that have already been fulfilled, it should increase our faith.

It should also show us the faithfulness of the God that we serve. And that if He's going to take care of these people who as of yet, by the way, have not acknowledged Him yet as their Lord, they have not come to that place where they've looked upon Him whom they have pierced, they will. But God even in His faithfulness.

And so even for you and I today, you know what? Each one of us, even when we're saved, we still have difficult times. Man, I thought when I got saved back when I was 19, life was just going to be the Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, Zip-A-Dee-Ay, cruising through life like it wasn't going to be a problem. Man was I wrong.

I still remember the first time I prayed for patience. I still remember the lights, it was Magnolia and Hiawatha. And it was in the middle of the day because all of a sudden it's like the hellgates opened up and all these things came at me and I knew. I still pray for patience but I'm more careful about it if you will.

But you know what one of the things that you learn when you walk with the Lord as you read His word is you see His faithfulness. That even when we fall in sin, even when we get weak as we still do, that He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness.

That His power is still available to us every single moment of every single day because nothing can separate us from the love of God. That He is our provider as we see here today. He goes before you and He goes before me. I don't know about you but this helps me rest a little better as the pastor's words this morning: He will keep you in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon Him because he trusts in Him.

Is your mind stayed upon Jesus today? Is it stayed upon the promises of God or the worries of this world? Who's going to win the Super Bowl? Who cares? There's a lot to worry about today though, I'm just going to be real. The world is falling apart before our eyes.

But according to God's plan, it's actually falling into place. And for us as His children, no matter what that leads to, by the way, He is ever faithful. He is ever with you and His peace always available to each one of us.

Guest (Male): I hope you were blessed by today's message from Pastor Bill Henry. This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. And today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's new series in the book of Revelation.

If you'd like to hear today's message again or share it with a friend, it's available at our website to either watch or listen or download in MP3 format. We have a large number of Pastor Bill's messages archived and you can find them all at simplefaith.org. That's simplefaith.org.

And we also stream Simple Faith at oneplace.com. And if you'd like to contact us, just click the contact us tab at our website and there's a tab at the top of our homepage where you can also send in a prayer request. We would love to pray for you.

And when you support this radio outreach with a donation of any amount this month, we'll send you a copy of a classic book from legendary Christian preacher and apologist D.L. Moody. It's called The Overcoming Life. It's an absolute must-read for any Christian and it has been read and enjoyed by millions of believers.

To get your copy for a gift of any amount, go to simplefaith.org and click the give tab. You can also call us at 833-BY-GRACE. That's 833-294-7223. And if you would prefer the US mail, our mailing address is P.O. Box 55, Battle Ground, Washington, and the zip code is 98604.

Here at Simple Faith Calvary Chapel we have three services every Sunday morning at 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30, and a great time of study in God's word every Wednesday evening at 7:00. For more information and directions go to simplefaith.org and also follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks so much for joining us today. Be sure to join us next time as our series in Revelation continues here on Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry, brought to you by Simple Faith Calvary Chapel.