Simple Faith

Bill Henry: Coming up today on Simple Faith. You're too busy, you're too lazy, you're too talented or you're too worthless. You're too smart or you're too stupid, and on and on it goes. Notice how quiet we all got? I'm serious. It's like all of us are sitting there because I'll bet at least a few of these things hit each one of us.

But here's the thing. Let's stop believing the lies of the enemy and the past, even our own self-condemnation and accusations that we bring against ourselves. Instead, let's be those who believe what God tells us in His Word.

Guest (Male): Welcome to today's broadcast of Simple Faith. Our senior pastor, Bill Henry, has been leading us through the book of Revelation, and we'll continue our look at chapter 12 today. It's been an exciting ride so far, and we've covered some pretty incredible events that will soon take place.

Will Christians still be here on the earth when these things occur? The Bible teaches that we will not, and that's good news because it will be a time of chaos and disaster such as the world has never seen. Let's go ahead and turn to Revelation chapter 12 and join Pastor Bill Henry.

Bill Henry: All right, Revelation chapter 12. We're going to be looking specifically at verses 10 through 12, but let's go ahead and start back in verse 7 so we can get more of the context of what's happening. Revelation 12:7: "And a war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."

Verse 10: "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.'"

So, here now in chapter 12, we're in the midst of the seven-year tribulation. We're really pretty much in the middle, maybe even a little past the middle here. The Antichrist has just broken his seven-year treaty with the nation of Israel. He has stood in the temple and demanded to be worshipped not only by Israel but also by the entire world.

Jesus quotes Daniel in Matthew 24 about this time in verses 15 and 16. He says, "Therefore when you see the 'abomination of desolation,' which is what that is titled, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand), then let those who are in Judea flee." So, this is where basically we are within the tribulation.

Now in Revelation chapter 12, here in verse 7, and we're just going to recap that, it says a war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels fought. That's Satan. But they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was cast out to the earth and his angels were cast out with him.

As we studied last week, Satan has now been cast out of heaven. All of his fallen angels that rebelled with him—at least a third, we believe, referring to the stars of heaven as angels—have been cast out of heaven. They no longer have access to the throne of God. It's interesting; that is God's reaction that we see here to Satan demanding the world worship him and him utterly blaspheming God here once again.

As he and his angels are now booted from heaven, look at verse 10. This is the reaction that we come into this morning: "Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven." Notice it's a loud voice. It's like this excited voice: "Now salvation and strength and the kingdom of God and the power of His Christ have come." Now, this isn't just explanatory. You can also, just the way we're reading it here, see it's worshipful.

It's lifting up praise to the Lord. I'll be honest; one of the things I love about the book of Revelation is the continual spontaneous praise that breaks out throughout the book. The older I get in the Lord, and even when I was younger, I just love when we break out into spontaneous praise. Sometimes there will be people all of a sudden going, "Amen! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!" as you're teaching the Word of God. It's spontaneous as we're loving the Lord and worshipping Jesus.

A lot of us aren't used to spontaneous things. Everything has to be planned out: A, B, C, then D. But that's not how the Lord is. That's not how it'll be in heaven. We're not having a worship service at 7:00. It's all day long, guys and gals. It's a beautiful thing. Here they are celebrating the fact that God's kingdom, His salvation, and strength, it says here, the power of His Christ has come. In other words, Satan's time is nearing its end.

The rule of this fallen world, the false god who has blinded the minds of the unbelievers here upon the earth, is coming to an end. This tells us that God always prevails. God always prevails. His salvation, His strength, and His kingdom will always prevail. It doesn't matter what the rulers of the nations do. It doesn't matter what anyone does. It doesn't matter what Satan does. God will always prevail.

Notice here in the power of His Christ has come. Satan has been thrown out of heaven with his fallen angels. As we continue in verse 10, notice it means more. It says, "For the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down." Why is heaven rejoicing that Satan has been cast down? Well, mainly it shows right here: because he's been accusing the brethren before God both day and night. Every day, every week, every month, every year for almost the last 2,000 years.

Remember, this is coming. This has not happened. So even today, Satan is day and night accusing the brethren. Notice it says "the brethren," by the way. Interesting, because this means he's not simply accusing unbelievers. He's actually not even doing that; he's accusing Christians before God day and night, just as he accused Job. It's a great example if you go back to the first few chapters of the book of Job and you see him falsely accusing—and some rightly accusing—Job. It's an interesting thing to look behind there.

What's interesting is Satan is continually accusing us. It doesn't say here what he's accusing us of, but we can think of many things. He's probably accusing us of things that are false. He's probably even accusing us of things that are true—maybe even mostly so—as we still continue to sin even though we've been born again of the Spirit of God.

Satan continues even in our lives to accuse us daily. I don't think it's personally Satan; again, I think a lot of times it's his fallen angels. As we've talked about before last week specifically too, Christians cannot be indwelt by a demon. We cannot be demon-possessed. The Bible is very clear about that. How can light and darkness dwell together? There is no spirit or demon of nicotine if you're being tempted to smoke, no spirit of anger if you're having outbursts of wrath. It's your own flesh that you need to deal with.

You need to repent and get right with the Lord even as a Christian. First John 1 is very clear on that. But here's the thing: as we may not be able to be possessed, we can be what's called oppressed—bugged, bothered all the time. In other words, whispering in our ears and we may not even realize it. Maybe one of his fallen angels is continually whispering in your ear that you're so bad, you're so wicked, you're so evil.

Even though you're saved, you're still condemned before God because of all this stuff you've done. They accuse us: "God could never use someone like you." Even if you might be saved, God could never use you. Maybe they say we're too weak or we're too evil, or even still as Christians, to be used really in any way by God. Perhaps they point you back to a memory before you were a Christian and how bad you were, and that there is no way that God could ever really forgive you all the way.

And even if He does, maybe He has forgiven you, but He could still never use anybody like you in the ministry or to bring Him glory, or to bring praise to Him, or to help bring people to Him. So don't even bother witnessing. All these accusations, can anybody relate to any of this? On and on and on they go. It's interesting because it always comes from our mind. It may be from things that have happened in the past, our own mind, or it may be things from the world.

But some people have come to call this basically a "battlefield of the mind," a battlefield of our thoughts to where we have these thoughts that are coming into our mind accusing us continually. That is why, as we talked about spiritual warfare last week, we need to be those who are taking every thought captive. Again, I've had people tell me, "Pastor Bill, I can't take every thought captive. My mind just goes with a thought and it keeps on going."

Well, here's the thing: do you understand that this is available to you now as a Christian? That you can take every thought captive? It's interesting because a few years ago I had a truck and I love electronic stuff. But my truck has so many different electronic things. Even in three years, I still haven't used all the things. I don't know everything that's still available to me.

It's the same thing as Christians, though. A lot of us don't understand that, "Hey, guess what? You just push this button over here and it's available to you." In other words, you and I have the capability now to take those thoughts captive that come into our minds. Maybe before you were a Christian you couldn't, but here we see in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, as we looked at last time, it says to capture our rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. This is part of our spiritual warfare.

Now God, if He commands you to do something, He will enable you to obey that command by the power of His Holy Spirit. So these thoughts come. You have an ad come up on Facebook or on Twitter or TikTok or on television or in a book, whatever it is. You don't dwell on this. You can't keep a bird from flying over your head and pooping on you, but you sure can keep that same bird from flying onto your head and making a nest.

Anybody ever had a bird poop on him? Flying over? Dude, I was a freshman in high school. We were out at lunch, and it was a sunny day, and this bird just pooped all over me. That was so embarrassing. I had to take everything off and put it in my locker. But that bird didn't nest in my head, and it's the same with thoughts. When thoughts come into our heart, maybe lustful or temptations or other things, take those and bring them to the cross of Christ.

The Amplified Version translates 2 Corinthians 10:5 as: "Inasmuch as we refute arguments and theories and reasonings and every proud and lofty thing that sets itself up against the true knowledge of God, and lead every thought and purpose away captive into obedience of Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One." I like how a paraphrase says it this way: "We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity."

Now, a lot of times, does this apply to the world? Do we use the Word of God, spiritual warfare? Yes, to tear down these false philosophies and barriers. But this starts in our own minds. It starts in our own minds. So again, if the Bible tells me that I can take these every thought captive, I can do that. So when the accusations are flying your way—sometimes they're just coming at you all the time, sometimes they just kind of sneak in on you—but when they're coming, we can take those thoughts captive, bring them to the cross, bring them to the Word of God and say, "Hey, is this true?"

Now, whether it be from Satan, these accusations, maybe from our own flesh, we need to take them captive. Maybe these accusations are from others around you. It could be family members or friends who, for your own good, continually remind you of your old sin. Anybody ever have anybody like that? "Yeah, I remember when you were this or that." Yeah, I do too, and I weep over that. I don't laugh.

Maybe it's a voice in your own head from long ago: a parent or a teacher or a coach, even a pastor or a friend, telling you how bad you are or that you'll never amount to anything. "You can't be forgiven," or "You're not worth the price of forgiveness of Jesus at the cross." Maybe it's "You're too ugly" or "You're too fat," "You're too skinny," "You're too tall," "You're too short," "You're too ugly," "You're too pretty," "You're too handsome," "You're too weak," "No, you're too strong," "You're too busy," "You're too lazy," "You're too talented" or "You're too worthless," "You're too smart" or "You're too stupid," and on and on and on they go.

Notice how quiet we all got? I'm serious. It's like all of us are sitting there because I'll bet at least a few of these things hit each one of us. I'm not kidding. When I was a kid, it was the "soches" and it was the "sporties." All the different things, and they all have their own problems. They all have their own sins that they're dealing with, their own hurts, own things that they can actually be accused of.

But here's the thing. Let's stop believing the lies of the enemy and the past, even our own self-condemnation and accusations that we bring against ourselves. Instead, let's be those who believe what God tells us in His Word clearly, and by the way, over and over and over again. Let me just give you a few. First John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." John 8:36: Jesus said, "Therefore if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed." Romans 8:1: "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit."

How about Romans 4:7 and 8? "Blessed and happy and to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried." Do you understand your sins have been covered by the blood of Jesus Christ? That they've been covered up, that they've been buried? "Blessed and happy and to be envied is the person whose sin the Lord will take no account or reckon it against him." Praise Jesus.

How about Colossians 2:13 through 15? Colossians 2:13: "You were dead because of your sins and because of your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for He forgave most of your sins." No, it doesn't say it. "He forgave some of them, but not those really bad ones." "He forgave all of your sins." Notice in verse 14: "He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. In this way, He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities."

When those accusations come, bring them to the cross of Jesus Christ. Second Corinthians 5:17: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." And it goes on; you could go on and on and on. These are truths of the Word of God. So as these accusations come in, bring them to the Word, bring them to the Lord.

I remember many years ago when I was a young believer, I had a hard time. The enemy was coming at me hard, and he was accusing me of so many things I did before I was a believer, and even since I'd committed being a believer in Jesus Christ. I was so ashamed. I became almost frozen in my walk with the Lord, just kind of petrified, if you will. I couldn't move forward. I didn't feel worthy of Him.

I didn't feel worthy of His love. I didn't feel worthy of His shed blood. I didn't feel worthy of the forgiveness of my sins. And you know what? I was right. I wasn't worthy. I heard a study, and even Satan, by the way, as he was accusing me, he was right too. I heard a Bible study in this, and I went to the Scriptures and I started to read, and I realized again that Satan was right, and so was my own accusing flesh. I wasn't worthy of Jesus.

I wasn't worthy of His love. I wasn't worthy of His shed blood and forgiveness. But you know what? Even when I wasn't worthy, Romans 5:8: "But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Not because we're worthy. When Satan comes to you and starts accusing you, you might say, "You're right. That is me. That was me."

Now, I love in the Amplified Romans 5:8. It says, "But God shows and clearly proves His own love for us by the fact that while we were yet sinners, Christ the Messiah, the Anointed One, died for us. Therefore," in verse 9, "since we are now justified, acquitted, made righteous, and brought into right relationship with God by Christ's blood, how much more shall we be saved by Him from the indignation and wrath of God." That's us. That's us today.

See, even though the accusations of Satan may be true, even though the accusations made by your friends and family from old times may be true—even maybe today—may be true, even as my own flesh may be true, here's the truth: I am not worthy, but He loves me anyway. You're not worthy; He loves you anyway. You are a great sinner, but He's a greater Savior. I am guilty, but He paid my debt and has forgiven me.

This is who God is. Once we truly understand who we are as sinners, by the way, we don't stay there. Don't stay there. "Oh, yes, I'm just—I know I'm saved, but gosh, it's barely by the skin of my teeth." It's interesting; so many of us love to hear people, and we've talked about this before, who have these radical conversions and different things. Here's the thing, guys and gals: we need to remember, no matter what we've come from, that as we go to the Word, we read things like that we've been made—though my sins be as scarlet, now they are white as snow by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Yes, I've done these things, and we need to admit that, we need to accept it. My sin put Jesus upon the cross. Your sin put Jesus upon the cross. But also above that, even remember that through His shed blood, you are now His forever child. If you've been born again of the Spirit of God, you are now His forever child. You are His bride, you are His great love. Go read Song of Solomon if you're not feeling good about God's love toward you.

So many of us were brought up in a false faith. I was brought up in a church that told me God was mad at you all the time. He's angry at you all the time. And then it's funny when I got older and started reading books and different things, and I read about Zeus, and I read about all the Greek gods. I'm like, "Dude, the way that God the Father that I was brought up in this church, he sounds just like Zeus. He's always just waiting to hammer me. He has a lightning bolt; he's just going to strike me dead." That's such a lie from the pit of hell. God the Father loves you so much that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus Christ loves you so much that He came to die for your sins. God the Holy Spirit loves you so much He's now living and abiding, again if you've been born again, in you.

Guest (Male): This has been Simple Faith with Pastor Bill Henry from Simple Faith Calvary Chapel in Vancouver, Washington. Today we brought you a message from Pastor Bill's series in Revelation. It's our sincere hope and prayer that you've been blessed by the words you heard from Pastor Bill today.

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