Indeed, what a wonderful thing the love of God is for us wretched sinners. I'm going to ask you to please remain standing, take your Bibles, and turn to Revelation chapter 12. Revelation chapter 12. I'm going to begin reading at verse 5, and I'll read all the way through verse 11. So verses 5 through 11. of Revelation chapter 12. Remember, I said it last week, this is good news. We are over halfway done with Revelation now. There's 22 chapters. We've already finished 11 chapters. Then we finished the first four verses of the 12th chapter. So we're on our way in the back half of this book. And remember, This chapter, too often we want to just dash through this chapter because we're so anxious to get to chapter 13 where we have the beast and the mark of the beast and the number 666 and all of that. But when we do that, we make a big mistake because this chapter has great things in it. There's some edifying things in this chapter. But you'll also notice as I read this, this chapter is full of symbolism. And so beginning in verse 5, God's word says this, And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne. And then the woman fled into the wilderness, where she had a place prepared by God. so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. 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, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And then 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, he who accuses them before our God day and night. And they overcame him 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. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we are so grateful for the 66 books of the Bible, including this last book, the book of the Revelation. And yet, Lord, we can see right away how difficult this chapter is, all this symbolism. And so, Lord, we ask that you would be merciful to me, the preacher, that you'd be merciful to us, that you'd give us understanding of this chapter. And we pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would lead us into truth. We pray in Jesus Christ's name, amen. You may please be seated. And I think you all know this by now because I've said it so many times, but I was raised in a liberal church, a very liberal church in San Francisco, Bay Area, and at that liberal church, I remember, as I was being raised, being taught that there is no Satan. There's no Satan, and of course that's impossible. There's no demons or anything like that. And we were taught that, you know, yeah, 2,000 years ago, of course it's in your Bible, but because 2,000 years ago, people didn't understand about mental illness and schizophrenia and so forth. And so when there's somebody with clearly what we know of today as some mental illness, they didn't have an explanation for it. And so all that these primitive people could do with their limited understanding was to call it Satan, call it an evil spirit, or something like that. In other words, the church I grew up in would completely deny even the possibility that there is a devil, a real devil, and real demons, then they would say, well, we're much too sophisticated for that today. We're much too scientific for that today. But Martin Luther, and I know I've said this to you before, but Martin Luther said there's two great errors that we make when it comes to the subject of Satan and his demons. And one is to deny him completely, like the church I grew up in did. The other, though, is to have this unhealthy preoccupation with Satan, where you're just consumed by all things satanic and demonic and so forth. And I'm mentioning that because in this text, We have seen the work of Satan. We've seen the dragon. And we've mentioned last week the Proto-Evangelia. Steve brought it up Thursday night. With the Proto-Evangelia, Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. Proto means first, Evangelia, gospel. First indication of the gospel. And remember, it's a mention that there's going to come this seed of the woman who is going to do this fatal blow to Satan, but in the process, he's going to be wounded. And we saw how Satan kept trying to prevent it. All through redemptive history, how he kept trying to prevent, first, this child from being born in the first place, And now when that didn't work, he has now turned his attention to the church. But what you will see today is the truth of Christ's great promise. Remember when he said that he will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Because right here, you're going to see the defeat of Satan and why that is such good news for every believer today. And this text will divide up real easily, just like the first four verses did. Because we have the son, then we have the woman again, then we have the war, you'll see what that war is, and then the victor of that war. But first the son, verse 5, says this, And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne." Now that, of course, is a reference to Psalm 2. And Psalm 2 is a messianic psalm. probably safer to just say it's one of the most quoted, I want to say it's the most quoted psalm in the New Testament, but I'll say it's one of the most quoted psalms in the New Testament. And when, for example, when Peter and John, remember when they were released by the Sanhedrin Luke says in Acts chapter 4, he says this, they lifted their voices to God with one accord and said, O Lord, it is you who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of David, your servant, said, why did the Gentiles rage? and the peoples devised futile things. The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ." That's Psalm 2. And it says, "...for truly in this city they were gathered together against Your holy servants, Jesus, whom You anointed, the Gentiles and the people of Israel, to do whatever Your purpose predestined to occur." In other words, what they're saying is, boy, this was a fulfillment of Psalm 2. In Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews applied Psalm 2 to Jesus twice. First was chapter 1, verse 5. It said, to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. That's Psalm 2. Again, in chapter 5, in verse 5. of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews says, so also Christ did not glorify himself so as to become a high priest, but he who said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Again, making reference to Psalm 2 and applying it to Christ. And perhaps you have noticed, if you're really astute, you have noticed that in Psalm, Psalm 2 is referred to several times in the book of Revelation, not just right here, but several times. The first time was in chapter one, verse five, where Christ is referred to as the ruler of the kings of the earth. That comes from Psalm two. Then also chapter two, verse 27, when Christ speaks to the church in Thyatira, and he says this, he who overcomes and he who keeps my deeds until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations and he shall rule them with a rod of irons. Psalm two. And of course, right here, when this son is referred to as one who is to rule the nations with a rod, That comes right out of Psalm 2. Now, remember what we saw in the first four verses. We saw it last week. And remember, first there was this woman. And that woman is symbolic for the people of God. It's faithful Israel. And she cried out in labor and in pain to give birth. Remember that? Well, that was faithful Israel who went through all kinds of pain, all kinds of suffering, Anxious, though, for the promised Messiah to come. But in verses 3 and 4, remember we saw the dragon. And the dragon is the devil, Satan, who wanted to prevent the Messiah from being born. But he failed, because as we can see right here, he was born. But look at verse five and notice what we are told. Verse five, and she gave birth to a son, a male child who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. And her child was caught up to God and to his throne. Do you see that? Do you notice that? That is the life and the work of Christ in one half of one verse. He was born and he ascended to the Father. That's the life of Christ. Yes, in between those two events, you know, there is his sinless life, there's his miracles, there's his atoning work on the cross and the resurrection and so forth. But the point is this, the Messiah, the Lord's anointed, completely escapes the power of the dragon. He can't stop him. As one man says, in spite of everything, that the dragon does, the seed is caught up to the throne and now rules the nations with a rod of iron. Just as if he had gone straight from the incarnation to the throne. Just as if he had gone straight from birth to the right hand of the father. Satan has no power to stop him. The ascension was the goal of Christ's advent. The whole reason Christ came was ultimately to then be ascended to the Father, to be victorious over Satan. In fact, remember, we've said it many times over the years. When it comes to the life of Christ, theologians kind of divide it up this way. You have first the humiliation. of Christ. And what is that? Well, humiliation of Christ is leaving the throne, the glory of heaven and taking on flesh. But not just any flesh, born an infant to humble parents, submitting to his parents as a young man. ultimately being rejected by his own people, by the Jews, being beaten, being scourged, and then ultimately crucified. That's the humiliation of Christ. But then you have the exaltation of Christ, and what's that? It's the resurrection. But then, ultimately, you have his coronation. And that is when he ascends to the Father, where he is right now, sitting at the right hand of the Father, ruling. That's the coronation of Christ. That's what occurred at the ascension. And that was the goal of Christ's coming ever since it was promised in Genesis 3, verse 15, to defeat the dragon. That is the goal, and that has been accomplished. But now John takes us from the son back to the woman. Verse six, then the woman fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that there she would be nourished for 1,260 days. And we referred to this before, right before we began the book of Revelation. When we looked at the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24, when Christ is referring to the destruction of the temple, which is yet in their future, and he says, when you see these things flee, you know, get out of town, get out of there. And many of the believers did just that and they fled and they went to a place called Pella. Well, as many commentators say, this woman, This woman's flight, remember this woman is the people of God. This woman's flight into the wilderness is a picture of the flight of the Judean Christians from the destruction of Jerusalem. And notice she is in the wilderness for 1260 days. That's three and a half years. And as we said before, that is how long the final siege The Romans against Jerusalem lasted. But perhaps there's more to this three and a half years than just that. In Daniel chapter 7, three and a half years symbolized a limited time period in which wickedness was triumphant. As Chilton says, seven represents wholeness and completion. Three and a half appears to be a broken seven. And therefore what this is saying is that the woman, remember that the people of God, flee to the wilderness for a limited period of wickedness, a period of wrath and judgment. And then during this time when Satan seems to be dominant, the church is protected. and therefore the woman's flight into the wilderness can be compared to 1 Kings. Remember in 1 Kings when Elijah sojourned in the wilderness? For how long? For three and a half years during the drought? And he was miraculously fed by the ravens during that time. But now the scene changes, and we come to the third thing that we see, and that is the war. Verse 7, very beginning of the verse, and there was war in heaven. And notice though what we are told. Verse 7, and there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels waging war with the dragon. The dragon and his angels waged war. Now what we have here is a flashback. It's a flashback, obviously, it's a flashback in time. And that's important to understand because this flashback is going to help you understand the previous verses. Why the woman had to flee into the wilderness. And by the way, it will not be the only flashback we have in the book of Revelation. When we get to chapter 20, you're gonna see another flashback in time. But notice, for right now, this war, this holy war is initiated by Michael. and his angels, not the dragon. They respond to it, but it's initiated by Michael and his angels. But we need to ask this question, it's very important. So who is Michael? Who is Michael? My Bible, and probably yours as well, if you notice there's a, at least in my Bible, there's a footnote at the name Michael. And the footnote takes you to Daniel chapter 10. And verse 21, where he is referred to as Michael, your prince. And then also Daniel chapter 12, verse one, where he is referred to as Michael, the great prince, who stands guard over the sons of your people. And by the way, Michael means who is like God. And so for that reason, and actually many others, there's many other reasons, but for those reasons and others, David Chilton says this, even at first glance, therefore, there is much to commend the view that Michael is a symbolic representation of Christ, a name that emphasizes his divine nature and power, and that the angels who accompany him or his apostles together with all the angelic forces in sympathy and cooperation with them. Michael is Christ. And look at the outcome of this war. Verse eight, verse eight says this, and they were not strong enough and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. They were not strong enough, Satan and his demons. They were not strong enough. Men and women, do you remember? I already referred to it. Remember what Christ said in Matthew 16, when he promised to build his church? And you remember Peter had just made that great confession when Jesus said, who do people say that I am? And Peter says, well, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And you remember, Jesus says, right, you are Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And I say to you, you are Peter. And upon this rock, and the rock is not Peter, the rock is his confession. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Well, we often think of those words incorrectly, that the gates of hell will not prevail. We think of the church kind of hunkered down, you know, in some defensive position, and here's Satan attacking the church, but, you know, Satan's not going to prevail. That's actually the reverse of the correct view. The image is Satan has his kingdom. His kingdom is all the unbelievers and he has his kingdom. And he has his gates set up that he didn't lose any of them. The gates of hell are there to prevent that. But through the preaching of the gospel, Satan's gates aren't able to hold up and people are coming out of Satan's kingdom and into God's kingdom. As one commentator says, Jesus pictures the church as a great army besieging the capital city and headquarters of the enemy. And it is the forces of evil that succumb to the onslaught of the church. The people of God are the aggressors. They take the initiative in the warfare and are successful in their assault on the gates of hell. The church is on the offense. Satan and his kingdom, they're on the defense. And then after all of this symbolism, just to make sure, just to make sure you're understanding what is being said here, John makes things very clear in verse 9. And he says this, And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old, who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And so that takes us to the victor. Since the great dragon was cast out as a consequence of the battle, then it is safe to say that this heavenly battle occurred at the same time as the accomplishment of the atonement. and the death and resurrection of Christ. That's when this battle occurred. Because remember what Jesus said in John 12? John 12, Jesus says, now my soul has become troubled. He's about to go to the cross. This is right before he goes to the cross. Now my soul has become troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour? But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. And then a voice came out of heaven. I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. And so the crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it thundered. Others were saying an angel has spoken to him. And Jesus answered and said, this voice has not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now, Judgment is upon this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. Now Satan, because this is right before he goes to the cross, now Satan is going to be cast out. Men and women, when Christ died on the cross, Satan was defeated. However, Didn't put a complete end to Satan's activities, did it? Didn't put him completely out of business, but it did. And his career as the accuser of the brethren. Verse 10, look at verse 10. It says, then 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, he who accuses them before our God day and night." The accuser of the brethren has been thrown down. People before the death of Christ to accuse God's people who was Satan's main role. I mean, Steve mentioned it on Thursday night with Job, Job chapters 1 and 2. Zechariah 3 says this, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. That was his job, the accuser of the brethren. But now, Every charge, every charge that Satan might bring against the brethren, now it has been undermined by the blood of Christ. And that's the point that Paul was making in Romans chapter eight. In Romans eight, verse 33, Paul says this, who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us. Satan can't accuse the saints before God anymore, why? Because the saints have overcome him. Verse 11, and they overcome him 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." How? How do they overcome him? By appeal to the atoning work of the Lamb of God. That's how he's overcome, by appealing to the blood of Christ. You know in that movie Martin Luther, I think I might have mentioned this. I love the movie. I can't even name how many times I've watched it. It's about 20 years ago that the movie came out. It was produced by the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod. It was actually a very good version. There's been lots of movies made about Martin Luther. This was a very good one. And I remember there's this scene where Martin Luther is is preaching at his church there in Wittenberg. And he's finally come to a realization of the gospel and so forth. And in his sermon, he says this. And by the way, I didn't even have to go get the movie and rewind it to write this down. I did this from memory. But in the movie, in his sermon, he says this. He tells the people, the next time Satan points out your sins and says that you deserve death and hell, say to him, you are right, I deserve death and hell, so what of it? Because I have one who has made satisfaction on my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ righteous, and where he is, there I will be also. Satan's days of accusing the brethren are over because now the brethren can appeal to the atoning work of Christ. But notice right here in verse 11, we see that these overcomers are more than just forgiven of their sins. They also take territory from Satan's kingdom. How? by the word of their testimony. In other words, by the preaching of the gospel, they're taking back territory from Satan. And, notice, by a willingness to die, rather than be intimidated by persecution. Years ago, I read a great book. In fact, some of you may have read it. It's called The Persecutor. by Sergei Kordakov. I think it's either the 50s or the 60s that this takes place. He was a Russian. And he was part of the police force in Russia. And he was part of a special task force. He was an expert at judo, I think karate. He was a weight lifter. He was a boxer. He was a fighter extraordinaire. And as part of this task force, set up by the Russian government to find out where the Bible studies were being held, and to raid those Bible studies and beat the people up. Just beat them up, as a lesson, never to do that again. And I remember he talked about this billy club that he had, and I think he drilled in the center of the billy club and put lead in there, so it was that much more powerful when he would hit these Christians with it. And he writes the book, you know, he's a persecutor. And they would find out about this Bible study and they go in. And he writes about going in there and then beating these people up mercilessly, men and women. He's just with that club and all of them just going to town on these people. But then he started to notice, a few weeks later, we're raiding another Bible study, and here's some of the people haven't even quite healed yet from being beat up at this last Bible study that, you know, we raided. And then, you know, there are future Bible studies, they're there, and here's more people. But many of them, they'd already beaten up in the past. And he started to think, why is it that these people are willing to do this? What is it about this person, Jesus Christ, that people are willing to put up with such pain, rather than just renounce him? And he came to the point where I just have to find out about this man, Jesus. He was also in the Russian Navy, and There's a point where he was going to be on a little ship that he knew was going to be right off the coast of Canada. And he goes, that's my opportunity. And so he trained swimming and so forth and got all of his pertinent information, his IDs and so forth, put it in a baggie and jumped. In the middle of the night, he jumped over the side of that boat, got to the shore, barely alive, got to the shore in Canada. was rescued, was taken in, was given asylum, and came to faith in Christ. Learned about Christ, and the former persecutor writes about that. But how did it happen? He's wondering what causes these people to take such risks. Satan's kingdom lost one more person by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life, even when faced with death. We began today with John making a reference to Psalm 2. most quoted Psalm in the New Testament. And that Psalm begins this way, by the way, that's why that was part of our confession today, Psalm 2. The Psalm begins this way. Why are the nations in an uproar and the people devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. You know, the rulers take counsel and they go against God. And by the way, the psalmist could add to that psalm today, and the Hollywood elites and all of the famous people, they seem to take their stand against God and His people. And what is God's reaction to that? Psalm 2 and verse 4 says this, He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them. As far as I know, that's the only place in scripture where we see God laugh. And it's a laugh of derision. Oh, look at these. Look at these people taking their stand against me. But people, is that you? Do you want to oppose God? William S. Plummer was a preacher in the 1800s. And he said this. of 30 Roman emperors, governors of provinces, and others in high office who distinguished themselves with their zeal and bitterness in persecuting the early Christians. One became speedily deranged after some atrocious cruelty. I think that was Nero he's referring to. One was slain by his own son. One became blind. The eyes of one started out of his head. One was drowned, one was strangled, one died in a miserable captivity, one fell dead in a manner that will not bear recital, one died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians were put to death because they could not abide the stench that filled his room, Two committed suicide. A third attempted it but had to call for help to finish the work. Five were assassinated by their own people or servants. Five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths, several of them having an untold complication of diseases, and eight were killed in battle or after being taken prisoners. Among these, there was Julian the Apostate. In the days of his prosperity, He is said to have pointed his dagger to heaven, defying the Son of God, whom he commonly called the Galilean. But when he was wounded in battle, he saw that all was over with him, and he gathered up his clotted blood and threw it into the air, exclaiming, thou hast conquered, O thou Galilean. So it has been throughout history. and so it'll be to the end. People, do you still want to oppose God? In the final words of Psalm 2, the psalmist appeals to those who have not yet bowed their knee before God's Son. He appeals. And as Harry Ironside said, the psalmist appeals in a very gentle, in a very loving voice. And he calls on those rebellious humans to do several things, to be wise, to be warned, to serve the Lord with fear, and to rejoice with trembling, and finally, to take refuge in him. And so I want to close with the words of James Boyce and his comments on Psalm 2, from his commentary, but Boyce says this, the rulers of this world rage against Christ, but why should you? The hands he holds forth are hands that were pierced by nails when he was crucified in your place. One day he is coming as the great judge of all. On that day, the wicked will be punished, but today is the day of grace. He invites you to come to him. The final verse says, blessed are all who take refuge in him. It is a reminder that the only refuge from the wrath of God is God's mercy unfolded at the cross of Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, how grateful we are for the cross of Jesus Christ. How grateful we are for the victor. This holy war that we see here took place in heaven. How grateful we are for our victor, Jesus Christ, who defeated Satan. Lord, we thank you for that precious gospel message. And Lord, why would we oppose you? Why would anybody oppose you? Lord, help us to seek you, to follow you, and to be faithful to you. We pray in Jesus Christ's name, amen.